A Long Trip

“Well one thing’s for certain,” Sylvia said. “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Jerrod agreed with that wholeheartedly. He wasn’t sure what had gone wrong. The two of them had been making some final adjustments in the dimensional chamber in the basement lab at the University of Kansas. Suddenly there was a power surge, a flash of light and here they were, wherever “here” was. There was nothing but blackened earth as far as he could see. There were some hills, and a few scraggly trees, but otherwise it was empty. A cold wind kicked up some dust. Heavy clouds filled the sky. There did seem to be a sun, but it shed little light on the forlorn landscape. As he was contemplating this, a sudden thought occurred to him.

“Wait a minute. Are you casting me in the role of Toto?” Sylvia turned and stared at him.

“Are you seriously making jokes at a time like this?”

“It’s ‘cause I’m black, right. Toto was a black dog, so I should be Toto.”

“What…no, Ahhh! Jerrod, you do realize we’re going to die, right?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Dorothy. We might run into a friendly scarecrow.”

“Would you just stop! Please, just stop!”

“Okay, okay,” he said, holding up his hands. “Sorry, I tend to use humor in times of stress. My therapist says it’s a defense mechanism. Or maybe an offense mechanism, since you seem offended. Anyway, we should probably come up with a plan.”

“A plan for what? I don’t see much in the way of food around here, and all we have are our clothes and the tools we had with us. Oh, and our cell phones, but I don’t see any cell towers, do you?”

“No, but still,” Jerrod said as he pulled out his phone. “Nope, no service.”

“Did you expect there to be any?”

“Never hurts to check. Look, there’s a hill not too far off. Let’s climb it and see if we can see anything.”

“Like what? More empty?”

“You got a better idea?” Sylvia just shrugged and started walking. Jerrod picked up the toolbox and followed.

They trudged across the eerily silent landscape. There were no birds, no life of any kind, and hardly any movement except the dust they kicked up. It didn’t take long to get to the top.

“See anything, ‘Toto’?”

“And you complained about me. No, not…wait a minute.” He pointed to a hill further away. “Look at the middle of that hill, the kind of ridge there. Doesn’t that look awfully straight?”

“You know, it does. Think it might have been part of a building once?”

“Maybe. Let’s take a look.”

“It’s not like we have anything better to do.”

They headed towards the next hill. As they got close, they could see more of an outline of a building. There was a pattern of what looked like bricks in the earth. As Jerrod started climbing to get a better look, the earth suddenly gave way beneath his feet and he dropped to the ground.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, but look. There’s a tunnel here.”

There was indeed a tunnel, stretching down into blackness. As Jerrod picked himself up, Sylvia examined the area where he fell.

“Jerrod, look at this,” She was holding up pieces of a latticework of some light metal. There was netting on one side and dirt embedded in it. “Somebody made this. It was covering the entrance to make it look like part of the hill.”

“That means there’s somebody living down there.”

“Or something. You ever read “The Time Machine”?”

“Yeah, Morlocks. Still, I think we need to check it out.”

“I think you’re right.”

They headed into the tunnel, with Jerrod leading the way and using his cell phone for light. The tunnel was about five feet high and they needed to stoop, which brought the images of Morlocks more firmly to their minds. After a few minutes, Jerrod stopped.

“Hey, I see light up ahead,” he whispered. “Looks like it might be electrical.”

“That seems promising,” Sylvia whispered back. “I guess we need to keep moving.”

“Yeah, no turning back now.”

They descended several more feet with the light getting stronger. The ceiling got higher as well and they stepped into an underground room. The walls were finished stone and light came from a bulb hanging from the ceiling. Several people were sitting around a table, and they leapt to their feet and stumbled backwards.

“We come in peace,” Jerrod said, holding up one hand as he put away his cell phone. The people stopped, and the two groups stared at each other. They were pale and thin, but they did look human. They wore grey clothing that looked well made, so Jerrod figured they must have some type of manufacturing. Eventually, one of the older men stepped forward.

“Who are you, and where did you come from?”

“Okay, English,” Jerrod said, glancing at Sylvia. “I’m Jerrod, and this is Sylvia. As to where we came from, well that’s a little hard to explain. Where are we?”

“You are in Coo.”

“Okay, what is Coo?”

“It is what is left. Long ago there was a great destruction and…wait, what is that?” He asked, pointing to the toolbox Sylvia held.

“These are some tools we had,” she said. The man came closer.

“These are wonderous,” he said, picking up a screwdriver. “We can no longer make tools this fine. Come, we should go to see our leader.”

“Sure,” said Jerrod. “Take us to your leader.”

“Couldn’t resist that could you?” muttered Sylvia.

The man led them down a hallway, into what looked like a small office. It had a desk, and the man behind it stood as they entered. He was wearing a red and blue robe. Jerrod and Sylvia stopped and stared. It bore the letters KU.

“Coo is KU, Kansas University,” said Jerrod, as he turned to Sylvia. “We are still in Kansas!”