by Paul Teague
Beyond The Blast Doors
There are two people beyond the blast doors. That’s what the monitor says. It identified them both as human. It would not make any sense to open the doors to the bunker cat in a situation like this, so it’s important to know who - or what - is out there.
One female - age 37 and one male - age 48. The female is sitting, with one of her arms out-stretched as if she has it wrapped around somebody. Unusual, it must be hard to keep it up like that all this time. The woman and the man cannot be connected. He’s standing at a distance from her. They can’t be talking or linked in anyway. He’s clearly keeping his distance. Having disabled the monitoring in this area, he will be able to open the doors to let the two people in. Although he won’t question where the information comes from, the woman must be retrieved safely and concealed in the bunker. She is crucial to what is about to happen. The man is useful, he will serve as a cover for James. They will want to know why he didn’t follow protocol. James will hand over the man and make him available for BioFiltration. He’ll just be a member of the cottage staff who came here when the sirens went off. Lucky - or unlucky- depending how you look at it. That will act as a cover for the woman. He’ll be able to get her safely in the lift before he distracts everybody in the control room with the man’s arrival. She’ll be going down in the lift where they won’t find her. Somewhere that he doesn’t even know exists in the bunker at present. He’ll be guided there via the blue device in his neck. Level 3 is where the woman will be able to play out her part in this.
Chapter Fourteen
Deeper
I’m pretty stunned when the lift starts to move downwards. I’m nervous that moving to Level 3 may have alerted Kate and her team in the control room. I don’t want to get into any more trouble so, rather ridiculously, I press the button for Level 2 again, as if it’s going to conceal what I have just done.
I step out into Level 2 and just wait in the corridor. I assume that I’ll be joined at any moment by Kate and her security team. They must know what just happened. But nobody comes. I walk up and down the corridor and nip into the loos for something to do. A few minutes later I emerge. Nobody comes. They can’t have known what I just did.
I head back for the lift, feeling a little more daring now. I press the button for Level 3. Down it goes again. The doors open. The corridor is similar in size and layout to the ones on Levels 1 and 2, but it is coloured differently. There is a thick, red stripe going along each side of the wall. It looks more serious here, like the red line leads somewhere.
The doors close, and I decide to try Level 4. I press the button. Once again, I go down a level. The doors open, and this corridor looks different once again. The corridors are black this time, once again with those thick red stripes running along them. Both corridors are completely silent, there were no bunker staff there. I’m beginning to wonder if the lady was telling the truth earlier. Or to be more precise, she was telling me what she believed to be the truth. I’m not sure what to do. I feel like somebody who just got away with something they’re not supposed to do. I expect to hear alert sirens or something similar. But there are no sounds and nobody comes. Kate and her security team do not come.
Regardless of that, there can only be so long until they realise that I’m not showing up on any of the cameras on Levels 1 or 2. For a moment I feel completely stuck. I’m desperate to explore these two new levels, but I really don’t want to get any more negative attention from Kate. Every part of me wants to stay here, but I can’t risk getting into any more trouble, Dad, Mum, David and Harriet are relying on me. I’m the only one who can look out for them at the moment. So, I press the button for Level 2 and decide to stick to my original plan.
Rather annoyingly, the lift heads for Level 1. Somebody must have called the lift before I pressed the button. For a place that’s so hi-tech, you’d think that they’d be able to sort the lifts out. It turns out to be a lucky break though. The lift arrives at Level 1 and the doors open automatically. A man gets in, presumably the chap who called the lift in the first place. But it’s not him who catches my eye. It’s the man who’s walking intently along the corridor towards the exit who now has my complete attention. I haven’t seen him before and he looks just like everybody else down here.
Except for one thing that’s different. There is one of those faint lights in his neck. It’s pulsating furiously, but you’d still have to be looking carefully to notice it. However, there’s something very interesting and different about this one. The faint light in this man’s neck is glowing blue.
Mission Failure
She had not known Roachie prior to the mission taking place as he was much more experienced in Army life than she was. After completing her basic training, and what seemed to be a very large number of psychometric and aptitude tests, she was summoned to a meeting at a barracks that she’d never been to before, let alone heard of. She called it a barracks, but the soldiers that this place housed wore a uniform that she’d never seen before, certainly not Army, Navy or Air Force - or even SAS come to that - but definitely military in nature.
You got used to doing what you’re told in the Army so she didn’t question it when she was asked to sign an E-Notice. She’d already signed the Official Secrets Act as a standard part of her military life, but she’d never had to sign an E-Notice before nor had she ever heard of one. Rather than reading the text thoroughly, she’d skimmed it just to get a sense of what she was doing. But really, did she have much choice in the matter? She trusted the Army, they had her best interests and the interests of the country at heart, right?
There were sentences referring to ‘injections and implants’, all pretty standard practice in Army life, where you may get posted anywhere in the world and have to take your ‘shots’ to protect you from whatever nasties were out there. She’d never seen this before in any of the documents that she’d signed during her short military career. In outlining the types of threat that she might encounter - including via air, sea and land - this E-Notice made mention of ‘off world’ threats. She just assumed that this was one of those legalese ‘cover all’ statements. Like ‘Acts of God’ in the home insurance policy. It’s the sort of statement that the lawyers can use to weedle their way out of anything. ‘Could apply to meteorites and bits of fallen space stations I guess,’ she thought, and moved on without further reading to the signature area.
