Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 111: The Bucket Strategy

Julien slipped through the door just before it clicked completely shut, plunging the three of them into the freezing floor hallway of Camp Three.

He took a second to look around and orient himself in the dim emergency lighting, quickly realising how this entire restricted sector was actually laid out.

This maintenance corridor was clearly the research and holding wing, built directly against the side of the garage where Commander Lena kept the Green Gate.

It made perfect sense from a completely evil logistical standpoint because the military scientists could easily drag their battered test subjects from the prison cells straight into the portal room without ever taking them outside into the public eye.

’Okay, so the giant glowing anomaly is probably just sitting right on the other side of that interior wall,’ Julien thought to himself, pointing a quiet finger down the long corridor to show his team the way.

’We just need to find the holding cells, grab Alice’s brother, and get out before anyone decides to check the security logs and realises the blonde secretary never actually came down here.’

"Keep it quiet from here on out," Maya whispered, already drawing her small hunting dagger and stepping lightly across the smooth floor like an actual ghost.

"The night shift guards are probably half asleep right now, but we definitely cannot risk waking them up and triggering a base-wide alarm."

Julien nodded in agreement and took a very careful step forward, making sure his heavy boots did not scrape against the floor.

Kyle took a step right behind him, and his leather boots hit the ground with a heavy, echoing thud that sounded exactly like a dropped boulder.

Julien flinched hard and turned around to glare directly at the giant mercenary.

"Sorry," Kyle grunted unapologetically, awkwardly adjusting the black sword strapped to his broad back so it stopped scraping against his armour.

"I am not exactly built for sneaky ninja missions in tight concrete hallways."

They kept moving forward into the dark facility, but keeping Kyle quiet was quickly turning into an absolute nightmare.

The guy was simply way too big and bulky for the narrow research corridors.

As they passed a stack of wooden supply crates, Kyle’s broad shoulder completely clipped a tall rolling cart covered in empty glass vials and heavy surgical tools.

The metal cart wobbled dangerously on its small wheels, and a heavy surgical tray started sliding rapidly right off the slippery edge.

’Oh no, you do not,’ Julien thought, his eyes going wide with pure panic as he watched the noisy disaster unfolding in slow motion.

Instead of diving forward to catch the tray with his clumsy hands, Julien just instantly opened his system shop, bought a cheap wooden bucket, and spawned it directly beneath the falling objects.

The metal tray and all the glass vials dropped perfectly into the bucket with a muffled clatter.

Kyle let out a slow, relieved breath and gave Julien a highly impressed nod.

"Do not compliment me right now, just watch where you are walking before you get us all killed," Julien said quietly, closing the inventory screen and pushing the mercenary forward.

They crept further down the winding hallway until they finally reached a small security checkpoint set up right before a set of reinforced doors.

Two guards were sitting at a cheap folding table, but they were completely slouched over with their chins resting heavily on their armoured chests.

Empty coffee cups and crumpled snack wrappers were scattered all around their sleeping bodies, proving that the night shift in a highly secure bunker was honestly just as boring as working anywhere else in the apocalypse.

Maya gestured for the guys to stay perfectly still while she handled the situation. She slipped right past the sleeping guards, stepping smoothly over a discarded assault rifle resting on the floor, and carefully waved for Julien and Kyle to follow her path.

Julien managed to sneak by the table without a single problem, but he literally had to hold his breath and pray as Kyle squeezed his frame past the sleeping guards with only an inch of clearance to spare.

Once they were safely past the security checkpoint, the atmosphere in the hallway changed completely.

The clean walls transitioned into dirty, stained tiles, and a truly terrible smell hit them right in the face. It smelled exactly like old dried blood mixed with strong cleaning chemicals and something rotting in the corner.

"We are definitely getting close to the testing rooms," Maya whispered, covering her nose and mouth with the dark fabric of her scavenger cloak to block out the horrible stench.

"I can smell the monster’s blood from here."

They stopped in front of a heavy reinforced door with a small, dirty viewing window cut into the top half.

Julien peeked through the glass and felt his stomach do an uncomfortable flip.

The dark room looked like a horrible cross between a hospital operating theatre and a medieval torture chamber.

And right in the middle of the room, a guy was strapped down securely to a heavy iron table with chains wrapped tightly around his chest and arms.

It was definitely Aiden.

"He is in there," Julien whispered, stepping back so Kyle could take a quick look through the glass.

"The door is locked from the outside with a heavy iron deadbolt."

Kyle did not even bother asking for permission or looking for a key.

He just grabbed the iron deadbolt with his hands and squeezed his grip until the lock literally bent inward and popped right out of the door frame with a quiet crunching sound.

They pushed the door open together and stepped into the freezing interrogation room.

Aiden looked even worse up close than he did being dragged through the dirt road earlier.

His torn clothes were completely soaked in dried blood, and his face was covered in deep purple bruises that looked incredibly painful.

He was completely unconscious, his chest rising and falling in very shallow, ragged breaths that sounded terrible in the quiet room.

’They really put this poor guy through absolute hell just to see if he would survive the portal jump,’ Julien thought to himself, stepping right up to the side of the heavy iron table.

"Is he dead?" Kyle asked gruffly, leaning over the table to inspect the severe damage on the guy’s arms.

"No, his Rapid Regeneration skill is probably just keeping him in a deep coma so his body can focus entirely on fixing the worst internal injuries first," Maya explained softly, carefully checking the thick chains holding his wrists down to see if she could pick the locks.

"We need to wake him up right now so he can actually walk out of here with us because Kyle cannot carry him quietly past those sleeping guards."

Julien opened his system inventory again and quickly pulled out a small glass vial filled with a glowing green liquid.

It was just a low-tier healing potion, the same cheap kind he sold to the desperate scavengers out in his market stall.

It would definitely not fix his broken bones, but it would give his system enough of a magical kickstart to wake his brain up from the healing coma.

"Alright, let us get him moving so we can get out of here," Julien said, popping the cork out of the small glass vial.

He carefully tipped Aiden’s head back and poured the liquid straight into his mouth, forcing the unconscious guy to swallow the bitter medicine before it spilt everywhere.

For a few very tense seconds, absolutely nothing happened.

Then Aiden’s eyes snapped open wide, his pupils blown out in absolute terror as his brain registered the unfamiliar faces leaning over his vulnerable body.

Before Julien could even take a step back or say a single comforting word to explain the rescue mission, Aiden reacted entirely on pure survival instinct.

The guy ripped his right arm forward with insane strength, totally ignoring the iron chain that was supposed to keep him secured to the table.

Aiden curled his bloody hand into a tight fist and punched Julien square in the jaw with everything he had left in his system.