They arrived at their destination, which was only a mile or so south from the field turnout. The western sky was flashing up again like a neon billboard on the Vegas strip. The second wave of the storm system was going to crash hard on the countryside. Dylan had pulled the vehicle into the long driveway that led to the yellow building.
The same yellow building that Delilah had imagined as the home of a creepy serial killer.
He ran to the main gate and swung it open with his entire body. She gulped as he returned to the vehicle. He smiled at her as he saw her exasperated look.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"You never told me you lived in the creepiest place imaginable." she answered bluntly.
He gave her a look of surprise, "Why is this place creepy?"
She answered, "Let's see, barbed wire fence around the building, spot lights standing overhead, large swinging gate. It's looks like a bunkhouse at a concentration camp."
He snorted with laughter and she glared at him with eyes so piercing, yet so striking.
She screamed as she punched him on the shoulder, "It's not funny! How the fuck do I know that some serial killer doesn't live here?!"
He gave her a shit-eating grin, "That would imply that I'm a serial killer."
She rolled her eyes and made a horse noise, "I guess so, that is if you lived here."
His grin remained intact, "Of course I live here. I have lived here for a few months now."
She didn't believe him, or didn't want to believe him, "Why the hell would you live in a place like this?"
He knew they weren't going anywhere until she felt completely safe, "This is my uncle's shop and quote unquote extra house. He's an electrician and he works from here. Since he decided that he could trust me enough, he lets me live out here on my own as long as I followed his strict rules. I have done that to some degree, but since I turned eighteen and I am gainfully employed, he's been lenient with me as late."
Her fears weren't quelled enough for her to trust him. She just shook her head obstinately.
He heaved a long breath and said sagaciously, "This is interesting. Little Miss Daredevil can't bring herself to go into a scary-looking building."
She laughed angrily as if she was a hornet's nest that had been violently poked, "Nice try, jackass. See if you get any more at all."
He shrugged his shoulders, drove past the gate and parked the car near the rear of the building. He jumped out of the vehicle, opened the rear door and grabbed her rucksack off the seat. She watched his actions and became pissed at him all the more. She jumped out of the vehicle and tried to tackle him. He anticipated her action, so he backed himself against the wall by the door and threw the rucksack under his foot. She reached out to grab it but it would not budge.
"Let go, Dylan! Give me my bag back!" She hollered like an angry mother bear.
"Do you trust me?" He asked simply, waiting for her to make the correct answer.
She stood about two feet away from him and folded her arms in frustration. Heaving a great big sigh, "I don't know."
Dylan arched his eyebrows as the thunder cracks continued overhead, "Dee, you told me you love me and we made love on the back of my car. How can you say you don't trust me?"
The bluish glow from the sky illuminated her as she threw her arms up in the air in further aggravation. "I am having a bad vibe about this place."
He became more frustrated with her response, "You're the one who wandered into the meth house up the road to stay overnight. A place like that could explode if the wrong glass bottle breaks."
She winced, not wanting to admit he was right, "I know about those places, Dill. More than you can even fathom. I had a feeling the place would be safe for the time being."
He responded, "Have about you feel safe with me? It's safer inside than it is out here. I don't want us to be remembered as a pair of human lightning rods."
Dylan released his foot from her rucksack and put his key into the lock. He opened the door, went inside and extended the welcoming gesture. She sighed once more, picked up her rucksack and came inside. As the door closed behind her, another thunder crack occurred and the rain came down again.
He had flipped on the overhead light and it illuminated a short hallway that led to the main hallway about ten feet from the door. She was still standing by the door as he gave her a somber smile.
"Welcome to my humble home," he remarked with his arms extended wide open. "Follow me down the hall a bit."
She gulped as she noticed the ugly, jaundiced fibrous wallpaper than lined the wall of every room and hallway. The floors were covered with a steel gray carpeting, the kind one might find in the basement of a home in a nearby town. She left her rucksack by the door, turned to the left down the long hallway and noticed Dylan about ten yards away from her. On the left side of the hallway were four rooms, each a bedroom used primarily by cooking and security staff when the place was operational years before. The right side of the hallway had three rooms, also bedrooms used by visitors, the commanding officer and the female staff. She whistled at how ordinary, how devoid of life, how militaristic the structure felt to her.
"What is this place, Dylan?" she asked with a puzzled expression on her face.
"This is a missile alert facility, or an M-A-F as the boys in blue used to call it." he replied as if he was a tour guide at a museum.
"A what?" she asked.
"A missile alert facility. This is was the place where the bombs could be launched by trained air force officers if the Cold War ever turned hot." he replied in the same tone as before.
"This place really has a cold feeling to it. It seriously gives me the creeps." she stated as she moved to where Dylan was.
"This place hasn't been active in fifteen years. In fact, the feds buried the structure underground after they pillaged it. There is no way we can get down into the capsule where the bombs were launched from. All that is left is the structure we are currently standing in." he answered as he looked into her worried eyes.
He flipped on the light in the room on his right side. Inside was a queen-size bed covered in a blue bedspread, a bedside table, a black dresser, and a small closet that wasn't built into the wall. The room was spartan by its very definition.
"This is my room, and back then the cooks lived here." he said without much fanfare.
He then moved across the hallway and flipped on the light, and there was a large bathroom with red-brown tile on the floor. There was a large tub, a separate shower, and a long vanity and toilet along the opposite wall.
"This bathroom only had two working showers, two working stalls, a urinal and three working sinks back then. This was the men's bathroom. Before my uncle purchased this place, my other uncle had wanted to turn it into a luxury home for his wife. She was always wishy-washy on the idea, so much so that uncle Peter sold it to my uncle Harald. A lot of remodeling was done before the switch was made, which is why the bathroom is so nice."
Moving further down and across the hallway, Dylan flipped on the light so Delilah could see the large kitchen. It was modern in every sense of the word with stainless steel appliances, oak cabinetry and a large island in the middle of the room.
"You weren't kidding about the kitchen, were you?" Delilah asked, some her fear melted away a little while before.
Dylan shook his head in negative fashion as he walked across the hall and flipped on the light. Delilah saw the washer and dryer and realized how wrong her reaction had been.
Delilah shut her eyes, moved her downward and sighed, "I am sorry, Dill. I knew I should have trusted you when you brought me here."
He shrugged his shoulders and heaved a sigh, "I don't know what you've been through up until now, but I will tell you that you will be safe here. I'll be here with you."
She broke he said that, and a tear appeared in her right eye. He took his right hand and held her cheek. He rubbed her eye slightly with his thumb to wipe away the tear and she grabbed his arm to wipe away more that were appearing. He reached around her back and pulled her toward him, their eyes staring at each other longingly.
"Don't worry, Dee. Everything will be fine. Let me show you the rest of the place." he said he took her left hand with his right hand and led her to the front of the structure. There was a partially-opened space that contained both the dining room and the sitting area. The large space had been partitioned by an L-shaped wall to make the two rooms. There was a doorway that led to a garage that contained a white Ford F150 labeled with the words "Good's Electric". On either side of the garage were rooms where Uncle Harald kept his tools and his office. Dylan took Delilah into the tool room on the southeast side of the building. He showed her where the old elevator shaft had been before Harald had the wall knocked out to make the elevator room and the security office into one open space. Delilah was taken with every piece of information had offered.
As the door to the garage closed behind them, Delilah asked an important question. "How did your uncles manage to get their hands on this place?"
Dylan chuckled as they sat down on the couch right in front of 27-inch TV. It was butted up in the corner formed by the L-shaped wall. He leaned back a little bit and she snuggled in next to him.