We arrived in Minneapolis. Rough roads, obstacles, and a few detours made for some slow travel. Jillian sat quietly as she watched her once familiar surroundings falling into decay; A once quaint neighborhood.

  “Sixth house on the left.” Jillian said. I parked the R/V in the street in front of her family’s home and turned it off.

  “Do you want me to go in?” I asked.

  “No… well okay, yea, sure.” Jillian said staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. She closed her eyes as she took a deep breath and exhaled. The dogs sensed her sadness as I put on their packs.

  I exited the R/V with Ginger and Pete and walked up to the front door. Jillian was sitting in the R/V still looking straight ahead. The front door was locked. It did not seem right to breech the door with the AA-12, so I pulled the small blue crowbar from Pete’s pack and opened the front door.

  “Ginger. Pete. Stay.” I said as both dogs sat down and obeyed the command. No signs of struggle, actually the house was very neat and organized. Pictures of Jillian and her family on the wall; Jillian at various ages. I picked out the grade school picture of her with freckles and missing front teeth, and smiled.

  Jillian appeared at the front door and startled me a little. She was emotionless except for streaks of tears on her cheeks. She walked to what appeared to be the basement door. It was locked.

  “Do you want me to go down first?” I asked quietly. She shook her head ‘yes’, not being able to speak words. I pried the door open and the smell was pretty bad. I put on my respirator and turned on my light. “Look for an envelope or something on a piece of paper.” Jillian said, just barely.

  Her dad was lying on a couch and her mom collapsed across him sitting on the floor in an embrace. No sign of communication, letter or anything. Again, very neat and organized I thought. I performed a detailed search, even looking in her mom and dad’s hands, just in case they were clutching something; nothing.

  “They died together.” I said to Jillian as I pulled the respirator from my face and hugged Jillian. She backed up from me and grabbed the light from my hand as I handed the respirator to her. I could hear her stifled flat toned crying through the respirator as she descended down the stairs. Jillian returned in about three minutes on shaking legs. She pulled off the respirator and she cried out; “She was wearing the bracelet I got her last Christmas!” Jillian said going into a fit of uncontrolled emotion.

  “My dad still had his glasses on...WHY did he have his glasses on!” Jillian said as she slowly collapsed on the floor to her knees. Watching Jillian in so much pain, I could not help crying myself. The dogs came over and sat next to us as I pushed the basement door shut. It snapped closed with finality that seemed to echo like a tomb. Jillian started to get up and I assisted her.

  “You’re right. It’s nothing more than an empty shell.” Jillian said wiping the tears from her face. Jillian grabbed a few pictures from the wall, a few pieces of jewelry from her mom’s jewelry box and a very ‘colorful’ purple neck tie from the bedroom.

  “I got this for my dad’s birthday when I was eleven years old; my favorite color. It matched none of his suits but he wore it anyway.” Jillian said slightly smiling with puffy red eyes. Jillian looked around the house for a final time.

  “Let’s go. I’m done here.” Jillian said as she swiftly walked out and into the R/V. As I put the R/V in gear I glanced toward Jillian sitting in the passenger seat and slammed on the brakes.

  “What’s wrong?” Jillian asked me with a very concerned look on her face. I pointed to the mail box just barely visible outside her door.

  “Outgoing mail?” The red flag was in the ‘up’ position. I backed up enough for her to get out and investigate. She opened the mail box and pulled out an envelope. Jillian covered her mouth with her hand, as a wave of emotion engulfed her body. She opened the envelope and started reading a folded piece of paper. She smiled and looked toward me and returned to the letter. More tears appeared on her face as she smiled and put the envelope back in the mail box. Jillian entered the R/V and came over and gave me a wet salty kiss.

  “Now, we can go.” Jillian said, looking very content and showing signs of closure that satisfied any doubt.

  We drove for about one hour without saying anything, and I wondered what information was contained in the letter. I finally had to ask.

  “Well? What did it say?” I asked.

  “I’ll tell you… maybe, one day.” Jillian said with a small nod of her head and giving me a loving smile.

  “I know that look! We are already way behind schedule!” I said.

  “Just take the next right and go north.” Jillian said, smiling.

  The roads in Canada were in better condition than the states. We made good time and took turns sleeping and eating. The dogs were getting restless and we only had about two more hours of driving. We stopped the R/V in the middle of the highway and let the dogs out for some exercise and we needed to stretch.

  “Listen!” Jillian said.

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  “Damn! Crickets.” I said as a bug buzzed by my head. Jillian said; “Shhhh!” with her index finger to her mouth. (Ginger woofed quietly) A song bird could barely be heard. A beautiful sound of nature on a cloudy calm Canadian morning.

  We reached the road that intersects the hill to the compound and parked the R/V under some trees so it could not be seen from above.

  “Deploy the drone and take a look around?” I asked Jillian.

  “Sure, will it make it to the top?” Jillian asked.

  “I guess we’ll find out.” I said. The road up the hill was covered with debris and overgrown.

  “No one has come up this way, that’s for sure.” I said catching momentary clear views of the road through the trees. As it reached the top, the signal was weakening.

  “It will take a while to climb by foot. You game?” I asked Jillian.

  “Hell yes! Let’s pack up and go!” Jillian said enthusiastically. The dogs were ready for adventure as well; excited and anxious.

  As we walked up the hill, we cleared the larger branches away and I located the marker where the pressure pads were, in order to avoid stepping on them. I was not sure if our weight would trigger the alarm; but I was not taking any chances. We identified a couple of sets of tracks; small deer, raccoon and canine.

