all god's orphans

Millie thought how strange their surroundings had looked the night before in the dark. Now, in the bright light, the place was gorgeous. She had never seen such a landscape before and had never been this close to a mountain, either. She suddenly thought of the “mountains” near her home. At their highest, the Appalachians are only about six thousand feet high. Outside the windows of the van, the Rockies shot up into the clouds at easily twice that. Her brain could scarcely comprehend their magnitude. She just wanted everything to stop and stare at them.

All her life she had seen pictures of the Alps. She never understood why those mountains seemed so dramatic and mythical in photos while all she ever saw were glorified hills. Now, she could see it. As the van rolled on, she forgot all about their mission, Brian, her brother. She forgot everything and simply gawped at the enormous mounds of earth before her. Nobody else seemed to care. Kite and Grey sat close together trying to hide the fact that they were holding hands. Wallace’s eyes were fixed out the front windshield as though he expected everything to go wrong any minute.

She alone was in thrall to the natural spectacle and though this should have made her feel alone, she felt the exact opposite. Here was beauty. Here was the earth, big and unimaginably beautiful, bigger than she could ever see if she lived to be a hundred. It made her feel special to know that. She told herself when this was all over, she was going to come back out here and spend an entire day lying in the grass under the sun and staring up at these wondrous formations.

Wallace gritted his teeth. The moment of truth was fast approaching and he was beginning to lose heart. Not that it mattered. There was no going back now. He closed his eyes and summoned what courage he could. Unlike Millie, he didn’t expect to survive this. There were so many things that could go wrong. Even if they were able to open the door and get inside, that was no guarantee of success. What would that mean, anyway? He wondered. He was dead already, after a fashion. He thought about the wife he never met and the children they never had. Deep in his mind he searched for the spiritual answer to his fear. This was how he wanted to go, he told himself, in service to something greater. He only hoped he had the strength to do it when the time finally came. When the van rounded a corner and revealed the entrance to the mountain, he set his mind to the task. This was it.

The van neared a checkpoint and was waved through. There were cars parked on both sides of the road, all different makes and models, but very few people. As they got closer to the opening in the mountain, there were more soldiers but not many civilians. Wallace scanned the ridge of the mountain for any sign of the general’s men. Their attack was going to start in less than an hour. At one point, the thought he saw something glisten near the top of one of the peaks, but he couldn’t be sure.

Near the entrance proper, another parking lot had been filled with tents and people. It looked like a refugee camp. There were women and children here, for what reason he had no idea. The van drove them past the small guard shack and then stopped. One of the soldiers hopped out and opened their door.

“Here you are, sir.” He said. “I assume you know where you need to go.”

“Of course.” Wallace nodded. “Thank you, soldier.” The soldier nodded and stepped away leaving them alone before the yawning mouth of the mountain. Grey stood close to Wallace.

“Now what?” He asked quietly.

“Follow me.” Wallace said and they walked as casually as they could into the tunnel.

Inside, there were more people going about their business with no sense of urgency. The rough-hewn stone walls rose up on either side, curving to form an archway above their head. It made them feel tiny. Like insects. The further they went into the cave, the denser the crowds got. Their seemed to be little need for vehicles this far into the facility, so cots and tents were set up haphazardly with no regard to traffic. About a mile in, Wallace spotted the door.

On the right side of the wall was Cheyenne Mountain’s famous blast doors. Three feet thick and made of steel and concrete, this door was designed to seal the base off from the outside world and sustain those inside for up to two months in the event of nuclear attack. To its right was a small guard house that no longer interested the people here. They saw it has merely another piece of technology that didn’t work.

The door was marred with black marks from where they had tried to destroy it before giving up. On either side, the granite showed signs of having been attacked, as well, but now, no one bothered. The tunnel continued ahead of them and the density of civilians was greatest there. A small semi-circle had been left around the door and nobody questioned who they were or what they were doing. Even the soldiers seemed unconcerned. If they were this deep into the mountain, then they must belong there, it was reasoned.

Wallace opened the door to the small guard shack and went in. A breaker switch on the wall was in the “off” position and when he flipped it, the unmistakable sound of a computer starting up came from below the desk. As it sparked to life, the screen demanded a password to continue. Wallace stepped aside and gestured to Millie.

“You’re up.” He said. She furrowed her brow in anger.

“Why does everyone think I can hack computers?” Wallace seemed surprise.

“I thought it was because you could hack computers.” Millie shook her head. “Well, look around. They probably have the password somewhere nearby.” After a few minutes, Kite found a yellow stick not inside the metal cabinet behind them.

