‘Girls’ Night Out’ - Z & J & Murphy’s Law

Took the personality 2 female Probation Officers/co-workers, in the context of their job and placed them in a fictional jaunt that allowed me to utilize their personalities in an outlandish adventure.

Wrenlane Publishing

Girls’ Night Out

Z & J & Murphy’s Law

René Llanes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Girls’ Night Out’ - Z & J & Murphy’s Law

Copyright © René Llanes 2015

 

The right of René Llanes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the Copyright Act of 1968 and no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior written permission of the author and publisher of this work.

 

 

This short story is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

ISBN: Pending

 

Cover Design & Image by René Llanes & Javal Llanes

 

Acknowledgements

I would first like to thank my heavenly Father in that He thought me worthy of creation and for being blessed with the talent and the passion to write. Equally, thanks goes to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who, out of His unfathomable love for us all, suffered and sacrificed His life that we might have life eternal with Him and life more abundant while here on this temporal plain called earth.  I would also like to thank my loving wife Arlene for her undying support of me and my efforts to continue in this vein. Also a heartfelt thanks to the rest of my family and friends who continue to support me, my dreams and ambitions as a writer of stories, poems and songs. For this particular work, a special thanks go out to my brother Javal and my grandson Jordan for their dedicated efforts in the full editing process of this work.  And last but not least, I would like to thank the two friends and co-workers who in part, gave inspiration to this work just for being who they are which in turn yielded a framework via their personalities allowing me to create the two main characters of Zahndra & Jenelle (maintaining anonymity) in this entertaining fictional work…“Girls’ Night Out”.

 

Forward

Once upon a crime…sorry, but I have always wanted to start a story like that…almost! I guess in order to put everything into perspective, I should introduce myself as not only the author but also part of this story as an author.  Please understand that even though this story is a romp through the wonderful world of make believe otherwise known as fiction, the characters in this story are based on a couple of real characters that I know personally and consider them both well respected friends as well as colleagues, so obviously, the use of pseudonyms seemed to be most prudent for them as well as myself.

My name is Wren.  I am a twelve year Army veteran and have worked for the Department of Corrections for over fifteen years.  I am an administration supervisor for a Probation & Parole field office here in the state of Florida. Among my other talents are writing poetry and songs. I am also a published author.  As a writer, there is always this innate craving to write, to create something new that not only challenges my talent as a writer but a work, that when presented to the reader, does what it is supposed to do: draw out the emotions through mystery or humor, empathy or love, compassion or even hatred in some cases. If that is accomplished, then I have done my job well.  When you live long enough, and especially when your immediate world for the most part revolves around your work, you get to meet certain folks that peak your interest. Then you get to know them better and in some cases you like them or dislike them…admire them, loathe them or at least learn to tolerate them. Nevertheless, sometimes you can draw comparisons from some folks in your circle of life to different works that you have either read or seen on the big or small screen. Then one day you’re sitting there, with a blank stare on your face while your mind drifting about the universe of possibilities, when all of a sudden there is this flash of light and something most would call an idea, starts to caress the part of your mind, a place I like to call ‘Imagination Central’, and then it settles in.  You begin to nurture this seed of thought until it begins to grow. Then at some point you realize its potential and if you have the desire, the drive and the God given ability, you begin the cultivation process and allow it to grow until it reaches maturity in the form of a story, that can now be shared with others who can appreciate and glean enjoyment as they immerse themselves in your creation.  This of course is the fulfillment of anyone who creates something new, unique and different.

Prologue

            Now let me introduce the characters. Zahndra is a 39 year old female who happens to work in the role as a Community Control (House Arrest) officer for the state of Florida for the last 18 years. She is very easy on the eyes, a quick wit, intelligent, personable and a consummate professional. In a recent interview she stated, “I wish I could say I love my job…but at least I can say is that I am good at what I do given the limitations that the state workers are saddled with today.  For better or worse, that is our reality; subject to the dictates of budget restraints and the ideological whims of the reigning political powers.  Obviously, those in power, and depending on their political leanings, control the purse strings deciding how to slice up the proverbial fiscal pie chart, seem to have lumped us in with the red-headed stepchildren for the last several years as far as any raises go. And then there is this ever growing disparity in maintaining adequate staffing for the mission.  Not bitching though mind you!  After all what good would it do? So I keep on trucking, praying and voting, because it is what it is, until it isn’t!”

            Jenelle, 29, is both a friend and partner with Zahndra, has been on the job for almost 10 years.  She too is a Community Control officer. Also attractive in a very cute sort of way, yet she can be somewhat of a spit-fire.  She, like Zahndra, is an intelligent consummate professional, witty, great sense of humor especially when it comes to others making cracks about her being vertically challenged. She is well respected by her colleagues, however when it comes to those under her supervision, she cuts no slack enforcing the court’s orders. When interviewed, she stated, “Not everyone is cut out for this type of work.  In this profession, the cup may not always be full but when it is, it is usually full of bullshit. Not that I am ever surprised after all, what can you expect when your CEO is a politician and your job involves working with criminal felons. You do your best, because you want to do your job well, but our hands are often tied by the limitations of funds and staff shortages especially in recent years. All we can do is hope that one day, that those in power will realize how this agency has been shortchanged and do something about it…Until then…I’ll do my best to ensure the cup remains at least half full of greater expectations.”

Oh just a couple of other notes; Although it is not my style or desire to write anything using colorful expletives, I could not do this particular story justice without writing about the reality of life and the way people are.  There are just times and situations where...‘it’ happens especially when dealing with felons and ex-convicts. Lastly, I have chosen to tell this story from the first person narratives of the characters involved.

 

Girls Night Out

Z & J & Murphy’s Law

 

            It was a Friday afternoon, around the middle of August 2013.

            I heard the back door of our office slam shut. It didn’t take but a moment to discover that my trusty sidekick had arrived.

“Hey Zahndra,” was Jenelle’s terse greeting as she hurried down the hall just past my office to her own.

“Same to you Little Bit. Give me about ten to finish this Violation of Probation (VOP), before we load up and move out,” said Zahndra. I was not looking forward to the field that day. The forecasted high was supposed to be around 97 degrees, along with high stifling humidity which put the heat index at around 105 degrees.

“No problemo girlfriend…gives me a chance to finish my bullet.  Gonna be a b***h out there today with these vests on!”

“Yeah well…it looks like we have the honor and privilege of driving one of our fine favorite state automobiles.”

“Oh god no…not the ‘Dog’ car?”

“Moot point sister, it’s the only one that’s not redlined!”

“Oh well…give me a shout out when you are about ready to go?”

“Yeah, just need to wrap this up and get my pea shooter and field gear out of my car.  See you outside.”

“That’ll work, give me a chance to hit the head and gather up my crap too.”

Although seeing offenders in the field was generally boring and uneventful, you never really knew what to expect. After all, you are dealing with criminals. This day would be an exception to the rule and one we would never forget nor want to relive! I still find myself thanking God daily that we lived through it! 

We had made all of our contacts save one.  This particular offender lived in a very rural part of the county…more accurately out in the sticks!  The only way onto or off of his property with a vehicle was down a dirt road.  Bostic was his name, and he lived in a trailer that sat on ten acres of property, inherited from an uncle that he had never known until the last several months. From some of my more recent encounters with him, both in the office as well as at his residence, he had conveyed to me that while he was on the inside, he had heard some of the inmates talking about genealogy searches that could be done online where you could find relatives past and present. One of his social workers, who had taken a liking to him…Oh did I mention that Bostic, even though an ex-convict, was quite the manly specimen. Not that I would ever take notice of something like that!  In any event, this social worker did a search on his behalf and discovered that he had an uncle still living in central Florida. Bostic had been abandoned by his so-called parents at the age of three; both were heroin addicts.  He had spent most of his life in the foster system. He was in and out of juvie until he hit the big time. He ended up on parole after spending thirteen years in prison for 2^nd degree murder in a drug deal gone badly. A pre-release investigation had been done, part of which included a visit to his proposed residence.  He had already contacted his uncle by mail so an interview with his uncle and inspection of the property prior to his release had to be done to see if it would be possible for him to live there.  His uncle was amenable, at least partly to the idea of Bostic living there I’m sure because he was in poor health and could use the assistance of someone to help look after him due to his poor health. Six months later his uncle passed away and Bostic ended up with the property.

Jenelle hated coming out here because it was so isolated.  I felt the same but this offender was on my caseload and there was no way around it. My biggest pet peeve when coming out here was that we could almost never get any cell tower signals on our phones once on his property.

As we approached the circle dirt drive in front of Bostic’s, very “classy” trailer…not! The sun began to drop down below the tree-line that surrounded his property. Exiting the vehicle, I felt around my waistline checking that all my equipment was in place and ready to use if necessary. I unsnapped then re-snapped my holster strap. Most would call that overkill; to me it was and would always be standard operating procedure (SOP).  Jenelle got out of the passenger side and we approached the stairs leading up to the front door of the trailer.  Without warning we heard the crack of gunfire. Jumping down from the stairs and crouching down, we froze in place.

            “What the hell was that?” Jenelle screamed out in a loud whisper.

            “You really need to ask? I responded, Glock in hand, darting my head in every direction. Once again several shots rang out.  By then I was ninety nine percent sure that the shots were not aimed at us nor were they coming from inside the trailer.

            “Sounds like the action is somewhere down behind the trailer in the direction of the river,” I said with enough authority to even convince myself that I was correct.

            “So what now?” Jenelle asked as we remained crouched by the stairs. I can only imagine the pensive look on my face and did not rush to answer.  “Zahndra, what are you thinking?” I know it bugged her whenever I hesitated or appeared indecisive and no doubt more so in a situation like this, after all this was not the norm, and I was doing my best to try and process it all. “Let’s get the hell out of here and at least call for backup!”

            “Relax Little Bit…no one is shooting at us!  It’s probably Bostic…you know…target practice down by the dock.  I know the guy is a dirt bag and he is probably still dealing drugs but he ain’t stupid enough to shoot at us.”  Jenelle’s face contorted not so much because of what I was saying but more so because what she perceived to be our clear and present danger.  And of course I sensed danger but still believed I was right. “Besides, how would it look if we called for backup and it turns out like I suspect it is?  Let’s just work our way down to the dock and take a peek.  If it is anything more than what I suspect, we’ll come back to the car and call for back up, okay?”  I could see that Jenelle was not a happy camper with my decision but it was my offender and my call for now. Then Jenelle came back…

            “But what if in fact, it is him shooting a firearm…he is in automatic violation of his orders, is he not?  Do you plan to arrest him on the spot? And what if he is shooting at someone else or someone is shooting at him?” She had a good point, but I didn’t want to give it up that easy, so I acknowledged but continued.

