Chapter 40

Adara, with Monty, Sterling, Jill, Monroe, Miller and Jones, went to the clearing they had seen before. Adara looked with her double vision.

"This way," she said, pointing the way. Adara walked to the spot she had pointed out. "This is the clearing to the side of that white house. Over there," she said pointing to her left, "are some flowers in a raised area. Over there are some more," pointing to her right.

"All I see are trees," said Sterling, looking around.

"I know, but keep an eye out for anything unusual. There may be a trapdoor or a hatch in the ground."

They looked around, slowly spreading out. Miller and Jones were on guard, watching for trouble rather than the ground. They had spread out to a radius of only 25 feet when Miller hissed at them.

"Shhh! I hear something!" Everyone stopped and looked at him.

"What do you see?" Adara whispered.

"Movement! About 150 feet down the hill!"

"Move quietly away from them," Adara whispered and gestured to them. They had all been given lessons in silently moving through woods by Octavia so each of them knew how to be quiet. They were moving through a dense patch of trees when Jill stepped on something that gave a soft thunk instead. She stopped and looked down. She only saw a low mound of sprawling vegetation. She bent down and put her hands on the mound. It was springy, not solid. She started to move the vegetation to the side to get a better look.

"Over here!" Jill whispered, gesturing with her arm. Adara and Monty were the closest and went to her.

"Look," Jill whispered, pointing down. "I think it's a hatch."

Monty reached down and started to pull at the plants around it.

"No. Stop!" whispered Adara. "We need to move carefully. Cut around the hatch so that the stuff at the top will still be there and will disguise it." Monty and Jill nodded and started to cut through the tangle of trailing grasses and thin branches. The top of the mound had the locking wheel, so Adara carefully cut a gap into that as well. Just enough of a gap so that they could turn the wheel. They carefully lifted the hatch and looked in. Monty drew out a hand light and put it into the opening before he turned it on. He flashed it around.

"Looks clear," he whispered. Adara nodded.

"You and Jill go down there and have a quick look." They quietly went down the ladder. Jill took out her hand light and also looked around. She didn't need it, though. As soon as she and Monty had gotten into the corridor, automatic lights came on. She looked down a corridor that had walls on both sides. She went down it a few feet and realised that it went on for quite a way. There was enough space for the hundred to hide here. There were doors along one side, she opened one and found it was a large room with a table and lots of chairs. It also had windows. Windows? Underground? She went to them and looked out and looked down on several floors. It was a large bunker complex! Why there were windows looking onto a large open area several levels below, she didn't know. She went back out and down towards the hatch.

Monroe and Sterling were down the hatch with Adara descending. Jones and Miller were at the top waiting their turn to come down. When all of them were down and Miller had made sure that the hatch was locked, they kept quiet, listening for sounds of movement above.

"Mount Weather, come in," a voice said. "Mount Weather, come in," They were shocked that the mountain men were so close. Had they found the rest of the hundred? Had they attacked the Trikru?

"We lost them, Sir. We were following them and we lost them. It's like they vanished into thin air." The ones in the bunker couldn't hear the replies over the radio.

"Yes, Sir. There must be a hidden tunnel somewhere. Sir, we're running out of air. We need to get back to the vehicle and get our emergency air tanks on, Sir."

"Yes, Sir, but we need to head back to the mountain Sir, to replenish our tanks. We're out of air,"

"Yes, Sir, on our way."

Adara and the others stayed in the bunker for several more minutes. Adara closed her eyes and pushed her mind out. One was left. They were waiting for them to come out! She opened her eyes as Miller was putting his hand on the rungs to climb up. Adara put her hand on his arm and pulled slightly, shaking her head when he looked at her. She held up one finger.

"One left," she mouthed to him. Miller nodded and waited. They waited another 15 to 20 minutes before Adara gave the all clear.

"They've gone. Their vehicle is moving off the side of this hill. Monroe, Jill and Monty, stay here and explore. Do not come back with us. This is a safe place. Jones, Sterling go back to the camp and make sure everyone is okay. I'll meet you there. Miller, you and I will go to the dig site. We move quickly and quietly. If we find they've taken our people or they are still there, do NOT let yourselves be seen, but come back here. Understood?" They nodded in acquiescence.

They moved off towards their friends, hoping that they were safe. Adara and Miller split off from the other two and went towards the dig site, looking around them for any danger. They arrived without incidence and saw that the site was empty.

"Hope they're hiding," said Adara, moving forward slowly, approaching from behind. They went up to the roof and saw Murphy and Jasper there.

"Hey, guys," said Adara, keeping low and quiet.

"Hey, glad you're okay. We saw those goons heading your way and made sure the others got into the building. We're okay, they never came near us. I don't think they even saw us," said Murphy, hugging Adara.

"Yeah, they nearly caught us. Luckily, Jill found a hatch and we went down it into a corridor. There's enough room in that corridor for all of us to fit - and our equipment and spread out. I think we need to move there for safety," Adara explained.

"Where are the others?" asked Jasper.

"Monty, Monroe and Jill are still at the bunker, Sterling and Jones have gone to find the camp."

