River, Sun, Freedom

Hansel, Gretel and the ... rock?

She rolled the bike inside and as soon as Jake was inside, Nate allowed the sheet to drop back into place. But the “room” that they were in now didn’t go as dark as Jodi had expected, for the room was filled with what appeared to be glowing mushrooms.

“Bioluminescence” said Nate. “Some creatures, when they can’t find enough light, created their own.”

“Like the angler-fish” said Jake. Nate looked at him for awhile, and then nodded slowly, as if not wanting to admit that he didn’t know what Jake was talking about.

“So these are real?” said Jodi.

“Yup” replied Nate and walked on.

It didn’t take long for Jodi to realise that the “room” was actually a passageway. Every now and again, the mushrooms showed rooms which appeared to be storage or stairs leading downwards. Nate had her leave the bike beside one of these. When she asked Nate about them he explained how those led to the “garage” where all the vehicles and weapons were kept and worked on.

“You’ll probably end up working your keep down there.” He said. “Now, can we hurry up a bit? There must be plenty of people waiting for you by now.”

The passageway led to some more stair leading up this time, but instead of walking to them, Nate stopped to the left of them. Jodi wondered why they had stopped, but Nate had their back to them and faced the wall. After a while, there was the strange sound of metal sliding smoothly against metal and light flooded the floor, blinding Jodi for a while. When her eyes cleared she saw a strange room. It was little more than a metre square and completely empty. The walls were made of metal and were smooth, and unrusted. Electric light came from yellow light bulbs in the ceiling.

Unlike her and Jake, Nate didn’t even pause to stare at the room. He stepped inside and waited for them. Startled, Jodi hurried to stand beside them, Jake close behind her, and gasped as two thick metal panels slid closed behind her. She then felt the odd sensation of falling, as though her stomach was weightless inside her. She fought the urge to cry out, not wanting Nate to think she was as ignorant as she actually was. Beside her Jake appeared to have the same reactions as she was, his eyes open so wide the white could be seen all around his pupil.

To her relief the metal panels slid open again and she allowed Nate to step out first. To her horror she saw the slightest twinge of a smirk on his face. He knew! He knew she had never seen something like the room before, but he hadn’t done anything to reassure her!

“Why did we go in there?” Jodi jerked her thumb back to the room, her voice sharp.

“That was a lift, a device which takes us to different storeys in a building. We are now on the second floor of the headquarters, but the lift can go up to the third floor as well.” Nate gestured around himself, inviting her to look. And what she saw made her gasp. The “second storey” was a large room, what looked like a dining room back before the end of the world, but one much larger than she had ever known.  This room could fit fifty people, maybe more, with two huge dining tables and benches on either side. It appeared to be an area hollowed out of the rock, and made liveable with huge electric lights hanging from the ceiling. Solar-powered, Nate explained to her, connected to large panels on the top of Uluru. Apparently everything was powered by solar here, including the kitchen, which was an open area to the left of the room. “One of the storerooms was converted in a large controlled fridge by our mechanic.” Nate explained.

“What do you keep in them?” asked Jodi.

“I’ll show you, he said.

He walked between the dining tables to the other side where he disappeared behind cloth hanging in front a hole in the wall large enough to walk through. The wall here was riddled with such holes, but the larger ones were cover with cloth.