            “Good point…better double check inside first just to make sure.” Before she could respond other than her very audible sigh, I crept back up the stairs and wrapped on the door with my Maglite calling out Bostic’s name. No answer, but we had to make sure that he or no one else was in there. I didn’t want anyone sneaking up on our backside once we started out behind the trailer and headed down towards the river. Not getting any response from my repeated attempts, I reached up and turned the door knob. It wasn’t locked. We both entered and cleared the single wide trailer room by room.  Once we were sure that there were no bodies in the residence dead or alive, we eased out the back door, down some rickety steps into the ‘well-manicured’ back yard of high weeds and undergrowth.  Again we crouched down and listened for anything that would give us a clue as to any movement that might be coming our way…nothing…not a sound, and no more gunfire. I looked at Jenelle and asked, “You ready?”

            “Hell no!”

            “Good, let’s go,” and we began to work our way down the river, keeping low behind the tall weeds, bushes, and trees.  There was actually a worn foot trail but I decided it was best to stay away from the trail and maintain the concealment offered by the trees and undergrowth. In a way, I was really surprised by the steep drop in terrain from where his trailer sat to the river’s bank. As we began to approach, I could barely make out a ripple on the river’s surface as it was only minutes away from sunset.  We moved in cautiously and could finally make out the dock.  I began to squint when I spotted what I assumed was Bostic’s boat, although I don’t recall him ever mentioning that he owned one.  Cautiously, and as quietly as we could, we began inching our way onto the dock, with weapons drawn.  There was an occasional creak and pop of the worn timber beneath our feet.  We continued to moved gingerly along the dock but saw no sign of Bostic or anyone for that matter. Once we reached the boat I could scarcely see but did not want to run the risk of clicking on our flashlights and painting ourselves as a target, still not knowing what the situation was.  The boat, which was nothing more than a tattered old bass boat with a small outboard as best I could tell, sat bobbing slightly up and down in the river, in now nearly pitch black conditions. I couldn’t make out anything inside the boat, so I reached inside a pouch on my utility belt and pulled out my small pin light. Aiming it down inside the boat below the top of the rim and clicked it on. “Oh s**t!”

“What?” Jenelle called out in a loud whisper.

“I can’t believe it…It’s him…its Bostic!”

“What’s wrong?”

“He’s dead!”

“How do you know that?”

“He’s got a hole in his head and his face and shirt is covered in blood.”

“Are you sure he’s dead?”

“Jenelle, what in God’s name are you talking about?”

“I don’t know…I mean shouldn’t we at least check for a pulse?”

“Yes please…be my guest!”

“Never mind I’ll take your word for it.  What now?”

“Oh I don’t know Jenelle, why don’t we start a campfire and roast some marshmallows?”

“Think that’s funny? You picked a hell of a time to start cracking jokes!” I knew that Jenelle was more scared than angry, but so was I, thus the campfire crack. I tend to do that when my cage gets rattled.

“Sorry.  Let’s get the heck out of Dodge and down the road so we can call this thing in.”

“That’s the first sane thing you said since we heard shots fired.” I could have let that crack piss me off but I just let it slide.

 “Okay let’s go.”

“Right behind you.”  I paused for a brief moment to ponder the relevance of that terse remark.  Sure I was the senior officer, nonetheless I let that go too, and we started working our way back off the dock, but that’s when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and froze.  Again Jenelle spoke up in a loud whisper,

“What now?”

“Look,” is all I said as I pointed over to the shoreline along the river about fifteen yards east of the dock and just under some trees, which leaned over towards the river. “It’s another boat.”

“So?”

“So it is possible that there is someone around here besides us…maybe more than one someone!  It could be the person or persons that put that hole in Bostic’s head!”

“Oh shi…I mean, yeah you could be right.” She managed to reply with a slight quiver in her voice. And why I didn’t think to mention that she owed the “Fowl Mouth Jar” a quarter…well I do know why…that was the last thing on our minds! Besides that was a recoil. It was just a little thing on our part to keep our expletives to a minimum.  Let’s just say that she donated the majority of the quarters, however the way things were going on this night, it appeared that all bets might be off as I owed the jar too.

“Ya think?” I didn’t mean to sound arrogant, but I guess by then I was at that point where my apprehension level had peaked. As we remained crouched and motionless, my mind continued racing around our circumstances, trying to decide what to do.  Not even sure if it was a few seconds or a few minutes before I snapped out of my mental malaise, prompted by the mosquitoes that were buzzing around my ears looking for a tall, warm drink of my blood.  I glanced over at Jenelle. She too remained stationary, trying to wave off the buzzing blood suckers as best she could.  How ironic: as miserable as the situation was turning out to be, it was the very least of our worries.  I whispered over to Jenelle.

“Okay let’s try this again. We need to get back to the car ASAP.” Jenelle, no doubt contemplating our ever growing peril, whispered strongly, “Let’s go!”

Very carefully and as stealthily as we could manage, we made our way off the dock and back up the steep bank towards the back of the trailer. We kept low, backtracking the way we had come down and well off the beaten path. As we began to approach a point just about a hundred feet down from Bostic’s prior residence, we began to hear shouting.  We just looked at each other and then continued heading back up in the direction of the voices.  I couldn’t tell if there were two or three different ones.  I motioned to Jenelle and we began to move in closer.  Now just about ten feet from the back of the trailer, we again crouched behind a large pine tree listening intently. There were definitely three voices. The voices were angry but still no discernible words. It was also apparent that they were tearing the trailer apart looking for something. Then we both clearly heard something that just made our stomachs churn. One of them yelled out,

“Go check out that f’ing car!” I looked at Jenelle but said nothing.  We both knew what this could possibly mean. 

Jenelle spoke in a panicked whisper. “The radio…the fu…the freaking radio!” 

What could I say: we were both thinking the same thing!  I just couldn’t take squatting there in silence anymore.  Besides I was about to pee my pants but there was no time for that now.  I grabbed Jenelle by the collar of her armored vest and without a word we went around the far end of the trailer away from where the car was parked.  Once there we were able to peek around the end of the trailer.  We could see three men. Two were rummaging through the car and one standing outside with some type of rifle. Then one of them yelled from the inside the car, “It’s a f’ing pig’s car!”

He crawled back out of the driver’s side of the car holding a rifle in one hand and our radio in the other.  “Well lookie here Roy, they brought their little piggy radio too.” Why he was laughing is beyond me.  The other man inside crawled out of the passenger side with paperwork in his hand and handed it to the man who had remained outside the vehicle and said,

“Here Roy, I can’t make s**t out of this chicken scratch.” By now it was obvious that the man they were calling Roy, was the ringleader of this dynamic Neanderthal trio. 

He took the paperwork and said, “No s**t Sherlock, because you would have to be able to read first!”

After thumbing thru the sheets, he said “Well boys, it appears that this fine Crown Vic and this here paperwork belongs to our dearly departed’s Probation Officer (PO) or better known as the late lying b*****d Bostic. 

The first guy still holding the radio spoke up again, “Roy, if his PO’s car is here, where is his PO?” 

Roy laughed and tossed the handful of papers into the air. “Damn Einstein, there does appear to be a tiny wee spark of intelligence somewhere in that scrambled head of yours!  That “is”, the question that we need to ask ourselves now, isn’t it?”

“But I just did.”

“You just did what?”

“Asked that question.” 

Roy just shook his head and said, “Yes…yes you did brain fart and here is the answer…I don’t know.  I don’t know where his PO is but this is what I do know: from what Bostic told me a couple months back, his PO is a c**t…”

…“Oh God how I hate that “C” word Sis!” I was screaming in a whisper through my clenched teeth. I could feel Jenelle’s hand grab ahold of the back of my vest which prevented my legs from pushing me up to engage in some stupid move that could have cost us both more than either of us wanted to pay.

“Yeah, I am quite sure you’ve told me that, more than once,” Jenelle whispered back as she moved her hand onto my shoulder giving me a couple of understanding pats. “Just don’t blow your cool!”

“It’s not my cool I’m worried about!  I’m just trying to restrain myself from pulling out my Glock and emptying the magazine in to that pig’s carcass!”  Roy continued with his tactfully articulated dirge…

…That’s right, big bad Bostic had some woman for a PO. And to hear him tell it she was a pretty fine piece of a*s but a real b***h!  He said that she never cut him an inch of slack.  Hell, he only had another six months to go before he was home free.  Oh well…guess he ain’t gotta worry about that anymore.” 

The third man spoke up again, “So what we gonna do Roy…we gonna try and find her?”

“No, s**t for brains, we ain’t.  She could be anywhere on these ten acres.   She could have a bead on your head with her sidearm at this very moment. Besides, most likely she ain’t gonna take us on by herself.  I am sure she ain’t dumb enough to come out to these parts alone. So no, Einstein, we ain’t going to try and find her. We are going to get the hell back to the boat and get our collective asses back across the river before they get the drop on us.”

Being privy to what we just heard gave us some small insight as to what was happening but not enough as to why they had most likely killed Bostic.  Of course Jenelle could not pass up the opportunity to rib me a couple of times during their discourse; a highly intellectual verbal exchange, especially when it came to their personally descriptive yet offensive comments, Jenelle and I just stayed put thru their pathetic little parley.  Yet those insensitive nasty comments were the least of our worries. We were far from being out of the woods so to speak. Besides you don’t do this kind of work without hearing the worst of the worst spewed from the mouths of the likes of these low-life inbreeds.

“But Roy what about the money and the drugs and maybe them there guns?”

“Look dumb a*s, we already tore up the trailer and didn’t find s**t.”

“Yeah, but what about that trap door in the floor?”

“You mean the one we couldn’t budge let alone open…what about it?”

“Well you said that Bostic bragged about having all this s**t stashed down below.”  Roy just shook his head and started in again,

“And did we not try to open it using everything we had, including that huge crowbar of yours?”

“Well yeah.”

“And did we get it open…and didn’t I look trying to find any secret buttons or levers?

“Yeah.”

“So do you think, and I say this with the foreknowledge that you obviously don’t have, that we should just hang out for the rest of the night looking for something that we may or may not find at the risk of getting our heads blown off.  What if his PO and whoever else might be with her found Bostic’s body and started back tracking to the road?  We got no idea how long they have been here or what they know. So brain drain, I plan on leaving with my life intact and hopefully, the chance of not getting pinched for snuffing out Bostic. Ya’ll staying or going?” Neither of them bothered to answer. As they started heading off in the direction of the river, Roy finished up with two short, bone-jarring, but poignant orders. Pointing to the first dimwit he said, “Bring Ms. Piggy’s radio with you.”  And to the second he said, “Torch the Crown Vic.”

