“A bunker?” Zach repeated.

“Well, I’m sure you know how different groups experimented with bunkers decades ago.” Josh waved one hand back and forth. “Some attempts were more serious than others, ya know?”

“Okay…” He wasn’t going to get much more information than that apparently. At least not right away.

Another ding echoed into the elevator as it jolted to a stop. The doors on the other side slid open without a single rattle, revealing a cavernous opening about the size of a living room. Normal appearing furniture stood slightly askew from the rough-hewn floor, from a brown fabric couch to a long table holding various boxes. Straight across from the elevator stood another door with a noticeable scanner to the right.

Josh stepped past all of the paraphernalia and straight to the door. The same badge that opened the door to the surface was accepted by the scanner here, as well, with a green light and a click.

Zach was right behind him, taking in all the dimly lit details.

Josh took a firm hold of the door handle and gave his guest a tap on the shoulder. Zach jerked back his attention to his host and the door. A bemused grin spread across the engineer’s face as he opened the door and waved the guest in.

The next room looked like, well, a room. The walls were gray and plain, but the floor was smooth and the ceiling contained drop in tiles. Metal and glass doors lined the room with signs and posters plastered everywhere. Overall, the space looked eerily like any other laboratory. The fact that many of the labs that Zach had visited in the past did not have windows did not help to challenge that impression.

“Welcome to Bunker Ditch,” Josh announced from behind.

“Ditch?”

“No one really recalls why it’s called that, but there’s some presumed dark humor to the name.” He stepped towards the hall to the left. “Or so I’ve been told.”

Zach raised an eyebrow, but followed, nonetheless. “So, what can you tell me about this place?”

“Well, as you already know, the place is several decades old. One of the older engineers actually made a scrapbook about the place, so he would know the actual age.

“And as I also said before, this place was a prototype bunker. It did not exactly meet the design goals, but it was used to design other bunkers later on. What this bunker was supposed to be used for…Well, I’m not exactly at liberty to say.”

“Even though my company works down here?”

Josh shrugged. “It was never seriously used as a bunker after that, so it became storage for equipment and other things. But as the company expanded in size, the equipment expanded with it and no longer fit down here.”

At this point they based by a room with several large windows to the hall. Zach glanced over to one of the large box machines, the top half made of glass. “But my company’s industrial grade 3D printers fit just fine down here.”

“Yep.” He continued. “When your company started doing rapid prototyping for us, there was an initial concern about security with all of the back and forth between different locations. But as the work became more constant, one of the higher ups convinced your company to just have a permanent lab here. This area was unused at the time and any area your people got was going to need some refurbishing anyway, so it worked out to set them up here.”

They reached the end of the hall, which consisted of large metal double doors. Josh swung one open with ease. Inside they approached and handrail overlooking an open, two-story hall. Metal piping lined the walls and two also metal structures were piled in the middle. Two lower-level doors could be seen behind the piping, probably to offices or control rooms of some sort. What all the material was for was anyone’s guess. Zach had trouble even describing what the two items in the middle even looked like.

“What kind of refurbishing did you do?” Zach asked, peering over the railing.

“Structurally, very little. That was one of the pluses of the bunker. In terms of updating everything to code, living standards-wise, that was apparently quite the headache.”

Zach gave him a knowing look. “Such as air quality?”

“From what I heard; it was specifically the air sensors that caused the headaches in that regard.”

“What about wiring? If the place is as old as you say, all of the old wiring would have been pulled and replaced.”

“It was. Most of that was piped through the other exit, which had to be drilled in.”

“Drilled?”

“Yeah, places like this started with only one entrance. But later on, this place had to have two emergency exits in case one gets blocked.”

“Again, drilled?”

“This is an old-style bunker. There was no second exit, originally. One of our guys had to pull some of our equipment to drill in a second exit. Since that one was much wider, all of the new wiring, plumbing, etc. went through that exit.”

“And that wasn’t cost prohibitive for you?”

“Apparently not.”

Zach started subbing his temples. “Any other details worth mentioning about the area?”

Josh thought for a moment “In total, the whole area is about 4000 square feet. The tallest the ceiling gets is where we’re standing now.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“What about the second exit?”

“I can answer that one.”

Zach turned around to find a slight woman directly behind him and very close. He jumped back from surprise and hit the top bar of the railing.

“Ah, Sasha,” Josh stated. “Good to see you. So, where’s John again?”

Sasha made an annoyed face. “Yeah, John didn’t want to admit it, but he’s at home with a cold. Pretty bad from what I could tell. Either that, or he has allergies and doesn’t want to admit that.”

Zach pursed his lips. “Exactly how many of the employees here have ‘allergies.’?”

She thought for a moment. “I’d say at least half or more. Allergies are really common now, after all.”

“Right.”

Sasha glared at him. “If you look at the statistics, allergies, or sensitivities of some sort, really are common.”

“Do you have any allergies?”

“Surprisingly, no. But, I swear, everyone else I talk to has something…I take it you’re that HQ guy.”

They exchanged pleasantries. Apparently, Sasha was the correct contact for the satellite office, not John, but no one had bothered to update the file on that particular point.

“We weren’t sure who was supposed to update that, since we had essentially traded roles.”

The reason for trading the roles had to do with John taking too many sick and/or personal days. “It sounds like there might be a more severe air quality issue than what was stated in the files sent to me.”

“I don’t know about that. John has had a lot going on lately, between moving and his dad getting sick.” Sasha stated plainly. “He just couldn’t keep up with all of the extra duties between all that.”

“Hm, I will still want to make sure that the air quality issue hasn’t been causing problems, either.”

“If you can find it.”

