Russell’s desperate attempt at an insult still had no bearing on the man. The young man’s calmness only seemed to move him to higher ground. If there had been any veneration toward Russell, he had taken it away by simply remaining silent.
Hanna shook her head at Russell’s audacity. The young man’s comment seemed to bring the room back to life. Gail raised her head from her lap and looked up with a smirk. It appeared Russell had been put in his place.
CHAPTER 4
The state of isolation had taken its toll on the group. The nauseating hum of florescent lighting only intensified their misery and suffering. Long periods of silence and solitude were a form of torture, and it started to show on Hanna’s tired face. She fought to keep herself coherent. Her head bobbed from left to right, struggling with the weight of gravity. Her eyelids were getting heavier with each passing second. She shook her legs out to try to gain circulation back into her body. It didn’t work. Her blood was like concrete settling in her veins. Stiffness in every part of her joints. She lifted up from her chair and moved to the floor. She placed her shoulder blades firmly against the rivets in one of the wall panels and sighed in relief. It was euphoria. This certainly felt better than lying with her arm propping up her head.
Her peace was short-lived. She slowly opened her eyes again. She gazed across the space. The sounds of one of the others moving around pulled her away from the moment of escape. It was the young man. He had stood up from his stupor and was approaching the wall across from her. He placed his ear firmly against the surface of the cold metal wall like a suction cup.
The younger man’s sudden odd behavior interested Hanna. What is he listening to? Maybe he hears something.
However, she wasn’t the only one who was watching. Russell watched with amusement, almost waiting for his chance to take another go at the Russian. He twirled the red plastic card in his fingers as a taunting mechanism.
The younger man stared ahead with deep focus. He was hearing something.
Russell chuckled, breaking the stale silence. “What’s the score?” He laughed to himself at his own bad joke. “What are you hearing?”
The younger man placed his finger to his lips and shushed the sixty-year-old man like a child. Russell recoiled at the insult. The young man kept his eyes forward and his ear to the wall. “Be quiet.”
Russell stood up quickly “If you know something we don’t—”
The younger man shoved away from the wall and stood toward the center of the room. He glanced up at the large bowl-shaped lighting fixture hanging from the ceiling from a narrow wire. “The backup generators,” he said.
“So what? Who gives a damn?” Russell replied sharply.
“We’re running on auxiliary power. We’re not on the north side of the base.”
Russell reacted to the comment as he would to the smell of bad breath. He took a minute to contemplate. Perhaps he didn’t know as much as he thought he did. Maybe the Russian had something to tell. “You’re overthinking it,” Russell replied.
“I’m a mechanical engineer. I’ve worked on every level and every side of this base. We are not where we are supposed to be,” the man replied. “Besides, if we were, we’d be directly under the east Groom Lake runway. I haven’t heard a single plane or helicopter since we’ve been here.”
“So, where do you think we are? Mars?” Russell replied with a chuckle.
The Russian looked back with a hint of sarcasm. “Nothing is impossible around here. We all know that.”
“Your imagination is getting to you. You’re paranoid,” said Russell.
“Am I? I’ve been here for eight years. I’ve seen some crazy shit,” the man replied.
“Yeah, well I’ve worked here for almost thirteen years! And I’ve heard it all. UFO bunkers, parallel dimensions, time travel gateways. It’s all bullshit. It’s what they want the public to think. About the only thing that scares me around here is the radiation from the test site,” Russell said. “And our cafeteria is pretty scary too.”
A bad joke was the least he could say to deflect his ignorance. Hanna and Gail rolled toward the conversation. Something about the Russian’s logic was worth pondering. His claim was unfounded but troubling. No one had been awake when they were placed inside the room. No one really knew where they were. His assumption could be right, Hanna considered. There was a fifty-fifty chance he was right. There was no evidence to prove or disprove him.
Not being on the north side of the base was a disturbing notion. Also known as the Nevada Test Site, the north side of the base was in an area designated for contractors and personnel. It was the only part of the military campus where civilians actually worked and were allowed to be.
The younger man stepped toward the exit. Russell quickly muscled himself between the door and the man, blocking the exit like a concrete wall. His arm extended and pushed the man back a few steps. “Hold up,” Russell said with force.
“Get out of the way.”
“You open that door, it exposes the rest of us,” Russell said.
“I should be out there with my team,” replied the younger man.
“Look, man—”
“My name is Dimitri Jeknovorian,” he quickly corrected Russell.
The man’s name meant nothing to Russell. He shrugged. “Whatever.”
“I should be out there with my team,” Dimitri shouted.
“You’re on my team now. Now, you sit your ass down before I sit you down myself,” Russell asserted.
Dimitri locked his right hand into a fist. “Why don’t you try?”
Russell shoved Dimitri. “Get back!”
Dimitri curled back his fist and stepped forward. Hanna interjected as she shot across the floor and landed between the men. She looked up at Dimitri. “He’s right.” Her words seemed to snap him from his testosterone-intoxicated trance. “It could be anything. It’s better for us just to sit and to wait it out,” Hanna concluded.
Dimitri sighed and stepped back like a frustrated adolescent. He returned to the desk and sat back down. Although he had failed in his escape, his face read determination. He glanced over at Gail. She looked to be still contemplating his assumption about their location.
Russell nodded toward Hanna, offering his respect and appreciation. Perhaps he had underestimated her. Her intervention had saved him. Despite his size, he was not a fighter. He was in no physical shape to be taking on a man half his age.
Everyone seemed to be watching everyone else’s moves from then on.
CHAPTER 5
Darkness and silence. Nearly pitch black. Gail lifted her tired face from the cold, dusty floor. The right side of her cheek was indented and red. Her knuckles made a horrible pillow. The room was still and uncertain. Something was different. The place was much darker than before. She could hardly see her feet. The dim utility light above the door offered a small beacon for the environment. It was the same room, but the mood was different. She had barely lifted her torso horizontally toward the ceiling when she heard the sound of a liquid splatter. Her face drew toward the floor.
A small puddle of blood. Her eyes went wide with confusion. She jumped to a knee and quickly reached behind the back of her neck. Her sand-colored undershirt was soaked crimson from her collar to her breasts. Confusion took over.
I don’t feel injured! She immediately started checking herself for injury. Where the hell is it coming from? She gently caressed the back of her neck. Wait a minute!