THE ARK
Chapter 31

Day 3

Gary Bison stood in the entrance tunnel and watched as the third bus of the evening approached.

Gary had been selected a year ago to be the leader of shelter eighty-seven. Even after all the training and preparation he still was not sure of exactly how many shelters there were, but he did know that the shelter here in the gypsum mines in Grand Rapids Michigan was considered a level three shelter.

A level three shelter was a large shelter that could hold between one thousand and twelve hundred people for the twenty-year duration

The level one shelters could hold over two thousand five hundred people and to the best of Gary Bison’s knowledge, there were only three of four of them in the country.

As the bus unloaded, Gary watched as the passengers began disembarking. There was almost no one over thirty years old in the group. There were several families, but none of them had more than two children, and none of the children was under four years old.

Each person was allowed to bring two suitcases, and in the case of shelter eighty-seven, each individual was provided with a ten by ten living area. In the case of a family, the living space was doubled.

There were three different cafeterias for the eleven hundred and fifty shelter inhabitants as well as a well equipped medical clinic that could deal with most medical and surgical issues. Major health problems and traumas would not receive treatment in line with current standards. There were simply not the resources or space available for a full-service hospital for a group this size.

There was a swimming pool and a movie theater, as well as computer facilities and a bowling alley. The fitness center was quite large. There was large conference center doubled as a chapel. In addition, there were over a dozen classrooms that could be used for everything from education to private meetings.

There was a massive amount of underground storage space. It contained everything that was needed now, and what would be needed when this group finally left this underground warren twenty years from now.

The facility was powered by a small nuclear reactor that was almost identical in design to the one at the Mountain. The only major difference was that all the automated processes were not in place since there would be a crew of trained personnel managing the reactor at all times.

The reactor was water-cooled and the needed water was pumped from the Grand River two miles away.

Gary was amazed at how this was accomplished without anyone at the state or local level becoming aware of what they were doing here. He had once asked how all this could happen without inspections and proper procedures being followed and was told that a little money in the right places could move mountains.

While he accepted this as truth, Gary never forgot the one inspector who had come by shortly after he had asked that question. The man showed up eight or nine months ago and started making inquiries and demanding to see permits. Gary had put him off as long as possible explaining that this was a federal disaster shelter, but the young inspector did not care. All the while Gary was communicating with a person who he knew only as Mr. Roberts. Mr. Roberts’ phone number was provided to Gary to use as a resource if any problems arose during preparations.

One morning the inspector was at the gate again demanding access to the facility and was not going to be delayed another day. As the argument began heating up Gary’s cell phone rang.

Without answering it, or even looking at it, he handed it to the inspector and told him that the call was for him.

The man had a confused expression as he opened the phone and said a hesitant “Hello?”

The man was listening and getting more and more agitated by the moment. Several times, he tried to interject a comment but was cut off. Each time by a voice that Gary could hear but not quite understand.

After a few moments, the redness left the inspectors face and was replaced by a deathly pale color. He continued to listen for another minute or two and then closed the phone without saying a word. He handed the phone back to Gary and slowly turned and walked to his car.

As he walked Gary was given the impression that he was a man who had just had the will to live sucked out of him.

He was just getting to his car when he turned and looked at Gary with a look of fear in his eyes and said, “Who are..”

He stopped his question and after a long moment got in his car and slowly left.

No one else had come by since, and as curious as Gary was to replace out, he never asked anyone who had been on the phone or what was said.

Gary stopped his reminiscing as the group from the bus approached.

“Mr. Bison. Good to see you again sir,” said a tall black man, who was walking with the group

He was carrying a large briefcase and was dressed in blue jeans and a white polo shirt with the logo of a large manufacturer of computer hardware in the upper left.

“Senator Collins, welcome back,” said Bison, as he shook the man’s hand

With a slight laugh, Collins responded, “I don’t think I’m going to ever get the hang of being referred to as a senator. Why couldn’t they’ve decided to refer to us as councilmen or something?”

“I know what you mean; they considered calling all of us site leaders Presidents. Many of us spoke up against that real quick. The thing is they wanted something for all of you with more of an air of authority to it, and senator is what they finally settled on. When you consider the life and death control that we’ll have over these people, they wanted our titles to sound authoritative.”

Senator Collins nodded his head in reluctant agreement, then added, “I almost forgot, I want to introduce you to my wife Jillian, and my daughter Cassandra.” As he spoke, he motioned to the two people that had stopped about five feet behind him and were patiently waiting for the introduction.

Jillian appeared to be about thirty years old and was quite short. Gary did not think she could be more than five foot four. If Gary’s memory was accurate, she was a nurse.

Cassandra was about eight years old and was already taking after her father in height. She had long straight black hair that was neatly pulled back into a ponytail.

“I’m glad to meet you both. I’ve read your files and it’s nice to be able to place a face with the names,” Bison said shaking their hands.

“My dad says you’re the boss, is that true?” Cassandra asked.

Gary smiled as he answered. “I guess it’s true, for the next few years, I’ll be the boss, after that we might have another boss. But there will be ten other people, including your dad who will be helping me to do a good job.”

Cassandra looked beyond Gary to the entrance to the shelter. She saw the long sloping tunnel that led deep underground. “Is that where we’ll be living?”

“Yes, that’s where we’ll all be going to live for a while.”

“It looks big down there. My mom says that when I can come out of there I’ll be her age.”

“That’s true; we’ll be down there for a long time. But you’ll be going to school and you’ll have friends and even finish college.”

Before Cassandra could ask any more questions, Jillann spoke up. “It was nice meeting you Mr. Bison. We’ll let you get back to your work and we’ll go and explore our new home.”

With that, the Collins family headed towards the tunnel entrance.

Gary stayed and greeted a few of the other arriving residents including Megan and Jake Tanner and their family, and then followed the group back into the shelter. He rode an electric cart down into the shelter where he came to a large open storage area. The storage area was secured with a chain link fence to keep people from getting into the shelter’s provisions.

There was a radiation detector mounted on the wall and it was indicating nothing more than normal background radiation at this time.

The passage continued down to the main level where all the residential apartments were set up.

The control center was also in this level. It was a large room from where all internal cameras and heat and smoke sensors could be monitored, as well as external radiation detectors. There was a console for monitoring, the reactor and computer room, and another for communications. From there they would maintain contact with the other shelters and eventually be contacted by the sleepers upon their awakening.

In the back of the command center was a large conference room where the Senate and Site Leader would hold their meetings.

Anyone could leave at any time that they wanted, but they all knew that they would not last more than a week if they did.