AK 239: The Enemy Is Already Here

As we near a mine entrance, I have to stop as I’m not in as good of shape as I was sixteen years ago.

There are no boards or doors or anything. Just a black hole that looks just like the crevasse into which Trevor fell at the top of Mt. Hood just days ago.

Al encouragingly says, “It’ll be OK. The Russians are on the other side of the mountain right now.”

I’m suspicious. I look around but without any other real choice I head into the mine with Al.

Inside the mine it’s actually much warmer than in the snow. Al turns on a halogen light he picks up from behind some rocks and I continue to follow him.

As we walk deeper and deeper into the mine Jennifer mumbles something.

I stop.

“You okay?”

Jennifer is too weak to speak but moves her good arm up to her wound. It’s bleeding again.

“Oh hell!” I exclaim as I stop and put her down.

I rip off my shirt, tear it and put it around her wound and chest. Suddenly everything goes black.

I look down the vein and see Al has travelled so far that there is nothing between him and me except blackness.

“Hey! She’s bleeding!”

Al responds, “Then c’mon!”

I have no choice but to trust this crazy old man. I lift Jennifer and now carry her in my arms.  I have to run in pitch black toward Al’s light.

Al finally shines his halogen lamp toward me. It is a good thing as there is a rock that I would’ve hit. The fall could’ve killed us as we would’ve likely fallen onto some larger boulders.

Again, I feel like I’m in my elementary school hall with a fever and running forever.

I finally catch up to Al and just keep running. Al now starts walking fast behind me and shining the halogen on my path.

We finally come to a three way split in the mountain. Two ways are pitch black. The other way an iron gate with thick bars block their way. Several signs are hanging on the steel bars that say,

DANGER HIGH RADIATION AREA

NO TRESPASSING

PERSONAL MONITORING EQUIPMENT REQUIRED

Without pausing, Al pulls a bunch of keys from his belt and puts one in the lock, opening the gate. Al starts down the tunnel then realizes I’m still standing at the gates. Al flashes the light back to me, I’m still frozen, staring at the signs.

“C’mon.”

Again, I figure I really have no choice and follow Al.

The cave walls soon turn into a reddish brown.

I’m probably getting poisoned and will end up like Madame Curie.

Now I see Jennifer is bleeding again and I set her down.

I try to stop the bleeding but can’t.

“Al, how much farther?” I look up and Al has vanished.

“AL!”

Al is nowhere to be seen or heard.

Now I’m screaming, “AL!”

Nothing.

I try to feel for a pulse on Jennifer’s wrist.

Nothing. I try to feel for a pulse on her neck.

Nothing.

I’m walking in absolute blackness when someone grabs my arm. It’s Al.

He takes me in another direction, just a few yards.

We now stop at a solid steel wall with a solid steel door.

“I hope you have the key?”

“Nope.” Al says with confidence.

Al wonders down the side of this shaft until he finds another shaft, which is hard to see as a giant boulder sits in the way.

“C’mon. We’re almost there!” says Al.

Again with hesitation, I follow.

This vein in the mountain is much smaller and I can barely fit. My six foot four-inch frame has to bend down to keep going. Al has now crawled into this tiny space about four feet off the ground.

“What are you doing?”

Al says, “You have to hand her to me.”

I say, “What?”

I can’t believe Al has even fit into this space. I set Jennifer down and use my phone’s flashlight to look at her face.

I open Jennifer’s eyelids, one at a time, and her pupils are rolled upwards and are dilated. This signifies brain death.

I have no choice but to push her lifeless body into the tiny space.

Al pulls her out of sight.

I can barely crawl into this tiny hole.

I flash my light down the hole and Al has disappeared with Jennifer’s body around a corner.

This crawlspace looks no larger than a ventilation duct in a large office building.

In fact, that’s exactly what this is as suddenly a blast of air comes rushing through the vent.

We continue to crawl on our stomachs.

I’m pushing Jennifer and Al is pulling.

We finally reach a large opening. Al fumbles through a bunch of keys and can’t find the right one.

Finally, he says, “Duh!”

He grabs a key from around his neck and sticks it into the lock.

Al opens the ventilation door near the ground and we push and pull a lifeless Jennifer onto a stockroom floor filled with supplies. This room is probably twenty feet high and maybe fifty feet by fifty feet on its sides. I can’t believe the amount of supplies in here. I pick Jennifer up and we run through this room and exit out another door.

We are in a very modern facility hall. Bright lighting, smooth floor, and a camera system are all part of the hallway.

I can’t believe that we’re inside a mountain in Alaska!

It could be any modern office building!

Al waits ’til the camera pans away from us before taking me down to a door.