The Narrow Way

A Work In Progress

The Narrow Way - Section One -

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Hi Mom,

Me again. Remember that ad I checked out from the research company ? Well, after rounds and rounds of questions and weird tests, I have nailed a job. It involves some sort of studies, with certain persons being paid as subjects. Persons like me ! If it's anything like what it took to get the job, then it should be interesting and the pay is not bad. I'd love to tell you more but the Non Disclosure Agreement is pretty strict.

Anyhow, off to my new job, I don't wanna keep the company shuttle waiting.

Love

Richard

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The evening was somewhat cool for the Central Valley of California, considering its usually mild weather, but it was not intolerably so this night. The moonless night had started out clear enough, but as the hours wore on, fog had begun to condense and accumulate among the streets and buildings. Already the stars were beginning to get fuzzy and indeterminate. Once begun, it was perhaps inevitable that the fog would only thicken and thicken. Such being the nature of Tule Fog, thick patches merged with thin ones and so it went. Eventually even the aroma of the air was heavy with the odd scent which belongs only to heavy fog.

High pressure sodium lamps scattered about the property created zones of disembodied aerial incandescence as if they inhabited the space as gravity defying ghosts. The quality of their illumination quickly fading to nothing in mere feet as the vision smothering whiteness grew more and more dense. Shrouded within this formless fog, sundry industrial buildings hunkered and hid whatever secrets they knew. The commercial property appeared uninhabited and abandoned for the night, behind its gates and fences. And upon those fences, resided the usual prominent signs and warnings, at regularly spaced intervals, warnings of the terrible consequences of trespassing if one was so foolish as to do so.

If there was security it was not obvious. In fact, it was deliriously discreet ... and yet rampant. While to the circumspect eye, the Sodium Lamps were obviously distanced far too far apart, other sources of illumination, not visible to the human eye, were in fact, excessive in their promiscuity. Thusly for any device enabled to function by their illumination, every inch and corner of the space was as brightly lit as a movie set. Concealed illuminators had as their companions, at least as many if not more, motion sensing infrared cameras of every shape and size necessary to the task. And buried inside one of those nameless buildings, a wall of first quality monitors and video hard disk recorders to which they were fed, screamed of serious funding expended extravagantly. Perhaps more intriguing, if only passers by ever noticed, was how very many of the illuminators and cameras were intently aimed into all quarters of the sky.

Even though the night was still young, the fog, famous for its impenetrability, continued to gather and obscure everything that could be seen with normal optics. Still, microwave devices arranged in some of the most arcane fashions, warded many of those area now occluded from the view of the myriad infrared cameras.

The minutes and hours advanced much as they do every night.

Far from view and blocks away, a manhole cover accessing an array of communications punch blocks was lifted aside. A shadowed figure descended into the junction room and waited.

Miles away, a radio communications center suffers a series of inexplicable electrical faults and finally goes off line.

On a mountain top sometimes visible on the distant horizon, a microwave relay tower gets a late night visitor. The door lock into the cinder block substructure is defeated with a simple bump key. A shadow disappearing through that slowly closing door only to wait.

A block away from the fog shrouded building complex, a nameless ordinary armored truck resides at the curb, its diesel engine idling quietly, but otherwise the vehicle is dark inside and out. Within its stolid interior, resides a number of metal cabinets with steel handles and hinged snap latch lids, mil surplus of some sort, all being kept warm and toasty by heating equipment bootstrapped into that space.

Over the hours the fog continues to extend its obscuring grip and also its inchoate cloak of smothering silence.

Towards the latter hours before midnight the first tendrils of fog begin to reach up and over the last and tallest of buildings. And in the following hours, subsuming them all under tens of feet of the fluffy swirling blindness. On the monitors inside the security rooms, the infrared cameras see only the constantly changing densities of the endlessly drifting fog.

Shadows gather in the fog. Formless specters of unknown nature. Imagination perhaps, or maybe not.

A time of significance arrives.

The business band repeater on a building half a mile away .... fails.

Oddly so also do the various cellphone towers with reach enough to cover the location of the commercial buildings.

Within the underground junction room the fine wires are ripped and shredded from their punch blocks while the multi-hundred pair mains and fiber optics are snipped and severed.

A power switch is thrown on a mountain top silencing a microwave relay station.

Shadows descend from the starlit sky, floating down only to disappear into the swirling vapors, while starlight cameras on the roof of the main building view only impenetrable fog.

Spread spectrum emitters activate on adjacent rooftops, swamping local radio activity with high energy noise. They are joined by series of battery eating spark gaps.

antennas of every shape and size are sheared from their scaffold.

Arrays of rooftop antennas are sheared from their scaffolds and towers as attention goes also to dishes aimed at satellites 20,000 miles in space. Huge swaths of aluminized mylar are wrapped around the bulging dishes, smothering their microwave screams.

On the rooftops and streets, silence continues to hold sway after the brief flurry of noises. From time to time, around the perimeters of the buildings, the flash of actinic light is seen. Soon, all the external exits save one, have been welded securely shut. A couple of miles away, in a power substation, a pile of something resembling Christmas tree tinsel is dropped onto the terminals of a specific transformer. The industrial district plunges into darkness.

Alert ears listen. And there it is, as battery operated starters help the on site generator kick in. The sound suggesting a Cummins diesel. Swiftly the exhaust of the generator is located, something inserted and a moment later with a dull WHOOMP, the generator is silenced.

A gathering of dark forms floats down to the roof of the main building.

