Brogers opened and shut her mouth several times in shock, and her expression reminded Marcus of footage he'd seen of fish. He'd never seen a real fish before, but if he had, he imagined one would look very similar to Brogers at the moment. Rat, the poor misshapen fellow, stood next to Van Pelt, looking nervously at the taller people standing before him. Ghi swallowed, and pointed at Rat.

  "Pardon my manners," he said, "but what the fuck is that?" Before Marcus could respond, Van Pelt spoke up.

  "I've already said," she chirped, "this is Rat, the president of the local zoological club." Marcus gave her a disapproving glance as Van Pelt chuckled at her cruel joke.

  "We discovered... a lot, in Experimental Wing Three. I think it best if everyone sees for themselves before we fully explain." Marcus waited for Brogers to finish computing what was happening. To be sure, Rat's existence was a shocking one. His small diminutive form, his misshapen head, the fact that he was obviously human, or in the very least derived from humanity, but required no oxygen mask to survive on Harmattan. After a few moments of blinking in shock, Brogers nodded.

  "Ok, Rhyne, I think this is valuable enough for everyone to go along." She began striding in the direction Marcus, Van Pelt, and Rat came from, her shock dissolving back into her normal demeanor. The others followed suit, with Marcus, Van Pelt, and Rat following close behind Brogers. Marcus heard the other members of the team muttering behind them, outside of the prox radio channels. Rat scurried along, and he often shot furtive glances at the team members walking behind him. He was still very unsure about the entire situation.

  Eventually, after stopping to swap O2 bottles, they reached the Experimental Wing. Marcus showed them the laboratories with the dusty equipment, the workstation terminals devoid of power, and the decapitated head in the fridge. Even the hardened McCullagh gasped at the sight, and Ghi was almost sick. But throughout the "tour," Brogers remained silent, and only nodded her head at the discoveries Marcus and Van Pelt had found. It was in the cryo room that she spoke up.

  "So this 'Rat' came out of this cryo tube," she said, her hand to her chin, deep in thought. Marcus nodded. The others ogled the other cryo tubes, full of corpses.

  "We believe so, yes," he said. He looked at Rat, who looked forlornly at one of the cryopods that held a corpse inside. The creature had been silent this entire time, though Marcus noted that Rat had purposefully averted his eyes at the showing of the head in the fridge. "This wing was, from what we can tell, devoted to a 'project Golem.' We don't know what that project's goal was, though it's my personal theory that it was to create people like him,-" Marcus gestured towards Rat, "people that are capable of surviving on Harmattan's surface without aids. To a degree, they were successful, as Rat is capable of breathing Harmattan's atmosphere. Brogers nodded.

  "Have you questioned... him?" She asked, obviously trying to avoid using the word "it." Marcus shook his head.

  "No, we didn't have the time. He was following us, we captured him, and since we were running out of time quickly, we decided to take him back with us to keep him from escaping. Thus leading us to our current situation." Brogers nodded again, running her eyes up and down the cryo tube that Rat had clawed his way out of.

  "Ok, let's change that then." She snapped her fingers twice, and pointed at Rat, who looked alarmed. At her signal, Deknost and Ghi leveled their rifles at Rat, who squealed and his his face in his arms. Marcus stood up to protest, but Brogers raised a hand towards him. She waved her hand in a placating manner, and Marcus decided to trust her. She hadn't done wrong by him before. She turned back to Rat.

  "My name is Marine Brogers, and you will address me as such," she said, he heels together and her arms clasped behind her back. Rat nodded behind his folded arms. "I have questions to ask you, and it is in your best interest to answer these questions truthfully and quickly. Do you understand?" Rat nodded again, this time peering at Brogers from behind his arms with an expression that Marcus couldn't identify.

  "What is your name?" she asked him.

  "R...Rat," the creature said quietly. Brogers shook her head.

  "You have no other? That doesn't seem like a proper name. Who gave you this name?" Rat pointed at the cryopod he obviously came out of, the one with Rat written in bold letters above the pod. Brogers looked at the pod, and then back at Rat. She decided to drop that line of questioning for now.

  "How long have you been awake? Or rather, how long have you been out of this cryopod?" Rat shook his head.

  "I don't... know," he said with some difficulty. "There are... no clocks down here." Marcus nodded, seeing the obvious progress Brogers' method was making.

  "Guess, then," Brogers said in a commanding tone that made Rat flinch.

  "Months," he said quietly, taking two steps back. Brogers nodded, gesturing towards Deknost and Ghi. The two lowered their rifles, but kept them firmly in hand. Rat slowly lowered his arms, fear still present on his deformed features.

  "What do you remember before you came out of the pod?" She asked him. He shook his head.

  "Nothing," Rat said, looking up at her with sad eyes. "I remember nothing. Only... waking up. Escaping." Brogers nodded.

  "So you woke up with no memory of who you are, or how you came to be in that pod, so you broke out. Then what?" she asked him. Rat looked down, shuffling from foot to foot.

