The shelter was north bound but Darius couldn’t take a straight route there because fighting had broken out between him and his destination. The last thing he wanted was to run smack into a battlefield and be trapped by gunfire. The alternative to that would be capture by the Falconal forces, he didn’t want that either. Night had fallen in a chilling embrace across the land with a subtle drizzle that glistened the sidewalks with a wet layer and danced under the streetlamps with a graceful downcast from the tenebrific heavens.
The bike wheels wet with rain whished across the streets as the bulk of the messenger bag continued to shift back and forth on his leg as he peddled. Drizzle stuck to his jacket in pygmy droplets only to be sucked in by the fabric moments later, slowly saturating his clothes. The cold bite steadily at his exposed hands that gripped the handlebars and threated to freeze his face in place as he grit his teeth between heavy breaths of streaming clouds. At a deserted intersection he stopped to check his route on his phone.
The district he found himself was industrial and the buildings sparce and seemed to dwarf him in the darkness between the immense space between streetlamps. It was also quieter here and the sounds of bombs going off felt like a world away. Gunfire couldn’t be heard unless one listened very closely for the muffled pops of the abandoned city sector. He picked up the pace again and pedaled fast, the subtle resistance of building velocity lasted mere seconds. Then slowly in the distance he saw it.
The mound of earth that draped the large concrete frame of the door stood isolated in a field of dead grasses. A single sign indicated his destination, cloistered beyond the rest of the city as if it held some deserted secret. The sign was a simple wooden structure pounded into the ground with a large stake, but someone had taken the time to carefully handwrite the words: Sanctuary, a shelter for all.
He walked slowly along the doughy, muddy path, his steps patting the earth while the bike ticked faintly beside him. He wondered if the door was locked and if he should knock first. Was this like entering someone’s home? It would only be courteous to knock instead of barging in. It was late in the evening by the time he arrived at the overbearing door. His clothes were soaked but at least the rain had stopped.
He lifted his hand, prepared to knock when someone cleared their throat. Alarmed, Darius jerked back and searched the darkness for the source of the noise. The only light was right above the door and everything outside of the vicinity of the door was black.
“Don’t bother knocking.” The male voice said, “I can let you in.” An older man with a wrinkled face emerged from his place inside a makeshift shed. He wore a rain jacket poncho that was bright yellow, the hood covered his head.
“Thank you,” Darius replied. He swallowed hard and let out a sigh of relief. “For a second there I thought I was getting ambushed.”
The man chuckled hardily as he carefully navigated through the muddy trail. “Don’t worry young fella, no one’s going to do any harm here. We’re all family in these parts and anyone taking sanctuary here, does so peacefully.”
He said a few words into his walkie-talkie and a voice responded shortly after. Darius was amazed at the device; he hadn’t seen one since the last time his own parents took him to the Museum of Modern History when he was a boy. It worked just as he imagined it would.
“Is that what I think it is? I can’t believe that thing works.” He said, pointing at it with his free hand.
The old man smiled. “Yeah, take a look.” He handed the walkie-talkie to Darius, the weight was light but still more than what Darius expected.
“That’s a standard issue military grade handheld transceiver capable of penetrating through walls and has a reach of about 1000 miles on flatland. They’ve been modified to run off solar cells instead of Old-World battery packs.” His wrinkled fingers came up as he talked, indicating parts of the device that were of interest, “you hold down the button there to talk and when you’re done you let go so that the other person can talk back. The dial at the top lets you change channels, comes in handy when you’re communicating with a lot of people for different things.”
He chuckled, “the best part about it is that the Faction don’t have these, and they don’t know we’re using them either. And get this, they can’t even intercept the transmissions even if they wanted to because the signals are direct between receivers, not broadcasted into space like everything else.”
“Resourceful.” Darius remarked, handing it back to him as the door opened.
A woman dressed casually with blond hair tied back said, “hello, I see we have one more. You’re late.” She smiled through sullen eyes and she looked overworked and tired. She leaned against the door frame.
“Yup.” Said the old man, “see you around, son.” Then he went back to his post in the shadows and the darkness swallowed the brightness of his poncho and then the outline of his frame.
“Follow me.” The woman said as she moved to let him into the landing of the shelter. She secured the door behind them and it locked into place with an echoing thud. “I’m Sarah. You could say I volunteer here so if you have any questions, I can probably help you.”
“I’m Darius and I’m looking for my wife. She should be here.” He said as he followed her down a flight of steps. Neon type lighting dotted the steep stairway.
“Lucky you, there’s probably 3,000 people here at least. Wish I could tell you know I know them all but I don’t, so you got your work cut out for you to find her.” She let out deep breath and went on as their steps echoed against the metal stairs, “the good thing is that you know she’s here, now you just have to locate her. Interesting fact, this shelter used to be a cave. Well, it still is a cave per say but it was outfitted as a shelter a long time ago but never used by the Faction. If you ask me, I think they used to do some pretty top-secret things down here like torturing political rivals.”
