The Bunker

steel walls and hindsight.

"If we die down here, I blame you" Amy was still grumbling as we lowered ourselves one by one into the hole in the ground.

"It might be a little too late by then" Dylan replied shortly as he jumped off the last rung of the ladder and joined the rest of us. Of course he had made us go in first. Chicken.

We stood huddled together in what looked like a metal underground bunker. A narrow passageway stretched out in front of us, and seemed to go on for quite a bit. We could not see what was on the other side. The place smelt bad, like a chemists lab. The overhead lights were bright white fluorescent and were blinding us a little bit. The whirring and clicking sounds were louder down here and seemed to bounce off the steel walls ominously. This was not good. I could feel it.

"Alright," I said confidently instead, "Whatever happens we stay together and keep our phones close to us in case we need to call 911."

Quinn spun around and looked at me with fear in his eyes "911?"

"You never know" I shrugged, trying to appear totally chilled out. I hoped I was a good actor.

Dylan pulled out his phone and checked the time, "Okay we can't be here too long, I have a test tomorrow, so let's just check it out real quick and get out of here."

"For once, I'm with Dylan" Amy agreed.

We nodded at each other then formed a line with Dylan in front and me bringing up the rear, and went down the steel passageway, our steps echoing loudly as we went.

I couldn't shake the feeling that something about this place felt somehow familiar. I tried to place it, but it kept slipping away from me. I could tell Q and Amy were just as uncomfortable because they kept glancing at each other in confusion. I didn't focus on them too much though, I needed to stay focused and calm.

I got so caught up with my thoughts that I didn't notice everyone had stopped, so of course, I walked nose first into Quinn's back.

"Ow!"

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" he fussed at me as he tried to rub my face, which was both uncomfortable and totally unhelpful. 

"Mmmyeah...mmfine." I mumbled shooing him with my one hand while the other clutched at my nose. I looked over his shoulder to try and see why we had stopped. Apparently it was a dead end, because a giant metal door now stood in our way. It had no handles or any other indication as to how to get it open, just a steel cut out in the otherwise solid metal underground cage.

Dylan was scratching at his head and muttering to myself. 

"Okay so this is clearly a sign that we need to get out of here" Amy said

"No no...I got this..." Dylan insisted absently

"There must be something here somewhere. Let's all just try and see if we can find something" I suggested in an effort to keep the peace.

Quinn said "Yes!" and promptly began to feel around the walls. Amy glared at me, then joined him.

I looked around us. If there was some kind of secret button to open this door, it was very well hidden. Since Q and Amy were covering the walls, while Dylan continued to stare at the door like he was trying to use telepathy to open it, I decided to check out the corners and the floor.

I scanned the surrounding area looking for some sort of oddity, and sure enough, I spotted a strange wooden panel in a corner by the door.

"Okay I think I found something!"

"Where?" Dylan asked excitedly.

I pointed to the wooden panel in the far right corner.

"Ohh..." he went over to it and studied it for a few seconds before giving it a slight push. A loud clanging sound immediately filled the passageway making us all jump and cover our ears. The metal door was moving, sliding away from the steel walls and opening into what looked like a large circular steel room. Goodness, whoever designed this was fond of cold, lifeless interiors. They must also have been really into drama, because the door opened with a cloud of steam, just like the trap door had, and with it came the smell of a chemistry lab, only stronger.

We stood there for a while, unsure of what do, but not entirely ready to abandon our adventure just when things were getting interesting. I heard Dylan gulp and Quinn breathe a little faster. Amy stood motionless with eyes wide, staring at the opening. At this rate we'd be here all night. Some of us had class tomorrow, and this time I was hoping to make Mrs. Naves' class on time.

"I guess we're going in," I whispered from the back. Dylan nodded slowly, then held his hand out to Amy, who was behind him. She grabbed it without hesitation and extended her other hand to Quinn who took hers and extended his to me. I took it without hesitation and braced myself for whatever was about to happen.

In hindsight, we probably should have just stayed home that night.

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So a short chapter... I'm sorry! But I've been having writer's block and this is as much as I could get out of my tired old brain.

Hope you guys are enjoying this story so far. I have another idea bouncing around in my head, but I'm not sure if I can do two books at once, so we'll see.

Like and leave a comment. xxx