What lies above us

Chapter 4: Miles below but closer above

Nick's hands went to the panel as he initiated the gate. The sound of gears whirring filled the town as mechanics behind the main gate of Forest-ford was pulled upwards into the steel wall. Dax steps forwards and peeks on the other side of the seal, beyond it was... a simple concrete walkway to a simple wooden door, A bit over-dramatic. Dax peeked around at the outer wall. The screens touches the ground here and around them were holes in the ground with metal railings around them, steam rose from deep below where unseen mechanisms worked away. A buzzing came from one of the holes as a group of drones rose up into the air and flew off to a nearby screen and started to fix it.

With the Mayor, Dax, Shen and grey at the lead, the town proceeded towards the wide wooden doors that seemingly led father into the workings of Forest-Ford. As the door were pushed open with a defining creak that reverberated off the walls. Inside, it was dusty and dim. As well as dark, there were no lights on at the moment. But a few moments later, fluorescent lights flickered alive all down the hall.

Something in the hall sputtered to life, it was the intercom. 'Ahem... What? Is this what i'm supposed to say to them! This is shit writing i tell you, shit!' he started.

"I apologise people of... Forestford 27... I am Forest! Last name Ford..." The man spoke in his loud demanding voice "I am the ones who saved humans from their demise! Regardless to what my probability experts say." he growls that last part "Continuing, you have now found a reason to leave the town,and i cannot assure your safety out in the harsh environments bestowed upon- WHAT IS THIS ADVENTURE BULLSHIT, I SAID I NEED NEW WRITERS AND THIS IS JUST AS TERRIBLE AS THE LAST SCRIPT!" A loud thwack followed by the sounds of papers fluttering to the floor.

"Ahem,ok yes, hello my name is ForestFord, i built your homes and named it after myself. Now you may be thinking 'Built? What do you mean built?" and i will answer that soon enough! For now, head down the hall so we can get you on your way into hell! Maybe its fine.... I just wanted to call it hell..." The recording shut off and left the puzzled members of Forest-Ford standing there for a moment.

Nick was the first person to shake it off, he chuckled at the now probably dead man's ramblings and shuffled off down the long corridor. Dax looked at Nick and pulled Grey along with him. Shen shuffled after when she realized, and almost immediately everyone else from the town.

At the end of the corridor was another large set of doors, Nick grunted and looked at the kids behind him. "You three open these doors, my old bones are too weak..." Shen rolled her eyes and pushed the doors open with ease allowing access to the room on the other side.

A large open cavern was on the other side, the walls were stone and rose up in an ark to the ceiling. Large floodlights clicked to life lighting up the large expanse. On the roof of the cavern, a large hatch sat closed, large metal beams rose up from the ground with lifts attached, they stopped near the hatch however. A control panel sat by the lifts, it seemed to be made to open the hatch. Nick waddled over the unpaved ground as he approached the panel. On the wall, painted in massive yellow letters, was the word Athena.

Nick reached the area with the lifts and the panel, he reached out and pressed a power button located on the base. For a control panel it was extremely fancy, the panel lit up as a form of touch screen device displaying logistics and data for the functions of the town as well as different tabs for different thing. Surprisingly the mayor knew what to do. He tapped on some of the controls and a picture of the hatch popped up on the screen. Dax watched as the old man put his hand on the hatch on the screen and pulled his hand up.

A hologram of the hatch followed his hand as he pulled up, above them the sounds of locks disabling echoed around the cavern, The unlocking sounds was followed by grinding metal as the hatch slid out of its position and swung down, barely avoiding the beams for the elevator's. The hatch slid over on a system of rails till it was nestled neatly into a dug out section of wall. More grinding started from above as rusty metal beams were lowered onto the tops of the beams for the lifts. The lifts turned on and the glass doors on the cabins slid opened.

