Tamed by the Vault Dwellers

by Clea Kinderton

  It must have been a trick of the light.

  “Did you see something?” Will pressed, flashing his own light around.

  “Shh!” I hissed.

  I scanned the room below more systematically, noting the enormous, circular metal vats. They must have been twenty feet high and at least forty feet across. An assemblage of canisters stood beside each vat, but I couldn’t make out how they were connected. Tubes or pipes or something. Everything appeared to be covered in cobwebs.

  The beam must have caught the top of one of the canisters, and the shadow cast by the canister when I moved the light across it must have created the illusion of a moving shape.

  “Is everything alright, Robyn?” said Kayla, scanning my face with a look of fright.

  “Yeah,” I said, finally responding to their queries. I tried to smile reassuringly. “I just thought I saw something. Just a trick of the light.”

  Kayla squeezed my arm, looking relieved.

  Will breathed a sigh of relief as well. Everyone was more nervous than they were letting on.

  “There should be a set of stairs around here somewhere,” Will said.

  Kayla hunched over her phone. “What did your friend say happened to his equipment?” she asked.

  “Why?” Will gave her a look.

  “Never mind. My phone went blank, but it’s working again.”

  On an impulse, I took my phone out of my back pocket and checked it. It was working, but there was no signal.

  “I don’t have a signal,” I said.

  “No, you wouldn’t,” said Andrew, squinting at the Geiger counter. “Not under all this concrete.” The counter was clicking with its usual slow, irregular pace.

  Well, that’s reassuring, I thought sarcastically as I tucked the phone back in my pocket. Sure hope we don’t need any emergency medical services.

  I understood why Andrew had brought a first aid kit, now. I hoped he knew how to use it. I hoped even more that he wouldn’t have to.

  “This way,” said Will, leading us to the right.

  Our feet rattled across the metal grating. I realized that I’d completely lost all sense of direction and position. I had no idea where we were located beneath the city or what direction we were traveling. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to find my way back out. The thought sent an unpleasant chill down my spine, but no one else seemed to be worried about it.

  We followed the catwalk until we came to a corner and turned to the left, following the walk until we came to a door. Dark panes of glass in the wall beside the door reflected our light. The walkway continued past the windows into the darkness.

  “This is the place,” said Will, stopping in front of the door.

  “What place?” said Andrew.

  “This is as far as he got.” Will pushed the door open with a loud screech. “It’s some kind of observation room.”

  We all followed Will into a long, narrow room. Metal cabinets covered with switches, dials, cables, and gauges lined the back wall. Old World War II technology. It looked like some kind of early computer. A row of metal desks with chairs neatly tucked under them faced the windows. The tops of the desks were empty aside from a thick layer of dust. The chair from the nearest desk had been pulled out and the dust on the surface of the desk had been disturbed. No doubt that’s where Will’s friend had set up shop.

  I walked to one of the desks and pulled open the top drawer. It rattled open but was empty. They’d taken everything that had been easy to carry.

  “Do you think this still works?” said Kayla. She was walking along the bay of computer cabinets, checking the dials with her flashlight.

  “I doubt it,” said Andrew. “The parts are probably corroded.”

  I noticed an odd discoloration on the desk and wiped away some dust with my hand, revealing another painted circle. This one had two jerky lines extending from it.

  “Look at this,” I said, wiping away more of the dust.

  The others gathered around as I revealed a whole series of symbols. Lines and circles with dots here and there. They reminded me vaguely of crop circles, but they were far cruder.

  I pulled my phone out and held it up to take a picture but the screen wouldn’t light up.

  “Get a picture,” I said to Will. “My phone isn’t working.”

  “Neither is mine,” said Kayla, holding it under the flashlight for us to see.

  “Or mine,” said Will, consternated.

  We turned and looked at Andrew but he shook his head. “Mine isn’t working either,” he said, tucking it back in his pocket.

