by JC Ryan
Go back to sleep? Was he kidding? Evidently not, as he was already breathing steadily again, though he still had her wrapped in his arms. She wasn't going to sleep another wink that night. Someone needed to be alert, so when the attack came, they could fight back. She was as good a fighter as Roy. He had his gender and size to rely on; she had hand-to-hand combat from her time in the FBI. She could protect them.
When she woke again. Salome realized with a start that she'd fallen asleep after all. She knew immediately that whatever was outside the tent was still there, and probably wasn't human. At least, she assumed a human would have attacked them, if he was going to. It was probably a bear, which maybe didn't know what to make of the tent with its tasty human snack inside. As soon as they set foot outside, it would charge. And there was no question that she had to set foot outside. It was that or pee in the tent.
Carefully, she unzipped the sleeping bag enough to slip out. Thankful for her flannel PJs in the cool mountain morning air, she scooted around until her head was at the foot of the mattress and unzipped a few inches from the bottom of the tent. Cautiously, she craned her neck to peek out the tiny opening. What she saw startled a laugh out of her, waking poor Roy again.
"Hey, babe, what's going on?"
"You'll never guess what's out there," she said, speaking in a normal tone.
"Bigfoot?" he quipped.
"Nope. A whole herd of deer, love. Come look, they're so pretty."
Roy sat up. "That's what you were so scared of last night?" Salome scrambled to a sitting position, cross-legged beside him. She punched him lightly on the arm.
"Ow."
"Listen, Captain America. Next time I'm that scared, I expect you to defend me."
"Hey, I never claimed to be a hero. You're the former FBI agent, the chick with the gun. You should defend me."
"Well, I did, until I fell asleep. We're just lucky that's not a herd of bears out there."
"Babe, I don't think bears come in herds."
"You know what I mean. Now, help me scare these deer away so I can go potty."
"Aw, I was gonna take some pictures."
"Make it quick."
A few minutes later, she found Roy at the kerosene stove, trying to figure out how to light it so they could have some breakfast.
"Helps to read the directions, my genius," she said. Roy shrugged, pressed the red button and the stove lit in a civilized fashion, without attempting to set his hair on fire. From now on, she'd let him light it.
After breakfast, sitting on a folding chair with a cup of fragrant coffee in her hands, Salome had to admit that she could see the appeal of camping this morning. The air was delicious, crisp and fragrant with the smell of pine. Through the trunks of the trees, she could see a nearby tumble of granite boulders with the sun sparkling on the flecks of white in them. They looked like tiny diamonds. Waking up in a city, even one as small as Boulder, had never been like this. It occurred to her that she could be happy here especially now that they were such experienced campers.
“Roy it’s nice to sit here and enjoy the quiet and beauty but we need to go cave hunting.”
"Well there are some caves around here? Problem is they're all known. You want one that no one's mentioned online before, right?"
"That would be best, yes."
"Well, I can't guarantee that they don't link up somewhere deep underground, but there should be some in the hills around here. Limestone is a good medium for forming caves."
"I thought that was granite," she objected.
"Some of it is, but there are limestone outcroppings in these mountains, too. We just have to find them. Are you up for a hike?"
They set out soon after, Roy carrying what looked like a fishing vest with its pockets filled with odds and ends she didn't recognize. He'd brought backpacks for both of them that carried a couple of liters of water with a tube attached for drinking it. Those he loaded up with snack bars, fruit and small packages of mixed nuts. Then he tucked a small roll of tissue-thin paper in hers.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Biodegradable."
"Oh."
The hike was more strenuous than either of them were conditioned for, but Salome loved it, even when they returned to camp late that afternoon, dirty and bone-tired again. Roy had a surprise for her.
"Babe, did you know this whole region has hot springs?"
"No, how would I know that?"
"I don't know, it was just an expression. Anyway, it does, and there are several near here, I think."
"Really? What makes you think so?"
