"Are you two done?! I don't need my power to know you are talking about world domination behind my back!" Olivia berated them while her gaze was still glued to the monitors.
"No need to get jealous," Max said with a mischievous smile as the duo returned to the security room, which closed the door behind them.
"I am not jealous, pajero," she said with an annoyed tone. The thought of someone fucking Anathema made her gag, no matter how much she tried to hide it.
Olivia took a deep breath, pressed a few keys on the computer, and showed the map of the bunker. It was huge.
It was basically a small town that could easily hold 6000 people, but there were a few strange details on the building shape. There were six nodes separated by long tunnels that seemed to be multiple kilometers long between them.
There were the living quarters, where they were currently in. Logistics, power generation, hydroponics, mining, and containment.
"Sadly the security system is fucked up; we only have cameras in this section of the base," Olivia said and then pressed another series of keys. They showed them the true situation of the current section they were in.
This was just the first floor of the living quarters; going down, there were another four floors, each of them with a troublesome number of zombies. However, the ways down were sealed by the emergency shutdown of the bunker, something they would have to lift if they wanted to open more areas of the base.
"There are 5 other ones, each connected by a monorail," the woman added, and then pressed more buttons, showing the error messages she was getting.
Olivia took a deep breath and stretched her arms. "We are in the living quarters. The mainframe is somewhere in Logistics. I need to get access to it if we want to get all the information we need. However, before that, we must restore the main power to turn on the record server," she added, her gaze fixed on the monitor in front of her.
"Why did it go down?" Max asked, rubbing his chin.
"It is a nuclear reactor; it has enough fuel to last for a century, however, for some reason. The amount of energy that the facility needs is way higher than it can produce. Meaning that there is a huge problem with it or something is sucking big amounts of energy somewhere in the base," the super answered, her tone ominous to say the least.
Max raised an eyebrow; there was nothing out of the ordinary for him. Mining was there to keep expanding the bunker in secret, and containment was for experimentation and isolation of other supers. "So . . . we need to go to the energy section first?" the young man tried to confirm his worst suspicion.
"Actually, no, we need to go to hydroponics first; the levels of oxygen in the whole facility are dropping slowly but steadily. We only have a few more days of air before we run out. Something is fucking with the lungs of the bunker," Olivia said and let out a deep sigh. It was clear that the woman was tired from fighting for her life after surviving a multiversal war, but she didn't have any other option.
Olivia and Max looked at Ange, almost demanding an explanation with their gazes.
She raised all her hands, showing their palms in a gesture of surrender. "I actually don't have any idea about that part. My virus only infects humans. I made it that way so it would be a fair end-of-the-world threat and not an instant loss if it could infect each fungus or forest. However . . . a zombie forest is an interesting idea . . . What if I could infest dead wood . . . what if I made something that can infest buildings?" The woman began to mumble, lost in thought for a moment in the end.
"No, just no," Olivia said with a matter-of-fact tone.
"Yes, let's just not do that," Max added with a worried smile.
The girl blinked a few times and nodded. "Oh! Sorry, force of habit, please continue talking," she apologized as her state of deep thought was suddenly broken.
"So, the plants are dying from lack of maintenance?" the young man said, thinking that was the most logical reason.
Olivia shook her head and chuckled, having come to the same conclusion until her power corrected her. "Oh, I wish that. The worst part is that the dip in oxygen started 24 hours ago," she said.
"So when we landed . . . oh no," Max mumbled and understood what was happening.
"Yes, there is someone or something in there fucking with the ventilation," the blonde girl finally added, making it clear that it was time to deal with another enemy with esoteric powers.
Max began to equip himself. The man needed to change his body a little so it would fit that security suit, but after a few minutes, he could perfectly wear those combat boots and heavy armor. Even if Max's body was now encased in Kevlar, it was really light.
For weapons, he grabbed a 9mm pistol, a shotgun, and a combat knife. He kept the steel rod to conserve ammunition since there was not a lot to start with. Of course, he also grabbed some flashbangs.
"Do you know how to use any of those things?" Ange asked with curiosity while Max loaded his pump shotgun.
The young man nodded. "Of course! I am from Texas," Max said with a nostalgic smile, looking at this weapon.
"My dad even shot me one time when I was little," he added and let out a small chuckle at the end.
"Wait, you just went to grab apple juice in the middle of the night from the fridge?" Olivia read Max's thoughts before he could finish his story. She was already wearing some security guard armor over her suit and chose just a pistol as her weapon.
"Don't worry, it was in the leg," he finally said, as now the whole team was ready to lift the lockdown.
Ange, on her part, was just wearing some armor. The girl didn't change her combat tools; they needed to conserve ammo for now, and she was an excellent melee fighter.
There was only one problem left. The second they turned on the monorail, zombies from the lower floors would flood to the upper ones.
They were still enticed by the sound of fighting, so when the doors opened, a wave of undead would start to pour in from the automatic doors. The horde was too big for them to just fight it, so barricading the stairs was the only thing they could do.
The plan was simple: first, barricade the stairs since zombies could not use the elevators. Then they would pack all the stuff in the monorail that they would need. The food, the ammo, the tools, etc. Third was lifting the lockdown on the security room and doing a mad dash toward the monorail. Fourth and final, getting into a new section of the base and hoping that they would never have to return to this block again.
Now, they were in the cafeteria, deciding what to take and what to leave.
"Hey, why are you keeping the deer's Compass?" Max asked Ange as the girl was holding the jar filled with liquid and a small chunk of grey matter on the bottom. It was so condensed that it looked pitch black, and the exterior had more in common with a jewel or chunk of metal than a proper organ.
The woman made a wicked smile, her fingers caressing the metallic cap of the jar. "Hmmmmmmmmm, it is a special tool that will help us later," she muttered and winked at Max with a mischievous expression.
Olivia looked at Ange, the blood draining from her face as she became white as a sheet, her breath becoming ragged, almost as if there was not enough oxygen in the cafeteria. "Are . . . are . . . .estás loca, pelotuda?!" She squealed, her voice breaking into Spanish for the last part of the sentence while her eyes went wide.
The woman took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Of course, yes, you are Anathema after all," she mumbled to herself.
Max could feel dread creeping down his spine like a drop of cold water. For a second, he tried to remember what Ange had done in the past but quickly stopped. He had two options: letting this pass for now or putting that monster in her place. The man chose the first since they could not afford the risk of losing Ange's help for now. Second, he trusted that Olivia had a plan to deal with whatever Ange was planning if it was bad for them.
It was stupid to think that Olivia would protect someone whom she had just met. However, he could trust the hate the girl had for Anathema and the will to ruin her plans.
"Shhhhh, don't ruin the surprise!" Ange exclaimed with a playful tone, giggling at the end.