by John Lilley
‘Well we’ve almost done the full circuit now, you wait there, and we’ll continue until we meet you,’ said Julie.
After examining what was left of the rope, they decided to return to the vehicles for a rope ladder. None of their aluminium ladders would reach down the 12-metre drop, they were only meant to be used to climb up the sides of the vehicles. Ian was keen to get down and decided to abseil. He was skilled in this activity from his time spent at many cave sites back home. All geologists needed to get a closer look at cliff faces at some point. After anchoring his ropes to the nearest vehicle, he was soon bouncing down the wadi’s walls. Julie would have liked to be next but needed to get the survey equipment organised and ready for lowering down on the vehicle’s winch. So by the time she reached the floor of the wadi, there were already six of the team down there.
‘OK everyone, you know the drill, this area is of great scientific interest to us. Who knows how it came about and how we didn’t manage to spot it before, but let’s try not to damage it while we investigate,’ lectured Julie.
Ian and Julie decided to keep to the wadi’s walls and try to get to the “eyes” of the skull. The others had plenty to do just where they stood; there were more plants to catalogue per square metre than there were per square kilometre in the desert above.
‘I don’t understand how this thing was formed?’ said Ian. ‘It makes no sense, with a wadi you would expect an opening into a river valley at some point. It looks nothing like a meteor crater, and there is no evidence of a landslide or fault-line. The walls are just too steep and uniform; it’s as if it had all been blasted out.’
They worked their way through the low undergrowth across to the skull’s “eyes”. Each one was approximately 20 metres across, and their sides were sheer. From 10 metres away Ian noticed that there were uniform vertical ridges around their sides. The ridges on Ian’s brow also increased as he approached. By the time he could reach out and touch the walls he was even more confused.
‘Are you thinking what I am thinking?’ he asked Julie.
‘Concrete?’ came the reply.
‘Yes, but what on earth could it be doing out here?’
‘Some kind of altar?’
‘Well, if they are then it’s the strangest temple I’ve ever seen.’
They were both running their hands over the weathered man-made surface of the walls. Some brown staining from the internal reinforcing had begun to leach through in places.
‘I think that they were once underground. You can see where the wooden shuttering has left its mark. It must have rotted away once the walls were exposed?’ Ian explained.
They walked all the way around both structures looking for more unusual features but didn’t spot any. Ian took his link from its pouch and prepared to call the rest of the team for help. They were now in between the two “eyes”. As he raised the link to his eye-line, just before the screen illuminated, he could see the outline of the top of the “eye” behind him reflected on the small screen, but there was something else there too, something which looked like a face. He spun round, but there was nothing there. Then a stream of gravel began to fall from the top of the structure. There had been something or someone there.
‘Did you see that?’ he asked Julie.
‘No, but I heard the rock-fall, do you think there was some animal on top?’ she said.
‘What would anything but a bird be doing on top of these things? If it were after food then surely it would be down here in the vegetation, or up at the trucks?’
‘I guess so, what did it look like?’
‘A human,’ replied Ian.
‘Wow, we’d better get on top again. Call the team at the trucks and ask them if they can see anything on top of these stacks,’ said Julie.
Ian moved his attention back to his link, and within half an hour they had a small team on top of the main walls of the wadi alongside the stacks. They had nothing to report except for some small boulders on top. The wadi team had also joined them and were busy trying to scale the sides of the stack where Ian had seen the face. The climbing nails didn’t go in easily, and it was another hour before Ian, Julie and two other team members were stood on top of the stack. It was almost flat, and as far as they could see perfectly circular, the top of the other stack looked identical. Then one of the team found something.
‘Over here guys,’ he said as he crouched down and began to run his fingers along a crack in the ground next to one of the small boulders. ‘I think it’s a trapdoor,’ he said excitedly.
