Page 92 of Malachi
“I want to show you the bunker. Right now,” he said, his voice sounding just as excited as I felt inside.
“Take me. Now,” I agreed eagerly. I wanted to know exactly where to go should shit hit the fan, as they had said.
“Come with me,” he directed, leading me out of the pole barn and back towards the house.
“Are we taking the UTV?” I asked curiously.
“No, we’re going on foot. It’s a bit of a walk, though,” he explained.
“So why wouldn’t we take the UTV?” I asked again.
“Because,” he responded, stopping in his tracks and taking me by the arm, turning me towards him. “If things go down and we really need to use the bunker, you won’t be taking the UTV. You’d be going on foot. I want you to remember how to get there. You’ll likely be coming from the house, so I want to take you from there.” His tone was serious, full of concern, and a true reminder of how dangerous the stakes were.
I nodded, taking a deep breath as we both turned back, making our way to the house. He led me up the stairs of the back porch, turning me to face out into the yard.
“Okay, you’ll head out past the garden and towards the treeline, just like you do when you run to the meadow,” he explained, pointing out across the yard.
“Let’s do this,” I nodded. We made our way out across the yard, past the garden and into the treeline.
“From here, you’ll keep going, but not all the way to the meadow,” he explained. We trekked through the underbrush, the way clear to me. Clear and familiar.
“Here. This is what you look for,” he spoke, pointing up towards the sky. There was an opening in the tree cover, where the stars glittered up above. “See the opening in the treetops? This is the spot you need to look for. From here, you turn north, heading deeper into the forest instead of continuing towards the meadow.”
“Opening in the treetops, then head north. Got it,” I agreed. We walked on silently, passing into territory I was unfamiliar with.
“You’ll look for the big tree with the hollow,” he explained. We continued on, my eyes scanning the trees for the one he spoke of. He fell back, moving behind me and letting me make the trek on my own so I would know how to get there without his steps leading me. I was grateful for his foresight.
Several yards ahead, I finally saw it, a giant tree with a hollow in the center, much like you would see in a storybook with owls. It looked almost mangled, the branches twisting and turning, thick from years of growth.
“Okay, where to next?” I asked, my breath coming in pants from the exertion of moving over the quickly thickening underbrush.
“Head northwest, at an angle from the tree,” he guided me, pointing in the direction he meant. I nodded, stepping forward. “Next, you’ll look for a small clearing in the trees. Not as big as the meadow, but you’ll know it when you see it.”
We carried on further, deeper into the forest, until the trees gave way to the clearing he spoke of.
“You’ll cross it there, in the big gap of the trees across the way,” he explained.
“Heading back north again,” I stated.
“Yes, good. Now go,” he urged me forward. We crossed the small clearing, heading that direction deeper into the forest. The incline increased. We were heading up the mountain. My pulse pounded in my veins as we went. The thick trees gave way to rockier ground and small outcroppings of stone as we continued north.
“See the outcropping there? The one that looks almost like a totem?” he pointed out to my right. I nodded. “You’ll skirt around it and circle back to the left after you get past the rocks.”
With a heavy sigh, I continued on.
“We’re almost there, Eden,” he reassured me. It was a long walk, he wasn’t kidding. We made our way around the rocks slowly. The ground was rockier here, much more difficult to walk over than the earlier underbrush of the forest.
“Just there, you see the moss covering the rocky side of the mountain?” he asked.
“Yes,” I huffed out, panting. I was losing my breath with exertion.
“Go to it. Just to the left, you’ll see moss covering the ground. A large patch of it. Keep walking along the rock wall and you’ll find the door,” he explained. I did exactly as he said, walking along the wall until I found it. A metal door that looked attached directly to the mountain wall.
“What is this?” I asked, confused.
“The bunker,” he explained, smiling as I turned to look at him. The night was pitch black. I could barely make out his form, even in the moonlight.
I pulled on the handle, but it didn’t budge. After a few more tries, I realized it turned; the door pulled away from the rocky wall like it was purposely built into it.
