"Shaft No. 247

by Basil Copper
originally published New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Arkham House, 1980

Driscoll and Wainewright are security, watchmen in some vast underground installation - in which survives an entire civilization, possibly millions of people.  The watchmen sit for hours monitoring a large dashboard that detects movement or presence in the many shafts and tunnels of the installation.  Driscoll is a stolid, level-headed fellow but Wainewright seems wound a little too tight for his own good, overreacting to minor readings in the monitors.

Driscoll's superior hints that Driscoll should poke around and find out what's eating Wainewright.  Driscoll goes to visit Wainewright (a breach of protocol).  Wainewright tells him he's been in a weird state ever since his friend Deems went A.W.O.L., so to speak.

It seems Deems had noted an unusual amount of activity in one of the shafts (No. 247 - SURPRISE!), and, further, that the powers-that-be seemed to be aware of this, but were covering it up.  One night, Deems went and entered the shaft, and left through it, going "outside" (the surface world, one assumes?), and was never seen or heard from again.  He left behind a phony-looking note, urging Wainewright to come out there with him, and some glob of gray, icky-smelling stuff.

One night soon after, Wainewright loses it and also goes "outside".  Driscoll too finds a phony-looking note inviting him to come too.  And a glob of gray, icky-smelling stuff.

Driscoll becomes obsessed with Shaft 247.  One night he enters.  He is overwhelmed by what may be hallucinations: "Driscoll knew what had fascinated Wainwright and his friend Deems before him. The heady odour had something in it that reached back deep into his roots. He saw green fields; a blue sky; corn waving in the breeze.”  It becomes unclear whether Driscoll's experiences are hallucinations or somehow actual events.  Something outside, with Driscoll's help, is attempting to enter the shaft...

This is one weird story, and if it weren't published in a specifically Cthulooey collection, I might not even assume it to be such a beast.  Yet here it is.  And, if one reads closely enough, the Lovecrafty elements are very skillfully implemented.

In many ways, this recalls 50's science fiction, such as Lester del Rey's "Nerves", more than HPL.  The Dystopian, Orwellian subterranean society is unsettling, even moreso because its never clear where, or when this is happening.  Or how much these people even know of the world outside.  Or why they live in tunnels.

The story is intensely subtle and carefully crafted.  The nature of the society is revealed gradually, but unambiguously, over the space of several pages.  The ambiguities come in the end (what, exactly, is happening to Driscoll - and what is trying to get in), but are also clearly intentional.  And while the nature and intent of whatever is "outside" is not really known - it sure as hell doesn't feel right!

All in all this is way above Copper's usual level of quality, and while there are Cthulhu stories I've enjoyed more, its impossible not to admire his craft.