Saturday, March 8th, 2014 | 07:01AM

James Crantz was a man with pretty decent morals, a good strong work ethic, and the vices that only come with being an adrenaline junkie. The man who crunched numbers and traded stock by day seemed to have made up for his relatively peaceful life by attempting every high risk thrill the world had to offer. He?d accomplished most of them by the time he marked his thirty-fifth year, and he began to wring out more dangerous opportunities from his contacts every month.

Take today, for instance. Today, James was about to embark on an urban spelunking mission. It wasn?t actually urban spelunking, though he adored the term because it sounded edgy and made him feel like he was going to do something extraordinary; it was trespassing on poorly-maintained military property, and James had brought his go-pro to make sure everyone on his blog would hear and see what he was going to be writing about.

James?s best friend, Terry, picked him up at seven in the morning. He jumped into Terry?s Land Rover, all his gear ready to go, and flipped on his go-pro.

?Y?all ready for this, Terr??

?You know it, Jay!?

Terry and James bumped fists, laughed heartily, and enjoyed the rest of the ride out to the field together. They discussed women, the upcoming seasonal change, and the ideas of settling down with families one day. Most of it was childishly brushed under the rug and drowned out with macho posturing, but beneath it all was a vague, unsettling feeling that these things were starting to need to be addressed. James had spent most of his life avoiding thinking more than a month into the future unless it had to do with a company?s profit margins, but he was getting closer to hitting his peak and he knew it. He knew there wouldn?t be enough time for him to do everything he?d wanted if he didn?t start working towards it now.

It was then that James, as Terry jumped out of the car and cut the chain around the gate with the bolt cutters, decided that he was going to make a real change in his life. He was going to make sure that he?d get to enjoy his fifties and sixties; Hell, maybe even with someone he loved. He was going to make sure the most used tool in his shed was something other than bolt cutters. He was going to make his future matter.

Next week, though.

Saturday, March 8th, 2014 | 12:57PM

?Hey man, check it out! I found a switchboard!?

Terry was excited about his find all the way down in the third sublevel, and this showed in that he didn?t wait for any kind of response from James before flipping breakers like a man on a mission. He hadn?t been giving much thought to the actual building or its contents so far, as every floor had made him realize more slowly why the elevator shaft was set almost in the middle of the first floor; these floors kept getting smaller, walls existing where before there?d only been that design and empty space.

It made him anxious to figure out what it was before they hit the bottom and he had to accept some kind of defeat. But that wasn?t the kind of guy that Terry was; he was determined and everything he did showed it. He was going to show it again here, and he was gonna have the sweetest den anyone?d ever DIY?d before Summer. Once he?d flipped all but the main breaker on, he flipped that too.

The sound of generators grinding into life and overhead lighting stuttering into a steady state was halted by a warning light and the sound of all that power shutting down. Many of the overhead flood lights? bulbs burst, and James could be heard swearing loudly from the clerical office he?d been digging through. The warning light illuminated a small plaque, which read as followed:

FUEL RESERVES CRITICAL / EMERGENCY BACKUP ONLY

?What the Hell, Terry!??

James emerged from the office covered in cuts, some of them bleeding pretty freely.

?Ugh.. I didn?t even bring my kit this time. I didn?t know you were trying to blow the damned place up.?

?Sorry, man.. I just-?

?You just nothing, Terr. Whatever, don?t worry about it. The elevator shaft doesn?t go down any further anyways, so let?s just get outta here and I can get cleaned up.?

?But Jay, there?s another elevator down at the end of the hall.?
James perked up at the sound of that.

?Like, a secret elevator? That they didn?t want anyone to know about??

?Well? I mean, I guess. I just saw it when the lights went up. Looks like one?a them old freight elevators or somethin?.?

James pushed ahead, and hurried towards the end of the hall where there was indeed a massive freight elevator sitting in disuse. It had three separate fenced doors, the outermost of which was chained shut and locked. Luckily for the pair, Terry kept the bolt cutters attached to his pack for just this reason. As they peered over the edge into the shaft, headlamps blazing, they realized they couldn?t see the bottom. But they could assume that since they could see the top of the shaft above them, the elevator car was lowered before being sealed off just like the others.

?Alright, Terr. Let?s set up for a rappel. I think we might?ve found something serious.?