Page 36 of Song of the Abyss

She didn’t even look at the screen to see how her droid replied. She knew what Bitsy was going to say.

This is nothing different than her room at home. Her father had her cooped up in that room for weeks on end, and she hadn’t gone as stir crazy as this. Or hadn’t panicked, at least. This room was the same as all the others she’d been in for countless times in her life. She could manage this.

Still, she didn’t know how to sit still or even how to breathe like normal until she saw more exclamation points come across the screen. Jolting forward, she grabbed onto her droid at the same time Bitsy exclaimed across the lens, “I did it!”

“You did?” she breathed, craning her neck to peer down the tunnel.

And she could see it. The water was draining and there were plenty of buckling joints all around it that she knew someone else might have heard it. The building was shifting and moving and finally, finally, the door opened.

A rush of water erupted into the room, sliding toward the opening in the floor. A cold blast of air followed, smelling like seaweed and rotting fish, but it didn’t matter. Because at the end of that hallway was another room. And she didn’t care what that room was as long as it was more space.

Rushing forward, she tested her foot on the floor of the hallway into the other area. It had been filled with water, after all. The last thing she wanted was for the rusted out floor to give and then she’d been stuck in that murky water. Already she could easily envision how hard it would be to even find the facility. Her eyes would burn with the smarting of dirt and the saltwater that would make the light seem like it came from the wrong angle.

She’d drown. And even though she’d lived her entire life in the sea, Anya was just now realizing how terrified she was of it.

The floor held, though. As she skittered across it into the other room, she was surprised to find it was one of the few living quarters. Popping Bitsy back on her head, she started through the room and peered at all the details.

“I turned life support back on for this room only,” Bitsy said as Anya turned toward the bunk beds on the wall.

There were four of them, each one made of steel that would last for centuries down here. Clearly there hadn’t been any water in this room, because the blankets were still on the bed and they didn’t look too worse for wear. Other than the dust, of course, but even that was minimal.

To the right, there was a small plastic card table that had seen better days and a lot of cards thrown around it. Bitsy highlighted the cards. “Look! Entertainment.”

She shook her head, trying hard not to snort at the joke. There was a wall of lockers as well. Even if this space was limited, it was something.

Anya opened the lockers first and ran her fingers over the ancient photographs inside the first one. The man looked friendly with his arm around another man, younger, who looked just like him. There wasn’t much left in this locker other than an emergency gas mask, which she supposed would be useful.

She closed it, feeling the angry way it fought back against her hand. She remembered when she was little there was a sound to that, but she’d long forgotten what that sound was.

A shame, really. She had a feeling the sound might have jolted her out of the fear that she was going to find a skeleton in one of these lockers.

Blowing out another anxious breath, she opened the next one. This one had drawings on the inside. Clearly done by a child, they were so thickly attached to the door that it almost created another stiff layer. With a soft smile, she looked in and let out a sound of surprise.

Clothing. The suit was old and smelled like mold. It had the Alpha seal on the breast pocket, a winged bird with the sunset behind it. The gray color wasn’t flattering, and it was a man’s size so it would be baggy in all the wrong places and tight in others, but at the very least, it would keep her warm in the cold facility.

Finally. She had something useful. She’d been a little afraid she was going to have to peel off the wetsuit and wrap herself in a blanket while hoping she didn’t lose her toes.

Peeling off her wetsuit, she worked it down over her shoulders and had to take a breather with it stuck around her hips. Her bra was so stuck to her skin it was almost gross. So she quickly took that off as well, even though the icy temperatures turned her nipples to diamonds and made her skin so goose bumped she swore it was going to stay that way.

Hissing out a long breath, she started in on the wetsuit again. “Heat, Bitsy? That’s kind of important.”

“The heat is on.”

“It’s clearly not on. Do a scan.”

The little droid scanned before teeny, tiny words flashed on the lens.

“Bigger.”

The words only got marginally larger.

“Bitsy, you know I can’t read that,” she grumbled as she yanked the damn wetsuit down over her hips. Breathing hard and bending at the waist, she worked it down over one of her legs. “Make it bigger.”

“It’s fifty-two degrees.” Finally, the words were big enough to read.

“And I’m in my underwear, still soaking wet,” she grumbled.

“Not cold enough to die.”

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