Besides, as a young 22 year old hungry for adventure, why wouldn’t she be up for this mission? It was like an opportunity to play at being James Bond, a bit of espionage. For some reason, she and this other guy had been selected entirely on the basis of their psychometric profiles. A random pairing, of no significance it had seemed at the time.
Of course, they had to be trained to a certain level of military competency, but it was their minds that were being sought for this particular job. It was a safe mission they’d been assured of that from the start. A 1% casualty risk apparently. Some boffin will have modelled it on a computer somewhere and come up with that figure. In military terms, that risk is fine. In fact, in a simple office risk assessment, that’s probably fine. No more than a knocked over hot coffee or a trip over a waste paper bin. Annoying, painful for a short while but not in need of a hospital visit. With both of them in hospital only 48 hours later, one of them on life support, that particular boffin might have wanted to double-check that figure of 1%.
Selection
It’s interesting to hear the objections and concerns that people have when they’re going to become a part of something special. It never fails to fascinate him, human beings are such complex, yet predictable, things. They just want to know that their families will be fine and that the outcome will be good. They have been chosen specifically on the basis of detailed psychometric testing. This testing process had been pioneered many years earlier, and had been proven to work time and time again in live simulations. In all respects these are just average people. Of course, they have certain basic parameters of health,
fitness and intelligence. But these are not the defining qualities for selection.
Every person selected for service in the bunker has been specially screened to ensure that they will act in exactly the same way in a simulation process. There are key indicators in their personality profile which ensure that with 99.9% accuracy, in moments of stress, they will behave the way that they need to. And most importantly, they have a predisposition to accept the concept of ‘the greater good.’ Not everybody gets that one. If you had to die to protect a person that you don’t know, to do something that would help other people, would you sacrifice your life? Many people say ‘No’ without hesitation. Others say ‘Yes’ but simulations show that they won’t follow through. There is another profile group which would only do so with further qualification and much more information. But in the blink of an eye, faced with sudden and overwhelming information confirming that you must give your life for the good of others, would you do it?
It turns out that you can select a specific group who will say ‘Yes’ without hesitation, because in an instant, they can see the logic of one death to save many lives. It takes a very unique mix of empathy, intelligence, bravery, logic, decision-making … he’d isolated over 57 key factors in this process. But he needed to be sure - with 99.9% accuracy - that when these people who’d been gathered in the bunker learned the terrible truth that they would make the right decision for the greater good. The future of all humanity.
Stillness
The world is still and waiting. Like it knows that this is only the beginning. Not a creature moves across the entire surface of the earth. All is still, and even within the darkness, there is no wind, the seas are calm and nature is at rest. It must have been like this at the beginning of the world, when there was no life. Only the life that inhabits this planet is sleeping - in biological stasis living, breathing, sleeping, still.
It is the same for the birds, the insects, the fish - even the ants have stopped work and succumbed to the unstoppable power of this darkness. Its blackness could suggest that it is a force of evil, something that has been created to annihilate life on this planet. But it is here because Man made it so. It is here because without it, this would be humanity’s final grave. It is here to breathe new life into this planet, to help it to live again.
Chapter Fifteen
In The Shadows
This has really got my interest. How come this guy has a blue light in his neck and everybody else that I’ve seen so far has a red one? Why do I seem to have more access to this bunker than anybody else that I’ve met here so far? Including Kate. I wouldn’t describe myself as unlucky, but neither am I a magnet for massive good fortune. So the thought that I might be the only person on the planet to be able to access virtually all the areas of this secret facility is preposterous. I’m twelve years old for goodness sake. I still don’t have access to all areas on the internet let alone a top secret military facility. Something is going on here and I’m getting more intrigued the more I learn. I’m desperate to take a look around Levels 3 and 4, but I want to know what this man is up to. He seems pretty intent, whatever it is, but I suspect that this blue and pulsating light must single him out as being different in some way. Maybe he’s a different rank. Or perhaps he has different access in the bunker. Who knows? But I’m going to postpone my visit to the newly discovered levels and see what he’s up to first.
But not before I do a quick test. ‘Excuse me!’ I shout to him as the lift doors open to reveal him walking along the corridor.
‘I’m trying to get to Level 3 and the lift doesn’t appear to be working.’ ‘Level 3 doesn’t exist,’ he relies, ‘It’s there in case they expand the bunker in future.’ ‘Okay, thank you!’ I reply and pretend to head off the other way along the corridor.
Scooby Doo and Shaggy would be proud of me. I double-back and follow at a safe distance along the corridor. Whatever is going on with Levels 3 and 4, the bunker staff certainly believe that they don’t exist. Or, they’re forbidden to share that information. However, that lady who did the demonstration earlier certainly couldn’t operate the lift beyond Level 2. I wonder if this chap with the blue flashing light in his neck could do it. I wonder if that’s what the colours signify? No time to debate this now though, he’s heading at some pace along the corridor.