We could hardly believe what we just heard and there was not a damn thing we could do about it!  Oh sure, I had half considered for a brief moment, of us becoming heroines and lighting up these inbreeds with our nine millimeters, but for some reason that thought evaporated almost as quickly as it came once the worse possible outcome flashed in front of my eyes. So we remained crouched there…partially frozen out of a sense of preservation and the rational thought of living to fight another day.  Maybe if it was just two…maybe.

It didn’t take long for the rag that had been stuffed in the gas tank portal to lure the flame that consumed it to its inevitable target and desired effect. In the ensuing blast, the car’s rear end lurched and almost stood up vertically before it came crashing back down in a fireball. The explosion came close to blowing out our eardrums. It took a good five minutes before the ringing in our ears began to subside.  I turned to Jenelle and said, “Stay put, I’m going to make sure that they are gone before we make a move.” 

I don’t know why I wasn’t surprised when all she did was nod affirmatively other than the fact that I knew she was as stunned as I was by what had just happened.  I was not even sure what our next move should be, but I had to be sure that they were gone…really gone!

I slipped around the back of the trailer and hustled down toward the river again using the same path as before.  By the time I was close enough to observe, they had boarded their boat and were trying to start the outboard, but the engine kept sputtering.  Ironically, I was praying for it to start! Then I realized that I could not make out three bodies, but only two. On the next pull the outboard fired up and I saw the third man toss the bow line back in the boat and jump in.  I stayed put until I could no longer see the boat or hear the fading sound of the outboard…then I hurried back up the bank to where I left Jenelle.

I found her sitting on the ground with her legs and arms crossed as if she was in some kind of trance.  “Hey Nellie, you okay?”

“Yeah Z…just wonderful, and you?”  I knew she was still in a state but she needed to snap out of it so we could put our brains together and come up with a brilliant exit strategy. Of course mine was already set, ‘cause I was not about to leave without some further investigation, but I needed to convince her that my strategy was the right thing to do.  So I thought I would try and shock her out of it by asking her opinion.

“Listen Jenelle…I saw them leave and cross the river.  What should we do now?”  She said nothing for a moment. Then her eyes widened, losing that glazed-over look and turned and looked me straight in the face and said,

“What?” I repeated myself.

“What should we do now?  What should our next move be?” 

Accentuating her response by pointing her finger at herself, “You’re asking me?”

“Well I just figured that you might want to have a say in the matter.”  A big smile came across her face but I knew, and she knew that I knew, that it really wasn’t a smile. This was just a facial tell to what was coming next…and of course she didn’t disappoint.

“Okay,” she said, “but is my opinion going to matter?” Crap, I’ve always hated being corralled into giving a quick answer, so I didn’t.  I just nodded affirmatively and shrugged my shoulders at the same time. Of course then she gave me that look that said Yeah right! Nonetheless, she gave it a shot. “Well, for what it’s worth…here goes…I say we start scooting our sweet asses down this dirt road just as fast as we can. Keep checking our cell phones along the way for a signal. If no signal, we continue till we get to the main road and start hoofing it to the nearest phone and call out the marines!”

 I just listened and then I smiled. Again I knew that she knew that it wasn’t a smile, but just a precursor to my response and what our next move was really going to be.  And of course I didn’t want to disappoint her either.

“Well you know Jenelle, that sounds like a good plan of action, however,”…I noted that her face started to harden and her shoulders stiffened…“Don’t you think it would be prudent if we dug just a bit deeper into what this was all about?  I mean you heard them talking about the money and drugs and even guns that they thought Bostic might of had somewhere around here under wraps. Doesn’t it behoove us to investigate a bit further to see what we could find?  It would be quite a collective feather in our cap if…”

“Collective feather my a*s! I can’t believe after what we just experienced; finding your offender murdered, then witness the alleged murderers blow up our freaking car…well maybe that wasn’t so bad…but you want to hang around and investigate?!!”

“Come on Little Bit, it’s not that I want to necessarily, I just think it’s a great opportunity to not only confirm what the ‘Three Stooges’ were looking for, but to be able to drop the evidence in the Sheriff’s Office lap while confirming their motive for the murder! 

“Damn it Z, I hate it when you get all gun-ho about crap like this, especially dangerous crap like this! But why am I not surprised?” I understood where she was coming from and I knew what she meant but acting like I didn’t know I innocently asked anyhow.

“What do you mean?” Jenelle just looked at me with those puppy dog eyes.  I knew she was about ready to cave.

Then in total surrender came her lackluster response, “Where do you want to start?”

“That’s my girl...we need to go over that trailer inch by inch and especially find that trap-door…but first I gotta pee!”

Back inside the trailer we broke out our Maglites but kept the beam low below the windows. The experience was just as distasteful as the first time. The whole trailer smelled like cigarettes, beer and weed.  And the bathroom...I won’t waste words. Not seeing anything of significance we finally located the ‘mysterious’ trap door in the floor towards the back of a closet in the ‘master’ bedroom. The perps had already removed the carpet panel that had concealed it and we could see scratches and gouges in the metal hatch type door where they tried to pry it open.

After summing up the situation, it was obvious that this could not be opened without knowing how it was designed to be opened. Roy had mentioned buttons or levers, but there had to be something close and most likely in the closet that controlled the hatch-door and access to whatever was below.  Jenelle broke the nervous silence.

“Well Sherlock, what next?”

“Elementary, my dear Watson.” I said in jest hoping for at least a nervous smile…it didn’t work.

“What?” She was in no mood for superficial attempts at humor.

“Nothing…I got nothing, at least not yet.”

“What do you mean you got nothing? What is it you’re looking for and how long do you plan on looking for it?  Don’t you think it’s possible for those overzealous Neanderthals to have a change of heart and decide to come back and give it another shot?  Maybe bring some high powered drill or worse some C4?”

“Damn it Jenelle, I can’t think! Just help me look around, there has to be something that controls this freaking hatch door!”  Jenelle looked stunned and now I felt bad for reacting that way.   “I’m sorry, I want to get out of here just as badly as you do; I just want to go with some answers.  Something tells me that this is bigger than we realize and I don’t think that Bostic had anything to do with what this is all about. This access door is a bit too sophisticated. I believe whatever this is was his uncle’s doing. Again I’m sorry, let’s just look for something, and it could be the simplest of things, or something so obvious that almost no one would give it a second look or thought.” 

Jenelle’s face softened. “You do know that I am quasi freaked out don’t you?”

“Yes Nellie, and I am not far behind you. I just don’t want to leave without some answers…something that gives some reason for those low-life’s to off Bostic. I guess he could have been partially responsible for digging his own grave by spouting off BS that may or may not have had any basis in fact, but if we can take a peek at what is under this trapdoor, at least we will know whether or not it was BS or not. So can we keep trying, at least a bit longer?  If we don’t have any luck then we’ll vamoose.”

I couldn’t detect any tell in her facial expression one way or the other and I certainly didn’t expect any enthusiasm, but finally she gave me a futile attempt at a half smile and nodded.  She said, “I’ll check around the top.” 

I nodded, and aimed my light focusing around the bottom of the closet looking for anything that might trigger the door.  I could hear Jenelle above me as she began to slide some of the hanging clothes around. The sound of the metal hangers scraping against the metal bar made my teeth cringe. Finally she hit on something.

“Hey Z, this is kinda weird, this last hanger against the wall won’t budge at all. It’s like it is welded to the bar or something.”  I stood up and shined my light on the hanger. It was one of those wooden suit hangers but nothing on it. I reached up and tried to slide it…it wouldn’t budge. So we tried rocking it back and forth, and it moved but barely.  Then she grabbed the bottom and began to push and the hanger began to rotate up.  She released it and it stayed in the altered position.

“Keep pushing it up.”  She grabbed the now top corner of the hanger and continued to push until it was completely inverted…nothing.  “Pull it back down Jenelle.” Then, as the hanger returned to its normal position, we heard a popping sound and then a slight hiss, like pressure being released.  We aimed our lights in the direction of the trapdoor and watched as it began to slide back towards the front of a closet.  A dim light from down below beamed up through the opening.  We inched a bit closer and looked in.

Surprisingly, the opening was bigger than I expected. The compartment below was easily over six feet in depth and the sides were approximately five feet by three feet.  There were half dozen steel rungs welded into the back side. Both the rungs and the compartment appeared to be made of stainless steel.  Jenelle aimed her light in the direction of my face to make sure she had my attention.

“Well Wonder Woman, are you satisfied? Nothing here but one big shiny stainless steel, empty box!”

“You forgot to say ‘mysterious’ and would you please get that light out of my face!” Jenelle lowered her light back into the box then continued.

“What the hell do you mean ‘mysterious’…it is a big empty steel box. It reminds me of an oversized vertical coffin!”

“You would go there. You are such a pessimist!”

“And when you look down into this empty steel box…do you see it half full or half empty?  Give me a freaking break!” I held my tongue for a few seconds but without giving an answer. I lowered myself down on to the first rung, and started climbing down.  Once on the bottom, I aimed the flashlight’s beam of light all around trying to see if there was any indication of something that might explain the purpose of the box, but nothing. The only thing I noticed was to the back side of the entrance hatch, there was what looked like some type of compression latch.  That’s when it hit me.

“Jenelle, hop on down here, I want to check something out.”

“You want to what?

“Come on girl, I think there might be some kind of clue or something.  You look high around the top and I’ll take the low road.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know!  How can we know unless we look?”

“And what if somehow and we get stuck down there?”

“Jenelle! Just climb down a few rungs and check out the top! If we get stuck at least we’ll be stuck together!” I tried to inject a trace of laughter in my voice but as expected it didn’t come across too well.

“Oh that sounds like a brilliant move.”

“Come on Little Bit, just do it please.  If we don’t find anything else we’ll just clear out and go with your plan, okay?” Very reluctantly, Jenelle started her descent and began to check out every inch of the surface just above me.  I began studying the surface of all four walls around the bottom looking for clues, using my hands to press against the walls when I noticed that centered, in the wall opposite the rungs a definite seam that ran top to bottom. Then it hit me but I didn’t want to say anything prematurely as it would only serve to freak Jenelle out even more. This is an elevator, I thought. However the thought, even though intriguing, started to freak me out! The thing was, if it was an elevator, how was it activated? I lifted my head to observe Jenelle and discovered that she wasn’t there.  I panicked and called out her name, but no response. I scurried up the rungs and reaching the top, I called out again. “Jenelle!” again no answer.  I climbed completely out.  “Jenelle, where in the hell are you?” About that time I heard the sound of the toilet flush.  I walked out of the closet and into the hallway when I saw her coming out of the bathroom walking back in my direction.

