He Connected His Cabin To His Barn With A Tunnel – Then Winter Came
Chapter 4
Caleb spent the next hour studying the old maps.
Project Winterfall appeared to have been a military emergency facility constructed during the Cold War.
But the network was enormous.
Tunnels connected underground chambers throughout the mountain.
Some appeared to lead toward abandoned mines.
Others went beneath roads.
Several continued toward the town.
Tom pointed at a section.
“What does this mean?”
Caleb looked.
A red circle surrounded a chamber beneath the valley.
“Maybe a storage facility.”
“Storage for what?”
“I don’t know.”
They searched the control room.
Most of the equipment had been abandoned decades earlier.
But one terminal still had power.
Caleb turned it on.
The screen flickered.
A password prompt appeared.
Tom laughed nervously.
“Of course.”
Caleb examined the desk.
There were old documents.
One folder contained a photograph of several military personnel.
His father was among them.
Caleb’s breath caught.
He picked up the photograph.
His father was standing beside a man Caleb recognized.
Sheriff Daniel Reeves.
But Reeves had died fifteen years earlier.
On the back of the photograph was a date.
March 1989.
Caleb’s father had been involved with Project Winterfall long after the Cold War supposedly ended.
Tom found another document.
“Caleb.”
Caleb walked over.
The document contained a list of emergency shelters.
One was labeled:
Morgan Property — Primary Access Point.
Caleb stared.
His father hadn’t simply known about the tunnels.
He had been responsible for maintaining them.
Then they found a handwritten journal.
The first page was dated 1991.
Caleb recognized his father’s handwriting.
The government abandoned Winterfall officially. They did not destroy it.
Caleb read further.
We were instructed to seal the facility permanently. We didn’t.
Another page.
The mountain contains something they don’t want anyone to find.
Caleb turned the page.
Several pages had been ripped out.
Tom looked over his shoulder.
“Who did that?”
Caleb didn’t know.
Then they heard a noise.
Footsteps.
Coming from the tunnel.
Both men froze.
Someone was approaching.
Caleb switched off the flashlight.
They waited in darkness.
The footsteps stopped outside the control room.
A voice whispered:
“Caleb?”
Tom looked at him.
It was a woman’s voice.
Caleb recognized it.
“Sarah?”
Sarah Bennett was his neighbor.
She lived two miles away with her husband and teenage daughter.
Caleb opened the door.
Sarah stood in the tunnel.
Her coat was soaked.
She was carrying a small backpack.
“Thank God.”
Caleb pulled her inside.
“Where’s your family?”
Her face collapsed.
“My husband is dead.”
Caleb froze.
“What happened?”
“The roof collapsed.”
Sarah began crying.
“My daughter and I escaped through the basement. We found this tunnel.”
She looked at the walls.
“My grandfather used to tell me these tunnels existed.”
Caleb stared.
“Your grandfather knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell us?”
Sarah shook her head.
“Because people disappeared.”
Tom stepped closer.
“Who?”
Sarah looked at him.
“People who went looking for the Winterfall facility.”
Caleb felt a cold sensation.
“What facility?”
Sarah looked at the map.
“The main one.”
She pointed toward a chamber marked deep beneath the mountain.
“That is where they kept them.”
“Kept what?”
Sarah hesitated.
Then whispered:
“People.”
Silence filled the room.
Caleb looked at the map.
“Who?”
Sarah pulled a folded document from her backpack.
“My grandfather left this.”
Caleb opened it.
It was a list of names.
Dozens of people.
Dates.
Locations.
Beside several names:
TRANSFERRED.
Beside others:
TERMINATED.
Caleb’s stomach turned.
Project Winterfall hadn’t been a simple emergency shelter.
It had been used for something far darker.
The final name on the list was dated only six months earlier.
Caleb read it twice.
Then looked at Sarah.
“Who is this?”
Sarah swallowed.
“My husband.”
Caleb stared.
“He was investigating these tunnels.”
“He wasn’t killed by the storm.”
Sarah shook her head.
“They came for him.”
