The Road to Round Mountain II - The Alliance: By C.G Roberts

by C. G. Roberts

  passenger side.

  The large half-moon door was half way up as we pulled up and stopped just in front of the odd shaped door. The Sheriff hopped out and came around the back

  of the truck. I had both backpacks of c-4 ready as he came into view. I handed

  him one and set the other down as I hopped out of the back.

  We came around the front and were relieved to see no signs of life as we

  started to go inside. The oversized door made me j ump as it hissed to a halt

  followed by a loud thud. The Sheriff was the first to go in as I was close behind.

  All of the walls inside were nothing more than mountain with an occasional door or window scattered about in no particular sense of pattern . On the left were three separate rooms. I came to this conclusion since there were three doors. Off to the right was a long hallway and you could see where it intersected with more hallways leading to who knows where. We were lucky in a sense that

  anyone inside would not have heard anything beyond the giant door that was

  surrounded by mountain.

  The Sheriff stopped and opened the backpack and pulled out one of the c-4

  bricks. “Open up and let’s start planting these things everywhere”, The Sheriff

  ordered as he stuck that first brick high against the inner mountain wall. I

  followed suit and opened up my backpack and ran up close to a door and stuck one of the bricks there. “Which way from here”, I pleaded as my courage was a shrinking commodity?

  The Sheriff went back by the giant door and placed one just to the right of it

  and then over to the first door you see when you come inside. He planted

  another between the door and the window. Why would you need a window to

  look out at more rock? There was very little noise inside the compound except

  for what sounded like the exhaust system that Thomas was telling us about. It

  had a dull hum to it but other than that it was pretty quiet.

  We maneuvered down the long hall placing a few bricks high on the inner

  mountain walls along the way. We hit the intersection and stopped. Both ways looked identical with occasional doors but no windows. There were fluorescent

  lights hanging by chains from the ceiling which by the way was part of the

  mountain. The Sheriff pointed down the hall to my right and he pointed to

  himself that he was going down the other hall. He held up two fingers and quietly

  said, “Back here in two minutes”. I nodded and made my way down the hall of

  rock.

  I figured that if I planted one of these c-4 bricks by every door it might do a little more damage. I’ve never seen these things blow up in person so I’m only guessing here. The hallway ended about two hundred feet in and I was about to stick another brick to the right of the door at the end of the hall when the door opened.

  A rather tall thin man with dark hair came through the door wearing a white lab coat, the kind that you would expect to see a doctor wearing at a Hospital. I quickly stepped in front of him which startled him as he was not expecting

  company. He started to open h is mouth but before he could say anything I thrust both of my arms out away from my body like I was pushing someone and the tall thin man went flying back into the room, lab or whatever it was. For good

  measure I tossed a brick of c-4 into the room and th en brought my arms back in

  which closed the door with authority. I heard the man in the lab coat cry out in

  pain as must have landed hard on whatever was inside; time to leave.

  I raced back the way that I came when I heard sirens and flashing lights. Red flashing lights where connected to every hanging light fixture. The lights were not as scary as the sirens. As I ran back to the intersection I grabbed c-4 blocks and started tossing them all over. It had clay like texture so it immediately stuck to

  whatever it touched.

  At the intersection I heard a familiar whooshing sound and sure enough the giant half-moon shaped door was closing a lot faster than it opened. The sunlight from the open door vanished quickly as the Sheriff came around the corner from the other hallway.

  “What the hell Billy. Did you see anybody or did someone see you”? The

  Sheriff tried to scream over decibel level of the sirens? “Yes, someone opened a

  door and I kind of shoved them back into the room; hard”, Billy explained. The Sheriff saw the decorative manner in which Billy had utilized the c-4 bricks and decided to employ the same technique by opening his backpack and started tossing bricks everywhere. They stuck to the wall like flypaper.

  The Sheriff followed me as we made an attempt to do a James Bond type of drop and roll under the door before it closed, but there was too much distance for that to happen. We were trapped. The Sheriff went over the power switches just to the right of the door and started pushing but nothing was happening. The sirens were deafening as I looked over at the Sheriff and pointed at the door. I did the same thrust movement with my arms aimed at the giant door. It rattled

  and some rock dust fell from the far left corner of the door, but it did not move.

  The Sheriff noticed some people gathering in the hallway that we just left. They were staring at us mumbling to each other but with the sirens, I couldn’t hear a thing. One person appeared around the corner of the hallway. He was short, much shorter than the others out in the hallway and rather skinny. His shaved head added to the reflections coming from the flashing red lights above. He was wearing one of those white lab coats just like the other person that I

  shoved back into room down the hall.

  I didn’t realize that I was staring back at the short guy in the white lab coat until the Sheriff yanked my arm and pulled me out of my mini trance. The Sheriff pulled me past the one door that had a window just to the right of it. We ran past

  one more door before the Sheriff tried his luck on the last door. The door opened but not easily as I realized that the door was made of heavy duty steel as I followed the Sheriff inside and he struggled to close the door while I checked out our new surroundings.

