Deep Hell: Long After the Virus

By Bruce Alterman

Far into the future, the utopian society of Bliss enjoys every comfort, sustainable food sources and advanced technologies. They believe themselves to be the only survivors of the long-ago, unknown viral calamity. This self-contained community allows their denizens to spend their time pursuing intellectual interests or just fishing and relaxing by the shore. Unexpectedly, they discover a mysterious radio signal which seems to indicate there may be life outside of their enclave. Driven by curiosity, a team known as “The Crew” ventures out from Bliss to investigate the source of the signal. They discover a bizarre, segregated society where tyrants horrifically abuse and subjugate an entire civilization to their evil will.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Jun 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662908965

Bruce Alterman

Bruce Alterman resides in the New York Hudson Valley Region with his wife and their two dogs. He is an avid hiker and Eagle Scout. Bruce is a fourth-generation New York private investigator currently providing executive security services in the New York City area. He is the author of the acclaimed action suspense thriller; Exploit, A Private Detective’s Adventure into a Depraved World (iUniverse 2013).

Book preview

The Seed

Her small hands explored cold metal walls in the dark room. She moved around, touching things while hoping that nothing would harm her. The wiry-muscled woman wore clothing made of leather, stitched together in a way to closely hug her body. The layers kept her relatively warm but allowed her to remain mobile and light. Too much clothing would slow her down and hinder her from climbing into the upper chambers. There were hundreds of flights of stairs and giant pipes to shuffle upon horizontally to traverse her confined, dark world of steel and concrete.

This climb to reach the uppermost level was the most ambitious ever attempted. It was cold so high up in Deep. In spite of her layered leather clothing, the frigid air reached her soft flesh and made her shiver. Far down below it was warm, and was even warmer in her section. She climbed upwards for a long time, as quickly as she could. She scaled scores of different stairways, shimmied across five large insulation-wrapped pipes, and then nine long steel ladders. The ninth ladder went up through a small round portal to a narrow hallway, which led to a room. She focused her large eyes at the end of the long, narrow hallway. The room at the end was very dark inside. The thick, steel vault door was open and she walked down the hallway. The room’s wide threshold invited her to cross the daring line. As she stood outside the room, her lungs filled with the noxious smell of sulfur gas. Her desire for exploration and knowledge exceeded her fear of everything potentially harmful. Her ability to disappear in the blink of an eye using speed and cunning was her edge over anyone or anything that hoped to kill or capture her. With firm conviction, she stepped into the room.

From living in darkness, her senses had grown acute to judging a room’s temperature and size, even with only minimal light. The walls felt cold, and there was a stark ice-like surface of air touching her shoulder despite her heavy clothing. Her hand slowly extended out and ever so lightly touched the smooth steel of the walls. She ran the tips of her fingers along the glassy edge of a control board clustered with knobs, toggles, levers, and buttons. Her hands quickly became icy and her fingers numb. She knew from previous expeditions that the higher she climbed into the upper levels, the colder the air. This time was the farthest she had ever ventured upward and therefore, the coldest of all her explorations.

There wasn’t enough light to see anything distinctly. She surmised this was an important room despite its small size, especially with so many tubes, shapes, and appendages sticking out from the walls. Dare she light a candle here or turn on her precious flashlight? Was the discovery of a strange and fantastic room worth the chance of getting caught? Her only escape route was exactly the way she had entered, back through the heavy door and then down the narrow hallway. If they found her, she would be tortured and killed, or worse. She had seen actual video of the sadistic events on TV.

Yet, the discovery of this room thrilled her like nothing ever excited her before. She had lived a mundane and dirty life. Her usual daily trips were through dangerous hallways, tunnels, rooms, and cavernous spaces where the ceiling could not be seen. They paled in comparison to this room which was so… novel, inviting, and exciting. The thick-walled metal room was filled with wondrous round circles containing writing and rounded glass bulbs protruding from metal cabinets.

As a young girl, the restrictions of her enclosed world pressed her to discover something, anything new which might broaden her understanding of the world. Her ecosystem consisted of finite spaces that enclosed her, it was the only environment she had ever known. Her father used to tell her that the only way to find something out is to figure it out yourself. That drove her to start sneaking away from the growing fields to climb up endless staircases and shimmy along miles of large pipes through vast, dark chambers.

