by C A Bird
Arby had followed Jaime but ended up in a different tunnel, losing his way. Eventually, following the spoor and noise of his fellow creatures he returned to the tunnel Jaime had taken. As they progressed, the smell of blood wafted to his nostrils. Excited, his stomach lurching, he hurried through the blackness, until he reached the remains of Jaime’s kill. He and the others, still famished after sharing the hapless creature aboveground, fell upon the partially eaten body, ripping it to pieces and consuming it.
Arby’s red eyes, which could see in almost absolute darkness, noticed dim illumination coming from around the bend ahead. He and the others crept through the tunnel emerging into the barely lighted room. Arby crossed to the front of the cave, his head held high, sniffing the air. He concluded Jaime came this way but their passage was blocked. Frustrated, he commenced throwing boxes around the room, bouncing them against the corridor walls, delighting in the sound of delicate electronic equipment shattering to pieces.
May 6, 6:20 p.m.
“Hey, Mark, take a look at this.” Micah tapped on one of the indicators. “This is weird. It’s blinking red and green, red and green, like the door’s opening and closing.” As soon as Mark glanced at the board it quit blinking and remained green.
“Ok, I guess I’m seeing things. It appears to be alright now.” Micah went back to munching his reconstituted beef stew dinner.
Mark continued to examine the readouts. New tremors were occurring with greater frequency. The radioactivity outside had diminished rapidly as the effects of the red mercury had dissipated, whatever radiation remaining, resulting from the thermonuclear explosions themselves and that too was very low. The sensors indicated lingering radiation surrounding them but considerably less in the western valley.
“Uh, Mark, I hate to bug you again but you need to see this.”
Mark looked where Micah indicated. Although, on the outside, the radiation had been dropping steadily, the sensors now picked up low levels in certain dragon caves. “It’s funny, there’s some radiation in the cave where the door malfunctioned.” Micah said. “It’s not a huge amount but there shouldn’t be any radiation in that area.
Mark went to the intercom and called Will’s room.
“Will, we need you in the Crow’s Nest. There’s something else you need to see.”
“I’m on my way.” Will said.
Will arrived within minutes. He checked the readings on the screens. “The tremors we’ve been experiencing may have created cracks around the barriers that close off the Dragon Caves from the outside.” Will told them. “Several of the tunnels leading to the outside were utilized to bring in supplies since it was closer than using the main elevator and trying to bring them through the shelter. This was especially true of those leading to the rear caves.”
Micah interrupted him. “Hey Boss, I’m getting a radiation warning in the power plant now. It’s barely detectable. Do you think these sensors are failing?”
“No. If there’s a leak to the outside it could be affecting much of the lower level since so many of the caves are interconnected. We need to have someone, protected by an environmental suit, of course, go check . . .”
“… in. Please answer me!” The radio crackled to life, the signal fighting its way through screeching static.
Micah leaped to the controls, isolating the signal and flipping the toggle to allow him to reply. “Hello. We hear you! Keep broadcasting!”
Mark rushed to the computer, turning on the recorder and attempting to isolate the frequency of the broadcast, jubilant at the prospect of contact with others.
“Who are you, where are you located?” Micah responded.
More ear-piercing static emitted from the speakers, “. . . AD . . . vernment faci. . . . ado” the signal continued, extremely broken up and hard to understand, although Mark was filtering the signal, attempting to cancel the interference. “I hear you. Where are...“ Frustrated Mark hit the console with his fist, “Damn, I can’t get it any better.”
“Keep trying, I think it’s improving!” Will encouraged him.
“ . . . trying to contact ... months. Where are you located?”
“This is Will Hargrave’s shelter in New Mexico.” Micah replied and listened for an indication the message had been received.
“Thank God. . . . ment was damaged. . . . cently repaired. How . . . ” Screeching static interrupted the signal.
They waited in anticipation for several more minutes but were unable to pick up additional messages.
“It’s okay,” Will told them, “It sounded like he said they had recently repaired their equipment. I’m sure we’ll hear from him again.”
“At least we know we’re not alone.” Mark was grinning broadly. He had noticed that Will sounded happier than he had in months, perhaps at the prospect of contacting others.
“Micah, stay with the radio, I’ll get you some help. We want to monitor it continuously.” Will said walking to the intercom and patching it in for a general announcement. “Attention, all residents, this is Will Hargraves. Please meet in the auditorium in fifteen minutes for a general meeting.”
May 6, 7:00 p.m.
As usual, every time Will held a general meeting a large majority of the population was in attendance. Jerry Thompson searched the sea of faces looking for Rick, since the turkey had never showed up this afternoon to help him unload the supplies. He must have found some really interesting stuff and transported it to the electronics lab but Jerry still assumed Rick would have attended the meeting.
“Ladies and Gentlemen we’ve just received a message from the outside.” The absolute silence that followed the announcement surprised Mark until he realized the remnant was completely shocked. Then all hell broke loose, people jumped to their feet cheering, pounding each other on the back and shouting questions at Will.
He held up his hands for quiet. “The message was garbled and we lost the signal but they indicated their equipment had been damaged and only recently repaired. We know the frequency and will be monitoring it continuously.”
