It was an elderly man. His skin was sickly pale, and his hair was fastened in a long gray ponytail. His light blue shirt was stained and torn in several places, and there were holes in his pants at the knees. He stared at her for a second and then ran for the door.

“Stop!” RJ called as loudly as she could, but her voice came out as little more than a hoarse whisper. She got to her feet and attempted to run, but her balance and coordination weren't up to the task, and she landed face first on the floor.

She scrambled to her feet and went out into the corridor as quickly as she could. She surveyed the length of the hall, but there was no one there.

She hurried back to the computer terminal, punching in instructions to have the system seal and lock all doors within the facility. It meant all doors were now set to open to her hand access only and she also shut off all the lights except those in the command center.

She watched the system readouts carefully. A minute later, it revealed that someone had turned on the lights in the main corridor on the engineering level.

Now she knew where he was. She confirmed all the doors were secured on that level; whoever he was, he was trapped in the hall.

She sat back, confused and nervous. If this man had gotten into the facility, could there be others inside as well?

RJ struggled to her feet and went into her office. She opened the bottom desk drawer and took out the 9mm Beretta semi-automatic pistol she kept there. There was one round in the chamber, and she quickly grabbed the empty magazine from the same drawer and carefully loaded it. All weapons were stored with the magazines empty. Over time, the spring in the magazines will weaken if continually compressed Therefore they could fail to effectively push the rounds up into the chamber, causing the gun to jam.

This was one of the leading causes of a misfire so the emptying of all magazines was the standard procedure for weapon storage before the sleep.

She made sure the safety was on before placing the gun in the large leg pocket on her jumpsuit. She briefly considered going to her quarters for the shoulder holster but decided against it.

When she'd woken up, she'd assumed it was because the computers had determined the radiation levels outside had been safe for the required three-month period. She hadn't even considered the possibility that she might have been awakened for one of the four other possible reasons, one of which was intruder detection.