  “That’s weird, right?” said Kayla, her face even paler than usual.

  “Yeah, it’s weird,” said Will. “Got any explanations, doc?” he said, turning to Andrew.

  Andrew just shrugged. “Losing reception is easy to explain. All our phones not working at the same time is not.”

  “Magnets?” said Kayla helpfully.

  “Maybe if you had one big enough to lift a truck,” said Andrew.

  “Could something have drained the batteries?” I asked.

  Andrew shrugged. “Not as far as I know.” He flipped the switch on the Geiger counter but nothing happened. “The counter’s dead, too.”

  “Okay, this is extremely weird,” said Kayla.

  “The same thing happened to my friend. Everything just stopped working.” Will was still playing with his phone, trying to get it to work.

  My flashlight flickered, but everyone else’s seemed to be working fine.

  “Maybe we should go?” I said, suddenly feeling very anxious.

  “Maybe there’s a light switch or something,” said Kayla.

  “What for?” said Andrew.

  “For the lights in the hall. I don’t want to go all the way back in the dark if the flashlights stop working.” She began scanning the computer banks again.

  “You’re not going to find a light switch on there,” said Will. “It’s a computer. Or something.”

  “What about this?” she said, stopping in front of a large switch with a handle on the very last cabinet.

  “Don’t play with it,” said Andrew. “You don’t have any idea what it will do. This facility was for storing nuclear waste.”

  “It says ‘Backup’,” she said.

  “Backup for what?” said Andrew.

  “Let’s find out.”

  Before any of us could stop her, Kayla grabbed the switch and cranked it up, slamming it into place.

  4

  We waited with our breath held but nothing happened.

  “Well that sucks,” Kayla said, pouting.

  “Just be glad you didn’t blow us all up,” said Will.

  There was a loud metallic thunk from somewhere deep in the open room on the other side of the windows. We all froze, terrified. There was a hum and a second later a dim light appeared over our heads. We looked up, watching in dumbfounded amazement as the coil in the bare bulb glowed into life. A series of loud clicks followed and huge banks of lights hanging from the ceiling in the main room flickered to light, gradually growing brighter.

  “Yay!” Kayla shouted, clapping.

  “I don’t fucking believe it,” said Andrew.

  “This place was built to last,” said Will, clapping him on the shoulder and smiling as proudly as if he’d built the vault himself.

  I peered through the windows, but they were so filthy it was hard to see anything clearly. I walked to the door and stepped out onto the catwalk.

  The room was enormous. Far larger than I’d suspected. Hundreds of feet long and at least two hundred feet wide. Two rows of vats filled most of the open space below, each with a bank of canisters and a large electrical panel beside it. Everything was covered in a thick layer gray fuzz. At first I thought it was cobwebs, but on closer inspection it looked more like ... mold.

  “Uh, guys. That can’t be good for us,” I said, pointing down at the gray carpet covering everything.

  “Ew,” said Kayla. “Isn’t mo
ld really bad for you?”

  “Uh huh,” said Andrew. “Most of it. We should be wearing face masks.”

  “We should be leaving,” said Kayla, pulling her t-shirt up over her nose.

  “You’d think we’d be coughing. Or our eyes would be watering or something. Maybe it’s harmless.” Will sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

  “Maybe it’s lethal,” said Kayla from behind her shirt.

  “We should go,” said Andrew.

  “Guys! Come on! Where’s your sense of adventure? This is the find of the century.” Will wasn’t going to give up so easily.

  “We’ll get a sample,” said Andrew. “Get it examined. And if it’s not too dangerous we’ll come back. With gas masks.”

  “You guys suck,” said Will.

  He started marching resolutely across the catwalk toward the stairs leading down into the chamber.

  “What are you doing?” said Andrew, exasperated.

  “I’m going down to check it out.”

  “Check what out? There’s nothing but mold down there,” Andrew shouted after his friend.

  “You don’t know what’s down there,” said Will, stepping down onto the first step.

