Dawn of the Epoch

Chapter VII - A Perambulatory Inspection of the Area

Hunter and Hongo ran back to the initial room. They saw Tiyana standing out in the hallway hollering her lungs out. When she saw them she burst into an enormous smile and started running as well. When they met, she jumped onto Hunter, wrapped her legs around his waist and began kissing him. Hongo stood by sheepishly. As Tiyana dropped to the ground she acknowledged Hongo and turned back to Hunter.

“Well, I can hardly believe it, but I’m not complaining. How in the wide wide world of miracles did the two of you manage to get lights?”

Hunter shot Hongo a sideways glance, “About that…” he started, “Well…” he continued, “Ok, so it’s like this…”

“Right well, take your time then, why don’t you just start from the beginning.” Tiyana directed.

“Ok, so I woke up and Hongo here was milling about. We were both up, and didn’t want to disturb anyone so we went for a little walk.”

“In the dark?”

“Right, we just felt our way along. So, then we came to that far door at the end of this hall here and we opened it and went in.” Hunter went on to tell the tale of the green sphere; the monotone, yet pleasant voice; the progress bar; and the lights.

At the end, Tiyana had her face scrunched together. They could almost see the wheels turning in her brain. “First of all, you really shouldn’t have let that thing near your head. Who knows what kind of radiation it gives off? Second, I can’t imagine… EEG technology is rudimentary at best… you can buy brain-scanning EEG machines now that hook up to your home computer, but they are mostly only good for rudimentary games… there is just no way that anyone in any country can build one that will learn the English language in a fifteen minute brain scan. It could, however, have recognized that you speak English.”

By the end of the story, the rest of the crew had emerged and begun to stare slack-jawed at the illuminated hallway. “I think it’s time to rally the troops, eh Hongo?” Hunter said.

“Yes, what did you have in mind, Mr. Price?”

“Exploration parties. Shenouda’s leg is probably broken. She’s holding it in. I can tell. She’s in a bad place. Much as I would love to explore every inch of this amazing place, we have to find help and we have to find it fast.”

“I find it hard to believe that the Egyptians would abandon this place, maybe we can find someone down here?” Tiyana speculated.

“Maybe if we find them, they will have to kill us?” Hunter ominously replied. Tiyana frowned, but did not say anything.

“Let’s break up into three groups, we’ll each lead one and explore. Now that we can see our watches, let’s meet back in thirty minutes. Hongo, you go left at the end of the hall, I’ll go right, and Tiyana, sweetheart, you could check out all the rooms in the hall we’re in, then pick a direction and go for it. If we meet up, we’ll just split off again. Now, everyone, be extremely careful. This place could be dangerous.”

“This place gives off an insidious vibe…” remarked Tiyana. “And things aren’t adding up.”

With that, they split up and explored. They found room after room of wall recesses and stone bunk beds. They found no bodies, skeletons, or indications of life. The labyrinth looked like a hybrid of the future and the ancient past. The rooms were bare rock. Lights randomly poked out of cracks in the rock. The hallways, in contrast, looked clean and sharp. About eight feet of rock wall rose up off of the bare rock ground. Then, a straight line of metal cut across the rock. A tall, metal concave ceiling filled with long straight unbroken lights running the entire length of the hallway gave half of the room a meticulously orderly, almost martial feel. Much of the labyrinth seemed primitively carved, but the unprimitive parts were modern and sleek. The metal of the roof shimmered as if it never oxidized or tarnished despite the fact that this place had ostensibly been abandoned long ago. The lights shone in perfectly straight lines. They gave off no noise whatsoever, none of the normal fluorescent humming.