Tel
Graeta
It seemed like an endless chain of tunnels and Ilana worried
that they had lost their way and were going in circles. "Don't worry,
we'll be there soon", Aminadav was
leading them up to the surface along one of the carefully constructed escape
routes that served as a "last resort" method to exit the base
enclosure. "We were down over 150 feet, we could have withstood a direct
hit."
The tunnels had been hastily cut through fused layers of
earth and foam, formed from molten magma-like material, all engineered against
shock, heat, and radiation. The small party rose through the last stairway and
outer port. For all the careful ventilation below, it was still very special to
breath in fresh surface air. It was good to feel the sun on your face. Aminadav
looked across the crater to the Israeli side and remembered his home at Tel
Graeta.
Among his first memories, were the precious moments his
spent at his bedroom window looking out across the fields of Tel Graeta, a small
farming community within a larger region of technical facilities and defense manufacture. Both of his parents
worked as scientists and engineers. His uncle owned and kept the farm where
they all lived. Aminadav recalled the smell of the animals and the dust from the
fields, the grass and the sounds of the birds, the hum of the generator plant a
few miles to the south.
He looked at them looking at him and smiled. "Can't I
have a few seconds for myself", and laughed.
