In the Ruins

On the outskirts of what had once been the teeming metropolis of San Francisco, a group of teenagers were investigating an old, abandoned automotive factory. Their teachers were half-heartedly monitoring their explorations, cataloging any artifacts the children unearthed, and mostly keeping to their own council. At any given time, one of them would be in contact with the nearest military facility, Travis Air Force Base, in case an evacuation was called for. The others just watched students, cataloged findings, and hoped the day would end soon and without incident.

At one location within the factory, at a spot just out of view of the guards, Sandra Cummings, a pretty girl of almost seventeen years with short red hair and a face full of freckles, approached a young boy with long, dark hair. “Happy birthday, Nick!” she called out. “Found anything yet?”

The boy, Nicholas Sato, turned to look at her and smiled shyly. Slightly tongue-tied, he stammered: “I-i don’t, ah don’t think… oh wait, what is this?”

He moved a large, but surprisingly light, piece of scrap metal out of the way, and revealed an ancient door, with a clearly broken mechanical lock.

“That lock might be worth taking back if we can get it out of the wall,” Sandra mused.

More interested in what might be beyond the door, Nicholas merely grunted agreement and pulled out his tool kit. He began removing screws, and Sandra moved to help him. She kept trying to draw his attention away from the task at hand but he was a man obsessed, and barely even noticed her presence until he had the lock completely removed from the wall. Then he saw how close she was to him, and blushed furiously.

“Hey, is there writing on that door?” Sandra suddenly said.

Nicholas turned and saw what she had barely made out - a sign, faded by time and covered by dirt. Together they cleared enough of it to read: “United States Military Testing Project. Authorized Personnel Only “

They looked at each other, their faces inches apart, and Sandra did what she had been thinking of doing ever since she saw him go here, out of sight of their teachers: she kissed him.

It was a quick, mostly innocent kiss, but it rattled the young man and led to him stumbling back, into the door…

Which burst open from his weight.

Beyond the door, a flight of stairs descended into darkness. Cobwebs and dust covered everything.

Seeing this, Nicholas flashed a huge grin at his companion: “I’m going in!”

“It might be dangerous,” Sandra complained. “We should tell the teachers first.”

Nick paused for a moment, and then said: “Maybe you’re right. Take the lock to one of the teachers and tell them what we found. I’ll stand guard here until you get back, Okay?”

Sandra hesitated. “Look, Nick, I… well, I like you, so don’t go doing anything stupid, okay? I’ll be back before you know it!”

“Sure thing Sandra. Go, hurry!” he exclaimed.

She winked at him and rushed off to find a teacher.

As soon as she was out of sight, he turned on the flashlight from his tool kit and headed down the stairs …

***

As Sandra found the nearest teacher, Mister Hakamoto, an alarm began to blare, and Missus Parker, the teacher who was talking to the military, bellowed: “get everyone out of here! Two fliers are inbound! Get to the buses now!”

The call was amplified by her field suit’s mechanical systems and broadcast through receivers on all of the school-issued toolkits.

***

Unfortunately, Nicholas Sato was well on his way down the stairs, unaware that the material used in their construction blocked the signals from the teachers’ suits…

At the bottom of the stairs, Nicholas found another large steel door with a mechanical lock, but this one was already slightly ajar and the writing was easier to make out with his flashlight: “USM Titan Defense Project M78.”

Fascinated, the young man pushed the door fully open and stepped inside.