  This room seemed to be like a waiting area as there was another room with

  two ceiling to floor windows and another and a strange looking dull silver type of

  door. “Billy, we got company”, The Sheriff hollered as he t was unable to engage

  the deadbolt for the door. I grabbed ahold of the silver door and couldn’t budge

  it. I was about to try to open it with my mind when I saw a black button to the

  right of the door.

  I pressed the button with little hope of it working since nothing else seemed

  to. A hissing sound followed a loud and heavy sounding click and the door started opening on its own. “Hurry Sheriff in here”, I pleaded to get him away from the other door that wouldn’t lock. He saw the open door and bolted in my direction.

  I had just been inside long enough to find a light switch and flicked it on.

  The Sheriff followed quickly as the door he couldn’t lock opened with the help of a few people. Once he got inside I found another black button on the inside and pressed it in hope that it would lock the door. When the door opened it appeared that the door itself went inside the frame or the door jamb. It opened

  like an elevator door. To my surprise the door closed and closed with authority as it closed with a floor rumbling thud. I saw another smaller button below the other one and pressed it. Nothing at first but suddenly two loud and distinct

  clicks initiated. I was hopeful that we had locked the door to keep the compound

  people out long enough for us to figure out what we were going to do.

  “Holy sheep shit”, the Sheriff bellowed as he checked out our surroundings. I turned to where he was standing and realized that we were in some type of laboratory. There was a large stainless steel table surrounded by movable trays filled with an ass
ortment of surgical instruments. The only thing that was missing was the good Doctor Frankenstein and Igor.

  I’ve never seen so much equipment before and not to mention so much of it. I was clueless as to what all this stuff was for as it reminded me of opening my French book for the first time.

  The back wall was stainless steel from top to bottom the wall to my right had a series of computers and monitors that looked like they were hooked up to most everything in here. The other wall was more of the traditional mountain motif with a few cabinets and more smaller equipment landscaping the inner mountain

  wall.

  The Sheriff and I remained silent while we scanned the room in hopes of an

  exit. There was none. All I could locate was an annoying humming noise coming from a large vent in the ceiling. The Sheriff sat his backpack of c-4 down on the stainless steel table and started pulling out the remaining blocks of explosives. He

  had nine of them left. I followed suit as my backpack had eleven blocks left in it.

  We both stared at the table filled with c-4. I must have placed maybe twelve to fourteen of those blocks throughout the various walls we had passed. The Sheriff must have placed the same amount if not a couple more than I did. I would guess that this place is just about set up to become one large pile of useless rocks. The only problem was that The Sheriff and I would become a part of the debris field if we decided to use the phones inside the backpacks to

  detonate the c-4.

  If it was to come to a vote I would have to say no on using the phones while

  we are uninvited guests to this surprise party. The Sheriff on the other hand already pulled the phone put of the back pack and was fiddling with it which made my stomach turn south. “Are you in a hurry to blow us up along with the rest of them”, I argued? “For n ow, I’m just putting on a show for the crowd we have gathering at the window. Start sticking these things all over this lab or whatever the hell this place is. Show them we mean business”, the Sheriff casually muttered.

  I grabbed a few of the blocks and took a quick glance at the windows and indeed there was a smattering of folks as my Mother used to say. I tried to pay little attention to them as I was busy sticking these blocks anywhere and everywhere. I tried to remain casual in the process a s if we had planned to get stuck in a huge laboratory with no possible means to escape.

  The lab seemed to be getting larger or I was having my first hallucination. It wasn’t a perfectly square room, probably as close as you can get considering the rocky surroundings. It took me ten steps to get to the back stainless steel wall and twelve steps to get from side to side.

  The Sheriff had finished placing his bricks and I finished a moment later. “Now what”, I was hoping for a good answer? “First off I don’t have a clue. When I saw you unable to open or knock that door off its foundation my hopes of getting out of here in one piece started dwindling”, the Sheriff replied in a disappointed manner. “I just tried it real quick; I did n’t put a lot of effort into it. Maybe I can try again”, I offered.

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea right now since the alarms are going off and I’m sure they have more armed guards ready to unload on us if you’re able to get that door open”, the Sheriff explained as he had the phone that was in the backpack in his hand. “Go ahead and get the other phone out and let’s see if we can put the fear of God into them”, the Sheriff added.

  I’m not sure about the others on the other side of the door but I possessed

  enough fear for all of them combined. I got the phone out and pretended that I knew what I was doing. The Sheriff found the arming activation on the phone. He showed me where it was located on the phone I had but I was unsure if I

  actually wanted that information .

  “You see Billy, just press menu and it’s the first highlighted button. All you have to do is hit okay and it starts the timer”. I nodded and replied, “Once the timer is set, how much time before we become splatter m arks on the walls”? The Sheriff shot me a look that screamed for me to shut up. Being frightened is not a strong suit of mine but I was trying to make the best of it.