“Where’d it come from?” someone called from the audience.
“I believe it’s from the NORAD base in Colorado. If so, that’s a fairly large facility and holds a great number of personnel. We’ll let you know the minute we receive additional broadcasts,” he promised.
“Now, on a separate subject. As you know, we’ve been experiencing small earthquakes over the last couple of weeks. By examining data from the seismographs it appears the tremors have been increasing in intensity and have only recently become strong enough for us to feel. The shelter is built to withstand even a very large earthquake but the tunnels may be unsafe. We’ve moved most of the supplies from the storage areas into the shelter and I would caution each of you to stay out of the Dragon Caves until further notice. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and will keep you informed.”
This concerned Jerry and he stood, “Mr. Hargraves? I was working with Richard Krieg and he was supposed to help me unload supplies a while ago. He never showed up. You don’t think he was injured in an earthquake, do you?”
“Has anyone seen Richard this evening?” Will asked. No one spoke up.
“Where were you guys working?” Mark asked Jerry.
“The tunnel behind the reservoir.” Jerry said. Mark recalled the radiation leak in that tunnel. Maybe a cave-in had opened a gap to the outside air and trapped Rick.
Will went to the intercom and pushed the button for general announcements. “Richard Krieg, please report to the auditorium.”
“I need some volunteers for a search party,” Mark called out.
Almost everyone in the audience raised their hands. He chose several and motioned them to approach him.
“We’ve detected some very low level radiation coming from that same dragon cave,” he explained. “You and you,” he pointed to two men, “Get environmental suits from Glen and meet us by the reservoir.”
Will stayed behind to answer questions for t
he remnant while the search party went to look for Rick. Jerry explained to Mark about Rick staying behind to examine the boxes of equipment, as he, Mark and two others left the auditorium and started down the stairs. “How long ago did you leave him?” Mark asked.
“About an hour and a half ago. When he didn’t show up I just assumed he took stuff to the lab. Until he wasn’t at the meeting, that is.”
They arrived at the door to the reservoir cave and waited for the two men who went for suits. “What happens to our water supply if this cave collapses?” one of the others asked Mark.
“We have a small backup supply inside the shelter proper and there’s a second reservoir in a cave off the top floor. The water is pumped from this reservoir to the upper one so we get water pressure caused by gravity. We would have to clean out the reservoir cave and get the filtering equipment working. Will says they reinforced the caves containing the power plant and reservoir so they should be okay.” Mark said.
The two men, Matt and Warren, arrived looking like spacemen. Mark pushed the button and walked into the dimly lighted space.
“What’s that smell?” Matt asked. “Smells like something died.”
“It didn’t smell like this a while ago.” Jerry said.
Skirting the edge of the dark water they reached the far back of the cave where Mark, spotting something shiny on the uneven cavern floor stopped and knelt down. He noticed a dark substance pooled on the ground, stuck his finger in it and brought it to his nose. “Oh God, it smells like blood.”
“There’s more over here.” Jerry told him from next to the door.
Mark stood and looked around the immense cavern. “That’s a lot of blood. If it caved in on him he may have come through here and be hurt somewhere in the shelter. We should still check out the tunnel.” He addressed the men in the environmental suits.
“Guys, make sure he’s not in there. We’ll wait here and then start a general search throughout the shelter when you’re back.” Jerry hit the button opening the door.
“The light’s burned out, it’s darker than Hades in there,” Jerry said. The two suited men flicked on their helmet lights, went through and the door slid shut behind them.
They had been gone only a couple of minutes when something thunked against the door on the other side. It slid open and both men spilled out into the cave, one desperately trying to get his helmet off. Mark grabbed him, helping to unhook the fasteners that secured the helmet to the suit. The helmet was flung aside as the man spewed vomit in an arc, coughing and choking, the bile coating the inside of his helmet and dripping down the front of the suit. The other suited figure had gone to his knees.
“Christ! He’s in there all right! What’s left of him. It’s gotta be him. His body’s torn apart and most of him’s missing!” The man was wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “Every box in the place is torn apart, everything smashed. It’s a Goddamn mess!”
The man was starting to cry. “His head’s gone!”
“Hey, calm down.” Mark told him. He turned to the man with his helmet still on. “Let me have your suit, I’ll check it out.” The guy pulled off the helmet.
“No man, you don’t want to go in there. It smells horrible! There’s something in that cave, man, that’s fucking dangerous. I say we bolt the door so it can’t get out. Rick wasn’t hurt by no cave-in, something tore him to fucking pieces!”
“Okay... Alright, let’s get out of here.” Mark helped the man to his feet. All six men were glancing fearfully at the door and quickly made their way to the front entrance of the cave.
“What the hell?” Mark jumped back in horror. Rick’s head, lying on the cave’s floor next to the door they had entered through, stared up at them with milky eyes. Mark whirled around, glancing behind them, the others doing likewise, forming a circle with their backs together. Nothing moved in the inky shadows surrounding the reservoir. Mark shivered, remembering the wonderful moments he and Lori had spent in this cave before it turned deadly. Mark reached out and hit the button for the door and they all bolted from the cave.