  "Found food. Found home." Rat didn't raise his eyes back to her at this sentence. Brogers nodded slowly.

  "Where is 'home,' Rat? Can you show us?" Her voice was softer, this time. Marcus clearly saw her angle, and Rat likely did as well. She was using a "rod before the carrot" method, in which an interrogator makes the questioned party's life difficult, and then eases back on that pain with every easily-acquired answer. It was a ruthless method, and Marcus disliked her using it on an obviously harmless individual like Rat, but he couldn't deny that it worked quickly, and time wasn't necessarily on their side. Rat looked up at Brogers, who had softened her body language to reflect her "carrot" side. However, his gaze flickered to the rifles still in Deknost and Ghi's hands. Her message was simple: she was being nice, but if need be, she didn't need to ask. She could make Rat show her. So, the small creature nodded, and turned around, leaving the cryo room. The others followed suit.

  The team members followed Rat through twisting corridors that Marcus and Van Pelt hadn't had the time to explore. Before long, he approached a vent in the wall, the grate of which was propped up beside it. He gestured towards the vent hole, and then vanished inside. Ghi shook his head, cursing.

  "Oh, you'd be fucked in the head if you think I'm going in there," he said nervously. Brogers shook her head, sighing.

  "No, it's fine. Van Pelt, Rhyne, you two with me. The rest of you, wait out here. If you hear gunfire or a commotion, send Deknost and McCullagh in after us." The others saluted, confirming her orders. Brogers took a deep breath, and slinging her rifle over her shoulder, crawled into the vent. Marcus sighed, and knelt down to follow suit. The vent wasn't small enough to restrict his entry, but it was small enough to restrict general movement. He couldn't wield his rifle inside, for sure. He had a knife strapped to his upper arm, which would have to do if the vent was a trap. He looked back at Van Pelt, who knelt behind him. She shrugged. He sighed again, and crawled into the vent.

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  It was a vent. And just like every other vent, it was horrifically ill-designed for traversal. The slick aluminum sides were hard to get any decent amount of friction on, and more than once his knees and elbows would slip on the smooth, dusty metal, sending him to his chest. After a falls like this, he felt his sternum begin to bruise. He cursed internally, and continued crawling, eventually activating his helmet light when the light behind him became dimmed by Van Pelt's ingress into the ventway. Ahead, he saw Brogers turn a corner, and he followed suit. The trio, led by Rat, who seemed to move throughout the vents as easily as if it had been made for him, eventually made it into a larger space. Marcus rolled out of the vent into the space, wiping the dust from the front of his suit as he looked around.

  It was some sort of vent nexus. Several vents converged here, and the space was large enough to be considered a room. However, since the fans had not run in decades, the room was coated in a thick layer of dust, except for the lowest portions, where Rat had apparently cleaned. The room was significantly warmer than any other room in the bunker had been, which surprised Marcus. Electrical conduits marked one wall, as this was likely also a maintenance crux at some point. However, the young engineer saw no obvious doorways or hatches leading inside, meaning the only way in was via the vent system.

  Marcus heard Van Pelt approaching, so he moved to the side so she could enter. She rolled into the room and dusted herself off, looking around. Brogers stood in the center of the small room, apparently taking it all in. A dim red light, probably powered by auxiliary power, cast the room in a crimson hue. All along one wall was nothing but ration packs. One of the concrete walls featured a nook, in which Rat had made a sort of nest using blankets and lab coats. He sat in this nest now, watching them. Marcus saw a doll of some sort, about the size of a cat, sitting next to the nest. It was obviously hand-made, being made out of socks, shirts, and other pieces of clothing and cloth that had been tied together to form a figure that vaguely resembled the human form. With a twinge of shame, Marcus realized they had basically kidnapped this person, held him at gunpoint, and then invaded his home. He frowned, unsure of the situation. Rat had most certainly done nothing wrong to deserve such treatment, but they needed answers. This whole bunker reeked of something devious, and they had to get the part back to the Enoch as soon as possible.

  "This is where you live," Brogers said, obviously not as impressed as Marcus was. Rat nodded, thumping his palm on his nest.

  "Home," he said, his face almost sporting something vaguely reminiscent of a smile. Brogers walked over to the wall of rations, investigating them.

  "These expired more than forty years ago, Rat," she said, turning back to him. "Have you been eating these?" Rat nodded.

  "Still good," he said. Brogers shook her head, but dropped that subject for now.

  "So what do you...do? Sit her and wait?" she shrugged. Rat shook his head.

  "Explore," he said holding his palm out, and pantomiming movement with two fingers "walking" across it. Marcus stood up excitedly.

  "Do you know where the reactor room is?" he asked Rat. The small creature seemed at first alarmed by Marcus' enthusiasm, but then became confused at the question. He furrowed his brow, apparently deep in thought. After a few moments, however, he nodded. Marcus grinned widely. "Can you take us there?" he asked Rat. The small creature nodded, apparently confused as to why Marcus would want to go the reactor. If he's only motivated by food and survival, Marcus thought, and if he doesn't remember what a reactor does, or how it works, he wouldn't be interested in it.

