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(37 votes) Published: May 05, 2000 12:00 a.m. Viewed 337 times
Again opening easily. Now we were at a stairwell, a small landing with railing directing us left to the stairs downward. Leading down, James showed no hesitation. At
the next landing a doorway was at the left, while right more steps went down. James went left a few steps.
When we caught up to him we could see a large room with a metal floor. About twenty feet away we could barely see a concrete column about three feet in diameter,
from floor to ceiling. James had not entered the room and we were standing just at the door. As far as we could see the room was empty, except for trash or debris on
the floor. The room was circular, about forty feet across, but our meager lights did not illuminate the entire room. James and I walked into the room, slowly walking
around the column. around one side of the column was a large mound of dirt.
Holding our candles above us we could see the escape hatch had been opened, the dirt was from the hatch. Beyond that there was nothing but a large empty room.
When we entered the room the floor was separated from the walls by about nine inches. The floor around the center column was also not connected any way that we
could see. As we walked around, again holding our candles high we could see that the floor was suspended from the ceiling.
Back to the stairs, we headed down again, I noticed that the air was getting heavier, more humid, but we were getting used to the smell. The railings were like new,
freshly painted. The stairs were metal and were showing some rustiness. Two more flights down we came to another room directly under the first. It was just as large,
but the ceiling was the metal floor of the room above. Pipes, and plumbing, electrical conduit, bare wires, and vents made for lots of shadows, making the ceiling, still
high above us, seem perilously close. More debris on the floor, part of a wall, and some old electronic consoles were scattered around. It was clear to us that
flashlights would have been much better than the candles.
The candles were only making the place seem more sinister, like a crypt or mausoleum. It occurred to me that this was more like descending into the world of the
Morlocks in "The Time Machine" than going into a cave. We had seen no bats, come to think of it no creatures of any kind. We all walked around this room, looking
for another way to go but finding none returned to the stairs. Another set of steps lead downward. James headed down along with Squirt, "This has to be the way to
the Silo" said Squirt. At the bottom of the stairs was another "blast door" as Alan called them. It was half open and rather than move it we eased by. Stepping across a
metal grate that acted as the floor, we entered a tunnel made from what looked like a corrugated drain pipe about seven, or eight feet in diameter with a narrow concrete
path poured in the bottom, we found a closed blast door.
It did not look to be welded but the latch was closed. Turning the lever that lifted the latch was not hard but made a horrific screeching sound in the quiet of the missile
base. The sound echoed from both beyond the door and behind us. We stopped and listened for several minutes, I guess expecting someone to catch us and stop us
from what now appeared total folly. We were all shivering, but not from temperature. For my part, fear. Squirt, undoubtedly fear, James, I think from anticipation.
This door did not move so easily, we all had to pull it, a few ear splitting inches at a time. When we entered the next area, thinking it would be the silo, we were met by
yet another blast door. It was unlatched and wide open. Beyond it all we could see was more of the awful blackness. This area also had the metal grate, and below the
grate was water. Unusual in the desert, to have water standing in an abandoned building. "The silo must be in there." said James. Thinking back on it now, James
suddenly did not seem so anxious to go in, but go in he did. As did Squirt and myself. Now we were in a larger room than the rooms before (Squirt called them the
launch control rooms)
The ceiling was a full thirty feet up, and barely visible in the flickering candle light. The massive doors that opened to fire the missile were visible, as were the mounts
for the gigantic hydraulic cylinders that opened the doors. Everything in here was huge. The far wall was not visible, but the floor was visible, it ended about fifteen feet
away. To the left it continued to follow the curve of the room for as far as we could see. To the right it ended abruptly. We stood there silent for a time, then moved to
the left. As we walked the floor set into a slight thrumming vibration, just from our movement. As we rounded the silo we found a service elevator. Well not the
elevator, but the elevator shaft. It was marked level 2.
The shaft went up as well as down, but looking upward there was no floor above us. Looking closer showed there had been a floor above, but it was now gone.
Presumably taken by the salvagers. We could also see where a railing around this floor had been cut away. From here we could see the other side. It was rounded like
where we were but had no floors, just the steel beams. Avoiding the edges we went back to the blast door. The edges of the floor were exposed on both sides, one
side into the abyss of the silo the other not extending to the wall, neither with any guard rail, anymore.
I wanted to leave, James and Alan wanted to find a way to go down. If you held your candle just so you could see the next level below us extending to the right, about
fifteen feet below. With all the candles held a certain way we could just make out a spiral staircase leading down, on the other side of the silo, on the level just below
us. The floors or "levels" did not extend across the silo, only extending about fifteen feet into the silo, and going about two thirds of the way around. the empty space
in the silo was for an Atlas F Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.
