The Event Series (Book 3): The Archive and Beyond

by Thomas Larson

  Tanya and I sat out by the lake under the stars tonight, there is something about the sky, here to the north, it is so clear, so beautiful. An occasional meteor streaks by, and tonight, we saw the Northern Lights.

  (Lance) We went thought the usual routine this morning, gathering the veggies, check the corn and large crop fields. The weather has been good, we have gotten some rain of late so that is good.

  After lunch we took a ride out to Bare Mountain so that we could show the Major and the soldiers the big door. It was Sergeant Brown who seemed most interested. She climbed all over it and looked at the locking mechanism, and the hinges. She also checked the area to the left and right of the doorway, going back in the woods and underbrush.

  Finally, after a little while she came out smiling, “I found it” she said, “I found the latch.”

  We all looked at her.

  “See, each of these doors has a secondary locking system. They be usually set up close by the door, yet hidden. If there’s a problem with the main lock, the secondary can be used to open the gate. But also, in the event of a coded signal from SAC Command the doors are automatically locked down. I gottsa to do some checkin’ on a couple of things, but we should be able to open it up tomorrow.”

  We rode back. Brown and I made contact with the people at Knox and she talked to them for a while, and made notes. She had some codes and pulled out a couple of special keys on a chain out of a box that she had with her. She put them around her neck.

  We did Vesper’s tonight; the main chatter was about the underground base, and what might be in there. There is a lot of excitement.

  (Tom) Not much of a day, just drive, we left Kansas, everything is flat in Kansas and moved into through Missouri, think the state was glad to see us because….oh, I used the ‘Missouri loves company’ before.

  As we passed through more little towns we found no one. They could be hiding, but we smelled no smoke, or saw any signs of life, or for that matter death.

  We made a lot of distance and called it quits tonight in a little place called Brookville, in Ohio. It is a little down east of Indianapolis. If things run the way I am hoping, we could, should be home late tomorrow. Of course, I am setting up failure on that based upon the Murphy’s Law thing.

  Asuna and I spent time together tonight, just cuddle time, we have been so busy with the trip, and with some much going on, it has kept us tense and focused on other things. Actually, as I think of it, we have been that way since we were picked up by the Pittsburgh. It was nice to have a little quality time together.

  August 20th

  (Margo) Back on the road again this morning and I am hoping that we make it back today. It will be good to be back. It was kind of different, Asuna rode with me today. It was girl talk, haven’t done that in a while, and made me miss Del, we will have lots to share when we get back.

  As we drove, Asuna and I talked about things, a little about what was going on with me and Code, a little about what was going on with her and Tom, and a little about the future, babies, who would be the next to have a baby. I am kind of betting on Jan, Asuna thinks it might be Michelle.

  “I know it won’t be me,” I told her, “I am not ready for that yet, a year maybe, but I am only 16, I mean I could, but no, not yet.”

  She laughed, “Well, I am 34, and really, I am not ready either.”

  “What about Delaney?” she asked.

  “Maybe, I think that she might, but not right away, but I think she is a lot closer to getting preggers than I am.” I told her.

  “What about the others, Charlene, Teckla, Taylor?”

  I thought for a minute, “Well, I think Tay, maybe, she is still young enough, but there are some issues, like the lack of available guys. Ooh and you forgot Tanya, Matt and Tanya, now that would not surprise me.”

  “Yeah, I kind of forgot about them.”

  And so it went, for a couple of hours, talking about whether you wanted a boy or girl, potential names, what about twins, Augustus and so on.

  It was easy for us to drive along; Asuna and I took turns driving. We were on Interstate 80 and avoided most of the cities along the way. It was a little messy in Youngstown, but we were able to get through thanks to Gillie and the big rig. It slowed us down a little maybe an hour or so.

  My laptop battery is getting a little low, so I am going to plug it in, let it charge up, I think we are about an hour from home.

  (Matt) We left Wynyard early, it was light at about 5:30 and we were on the road by 6:30. We had checked the maps and are going to go north of the Great Lakes, using the Trans-Canadian Highway. Today we drove through Winnipeg and then on toward Thunder Bay, but we came up short of that by an hour or two. We spent the night in a little town called Upsala. It was a little mining town.

  We met a few people in town; there were six, three old crusty miners, Ben, Jacque and Armand, all in their 60s. They were just like you would see in an old western movie. There was a couple, Bess and Martin, a married couple who had run the general store, they were 40ish, and then there was the Reverend. He was odd. They had all been living in the town for years and when the end came saw no reason to move or hide.

  They were friendly enough and we shared a meal with them, MREs and some of our canned goods. They each were living in a little shack, and by the looks of them, winters were hard and cold.

  We talked about what we had seen and what they had gone through here in the village. They had not had it so bad with the Changed, they called them ‘eaters’.

  The Reverend went into a bit about God, and that he was punishing man for his faithlessness and evil. The others rolled their eyes because they had heard this all before, again, and again, and again. In a way, he reminded me of Brother Gabriel, only not dangerous, or controlling. He was more just set in his ways and blustered on.

