Survivors.
A Whateley Universe Story.
By Rosalie Redd.
Part one.
Heinrich Groenstadt was a brilliant man, but at this moment his brilliance was being brought down by pure chance. None of his seismological instruments had predicted the earthquake. But when the fault shifted and lurched off the Coast of Chile, the resulting quakes shook his compound deep in the Andes. A literal lifetime of work was ruined, and if he did not flee, the subjects would find him and kill him.
Decades earlier, Heinrich had been a promising scientist for the Reich. He had the favor of the Fuhrer, and his choice of test subjects. If he had one issue, it was the party’s interest in deviant sciences. Mutations and magics had taken up the curiosity of the scientific community. Even his esteemed colleague Dr. Mengele had been looking into to these abhorrent works of the devil.
Mutants and magicians would not be the Reich’s saviors, they would be its downfall. The Fuhrer could not see that. The were abhorrent. Worse yet, the party had not considered that for all the mages and mutants and artificially enhanced humans that they could produce, the allies could produce far more.
When Heinrich learned of the Japanese attack on Hawaii, he saw the writing on the wall. The fools had angered the sleeping bear. Taking what resources he could, He fled Austria, and made his way by U-Boat to Argentina. From there, he traveled to Chile. In the mountains, he could work in secret. He would learn all he could about mutants and magicians, enhanced humans, and deviant technologies.
With his followers, he built a secret laboratory. As the years passed, and age betrayed his body, he tapped into those studies. Over the decades he became as much machine as man. He had to survive to see his works to fruition.
When the Axis did collapse, he swore that he would destroy the abhorrent monsters, and once again the Reich would rise to power. His information network grew vast, infiltrating governments, and political agencies worldwide. When he learned of the founding of a school for the freaks, he got in on the ground floor infiltrating it. As the school grew, his spies and hidden technologies remained in place.
Gaining knowledge from his plants, he decided on a new idea. The capture and containment of the freaks for study. With his technologies stealing data safely from the devisors and gadgeteers of Whateley, he put a plan in motion.
He would capture mutants and magicians, and monitor them has he put them through various testing scenarios. The information he gleaned would surely provide the data on the strengths and weaknesses of his enemy. Using their own inventions against them was somehow fitting to him. Bringing them down with their own creations. Using his spy technology, he even created a virtual Whateley. So advanced was this data miner, even the cyberpaths that routinely dove into the cyberverse were unaware of it.
His research was in full swing when the quakes hit. He had over a thousand test subjects sealed in suspended animation, all dreaming virtual dreams. Heinrich controlled the environment, the scenarios, their every virtual moment. With the data he was amassing, he would know the secret of how to defeat them all.
But then the quake hit. Generators went offline, containment tubes cracked, and nutrient bath sloshed everywhere. Cement rained from the bunker roof, alarms blared warnings, and emergency lights flashed. Then it happened, gradually some of the test subjects began to awaken. Not all of them. Some drowned as the air circulators failed. Others went into cardiac shock from the sudden revival. Others were crushed as concrete fell from the bunker ceilings. The fortress had been designed to survive in the case of aerial bombardment, but no consideration had been given to what would happen in the event of a quake.
Dr. Groenstadt and a handful of scientists made towards the hangar. There were large transport helicopters there, with those they could escape. In the confusion of the sirens and red lighting, a new problem emerged. The captives were awake and confused. Guards had begun shooting the escaped mutants. Of course, the mutants fought back.
The Doctor made it to the hangar, several of the large helicopters had been destroyed by debris, but he managed to get to one that was intact. Setting the self-destruct codes from a terminal in the hangar, they taxied out of the hidden doors, and into the sunlight. Taking off, the Doctor watched as explosions racked the camouflaged facility. All his work, a lifetime of study and experimentation was lost.
Three weeks later…
The young girl looked around. It was dark and the small village was the most likely place she would find food. She staggered through the back alleys. She was weak. Over the past few weeks she had only managed to stay alive by eating snow and catching small animals to eat. The meat didn’t agree with her, and she fought to keep it down every time she ate. Hopefully in this village she could steal some food and clothing. She had awoken in the mountains, naked. She knew that with her appearance, she could not ask people for help. Covered only in the remains of a canvas tarp, she stealthily made her way around the small village.
Luck was with her. The girl noticed a small store. It appeared closed for the night. She reached for the lock, hoping to finesse it somehow, but touching it hurt. It felt like her fingers were on fire. The same thing happened when she tried the knob of the door. She shook her hand and cursed silently to herself. She nearly gave up, but she noticed that there was a window on the side of the building. Stacking up several empty crates that were in the alley, she made her way up to the window, and pushed it. The window shuddered and collapsed inward, shattering. Carefully, the young girl removed the jagged shards of glass, and shimmied her way inside.
She fell through the window with a thud. Looking around, she could see well enough in the dark to not need lights. She tried on several garments, but they irritated her skin. Grabbing a large shoulder bag, she loaded it up with apples and fresh vegetables. She stopped briefly, upon noticing a large mirror. She looked at herself, her pale skin and green eyes standing out, even in the dark. Finally, she found some underwear and some loose pants and a long sleeved tee-shirt that fit and were comfortable. More luck shone favor on the girl, as she found a hooded poncho made of what seemed to be alpaca wool. Slipping it on, the girl covered her head, hiding the red stubble that was growing from her shaved scalp, and her large pointed ears.
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