Roy pulled out a rolled-up printout of the satellite image that matched their location. "See this area, where it looks like white clouds, or maybe fog? I think that's steam from a bunch of them. If you're up for another quarter-mile or so, we can go take a look. With any luck, one will be the right temperature for a bath."
"Wow, that would be great! Wait, I didn't pack my suit."
"Who's gonna see? We'll skinny dip."
"You'd better hope there's no one around, buster."
"There's no one around, I promise."
Chapter 16 - Is that an opening?
On Tuesday morning, Robert once again made the arduous climb to replenish their water supply, this time carrying JR's climbing filament, having left his own attached to the cliff-side. He'd had an idea to rig a hammock of sorts to rest in as the water filled their Camelbaks. That task done, with JR of necessity standing by in case Robert had an emergency and therefore unable to continue the search, they once again began their painstaking examination of every square inch of the canyon floor.
"It's always in the last place you look," JR complained, as they passed the halfway mark.
"Of course it is," Robert said. "Why would you continue looking if you've already found it?"
This bit of practicality was too much for JR, who hadn't yet gotten back at Robert for an earlier joke. Besides, he needed to stand up straight. This creeping along, bent over to look at the ground, was not the ideal occupation for a man of his size. As he stood and leaned back to stretch his spine, his eye fell on something he couldn't quite make out, maybe just a bit of rock sticking out from the wall to make a darker shadow, on the opposite wall behind and above Robert's stooped form. Looking around to the entrance of the slot canyon, now behind them by quite a distance, he observed that whatever this was, it was at about the same level, maybe twenty feet above the canyon wall.
"Is that an opening?" he asked.
Robert looked up at him. "Sure it is," he said, as if he thought JR was having him on. Nevertheless, the curious tilt of JR's head held his attention, and he, too stood up straight and then turned to take a look.
"Not sure. We'd better check it out."
The pair hastened toward the opposite wall. When he'd gone far enough to get the slanted sunlight out of his eyes and see the wall more clearly, he whooped.
"It is! Robert, it's an opening, and damned if it doesn't look man-made!"
Robert's reply came in clumps as he ran. "Sure it's...not just...spalling?"
JR had no idea what spalling was, but he was staring at an arch-shaped opening in the wall that led deep into the side. Deep enough that he couldn't see the back wall. Robert arrived at his side at that moment.
"Crikey! That's definitely not spalling. You found it!"
Both men stared admiringly at the opening, inaccessible from their vantage point without going back to retrieve at least one of the climbing filaments. After a few moments, they reluctantly made their way back to their spare bivouac, where once again Robert made the climb to the water, this time to retrieve his cleverly-rigged hammock. While he was there, he topped off the water bladders, to avoid having to take the time for the climb first thing in the morning.
When Robert returned to the canyon floor, he remarked, "That climb's getting old, mate."
"I could do it. You want me to take a turn next time?" JR asked.
"Nope. I'm the better climber, and if you
got in trouble, I'd be hard-pressed to help you out, you big lug. I'll do it. Unless our friends in the fancy building down there have running water. That would be ideal."
"It wouldn't surprise me. What would is if it's still working," JR answered.
"Same here, mate, same here. Are we going to tackle this today? We've got maybe an hour of usable light left. We could climb up, take a look around."
"Sure, why not? Nothing's on TV tonight anyway."
The end of that hour found the two standing in the archway, staring in awe-struck wonder at a pair of steel doors that were miraculously free of rust. Robert had arrived first, followed closely by JR, who was the less-experienced climber despite being the nominal expedition leader. The doors looked for all the world like a modern-day elevator.
"Is that what I think it is?" JR asked.
Robert had been examining it, wondering the same thing. "What do you think it is?"
"Is it...an elevator?" JR's tone conveyed incredulous delight.
