The Secret Bunker Trilogy: Part One: Darkness Falls (5 page)

We found what must have been a mini-cinema on our explorations,
and inside they were showing Cold War films in black and white. Part of me wanted to laugh at these films, another part of me knew
how deadly serious they were. They were explaining what to do in case of a nuclear attack. Men with really posh voices used phrases like ‘Duck and cover’ and
‘Protect and survive’ and you’d see old fashioned school children
practising what to do when the bomb went off. It only struck me looking back how ominous the sound of the sirens
had been in those old films.

Error

Something is wrong here.

The power should have come on as soon as the sirens sounded. It is 24 hours late. These are crucial minutes. The bunker should be activated.

This is not how it had been planned.

24 Hours After The Darkness

It’s only a faint hum at first, and I can feel it as much as see it, because
with the noise comes a small vibration through the floor.
Whatever is creating this must be pretty big and powerful - or
extremely close - as I’m feeling it through two feet of concrete. It is building slowly, and it doesn’t feel to me like a generator, it’s not a
sound I’ve ever heard before.

Still this wretched darkness though, I’d had a sudden leap of hope
when the humming had started, expecting the lights to come on and
everything to be resolved. What I’d give for this all to be sorted.
A lack of internet access has been the very least of my problems whilst
waiting alone in the still darkness of this corridor.
In an instant, the humming changes pitch, like somebody just changed
the gears of a car. It has an urgency now and I get the sensation for the first time in
however many hours it has been that something is changing around
me, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

The lights come on. I am dazzled and confused for a moment, my eyes are used to
blackness and all of a sudden I’m immersed in bright light.
As my eyes adjust, I look up to see that I am no longer where I thought
I was. This is still the long corridor, but it has somehow been transformed
since I last saw it.
I don’t have time to question that. Three figures wearing virus protection suits are running towards me
and as they do so the small, red lights from the laser targeting on their
weapons come to rest in unison on my forehead.

Part Two: Disconnected
Chapter One
Revelation
I have never had a single gun pointed directly at me before - let alone
three - and it’s not something that I’d recommend. On TV people wave guns around like they’re toys. Right now, it’s pretty terrifying having these three red dots directly
above my eyes and knowing that at any second - should a trigger be
pulled - it’s all over for me. These aren’t regular guns though, they’re certainly weapons and
they’re definitely modelled on guns. They look more like they belong to a science fiction world than the
21st Century.

It doesn’t help that these guys are dressed in virus suits.
I’m no expert, but I know that can’t be a good thing for me.
They’re completely sealed off in these suits from head to toe. The suits are bright yellow, there’s no missing them that’s for sure.
As the three figures get closer I can see that I’m being approached by
two women and a man, each looking deadly serious, intent but
concerned. That’s a considerable improvement on hostile, but I’d still rather those
laser dots were not trained directly on me.
And what’s happened to this corridor?

Before the doors closed and the lights went out, this was just a
gloomy, concrete-lined passageway. Was I unconscious for a while?
Did I fall asleep?Did somebody move me?
No, I can tell that this is the same place, the same long corridor, but
before the lights went on, it completely changed. It’s like a team from one of those TV decorating programmes popped
in while the lights were off and gave the corridor a total makeover.
Only this looks like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Let’s put it this way, it belongs more to the realms of imagination and
fantasy than a Cold War bunker in Southern Scotland.

Either I passed out for a while, or this is what I thought was the
vibration of the power coming back on. What I believed to be movement in the building must have been this
internal transformation taking place. It’s quite incredible.
Gone are the grubby, cold, concrete walls, they’ve now been replaced
by some light, plastic or metallic substance.
If I had to describe it, I’d say it looked just like the interior of a space
station. Not that I’ve ever seen one mind you, but it’s what I’d imagine one
would look like.

I should have concentrated on the three figures approaching me.
One of the women has pressed the trigger on her weapon, a ray of
some kind strikes my head and my thoughts stop dead.

Activated

This is better.
The bunker has full power.

Internal transformation is 100% on upper levels. Communications as yet unrestored. Darkness is at 53% and progressing at normal rates.

But the timing was wrong. Why did this start so late?

The Missing Host

Needless to say, our family visit to the bunker was a huge success.
I’ve seen it on adverts many times, but in this case the slogan was true. There really was ‘something for everyone’ here.

The scale of the bunker was astonishing. Rooms and corridors the size of a football pitch over two levels is
quite some feat.
When you’re walking along that rabbit warren of passageways - with
no natural light - you understand what an amazing structure this is.
And how much concrete they must have used. They certainly won’t have mixed that all by hand.

Had there been a nuclear attack, life could have continued here
virtually as normal.
Everybody would have had a job of course, the Control Room was
quite clearly where all activity would have been focused.
We had a good hour looking around until Mum reminded us that we
were due to meet our late hosts in the cafe area on the top level.
We’d been shushed quite a lot as we walked around the bunker.

Harriet and David had loved the lengths of the corridors, and had used
that as an opportunity to go running off into the distance, then
charging back at Mum and Dad. I couldn’t be completely certain about this, but I’m positive that I
sensed a hostility from the other adults who were in the building.
I’m not sure why as this was a tourist attraction, it’s not like we were
in a church or someone’s office or anything like that. Though now I think about it, why were there no other children here
except for us?

The Jigsaw Puzzle

I was pretty sure that the black car had been driving directly at us.
There’s no mistaking something like that. I was equally sure that I had seen Nat moving.
And I knew that Mum had been distracted by that man, the one who
went to help Nat.
Was
he helping Nat?
The ambulance workers accepted his authority, they knew exactly
who he was. Or maybe they didn’t know
him
, but they understood and accepted his
position. There was no challenge or argument from them, no resistance at all.

