Once again taking the girls hand, Willie walked into the dark tunnel. When the rest of the group did not immediately follow, he stopped and looked questioningly at Ron. Ron shouted at the small group to move them and they followed Willie into the caves.
The group moved quickly, yet quietly through the dark tunnel. Absolute darkness enveloped them as they moved deeper into the rock. They stumbled along, feeling their way forward as they hurried to keep up with Willie. They could not see him, but they could hear the echo of his foot-steps in the darkness, rebounding off the stone walls. They walked in silence punctuated only by the sounds of their breathing and their shoes as they slapped on the cold, damp stone floor. Water dripped from the unseen overhead ceiling, and they could hear the far off roar of one of the many rivers that ran through the underground caves as they walked.
They eventually came to the wide rock tunnel that The Man had shown Willie. Bright fluorescent light illuminated the tunnel, and the large trucks that were abandoned within it. Bodies littered the asphalt of the roadway, and the stench of decomposition caused several of the small group to gag. Willie, who was certain he had smelled worse, turned left and walked between the stalled traffic. Ron kept the small group moving forward, although the smell sickened him as well, and tried to avoid the moldy bodies lying on the damp roadway as he went.
Willie turned left again and the following group entered a small corridor. The corridor was lit with fluorescent light as well, and had obviously been carved from the rock.
The small rocky tunnel had been built for maintenance of the ventilation system and its’ cold, stone walls bore the marks of the jackhammers that had bit into it, as they chewed through it. The small corridor turned to the right and paralleled the main tunnel as it sloped downward through the rock.
Ron inched up beside Willie as they walked.
"How come the lights are on, Willie?" he asked. "It’s kind'a spooky, you know?"
"Generator," Willie responded. "The place has its own power supply. That's why The Man wants it. Wait till we get down in it, Ronnie old bud. They built a top secret base down here, but what the bases commander didn't even know?”
“What,” Ron asked when it became obvious Willie was waiting for him to answer.
“They went another half mile down and they built themselves a regular city down here," Willie answered.
"No shit!" Ron exclaimed. "I knew they were up to something, but I didn't know that."
"Sure," Willie continued. "That was supposed to be used for all the real important people. You know, like the President, I guess, The Man didn't say. Tough shit for them though. They didn't make it," Willie snickered, and then continued. "The man says there're some people in there though."
"How many," Ron asked, unconsciously clutching the dead greasy-haired kid's rifle.
"Not many," Willie replied. "The Man said, take 'em out if they give us any shit. They're mostly scared to death, and they ain't expecting us to come in the back door." He continued. "The piping for the ventilation split up here a ways and we'll just walk right in through it and say howdy."
Ron looked over to the right at the bare wall.
"Not yet, stupid, up ahead. The pipe doesn’t run through this shaft, but it crosses it up ahead. It broke where it comes across, The Man showed me. We'll walk right in, easy as you please, Ronnie boy. That pipe will take us to an air duct." He paused briefly.
"See... they put all these air ducts in there. They're all over," he said, "and the one we're gonna get inside through, comes out in a big open area, sort'a like a garden, or a small park. The way they set em up, they sort'a hid 'em in the bushes. You know, to make em look kind'a natural, get it?" he eyed Ron as he walked beside him. Ron nodded.
"So..." Willie continued, "All we got to do is just sneak in from there. They got a big control room full of computers, and TV sets and all kind of high tech. shit like that. That's what The Man wants. He said they ain't got everything up and running yet, but it won't be a big deal to get it up, you know? They got something else he wants too."
"What?" Ron asked in an awed voice.
"Dunno, Something special is all he said, and believe you me, when you meet him, you'll see he ain't the sort'a guy you ask questions of, know what I mean?"
Ron shook his head. "No. I ain't so sure I want to find out either."
"Little late for that, Ron old bud. In fact a whole lott'a late," Willie said seriously as he looked at Ron.
The girl beside him shivered as he spoke, and began to whine deep in her throat.
"Guess you might'a fucked up too, girlie," he said, and grinned as he continued. "Just be glad it wasn't Him that wanted you."
Ron slowed his pace and dropped back to the rear of the group as they walked.
What the fuck have I gotten myself into here? He wondered, as he shook his head and plodded along.
They came upon the broken air-shaft a few hours later. Willie ducked in, dragging the girl with him, and the small group followed. This time Ron hadn't needed to prod them.
He followed quietly, still wondering to himself, as they wound through the shaft and deep down into the earth in the direction of the underground city.
Before Willie had appeared they had known someone would come. It had not been a feeling, but a knowing, and although they had not discussed it, they had all waited for that someone to come and lead them to wherever they were meant to go.
Ron had seriously considered walking into one of the remaining buildings, sitting down, putting the rifles barrel into his mouth, and squeezing the trigger. He had even started to carry through with the fantasy that had worked its way into his brain.
