Post date: Feb 6, 2016 2:30:02 PM
Part 1: The End of Mankind
#3
The corridor outside Baylee’s dorm room was deserted.
No Sperm Gathers were mindlessly returning from their monthly mandatory pregnancy checks. No facility cleaning staff were chatting, in a drone-like fashion, as they disinfected the floors, walls, doors, and even the doorhandles along the hallway. No on-call nursing staff were hurrying to one of the many Sperm Gathers’s rooms with a hot water bottle and a couple of painkillers to ease the discomfort of cramps and blotting.
Baylee restrained the urge to wet her lips and swallow. Instead she intentionally tipped her head towards the surveillance camera that was directly mounted across the hallway from her door. She gave the camera a tiny smile as she opened the door wider, acknowledging whoever was monitoring the bank of screens in the security control room.
As Fisher had said, it was just before midnight. Shift change, and if Baylee and Fisher were a little lucky, the incoming and outgoing guards would be too busy discussing the scores of the evening’s sporting exercises or the latest gossip to notice the slight diversion in Baylee’s nightly jaunts.
Fisher exited the dorm with Baylee close behind her. Baylee’s rucksack dangled from her right hand as if it weighed nothing despite the fact that it was fully stuffed. Baylee closed the door. There was no need to check to see if the door locked since locked doors were prohibited.
Baylee and Fisher headed down the hallway in an unhurried manner.
The bright lights emitting from the pregnancy lab examination area, as the two rounded a corner, cast an eerie glow over the corridor’s tiled walls.
Baylee took a deep breath and glanced at the flashing lights that bordered the many square signs outside of the cubical examination stations. Four were lit in red, the others blue. Baylee released her breath. Four less sets of doctors and nurses to witness her and Fisher’s excursion. It wasn’t an optimal situation, but Baylee would take it.
Hoping that none of the examination doors suddenly opened, while she and Fisher were passing, Baylee reached out a hand and gently touched Fisher’s forearm.
“Don’t bother,” she said barely above a whisper.
Fisher’s left eyebrow rose. “When?”
“This afternoon.”
Fisher frowned and Baylee knew exactly what her friend was thinking. Today had been Baylee’s scheduled monthly mandatory pregnancy check. Giving her the perfect opportunity to roam around this particular area of the facility unhindered.
“Everything?” Fisher whispered pointedly.
Baylee nodded.
“Let’s make this quick. We only have a few more minutes.”
Baylee nodded again.
The two of them continued past the glass windows of the pregnancy examination laboratory. There were several people, in white lab coats, leaning over microscopes while others sat at their desks reading medical reports. A couple of doctors, in their mid-forties, were examining a patient’s chart. Nobody glanced up.
Baylee and Fisher hurried and were almost to the end of the corridor when they heard someone sneeze. Baylee sprinted the last few feet. Fisher wasn’t far behind. They both rounded the last corner of the “B” section of the floor. The stairwell was only feet away.
“Do we need to sound the alarm?” A female voice asked.
Baylee stopped. Her heart pounded fiercely. The walls were thin enough that Baylee could clearly hear the medical staff at the far end of the laboratory.
“Nah,” a male voice answered. “It’s probably the crappy air in here.” Another sneeze sounded, this time it was muffled.
A third voice, a woman’s, huffed. “Just what we need. Get over here. I’ll need to take a culture from you.”
“I don’t feel sick,” the man’s whiny voice responded.
“We’ll have to call back all the girls that have been in for the last week to ten days.” The third voice ignored the man. “See if they’re exhibiting any signs of cold or flu.”
Baylee heard several voices groan.
Fisher nudged Baylee’s shoulder. She opened the door to the stairwell and motioned for Baylee to get her legs moving again.
They hurried down the five flights of stairs as fast as they could without drawing anymore attention than they already knew they would be.
Baylee wasn’t overly concerned. She often made this trek to the bottom level of the facility. Having Fisher with her this time shouldn’t send up too many red flags. Or the fact that it was now after midnight. At least she hoped.
At the bottom of the stairwell there was a short corridor. Two sets of double doors faced each other on opposite sides. One had a large black sign with the words ‘Storage’ while the other had the words ‘Engineering and Machine Department’ in red paint stencilled across the textured surface.
Baylee tapped her SG level 4 access card up against the red flashing beam on the wall beside the doors. The light turned green and the locking mechanism for the doors clicked softly.
Fisher pushed through the unlocked right half of the heavy reinforced steel double doors. “Which way?”
“Second set of doors on the left.” She handed Fisher her rucksack. “Go to the end of the hallway. I’ll meet you there.”
Fisher nodded. She swung the rucksack over her shoulder. “Don’t be long.”
Baylee shook her head. “No more than a couple of minutes tops. I need to get a Kanban card.”
Fisher gave Baylee a blank look.
“Never mind, I’ll explain later, go.”
Fisher entered the second set of doors while Baylee walked on by and opened a single door further down the hall. She slipped inside and went quickly to the wall at the far end of the production and supply office that displayed several hundred small metal card holders. She searched the numbered card holders, plucking two cards out and pocketing them. She then left by a back door and headed for the cleaning staff’s supply room.
Baylee opened the door and without turning a light on pushed aside a portable floor sweeper and an assortment of brooms, buckets, and a stack of orange safety pylons. She gave a sigh of relief when she saw what she’d stashed on the floor hadn’t been discovered.
She picked up the khaki coloured rucksack that sat on top of two black canvas bags. She shoved her arms through the straps of the rucksack before lifting first one then the other of the bags.
She turned and left the small room not bothering to close the door behind her. It wouldn’t be too long before both her and Fisher would be officially marked as AWOL from their dorm. Leaving this room door open would offer them a few moments head start as the guards would first have to investigate the contents of the room to try and figure out just what she’d taken out in the rucksack and bags she carried.
Baylee hurried down another hallway and put one of the bags down before she opened a door. She stepped inside and put the other bag against the door, giving her just enough light from the corridor to see by. Again if the camera couldn’t pick up exactly what she was going to take from this room, it would give her and Fisher another few minutes leeway.
Baylee went to a large desk and opened the top drawer. Inside were an array of writing instruments and miniature information tablets. Baylee pocketed a couple of each, then moved a sliding tray aside to reveal what she’d really come for. A key ring with two sets of keys. Grabbing them, she reset the tray and closed the desk drawer. The keys went into the breast pocket of her jacket.
Next Baylee headed for a bank of old-style filing cabinets. She opened a drawer of one and grabbed a handful of colour coded files. She threw them onto the floor, opened another drawer from another cabinet and did the same. As she turned to leave the office she snatched an object off of the desk as she passed.
She was out of the office in less than thirty seconds. Grabbing the two bags at the door she hurried down the hallway and opened a door to find Fisher waiting on the other side.
Without a word Fisher took one of the heavy cargo bags Baylee was carrying. Then she smiled as Baylee handed her the object Baylee had swiped from the office.
“You just couldn’t resist, could you?”
Baylee lifted one shoulder. “I couldn’t leave without Mr. Happy Sad.”
Fisher snorted and raised the mug in her hand. “So which are you?” She asked, turning the mug in her hand to reveal the smiley yellow happy face and then the sad red face of the stamped emblem on both sides of the mug.
“You’re a smart cookie. You figure it out.” Baylee winked and pushed open the door that lead to the facility’s underground garage.
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt