Reading: "CATACLYSMAL" (A.Glass 2017)

 

One year ago, Roswell

New Mexico desert.

“So, what was it like? You know in combination with one of those flotation tanks.” Elly Jansky asks, to a slightly older man.

“Not as good, experience wise, better taken out here...looking at the horizon...” The man replies as he turns right onto a dirt road from the main highway.

“...or the sky while the sunset's. Particularly the experience at night, by a fire, looking up at the Stars, the blueish, yellow hues...It's an incredible sight, all the while they swirl. Moving in a directional sequence, like the Universe. Taken in a ceremony with the Indians, it is always done with drum beats...”

He turns and looks at Jansky.

“...the heartbeat of the Earth.”

“Lophophora williamsii...Peyote.”

“Would you ever try it?”

Jansky looks at Jensen Denlas. “We scientists don't veer too dramatically away from the standards of alcohol.”

“The colors, vivid, even with the reflection of a wood fire at night, when you see the rings of the Milky Way...it's an incredible display. Not for everyone though. It has a disgusting taste. A bonus for a good trip, foul flavor plus you gotta spew up prior to the experience.”

“Thanks, but I'll pass...” Jansky replies, smiling looking out at the mountain ranges of Roswell. “...So where did the Roswell incident occur?”

“The 'UFO' crashed over there.” He points to a small mountain range North West.

“And the Aliens?”

Denlas chuckles whilst looking at Jansky. “Frozen in a top secret fridge inside Area Fifty One.”

“Apparently they taste like chicken,” Jansky replies.

Both of them laugh.

“You're going to love this Elly, disused Missile Silo...turned into a studio.” Denlas moves the jeep onto a narrower dirt road, in the distance a small rectangular fence surrounds what appears to be a single concrete door – which juts out of the arid New Mexico desert. He pulls up along the wire fence entrance.

“Ok, here we are, middle of nowhere...Actually Roswell, the town is about twenty miles that way...” Denlas points North. “...Anyway, lets go inside.”

Both he and Jansky step out of the small jeep, closing the doors. She pulls up the collar of her jacket, feeling the cool dry desert air of late November. Denlas opens up the back of the jeep lifting out a small bag.

“Drinks! But no peyote...” he says.

Jansky smiles.

He then walks towards the gate, taking out his car keys, he auto locks the jeep, then picks the single key that opens the padlock. Sliding the key into its slot, he turns clockwise as releasing the padlock from the entrance. Taking off the lock he opens the wire gate.

“After you,” he says, as Jansky walks forward. Denlas then attaches the padlock back onto the entrance of the gate. Pushing down the pivoted hook, he re-locks the gate.

“We got one of these unique security keys for this door, check out the key...” He holds up an unusual looking key. “...We had too, vandals broke the lock, but they didn’t get pass the blast doors. They were jammed shut before we renovated.” He opens the door, reaching across to the right side of the entrance and turns on the lights. In front of Denlas is a set of stairs that lead downward within an ascending square spiral.

“Wow...this is great!”

“You haven't seen anything yet...” he replies excitingly, stepping down the reinforced concrete interior, with its brutalist facade. “...We decided not to paint this section, with the reinforced concrete we just cleaned and polished it. Came up really good. Lets continue on...” Denlas turns right heading down another set of stairs with Jansky following.

“How do you power this facility?” She asks, holding onto the railing as both of them walk down the concrete staircase, heading lower into the disused Missile complex.

“Electrical Generator, we have it set on cycles, it actually sits below where the Missile Silo is, from the sub-level, about two sections up. Alright..Here is the Blast door, have a look at this...” In front of Denlas and Jansky is a large white colored reinforced steel door. “...Four tons of steel.” He spins the mid-size wheel that will open the large metal door, the lock cogs slide back into the reinforced steel door. Denlas, with both hands pulls the large metal door open. “Welcome to my studio, well actually a shared workspace for my company.”

Jansky enters a very well lit area, with various art pieces, small sculptures and conceptualized prints of buildings and structures placed on the surrounding walls within this circular room. “Jensen, what a great work space. Feels very secure...understandingly I guess...”

Denlas looks around at the compressed, fortified concrete interior of the main section that was once an underground Thermonuclear Missile silo.

“They say it could take the hit of a twenty megaton air-burst…” He then walks back to where the reinforced blast door is, with both hands he pulls it back into place. Denlas then winds the locking mechanism anticlockwise as the cogs all slide back into place, he then pulls down two levers from the top and bottom. He turns facing Jansky. “...Locks from the inside.”

“We’re safe now,” she replies with a smile.

___

Reading:  "CATACLYSMAL" (A.Glass 2017)