“The whole place smells a bit musty, but structurally we're in great shape. In most places, it seems as if nothing's been disturbed. Carter obviously spent some time down in the pit. I could see where he opened containers to get tools and spare parts for his maintenance work. He obviously got bored, too. He didn't do much damage, but he got into some stuff, I'm not sure what yet. The strangest thing is, there's a Humvee down there which has been completely disassembled. Not beaten up, just neatly taken apart.”

“That's weird!” RJ commented. “But I guess if you've got twenty years to kill, you have to entertain yourself somehow. Did he mess with anything else?”

“Two of the pigs and five chickens have been removed from the animal chamber. I also found bloodstains in the main kitchen by the mess hall, so I think he butchered and ate them. Other than that, not much else was disturbed. It seems as if he got into stuff, but put it back later.”

“What's left of our food supply?”

“It looks like he was trying to be careful regarding how much he ate. He made a dent in the food supplies, but it's a small dent,” Brad explained.

“Good. From what I can tell, if Carter hadn't stayed awake and dealt with the issues he did, many of us would've repeatedly been awakened – or worse. He's really made a big difference to how everything came together,” RJ admitted. “Considering what a pain he was forty-two years ago, it seems we owe him a great debt.”

“Yeah. He worked for twenty years to make sure we made it through and now when we finally wake-up, he's completely out of his mind,” Brad commented quietly.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Brad and Amy walked into the command center looking much better the following morning. They'd both slept well the night before, a fact that seemed somewhat ironic considering they'd just awakened from a forty-two-year slumber.

Brad was feeling completely normal; the effects of the extended sleep all but gone. He'd enjoyed harassing Amy at breakfast, telling her she looked good for someone who'd been born seventy-six years earlier. The comment had earned him a sizable bruise on his upper arm.

RJ was already in her office, studying reports regarding the mountain's status.

“What's new, RJ?” Brad asked cheerfully.

“Not much. I tried talking to Carter this morning, but he's still out of it. Doc says he was malnourished and hasn't been taking good care of himself. He was awake, but he didn't seem to know who I was.” RJ glanced up from her reports. “We started broadcasting a greeting about twenty minutes ago. It's transmitting on all frequencies once every three minutes.”

“Is there anything new on the satellites? Amy Travers asked.

“Nothing yet. What's going on in your areas?”