"How do we get down to the next level, guys" said James. I said "I don’t think we can. Maybe we should leave and come back later with a ladder or something." "Lets
keep looking, if we can get to the staircase we can go to the bottom." said James. " James, there is no way to get down there, if we jumped down to the next level we
couldn’t get back up." said Squirt. "I agree James, there just isn’t any way" I said. "Look, if we find a way will you guys go with me?" asked James. Confident there
was no way, I said "Sure" Squirt also said "Yes" "Ok, let’s look around" said James. I went back toward the elevator, James was looking at the silo wall, and Squirt
was looking down near the right hand side of the blast door.
Now James was the daredevil of the three, and I fancied myself as the reasonable one, Squirt was the "Scientist" of the group. He liked to solve problems, and fancied
himself as a logical being. (often speaking like Spock from Star Trek). "There is a 37.55% probability" (that sort of thing). Well he solved the problem of how to get
down to the next level, much to my dismay. He found an "I" beam that led off the level we were standing on, over to one of the main support vertical "I" beams, about
six feet away. On the other side of the beam was a conduit rack, that roughly resembled a ladder. It clearly did go to the floor below. The problem was the "ladder"
was between the silo wall and the steel.
To go down the "ladder" we would have to walk about six feet on an I beam (falling one way fifteen feet, the other way unknown) Then crawl around the vertical I
beam and onto the conduit grate. We could then crawl down the grate to the next floor from which the bottom would be easy to get to down the spiral staircase. Or so
the logic of our erstwhile "Spock". " How are we going to get down with the candles, Guys, this is stupid" I said. " What? are you gonna chicken out now?" said
James in a very accusatory way. "No" I said " But going down without the light is stupid."
Alan then came up with the logical plan. "James, you go first with your candle in your pocket. Mike and I will light your way. When you get to the floor below, light
your candle. You and I will light Mike’s way. When Mike gets down, I will follow with you guys lighting the way. Simple!"
I said "Wait a minute, we don’t know how deep this thing is if we fall it could kill us." James said "Look we are already three stories down, it couldn’t be that much
deeper. The floor below is probably the bottom. If we fall we might break a leg. But no one is going to fall. It’s simple, like climbing monkey bars, Ok lets get on with
it."
With that he blew out his candle put it in his pocket, and stepped onto the I beam. In three easy steps he was to the vertical beam, easily he stepped around it onto the
conduit "ladder" and began to descend. In short order he was standing below lighting his candle. It was my turn. Leaning against the wall of the silo I was able to
steady myself walking across the I beam. Not wanting to be out done I shifted onto the "ladder" Sticking my fingers into the grate and catching it with my shoes I also
descended quickly.
I comforted myself along the way in the sure knowledge that if I fell it wouldn’t be so bad, after all it wasn’t that deep. When I got to the next level James patted me on
the back, and mirroring my thoughts said "See that wasn’t so bad was It?" I just nodded and lit my candle. Squirt was already on the beam, soon he joined us without
comment. The nervousness that had permeated the group, now seemed to be gone, and a new sense of the explorer spirit was ours. We walked briefly around to the
elevator shaft, and finding nothing except a sign saying, Level 3, we headed to the spiral stair case. The staircase was narrow, allowing only a single file. James as
always went first, me second, Alan third. Down we went to the next level. Again we went around to the elevator shaft finding nothing new except, Level 4.
Down we went level 5, Level 6. Each level we went down raised my awareness the indeed it was "that deep" Down we went even another level, except there was no
floor. Our poor excuse for light was becoming more and more apparent. It was like descending to the depths of hell. But we couldn’t stop. We had decided to get to
the bottom, and we were going to give it our best try. I found myself hanging back from James, and likewise Alan from me. Our candles showed nothing of the
bottom. " James, Don’t you think we’ve gone far enough?" I said " This stair case is beginning to move!"
"Yeah" said James" It is moving quite a bit down here." Just then I noticed the stair case no longer was bolted to the steel, but only tied off with what appeared to be
baling wire. " JAMES STOP. " I yelled just as James yelled himself. I couldn’t make out what James said, for my own yelling, the next I heard all to well " Shit!!
HELP!!" James said.
"What’s wrong?" yelled Alan, all our hearts racing. I went down to find James hanging by one arm .
"Help me up, Mike. " said James, but he was already pulling himself up. I positioned myself on the stairs to help him up. By this time the stairs were actually swinging,
not much but some. We retreated to the level above.
"What happened? What happened?" asked Squirt.
"I was going along like always" said James " Then Mike yelled so I tried to stop in mid step. But there wasn’t any step. My foot just kept going. I fell on the steps,
grabbed at the railing, but slid off. The stairs just ended! Damn, I dropped my candle, too."
Your lucky your not dead! Stupid! Your supposed to watch where the hell your going!" I was losing it. Trembling more than ever now, Alan was visibly shaken, and
so was James. I was both scared and angry. "Why did you yell Mike?"James asked
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