~
“How far did you guys go?” Craige asked. He held a torch, but it was unlit. They all carried lanterns and the moving air currents coming from the tunnels made the flames jump and dance on the wicks. The torches were just back ups in case they needed them.
“Not very,” Katie admitted. “Me, Aim, Lilly and Janna went in searching for rooms for storage. We found more than we thought we'd ever need so we didn't bother searching further. We did block the tunnels off as best we could, more out of concern that one of the kids would go wandering and get lost or something.” She looked around at the other women who nodded.
Craige nodded. “So, we'll split up? You, Amy and Lilly take everything to the left, Bonnie, Cindy and I will take everything to the right?”
“Works for me,” Katie agreed. “But we won't really be separated, right? When we're checking you'll be waiting, when you’re checking we will?”
Craige nodded. “I think that's the best way to do it. That should be safe for all of us. Mark the walls as you go and no one will get lost, now or down the road some time.”
They all had huge chunks of charcoal to mark with. It made a mess of your hands, Katie had already found out the hard way, she had a long black streak down one cheek that Lilly had pointed out, but it did work.
They were all dressed warmly too. In the tunnels the temperature dropped significantly. They were carrying their lunches, water, and extra fuel for the lanterns as well. Even so they were not heavily laden. They set out down the main tunnel, passing the rooms already used that slipped off to one side or another as they went. Soon they were in a longer section of tunnel with nothing branching off either side. The ceiling rose into the darkness above them.
“Some of this is hand carved,” Katie said as she held her lantern higher on the walls. It was too symmetrical. The walls bore the evidence of being chipped away bit by bit.
“Yeah,” Craige agreed. “And all with stone tools too. That's a lot of work.”
The tunnel curved to the right, dropping down into the rock of the mountain slightly as it went. Occasionally the light would reflect off some painting on the walls: Crude hand prints: What looked like Mammoths, herds of them, and smaller still stick figures that Katie supposed represented the people themselves. An eye here. The shape of a foot there. But no complete persons actually represented as any more than a stick figure. Two stick arms. Two stick legs, a small circle for a stomach and a smaller circle still that represented the head.
The first passage opened to the left, and Katie, Amy and Lilly stepped carefully into it as the others stood waiting in the main corridor.
The first thing they felt was steamy heat as they stepped deeper into the narrow passageway. The floor was wet and slippery under their feet. The passage curved upward and then hard to the left and opened into a large room more than half filled by a large pool of water. A dry rocky ledge bordered the water on the side where they stood. A rocky island sat in the middle of the small pool.
A wide stream of water cascaded down from the ceiling to meet the cloudy water of the pool. Katie bent down and carefully put her hand in the water. Hot, but not so hot that she couldn't stand it. Across the water, it was no more than sixty feet wide, maybe twice that in length, she thought, the water overflowed into a low roofed tunnel and drained away to somewhere. The mineral smell of sulfur hung in the moist air: Strong, but not overpowering.
“Aim?” Katie asked.
“Mm hm?” she answered. She was seemingly lost in the beauty of the place.
“Let's try that exit first,” Katie said. She pointed to the first of two openings that led into the room.
The openings, upon further examination, were obviously hand cut and lead to nearly identical smallish rooms, about a hundred feet square. None were sure what they may have been used for. They were empty, wet and slippery floored as the rest of the place was.
“We should get the others,” Katie said.
Lilly nodded and then turned and retraced her way out to the main tunnel. She was back in less than a handful of minutes with the others.
“Wow,” Cindy said, as she stepped into the open space. The extra light seemed to wake up the room. Streaks of red, orange, yellow and silver-gold marked the walls and: The sparkle of mica reflected light and sparkled here and there, reflecting the lantern light.
“Hot baths for sure,” Bonnie said.
“Maybe that's what the rooms were for? Showers?” Cindy said.
“I doubt it,” Craige said. “How could they get the water there?”
“I'll bet Dustin could figure out how to get the water there,” Katie said. “If they weren’t showers before I see a future as showers in their cards.”
Everyone laughed.
“Oh yeah,” Amy agreed. “And I'll bet that water isn't too hot to swim in either.”
“You can bet we'll find out about that and soon too,” Lilly laughed.
“You know, the whole trip was worth it if this is all we find,” Craige said. “This setup will save Dustin a lot of work too. I'll bet that water is plenty hot. I think the water coming in from the ceiling is all that keeps it cool enough to think about swimming in it.”
They all marveled over the long, hot room a few moments longer and then they left to continue exploring the rest of the main tunnel.
~
There were a half dozen small rooms off either side of the main tunnel that would prove useful. Almost all of them had been at least partially worked by hand.
The air flow through the tunnel became stronger as they searched deeper. It carried a warmer breeze with it and the scent of something that seemed familiar. Several commented on it, but no one could place it with any certainty. They were about to stop for lunch when they reached a divide in the tunnel.
The left tunnel sloped downward steeply, the right side twisted upward. Craige held his lantern in both passages and the flame danced just as wildly. He turned and looked at Katie.
“Makes no difference to me,” Katie said.