Now, all of her adventures finally paid off. This room was a true discovery, one that she could take a picture of and show others back in her section.

When she lit her candle, the soft light revealed a complex array of metal boxes, different-colored buttons, round gauges, and hinged levers. She noticed one particularly big button, the largest red button. This button was encased in a small glass box on the wall. It was much larger than the other buttons, as large as her small hand. The bright color of the large button was fascinating. She opened the glass box that covered it. The impulse to press it felt overwhelming.

There were letters above the red button, but she had never learned to read. She saw two words but did not know their meaning: EMERGENCY BEACON. The red button transfixed her, but she knew that pressing the button might make a noise which would alert others to her presence.

On top of narrow tabletops, there were other devices in the room. Most were rectangular metal boxes with dials and needles behind glass. Metal brackets held several television screens on the walls. Short pedestals mounted on tables were topped with perforated balls. Curly wires entered the back of some of the metal boxes, extending to square boxes with more buttons. She decided to pick up one of the small boxes and press the black button on the metal box. It didn’t make any noise, so she pressed it a few times. The short pedestals also had buttons at the bases. Nothing happened when she pressed most of the buttons in the room.

She saw four large levers on a control panel. The labels under the levers said MASTER DOOR, ELEVATOR 1, ELEVATOR 2, ELEVATOR 3.

Her small film camera hung around her neck, the slight weight a reminder she must photograph this room in order to prove that she was really here. However, taking a picture required she must turn on her flashlight, revealing her position as the light flowed through the darkness. She pulled the camera by a cord out of her upper-body layers of leather clothing and readied her flashlight that had been in a rat-hide holster around her waist. The brightness from the flashlight made her squint as she snapped a picture of the room.

I will develop this film as soon as I get back and show the picture to everyone!

She started to think about getting out of the room and heading back down to warmer climates. Like a hunted, scared animal, the young woman sensed it was the right time to make her move and get out of this place. Before leaving the room, she approached the two-foot-thick steel door frame. She looked to her right, enticed again by the big red button. The glass box cover remained open and upright, just where she had left it.

The big red button on the wall represented freedom and freedom was a passionate concept to her, so she pressed the button with the palm of her right hand. The small room suddenly filled with different colored lights. Flashing red lights, yellow lights, purple lights, a blend of colors she had never seen before in her usually drab brown-and-gray world. She froze in hypnotic astonishment — so many colors, so many noises, and odd humming sounds. Strange electrical energy emanated from the metal, and she could feel the vibration as she touched the metal boxes. The big button she had pressed continued to flash red light that bounced off all the steel surfaces with the other colored lights. She heard a constant beeping sound that was louder than all the rest of the unique sounds in the room.

The multi-toned continuous beeping sounded strange to her ears, and the multi-colored twinkling lights reflected brightly on her wide-open glassy eyeballs. Amazement filled her mind. The exhilaration made her smile while her breathing became faster.

Suddenly, she realized that instead of excitement and euphoria, she should be afraid. If caught, her exploration trips would be over. Instead, she would be enslaved and then killed when they tired of her. Total, consummate fear overwhelmed her sanity. She quickly blew out her candle and ran out of the room. The young woman frantically raced down the hallway into the darkness, fearful of capture.

Bliss

Lorenzo looked up and noticed how bright the sky was today. He put the long-bladed scythe over his shoulder, his muscled arms tan from constant sun exposure. What a great time he was having with his mates, all here in the field together, cutting down the wheat they had planted just a few months ago. He felt fantastic, having gotten a great night’s sleep. The prime weather allowed him to take a blanket to the field last night, lie down to gaze at the stars and listen to the rhythm of the wind-blown wheat. Lorenzo removed the large scythe from his shoulder and swung it down, its sharp, curved blade easily felling the wheat with every swipe. He loved this part of farming. It made him feel alive, arms coursing with blood while his stomach muscles tensed with every strike. Farming sure beat spending time on the fence. Everyone spent time on the fence, it was required of all citizens of Bliss. Completing time on the fence meant that the hours would pass drearily, sunrise to sunset or twilight to early morning. It wasn’t a big deal, but just staring out into the same desert was guaranteed to be boring. The only entertainment might be the occasional small lizard scampering under a nearby rock. Good thing a lot of the lazy people would rather spend time on the fence than farm , Lorenzo thought. Working in the fields was one of his favorite things, the physical work gave him time to reflect on his science projects.