  Martin told us about the early days in the village, the first few people who had changed, and how difficult it was for them to kill their own. At first they didn’t know what to do. They would kill them, again, and then, the dead would come back, again. Stakes through the heart, gunshots to what most considered kill-zones, and such, and they kept coming back. Finally, someone took a shovel to the head of an eater, and that showed the way.

  They burned the bodies, and went from a town of 119 to just the six of them. It had been hard on them all, watching friends and relatives turn.

  The Reverend had lost his wife, and child, and we were later told, while he was out of the room, that he had been unfaithful to her, his wife, and after she turned, killed their child. That was when he went over the edge and got on to the God is punishing us thing. He took the entire thing as a sort of anti-rapture and he was personally being tormented for his sin.

  Ben went on to say that although the little shacks were fine in the summer, they were not good for the winters but that they had put together a little area in one of the mine tunnels that was closed off, they were able to keep it warm and livable for the winter. Clever, that might be something we should consider; I think Howe Cavern is not that far from our camp.

  In the course of the evening we told them about the cure that we were carrying. Tanya explained that we had taken it and that it would prevent us from coming back after we died.

  Bess, Martin and the miners seemed interested, but the Reverend, he was not, he was paying for his sin, and if he were to take the pill, he claimed he would be showing contempt to God.

  We left them pills and let them make up their own minds. We gave them a few extra in case other travelers arrived, or came through.

  (Tom) We rolled in to camp about 8:30 tonight, it was good to be home, it was right at the start of Vespers, and there was already a spirited conversation going about the facility at Bare Mountain.

  It is now about 11:30, I am tired, and will make this brief, the final leg of our trek was uneventful, mostly. We followed the Interstates, (80 & 84) but when we got to the bridge in Newburgh, NY it was blocked. We had to back track and took 87 North to Albany, and cro
ssed the Menard.

  I had McManus with me for the day and we talked a little about things, he is an interesting character, and I will fill in the blanks on him later.

  Good to be home and it will be good to be in our own little bed.

  (Lance) We headed out to the base this morning after breakfast, it was actually kind of easy, Steven fired up the chopper and we flew up, the Major, Sergeant Brown, Del and I. It made no sense for all of us to go, although Teckla wanted to see what was going on.

  I was surprised at the ease that Brown was able to just walk up to the outer doors and just use her keys to get in. She explained that the underground complex was a library for the local colleges, but that it had a facility inside, and that one would be the more difficult to get into. The library itself was just a cover that had been put up in the early 2000’s to hide the base.

  We moved through the library stacks and came to a wall at the back of it. It just looked like a wall, with an emergency door and a fire alarm beside it. Now that I think of it, where would the emergency door lead? We were into the side of the mountain.

  Sgt. Brown took the two keys from her neck and put one in the battery lock for the fire alarm and the other into a small lock on the emergency door. She looked at us, smiled and said simply, “Here goes!” She turned the keys, both at once.

  Nothing at first, and then a noise, a whir, and then the wall started to slide to the left. It moved seamlessly until we were standing in front of a concrete wall with a huge steel door. On the door was a sign, bright yellow and big bold black letters, “US Air Force, Strategic Air Sat-Command, Authorized Entry Only.”

  “Boom, der goes the dynamite…..step one, now we needs to go the second step,” exclaimed Brown, she was actually sounding kind of excited about this.

  There was an electronic touch pad to the right hand side of the big door, with twin key holes beside it. She put the same two keys in the holes, but did not turn them. which made no sense, and then she punched in 2254 into the keypad. Click, the door unlocked and opened about an inch.

  I started to move to pull the door open but she said, “Nope, not yet, dis area has been closed off fo 40 years, we, I, needs to check some shit first.”

  I had not noticed until she started to pull it out, but she had a gas mask, one of those special ones that you saw in all the bio-monster movies, a hood that sort of covered the entire head.

  “I needs you all to move back outside while I do dis, I need to open some vents, check a few things and make sure it is safe for you. If I am not out in 30 minutes, something is wrong and Imma probably dead. Do not come try to find me, if that happens the facility is deadly, and we can’t use it.”

  We moved back outside, a little confused, but this woman was not to be argued with and that was that.

  About 20 minutes later she came out the front door, smiling and eating a Triple Decker Bar, “Now dis is a blast from the past, they stopped making these in the late 60’s, but Gramma told me dat they were the best thing ever, dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate all in one, she be right!”

  “I am guessing it is safe down there?” said Major Barkley.

  “Yes Sir, but I think we should let it air out a little, there are some smells down there that are nasty. Let’s leave it for tonight, and we can come back in the morning and esplore.”

  “Sounds good to me, think we need to guard it?”

  “Nah, I fired up the vent system, and it should be fine, I can locks the front doors.” Brown said.

  “They have power?” I asked.

  “Well, sorta, it is actually a passive system, some temperature based means by which air is circulated through scrubbers doo-dads.”

  Wow, I thought, that is wild; I wonder what secrets this place holds.