“Let's do the left side, have our lunch and then we'll do the right side,” Cindy suggested.
Katie lead the way down the left tunnel.
“How far do you think we've come?” she asked of anyone who cared to answer.
“Not very far if you think about it. We've spent most of our time exploring,” Bonnie said. “Maybe a quarter mile... Give or take.”
“That feels about right,” Cindy agreed.
“Hey,” Katie said. “Look.”
Light spilled around a curve in the tunnel ahead where it twisted to the right slightly. The warm air was stronger, almost hot as it poured into the tunnel.
They slowed as they approached the turn, and then stepped around it onto a wide rocky shelf. A wide green valley swept away from them, running in between towering mountain peaks.
They were approximately thirty feet above the valley floor, Craige thought. Worn, stone steps, cut into the rock, led steeply down to the valley floor.
“Wow... Where is this?”Katie asked.
“It has to be the other side of the mountain,” Lilly said from beside her: Her voice was quieted with awe.
“Has to be,” Amy agreed.
“It's as big as our valley,” Craige said. “At least.”
“More space as we welcome people to the fold,” Lilly said.
Katie looked at her.
“Probably more here before the snow flies,” Craige agreed. “That what you guys call this? The fold? I thought it was the Nation... Unofficially.”
“It is so complicated,” Katie said. “Way more than what it needs to be too. But,” she took a second to compose herself. “When we met James and Janna they began talking immediately about this place... We didn't just end up here by accident, James knew about this place. He wanted to build the new Native Nation here. We almost fell apart over that, but we came here. It's called The Nation for short. But I have heard The Fold a few times too. Mostly from Jessie's people. They had an idea to s
tart a place called The Fold. A settlement. The Fold, as in welcome to the fold. But in these days and times it seems like a name like that can get nailed down and gain a lot of importance pretty fast.” She sighed. “There's so much... Feeling... No, there are people that have their feelings wrapped up in a name, I guess. This name, that name... I suppose we'll have to sit down and work it out so feelings don't get hurt even more.”
Lillie's eyes were wide. “What do you think, Katie?”
Amy and Bonnie turned to her too.
“Well... I don't know to be honest with you. I didn't think about it. I think it's a name... A name.” She shrugged. “It doesn't make the place, we do. So I guess I'll go with what the majority thinks.” She smiled uncertainly. “Did I miss something? Is it a big deal as all of that?” She tried a small laugh that was answered by the others.
“I doubt it,” Craige offered. “We had kicked a few names around too...” He smiled and then laughed. “I can't think of a single one of them now though. I guess it's like you say. It's just a name.” Craige turned back to the valley and the others turned with him. Katie made a mental note to talk to Conner about the conversation later.
A deep stream of water worked its way down the rock face from high above them somewhere, leaving a heavy mist hanging against the rock face as it fell to the stream bed below. A herd of wild horses grazed the valley floor about a half mile away, and a larger herd of bison another half mile beyond that.
It appeared that the valley ended at the next rise of the foothills a mile or so away, but they suspected, like their own, it probably curved around to the left or the right. There would be no way of knowing until they explored it thoroughly. The shelf of rock they were on ran along the face of the rock some three hundred feet before it curved back into the rock face, Craige thought. The overhang was carved deeply into the side of the mountain too. The wind, maybe some long gone water source, something had carved the rock away over a long course of time, leaving the wide ledge and its concave back wall.
They walked it from one end to the other. Like their own cave, it was just the tunnel leading away. In their cave it turned into a large room, here it lead back to the divide in the tunnel.
“It's beautiful,” Katie said.
“And probably very useful too,” Bonnie agreed.
“Well... Let's have our lunch... Go check the other one and then head back before they wonder where the hell we got to,” Amy added.
“Works for me,” Craige agreed. He settled down beside Cindy on the wide rock shelf. They looked over the valley in silence as they ate.
~
The other tunnel curved away to the right, sharply rising as it did. Just before it seemed as though it would have to curve back around on itself, it opened into a large cavern of a room.
The room was easily twice the size of the one that they used. Light streamed into the room from several places, along with the smell they had been following. It became obvious immediately. Small wisps of smoke seemed to drift up from the corner of the room and lift upward toward the ceiling. Most of it made its way to the ceiling, but some of it was caught by the currents of air and pulled apart.
The ceiling seemed to have no outlets to allow the smoke to escape. A cloud of blue-gray smoke hung thirty feet above them, swirling slightly in the air currents from the openings that lead to the outside.
“It has to be coming from our fire,” Craige said. He seemed to be lost in thought for a second. He turned his head first one way, looking along the tunnel they had traveled through, and then back to the front, staring at the rock floor some ten feet below them. He continued. “Has to be... We curved around enough and doubled back... We must be right over the top of our cave. It's the only thing that makes sense.”
Katie nodded. “James tracked it, when we started the fires. They seep out through natural cracks and work their way to the top of the mountain. He found the place where what's left of the smoke comes out. Not a lot left either. This has to be part of that.”
