“Don’t drop them.” Zach yelled down to Penny as he lowered the hoodie they had wrapped around the bundle of flashlights. They had been snuck out of their respective homes that morning to aid in the exploration of the newly discovered part of the bomb shelter.
“We don’t know what’s down here, so we need to stick together.” Binny instructed.
“I’m with you.” Gabe wrapped his arm around Binny’s torso.
Binny smiled awkwardly not sure quite what to do with her new adoring fan.
“How about we all go together until we know this place is safe?” Zach offered.
The small group spent the next hour exploring the space methodically. Periodically Cassie and Gabe would run ahead only to be reined in by the older children.
Zach estimated the entire space was roughly 120 feet long by 100 feet wide, and about 25 feet deep. The different rooms they found all had ceilings, and the hallways between the rooms were open air, so it gave the impression of them being in a sort of concrete village as the ceiling of the cavernous space was a full story higher than the ceilings of the various rooms.
When they had completed exploring the entire space, Zach had formed a mental map of sorts. A row of dormitories separated by gender and age – “ADULT MALES”, “FEMALE CHILDREN”, etc. ran along the leftmost wall. Mattressless bunkbeds enough for thirty people in each room filled seven rooms in all.
Across from the rooms with the bunk beds were a row of bathrooms with separate toilets and showers. The porcelain fixtures looked unused and were covered by a thick layer of dust.
Additional areas including a small infirmary, a kitchen, a library, a laundry, and two large empty rooms marked “ADULT SOCIAL ROOM” and “CHILDRENS SOCIAL ROOM” respectively. For the most part the rooms were empty of everything but large pieces of furniture and heavy equipment.
When the children finished their tour they found themselves in a large open space at one end of the shelter. On one side were long folding tables with attached stools. It reminded Zach of a cafeteria lunch room. The remaining open space had of all things, wood flooring.
“Can you please stop squeaking?” Binny said.
“It’s fun.” Cassie and Gabe were rubbing the soles of their sneakers on the hardwood making loud echoing squeaking sounds.
“Please?” Zach implored.
“OK. OK.”
“Well, it seems like we were never actually in the bomb shelter. That room upstairs was just the entryway.” Zach concluded.
“Well, this is one pretty fancy bomb shelter if you ask me. Who needs a dance floor when they’re hiding from nuclear war?” Penny looked at the floor as she spoke.
“It’s not a dance floor.” Zoe was pointing above their heads. Above their heads seven flashlights illuminated a basketball hoop and backboard suspended from the wall. There was no net, but the rest looked fine.
“Oooh. Can we play?” Gabe asked.
“Not unless you saw a decaying basketball somewhere in this mess.” Zoe said.
“Can we bring one?” Cassie asked.
Zach didn’t answer her question directly. “I think we’re going to need to bring a lot of things.”
§
Cassie and Gabe were playing some form of flashlight tag running around the complex, while the older children had found one last undiscovered room. There had been signs pointing to a “COMMAND CENTER” but they hadn’t found such a place until they discovered a staircase hiding behind the folded dining tables.
YOU ARE READING
The Madrona Heroes Register: Underneath It All
Teen Fiction(Note: This book is the sequel to the first book in the series - The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past which you can read here: http://www.wattpad.com/story/19419860-the-madrona-heroes-register-echoes-of-the-past) A year has passed since t...
