2 Minutes to Midnight

by Steve Lang

  blue skies

  Subterranean inhabitants of earth wait for the great unlocking of their door. An uncertain future lay’s ahead, but a brave new world is upon them…It was time.

  History class was about to begin as twenty-five twelfth grade students filtered into the room and took their seats. Today would be their last in this classroom if all went as projected by the Ministry of Knowledge, and humanity would be free once again to explore the world above ground. Ms. Cheryl Purnam stood before them as the last child, Tom Padilla, took his chair.

  “Good morning, class. We haven’t talked much about the years leading up to how and why we came to live underground. For many of us, the topic is too uncomfortable, but today is an historic event, and it will be remembered for generations. We can finally return to the light.” She paced before the black board. “Three hundred and seventy-five years ago, the elaborate tunnel system, our home for the last three hundred years, was constructed by our ancestors for refuge against a coming storm. This tunnel system, as you all may know, networks across the entire continent.” She drew a crude map of the continent mentioned on her board, and lines crossing each other like an elaborate river system.

  “What happened to drive us down here though? No one’s ever explained it. Not even my parents; they just tell us you’ll find out when you’re older. Was it space aliens, or monsters from the sea? Because that’s what we figure it was…something big and fast that caused some kind of mass destruction.” Sheila Cromwell said.

  “No, it wasn’t aliens from outer space or monsters from the sea. From the history handed down to us from previous generations there seems to have been a global war, brought on by famine, pestilence, and poor environmental conditions worldwide.”

  “I’ve seen some of their movies, the action films, and they always seem to be launching a nuclear bomb at one another. What did we do, blow ourselves up?” Simone Treyel asked.

  “No, but at first, the food supply began to run low, store shelves would empty and not be restocked for days, and then the price of food skyrocketed so that only the wealthy could afford to buy from what were called grocery stores. Those who could not afford to buy food farmed or looted properties with stored food. The food storage people were called preppers, and they were killed first for their supplies. That was before the riots began.”

  “That sounds like a nightmare. I’d choose the tunnels, too.” Tim Fisk said.

  I agree, not a great place to be stuck in the middle of, for sure. It was a preventable side effect of geopolitical quarreling, and from what we are able to determine, humanity could have turned the tide by working toward increased cooperation with each other.”

  “So, what was it that brought us all the way down here? Why are we living in tunnels?” Fred Talbert asked.

  “The final straw was when the power stations failed and began to leak radiation and then, the power grid collapsed leaving everyone in the dark. After that it became dangerous to travel at night, or be above ground in the homes. Raiders would come to steal and kill while people slept.”

  “So, why are we going back up there again?” Sheila asked.

  “Yeah, we’ve got everything we need right here. Our food grows just fine down here, we have endless power, and it’s safe because we don’t quarrel among ourselves.”

  “The answer is, and I know this is going to sound trite, but, it’s because it’s time.” Ms. Purnam smiled, and shrugged.

  Twenty minutes later she dismissed class so that everyone could get ready for the door opening. Secure from the outside by thick metal walls, and fed by self-maintained machines, the humans who had escaped the rioting and wars above ground had survived for hundreds of years without ever needing to go outside. Extensive food production laboratories and farms with artificial environments had been programmed to reproduce chickens, cows, pigs, and ducks for consumption, all without human intervention. Refuse was recycled for use as fertilizer in the subterranean microcosm, and nothing went to waste. A central brain computer in the maximum security data center, powered by magnetic field energy generators, controlled all technology.

  After three hundred years, today was the day the door was scheduled to open. Sandra and Tom had been waiting eagerly for this day their entire life, and now it was finally here. In thirty minutes the ancient lock would slide back and let them all out. Fear had been spreading through some of the colonies for weeks regarding what lay beyond their underground fortress. Was the air still poisoned? Would the wars still be raging this far into the future? Were viruses in the water? Sandra and Tom paid no attention and waited patiently for their time in the sun.

  “It’s almost time!” Sandra smiled. Tom smiled back, his heart racing.

  Sandra was a pretty girl who stood seven feet tall, with long, red, wavy hair, and soft alabaster skin. Tom thought she was the most beautiful person he had ever met, and the two had been instant friends as toddlers. As he looked at her he imagined her embrace, the strength of her love when she held him, and each time it was like coming home. Tom was also tall, almost gangly at seven feet five inches, with blond hair, and a masculine presence even at seventeen. Tom was beginning to grow a full beard, and Sandra found she liked it, so it stayed. He cared for Sandra, and she knew that, and could feel it in his touch. As Sandra looked at him, so close to freedom from the tunnels, she felt like the two of them were like electricity, and could handle whatever this new world had to throw at them.

