The red lights that signaled a backup generator in use comforted her as the dim daylight faded from view. She wasn't sure she could have come in without it. The feeling made her think of the King novel where the guy walked through a tunnel crammed with cars full of dead bodies - in the pitch black with only a lighter. Not her and not for any reason.
She had a gun, a Taser that may or may not work, two knives, and a can of mace, but she didn't feel any safer as she wound deeper, ears straining for any sounds. This new world was full of death and destruction, more of it down here in these long, dark, concrete halls. As she picked through each room, Sam kept a hand on her weapon, thinking the downside of the red lights was that she could see the horrors too.
Dead men in uniform littered the stone halls, blood smears and bullet casings hard to avoid slipping on. She flipped her belt light to high as she stepped into the first room. It was obviously a security area, the four stiff bodies and blood splatter making her step right back out.
The next three rooms held more of the same. There were no corpses, but the spray on the walls showed that there had been, and she wondered why these bodies had been removed and not the rest. A trap for troops just making it to the complex?
Catching a faint hint of gasoline, Sam moved by open doors marked Utilities and Lavatories, knowing they wouldn't hold anything she needed. The tunnel she was in quickly dead-ended into a spacious, bunk area with a lot of bodies in the beds, wearing clothes that were an even mix of uniforms and Capitol Hill casual.
Not sure if she could make herself go into the room despite the lights, Samantha went back to the stairs, thinking she would try it last if there was nothing else. There had to be three dozen corpses in that big room and she didn't want them between her and the outside for any length of time.
Certain the main compound would be deeper, Sam chose the door marked 'Sub-basements E-M'. Moving into the bowels of the Cheyenne Mountain operations center, she could hear water gushing like falls, beating down above her. The next level was K, marked 'Water'. She stepped through the doorway, but only stayed for a minute. The reservoir was there, but the reek of gasoline told her the attackers had filled their own supply, and then ruined what they couldn't carry so that no one else could use it.