Zach was not amused. “Where does it usually occur?”

“That’s just what I said about finding it. The smell seems to move around form place to place. I’ve never actually smelled it myself.”

“Has John?”

“Nope. He hasn’t smelled it either. Just about everyone else has, though.”

“How do they describe it?”

“It varies. I’ve heard musty, sweet, cookies …I even heard skank, whatever that was supposed to mean.”

“That’s…an odd mix.”

Sasha shrugged. “You’re welcomed to look around, of course. With an escort.”

“Of course.”

Josh intervened at this point. “I can escort him around. I’ve already been doing that so far.”

“Right,” Sasha nodded.

Zach shook his head, realizing just how far they had gotten off topic. “Wait. What about the second exit?”

Sasha visibly rolled her eyes. “This way.”

She led them down the stairs and to the second door at the lower level. This door was not locked for once and she led them inside. The space behind the door was square, lined with tables and desks, and filled with computers and crates for modular electronics. A bookshelf to the right of the door was stuffed with modules. Colorful wires hung on the wall next to the shelf.

Suddenly, Zach was grateful that he was aware of what all the equipment was for in that room: quick custom electronics, where the slots in the crates allowed for sliding in roughly book-sized electronic modules with easy to plug in wires. The question that remained, though, was what was all the stuff for? It technically wasn’t his business, sure, but his curiosity was screaming for answers. One thing he could not see, whatsoever, was an option for an exit. There was no other door or semblance of a door.

Dust had piled up in places around the room, except for where the computers sat. Except for the newcomers, the room was devoid of other humans with one computer occasional letting out an occasional, low click.

Sasha went to that exact computer and pulled out the table holding it. Behind the table lay a wide outline in the wall that went below the floor. The head researcher rotated the knobs on one side and then the other, loosening the apparent cutout.

“Excuse me.” She left the spot and went rummaging around a couple of drawers. “Ah-hah!” she exclaimed, pulling out two long screwdrivers.

“Do you need some help?” Josh offered.

“Maybe. Take a screwdriver and help me lift this.”

On each side of the outline, both members stabbed a screwdriver into the wall, prying the chunk out of its place and into the room.

Zach purse his lips. This is the second emergency exit? Even I can see problems with this.

The piece of wall leaned into the room. It took two people to pull it out of the slot, as the piece went some ways below the floor.

“The drill was a bit off,” Sasha explained. “So, the opening goes a bit below the bunker.”

Zach face-palmed at this.

“You can see the wiring and such that comes in through this way.” Sasha waved him over to have a closer look.

The upper part of the opening was thick with wires and pipes. The layering was so thick that there was barely enough space to squeeze a person through in case of an emergency.

Zach felt an intense need to face-palm again but restrained from doing so. “What about the air flow?” he asked instead.

“I think that’s below, down here.” Sasha pointed directly down the opening.

“And does it continue under the floor or turn somewhere?”

“That I don’t know.”

“Okay. What about the air filtration system? Is that here or elsewhere in the ductwork?”

Silence.

Zach closed his eyes and bit his lip. “Are there any plans available?”

“Nothing that resembles reality,” Josh chimed in.

“Okay. Is anyone going to take issue with me crawling in there to look?”

“Not as long as you have a hardhat, a spotter and closed toe shoes,” Sasha offered. “With both Josh and me here, you have two spotters.” She strode to one of the walls, which had a rack of hanging gear, including hardhats. She swiftly scooped one up and offered it to Zach. “We don’t keep anything for protecting suits from scuffing.”

“Thank you and duly noted.” He accepted the helmet and put it on. What does my suit have to do with anything? He squatted with ease through the hole and dropped down. “Do either of you have a flashlight?”

“There should be some old helmets with flashlights.”

Both Sasha and Josh moved out of sight. He could still hear them though. Drawers clunking open and shut, doors squeaking open and shut, and then a stomp.

“Ack! Bug!” Josh blurted.

Then he heard some stomping a cabinet door opening and something smacking the ground.

“How did that thing even get down here?!” Sasha exclaimed.

“Get it! Get it!”

Smack! Smack! Smack! Snap!

“Oops. I broke it.” Sasha sounded oddly calm when she said that.

Zach debated on whether to get involved or just to stay out of the way. The exchange was rather amusing to listen to.

Josh shouted, “Try the other cabinet!”

The clunk of a lock holding despite a yank echoed down.

“No, the other one!”

“What other one?”

“The one – Ah! It’s following me!”

Zach then heard a heavy thud, possibly someone jumping onto one of the tables. Whoever did that was quite spry, but he couldn’t help but suspect that it was Josh who made the leap to safety.

“Oh, here it is!”

The investigator heard another light clunk of plastic against concrete.

“Sasha, catch!”

“Got it!”

Sasha appeared in view once again, holding a stand yellow hardhat with an attached light.

“Here.” She tossed it down.

Zach caught it with ease and began fumbling about with the light switch. “Is everything ok up there?” he asked in the meantime.

“Just give us a moment. Somehow a black widow spider got down here and it’s huge!”

Zach started and then very quickly got the light on and on his head. Looking around, he saw no evidence of spider nests, not that he really knew what to look for. “What do black widow nests look like?” he called back up.

“I have no idea. Do you see something?!”

“No – ”

Smack!

“Got it!” Josh proclaimed.

All members heaved an audible sigh of relief.

“What do you see down there, Zach?” Sasha called down.

“Just rock on most sides. I see the pipes and some conduits and…” He trailed off.

“Zach? Zach?”

Zach’s hand reached up through the entry point with one finger pointed up.

“There’s a tunnel down here. Do you have more lights?”