The Secret Bunker Trilogy: Part One: Darkness Falls (6 page)

‘Dan, were you with somebody else when you got caught in the
bunker? Other than your brother and sister and your dad?’

‘Yes,’ I reply, ‘My mum.’
I’m concerned now, I don’t like the look on her face.
She’s looking at somebody off-screen, like she hopes they’ll give her an
answer. This doesn’t feel like it’s going to be good news.

‘Dan, there was nobody else inside the bunker when the doors closed,
where was she?’ the woman asks me uneasily.

‘She was outside,’ I reply, ‘Running towards the blast doors.’
‘Oh’ is the only words that she utters.

He was pretty surprised when the recruitment call came.
He was ex-military. Struggling to return to civilian life.
It’s a big change when you leave the Army. One minute you’re in a foreign country being shot at, verbally abused
and fearing for your own life and the lives of your colleagues.
The next you’ve been made redundant and your military life is over.
The routines, the discipline, the friendship.
It takes some adjusting to.

It had only been three weeks when the call came, but he was ready for
it. A few trips to the job centre and he’d known that civilian life was
going to be a struggle. How can you be a waiter in a pizza restaurant when only a few weeks
ago you were dodging sniper bullets and trying not to step on a
landmine?
So he was eager to get involved when they contacted him.

It was almost as if they’d been waiting.
When they asked him to sign up, he was desperate to get back in
action, there was no way he was saying ‘No’. Trudie would understand.
And at least nobody would be in danger.
That’s how it had looked at the time.

‘Uncomfortable’ is not a good word to use to describe the person
who’s responsible for medical procedures, especially if they involve
you and your body.

But the woman had not really had a choice.
When they put it the way they did, what else could she do? If it was your family, wouldn’t you be able to make tough decisions if it
meant them being okay? And this didn’t seem too bad, it certainly hadn’t hurt at all. She’d had more discomfort from a filling at the dentist.
Only once you’d had a filling it was all over and done with. And if you went easy on the sweets and drinks, you could even avoid it
happening again if you really wanted to.

But she had a feeling that sitting here in this office, having this thing whatever it was - placed into her body …
She had a feeling that this was the
easy
bit.

Although the darkness felt like an accelerated nightfall at first, if
viewed from space, it would have taken on a much more startling
appearance. This had nothing to do with the sun, or the light that is cast over the
planet, depending on where you are in the world, at certain times of
day. This blackness fell over the
entire
planet.

From space you would have seen no land, no sea, no land masses.
You would just have seen those familiar forms slowly darkening, until
completely obscured by blackness. Nothing - just an orb of dull darkness - and no signs of life.

The woman is called Kate and although I can’t get over my concern
about Mum - and my eagerness to see Dad, Harriet and David - I like
her and I feel safe in her company. It’s the security of being with someone who seems to know what’s
going on. It seems to be my best bet at the moment.
I have so many questions to ask, but I’m trying to stay calm and
sensible. I know that if it all comes pouring out the way I’d like it to, we’ll get
nowhere.

I want to ask a thousand questions at once and get all the answers
right now.
Unfortunately, I know that won’t happen. Also, there’s a sense of urgency in this building.
Nobody is saying anything, there are no alert signs or anything like
that.
It’s just the way that people are getting on with their work - like
they’ve been trained for this and they know exactly what they’re
doing.

And here’s another funny thing.
All of these people were in the bunker when we were visiting as a
family. They are the same people who seemed surprised at our presence
there. 24 hours earlier they had seemed to be in the wrong place.
Now it is quite clear that they were all in that bunker for the same
reason. They have jobs to do here.
But I’m not even sure that they knew each other
before
this all
happened. They’re working together but there is no easy chat, no jokes or sense
of familiarity. They seem bound now by a common sense of purpose, by work and
activities that they all understand. Like they have all been trained for this.
Like they were
expecting
it to happen.

He looked at the picture of Trudie and the kids, then placed it to one
side. As a military man, he knew how this worked. Focus on the job and get through it.
He’d been away from the family for six months at a time before. They were used to it.
They didn’t like it of course.
Who would? So one month away from home - and in the same country?
Well that was a luxury compared to a tour of duty.
The training had been military in nature, even though he knew it
wasn’t Army.

It was probably safer to say that it was a ‘Government’ job. But the routines were the same as the Army.
The Official Secrets Act and all that. They wanted ex-military people because of the way they’d been
trained.
This was clearly not a civilian job, it needed military discipline and
routines. The biggest difference was that you weren’t a unit. In fact, he hadn’t met anybody connected with this mission yet.
First it was the training. In isolation.
He’d felt bad about lying to Trudie, but she knew the score.

It was no different to having to keep quiet about military operations
abroad. Every part of him wanted to share this stuff with her, after all they
were husband and wife weren’t they? But he’d just told her he’d had to go away for a week to an assessment
centre for a new job. She didn’t ask too many questions. Just things like ‘Where is it?’, ‘Who is it with? and ‘How long are you
away?’ She was used to being on her own with the kids, it would just be like
life in the Army again. Only without the constant worry and the fear that there might be a
knock at the door from someone bearing bad news.

The training had just been like old times for him.
A functional Government building, a purposeful regime and
perfunctory relationships with your superiors.
Except for that Doctor who seemed to be in charge.
This man certainly knew his stuff when it came to the tech they were
using. But he was an ‘odd one’.
He’d really felt uncomfortable whenever this guy was around.
He missed the laughs with his colleagues though.

He knew he’d be joining other people for the main operation, but they
would not meet before the event. They were to be trained in isolation, via simulations, so that each
person knew exactly what to do when all the elements were placed
together. This was quite different from military training where they acted as a
unit, under central command. It was almost as if no single person was supposed to know exactly
what was going on.

