The look on Tom’s face was of anger. The river was challenging him and he was stepping up to meet the challenge head on. He had done things like this before, pushed himself to see what would happen, to see if he could survive it. When he had done it before, he had expected to die; he had wanted to die even. This time he wanted different results and he asked the other two men to refrain from talking unless it was an emergency. He needed all the focus he could muster.
+++
It was dark when he drove the boat straight up onto the sandy shore. All the men were freezing cold. Tom’s hand seemed to be frozen in the shape of the throttle arm and he just left it like that.
“That was some amazing driving, man. I didn’t even know boats could do that!” said a cold but excited Scoob.
“It was all in your motor. Come on, let’s get up to the fire and warm up. I see some shadows coming through the woods anyway.”
Aria, Ceannt, Tim and Doc all came running out of the woods to grab the nearly frozen men. Aria told them all to just relax for now as they wrapped the men up and walked then down the path to the village.
The walking seemed to help them warm up. Mostly it was just the constant wind from the speedy operation of the boat that had gotten them so cold.
As they got the fire, Aria brought them all tea. She listened to their tale of what had happened. It seemed like so much to have gone on in a single day, but they had just left this morning.
She smiled warmly when she heard how John had stuffed his big head under the water and pushed them off the rock. She was proud of Scoob’s ability to quickly patch the leak. She was blown away hearing how Tom had moved with such speed through the treacherous waters without any lookout.
Still, all that had happened in just one day. Cooper and Handro had been gone for over a week now. The failure of Tom’s trip had shown that no one would be going back up that river for quite some time.
If those two were going to make it back down here, they were going to have to walk in this very inhospitable climate. Thankfully, she could not think of any two individuals better suited to the task.
20
While they were eating a large rabbit supper the previous night, Handro had made it clear to Cooper that he wanted to see the strange place he had found. Cooper hadn’t protested much; mainly he was just worried about Handro further injuring his ankle.
That morning they had cooked more rabbit over the fire and Cooper did some work to the shelter where some of the grass layer of the roof had blown off. It was still plenty warm inside, he just didn’t want the maintenance to get away from him. He was unsure how long they would need to live in that small camp.
The day was bright and clear again, but still cold. None of the snow or ice had gone away at all. Cooper watched Handro try to walk on his own with the aid of a large stick he was using as a crutch. The way he flailed the stick around amused the dogs at first until one had inadvertently been smacked with it. Now they stayed a good distance away from him and his attempt at wood-assisted movement.
Cooper had seen enough of the experiment when he saw the pain beginning to register on Handro’s face. Without saying anything, he walked up next to him and took the weight of his injured side on his shoulders. The other man did not appreciate needing help, but Cooper could tell he was not stubborn enough to refuse it.
They slowly made their way, hobbling across the flat field. When they stopped for a rest, Handro had turned around and laughed at their ridiculous tracks through the snow. Cooper could clearly see the outer foot from each of them, but the two feet on the inside were creating a strange trough. It almost looked like a monster with a very wide stance that was dragging a long tail behind him.
The pair spent the rest of the trip across the field describing what the creature would look like. They both agreed that it had to have wings to fly around and it used all the big rock outcroppings as perches. They were laughing so hard about the other various aspects of their imaginary abomination that they didn’t even realize that they had made it to the door. Cooper was just happy to have Handro back in good spirits again.
They both got much more serious once they realized they were at their destination. Cooper watched Handro peer all around the frame. He inspected the little boxes the same way the redhead had done. Finally, he hobbled right up to the door and watched it snap open and slide back into the side, disappearing into the hill. His eyes grew wide as he watched the lights ticking on in order going down the interior hallway.
“It’s just as you described it, but somehow even more amazing.” Then the voice came over, welcoming them inside and his eyes grew even wider.
“Let’s step just inside the door, its much warmer there.”
Handro nodded, his face still revealing his amazement. With the aid of his stick, he hopped inside quickly and leaned against the wall. Cooper followed him inside and let the door snap shut.
Cooper could easily see the worry cross over Handro’s dark face. He tried to calm him down by walking back to the door and having it open back up, revealing the cold barrens outside. This seemed to only help slightly.
“Why is no one here?” asked Handro, leaning his head to the side as he looked at all the lights going down the long hallway.
“We don’t know how big ‘here’ is. Maybe people are in some other part and don’t come to this spot much?” Cooper leaned down and picked up the note he had left behind. It was still in the exact spot he had placed it.
“Do you really think it’s that big? I mean, we would still hear people, I think; I don’t hear anything. Also, people have a smell.” Handro glanced around the hallway again, taking in the aromas. “I don’t smell any life in here.”
“There’s only one way to find out. Besides, if we can be sure no one is here, I think we should move our camp to right inside the door. It would be so much warmer.” Cooper got up and started walking just a little ways further and more lights blinked on. They seemed to activate as he needed them. He walked back to Handro and watched the lights farther down turn off, confirming his suspicion.