  I ran after him, the catwalk clattering loudly under my feet.

  “Wait,” I said, catching up to him.

  Will turned to look at me. “What?”

  “Don’t go down there,” I said, grabbing his sleeve.

  Will hesitated, then pulled a Ziploc bag from his pocket. “I’m going down to get a sample,” he said.

  He pulled himself free and thumped down the steps, making them rattle.

  “Guys?” I said, waving them over. “Help me get him back. He’s your friend.”

  They stared at me from where they were but made no move to help me. I scowled at them and then started down the steps after Will.

  Andrew and Kayla trudged reluctantly to the top of the stairs and then stopped. Will was already at the bottom, making a trail through the mold with his sneakers.

  “It’s spongy,” he said. “It must be a foot deep. Maybe eighteen inches.”

  “Will! Get back here,” I said, scolding him from the last step above the mold. I didn’t even want to get it on my sneakers.

  “I think it’s harmless,” he said. “It’s just some weird kind of fungus.” He bent down and, using the bag like a glove, scooped some up. He squinted into the bag at the mold and then sealed it shut.

  “Happy?” I said.

  Will grinned. “Yeah,” he said, holding it up to the light.

  “Then get back here. We’re going home.”

  Will sighed and rolled his head. “Fine,” he said, making his way back to the stairs.

  I waited until he passed me and then began to follow him up the steps, using myself as a barrier in case he changed his mind.

  Will stopped at the landing on the top of the stairs where Andrew and Kayla were waiting and I stopped behind him, three steps down. He pushed the Ziploc bag into Andrew’s hand.

  “There’s your sample, doc.”

  The stairs creaked underneath me. I looked down at the blanket of mold covering everything, feeling dizzy.

  “Can we keep moving?” I said.

  Andrew, Kayla, and Will moved further down the catwalk and I climbed the last three steps, suddenly weary.

  I put my foot down on the catwalk and heard a horrible grinding sound of metal scraping against metal. Andrew, Kayla, and Will were all staring at me with strange, surprised expressions on their faces, but I didn’t have time to ask them what was wrong because the world was suddenly moving down very rapidly, like an out of control elevator.

  I hit the floor thirty feet below, still on top of the walkway panel that had broken away from the catwalk. The panel bounced off the spongy bed of mold, jarring my knees painfully, and I found myself catapulted into the air. I flew a dozen feet sideways off the panel and landed face first in the mold.

  For a moment I lay there stunned, then I rolled onto my side, groaning. I felt like I’d been tackled by the Philadelphia Eagles. I could feel particles of mold in my nostrils and mouth. It tasted like dust but had no real odor at all.

  I became vaguely aware of screaming and looked up at the catwalk. Andrew, Will, and Kayla were all hanging onto the rail, leaning over it and yelling at me.

  “Are you alright?!”

  “Oh my God, Robyn!”

  “Try not to move!”

  “I’m fine,” I tried to say. Nothing came out but a sputter and a cloud of mold dust. I coughed and tried again, and this time I managed to speak: “I’m fine.”

  I pushed myself up onto my elbow, wincing. I didn’t think anything was broken, but my knees ached from the jolt, and the rest of my body was sore.

  The three of them were having some sort of debate.

  “What’s going on?” I said.

  Kayla turned to look at me. “The catwalk ... on the other side ... it’s down, too.” She pointed across the room toward the far wall. “We can’t get down to you.”

  Shit.

  I looked across the room where she was pointing but I couldn’t see anything: one of the enormous vats was blocking my view.

  I can’t get back up.

  “I’m coming to get you,” said Will, creeping toward the gap in the catwalk. He hunched down like he was going to jump.

  “Don’t be stupid,” said Andrew.

  The gap was perhaps six feet across, but there was nowhere for Will to land but the top step. He’d go head first down the stairs.

  “You’ll break your neck,” I said.

