Chris was fast asleep that four in the morning when came a phone call, it rang, and rang and rang. It woke him from the depths of his sleep and made him a bit moody, it was Agent Whin.

"You up for a chat?" He asked over the phone, that was not a question to be refused. staggering out of bed, Chris asked to meet up with him.

"No need, you have what you need at your front door, just make time to read the memo I posted at you door, and get some sleep" Agent Whin said. Chris staggered down the stairs and found the paperwork and stuff.

=====

"So now you work for the Central Intelegance Agency" Cynthia said hopping into his car.

"Sort of, even though I don't have an understanding where I am plugged in" Chris said driving down the road, Cutting into town he picked up Gabe.

"Hey man, before you drive us to where we aught to go and at least get something to munch on" Gabe said as they were heading through down town.

"Don't worry I will dip in and get pizza later today but we gotta get going to the round house" Chris said looking at the clock.

Colton stood their at the gate, was he at the right place?. His father told him before boot-camp not volunteer for anything, boy what a dumb move, now he was now acting a guard for this expedition what ever may come about it, now he was missing out on wild parties and his gaming PC and most of all women.

A truck lumbered up towards him he looked in the window, he was told three names and those three he was supposed to attach to.

Chis rolled down his window and handed Colton his paper work. Chris studied Colton for a bit it and saw some family traits in him but he and his brother and sister were dark haired Colton was blonde.

"Stuff checks out you must be Chris and the others are?" Colton asked. Chis pointed out Gabe and Cynthia, Chris asked if he wanted a ride, Colton shook his head and got in the back, well face-planting in the bed of the truck. just mere inches away from a metal tool box.

Chris lean over to Cynthia,

"Did Spain import their soldiers here?" Chris joked. all three laughed and Chris pulled into the area. Chris got out and helped Colton and examined his face, at least their their was no broken bones, just allot of pain and bruising.

====

First order of business was spending the time looking at the locomotives and seeing if they could get it to run. Chris and Gabe went to work rolling up their sleaves, Chris drilled out the maintenance doors and swung them open.

"Hey found the office where they store all the maintenance manuals" Chris said

"Good, get as much stuff over here?" Gabe yelled over to Chris.

Both of them sat down for while and read through the books and the diagrams.

"Lets start with juice, do we have juice?" Chis said looking at the batteries and testing them. One of them was bad and the others were fine, grunting and squeaking they pulled and replaced the battery.

Both of them spent the next hour going over inspection procedures, and combing through the electric motors, they tested good stationary but what would be the other story actually moving.

Sunday 7pm we are ordered to stay until we have completed the tasks that were assigned to us Cynthia is taking one of the dorm rooms to herself and the rest of the dude are taking the other, water levels in the bunker had drained out thanks to the effort on getting the drain pumps working, the bunker was tested for viability but the small complex had not dried out, Gabe was in the corner reading on some technical aspects of the locomotive and working out some stuff, Colton is listening his mp3 player and watching I myself are sitting here watching, Cynthia is taking the time and cleaning out one of the coaches to take it with us she will come in around 10pm while I am writing this entry.

The locomotive was fired up, it was diesel so no backfiring of the sort at all, anything that was needed was found in the parts store bellow and brought up via the service elevator.

Chris put the pen down and closed the book and made his way over the table with the pizza and began eating it was nearning time for the net but this time he was going to take a long break from it until this assignment is over, tomorrow morning they were going to fire up the locomotive and head on out.

=========

Long were the sleeping hours, it had seemed time slipped slowly among the sleeping occupants, seconds seemed like minuets, minuets seemed like hours and hours seemed like days.

Cynthia slept all alone, in her bed. the door was locked and her pistol was on the table next to her. She tossed and turned in her sleep, she was not used to being away from her home, the bed was rough and not inviting.

The moonlight shone into the room, the light gave an eerie glow to the room.

"Cynthia." came a whisper. Cynthia froze. was she still awake or was she dreaming, She did not comprehend the situation but someone called out her name again. She looked and saw a man in her room, she reached for the gun but a hand stopped her, a familiar hand stopped her, she recognized the hand, the touch, the heat.

"Dan?" she looked up at the man, the man's face was darkened, even though the moon light lit the room she sat up touched the man's face and felt the familiar curves and temples, repressed emotions sprang from the depths of her heart.

She cried out his name..................

Colton on the other hand was a light sleeper, he heard Cynthia scream and some rustling in the office building he sprang up, grabbing his rifle he sprung open the door, his eyes had to adjust but saw a figure dash down the hallway, Colton bounded after it like a hound on a fox hunt. He chased the figure out but lost it when it dashed into the woods and was seen no more.

"What happened?" Chris asked half asleep.

"Someone was here, maybe a vagrant or someone looking after our business but speculation is on me" Colton said looking down at his watch it was nearly four in the morning, three more hours to go.

"Go back to sleep we are going to go it in a few hours." Chris said. Colton did a quickly sweep of the area before heading back to doze off.

=======

"Well what do you make of the controls?" Chris asked Gabe, both of them were in the cab.

"Documentation stated that on automatic mode, the engine tries to establish contact with central facilities and downloads a scheduled, but on manual you know what it is" Gabe said yawning.

Chris decided to do a small test run on automatic but connection to the central computer was not proving good, manual mode on the other hand was a bit of learning curve to say the least. Turning on the engine, the thing revved to life and eased itself, waiting for pressure to release the brakes to build the both of them jumped out and lifted the bay door alwing fresh air in afterlearing out some of the fumes they found selves back into the cab, Gabe sat down, the controls were reminiscent of a steam locomotive, this layout was not diesel at all. pushing the reverser lever forward and cracking the speed, they jolted forward and crawled their way out of the roundhouse.

Cynthia was doing finishing touch ups on the coach while Colton was looking around for anymore signs of the visitor from earlier that morning.

Loading on supplies the small party climbed onto the train and made their way out of the property and down the track towards Fernsworth chemical plant and research facility. Clearing the small yard was a hacking experience as a shoddy passenger train almost clipped the front of the train, given the clear, they continued down the yard and switched onto the spur that Chris had marked. Chris jumped off the train and walked down towards the gate. and went to the control box, he hoped for a clean 24 volts. taking his testing equipment out he checked, to his relief he was given the interlocking signal. Hacking the gate, he got to open just enough to get the train through, further destruction of the panel kept the gates open. Winding their way in pass the fenced area they first came into a guard shack, simple affair nothing much to see, noting in the file, two lines were to converge passed a tunnel though an hesitance of a emergency line that had direct connection to the main site was provided.

"What do you guys think, should we take direct lines to the main place or we weaving in and out of this pace, explore" Chris asked, the group.

All three walked away from each other and began musing over the situation, an hour later they assembled again. Cynthia was the first to suggest an exploration, Gabe on the other hand was wanting straight to the point, Colton was agnostic on the matter.

Chris thought for a second and went with the exploration. He needed to complete the file and to figure out what had happened and why the shut down of the experiment. leaving the guard area they proceeded down the line, slow and steady as they went down the line, looking and seeing things, veering off to the right they first stopped at the living quarters for the researchers and dormitory for workers. The area was fenced and looked like a prison camp. but upon further observation the place was cozy and was for simple living, not for settling down and living the good life. Nature had seemed to taken its place back as vines and trees began to grow in places once cleared., but the some clearings looked fresh and more recent. Signs of recent habitation was evident in one of the two dorm buildings. One of them seem like for the females and the other males though both had family units. The first floor of the female had power, bullet casings were scattered over the floor in one of the dorms. Back in the men dormitory on the second floor their was some walking about, but who was it? The small group stopped and the stirring continued, their was some knocking around and it came from one of the rooms. the shuffling and the commotion caused Colton walk before them and aimed his rifle at the door.

"What do you want to do?" Colton asked Chris who was behind him.

"Lets see who it is?" Chris asked.

Colton yelled for the person to step outside, a few later Colton was ready to kick down the door when the door swung hastily open and reveled the character from behind the door.

*****

"Lovely way to meet other people" Rex said sitting the corner looking at the others with the constant scene of the barrel of the gun pointing at him with a very stern marine looking at him from behind it.

"Rex, what are you doing here?" Chris asked him

"Well, did you manage to talk to your good friend Luke about this whole affair" Rex replied.

"Well no, he passed away a bit ago" Chris said. Rex changed and looked a bit sad.

"Aye, he was a good man, now if you would mind if you would kindly tell GI Joe over here to lower his gun" Rex said afraid to move, from his position.

Colton shot a round on the floor next to Rex and lowered his gun,

"Tell, me your involvement in this whole affair and Luke?" Chris asked.

"Well I was sent in by the US military to look for a missing soldier named Dan, apparently he was sucked into the machinery of the experiment, they shut it down when he got taken and tried looking for the dude, we could not gain access where he is now" He said looking over at Cynthia.

She knew then their, that her husband was dead.

"He dead isn't he?" she asked him?

"No, No, we have had contact with him but its when certain things happen a portal gets opened and we are able to exchange information, your husband is alive thats for sure but its a problem getting him out from where he is" Rex said The air was dotted with hope.

"My job is to figure out how to get him out within the next current window" Rex said looking over at his paper work.

"When is the next window?" Cynthia asked.

"Preliminary calculations indicate eleven days from now but this bloody mess has self activated and has a mind of its own throwing everything off" Rex said looking over at Cynthia and at Chris.

"What do you know more about this place and particularly the experiment" Chris asked. Rex was not that sure about the deeper fine points of the whole deal

"I was only given the information just do do basic calculations that's it" Rex said. later that evening Rex told Chris he was leaving the place, he knew some back roads that got him out the place quicker but thought about just walking down the tracks out of the area.

"Just remember when you get to the building keep your mind on the shelf where it is" He said getting up to gather to leave, the party watched as Rex slung his bag over his shoulder and walked down the tracks.

Deciding to camp for the rest of the day their, they were going to spend tomorrow exploring other buildings and advance on the building.

"How long do you think is this going to take?" Cynthia asked Chris.

"Not long, I hope, we should take our time Cynthia, i know this hurts your cause too but answers must be answers" He said taking out a pen and penning a entry in the file that Luke had written. At first Cynthia was aghast at the proposition but then spent some time alone to think about things. the question loomed above her head, would she be ready for this or she lying to herself, she secluded herself and bowed her head in prayer.

=========

The dormitory offered a more accommodating and more privacy now that the men were not in the same room, at least the men were allowed to sleep alone but Colton took the first room on the same level, Chris was after him and Gabe, Gabe took the third floor all to himself. took a room alone from the other men.

Chris awoke in his dream. He found himself standing their in the midst of the landscape, he saw a dark shadow of a person walking about the terrain, he looked about the place as the sand was a color that was not descriptive as one man could give, it seemed like a neon red but darker and more dull. The light was akin to a dirty yellow with a dull orange sky, what was this place?

The shadowy figure did not mind nor find him, maybe it was Luke, or what was Dan?, the terrain was that.......a distant beeping and whistling came from afar, a call, a call came long stretched that with a voice from a man, was time slow here? the beeping grew louder, what was it?

Chris awoke with a start and rolled over and looked at his watch, the alarm was going off, he pulled the covers off and made away, his body ached from the nights rest. he mused over his dream, what was the figure, the calling?

Cynthia was outside doing her own looking around and seeing the plants around.

"Be careful around here. it looks like Hog weed around here?" She said walking over to Chris.

Grabbing their packs and supplies they had decided to walk to observe and collect information about the rest of the buildings. They walked while Colton lead them on, it seemed like it took them an hour to get to the next area of interest and this they were found office buildings. The singular building was a wooden cutout not like the cement dormitory, it seemed like rows and rows of empty rooms, some were makeshift conference rooms others were caved in others had nature recited and not able to enter. Flowers and odd sorts of things filled one of the doors to from what they could see was a medic room.

Stopping into one of the rooms that was usable was a room filled with equipment, a computer stat in one corner and some odd boxes sat connected to it. Cynthia flicked the power switch and was surprised it booted up. Chris came over and watched as a blue knight chess piece appeared and disappeared and a username and password prompt appeared.

"Well let me have a crack at it?" Gabe said getting over and into the chair, the rusty excuse for a chair groaned and creaked as Gabe shifted in it.

"Lets try Luke's credentials" Chris said to himself thumbing through the file looking for the rest of it, he was annoyed about the lack of information, he sat the file down onto of some books on the desk and they clattered on the floor a piece of paper fluttered out of the overturned books and landed on Chris foot, picking it up he read the note out loud.

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"I came and I saw, i came and I healed the sick, Who am I" Chris said putting down the paper and was at a impasse,

What was Luke talking about? Chris thought to himself?

The small group stood and mulled over the riddle that Luke left for them hours seemed to pass by. Cynthia scanned through her head about possible people dealing with the sick.

"Didn't Christ have something to do with healing and all that stuff" Gabe said going through the small amount of bible stuff he had dealt with when he was a kid.

"Well yeah, so was the apostle Luke" Cynthia said mulling over the stuff that she reads about on a nightly bases. Chris looked down at the bible he was given by Luke, and flipped through the bible, a small preliminary reading affirmed that Christ was indeed the great physician, but what did physicians have to do with this experiment?

An Idea occurred to him.

"Where does a physician, usually work in these kinds of things?" Chris asked the group.

"If your asking me, the nurse station, their is two of them, one of them is overrun by weeds and flowers and the other is kinda neat and tidy" Gabe said.

Chris walked out of the room and went down the hall winding his way around he arrived at one of the nurses station and flung open the door, looking around he began pushing and pulling through cabinets and he came to a metal one and looked around a bottle spilled their was a rolled up piece of paper, he unrolled it,

Bingo, Luke, Bingo.