The small boulder appeared to be sitting directly on top of a square piece of earth. Closer examination showed that the boulder was securely fixed to the ground. It did move when considerable force was applied but would not roll away, suggesting some form of tether underneath it. The team members used the pick ends of their geologist hammers to scratch away at the surface of the square piece of earth. It was not long before the earth gave way and the hammers were scratching along a solid metal surface. An entrenching spade was brought to bear to clear the surface of the door. It was roughly 80 centimetres across and appeared to be made of non-ferrous alloy, probably aluminium. Its edges were flanged to hold the soil layer, an apparent attempt at concealment. The small boulder now rocked to and fro on its metal tether. Try as they could with the entrenching tool and the hammers they could not lever the door open.
‘We’ll need some big crow-bars and possibly a drill,’ said Julie into her link.
Two of the party down in the wadi had succeeded in climbing the other stack and soon confirmed that there was no similar door on the top of it.
The door still refused to budge beneath the force of the crow-bars.
‘It must be locked from within,’ suggested Ian.
‘Perhaps you could blow it open?’ said one of the crew.
‘Would there be anything left?’ asked the other sarcastically.
‘You’re so funny,’ said Ian. ‘Let’s try the drill to test the metal. Then I think we’ll burn our way in with the thermic lance.’
‘I don’t know, you boys and your toys,’ said Julie. ‘Why don’t we just try knocking first?’
To stunned silence, she walked forwards and rapped three times on the door with one of the hammers. Then after a few seconds wait she did it again. They waited a good two minutes in silence. Ian had just started to say ‘Well, I think it’s the lance..,’ when from deep within there came a faint but definite “tap, tap, tap”. Julie repeated the three taps on the door, to be almost instantly rewarded with three taps from within.
‘I think we wait now,’ she said.
Two minutes later there were three more subsurface taps. They waited a further five minutes, and Julie tapped again. Silence, then some different noises came from below, and the door began to vibrate slightly causing the remaining grains of soil to form into clumps on its surface. Then with a loud clang which made everyone jump, the door sprung open five centimetres along one edge, and they could hear someone coming up a metal ladder from within. The steps got gradually louder; the ladder must have been quite extensive. Then the steps stopped, and slowly the hatch was pushed fully open. There before them, nervously hanging onto the ladder was a small man with long silver hair and beard.
‘Hello,’ he said.
Everyone twitched with shock.
‘Hello,’ said Ian, ‘Nice to meet you’.
‘Nice…..to…..meet….you,’ the old man mumbled. It was almost as if he were playing back the words to extract their meeting. Then something seemed to register, and he smiled.
Julie offered her hand towards him. He looked confused at first but shook hands and then began to climb out of the shaft. Although he appeared small when in the shaft, he was actually quite tall but skinny. His clothes consisted of a pair of military style overalls and a pair of work boots. He advanced towards Ian and shook his hand, but then he began to cry. They all moved forward to steady him. Julie offered him a handkerchief while he leant against Ian’s shoulder.<
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‘There, there dear,’ said Julie. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of.’
‘I thought that I would never see another human again,’ said the old man.
‘Well, we’re here now. My name is Julie, and this is Ian, Kevin and Carl. We have come from Britain, and we’re part of an expedition in search of water,’ said Julie, but then thought that she was overloading him.
‘My name is Ivan,’ said the old man, ‘and you have come to the right place for water.’
Ian could feel him suddenly getting a lot heavier and grabbed him just in time as Ivan passed out and collapsed. They laid him down and propped his head on a rucksack. Kevin produced his canteen and dribbled some water across the old guy’s lips. It seemed to do the trick as Ivan came around.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but I’ve been on my own here for over 30 years now, ever since my mother died. Today has all been too much for me. I think you might understand that?’
‘Of course, we do,’ said Julie. ‘Let’s get you back to the trucks where we can sit in the shade. Would you like that Ivan?’
‘Trucks? You mean large wheeled vehicles? Wow, I thought that had all gone a long time ago. We can go now, follow me,’ Ivan said, then he jumped up walked to the edge of the tower and stepped over the edge backwards, he was gone in two swift movements.