He had walked into one of the shops, sat down against the back wall, stared out the glass front at the lake, and put the barrel into his mouth. He had not been able to pull the trigger though. Instead he had sat and wept silently. In the end he had resigned himself to the decision he had made, along with the others, and had gone out to wait with the rest of the group. He didn't know what he was waiting for, but he was terribly afraid as he waited, and sure that he would live to regret the decision. Nevertheless he waited in silence with the small group, as the sun began to creep up over the horizon.
When Willie had come he had been relieved in a way. He had been expecting The Man to come. He had no idea who The Man was; he had simply known he would come. When it had been Willie he had been sure that the feelings, as well as the sudden knowledge of The Man, had been wrong. For one short and wild moment, he had allowed hope to creep back in. The conviction was short lived though. Before the young black man had even reached the small group Ron had known he was there to prepare the way for The Man. Willie was a messenger of sorts, a messenger who would only bring bad news, evil news. A messenger from The Man, sent forth to gather his people of the earth together. Ron had been afraid then. Not for his physical body, or even his soul. His soul, he was afraid, was not his to be afraid for any longer. His fear was nameless, non-specific, but it was a great and terrible fear that threatened to overwhelm him. It still pulsed through his blood and echoed within his head as he walked through the duct work.
The fact that he could not quell it, only served to feed it, and as he walked along he struggled with it. He was very close to losing his mind, he felt. His mind screamed out to him to turn and run back in the other direction, but his feet betrayed him, and continued to carry him forward.
Although he was not aware of it, Willie had fought the same battle. For Willie it had been much simpler though. He had simply given into the insanity. It had been the only way he could cope with the events that had surely been unreal.
For Willie the end had come when he had decided to give into, what he considered a false reality. If the world had become insane, wasn't it reasonable to also become insane? Willie convinced himself that it was, and he had immediately felt better about the situation. It was much easier to believe it wasn't real and to push the screaming voice in his head that assured him it was, away.
> Ron was at that place now, along with several others in the small group. He knew, suddenly realized, that even more people were on their way to the city within the caves. Could it be reasonable, or sane, he wondered, to know something without being told? He also knew that he would soon need to either act on the urge to run, or give in to the urge to stay.
He sadly realized that he had already decided, and with the decision, reached out and embraced the insanity. It took hold quickly, and, he found, it was far easier to think now that his mind was not so clouded. This was right, he realized. I have only been marking time in a world that I could love no more than it could love me. His face, which had been clouded, sprouted a small smile, and as he walked he fed it, until it grew to cover the frown that had been there. He was no longer greatly concerned about the right or wrong of the circumstances he found himself in. He only hoped he could hold the smile when he met The Man. He worked at it as he walked along.
By the time the small group reached the air vent, and stood staring through it into the small garden, there were no dissenters among them. Five of their group were absent, and lay dead or dying behind them in the air shaft.
Ron had not been the only one to stop the fleeing individuals. The group had simply known, and each had been dealt with silently as they had turned to run. None had been given the time to scream out, as all the remaining group had sensed that the consequences would be great if anything were allowed to stop them, or signal their arrival.
Ron and Willie, finally managed to loosen the air vent, and the small group crept silently into the garden.
Far above them, in the small city of Watertown, a heavily armed group started into the dark void in the rock. They were looking for a man named Willie. They only knew that when they found him he would tell them what to do from there.
Western, New York
Frank and Jessie
Forty miles to the west a Jeep moved slowly through the morning light down an overgrown roadway. They had been forced to detour around several breaks in the pavement of the road. They had constantly been forced to stop and push stalled vehicles out of their way as well.
They had spent the night in an abandoned state park that fronted Lake Ontario. The water that had once lapped at the beach had retreated several hundred yards back, and the weeded and muddied floor of the lake lay naked and exposed. They had spoken little, and had not slept well. All of them had been awakened during the night by vivid nightmares, the worst of which had apparently been reserved for Gary, who had sworn when he had awoken that something had been inside his body, something that had tried to push him out. The events of the last few days weighed heavily on all of them, the nightmares were overpowering, and most of them were afraid to go back to sleep. After a quick discussion they had abandoned their efforts to return to sleep. They had left even before the sun had begun to rise over the water and resumed their journey.
Rochester, New York
To the west, in the city of Rochester, the sun had risen slowly, revealing her quiet streets.
As the sun had risen, the street lights that had held the darkness back, switched off.
The highways that entered the city were choked with silent traffic. In the city Small groups of people walked her streets as if lost. Some had lived there, but most had made the short trek from the surrounding communities. Others were on their way. Some had dreamed of the city, others had not, but had simply felt compelled to journey there.
The groups were waiting. For what they were unsure. They only knew that they were waiting, and they supposed they would know what for when it arrived. In the meantime they waited, and as they waited some groups began to merge and join together.
