Chapter 12 - The Woman Behind the Rusted Door
Nobody moved.
The pale hand remained stretched through the narrow opening, trembling as though even that small effort had exhausted its owner.
Richard stopped barking.
Instead, he carefully approached the gap and gently pressed his nose against the woman's fingers.
She let out a quiet sob.
"You remember..." she whispered.
Margaret's face turned white.
"No..."
Olivia looked back and forth between them.
"You know her?"
Margaret slowly nodded.
"I thought everyone in this section was gone."
Emily helped pull the heavy steel door open another foot.
The smell of dust, old concrete, and stale air drifted into the corridor.
Inside sat a tiny room furnished with nothing more than a narrow bed, a wooden chair, and shelves stacked with notebooks.
The woman appeared to be in her late eighties.
Her silver hair fell over her shoulders, and deep wrinkles covered her face, yet her blue eyes remained astonishingly alert.
Richard walked directly to her without hesitation.
She buried both hands in his fur.
"The seventh generation," she whispered.
"I never thought I'd live long enough to meet you."
Olivia stared.
"Seventh?"
Margaret entered slowly.
"You counted them..."
"I named every one."
The woman smiled sadly.
"They always found me."
Emily looked around the room.
"Who are you?"
The woman reached beneath her blanket and removed a faded identification card.
The photograph was almost unrecognizable.
The name beneath it read:
ELIZABETH VALE
Olivia inhaled sharply.
"Richard Vale's sister."
Elizabeth nodded.
"The last one."
Margaret's voice trembled.
"We searched for decades."
"You searched where they wanted you to search."
She looked toward the ceiling.
"They built this hospital above us."
Silence filled the chamber.
Olivia could hardly believe what she was hearing.
"You've been living here?"
"No."
Elizabeth answered softly.
"I've been surviving here."
Richard refused to leave her side.
He rested his head upon her knees exactly as he had done with Harold.
Tears filled Elizabeth's eyes.
"He does exactly what the first Richard used to do."
Margaret closed her eyes.
"Harold was right."
"What about?"
"The bloodline remembers."
Elizabeth suddenly grabbed Olivia's wrist.
"You must reach Harold before midnight."
"Why?"
"Because tonight..."
Her voice broke.
"...they're finally going to finish what began seventy-five years ago."
Far above them, a dull vibration echoed through the underground corridor.
Someone had activated heavy machinery.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Margaret looked upward.
"They've started opening the lower vault."
Elizabeth whispered only two words.
May you like
"They found it."
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