‘Come on,’ his voice came from below. ‘The first step is just over the edge, and the others are offset to the right as you go down,’
‘Blimey,’ said Ian as he looked at his smiling colleagues.
Carl approached the edge where Ivan had disappeared and looked down, then stepped backwards and down.
‘It’s just as he said,’ his voice came from below. ‘I don’t know how we didn’t spot these before; there are even hand-holds.’
Ivan also had another set of steps which he used to take them all up to the edge of the wadi. Within five minutes they were walking back to the trucks. It was quite difficult to keep up with Ivan; his wiry frame seemed to possess boundless energy. He could see the vehicles in the distance and was wasting no time in getting to them. The other teams were all converging back at the trucks as fast as they could. When Ivan reached the camp, he immediately went up to the nearest vehicle and ran his hand over its bodywork and front tyre.
‘Six wheel drive?’ he asked.
Some of the crew nodded.
‘Fossil fuel?’
‘Hydrogen,’ one of the crew proffered.
‘May I sit in the cab?’ Ivan asked excitedly.
‘Of course you can,’ said Ian. ‘Pete, show our guest around the cab and make sure he sits in the driver’s seat.’
Ivan climbed in after Pete, tears once more streaming down his cheeks.
‘OK team, our guest is called Ivan, and he has been on his own here for 30 years. Let’s make him feel at home, put the kettle on,’ said Julie.
Ivan sat with the survey crew until the early hours, making up for his many years of isolation. He was the only son of a couple who had lived at the site which was part of a military research complex that had been almost entirely destroyed as the area was overrun by migrants. The final explosions were so severe that the migrants had left the area. However, underground, several people did survive. Some remained to make a life there while the rest walked north in search of salvation.
Ivan was the last descendant of the original survivors who had stayed. The underground facility, in which he’d lived his whole life, was quite extensive and equipped with a power supply which ran off underground streams, the very streams which the Survey team were looking for. As supplies ran out, the engineers and scientists developed the land within the crater left from the final explosion. They supplemented this with extensive underground hydroponic farms. Ivan’s parents were the second generation of the original survivors. Ivan had spent his time watching old films and educating himself from the facility’s extensive electronic library. They’d made plans to leave the area shortly after the last people left, but Peter, Ivan’s father suffered a severe break to his leg after a fall, and the trip was put on hold. Since his parents died Ivan had made a couple of attempts to reach the mountains, but both times he had to turn back. The first time he had not prepared well enough and underestimated the stress it put on his body. The second attempt was only slightly more successful. He managed 70 km and was nearing the point of no return when he came across the remains of one of the previous groups who had left the facility a few years earlier. In the last few years he’d become resigned to finishing his days at the facility. He’d seen almost all of the film archive now, so most of his time was spent tending the hydroponic farms and making short trips into the surrounding landscape for the occasional item of bush-tucker. In the last 10 years, he’d noticed a gradual increase in humidity in the area and slightly more vegetation around. Some weeks ago he’d been sitting outside on a clear night and had spotted the high altitude survey drone as it scanned the area. There followed many days of feverish activity as Ivan plumbed the depths of the facility archive for information on what the flying craft could be. The only binoculars he had were not powerful enough to show any more detail than the plane’s enormous wingspan. He was recovering from that all-night vigil when the Reforestation Team had come knocking on his door. Any other day and he would have spotted them approaching. He had to admit that he did suffer a massive crisis of confidence when he initially peered down on the team from the top of the entrance stack.
Although Julie and Ian were keen to explore Ivan’s underground home immediately, they realised that it had already been a long day for everyone. Breakfast was late the next day, everyone needed a bit of a lie-in after staying up so late. Julie put in a call to base. The signal was weak since the drone was many miles away on the edge of their current horizon. Her first message was brief: ‘Found underground military complex, one survivor. Advise.’
