Vixen A.D. 2 | Chapter 5

TRAM 2

He led them further into the half-dark. A few lights flickered above, casting lanky shadows over the edges of corners and supports beams.  Mace was in front, scanning the area with his carbine.

After a few seconds, he stopped and motioned for the girls to give pause. “Hold on,” he said.  “Something is… off.”

Cinder twitched her ear and sniffed the air. “I smell death.”

“Great,” Faye sighed.

Mace narrowed his eyes. He flicked the LED torch to light on his assault weapon. “It shouldn’t be this dark, anyway. The power is really messed up somewhere down here.”

Faye pointed. “What’s that building over there?”

“That’s the first control room. SLT2 CONTROL, I think. Runs the elevators and auxiliary connections from TRAM 2’s main systems to here, then up back to the colony.”

She nodded. “So, there’s another control room below?”

“Yeah,” Mace confirmed.

Cinder let out a muffled breath. “This is going to be fun.”

“Your sarcasm is cute,” Mace chuckled.

Faye turned to her. “Yeah, hot stuff. Real cute.”

“Fuck you,” Cinder smirked.

A platform outstretched before them, raised a few feet above the Neo Martian rock floor. A thin layer of dust coated the ground. Mace gradually turned, looking at the building ahead.

Embedded in the rock wall of the cave system was a building meant to guide the power and comms between TRAM 2 and the rest of Delta. It also controlled the elevator shafts to and from the system below.

If Mace remembered correctly, that meant there should be a couple storage chests inside, several terminals, a small bathroom, a control station consisting of displays and interfaces that included keyboards and trackpads, a series of breakers and smart junctions, a small locker room, a few beds, and other amenities.

That and a refrigerator. Spare water wasn’t needed; plumbing and hydro came from Delta through various waterworks and alloy pipes. You could live in it.

So where were the residents of SLT2 CONTROL? “This is spooky,” Cinder whispered.

“It’s okay,” Mace said. “I don’t hear anything… yet.”

“Fuck,” Faye groaned. “I got everyone’s six.”

Mace nodded. “Cinder, stay between me and Faye.”

Cinder nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“You like saying sir?” Faye teased.

Cinder blushed a little. “Shut up.”

“It’s okay, you’re not the only one,” Faye winked.

“Uh…” Cinder stammered.

“You’re both too cute,” Mace turned to them. “Light up those torches on your weapons.”

With that, both kitsunes flicked on the light attached to their weapons. They braced the stock of the assault carbine into position and scanned the area. Mace took a few more steps and approached the control building.

The grated metal floor quietly reverberated his footsteps. The cold alloy flooring beneath was clear aside from sporadic layers of Neo Martian dust. Cave systems in the planet weren’t perfectly clean, especially after a recent excavation.

Delta was recent. The TRAM systems, geothermal mines and power plants, and all the subfloors had only been recently dug out and bored—the place was basically just finished. Construction started a couple years before then, but the final touches were only finished before Mace woke up to zombies crawling everywhere.

Mace stopped at the door. He pulled out his keycard and swiped it through the reader next ot the frame. It flashed green.

As the motors in the door whirred, he heard Faye behind him. “Do you think…”

Cinder shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“We’ll see I guess,” Mace managed. “Keep your weapons ready,” he finished, stepping aside.

The fox girls followed his lead and stepped out of the way of the opening door. It slid open, revealing a stretch of cool light along the metal and rock floor. Mace glanced around the frame, staring at an empty control room.

“No one’s home,” Mace said.

Faye took a step towards him. “No bodies or blood…”

“So, what am I smelling…” Cinder muttered. 

“Shit.” He took a step into the room and glanced around. “Really nothing in here.”

Cinder and Faye followed in behind him. “This is the lift control room, right?”

“Yeah. Like I said, it controls some redundant stuff between the depot below and other things. We should be able to see some logs,” Mace said.

He paced to the nearest control and keyboard terminal, sitting down in one of the chairs. His fingers ran across the keys, a small display blinking to life. “So this place still has power, I guess,” Cinder said.

Mace nodded. “The problem is below. See,” he tapped the display, “something is wrong here.”

Faye leaned forward and stared at the screen. “The lift takes us there?”

“Not right to it, but down to the tram depot, then we can ride out to the issue,” Mace explained.

