I walked down the stairs, feeling oddly giddy.
“Well, honey, what do you think?” I teased, glancing up at Clark. He chuckled.
“Looks like this is it,” he agreed.
“We should explore.”
“We should be careful,” he corrected. “The building is in rough condition. We can’t be sure that it’s entirely safe. Let’s go together.”
We explored, checking out every nook and cranny the building had. There were several areas where the walls had tumbled into a mess of chalky mortar and fallen bricks. The doors were mostly boarded up, but if we wanted to keep the building secure, there were measures that we would have to take. We knew we would have to secure windows and doors and be sure that it was some place we could hide, as well as a place we could defend if we created too much trouble—which we planned on doing.
The situation was almost comical with the way we were looking at the potential of the space. If we weren’t in an abandoned power plant thinking of breaking out human weapons from one of the most powerful organizations in the world, the conversation would befit a couple looking for their first home.
“There must be a basement,” I said when Clark opened a door to reveal a staircase leading down into a dark space.
Using our phones as flashlights, we descended the creaking stairs into the basement, which was filled with computers and control boards, as well as more offices.
“This looks even better,” he chuckled, walking around, shining the flashlight as I looked in another direction. “We could clear this space out and let people sleep. We would have a watch at the door…it seems to be the only way in and out…”
I walked along the back wall, looking at the massive room, too excited to worry about the dark or even the consequences of what I was doing.
A brush at my ankles, however, did cause me to gasp and jump.
“What?” Clark said quickly, turning his light toward me.
“I think…something just hit my ankles…” I said, shining my phone on the ground, looking for rats. Clark scanned the floor with me, but when we saw nothing scurrying around, I shined my light in the direction the feeling had come from. At the base of the wall was a large crack and I immediately grabbed Clark’s arm, pulling him back, worried that the floor was about to sink in.
“What?” he gasped, worried.
“I think the ground’s unstable,” I said, keeping my light focused on the crack. He turned his light as well and then slowly reached out with a foot, pushing on the ground. There was no sound.
Carefully testing the floor as he went, he walked to the large crack that separated the floor from the wall. The baseboard had rotted away, so only a few splintered pieces were left around the hole that Clark was motioning his hand in front of.
“It’s colder down here,” he hissed. He held his phone out to me, which I took and shined both lights on him as he carefully put his fingers into the gap.
“Please be careful…” I whispered.
Clark felt around the bottom of the wall, his fingers moving carefully. Suddenly, his hand stopped and he hesitated.
“What?”
“There’s…something metal…” He remained still, only his fingers moving over what he had found before there was a loud click and then the groan of rusted metal as the section of the wall slowly slid backward.
I watched in fascination as Clark quickly let go and stepped back. The wall stopped moving as soon as Clark backed away, leaving a three centimeter gap between it and the rest of the wall.
“Another secret passage?” I asked, looking at Clark, surprised. “Do you think the guy who gave us these notes knew about it?”
“He knew about the passage into the records room…” Clark reminded me. He pressed his hands on the hidden door and pushed, but the wall only gave away another two centimeters before stopping. “It’s stuck…” I stepped to the wall and shined my light into the gap, looking behind the door. As I moved my light over the space, I saw a small bar of iron, curved and descending into the dark.
“There’s a staircase…”
Clark pushed on the wall again and shook his head, shining his light down at the two tracks guiding the hidden door backward. He looked around.
“Lily, push it this way,” he said, coming up next to me and putting one hand around the side of the door. I followed suit and we pushed the door away, sliding it sideways with a loud screech on the rusted tracks.
“Well…that will have to be fixed…” I chuckled when we had moved the door out of the way.
Clark stepped in first, and I followed, my eyes and light locked on the railing of the staircase.
“This can be opened from the inside,” Clark said, his light showing the large handle on the back of the steel door. “What do you think they were hiding?”
“Let’s find out,” I told him, walking to the staircase.
“Wait, Lily,” he said quickly. “Let me go first, we don’t know how stable this is…”
He walked forward and gently placed a foot on the grate step, shifting his weight carefully before cautiously descending the iron spiral staircase, testing the strength of the hand rail.
“Wait until I get all the way down before you follow,” he told me as he started to disappear around the corner. I nervously waited, watching him disappear through the holes in the grate as I shined my light down. The ten seconds seemed like an eternity before I saw Clark’s light shine upward and his voice called to me.
“Okay, just come down slowly. There are two stairs that are bent down here, but they’re still stable.”
Holding onto my phone to light my way, I carefully descended the staircase, looking only at where my feet were stepping next, worried that the creaking steel would give way. I passed the two steps that were badly mangled, carefully placing my foot on the flattest area before continuing.
When I reached the bottom, Clark was waiting, his light illuminating the dark floor in front of me.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” I assured. I was excited and nervous and felt like my heart was going to come out my mouth. I looked around, shining the light, but it was swallowed by the oppressive darkness. “What the hell is this?”