  “Did you bring any rope?” said Will, turning to Andrew.

  “No, I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting to scale any mountains,” Andrew said bitingly.

  “Then I’ll jump down,” said Will, peering down at the mold.

  “No, you won’t,” said Kayla, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him back. “How will that help? There’s no point both of you being stuck down there. Besides, just because Robyn’s okay doesn’t mean you won’t break something.”

  “She’s right,” I said, sitting up. “I’m fine. You don’t need to come down here. Go and get help.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” said Will, his face flushed with emotion.

  “Can you walk?” said Andrew, trying to restore some semblance of calm.

  “Yeah, I think so.” I tried getting to my feet. It was hard to do on the spongy surface, but I managed to get myself upright. My knees throbbed.

  “Maybe you can jump from the stairs to the platform,” said Andrew.

  I looked at the gap from down below. I wasn’t sure I could jump six feet from a standing position on the top step, and I wasn’t keen on the idea of taking another tumble, but maybe if they caught me...

  There was another loud metallic grinding sound and the whole walkway shifted and vibrated. The support underneath them was pulling away from the wall.

  They all retreated to a safer position, holding onto the railing.

  “Go get help!” I shouted, waving them away.

  “Here, take this,” said Andrew, slipping the backpack off his shoulders. “It’s got the first aid kit and the rest of the snacks.” He tossed it over the railing and it landed by my feet, bouncing off to one side.

  I scrambled after it and grabbed it, holding onto it tightly, like a security blanket.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Don’t be long.”

  “It’ll be a few hours, at least,” said Andrew. “And we’ll probably get charged with something.”

  “I really don’t care about that right now,” I said. “They can take me away in handcuffs as long as they get me out of here.”

  “That’s the spirit,” said Will, forcing himself to smile.

  “Yeah, don’t worry, Robyn. We’ll be back before you know it,” said Kayla.

  Without another moment’s hesitation, they turned and began making their way toward the exit.

  5

  I watched my frien
ds depart in silence, feeling a mounting sense of doom with every step that they took. I remembered how I’d thought I’d seen something moving in the room where I now found myself stranded. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t alone, even though there was no sign of life anywhere.

  Any sign of life other than the mold, that is.

  I looked around at the thick blanket of gray stuff covering everything. It couldn’t possibly be good for me to be breathing it in.

  When the others were finally gone, I sat down on the squishy floor and unzipped the backpack. There was a standard first aid kit, four bottles of water (meant for the return trip), a handful of granola bars, a bag of trail mix, some beef jerky, and crackers. There was also a notebook and a mechanical pencil, a map of the city with all the known tunnels drawn on it in yellow highlighter, and a beat up paperback: Fungi From Yuggoth & Other Poems. Andrew must have been reading it.

  Charming, I thought.

  I flipped to a page at random and read:

  Yet here upon a page our frightened glance

  Finds monstrous forms no human eye should see;

  Hints of those blasphemies whose countenance

  Spreads death and madness through infinity.

  There was a loud clunking sound and the light went out, plunging me into total darkness.

  Great. Just fucking great.

  My heart was racing in my chest, threatening to beat its way out through my ribcage. This was quickly turning into one of the worst days of my life.

  I suddenly realized that I’d lost my flashlight. I’d dropped it when I’d hit the ground, so it probably wasn’t far away, but the thought of searching for it in the thick mold in pitch blackness was revolting. I started searching through the backpack with my hands, looking for a lighter, or maybe even a spare flashlight. There was nothing in the main bag, as far as I could tell, so I began searching the side pockets.

  With a little chirp of joy, I discovered the familiar shape of a lighter with my fingers. I pulled it out of the pocket, but before I could even use it, there was a humming sound and then another thunk and the lights flickered back on.

  What the fuck?!

  For half a second I thought maybe the others had come back and turned the lights back on, but there was no sound of footsteps or speaking. I would have heard them tramping across the catwalk if they had.