  I was scanning my surroundings as if I was strategically planning an escape. I probably would have concentrated more on being scared if not for that annoying humming noise coming from the ceiling. It wouldn’t stop as was really starting to piss me off. Could someone turn that damn thing off?

  There must have been a good twenty people gawking at us like we were part

  of the carnival freak show. The faces looked somewhat distorted as they

  continued to peer in at us. I got a bit closer to the window and once I got up close to it some of the people started to back off as if I was going to harm them in some

  manner. I was tempted to see if I could concentrate hard enough to shove all of them against the mountain wall behind them. That might be out of my wheel house since I noticed that the windows were at least eight inches thick not to

  mention how thick the walls must be.

  One familiar face wedged his way through the crowd; the short guy with the shaved head wearing the white lab coat. He seemed to be in charge as he started pointing and the obliging minions followed his direction as they scattered quickly from the window. As the crowd dispersed three guards holding rifles were behind the short guy in charge.

  The Sheriff had seen the crowd but ignored their presence until now. “When did short stack get here”, the Sheriff sarcastically chuckled? “Just got here and got rid of the crowd and he brought some friends”, I replied. “So I see”, as the Sheriff joined me at the window. The Sheriff stood up straight to display his six feet six inches which towered over his nemesis on the other side of the window.

  Ole shaved head was not impressed as he motioned his arm which brought the guards closer to the window. The Sheriff returned the favor of not being impressed as he held up the phone and pointed to the various c-4 blocks sticking

  to the walls. Ole shaved head just smiled. If he was in fear of his life he gave no

  indication by his demeanor.

  “If I didn’t know a ny better I would say that short stack is not the least bit

  concerned that we’re here”, the Sheriff noticed. Short stack approached the

  window and pressed a button to his right. “Good morning gentlemen, I am your

  host Mr. Catrell and to reply just hit the white button on that small box just to the

  left of the window”. His voice was clear and brimming of confidence which made

  mine shrink in comparison.

  The Sheriff and I stared at each other for a moment when the Sheriff pressed

  the white button. “It may be a good morning, but not for you when we set the timer and blow this place sky high”, the Sheriff countered. Mr. Catrell laughed and turned to someone we couldn’t see and motioned for him to come up to the window.

  A man of average height but a little on the heavy side wheeled up a dolly to the

  window. His white lab coat was draped over the handle of the dolly as he parked

  it next to Mr. Catrell. The man used both hands to push his shoulder length hair out of the way of his face and pointed to the box that he was carting on the dolly.

  The Sheriff and I peered through the window and noticed that the box was filled with all of the c-4 blocks that we had placed throughout the compound. “Your efforts though thorough in nature will not provide you the end result you were looking for. You might as well give up and come out of there and join us in our efforts”, Mr. Catrell offered. Once again the Sheriff held up the phone and pressed the button, “You must have forgotten about all the explosives in here and all I have to do is press the button and boom”; as he spread his long arms apart to emphasis the pending explosion.

  “You go right ahead and press that button, but before you do that you might want to check out the reception in the room you occupy”. The Sheriff looked at him with a furrowed brow and checked the phone. “You see there is no recepti
on in there; that was by design so why don’t you two stop this charade and come out”.

  The Sheriff turned to Billy and showed him the phone. The phone was showing full reception as all bars were showing. “He thinks we can’t set off the explosives so just play along until I say”, the Sheriff whispered. I nodded but I didn’t know

  what for because if he did set off the timer where were we going to go in order

  for the Sheriff to make his point.

  “Evidently Thomas had already figured out the phone issue and Mr. Catrell thinks that we have no card to play in this game”. The Sheriff nodded in agreement as I looked at that vent again in hopes that the never ending humming noise would cease.

  “What’s the matter Billy, you keep looking at the ceiling”? “That humming

  noise is driving me up a wall” I replied. “That noise is the least of our worries right

  now. Do you think that if you concentrate long enough that you can blast that big ass door out of the way”? I took a moment and focused on the inner mountain wall that separates us from a clean shot at the half moon door. I was getting a clear picture when I saw someone walking in front of the giant door.

  It was him, ole red eye, the one that blasted Thomas’s place beyond recognition. He was walking slowly and looked different. His eyes were different;they didn’t have that red glow to them like they did when he stared into the camera at Thomas’s place. He was pacing about but seemed to have no purpose in doing so. I suddenly felt sorry for him. It wasn’t his fault that he ended up here.

  I walked over and pressed the button, “Is that your body guard you have pacing about outside the other door”? Mr. Catrell raised an eyebrow, “Impressive

  Mr. Speer, it seems that you possess even greater powers than your twin

  brother”. “I don’t have any brothers, twins or otherwise”. The Sheriff looked over at me and shrugged his shoulders. “You most certainly do Billy and he is just beyond these walls”, as Catrell pointed to the mountain wall behind him.