A few hours later, mechanical broadcasts echoed inside the destroyer, and Simon and other scientists would assemble on the deck with the soldiers preparing for the experiment. Although it was late at night, the searchlights of the helicopters illuminated this small area of water as bright as day. On the side of the destroyer, dozens of small boats were heading towards them, and the officers were preparing to enter the base one by one according to the list. Group of people.
"I'm going to have a security check soon, and I'll temporarily turn off the communicator... Rand, good luck."
Rand and Munster hid in the crevices of the arsenal amid the noise of the crowd, concealing their presence by shadows.
Pressing the earlobe, Simon's command to lower his voice came from the built-in communicator. Then, after a soft sound, the voice inside was cut off abruptly.
"Good luck to you too."
Rand said softly to Simon, who could no longer be heard, with a hint of melancholy in his tone.
As the men began to board, Munster and Rand also dived down the wall from a dead spot on the deck. The water was icy cold, black as ink, and the sea level was choppy with the gust of wind whipped up by a helicopter that was too low.
The water mist turned into ice crystals at the moment of splashing from the sea water, and then stirred by the wind to form a pale white ice mist caged on the sea surface.
Almost no one spoke, only the rustling of people's cold suits rubbing against each other as they walked, the roar of helicopters, and the regular sound of ocean waves floating in the icy air. Under the illumination of the searchlight, everyone seemed to move like expressionless machines, and it looked like a segment without dialogue in some absurd drama.
Rand and Munster took a last look at the direction of the crowd, and then Rand put a respirator on himself, hugged Munster tightly, and sank silently into the bottom of the sea. They only left a small whirlpool on the sea, but that whirlpool was quickly annihilated in the waves one after another.
Occupying the huge and thick darkness on the surface of the water, they have a strong sense of oppression, and Rand even has an illusion that they are some kind of heterogeneous and ancient monsters that are trying to devour all life. His breathing quickened slightly, and Munster sensed his nervousness, leaning over and kissing his ear softly.
don’t worry-
It lip-synced to Rand's side.
The blue light made its face look dim and uncertain, and with that inhuman beauty, it became more and more like the evil and ethereal magical creature in legend.
Rand nodded at it, indicating that he could adapt.
They slowly swam to the bottom of a small boat, and with the sound of the motor at the back of the boat, the small, fragile-looking temporary sea vehicle drove towards the other side of the darkness, and the helicopter The light of the light shrouded them all the time, and a flimsy bluish-white light scatters above the water. It didn't take long for Rand to feel a stabbing pain in his skin, the low temperature of the sea eroding his fragile human body. Now he finally had a deep understanding of what Simon said, "It is not recommended that you stay in the water for too long".
Although the previously injected protein would save him from the physical trauma caused by the low temperature, the pain caused by the cold itself would not go away.
After twenty minutes, they finally saw the true appearance of -2 Floating Island Laboratory. There is still a huge dark form under the water, and the red warning lights dotted in some parts are like the eyes of a demon, flashing regularly. While seeing it, Rand suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of tension, perhaps because of Vincent, Rand felt a little nervous. The floating island gave him a very bad feeling. Just by seeing its appearance, Rand couldn't help feeling that something bad might happen.
"arrive"
Munster reached out and patted Rand, and on the side of the floating island, a huge mechanical sound rang out, and the dark alloy metal door lifted slowly and cumbersomely, bringing a lot of water.
The gate is open.
The speed of the boats quickly slowed down, and they formed a team and slowly drove into the lock.
On the other side of the sluice gate, the bright lights that must be found in man-made structures flashed, and the light almost divided the inside and outside of the gate into two distinct worlds. Rand and Munster attached themselves to the bottom of the boat at this time, and followed the boat into the interior of the floating island in a rather dangerous posture. If you look up from the bottom of the water, you can vaguely see the situation on the pier. It can be said that there is almost no one there. Rand thought that there would be a large number of people inside the base to receive Simon and others. The truth seems to be the opposite. There are not even guards on duty on the dock. Some only have flat and emotionless mechanical announcements to guide this group of silent outsiders how to gather and how to enter the interior through the gate according to the signs...
What a strange feeling-
Rand hid in the shadows, frowning at the scene in front of him, the uneasy feeling in his heart kept fermenting.
This group of people... No, the base had an air that made him very uncomfortable.
He could feel something was wrong, but he couldn't point it out.
After everyone left the dock, Rand took off his heavy wetsuit at the back of the filter nest, and took out his prepared dry clothes from the waterproof bag.
It was a plaid shirt, a light beige wool shirt, and a white study suit, and, of course, drab wool trousers and leather shoes.
Rand put this set of clothes on himself, and his frail temperament made him look even more like a researcher than Simon.
