“Well, you know how they say a doomsday prepper is crazy every day except one?” Adam yelled over his shoulder. He was met with mixed reactions.
“N-not really…”
“I don’t think I’ve heard that exact line before…”
“Hmm… yeah, maybe something similar I guess…?” The women glanced at each other with confused faces.
“It was a rhetorical question!” Adam turned up the street and the other three followed. “My engineering hobby kinda led me to make an underground survival bunker. Don’t judge me! It was for a youtube video. But while I was at it, I thought, ‘hey – let’s get this thing working for real!’” Adam’s voice showed signs of embarrassment but he kept his head high as he ran.
“Are you serious!?” Sarah asked in a loud voice, having slightly fallen behind the younger, more athletic girls. “We should just go back!”
“Did you see the madhouse in there? Besides, we all saw those things. There’s no way we want to be grouped up in a public space like that!”
“You… have a point… but isn’t this a little…”
“I’m not a crazy killer or anything, Sarah. I’m just an engineer. Please, you can trust me! My house is only a block away!”
Sarah felt nervous about going to the house of a man whom she barely knew outside of work, but she wasn’t alone. She certainly didn’t think Adam was a sketchy guy – she was attracted to him, after all. Still, she couldn’t help but think of awful scenarios.
Her head became clouded with thoughts of her and the girls being forcefully stripped naked by his strong hands and tied up with their legs spread lewdly open. Adam’s appreciative eyes gliding over their exposed bodies before having his way with them while the world outside burned.
Sarah shook her head and felt a small spot of moisture between her legs as gentle warmth crept into her abdomen. She was certainly not into the idea of being raped, but it had been a while since she’d been with a man, so even small, dark erotic thoughts got her worked up these days. She swallowed and found her resolve.
“Girls, I say we go for it. what do you think?” Sarah asked.
“I think that’s the safest bet for now…” Zoey replied, seemingly quite levelheaded.
“I’ll go where you go! It’s not like I have any better ideas.” Diana agreed.
“We’re close; it’s this way!” Adam continued to lead, pushing past several other people running up and down the sidewalk.
They turned the corner at the end of the block and got a glimpse of the distant city skyline. Pillars of black smoke rose up in several spots and more of those strange balloon-like beings could be spotted, rising up alongside the tall buildings.
A loud smashing sound made Sarah jerk her head back over her shoulder to see one such creature suddenly attacking the college campus behind them. A woman attempting to open her car door several hundred feet away from them suddenly got hoisted into the air screaming.
“F-fuck! Where did that come from!?” Diana gasped.
“Ah… ah… w-we were just there a moment ago!” Zoey looked to be on the verge of tears, her iron-willed sports persona suddenly melting away.
“Hurry! We’re here! get in! Get in!” Adam sprinted into the front lawn of a nearby house and began to frantically fumble with the lock on a small wooden shed.
“Shit, shit! This is it?? Adam, oh my god they’re coming!” Sarah stammered behind the shaking man, watching yet another tentacled monstrosity crest the nearby houses. “Get us inside NOW!”
“Dammit I’m trying! I made this lock tricky on purpose in order to impress the audience, okay!? Fuck me! I’m so fucking dumb! Graah!” With a final holler, he suddenly burst through the door and into the shed. The women all crowded into the small space and hastily closed the door behind them. Though it looked like wood, it was clearly some sort of painted steel.
“Give me a little space, please!” Adam yelled, his frustration and fear taking him over. “Back up!” He pushed aside a rug on the floor and tossed it beside a rack of gardening tools. Underneath was a hatch, which he was already prying open to reveal a ladder leading into the earth. He held the door open, some color returning to his face as he began to calm down.
“Ladies first,” he said, trying to hide how shaky his voice was. He flicked a switch on the wall and the tunnel downwards became illuminated in a dim red light. They didn’t have to be asked twice, especially with the sounds of screams and an unearthly groaning from above getting closer by the second.
They each practically slid down the ladder, with Adam going last. He firmly secured the hatch behind him, leaving them all in the eerie red glow of the bunker. The layers of earth above them shut out the terrifying sounds and for the first time that morning, silence surrounded the group.
“Come on.” Adam took the lead again and squeezed past the ladies through the narrow passage. He pressed a button and suddenly more lights came on as a generator loudly whirred to life.
They moved to the end of the hall and stared around, mouths agape. It was what could only be described as a man-cave. A small bar with drinks, a beaten up old couch in front of a large television with gaming consoles, a sword mounted on the wall, and the like, all surrounded by merrily blinking Christmas lights that lined the ceiling.
“I, uh, know it’s not much to look at…” Adam said, scratching his stubble and looking down. It was hard to tell if he was blushing or if it was just the red lighting from the hall behind them. “But make yourselves at home. I need to go start up a few other things. Feel free to look around! Bathroom’s that way.” He pointed at a doorway connected to the hall. They noticed a few other doors as well. “I’ve got food storage, a small kitchen, some bedrooms, and a communications slash monitoring room as well. Just don’t touch anything in there please.”
“A-Adam… this is…” Sarah started to speak.
“Childish… right?” He replied nervously, his back still turned to them..
“AWESOME!” Yelled Diane, who ran into the room and began to touch everything, “It’s like the Bat Cave!” She pulled the sword off the wall and gave it a few mock swings. Adam turned around with a look of surprise and bemusement on his face, clearly happy that his geeky hobby was receiving such praise.
“Is that right? Well I’m glad hahaha!” he beamed, beginning to flip some more switches and plug a few things in. The gentle hum of machinery started to reverberate through the air.
“Um, Professor Sparhawk…” Zoey nervously asked. She was looking at her phone with disappointment. “You mentioned a communications room… would I be able to use that to call my family? My phone doesn’t get signal down here.”
“Oh… oh god of course! You all must be super worried! I’ll be right over to set you up. I have a signal booster somewhere in there.” Adam finished what he was working on and brought them over to a side room that had several monitors and speakers set up with complicated-looking interfaces. “I ought to call mine too and let them know I’m safe.”
“Your, um, family isn’t in your house?” Sarah asked sheepishly.
“What? Oh, no, it’s just me. My parents live out in Boston.” Adam replied absentmindedly as he began to turn on some of the devices.