"The camp's not there. We sent Del back with a message that the mountain men were near, so Octavia and Clarke had everyone there pack everything up and moved off towards where you went. It's further away than here," Murphy said, anxious now.

"Crap! Miller, Jasper, get back to that bunker and make sure that you keep an eye out for them. Stay by the bunker, but keep a watch. Murphy, grab several of your people and go with them. Atom and I will bring the rest. We'll go to the camp and then follow them. This way at least one of us should find them." Miller and Jasper nodded and moved off, silently and quietly.

Murphy and Adara climbed down and went to the building entrance, only to be met with an axe aimed at them. Atom's face came into view.

"Sorry, I thought you might be them," he said.

"It's okay. Good instincts, though," Adara said. "Where are the others?"

"Over there. We've dug out the stairs and found an old waiting room. They're in there."

"Go get them, we need to split up and find Clarke and the rest of our people."

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

Adara and Atom along with six others made their way to the campsite. It was deserted. There was nothing left behind but the marks on the ground indicating foot traffic. They looked around the site, making sure that nothing was left hidden somewhere. No, there was nothing. Clarke had made sure everything had been picked up. They followed the faint trail of people moving through the woods. Adara was pleased that she didn't find any drag marks of people pulling heavy loads. They were carrying everything including the extra loads for the ones at the dig site. Adara was proud of her people.

They followed after them for a couple of miles before they caught up with them. The six people they had brought with them moved off without being told and helped to carry the loads. Adara and Atom moved to the front, up to Clarke and Raven.

"Hey, mountain men have gone. Take a quick rest and I'll fill you in," said Adara, taking one of the heavy packs off her shoulders.

"Everyone, take a rest. We move out in 20 minutes!" Clarke said, rubbing her shoulders when she had put her packs down. Everyone sighed in relief and dropped the packs where they were and basically collapsed beside them, glad of a breather.

"Where's O?" Adara asked.

"Look up," said a voice. Adara looked up and there was Octavia in a tree, keeping watch. Adara nodded to her and sat down by Clarke and Raven.

"We've found a bunker - or we think we have. Jill found a hatch and we went into it just before the mountain men showed up. It was a long corridor, easily big enough to hold all of us. We'll move there for now until we've explored it. If it is a bunker, we'll stay there. It'll be safer there when the mountain men come back."

"Will we be safe there?" asked Raven.

"Safer than we are here. The hatches are lockable from the inside. We just need to be quiet when they're around. We could hear them talking on the radio, but couldn't hear what was said in return. They know they were near us when we vanished, but they couldn't find a tunnel or cave we could have gone into. I don't think they know about the bunker."

"Well, at least if it is a bunker, we'll have some place to call home for now," said Clarke. "I, for one, will be glad to get some rest without needing to look over my shoulder all the time."

"God, that sounds so good," Raven agreed.

"We're close to the bunker, guys, another half mile or so and we're there."

"Good," said Clarke, getting to her feet.

"Okay everyone, get moving. We've only a half mile to go. Let's move!" she said, picking up one of the packs. Adara picked up the other two and waited for everyone else to get ready. When they were, she turned around and started off towards the bunker. The rest of them followed like a brood of ducklings following their mama.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

Miller stepped out from behind a tree when he saw them approaching. He signalled to the other sentries that they had been found. The rest of the hundred straggled in, exhausted by the weights they had to carry. The hatch opened and Monty looked out.

"Pass some of the stuff down and then get most of the people inside. We can get the rest of the packs after that," Monty said. Adara nodded and started passing packs and equipment down through the hatch. Next she sent down twenty people including Tomika, more packs and equipment and so on until everyone and everything was inside. The only ones outside were the sentries.

Adara made sure she was the last one through the hatch. She looked around and found Monroe directing people to take equipment to certain places and Jill was directing people towards the far end of the corridor. Adara nodded and turned to Monty.

"Find anything here?" she asked.

"Boy, didn't we just!" he exclaimed. "We hit the motherload here. This is a bunker complex going down at least seven levels!" he said, excitedly. "We've only gone down one level, but we've found three dormitories with ten bunk beds in each. That's twenty beds in each room. We can sleep in shifts, but we have beds for all. The best bit though, is we have flushing toilets!" he crowed.

Adara was smiling broadly. Thank goodness they had found a safe place to stay. Now maybe they could catch up on sleep and hopefully, stop trying to sleep with one eye open.

Jasper came up the stairway and onto the top corridor. He came running up to them.

"You gotta see what I've found!" he told them excitedly.

"What have you found?" asked Adara, curiously.

"Stores!" he said. "I found storerooms filled with stuff. Clothes, towels, boots, books, pens, paper, pans, other kitchen equipment, tools and much more. The clothes, boots and towels are all vacuum-packed."

Adara looked at him and started forward. "Show me."

Adara stood at the threshold of a large storeroom, easily the size of the mess hall on the Ark, and this was only one of the storerooms Jasper had found.

"Damn!" she said. She was thinking that now they had more than one change of clothes - even if it was military issue clothing. With a working water system, people could get clean and take their time doing it. A shower would feel really good right now. Adara knew that a good shower and a change of clothes would do wonders for morale. She was looking forward to it.