by R. K. Sidler
They had their very own radio station. It was integrated into the computer system as well as broadcast through their internal communications terminals. They broadcasted three different programs featuring a variety of musical programming. There were TV monitors in the majority of workstations offering a limited in-house video stream. At several predetermined times of day, news was scheduled. This ranged from changes in work assignments, to educational opportunities, and even the occasional crime, mostly involving petty theft. If it was not taped, a news presenter would from time to time offer the latest weather report which was enough to lighten the mood no matter where they were, and what they were doing.
Keith stepped onto an elevator, slid his card through the magnetic reader, and selected the bottom floor. He rode in silence as he descended alone ten stories below his living quarters, watching the numbered floors count down as he went. When he reached bottom, the door opened and he stepped into the sweltering heat. He appreciated the air handling systems regulating the floors above. There were no computers here so it did not warrant similar regulation. The walls were solid rock, and the floor was compressed stone and dirt. Emergency lights could be seen down the individual corridors. Most of their equipment ran on compressed air, but the smell of natural gas was also present. He looked around to get his bearings, and headed toward an office located in the nearest tunnel.
“Hey Chief,” a stocky man in glasses said. “Is there something we can help you with?”
“I just wanted to take a look around, if it isn’t a bad time.”
“Sure. Give me a minute and I’ll take you myself. I need to get out of here for a while anyway,” he said indicating his office. After the engineer finished with what he was doing, he grabbed two helmets from a shelf along the wall, and handed one to Keith. Once he was ready, they left the office.
“This tunnel,” he said leading the way, “is being excavated for minerals. The men in their white coats upstairs put in requests all the time. We need several pounds of this; we need a hundred pounds of that, as if we just keep everything on a shelf down here made to order.”
Keith looked at the man and smiled. He was not speaking for entertainment purposes, but matter-of-factly. When they reached a junction, they turned to the left.
“This was one area where we discovered pockets of natural gas. We use a lot more caution here as we tap and capture as much as we can. It is piped throughout the complex. Even with geothermal energy, we can’t pass up the chance to tap into other resources. I think they are actually running a pipeline to the top, the top, top, for when we get outside.”
Keith was amazed at the size of the tunnels. It was a major operation. After what seemed like another mile of walking, they came into an open cavern. At the far end was a tubular shaped machine with half a dozen men surrounding it. They walked up.
“You gonna’ be runnin’ anytime soon,” he asked the man who appeared to be in charge.
“Just about to fire it up,” the man replied.
“Let’s stand over there and you can see this thing in action.”
“What’s it called,” Keith asked.
“It’s a TBM, tunnel boring machine.”
Keith nodded his head signaling his understanding. It was massive; at least thirty feet tall, he estimated. When the machine was starting up, the others walked to where they were standing. It was a sight to see for Keith, business as usual to the others. After a few minutes, his stocky escort indicated they should be on their way. When the noise diminished to the point that they could resume normal conversation, they continued on their tour. Keith was shown where they tapped into the aquifer providing them with water, and even how the geothermal power was generated.
When they returned to the office, Keith shook the man’s hand and thanked him for his time. It had been quite an educational and interesting experience. “No problem,” the man said, “we don’t get many visitors down here; in fact, hardly any at all.”
―
The next level he went to was the quartermaster or storage facility. It too was enormous in size. It looked like the same boring machine had gone through here at one time. These corridors however, were separated by steel link barriers with a door in each section. Pallet stacked upon pallet could be seen through the chain links. Few people were observable behind those transparent walls. He walked to the nearest one and examined the contents. There were canned goods, dried foods, lights, mechanical parts, and batteries; anything and everything imaginable. He saw more barriers beyond this one, and turned to see that the other corridors were all arranged the same way. Nobody noticed him as they all continued about their business and he returned to the elevator.
After he ascended a few floors he heard, “Hey Chief, you copy,” the faint scratchy voice announced from his radio.
“This is the chief. What do you have Cam?”
“Chief, your father said he wanted to meet with you. He is coming to your office. I said I hadn’t heard from you, and nobody answered at your quarters.”
“Yeah, I was in the lower levels. The radio doesn’t reach that far. In fact, I doubt it would work any further than where I am right now…..I’ll be there in about ten minutes,” Keith finished.
“Got it Chief; ETA, ten minutes.”
He swiped his card and pressed the button for the third level. The number panel inside the elevator was the opposite of what was found in traditional elevators. They numbered from the top down because the only ones that changed were the ones below, which made the uppermost floor, the one his apartment was on, number one.
It had been a few months since he last saw his father. He decided it was best to keep his distance for now. He had not quite forgiven him and did not know if he even wanted to. Whatever he wanted with him was sure to be interesting. It always was.