The computer was attached to the central network though certain applications and files were locked but they soon found out they could communicate with the locomotive they left behind, The group decided to have the locomotive await them at the building front guard gate and they would take it in.

Chris and Gabe spent the rest of the day and well into the night writing down information that they could find and some personal notes for themselves. Colton settled down in his corner with his rifle on his lap, he fell into a deep sleep a slumber that he had known before before he came on this venture

He seemed to be in the desert like he had been in from his first deployment. The sand was around him, he did not like the sand but had to mind. The sand was that of a odd color purple and blue and the sky had a marble texture of black and yellow, What was he here for he did not know, be rubbed his eyes and saw a figure their in the distance, he looked and saw a man. Upon further examination he saw that the man was someone he knew, memories came flooding back and a wave of guilt came.

he cried out the name but no voice came, he dashed over to the figure but the man was out of reach as he got closer, he remembered the man and the unfortunate situation, guilt built up in his thoughts the repressed memories and the experience, the suppressed guilt and emotions sprang through him like a fountain, he tripped and cried out, pounding the sand and asking why he was aloud to be aliv, he saw that the person was laughing at him.

Colton looked down and found his service weapon. he was about to do himself in when he heard someone calling his name, he, stopped and looked around, the man was gone, he was was being shaken violently by some invisible force, could not move and lost his gun.

Colton awoke with everyone around him, his clothes were drenched in sweat Colton had his hands restrained by Chris while Gabe was holding onto him Cynthia had his gun and was taking out the clip.

"What happened?" Chris asked Colton while handing him a towel, Colton was dripping in sweat, his clothes soaked. Colton explained his dream.

Colton recounted how he was framed for a fragging that happen during his first deployment, his lawyer was successful in his defense but the guilty party was never found blame and the guilt still remained.Chris calmed him down a bit asked him if he was adopted. Colton told him he was and his birth parents were not found before he went into the marine corp.

****

Chris awoke and checked on Colton who was doing better.

"Are you sure you are capable of handling this situation?" Colton was asked by Chris. Colton affirmed he was better. After a while Chris gave him back his guns and asked him to continue his duties as guard.

They spent the next few minuets moving closer to the main facilities. The building seemed to loom and rise higher over them as they inched closer to the building. Cynthia was a bit skeptical about the size and the story of the whole thing.

"Do not be deceived the complex is bigger than one might imagine" Chris said to her approaching the entry gate, their locomotive was awaiting for them their at the front gate. The entry point looked like it came from that notorious German concentration camp, entering the guard shack they found a map of the place and met up in the passenger car.

Chris dismissed himself to formulate a plan while the rest of them, while they waited for him the three of them gathered and spoke about their opinions on the matter.

"I should not have a opinion on this matter, I'm just here to supply security" Colton said.

"You cant just ignore what happened to you this morning" Gabe said to Colton.

"I know, but what does what happened have to do with what we are here for" Colton asked back.

"Anyone having strange dreams, since we have gotten into this mess?" Cynthia asked.

"Colton, has, I have not, what about Chris, has he told you about his dreams?" Gabe asked Cynthia.

"Well yes, he has, mine was more personal, like something around here knew something that would be, a weakness for me" She said.

She thought about something and went over to find Chris who was in the cab of the locomotive brooding over something.

"What brings you here?" He asked

"Chris can you entertain a thought for a sec about this whole thing?" She asked him

Chris sits down across from her and gives her some attention.

"This thing that we are investigating, could this be influencing our dreams" She asked him.

"I do not know, in my best guess, no, but this has taught me to disregard hard and fast rules about science as I know it, I don't have enough information to form a conclusion in regards to that Idea" He said.

"What was your dream, the other night?" She asked him.

He recounted his own to her. They talked in length about the possibilities and what each dream meant and why. Cynthia walk away and returned to the guys while Chris continued on his own. A couple of hours Chris joined the group and they assembled in the passenger car.

"I don't know the buildings myself, nothing in the file or the stuff we went through last night has nothing dealing with the layout, Gabe, I want you to be a scribe, Cynthia and I are going around and checking things out before we infiltrate the building, Colton, come with us, it near 1620 and light is fading fast"

The group set out and began their tour of the place and made their way around the main complex of buildings, the first one they came to was a large funnel shaped hanger, this one was maintenance bay 1, their was railroad tracks leading to and from it. From their Chris and the group found a better view of the building, the main portion stood out and up higher than the front part. two towers stood from the roof and one of them was a large octagon shaped vent, steam seemed to come from it, the other was a tower filed with antennas and lights. The front building was lower than the other and smaller but was filled with windows a helicopter pad was on-top of it. Other various buildings surrounded the place.