Faye gently nodded. “Okay. How long is the elevator ride? A minute, two, or?”

“Short, maybe a minute. TRAM 2 is about a kilometer down.”

Here, she blinked. “Okay. Is there a way back up if the elevator gets shut down?”

“A maintenance lift off to the right of the service system,” Mace finished.

Cinder shouldered her gun. “And… any other way?”

Mace bit his lip. “There are small maintenance lifts every so often. Another eight.”

“How long is SL TRAM 2’s track?”

He turned to her. “Several dozen kilometers.”

“Fucking a walk, right there,” Cinder scoffed.

“There are small platforms that can take us, but that’s about it,” Mace explained, “but we’ll be dandy given everything ends up working out for us once we’re in the maintenance system, theoretically.”

Faye let out a weighty sigh. “Alright, let’s fucking do this.”

“Should we check the rest of the lift control building?” Cinder queried.

Mace spun the swivel chair and rose from its leather seat. “There are some storage chests in the back, a few more terminals, and a place to stay overnight. Some lockers and a bathroom. You guys ready for this?”

Cinder and Faye nodded.

“Okay, let’s sweep the remainder,” Mace said.

While he moved forward to check the rest of the area, Faye and Cinder explored several other areas. First, he led them through a door along the back wall, which exposed the hall and adjacent doors.

 He, in turn, made his way to the end of the corridor that made an L-shape around the building’s back. There, he stumbled upon a large storage chest. It was red, maroon, and lined with metal trim. The handle—a brass, heavy sort of thing—connected to a small electronic lock.

“Hm.”

Mace tugged it open, revealing several medical aides, a med-kit, some water flasks, a few packed herbs, some old MREs, a spare rotating valve handle, a digital key, a circuit board, and two metal gears. He thought it was weird that a random assortment of items seemed to fill the thing but shrugged it off as nothing important.

 Above, nestled in the wall, was a terminal. He looked it over, finding a few hardware monitor programs, and little more. From here, everything looked operable. The maintenance lift control building was operable, with functional plumbing and steady electricity and power.

Good, then. Where the fuck was everyone, then?

Cinder approached from behind, tapping Mace on the shoulder. “Hey, Mace. We scanned everything. A bedroom is all that’s left.”

“Hold off on investigating,” Mace said. “There could be surprises. Let’s look at it together,” he finished.

She blinked, then nodded at him. Together, they walked to the next door with Faye waiting by its flat matte exterior. “You guys done making out?”

Cinder blushed bright red.

“Yeah, saving it for you tonight,” Mace winked.

Faye giggled. Cinder, still quiet, seemed to blush more, even though it seemed like she couldn’t blush much more to begin with. It seemed impossible, like there wasn’t enough blood in her body to supply her skin with such radiance, yet she practically was glowing like a red LED light. “Well… uh, let’s…”

“Get on with it,” Mace said. “Ready your carbines,” he instructed.

The two kitsunes nodded, stepped aside, and followed Mace’s orders. He swallowed a nervous wad of spit, gulped, and aimed. Inhaling, he reached to the switch and pressed it down.

He stepped back.

Before he could react, a body fell from the door onto the ground before him. Old, dried blood and flecks of gray, brittle matter dusted the ground. Cinder yipped in surprise, almost falling backward.

Faye gasped. “Mace!”

“Fuck,” Mace bellowed. He barely moved out of the way. If he was any closer, it would have tagged him.

What if it was hungry? Mace glanced at the ground, exhaling. When he saw its motionless body and the hole in its head, he relaxed. The thing was gone.

“Hey, it’s dead,” Mace said.

He tapped it with his foot, waiting for a response. Instead, he was met with a grim quiet.

The body beneath them did not move.

Before, it might have been a shambler. Whatever happened to the person was something they’d never know. The pool of dried, coagulated blood beneath told them everything, anyway.

The corpse’s flesh was somewhat rotten; some pieces were missing and a chunk of it was in the neighboring body’s decayed maw. In the first corpse’s hand was a pistol with a lifeless finger coiled around the pulse-trigger.

The man, whoever he was, killed himself. Mace guessed that the other personnel had turned, or maybe was turning, and took a chunk out of the first corpse’s shoulder and arm. After dispatching the shambler, the man took his own life. Why he didn’t call for help was beyond Mace.

