Epilogue

The sun had risen to its full might when the helicopter finally began to descend. The trip had been awkward. I had been too nervous to truly enjoy the fact that I had been flown in a helicopter. When I finally got over my nerves, we were well out of the city and had left civilization behind.

The pilot landed the craft on the spot he believed to be the coordinate. As soon as we stepped out of the vehicle and shut the door, he began to ascend again.

Immediately, I realized that once the pilot leaves there would be no turning back. Failure to find the bunker would mean we would be stranded, thirsty and sure to die.

"Wait," I said in fear but the helicopter was already off the ground and the pilot did not hear me. His ears were plugged with massive headsets. I suspected that he could hear me but simply decided to ignore me. Either way, he lifted off and was gone, leaving Uzo and I in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing but our pistols in its holster and diamonds in our pockets.

No food, no water, nothing. Just diamonds, guns and a code in my mind, a code that promised to be the key to our salvation. At that moment, a chilling thought hit me. What if there was no bunker. Frizzy could simply have sent us to the desert to die while he kept all our loot for himself. As if reading my thoughts, Uzo voiced them out.

"Bro, what if there is no fucking bunker? He could have robbed us blind."

"There is a bunker," I said as convincingly as I could even though doubt was beginning to creep in.

"Okay, then where is it?" Uzo asked.

'The trap door is probably covered with sand," I said as I began to roam around in search of any signs of metal that would indicate where the trap door was.

"Or maybe he simply made the story up. How the hell did that nigger convince us to give him all our money and get on a chopper to the middle of nowhere. Did he use jazz?"

"No. Frizzy is charismatic and convincing. It's what makes him a good politician. But he is not dubious and he sure as hell isn't fetish. Like me, he doesn't believe in magic," I said, as I began to kick up dust with my shoes, hoping to unveil the door.

"Really? So you took us to a convincing politician when we were desperate and vulnerable. You basically took us to a con man," he exclaimed.

Uzo had a point. If Frizzy was lying, we were in the position to believe him. He was smart enough to that and there was nothing stopping him from selling us a paradise that didn't exist. It was like selling cold water to two men trapped in the desert. They would buy it at any price only to realize that they have bought a mirage.

Fear began to creep into my heart. I began to doubt Frizzy's promise the same way a christian doubts the promise of God as he watches the life of his daughter fade away despite his prayers. And just when I was about to give in to dismay, I caught a tiny glint at the edge of my peripheral vision. It was a good distance away, about twenty steps. I could have been hallucinating. I knew it could simply be my mind playing tricks on me, conjuring images to fit against the desperate hope in my heart.

But I didn't care. It was all I had. I ran towards the glint, got on my knees and pushed the sand away. And there it was, a round trap door like the cover of a storex water tank and right on top of it was a key pad. I keyed in the code and I was rewarded with a loud hiss.

Letting out the breath I didn't even know I was holding, I pulled the door open. There was darkness beneath and the little light that sipped into the hole showed a ladder going down.

"Turns out your boy came through after all."

"Yeah, you were wrong to doubt him," I said. Even though technically I was speaking to myself. I was wrong to doubt him.

We slowly made our way down the ladder, me going in first and Uzo following. As soon as my feet touched solid ground rather than yet another rung, I began to run my hands along the wall in search of the light switch. I finally found it and flipped it on.

Light flooded in and filled the entire bunker, revealing one of the coolest living spaces I have ever seen. There was a large living room that was like a circular crater with four stairs leading out of it. The first set of stairs was right in front of where we had landed, while the other three stairs led to small rooms.

The living room was outfitted with gadgets. A television that was connected to two consoles and a large hard drive. In front of the television was a circular leather couch that looked super comfy. Between the television and the couch was a coffee table which was in fact a deep freezer. Basically, one raises the top of the coffee table which was actually the sealed lead of the freezer. And one could pull out a cold one. along the walls, in spaces that didn't serve as opening to bedrooms were cupboards, fridges for frozen food, a transparent shelf for snacks, rice, gas cylinders, bags of water stacked to the roof, cartons of canned food, food stuffs like spaghetti, seven bags of rise, dried fish and meat, packs of drinks, cartons of wine and every other thing one could need to survive a goddamned apocalypse.

As Uzo and I walked around the bunker, we uncovered more and more of the goodies. Frizzy was right, this was a safe haven and sharing it with me was a great sacrifice. Ten percent was nothing compared to the cost he was incurring by saving my dumb ass. We were five minutes into exploring the bunker when I realized that we had not shut the lead.

"Uzo, shut the lead. We don't want satellite images or flying aircrafts to see a piece of metal poking out of the ground in the middle of nowhere."

"Who do you think you are to boss me around?"

"Bro, don't start. Please."

He looked at me in defiance, wondering if he should in fact "start". Luckily for us, he did the smart thing and obeyed.

I continued exploring. I walked past the first room on the right. Then the next room which was the room directly opposite the spot we landed in when we arrived. I walked in and found that it was in fact not a room but a control station. There was a bed there quite alright but there was also a computer that showed a feed of what was happening on the surface. At the edge of the screen was an envelope icon- a notification.,

I clicked on it and a message popped up.

Welcome to your Avalon. Kindly press run to initiate solar panel wipers in order to ensure optimum charging of your batteries.

I obeyed the prompt and clicked the word run. Suddenly the feed showing what was going on topside of the bunker changed as it showed large wipers sweeping off layers of sand to reveal shiny solar panels.

The energy bar on the bottom right of the computer began showing a lightning icon to the right, indicating that the batteries were charging. As I familiarized myself with the system, I couldn't help but be impressed. Frizzy had spent a lot of time, money and effort in creating the ultimate man cave.

Six months of hiding wasn't going to be easy. But if I had to hide for six months, Frizzy's Avalon was the only place I could do it. I sat on the swivel chair and threw my head back, even as I saw the trapdoor shut. The dread of being imprisoned underground for six months began to creep up on me.

I tried to force my mind to enjoy the moment. I was free and rich. I had somehow managed to steal a fortune most people would never see till they die and beyond stealing this fortune, I was also going to get away with it.

I began to imagine how great my life would be after my exile and this dream began to seduce me into the world of dreams. I hadn't slept in many hours and with the adrenaline gone and a feeling of safety descending upon me, sleep was finally reaching out for me. I was about to sleep off on the swivel chair when a thought finally hit me, the loose end I had totally forgotten.

"Shit," I said, as my closing eyes shut wide ope