by Clary, LeRoy
A few blocks down that street, we’d turn and move a few blocks north and walk past it again, from the other side. Depending on what we found, closer observation might be needed.
Like many other buildings, there had been a fire when we identified it. I wondered why so many buildings had burned but realized inside would be dry and any spark might set off a blaze. Careless people were the second culprit, and another major cause was that starting a fire was the easiest way to get at enemies thought to be inside.
Most of the windows were broken in jagged shards, like teeth. The good thing was that all four walls were standing. The building had been reddish-brown brick. Now it was streaked with smoke stains but appeared solid.
In the rear, in what looked like it had been a small parking lot, was a flat area surrounded by overgrown shrubbery. There was room for a tent and campfire, but not much else. A pile of refuse occupied one end.
Bream pointed.
There were at least three sheets of heavy plastic material. It looked like it had been for something inside the building, maybe a wall covering. No matter, we worked them loose and dragged them to the clear area. Bricks and concrete blocks piled four feet high let us rest the plastic sheets on them to create a solid tent-like structure that would keep out the rain.
To keep it from blowing in a storm, we piled lengths of wood, branches, and partial sheets of chalk-like construction material, along with a metal desk that was bent and twisted as if it had fallen or been tossed from one of the higher floors.
It had enough weight to hold our flimsy construct together.
That was part two of Tess’s plan. She said, “Don’t hurry. It’ll tell everyone you’re up to something. We check it out, build ourselves a basecamp, and hang around a few days until people get used to us.
She wanted something sturdy, so if anyone came in the night, we’d be inside with our guns. They wouldn’t know what happened. We closed off three sides and left only a small, narrow way to duck inside.
It hurt me to be so close to Everett Hole and not search for the entrance in the basement. Tess said to take at least two days before going inside. Eyes were watching us, even if we didn’t see them.
She was right. I knew it. That made little difference to the feelings I suppressed.
Every time I glanced at the five-story building, it called to me.
Tess knew it. She finally said, after our shelter was finished, “Why don’t all three of us go inside and see if we can find a stairway to reach the roof?”
Bream said, “No.”
We both spun on him in surprise.
“Ladder on the side. Climb that.” He was pointing.
On the side of the building was a metal structure with steps from floor to floor, and a metal landing at each. Only the bottom one needed to be reached. It would be much safer than going inside.
A metal box with drawers in it stood five feet high and we pushed it into position under the outside metal ladder. A broken chair let Bream climb up it and onto the metal box. From there, he managed to pull himself up to the first landing. He laid down and reached his arms to grip Tess’s wrists and pulled her up, then me.
We clanged with every step. On each floor, we looked inside. Besides the fire, the rain had blown in, pooled and become stagnant. The insides were in complete disarray and much floating in a few inches of stagnant water. It appeared that people had intentionally wrecked and destroyed everything possible. Birds had flown inside and made nests. Small animals scurried. Some sewers probably smelled better.
It was not a place I wanted to venture into.
The higher we climbed, the more of the city we could see. The metal stairs were on the wrong side to look down at the port and navy base. However, once we reached the flat roof, it was solid enough to walk on and we crossed to look down the slope.
It was evident people had lived on the roof at one time. Several of them, it seemed, from the mess they left. It was hard for me to concentrate on the building, the interior, the roof, and the surrounding buildings and streets when all I wanted to do was find a way into the basement.
Tess sat on a raised parapet that ran the distance around the roof and said, “From up here, you could have a small fire as they did over there,” she waved a hand where a large metal barrel had been placed, “and nobody on the ground will see it.”
“Smoke,” Bream said.
“True, you’d have to burn dry wood or only burn it when the wind was blowing, which might catch the building on fire. Anyhow, this is a good place to hide out, fire or no fire.”
Bream shook his head and pointed to the metal stairs on the outside of the building. “They see you climb. One way up. One down. Trap.”
She laughed and said, “I’m so glad you’re along to point out my mistakes.”
There was no rancor on her response. Her laughter was genuine. Bream smiled his answer. I roamed the roof looking out over the city. To the east, the long, low bridge we had crossed was clear. The view to the north was blocked by trees and houses, but to the south were many more tall buildings in what had been the city center.
I pulled my maps and turned to the one with the downtown portions of the city and looked at it again while comparing it with landmarks still identifiable. With my finger, I drew a line from a pier below and traced it up the hill to where we sat.
Some streets were wider than others and I found where two intersected. It was right where it should be. Circling the roof had revealed there were no other tall buildings, or the remains of any, that met the location description. There were other tall buildings, or there had been, but they were generally to the south of this one.
Tess said, “Don’t worry. This is it.”
Bream said, changing the subject, “Food.”
“Yes, we need food,” Tess said.
“I still have a few MREs. This is enough of an emergency to eat them. I don’t want anyone going out and trying to locate food. It’s too dangerous.”
Tess said, “You noticed how skinny the people in the city are?”