  “Dog? wolf, coyote? I don’t remember the patterns.” Jillian said.

  The dogs sniffed the tracks and did not go too far into the woods on either side of the road during our ascent. We reached the car that we moved from in front of the gate and rested for a few minutes and launched the drone to observe the compound.

  Everything was overgrown, as to be expected. A large tree was resting against the bunker. Solar panels were in need of cleaning from dirt, leaves and tree branches. Everything was desolate and undisturbed. I lowered the drone in front of the garages as we advanced down the winding driveway.

  Two of the three fishing lines I strung across the driveway were compromised due to fallen branches. We slowly advanced toward the garage and being as quiet as possible. The dogs walked slowly next to us with senses on high alert, noses going from the ground to the air and ears twitching. I used a small bead of caulk on any and all entry and access points. We walked the perimeter of the complex and verified that all were intact.

  While rounding the northwest corner, a crow squawked and launched from a tree branch that scared us. The dogs just looked at Jillian and I as if to say; “it’s just a crow.”

  We entered through the front door and everything was exactly as we left it, except for a little more dust. Jillian checked the freezers and just smiled as she pulled out two large frozen packages. We took off our backpacks and placed our water bottles in the refrigerator that Jillian just plugged in.

  “We will need to make a couple of trips in the Gator to get the rest of our stuff.” Jillian said as she started to prepare lunch.

  “I’ll go and verify the power and turn on the gas and check the generators. Keep your radio on, okay? Pete. Come.” I said as I exited the kitchen. I pulled out my note pad from Pete’s pack and followed the instructions.

  “Looks like we have about two hours of video recorded.” I said into the radio.

  “There we are, leaving in the R/V… three days later a small raccoon walked along the driveway… eight days later a serious storm rolled through… now a lot of static on a clear day. That’s weird… more static, clear then static… three months later clear view, no activity from what I can see on this small screen.”

  “We can look at it later.” Jillian said.

  “I’ll fast forward to just before we arrived.” I said.

  “There we are. Backing up… seven days, a small deer walking through the front yard. You might want to let the water run for a while to clean out the system.” I said as I heard the kitchen faucet turn on and I stopped the video. “Just defrosting a whole chicken for dinner, the water looks kind of clean, smells okay.” Jillian said.

  I grabbed the ladder and a broom and started cleaning off the solar panels and doing some minor maintenance. I found a snow plow attachment for the Gator and replaced the battery and filled the tires with air using a bicycle tire pump. The Gator started rough, but started. “Pete. Come.” I said as Pete jumped on the passenger seat of the Gator. I just finished plowing the debris from the hill and the driveway when Jillian called us for lunch.

  “I can’t wait to sleep in the big comfy bed tonight! I brought new sheets and pillows and we can use the comforter from the R/V.” Jillian said in good spirits.

  “I’ll have the R/V parked outside by about four o’clock.” I said.

  We kept busy for about three days, maybe longer. One night we decided to watch a movie in the huge Home Theater. The main custom remote was huge with a full keyboard and touch pad. A smaller hand held remote adjusted volume, EQ and other simple commands. The movie catalog was massive. I stumbled on to the bunker video source and we were able to play the two-hour recording of the time we were away in high definition. I started it from the beginning.

  “That static is weird, how it, comes and goes.” Jillian commented. The static started up again and then dissolved the screen into just pixels, then six minutes later, a clear picture. The rest of the recording were weather related; lightening and storms that rolled through and then snowfall started on November first. Sporadic recordings of a couple of birds, deer and other wildlife. I hit the ‘fast forward button and accidentally hit another key causing a menu pop-up asking for a password. A single white text box with the word ‘password’ above and ‘enter’ button below. The background color was blue; the ‘Blue screen of death’ color everyone is familiar with.

  “What’s your password?” Jillian asked looking at me as we snuggled on the couch.

  “Don’t touch anything.” I said putting down the controller.

  “It’s probably a library of weird porn or something.” Jillian said casually.

  “A system this sophisticated will probably go into lock down if the incorrect password is entered.” I said, looking around the room for some reason.

  “Let’s see if the bunker is… different.” I said.

  “I think you are just paranoid.” Jillian said.

  “Come with me, do not stay in here, in case…” I stopped my sentence.

  “In case what? Your serious.” Jillian said.

  “Ginger. Pete. Come.” Jillian said, waking up the dogs as they snoozed together on the other couch. A light rain was falling as we went outside and entered the bunker.

  “Damn it’s cold out tonight.” Jillian said rubbing her shoulders. Looking at the control center of the bunker the same image was on the small screen… Password with a blinking cursor in the white text box.

  “Hmm.” I said. I thought about it for a while.

  “When we plan on leaving, we’ll try a password, until then we need to find or figure out what it might be.” I said.

  “I’m tired and ready for bed… come tuck me in.” Jillian said yawning. I turned to Jillian and said: “Excuse me?”

  “Tuck me in… the letter ‘T’. Jillian said.

  “My male selective hearing clearly heard the letter ‘F”. I said.

  “Pete? Did you hear the letter ‘F’?” Jillian asked Pete. Pete sat with his tongue hanging out panting, just happy someone said his name and I did my best to mimic him.

  The freezing rain continued into the next two days, then it started to snow. “This is not good.” Jillian said looking out the kitchen window as the snow coated the thick layer of ice on everything. The solar panels were struggling to supply enough power.