Adventure of Justin Forester 1

Justin Forester pushes through the half-ajar service door into the garage, red emergency lights stroking over rows of parked vehicles. Adrian stumbles in beside him, already scanning windshields for a set of keys. Above, the shaft entrance bangs once as something hits the other side.

A security officer in dark gear appears at the doorway behind them, breath ragged, weapon up, not rushing in yet, just trying to close the gap. The sirens outside keep wailing, distant and hungry.

Justin spots a sedan with a dangling tag in the ignition, but the driver door is jammed shut by the angle of a concrete pillar. Across the lane, a utility SUV sits half-open, its interior lit by the pulsing red wash.

Then a body shuffles out from behind the SUV, a maintenance worker in a torn uniform, skin gray in the alarm light, head lolling toward the noise. Adrian freezes for half a second, then backs toward the nearest hood.

The route is clear now. Get a vehicle, get the door open, or the facility and the thing in the garage trap them both inside.

Justin scans the license plates and the make of the sedan and the SUV, but neither matches the car he parked in the lot this morning. The vehicles are merely company property, offering no personal familiarity in the chaos.

Justin recognizes the familiar layout of the steering column, realizing the bypass procedure is identical to the basic security overrides he mastered years ago.