The Old Barn

John stared in disbelief at the sight before him. He had traveled thousands of miles, deserted his command, persuaded his friend to desert also and THIS was before him? He fingered the locket and thought have I been conned? Has whatever the lovers had here long ago disappeared? He held the locket up and reread the inscription, “Our love is as pure as gold, may we never part for long. Our treasure is always ourselves: 48.2477N, 116.3071W.” That had to mean more than a mushy love sentiment. As he was staring at the dilapidated barn, he began to feel sick. He was startled out of his vexing thoughts by a slap on his shoulder and a loud, positive cry of joy.

“We’re here! Look at this place! It’s magnificent.” exclaimed Mike. Mike had survived the journey despite John’s earlier thoughts of having him disappear into the sea. He turned out to be a good ally and fighting partner. Had he not been there, John doubted they would have been able to rebuff the pirates. Since then, John looked at Mike in a different light although still from a utility perspective.

“What are you talking about? This place is just an old barn! The paint has been eroded away or bleached by the Sun. Nature has destroyed most of it. What could be so good about this place?”

“Well,” Mike enthused, “This place was quite the item in its day. Look, they had wooden floors instead of dirt. Those beams and post have held up against the ravages of time. They are super strong. Whomever built this barn, knew what they were doing! I’ll bet we find something good here.” John looked at Mike annoyed by his enthusiasm. How could he still think there was anything here. The barn was centuries old. Yeah the people that built it originally built it strong but time doesn’t care about the whims of man. At least they wouldn’t have to sleep uncovered. The roof was mostly intact and the walls had enough boards left to keep the wind out.

“John!”

“What?”

“March on the floor and tell me what you hear.” John started to walk across the floor as if he were walking down a path. “No John! March like we did in formation!” John sighed and then started marching, setting his heel down purposefully and strong. He marched across the room until he was about two thirds across the barn. The sound of his footsteps changed. It was no longer like he was marching across solid wood but over a void. This was a technique they had used in the service when they were looking for hidden fighters. John looked at Mike. Mike nodded. There may be something here after all!. John got on his hands and knees and began to examine the floor. Mike ran over to assist. If this void was used to hide something, there had to be a way to open it. They searched for thirty minutes before stopping to rest.

“We need some tools and we need to search the rest of the barn.”

“It’s getting late, John. We should build a fire and search in the morning. We can set up camp right here.” John looked outside and saw the waning light. It seemed to be getting dark quickly.

“Ok, but we need to conceal the fire. We don’t know who or what else is out there and we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

“Agreed!” Mike and John then looked around for something to help them with the fire. They found some old metal signs that they could use to hide the flames as well as act as a heat sink to provide more warmth. They put some rocks over the void and grabbed some of the barn’s fallen wood. Once they had their chimenea working, they decided on the watch order. John would take first two hour watch and they would switch out every two hours until morning. Mike crawled into his sleeping bag and quickly fell asleep. John got in position where he could watch the void and the most likely entrance to the barn. His back was against a post and a few feet from the wall. His shift was painfully boring. He was glad when his watch indicated it was time to switch.

“Mike! Get up. It’s your turn.” Mike roused from his sleep, grabbed his clothes and weapon.

“Ok, you hit the hay. Anything I need to know about?”

“Only that it is dark in the Rocky Mountains. Enjoy staring into the void.” Said John as he climbed into the bag. Some time later, John was awakened by the sound of gunfire. His instincts kicked in as he grabbed his weapon and called out to John, “What direction?”

“East opening. I think an animal, a large animal, was trying to get warm.” Mike and John’s weapon mounted flashlights were illuminating the east entrance. The artificial light revealed a large male boar that had been killed by Mike’s shots.

“Looks like we have breakfast sorted out as well as the next few meals!” quipped John. “Douse your light. We don’t want to be pinpointed and with the noise we just made, if anyone is out there, they definitely know somebody is here.” The flashlights went dark as the two men looked at each other.

“Do we move?” asked Mike

“No, I don’t think we need to do that but we do need to be vigilant. The next thing coming might not be a boar. I think I’m awake, do you want to grab some more sleep?”

“No, I’m up now.” John responded. “Do you want to do something with breakfast over there before it attracts any other predators?”

“Yeah, but what? We can’t preserve it out here at least not now.”

“Well we could process it and keep what we want and then drag the carcass away from here so any predators would go to it.”

“Good thinking.” Mike pulled out his knife and joined John in processing the boar. They managed to get thirty pounds of meat before hauling the carcass several hundred feet away. The early morning light was starting to illuminate the inside of the barn. John looked around with a different mindset than when he first arrived. How were they going to breach that void? There had to be some sort of latch somewhere. Mike looked over and saw John surveying the barn. “You want to look for the mechanism while I cook us some breakfast?”

“That sounds like a good idea.” John said absently as he began looking closely at the barn structure. There were no obvious switches or levers. This truly was a secret. John used his flashlight to adjust lighting to see if he could find anything out of the ordinary. He was just about to give up hope when his eye caught a reflection. It was behind one of the posts where the sunlight wouldn’t hit. It was a string running along the post and down to the ground. John gave it a slight tug. Suddenly there was loud commotion and Mike yelling. John looked around the post to see the fire, rocks, and metal signs had crumbled into the floor. Mike looked over at John.

“Well there goes breakfast! What the hell were you thinking?”

“I don’t know. Maybe that the string led to a switch not that the string was the switch.”

“Well you got the door open but now it’s full of our food and fire!” John walked over to the fire, grabbed his water and doused the flames.

“Ok let’s pull everything out.” John said as he was pulling out the meat. Mike began to help him and soon the two had cleaned out the void. John turned on his flashlight to look into the void. As he was kneeling down to peer in the opening, he noticed that the door was very thick like a vault door. His flashlight’s beam sliced through the dark room and was reflected back with stacks of gold. They had struck it rich! Mike could see the golden glow and knew that it was a large amount of gold.

“How much is there John?”

“The room is full! Wait, there appears to be a hallway. We are going to have to search this place.”

“We need to gather some resources. What are we going to do about securing this?” Mike asked. John thought about it for a minute. He doubt either would trust the other to stand watch alone.

“We are going to close it back up.”

“WHAT?! We just found it and you want us to close it back up?”

“Yes. We know how to open it now. If we close it up, it is unlikely that anyone else will stumble upon it. We can gather resources to secure it and for searching without raising an alarm to anyone we may encounter.”

“Ok, good plan.” Mike said glumly. Before closing the door, Mike reached in and grabbed a coin. It might come in handy. John pulled the string in the opposite direction and the door sealed quietly. There was no sign that the door was there. Mike and John moved the rocks and tin back over the door to help coverup what’s underneath. Once everything was secure, they decided to run a patrol to see what was surrounding them and what they could use. The future looked golden for the two.