Bunker Bird

21. Shrine V 2.0

You know nothing if you don't believe.

The Manuals of the Bunker, Vol. 1, Verse 21

"Smooth!" Amy said.

I stared at the writing on the panel—Shrine V 2.0. My suspicions had turned out to be true. We had found the Shrine. The sacred place where only the bishop was allowed to go.

"I think we should leave," I whispered. If they caught us, we'd get punished.

She grunted. "Fat chance. Now that we've found a proper machine, we won't just run." She grinned. "Machines are so much better than all this junk and the church." She gestured at the ancient artifacts surrounding us. "This machine is even talking. And it wants to help us. We can't leave now."

"How's a machine going to help us? And we're not allowed to be here. The Shrine is for the bishop only."

"Ye see?" She extended her arms, palms facing upwards. "This is what yer church does with you. It keeps secrets. And anyone keeping secrets has something to hide."

I hesitated—there had to be a good reason why only the bishop was allowed to come here. "Maybe, the truth is too bad to know. The bishop carries the burden of knowledge and rulership." The Manuals said so, after all.

"How can I help you?" The metallic voice repeated its words, making both Amy and me jump.

"Do you think we can talk to it?" Amy whispered, pointing at the panel with a thumb.

"I don't think we should—"

"Hey, machine!" she said in a loud voice. "Tell us the truth about yer chickenshit church."

"The truth about the church," the voice said. "Retrieving."

She crossed her arms and winked at me. "Prepare for a surprise, good boy," she whispered.

An image replaced the writing on the panel. It took me a moment to recognize it for what it was. Trees, thousands of them, seen from above.

The image moved, with us still looking down on the trees as if we were giants striding through them.

"S'moving," Amy said. "How does it do that?"

"I don't know. I've never seen something like this."

Soft music played, its tune sweet, of a kind I had never heard before.

"Before the downfall, Earth was thriving," the voice began. "Nature was abundant, the water pure, the air was clean."

A small channel, its waters gurgling.

"The surface," Amy said.

I shook my head. This could not be real.

"Animals roamed the lands, free and unfettered."