“Sorry, I had to pee, couldn’t hold it any longer.”  By now my adrenaline level was elevated and I guess she quickly figured that out.

“Well hells-bells Jenelle you could at least of had the decency and forethought to let me know!”

“Damn Z, calm down.  I didn’t realize I needed your permission to take a piss!”

“Don’t be a smart a*s; you know what I mean…you should have just told me! I looked up and you’re nowhere in sight!  How would I know that you weren’t snatched up or something?”

“Okay, Zahndra, okay.  I’m sorry, I guess I should have said something…sorry!”

“Besides I don’t believe you would even attempt to sit on that nasty seat.”

“I didn’t…you know… the hover maneuver.”

“Yeah, yeah okay, let’s get back to it.”

“And what is it we’re getting back to?” I was trying to calm myself down before responding.  I took my hands off of my hips and pointed back to the opening in the closet.

“I want to try just one last thing.”

“And what pray-tell would that be?”

“I guess you could call it an experiment.  If there is anything more to that box, I’m thinking that it is not revealed until the hatch is shut.  So once I crawl back down, I want you to raise and lower the hanger again to see if the hatch door will close back.  When it does I can see if there are any physical changes on the inside.”

“You have got to be out of your freaking mind!  What if something goes wrong and you get stuck or the door won’t open again?  You could suffocate in just a few hours if I can’t get it open!”

“Jenelle, why do you always go into the panic mode first? Think logically.  We know how the door operates.  I’ll climb down; you raise and lower the hanger. If that closes the hatch door, count off sixty seconds and do it again and the door should reopen.

“And what if it doesn’t?”

“If it doesn’t Jenelle, then feel free to haul a*s out towards the road and call it in!”

“Why don’t we just get the hell out of here while the gittin’s good?”

“I promise, if nothing changes inside the box once the hatch door is closed, we will do just that.”

“You promise?” 

Raising my three middle fingers and folding my thumb and little finger together, I told her, “Yes Little Bit, scout’s honor!”

“Okay, we’ll give it a shot, but this is it!”  I held up my fingers again and headed back down into the box.  Once on the bottom I yelled up.

“Hit it Little Bit!”  Jenelle rotated the hanger up and back down. I kept looking up at the hatch-door but nothing was happening.  Approximately twenty seconds passed, when Jenelle walked over and looked down and said, “It’s not working...”

…and about that time a popping sound followed by a hiss and the hatch door began to slide shut.  Jenelle looked down at her watch and counted off the minute they agreed upon. She went over and repeated the action with the hanger.  Again the pop and the hiss…and the hatch reopened.  Jenelle went back over and yelled down.  “Well?”

“Well Sis…you ain’t going to believe this!”  Later Jenelle told me that when she heard me say this, her stomach began to churn as the thought ran through her mind.  I don’t want to hear it.  I don’t want to believe it…I don’t want to see it! Why couldn’t she just say, ‘Well Sis nothing happened…let’s get out of here!’ Nonetheless, reluctant, and no doubt feigning interest, she finally responded.

“Okay, Zahndra, what is it that I won’t believe?” 

Zahndra tried to calm herself down, not only so she could get it out clearly but she didn’t want Jenelle to pick up on any apprehension in her voice and she knew what she was about to suggest would totally freak her out.

“Okay, first off, once the hatch door sealed a panel on this front wall slid down revealing a ten touch keypad and what appears to be an up and down button.  This box has to be some type of elevator but I’m sure we would have to know the code before it would work.  Again, I am sure this was all of the uncle’s doing, and I have no way of knowing or ever finding out what, if anything Bostic knew about this.”  I knew Jenelle was steadily just taking all if this in but not processing it in depth.  She just had one thing on her mind…getting the hell out of there!  I yelled up again, “Little Bit, did you hear what I said?”

“Yeah Z, I heard you.”

“I saw some books on the top shelf of the closet I think we should look through them to see if we might find a clue as to what the code should be.”  I climbed up out of the compartment, looked at Jenelle.  I know her heart wasn’t in it but again as calmly as I could, I looked her in the eye and said, “Hey we’ve gotten this far, shouldn’t we at least try this?”  Jenelle said nothing, just shook her head, shrugged her shoulders and extended her arm, pointing to where the books were on the shelf.  I grabbed the four books and started thumbing thru them.  There were a couple of Zane Gray novels, one on military weapons and tactics, and a Bible.  I thought the Bible would be the most promising for concealing a clue to what the code might be. First I noted that in the front of the Bible were some genealogical references with names, dates of births and deaths.  John Chisolm, this must be the uncle, I thought as I noted the dates that bookend the dash, that’s when I realized that his uncle had entered in Bostic’s birth year and Bostic must have entered his uncle’s date of death.

Jenelle just stood there with her arms folded shifting her weight back and forth as she swayed from side to side.  Again I realized how upset she was with the circumstances and with me for not getting out. At some point while I was researching, I hadn’t realized that Jenelle had walked off again and was totally surprised when she came back and handed me a faded old journal.

“You might want to check this out.” She said as she handed it to me.  “I found it in the bedroom between the mattress and box-springs when we were searching earlier. There is a page entitled ‘pass codes’.”  I would have been floored if I wasn’t already sitting on one.  And though she was not exhibiting any enthusiasm, I thought perhaps she was warming up to the idea of discovering something that would make this whole excursion worthwhile.  Not really sure what to say, I just said thanks and started perusing the pages.  There were all kinds of combinations of letters and numbers, by some very small miniature drawings, most of which I couldn’t make out.  There were also dates by each code, some dating back to the mid-eighties. The only way to know for sure would be to go back down and try some on the keypad.  I looked up at Jenelle. Without saying a word to her I knew she knew what my plan was.  She reached down her hand to help me up then gestured toward the open hatch.  I started to say something but as I opened my mouth to speak, she spoke first.  “Zahndra, save your breath, I know you’re not going to stop until you find something.  I have given in to your resolve, so let’s just get on with it and do whatever the hell we gotta do.”  I just nodded and started back down but stopped again.  I looked up at her and said,

“Hey you know once we find the code, we will be able to go down however far this thing goes.  Once you activate the hatch closure there is plenty of time for you to join me before it closes and we can go from there.” 

I cringed at what her response might be but again was shocked and unexpectedly surprised when she gave me thumbs up and said, “I’m right behind you!” 

All I could do is smile and descend. Jenelle again activated the hatch to close and scurried down thru the hatch. By the time her foot hit the bottom rung the hatch had closed and sealed. It was then that Jenelle discovered what I had the first time down as the panel retracted revealing the key pad and directional buttons. The keypad was no different than your average touch-tone house phone or alarm system. The numbers one thru zero had the usual corresponding three letter groups just below each.  I opened the journal to begin trying out different ones.  On a hunch, I eliminated anything before 1995 on a hunch just guessing based on the technology and by the newer appearance of the compartment that it couldn’t be that old.  There were no new entries from 2010 forward.  Just as I started to punch in the first code, Jenelle walked over, pointing her flashlight on the page and pointed to a particular entry and said,

“What does that look like to you?” Her finger was resting just below the tiny drawing to the left of one particular code.”  I stared at for a few moments until…

“Looks like two arrows pointing at each other.”

“That’s what I thought too…one up and one down.”  The light bulb in my head illuminated, but then I thought, no way it could be that easy! I looked back at her and laughed and verbalized my thought.

“Well we won’t know ‘till we try.” The code number was 911RUN. So I began to enter the numbers and then the corresponding letters under the correlated number repeatedly to match the letter. As soon as the last entry was made, the up and down arrows lit up accompanied by a tempered electronic tone.  We looked at each other with surprise and certainly apprehension. We both knew what that next logical action had to be but even I was surprised at myself that I was in no rush. Jenelle spoke up. “How is it possible that the there is any electrical power down here while there is none in the trailer?”

“That is a really good question but I can’t explain it!  No more than I can explain anything that has happened since we arrived here in what appears to be a real life episode of the ‘Twilight Zone’.”  But however you look at it, this box, this compartment, this apparent elevator does have power! Soooo….”

“So push the button!” 

“Yeah I guess that would be the thing to do….” Before I could finish, Jenelle reached over and pushed the down button.  There was a loud creak and popping sound and we began to descend.   It was a slow descent and about twenty seconds passed before it came to an abrupt stop. The inner doors separated from the middle like any normal elevator and there was this steel mesh cage door with two handles at the point of separation.  We both grabbed one.  I lifted up and she pushed down. It separated and we walked out into a nearly pitch black room. What our flashlights revealed was a small concrete room void of anything except a huge solid steel door.  It did have a small round peep hole at eye level for the average size person but it was easy to assume that this was for looking out and not in.  Just to the left of the door and built into the concrete wall was a very small panel box.  Although it appeared to be one of those panel boxes that would house electrical breakers, I was not willing to make any more assumptions going forward.  Besides, the box had an in-line combo lock.

“Well Z, I guess you better break out the journal.” I’m sure she saw my frown that was highlighted by her flashlight beam. Nevertheless, I sat down on the concrete floor with my back against the wall and started down the list of codes. Something in me didn’t want to ask but I did.

“Hey Sis, I don’t guess you saw anything in here that popped out at you.”

“No I didn’t.  But maybe this uncle was on the lazy side and did not scramble the lock the last time he was down. Why don’t we just pull down on the handle and see if it opens?” I jumped to my feet in anticipation, thinking to myself, why didn’t I think of that?

“Try it Nellie!”

“Okay, but what if its booby-trapped and it shock’s the hell out of me because the combo is wrong?”  I shined my light in her face to see if she was joking.

“Jenelle, I think you’ve been watching too many spy movies!  Never mind.”

 I reached and pulled the handle down but no luck.  Then another thought popped into my head still based on what Jenelle had said.  “Hey you still might have something there Sis, maybe he just short-changed the combo by one number on each one.”

“Worth a shot,” Jenelle said with somewhat of a smirk on her face.  Not sure what that meant, I ignored it.  I aimed my light towards the combo.  The numbers on the face of the combo lock were set on 822.  Making a mental note and asking Jenelle to do the same, I began manipulating the dials back and forth but only one digit each.  If the combo had been short changed it could be done by moving only one number in either direction or one in each column. I moved the one in the third column first to 3, tried the handle but it wouldn’t budge; next the middle column to 3, again nothing. Then the first column to 7…nada. I moved them back to the original positions and went the other way. The third column to 1; the second column to 1 and as I stared at the number 8 in the first column, a big smile took over my face as I realized this had to be it!  I moved it to 9. Not a hundred percent positive, but confidence was high, very high!

“Oh Jenelle, check this out.”  I reached up and pulled down the handle...bingo!