visiting the next building they came to another office building, this one, was two levels rather than the other one that was one, this one was concrete and had some bathing facilities that the group took special note of. Colton walked around the building on guard at the entrance while the three began searching for more information, Chris, Gabe and Cynthia sat down and leafed through some more information. More and more information came to him about the experiment and what was their, but their was no diagrams, just text descriptions, about two hours into the file writing Gabe hand cramped, Cynthia took over and they continued. It was getting late into the night when Colton came in and they bathed and refreshed. tomorrow they were going to explore the other two buildings and then finally the main building itself. Gabe settled down, at last he was able to sleep alone away from the others, he took a room on the second floor near an emergency exit. The room was too quiet for his tastes, nothing seemed to he heard from nature itself, the moon shone into the window and bathed the room with moonlight, a deep sleep seemed to grip him.

He awoke in his dream. He was in a room much like the one he was sleeping in. A figure passed his door, he called out to it but it did not stop and continued walking, he got up and walked into the hallway, he spun around and found himself in a hallway that seemed to go on and on, doors every so feet identical in its construction and appearance.

his inclination was to walk and find an exit but his head told him no. He look around, if he was in a dream, he could have a influence in things, he tried to think about something to append the long hallway but seemed to be overridden by something. He thought about the doors and opened one of them looked around, he felt a cool breeze in his face, he felt something tugging on his shirt and he panicked and tried to go forward but hands were grabbing him and tried to pull him back.

He awoke, his vision focused and found himself on the edge of the doorway looking one stories down but bellow him was a pile of sharp rocks and a pile of broken metal. He was pulled in by Chris and Colton.

"You OK?" Chris asked the shocked Gabe.

"I just almost walked off the edge of a doorway two stories up." Gabe said shaken. Chris heard the question that Cynthia asked him yesterday, they needed to retreat for a time being silent in his voice he wrote a message to tell them to retreat to the train and they were to go back to the round house, discovering that Cynthia had her dream their, they decided to retreat back an hour out of town.

******

"OK, I want to know what everyone dream is and was and we need to figure things out here" Chris said to the group he pulled the door closed to the room and sat down with the small party of three.

"All we know right now is that everyone has had an experience, Its not to deem anyone in this room but what is going, Gabe, lets start with you" Chris said pulling out a fresh notebook and began taking a transcription of Gabe's dream, Colton came next, Chris spoke of his and then followed Cynthia, once she was finished, he laid down his pen and rubbed his temples.

"OK, Colton you chased a person away the considered with Cynthia dream, did you ever get a good look at the person?" Chris asked Colton.

"No" came the reply.

"That person who was in my dream was Dan, I will take that to the grave" Cynthia said.

"Dan, for all we know is still missing, but him out and about is still a possibility" Chris said taking note of that in his note book.

"You brought up the proposition Cynthia that whatever is influencing us is something that we are looking at, it has tried to kill Colton and Gabe, whatever this thing is it needs to be taken out" Chris said.

"If that is the case I am out" Gabe said backing away from the group. Chris was in a corner, if the other two were going to back out he was going have to go alone. He looked at Cynthia and at Colton, the only two left.

Colton was looking down at the table and Cynthia was deep into something.

"You wanted to find Dan, Cynthia, do you want that?" Chris asked her. She was caught on the edge, she had a choice, continue with this path and find out the fate of Dan, find him maybe or just go back to living the way she was.

"You came this far Cynthia, why give up?" Chris encouraged her. "Don't Cynthia, do this for this Dan" He continued.

This was the first time in her life, that her marriage was tested. She loved her husband with all her heart and Christ too, Chris was right she needed to do this for Dan, she understood that their was evil in this world and her Bible told her to stand up to it. Never, Never, Never forsake your Lord, she could hear her mother tell her before she went off collage, she did what her mother and father told her to do and grew more obedient in her faith while getting her degree, she was often castigated for her high stringent standards, she was not Catholic levels stringent, miserable levels but everything in her life was to the glory of God.

"Keep me in" Came her response, Chris was relieved and Colton followed her, all three of them looked at Gabe, he sighed, he could not leave his friends behind.

"Gabe, its your choice?" Chris asked him.

"I am in, if you guys are in, I cannot leave you guys behind" Gabe said. Chris sighed and was relieved at the fact everyone was behind him.

"Tomorrow we get back at it, meet at the waffle house for breakfast, we are sleeping over at the motel tonight" Chris said picking up his phone and getting a hold of a contact.

Chris and Cynthia were in his room plotting and debating until 2300 hours, back and forth they tested ideas and stood them up, their disagreements lead them deeper and further into a better plan. Hashing out a plan they were to execute, including total destruction of the experiment and what ever it was.