“What makes you say that?” he asked.
She shrugged, “just a thought. Some of the items we’ve found down here doesn’t exactly align with ‘community shelter.’” She made a quick air signal with her hands and went on, “interesting things like blood-stained medical knives, restraining belts and a few stretchers. Whatever they did down here, they took all their important equipment out, but they left some interesting artifacts behind.”
“That’s freaky.”
“Yup.” She said as they reached the bottom which opened into a big dark cavern. He could see people huddled in groups on the ground all over. Some were sleeping, others whispered quietly to each other. Little children clung to their parents who brushed their heads to provide what little comfort they could.
“Well, this is it.” Sarah announced. She reached into her pocket and produced a small flashlight. “I need to stay here in case old man Bill calls me but if your wife is here, she’s going to be down here. Good luck and try not to point that thing at anyone’s face.”
She handed him the flashlight and Darius slowly made his way through the cavern. The sea of faces gazed back at him as he squinted through the darkness at them. Some had their own flashlights illuminating light in the center of their hushed whisper of circles while others lay in the darkness trying to sleep through the bombing raid that had begun overhead. The faint blasts were muffled by the earth that separated the cavern from the destruction above. In earnest, Darius whispered, “Nora.”
He looked around frantically from face to face for her as his heart raced and skipped with every blast overhead. Some stirred in their sleep while others jolted awake when the ground shook like a quick jolting earthquake, yet the cavern stayed intact. Some crouched in little alcoves, tiny cavemen homes. A sigh of relief went through the crowd but only for a moment when a male voice said, “sounds like they’re just getting started.” Another voice said, “buckle up people, here it comes and we’re about to find out how strong this cave is.”
The atmosphere became tense as the raid continued overhead and it seemed like many were holding their breath, eyes fixed towards the ceiling of rock, a formation constructed by Mother Earth herself, millions of years in the making. Everyone hoping that it would hold.
“Nora.” He whispered louder as he moved through the labyrinth of people deeper inside the vast stone room. “Nora.”
The ground shook with a groan upon the impact of a bomb that sounded closer than all the others. Dust escaped the crevices of the vaulted stone ceiling and rained down, stirring an emotional response. Children began to cry as parents hushed them quietly and rocked them in their arms. Then he heard the sobbing of a little girl, a faint whimper that was strikingly familiar and he turned towards the voice, his eyes searching the darkness for the face of Lily.
He wiped the dust from his eyelashes and through the murky cavern a pair of dark green eyes starred back at him. “Lily.” He declared and rushed to her with open arms, stepping over legs and the belongings of other people.
“Daddy.” He heard her say as she struggled to free herself from her mother’s embrace.
Nora held on to her until her eyes fell on the figure of Darius, his familiar tall form that was slimmer since the last time she saw him. Her voice caught in her throat as she let Lily go and watched her be gathered up in his arms in one protective sweep.
“We missed you.” She said, coming to her feet and joining the embrace as he wrapped his free arm around her shoulder.
“We’ll I’m here now.” He hissed her forehead and said, “here with my girls.”
Lily beamed through the darkness, her white teeth standing out against the contrasting shadow of her face. Nora led him back to where they set up camp near a large rock. Janice and Frank hugged him, happy that he made it there alive. Another bomb shook the earth above them, and particles of dust fell from the ceiling again, but the strength of the cavern were holding fast like an impenetrable fort. The quake of the impact rumbled through the rock all around them and then was gone.
Despite the cramped quarters of the cave and the number of people huddled for safety there, the air was cool, and a small breeze flowed steadily through. The drizzle of dust settled, and the crowd grew quiet as they waited for the raid to stop. Darius used the messenger bag as a backrest against the rock and sat on his backpack for a bit of comfort. There was nothing in either bag that would have been crushed by his weight. Lily curled up on his lap and laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes.
Nora sat beside him and brought her hand to his cheek and said, “you lost so much weight. Your face looks thinner than your waistline.”
He cracked a smile as he looked into her beautiful eyes, “it’s been a rough journey.”
She kissed him quietly and when she pulled away, he wished that he could feel her lips against his again. He missed the softness of her touch.
“Will you tell me about it? Where have you been?” Her voice was a splendid and comforting whisper in his ear.
She threaded her fingers through his and leaned back against the rock like she would at home on the couch. As the bombing continued overhead, some explosions far while others close, he told her the story which began with meeting Will at the Roxford. He told her all about Janelle and Elan and how Elan helped him get to Texas. Then he told her about riding a horse all the way to White Oaks, New Mexico with the Vaqueros and when he was in New Mexico, how he finally met Eisenhower, found faith when he didn’t think it ever existed, and realized that his story didn’t end there in the desert. He had to come back to Nora and Lily.