Continuum

"Dad? What now? We reached the end." His dad looked out of it. Mike shinned the light toward his face. Stevo was alert and peering into the blackness around them.

"Shine your light down, Mike. The floor can't be more than a foot or two below us."

Mike moved the light behind him, trying to shine it below his father's pallet. He saw nothing. "We've come almost 1200 feet down, Pops. There is no floor I can see down there. We are really stuck."

"Mike. Drop my light and see how far down it falls. It will stay lit. Then we will know."

Mike complied, carefully dropping the light where he could see it fall. It landed almost immediately on the floor below them. "Its about a couple of yards down, Pops. We are still stuck. I can jump down, but how am I gonna get you down?"

"Let the pallet down first. Hook me to the rope for a minute and undo the rope to the pallet. It's about twenty feet long. You can use it to lower me the rest of the way."

Mike quickly did as his dad suggested, considering he was upside down, carrying a heavy backpack, and working over the huddled form of his father who was secured to the rope under him. The pallet hit the floor. Working the remaining rope into a cradle, Mike placed the loop under his father's arms and carefully lowered Stevo the remaining distance. Then he followed the rope down.

"Lets get you back into the pallet, Pops." Mike raised the pallet on its wheels, lifting Stevo into it. Stevo gratefully lay down again, while his son raised the handle. They made a strange pair of explorers.

Mike placed his lantern on his shoulder patch, aiming it out in front. It was time to look this alien place over.

"Raise my head, Mike." Stevo wanted to see all he could here. He didn't want to miss any of it, after fifty years of being gone.

Mike called his brothers to let them know they had made it down. He told them he thought the floor must be made of metal, for it made a strange noise as he pushed his father's pallet in the darkness. Soon they saw a grey wall before them. "What is it, Pops?"

"This is one of those buildings I told you about. I was worried we would end up on top of one of these."

"There is no doors or windows, just like you described it. We got to find the resting place of your friend, if she still exists after all these years."

"Once we find that park, she cannot be very far."

It took them most of a day to map out the opening to the outside tunnel, the park, and the closet where the lights were turned on. Mike and Stevo were greatly disappointed that between them they could not activate the lights from the closet.

Stevo was growing weaker as the hours dragged on. They found more closets in the side of a building near the park, but they were full of dust. Strange that in a pristine city of metal there would be dust in those closets.

"Pops. We been at this for more than a day. I need to sleep and so do you. We will look around some more in the morning. Its time for your pills anyway." Mike again called on the radio to his brothers, giving them an update.

Stevo wearily agreed, lying back onto his meager bed. He felt utter defeat. Mary, his beloved friend was undoubtably gone to dust. They slept fitfully in the utter quiet of that alien place. Mike's bedroll did little to soften the hardness of the metal floor at his back.