A half dozen, wild-eyed, extremely frightened men sat in Will’s room trying to all talk at once. “Hold it!” Will yelled. “One at a time. Mark, what the hell happened down there?”
Even Mark was unnerved “We found Rick’s body in the tunnel, torn apart and . . . and his head was across the cave, by the door. Blood was everywhere!”
“How did his head get across the cave from his body?” Will asked trying to make some sense of their story.
The men all looked at each other for help with the explanation. “That’s a helluva good question.” Mark said softly.
They all sat in silence for a moment. “His body was in the tunnel but his head was by the door leading into the shelter.” Mark repeated. “Shit, that means something moved it from the tunnel into the reservoir cave. Oh my God! The warning lights were blinking in the crow’s nest a while ago like the door was opening and closing. Something may have gotten in!”
“It could have been in the cave with us when we were there!” said Matt. “Shit, it could even be in the shelter!”
“I don’t think so,” said Mark. “Remember the smell? We didn’t smell anything in the shelter. I’ll bet it’s the thing that smells.”
“Yeah, I bet it fucking is!” said Warren.
Will stood and went to the entertainment center.
“We’ll monitor the doors. Bob and Washington are with Micah and can help him keep an eye on things. You gentlemen get some sleep. It has to be a large animal that’s somehow broken in from the outside and we’re going to have to hunt it.”
“You sure it can’t be inside?” he asked Mark.
“No, we’d know it by now, it must be huge!” Mark said.
“Okay, I’ll announce Rick’s death in the morning. He has no family. No use upsetting everyone tonight. Tomorrow we’ll break out some weapons and start training people to use them, just in case.” He held up a key he had taken from the shelf.
May 6, 9:10 p.m.
The band of creatures left very little of Rick’s body in the back of the storage tunnel, but they were still hungry. The Arby creature was furious he had been unable to follow Jaime. Seeking another passage that would lead to more food they reentered the tunnels.
Jaime was trapped. Hiding beside the pumps and the unused filtering equipment, behind a mound of fallen rocks, he watched the strange appearing creatures who had just entered the cave, the spacesuits and the number of individuals keeping him from attacking. Once they left he circumnavigated the lake looking for a way out and becoming increasingly frustrated and angry.
Pacing from the front of the cave to the back, over and over, becoming more agitated with each journey, he wondered how the others managed to get out. He returned to the door he initially entered through, raising hairy, muscular arms over his head and banging until his arms ached, first growling and then roaring in frustration.
Still he was trapped. His red, too deep-set eyes swept the room, looking for escape. He ran to the front door, smashed it with his huge fists then, spotting the decapitated head, he kicked it furiously sending it rolling through the filtering equipment where it disappeared. Angrily, he followed it, peering behind the tanks and jumping as the pump suddenly came to life. He backed off and waited to see what it would do. Then, emboldened, he edged forward, crouched over and squeezed under and behind the equipment to the back wall, looking for the head. There he discovered a niche and thinking it may be another tunnel he crept within. It proved to be a short dead-end cave. Like a lair.
The meal and the hour combined to make him sleepy, and after convincing himself he couldn’t get through the tiny cave, he curled up and fell asleep, lulled by a rumbling sound on the other side of the wall.
May 7, 9:00 a.m.
At nine o’clock the next morning Mark rode the elevator to the Crow’s Nest alcove and was completely blown away when Will unlocked the cabinet door and swung it wide to reveal what lay
inside. Mark assumed there would be a few weapons in a cabinet, but instead an opening lead into a vault filled along one wall with every conceivable kind of gun, and hundreds of boxes of ammunition lining the other side.
“Good God, Will, this is unbelievable! What could you possibly imagine we would run up against?”
Will actually seemed embarrassed. “Guns have been a secret hobby of mine for years. I wanted to be prepared for every eventuality.”
“Well, it looks like you accomplished that goal. I’m not very knowledgeable about guns but after what happened to Rick, I’m certainly ready to learn.”
A hand cart occupied the far corner of the hidden room. Will loaded it with guns, placing ammunition on a shelf underneath and he and Mark transported the weapons to the multipurpose room. Lenny and David took possession of the arsenal and would begin immediate distribution and training. Mark and Will went to the Crow’s nest to see if they had received additional messages from the outside.
“Hi, bosses.” Micah was back on duty after Robert had pulled the graveyard shift. “We’ve been getting faint signals but they seem to be having trouble on their end. Nothing we do seems to clear it up. Hopefully they’ll get it fixed soon.”
“Are we able to get through to them?” Will asked him.
“Don’t know for sure but just try to shut me up. I’ve told ‘em who we are, how many of us there are, what we’ve been doing for eight months and I’ve asked them if they’ve heard from the rest of the world. No response. I’d sure like to know if we’ve become Chinese citizens!”
“How about activity in the reservoir cave?”
“I’ve been monitoring the alarms to tell us if any of the doors, anywhere in the shelter are opened. So far none has gone off. I hope the damned bear, or whatever it is, doesn’t have the faintest idea how to open a door.”