Notes [Initially released February 3, 2016, last revised October 22, 2016]:
- All characters are the product of the authors' imaginations and are over eighteen.
- This is a relatively short story/vignette, and we recommend reading the previous chapters.
Thanks to Skye4Life for editing this.
Page stares at me in disbelief. "What do we do now?"
"I guess we should try and see who is outside?" I say stepping in front of the panel with the three by three display and touch the one displaying my car. It expands to full screen and I ask, "Do those look like our footprints or are they newer?"
"There's a lot of snow in them, plus they simply look like our paths to and from the car; I think they're ours. Go back to the porch and see if this thing can zoom."
I swipe the screen and get a different view of the outside. I squeeze my fingers together and see the three by three matrix again. The function is somewhat intuitive, but I say, "You drive, you're my
technical adviser
."
"Put the gun down, Ryan. We'll be able to hear if someone is trying to break into the hatch," she says, as she pulls up the front porch and zooms in close.
I put the gun back in the hard case and close it. I briefly consider putting on clothes from the bag, but see what Page is looking at and join her at the monitor.
"Are those fresh?"
"I think so, but they look like they go away. Does it look human?"
Page swipes the screen and there is a view of the driveway. There aren't any prints or tire tracks. Another swipe and we see the hill behind the house, nothing again. The back deck is clear too and snow is piled high on the side of the hot tub cover that is next to the edge. The only tracks are on the front porch and come and go from the same direction. Whatever or whoever it was seems to have come and gone over the same path which just disappears down the hill off the front porch.
"What do you think?" she asks.
"I don't know. The whole thing is making me crazy. I didn't even know this bunker was here. I just reacted to the bed moving and panel opening on instinct, but I feel like I'm in shock."
"I think we're safe; why don't we just sleep down here, the whole thing has me a little spooked and - oh -" she says with a little jump when the phone LEDs begin flashing again, indicating another call.
"Hello?" I answer it.
"Ryan, I think it is just a bear. I've reviewed the video of the front porch. You can do that too, just select the screen and do a counter clockwise swirl. Anyway, you should probably put your gun away, I'm sure you're adrenaline has you pumped."
"Yeah, it does," I say feeling a little relieved. "I might sleep down here, though; it spooked me," I say repeating Page's feelings in my own voice.
"Look, you're safe, the hatch only opened because: one - you're there, two - there was heat motion detected and three - there was a sufficient weight change at one of the doors."
"Oh, that makes sense," I reply, feeling even safer now.
"So, what's going on; taking some time off or what?" Gary asks, as if none of the previous stuff mattered.
I think to myself that striking up a conversation at this time of night seems odd, but I'm in his house hiding in his bunker with my sister. So, I just tell him what's going on, or at least the parts I'm comfortable telling him.
"Yeah, I was feeling a little bummed about losing the election."
"Hey, I didn't tell you yet. I just heard it myself. The Lieutenant Governor passed away last week and there's going to be a special election in February."
I had actually heard that she'd passed away, but hadn't thought about running for the spot and it felt a little opportunistic to even think about it.
"You think I should run for that; it seems a little premature." I say, as I see Page looking at me like I'm crazy.
"Yeah, too bad you didn't come on this hunting trip, we could have talked about your strategy."
"Where are you exactly?"
"Dude, I'm literally in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive half an hour into the middle of the swamp to get to the boat that took us another forty-five minutes to this place."
"But you've got cell service there?"
"Well, I've got service, it's a private club. You're really missing out though, I've already gotten a dozen birds: couple of Gallinules, half a dozen Woodcock and four Coots. Well, I didn't mean to run on; I was just surprised you were there..."
"Sorry, I should have called and told you I was coming. It was a spur of the moment thing."
"Hey, no worries, man; I told you to use the place. Try to get some sleep. We'll talk when I get back," he says and hangs up.
I hang up the phone and look at Page. "Sorry, I guess everything is okay."
"What was he saying?"
"Well, he ran on a bit about a possible special election and then his hunting trip, but he thinks it was just a bear wandering onto the porch. He told me we can review the video if you do a counter clockwise swirl to rewind."
Page does that nearly instantly and we see a large black/brown figure come onto the porch. She tries to zoom in, but that doesn't work well or intuitively in rewind mode. The brown figure is kind of a blur and it goes back off the porch quickly. She replays it again and it still isn't clear what it is.
"Does it look like a bear to you?" she asks. "Aren't they supposed to be hibernating?"
"I've never seen one up close; it's kind of a blur. As for hibernating, it's been unseasonably warm until this snow storm and the weather service wasn't even calling for any accumulation."
"I guess we should go look."
"So, now, you want to go up instead of staying down here and checking it out in the morning?" I ask.
"Yeah; after my long bus trip, I've really grown to appreciate beds. Don't you want to
sleep
in bed?"
"Yes, of course," I say thinking of us in bed earlier. "I wonder how we get back out."
Page goes to the panel by the rebar ladder and presses a button I hadn't really seen. There's a vibration above us and the hatch starts to slowly open. When it finally finishes, she grabs up the laptop bag and her duffel bag and begins her ascent back into the bedroom. I grab my duffel and sling it over my shoulder and then one of the gun cases. Climbing the ladder with one hand is awkward enough so I make a second trip for the last case.
Back in the room, I find Page is fully dressed and heading towards the front door.
"Hey, wait a second," I say. "Before you open that, let me get dressed and get the gun back out."
She thinks about it a second and agrees, "Okay."
I dress quickly, open the wrong case and then open the other one to find the gun I'd already loaded. Taking it out I join her in the dim light and she continues to the front door. She gingerly turns the deadbolt and signals me that she's going to open it in three fingers, two, one. Opening it, the door swings inward silently along with a cold blast of air and a swirl of lose snow that looks like dust in the low light. She peers onto the porch and looks at the tracks. I follow her out and look for myself. I can barely see, since there is almost no light save, what is coming from the hatch in the guest room.
I whisper, "Should I turn on the porch light?"
"Yeah, do."
When I flip on the light there is a startled noise off in the woods, which is almost certainly an animal. On the porch, we look more closely at the tracks in the blown snow.
"I think that it was a bear," she says. "Unless someone went to the trouble of getting fake bear feet to make the tracks."
"Yeah, they aren't even very large; it's probably just a cub."
We both head back inside where I close and lock the door. "Gary said the hatch only triggered due to motion, weight at the door and our presence in the house."
"This place is crazy high tech. I wonder what else is in here?"
"Hey, now; no hacking Gary's house."
"Maybe just a little?"
"Now who's incorrigible? Come on, let's go to bed; I'm exhausted from the adrenaline rush," I say taking her hand.
"But..."
"No buts! Now, come help me figure out how to close the hatch from up here."
"Oooo yeah, let me have a look at that thing... You think there's another one in the master?" she says dashing off to the bedroom.
"You're amazing, crazy, but amazing..." I say breaking into laughter.
Playing with the hatch like a kid in a candy store, she looks at the thing from every angle trying to figure out what makes it close and reopen. I step over her to put the gun on the night table and turn on the light while she continues to look along the walls and inside the bathroom.
"I think there's got to be another panel somewhere up here, like the one down there," she says at length.