0600 Chris awoke from his rest, after getting ready for the day he walked down the rooms and knocked on doors and got people up, Cynthia was already their, she had already paid for room, Gabe and Colton and met up with them, waffle house was bountiful with the waffles, it was crisp morning.

"Men, Men, Men arrrgghhhh dirty, nasty things" Sarah said scrolling through her Facebook app.

"Do not lay it on the whole men population just because your rebound just rejected you but you are right men are nasty" Sandra said pulling out a paper and scribbling down something on her scratch paper.

Sarah glanced down at her text messages, they had some people walk into the place. Both Sarah and Sandra were talking about something when they walked out of the hallway and into the dinning room, both of them stopped mid words as they looked at Gabe and Colton, both of them look up at them, Sarah looked at Gabe, she dated Black men before but she was more on the Hispanic side, Sandra on the other hand had limited experiences with white men. Colton glanced over at the Black chick that was their with the white one and looked away. Gabe did the same thing to Sarah

"You two take care of the counter" Madison said walking back to the offices, she too had been chatting up Chris.

The ladies provided excellent service to Gabe and Colton, Colton was holding Sandra in his arms while they were getting ready to leave.

"I will come back for you" He said.

She doubted that but she was enjoying the moment. Gabe picked up his stuff and made his way back into the truck, she slipped her phone number in Colton's pocket and kissed him she watched as He climbed into the truck and they went off.

*******

Back at the complex they resumed their investigation, the third building was another maintenance bay but this time was a rectangle than a funnel.

The last building was subject of a peculiar search. The building first level was that a small restaurant size, this cylindrical building then came out of it and a large pipe came out of it and into the building, exploring the outer portion things became apparent to what was going on.

Inside the silo shaped portion was a pool of water and in the middle of the pool of water above it was some electrical equipment on this grating, it was on and was running, It toward ten feet above their heads, it terminated in large metal conduits that ran down the large pipe to the central building.

"This must be power plant that is powering this whole setup" Gabe said looking around at the equipment.

"Not only that but its part of the beating heart of this thing" Chris said.

"What in the world are they doing?" Colton asked the group looking in amazement.

"I guess they were looking at something but whatever it is we need to deal with it" Chris said looking over at the wooden crate full of explosives. Setting the thing up near the equipment, he had the option of remote detonation, but he was not taking any risks with anything, he was going to self active the stupid thing.

"Tonight we stay here, Cynthia, everyone we do not leave this building at all, it seems like we have less of an interference here" Chris said looking at his watch.

"Tomorrow we explore, find the status of Dan and then we will yeet whatever it is out of existence" Chris said looking at the bomb he just set up, he had not armed it yet but things were about to go boom in four days or less, one way or another.

*******

The sky was overcast that next morning. checking the weather, the real weather it was nice and sunny, he wanted to make a phone call but he did not want the risk of talking without filtering, what ever was in that building was bent on staying alive. While they were prepping to go out, he breif them, not to trust what they think and see sometimes but to trust and verify was the old mantra from Ronald Reagan. Advancing on the main building all four of them were armed this time, Colton had a green paint mark on his gun, Chris had a blue mark on his, Cynthia had a knife and a Gabe had a 22 with a red mark on his. They opened the front door and they advanced on in.

Lobby of the place seemed desolate reminiscent of ad hoc work, the walls were barren but cinder blocks and, a large central corridor went before them and only to be terminated by a faded painting of a blue knight chess piece. The corridor was flanked on one side by a elevators and on the left a empty break room, the break room was empty.

Finding a stairwell, the team found that it was flooded but Cynthia tested the water, it was an fake and they descended down the steps down onto the second floor. turning left and then another left they came to another hallway and then a wide open space filled with doors, wires hung from the ceiling and nature seemed to take back part of the floor, if anything the office they encountered was a better squalor than what they had witnessed, here. The third level down they began to see signs of habitation, the level was cleaner and better lit but it seemed like signs of a struggle was here. Chris had decided to make camp here and break. A deep foreboding dread seemed to linger over them as they made camp. A knocking noise came from the stairwell.

"What could be wrong now?" Gabe asked Chris. His senses were raised, their was a possibility that the stairs were not structural sound that was for sure, but the lingering voice in the back of his head was telling him not to go and ignore it, the knocking continued

"Does anyone hear a high pitched ringing" Colton asked rubbing his ears.

"Why yes" Cynthia said Chris hackles were growing higher and higher, this knocking continuing, he held his hand up to stop others from going and they stood still, the knocking and

the ringing stopped and faded away.

