Free The After/Life (The After/Life Odyssey) by Vardan Partamyan Page B

bullets flying around me. I am thrown down by a strong blow on the side. I look down and see a still smoking pellet sticking out of my bulletproof vest. It’s very hard to get up. I look at the door - there is almost no door left now and through the tears in the metal I can see their faces. They want blood, they have gone mad with craving for it - some of them are crying, some are laughing – Viler’s generation is living its nightmare. The sight of them makes me get up - from the window I can see the elevator passing by on the way down. I run with all my strength. Behind me, I can hear the door being kicked down and the guards storming inside the room. I reach the window, close my eyes and leap out…
        
 

Chapter XX
    There is a second of a free fall (going down the rabbit hole, are we?). Shots being fired after me - I fully expect to feel one of their bullets hitting me but then there is an impact and I crash into a solid surface and I am on the roof of the elevator. A random wire sticking out of the hauling cable almost pokes my eye out and leaves a deep cut on my forehead. Drops of blood start trickling down into my right eye (I literally see red now). I look up.
     
    Somewhere up there is my window. Somewhere up there are the faces of my pursuers. They look lost and confused and… scared. The first two I can certainly relate to - the third feeling is absent from my heart. I have spent twenty two years of my life being afraid – not any more…
    My journey down seems to take much longer than it should have - there is a profound sense of unreality. I get on my feet, holster my gun and with the light of my lighter find the emergency hatch in the roof. A moment later I am inside the elevator. Just then it comes to a halt. The doors slid open and I step out in the reactor chamber…
    I never expected to make it down here. The reactor was one of the few places firmly out of reach for all but a few select maintenance personnel (and the Principal, of course). Yesterday, as me and Bars looked through various security protocols, we ran into a curious note titled E.S.E.P. or Emergency Situation Evacuation Protocol. This document (which amazingly was in the public domain) gave a detailed overview on who was to go where in case of a general alert. The point that very much interested me stated:
“In case of emergency, the Principal is to use the elevator in his private chambers to get to the reactor facility to ensure the safety of the core. From there, he can use the remote access terminals to monitor the situation and carry out the coordination of emergency liquidation process*.”
    The footnote (in a much smaller font) was quite amusing:
    “This protocol is not to be followed if the emergency situation concerns the work of the reactor. For salvation in case of reactor malfunction please refer to the Bible.”
    As I move forward, the lights in the elevator behind me switch off. As programmed, the elevator has shut down: it will keep Principal’s hounds away from here, hopefully - for long enough…
    The chamber is illuminated with the surreal bluish glow of the emergency lights, which give the complex machinery hideous, nightmarish shapes. There are tubes and wires running everywhere and disappearing into the walls. It is like I am inside a giant spider web, looking for the little vile spider lurking somewhere in the shadows.
    The facility is huge and the labyrinth of tubes, wires and machines leads me ever closer to the center. I readjust the duffle bag on my shoulder and take out the gun. I look closely for any sign of the Principal but the only activity around me is the even work of the machinery (your friendly atom, prolonging the life of the (last?) survivors of the nuclear apocalypse). And then there is a movement as I see a dark robe disappear somewhere ahead. I raise my gun but the shape is gone. I take a deep breath and move forward. Every step takes me closer to… there is a sharp pain in my back, I