The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (152 page)

She smiled and nodded. She reached up
and kissed him more deeply.

“
You trying to make me
late, Baby?” Mike asked as he kissed her back.

“
Hey, you made me late...
Months late,” she told him as she pulled him back toward the
bedroom.

~

“
How far did you guys go?”
Craige asked. He held a torch, but it was unlit. They all carried
lanterns and the moving air currents coming from the tunnels made
the flames jump and dance on the wicks. The torches were just back
ups in case they needed them.

“
Not very,” Candace
admitted. “Me, Aim, Lilly and Janna went in searching for rooms for
storage. We found more than we thought we'd ever need so we didn't
bother searching further. We did block the tunnels off as best we
could, more out of concern that one of the kids would go wandering
and get lost or something.” She looked around at the other women
who nodded.

Craige nodded. “So, we'll split up?
You, Amy and Lilly take everything to the left, Bonnie, Cindy and I
will take everything to the right?”

“
Works for me,” Candace
agreed. “But we won't really be separated, right? When we're
checking you'll be waiting, when you’re checking we
will?”

Craige nodded. “I think that's the best
way to do it. That should be safe for all of us. Mark the walls as
you go and no one will get lost, now or down the road some
time.”

They all had huge chunks of charcoal to
mark with. It made a mess of your hands, Candace had already found
out the hard way, she had a long black streak down one cheek that
Lilly had pointed out, but it did work.

They were all dressed warmly too. In
the tunnels the temperature dropped significantly. They were
carrying their lunches, water, and extra fuel for the lanterns as
well. Even so they were not heavily laden. They set out down the
main tunnel, passing the rooms already used that slipped off to one
side or another as they went. Soon they were in a longer section of
tunnel with nothing branching off either side. The ceiling rose
into the darkness above them.

“
Some of this is hand
carved,” Candace said as she held her lantern higher on the walls.
It was too symmetrical. The walls bore the evidence of being
chipped away bit by bit.

“
Yeah,” Craige agreed. “And
all with stone tools too. That's a lot of work.”

The tunnel curved to the right,
dropping down into the rock of the mountain slightly as it went.
Occasionally the light would reflect off some painting on the
walls: Crude hand prints: What looked like Mammoths, herds of them,
and smaller still stick figures that Candace supposed represented
the people themselves. An eye here. The shape of a foot there. But
no complete persons actually represented as any more than a stick
figure. Two stick arms. Two stick legs, a small circle for a
stomach and a smaller circle still that represented the
head.

The first passage opened to the left,
and Candace, Amy and Lilly stepped carefully into it as the others
stood waiting in the main corridor.

The first thing they felt was steamy
heat as they stepped deeper into the narrow passageway. The floor
was wet and slippery under their feet. The passage curved upward
and then hard to the left and opened into a large room more than
half filled by a large pool of water. A dry rocky ledge bordered
the water on the side where they stood. A rocky island sat in the
middle of the small pool.

A wide stream of water cascaded down
from the ceiling to meet the cloudy water of the pool. Candace bent
down and carefully put her hand in the water. Hot, but not so hot
that she couldn't stand it. Across the water, it was no more than
sixty feet wide, maybe twice that in length, she thought, the water
overflowed into a low roofed tunnel and drained away to somewhere.
The mineral smell of sulfur hung in the moist air: Strong, but not
overpowering.

“
Aim?” Candace
asked.

“
Mm hm?” she answered. She
was seemingly lost in the beauty of the place.

“
Let's try that exit
first,” Candace said. She pointed to the first of two openings that
led into the room.

The openings, upon further examination,
were obviously hand cut and lead to nearly identical smallish
rooms, about a hundred feet square. None were sure what they may
have been used for. They were empty, wet and slippery floored as
the rest of the place was.

“
We should get the others,”
Candace said.

Lilly nodded and then turned and
retraced her way out to the main tunnel. She was back in less than
a handful of minutes with the others.

“
Wow,” Cindy said, as she
stepped into the open space. The extra light seemed to wake up the
room. Streaks of red, orange, yellow and silver-gold marked the
walls and: The sparkle of mica reflected light and sparkled here
and there, reflecting the lantern light.

“
Hot baths for sure,”
Bonnie said.

“
Maybe that's what the
rooms were for? Showers?” Cindy said.

“
I doubt it,” Craige said.
“How could they get the water there?”

“
I'll bet Tim could figure
out how to get the water there,” Candace said. “If they weren’t
showers before I see a future as showers in their
cards.”

Everyone laughed.

“
Oh yeah,” Amy agreed. “And
I'll bet that water isn't too hot to swim in either.”

“
You can bet we'll find out
about that and soon too,” Lilly laughed.

“
You know, the whole trip
was worth it if this is all we find,” Craige said. “This setup will
save Tim a lot of work too. I'll bet that water is plenty hot. I
think the water coming in from the ceiling is all that keeps it
cool enough to think about swimming in it.”

They all marveled over the long, hot
room a few moments longer and then they left to continue exploring
the rest of the main tunnel.

~

There were a half dozen small rooms off
either side of the main tunnel that would prove useful. Almost all
of them had been at least partially worked by hand.

The air flow through the tunnel became
stronger as they searched deeper. It carried a warmer breeze with
it and the scent of something that seemed familiar. Several
commented on it, but no one could place it with any certainty. They
were about to stop for lunch when they reached a divide in the
tunnel.

The left tunnel sloped downward
steeply, the right side twisted upward. Craige held his lantern in
both passages and the flame danced just as wildly. He turned and
looked at Candace.

