Hidden (Final Dawn)

by Maloney, Darrell

  Brad chimed in.

  “And it gave us a chance to talk about our women and share all of their secrets with each other.”

  He was getting his revenge for the tequila-fueled conversation two nights before.

  The women looked at each other in mild panic. Sami made a mental note to grill Brad later about what secrets the men had shared. Sami stared daggers at Brad. He just smiled back and blew her a kiss.

  As they neared the end of the tunnel, they felt the temperature start to drop. By the time they got to the far end and walked up the steps into the feed barn inside the compound, they had all put gloves on and raised the hoods on their parkas.

  They walked out the east door of the feed barn and out into the snow. Roxanne and Rachel were used to the snow and quite tired of it. Hannah, Sarah and Sami, though, seemed to enjoy kicking it around. It was the first time they’d walked through snow in six and a half years.

  Back inside the mine, John sat at the security console watching them walk across the compound from a camera mounted atop Salt Mountain. His role was to provide lookout for them. If he saw something he didn’t like, such as a passing vehicle pulling over and stopping, or someone walking through the woods nearby, he would immediately sound the alarm.

  He would get on his walkie talkie and call for the group to get back to the mine immediately.

  His call would have to be relayed, of course. The radio signal would not reach through the thick salt mountain to the outside. David was standing at the mine’s entrance to the tunnel.

  Sami, after she got tired of kicking the snow around, would wait at the exit of the tunnel. If John were to raise the alarm, he would call David, who would relay the alarm to Sami, who would relay it to the others.

  It was a haphazard way of spreading the word, sure. But it was the best they could do.

  Even after they relocated to the compound in a few weeks, the mine would never totally go away. It would always be their evacuation site in case of future emergencies. Bearing that in mind, Mark and Bryan had already discussed rigging some sort of hotline between the security consoles at each location. For the time being, though, it didn’t exist.

  So the seven of them- Mark and Hannah, Bryan and Sarah, Brad, Rachel and Roxanne, crept slowly toward the main building in the compound. It was seven years old, yet had never been occupied. Its sole purpose had been to accommodate their group of forty, and its future generations, after they were able to break out of the mine.

  So it was built, furnished and stocked with provisions, and then abandoned.

  The building itself was very attractive. It looked like a three star hotel, or a dormitory at an upscale university. In the years ahead, they would come to refer to it as “the big house,” a humorous reference to a prison. Now though, the whole concept of living there was still alien and not quite comfortable. For now they just referred to it as the main building.

  They entered the main building through the south door. Bryan had to wipe heavy axle grease away from the lock before he slipped in the key. The grease was to prevent water from getting inside the lock and freezing. And it worked quite well. After seven years, the lock opened easily and the door swung open without so much as a creak.

  Down the long hallway they went, to a junction at the center of the L-shaped building. There they all took the stairway down to the basement, still staying together, and went to a door marked “Generator Room.”

  Mark asked the others to stay outside in the hallway. The room wasn’t that large, and they’d get in the way, he said.

  And that was true. However, that was only half of his reasoning. After not being fired up for seven long years, there was a chance that one of the generator’s batteries would blow. And if it did, Mark wanted Hannah and the others on the other side of the heavy concrete wall where they would be safe.

  Mark and Brad went into the generator room. They had already discussed several times the day before what needed to be done to get the generator running again. They split up the tasks beforehand and went about the things they had to do.

  Brad took a six foot ladder and a gallon of fuel stabilizer off the storage shelf. He crawled to the top of the ladder and opened up the trap door on a five hundred gallon diesel storage tank. Then he poured in the fuel stabilizer and climbed back down to retrieve a large shovel. Back up the ladder he went with the shovel, which he lowered down into the tank. From atop the ladder, he worked the shovel back and forth inside the tank to mix the diesel fuel that had been sitting dormant and settling for seven long years. At the same time, the fuel stabilizer would be mixing with the fuel to absorb any water and provide an octane boost to it.

  While Brad was treating the diesel, Mark was busy on the batteries. There were a series of four diesel truck batteries, side by side and connected together with heavy duty cables. They selected this type of battery specifically because it was renowned for its long life and cranking power. It takes a lot of power to start up a diesel truck. And that’s what these generators were, after all. The main generator and its backup were essentially oversized truck engines without the trucks.

  Mark removed the cables one by one and scraped the corrosion off of each terminal. Then he took the caps off the batteries and checked their water levels. Once done, he returned the cables.

  To give the old batteries a little extra boost, he took a brand new battery out of a box and connected it in line with the other four. He took a package of powdered acid, carefully opened it, and poured it in roughly equal amounts into each of the battery’s cells. Then he took two gallons of distilled water he’d brought with him in a backpack and poured a gallon and a half into the new battery.

  Brad finished stirring the diesel and stepped of the ladder to the bottom of the tank. He closed a small valve that fed the fuel line from the tank to the generator and lowered the end of the hose so that the hose drained into a bucket. He was trying to catch any sediment that settled to the bottom of the tank before it made its way to the generator and fouled it out.