“I don’t know,” Clark mused, also looking around, turning behind us to the wall near the staircase. “There’s a breaker box over there…” he said, leaving my side and stepping to the grey box on the wall. I watched, taking a few steps to follow. The air was dank and musky, making it difficult to breathe, but I was holding my breath anyway.
Clark opened the box, the screeching sound piercing the air like a knife. The large switches looked rusted, and as Clark reached forward, I panicked.
“Wait,” I gasped. “We don’t know if those are safe, or if they even work.”
“There’s only one way to find out.” He reached to the switch again and flicked the first one.
There was an instant hum and Clark retreated quickly, both of our lights sweeping the area as the hum was accompanied by a clicking sound and lights began to flicker.
Both of us looked up as bars of light blinked into life and illuminated the space in front of us.
“Holy shit…” we both barely managed to breathe.
In front of us was another railing surrounding the balcony on which we stood. In front of the balcony was a cavernous space with walls lined with steel, bolted with large studs that were still in surprisingly good condition considering the state of the power plant above. There was a large outlined door that looked bomb-proof and three doors along the back wall, as well as another five doors on the wall where a staircase connected the balcony to the main floor.
“What is this place?” I whispered.
Clark turned back to the breaker switches, looking over each one carefully.
“Look at this,” he said, motioning me over. “W Room, Bunker is the one we just turned on…Supplies…L…” He looked at me before glancing back at the other switches. “Let’s go exploring.” He flicked a
ll of the switches. There was more distant humming and even loud clanking that died out after five seconds.
“There must be water pipes, or something…” he said, answering my horrified expression at the sound.
“This is crazy…how did this person know about this?”
I started down the staircase in mild shock.
“Who knows…” Clark whispered. “Some serious research, I guess.” He followed me down the stairs and when we reached the concrete ground of the main domed room, my eyes were wide with amazement and, admittedly, glee.
I looked at the balcony and saw a large opening leading into another cavernous room to the left of the hallway under the balcony. The second large room had tables and shelves scattered with books and yellowed papers. As I started forward I looked above the door where the slightly faded words “Brothers of America” were painted.
“Brothers of America…” I read aloud, the words barely passing on my lips. Why did the words sound so familiar?
“Oh my God…” Clark hissed. “Lily…do…do you realize where we are?!” I turned to him, my eyes wide. “We’re in Fort Daniels…”
“No way,” I hissed, quickly glancing back at the words. “Fort Daniels was a decoy. No one could ever find it, even after the revolution ended.”
“This is Fort Daniels. It’s exactly as it was described by Janice in An Angel Without Wings. The “Brothers of America” slogan, the secret location that couldn’t be found…” Clark looked around. “How the hell…did he know about this?”
“Maybe he didn’t,” I shook my head, looking around the main bunker again. This had been the headquarters for the final attack on the Washington System, when Thomas Ankell and his followers had been surrounded and were hiding underground before their final storm of the forces of Washington D.C.
And we were standing in the middle of it.
“Even when tortured, most of the people of the revolution had no idea where this place was. How could he have known?” I mused.
I walked into the room adjoining the main bunker, Clark following me, both of us looking around in awe.
That room was the operations room described in the book. The shelves along the walls were mostly empty with only a few books and papers remaining, as well as a few scattered along the floor. On the closest table, there were large blueprints laid out, placed there recently.
My pace quickened as I walked to the table, looking over the blue prints, the top of which read “Fort Daniels.”
“Clark,” I called him over. He stepped to my side, looking over the blueprints before leaning over the table, surprised.
What shocked me more was the piece of paper on top of the blueprints. It was a note scrawled in handwriting that was starting to become familiar.
“Only you two should know the exact location of this fort. Anyone that you bring here should use a different way. That was how the location was kept a secret before. Never use the same passage more than two times if possible. There are seventeen different entrances to the fort. Some might not be safe anymore. They’re marked on the blueprints.”
“More than anything now, I’m curious…” I said. “I really want to know who this is and how he knows all this.”
“It has to be someone inside the Commission,” Clark declared, picking up the note and glancing over it once again. “The first set of notes had all the numbers, security rotations…he’s given us the override codes for the cells…this person has intel we could never dream of…”
“Sean?” I suggested.
“I don’t know…maybe,” Clark sighed, setting the note aside before turning the blueprints. “But this person obviously knew about this fort and knew we would find it.”
I looked at the annotations he had made on the blueprints, all pointing out the different passages that led in and out of the fort.
“I just…I don’t even know what to do now…” I whispered. “It’s all been laid out for us. It’s almost too perfect. I’m starting to think we’re walking into a trap.”
“I understand,” Clark nodded. He grabbed his phone again and took a picture of the blue print before sighing. “But, I agree that no one else should know where this really is. I think we should explore this place a little today, see what we can, and then get the hell out of here. Next week, we’ll explore some of the passages once we’ve located where they are and see how well we can keep this a secret until we know more about who’s giving us the notes and if we can trust them.”
