“Okay! You keep everyone distracted. I will be back soon,” Jojo instructed his younger brothers.
“If you get in trouble, we will be listening for your beep,” said Buddy, referring to the headset’s sound when someone was trying to reach them.
Jojo took off at dawn. They had camped early the evening before. Buddy had claimed to be feeling unwell and then Jojo had used the excuse to stop a little early. They’d wanted to camp close to the shelter entrance, but not too close, so that Jojo could survey the situation first.
Once away from the Victorians, Jojo donned his headset. The maps appeared, and he was tracking toward the entrance, which was about one mile away.
“Where is he?” asked Jojo, a little concerned.
“He has left on the train to meet you. At the moment, there is a technical difficulty with communication from the train. I will give you the information you need.”
“Thank you, Dream.”
Jojo ran along, following the course, and within minutes, he arrived at the designated location.
“Okay. So, where is it?” Jojo asked. Dream zoomed in so that his view matched the real environment precisely. It was a superimposed image recorded by Sparrow, the local drone.
“Turn slowly to your left until you see the indicator, which marks the location.”
Jojo complied, and it led him to precisely the location.
“Here?”
“Yes. The entrance is precisely as marked.”
Jojo was looking at the ground in front of him. A yellow, square-shaped, dotted line had been marked out in front of him. He grabbed a big stick from the ground and dug deeply into the dirt and rock along where his headset had the line drawn. Then, he planted the big stick in the middle as a marker.
“The ground is pretty soft. That’s good.”
“It is disturbed sedimentary rock. It was done by a powerful detonation.”
“Okay. I will go get my friends, and we will start digging here. Thanks!”
“You are welcome, Jojo.”
Soon the entire group of eight was assembling makeshift digging tools, and they began going at it. Some were digging with the tools, while others were lifting and removing rocks from an emerging hole in the ground at the base of a hill.
“Hey, Jojo!” called Davan. Are you sure?” He was showing some disillusionment.
“I’m sure.” Jojo moaned as he heaved a big rock from the waist-high hole in which he was standing.
“Hey! I found something!” Buddy suddenly burst out. He was down in the hole that was only a few yards from Jojo.
“It’s a flat place … definitely not natural.”
They all ran over to observe. It was a horizontal, perfectly flat, and level surface that was much too refined to be an accident of nature.
“That’s it!” Jojo cried. “Let’s dig it out! Several hours later, after their backbreaking work, they had dug out a complete stairwell leading below ground. It led to a massive door with no handle. Banging on the door was like pounding the mountain itself. There was no indication that such a thing was anything other than part of the mountain.
Jojo pulled out his headset at this point. “Hey!” cautioned Buddy. “What are we doing, Jo?”
“What? You think Pa doesn’t see that all of us are here?” Jojo began. “And when the door opens, then what? We go in, and they stay out here? And walk home? Without the bird watching over them? No. It’s time. We all need to get back to Eden.”
“Okay, big brother. I agree with you totally,” Buddy explained.
“Me too,” said Ajay.
Jojo started to call. “Pa! Pa!” There was nothing.
“Dream!” Still nothing.
Jojo kept trying to reach his father or Dream, but there was no answer. After several hours, with the brothers explaining some things, but not everything, to their new, close friends, there was still no response.
“He must still be on the way. It’s far! Look how long it took us to get here,” reasoned Ajay, who was reclined with Elona, who was also reclined and was using him as a backrest.
“I hope so,” said Buddy. “Dream could at least answer us, though. What is wrong with her?”
“You guys are crazy. Are you just making up stories?” asked Della.
“No! Just wait. You’ll see.” No sooner had Buddy finished speaking than a green light flickered to life next to the mighty door.
“Hey! It’s him! He’s here!” shouted Jojo. All of them stood, still covered in dust, fixated on the door in anticipation.
“Pa?!” They waited. “Dream?!” Ajay walked to the door and put his ear to it to see if he could hear anything. Nothing. Suddenly, the door started to open inward with a whirring sound. The boys hooted for joy with so much anticipation of seeing their father. The Victorian kids were stunned, and a couple of them backed away a few steps in disbelief. As the door opened fully and the light emanated from within, the boys rushed toward it. The Victorians, however, continued to hold their ground. Then Ajay, who was in the lead, stopped short just inside the entryway. Buddy and Jojo came up next to him.
“Grandpa! What are you doing here?!” Buddy said, simply thinking out loud. “Where’s my father?” The boys gazed upon their grandfather, the Chair, who was smiling joyfully.
“Hello, boys!”
At that moment, the detachment of soldiers flanking the Chair rushed out around the boys and seized the Victorian teens, except for Zak, who had been standing the farthest away from the group. He was too fast, and took off running.
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