There was so much Lorenzo wanted to know about himself, about other people, and about the world. His prime quest was to find true love, that unreachable, perfect love in a woman, but he had yet to find that extraordinary woman in Bliss. Perhaps his quest for love was his true life’s journey? That is why Lorenzo felt forlorn and incomplete in his daily life, he was missing out on love with a woman.

Suddenly, a gap in the brush appeared. A feral hog was parting the wheat as it ran from a lithe figure with a javelin in her hand. Lorenzo dropped his scythe and drew a large knife from his belt and ran towards the figure in the field chasing the hog. It was Tawny with her javelin doing a stint of sport hunting, her true passion. Lorenzo was fast, but not as fast as Tawny. His endurance, however, was excellent. He kept up behind her running through the maze of wheat at pell-mell speed with a big laughing smile on his face. They ran out of the dense wheat field into an open pine forest, which was a disadvantage to the hog. She now had a clear target.

Go, Tawny! Go! Lorenzo yelled.

She sped up into overdrive with an energy that propelled her within striking distance of the hairy hog. She threw her javelin and it struck the hog’s hindquarters. The hog squealed and turned around toward Tawny, ready to defend itself with an all-out attack using its four-inch sharp tusks propelled by a two-hundred-pound body.

Out from behind the trees, a man flew through the air with a large knife in his right hand.

Crazy! Lorenzo yelled.

The knife sunk deep into the back of the hog as Crazy jumped on top of its back. The hog let out a final death squeal when he stabbed it again. Crazy sat on the ground and burst out laughing.

Ha! I saw you guys when I was running to get you to come back and evaluate something. Crazy nodded at the bloody hog, Looks like it’s time for a barbecue!

Crazy, man! One hunt to remember! Lorenzo said, almost out of breath.

Tawny started laughing too, making eye contact with Crazy. He had always loved her, but she had thought he wasn’t her type… until maybe just now.

Lorenzo! Lorenzo! You won’t believe it! Ambrosia yelled as she ran across the small field of wheat toward the pine forest. She bounded like a tiny deer, her light blonde hair bouncing up and down with every stride.

Lorenzo had a secret crush on Ambrosia but dared not reveal it because it might cause a ripple through the Crew. Everything caused a reaction and a counter reaction in Bliss, so it was often important to keep things to yourself. Unintended consequences could arise from the smallest of social mistakes. Ambrosia was one of the most beautiful girls in all of Bliss, and her robust figure, soft-featured face, and keen scientific mind made her a real catch. Yet, she was not meant for Lorenzo. He was too shy, and he thought that maybe she really liked Crazy.

Their land was surrounded by rich waters, full of fish and seafood. There were delicious, extra-large oysters the inhabitants ate all day long with a generous helping of corn and wheatgrass flavored with salt. Fresh water was always available from the collection pond located in the direct center of the peninsula which was fed by pure, underground natural springs. Freshwater streams poured out from the pond’s rim, providing a natural latticework of running water for drinking and irrigation to most of the peninsula. The small strip of spiraling land held about fifteen thousand people, some spent their day assembling buildings or performing science experiments in an attempt to regain the greatness that was once the fortune of their forefathers. Most just relaxed all day, or followed their passions, like painting or cooking specialty meals for customers on the market street. Each citizen had a specific job that they naturally fell into, depending on their personality, whether carpenters, tinkerers, garbage men, or farmers. It was a long time since anyone really thought about why they were isolated on the end of a peninsula with nowhere to go and nothing to really do. Yet it was a euphoric life for everyone, even the sick and infirm were well taken care of with no complaints. They called their community Bliss because everything seemed perfect in their enclave. Markets occupied the main street, with most of the people living around the periphery of the town center.

