That afternoon four people milled about in the cavernous tunnel just outside of the bunker. The previously barren area was now decorated with new empty boxes, rolls of tape, two metal tool boxes with their contents somewhat splayed onto the floor, a large tool canvas bag, and even more artificial lighting.

All members of the group faced the new unfamiliar hole in the wall, which now contained a large, partially disassemble motorized camera attached to three remote controlled toy cars via bright pink duct tape. A long metal cord slinked from the camera into a pool next to the technician’s feet and into a box. A cord from that box then trailed up into the technician’s laptop in his hand. All members of the group wore hardhats with the lights turned off.

“I feel strange doing this, but also not strange at all,” Sasha stated.

“What part?” Josh asked genuinely. “The toy cars or the pink duct tape?”

She pondered thoughtfully. “I’m not sure.”

Zach gave a side eye. Initially expecting some hesitation or confusion, Josh and Sasha immediately understood what he was suggesting when he mentioned getting a remote controlled car. Josh even called the technician that was to come and test the integrity of the cave to find out the approximate weight of the camera. The camera turned out to be quite heavy, so three cars were needed to support the camera with ease. Why Josh knew about the cars’ load limit was not explained. Zach even tried to check the cars’ boxes for a load limit note, but there was none.

The worker at the local toy store had no idea that the three adults who had come in to buy three of the same toy had actually come on serious business, that is, until Josh corrected the worker.

“Oh, these aren’t for my kids. This is for work,” he had said. “Really!”

Josh left in a hurry after that, leaving the dumbfounded worker to try to figure out what the customer meant.

“Josh! Really?!” Sasha scolded. “Did you just leave him like that?”

“I’ll explain later. My youngest likes this place, so I came here a lot anyway.”

After that, the group returned to find that the camera had been dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the lobby floor. It took two people to carry the camera plus cords down to the bunker. The technician wasn’t scheduled to arrive, yet, so the group attempted their ad hoc motor fix. Who pulled out the pink duct tape was never clarified; it just seemed to appear on top of the other rolls. The pink was also reflective, making it easier to see in the dark, so it was used, regardless.

The first attempt at assembly worked, but was too tall to fit inside the tunnel opening. Then the wheels were removed, which made taping the camera to the cars harder. Even then the assembly was a touch too tall for the tunnel. What they finally wound up doing was placing the camera askew with the cars supporting both sides of this angled orientation. Much duct tape was spent on these attempts, leaving the wheels and spent duct tape bordering the bottom of the new tunnel.

By this time, the technician had arrived. While he could do some surveying near the opening of the tunnel, any thorough surveys would require pulling instruments into the cave. This required an initial visual survey of the tunnel as well. He pulled out his laptop and connected to the camera to record the feedback. After that his checked the connection of the light perched to the top of the camera, fiddling with the light intensity.

Finally, for reasons not known to him, Zach was made responsible for driving the contraption. The technician held the screen in the center of Zach’s view. The image was askew, of course, and the investigator rolled his head to aligned his view to up. This allowed him to focus on handling the three jumbled controllers. His left arm held the controllers with one thumb poking through enough to touch one joystick while his other arm was poised oved the other two joysticks.

“Are you ready?” he asked the technician.

“Yep,” he responded. “Recording now.”

With a slight push to all three joysticks, the assembly lurched forward. Not daring to rush, Zach kept the pace slow, stopping to adjust the direction of the cars when needed.

The tunnel largely remained level but gradually curved to the right towards the bunker. About twenty feet in, the tunnel veered left, skidding a concrete wall on the right.

“Is that the bunker wall?” Josh asked from behind.

“Probably,” was the technician’s answer.

The tunnel continued along the wall for a few feet before finally reaching the end in sight.

The camera stalled at this point. Zach attempted to get closer but the camera remained firmly stationary.

“I can’t get it to go farther,” he mumbled.

The technician studied the image. “The tunnel may have narrowed here. Can you back up?”

Zach attempted to reverse. The camera stayed in place at first, but then jumped back.

“Okay. It’s probably too narrow. Just get at close as you can.”

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The image moved a bit forward and stalled again.

“Okay. Let me see if I can rotate the camera a bit.”

Zach set down the controllers and the group gathered around the laptop.

The end of the tunnel initially appeared like much of the rest of the tunnel, rocky, dark, hewn with concrete to the right. On closer inspection of the wall, though, a bit of metal gleamed near the edge of the concrete into the image. As the technician zoomed in further, breaks in the metal could be seen. Panning around, more hints appeared at the bottom on the image. As the technician pitched down and zoomed in with the camera, a pile of items came into view. The technician had to adjust the lighting and focus a few times before the pile became perceptible.

“Are those…cookies?”

Cookies.

There was a pile of cookies, or at least that what it looked like. There were other items as well, but cookies were the clearest.

“I think we found the source of the smells.”

Zach leaned back from the screen. Cookies strewn across a dirt floor. A handful of questions raced through his mind. Cookies? How did they get there? Was it an animal? How would an animal get down here? And why cookies? Where would the animal even get these cookies?

What was for certain was that something, probably a burrowing animal, had found its way here and made the new tunnel its home. What was not clear, however, was why the new tunnel existed at all. This was a man-made tunnel, not one made by a badger.