“Well, open it girl!” I pulled the panel door open and our flashlights revealed some interesting choices. There were two large mushroom shaped buttons one was red and one green. Just to the right of that was what appeared to be a large electrical circuit breaker, I turned to Jenelle…

“Well…what do you think?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Well you do have a point there.” I knew she could see my widening smile.

“Okay smart-a*s go for it!”  Simple logic would dictate that most everything would start with a green so…I pushed the green button.  Nothing happened.  I flipped the large circuit breaker to the up position.  Low and behold, a single light bulb in the ceiling illuminated.  I pushed the green button again and the sound of heavy mechanical movement, like gears turning and steal sliding, started and continued for almost fifteen seconds then stopped and this huge steel door, about ten feet high and at least a foot thick, began to swing open. We stepped through to the other side to find a small room that mirrored the exterior one. Again with a like panel control box but this one had no keypad, just the same red and green buttons. It wasn’t hard to deduce that they controlled this huge door. As I stood there contemplating whether or not we should close it, Jenelle spoke up with a very strong opinion.

“I hope you are not thinking about closing us up in this elaborate tomb! I would still like to think that we are going to get back up out of here when we’re done!”

“Come on Jenelle, what do you take me for?” I kept my face stern and my voice strong.  “I was just considering closing the door, just in case those idiots did come back.”

“I just don’t feel right about being sealed in here. Besides they can’t even get down here.  The elevator is down here with us and they would never figure out how to open the hatch.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” But I guess I didn’t sound all that convincing and I knew she could see the question on my face. It didn’t take a second for her to respond.

“What Z? What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing really Sis, I was just thinking of what you had said earlier about those thugs possibly coming back with a big drill or explosives.  Oh what the hell…what are the odds anyway?  I guess I was getting a bit paranoid!

“You… paranoid…that is not a good sign.  Besides if we hear anything suspicious like a drill or God forbid an explosion we could still run back in here and hit the button!”

“Yeah, but which button?”

“I would say the red since the green opened it!”  Her face squinted up and then she did a one eighty in her thinking. “Maybe we should close it but as soon as it’s closed, let’s do a test run on re-opening it.”

“Great idea Sis.” I reached up and hit the red button and the huge door began to swing closed followed by the same mechanical sounds as when it opened.  Then I hit the green button and once again it opened successfully. I looked at Jenelle and she seemed satisfied so I hit the red button once more.  With the door secured we turned to the opposite wall to face another door. This was also a steel door but normal size. I pushed the handle down and the door opened to a room that by its décor, looked like it was straight out of the nineteen seventies. 

This was obviously an underground doomsday shelter or what is more popularly known today as a ‘bug-out’ shelter.  However initially, it appeared that this could very well be a complete underground house.  We had entered into a room that was obviously the kitchen.  The light over the stove was on.  I found a light switch on the wall and flipped it on. The overhead fluorescent lighting fixture came to life.  It had everything, a full fridge with freezer; cabinets filled with what you would expect to have: plates, glasses, utensils, pots, pans, bowls, to include a coffee pot and a microwave.  Jenelle opened the fridge and freezer.

“Damn, the most important thing is missing.”  I just looked her way and shrugged my shoulders, with arms held out and palms facing up, which was sufficient to qualify as a ‘what’.  “Food my dear…food!”  We quickly checked all of the cabinets and a small food pantry with the same results.  “This doesn’t make any damn sense.”

“Wow Little Bit, is this your way of saying you’re hungry?”

“And you’re not?” she grumbled pointing at her watch.  I checked mine…

“My Lord I didn’t realize it was that late!” Yes I was hungry but I guess it had been overshadowed by the mix of apprehension and adrenaline. “But there has to be food down here somewhere, after all this is some type of survival shelter!”  I walked over to the sink and turned on the tap.  The water that came out was brownish at first but cleared up within a minute.  I cupped some in my palm and sipped.  It definitely wasn’t city water but I had no idea what the source was; possibly the river or a well.  But neither of us was thirsty enough at the moment to worry about it. “Okay Sis, let’s explore this place and see what we can find.”

“Hey hold up a minute there Z, what’s that bulge I see there in your pants?”

“Well you picked a fine time to get frisky there Nellie.”

“I’m not talking about…smart a*s…in your cargo pants side pocket?”

“Oh yeah I almost forgot.  That’s our little field trip care packet from Wren. But it’s probably all melted by now.”

“Who gives a flipping frack?  Break it out, at this point I’ll drink it if I have too!”

With a big smile on my face, knowing how she would react to what I said, “We could throw it in the freezer for a few minutes first.” 

I watched as Jenelle’s face hardened and her eyes began to burn holes through me. I knew not to mess with her when she was hangry! As she had said on a number of occasions, taking and paraphrasing a line from the “Incredible Hulk’s” famous quote, “You wouldn’t like me when I’m hangry!” And she was very hangry!  I slipped the baggie out of my side cargo pants pocket filled with various tasty chocolate treats and tossed them onto the counter.  She tore into the baggie, then the wrappers and started cramming the melted chocolate candy in her mouth and then licking the inside of the wrappers clean, then the same with her fingers. Of course I was not going to allow her to dine alone and together we put a major dent in the candy filled baggie. We both stepped over to the sink to wash off the sticky.

“God bless that Wren,” she said as she dried her face and hands on a kitchen towel. “By the way Z, what’s up with him anyhow, Wren I mean?”

“Not sure I follow.”

“Oh cut the crap, you know what I mean.”

“What?  He just a sweet guy who gives us candy from time to time.  He is very good at his job and he watches out for our best interest.”

“Personally I think he has a crush on you!”

“So…I have a crush on Vince Gill?  People always have crushes. All I know is from what he has told me that he has been happily married for over forty years. I believe him to be a sweet kind man, always respectful who enjoys bringing a bit of sunshine into the lives of others. As you know he’s a published author and writes some beautiful poetry.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess you’re right, I was just saying.”

“Well that would be a first…not! How about we refocus on checking this place out thoroughly so we can clear out and get back to our safe, mundane day to day jobs as officers of the court!”

“Sorry if I touched on a nerve.  So what is our next move?” 

I was almost awestruck that she would even ask that question as it should be obvious.  Maybe it was her continued uneasiness of being in an underground lair and she needed divergence or maybe she was having a sugar rush.  So I took in a deep breath and responded in a calm even tone. “Like any other structure, clear room to room and see what we can discover.”

“After you, my fearless leader.” Jenelle gestured with her arm inviting me into the next room off the kitchen. 

Once in the room our flashlights were quick to find a light switch.  The room was filled with steel cabinets and we were somewhat surprised that even though they were the kind that could be locked, none of them were.  They were filled with all kinds of useful things that one or more would need if one had to stay underground for any length of time.  One cabinet was filled with boxes of safety pins, butane lighters, writing pens, rubber bands, writing pads, etc.  The next contained boxes of canned ‘Sterno’, box matches, candles, batteries of all sizes and description. The last one was filled with OTC medicines and medical supplies, including bandages of every description, surgical instruments, and even sutures.  Jenelle, just as impressed with the forethought and preparation said, “This dude was ready for almost anything it seems.”

“Yeah, pretty impressive; he must have been planning this for quite some time.”  We moved down a hall found more light switches, and discovered two huge bedrooms. One was set up with collapsing bunk beds attached to the wall that swung up and locked into the wall on one end and support columns on the other. By my count it could accommodate up to fifteen. And of course that raised the question as to why he had planned for that many souls. The other bed room was more like a normal bedroom with a king size bed and matching bedroom furniture, not to mention a good size walk-in closet. Both rooms had just the one adjoining bathroom in the middle accessible from either side.  Jenelle spoke up first voicing the same thing I was thinking.

“This place is such a contrast to that nasty trailer.  Everything is so clean.”

“Yeah, hard to believe it has been kept up by the same occupants. But like I said we’ll probably never know whether Bostic was ever down here or even knew about this place.”

“I know but you’d think that his uncle, knowing that he was dying would have told him something about it.  Besides why would the idiot be bragging to those numbskulls about having money, drugs and guns? Maybe we will find some proof of that. Let’s keep looking!” Now there was a bit of an ironic twist I thought, Look who is getting all gun-ho about searching this place now! I just smiled, extended my arm towards the hall to mirror Jenelle’s earlier gesture and said…

“After you…”  She of course got it, reacted with a big smile and shook her finger at me and headed out down the hall.  There was one more room off to the left of the hall that obviously served as a living room.  There was a sofa, a recliner, a rocking chair and yes, believe it or not a widescreen TV.  There was an old steamer trunk that appeared to also serve as a coffee table in front of the sofa.  A peek inside revealed probably a thousand or more DVD’s of different movies, some of the older TV shows and yes there was a small section of ‘x’-rated movies as well.  Jenelle couldn’t help but comment holding one up.

“Well I guess if you did have to hunker down here for a long period of time…what’s a fellow to do?” I’m sure just the roll of my eyes was sufficient response to her comment as we closed the trunk back and turned our attention to other matters.

On the far wall, oddly enough was a set of maroon drapes hanging from a decorative rod.  We both looked at each other with the same question on our mind.  It couldn’t be a window. How could you have a window in an underground bunker?  I walked over and pulled back the drapes. What we saw could have been a window but turned out to be another wide screen TV and at least sixty inches diagonally. We found a couple of remotes on an end table by the recliner. Jenelle aimed hers at the first TV and I aimed the other at the one on the wall.  The first TV came to life but we could get nothing but snow no matter what we did.  When the one on the wall fired up it was mind blowing. It was a video loop of a beautiful outside scenery accompanied by classical music over an awesome surround sound system. I had a momentary flash back to scene in a movie I saw back in the ‘70’s called Soylent Green. With every click of the of the channel selector on the remote the scenery would change. There were multiple scenes from all four seasons and an endless selection of not only classical music, but all genres. It was truly impressive. Still not knowing why we could not receive any regular TV signals on the first TV, we shut them down, closed the drapes back on the wall. The last surprise in the room was an old fashion roll-top desk.  I say surprise because when we opened it there was a computer.  Of course we got very excited hoping we could get online and notify someone of our status but the hope was short lived as there was no internet connection.

Jenelle, clearly frustrated said, “Why would you have a TV and a PC with no connection to the outside world?”

“The only thing I can think of is if you are trying to stay in a covert underground shelter and you wanted to remain undetected and not have your digital footprint by picked up by the outside world, you would have to remain unconnected; or at least until you could figure out a way to connect without being detected.  Maybe he was working on something or maybe it is already here but we certainly don’t have the luxury of time to figure it out.” 

Jenelle concurred so we moved back out to the hall and continued.

