The Breach - Ghost Country - Deep Sky

entry and think I was an idiot, so I’ll just say I’m proud to be here, and to be part of this team trusted with something this special. We all are. This is Dave Bryce.
     
    MARCH 7, 1978—PROBABLY A QUARTER AFTER 18:00 UTC
     
    This is Dave Bryce again. This account of the shot is for investigators in case we all die down here before anyone gets to us. None of the machine-collected data survived, I’m sure, because of what happened with the metal. I don’t know how we lived through it, it seems like the iron in our blood or the trace copper in our neurons should have been affected, and killed us instantly. Maybe it did get affected, and we’re just not symptomatic yet. We’re all very upset and scared. Here is the record, what I know at least, so whoever finds this will have somewhere to begin.
    The shot happened at 17:40 UTC as scheduled. At the instant of collision, everything metal here in the bunker took on luminescence, different colors depending on the metal, but generally blues, greens. Something inside the wall phone was shining bright yellow, not sure what it was. The DOE undersecretary, Porter, collapsed, and there was no pulse at all, even right away. Two of the DOE people who knew him said he had a pacemaker. That seems pretty irresponsible to have him down here for this, even though we wouldn’t have guessed there was any danger, I think I would have advised against it if I’d known. Laid the body at back wall of bunker, does not seem very dignified but nothing else would be any better.
    Ruben Ward collapsed also, but for a different reason. He had both hands resting on the metal housing for the ring switches at the time of the shot. Don’t know if he got a jolt from it, or what it might have been, but he lost consciousness and fell. He’s still unconscious, we have him on the floor with a couple sweaters for a pillow.
    Luminescence faded after about thirty seconds. At that point we had no information to go on, all electrical systems were out, computers, temp gauges, everything. The lights in the bunker were out, too. The only way we could see anything was a bright light shining down the hallway from the shot chamber, right past the doorway. It’s very bright, and a lot of it comes in here, indirectly. Because of the angle, we can’t see far enough down the hall to see into the chamber. We don’t know what’s going on in there, or where the light is coming from. I know we don’t have anything that bright installed out there. It is still shining now, thirty or forty minutes after the shot.
    We took a vote and have decided to open the door, and send someone to check if the elevator is working. (I’ll go.) It’s a dozen yards or so farther from the chamber than this room, maybe there’s a chance it wasn’t affected. Scary to open the door, if it’s possible the air is bad outside the room, though I don’t know why that would have happened. (But who knows about anything down here now?)
     
    APPROX. HOUR AND A HALF AFTER LAST ENTRY
     
    It took us half an hour to get the door open. The metal had fused to the frame at several places like a weld. If it’d been a tighter fit to the frame, the whole thing would have fused, and we’d have been trapped. Sure as hell would not have broken through the 2-inch-thick polycarbonate window in the door.
    No use anyway. I went out to the elevator and it’s dead. Pulleys are probably welded solid even if the electrical was working.
    When I was in the hall, I could see into the chamber, but could make out no detail except the light, which I couldn’t look right at. In peripheral, it seems like a single point of light out in the middle somewhere, bright white. It felt like sunlight on my skin, maybe even a little warmer, which is scary. I came back in the room quickly.
    Also, some kind of sound is coming from the chamber, very faint, could almost be imagining it, but I don’t think so. Hard to describe it, sort of like a tuning fork. Back in the room with the door shut, I couldn’t hear it anymore.
    Someone will have to come for us soon. Ruben is still not responding. I keep thinking about all the precautions I might have recommended, all these years while this place was being built. Maybe a medical staffer down here, if nothing else. Just never thought for a second something like this (whatever this even is) would happen. I take responsibility for whatever happens to these people. This is still Dave by the way.
     
    FIVE TO SEVEN HOURS AFTER LAST