Saint Joseph School

The Montana Girls and the Forgotten Bunker

"Come on, Heather!" Hailey shouted at her twin. "Race you across the meadow!"

Hailey kicked her heels lightly into her brown gelding and started him galloping across the field of grass and wild flowers.

Heather was fast on Hailey's heels. "You aren't going to lose me that easy," she called from her own cinnamon-coated mare.

A terror of eight hooves and two identical girls in tee shirts and jeans erupted across the previously calm landscape.

"I did yesterday!"

"Only because you waited for me to be distracted looking at that elk calf, got way in front of me, and THEN started the race!"

Hailey looked back to see her sister in a dead heat with her own horse. "So? I'm older. I get to do that!"

"By three minutes! One of these days younger is going to be better, you know!"

"Suuuuuuuure it is, Baby Sister. Sure it is!"

"Brat."

The girls reached the far end of the meadow in a dead heat.

"Who won?" asked Heather.

"Me, of course!" Hailey replied.

"Liar!"

"Yep. I don't know who won that time."

"Finally! You tell the truth!"

"Only because you'd annoy me 'til I did."

Heather smirked, knowing what her sister said was true, and then looked around the unfamiliar woods. "Have we ever raced on that meadow before?"

Hailey looked around. "Um, no. We haven't. Wasn't there a wildfire here late last spring?"

Heather nodded. "Yeah. The plants on the forest floor aren't as thick either..."

"I know 'that look', Heather!"

"What look?"

"The look where you want to go exploring and I gotta go with you."

"Well you are my big brave sister, Hailey," Heather said with a giggle.

"Fine."

"Chartreuse, trot," Heather ordered her horse as she took the lead position.

"Trot, Cowpoke," Hailey echoed.

The girls directed their mounts around the charred landscape. The only sounds were an eagle off in the distance and the crunch of ash and leaves under hooves. Islands of life grew, and the evergreens that had survived with only their bark toasted sprang out with fresh needle-filled branches, giving the scent of a Christmas tree to the entire forest.

"Can we go yet?" Hailey grumbled as she looked at her pale blue watch. "This is boring. How many more burnt things are you going to look at?"

Heather glanced at her own purple timepiece. "You just want to go home so you can drool over the Jonas Brothers on TV again."

"Do not!" Hailey yelled. "You drool over them too!"

Heather giggled. "Oh come on. You know the Disney Channel will put it on again and again."

"Fine...."

"Thank you, sissy." Heather beamed, knowing she'd won. "Hey, look at that!"

"What?"

"That hill to the left, about as tall as Daddy's pickup. It just sticks up weird and the rest of the ground is flat around it. It's like somebody just put a dirt pile there."

"Yeah," said Hailey, recognizing the oddity now that her twin mentioned it.

"Race you to it!" Heather suddenly cheered.

"Not losing me that easy, Baby Sister!"

The girls were neck and neck as they rounded the hill, but the sight on the other side shocked them. This side of the mound was covered in concrete. In the middle, a ramp led down to a large metal door, recessed into the ground and slightly ajar. On either side, a slit penetrated out of walls that were at a slightly obtuse angle to the ground, giving the structure the feel of a half-buried skull.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Heather cried.

Hailey stared at the structure. "Okay. Now this place that is creepy. Is it safe, Bookworm?"

"Should be, Flirt! Look at the pile of leaves and ash blocking the door. There must be six inches of it. No one has been in there for at least a year."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense."

"Hey, you want to...?" Heather started.

"Explore?" Hailey finished with a grin. "Of course! I think I got work gloves in my saddle bag to move the stuff."

"I got my flashlight in mine."

The two teens went to work on the filth in front of the door. Twelve minutes later they had cleared enough refuse to open the door.

"You ready?" Heather asked as she turned to her sister and pulled on the thick, rusted door.

Hailey came alongside Heather to help, and the door slowly and loudly creaked open on its hinges. "I was born ready! Why do you think I came out first?"

"Easy, Sis. That's only because I kicked you out."

Hailey rolled her eyes.

***

"This place is trippy, Heather," Hailey said as she held her nose and stepped off the last of the fifty-three steps onto the chamber floor.

The air had a sour mustiness to it. It was clear that something inside had gotten wet and was in the process of decay. The girls' boots stuck to the ground slightly, and a soft kissing sound was heard each time either of them lifted a foot off the floor.