By this time, it was getting to be late in the afternoon. Zach checked his phone. No service, but the clock part was working.

“Sasha,” he started, “do you think Johnny has found all of those records, yet?”

Sasha looked up in thought. “Hm, I don’t know. I thought that I would have heard from him by now. Josh?”

Josh shook his head. “I can go check on him,” he offered.

“Leave him be. He’s probably stewing about the whole mess.”

“Then shouldn’t we try to get him out of that?”

“You may have known him longer, but I’ve worked with him much more closely than you have. He will need time to … process.”

Zach mulled over the situation. It was debatable that much more progress on the tunnel’s structural integrity could be made at this point. The images couldn’t be verified until the contents at the end could be extracted and this camera did not come with a hook or any collection device. As such, the group would have to wait until after the structural survey was completed, which would happen until tomorrow or even for several days. The thought of an animal using the tunnel for storage came to mind.

He turned his gaze up the tunnel towards the surface. The bunker was set approximately one story down and contained two stories, which made the emergency exit entrance about three stories down, hardly an arduous climb. The path was largely smooth but dim.

“Sasha,” he said.

“Yeah?” Sasha was engrossed in the video feed, attempting to adjust the camera position by poking at the technician’s computer. Josh was doing this as well to the technician’s chagrin, his patience visibly dwindling on his expression.

“Is the surface exit open?”

She paused and then finally turned to him. “The surface exit? Why are you asking about that?”

“I want to check for signs of wildlife.”

“Animals? But why would you look for – Oooh!” She paused for a moment before continuing. “The exit automatically opens from the inside. It doesn’t open from the outside without a special key.”

“So, I could get stuck out there?”

“Yep.”

He sighed. “I hate to ask this, but could one of you come with and keep me from getting locked out?”

“Right now?”

“Uh, yes. It’s getting late.” Zach shuffled his feet a bit. “And I have an hour’s drive back.”

Both Sasha and Josh frowned at this. Nonetheless they stepped away from the computer, to the technician’s relief, and discussed who was to go.

“Do you have access to the exit key?” Sasha asked Josh.

“I’ve never even been to the surface exit!” he replied.

“Ah, then this will be your chance to see it.”

Josh shook his head. “He needs someone more familiar with the area. Ya know, so that he won’t get lost?”

“Wouldn’t that still be you?”

“Not in this case.”

This continued for some time with the discussion becoming both quieter and more heated. Finally, Sasha agreed to come. Zach didn’t quite catch what the deciding factor was, but was getting too impatient to care.

They set out, helmet lights back on and initially with Sasha at the front. After only a few steps, though, Zach had passed her.

“Hey! Wait!” she called.

“You want to get there and back sooner, don’t you?”

“Well, yes…”

“Then, let’s go.”

A few minutes later they arrived at the surface exit. It was too dim to see much other than the circular door and its long handle.

Sasha stood behind him, panting. “How do you move so fast? Especially in those dress shoes and suit?”

Zach rolled his eyes. More suit comments? “They’re not ‘dress shoes,’” he corrected. He gripped the handle, adding, “And the answer is practice.”

With a hard push down, the handle rotated with a screech. Sasha slapped her hands over her ears.

Clunk.

A thin, half-circle stream of light poured in.

“Do you think that would be heard down below?”

Sasha shook off the trauma of the noise. “Unless the sound had a path into the bunker, not likely.”

“What about the tunnel?” he asked while pushing the door open, letting in more light.

“Possibly. We’ll have to ask the others when we get back.”

At this point the opening was wide enough for a single person to pass through with ease. Zach stepped out and into the light. “It’s forested.”

Sasha peeked her head out. “Yeah. There’s a forest around two sides of the company complex.”

Zach peered from left to right. At first glance, there was nothing out of place for a nature scene. “I’m going to look around for a bit, okay?”

“Okay.” She pulled out her phone. “But let me check the signal first.” After studying it she moved it out and then closer to her person.

“No signal?”

“It’s weak, but there. Call me if you get lost.”

Zach stood there with one eyebrow raised.

“What?”

“I don’t have your number.”

“Oh, right.” She quickly gave it to him and he was off, choosing to go left first.

He soon found what appeared to be a deer path and followed it for a bit. The investigator bit his lip. One would think that a path of some sort would be at the exit and would lead to a rendezvous point of some sort, but there was no evidence of a man-made path.

The surroundings tessellated with the leaf-filter light of the afternoon sun. Birds could be heard overhead and the scent of spring flowers filled the air. It was a lovely tranquil place and very dense with foliage. There was little evidence that an engineering company was situated so close by.

He came upon another deer path. This one led to the right. He took the turn, intending on making a loop back, if possible. The scene continued for another few minutes, before he decided to pull out his phone. Perhaps GPS is in order here. Except, his signal was too poor. He frowned. Was the lack of signal due to the dense forest or something else?

“Oop!”

He has nearly tripped on a thick tree root. Stopping there for a moment he took stock of his bearings, or at least of what he could. Green light, green shadow, green leaves, green grass, red something…

Red?

He approached the red color, squatting down as he did so.

That is not a red flower.