Then, suddenly, he understood the new anxiety eating away at his mind. Whatever happened here went unreported. Was the entire place compromised—should I get everyone out of here?

“Fuck,” Cinder muttered.

Faye shook her head. “Took himself out to avoid turning, looks like.”

“Why didn’t he call for help?”

Faye shrugged.

“He should have,” Mace said. “It’s almost like he—”

“Knew that help wasn’t going to come to him.” Cinder finished Mace’s sentence.

Mace glanced back at her. “Yeah.”

“Fuck, man. Are we safe here?” Faye shivered.

Mace nodded. “The top floors and main sub-levels should be safe. It’s the transport systems I’m worried about now.”

“What were they being used to do?” Faye asked.

Mace sighed. “Bring everyone here.”

“Shit…”

Cinder let out a stammered, cold breath. If someone could see her then, they’d see that she was shuddering briefly. “I’m really thinking we should get the fuck out of here.”

“We can’t,” Mace said. “Look, if the power in the tram’s defenses is down, it means that there’s a way in down there that’s unguarded. They don’t dig, at least from what I’ve learned.”

“Yet,” Cinder said.

Mace nodded. “That’s my point. So, we need to go down there and make sure the defense system is good. And then get the fuck back up here.”

“I mean, we’ve stuck together this far,” Faye said, “and seen a lot of ugly shit.”

“Yeah.”

Mace scratched his chin. “You know, maybe you guys should go—”

“No, we’re coming with you,” Faye scolded.

Cinder nodded. “Going to side with your hot kitsune girlfriend.”

Faye seemed to blush at that.

Mace stood. “You guys really want to make sure I’m okay, don’t you?”

“Yeah, wouldn’t you do the same for us?” Faye asked.

“True,” Mace admitted.

Cinder stepped forward and put her hand on Mace’s shoulder. “You said it best. We’re a team now, aren’t we?”

“We are,” Mace grinned.

Faye shouldered his carbine and smirked. “Fuckin’ A.”

“Alright. Follow me and close. Understood?”

The two kitsunes swished their tails and almost nodded in unison. “Yes, sir,” they both teased in off-sync, playful tone.

He turned and made his way back to the control decks and terminals, setting the lift to head straight into the tram system below. In seconds, the lift was powered on, each amber and red light glowing cave’s dim lighting.

“We’re all set. Let’s go,” he said.

With that, Mace led them both out of the maintenance lift control room. They followed behind as he guided them to the lift’s grate-like sliding doors. Mace slid his card into the reader and watched as the gate slid open.

“Remind me to disable the secondary authentication,” he said.

Faye nodded. “I’ll remember that.”

“I will, too,” Cinder replied.

He smirked at them both and watched as the lift doors slid open. Mace made his way in, staring at the surroundings and lights.

The lift—a metal thing with industrial yellows and gray, cold steel for a floor—didn’t have closed walls. The pulley mechanism and electronics above were visible through the grated ceiling, along with the tracks that guided it down or up.

Cinder stepped in first, then Faye. Their tails gently tossed from side to side as Mace approached the keypad. He typed in the lift’s eventual location, then depressed a polycarbonate button. Finally, the lift was off to its destination.

He felt the gravity adjust as it started a descent down into the tram’s maintenance system. “Definitely going to need a nap after this,” he laughed, shouldering the carbine. “Could use a couple soft vixens to snuggle with.”

Cinder blushed. “…Couple?”

He heard Faye giggle. “I would not decline you,” Faye replied.

“I… uh…”

“We should stay focused,” Mace grinned.

“Says the one hinting at threesomes,” Faye smirked.

Cinder shrugged. “That makes two of you.”

“So, only two of us would be okay with it, then? Can’t have a threesome with only two people,” Faye laughed.

Cinder glanced at her, then Mace, and smiled. “I said only two people here were joking about it. I didn’t say how many were serious.”

“Oh yeah? Give us a headcount of who is serious about a three-way, then,” Mace grinned.

“Three of us are very serious,” Cinder giggled.

Faye’s tail swayed merrily. “Hey, that sounds fun.”

“Good to hear that we’re all on the same page, then,” Mace smiled.