He looked down and looked at the Bible he was given by Luke, it was real, it was something constant, he put his hand on it Cynthia felt something growing in Chris, she went to god in prayer, he had tucked it away with him to help him remember Luke and his friendship with him during this whole thing and he found himself looking through it at times while they were sleeping.

Walking over to the stairwell he had found the steps whole and complete, he tested it and found them whole.

"When do we descend to the next floor" Colton asked Chris. He told him that he decided to amend the plan and advance quickly after lunch and head down into the next level. he checked in with Cynthia about the matter.

"Your call, the plan was flexible" Cynthia said to him. He mused over it a bit and decided to move down after lunch.

A bit latter they checked their watches, all confirmed lunch time and they geared up and passed around the food. after a quick lunch they made their way down the stairwell and hit the third level down. This level was a bit more bigger than the second, this one extended out back towards the entry gate. The hallways were dark and moist, checking for signs for mold Chris came back with a clear and began a deeper investigation. The layout was that of some empty rooms, two large wide hallways went all the way back various rooms and offices were either locked or empty, locked offices came with wealth of information, Gabe, Chris and Cynthia spent the bulk of the time writing down notes and compiling information.

After a light dinner, Chris and Cynthia finished their ever growing notebooks of handwrite notes and diagrams. One of the offices was covered in paneling, some of lights were broken and the buttons smashed, notes around the place told them this was the remote start of the experiment.

The crew found a room away from the entry way to settle down for the night, tomorrow they were going to breach the last level and then enter into the main facility.

All of them fell into a deep sleep, the best sleep that they had ever gotten ever since the other day at the motel.

Chris awoke and saw that he was dreaming, he knew the antics and was better prepped for it, he looked over at Cynthia, she was sleeping facing away from him, strange, what was she doing in here? he asked himself, He looked over at the other men in the room, Gabe was sleeping and Colton was standing their looking down and away from him.

Something was way-up and he needed to awake but the sleep was just so enticing to keep dreaming, he got up and was trying his best to think what to do next.

Colton was rubbing his eyes vigorously, he could not see what in the earth was going on, he asked himself. He was standing their dark as could be, he felt his face he found no eyes, he shouted and tried feeling for his eyes, but they were not their, he was being careful not push anything too hard.

Cynthia sat up and looked around her, she was standing their in a living room of her home, her father was looking at her angrily her mother was red and furious

"You Dirty, "Beep"" Her mother pointed at her.

Cynthia was confused, she had kept herself pure and asked god for forgiveness if she strayed down the lustful path. She understood that her mother did not need for her to yell and scream at her, she was always a good girl and always did what her mama and father told her to do, yes she was not perfect but her mother did not need to raise her voice at her at all.

"You dirty, Beep, sleeping around with that mechanic boy, you Beep" she was screamed at again. Whatever happened Moma did not cuss at all, she was getting frightened by the charges and out of strange demeanor.

She had to get out of the awful dream, it was scary what ever it was.

She broke out of it and dashed in the other room, Colton was touching his eyes trying to find them, Chris was trying to awake and get out his dream, Gabe was layed still on his she awoke Chris from his.

"You OK Chris?" She asked she checked him out and attended to Colton who was about to take a knife to his eyes. She attended to the young man. She was feeling very maternal in her care for him, he was a young man that needed a good female figure in his life, a proper female figure not one of those crazy campus ones. Gabe was fine though his dream was psychedelic and weird. Chris had seemed to notice the traits that Colton had that he was seeing in his parents, he knew that he had a younger brother and that his parents had to give it up for adoption, but he was the last out of three and his parents often opted not to talk the whole affair when pressed. brushing that aside he focused on the tasks at hand, an hour later they went back to asleep.

****

The lowest point was just two long empty service hallways, that led to a ramp up and terminated in two heavy bay doors to the outside. But their attention soon turned to the two heavy metal double doors that lead into the main facility, the two narrow rectangular windows seemed to look at them as to watch them. Erie light to seemed to come out of it and illuminate the hallway as far as it could. The group came together and Chris laid out the plan, Cynthia was their to correct him if needed, Colton was to go first, Chris, followed by Cynthia then Gabe, forming the line, they stood at the door, Chris found Colton afraid, Chris gave Colton a nudge and thy advanced into the facility.

At the end of a ten foot hallway was a room that seemed to transcend its space. The room was lined with observation windows, platforms, walkways and scaffolding in the middle of the room was a large machine. It looked a like two large three cylinder engine but their was a large red coil that surrounded the thing, each of the cylinder assemblies had a two foot thick box cap on it that formed on the top, but where the output shaft would be was two three foot diameter pipes from the base came together and formed two pipes and ran into the wall, on the side facing them was large pipe organ looking thing with a rectangular prism attached to the top of them looked as if they were lashed together with the same red looking coil. All four of them stood in amazement and looked at the thing before them. they advanced to the railing around it and looked, between them and the "Engines" they looked at the gulf of the water, two large pipes came down and terminated in what looked like a fusion reactor, it looked like ten feet between them and the two tall engines a large four foot diameter pipe came up from the underwater thing and came up to its own platform and terminated with what had should had been a bolted on cap but it was not their.

