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Back The Ark Save as PDF
Chapters (51)
  1. Cover
  2. Prologue
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Chapter Forty-Four
  47. Chapter Forty-Five
  48. Chapter Forty-Six
  49. Epilogue
  50. You may also like
  51. About the Author

The computer indicated all doors were still securely closed. RJ activated the cameras in the central tunnel and saw the closed doors and the front-end loaders still in place. Next, she activated the external cameras, and the west camera showed that the giant steel doors were still completely covered with debris. She worked the camera that pointed at the east entrance but couldn't get it to activate. She switched to the backup camera and could see the door was still sealed, but exposed. Most of the dirt and debris, as well as the wooden wall was gone. She zoomed in on the door and could see dents and scratches on the door where someone had used tools in an unsuccessful attempt to gain entry. There were some objects on the ground by the sealed door, but from the camera's angle, she couldn't identify them.

She had to consider that someone might have gotten in through the maintenance passage that came in from the top of the mountain. The passage was used to access the cables which ran in conduits to the radar and antenna. There were several locked hatches to block access to the interior of their fortress though. She activated a camera on the top of the mountain and could see that the dome-shaped cover to the maintenance hatch was locked and in place.

RJ checked the systems readout and could see that the lights in the engineering corridor were still the only ones which had been turned on.

She pulled up the computer logs and reviewed what had initiated the sequence that awakened her. It clearly showed that her awakening had been an automatic response to safe radiation levels outside the mountain for three months.

So, who was the old man and why had the computers failed to respond to his presence?

RJ checked the computer's date and the color drained from her face. The dizziness came swarming back. Her hands flew over the keyboard as she rechecked the information, but the results remained constant. The computer said they had been asleep for forty-two years.

The experts had told them radiation levels would return to safe levels in about twenty years. RJ reviewed the data three more times, and it became apparent that the radiation levels had only just reached the safe level.