“
Makes no difference to
me,” Candace said.

“
Let's do the left side,
have our lunch and then we'll do the right side,” Cindy
suggested.

Candace lead the way down the left
tunnel.

“
How far do you think we've
come?” she asked of anyone who cared to answer.

“
Not very far if you think
about it. We've spent most of our time exploring,” Bonnie said.
“Maybe a quarter mile... Give or take.”

“
That feels about right,”
Cindy agreed.

“
Hey,” Candace said.
“Look.”

Light spilled around a curve in the
tunnel ahead where it twisted to the right slightly. The warm air
was stronger, almost hot as it poured into the tunnel.

They slowed as they approached the
turn, and then stepped around it onto a wide rocky shelf. A wide
green valley swept away from them, running in between towering
mountain peaks.

They were approximately thirty feet
above the valley floor, Craige thought. Worn, stone steps, cut into
the rock, led steeply down to the valley floor.

“
Wow... Where is
this?”Candace asked.

“
It has to be the other
side of the mountain,” Lilly said from beside her: Her voice was
quieted with awe.

“
Has to be,” Amy
agreed.

“
It's as big as our
valley,” Craige said. “At least.”

“
More space as we welcome
people to the fold,” Lilly said.

Candace looked at her.

“
Probably more here before
the snow flies,” Craige agreed. “That what you guys call this? The
fold? I thought it was the Nation... Unofficially.”

“
It is
so complicated,” Candace said. “Way more than what it needs to be
too. But,” she took a second to compose herself. “When we met Bob
and Janna they began talking immediately about this place... We
didn't just end up here by accident, Bob knew about this place. He
wanted to build the new Native Nation here. We almost fell apart
over that, but we came here. It's called The Nation for short. But
I have heard The Fold a few times too. Mostly from Jessie's people.
They had an idea to start a place called The Fold. A settlement.
The Fold, as in welcome to the fold. But in these days and times it
seems like a name like that can get nailed down and gain a lot of
importance pretty fast.” She sighed. “There's so much... Feeling...
No, there are
people
that have their feelings wrapped up in a name, I
guess. This name, that name... I suppose we'll have to sit down and
work it out so feelings don't get hurt even more.”

Lillie's eyes were wide. “What do you
think, Candace?”

Amy and Bonnie turned to her
too.

“
Well... I don't know to
be honest with you. I didn't think about it. I think it's a name...
A name.” She shrugged. “It doesn't make the place, we do. So I
guess I'll go with what the majority thinks.” She smiled
uncertainly. “Did I miss something? Is it a big deal as all of
that?” She tried a small laugh that was answered by the
others.

“
I doubt it,” Craige
offered. “We had kicked a few names around too...” He smiled and
then laughed. “I can't think of a single one of them now though. I
guess it's like you say. It's just a name.” Craige turned back to
the valley and the others turned with him. Candace made a mental
note to talk to Mike about the conversation later.

A deep stream of water worked its way
down the rock face from high above them somewhere, leaving a heavy
mist hanging against the rock face as it fell to the stream bed
below. A herd of wild horses grazed the valley floor about a half
mile away, and a larger herd of bison another half mile beyond
that.

It appeared that the valley ended at
the next rise of the foothills a mile or so away, but they
suspected, like their own, it probably curved around to the left or
the right. There would be no way of knowing until they explored it
thoroughly. The shelf of rock they were on ran along the face of
the rock some three hundred feet before it curved back into the
rock face, Craige thought. The overhang was carved deeply into the
side of the mountain too. The wind, maybe some long gone water
source, something had carved the rock away over a long course of
time, leaving the wide ledge and its concave back wall.

They walked it from one end to the
other. Like their own cave, it was just the tunnel leading away. In
their cave it turned into a large room, here it lead back to the
divide in the tunnel.

“
It's beautiful,” Candace
said.

“
And probably very useful
too,” Bonnie agreed.

“
Well... Let's have our
lunch... Go check the other one and then head back before they
wonder where the hell we got to,” Amy added.

“
Works for me,” Craige
agreed. He settled down beside Cindy on the wide rock shelf. They
looked over the valley in silence as they ate.

~

The other tunnel curved away to the
right, sharply rising as it did. Just before it seemed as though it
would have to curve back around on itself, it opened into a large
cavern of a room.

The room was easily twice the size of
the one that they used. Light streamed into the room from several
places, along with the smell they had been following. It became
obvious immediately. Small wisps of smoke seemed to drift up from
the corner of the room and lift upward toward the ceiling. Most of
it made its way to the ceiling, but some of it was caught by the
currents of air and pulled apart.

The ceiling seemed to have no outlets
to allow the smoke to escape. A cloud of blue-gray smoke hung
thirty feet above them, swirling slightly in the air currents from
the openings that lead to the outside.

“
It has to be coming from
our fire,” Craige said. He seemed to be lost in thought for a
second. He turned his head first one way, looking along the tunnel
they had traveled through, and then back to the front, staring at
the rock floor some ten feet below them. He continued. “Has to
be... We curved around enough and doubled back... We must be right
over the top of our cave. It's the only thing that makes
sense.”

Candace nodded. “Bob tracked it, when
we started the fires. They seep out through natural cracks and work
their way to the top of the mountain. He found the place where
what's left of the smoke comes out. Not a lot left either. This has
to be part of that.”

Across the wide expanse of floor below
them sunlight streamed into the room from a break in the wall. They
carefully worked their way down a gently sloping, worn stone path
to the lower level. They walked across the floor to the crack in
the side of the wall where sunlight streamed through.