Shrieking like a kid stuck on some sadistic theme park ride, the world passed in painful smears of green and brown. Suddenly she hit a level point then tumbled sideways.
She was airborne again, freefalling.
Oriana grunted with the jarring impact, the hard landing literally stealing the breath from her lungs.
Stunned, she laid there, unmoving.
Though it was slow in coming, her mind finally registered, took inventory of her body, and reported. Her lungs kicked in and she gasped, but had trouble inhaling. Darkness clouded her vision.
She realized she was laying face first in the dirt.
Turning her head, she sputtered, trying to remove the grass, leaves and soil from her mouth.
Fuck. Did I really just fall down a hill?
Rising onto her elbows, she blinked a couple of times to clear the debris out of her eyes before she fully opened them. First thing she saw was a doormat with bold black print. Wipe Your Paws Please. Her gaze moved up from the doormat to the concrete bordered alcove, where she could see a metal door a couple of feet inside the thick cement entranceway.
Fighting off a wave of dizziness, Oriana climbed to her knees and crawled over to the heavy steel door, placing her hand on it. It was thick, old, and had letters stenciled on the surface.
“Property of the US Government.”
It was a bomb shelter. Or a nuclear bunker. Maybe the entrance to some secret missile silo. Maybe the whole site is some abandoned remnant of World War II, or even the Cold War era.
No, not abandoned. She had heard the metal door slam, had heard voices.
Oh well, she didn’t care either way. All she really cared about was finding a radio so she could call for help.
Using the handle on the door, Oriana began pulling herself up, only to fall into the wall when the handle gave beneath her weight. The door clicked and moved slightly.
She climbed to her feet, ignoring the stabbing pain in her ankle. She positioned herself in front of the steel barrier, and with both hands, tugged on the handle. The heavy door groaned and creaked as it slowly opened, inch by excruciating inch. With her strength quickly depleting, she stopped pulling once there was enough room for her to slide in.
Sucking in her stomach and turning to her side, she squeezed herself through the small gap, the hard metal scraping her stomach and back. She nearly stumbled to her knees once she finally cleared the tight opening.
She found herself in a dimly illuminated concrete and stone tunnel.
“Hello?”
Other than her voice echoing through the passageway, there was no response. The single light bulbs spaced on the ceiling every ten or so feet flickered, unnerving her more than the oppressive silence, reminding her of a creepy scene from a horror movie.
Shaking off the chills that shuddered up her spine, she touched the metal tubing on the wall beside her, then let her gaze follow the piping down the length of the barely lit passage until it made an abrupt left and disappeared around the corner.
“Wire conduit.”
It had to lead somewhere. Perhaps a control room—one with a radio.
Oriana glanced over her shoulder. She would leave the heavy door open, just in case. She didn’t want to get trapped inside, and if she needed to make a quick exit for whatever reason, she wouldn’t have to worry about messing with it.
On that decision, she limped forward, using the wall to guide her as she forced her feet to propel her deeper into the creepy bunker.
Reaching the turn, she stopped and pressed herself against the inner wall. After taking a deep breath for fortitude, she peeked around the corner. To her surprise, there was another door, this one made of wood. Strangely, this new entrance looked as if it belonged on the front step of a cabin.
Oriana moved away from the wall and approached the door. Not knowing what else to do, she knocked and waited.
Nothing.
She tried the doorknob. It gave under her hand’s pressure and the door shifted slightly ajar, allowing the soft glow of light to pour out the crack. Inhaling sharply, she froze in place, her heart thumping wildly in her chest while her ears strained to pick up any noise that might indicate what lay behind the wood panel.
“Hello? Anyone in here? I’m coming in.”
When no one responded, she pushed the door all the way open.
She figured she must have bumped her head when she fell down the hill. She had to be dreaming. Or perhaps she was just dead—died of fatigue and starvation. There was no way she could be actually seeing what she was seeing. There was no way any of this could be real.