Vasilisa the Brave - Chapter Twelve - Quiet as a Mouse

Vasilisa was keeping as quiet as she could. Not out of any sense of politeness, but because she was somewhat afraid to speak at that moment and pull attention her way.

It wasn't just the mercenaries and Raivis--who actually seemed nice, in a clumsy way. What worried her were the two girls whose powers she couldn't quantify.

Alice and Crystal had started off as strange unknowns with lots of power, and it seemed that at every turn they pulled out more abilities that were stronger than the last. It wasn't ending.

Crystal's.... Crystalline stuff. Alice swarming and swallowing those dog monsters like they were nothing and not even seeming a little winded afterwards. They were dangerous, she knew, but the more time she spent around them the more that level of danger became unclear.

She thought that they might be like experienced stalkers. People with a few strong tricks up their sleeves and the experience to carry them through danger without a sweat.

Now? Now she thought that maybe they were the kinds of people that would give the most experienced of stalkers a headache.

"Here we are," Raivis said as he pushed the door open. The sign with 'Research Facility' on it clattered against the entrance as he held it open for them. It led into a tiny, cramped little room. There was a wooden bench to one side. The kind of thing that Vasilisa expected to see in an old lady's home for taking shoes off, and a coat hanger on the opposite end. There was another door here, this one made of stainless steel. It lacked any sort of handle and seemed to be planted right into a brick wall in a way that struck her as subtly wrong, but she didn't know enough about doors and construction stuff to tell exactly why it felt off.

"What's up with the door?" Crystal asked.

Raivis blinked. "Oh, it's a security measure. It's sealed from the inside. You can't open the entrance from the exterior."

"Hmm," Alice said. She walked up to the door, then stepped to the side and pressed a hand against the wall. "This is an exterior wall," she said.

"Yeah, I can tell there's nothing on the other side," Crystal said. "I mean, not nothing-nothing, there's wind and birds and stuff, but it doesn't sound like the door goes anywhere."

Vasilisa wondered for a moment at the quality of Crystal's hearing. She couldn't make out anything. There wasn't even any noise from the factory except for a low murmur of wind from the windows far above.

"This was one of the first anomalies that we discovered and chose to really work with," Raivis said. He moved to the wall and tugged a brick out. No, not a brick, the front of a small metal panel that was designed to look like a brick. Behind it was a plate with a single stud of a button on it.

Raivis pressed the button, and the door emitted a low hum before sliding open with a smooth, almost seamless motion. "It's a bit of a trick," he said with a sheepish grin. "We installed this to keep out unwanted guests and to contain any potential... incidents."

Alice nodded. "Clever. But what's on the other side that's so important?"

The door that was supposed to lead outside, didn't. It instead opened to a well-lit corridor, a stark contrast to the dilapidated factory. It was clean. Almost cleaner than anything Vasilisa had seen, strangely enough. Tiled floors, a suspended ceiling with vents that hummed slightly, and three men in bright orange suits that covered their entire bodies holding guns poised to fire on them.

"It's okay!" Raivis said quickly. "Just security. One moment." He fumbled with his pockets, then removed a small wallet that he opened to reveal a card.

One of the men stepped up and took the card, then inspected it. Vasilisa could barely see his face though the flat glass panels of his helmet. "Pass?"

"Aristotle," Raivis said.

"These three?" the guard asked.

"Guests. We're diving deeper into the Zone and need a resupply," Raivis explained.

The guard nodded, then stepped back, allowing them to pass. "Alright, you're clear. Just keep an eye on them, Raivis."

"Of course," Raivis replied, his smile returning. "Thank you."

They stepped into the corridor, the door sliding shut behind them with a soft hiss.The change in atmosphere was immediate. Vasilisa felt her ears pop and her nostrils burned a little from the powerful stink of bleach in the air.

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"This way," Raivis said, leading them down the corridor. "The supply room is just ahead."

Vasilisa glanced around while crossing her arms and making herself small. This place was obviously well-funded, and a lot of effort was going into maintaining it. She didn't belong here.

The girls were eyeing the place with a lot more ease than she was. "Interesting magic on the door," Alice said.

"Yeah, but what's more interesting is the vibes," Crystal said. "Very evil lair, but not, you know?"

Raivis smiled at Crystal's comment, then he dabbed at some sweat on his forehead. It wasn't warm in here, in fact, it was rather cool, so why the sweat? "It's necessary," he said. "Safety is paramount."

The guards moved back in, then opened a door leading into a room labelled 'Exterior Decon.' They insisted that the entire group stand in the centre of the room while cold air was blasted at them from above for half a minute. It was cold and humid and smelled strongly of cleaning chemicals that stung her eyes, but Vasilisa endured it because the others were doing so without complaints.

"Have you had a lot of bacteriological issues?" Alice asked. "Viruses or the like from the Zone?"

"No," Raivis said. "We have lost people to sickness, and if you have a cold in the Zone it will sometimes sicken you more than it should, but we never had issues with outbreaks. No more than outside of the Zone."

"So why all of this, then?" Crystal asked.

"Precautionary measures. It doesn't cost much but time, and the Zone is unpredictable. Just because there hasn't been an outbreak in ten years doesn't mean there won't be one on the eleventh."

Alice nodded. "It makes sense. Better to be overly cautious than risk bringing something dangerous inside. This space is linked to others, isn't it? That wasn't the only entrance into this space."

"Ah, you got us," Raivis said. "The labs are an anomaly we discovered years ago. A set of doors that all led to the interior of the same warehouse. We built the lab here atop what was already in this room."

"That's neat," Crystal said. "I love rooms that connect to weird dimensions like this. I don't remember if Fractured Time could do that kind of thing?"

Vasilisa looked up. What kind of name was that? Why was it familiar sounding? She'd heard the girls mention it, and every time, it twigged something.

Though, now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure how she knew it was a name to begin with.

"I've seen her do something like this," Alice said. "It's not as stable or effective as Dimension Death's portal and dimension work, but she can do it."

"Can't you do it too?" Crystal asked.

"Barely. Darkness doesn't make for a good dimension and while I can punch holes into others it's never been something I can do elegantly," Alice said.

Vasilisa wasn't sure she understood exactly what Alice was saying, but what she could put together kind of terrified her. The implications were... well, they were something.

Raivis was listening in as well, though when Alice and Crystal turned his way he smiled and ushered them all forwards into the next room over. This was the centre of the base, she imagined. A large lobby area that was more lived-in than the exterior corridor, with benches and a lot of open space. There was a lab behind a glass wall with people working at a few stations with the unhurried pace of routine work.

"Right this way," Raivis said. "There's a storage room where we can grab a few things. I'm afraid that the entrance we took was one of those nearest to the centre of the Zone, so we won't have access to any sort of shortcut... actually, while we're here, would you mind terribly if we ran a few tests? Nothing complicated, I assure you."

"Ah, that's the other shoe," Crystal said.

"We'd rather not," Alice said.

"No no, I insist," Raivis said. "Consider it a favour?"

"Raivis," Alice said. Her tone made a shiver run down Vasilisa's spine. It was so final. "We said no."

Raivis continued to smile, then shrugged. "Okay. Well, that's fine too. Let's grab some supplies and head back out then."

***