Page 41 of G8
“No. I smelled some smoke residue in the stairwell, but there’s nothing here.”
“Could be from the fires in the levels below,” Adams surmised.
G8 addressed the man standing beside him. “P8? Do you detect anything?”
“Just the usual buzz from some batteries.”
Biggs raised an eyebrow at them. “From some machinery?”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” P8 told them. “A battery, no matter how small it is, gives off a tiny current. Of course, if it’s in something and providing energy to whatever it’s in, the current is stronger, but that’s not what I’m sensing here.”
“Whatareyou sensing?”
“It’s more like a bunch of batteries in a shipment. Probably several cases.”
“Spread out a bit but don’t stray too far from each other,” Korris ordered. “Let’s see what all’s in here.”
Ingrid pointed to a location somewhere on the other side of the room. “The diapers and baby formula were stored over there. Most of what’s to our left is lab equipment, like vials, tubing, surgical equipment. Those sort of things. Everything to our right was marked for the cafeterias, and some for the vending machines.”
G8 stared at her. “There were vending machines down here?”
“On the second, third, and fourth levels.”
“Why didn’tweknow about them?” F8 inquired. “We were on the third level.”
“They’re located in the employee lounges. I guess that since the scientists were trying to keep you from learning about what was happening in the real world, they kept those locations secret from you.”
“Why?” G8 pressed. “What would it matter?”
Biggs spoke up. “Most likely because food items have an expiration date on them. That, plus you’d need money to buy what’s in the machines. I’m thinking the bigwigs didn’t want to take the chance of you guys discovering stuff that was marked with a date past nineteen ninety-one.”
Korris stared up at a wall of cardboard boxes. “This is all foodstuffs over here. My word! There’s enough here to feed an army!”
Chief Adams called to them from a few yards away. “There looks like some sort of freezer along this back wall. I’m going to check it out.”
G8 and the others went over to examine what Korris was studying. He peered closely at the labels on the first box he encountered. “This says it has spaghetti, noodles, linguini, and macaroni. Good heavens! I’m hungry just reading it!”
“There’s canned and packaged sauces and soups in this one.” Ingrid patted the box. “And this one’s marked dried beans, dried peas, and dried fruits.”
“There’s one here marked bedding and towels!” P8 yelled from somewhere around the middle of the room.
“I found one that’s marked fragile!” F8 informed them.
“What’s in it? Does it say?” Korris asked.
“Lighting equipment and light bulbs.”
“Hey! You should see what’s inside this freezer!”
They hurried to see what the fire chief was referring to.
The freezer sat against the far right-hand side wall. It was long, silvery, and rectangular shaped. G8 thought it looked like the kind found in slaughterhouses, all stainless steel and no windows to see what was inside.
Adams stood in front of a wide door sitting partially open. The man motioned to it. “Just take a peek, but don’t take too long.”
All they needed was a quick glance to see the boxes of stuff piled up against the walls, and the slabs of meat hanging from overhead hooks. The fire chief quickly shut the door.
“That’s a hellacious amount of food,” Biggs announced. “Damn shame it’s all going to waste.”