Heather shined her flashlight on the walls. Old insignia and words were painted on the wall in a foreign language. "You have no idea, Sissy..."

"What?"

Heather studied the strange words in Latin-based lettering. "I think that is German."

"You think? I thought you knew this stuff."

"I only watch the History Channel sometimes."

"And Discovery!"

"Only when nothing good is on Disney."

"Mythbusters?"

"You watch that too!"

"Only because you pick it."

"That's because I am the only one of us with any taste."

"You just think Adam is cute."

"Oh come on. Like you don't watch the Jonas Brothers for that very reason! At least I am learning something."

"You admit it? Ew...."

A sharp retort formed on Heather's lips but died as Hailey suddenly slipped and fell on her butt. Heather didn't even bother trying to keep herself from laughing.

"Ow! That hurt!" Hailey cried and shot her sister a look.

Heather's smirk retreated slightly. "Looks like you slipped on some oil. I think the ooze is coming from the hallway to the left."

"Ah crap. Did I get any on my jeans?"

"Um, only a little. They're barn pants now."

"Grrrr. I just got them two months ago..." Hailey muttered.

Heather ignored her sister's whining and walked carefully down the slick hall. She was nearing the other end of the passageway when a look of shock came over her. She adjusted her flashlight to cast as wide a beam as it could.

"Whoa..."

"What, baby sister?"

"You better come see."

Hailey gingerly worked her way toward her sister. "Wow..."

The warehouse before them could have fit their parents' barn twice over. Three rows of shelves, filled with wood crates of all sizes, stretched the length of the room's expanse.

"Cool!" Hailey exclaimed. "It's just like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the thing God lost."

Heather rolled her eyes at her sister as the girls walked into the room. "Lost Ark."

Hailey leaned against a big crate near the hallway and smirked at her twin. A moment later the wood supporting Hailey gave way and she sank into the box butt-first.

"Gahhh!"

Heather looked at her sister in stunned silence for a second before letting out a long, loud cackle.

Hailey glared. "Shut up! It's not funny!"

Heather attempted to regain control of her mouth. "Heh, yes, hehe, it is," she managed before succumbing to the high-pitched giggling again.

"Stupid rotten wood. At least pull me out."

Heather finally stopped laughing, put down her flashlight so it lit the box, and put her arms out to take her sister's. "One, two, three!"

Hailey popped out of her hole and stumbled into Heather's arms in an impromptu hug.

Heather looked into her sister's eyes. "Sorry Sissy. You aren't my type," she said as she pushed Hailey playfully away.

Hailey look back at the broken crate indignantly with a sour expression. Something glinted from inside the ruined box. "Heather, look at that."

"What?"

"There is something shiny in the box. I think it's gold!"

"Gold?"

"Yeah."

Both girls started pulling out pieces of spongy wood that turned to dust in their hands. With each bit they removed, more and more gold surface was uncovered until a relic under the debris was fully visible.

Heather grinned at her sister. "Wow, look at that thing."

"Yeah, it's about the size of that old semi engine block Uncle Jack kept under that tarp, right?"

Heather nodded. "Aunt Kristin made him get rid of it last summer. Look at the handles for this. They look like magic wands or something."

"Yeah right."

"No, really! I mean it! I mean, look at the pictures on the sides. The one on the ends are of the twins Romulus and Remus and the wolf that raised them. And that's of Prometheus chained to a boulder."

"Bookworm," Hailey said, rolling her eyes. "Why is there a bird over there?"

"Where?"

"Under all the mixed-up letters on the top."

"Oh. I see the eagle now! It's about to go and eat Prometheus's liver."

"Eww," Hailey said as her face paled slightly. "Any idea what the letters mean?"

Heather eyed the lettering. "PRAENTIOSECETOPRAESTAT" didn't make a lick of sense to her at first. She tried to separate it into pieces, deciding it couldn't be one word.

Suddenly, her Spanish classes kicked in and the middle part made sense. "I think the 'seceto' part in the middle means 'secret', but I'm clueless on the rest."

"Maybe if I clean off some of the dust, you'll be able to read it better."

"Hailey, I don't think that's going--"

The instant Hailey's finger made contact with gold, the room was filled with an overpowering light. Heather could barely make out her sister as they both stumbled away from the artifact, towards the middle of the warehouse. Dimly, she watched her elder twin collapse.

"Hailey!" Heather managed to shout before she too passed out.