Once we reached the end, we were confronted by yet another steel door except it was locked.  Understandably, it was provoking.   It was easy to see that it was one of those old locks that took one of those old timey skeleton keys.  The kind you can actually peak through to the other side, so of course we did but could see nothing but darkness.

“Crap…just as we were about to get somewhere.”  I had to laugh.  It was like Jenelle had taken on a whole new persona.

“Chill Little Bit!  We’ve made some impressive headway when it comes to doors, secret compartments and hatches.  Picking this old lock should be a cinch.” Jenelle answered,

“This is true, each door has been relatively easy because we were thinking along the lines that Bostic’s uncle was thinking. So if he short-changed the combo lock to get in here why wouldn’t he just place the key to this door on top of the door frame?” 

“Wow Sis, I got to admit I like your way of thinking.” Although I’m a good bit taller than Jenelle, this was going to be a team effort.  So I dropped to one knee and had her stand on my thigh long enough to sweep her hand along the top of the door frame.  Just glad that I wasn’t looking up or the key would have probably hit me in the eye.  As it turned out, it first bounced off my forehead, then off her knee and into my polo shirt.

“Damn it that hurt!” Jenelle jumped down apologizing, thinking that she had hurt my thigh by standing on it. “No, it wasn’t you, it was the key!  It hit my forehead!”

“Oh crap you’re bleeding!”

“What?”

“Not bad just a little drizzle.” Jenelle reached inside her side pants pocket and pulled out a small pack of tissues. She pulled one out and dabbed up the blood.  She pulled out another and said, “Just hold this one on your boo-boo a few seconds, it should stop it.

“Boo-boo…seriously boo-boo?”

“Well it’s not that bad Z!”

“Okay whatever.”

“So where is the key?”  I couldn’t resist messing with her a bit.

“It’s in a safe place.”  She looked at me like I had sustained brain damage.

“Well that’s all fine and dandy but shouldn’t we put it in a more practical place like the keyhole for instance?”

“Yeah, yeah, just give me a minute to recover here, okay?”

“Recover, it ain’t like you took a bullet you know!”

“I’m just saying it hurt Jenelle! Where is your sense of compassion?”

“What do you mean? I wiped off the blood and gave you another for compression.”

“Oh that’s right nurse Ratchet!”  I reached inside my shirt and pulled out the key and handed it to her.  She reached up and patted me on the shoulder saying,

“Poor baby, you want me to kiss it and make it better?”

“Open the freaking door Jenelle!”  She laughed and inserted the key and turned the latch. The last thing we expected to see in this, thus far incredible underground home is what we were now looking at…a steel framed staircase leading down to another level. We found a light switch. I could tell that Jenelle was reverting back a bit as she gestured for me to take the lead. I also noticed that on the back side of the door was three, large flat steel sliding door bolts and on the frame of the concrete were three receiving slots for each bolt. Not really knowing why, I reached up and slid over the top bolt, then the middle and lastly the bottom bolt. Jenelle who was standing three or four steps down from the door just looked up and asked, “Why?” 

I really had no good answer so I just said, “Why not?” 

She just shrugged her shoulders, turned and continued down the stairs.

Once at the bottom of the stairs there was a series of four separate dimly lit halls, all heading in four different directions. The oddest thing though was that each of the halls appeared to curve off to the right.  As we walked down the first the curve was continuous all the way to the end.  Nothing in any of the halls except a single low watt light bulb about every twenty feet or so and a series of conduit pipes attached to the ceiling.  When we reached the end of the first hall there was a quaint looking out-cove with a bronze statue of a warrior like angel that sat on a pedestal.  The angel was holding an uplifted sword in one hand and a buckler in the other.  The pedestal itself sat on a raised piece of flat square concrete with what appeared to be two impressions of someone’s knees that was probably made when the concrete was still wet.  We discussed what it all could mean for a few minutes and considered that this statue had to hold some type of a clue to something else.  Then Jenelle said, “Here let me try something.”

She lowered herself so that her knees lined up in the impressions and then studied the statue and pedestal from that perspective. From there she noticed a recessed hole in the butt of the angel’s sword.  She inserted her index finger in the recessed opening and felt something.  She looked up at me and her eyes were as big as saucers. “It’s a button Z…it’s a blooming button!”

“Well, push it woman, push it!” When she pushed it there was a slight clicking sound similar to that of clicking a ball point pen. The bronze hand of the angel released the sword and it dropped into her hand.

“So now what?” She said still kneeling and holding this miniature sword in the palm of her hand.  Seeing her there like that with expression on her face I was doing my best trying to keep a straight face but I lost it as soon as I started to speak and busted out laughing.  I knew she’d be pissed with me but I just couldn’t help it. I had to turn and face the other way and by the time I regained my composure I turned around to face her she was standing there with her hands on her hips, waiting for me to speak…

I tried…“Hey Sis”…I was barely able to catch my breath...“I am so sorry”….well that’s as far as I got and I lost it again. However it must have been most infectious because she started laughing and then yelling at me and before it was all said and done we were both on the floor holding our sides and praying that we wouldn’t piss our pants!  Finally I was able to speak again. “Wow I guess we needed that.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but other that finding some great comical relief in this real life Twilight Zone, we are still left with this toy sword in a dead end hall way.”

“No Little Bit, I can’t buy that…not yet. Everything thus far has worked out for us…combos, locks, this is nothing more than some sort of mechanical puzzle so let’s figure it out.” So I kneeled down to take a closer look at the bronze statue. That’s when I noticed just behind the buckler was a sheath with an appropriate opening.  “Hand me the sword Sis.”

I took the sword and inserted it into its sheath. The statue, pedestal and wall on the back side of the out cove began to rotate and stopped after a ninety degree turn, revealing an opening into a hidden room behind it. We entered the room it was filled with upright steel cabinets and some sort of work bench. We found the light switch and once we opened a couple of the cabinets, it was evident that we had discovered a cache of firearms in various sizes and descriptions. There was a half dozen M-16’s. Not AR-15’s mind you…16’s! Also, there were shotguns, semi-automatic pistols, revolvers, and no shortage of ammo for each. The last cabinet was a bit of a shocker. It contained hand grenades, smoke canisters, several claymore mines and what was, from all appearances, a couple boxes of plastic explosives.  A smaller cabinet next to the workbench contained specialized tools for arms repairs and boxes of parts, primer fuses, electronic blasting caps etc…and atop the work bench sat reloading press for all sizes of ammo including boxes of brass for each caliber and of course, gunpowder.

“Wow, this dude was ready for his own private war!”

“I doubt that he was looking for a confrontation but he sure as hell wasn’t going out without a fight!  I can’t tell you how much I’ve always wanted to let go with one of these bad boys.”  I reached in and picked up one of the 16’s.

“I thought you had back in your days as a correctional officer.”

“No just the 15’s but little to no difference except for the selector switch that enables the shooter to fire fully automatic. I don’t know why, it’s just that I have always wanted to open one up and let it rip.”

“Yeah, I could see myself letting it rip on a couple of a-holes that will remain nameless.”  I started to laugh.

“Yeah Right…and I’m sure I have no clue as to who you are talking about.  Oh well we need to get going and check out the rest of this place.  Who knows what else we we’ll find.”

It was the same at the end of each of the four right-curving hallways. There was an out-cove but each of the statues were differently themed consistent with what lay behind their hidden doors and each had a different mechanical puzzles that allowed access to the secret rooms. As the first statue was representative of an angel girded for war, the second statue bore a ‘Horn of Plenty’ and opened when a bronze apple was released from the hand of the statue and placed in the horn. The hidden room behind that statue was filled with a couple hundred sealed buckets of long-term storage survival food and at least a hundred cases of MRE’s.  There was also a commercial size walk-in freezer stocked with even more buckets of survival food & MRE’s, possibly kept in there to increase their shelf-life.  There was also a moderate amount of various cuts of meat, frozen vegetables and boxes of unknown content, which we didn’t have time to explore.

The third statue resembled a merchant. In one hand was a large coin that again was released by a hidden toggle. When the coin was placed into a slot on top of what looked like a small treasure chest, like the first two, the secret passageway rotated ninety degrees to reveal the hidden room behind it.  Now I have to say that this one really blew our minds. There was a huge safe that that did take us a good bit of time to figure out the combo. There was a Bible quote on the front “The love of money is the root of all evil.” We were both familiar with the verse but could not remember the book chapter and verse number and I was sure that it was a part of the combination. Impulsively I took out my smartphone to look it up but instead found myself just looking at Jenelle who was, of course, looking at me with this big smile on her face.  She didn’t bother to comment on my momentary mental lapse and of course she didn’t need to as the smile was telling enough.  What she did say was…“We need a bible.”

“Duh!  And I guess you want me to go up and get one.”

“Well…the thought had crossed my mind.  However I guess to be fair we could flip for it!”

“Well I was kinda thinking we could do Rock, Paper, Scissors!”

“Hell no!  You know you always win at that!”

“Well I don’t have a coin…do you?” As she began to dig around in her pockets, I was pretty sure that any change she might have had would have been in her purse which of course got blown up along with everything else in the Crown Vic.  So as I stood there with my arms crossed patiently waiting on the inevitable, she finally said…

“Oh screw it, I’ll go up and get it!  Don’t go anywhere I’ll be right back!” Not sure why she seemed slightly pissed after all I did give her an option!

When she returned I asked her if she had re-secured the door with the sliding bolts and she affirmed that she had.  We began pouring through it and thanks to a special section on ‘Most quoted Bible verses’ we discovered it was, 1 Timothy 6:10. From there we tried several different combinations until it clicked (R to 1; L to 7, R to 6 & L to 10).  When we opened the door we were both speechless and finally Jenelle broke the ice. “Well ain’t this a kick in the grass!”  I just looked at her with (huh?) written across my face.  “Oh it’s not important, it’s just that here I was standing here a few minutes ago rummaging through my pants for a coin and now look what we have here!”  Trying not to laugh, I finally managed…

“Yep…pretty ironic.”  We returned our focus to what sat in front of us in this safe.  There were stacks and stacks of both silver and gold coins which I could not even fathom what it was worth along with healthy stacks of $100’s, $50’s and $20 dollar bills. A quick estimate there had us figuring there was well over a hundred grand in just the bills alone. I’m sure that our eyes were as big as saucers. 

Jenelle turned to me and said, “Hey Z, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Of course part of me is thinking what you’re thinking. However…”

…“Oh crap there you go with one of your however’s.” Ignoring her interruption, I continued.

“As I was saying, the other part of me is thinking what part of this stash, if any, is ill-gotten gains and some of the bills or these precious metal coins have their serial numbers recorded on some printout in a file sitting on some FBI agent’s desk who is still actively involved in an open investigation trying to locate this tempting stash before us.