Earth
Far above the Earth satellites still continued to orbit. The North American continent lay seemingly sleeping far below. A wide lake had formed in the middle, fed by a huge river that stretched from the former Hudson Bay, to the Gulf of Mexico. The river, along with the huge lake, split the continent in two from ocean to ocean.
The smaller eastern section of the continent had already begun to drift. Although it was imperceptible, the two land masses were inching away from one another, and ultimately would be separated by a new ocean, and become separate, smaller continents.
The once magnificent country of America was no more. The eastern end of the former United States was also drifting away from the northern section of Canada. The massive earthquakes that had been triggered by the meteor strike in the states of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, had also severed the state of Michigan, and turned it into a virtual island.
Parts of Indiana had succumbed to the waters of the new river and the state of Alabama, which had lain at the end its meandering path, was divided in two by the river where it made its way to the Gulf of Mexico, spreading to nearly a hundred miles wide as it emptied its waters.
Toward what had been the north, the St. Lawrence River had widened, pushing the land masses further apart. The bridges that had once spanned the mighty river had succumbed as the river basin had split and pulled apart.
The new continent had also severed her ties from Nova Scotia, as she had been pulled south and slightly east, to begin her journey. Only the province of New Brunswick and a small portion of Quebec remained with the continent. The rest of Canada was severed from them by the wide and deep river, more like a huge lake in places, which surged from ocean to ocean.
Most of the North American continent was now in a sub-tropical climate as well. The poles had been displaced by the huge force of the meteor blast. The old polar caps were melting, and it would be thousands of years before they would once again re-form in their new locations.
The run-off from the melting ice would eventually reach the oceans, and even more land mass would be sacrificed to the waves before the polar caps would be re-formed.
There were only thirteen full states left on the small continent. The two former provinces of Canada, one of which was only a small fragment, and parts of five former states, the largest being Florida. Far out in the Gulf of Mexico, what was left of the former state of Alabama had become an island.
People grouped together on all the remaining lands and lines began to be drawn. The waters were the new boundaries and great battles were in the works, or already occurring, between the opposing groups to establish dominion over the remaining lands of the world. The spiritual battle raged, unseen by most, while on the Earth the human battles began.
Watertown, New York
In the small city of Watertown, which rested near the shore of the former lake Ontario, the river waters had continued to rise and the lake in the center of the small downtown section continued to spread. By the time the last groups of people had splashed through the tunnels and into the caves, they had been walking through better than two feet of cold and muddy river-water. The pressure from the lake above had continued to collapse small sections of caves and tunnels below the city and was helped along by small after-shocks. But even as the lake grew, and the water depths increased, it continued to spread and eventually found its way to the Great Lakes basin. The water levels began to fall once more to normal levels as the great pressure swept away the debris that had blocked its old routes and caused it to rise in the first place: The waters found new routes across the Black River valley and emptied into the Great Lakes basin.
Far below the still operating base, Bluechip, lay the underground city the CIA had been building in secret for the last several years. Code Named Utopia it could hardly live up to its name sake now. It had fallen into chaos almost immediately with no one to lead it. The fresh air tunnels lay open to the elements, or had flooded, allowing water into the small city.
When the last group had reached the air shaft, they had immediately pitched in to help brick the passage way off. One group had already begun the work, and had only been waiting for the last group to arrive before the remaining bricks and concrete blocks were stacked and cemented into place in the four foot thick wall. The materials, along with sandb
ags initially used to hold back the rising waters, had been taken from huge stockpiles within the city, and from the stalled trucks within the wide tunnel that lead into the military base far above them. There was no way in and no way out of the city, with one small exception.
The exception was the series of air ducts that also fed the base above. The ducts led away towards a small mountain-peak about a mile from the city of Watertown. There the ducts merged together inside a huge natural rock tunnel that had been part of the original network of caves and passage ways. That tunnel culminated deep within the mountain at the air treatment facility. It would be possible to walk through one of the many air shafts to the tunnel, break through the ducting, and follow it to the treatment facility. From there they could break into the ducting that led to the top of the mountain to supply the air to the filtering facility. It would be difficult, but it would be possible. The end of the trip would bring them to the top of the mountain, overlooking most of the state. From there they could go anywhere.
The takeover of the underground city had been easy. There had been no soldiers, no special forces, and the technical people had not wanted a fight. Most had decided to join Willie's group. The ones who refused were shot, and tossed out of the city unceremoniously into a pile at the main tunnel entrance.
They had removed the crushed truck, reactivated the air lock at the main entrance to the base above, and the city was once again totally isolated from outside elements. Willie had no doubt that whatever fool might still be in charge of the base above had wondered over who these people were closing off what he believed to be his tunnel. But the fool, or fools, had not come to check. The area was locked down and they were gone within a very short time: If he had sent someone they had found nothing at all.
Earth's Survivors Box Set [Books 1-7] Page 177