“Not until you mentioned it just now.”
She walked to the edge of the building overlooking the bay and navy base. “I know we have a plan to wait three days before searching the basement, but that’s going to be hard. Anyhow, I don’t know if it will help us. If we’re being watched, now or then, what difference will it make?”
Bream said, “They see us climb up here.”
“Exactly,” she said. “What if the entrance was on the roof, would we have searched the basement? I think maybe nobody is watching, but what if we change our plan?”
“To?” I asked.
“It’s only mid-day. What if Bream takes his gun and guards that corner,” she pointed, “where he can see those two sides of the building? I can take the opposite. You can go inside and at least, look for the door while we protect your back.”
“Why the change?” I asked.
“Simple. If the door is standing open like at Three Hills, we can leave this horrible city, if not this afternoon, then early tomorrow morning.”
“Bream wants to leave,” Bream said.
It seemed a better plan. “Let’s do it. But first, we search all around the base to make sure nobody is watching.”
Ten minutes later, we’d descended, circled the building, and each had selected a place to hide while covering my back. I climbed in through a broken window and wandered down corridors reminiscent of Deep Hole until I found the jagged symbol for stairs on a door.
It wouldn’t open.
I stood and looked as I decided how to break down a metal door until realizing the hinges were on my side. I used the butt of my gun as a hammer to drive the blade of my knife into the rusty surface of the hinge pin. A few taps and it came out, still with grease coating it. There were three more and the door swung awkwardly, then fell with a bang.
I ran to the nearest window and called to Tess, who I could see was concerned at the sound, “No problem. A door just fell. I’m g
oing down.”
Back at the doorway, enough light penetrated to reveal that there was at least, one other way down. Also, water had accumulated knee-high. A rat swam quickly away from me before I wasted a round of ammo on it. Let that be a warning to others.
The huge door I searched for appeared almost like a bank vault. It had to be located on a substantial wall, most likely on an outer one. I circled those within the dim light and by then my eyes had adjusted to let me see the others. Wading in the tepid water made the going slow, but there was nothing to find like what I was after.
Back at my original starting point, I began a more intensive search, almost step by step. There was no place on the outer wall for the entrance. None.
That left the inner walls. I searched them, opening every door before moving on. There was nothing.
The afternoon had disappeared while I was inside, and the sun was going down. In a couple of hours, it would be dark. Dejected, I stumbled up the stairs and outside.
Tess and Bream joined me. I gave them the bad news.
Bream didn’t understand other than that I was upset. We had shared almost nothing of my origins with him. Tess shrugged it off and said that we would talk about it after dark. We gathered firewood into a small pile and made ourselves as comfortable as sitting on the pavement could be.
As night fell, we talked.
Mostly, I complained about failing and how we had to be in the right building. Perhaps they had never built it. Perhaps a lot of things. I was ready to leave for Montana or Arizona with first-light.
Tess said, “Get your maps out and let’s take another look. Maybe we missed something.”
I handed them to her more roughly than needed. She ignored my anger and spread them out. She asked a few questions, but in the end, folded them and handed them back. “We didn’t make a mistake. We’re in the right place. You missed something.”
“I checked everything,” I said.
She waited a while for me to settle down, and then said, “Tomorrow, I’ll go down there and look. Maybe you, too. If we don’t find anything, we’ll leave. Promise. We came all the way here, and it would be a shame to leave after looking for only an hour or two.”
The legs of my pants were still wet from slogging in the filthy water. There was no telling what was floating down there, and what had died and sunk to the bottom that I walked on. I reluctantly agreed.
Going back into the basement was not a task I wanted. The stench of rot, mold, and death was down there. In one basement, it represented the entire city. Traveling away from it would be the best thing I’d ever done.
After reluctantly agreeing to let Tess search, I went into our haphazard shelter and unrolled my blankets, treating them as if they had offended me in some way. I was having a bit of a temper tantrum, tinged with disappointment.
The others soon followed suit and climbed under their blankets. We were side by side, Bream again in the middle as if he wanted to be near both of us. That made me feel somewhat better.
Long after both of them slept, I remained awake, disappointed and feeling a failure. I’d been so sure we would find the right place and perhaps rescue thousands of people. My dream of the future hadn’t continued beyond that basic premise, but I held on to it as if holding a rope while dangling over the edge of a cliff. If I let go, it was all over.
Tess was right. I wouldn’t let go. Mayfield wouldn’t have either.
With that, my eyes closed, and my body relaxed—until the faintest of noises drew my attention. I couldn’t identify it, but it didn’t belong with the other noises of the night, the insects, wind, and other natural sounds. That thought helped identify it. It was metal on metal.
My hand reached under my side to where my gun was kept at night, a natural enough trait since leaving my home. Without moving more than necessary, I shifted positions as if rolling over in my sleep, so my gun-hand pointed at the entrance of our lean-to.