  Once the fuel line was clear, he turned on the tank valve and let another gallon of fuel fall into the bucket. Then he reclosed the valve, reattached the hose, and changed out the three fuel filters on the generator. These were the last line of defense to catch sediment and debris before the fuel was pumped into the engine. Brand new filters would catch whatever they missed. Or at least that’s what they hoped.

  Mark finished up with the batteries and began examining the generator with a fine toothed comb. Every seal, every belt, every hose. He was looking for anything that might be too brittle, too worn, too stiff. He turned the flywheel and it moved easily. That was a good sign. The belts were still tight, and the rubber hoses were still relatively soft to the touch. Everything seemed to be in order.

  Brad finished with the filters and began pumping air out of the line.

  At the same time, Mark primed the fuel pump and sprayed a little bit of ether into the intake. He turned the ignition key halfway on to heat up the glow plugs. He crossed the fingers on his left hand.

  Brad, who was born and raised a good catholic boy, crossed himself, looked up, and uttered a single word plea: “Please…”

  When the glow plugs burned red, Mark turned the key the rest of the way.

  The generator fired up without hesitation, its meaty roar causing the whole room to vibrate.

  Brad and Mark shared a high five, and Brad shouted, “Hallelujah!”

  Chapter 42

  In the hallway, outside the generator room, the rest of the group heard the generator fire up and cheered.

  Mark came out and told them, “Okay. So far so good. Bryan, your turn at bat.”

  Mark’s comment needed no explanation. They had a game plan worked out ahead of time. The first step was the generator. Once it was up and running, Brad would stay behind in the generator room to keep an eye on it. He’d monitor the generator in case the fuel line got clogged, or it overheated, or one of the belts or hoses broke.

  Mark wo
uld go with Bryan, who was a master electrician, to the electrical room a few doors down. The next step was getting the power back on.

  Once in the electrical room, Bryan took the panels off the breaker boxes so he could inspect the wiring. One of his biggest fears was that rodents would infest the space behind the boxes, looking for a place to escape the freeze. And rodents were notorious for gnawing on electrical wiring.

  Their luck was holding. There were no signs of either critters or their nests, and none of the wires seemed to be frayed or loose.

  He put the panels back on and screwed them back in place.

  Bryan looked at his big brother and said, “Okay, buddy. Say a prayer.”

  Then he reached for the breaker switch marked “Fire Alarm System.”

  He flipped it, and immediately beeps from smoke detectors could be heard around the building. Red lights came on in the hallways, wherever there was a fire alarm pull box. Over each door, a bright red “EXIT” sign suddenly lit up.

  One by one, Bryan flipped the breakers, at the same time watching the fire panel very closely. Each room was equipped with a smoke detector, and they were all wired into this panel. If there was an electrical short in any of the rooms, he’d know it almost immediately. He would cut power to that room and he and Mark would scramble there to try to kill the fire with extinguishers.

  One by one. One switch at a time. Both brothers looked at the panel with much anticipation. When they made it all the way through with no alarms, they breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

  In the hallway, the lights suddenly came on, and were so bright everyone had to squint until their eyes adjusted.

  Once they were able to see clearly, they looked at each other and saw unrestrained joy. Then they looked up and down the barren basement hallway. Only Hannah had been in this basement before the freeze. It looked just as it did before, except she was amazed at how much dust now covered the floor. Seven years worth of dust.

  Mark came out of the electrical room and told the girls, “Almost done. Follow me to the boiler room.”

  Down the hall and around the corner they went until they came to a double doored room marked “Boiler and Water Room.”

  The girls followed Mark inside.

  Mark hit the power switch on a control panel full of gauges and meters. A dozen lights came on, and nearly all of them were red. A series of gauges all read zero.

  Sarah muttered, “Uh, oh. That can’t be good.”

  Mark responded, “Don’t panic just yet.”

  He went to the corner of the room and leaned over a huge red valve. It reminded Sarah of the steering wheel on her grandfather’s old Dodge pickup truck.

  Mark leaned into the valve and turned it. There was an immediate “whoosh” sound as water entered the pipes.

  Mark ran back to the console and looked at the gauges as the pressure started to build on each floor of the building. Within thirty seconds all the red lights went off. First the ones for the first floor, then the second floor, then the third.

  He hovered over the console for another minute, watching for a sudden drop in pressure that would indicate a pipe had burst. He saw none.

  Racing across to the other side of the room, he opened a second valve that fed the water tank for the boiler. The boiler was electric, with a diesel burner backup. He’d check the diesel system later. Right now, the electric main heater would suffice. If the boiler worked, it would not only supply hot water, it would also heat the building. It was as essential as electricity and water to the group’s plans to occupy their new home.

  The force of the water pressure turned the ice within it to mush, and forced it into the tank. Mark turned on the control panel to the tank to get a reading. The temperature gauge said the water was twenty eight degrees. Not a problem. It would warm up soon enough. He hit the switches for burners number one and two.

  Then he went back to the main water control console and checked it again. It was still okay.

  “Okay, ladies. Do you all have your walkies turned on to channel 5?”

