The Survivalist: Madness Rules Part 33

20.

Tanner swept the headlamp's beam through the almost impenetrable darkness. Dozens of cubicles with computers, tables, and chairs filled a large bullpen measuring perhaps eighty feet on a side. There were no bodies in sight, and the only smell was that of damp stale air.

He leaned back and called up the ladder.

"It's clear."

Samantha carefully climbed the rest of the way down.

"Where are we?" she asked.

Tanner s.h.i.+ned the light on a bra.s.s plaque mounted on the wall. Deep Underground Command Center.

"I think we found your duck."

"What do you think it was used for?"

"I suppose to monitor dangerous events-a situation room of sorts."

"Shouldn't there still be people here? The country is definitely in the middle of a situation."

"True, but with the loss of electricity, they wouldn't be able to do much more than play shadow puppets on the wall."

Samantha looked back up the ladder.

"I hope those men don't find the trapdoor."

"They won't. But just to be safe, let's get out of here. There must be another exit somewhere." He swept the light around the room.

"There's a door over there," she said, pointing to the left wall, "and another one over there."

"And two more on the other walls."

"It must be like a maze under here. How do we know which way to go?"

"What's your favorite color?"

She furrowed her brow. "Blue. Why?"

"Because each of the doors is painted a different color. Blue is the one to our right."

"We're going to base our survival on my favorite color?"

"You got a better idea?"

"No, but-"

"But what?"

"Well, I kind of like red too."

He laughed. "Just stay close."

Samantha latched onto his arm, and he led the way through the darkness to the blue door. It had a keycard reader, but the door was partially ajar. He pushed it the rest of the way open and s.h.i.+ned the headlamp down a long hallway. Surprisingly, the stone floor was dimly lit by a trail of faint lights.

"How can there be lights if power is out?" she asked, squatting down and touching one of the tiny LED bulbs.

"They must be on an emergency backup system. But from the looks of it, the batteries are about dead." He clicked off the headlamp. "Still, better to save our light for when we really need it."

Tanner started down the long hallway, and Samantha followed close behind, occasionally glancing back to make sure that no one was sneaking up behind them. A heavy metal door stood at the end of the hallway. There was no handle or k.n.o.b, but a dark keypad hung on the wall beside it.

Samantha pressed a few b.u.t.tons on the panel.

Nothing happened.

"I think the controls are dead," she said.

He studied the panel to see whether there might be some way to get it open, not that he had any idea what he would do with the complex electronics if he did manage to get inside.

"The door feels solid," she said, pus.h.i.+ng against it with both hands.

Tanner stepped forward and tapped it with his knuckles. It was as st.u.r.dy as a bank vault. He squatted down and b.u.mped on the floor panel directly in front of the door. It sounded hollow.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for a manual override."

"What makes you think there's an override?"

"Whoever built this place obviously understood that power might be lost. It makes sense that they would have put in a way to open the doors without electricity."

"Ah," she said. "So that's why they left the headlamp by the ladder."

"And installed emergency floor lighting."

She squatted down next to him and studied the floor. There was a small semicircular notch cut in the corner of one of the tiles.

"Is this it?" she asked, sliding her finger into the notch and pulling up.

The panel lifted out. Beneath it was an operator's manual and a pneumatic valve with a bright red handle. A yellow tag hung from the handle that read "Pressure Release."

He reached for the valve.

"Hey," she said, "shouldn't you read the book first?"

"Bah. What could possibly happen?"

She stood up and took a couple of steps back.

"If it explodes, I'm going to be very disappointed with you."

He turned the valve ninety degrees clockwise, and a soft hissing sound came from underneath the door.

"What's that?" she asked in a worried voice.

"Oh c.r.a.p."

"What?"

"I've let the snakes out."

"Snakes!" she squealed, rising up on her toes.

He started laughing, and it took her a moment to realize that she was the victim of his twisted sense of humor.

"That wasn't funny."

"Oh, it was a little funny."

She squinted, sending imaginary death rays toward him.

The hissing quieted and then stopped. Tanner stood up and pressed lightly on the door. It opened with an ominous creaking sound. On the other side was a long set of stairs leading down. No emergency lighting lit the way.

She looked past him into the darkness.

"That looks incredibly spooky."

"We either go this way or back to the control center to try another door."

She turned and looked back over her shoulder.

"That way doesn't feel so good either."

"I suppose we could stand here until I grow a beard like Santa Claus," he said, hoping to lighten her mood.

Samantha didn't laugh. Instead, she turned back and stared into the darkness.

"What do you think is down there?"

"Other than zombies, you mean?"

"Yeah, other than zombies."

"Only one way to find out."

Tanner clicked on his headlamp and started down the long flight of stairs.

They stood on a stone landing, staring at a long dark tunnel that led in both directions.

"Where in the world are we?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. We're too deep for the Metro."

"Maybe this is the throat of a giant worm thingy, you know, like in Star Wars."

He walked over to the edge of the landing and leaned out to feel the tunnel wall. The rock was painted with something black and s.h.i.+ny.

"It feels solid enough to me. Definitely not alive."

Samantha nodded. "Better to check though, right?"

"Always."

"Where do you think it leads?"

"Someplace safer than where we were ten minutes ago."

She stared at him, still weighing options.

"The way I see it," he said, thinking out loud, "is that they dug this as an escape route for the president and other important officials."

"Makes sense, I guess," she said. "That way they could escape if someone attacked the White House."

"Or even all of Was.h.i.+ngton."

"You think it leads out of the city?"

"I do."

She moved up next to him.

"Okay, but which way takes us out?"

Tanner hopped down from the landing into the tunnel. Unlike the walls, the floor was paved and as flat as a racetrack. There was a single set of metal tracks in the middle. He held out his hands and helped Samantha down. Without explanation, she immediately knelt down and put her ear to one of the tracks.

"What are you doing?"

"Shh," she said, holding up her hand. "I've seen this done in movies. It tells you how far away the train is."

He waited quietly until she stood back up.