The End of the Beginning

“Holy shit, that’s big.”

“Language, Will.”

“Sorry, Doc. Its just, well, up close it’s… even bigger.”

“Single biggest structure on Earth. Ten floors of 4.8 million square feet and there’s forty-five of them…”

“On Earth...”

“Uh-huh.”

In the shadow of Warehouse 1, on the northeastern end of the BLOC Section near the desalination plant, William and John, but mostly William, stared up in awe. Standing on the ground next to this great structure made one feel as if they were in the presence of one of the seven wonders of the world. William wondered how the giants didn’t just sink into the sandy Florida soil.

Around the warehouse bamboo and palm trees intermixed with grassy lawns and narrow roads that connected in between each warehouse. Small electric pickup trucks, not much bigger than a king-sized bed, zipped on these roads, carrying two people at a time and sometimes small boxes and various articles of gear. Each one would come from one warehouse and disappear into another through small grated white doors.

John and William entered the warehouse through an unassuming door at the western corner of the building. William looked up and over and almost gasped at the size of the sheer white walls, looking like a looming glacier that was heavy and old. It looked as though nothing could ever move these warehouses; they were to be a part of the Earth forever.

They entered into an airlock similar to the one in the command center. As they waited for the room to become positively pressurized they were bathed in blacklight to rid them of unwanted followers.

“There are crazy amounts of food and water in here. We wouldn’t want anything to get into those stores or it could ruin an entire crop,” John explained.

William’s ears popped. The UV light turned off and a green indicator light showed them the airlock was ready. A second set of doors opened, leading into the warehouse. Inside the massive interior, it was cool and there was a distinct lack of humidity. A two-lane road ran by them, along the interior of the outer warehouse wall with some turnoffs disappearing into a mesh of black metal screens and rigging. Sixteen-foot-wide racks of shelving ran from floor to ceiling with pathways between them, half as wide as the shelving units.

“Think of this mess as a Home Depot on steroids,” said John, pointing to the metal jungle. “But I guess I shouldn’t call it a mess. It is storage perfection. Each floor has hundreds of rows of storage. Computer-controlled cranes and forklifts are sent information from the base’s supercomputer and track an RFID tag placed in all our pieces of equipment. Forklifts find it, grab it, and take it down to a series of conveyor belts that then transport it to waiting automated electric trucks at the eastern end of the warehouse, waaay down there at a distribution center.” John pointed again to the east, but it was impossible to make out more than a few hundred feet down the internal road as everything blurred together in a metal mist. A conveyor belt about nine feet off the ground separated the road from the shelving units at their foot.

An electric whizzing sound leapt out from between two rows of shelving, making William’s eyes compete to see what it was. It was a tall automated forklift at full extension holding a white shipping container. With great precision, it lowered the container in hand with a robotic grace and gently placed it onto the moving belt. Then, like spooked prey, it whizzed back into the jungle of metal to find more equipment.

“In the field, when UNIRO personnel are in need of new supplies and equipment, they will be able to access UNIRO’s own secure website over satellite internet with a username and password and ask for whatever they may need. Once they put in a request, it is routed up to a Phoenix 5 satellite and sent to the nearest supply craft in the area. Replacement requests are also then sent to the base’s supercomputer and restocking begins. These warehouses offer near certain assurance of a constant supply stream.” A bicycle bell rang out.

“Whoa, watch it!” said William, jumping out of the way of a worker on a yellow cargo tricycle.

“Don’t worry about them,” John said. “They don’t stop for anything. Warehouse personnel like to be on time and efficient, which is good. They need to be. Once a call comes in, we need to have at least sixty percent of everything that is supposed to be moved, moving within two hours of the call.” “That’s fast. I remember it would take us days to ship stuff in Korea,” said William.

“We have to be. Every nanosecond counts for us. Failure by lack of logistics is not an option. It all needs to work. Many a past rescue operations have suffered and failed simply because help didn’t arrive fast enough, I’m afraid. With our centralized and focused response, UNIRO can have boots and machines on the ground anywhere in the world within forty-eight hours or less.” “Nice.”

John put a hand on William’s back and started pushing him towards the shelving units.

“As I was saying though, each warehouse has its own transport network with roads and trams because they are so big. Bikes are popular, as well as those tiny pickup trucks you saw outside. I could fit one of those inside my pockets, I swe- ” William saw John perk his head to one side.

“Gosh darn it,” he said pointing to his ear. “Call. I gotta take this. Go have fun. Explore.”

John ran back outside through the airlock they had entered in, leaving William alone. All that accompanied him were the whizzing of distant forklifts and the hum of the constantly moving conveyor belt. But under the choir of machinery, he thought he heard a muffled voice. Yes, someone was talking somewhere. He looked left, then right, and then left again.

The voice was coming from inside the jungle of shelves. William ducked his head down and scanned through the screens, rigging, containers, and shelves. He walked closer to the rows, slightly crouched. The voice grew sharper. After checking around, William followed his curiosity into a new row. He marveled at how deep it ran and how quiet the air became. In here, he was able to discern it was female. The voice grew louder.

William began jogging, making sure to stay crouched. About sixty feet in, he stopped. He found someone, a row over to his right. They spoke with a unique British accent. It couldn’t be her. Could it?

Peeking up over the top of the container full of water filters, he saw a woman with her back turned to him speaking into an old landline that was plugged into a shipping container. No one used those anymore. The woman stopped talking, as if sensing his presence. She glanced over her shoulder. William ducked. He waited. She didn’t speak for what felt like minutes.

