139 Years to the End of the World

The Winter Train, Part Six

We left the common highway almost two hours ago, meandering through the twisting side streets of the underground network, getting farther and farther away from civilisation. By the time I woke up from my nap, Parker had switched places with Newton, carrying out the last few minutes of our drive to the location. We had turned off the concrete tunnel and into a smaller dirt cave.

"This road leads through a mountain side," Leila explained to me. "The new site for the Cryo-Tube is just near the exit."

The road was lit by small electric lamps that lit automatically as we neared. But otherwise, we went at a slow speed to avoid bumping into things in the dark. Slowly, a soft blue glow appeared at the end of the tunnel and grew larger as we approached. The rumbling of the wheels on dirt suddenly stopped as we travelled over a new patch of smooth, concrete road. And then, the vehicle burst out into the light of the open cavern.

A wall of falling water formed the west wall of the cave, bright teal light shining through the gaps with splash back from the falls reaching even the windscreen of the van. A large truck was already there with the same burly men from the station unloading the Cryo-Tube from the vehicle.

Leila slid her door open and Parker and Newton followed suit, getting out of the van. Realizing we've arrived at out destination, I unbuckled and preceded after them.

"Where are we?" I asked generally, staring in wide-eyed wonder at the cave as I stepped out of the vehicle onto the makeshift concrete road.

I noticed a few concrete pillars, artificially built around structural points of the cavern. Water dripped from stalactites on the ceiling onto moss filled mounts on the ground. The cave walls glittered with specks of water that had made their way from the waterfall wall.

Parker came up to me and led me by my elbow. "We're on the outskirts of Tikika. Somewhere near the border to the Wilds. It's far out enough from the safety of the city that The Forum won't think to look for you here."

"And what are we doing here?" I asked, starting to follow without his lead. He let go of my arm as we joined up with Newton and Leila.

"This is going to be where you sleep for the coming years," Newton answered. "We're using the power of the waterfalls to power the Cryo-Tube. There's a generator built into the mountain and will be hooked up to the machine. The entire room we'll house you in is made of stainless steel alloy. My design, naturally. It'll last for quite a long time," he finished rather proudly.

Together, we headed towards a large, double steel door embedded into the wall of the cavern, following behind the muscle men and Cyro-Tube. The group in front stopped just short of the door and Leila ran up to the left of the monolith.

Sliding open a hidden panel, she revealed a number pad embedded into the arch of the gate. She typed in a series of six numbers, distinguished by the beeps which, to this day, I have no idea what they do aside from making an annoying noise, and the large metal door rumbled open, sliding aside and showing the darkness within like an opening into a new universe or a threshold to outer space.

Leila directed the workers, "Move it in and hook it up to the generator." The men nodded and moved to work, followed by Parker and Newton going in to help, though I was not sure what a limping doctor could do in that situation.

I walked up to her, "This is where I'll be?" I stared into the dim room, lit only by the slowly fading light outside.

She replied, "We're out of the boundaries of the cities. This is just one of the places in nature we found that still blocks out the mist, thanks to the waterfall." She turned to me with a hopeful smile, "This cavern is actually at the edge of the mountain basin that we passed by on The Winter Train. The water of the falls comes from the snow that melts there. Poetic, I think."