We entered the factory through the main gate. The first room was a hallway, with a high ceiling, reaching almost the factory roof.
They immediately led us to the back end of the hallway. There were two doors on either side of us. They first opened the right door; a rest room, with many beds that looked oddly comfortable.
"Why is the rest room, all the way back here?" I asked. Most people were used to putting it somewhere in the middle, having bathroom, toilet and storage at the back.
"If the mutants entered from the front gate, they'd have to travel the entire hallway before getting here. Gives us some time to prepare." Talor explained.
" Hmm... That's pretty clever." I said.
The room opposite to it was another rest room.
Then we went backwards looking through each room.
We saw dining room on the right and kitchen on the left next.
Then there was a forge on the left, and on the other side, was a massive armoury, the largest room we'd seen so far.
The room was filled with weapons, ranging from swords, battle axes and spears to assault rifles, sniper rifles even heavy machine guns. There were bombs of all kinds, armours ranging from Plate armour to modern Kevlar.
Many of the weapons were either hand made or customized. What drew my eyes the most, was an odd bomb, with a leafy exterior. I had never seen anything like that in all my years in the military.
I picked one of the leafy bombs, turning it in my hands. "What are these?" I asked.
"Those? They are made of the skin of an orange-leaved tree, mixed with the leaves of red-leaved tree." Carl said. "They make quite the explosive, just pull the middle leaf and throw it hard enough, and it'll explode."
That made me think back to the forest. I'd never paid attention to how colourful the canopy was. The idea each kind of tree had its own properties, let alone making bomb by mixing some of them; never crossed my mind.
"Those leaves have explosive properties?" I asked.
"Not on their own, but when mixed with the bark as I mentioned, yes." Carl answered.
Afterwards we looked at the two rooms closest to the main gate.
On the right side was a farm. It was lit by solar LEDs. It mimics sunlight making it possible to let crops grow indoors.
on the other side was a garage. 7 trailer trucks were parked there, with customized trailers.
The trailers had 5 sections.
The first section was a bathroom and toilet. The waste from here was collected and stored in containers on either side. It produced biogas for the truck, and fertilizer for the next section.
The next section was a farm like the one from the other room, but smaller.
The next section was a water purification and storage area with a tunnel to go through. It directly connected to the toilet and bathroom, and even had a faucet here.
Next we looked at a rest section, it was small but comfortable, with 3 beds.
The final section was an armoury. It had all the weapons I saw from before, it was much smaller however. On its roof there was a mini-gun attached to it.
The trailer and its truck were also highly customized from the outside. The walls were made thicker making it hard to penetrate. The engine was customized to increase acceleration and top speed.
After we finished checking one of the trailer trucks, I asked, "How did you even build all this in just 3 years?"
"We had worker robots helping us. This is a factory, after all. Though we dismantled them later for spare parts." Carl explained.
"What's next?" I asked.
"There are more floors." The two said in unison, before leading us to the stairs in the corner.
After a long time climbing stairs we reached the second floor. A large almost empty room. Windows lined all four directions, each mounted with a mini gun, that could rotate about 45 degrees in all directions.
As we entered the room, Angel ran around the room, before stopping at the centre. "So big!"
Looking at her, I couldn't help but smile, "We can probably play here if you'd like."
She nodded as she walked back, her face almost looking bright in happiness. "We should."
The other two chuckled.
"It should be safe to play here." Carl said.
Talor spoke over him, "You really should play with her sometimes."
After a short climb through another set of stairs at the other corner, we got a almost pitch black room.
"Watch your steps, there are wires everywhere." Talor warned.
I held Angel's hand as we walked. The walls appeared to be made of wires. The floors weren't much better, each step brushed against wires.
As the three of us followed Talor, Angel almost tripped 3 times. I finally picked her up carrying her the rest of the way. Eventually we could see light seeping through the corners of a door on the far end of this hallway of wires.
Inside it was a symphony of colors and humming of computers. The sudden light made it impossible to see until a minute had passed.
The computers showed different live CCTV footage. Some had multiple crosshairs, I assumed those were for targeting artillery.
After giving us a minute, Talor explained, "The barricades are lined with miniguns. They can fire automatically, but if needed, I can control them from here."
"How do you have all this?" I asked.
"All what?" They asked, both looking confused.
"All of this, automated defence system, the weapons and even access to robots from a factory like this. I barely knew any one with one of those, let alone all three... Unless they were affiliated with the military."
Talor nodded, "Ahh... I see what you mean. We had a friend; a researcher. He gave us access to most of this. For a while after the bombs fell we stayed with him, in his lab. But when the radiation there increased, he asked us to leave and find somewhere safer."
"Hmm... What about him?" I asked.
"He didn't leave. He wanted to preserve his lab as long as he could... We don't know what happened to him after we left." They said, their voices low and sombre.
"Hmm... I see." I muttered.
They shook their head before Talor continued, "Have you had breakfast yet? We should eat first. I can explain what we know about the mutants while we do."
We headed back, and I carried Angel through the dark room again.