Episode 10

It's been a couple of days since I have been able to write about the first walkthrough of whatever was behind the rusty door.

When I did get back (and I'll write about the experience, I promise), house was super clean. Like, cleaner than we usually leave it. There were flowers in a vase on the dining room table with a note that read "We cleaned up."

From what I can gather, the corporation swept the house. In all senses of the word. Apparently not only was the house cleaned up, but also we were checked for bugs, the computers scanned and secured, and general security checked. You know, no breaches of privacy or anything like that.

I'm not sure how I feel about all that, but at least the house got cleaned.

So that morning the rest of my family went to visit some friends and I went down the access road towards the clearing. I walked around in the ravine for a little bit, "bird watching" and in generally trying to "allude pursuers." I get it worked because when I stood in front of the rusty door, I heard a pneumatic hiss and the door opened inward.

A single lightbulb dangled from a wire in the center of the ceiling of a small room. Besides the rusty door, the other four walls were bare concrete. I was a little confused; I had assumed the rusty door would lead into a giant underground lair like in "M.I.B." or "Captain America." I was underwhelmed.

The rusty door hissed shut behind me and I turned around in a panic. A voice came from a speaker hidden somewhere in the ceiling. "Relax, please." The walls puffed a quick staccato of compressed air and I guessed it was like the security screening at the airport, sniffing for explosives or drugs or something. Then a series of colored lights shone around the entire room, sweeping over me and everything else in empty space. The colored lights turned off.

A second passed and then with a series of unlocking clicks, the wall across from the rusty door began to separate. Even though I hadn't checked the walls closely, I hadn't noticed any cracks or hinges. On the other side of the opening was a well-lit hallway. The voice came over the speaker again. "Go to the end of hall and turn left."

I left the small room and continued down the short hallway as the door slid back shut behind me. After only a couple of strides, I was at the intersection at the end of the hall way. I turned left despite no signage. In a few more steps, a glass door separated the hallway from the secret base I had hoped to find!