By the time she was half way through her porridge and tea a message came in:
“Julie, great news. Help is on its way. Please stay where you are and be careful with what you might find. Regards Mother.”
‘Blimey. Mother,’ shrieked Ian when Julie showed him the text.
‘That’s what I thought,’ said Julie. ‘I know that she does have an interest in this type of industrial archaeology, but I’d not realised how keen it was.’
‘Well, it’s going to take quite some time for them to get out here. We can have a good look around the place first,’ said Ian.
Ivan had now surfaced and was tucking into a “Spam” and mushroom omelette.
‘Well, our government has shown a keen interest in your humble abode. They’re sending some people over to have a look,’ Julie told him.
‘No problem,’ he said, then after a short pause. ‘Julie, I’ve not asked you this yet, but are you going take me away from this place?’
‘Well, I had assumed that you would want to leave here. Do you?’ said Julie.
‘Of course, but I thought I should ask,’ he said.
‘Well, I’m sure we can fit you into the team Ivan, but perhaps Mother has other plans for you?’
‘Mother?’ queried Ivan.
‘Oh, it’s just the common term we have for our Government, nothing to worry about,’ said Julie.
Breakfast was coming to an end, and everyone was getting ready for their underground adventure. The whole team made its way across the wadi to the two stacks. Ian, Julie, Ivan and two other team members made their way up the side of the stack. Ivan moved the boulder and lifted the entrance hatch. He’d just got his foot on the top rung of the ladder when there was a faint bang in the sky from high above.
‘Thunder?’ said Julie.
‘Oh come on now, where are the bloody clouds?’ replied Ian.
They all looked up into the crystal-clear blue sky. High above a tiny black dot was moving towards them. The boom came again, but the dot seemed to be slowing. Vapour trails appeared as the black dot slowed and turned. Then with another boom it accelerated, heading
to where it had come from. Ian had also managed to get his link to focus on the object.
‘Tin-Men,’ he said.
‘Where?’ said Paul in a panic.
‘They’re on their way down,’ said Ian, struggling to keep his link in focus on the two falling objects.
‘I see them,’ said Julie, who had managed to get her link to track one of the falling objects.
‘How do you know they’re Tin men?’ asked Paul.
‘Well, how many people do you know that can jump out of a plane travelling at near supersonic speed at an altitude of 16 km?’ responded Ian.
‘How do you know they are people? Perhaps it’s just some supplies?’ said Paul.
‘Definitely people-shaped,’ said Julie. ‘Look.’ she handed her link to Paul.
He pressed the reconnect tracking key and pointed the device skywards. The lead “Tin Man” came sharply into focus.
‘Why the bloody hell, are they always black?’ exclaimed Paul, who like most British was of mixed race.
‘It’s a thing left-over from the Border Patrol days and the African invasion. Mother felt that they would be more useful in picking up bad-tags if they looked like them. Since then I don’t know why they kept the same colour. It really is just too black these days,’ said Ian.
‘You’re right, I’ve never thought about it like that until you said.’ chirped up Russell, who also had the Tin Men on his link’s screen. ‘It’s almost like a uniform, well that and the size of them. I have to admit that I do find them most intimidating.’
‘Don’t we all, but better keep your feelings to yourself, they’ll probably be able to hear us soon, not to mention what’s going through your link and back out to them,’ said Ian.
It took the agents less than three minutes to fall to within a few hundred metres height, with still no sign of chutes.
‘Surely they are not just going to just pile into the ground? I know they’re super-human, but that would be over the top,’ said Russell.
Just as he said it two small chutes opened with a pop audible from the ground. The agents were still travelling much too fast. They both hit the ground on the edge of the wadi within a second of each other and still falling at 50 kph. Everyone winced at the expected impact. If they’d both been large square boxes, then this would not have been the reaction, but they were human-shaped. They landed with a muted thud, their knees bending slightly to absorb the impact, but even so, they still kicked up a small cloud of dust. Immediately they began to unstrap their chutes and reel them in.