"What do you make of this?" Cynthia asked Chris.

"I dunno, it seemed straight out of a science fiction novel." Chris said.

The team spent the time documenting and scribbling every detail that described the place, the control panel was lit up and the engines were "Working" moving along they followed the two large pipes and into the "Generator" room. Four large trapezoid looking things with glass panels seemed to show this milky white light that was tinted with some beige, attached to those things was some shrouding that terminated in some cooling vents that went out to the outside. further behind them was shafts two of them were spinning generators connected to some switching and transformer gear. finding a break room nearby they sat down and gathered information.

"What were they were doing here?" Chris asked looking around at his stunned party.

Colton was confused, Gabe was in awe and Cynthia was trying to comprehend everything. Their was some shuffling, around in the kitchen in the next two rooms over, their was some spilling of some stuff and it clattered onto the floor. Chris and the rest of them hushed and waited, Both Chris and Colton stood up and walked over into the kitchen, the noise was getting louder and someone was definitely was in the room doing something. A woman in a lab coat was messing around in the cabinets and was not minding them at all when she spun around and they both aimed their guns.

****

"Well state your name, business and what are you doing here?" Chris asked the scared out of her mind researcher at the other end of the table, she was going about her day when she surrounded by four grizzly looking people, one of them was a marine pointing a gun at her.

"If you must know my name is Dr. Anne Bloc and I am head researcher here at this place" She said producing her name tag, Chris took it and examined it, to his sanctification he gave back the card and she tucked it away.

"What is this place, what is this thing" Chris interrogated her. she looked at her guests and cleared her throat.

She told them the story about how this place got here and what was going on with it.

"Simply put we were pushing the edge of the three laws of thermodynamics to get an alternatives power generation that, did not rely on traditional means, solar, coal, uranium and, hydro power." She said looking over at Cynthia.

"Not only did we accomplish what we set out we created something out a horror movie picture show, not only did we get what we wanted we got a portal to something else" She said looking at Chris. Cynthia thought Hell and Anne knew what she was thinking, she quickly cleared that point up.

"If we had figured how to get to Hell mankind would have known by know" She said rubbing her temples. Cynthia remembered her husbands Jacket and inquired about her husband.

Anne asked for them to meet at the control room to where they could have more privacy arriving their she shut the door behind her and sat down at the console.

"Your husband is fine, that's for sure we have contact with him but the problem is extraction of him and other people that might be with him that is hard part" she said. she went on to tell them that the experiment self activated months ago, she was notified when here remote equipment was activated.

"That is when the signal came, somehow the radios malfunctioned and sent the data over the 2 meter ham band and then it fixed itself when they rebooted and sent it through the appropriate microwave links" She said.

Chris had his answer, but no Dan.

"My next big question, is, where can we get Dan" Chris asked Anne. She told him that the only way for them to get him is to go in when the machine decides to wear down its current cycle, break a hole in it central core and they got a ten minuet window to enter before it closes.

"The current window is coming up in a day" She said looking over at the reading going on the console. Chris and Cynthia decided that they were going to go both alone and find Dan. She told them if they time their decent down into the core they can fly on through the break.

****

Cynthia and Chris began their prep work for the launch, they decided on a simple rig and latch that would drop them with a tug of a rope and into the core, then they would drop some stuff five minuets later behind them. Chris pulled Colton aside to get to know him more, he was feeling a connection that other family members would feel between them, Colton talked about what he did growing up and deciding on going into the Marine Corp and finding out he was adopted, he felt thought growing up he was different and not much loved as his un biological siblings.

"What are you going to do when you get done?" Chris asked Colton.

"I do not know, Informational Technology was a choice for me, but i rather go into law enforcement" He said.

"that is respectable" Chris said.

====

Cynthia was uneasy about the whole thing, they looked down into the core a bright light, not bright as the sun but it a good deal bright to need sunglasses, Chris was uneasy about the whole thing, he had to be brave and brace himself for this one like a they were five minuets into zero hours the warmth was deal-able, Anne had helped them rig up a strap so that both of them could be dropped down the middle without rubbing the sides, Chris and Cynthia closed their eyes and Anne shouted and Gabe pulled the rope. Both Chris and Cynthia held each other tight as they plunged into the core with their stuff in tow.