The Door

"Zz... Received... Is the monitoring equipment working?"

"Zz... The monitoring equipment has failed, but not much time has passed since they took the key. Please give instructions for the next steps in the operation."

"Zz... Ava, you must locate the whereabouts of the key."

"Zz... Received!"

Surprisingly, the cave had no effect on radio interference, so everyone heard the conversation from earlier. Airon turned his head and looked at the door closely. Then, he focused on the lock where a very special key had to be inserted.

The people on the radio also mentioned that not much time had passed since the key was taken, and they spoke about a map too! Therefore, everything could be connected now, and Airon knew that those people had come directly to the mansion where his people were a few days ago.

Could such a coincidence exist? Having a vague idea in his mind, he took out the most special key with which the previous basements were opened.

He knew that these keys were special, so they had been used since the supply points were emptied. Airon knew that they had no problem opening the supply points in Alabama, so he decided to take the key with him to avoid any inconvenience.

Airon learned from everything he had heard that these keys were essential everywhere, so they could now be compared to the lock on this door.

Having reached this conclusion, Airon put the key in the keyhole to check and, indeed, the size was correct and very consistent.

Crack! Click!

The key had really turned the lock, and Airon checked it by turning it several times. But after five turns, it couldn't turn anymore, so he thought it was already open.

"Wait!" Welles suddenly stopped him, and when Airon looked back, not only Welles, but everyone behind him looked directly at his hand, as if they were afraid that this door would explode.

Swallowing hard, Welles pointed at the door and said uncertainly, "What if it really explodes after we open it?"

The rest of the soldiers stood motionless and just looked at the door. It was then that Airon smiled behind his mask and his tone became gloomy: "Gentlemen, then we must die together!"

After finishing his sentence, without waiting for everyone's reaction, he opened the door directly! People grabbed onto each other's arms, and many who saw Airon's action closed their eyes.

One second, two seconds...

The expected explosion never happened, not only that, but they also heard Airon's slightly exaggerated laughter in front of the group.

Everyone understood instantly, this was not a bomb, this was just Airon's speculation. After they discovered it, everyone stopped holding onto each other and looked at Airon, no one wanted to say anything.

Immediately, everyone realized a problem. It was said that sometimes Airon joked with the captains of the other groups, of course, these were just stories they told themselves when the base was just forming.

But not everyone took this joke seriously. They understood that the reason was that everyone was very tense about the situation, and it really wasn't good for their surveillance to be with these suffocating thoughts.

Actually, Airon was just joking. The apocalypse is too depressing, and anyone would want to vent every chance they got. Unfortunately, Daryl doesn't take jokes very well, and Glenn and T-dog were not with him this time.

At that moment, mischievous laughter emanated from Airon's case. While everyone felt electric shocks on their backs, they suddenly felt more alive than ever.

After opening the door, a long corridor came into view. Everyone's night vision goggles helped them navigate through this place without the need to turn on a light, and the lasers from their P90 IRs were of great help in identifying any anomalies.

Airon looked to both sides of the corridor, and there were simple rock walls. There are no traces of artificial excavation in the rock walls, but there are some lamps on the wall that appear to be kerosene lamps.

Carefully walking towards the second door, Airon looked at it more closely. The silver-white metal door felt cold to the touch. There was no space on the entire door, not even a door handle.

But there is a raised piece of metal in the center of the door. After testing it, it can be pushed upward. When it opened, a timer appeared in front of everyone.

What made them nervous was that the timer was obviously mechanical, with a 60-second countdown.

The mechanical sound of ticking, ticking, shook everyone's ears instantly. But Airon was cool-headed, looked at this timer, and began to look for clues on the door.

The clean panel of the door didn't even have a keyhole. Cold sweat ran down Welles' head, and the rest of the people looked dismayed; the timer really scared them.

They were talking about a bomb just a moment ago, but they didn't expect to come across it moments later. However, everyone is still calm at this moment and no one moved without orders.

All eyes were on Airon; everyone believed that the Commander would definitely resolve the current situation.

There were still thirty seconds left on the countdown, and so far, Airon could not find any clues, so his attention finally returned to the timer again.

Airon reached out and touched the timer. It should be fixed on the door. He pulled it, but there was no response. Then he shook it up and down, left and right, but still, it didn't move at all.

At this point, Airon was also getting a little anxious, staring at the time around, he seemed to see some gaps, he stretched out his hand to press the timer.

Crack!

He pressed it hard, and when Airon lifted his finger, the timer was more stuck than before.

This made Airon repeat the process over and over again until the timer opened a small hatch, and underneath it were two lock holes that were smaller than the door's initial one.

Without hesitation, Airon took out the remaining two keys and inserted them. Just as the two keys, one on the left and one on the right, were inserted into the lock eyes, the timer outside with only three seconds left to zero immediately stopped.

Welles unconsciously let out a sigh, his heart almost leaping out of his throat just now, and now he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But he wasn't the only one, the others also exhaled at the same time, and although they didn't move, their bodies were extremely tense.

Airon turned around and gave everyone a thumbs up, and turned the keys in the lock. He only heard the click of the mechanical unlocking from the door again, and then slowly opened the door under everyone's expectant gaze.

Suddenly, another corridor appeared in front of everyone, and Welles couldn't help but complain when he looked at the dark corridor. "What if there's another door here?"

After speaking, he pointed his gun and the laser pointed towards the back and sure enough, another door appeared.

"Oh, shit..."

Everyone looked at him strangely, as if he was insinuating something.

"You can't blame me for this, it's really not my fault!"