  “The first time anyone has been beyond this mountain in… so long,” replied Tom.

  “What do you think is out there? Paradise?” She asked.

  “Whatever it is, I’m ready for it. Thirty seconds, and we’ll know.”

  A loud groaning rang out through the tunnels as the three hundred year timer reached zero, and the gears began to turn once more. Masses of uncertain people huddled together, following the sound as the fifty feet tall six feet thick, concrete reinforced steel door began to slide inward.

  “Here we go!” Sandra yelled.

  The two led a pack of people just as excited through a long cave to blinding light beyond. Artificial daylight in the colonies had not prepared them for the eventual return to terra, and it would take some time before their eyes adjusted. A forest of fragrant pine trees greeted them at the exit, bearing an aroma so refreshing that they stopped in their tracks. When some time had passed Sandra and Tom realized they were sitting atop a mountain. Down below them were the remains of cities in the distance long ago abandoned, and reclaimed by forest.

  “Tom, it’s just like they said it would be, and the air smells sweet, like sugar!” Sandra said.

  The rock outcropping on which they stood overlooked a forest of pine, spruce, and cedar trees that extended into the ruined city to their north. A squawking flock of pterodactyls buzzed by them, looked their way for a moment, circled overhead once, and then continued flying east.

  “What do you want to do? This light hurts my eyes.” Sandra said.

  “I think we need to go explore those ruins down there.” Tom replied.

  “That could be dangerous, maybe I should ask my parents. Maybe they should come along.”

  As if hearing Sandra’s doubt about what lay ahead, Shem and Talliya, her father and mother, emerged from the cave, shielding their eyes from the bright sunlight. Shem was a burly figure with a muscular frame and a long beard, and wore blue jeans, and a flannel shirt. Many ages from now, had he been able to see a picture, Shem would have thought he bore a striking resemblance to the Brawny paper towels man. Talliya, dressed in jeans, leather boots, and a beautiful shirt made of sheepskin, winced at the sun and gave her daughter a hug.

  “We’re out! This is truly a miracle that we are able to see the outside world in our lifetime.” Talliya said.

  “It’s amazing to see real trees and animals.” Shem said. “Look at that thing!”

  A brontosaurus was snacking on tall trees in the forest below. He looked up at the strange figures emerging on the rocks above, and snorte
d before going back to his vegetarian delight. More people began to exit the cave, and walk down the slope, hands shielding their eyes as they grouped in packs. Most of them had some form of hunting tool in their hands, but after so long underground, with so few resources, what they carried were no more than long iron poles. Twenty-six thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ, humanity once again emerged from beneath the ground in what would much later be known as the American Southwest.

  “What is it?” Talliya asked.

  “I think it’s a brontosaurus. I remember learning about dinosaurs in Biology, but the fact that they still exist out here is amazing.” Shem replied.

  “Do you think there are any more people out there? Did they all kill each other?” Tom asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon.” Shem said.

  “Right now, all I care about is how blue the sky is. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?” Sandra said.

  Tom’s parents, Ben and Apsu, walked over to where they all stood. Tom turned and gave his mother a hug, and then Ben. Ben had strength to his presence that garnered respect from his contemporaries, and as such he was a decision maker on the council along with Shem and Talliya.

  “We’re out! Of course we can always return here to the underground cave system if we need to, but…” Ben began.

  “There’s no way I’m going back down there again after seeing all of this,” said Tom. “Dad, can we go check out those ruins to the north?”

  “What do you think Shem? I don’t have a problem with it as long as they’re safe. I’m going, too. This could be fun.”

  The brontosaurus moved on as the wave of people began to descend into the forest valley. Insects buzzed and whined by them, landing, biting, and generally harassing the new world inductees.

  “These bugs are everywhere!” Tom said. He was slapping squadrons of mosquitos on his arms. A small raptor scuttled by through the thick forest shrubbery.

  The branches, though high above the ground, were forehead height to the seven-foot tall people emerging from their tunnels, and they banged their heads on more than one. After hours of walking through the brush, and weeds, the explorers began to see stone walls half submerged in mud.

  “Did you see that?” Shem said. “Something just moved in the brush over there. It was small.”