“Damn it Z, how can you so easily just burst my bubble like that?

“Hey Sis, in a round-about way, you asked what I was thinking…just trying to cover all the bases!  Besides if that is the case maybe…just maybe there is some kind of finder’s fee. If the money is stolen it was most likely insured so possibly the insurance company would be willing to show their gratitude.  Of course that would have to be off the books because you know we are not allowed to receive…”

 “Okay I know, I know, enough already, that is way too much for me to wrap my mind around just now. I need a break and a snack.

It was almost two AM now and we were both pretty well worn out, so we copped a squat on the floor of the vault room and broke out a can of mixed nuts we found in the secret food storage room. As we needed additional food in our now growling bellies.  “Well Sis…let’s finish this thing.  We’ll check out the last hallway and see if we can discover what is behind door number four.”

“And then what?”

“And then we backtrack, resurface and get the heck out of Dodge!”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

When we reached the end of the last hall, there were two apparent differences. The first of which it was much longer than the first three, and secondly, after twenty feet or so, the hall began to descend steadily down until we reached the end.  There we discovered a brass statue that appeared to resemble the Greek god referred to as the King of the Sea, Poseidon, holding his trident in his right hand. It didn’t take long to figure out the mechanical puzzle that opened the door to this last and very unusual secret room. However, once through the door it took us some time to figure out what we were looking at before coming to the realization that the planning of this underground bunker was not only thorough but genius on so many levels. There were no light switches that we could find immediately, yet there was a faint light that came into this vast underground room. We walked thru this glass or Plexiglas door and found ourselves standing in a huge underground green-house. That’s right, you heard me, an indoor underground garden, and half the size of a football field.

There were rows of every kind of vegetable you could imagine planted in rich dark soil.  There were what appeared to be miniature windmills every third row blowing a good steady breeze across the crops. But most astonishing was the ceiling, if you could even call it a ceiling. It was a huge complex of glass, maybe Plexiglas too supported by steel-framed girders. The entire structure slanted downward from the height of forty feet on the back side to maybe 20 feet on the far side and each panel was luminescent giving off an eerie green light.  As we continued to walk along each row of this unbelievable garden, right smack in the middle there was an entire row of very healthy marijuana plants, no doubt for ‘medical purposes only’.  As we reached the far side there was a small shed that overlooked the garden and contained some gardening tools and some type of control panel with several knobs and slide-switches that were labeled.  One for the miniature windmills; one read sprinkler system and the last one read sky panels. Under the bank of slide-switches was a label that read ‘garden lights’ I grabbed the first one and inched it up noting that a row of spotlights in the canted ceiling began lighting up with greater intensity as the slide-switch was pushed higher towards the top. Each one did the same until the interior of the massive greenhouse lit up like a stadium!  That is also when we noticed that just outside the greenhouse, and just behind us was a staircase.  The lights were almost blinding, and for whatever reason in that moment, it seem to upset Janelle and she broke the silent state of awe that we had been in since we first entered this amazing secret room.

“Zahndra, turn those damn lights off!”

“What’s got in your craw there Sis?”

“Hell I don’t know, just thought it might set off some kind of alarm or something. And those stairs back there, what’s beyond that door at the top, I almost feel like someone is watching us.”

“And who would be responding to this alarm in this secret underground bunker.” I asked as I lowered the light slide-switches back to their original position. “And who could be watching us, the ghosts of Bostic and his uncle?”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe the secret underground bunker police and the ghost of Christmas past!”

“Okay Sis, they’re all off so you can relax now.”

“Oh sure…relax…I don’t think so!  Not until I am home curled up in my nice cozy bed.  Why don’t we go check out that staircase that appeared out of the darkness while were watching the ‘Garden Bowl’!

“Whatever you think Sis, lead the way.” As I pointed towards the door, she did just that, led the way right up until we went through that door which she kindly held for me with her right hand and pointed in the direction of the stairs with her left.  I just smiled and shook my head, then she just smiled as I led the way over to the stairs.

We broke out the flashlights as we headed up.  The staircase took us up the equivalent of two stories. When we reached the top there was another door naturally and this one was very large, constructed of thick steel and with brass handle and a thumb latch.  I wrapped the four fingers of my right hand on the inside of the handle and depressed the latch with my thumb and to our surprise the door was not even locked. We found a light switch just inside and trust me what we saw next, neither of us expected. After stepping down three concrete steps onto what looked like a pool deck, there in the middle of this very large pool was a cabin cruiser approximately thirty feet in length.  The room that housed this boat looked more like a cave. Toward the back of the pool deck were some storage cabinets and a good-sized work bench and several fifty-five gallon barrels that most likely, at least my best guess would be that they contained fuel. The far end of the pool in front of the boat was open-ended and the water continued right up to the cave wall.  And just to clarify the water was brownish and it became apparent that this pool was nothing more than a boat slip. That’s right a boat slip inside an underground marina cave. All very fascinating yet the obvious question which was still unapparent and unanswered was how to open up the front of the cave and what lay on the other side. Jenelle and I looked at each other and mutually shrugged our shoulders.  Knowing what was on each other’s mind, she once again motioned with her arm extended and we boarded the boat.

Down below we observed that it would easily sleep four.  It had a small galley and a head with a shower. The bridge had what one would expect to find with the exception of a two-way radio.  I guess Bostic’s uncle was expecting to operate in a time when there would be no profit in communicating with anyone if you were expecting to survive! There was no doubt in my mind that he had some sort of radio system for at least keeping up with what was going on in the outside world but we certainly didn’t run across it in our wonderful tour of this cozy underground get-away.  We found what we believed to be the ignition key hanging in a small cabinet, and confirmed that it was by placing it in the ignition slot.  I thought about starting the engine but somehow didn’t feel the need for that at the moment.  Besides after witnessing all of his preparation the man had accomplished thus far, I just knew it would fire right up.  I did see the control for bringing up the anchor and the throttle looked simple enough.  There was a covered keypad on the port wall of the bridge.  We punched in several combos but nothing seemed to affect the front opening of the cave-like wall.  Later we would find out why…

“Not sure about you,” Jenelle spoke up with a bit of volume and urgency in her voice… “But I need to get some real food in this growling belly of mine before my body begins to rebel on me.”

“Got no argument with that Sis…where would you like to dine?”

“Oh I don’t know, I thought we would go check out that ‘Horne-O-Plenty’ restaurant we passed on the way to the ‘Garden Bowl’ and ‘Underground Marina’!”

“Wow Little Bit it appears the Hangry has returned with vengeance!”  We trudged back up the long curving hallway and headed for the food storage room. Once inside the food storage room we decided to go for the MRE’s.  We pulled out a couple of burrito meals and opened them.  Immediately Jenelle began to complain looking at all the small packages.

“What the crap is all this? Where is the meal?” She had never encountered one and though it had been a while for me as well I could see that things had changed.

“Try reading the packages there Sis and it should tell you.”  She picked up each one and examined it.

“Oh yeah…check it out…peaches, pound cake and yes here it is…black bean burrito!”  I grabbed a couple of bottles of water out of one of the cabinets.

“Here, open the FRH and pour in water up to the bottom line.”

“Open what and do what?”  I held up and the bag and explained.

“This my dear Jenelle, is what the military has so applicably named the ‘Flameless Ration Heater’ (FRH).  You just add water up to the line indicated and it begins a chemical reaction creating sufficient heat to warm the food inside the pouch in about ten minutes and you have a hot meal.”

“Well aren’t you the survival expert there missy!”

“Not really Sis, I just read the package and yes I did hear about these FRH’s on one of those survival shows.  After you slide the pouch containing the burrito in the FRH bag, lean it over on the box and let it do its thing.”

“Don’t know if I can wait another ten minutes…I’m starving!”

“Who said you have to wait…tear into the pound cake, the peaches or both.” Needless to say there was no need to twist her arm.  She was so pleasantly surprised to find that the pound cake and the peaches were very tasty and was even more thrilled to find a packet of picante sauce to flavor up her burrito. 

Once we had finished and bagged up our trash, Jenelle headed out into the hall. I reactivated the secret door closing it back as we had on all of them.  And again like the big steel door at the top of the steps, had no particular rhyme or reason. I guess as there was just this need to leave everything as we found it.  I looked over at Jenelle who was leaning up against the hallway wall. She was working a toothpick up and down with her teeth and a blank stare on her face.  I started to ask what was on her mind but I knew and finally I was going to give her the answer she wanted to hear. “Well I would ask you what is on your mind Little Bit, but since I am an excellent mind reader let me just say, let’s blow this pop stand!” 

She pulled the toothpick from her mouth, flicked it to the floor and said, “I’ll lead the way!”

We began backtracking thru the circular hall towards the starting point at the bottom of the steps leading up to the upper part of the bunker and began to climb the steps…

…the explosion was so powerful that it shook the whole complex and almost made us fall off the steps…

“What in the hell was that?” Jenelle exclaimed in a shaky high shrill voice. It took us a few seconds to come to the realization of what had just happened and we both knew exactly what it was.  “You think there is any chance that they blew themselves up trying to blow that hatch?”

“One can only hope!  But it appears that we are not going to be able to leave the way we came so we need to focus on another way out.

“Besides even if they are able to climb down into that open-top elevator they will never figure out a way to open that huge steel door.”

“Yeah you’re right but…oh crap!”

“What?”

“Yes they can…we left the combo on the outside set at the right numbers so if between the three of their pea brains they can figure out just to push the green button…

“Oh crap is right!  What now?”

“Hold on, give me a minute to think. Even though the door at the top of the steps is barred on the back side I guess they could blow that one to.  Our only way out of here is in that boat if we can figure out how to activate the opening in that cave!” I looked down at my watch, there was only a few minutes before sunrise.

“Well, what are you waiting for, let’s get back to that underground marina and start pushing some buttons or something!”

“Yeah…” Again I was staring down at my watch trying to think…

“Damn it Z what are you waiting for?”

“Just trying to think for a second Sis, chill please!”

“Chill my a*s!  What is there to think about?”

“Follow me and I’ll explain.”

We began to run down the hall towards the room where the weapons were stored.  “We need to grab a couple of those M16’s and some ammo filled magazines.  Don’t forget they had shotguns and rifles.”  Once we had reopened the secret arms room we grabbed two M-16’s, stuffed the side pockets on our cargo pants with full magazines and grabbed a couple of frag grenades for good measure.  I showed Jenelle how to lock and load. We closed the secret passage door back and began running back up the circular hall to the junction, then down the longer hall that led to the underground marina.  We hadn’t gone twenty feet past the junction at the bottom of the steps when the second door blew open. This was a much smaller explosion but it still scared us senseless and stopped us dead in our tracks for a few seconds.  We started out running again but I quickly stopped, realizing that the pounding of our sneakers was making just enough noise to draw attention to our direction.  I looked over at Jenelle and whispered. “Just walk as fast and as quiet as possible!” 