Small boats were usually anchored on the coast, only used for fishing or casual sailing around the local waters. No one had ever constructed a large ship because the incentive to travel any farther out to sea was not a priority to anyone. A few adventurers had taken small boats along the coasts on either side of the peninsula, but all they found were hundreds of miles of desolate shorelines and inland barren wastelands. Not many people in Bliss were curious about the world outside of their peninsula. Everyone was too content and too comfortable with the natural bounty that Bliss offered. They could not think of a reason to risk life and limb exploring the unknown when everything anyone could ever want was provided on the peninsula.

There were old stories told of sickness, disease, poverty, and dying. Scant records existed on the computers and in the paper archives about the Virus Calamity that caused violence, starvation, and turmoil in the land before Bliss existed. Long ago, a kingdom called the U.S.A. ruled the land. It was bigger than Bliss Society could imagine, and the kingdom’s influence extended over a world of billions of people. When the virus struck, it was a shock, mentally and physically destroying the early people. The fuzzy details behind why it happened were still retold in fables by self-appointed storytellers. The reasons behind the events which happened hundreds of years ago were still debated amongst the intellectuals in Bliss, but they no longer had any bearing on the lives everyone lived now. Only a few intellectually curious individuals cared about the history of the world before Bliss. Most of the fifteen thousand inhabitants couldn’t care less about what happened hundreds of years ago. If someone felt sadness, their friends referred them to a particular therapy doctor who would listen to their problems and then help solve the problem. The times were gleeful. Bliss was a paradise. Everyone lived their life to the fullest with no reason to reflect on negative events that might have happened once upon a time.

An old 1970s oscilloscope hummed along with flat-view screens, circa 2028. Sometimes, new useful things could be discovered from all the tinkering going on in Bliss. Just last year, Crazy discovered that when he hooked up a hand-held walkie talkie to a cortex amplifier, the communication range was expanded, especially if he concentrated his thoughts through a circa 2062 scalp sensor.

Almost everyone in Bliss used 3D printers in abundance. The 3D printers were a leftover technology that somehow ended up in everyone’s home. Large, barn-like structures near the north part of the peninsula held vast reserves of composite blocks used in the 3D printers. In addition to the composite warehouses, there were also stores of raw metal, excavated quarried stone, carbon fiber blocks, and a wide variety of other materials used for the 3D printing. Quartermasters were in charge of the expansive warehouses. They would catalog and distribute the material to anyone in Bliss who arrived with their cart and asked.

Their little enclave yielded an unlimited food supply for anyone’s taking. The nutritious grasses all over the peninsula were a tasty addition to any seafood dish. Moreover, local farmers produced a wide range of vegetables, fruits, wheat, poultry, and pork. Everything collected, made, or harvested was available for trading at the central market in town. Near the shores of the peninsula, people set up small teepees made of sharkskin shells, wood, and rocks. Funnels of smoke drifted up from their pointed tops. Some couples dressed in the scantiest of clothing as they relaxed while subtle waves lapped onto the beach. Then, later in the day, most people gathered a fresh bounty of oysters and grass for a grand meal with sweet wine from the vineyards.

Stories of the Virus Calamity always circulated, but no one really knew anything for certain. Why did it happen? Why did the great empires of the past destroy themselves? Many discussions and forums took place to confront their past, but these sessions only yielded a lot of talk with no real answers. The Virus Calamity had changed the ancient world in ways that destroyed the empires from long ago.

The talking artificial-intelligence sphere could not tell them what had happened beyond 2097, all records of the world stopped with that year. The historical society of Bliss didn’t even know how many years had passed since 2097. Many generations had come and gone, centuries had passed, and the historic events during those hundreds of years were not recorded and long forgotten. The existing recent records referred only to Bliss. There was a time called The Awakening, when Bliss history was first recorded with the help of the artificial intelligence sphere and the group who organized Bliss into a functioning, perfect society. Through science and the available machines left after the Virus Calamity, the people of Bliss became perfectly comfortable and self-sustaining.