It looks like he’s making for the bunker entrance, but that can’t make sense, there’s nothing to be done out there for now. According to Kate, we have to wait here until we get mission instructions. And then I notice something as I walk quietly behind him in the shadows. Ever since we committed to heading out towards the bunker entrance, I’ve noticed something different about the surveillance cameras. Beforehand, they were constantly showing signs of life via their whirring lenses and flashing LEDs. But these cameras are lifeless, they don’t appear to be powered up. Whatever this man is up to, it is going on unseen by anybody else in this bunker.
Simulation
They both believed that the entire scenario was for real. They carried out the mission with complete conviction and commitment In fact, they would never know that it was just a simulation. They were test subjects Zero-97/4 and Zero-98/4. Just another test.
A series of metrics, measurements and data that would feed into the program and get them towards their 99.9% outcome. In actual fact it was 100%, but in scientific and data terms, the tiniest margin for error was always left. Like the ‘Act of God’ in the home insurance. Wriggle room.
The metrics were so accurate by this stage that he was almost bored with the predictability of the outcome he was about to see played out before his eyes. But then he got the surprise of his life. A jolt out of complacency that was to give him a solution all those years later. He’d just found his 0.01%
Secrets
Attitudes towards Governments vary throughout the world, but on the most part, we accept who’s in charge and that they pretty well run our lives, certainly the most important bits. There’s ‘us’ and them - and whether you live in a democracy or under a totalitarian regime, the Government lies mostly on the edges of our day-to-day lives, yet defines pretty well most of what goes into it.
There are things that we just accept, which perhaps we shouldn’t. The sky is blue, there is a sun and a moon in the sky and the Earth’s surface is covered with land and sea. These things are absolutes in our lives. In more recent years, we’ve heard about the Ozone Layer, the melting ice caps, our polluted seas and diminishing resources. We accept these things and maybe worry about them a little because we assume that - largely speaking - there is nothing that we can do.
We accept it all - just like we do the sky, the sea and the sun - and leave it to Governments to deal with them while we attempt to do our ‘bit’ by recycling our rubbish, composting our vegetables, turning off the lights and leaving our wheelie bins outside the house every fortnight.
What if all of that was a lie though? A distraction from a much bigger, more frightening truth. What if the Governments themselves - who we all trust and leave to take care of these things on our behalf - what if they were involved in the biggest conspiracy of them all?And what if the long-promised global catastrophe that we all assumed would happen long after we were dead was happening right now? Today? Would you want to know about it or would you be happy to leave it in the capable hands of your Government?
A Sudden Noise
The woman and the child sat close together at the left hand corner of the bunker door. They’d said very little, and mainly the woman had attempted to comfort and reassure the child. It was a strange experience to be next to somebody in such blackness, and with no vision, it was almost obvious to maintain some form of physical contact. At first they’d just huddled up, but as the darkness became complete, she’d placed her arm over the child’s shoulders. If it was Dan, David or Harriet she’d have done it instinctively, so it seemed perfectly normal to do it with this child.
The laptop and Dan’s phone were close to hand, Harriet’s juice had been discarded in th
e rush, they were hungry and uncomfortable, but otherwise - other than being confused and concerned about what was going on - they had little choice but to wait and stay still. Unknown to her at that moment, her eldest son was doing exactly the same thing on the other side of the strong, impenetrable blast doors. Such a short distance between them, yet so far away.
And there was another person close by too, but neither of them were aware of his presence. He was standing in the entrance area, far enough away not to be heard, but still and quiet, waiting with the patience of a man who was accustomed to playing the long game. Yet he had one advantage over them. Because of who he was - and where he came from - he had the advantage of limited vision. Before the darkness dominated, he’d managed to put on a special visor. This was like nothing you’d see anywhere else. From a secret place. A special organisation. A visor that would protect him from the power of the darkness until he was able to enter the bunker. For a moment after putting on the visor, he’d silently cursed as his view was completely obscured. A change from Night Vision to Penetration Mode, and the two figures huddled together became quickly much clearer and sharper.
He knew the woman, he’d been with her only days before of course. Driving her to the training facility, returning her to the hospital which they were to use as part of her cover story. She would not recognise him, that memory would be erased via the implant in her neck. Or not so much erased. The brain is a powerful thing. It would be suppressed, as good as being erased as far as the brain is concerned. No, she would not recognise him, he’d be just another face in the crowd. But it was this youngster who was troubling him. At first he’d thought the woman had just ended up with someone who’d headed to the bunker at the same time as her. The first thing he’d noticed was that this person was about the same height as the boy, probably the same kind of age. But as he stood in complete silence in the darkness, watching the two huddled figures in front of him, he was struck by a sudden and shocking realisation. As his view sharpened and he focused intently on the youngster’s face he grew more certain of what he was seeing. This wasn’t the eldest child huddled with his mother in front of these massive blast doors. He was as sure as he could be that this was the child that he’d been responsible for killing three years earlier.