“Let’s go down here a little more.”
Handro looked at him after he asked this and Cooper could see his mind weighing out the possibilities.
“We don’t have much else to do; we have all that rabbit meat plus our reserves so we don’t need more food right now. Plus, we will move slowly out of necessity,” glancing at his leg as he said this. “And anyway, I saw some crazy tracks in the snow outside here, pretty sure there is some kind of huge monster out there!” Cooper laughed at his own joke as he looked down the now darkened path.
“I would say in this situation you can never have enough food, but I agree, I don’t want to meet up with that winged beast outside.” Handro took Cooper’s hand and allowed himself to be hefted back up to a standing position.
He grabbed his log crutch and planted it firmly under his shoulder while pulling a sharpened stone knife out from inside his wool. Cooper stared at it with wonder.
“What, did you think I was going to come over here without a weapon?”
Cooper realized in that instance that he still had much to learn from Handro.
+++
They began making their way down the corridor. As they walked, more lights turned on.
“Where do you think the heat is coming from?” asked Cooper as he held his hand up to the light along the wall. “These things aren’t warm at all.”
“I don’t know. I have stayed inside caves, though, and they were warmer than the air sometimes in the winter. They’re always much colder during the sweltering summer heat.”
“So, you think it’s just always this temperature inside the ground?”
“I truly don’t know.” Handro temporarily forgot about his injury and jumped back as another door along the wall snapped open and slid away. He ended up in a pile on the floor, staring into the cavernous room.
More lights popped on all over the room, revealing wooden crates stacked high upon each other. Cooper’s eyes gr
ew wide staring into the largest room he had ever seen. It would easily hold hundreds of people. The walls were lined with the same dome lights as the hallway, but massive domes also hung down from the grey ceiling, illuminating the entire space.
“Let’s go inside!” Cooper exclaimed excitedly.
“I don’t think we should leave this hallway right now. Let’s walk further down it and see how many more of these doors there are.”
Cooper was disappointed, but it made good sense. They backed away from the door and watched it snap shut. Looking at the entrance, he saw symbols on the door. It said ‘S3’. Neither one of them had a clue what that meant, but they decided it was a good thing to look for so they weren’t surprised by other doors opening as they approached them.
On that side they found two more doors, far apart, labeled ‘S2’ and then ‘S1’. Glancing inside those doors revealed nearly identical gigantic rooms with a similar array of crates. They still decided not to go in any of them just yet, but Cooper was sketching out a rough map as they walked along.
Handro hobbled over to the other side of the hallway and saw many more doors that were spaced much closer together. They were also labeled with a letter and number but these all started with ‘H’ and they numbered up past 20.
Most of these rooms did not open as they approached the doors. It was disheartening for both men as they imagined what sorts of secrets could be lurking behind the doors that did not open. After walking the entire length of that side of the hallway, they found 3 of those doors that did open for them.
Inside they were completely different from the ‘S’ rooms. First, they were nowhere near as large. These rooms could hold possibly ten people and were roughly the size of the large room in Cooper’s house back at the village. Inside each room there were three large rectangles, elevated off the floor against one wall. One of the walls had a black square, totally flat against the gray of the seament. The third and final wall had a small bump-out and Cooper couldn’t see what was behind it, as it had a door of its own.
They weren’t as intimidated by these small rooms and Cooper walked right inside one while Handro stood in the middle of the doorway. He wanted to make sure it didn’t shut and then refuse to open. With so many ‘H’ doors sealed, he wanted to make sure that didn’t happen with the fireheaded young man inside.
Cooper walked inside the room and noticed a series of double lines running all along the floor. He tried to find some kind of pattern, but couldn’t decipher anything. He walked over to one of the elevated platforms and pushed on it. It was very soft and seemed to take his weight as he pressed down. Turning around, he sat down and found the platform was easily able to handle his weight. It instantly reminded him of his bed back home, except that when he sat on this he didn’t hear the crinkling of millions of blades of dried grass. He was wondering what was inside it when Handro called out to him.
“Hurry up. I don’t want to spend too much time inside these things.”
Cooper looked up to see the man still standing in the middle of the doorway, ready to shove his entire body into the door if it decided at that time to try to slide out of the wall.
The redhead walked over to the bump out in the room and the door swished open silently. He peered inside and saw another box, but it was as tall as the room, a small, oddly shaped, white water bowl resting against the wall and a sink was near that. He had seen sinks back in his city but they were much rustier than this one.
He turned the sink handles and nothing happened for a few seconds. Suddenly he heard a burping sound and water gushed from the faucet. Cooper smiled. He looked up to see if he could see where the water tank was but found only ceiling; he didn’t even see pipes. He assumed it was stored above the room and the pipes were inside the wall.
He backed out of the small room and saw Handro still standing in the doorway. Now he was looking a little more impatient. “Come on out. Let’s see what’s at the end of the hallway and then head back to camp. We’ve been in here too long already.”
