With light shining in front of them, Valerie and Lisa made their way down to the bottom of the stairs. Valerie was met with a layer of water on the floor, a mere centimetre in depth. "What happened here?".
"I think a pipe burst..." Lisa responded before moving a step ahead and looking left and right.
"Where's the generator room?".
"Follow me..." Lisa spoke out. "I don't know if any of these monsters managed to get down here... So be careful.".
"Will do..." Valerie responded as she turned the other way, so the two women were back to back as they slowly progressed through the basement.
The water between their feet splashed gently with each step they made, causing slight ripples of small waves to spread throughout the narrow hallways.
"It's way too quiet..." Lisa commented as she felt her back slightly tingle with unease.
"How much more until we're there?..." Valerie asked seconds later.
"Just around the corner and the third door to our right," Lisa responded.
Seconds later, they reached the door of the generator room. Entering it, they were met by shelves upon shelves of what seemed like bottles of oil on other canisters consisting of different liquids.
To their left was what they were looking for, the main generator. With The two women pointing their flashlights at the generator box, they approached it, noting a red light glowing on the display that was beside the red button, which had 'Start' written on it.
Seconds later, Monica's voice was heard through the walkie-talkie. "Lisa?... Valerie?".
"We've arrived in the generator room," Lisa responded. "What do we do now?".
"Press the button that says start, given that all the lamps on the display are off," Monica responded.
"There... there's one red lamp that's glowing on the display," Valerie spoke up as she shone the night onto it. 'No Power'.
"What lamp?" Monica inquired seconds later.
"It says the generator has no power, Monica," Lisa replied. "Is there a way we can... I don't know... tap into the power?".
"Shit... I think there are a few backup generators down there... some 3 or 4, I am not too sure. You'll have to turn those on, so they can feed into the generator and allow it to turn on," Monica explained. "Because it seems to me that Artull is off the power grid now...".
Just as the women were about to continue with their newly given tasks, Monica let out a dire warning. "But be careful... the backup generators can only work for so long. Once they are gone... we're fucked.".
"Alright..." Lisa answered back as she looked at Valerie. "Let's go and find these generators...".
With that, they both headed back out into the hallway. "Where do we go on from here?" Valerie asked.
"I think there should be a map here somewhere..." Lisa replied.
"There must be something labelled on the walls to tell us where we are going too... no?" Valerie inquired seconds later.
"Most of those are run down," Lisa responded.
With the two women regaining the same postures as when they were going toward the main generator room, they continued venturing through more of the hallways of the big basement.
It wasn't long before Lisa let out a small gasp as she ran toward something. Ripping off what looked like a poster, it took a moment for Valerie to realise it was the map Lisa was looking for.
"Now nothing can stop us..." Lisa commented, switching her gaze between the map in her hands and Valerie, who stood beside her. "Can you shine your light so I can see where these generators are?".
With Valerie doing what Lisa asked, they managed to pinpoint the 4 backup generators in the basement. Backup generators 1, 2 and 3 were close to one another, all the while the 4th backup generator was the furthest away.
"Alright... let's get going..." Valerie voiced as she tried to make sense of where to go.
"I think we go... that way..." Lisa said, pointing to their left.
"I- I'll just follow you then..." Valerie replied.
The two women followed Lisa's directions, but very soon, they realised there was a slight anomaly. They ran into a wall where the map showed there shouldn't be.
Taking a closer look, Valerie's eyes followed the paths the map showed and spoke out, "I think we're going in the wrong direction. Let's go back to where we were.".
With them both doing just that, they began to walk in the other direction. To their right. And there, minutes later, they managed to find a way to the 1st generator.
Entering the room, they were greeted by a small interior. The space was smaller than they anticipated, however, it came with a sense of relief to both Valerie and Lisa as it meant they'd finish their task faster before getting out of there.
