The Flawed Test

Chapter 19

     "Trees? What the heck?" Tyler asked from the back. 

     "What?" Claudia said, who had somehow found a way to fall asleep sitting on the console. Surprisingly, we looked up and there was actually what looked like a massive forest in front of us. Of course, every tree in the forest was beyond dead. Each one swayed in the barely blowing wind as though it could fall over any moment. And some already had. Instead of sand under the forest, it was just a desolate plain of dead leaves. Trees were laying everywhere like carcasses on a battle field.

     "And backyard of the year award goes to... " Eliana joked wryly. 

    "You think the entrance is somewhere in there?" Claudia asked.

     "Well, the GPS is pointing us in that direction, so I presume we should follow it's pinpoint, which could be in the middle of this woods." Will said. As we got to the edge of the forest, we found a path, which was really hard to see in the midst of the dead woods. We decided to get out of the car, because the trail was too small to fit on the trail. We also didn't want to alert God and everybody that we were coming by knocking down a bunch of trees with a car.

     "I'll go wake up Leo in the back." Eliana said, hopping out of the buggy and opening the hatch to the trunk. 

     Once we were on the trail, the sight wasn't any better than it was from the outside. But then I listened closer and I heard something.

     "Is that... Is that water?" I thought out loud.

     'What do you mean?' Leo asked, listening closer like the rest of our group.

     "Running water. Like a stream or a creek or a river. I hear one in the distance." I said, cupping my hand around my ear. I definitely heard a creek of some sort.

     "Yeah. Yeah, I hear it too." Jess said.

     "So, there's a river. Who cares?" Tyler asked, baringing up a good point.

     "If you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a desert. It's not like rivers are exactly common. I mean, you may get distracted by all of these dead leaves making a little carpet here, but there's still sand underneath." I stated. "Will? Can you do an analyzation of this forest, except instead of analyzing out, analyze down."

     "Sure thing." Will said. He pressed his hands to the ground and his eyes went wide.

     "What is it?" I asked, worried.

     "The estimated output of the power generator located exactly 63 meters below, or 206 feet roughly, outputs around 64,000 megawatts a day. The building material is mostly comprised of titanium and taking a brisk census of the generator, an estimated 60 people work there." He rattled off.

      "I don't get why that's surprising." Jess said, confused.

      "The big things is mostly the output per day. It outputs about how much Las Vegas uses on a summer day in 2015..." Will said.

      "Woah." Tyler said, in shock.

     "Multiplied times eight." Will finished. Everyone immediately went quiet after that. We had no idea what to say. So we just kept searching for the entrance that Will was guiding us towards. We eventually found the river we heard earlier, which didn't make sense. What was weirder was that it was being channeled through a metal pipe towards the southwest. The water also appeared as if it was liquid opal, seeming crystalline, yet clear. I ignored this as just the harsh sunlight reflecting against the water.

     "That's it. Right there." Will pointed to a nearby clearing that had what seemed to be about the size of four telephone booths and had a door on the side. We rushed over and found it was an elevator.

     'Wait, before we go down this elevator, maybe Will should analyze it that way, in case it's broken or something, we don't get killed.' Leo suggested.

     "Good idea. Will, you up for another scan?" Eliana asked.

     "Sure thing." Will said, placing his hands on the old elevator. "It appears to have a semi stable structure. Slight traces of wall collapsing in under the pressure of the Earth. The shaft seems to be operational at the most basic level, but one trip down and back up is not guaranteed. It is obvious that you should use caution when operating it."

     "Sounds fun." I said sarcastically. "Anybody waiting for us at the bottom?"

     "Zero lifeforms detected in a 20 foot radius of the exit of the elevator. All personell appears to be either working maintenance on the generator or operating it. Around three janitors occasionally patrol the outside hallways, but they are currently in a room that has the appearance of a break room." Will stated.

     "Good news." Claudia said. "Lets head down then, shall we?"