Nick smiled and pulled out his megaphone and started talking "All citizens form into groups of 10! Wait for your turns to go up in the lifts and please do not push!" He put it down and smiled at the three kids around him as he wobbled over to the capsule for the first one and ushered the three teens inside.

As the glass doors shut behind the group of three, the sound of nervous talking was dulled. It started to rise after the 4 other capsules had been filled with 10 citizens, the sound of the motors whirring filled the cabins. Dax looked out of the glass at the towns folk, everyone were organised into

Groups of 10 like planned. As they rose the motor picked in speed and whined louder.

The cavern's roof and the hatch flew by and they rose up. Outside, views of mechanics and factory lines sprawled out in a confusing labyrinth. Soon after the motor's whirring slowed until it stopped when they had reached a small subsection to another large area, an area less of a cave and more of a hanger. Of course the ceiling was still made of stone and rose high above them, but the entire floor was hard concrete. Dax stepped out of the lift and looked about the balcony they had arrived on, he decided to look over the edge at the many trucks that lined the expanse. Each truck had a gatling gun mounted to the top, of course they didn't fire bullets and where in fact powered via nuclear fission and fired energy.

Shen squealed when she saw the weapons almost jumping off the balcony "Oh my god! Guns! I love guns!" she hopped up and down excitedly like a 16 year old girl who just got a fancy car.

Dax pulled her back a little "Shen, chill out!"

Grey chuckled as he shuffled over "You might get to fire one mate."

Some dings from the lift's behind them as another group of people reached the balcony.

A mechanism moved over the trucks and started to load food and other supplies into compartments built into them. More drones whizzed past to go repair some broken component somewhere else.

Dax smiled as he looked at his friends, the three of them almost flew down the stairs and ran to one of the trucks in the front of the lines of the vehicles.

Shen hopped in the driver's seat with Dax in the passengers, Grey hopped into the back seat. The trucks were white with the logo for forestfords company, Athena, a symbol that was a complex A in the middle of a solar system in place of the sun. Each seat of the truck was made of a form of fabric that was quite comfortable.

Nearby the sounds of other vehicle doors opening and slamming shut echoed around the large hangar. there wouldn't be any problems with who went in which vehicle either, the massive hangar housed more than enough for the people of Forest-Ford.

Time passed and more and more people from below rose into the hanger from below and filled up the vehicles. After a hour or so, every citizen had left the town behind and were loaded in the trucks with supplies to venture out into the world beyond. Mayor nick hobbled to the truck in front of the main exit and clambered inside. He moved his hand to a panel and activated it, when it was activated his vehicle started up. After that, a row of the trucks started up, then another, all the way back until they were all ready to go. The engine didn't rumble to life, it more hummed with a gentle electrical buzz. Like many other tech made by Athena, they were powered by nuclear fission.

The Mayor continued to operate the tech built into the dashboard, As he tapped away all of the windshields were blacked out and the company symbol was displayed on the windshields. They seemed to have a sort of screen function built into them. A moment later, the short theme played before Forest started to speak.

"Ahem ahem, Hello ForestFord citizens! You seem to have made it to the vehicles you will travel to find a new home in! Now, the topography of earth may have changed... quite a bit... since the last time you were above ground, As well as the creatures. So!" he clapped "We have equipped you with our best traveling tech! Another thing we have given you are very high powered gatling guns, not your old bullet and gunpowder shit." Forest explained the guns with a model displayed on the windshield.

A short time later he finished his explanation on everything. "Ok, That's the end of everything i have to say. I think..." He shuffled through some papers "Good luck and don't die!" he said and the windshields became clear again.

The mayor continued to type away on the screen embedded into his dashboard, when it beeped and said 'Instructional video finished...'. He smiled his yellow toothed grin and slid slowly out of his vehicle and walked towards a switch in the wall. He reached out and pulled down on it. The hangar filled with the sounds of each vehicle activating before they went silent. In front of his vehicle, a wide section of wall retracted into another section of wall, allowing exit to a tunnel to the outside world.