Just like the main generator room, upon walking a step more into the room, they were greeted by a generator box to their left. Shining the light at the metallic exterior, they approached it closer and noticed that this generator box was different.
It had a meter on it, showing the amount of fuel present in the generator. More than half.
The next thing that caught their attention was the worn-away sign on the giant motor. However, despite the visible age of the equipment, both Valerie and Lisa made out the words to be 'Back-up Generator 1'.
A red button was located close to the sign, Lisa tried pressing it, but, nothing. She tried pressing it again, but still, nothing happened. "It has fuel... but how do we get this shit to turn on?...".
Valerie turned, pointing her light to see if there was anything more the room had to offer. Close to the backup generator, there was another metallic casing, with a gauge and a red grip below it. "What is this?" She asked Lisa, approaching it.
With Lisa approaching Valerie before standing behind her, she was just as clueless as Valerie. "I better ask Monica, to see what she'll say...".
And with that, Lisa tried calling out for Monica through her walkie-talkie. "Monica?... We found the first backup generator.".
She grew tense until she heard Monica reply. "Great... do you know how to turn it on?".
"That's why I am calling back for you, I was hoping you'd be able to help us out a bit...".
"Alright..." Monica began. "Beside that generator, you'll see a smaller box with a gauge on it. Below it is a red grip. You have to pull it to warm up the generator, to give it some energy for it to start up.". She paused for a moment before continuing, "However, the gauge has to point on the green for the generator to successfully start. It's the same with the rest of the generators. Pull the handle until the pointer is on green and then turn the generator on.".
"Alright..." Valerie responded before getting down to work. She caught the handle before pulling it over and over again. Keeping her torch in between her lips, she often pointed it to the gauge, taking note of where the pin was located.
With each pull, the pin rose from the red section of the gauge to the yellow, before making its way down to red. However, with each pull, the gauge slowly showed how the engine was warming up, with the pin slowly spending more of its time in the yellow section before finally hitting the green.
Valerie gave it a few more pulls before looking at Lisa, taking the torch out of her mouth and saying, "It's ready.".
Lisa wasted no time, she immediately pressed the red button, and this time, a loud hush was heard before, and seconds later, the spooling of the engine started up.
Above the generator, an amber light turned on, however, seconds later, the amber light changed to green.
"I suppose that shows that the generator is up and running," Valerie commented as she looked at Lisa and Lisa looked back at her.
"Let's get the others up and running. We need to get the fuck out of here.". And just as Lisa said, they both started up the next two generators with no hassle. Exiting the room with the 3rd generator, they already noticed a slight change. The basement was a bit lighter, as even the light above them showed sparks of light.
Slowly, they made their way to the final generator room, and as they were about to turn the last corner, they were met by a metal door ahead of them. Valerie furrowed her brows ever so slightly. "What's this door? Where does it lead to?".
Lisa paused for a second as she looked down at her map. It didn't extend beyond the area they were in, so she let a sheepish smile grow on her lips. "I wouldn't be too sure... However, one thing I know is that the 4th generator is most certainly not there. Let's go...".
Seconds later, they reached the room with the final, inactive generator. Following the same procedure with getting the big engine warmed up, Valerie was now the one who pressed the big, red button. The engine spooled up as the women let out a breath of relief.
Lisa pulled out her walkie-talkie just as they reached the room by the main generator and contacted Monica once again. "We did it, we'll be heading into the main generator room to try and turn it on now.".
"Don't do anything until I tell you..." Monica let out, breathlessness was obvious in her voice. She was moving.
"Are you walking??" Lisa exclaimed.
"I need to get to the fuse box, to turn on the fire alarm. Once you turn back on the power, it'll be game over, the alarm will go off," Monica elaborated, however, dismissing Lisa's question.
"Alright, but why are you walking around? You know you're heavily wounded... I'll have Valerie come up and help you.". Lisa looked Valerie's way. Valerie took a look at the map Lisa still held, to know her way back to the reception, and with that, was off.