  The girls all shook their heads.

  “Okay, I’m going to stay behind and keep an eye on things here. You know what you have to do. Have fun!”

  It was time to implement the next step in their game plan. Everyone had a job to do and knew exactly how they were going to do it.

  Hannah and Roxanne immediately ran up the stairs to the third floor. All of the room doors had been left unlocked. They started at the east end of the hallway, in apartment 301.

  After entering apartment 301, they turned on all the lights. The light in the hallway didn’t come on. Hannah made note of it on a small note pad they’d brought with them. Hannah went to the kitchen and crawled under the sink. She turned on the water valve that supplied water to the sink, and then turned on the faucet, letting it run for a minute while she checked to see if anything was leaking. Once she was satisfied, she turned the faucet back off and reclosed the valve.

  Roxanne went to the bathroom and did exactly the same thing. Then she turned on the shower and let it run for a few seconds.

  Once the faucets passed the leak test, the pair met back in the living room, turned off the lights, and left the apartment.

  They then went across the hall to apartment 302 and repeated the process.

  While Hannah and Roxanne were doing their checks on the third floor, Sarah and Rachel were going through the same procedure on the second floor. As each team finished, they had designated areas on the first floor they’d proceed to next.

  Meanwhile, Brad stayed in the generator room keeping a close eye on the massive Cummings diesel engine. At the same time, he was going through the same procedure they’d used on the first generator to prep the backup.

  If the main generator stopped working or started to overheat, Brad would switch over to the backup generator in an effort to keep the power flowing.

  Bryan, in turn, stayed in the electrical room monitoring the breaker panels and control panel. If any wiring in the building shorted out or caught fire, he’d know it immediately and could cut power to that section of the building. Then he’d call for help on the radio and head that way to put out the fire.

  Mark closely monitored the boiler, watching for leaks. He also kept a close eye on the temperature gauge to see how warm the water was getting, and the pressure gauge to make sure the pressure was rising along with the temperature.

  In all three rooms, everything appeared to be working perfectly.

  It took the girls a little under two hours to finish their checks. As planned, they all ended up in the main kitchen together, and called Mark on the radio.

  Hannah did the honors.

  “Mark, this is Hannah, we’re all finished and in the kitchen.”

  “Okay, honey. I’m going to close the feed valve to the boiler, I need you to turn on all the faucets, cold and hot water, to empty most of it out. Leave them on so they don’t freeze back up again, and come back down to the basement.”

  “10-4 good buddy, copy that. We’re gonna convoy back down your way, and we’ll keep an eye out for Smokey the Bear hiding in the bushes. Roger that.”

  Hannah couldn’t resist. She and Mark had watched “Smokey and the Bandit” the night before.

  When the girls made their way back to Mark, he shut down the boiler and the group went to the electrical room.

  Bryan cut power to the building and it went black again. That was Brad’s signal to turn his miner’s light back on and shut down the generator.

  The entire group met up again where they’d split up originally, in the basement hallway outside the generator room.

  They left the building through the same door they’d entered, and met up with Sami in the feed barn.

  “Well, it’s about time y’all got back,” Sami chastised. “I’ve been freezing my ass off out here.”

  Brad grabbed her and spun her around.

  “Nope. It’s still there.”

  “Smart aleck.”

  Onc
e in the tunnel and halfway back to the mine the crew finally began to warm up and shared notes while they walked. The girls made a list of things to fix, and it was all minor stuff. A few light bulbs that were out. Several dripping faucets. One minor leak under a kitchen sink.

  All in all, things were much better than expected. If there were any delays in their plans to move from the mine to the compound, it wouldn’t be because the building wasn’t ready to go.

  “So, what’s next?” Sarah asked.

  Bryan asked Mark, “What do you think about firing everything up a couple of weeks prior? We can actually put a couple of people over there. Move them in as an advance team, so to speak. They can monitor everything and actually live there for the last two weeks. Cook their meals there and everything. If there are any bugs, they’ll find them.”

  “Good idea. Let’s check with John to make sure the security people can monitor both areas at the same time. If they can do it, we’ll ask for volunteers. I’d volunteer with Hannah, but I don’t want to take Markie over there until we know everything is working and the place is warm. It’s going to take at least two full days to bring the inside temperature up to 70 degrees, remember.”

  Brad turned to Sami with a questioning look on his face. She shook her head yes.

  “Sami and I will do it.”

  Sarah spoke up.

  “Bryan and I will too.”

  “Thanks for volunteering me, sweetheart.”

  “Oh, come on. It’ll be fun. We’ll have the place all to ourselves.”

  Sami corrected her.

  “Ahem. Almost to yourselves.”

  “Oh, please. You two will never leave your room. Let’s be real.”

  By the time they stepped out of the tunnel and into the mine, it was settled. In four weeks, Bryan, Sarah, Sami and Brad would move into the compound and make it their home. If nothing went wrong, then two weeks later, on April fifteenth, the rest would join them.

  Chapter 43

  The next few weeks flew by. After seven long years in the mine, everyone was looking forward to being free again. But there were also some fears.