Lost in Magadan: Extraterrestrials on Earth

The next morning, the squad piled into a fifteen-passenger van and were driven to Dugway. DPG consists of hundreds of miles of flat, treeless desert. The military complex is surrounded by mountain ranges on three sides.

From Hill AFB, it took over an hour to travel to the DPG main gate, where they were waived in with a salute. Once through the main gate, they drove several miles through barren salt flats, until they came to the main installation. The main installation was a cluster of buildings, hangers, and housing surrounded by miles of empty desert. It only took a few minutes to pass through the small town-like area. Then, they were heading toward a huge mountain in the distance.

Snap, sitting in the first row of seats behind the driver, leaned forward and asked, “I thought we were stopping at Dugway?”

“Yes Sir, heading to Granite Peak Installation,” the young Sergeant said, as he turned off the pavement onto a gravel road.

“Granite Peak Installation? I thought they closed that after WWII,” Snap questioned.

“I’ve been here for six years. It’s been open the whole time. It’s a top secret underground bunker. Not many people, even here on Dugway, know what goes on in there.” The Sergeant continued to drive along the gravel road, through the flat desert, toward the looming mountain.

“What’s up, Major?” Neal West asked from the second-row window seat.

“Seems we are heading to Granite Peak Installation.”

“Thought that was closed decades ago?” Neal pulled himself up to the bench in front of him.

“Supposedly, they closed GPI after WWII. It was a huge self-contained facility right here on Dugway. GPI had its own barracks, mess hall, administration, laboratories, utilities and runway.”

“Why did they close it?” Neal asked.

“War was over; they cut a lot of bases and programs. During the war, it was used for biological weapons testing.”

As they traveled, the mountain blotted out their view of the sky, so that all they could see was a solid rock face through the windshield of the van. They stopped at the foot of the mountain, before a large half circle opening in the rock. The entrance to the underground bunker was cut directly into a sheer rock wall. A heavy metal gate was affixed to a concrete frame that defined the outside entrance to the passage.

“No guards?” Neal asked.

“No need for guards. They have been watching us approach for the last 45 minutes. If we were a threat, several attack drones would have been dispatched before we were even close. The gate will open in a minute; they know this van. We are expected.” The Sergeant stretched his arms and legs from a seated position, “Long drive.”

“Look, the gate is opening,” Neal said. The gate slowly rose off the ground and disappeared into the stone ceiling.

“Here we go, Gentlemen. Welcome to Wonderland,” the Sergeant said with a chuckle, as he drove the van into the dark tunnel. Inside the underground passage, was a paved road leading down to a large open space. The walls of the tunnel were rough granite rock and arched up toward a dome-shaped ceiling. Once in the large open cavern, they could see numerous vehicles and self-contained, modular metal buildings. The space reminded Snap of an airport parking garage that was under construction.

“Here we are, end of the line. Hope you gentlemen enjoyed the ride, no tipping allowed,” the driver said jokingly. “Lieutenant Black will be here in a few minutes to take you to your next stop.”

“Thanks for the lift, Sergeant,” Snap said, as he jumped out the side door of the van. The rest of his men followed suit.

A few minutes later, a medium built man walked through the door of the mobile, shipping container-like admin office and right up to Snap. “Good morning, Major, I’m Max Black. I’m here to escort you to level fifteen.”

“Morning, Lieutenant Black,” replied Snap.

“Please follow me,” said the young lieutenant, obviously more of an administrative type than a warrior.

Snap and the men followed Lieutenant Black through a man-sized tunnel, bore through solid granite, to another large chamber. The man-sized tunnel was next to a larger tractor trailer sized tunnel that led to the same cavern. This chamber was more militarized than the first parking-garage type chamber.

Immediately upon walking through the short tunnel, they found themselves at a security check point. There were waist high concrete barriers set up to corral visitors toward a guard post. On the other side of the long concrete barriers were military personnel armed with TAR-21 bull-pup rifles. On either side of the check point were 50 caliber machine guns mounted on armored turrets.