More faint sounds allowed me to track the progress of someone, or more than one, as they crept along the side of our shelter and paused at the steepled, narrow entrance, closed only by a blanket hanging there.
The edge of the blanket eased aside.
Nobody wishing us well would enter that way. They would wake us and ask permission to enter and ask us to exit and meet with them, as Mitch had told us about entering someone’s campsite. It was no different.
Against the lighter background of the night sky, an arm holding a pistol emerged and raised to aim in our direction.
I fired four shots, all low because I couldn’t see the upper part of the intruder, only legs. Two men screamed in response, Bream and the intruder as he fell. A second person or two who were outside our makeshift structure dragged the wounded man off, as he continued shouting and cursing. It didn’t sound like he was hurt too badly, and for that I was grateful.
Bream was still screaming. He didn’t like guns.
Tess said to me, “Good on you.”
I hadn’t heard the term before, but it made me feel better. There was little guilt. If someone surreptitiously enters where I’m sleeping with a weapon in hand, chances are, one of us is going to get hurt. Those were the new rules.
Bream wailed for a time, but Tess soon quieted him down. There was probably a reason we’d never know why he reacted to gunshots like that, especially unexpected ones. In the future, we’d try not to shoot near him.
Oddly, I slept well for the rest of the night. Not so oddly, my handgun was at my side, reloaded and ready. In the morning, we ate and planned. I studied my maps again and decided a route over the other mountain pass was the better option. It was not as high in elevation and there were two more sanctuaries along the way. I still had vague ideas of freeing the population of one.
I began packing my things when Tess said, “I’m ready.”
“Almost,” I said.
She shook her head. “No, I mean, I’m ready for going to look inside.”
“There is no door. I checked all the perimeter. We can leave.”
She spun so fast her hair stood out all around her head and she stomped in the direction of the same entrance I’d used. The last I saw was her climbing over the broken-out window heading to the basement. I said to Bream, “Go guard the front of the building.”
He quickly moved across the small, flat area, pausing at one point and taking a large step before continuing. Curious, I went there and found a wide streak of dried blood and the signs of a body being dragged.
I checked that I had reloaded my magazine, something I should always do right after firing any shots, then concealed myself at the opposite corner where I could see anyone approaching from two sides. Once, I heard soft voices nearby, but they were not furtive or threatening. Just a few people walking past a dozen yards away.
There were ragged volleys of shots in the distance, all from the direction of the navy base. Probably recruits learning the basics of soldiering and getting familiar with their weapons. Near mid-morning, Tess leaned out of the same window she’d entered and waved me forward to join her.
“What is it?” I asked when near.
“Not the great door we’re searching for, like the one at Three Hills, but you said something once about a small door and a speaker behind it.”
There had been one at both of the other sanctuaries and was supposed to be at all of them. “I didn’t see that, either.”
“Come look.”
She pulled me inside and I meekly followed. She dripped a path down a hallway and the same stairs I’d used. I followed her back into the water.
Near the center of the flooded basement, was a central structure where a pair of elevators had been. They were still there, motionless a few floors above. Because I had been searching for the vault-like door, I’d concentrated on the outer perimeter, although I’d examined the inner structure, also, just not in the same detail.
The elevator structure was a concrete rectangle, perhaps eight feet by twelve or fifteen. Nothing on the outside was unus
ual. I’d looked.
Tess pointed to an access door about three feet wide and four tall. The water covered the lower half. I hadn’t realized it opened.
Tess had it standing open and motioned for me to go inside. I had to lower myself to my knees while keeping my head above the murky water and ignoring whatever floated in it.
Inside was an identical small door to the one at Deep Hole.
I twisted the handle and inside, in the dim light, was a speaker grill. And button.
I looked at Tess, too stunned to smile, laugh, cry, or speak.
She asked, “That’s it?”
I nodded. The communications door. I don’t know where the other door is, but this should let me talk to those below.”
“You said, there is a password or security phrase to identify yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happens?” she asked.
I stood there, staring at the speaker. “I don’t know.”
“You have some idea.”
“If they are alive and down there, they might talk to me. They might not. I can give them the information they need. Tell them that it’s fine to live on the surface without fearing radiation and mutations, but they also have to know about Sir Wilson and the wars, and the way people feel about them. They will have to take precautions.”
“So, tell them.”
I hesitated. “If it was me down there, I wouldn’t believe a word. From their point of view, it’s too fantastic. Too wild. I’d suspect a trap.”
She smiled at me and said, “So, convince them. You are supposed to know a magic phrase or word, right? That’s why we’re here isn’t it?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Tess left me inside the elevator shaft while she went outside to help Bream guard the building. I suspect it was also to allow my mind to catch us with the reality that I might soon speak to people in another sanctuary. If it all went well, I’d also save a lot of lives.
I stood in knee-deep tepid and stagnant water as rats swam past as I considered my first words. More water dripped down from above, and the sound of each drip striking the surface of the still water echoed off the bare concrete walls.