A diverse combination of about fifty people referred to as The Group lived in the center of Bliss. They were dedicated to scientific research and held influence over the people of Bliss. The Group worked in their own building that was a dark purple, windowless cube made completely of composite bricks formed by 3D printers. A central founding core of about fifteen elders directed the projects and interests of the Group.

A massive antenna array was set up in the flat, barren part of the peninsula by Crazy and his technical gang. It consisted of one thousand vertical antennas spaced exactly twenty feet apart in an expansive field of grass. Some years ago, he and others in Bliss had the notion to construct a large-scale listening post to determine if there was another community that might exist outside of the peninsula. Were they alone? Many in Bliss had asked this question. Were there other people living somewhere outside of Bliss? Was Bliss home to the only human life on Earth?

A unique meeting of the Group was held to determine if there were potentially other people alive. All fifty members showed up to vote. It was decided that a dedicated faction of the Group should focus their attention on finding out if there were people living out beyond the peninsula.

Although many in the Group wanted to find other human life, the task was given to those who were already involved in the program. The chosen individuals were expected to concentrate on this endeavor for the good of Bliss, and were supported financially and socially towards the completion of this task. A specially selected, eclectic mixture was chosen and consisted of four men and two women. They called themselves The Crew.

They were immediately tasked to proceed with their search to determine if the inhabitants of Bliss were alone in the world. Their knowledge was limited to the finite number of books and computer files that existed in the library shack made out of driftwood and shells, its walls two feet thick. This structure had been in Bliss longer than anyone could remember. There were lots of computers powered by the roof’s solar cells. Inside were hundreds of centuries-old books. Despite these resources, most of Bliss’ history was told orally through stories and word of mouth. So, no one really knew how long their people had lived on the peninsula. There were a few handwritten stories from long ago, but not enough to get a full grasp on how Bliss got there and how people first came to the peninsula. The earliest records of Bliss started over four hundred years ago when Ronnie Believer commenced his preaching to families living in the forest about how to form the perfect community.

A long, barbed-wire fence out by the border was the only fortification for the spiraled peninsula. It afforded protection to the peninsula and enabled the guards to shoot anything they deemed to be a threat. However, there had never been a threat as long as anyone could remember. An ancient .50-caliber semi-automatic rifle with a ten-round clip was mounted on top of a wheeled chassis with an electric motor, this combo making for a quick response should there be any threat along the fence’s expanse.

Guards milled about along the twenty-foot-high wire in addition to a few lookouts in elevated, metal-fortified guard shacks who mostly spent their time sleeping. There were stories about the Bliss forefathers having conflicts with outsiders, although presently, no one could even remember ever seeing an outsider. The tales passed on by great-great-grandfathers were merely stories of violent days from a long time ago. There were songs of great battles at the gate, the blazing lights of the machine guns, and the cries from marauding mutants. Crazy would often belt out a verse while at a pub, as the volume of his voice reverberated off the thin, handcrafted windowpanes:

Oh, hear me, mutants, for your days will be gone,

My wall and my gun no surrender, you’ll be done.

Run back to the wasteland now, heathen scum!

Even though there was nothing but an arid, uninhabited desert landscape outside of the peninsula, the Land of Bliss remained vigilant against attack.

The town had just as many women as men, which led to courtships that lasted a lifetime. Couples met at a young age and were predestinated to be married. That’s just the way it was, and no one minded because divorce was no big deal. One spouse just had to walk away from the tent and stay in another’s to be considered divorced.

Everyone had their little social cliques they sought out in the evenings. Relaxing in meetings and campfires or being productive with lab experiments and mixing chemical concoctions. This was how the people of Bliss liked to spend their time. The population was content to remain spiritually static, and as a result there were no idealistic, far-reaching thoughts. Perhaps this is what happens when a person’s needs are totally taken care of and there is no want for food or shelter? A people can become lackadaisical and unassuming when there is no pressure to exert one’s will onto others to get ahead.

However, there was the Group who refused to be complacent when it came to discovery and its quest to further their understanding of themselves, society, and science. Hardly anyone in all of Bliss had a passion for such things. They were content strolling through the forest while picking delicious mushrooms and berries, or building a campfire by the