The Fox

I can not convey what I need to using only signals.  Mary strode down the hill. Lena stood near a tree as she spoke to someone who Mary couldn’t see. I didn't see or hear anyone before.

“Who are you talking to Lena?”

Lena jumped at the unexpected noise as she turned around with a massive grin on her face. “Mary, Mary, there is a big fox that let me play with its super fluffy tails, and it talks too. Do you wanna see?”

“Foxes can not speak our language, and they only have one tail, are you sure it was not something pretending to be a fox?”

“Yeah I’m very sure, it’s right… there...” Lena looked confused as she pointed past the tree. “Where did it go?” She checked the bushes nearby. 

“You need to be more careful Lena.” What I am about to do makes me the last person who should be telling her this. I am going to ignore this fox for now, she might just be lonely. “Lena, I need you to listen carefully and stay put.” 

Lena ended her search and nodded. 

“I am going to be gone for a while, so I will leave the food with you, but remember, only eat it if you get really hungry.” Mary handed her backpack to Lena.

“If that fox comes back I’ll be too distracted to eat anyway, so you won’t need to worry about that.” Lena's gaze drifted.

“Lena. I need you to take this seriously and not let that fox distract you.”

Lena looked confused, then concerned. “You’re going to do something dangerous aren’t you?” Lena pouted. “And right after you told me to be more careful too.”

“It may be dangerous, but I am going to do it carefully, and you still need to avoid doing dangerous things, at least until you get older. Now I need you to pay very close attention, do you understand?”

“Yeah… I understand. I still don't like it though.” Lena looked defeated, but her eyes were glued to Mary. 

“Something on the other side of that hill is malfunctioning and I need to fix it to save everyone.” She paused to make sure Lena was still looking at her. “If anything looks like it has gone wrong or if anything bad happens at all, I need you to run home and do not stop until you get there. Do you remember how we got here?”

Lena pointed south-east. “If I just head that way it’ll only take me a couple hours to get home.”

“Your sense of direction has always been great. One more thing, If I am not back in three hours, I need you to go home and tell people where I am. I’ll see you later Lena.” Mary started up the hill.

Lena looked disappointed “See you later Mary. You better not break your promise.”

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Mary returned to the top of the hill and took out her binoculars. “It looks like the main entrance is straight ahead.” She muttered. Her binoculars found their way into one of her coat pockets as she jogged down the hill. Mary walked up to the first concrete barrier. It was so thick two people could comfortably stand side by side while leaning up against it.

“Impressive isn’t it?” A loud and soft voice pitched both high and low echoed behind Mary.
She drew one of her sidearms and spun around. Her pistol came face to face with a row of abnormally sharp teeth put on perfect display by the fox-like creature’s toothy smirk. Its many tails fluttered in a carefree matter as its fur blew in random, discordant directions despite the barriers defense against the wind. A pervasive smell of nothingness emanated from the creature and invaded everything in its presence. Dull yet vibrant omni-chromatic eyes ignored the pistol entirely and bored straight into Mary’s soul. 

This must be that fox she was talking about. Mary looked over the creature.

“Death awaits you in this endeavor, but you still have time to go home, live out the rest of your life, watch your sister grow up…”

You leave her out of this! Mary chose to keep her thought a thought. 

"I believe you know how dangerous what you are about to do is as well.”

"I know how dangerous what I am about to do is. I will do it and I will come back alive. For Lena."

The creature smiled. “She would want you to choose life. You know how much she hates death, yet you choose it anyway."

Mary glared. “I am going to go through with this to save everyone, I will return alive, and I will not let you stop me.”

The creature evaporated. “I never said I would even attempt such a thing. Your spirit has proven itself so I will meet with you again when all is said and done to present you an offer you won’t refuse.”

Mary stifled a confused look as she lowered her pistol and continued towards the structure. It looks like things are worse than I thought they were. There is likely some sort of hallucinogen in the air but if there was the device would detect it. Mary checked her device. The radiation levels were elevated but it displayed no other warnings. This much radiation would not cause hallucinations. As Mary mulled over her situation, she deftly weaved her way through the concrete barriers until she reached the main building’s entrance.

———————————————————————————————————————

She opened the door and was met with an acrid stench. Corpses of various metallic humanoids with broken wiring oozed a glistening black substance. “Maintenance must not be functioning.”

One of the robot corpses attempted to raise its arm in order to fire a weapon its hands could no longer grasp. “In…tru…der...” 

"It looks like many of the Security systems aren’t functioning either." A loud BANG echoed through the building as Mary fired one shot into the robot's head.

It stopped moving.

Before the first echo ended another BANG reverberated through the facility as she fired a second round into the robot's chest. “I can not allow that mockery to survive even slightly.”

The directions to each room were marked in code on a screen hanging from the concrete wall.  "Key detected. Identity has been updated and verified" A static-ridden robotic voice announced. 

Mary studied the guide then headed to the control room.

The concrete halls leading to the control room were undecorated aside form the rare safety poster.

"Access key detected" The control room door slid open at Mary's approach but stopped before it was open enough for her walk through. She pushed it the remaining distance and was hit with a burst of stale air. Various documents were haphazardly strewn about near an ancient computer. A live, digital map of the facility dominated the southern wall. Reactors 2 and 3 were offline along with all of the maintenance systems. The security systems were marked as malfunctioning.  A parade of errors marched across the screen.

"Access key detected" A blue hue flooded the room revealing a pile of bones seated at the desk. The computer blared to life. "Permissions granted. Maintenance needed. All systems shutting down for maintenance." A series of red boxes opened as quickly as they closed. The computer screen turned red as a large warning forced itself onto the screen. "ERROR: reactor 1 shut down disabled. Manual deactivation required. Temperature rising." Mary sprinted towards reactor 1. She equipped her goggles and respirator on the way out.