She nodded eagerly. Now she couldn’t get the image out of her mind of snow burying both of them.
Riggs pulled her forward and pointed to the ground. “I’m guessing the previous owners were preppers of some sort because of this.”
Looking down, Carlise realized Riggs had cleared the snow in a small area in front of the pines. She saw a small open door with a ladder leading into the ground. “What the heck?” she asked in confusion.
Riggs chuckled. “When I bought the property up here, the realtor told me about this place. It’s a doomsday bunker, as far as I can tell. It’s not huge, just enough for a couple of people. There are metal shelves, which were stocked with some old military MREs and some jugs filled with water. My friends and I cleaned it out, so it’s empty now.”
Her curiosity piqued, Carlise stepped toward the hole. When shut, the door would be flush to the ground, and she assumed it would blend in with the dirt in the summer. Inspecting the door, she saw a large ring on the outside, obviously to open it, and there was what looked like some sort of hydraulic system attached to the underside.
“Can I go down there?” she asked.
“Of course. Be careful going down the ladder. It’s not that deep, but it would still hurt if you fell.”
“Are you coming too?” she asked.
For the first time, Riggs looked uncomfortable. “I don’t do so well in enclosed spaces,” he said with a small shrug.
Carlise felt awful for him. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. I’ve been in there but would rather not go in again unless I have to.”
She nodded. “I can just look from up here.”
“No,” he said firmly. “My phobias aren’t yours. I can see you’re curious, and it’s why I brought you here. I had a feeling you’d be intrigued. Go on, I’ll be fine up here.”
“Is there a chance I could be locked in?” she asked.
“No. No way. It actually only locks from the inside. So once in, you can keep others out but not the other way around. That’s why I figured it was a doomsday kind of bunker. Those inside would want to keep the rest of humanity out.”
Carlise nodded. She walked closer to the hole in the ground and looked down. It was dark in the bunker, and before she could have second thoughts or ask Riggs if he had a flashlight, his hand appeared with exactly what she needed.
“Here, it’s a strong light. You can put it on the floor once you’re inside, and it should light up the entire interior.”
Smiling at him, Carlise sat in the snow at the edge of the hole and put her feet on the ladder rungs. She quickly descended into the bunker and looked around in fascination after putting the flashlight on the floor. The beam illuminated the space exactly as Riggs had said it would. Looking up, she saw him squatting at the entrance.
“It’s so cool,” she said with a smile.
“We left the shelves in there because it would’ve been a pain in the ass to take them out. I’m assuming the previous owner built them while down there because they won’t fit through the door as they are now. The back corner held a chemical toilet, and if you look really close in the back left-hand side, you can see a hole in the ceiling that’s been filled in.”
Carlise walked deeper into the bunker and looked at where Riggs was directing. Sure enough, there was a small hole.
“That’s the air hole. Cal thinks there was probably some sort of fan attached to suck air down, or up, if needed. We covered it up, though, so no critters could get in and then get stuck.”
There was what looked like the remnants of a metal cot in the space as well. There wasn’t a mattress on it anymore, though. Looking around, Carlise could just imagine a family sitting in here as the world raged above their heads. She’d translated a few apocalypse and alien invasion books and could clearly picture a group of people hunkered underground, trying to survive in a world turned upside down.
She walked back to the hole, where Riggs was still crouched. “This really is cool.”
“Yeah,” Riggs said. “I couldn’t bring myself to have it removed. Not many people know about it, so I’m not really worried about anyone using it for nefarious purposes. And it’s not like someone would just stumble onto it. No one comes out here except for me and the occasional hunter, but it’s kind of hard to find unless you know what you’re looking for.”
Carlise picked up the flashlight and took one last look around the bunker before she grabbed hold of the ladder. The container was just tall enough for her to stand upright. She had a feeling Riggs would have to stoop a bit when he was inside. There were only about eight rungs to the top, and as soon as she got high enough, Riggs’s hand went under her elbow to assist her out.