If this was the easy bit, she might as well relax and get on with it. She’d had enough experience at work to know that you should take
one thing at a time. No time worrying about what might happen in a week’s time.
Focus on what’s going on
now
.
Whatever was going on with those screens, it was obviously
connected with this thing inside her. They wouldn’t tell her what it was, only that it was ‘mission critical’
and non-permanent.
How reassuring.
When he talked about ‘mission’ she hadn’t a clue what it was.
Only that she had no choice but to get involved and to play her part.

It was almost like her short stint in the Army before before she met
Mike. Following orders, doing what you’re told, never asking questions.
It hadn’t really worked out for her then so it was almost a relief when
redundancy came. It was one of the shortest military careers in history.
Long enough to get a feel for it, not long enough to see any real action. Except for the one mission of course.
The one that changed everything.

She wasn’t really the ‘trusting authority’ type.
Look at how they’d home educated Dan.
Most people don’t even know that’s possible. They just follow the rules, do what everybody else does.
And taking David out of school during term time.
Okay, these weren’t the crimes of the Century.
But she had a natural aversion to doing what she was told.
Except when the lives of her family were being threatened.

Satellites are relaying these images back to Earth, but there is nobody
to see them - yet.

They are appearing on PC screens, but nobody is looking at them.

If they could see, they would wonder how this could have happened.
An entire planet plunged into darkness.

The light of the sun is making no impact on that blackness whatsoever,
like the entire planet was encrusted in a solid, black rock.

The light just shines behind it, like an eclipse.
It looks so still and calm from space but on the planet surface it is like
Hell has just been let loose.

I get a really strange sensation as I walk through the bunker. I can recall enough of my tour just over 24 hours earlier to know that
the basic shape and layout has been preserved.

For instance, when I exit the medical area, I can tell that it is in the
same position as it was earlier, because the Chapel is directly opposite
as I step outside.

Everything is exactly where it should be.
But it’s like a scene change in a play. As if somebody came on stage while we weren’t looking and made the
place look completely different. It’s so modern and high-tech now.

If you’d taken the basic concept of the original Cold War bunker, redesigned it for 200 years in the future, that’s what I was looking at
now. It’s light and bright, the air is fresh and dry, and all of the old
fashioned equipment, posters, wiring, pipework and paintwork has
gone.

Whatever happened here, it is like no technology that I recognise.
And believe me, I know my tech!
It has literally transformed the inside of the bunker, but it did so
without a single builder, plumber or electrician. Which is probably a good thing if the ones we use at home are
anything to go by.

Unless I have been out cold or unconscious of course.
Kate and I are now sitting in what was previously - 24 hours or so
earlier - a pretty drab cafe. It was where we were
supposed
to have met our hosts.
Only we never made it in the end.
Neither did they come to think about it.
We’d been on our way, when David and I remembered the laptop deal
that we’d done with Mum and Dad earlier. Five minutes each on Mum’s laptop using the free wireless connection
in the cafe.

So instead of heading directly for the cafe, Mum had left us all near the
entrance with Dad, while she headed back to the car to grab the
laptop. And my phone, I’d left that in the back of the car too.
If we were near the entrance, we’d see our hosts when they entered
the bunker, so that seemed like a pretty good strategy at the time.

She’d only been gone a few minutes when the sirens sounded.
At first we thought it was just something to do with the secret bunker. A bit of novelty for the tourists perhaps.
But it was very obvious that this was for real. The sirens were
outside
for starters.
Previously we’d just heard them on the Cold War films that were
showing in the cinema area. Red lights were flashing throughout the corridors too.
And the announcement system gave it away as well. ‘All personnel operational. This is not a drill.’
That’s when Dad knew it was for real.

At about the same time as the bunker doors began to close.
It’s when he tried to take us deeper into the building. It must have been instinctive, whatever was going on outside, this
bunker could offer protection. And that’s when I last saw Mum. And that terrible blackness outside.
What was that? I knew the Scottish weather could be bad at times, but this was like
nothing I’d ever seen before.

There were a lot of things happening like that at the moment.
So sitting with Kate now was an opportunity to get things straight.
The cafe 24 hours ago had been pretty basic. This was still pretty functional - it wasn’t a fancy restaurant of
anything like that - but it was a lot fresher and much more modern. And the food looked great.
So I sat down with Kate, tucked into my food and waited for her to
begin.

The process, whatever it is, seems to be over. The Doctor has made a few final, brisk swishes of his hands across the
screen and they shut down. His manner tells her that this is now time to be asking questions.
Particularly questions like ‘What happens next?’ or ‘How will I know
when it’s time?’ Besides, she won’t remember any of this until the device is
reactivated.

The Doctor moves to another console on his desk, taps a few areas as
if he has done this many times before, and there is a slight, glowing
pulse from the device buried in her neck. Instantly, painlessly and without warning her mind goes blank.
She will have no recollection of these events. She will be transported to a local hospital where she will be placed
overnight in a ward.
Hospital staff will look confused by her arrival until the man
accompanying her shows them some identification. Their acceptance of his obvious authority will be instant, there will be
no questions, no arguments, just a complete and thorough execution
of his instructions.

Once placed in the bed, the device in her neck will pulse gently,
unnoticed by the hospital staff. As suddenly as her memories disappeared, they will return again only they will not be complete, now they are selective memories.
Virtually everything remains intact - she can recall everything about
her life, her childhood, her family - everything is still there.
Only details of the arrangement with the Doctor and his organisation
have been suppressed. They are not needed right now. They will be recalled later, but for now, all that she knows is that she
has woken up in a hospital after fainting whilst giving blood.