A rather prosaic problem

Passing by the main gate of the partly destroyed fence that surrounded the building complex which made up the old “Wheelmart Distribution Center”, Druuna felt slightly nervous, as though something ominous might happen to them as they moved across the open ground. Picking up the pace so that they would quicker reached the cover of the buildings, the two women had soon reached the entrance to the nearest of the buildings, which was also the one which looked the most like a residential building, although on a much larger scale than what Druuna was used to. This building had plenty of broken windows, but none of them were located on the first floor, where the doors seemed to be the only possible point of entrance.

As it turned out, they were locked, and wouldn’t open no matter how many times Druuna yanked the handles. This might be a problem, Druuna thought.

“What do we do now?” Janette asked Druuna, her voice sounding unusually tense.

“Don’t worry,” Druuna told her lover, “we’ll figure something out.”

If she were to honest about it, Druuna didn’t feel as confident about it as she tried to sound like for Janette’s benefit.

The lock on the door didn’t look as though it was just an ordinary one, but appeared to be connected to a “code-box” mounted onto the wall right next to the door. Without the proper code, Druuna seriously doubted that they would manage to get through the door.

And that meant that they would have to try their luck with the other buildings, although Druuna suspected that they would be protected by an identical mechanism, or to try to find something with which they could climb up to the broken windows on the upper floors and get in that way. Hopefully, they might even find a key card inside which would allow them to enter the other buildings.

Just as Druuna thought of this, she happened to look up at one of the ruined old buildings which overlooked the cluster of buildings which she and Janette had entered. On top of the building, which looked to be dozens of stories high, a figure was standing. Due to the distance between them, Druuna couldn’t make out much of the figure’s features, but she did notice that it seemed to be raising a spearlike object into the air.

This didn’t seem good…