William breathed steadily and quietly out of his mouth. He hoped John wouldn’t come back into the building and start shouting for him. The woman would definitely hear him.

“Hello,” she resumed. “It was nothing.”

William took off his beret and peeked over the container’s edge again. He finally got a good look at her face. He knew it. It was Base Commander Hammond. What was she doing in the bowels of the warehouse talking on a landline?

“I need information,” she said, her free hand balled up in a tight fist, veins pulsating. “You say something is coming but cannot tell me when or where. How am I supposed to prepare if I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be preparing for? I don’t even fucking know your bloody name!

“Suspicion is beginning to grow among some in UNIRO,” she said, lowering her voice. “I can only hold off those suspicions for so long. I need more information from you so I can finish this.” She sighed.

“But who?”

She let out another long sour sigh.

“The Jamnagar Refinery was just the start. I need to know what’s next.”

Hammond looked in William’s direction but he ducked before she saw him.

“Fine… But you get me something soon or else…”

There was a long pause.

“Toronto. Are you sure? How is that supposed to help me?”

He heard her huff.

“Hello… Hello… Bastard.”

William heard her turn away from him so he looked over the container. She put the phone back into the shipping container it was plugged into, closed it, and then locked it via a thumbprint scanner. She stared at the lock for a moment. She swiftly looked both ways down her shelving row. No one was there. William ducked again. He heard her run off to his right. He stayed put till her footsteps were no more.

He started running back the way he came till he was out of the shelving jungle. John walked back into the warehouse through the airlock and spotted William a ways down from where he had left him.

“What are you doing down there?” he called out.

William took a hasty look back down the row where Hammond had been. The only thing he saw was a robotic forklift a few hundred feet down. He looked at John and then back down the row, putting a finger to his lips.

“You see a ghost or something? Probably just a warehouse worker, they don’t get much sun.”

William pinched his lips in frustration. He started running towards John. William slowed down with just enough time to avoid hitting John, his boots squeaking on the polished concrete.

“What’s wrong?” asked John.

“I’ll tell you outside. Let’s go,” William said as he turned John around and began to push him towards the airlock.

“Whoa, slow down. I’ve still got to show you the 3D printers,” said John, pointing back over his shoulder.

“Tomorrow,” William asserted. “Outside, Doc. Hurry.”

Once outside, William checked to see if anyone was around. A tricycle dinged its bell nearby. He pulled John in close.

“I saw Hammond,” whispered William.

“Okay…” John strayed off.

“She was talking to someone on a landline phone deep down in a shelving row. No one is allowed in that area, right?”

“You saw her just now?”

“Yes.”

“On a landline?”

“Yeah. But the weird part - ”

“There’s a weird part?”

“Yeah,” William said, lifting his eyebrows. “She was talking to someone about the terrorist attack in India. She said she needed information and that people in UNIRO were becoming suspicious. She wanted more information so she could finish something. The craziest part was she said she didn’t know for how long she could keep down people’s suspicions. Why would she want to do that? Suspicions of what?” “Will, are you sure she was in there? I’m pretty sure she is in the command center right now.”

“No she is definitely not Doc. She is in that warehouse.” William pointed at the gaping warehouse wall.

“Look Will, I’m sure you heard - ”

“Saw!”

“Saw… someone. But, I really think she is in the command center. She would have no reason to be speaking to someone in the middle of the warehouse. That would be odd I must agree.” “You don’t believe me?”

“I… It’s just… I think you saw someone. Whether or not it was her though… You really think you saw her? Base Commander Hammond.” “Doc, I was six feet away from her.”

“Here, we’ll settle this right now. I’ll call my boy Sheroff over at ISAF HQ. He’ll be able to tell me she is back at command by locating her glass tag. Take thirty seconds.” “Is that allowed?” asked William nervously, looking around again.

“Ummmmm… Is this an emergency?”

“Well, I don’t think so… But - ”

“Then no it’s not allowed,” John confirmed nonchalantly, tapping his earpiece to begin calling.

“How do you know this guy?” William asked.

“Through your assistant actually, Rescue Officer Lewis. His name is Jake Sheroff. He’s her boyfriend.”

“Officer Lewis has a boyfriend?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“No reason,” William said quickly.

Jake picked up on the other end and sounded happy to hear from John. The two talked for maybe a minute about trivial matters, then John asked for his surveillance favor. Jake agreed. John pulled out his glass tablet and pressed an icon. A loading screen appeared for three seconds then a digital blueprint of the command center appeared. Hundreds of people appearing as white circles scurried around but Hammond wasn’t one of them. None of the codes matched.

“You see!” William said with excitement.

“Wait. Wait. Wait. Hold on.” John said, swatting the air.

John zoomed out with two finger swipes and moved the blueprint over to Hammond’s office. A circular indicator appeared within it with her glass tags identification code. She was there. It was even moving around, pacing in fact. Jake confirmed it through the earpiece.

William grabbed the tablet from John’s hands and swiped over to Warehouse 1. No one was inside but a few workers. William knew there was no way Hammond could have raced back that fast to her office. He didn’t understand and began questioning himself. Had that really been her? Other Brits surely worked on the base.

“I’m sure you saw someone,” said John, “just, not her.”

William gazed up at the warehouse. Something inside him had shifted. He didn’t look up at it in wonder anymore but with suspicion. Worst of all, it was suspicion of himself.