The Town
As they walked, Jack took careful note of their surroundings. At the first chance he thought he could speak without being overheard by their two ‘escorts,’ he whispered, “Suzie, at your earliest opportunity, disappear and when the moment is right, assume one of these guys’ appearance and try to get us out of whatever mess they have us in, okay?”
“Sure thing, Jack” she said as she winked out of existence.
Suzie’s suitcase was in the HumVee, parked near the center of town. Fortunately, this entire town was well within her range of projection. However, she couldn’t be in all places at one time. She was limited to wherever she was currently projecting herself. So, she had to wink back into existence to see what was going on.
She waited a minute and then popped back into existence at the same location. Fortunately, no one was there. Disguised as Shultz, she walked behind the group, shadowing them to their final destination. As they walked, she noticed more and more women in uniform than men so she decided to morph back to her own body, but in this uniform.
After a short walk, the group arrived at a door, guarded by a fierce looking woman in uniform. The men were obviously lower ranking than the woman, based on their actions in her presence. The woman took charge of the visitors and led them into the room. Suzie was lost as to her course of action at this point and decided to try to blend into the background. She would just have to wait them out.
As she listened to the nearby conversations, it dawned on her that this may very well be a matriarchal society. If she could learn enough about it, maybe she could get the guys out. But it would take a bit of cunning and a lot of luck.
By eavesdropping on every conversation she could get close to, she learned that this was a society that occupied more than just this cavern. Apparently, there were towns all over the east coast of North America, and all of them connected by these tunnels. Somewhere, she would have to get hold of a map.
~***~
In the room, Jack and Paul were confronted by a stern looking woman in a crisp military uniform. She said “I thought there were three of you?”
Jack immediately spoke up and said “Obviously, Shultz over there can’t count very well.”
Jack took quiet notice that Shultz said nothing but silently turned red. This was an interesting bit of news, indeed. Apparently, this woman was either very high ranking, or, instilled some sort of fear in these two that made them keep quiet even when they were not in the wrong. "Fascinating" he thought.
The woman spoke again. She said “I am Lt. Jameson. This is my town. Now, please tell me why two surface dwellers have such an interest in our town and our lake.”
Once again, Jack spoke “We were just exploring the tunnels and saw the lake. We had no idea there was a town here. Actually, I find it quite amazing. To be honest, I live on the surface, near here and have never seen you before. Do you spend all of your time down here?”
Intrigued by Jack’s response, she asked “I will ask the questions. Are you with the government of the surface world, or did you strike out on your own?”
Paul said “We are on an expedition to the arctic, and encountered these tunnels. Naturally, as scientists we decided to explore them first.”
“Rubbish!” said Lt. Jameson. “If the government sent you, you would not be driving a HumVee. And that hovercraft you are towing is ancient, by surface standards. No, you are obviously not with the government. Why do you test me so by lying?”
“Sorry, it won’t happen again” said Jack. “Actually, he is mostly right. We are on an expedition to the arctic, Canada, actually, and no, we are not with the government. We are archeologists who just want to finish up a dig that the government shut down early. That is the honest truth.”
“Okay, let’s say I believe you. Why travel through the tunnels?”
“We had an earlier encounter with the government that led us to believe they can track us easily enough and were just trying to get far enough north to be out of Harmony’s range, if that is possible.”
“Okay, that I believe. Those idiots in the surface government have been pressing their people into the weirdest version of communism to come around that we have seen. However, ours is a secret society and as such, we simply cannot allow you to leave. I am dreadfully sorry.” The evil grin on her otherwise stern face indicated she was anything but sorry. “Shultz! Please escort these people to our guest quarters.”
With a grin that could not be described as helpful, Shultz led the two friends to what could only be described as their jail cell. With a loud clank, the iron door slammed shut.
Suzie had been lurking by the door and followed as closely as she dared when they were led to the cell. However, there was a guard posted and she would have to wait a bit before making any kind of move.
~***~
Inside the cell Paul was freaking out. “Jack! What do we do now? We can’t stay here in this place!”
After a quick look around the sparse cell and coming to the conclusion that there was no easy means of escape, Jack sat on one of the narrow cots and with his head propped in the corner and his legs crossed in front of him, he settled down to relax and wait. “Calm down, Paul. We still have an ace in the hole, so to speak. Suzie is still out there somewhere.”
Nervously pacing the floor, Paul exclaimed “Yes, but what can she do? Aside from walking through the door to see us, she can’t be of much help.”
With a smile on his face and his eyes beginning to droop closed, Jack said “Don’t underestimate her abilities.”
Eventually, dinner was brought to them. It consisted of rice and some grey substance that could just as easily have been either meat or vegetables, but whatever they had done to it to serve to them made it largely unappetizing indeed! Still, they managed to eat the rice at least.