Robert shrugged. "No call buttons." His laconic answer deflated JR. Chances were it wasn't an elevator anyway. What were the odds that two different civilizations, arising more than fifty-thousand years apart, would design a device with the same function in the same way? And what were the odds it would still be working after so long, if it was indeed an elevator?
The other possibility was that what they'd found wasn't the Eighth Cycle site they were looking for. What it might be otherwise gave JR pause. The real question was how to get the doors to open to find out. And the next one was what they’d do in any case. Trespass on a secret government installation? Trust their lives to a 50,000 year-old elevator? Neither seemed like the best option.
JR took matters into his own hands, pressing inward near the seam where the doors met in the middle. He'd have been flabbergasted if they opened, but of course they didn't. It couldn't be that easy, could it? Robert was feeling the wall on the left side of the doors, which were set into what looked like solid rock. His fingers found every protrusion and pushed, as well as poking into any depressions. JR took the hint and started doing the same thing on the right.
They didn't have long to complete their exploration. If night fell with them still in the alcove, they'd have to spend it there rather than descending to the canyon floor. And they'd have to spend it in a rather intimate space, as there'd barely be enough room sideways for them to stretch out, and the alcove wasn't all that deep, either.
Robert let his frustration lead him to a silly gesture. “There’s one more thing we haven’t tried.”
“What’s that?”
“The Ali Baba technique.”
He placed his hands on either side of the seam, pressed in and spread his hands apart, as if showing the door what to do would affect the inanimate object, intoning “Open Sesame”. To his surprise, they began to move under their own power, even after he sprang away in shock. "Holy dooley!
JR had tensed when the doors started moving as well, and was staring into the dark passage beyond. When the center of each door reached its own half-way point to the wall into which it was sliding, the passage was flooded with white light. JR's passing thought was to wonder if he looked as gob-smacked as Robert did. “Holy, shit, what now?”
Robert said, “I’ve been thinking about that. Like you said last night, it could be a government secret.”
“In which case, we’re about to be shot,” JR deadpanned.
“Or, it could be an impossibly old installation…”
“With a faulty elevator,” JR supplied. “In which case, we’re about to be famous. Or dead. Or dead and famous.”
“Only one way to find out,” Robert said. And then, he dove in through the opening.
"No!" JR shouted, no doubt from watching too many Indiana Jones movies. He half expected the doors to slam shut, trapping Robert inside, or a deadfall trap, or a bunch of arrows flying out of the walls. However, nothing at all happened except the doors sliding home into the walls and remaining wide open. Robert was already at the back of the passageway, using the same gesture to open another pair of doors.
"Come on!"
JR needed no further invitation. His shaky legs carried him into the chamber where Robert was waiting, his hand hovering over a button inside. As soon as JR was in, Robert pressed the button, giving no thought at all to the notion that if this were truly an Eighth Cycle construct, the ancient machinery might not be in good repair. The doors slid closed.
Chapter 17 - I am surprised to see you here
JR fought to reclaim his breath as the floor seemed to drop out from under them. Robert had uttered a startled string of incomprehensible Aussie curses and was now plastered to the back wall of the-whatever this was, his face white. They must have been going awfully fast, because JR could swear he was about to achieve a state of weightlessness. During this time, he could swear he could see the events of his life flashing before his eyes. I’m dying. Rebecca, I’m sorry my love.
After what seemed like an eternity, he could again feel the effects of gravity, and realized he was slowing. With a feeling of his entire weight settling after he came to a halt, he rebounded slightly. How peculiar. He could see the white light everyone described. He must have fallen to his death, but why wasn’t there any pain? And when would St. Peter be here to guide him? Then he noticed Robert, still plastered at the side of the room, with a wide-eyed expression on his face.
“Oh, hi, Robert. I’m surprised you’re here.”
Robert turned a confused and still wide-eyed expression on him, his cheeks still white as death. “Why the bloody hell would you be surprised? We were both in that Devil’s contraption together. Where’d you expect me to go?”