“What is this?” She asked, handing it to Wallace who nearly cried.

“Jesus Christ, guys.” He sighed, sitting down at the computer and typing into the password field, “USAF1234". The computer thought about it for a second and then flipped to the home screen. To his dismay, there was no flashing button that just said, “Press Here to Open Door.” Although, if there had been, it wouldn’t have surprised him given the security of their password. Why even write that down? Was it that hard to remember? After a few seconds, the screen flickered and new image took its place. The seal of the United States of America glowed outward as the words beneath it declared, “EVENT 111 COUNTERMEASURES IN EFFECT. REFER TO ACCOMPANYING RED BINDER FOR PROTOCOL INFORMATION.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Wallace asked no one in particular. He looked around the small office and in the metal cabinet, once again, he spotted a thin red binder sandwiched between various visitor and maintenance logs.

Inside were instructions on what to do during a catastrophic event to gain access to the facility should no one be able to open the door. Quickly he scanned the pages looking for the gist of what they said.

“Okay.” He finally announced. “We’re looking for a retina and fingerprint scanner.”

“What do they look like?” Kite wanted to know, but Wallace had no ready answer.

“I’m not sure.” He admitted. “Just look around and if you see something that looks expensive, that’s probably it.” They began to tear the office apart, which had the effect of drawing more attention than they might have wanted. Wallace had stopped caring. He was too close now.

The tiny office was in shambles, but they had still not found anything like a scanner. Wallace kicked the desk, slightly opening one of the drawers. Kite slid open the drawer.

“It won’t be in there, Kite.” Said Wallace. “It would be on the wall or…” He stopped speaking as Kite removed a black, plastic case from the drawer and opened it. Inside, packed in foam, was a small machine with a glass plate and a number pad. Above the plate was a small camera and a cord was coiled neatly beside it all. Wallace pulled the cord out but the connector was nothing like anything he had ever seen. There was no slot on the computer or anywhere in the office that looked like it was made to join with this equipment.

Outside, they heard a faint but unmistakable “boom”. Everyone in the tunnel instantly stopped moving and stared in the direction of the sound. Millie noticed but had no idea what they were doing. Instead, she had spotted something next to the mammoth door embedded in the granite. She made for the door but Grey stopped her.

“Wait.” He told her. “Something is happening.” Another boom was followed by sporadic gunfire that quickly grew in intensity. Soon, screams echoed down the corridor as civilians fled deeper into the mountain, running past the blast doors and further along the tunnel. Soldiers were making their way forward and it was clear the general had begun his attack.

“Fuck.” Spat Wallace. “That dickhead is early.” Millie tugged on his arm and pointed at the panel beside the blast door. A small black circle in its center seemed to be the same size and shape as the connector on the scanner. Wallace quickly unpacked the device and dashed outside. He said a silent prayer as he inserted the connector into its dock. It went in, turned clockwise, and clicked. “I’ve never been so happy to stick something in.” He said to Millie who laughed, despite the rising danger all around them.

The scanner blipped into life and showed the outline of a hand. Wallace looked back down the tunnel and he could see the Mormon forces forming up in a line. The general’s men must already be in the cave. That was quick.

“Grey!” He shouted over the rising noise of the guns. “Give me your hand.” He placed Grey’s hand on the screen and watched as a line went back and forth. After a painful pause, the screen blipped again and declared, “Please enter access code.” Wallace reached into Grey’s pocket and retrieved the letter. It was still folded in the shape of a lily. Quickly he punched in the numbers on the petals. 32951675. The general’s men were getting closer as more Mormon soldiers were emerging from further along in the tunnel, putting them directly in the middle of a gunfight. The stupid machine was taking its sweet time.

“Come on.” Wallace growled. “Come on.” Finally it blinked again and this time a small light above the camera glowed. “Present retina for scanning.” He held the device up to Grey’s confused face and a violet light shot out. When the scan was complete, the screen went dark causing Wallace’s ass to clench so hard it was probably bulletproof at that point. A few seconds passed and suddenly shone the words, “ACCESS AUTHORIZED. WELCOME, SENATOR STARR.” With a giant jolt, the door began to move, opening ever so slowly, and all those people who had been ignoring them, suddenly found them intensely interesting.

“Hey!” Shouted one of the soldiers, putting two and two together. “Who are you?” Wallace raised his hands innocently.

“We’re with you guys.” The Mormon soldier let his eyes bounce from Wallace, to Grey, to Millie and her weird machine, to Kite.

“No way.” He said, raising his weapon. “Stay right there!” He shouted and others joined in, all standing there, pointing guns at them.