  After a few more moments of looking around the stark room, Brogers spoke up.

  "Thank you... Rat... for showing us your... home." She managed to say, apparently unsure of what would be polite to say about a creature like Rat living in a vent system. He nodded graciously, an-almost-smile creeping up on his visage. The group then followed Rat out of the vent system, and back to the others, who had been patiently waiting outside in the hallway.

  "What was it like?" asked Ghi earnestly as they emerged. Van Pelt shrugged, dusting herself off again as she stood up.

  "It was a vent system, Ghi," she said with no small amount of sarcasm in her tone, "it was like a vent system." Ghi cursed at Van Pelt, who laughed at his response.

  "It was interesting," Marcus told Ghi. "He had food, and a place to sleep. He's obviously smarter than he looks or sounds." Ghi nodded, appreciative of Marcus' honest answer. Brogers stood up, twisting her torso back and forth to force any kinks out of her spine.

  "Rat," she said, looking at the diminutive creature, "do you know what this wing of the bunker was for? Do you know what Project Golem was?" Rat looked down, his expression dark. The look on Rat's face startled Marcus, as he didn't figure such a small and passive creature could express so much anger.

  "No," Rat said, looking up at Brogers. "But it wasn't good," he said. His voice rung in the hallway with such a tinge of malice that everyone in the group looked at the creature in shock and alarm. Everyone stood like that for a moment, before Rat turned and began walking down a different hallway. Brogers looked back at the others and shrugged, and followed Rat as he walked. The others followed suit, shouldering their rifles and gear. The team made their way through hallways and passages, before reaching a large open room. A table sat in the middle of the room, with smaller tables on wheels arranged around it. The smaller tables sported medical equipment, and on the table in the middle lay a skeleton. Marcus realized this room had been used for surgery, or possibly autopsies.

  Rat stood next to the corpse on the table, his back to the team. But his head was bowed, as if he didn't want to look at the skeleton. The others drew closer to investigate. The corpse was obviously old, and was mostly likely left when the bunker was evacuated and shut down. It was loosely clothed in what looked like a hospital gown. The gown was thin, and crumbled at the lightest touch. Marcus walked around to the other side of the table and looked closely at the skeleton. It was misshapen, much like Rat was, and was obviously from the same project that produced him. But as Marcus looked closely, he realized some of the proportions were wrong. The bone structure was different. Marcus heard someone gasp, and he looked to see someone shining a flashlight into the skeleton's pelvis. Marcus leaned further in to get a closer look, and he regretted it. What he saw almost made him ill.

  It was a smaller skeleton, curled up in the cradle of the larger skeleton's pelvis. With a jolt, Marcus realized that this form was different because it was female, and that it had been pregnant when it died. He took a step back, struggling to keep his stomach from revolting. While seeing death was unsettling, the fact that the scientists of this facility had experimented on pregnant women, even one that was different, like Rat, was hard to come to terms with. The others were likewise struggling with the image as well, though they all managed to keep calm. Ghi walked around the room with his hands on his head, shaking his head and cursing under his breath. Deknost simply stared at the infant's skeleton in its mother's pelvis, and Brogers stood with one hand on her hip, her head bowed slightly, likely trying to come to terms with what they had seen. Only McCullagh seemed unfazed by the sight, which seemed typical for her. After a moment, Brogers was able to speak.

  "Do you know anything about this?" she asked Rat. The small creature thought for a moment, and shook his head.

  "No," he said. "I have no memory before the pod. Only... flashes. Or... glimpses at memories." He looked up now, and rested his hand on the metal table's side. "This... was not a good place. It did not have... good people." Brogers thought of a response for a moment.

  "You said you see glimpses at memories? So you have vague memories of your life before being cryogenically frozen?" Rat thought for a moment, his brow furrowed. After thinking about it, he nodded, before looking up at her with a dark expression on his face.

  "I remember pain," he said quietly. Brogers stood in stunned silence, unsure of how to respond. For Marcus, the situation was clear.

  "I think we all know what this was," he said aloud. Everyone looked at him, surprised at his speaking up.

  "The EMC was using this bunker, and maybe more bunkers like it, to experiment on ways they could win the upper hand in the war." He gestured towards Rat. "Rat is capable of breathing Harmattan air. I'd bet money that was their goal: create a soldier that could survive on the surface for extended periods of time without O2 bottles." The others stood quietly, perhaps shifting from foot to foot, but nobody spoke up to disagree with him. They realized he was probably right.

  "And when the Armistice was signed, this bunker was mothballed, and the project was cancelled. They put their remaining test subjects in cryo tubes and left." He looked at Rat, who stood listening to him. "For some reason, within the past few months, Rat woke up from his cryo sleep, which had killed all of his contemporaries, and escaped to survive, and that's how we found him." Marcus looked at the others in turn, trying to gauge their responses through their opaque helmets and suits.

  "If this bunker exists, and this project existed, who's to say they didn't have other projects like this?"