  Everyone shrugged.

  “There’s bound to be all kinds of creatures out here that we know nothing about. Maybe even the people we descended from: the survivors.” Talliya said. Shem nodded.

  More of the city had become apparent as they passed by brick homes crawling with vines, their windows barren, staring out at the passersby like eyeless sockets, the glass long ago shattered and turned to dust. Wooden rooftops that had collapsed by neglect and disrepair were now homes for legions of termites the size of a human thumb.

  “These ruins are spooky.” Sandra said.

  “Do you think the city’s going to be any better?” Tom asked.

  “Who knows what we’ll find in there.” Apsu said.

  From out of the mud and overgrowth they saw a road leading off into the unknown. It was constructed of large stones that were, at one time, placed in a straight line about twenty feet wide.

  “This must have been one of the roads they used for vehicles. It’s pretty wide.” Ben said.

  They climbed over a massive fallen tree, and there was the city. Stone buildings had been abandoned and left for ruin, climbing vines, empty windows, and packs of animals running through the street, but it seemed to hold no people.

  “Let’s turn around and go back.” Ben said. “I don’t think we’ll find anything, and we have no weapons to defend ourselves from the roaming dinosaurs.

  As if the devil had been listening, they witnessed a tyrannosaurus four blocks away dash around the corner of a toppled skyscraper, its enormity leaning precariously into a building across the street. She was chasing a much smaller lizard. The dinosaur caught up to her prey, and as the humans watched in horror, she darted her large head down and caught the other in between powerful jaws. They all heard a victorious roar as the smaller screeched until the tyrannosaurus broke her back, and then she trotted around the corner of another tall ruin, meal in mouth, and vanished. They all turned to go back through the thick forest and stopped in their tracks. Behind and all around were two foot tall men and women holding spears, knives, and sling shots. These pygmy people stared at them in silence, and for a moment there seemed to be an unspoken tension between Shem’s people and the pygmy warriors.

  “What should we do?” Tom asked.

  “Well, they’re blocking our path back, and they have pointy weapons, so we probably wouldn’t get far if we began stomping on them to get through.” Ben said.

  “We can’t stand here forever.” Talliya said.

  The crowd parted and one of the pygmy men, dressed in a black robe, walked forward, on his head rested a bandana with diamonds in the shape of the planet Saturn. He furrowed his brow, and raised his hands.

  “I am Rohan, the shaman of our tribe, please come with me.” He said. The little man walked past them toward the ruined city. Shem turned to Ben, who shrugged and shook his head.

  “Where are you taking us?” Tom asked.

  He did not respond, but led them through city streets filled with the rusted hulks of cars in the street. After only three hundred years they had almost all disintegrated into their base metals, and were almost unrecognizable. Lampposts that had rusted through, slumped to the side, trees had grown thick and strong through building windows. The forest was reclaiming what had been taken from her so long ago. Ahead of them was a large building with polished granite steps that had been crumbling over the slow years. Rohan led them up and into the building. The doorway was perfect for the height of Shem and his people, with a foot of clearance.

  “There on the wall. This is what we want you to see.” Rohan said. He pointed to a painted mural.

  Although age and environmental factors had weathered the image, it was still quite clear to Ben and the rest that this was a mural of tall men emerging from a cave in the mountains.

  “You have returned to fulfill the prophecy.” Rohan said. When the humans turned around, Rohan and his people were bowing before the six adventurers. With their high technology, knowledge of the planet, and longevity as a species, Shem, Ben, Tom, Sandra, Talliya, and Apsu were indistinguishable from gods to the little people inhabiting their ruined cities. Humanity did rebuild, and society flourished unencumbered by bigotry and violence in the new era. It was a golden age of man, living in harmony with nature, as scientific and spiritual knowledge of the heavens grew. The next day, Sandra and Tom were sitting together on top of a derelict building watching clouds filled with cotton roll by, holding hands. A pteranadon flew by, diving to snatch a small

  dog off the street below, narrowly missing a collision with a passing triceratops.

  “What do you think will happen to us now?” Sandra asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I do know that I’ve fallen in love with you, Sandra, and I would not trade those beautiful blue skies up there for another day stuck in a tunnel.“Sandra took Tom’s hand in hers as the two of them sat silently for a while longer, watching clouds of cotton float by in a sea of blue above.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Steve Lang is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror author living in North Carolina with his wife and son.