by Ryan King
Chapter 19 – Total Destruction
David led his ragged platoon of bloody and wounded survivors into the depths of the locks, closing and securing any doors they came through. He weaved in and out of several corridors, but he wasn’t looking for an escape, defensive position, or even a place to hide. He had previously come into the lock to scout those things out while his men had prepared defensive positions above. He had seen something else that caught his attention.
“Emergency Manual Lock Controls – South” said, the bright yellow stenciled lettering on the grey metal door. He had seen a similarly marked room for the north lock doors at the other end of the facility, but the north doors were already open, unlike those on the south. David was fascinated by these sets of gates which allowed ships to transit from different water levels between the lakes and the river.
They all crowded around the marked door and stared at the padlock, but David had already grabbed a heavy metal pry bar from the tool room they passed a few minutes before. He slid the narrow end of the bar into the lock hasp and pried with his whole body behind the effort. There was a moment of resistance and then the lock broke apart so suddenly that David nearly fell backwards. He flung the door open and ushered everyone inside, and closed the door behind them.
The room was much larger than David expected. It was also just as pitch black dark as it was out in the hallways. Their flashlights went every which way, casting menacing shadows in all directions. He grabbed one of the lights and began examining the controls at the other end of the room. David saw several levers and switches and two large crank flywheels, one larger than the other. There were several metal sheets attached to the wall with directions on how to open the locks manually along with a list as long as his arm on reasons it was not a good idea to do so.
There were fastened security clamps on both flywheels and on the main lever. David easily popped these off. He read the dusty directions again in the dim light and pushed the main lever upward. He walked over to the smaller of the flywheels, which was about two feet in diameter, and tried to turn the wheel, but it was stuck. He hit it several times with the pry bar while one of the other men held the light. He could hear them mumbling and asking among themselves what he was doing, but he ignored them. Time was critical. David dropped the pry bar and tried again. This time the wheel moved grudgingly at first and then gradually became easier until the wheel spun in his hands. David turned the wheel as far as it would go, releasing the locking bolts and the immense counterweights deep in the bowels of the facility.
Then he turned to the larger wheel, which was nearly five feet in diameter. This was the wheel, connected to numerous other flywheels, that actually cranked open the outside lock doors. David grabbed the wheel and began to pull downwards. It didn’t budge. He tried the other direction and got the same result. He cursed in frustration imagining what was going on above them and yelled for his men to come help.
About a dozen men gathered around the wheel and began to pull downward, to no avail, when one noticed an arrow carved on the wall indicating they were trying to turn the wheel in the wrong direction. They reversed course and tried again. Again nothing initially happened, but then the wheel began to slowly inch clockwise with a loud grinding and clanking noise deep in the depths of the facility. They moved the wheel painfully, and unlike the first wheel, there never seemed to be a point where the wheel overcame its initial inertia. To move this wheel they fought for every painful inch. They kept at the wheel for possibly five minutes before it would turn no further. Then they all collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.
David hoped it was enough and that it was the right thing to do. Joshua and his father were always the thinkers and knew what actions to take; he was the one who did it. He hoped it was the right thing this time. David would simply have to wait and see.
"We'll sit tight for here now," David told them, "and take care of our wounded. Let's also keep a couple of guards posted outside that door."
His soldiers did as he bid them. Some just slid to the floor to sit silently in the cool stillness.
David waited possibly two minutes before he couldn’t stand it any longer and decided he had to go see what was happening. He put his senior soldier in charge and told them to stay put for now, he would only be gone a minute. David checked his rifle to make sure a round was chambered and then he stepped out into the darkness of the hallway.