JR, shocked at Robert’s language before the Pearly Gates, shushed him. “I just thought you were an atheist. Sorry.”
Robert replied with another string of curses, making JR wince. He said, “Listen, would you stop that? I don’t know why you’re here, but I want them to let me in. So don’t be taking the Lord’s name in vain while I’m standing right next to you.”
“JR, what the hell is wrong with you? You want who to let you in?”
“St. Peter. I guess I should have said ‘him’. I want him to let me in.”
Robert’s face changed. Where before he’d looked ready to punch some sense into JR, now he was howling with laughter. “You…you, hahahaha, you think we’re dead? That’s rich! We’re not dead you dolt.”
JR took stock. They'd stopped, and according to Robert, they were alive. He guessed that counted for something. “Robert, swear you will never tell anyone what happened just now.”
“Oh, no, this is too good. I’ll dine out on this one for a month.”
“No you won’t, because the first time I hear you’ve told it, I’ll kill you.” JR’s tone was so matter-of-fact that he was certain Robert would understand he was serious. Since they were here, wherever here was, it was time to explore.
The doors they'd had such difficulty opening a few moments ago automatically slid back at that moment. JR hesitated. If they left the machine, would they be able to get back in? What if they became trapped down here, however far down they were? What if there were no other exit, no food, no water...no air? Robert, whose color was still slowly returning to normal, appeared to have no such misgivings. The minute the doors were fully open, he plunged out of their little cage as if being chased by demons.
For that matter, JR wasn't certain they hadn't descended to hell. They'd certainly been riding that express elevator long enough. As the doors started to slide shut again, he dashed out in Robert's wake. Wherever they were, he wasn't yet ready to be shot back to the surface like a rocket. Or to be trapped in the small room while Robert did all the exploring.
The room they found themselves in was featureless, except for another set of doors that looked exactly the same as the ones they'd just exited. In fact, if JR hadn't been sure he was facing away from the elevator that brought them here, he might have assumed they were the
same doors. The walls were made of a smooth material that had a low sheen, like the old-fashioned brushed nickel fixtures in his parents' house in North Carolina. Metal, he assumed. Not a dimple or protrusion in sight. He and Robert looked at each other in an unspoken question. Should they open those other doors, assuming they opened in the same way?
With a shrug, Robert stepped forward. In for a penny, in for a pound, JR thought, echoing something he'd often heard his grandfather Nicholas say. He watched as Robert pressed his hands against the door and swung them to the side, triggering the powered slide of the doors. Beyond, it was dark. JR was a brave man, but a deep dread came over him as he looked into utter blackness. It was worse than just not knowing. Stepping into that inky void could mean a drop of unknown depth, or anything, really. It was literally impossible to see anything beyond the door. Even the soft light in the room in which they stood, which he only at that moment realized was coming from the walls in a glow with no discernible origin, couldn't pierce the gloom.
Robert's voice, after such a long silence, startled JR so much that he actually jumped.
"What d'you reckon is in there, mate?"
"No clue. Toss for who goes in first?"
"Nah," said Robert, as he stepped through the opening.
Nothing could have prepared JR for what happened. In a split second, bright white light exploded into existence, revealing a vast area with row after row of what looked like desks and chairs. Startled by the sudden light, JR looked for the source. Like the walls in the anteroom, these were glowing, along with the ceiling. But there didn’t seem to be any fixtures or single point of light. It just emanated from the walls.
The room could have been any corporate cubicle farm in America in the Eleventh Cycle. To be sure, the chairs were shaped a bit differently, but they were clearly proportioned for humans, at least humans like Robert. All were too short for JR's comfort, at least as far as he could see. Then he realized what looked so wrong. The chairs were suspended in mid-air, with no visible means of support. Ever the reckless one, Robert sat down in one, then screamed like a woman as it yanked him six feet into the air, then gently lowered him to exactly the right height for his legs to touch the floor without strain.