I agreed, taking pictures with my phone as well.
“Then we’ve decided that this is the place?”
“If it’s not a trap, I’d say this is definitely the place,” Clark said. “To think…Fort Daniels…”
I laughed as I glanced at the picture on my phone to be sure that I had all the details I needed.
“Well, let’s check out the place,” I grinned, moving away from the table and following Clark into the main bunker.
It was too good to be true. We spent three hours exploring, mostly because we were too shocked at what we found and too excited to leave. A few of the rooms were offices that had plans for the city and notes on the locations of the different water and sewer mains. Another area was a huge room filled with bunk beds, though there were no sheets and the mattresses were practically disintegrating.
The storage rooms were where we spent the most time. There was an artillery storage room, where bullets, grenades, and gasoline had been tucked away. The room next to that one was the weapons room, where guns lined the walls, set securely in their cradles. They were dusty but looked functional. Of course, I knew absolutely nothing about guns since they had been banned for private ownership since the formation of Central. The third storage room had canned goods and dried food. I wasn’t sure how much of it was still edible, but it was obvious that the room had sustained the revolutionaries for quite some time and was still well stocked.
When Clark finally glanced at his phone and realized it was nearly six at night, we quickly hurried out of the fort, turning off all the lights before using our phones to go back up the stairs and into the deserted power plant.
It was already dark, since the sun was setting early for the start of winter, so we had to carefully pick our way out of the power plant. Clark and I were navigating the front of the plant when both of our phones began vibrating and ringing simultaneously. Both of us stopped and looked at the screens. I had two text messages, one from my mother and one from my father.
Mom: “Are you going to be home for dinner?”
Dad: “We can’t reach you or Clark. Where are you?”
“Shit…” Clark hissed.
“What?”
“My parents are freaking out,” Clark sighed. “They sent Mark out looking for us.”
“Shit,” I repeated.
“Exactly. If we don’t get in contact with them quickly, they’ll call Dana.” Clark quickly dialed his parents’ phone number and pushed my shoulder gently. “Come on, let’s go.”
I led Clark out, using my phone flashlight. When we were in the night air, Clark spoke.
“No, sorry, I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “We went to a movie. I turned my phone off.”
That was when I glanced at my phone and texted my mother back, telling her I would be at Clark’s for dinner and sorry that I didn’t tell her sooner, but I was in a movie and had my phone turned off.
Fort Daniels must have jammed all signals from our phones. I smiled, unable to help myself, thrilled that our GPS was jammed when we were in the fort, feeling very lucky considering we had both forgotten the possibility of our phones being tracked.
“No, we stuck around for the second showing. Sorry I didn’t realize it was so late,” Clark said as we went to the fence. “Why did you send Mark out? How was he supposed to find me?” I held the fence panel back for him. “My phone was off. He can’t track the GPS.” He sighed and held the panel open for me and we both quickly started down the street, our pace hurried.
“Fin
e, I’ll go someplace and wait for him to track us,” he sighed. “Um…” he turned to me. “What did your parents say about having dinner at our house?” he asked, loud enough for his parents to hear.
“It’s fine,” I answered. I didn’t bother to tell him that I had not asked my mother so much as told her that I would be having dinner elsewhere.
“She’ll be over for dinner,” he relayed. He groaned and rolled his eyes. “Oh my God, I’m out for one day and as soon as you can’t reach me, you freak out. Mom, seriously, do you not trust me at all?”
I laughed quietly in spite of myself. I was sure Clark had never given his parents reason not to trust him, but the fact that we were plotting a rebellion against the Commission of the People meant they really should not have trusted him. It was ironic.
“Alright,” he nodded. “We’ll be back soon. We just have to find Mark…okay…bye.”
He hung up the phone and groaned in annoyance.
“I swear…” he growled. “Now we have to find Mark.”
“We better get out of here quickly, then,” I sighed. “How can he track your phone?”
“He has a GPS tracker in the car,” Clark nodded. “Speaking of which…” He turned his phone off and shook his head. “I really don’t want him driving all the way out here. It’s not a good idea for him to learn we’ve been out here.”
“Not like he can ask questions or tell anyone,” I sighed sadly.
“You like him, don’t you?”
“Not in that way!” I snapped, smacking him on the arm.
“Ow! I didn’t mean it that way!” Clark laughed. “I was just saying! You were defending him against your parents and you always greet him…I really want to thank you for that.”
“Why?”
“We obviously don’t talk, and he doesn’t understand most of what I say, but he really is a very caring person and I think a lot of people can’t see that,” Clark told me, putting his hands in his pockets and shivering in the cold night air. “Sometimes I just talk at him because he sits and listens, even though he doesn’t understand.”
Inside, Pt. 2 Page 3