When he reached his office, Cam indicated that his father was already there. He walked into his office and closed the door. His father was attired in a dark blue business suit, looking like he was fresh from the barbershop; clean-shaven and well-manicured. Keith took his seat behind the desk. “You’re looking well,” Keith said.
“You’re looking good yourself. And I’ve been hearing good things about you,” his father said.
Keith’s expression indicated he was interested in who was providing reports on him, and what exactly that meant, but no explanation followed. “What can I do for you Dad?”
“I’ve just come by to bring you up to date on a few things since I haven’t seen you for some time,” he stated in tone which Keith knew to be accusatory, but not pointedly so.
He continued, “We now have what you could call a board of directors: myself, Dr. Marrow, and Jim Forrest my former senior aide. There are a lot of preparations we need to consider, and not all of them are about what is going on inside.” He let that sink in for a moment.
“You’ve done a great job with your duties here but now we need to add another element to your mission. One of the lower tunnels is essentially unused. It will serve as your new training area. In your armory, there should be a number of paintball guns with all of the supplementary equipment. If you require any more or any additional materials, just let Brian know and he’ll take care of it for you.”
“Okay, we get to shoot each other with paintballs. To what end?”
“You will need to train the men in combat tactics: defensive, offensive, search, and retrieval.”
“Why?”
“You tell me,” his father challenged.
Keith thought about it for a moment and said, “You don’t know what we’re going to find when we get out.”
“That is the general consensus, and what we would like you to limit it to when you explain it to the men. To be more specific, we expect to find both animal life and MuTerra.”
“MuTerra?” Keith asked in confusion.
“Sorry. That is the terminology used in our reports. Mu is short for mutant, and terra means earth or land― ‘mutants of the land.’”
“So w
hat; we’re just going to kill them?” Keith asked in anger.
“If need be,” his father said evenly as he held his son’s gaze.
“We don’t know what we will find Keith. We don’t know if people will be aggressive, hostile, or passive. The same goes with the animals. There is more, but you can understand that precautions need to be taken.”
“What is the more,” Keith asked.
After pausing to study his son‘s face, he decided to go on, “I can see you’re not going to think this through without getting into a fight, so I’ll explain what you would have been able to come up with yourself, given a little time and effort.”
Keith leaned back in his chair indicating that his father would indeed have to spell things out.
“Who else do you think might be out there,” he asked his son.
Keith just looked at him not able to come up with anything in reply.
“How about others like us? We are not the only facility in the world built underground and prepared for such catastrophes.”
That announcement caught Keith unawares. Of course, he knew there were other underground military facilities. Why hadn‘t he thought of that before now, he wondered as they sat in silence. When the moment passed, Keith replied, “So it’s a race then, to see who gets out first to stake their claim.”
“That is a reasonable conclusion, but one that doesn’t have to be as ominous as you make it sound.”
“Are we in contact with any other facilities,” Keith asked.
“Unfortunately, no, we did have a communications system set up, but it has either been a failure, or those we were connected to no longer exist.”
“You said retrieval earlier. What did you mean by that?”
“Exactly what it sounds like; if there are MuTerra....”
“You mean people dad. People like Frankie,” Keith interjected.
“Don’t get your hopes up on what these ‘people’ will be like. They have been exposed to radiation not only through their skin, but also through what they have been eating, and drinking. It is unknown to what extent they have been changed by such prolonged exposure or what effect it has had on proliferation.”
The fact that his father was talking in technical terms, and with such a lack of emotion, annoyed him. It was not personal, and he knew he was getting a narrative of some study that was already generated on the subject, no doubt in great detail, but it annoyed him just the same.
“If Frankie was out there, wouldn’t you want to find him,” his father asked.
It was a ploy, and Keith new it. He also knew that he was better off keeping his mouth shut until he learned all he could. He left that challenge go and changed direction. “Okay. So you want us to retrieve people; for what purpose?”
“We’ll have a contained facility to study them. They will be kept alive and cared for. They do us little good if we were to let them die. But, even more importantly than that, we want animals; primarily anything resembling domesticated animals.”
“Why?”
“We have a cryogenic lab here. It is quite extensive. Our geneticists have preserved one female and one male of each domestic animal. They are confident that if they can test those animals that have survived on the surface, they should be able to use stem cell regeneration to reverse or improve any deformities. They are not as confident that they can re-create or clone those same creatures from a test tube, but if that is all they are left with, it will have to be worked out. It would be much easier to work on the living, or so I am advised.”
“So, we have to be ready for mutant animals, mutant people, and possibly others, who like us, may be out there looking for what little there may be to be had?”
“Simply put, yes.”
“I’d like more men.”
“Right now, we don’t have any. I suggest you restructure your organization to accommodate a two hundred man tactical team, and train as necessary.”
“That isn’t going to go over very well. We’re not exactly putting in overtime now, but that will consume a lot of additional hours.”