Cooper walked out of the ‘H’ room and Handro allowed the door to begin to close. Just to see if it was possible, he tried to grab the door as it was halfway shut but before he even touched it, it flew back open. That made the dark skinned man feel a little better, but he was still curious why the other doors didn’t open.
At the end of the hallway, the paths led off to the right and left. Directly in the center of this, they found another door. Etched onto a gold plate, in the center of the door was the single word ‘Reserve’. The other rooms did not have a gold plate and Cooper got excited that behind this door might be something very special.
As he approached it confidently, the door slid open much like the others. Cooper’s shoulders shrugged as he only saw several more black rectangles flat against the wall. This room had the same parallel lines all over the floor and some up on the walls themselves, but other than that it was empty. He couldn’t understand why that room had a special plate on it, but he cast it out of his mind and continued down the hall.
Both doors at the end of each side would not open. Each one said ‘Access’, but Cooper couldn’t access anything through them. The third room he found at the end of the T-shaped hallway did have a very special prize inside.
When he walked through the entrance marked with the word ‘Backup’, the lights flicked on to show a large room, nearly double the size of the ‘H’ rooms and this one was nearly completely lined with books. In fact, the only spot that wasn’t covered in books had a giant map on it.
Cooper had seen maps like this before. It was of the entire world, but this one looked different. He didn’t remember them having this much blue. He could see where the village was on the shores of the gulf. With his finger, he followed the rivers up and even on the map he could see where the river got very wide. It was hard to miss, in that wide area there was also a large star.
He saw ten other stars just like that one and one star that had a circle around it. These were scattered all over the world map, but every one of them was near water. The only thing that Cooper could think of was that the star represented this place. It was exciting to think about, but the thought was quickly pushed aside as he realized the space between them.
His attention quickly turned to the books. He was grabbing nearly every one of them and opening them up. They were all in perfect shape. The pages weren’t tattered or yellowed like he was used to.
Handro’s own curiosity for this room overwhelmed his innate suspicions and he stepped inside. The door of this room remained open, which helped put him at ease. He walked up to one of the other walls of books and began flipping through them.
“These look mostly like school books,” Handro said, flipping through one labeled ‘Trigonometry’. “These are way beyond what I understand though.”
“Yeah, I don’t get most of this either, but I’m sure Katherine would have a use for them.”
“We’re walking out of here; we’re not carrying a lot of books,” Handro growled, clearly growing frustrated with Cooper’s lack of focus.
“I know, I know, but once it gets warm, I know we will send more folks up here to check this place out and to grab these books. I mean, just think of what we can learn. Here’s a whole book on medicine!” Cooper pulled a heavy book from the ledge and cracked it open. “Probably something in here to that could help your ankle.”
“Ok, I see your point. I think we should probably head back for today. Grab a few books to bring back to camp if you want, but I’m ready to go.”
Cooper was actually ready to get back outside too. The stillness of this place was starting to get to him and he thought he needed to breathe some fresh air. The air inside didn’t smell bad; it just didn’t have a smell, at all. Inside the book room he had forgotten because the whole room smelled like old paper. Outside, even in the cold, there was a distinct aroma of dirt and cold air mixed with woodsmoke from the fire. He had always loved the smell of woodsmoke.
He snatched several b
ooks from the ledge in front of him, being sure to bring the medicine book and quickly wandered over to the third wall that they hadn’t looked at yet. These books looked totally different and Cooper quickly realized they were all story books! He had a few of these in his city and dozens in the village. Before him now though, were thousands of story books! He would never have guessed that so many even existed.
Handro asked him again to hurry up and Cooper looked back at the sea of nearly infinite stories. He was overwhelmed trying to make the choice. He quickly noticed one book titled ‘WOOL’ and figured since he was wearing wool at the time, it seemed as good as any. He grabbed that book and stuffed it under his arm.
Cooper quickly caught up to Handro, who had already started back down the hall to the exit. As they left the warmth of the strange hallway, neither one of them noticed the small black boxes on both the outside and the inside had flipped open, revealing a small glass lens.
21
By the time they made it back to the little campsite the sky was just beginning to darken. Their fire had burned down but they had plenty of hot coals to build it back up.
Cooper was starting to get worried about finding enough firewood close by. Handro was unfit to lug wood through the snow in his condition and Cooper had to walk farther and farther away to find wood that was dead and dry enough to throw a decent amount of heat back to them. He had gathered enough logs for a few more days, but after that it might get colder around the camp.
Once they had some rabbit cooking over the fire they had a chance to talk about what they had seen. Cooper was excited and wanted to talk about all the possibilities. Handro, trying to be more rational, was very worried.
“If the people left, maybe something scared them away. Maybe they were all killed by something. We might not be safe even being this close. We don’t know enough about that place.” Handro was growing openly flustered trying to convince Cooper of all these things. “I have seen many different styles of settlements over all the years and I have never seen anything like that. I have also never seen a place in pristine shape like that and empty. Something is going on there!”
Further: Page 13
