Somewhere underneath this red southeastern Alabama dirt is a little boy.

A kindergartner, snatched from the safety of his school bus by a gunman and stashed in an underground bunker;

A boy who needs daily medication;

A child that this Bible Belt community of 2,300 is praying for.

Many details have been released about the man suspected to be the boy's abductor:

How he was supposed to have been in court to face charges that he'd shot at his neighbors over a minor property dispute;

How he boarded a stopped school bus Tuesday and shot dead the bus driver;

How he worked on the bunker in the middle of the night for more than a year.

But many questions remained in Midland City on Thursday:

What's in the bunker beside the man and the boy?

How are they keeping warm when temperatures have dipped into the 30s in the area?

Is the boy safe?

And why, of all people, him?

The driver

The gunman stormed into the school bus Tuesday afternoon and demanded that the driver hand him a child.

The driver, 66-year-old Charles Poland Jr., was a gentle Bible-reading man who could not stand to discipline the children on his bus because it hurt his heart, the Dothan Eagle newspaper reported.

When he refused the demand, police said, the gunman shot him several times as 22 horrified children scrambled for cover.

But the man was able to grab the boy and drag him to his underground bunker.

And the standoff began.

The suspect

Authorities have not released the name of the man they suspect to be the gunman. But neighbors and news outlets around Midland City identified him as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, a Vietnam veteran and a retired truck driver.

Neighbor Jimmy Davis told CNN that Dykes began digging a hole on his property soon after he moved in down the road from him.

Davis, who works a night shift, said Dykes worked on his bunker in the middle of the night -- every other night, between 2 and 3 a.m., for a year and a half.

He was friendly and welcoming and told Davis the hole would be a storm shelter.

Now, the bunker Dykes dug is four feet deep, and Dykes has been known to stay there for up to eight days, said James Arrington, police chief in Pinckard, Alabama.

It wasn't clear what supplies were in the bunker Thursday, Arrington said.

Tim Byrd, chief investigator with the Dale County Sheriff's Office, told the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch that Dykes was a "survivalist type" with "anti-America" views.

"His friends and his neighbors stated that he did not trust the government, that he was a Vietnam vet, and that he had PTSD," Byrd told the civil rights group. "He was standoffish, didn't socialize or have any contact with anybody."

The court date

On Wednesday, the day after the standoff began, Dykes was supposed to appear in court to answer to charges that he'd shot at Davis during a December argument over the dirt road that separated their homes.

Davis was moving out when his truck -- hauling a trailer -- dug ruts into the dirt speed bump that Dykes had built up across the road.

Dykes "got mad about what he saw" and stood by the side of the road, yelling and cursing, said Davis' mother, Claudia.

He then ran to his van, got a pistol and fired two shots at the truck, the Davises said.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, including Claudia Davis' 6-month-old daughter, who was inside.

The Wednesday court date in nearby Ozark was for menacing, a misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to six months in jail.

Another neighbor, Ronda Wilbur, said Dykes beat her dog to death with a lead pipe and then bragged to her husband about it.

"He made it very clear that any animals or people that came onto his property would be killed," she said.

Wilbur said she complained to animal control authorities and thought that this would stop the behavior.

"He just got increasingly more bizarre," Wilbur said.

The boy