“You can reduce your operations on the lower levels. Limit them to response only. Training is education, which they can use in lieu of classes. Whether or not they like it is immaterial. It needs to be done, and it’s going to be done,” he said with a voice signifying it was an order.
“I suppose I can assume that any other underground survivors would be making the same preparations as we are?”
“I believe that is a safe assumption.”
“What level did you say our new training area is on,” Keith asked indicating his acceptance of his orders, and that their discussion was over, for now.
****
The fact that their numbers had been depleted as they were, forced the survivors to all but vacate the smallest settlement of Bardin. After five years of having to bury three out of every four settlers, it was decided that they would relocate to the other two camps, with most of them going to Mezzo. They constructed traps and closed as much of the passageway, leading out of the valley, as they could before they left. It was now a small outpost consisting of eight man teams, which were rotated on a weekly basis. They were charged with defending the access point, or at the least, providing an early warning system for the inhabitants of the other two villages.
There had been occasional new comers to the valley. Some were in such a poor state of health that after a short time, they too had to be interred. Others survived to help shore up their ranks. A few continued on, only making a brief stopover, on whatever quest impelled them.
There were two primary concerns for the people of the valley. One was the wild beasts inhabiting their borders. These ranged from packs of what resembled wild dogs, to predatory cats, and the feared rock wolf. It was called a rock wolf because that is where it lived, in the most uninhabitable and roughest terrain in the outer regions. It was black in color, with golden eyes. Most of the creatures outside of the valley had golden eyes. The rock wolf stood four feet tall, and was almost as wide. It could cover a considerable distance in one leap, and its speed was unmatched. If it came upon a man unawares, little could be done in defense. Nothing dared to stand in its way.
While the rock wolves seldom ventured into the valley, other creatures did. One such creature was once as human as they were. At first, they were seen as just unhealthy survivors wandering around on their own. They were offered food and shelter, but they never uttered a word or interacted with them in any way. That lasted until the first one started to eat one of the settlers of Mezzo. It became apparent that when these golden-eyed brutes smelled fresh blood, from either man or animal, they went into a kind of uncontrolled eating frenzy. They were not necessarily large or muscled, but their sinewy appendages were able to exert great strength and allowed them to move at speeds faster than the average person. They were barely clad, if at all, and wandered about aimlessly. If they were encountered outside of the valley, they seldom paid any attention, unless, of course, there was blood in the air. They gave no thought to numbers or strategy. If they smelled blood, they would attack. At times, they were seen in small groups, but for the most part, they walked alone. They were called Raveners. The inhabitants of the valley avoided them as best they could. They still recognized them to have once been human, and they too were dealing with changes and mutations of their own, which they could not alter; but the savageness was too much to tolerate in close quarters.
When they sent scouts to travel abroad so they could add to the mapping and cataloging of their surrounding area, they soon came to understand they had the choicest land. To keep it, they would need to defend it. And indeed, they had done that well. Only the most desperate of all the wild beasts would attempt to enter the valley now. Those that did ended up becoming prey themselves. Even the rock wolf found other victims more easily preyed upon than descending into the valley.
More fearsome than the creatures inhabiting the lands above were the electrical storms. They often came up without warning
, and were the cause of many deaths. When it was possible, they held close to rock formations, cliffs, and trees to seek shelter in the event of a storm. There were no recognizable signs as a prelude to these storms, and they only occasionally produced rain with their abundance of lightning and thunder. They were beautiful in appearance, if you were far enough away, in that they turned the sky into a color of mixed purple, blue, and silver. It was another matter altogether when you found yourself in one. The experience was quite terrifying.
When it was determined that their exploration of the outer lands had shown no other hospitable areas, they resigned themselves to the valley. They had only those resources from which to draw on for uncontaminated food. Whatever other food, or water sources, were being utilized by the wild beasts outside of the valley, were yet to be discovered. Of the original village leaders who entered the valley, only Weston, Sasha, Emil, Dr. Ramirez, and Mr. Bayek remained.
****
There was excitement inside the mountain complex this day. For the past several days, their broadcast network had said that an important announcement would be made this morning, generating a buzz of rumor and speculation. When the time came, activity ceased and all eyes were glued to the monitors.
It began with the normal daily reports before the director, Mr. Frank Bishop, appeared on the screen. “First of all I would like to express my appreciation for all of the hard work that has been accomplished to get us to where we are today. We are living in momentous times, and I feel confident in saying that the best is yet ahead of us. The reason I say that is because we will determine what our future is to be through our collective efforts. With that in mind, the future has to begin now. We will soon begin plans to establish a staging area for outside operations. With the unanimous agreement of the board of directors, we feel it is time to increase our numbers. We now have the resources to accommodate a larger population so we are hereby lifting the restriction on pregnancies. The only requirement we are instituting is that any couple wishing to have children needs to come by the dispensary for a complete physical involving both parties…..”