She nodded and we took off speed walking as fast as we could pick ‘em up and put ‘em down. We could hear the three guys talking loud trying to decide what direction to take when we heard the head Neanderthal, Roy yell out for each of them to check a hall.  We were praying that they had not chosen the one we were on.  We kept moving and listening and we finally heard footsteps.

We reached the secret passageway to the garden marina and opened it quickly, but there was just one small problem. In each of these secret rooms that we had entered we had not bothered to close the passageway behind us because we didn’t see a need to, and never looked for a way to close it back from the inside. So once inside we turned on our flashlights and began looking for something, anything to activate the closing of the door. We tried physically pushing it but it wouldn’t budge and we were running out of time…

…A shot rang out from the rifle of one of the men and the bullet ricocheted off the concrete passageway door just past my head.  Survival instinct and training kicked in and all in one orchestrated move I dropped to the ground, pulled back the charging handle of the weapon, moved the selector switch from safe to fully auto and squeezed the trigger.  After a couple of three-round bursts I heard the man yell

“I’m hit” as he retreated around the curve of the hall. The next thing I knew the secret passageway door began to swing shut. At the same instance I heard Jenelle say, “I found it!” 

Although we managed to close it we knew there would be little precious time before they would attempt to blow it open. Of course we might get lucky if they decide to waste some of that time trying to figure out how to open it the way it was designed!  Nonetheless we had to move! As we turned and headed towards the staircase leading up to the underground marina we were stopped in our tracts by what we saw when we looked over at the roof of the underground garden.  The sky panels which I guess had to be on a timer, began to open up and we were looking up from under the river as the morning sunlight began to filter down through the water, bathing the garden with light.  Trying to process the fact that most of this whole hidden room was under the river was mind-blowing but still we could not linger.  As we reached the steps Jenelle said to me, “You do realize if those brainless wonders decide to blow open the passageway that might cause the ceiling, roof, whatever you call it, to crack open and if it does this whole place will flood!”

“You got that right Sis! Now let’s get up to that boat!” Once at the top, we went thru the steel door, turned on the light and unlike the first time we were up here, this time we used all three of the slide bar locks on the back side of the door. By the time we hit the so-called pool deck we heard the third explosion and from the sound of it, I was pretty sure that it was just big enough to get them through the passageway.  We ran and boarded the cabin cruiser, got to the bridge and fired up the inboard engine. The only thing left to do was to figure out how to open up the front end of the cave. Then Jenelle and I began rummaging thru drawers and cabinets not even sure what we were looking for but pure adrenalin and desperation kept us looking.

“Hey Z what does this look like to you?”

“Very much like a garage door remote opener!”

“Could it be that simple?”

“Don’t ask just push it!”  When she did the front of the cave began to swing open and not a second too soon as another blast to our rear announced that we were about to have some very unwanted company. We were already moving towards the opening when a rifle shot rang out.  Jenelle attempted to open up with her AR but it jammed. “Toss one of those grenades Sis!” I yelled as I started moving the boat towards the opening.

“I don’t know how!”

“What do you mean you don’t know how?  Pull out the pin and throw it like a damn baseball!”  And that’s exactly what she did.  And as the grenade was flying thru the air, the boat was still taking rounds from our pursuers. We had just cleared the front of the opening of the cave when I did a full press on the throttle. The thrust of the acceleration almost made us fall. A second later we heard this tremendous blast that once again deafened our ears momentarily and that’s when we realized that the grenade had most likely impacted those fifty-five gallon barrels of fuel stored on the pool deck. I backed off on the throttle and we sat there in the middle of the river for a few seconds looking back at the fire-ball and the black smoke billowing up into the sky. Just as suddenly, there were several more explosions but we decided we had seen enough and wanted to get away from there as fast as possible. Then without any notice, and even though we were maneuvering west on the river, the normal direction of flow, the boat, floating debris, and the river itself began to flow backwards.  That’s when I realized that the structured ceiling of the underground garden had collapsed and that everything, the water from the river and everything in it was going to be sucked down into that void until was filled.

Jenelle yelled out the obvious, “Z what the hell is going on, we are floating backwards!”

Of course I panicked momentarily but there was only one thing to do. “Just hold on Sis, we’ll be okay!”  I hope…

I turned back around, grabbed the steering wheel and pushed the throttle once again full forward.  At first, it didn’t seem that it was having any effect at all.  It was almost like we were standing still in the same place even though the engine was at full throttle, but eventually the boat began to inch ahead, as the backflow of the river seemed to subside, and in less than a minute we were away from the site and rounding the next bend in the river. 

I wasn’t exactly sure where we were heading but the floating compass mounted on the bridge control panel indicated that southwest was the basic direction.  Neither of us were sure whether or not any of our pursuers had been killed in the blast but we also figured that the odds, in this case, were not ever in their favor! And yes the death of anyone can mostly be viewed as sad and tragic but in cases like this, it was just wages!”

  The most important thing was getting away and going home.  Jenelle came over and stood by me on the bridge. Not a word was said as the boat raced down the river, we could feel the wind and the occasional spray from the river on our faces. 

At some point I turned my head and looking down on Jenelle’s face. I could see that she had been crying.

“Awe Nellie, are you okay?” She put her arm around my waist and just said…“Thank you Jesus!” I put my arm around her shoulder and all I could say was “Amen Sister…Amen!”

A few nautical miles down the river we were able to pick up some bars on the cell phones and called it in.  We had them run a check on our location through GPS. Once they located our position and gave us direction to the nearest dock that was safe for us to tie up to, we headed that way with the throttle wide open.  When we arrived we were met by some Sheriff Office deputies along with our boss Ken. He only knew the tip of the iceberg so to speak about our night’s excursion and was mainly concerned that we were okay, especially physically, so they transported us to Northside Hospital to get checked out and then he brought us back here to the office.

Epilogue

It was now a Saturday afternoon, around the middle of August 2013…

Both Zahndra and Jenelle sat in my office. Yes they were exhausted but they knew the value of getting everything down while the events of the last eighteen hours were still fresh in their heads. I turned the recorder on; sat back and listened to them recount the events of that night and at times, what I was hearing sounded so surreal! 

Zahndra did most of the talking and when we had concluded, she asked me, “So what do you think Wren? Do you think our little ‘girls night out’ would make for an interesting story?”

I looked at her and over at Jenelle and back at her again and said, “I don’t know Zahndra, I’ll have to take some time and re-listen to the interview tape. If nothing else, I know it’s going to be some fabulous notes for that long miserable incident report that you guys are going to have to submit!” 

That’s all it took to light Jenelle’s fuse. “Oh bull shhhhh…excrement!”

Jenelle jumped up and started pacing the room.  She went on and on about having to spend all that time submitting an incident report. “How in the name of Hades are we supposed to do our jobs?  There’s not even enough time to do what we have to do but we have to blow a half a day writing some stupid incident report? We should just make a copy of that tape and turn that in…let them type their own damn report. Besides…”

Zahndra, in a very calm yet authoritative voice said to her, “Jenelle, why are you wasting all of your energy ranting about something that we are going to have to do and there is no way around it…why Sis? And by the way, nice recovery on that ‘bull doo-doo’ thingy.”

Jenelle just folded her arms across her chest and just glared back at her for a few seconds.  Zahndra was doing her best to subdue the smile trying to spread across her face.  Then Jenelle, still grimacing, and in a not so subtle act of surrender, plopped back down in her chair.  She had vented for what it was worth and that was the end of it. They would have to write that miserable report.  Zahndra once again turned to me, “As I was asking Wren, just prior to Little Bit’s rant…a good story?”

“I don’t know Z…initially it sounds to me, like your run of the mill night on duty.”

Now I was the one trying to hide, unsuccessfully I might add, the upwelling smile on my face, and of course Zahndra, matched it and, gave me a big high-five!  I gave both her and Jenelle a big hug and said, “I’m so thankful to God you both made it out safe! Wow ladies, what an incredible story! Although I do kind of wonder what will become of the cache of military grade armaments, firearms and munitions, not to mention all of that money in the safe.”

Jenelle once again jumped up. “Well you know what I think should have happened, to at least a portion of that money, except Ms. Goody two-shoes over here had to go and over-think the whole situation! Whatever…spilt milk!” 

Zahndra just looked at Jenelle with one of those mysterious Mona Lisa smiles…you know the one; you see it but have absolutely no idea what’s behind it. And then she simply says, “I love you too Little Bit.” 

Then she turned to me and said, “Honestly Wren, I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure the only way that anyone is going to recover anything out of that underground, now underwater bunker is to send in salvage divers because I’m sure that whole bottom network of hallways and secret rooms has to be down under by now!”

“Yep you’re probably right.” Jokingly I turned to Jenelle and asked, “Hey Jenelle, any chance you’re a certified scuba diver?”

She just looked at me with this smirk on her face and said, “No unfortunately!”

Of course we all got a good laugh out of it.

“Okay ladies, it’s been more that real! Let me get cracking on this.  It should make for a very entertaining tale!  I trust you both will have a great weekend and I’ll see you on the flip side!

As I stood there watching out the window, Zahndra and Jenelle walked down the sidewalk towards the parking lot. I could tell they were no doubt engaged in a jousting dialog as usual. And as I watched, I couldn’t help but wonder how an experience like this would change them if at all. Just as they reached that point of natural separation that would take them to their vehicles, they managed a celebratory high-five and a brief hug before departing. However this trip home would have more meaning than usual because of their last shift of duty, they had to face a foe, an enemy that wanted to end their lives. However thru their perseverance, trust in each other and their faith in the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, they were safely heading home.

René Llanes

© 2015

Author's Note

FREE READ FOR WC.ORG - SHORT STORY PUBLISHED @ B&N BOOK NOOK...JUST LOOKING FOR MORE EXPOSURE AND OF COURSE FEED BACK...ENJOY!
OVERVIEW:
Girls' Night Out...Z & J & Murphy's Law...A short story of an excursion for two veteran female probation officers, who while making the last field contact for the evening, stumble into a scene of chaos, murder, and an elaborate underground maze set up as a doomsday bunker. Once inside they uncover mysterious secret rooms guarded by enigmatic statues only to discover caches of wealth, military armaments, survival food and a cave that serves as an underground marina. Be a witness as the perpetrators return to crash their party in a attempt to take their breath away... permanently!