Across the wide expanse of floor below them sunlight streamed into the room from a break in the wall. They carefully worked their way down a gently sloping, worn stone path to the lower level. They walked across the floor to the crack in the side of the wall where sunlight streamed through.
Thick, woody branches pushed their way through the opening into the room. Craige used his hands to push the brushy branches that intruded into the space back out, snapping off some of them as he did. A few minutes of work cleared an area that stretched up about fifteen feet, and was about three feet wide at the bottom. He worked his way deeper into the space, pushing the branches before him, the occasional snapping of larger branches coming to those that waited.
Aha,” They heard him say a few minutes later. They heard a grunt and a bush came backwards from the narrow opening, showering dirt across the floor as it did. He poked his head back around the door grinning. “Come see this, ladies,” he said as he once more disappeared from sight.
Katie stepped forward. She hesitated, peering into the narrow opening and suddenly a sheep popped its head in at her.
“Bahhhh,” the sheep protested.
Katie's heart leapt into her throat as Craige broke into laughter outside of the cave. “Jesus,” she squeaked. A second later they were all laughing loudly looking at sheep that was staring back at them, its own eyes wide and frightened. The sheep popped its head back outside and Craige appeared in the opening grinning and red faced.
“You...” Amy said. She shook her fist at him, but she was squirting tears of laughter from her eyes.
“The brave party of explorers were killed and eaten by a herd of sheep,” Cindy managed. That got them all going again.
“Oh, Christ,” Lilly managed, swiping at her eyes. She stepped up beside Katie and the two of them stepped out into the light.
Katie caught her breath and tried to slow her racing heart.
“Jesus,” she said again.
“Scared me too, Kate.” Amy agreed
“Goddamn goat,” Lilly said.
“Goddamned sheep,” Cindy corrected, and they all began to giggle as they made their way out into the bright sunlight.
They looked at each other and burst into laughter once again. Katie stepped out into the light first.
“Oh,” she said. “Come on, girls. We're home.”
The other three lead by patty stepped out into the small field above the cave. Behind them Craige pushed the one inquisitive sheep away and began shoving the broken brush and limbs he had removed back into the opening. “Unless we want a cave full of goats and sheep,” he said when Cindy looked at him.
They followed the stream that wound through one edge of the field to where it fell away from the mountain. The valley they had found earlier lay far below them, winding away on the opposite side of the mountain.
From this vantage point it was easy to see the other valley in its entirety. The herd of horses, the larger herd of bison grazing further out.
The valley didn't turn as their own did. This valley just widened out into a broad plain that rolled away to the mountains in the distance. On one side the walls fell away and they could see where their own second valley cut back into this one.
This new valley was accessible from their own valley. All that lay between was the rocky ridge. To the right there was another low rock spine and then a pine woods that marched away to the horizon. Neat orderly rows, Katie noticed. Probably reforested land, but it had to be generations ago. The trees were huge.
One of the big dogs came over and wagged its tail. The female, Katie noticed. Her belly so large it nearly touched the ground as she walked.
“Come here, girl,” Katie called. The dog trotted over and sniffed her. She wagged her tail harder. Katie grabbed the fur on either side of her huge head and gave her a good scratching. He tail wagged even harder. “Looks like you and me are in the same boat,” she told the dog. She looked around smiling. “And Lilly... And Aim... Hey! This dog should be groun
ded just like we are,” she laughed. “Look at the size of her!”
“She looks about to pop,” Lilly agreed. “But so do we, and we got a way to go yet.”
Katie laughed. “True.” She looked around. “Might as well take the easy way down,” she said as she started for the trail that lead down to the cave.
They walked down the ledge and found Janna and Beth leaning against the waist high stone wall that fronted the ledge that looked out over the valley.”Kate,” Janna said. “I thought you girls were inspecting the caves?” Her eyes swept over the others to include them in the question.
“Exploring, Janna. We were. We found a way to the top of the mountain and also to the other side.” She included Beth with a smile. “Should you even be up and around?”
“It's an arm,” Beth said as if it really meant nothing more to her. She smiled and dropped the serious tone from her voice. “I can not stand lying around, and Adam thinks I should retire from life or something, it's crazy, really.” She had edged back toward serious, but as she finished they all burst into laughter.
“Men,” Amy said. “Good thing they don't have to have babies.”
Bonnie snorted laughter. “The human race would be done right there,” she laughed.
“We also found a small water filled room. Warmed water,” Annie said.
“It is going to become a bath house I suspect,” Craige said. He seemed embarrassed to be there as everyone turned and looked at him as though they had completely forgotten he was there. “I... I think I'll go down and see what the boys are doing,” he added red faced.
'We didn't mean you, Craige,” Cindy added. Craige turned bright red, smiled harder and mumbled something as he made his way to the path that lead down into the valley.
“Sorry, Cindy,” Amy said.
“Why do guys get so embarrassed by stuff like that? Don't they hang out and talk about us? Or make a joke now and then?” She asked.
“They do... It's just harder when they are caught in it,” she placed a hand to her mouth to hold back a giggle.
Several others giggled too. Janna looked serene as she always did.
Earth's Survivors: box set Page 113