Three parts of a jigsaw puzzle that didn’t quite fit.
Like they belonged somewhere else, pieces of another puzzle. I’d been troubled by this for three years now.
But when you know that your twin is dead, when you’ve learned to
accept that, because all the evidence confirms it, there’s not much that
you can do about it.

Unresolved issues never go away.
As humans, we need closure, we can’t just forget things.
Life would be much easier if we could. Just delete a section of our memory that is no longer required or
wanted.
So although I couldn’t do anything about them, these memories
troubled me.

But in the events that followed in the Secret Bunker, I was going to get
all the answers I needed.

Chapter Two
Revival
I don’t recall anything between the weapon going off and waking up in
a medical area. I’m not even sure how long I was out - asleep, knocked out,
unconscious or whatever it was - but it must have at least been
overnight because I felt pretty well rested after the the gruelling
events that I’d experienced alone in that corridor. It didn’t hurt, that’s for sure.
Whatever those weapons were, they weren’t there to hurt me.
I’m not even sure if they were weapons now - seeing that I’m here,
healthy and unhurt.

My mind is feeling a little fuzzy, no worse than having to wake up on
any other day mind you, but it quickly accelerates from 0 to 100 miles
per hour. So many questions …
What’s going on here?
What happened to the bunker?
Who were those people who came out to get me in the corridor?
Why were they wearing virus suits? But most important of all, where is my family?
The room is well lit and extremely modern.
It’s more hi-tech than anything I’ve seen before. This is clearly a room for medical purposes, but it doesn’t look or feel
anything like a hospital. There are data screens everywhere, like computers, yet like nothing
I’ve ever seen in a regular hospital.

There is no sinister, metal, torture-like medical equipment set out on
trays and I can’t see any containers or medicines. And there are no syringes anywhere, which is always a good thing.
Everything in this room seems to happen electronically.
I am alone, but I see that I am being monitored on a camera which is
pointing directly at me.

I am comfortable, warm and not in any immediate danger, so in spite
of all my questions, I can only assume that whatever is going on is not
a threat to me. I also hope that it means Dad, Harriet and David must be on the
receiving end of the same treatment. I’m desperate to see them, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to
happen at the moment.

And what about Mum? If these guys came out into the corridor in virus protection clothing,
what on earth is going on beyond the bunker doors? And what does that mean for Mum who’s currently trapped outside?

Waiting

At the time I’d assumed that there were no other children in the
bunker because we were here during term time. But that only excluded families with school age children, what about
those with toddlers? It’s very unusual not to see
any
other children.
But that wasn’t the only thing.

There didn’t seem to be any couples in the bunker. There were men and women of different ages, but none of them
seemed to be together. It was like it was an open day for childless and friendless people.
There were plenty of people visiting the bunker, I’d even go as far to
say that it was quite busy.

But none of them seemed connected - and here’s the other thing that
struck me. Most of them weren’t engaged in the exhibits in the same way that we
were. It was almost as if they were just hanging around waiting for
something to happen.

Control Room

The terminal is active now, and all is as it was during the training. The location is different of course, much more modern than that grey
and functional building.
But this is exactly how they said it would be.
He’d trained alone, in isolation. There were no colleagues to laugh and joke with, it was important that
each person knew their role completely.

His work station is an exact replica of what he had at the Orientation
Centre. Everything exactly the same, including the framed photograph of his
family. He’d been trained thoroughly and precisely, so he knew exactly what
to do and when to do it. He understood that his instructions would arrive at the appointed
time.

All was as it should be, except for the long delay activating the lighting.
But he couldn’t help worrying about Trudie and the kids.
They said that his family would be okay on the outside.
It would only be for a limited time they said. And he didn’t really have a choice.
‘No families!’ was the strict policy on this mission. So long as they were in their home when the darkness fell, they’d be
okay.

Outside

The darkness began at 15:00 BST on 15th May.
It was undetectable at first. Just like the weather had changed and the skies were going grey.
Only this was a weather pattern that was happening globally.
It had been preceded by high winds and extreme weather conditions.

The sort of weather that grounds planes and stops ships setting off to
sea. This was a global phenomenon.
The same weather forecast would have covered the entire world. It was like somebody wanted as much of the world as possible locked
up safely at home.

Chapter Three
Clarity

While I’m thinking about Mum and what might have happened to her,
a screen in front of my bed jumps into life and positions itself directly
in my view. At a perfect focal distance. Very clever. A face appears on the screen.

‘Hello Dan,’ says a very official looking lady on the screen, ‘I’m sorry if
we worried you.’

‘That’s fine,’ I reply, ‘But what’s going on? And where is my family?’

‘Sorry Dan, there’s a lot to explain,’ she continues.
‘Would you prefer to get some food first, then I can brief you fully on
what’s been happening?’

I’m really hungry and I’m never very good on an empty stomach.
The thought of sitting down with some decent food and getting some
answers is just what I need right now. But I need to know about my family first.

‘Where is Dad?’ I ask, ‘He must be here with David and Harriet still. Is
this still the same bunker of have I been moved?’

‘Dan, your Dad and your brother and sister are fine, but I’m afraid we
can’t let you see them just yet,’ replies the lady.

‘You’re in a classified military area, we have to follow certain protocols
I’m afraid,’ she continues, ‘But let me reassure you, they’re absolutely
fine.’

‘And my Mum?’ I ask, relieved that at least I seem to be safe now, and
things are looking more hopeful by the minute.
The face on the screen changes slightly, she tries to hide it, but I can
see that she is suddenly concerned.
I have caught her out, she wasn’t expecting that question.