Page 38 of Mated By the Pack
“It’s old,” Nara says. “It was built before the Great War, for sure. It might be an old military bunker.”
“There may be some supplies inside. Maybe even some weapons,” I say. “We should check it out.”
I grip the hand wheel with both hands and try to turn it. It doesn’t budge. Nara offers some assistance, but the two of us are no match for centuries of rust.
“I’ll help,” Fiona offers, lending a tiny bit of strength to our attempt, but it still doesn’t move.
“We won’t get into this without tools,” Nara concedes.
“There’s a cable over here,” Tansy says. “Brenna, give me your stick.”
Brenna hands over her stick and Tansy digs in the dirt around the cable. It’s mostly buried, but Tansy manages to unearth it enough for us to follow it toward a thick cluster of trees and a looming wall of rock, except something shimmers like the hatch. As we get closer, we see massive steel slabs embedded in the stone that is mostly covered by vines and brambles. One of thesteel slabs is tilted toward us, and the vines around it look to have been cleared.
“Doors!” Tansy says excitedly. “This must be another way in!”
“Careful,” I caution. “Something opened this, which means they could be close.”
“It also means whatever supplies were inside were looted long ago,” Nara sighs. “But we should still look around. It’ll be dark soon. If whatever opened the doors has moved on, this might be the best place to rest.”
There’s enough light for us to see a narrow corridor on the other side of the door, but we can’t see much else.
“We won’t get far without light, but since we’ll be inside, we might be able to build a fire,” I say. “Let’s gather some sticks and vines. The dryer the better.”
We gather what we can and step into the bunker. The air inside is cooler and mustier. Stale, but not rotting. As we get past the illuminated corridor, my bracelet glows, providing just enough light for us to navigate further. We pass several doors that are closed, but don’t try to open them, because we see one open at the end of the hallway. I hurry toward it, making sure I don’t lose the others in the dark.
“I think this is some sort of control room,” Nara deduces, squinting as she tries to look around. “Calla, come closer. It looks like there is a lever on the wall.”
I walk closer and notice the lever. There’s a faded yellow sticker next to it that says Auxiliary Power. Nara and I exchange glances, then she attempts to push the lever up. I’m skeptical,but I offer my assistance. It takes both of us to get the lever to budge.
“This shouldn’t work after all this time,” I grunt, but the hum that follows the lever’s shift proves otherwise.
The low hum seems to echo through the bunker. The hum grows louder, then we hear grinding beneath our feet. A second later, a flicker of light. Then another.
“The lights are coming on!” Fiona says excitedly.
They’re not very bright, but they illuminate the bunker fairly well. The lights seem to be the only things that come on. The monitors and everything else in the control room remain silent, likely burned out from the solar flare, like the rest of the technology people relied on.
“I guess the generator, or whatever powers this place, was far enough underground that it wasn’t damaged,” Nara mutters, looking around. “But the circuits and wiring should be fried—unless someone repaired them.”
“Maybe the same person who opened the doors,” I say, feeling a twinge of concern. “Let’s investigate. If it looks like someone still lives here, we shouldn’t stay long. We’ll just grab whatever supplies we can find.”
We leave the control room and venture deeper into the bunker. It doesn’t take us long to realize the bunker is massive and built to house dozens, possibly more. We pass rooms lined with cots that are mostly just metal frames. The padding and bedding are musty and threadbare.
“There are lockers in this room,” Nara calls out. “We should check them for supplies.”
The five of us fan out and start opening lockers. Several have been busted open, and I see claw marks along the metal. Deep gashes that suggest it was a strong hybrid.
“I found a necklace,” Fiona says, holding up a metal chain that has two rounded pendants hanging from it.
“Those are dog tags,” Nara says. “Soldiers used to wear them so they could be identified—if there wasn’t anything else left to identify.”
Fiona shrugs and discards the necklace. We continue our search, but don’t come up with anything useful.
“I think we’re wasting our time,” Brenna sighs. “Anything useful in here would have been taken long ago. We’re clearly not the first ones to find it. Let’s just find somewhere to rest.”
“Yeah, somewhere far away from the entrance.” Tansy looks around nervously. “Just to be safe.”
Some paper maps, books, and manuals crunch under our feet as we continue on. This part of the bunker has been exposed to the elements outside. They’ve taken their toll, just like age. We walk past other rooms, but don’t spot anything useful—then we turn the corner and all of us freeze.