They settled down for the night on the two cots that had been provided in their cell, fully expecting to be there a while. Just as the lights simulated daytime, at what seemed the appropriate time, twilight came upon the small town.
Jack fell instantly to sleep which simply amazed Paul. He couldn’t see how Jack could remain so utterly calm in such a situation. He was so wound up that he may not sleep for a week.
~***~
About midway through the night, Suzie approached the lone guard. She simply appeared as a higher ranking female officer, which was naturally intimidating to the lower ranking male guard in this matriarchal society. She said in a stern voice “Open the door.”
The startled guard jumped to his feet and stood at attention at the first sound of her voice. Realizing he was just given an order that was in direct contradiction to his standing orders, he started to protest “But Lt. Jameson said not to open the door to anyone but her.”
With a stern expression on her normally perky face, Suzie demanded rather impatiently “As you can plainly see, I outrank Lt. Jameson. Open the door now!”
“Right away.” He said visibly shaking.
The door opened and before anyone could speak, Suzie said “The prisoners will please follow me. Guard, you will remain here and guard this door.”
Confused, but unwilling to disobey an order from a female officer, he simply resumed his post and said “Yes Ma’am.”
Suzie led the two friends down several hallways, retracing their path through the building and nearly made it through the door to the parked vehicles when Shultz and his large friend spotted them. Recognizing Suzie, he shouted “Stop them, the officer is an imposter!”
The two male guards went virtually unnoticed in their efforts at least at first in this subterranean matriarchal town. The confusion of a pair of males giving orders allowed the trio the necessary moments required to escape. The three travelers broke into a run and made it through the door in the midst of all the confusion. Jack got the HumVee started and they sped away.
Once they were out of town, Paul asked “Who are those people?”
“I think they are the remainder of the government of the United States of America” said Suzie. “I overheard enough conversation to feel pretty confident about that. Apparently, when the EPA took complete control, the fragments of government that was left simply went underground. Also, it would seem that over time the society that now exists underground has become matriarchal in nature. That fact alone is what enabled me to get you out. I was able to intimidate a male guard into opening the door for me.”
“I was wondering how you pulled that off” said Jack.
Paul spoke up and said “Sorry to interrupt this fascinating study on the intricacies of ultra-secret subterranean militant cultures, but look who’s behind us.”
Jack was too busy driving and had only limited view behind him in the mirrors due largely to the big travel trailer and hovercraft he was towing, so Suzie relayed the info to him. “Jack, there are seven military HumVees following us in a rapid maneuver that will surely catch up to us in no time.”
“These roads are really nice and well maintained, but offer no place to hide. Anybody have any ideas?” asked Jack as he frantically searched for some way to lose his pursuers.
The lead chase vehicle took that moment to start shooting at them. Jack was both a bit frightened and intrigued at the same time. Whatever those guns were, they didn’t shoot bullets like the weapons he was used to. These were some sort of particle beam type of energy weapon. The first shot went wild, but the second shot melted the mirror off of the driver’s door of the HumVee.
Paul spoke up quickly and said “I have an idea, although it’s a bit risky.”
“I’m open to suggestions” said Jack as he began blindly swerving from side to side, taking up the entire roadway in an effort to keep their pursuers behind them.
“Okay…I’ll take the gun and go back into the hovercraft and try to disable the lead vehicle.”
“Bad idea, Paul. I applaud your eagerness, but you have never fired a gun before. You take over driving and I’ll go back and shoot out the tires of a few of them. Just be sure to hold it steady while I’m climbing over the trailer.” They quickly changed places while maintaining their speed. Keeping his head down, Jack slipped out through the back window after changing places with Paul. He climbed to the top of the trailer and decided that was as good a place as any to make his stand, lying down. He took aim and shot out the tires on the lead vehicle.
The HumVee apparently had some type of 'run flat' tires, but the control was diminished enough for the driver to eventually lose control. The big military vehicle spun off to the side of the road and rolled over onto its side. He shot the next three as well before making a big enough mess to stop them. Satisfied that the pile up he created was sufficient to occupy them for a while, he climbed back over the trailer to their vehicle.
Knowing it would only be a matter of time before they resumed the chase, he wanted to get as much distance as possible between them. He quickly dropped into the back of the HumVee and said “Let’s get as far from here as we can. Keep heading north, if possible, and hopefully we can surface somewhere away from both the surface government as well as the underworld version.”
The four wrecked vehicles must have clogged up the tunnel pretty good because they never caught up to the travelers. Paul kept driving for quite a while. As they drove, they passed many places where they could stop for a rest. Most of these side tunnels were natural caves that opened onto the man made tunnel they were traveling through.
After several hours, Paul pulled off the road into one of these side tunnels and they decided to take a break and stretch their legs a bit. He was still shaken up at the gun fire they had escaped and needed time to think. Gunfire was as alien to him as little green men would have been to Jack.