  As we walked back to the helicopter, the Major asked Brown, “Do you have any more of those candy bars? I actually remember them.”

  She tossed him one as we climbed in and flew back to Romanica.

  We were back for dinner. Mark had put together some beans and franks from the canned goods that the Major and the crew had brought back. He had been fitted with an artificial hand while they were down at Knox, it was metal, and kind of robotic looking, it was more cosmetic than anything. But he was happy with it. He ran around doing Arnold voices, and quotes from the Terminator movies.

  We talked a little about what had happened at the base, but didn’t have too much to say because we hadn’t actually gotten in there.

  Del and I settled into the cabin tonight. It was odd, it felt wrong, not Del and I but something just didn’t seem right. It was nothing obvious, everything seemed normal, but something…..

  August 21st

  (Tom) I am feeling a little perkier today, I was dead ass tired when we rolled in last night, and although excited to hear about the Archive as they are calling it, and meeting the other new people, I was just too dead tired to do any justice to writing.

  Mark had really taken over the kitchen and it was a lot like having Nick and Grace back. I think that he has been dabbling in Nick’s cookbook. We had eggs this morning. That was a tradition that had been started a while ago.

  Months ago on one of the foraging trips Lance and Teckla found half a dozen chickens. They have been raising them and the flock has grown a little. They set up a hen house and collected the eggs so that once a week it was omelets all around, usually veggie and sheep cheese, sometimes with a little smoked meat of some kind.

  Over breakfast the main discussion was the Archive, the place at Bare Mountain. Sergeant Brown explained to us a little about the facility and how it was originally designed to serve as an underground Command center for SAC and NORAD in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack. As the cold war wound down, it was converted to a library archive for the five area colleges. That was because it was set to stay dry and also maintained a constant temperature of between 50 and 55.

  But when, actually before it was turned over to the colleges, the back part of the facility was sealed off and hidden. A wall was added to conceal the blast doors, but it was set up in a way that if things when to shit in the future, the facility was still there and usable. There were still supplies, food, water, medicine and weapons tucked away down there. The only down side was that any technology would be from that 1960 to 1980 era, so no computers, no Internet, and so on. But then, what difference would it make, there is no Internet anymore, and we have our laptops, or in my case, Winston.

  The plan for the day was for some of us to take a run out to the facility and start to look around inside. We decided that not all of us should go. We decided that the people heading out would be me, Barkley, Sgt. Brown, Mac, Taylor and Steven.

  Brown was a no-brainer, she had the keys and was the knowledgeable one of what might be in there. It also seemed that there may be a few little things in the way of procedures that need to be followed for access. Mac, well, I just wanted someone who might be good at just keeping watch, not that there was anything to watch. Taylor was added because we would want to get an inventory of what supplies might be in there, and Steven was going to fly us up. Barkley would be good for checking out the medical facility,

  When I told Margo and Cody about the trip, at first they were a little bummed that they weren’t going, but not too bad. Besides, I think Margo wanted to go out and check on Momma and the cubs.

  Lance was also disappointed that he wasn’t going. I actually felt bad about it. He had been the one who did a lot in finding the place. I checked with Steven and he said that he could take one more in the chopper, so I added him.

  We left at about 10 for the brief flight up to the facility, we set down in the parking lot and headed toward the door, Steven and Mac stayed with the chopper.

  Brown and the Major led us to the blast door but before we were allowed in, Brown made one last check of the air and environmental conditions inside. Everything was fine.

  It smelled musty in there, like somewhere that had been closed up for about 40 years. It
was dusty, and there were a few spider webs. And it was dark; we had to use flashlights to navigate the corridors. It took a little while but Sergeant Brown was able to find the main circuit panel and then there was light.

  “Ah, dat’s better!” she said.

  “How? There is no power,” I asked.

  “The wind turbines, it’s the wind turbines!” exclaimed Lance. “There are the ones up on the top of the mountain.”

  “Give da man a chocolate bar, yes, it powers not only the Archive, but it feeds into here,” replied Brown, smiling and tossing Lance a Triple Decker.

  With the lights on, we wandered throughout the facility; I am estimating that it went a couple hundred feet into the side of the mountain. The entire inside of the facility was either rock, gray rock or where it was man-made, painted a light pea green.

  There was the main corridor, about 30 feet wide, with rooms off to each side. There was a medical area, a galley / kitchen, a mess hall, a recreation room with old fashion 17 inch TVs with dials to change the channels, 10 rooms set up as sleeping quarters which were designed for four people to a room.

  There were also some elevators that for now were not working; Brown said that she would work on that, she believed that they would need to be rewired unless she could find the keys to activate them. She said that they should lead to the main storage areas below and a radar room one level up.

  Taylor was not able to do any food inventories other than the small room that Brown had found earlier, the one with the candy in it. It had some canned and dried goods, all of which went back to the 1960’s, old type army rations. I guess if we were starving, we shall see.

  What seemed a short time was actually hours and when my stomach began to rumble I looked at my watch, it was 4 PM. We decided that it was best if we headed back. We could check this out more over the next few days.