Shelter 7's Betrayal

Chapter 4 The Exploding Truth

Chloe clung to Julian's arm and stared at the armed charge. Her sobbing had stopped. Each time she glanced at the vault, his grip tightened around the detonator.

His command channel was still open, but Chloe's whisper did not carry. She kept her mouth near his ear and watched the charge while she spoke.

"Julian, no!"

A woman stepped out of a maintenance corridor. Silver hair, tight bun, grease across one sleeve.

Martha, the Chief Structural Engineer. My mentor.

She had signed off on every support column in the inner ring. When a wall shifted, even Julian waited for her answer before moving a bolt.

She faced the charge. "Commander, stand down. That is a load-bearing wall. The vault door will reflect the blast and bring the ceiling down on this section."

Julian looked from her to the wall. Everyone in Shelter 7 knew Martha's calculations held.

Chloe pulled his head down and whispered into his ear. Her eyes stayed on Martha.

"You're with her!" Julian drew his sidearm. The pistol shook in his hand.

My hand hit the comm switch. "Julian, stop."

He fired.

Martha jerked back. Blood spread across her shoulder, and she caught herself against the wall.

Julian shoved her out of his way. Her head struck the same wall she had warned him about, and she dropped beside it.

"For God's sake, look at the ceiling!" I shouted.

He looked at Chloe instead. She nodded.

Julian pressed the button.

The vault floor bucked under me. The meteorite alloy held, sending the force back into the corridor.

The feed flashed white. When the image returned, dust filled the air and half the corridor had vanished.

The audio returned in bursts: alarms, coughing, and metal dropping from somewhere above the camera. Julian's charge had torn open the wall beside the vault exactly where Martha warned it would.

Twisted metal lay across broken permacrete. A slab from the ceiling had crushed Martha. Her open eyes faced the wall she had tried to protect.

Her calculation had been right down to the direction of the fall. She had stepped into that corridor to stop him and died under the first slab.

The survivors had seen Julian shoot her. They had watched him trigger the charge after her warning. No one answered when he started shouting orders again.

Then claws scraped against the new hole in the corridor.

Frost Stalkers climbed through, one after another.