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Within:

Is consternation and chaos as the security room is filled with the warning whistles, buzzes, chirps, rings and chimes of failed subsystems, all demanding attention at once. Building management displays show systems problems in every quarter. The lights flicker, fail and then come briefly back to life, until the generator dies. All is darkness save for the displays of the monitors, computers and systems management gear. Meanwhile, the UPS adds the whine of its speeding up cooling fans together with its pitiful chirps of warning to the cacophony as it drains the life from the racks and racks of semi sized batteries which are now its only source of life.

Still, the fortune in monitors display only fog, fog and still more swirling fog.

One by one, the various warning sounds are silenced manually. In a corner, a flashing light indicates 'no phone service' but nobody notices as those within smile in relief at the renewed silence. Realizing that service may be needed, a call is attempted to the power company, The line yields no dial tone. Wasn't it supposed to bypass the regular phone system for the building and be direct to the telco ? Cellphones are tried, but no surprise, of course they don't work. The building is designed to be a Faraday Cage. So the satellite uplink is the next logical attempt. Nothing. Computer screens are then noticed to be displaying NO CONNECTION from the building LAN to the outside world. A quick check of the server, which is inside the secured area, shows that it seems to be working. But ... no world wide web ... none.

The room begins to reek of sweat and fear.

Something is up.

In a brief moment of silence, filled only with the sounds of rapid breathing, there is suddenly the shriek of rending steel. Coming from overhead towards the center of the building. Orders are given and the security staff rushes to secure against any intruders. In the center of the building, a huge concrete structure resides, constructed of endless layers of reinforcing bar and concrete. Set in one side is a large door that one might imagine would be found securing the bullion at Fort Knox.

This however is not Fort Knox.

The rending from the roof continues without abate or pause. The shrieks of the rending metal extremely painful to human ears. The flashlights of scattering security officers pierce the infinite darkness only to show the destruction of the roof. No shots are fired. This steel is too thick and it shields whatever labors on the roof. A massive plate rips completely loose and disappears from view. Another comes loose and is also yanked away. The hole is much larger now, and fog begins to flow like a river into the gaping hole. Another plate is torn from its roots but is instead flung into that gaping hole with incredible spin, ripping through the officers unfortunate enough to be in its path.

Then

Only

Silence

Fog, an endless sea of it flows through the huge section of missing roof. And for many minutes, there is nothing but the yells of guards to one another, the agonized cries of the injured and dying and the sound of running feet.

More silence.

Then

The sound of a pop from up top, near the hole in the roof, followed by the sound of a can hitting the floor. A horrible sting, the lungs gasp for air, but can only wheeze and cough, the eyes begin to burn wildly. Oddly remedy for this resides unused in lockers easily reached, but nobody thinks in time to fetch them. Shadows drop down through the hole in the roof, landing upon the comfortably warm concrete of the bunker. Ghostly apparitions, they seem as if they are the children of the fog. Another easy jump and they are on the floor. Some attack the remaining officers efficiently dispatching them, but the bulk head directly for the reinforced vault door and begin to shred it as if it were made of Baclava.

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A block away. A patrolling police cruiser rolls along in the darkness. A radio call from dispatch requests assistance involving a brawl in a bar downtown. Lights popping on the cruiser speeds away towards busier, better lit portions of the community.

Once the cruiser is gone, the armored truck, residing all this time at a corner with its diesel idling, pulls slowly away from the curb and slides without lights, through the fog, towards the anonymous industrial building. Approaching one of the myriad gates, which is now open, the armored truck turns and enters, driving across the asphalt within the perimeter. Soon enough it comes to rest immediately adjacent to the one door not welded shut, though welding gear seems to be waiting there just for that one singular task.

The twin rear doors of the armored truck are thrown open. Shadows remove the large metal containers within with gusto and swiftly they are carried inside the industrial building. Also removed are myriad metal cylinders, which for the moment are simply stacked against the structure.

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Inside, the metal containers are briskly arranged reasonably close to the shapeless figures still diligently shredding the massive door. Already the innards and workings are being torn out and flung aside. A pause in the efforts and a group of these shadows tug mightily at the door which groans but still holds. The renewal of shredding which ensues is awesome in its vigour. Shortly another effort is made to force the entirely mangled barrier. And in this attempt, the ruined remains are pulled squealing and protesting upon their still extant hinges out of the way.

Within the bunker, all that prevents ingress is a stainless steel cage barrier which is dispatched as if an afterthought.

The shadows draw back from the entrance, only one remaining which passes quietly and carefully into its interior.

A hiss of indrawn breath is heard, then after, only more silence. One by one, the metal containers are carried into the bunker. And one by one but with a surprising level of delicacy, they are carried out and brought to the armored truck. There they are carefully placed, padded and anchored to the floor.. One by one by one. Finally a last container arrives. It is strapped down, then the unused containers are fixed in place as spacers and chocks then finally the truck is closed, bolted, barred and locked. In moments it is sliding out the gate and disappearing down the street to who knows where.

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The stack of cylinders are collected and rushed into the building. Scattering to all regions of the structure, the shadows find preplanned locations and ripping off air sealed tabs, initiate oxygen activated fuses. Within the cylinders, generous volumes of iron oxide and aluminum are mixed with myriad other substances. Once they have been distributed the last of the shadows emerge into the heavy fog and the last door is welded shut.

As mysteriously as they had come, the shadows slipped away from the scene. The open gate was closed and locked shut, then all was silence and darkness once more.

Only the swirling dank tule fog remained.

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They say in those parts.

That it was one of the most spectacular industrial fires that anyone could ever remember.

The only statement from the fire department, was that it was the most intractable fire they had ever dealt with. It just would not go out.

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Aside from the fire. Nothing else was ever officially reported for public consumption regardomg the events, the facility or its purpose.