"Crack-"
Rand took the last thing out of the waterproof bag, a badge, and buckled it on his chest.
He is pictured with a dull and uninteresting face next to his "name", Christopher Robin. After seeing the name, Rand was stunned for a moment, and a wry smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
Next, he needs to borrow this Simon faked researcher identity as close to the prison as possible. What they considered at the time was that the composition of the insiders should be complicated for such a huge and hastily rebuilt secret base. And Rand will be able to fish in troubled waters in such a situation, but the reality is that the entire secret base is as quiet as a cemetery. The scientists who came to aid and the soldiers who were about to undergo experiments were hallucinations produced by themselves under pressure.
The blower was humming far above their heads, loud, as if the fan blades had not cleaned the surface of ice for a long time.
Rand's intuitive sense of the weirdness grew stronger.
He ventured his head out of the sump, surveying the whole pier with a scrutiny.
There are obvious mottled marks on the walls, some metal plates have rusted marks due to salt brine, the lights have been flickering, and the air is very cold, proving that the heating does not have a passage to this place, the whole pier... Or, the whole base feels like this Dilapidated and gloomy, Rand doesn't think this is what a military base should look like.
Something must be going on here!
He knocked on his communicator and tried to contact Simon, but there was only a harsh white noise on the other side, and he did not open the communication as agreed—
Rand's heart beat faster.
"Rand?"
Munster watched Rand's expression nervously, and it raised its tail and asked.
Rand glanced at it and immediately realized that the monster was waiting for his instructions, and once he made a decision, it would not hesitate to carry out its orders.
No, now is not the time to be nervous and panic.
Rand forced himself to calm down, and he needed more evidence for the vague idea that came to his mind.
…
With Munster's assistance, Rand attempted to climb through the vent to a locker room outside the dock.
According to the rules of the base, the first thing outsiders do after entering the base is to undergo inspection and body disinfection. After that, they will sterilize the clothes brought in from the outside in a locker room, seal them up, and then put on the uniforms prepared by the base for them. Uniform - the same one that Rand was wearing. And when Rand jumped out of the vent and entered the locker room, he found that there was no one there. In the dim light, there was a storage room lying on the ground in a mess, with scattered seats and a lot of broken glass.
There was standing water on the ground, and there was a strong stench.
Rand can now be sure that Simon and the others have never entered here - from what he can see so far, this place has been abandoned for a while. The air is very humid, and the ground exudes the sour smell of thick garbage fermented. Munster stuck his head out of the vent, then hooked the edge of the vent with his tail and slowly leaned down, wrapping his arms around Rand's waist and lifting him up.
"I'll hug you from the ceiling."
It looked at the sewage on the ground in disgust and said.
Rand shook his head at it.
"No, we're still going through the vent."
He says.
A little further ahead is a small chapel where, in principle, researchers who change into clothes after sterilization will have a brief gathering. As Rand envisioned, the situation here is also very bad.
The metal wall was broken, and the warm water pipes hidden behind the wall were bubbling out, and now Rand knew the source of the stagnant water.
If Rand guessed correctly, the rooms along the vent would have been flooded with water.
"That's not right."
Rand said to Munster—and seemed to say it to himself.
He took out the dagger that Simon had given him from the inside of his clothes, bowed his body, and slowly stepped on the stagnant water to the door of the chapel.
After opening the door, the corridor outside was terrifyingly dark.
There are no guards, no lights, it's like a different space, and it's silent... Rand licked his lips and walked out.
"—You should try to avoid this corridor, which is connected to the room where the inspection terminal is placed. It is very likely that the base personnel responsible for reviewing identity information will enter and exit here. If you are seen by them, they will give you this.' Total strangers' faces generate vigilance..."
Rand remembered Simon's warning to himself earlier.
"There is no sound of human activity...heartbeat, breathing, footsteps, nothing."
Munster closely followed Rand's side, and it whispered to Rand.
"In theory, Simon and the others should be here now."
Rand replied.
Rand took a step forward, but at this moment, the toe of his shoe kicked something small made of metal.
The thing flew out and hit the ground many times, leaving a clear metallic sound.
"Ding-ding-ding-"
A voice that should be insignificant in ordinary situations, but at this time it was frightening, and the echo echoed in the deep corridor like a monster's throat for a long time.
Rand's face changed, he slowly lowered his head and touched his feet a little. Soon, he picked up one of the numerous metal pipes from the sticky ground and placed it in his palm.
Smell on the nose, you can clearly smell the smell of gunpowder remaining in the metal tube.
It was an empty warhead—and at Rand's feet there were numerous warheads.
"God...what the hell is going on here..."
In the darkness, he couldn't help muttering.
And in the dark place he couldn't see, there was a humming sound—
Hundreds of bright red shimmers suddenly lit up in the darkness.