Valerie hurried, each step splashing water around her as it seemed the level present increased.
She was just about to turn another corner when a figure pushed itself onto her, pinning Valerie to the wall. Letting out a gasp, she wasn't able to get a look at the face of the figure. However, the rancid smell made her well aware that it was a zombie.
Letting out a grunt as she pushed the creature off herself. She pulled out a gun before firing a shot right into its head, bursting it open.
However, with the shot of her gun echoing through the small hallways of the basement, she heard murmuring seconds later, making her well aware that she wasn't alone.
A slight scream was let out, a corner away from Valerie as she held up her gun, aiming at whatever was coming her way.
And there, seconds later, staggered out another figure, using the walls to lean itself against as it managed to remain steady on her feet. 'How the fuck did these two manage to get here?'.
She backed up from the zombie, keeping a close eye on it. But then, it did something unexpected, it lunged for Valerie.
Evading the attack with a gasp, Valerie immediately backed up, aiming her gun once more at the zombie before firing two shots its way. Downing it for good.
"Was that you?" Lisa's voice made Valerie jump.
"For fuck sake... Lisa, you scared the shit out of me..." Valerie began, bending down to her knees to allow the sense of relief to finally wash her over. "They managed to somehow get down here... I had to take them out.".
"Are you okay?" Lisa asked as she looked around them once more for any threat.
"I'm fine... I better get going now though...".
"Alright, tell Monica to contact me when you're up with her," Lisa responded. "Do you know the way out?".
"Yeah, just back there," Valerie pointed behind her.
Lisa nodded her head and with that, Valerie was off.
She managed to make her way to the steps, ascending them before getting back into the hallway that was close to the reception.
Immediately, she noticed Monica resting by a wall, on her feet as she had her left hand on her right shoulder. "Shit... Monica!".
Instantly, Valerie took hold of her comrade, giving her support. "Are you alright?".
Monica nodded her head. "Yeah... I tried to get to the fuse box... The fire alarms need to be switched off.".
"I can do it for you, just tell me where the fuse box is," Valerie replied, still having a tight grip on Monica so she wouldn't fall.
"It's adjacent to the stairs, the big box. I don't know if you've seen it... Leave me to rest here, I'll tell you what to do..." Monica replied, touching the wall behind her, indicating to Valerie to rest her where she had her hand.
With Valerie doing, she went to where Monica told her the fusebox was located, and seconds later, she found it. It was thin, but big nonetheless - just as Monica said. "Found it..." Valerie voiced out.
"Alright..." Monica started. "Open the fusebox and look for a labelling that has 'Fire Alarms' written on it. All you have to do is pull it out. The breaker will pop out by itself...".
"Okay..." Valerie responded, following what Monica told her. She opened the fuse box and looked for the label she was told. It took her a few seconds, but she managed to find it. Pulling it out, seconds later, a click was heard. "I- I think I did it...".
"Alright..." Monica repeated. With that, Valerie heard Monica speak up. She knew she was reporting back to Lisa downstairs. "We've turned off the alarm. You can turn on the power now...".
"Will do," Lisa responded. "Is Val there with you?".
"Yeah, she is..." Monica replied, looking at Valerie as she made her way back to Monica.
"How are you feeling?".
Monica laughed at such a question. "I've been better...". Just as she said that the light above them both turned on. A did the lights in the reception and all around them. The power was back.
But seconds later, the red lights of the fire alarm turned on, spinning, colouring the rooms in red. However, the deafening sound of the alarm was mute. It came as a sense of pleasure. Relief.
And not long passed before Lisa made her way back up the stairs as the trio rejoined.
"Where do we go now?" Lisa asked.
"Now we... well you two, go to the telecommunications room. Try to look for anyone who's close by," Monica responded.
"And you're coming with us..." Lisa responded as she took a hold of Monica.
Before Monica could protest, the three women began their way up the steps to the familiarity of what were once their workplaces.