Kenn Crawford - Dead Hunt

She hurried down the cellar stairs to find him standing in front of another steel door.

Paul made his way back to the laboratory still carrying the bottle of scotch. He looked at a row of small monitors and noticed each one had a numbered label that started with the word CAM. He flicked the CAM-1 switch and a room appeared on one of the monitors.

“Cool,” he mumbled under his breath.

One by one he flicked on the monitors. Some were of rooms. A couple showed the grounds surrounding the complex. He stopped at CAM-9. Michael and Lucy were standing in the basement staring at a huge door. Paul watched them on the tiny screen. Neither of them moved. He flicked CAM-10. It was one of the rooms upstairs, and he saw Emma looking inside a closet. He watched as she pulled a shirt off its hanger and tossed it on the bed. Her back was to the camera.

“Now this is more like it,” Paul muttered as Emma turned just enough so he could watch her undo the tiny buttons of her wet shirt.

Paul had no idea why someone would install a camera in a bedroom, but right now he was thankful they had. When the last of her buttons was undone, Emma paused as if she could feel someone’s eyes watching her. She turned towards the door. It was still closed. She held her shirt together and walked to the door, walking out of the camera’s line of sight.

“Damn!” Paul said, disappointed, his eyes still glued to the tiny monitor.

He glanced at CAM9. Lucy and Michael hadn’t moved. He turned his attention back to CAM10.

Emma opened the door and looked into the hallway, peering both left and right. It was empty. She closed and latched the door before returning to her previous position by the tiny bed as her shirt flowed behind her. Paul licked his lips in anticipation.

Emma pulled her arms through the sleeves and let the shirt fall to the floor. Paul watched excitedly. With a move few men can understand, Emma reached behind her with one hand and unclasped her bra. How women could do that so easily, and with only one hand, was beyond him. Emma’s wet bra fell to the floor, her breasts now in full view.

“Nice tits,” he whispered.

His gaze was so focused on Emma’s naked torso on the CAM-10 monitor that he didn’t even see the group of shadowy figures appear on CAM-6 and slowly stagger towards the lodge.

Lucy looked around the cellar; piles of old junk, broken furniture, rusted tools and dusty, old boxes lay everywhere. Next to the steel door, a computer monitor sat silent, its dusty screen blank. Lucy looked into the blank screen.

“What’s behind the door, Robin?”

No response.

“I know you can hear me, Robin. What’s behind the door?”

Robin’s face appeared on the dusty monitor. “It is only storage. Nothing to be concerned with.”

“Just storage, huh?” Lucy asked, not believing her. “Then open it.”

“I am not…” Robin paused for the tiniest moment, “Able.”

“You’re lying,” Lucy told her. “Open the door.”

“Lying?” Michael asked. “Can computers lie?”

“This one can,” Lucy answered.

“There is nothing of interest behind the door,” Robin stated.

“Then why are you here?” Lucy asked her with a quizzical look.

Michael looked at Lucy, puzzled, as she continued to question Robin.

“If this is just a dusty old cellar filled with junk, then why did the Professor take the time to install a monitor and camera?”

Robin did not answer.

“Robin, you said he was only worried about the security of the lab, so why install a steel door and security camera in a damp and dusty old cellar that’s just filled with junk?”

Robin still did not answer.

Lucy waited then asked, “Robin, can you see inside that room?”

“I am not able to see inside the room,” Robin answered immediately.

“But you know what is in there?” Lucy asked, not expecting an answer.

Robin did not respond.

“What if…” Lucy said with a mock look of fear, “What if your father is in there?”

Robins face on the monitor took on a more concerned look as Lucy continued her charade, “What if he is hurt? If he is hurt, Robin, we can’t help him if we are locked out here.”

Lucy tried her best to sound sincere. She wondered if she would be able to trick Robin into opening the door. Michael nodded approvingly with the hint of a smile. A moment later, the silence that enveloped the dusty cellar was broken by the sound of a loud metallic click. Michael pushed on the steel door and it groaned open.

The two teens stepped through the door into a long, narrow room lit with a lone light bulb suspended from the ceiling. Directly below it sat a large stainless-steel canister with tubes and wires that ran from the canister to a computer terminal. Unlike every computer monitor that had seen so far, Robin’s face did not appear on this computer; Robin watched them from outside the door.

Michael nudged Lucy and pointed to the far corner. A dozen or so steel cylinders labeled “Liquid Nitrogen” stood in the corner. The entire room was lined with steel and concrete walls; the stainless steel canisters gleamed against the all gray room. A solitary chair sat next to a canister labeled “LifeCorp”.

“What is all this?” Lucy asked, turning to the doorway to see Robin.

Robin did not answer.

Lucy read the label on the big, stainless-steel canister, “LifeCorp.”

“LifeCorp?” Michael asked.

“That’s what it says.”

“LifeCorp,” Michael repeated. “That name sounds familiar.”

Lucy looked back out the door and saw that Robin was watching them.

“What is all this stuff for, Robin?” Lucy asked her.

“I am not permitted,” Robin’s voice echoed through the open doorway.

“Of course not,” Lucy cursed under her breath.

“I remember!” Michael announced excitedly. “LifeCorp. I read about them in one of my dad’s old Sports Illustrated Magazines. Some baseball player died years ago… Jimmy something… Jimmy ‘Fastball’ Williams. Yeah, that’s it. Anyway, he died and they froze him.”

“They froze him?” Lucy asked incredulously.

“Yeah. I think it had something to do with his family arguing over how his remains were supposed to be disposed of. Some wanted a burial, others wanted cremation, or some nonsense like that. Anyway, they had LifeCorp freeze the guy but his skull cracked. The family was pissed. It was a big scandal”

“That would explain the liquid nitrogen,” Lucy said, more to herself, as she looked back to the LifeCorp canister.

“Yeah, it’s called Cryo-something,” Michael added. “Cryogenics.”

“Cryogenics,” Robin spoke up, “is the study of the production of very low temperatures and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. Cryogenics is often used incorrectly to refer to cryonics, which is cryo-preserving humans. It is a common mistake.”

Lucy looked at Michael and whispered mockingly, “It is a common mistake.”

Michael smiled and rolled his eyes.

“So,” Lucy said in a more serious tone, “Now that we know what is in there, the big question is who? Who is in there, Robin?” Lucy pointed to the canister by the chair.

“I am not permitted,” Robin answered.

“Listen, little-miss-I-am-not-permitted, how do we know that the Professor is not in there? You’re a computer, the Professor could have been dead for years, and you wouldn’t know.” Lucy paused for a moment, “Or you won’t tell us. I’m tired of your games. Who is in that canister?”

“I am not per…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re not permitted. Either you tell us who’s in there Robin or we are just gonna have to pop this sucker open and have a little look see for ourselves.”