Chapter Six
There I stood, on the blood-stained cellar floor surrounded by the hanging carcasses of slaughtered animals, as a man, who could be a raving murderer for all I knew, reached for a butcher's cleaver embedded in a timber. I couldn't breathe as Bedford's fingers closed upon the cleaver's handle. I had always imagined a life of adventure outside the wall of the Mount, but I never imagined it would be this short.
Instead of pulling the cleaver out, Bedford pressed down on the handle and the wall beyond the grate swung away, revealing a small alcove.
I gasped. "Okay, can you creep me out any more?"
Bedford laughed. Not the maniacal laugh of a killer, but the laugh of a prankster. "It is a bit creepy, isn't it? Quite by design, I must say. But it ends here. From this point on, your journey will go from macabre to amazing." Bedford stepped in, and motioned me to follow. "I think you'll find we are the last to arrive."
As I approached, I discovered the area was a landing at the top of some winding stairs carved out of the native rock. The stairwell, which appeared to be hewn from a natural crevice, was pitched in blackness, but I could hear voices echoing up from below.
Bedford approached a black metal box mounted on the wall and began to crank its protruding handle vigorously. The mechanism made a low groan that grew steadily to a shrill whir as it was cranked with increasing speed. In a moment, the stairs were washed in a soft, yellow-green glow. I saw that a set of cords ran from the box to a series of glowing disks attached to the walls of the stairwell at intervals.
“Come along then, lad,” said Bedford. He tapped one of the glowing disks as he passed. “Phosphorescent lamps. The static box sends a small charge through connecting wires, causing the lamps to glow for a period of time. The brightness and duration depends upon how fast and how much you crank the box.”
We must have gone down more than 200 steps before we entered a large cavern, which seemed to be a warehouse. Only a small area at the bottom of the stairs was illuminated. The lamps in this place, were large and stood on stands, each with its own static box.
Missus Grier and two men were there, all attired in the same manner as Bedford and I.
“You have the replacement static box for run 12?” said Missus Grier
“Plus a spare and some lamps if we find any other outages,” said one of the men. The second man was lashing down a pack on the first man’s back.
“Ah, Fallon!” said Missus Grier when she noticed our arrival. “Sean. Seamus. This is our new team member, Fallon.”
When the two men turned to greet me, I saw they were twins. Their smiles were infectious.
“Good to have you on board, Fallon,” said one. “I’m Seamus.”
“And I’m Sean. Your drawings are quite astounding, you know,” said the other. “Missy says you can sketch with such detail from memory. Is that true?”
“You know Missy Howard?”
They laughed and spoke in unison, “Missy’s our sister.”
“So, about your sketching, is it true?” said Sean. “Can you sketch accurately from memory?”
“Yes.” I said.
“Then he’ll be able to continue giving us data after he returns,” said Seamus to his brother.
“Excellent,” said Sean as he clapped me on the back. “It’s great to have you on the team.”
“Give Fallon his pack, and let’s get moving,” said Bedford from somewhere in the darkness.
I heard the whir of a static box being cranked and saw a pathway of lights that led out of the cavern. Missus Grier and Bedford disappeared into the lighted shaft. The twins helped me strap a large canvas pack on my back, and then we went in pursuit of Bedford and Missus Grier.
“Where are we going?”
“Down,” said Seamus or Sean, who led the way.
“And out,” said the other, who took up the rear.
“Is it also part of the protocol that I shouldn’t know where we are going?”
“Not at all. We’re headed down almost two kilometers,” said the twin in front.
“And out into the Basin,” said the one in back. “It’s not that we wouldn’t love to talk with you, Fallon, but we can’t tell you much more than that. It’ll take us the better part of five days to reach our destination. On the way you’re going to see things very few people have seen. If you are as observant as Missy says, your mind will be on overload. I should think you’ll be aching to get out your sketch pad to record what you’ve seen.”
The other twin took up the discourse. “As you will discover, that will be impossible during each day’s march. However, you’ll get a chance when we rest at a way station. Now be careful here, it gets quite steep and some parts are damp and slippery from seepage.”
I could hear the whir of another static box being cranked as we caught up with Missus Grier and Bedford. The next section of tunnel lit up and we were off again with hardly a pause. This process was repeated perhaps another dozen times before the shaft finally leveled out.
We entered a fair sized chamber that was illuminated as part of the last run of lights. At one end, it was filled in with a stone wall and fitted with a heavy metal door.
“Packs off, and suit up, gentlemen,” said Missus Grier.
Once we had removed our packs, the twins directed me to shelves where the rest of our clothing was neatly arranged. The twins instructed me through example, not words. The first order of business was to slip on a pair of knee-high rubberized boots over the leather boots and calf-high socks. Next, the waist flap on the pants was folded up and the collar on the knit shirt was unrolled, covering the entire neck. I was handed a jacket made of the same fabric as the pants. The double-breasted jacket was fastened with two rows of brass buttons and tapered neatly at the waist where it cinched tightly around the waist flap, just above the belt. The collar was tall, stiff, and overlapped to completely protect the throat.
Protect? Against what? I had a pretty good idea when I saw the bowl-shaped helmets. The helmet had a gauze drape that enshrouded the head and tightened around shirt and jacket collars with a drawstring.
"Bugs?" I said.
"Big bugs," said Seamus. “Be sure the netting is cinched snugly over your collar.”
“Now put on some gloves and tighten your sleeves over them like this. See?” said Sean.
“Lamps on,” said Bedford.
On the peak of each helmet was what I had come to recognize as a static box. Its crank was on top, and a lamp was mounted on the front.
“Like this, lad. Hold your helmet down like so, then rotate the crank about 20 to 25 times. The faster you can crank, the stronger the light. Yes, that’s it. Now when we open the door, hurry on through, you hear? We don’t want to leave it open too long.”
Sean was by the door, cranking a static box. I heard a hiss behind me and turned to see one of the twins using some sort of device to fill the chamber with a dense fog.
“It’s a bug killer,” said Seamus. “The fog will kill the fliers and cling to all the surfaces to kill any crawlers that might sneak in. Get ready now, Fallon.”
“Done,” said Sean as he finished cranking.
Seamus set down the device. “Done.”
Sean stepped back as he yanked the door open. Missus Grier was the first one through, then Bedford, me, and Seamus. Sean followed quickly, securing the door behind him.
– End Chapter Six –
