Authors: Robert Storey
‘So why are we still standing around jabbering?’ Sarah said, a smile creeping onto her face. ‘Let’s get to it.”
‘All-nighter!’ they all said in unison, laughing as they picked their way back out of the cave.
Chapter Twelve
It was hard work getting the tools and equipment into the narrow chamber, but they managed to in the end after much grunting and swearing. Night was not the best time to set up a dig, especially when you had minimal lighting.
Once everything was in place Sarah scanned the walls of the cave to try and find the chamber she had mapped so extensively earlier in the day. It didn’t take her long until she found it again, however she was unable to locate the elusive canister signal she’d momentarily glimpsed from the surface.
Marking a spot on the rock wall some ten feet from the end of the cave, they withdrew the scanner; all three of them then manhandled the ultrasonic unit into position. They each donned goggles, dust masks and ear defenders and Jason started up the machine. A loud roar echoed round the cave and out into the cold night air. Inside, the noise was deafening even with ear defenders on. It wasn’t the ultrasonic waves that made it so loud, but the machine that produced them; to project the sound waves deep into the soft limestone and earth required immense power, hence the machine’s limited usage.
Dust kicked up by the cooling fans swirled around them as vortices spiralled down the tunnel.
‘I’m moving it closer!’ Jason shouted to them. ‘Move back!’
‘What?’ Sarah yelled, putting a hand to an ear indicating she hadn’t heard what he’d said.
‘Move away!’ he said again, motioning them backwards.
Sarah gave him the thumbs up and they moved back a bit as Jason edged the machine nearer to the wall, increasing the resonance and noise even further; small stones torn from the wall ricocheted around them, forcing them to retreat a few more paces. After twenty ear-ringing minutes, Jason powered it down enabling everyone to remove their protective gear. The rock and dirt that had been between them and the void had been turned into a heavy granulated dust. A uniform hole, as straight as a die, had been punched through the earth and into the underground chamber ahead, which itself was buried forty feet below the surface. The newly created tunnel lay half-filled with dusty, pulverised rock and so, replacing their masks, they picked up shovels and began the arduous task of clearing it out.
By morning light they had completely emptied Jason’s creation, depositing the spoil throughout the length of the cave. Sarah was the first to go inside, followed by Trish, with Jason bringing up the rear. Sarah squeezed out of the crawl space and into the void, now able to stand upright. The air smelt dry and stale inside, which was unsurprising as it may have been trapped there for untold millennia. As a precaution they wore their dust masks, but with added filters to help prevent against harmful microbes and any other unseen nasties that might lurk within.
Sarah shone her torch around the structure realising she could very well be the first person to ever set foot inside it;
the first human person, anyway
, she told herself, soaking up the moment.
She walked forwards with care; it was definitely not a natural void, as it had straight sided walls, mirroring the scans made from the surface. The ancient map had depicted some kind of log construction, but there was no sign of that inside, although there wasn’t any guarantee this place was the same as the graphical representation. It might have been rebuilt many times over for all they knew. The ceiling looked to be about ten to twelve feet high, cracked in many places and seeping dirt and old roots.
Even with the filters, the air tasted dry and stale; Sarah moistened her lips with her tongue.
Ten feet away, on either side, the walls gradually diverged, opening the area up further.
Sarah heard Trish making her way in behind her.
What’s that?!
she thought, catching a glimpse of movement ahead; looking again, she saw it was just her own shadow cast on the far wall by Trish’s torchlight. Relieved, Sarah smiled to herself, then she suddenly had an idea. Peering back, she saw Jason had reached the end of the tunnel and was about to step inside. Seizing the opportunity Sarah momentarily removed her mask, dropped her torch with a clatter and shrieked in pure terror. A scream and a commotion came from behind. She picked up her torch and turned round to see Jason disappearing back down the hole as fast as he could. Trish, initially looking terrified, laughed as she put her torch onto Sarah who was now wetting herself, doubled over. Some moments later a small voice came down the tunnel to them.
‘You cow!’
‘Frightened, were we?’ Sarah called back.
‘I just needed some fresh air,’ Jason said, trying to deepen his voice manfully, but failing dismally.
‘Oh, Sarah, that was priceless,’ Trish said, still chuckling.
‘I don’t think I can scream that high!’ Sarah said down the tunnel.
Jason’s curses came back at her as he clambered back towards them, and he looked suitably sheepish when he dropped inside the void once more. ‘Even?’ he asked Sarah, looking hopeful.
‘Maybe,’ she said, enjoying herself, ‘I’ll let you know.’
Jason laughed, although she thought he still sounded a little strung out. Still smiling to herself, Sarah began a search of the area again while Trish logged the surroundings on her computer. Back in the zone, Sarah quickly noticed a dark shadow near the centre of the floor. The scans hadn’t shown this feature up, which was strange. As she approached, she saw it was a hole, framed by a ragged edge hewn out of the rock; it measured about eight feet long. The rest of what was clearly a single chamber lay empty and lacked any other obvious features.
‘What’s that?’ Trish said, coming up to stand beside Sarah.
‘A big deep black hole by the look of it,’ Jason said, as he too came alongside to peer down into it. ‘I can just see the bottom if I focus the beam.’
He was right; Sarah could just make it out as he stretched out to highlight it with his torch.
‘How far down would you say that was, seventy feet?’ she asked them.
‘Give or take,’ Trish said.
Sarah weighed up their options. ‘We’ll need a rope.’
‘You’re not going down there, are you?’ Trish said in concern. ‘It could be dangerous.’
Sarah looked at her friend and raised her eyebrows in surprise. ‘Trish, I’ve spent a fortune getting here, we’ve spent weeks to get to this point and, last but no means least, we’re in the immediate path of the largest asteroid to hit the planet in sixty-five million years; a little more danger ain’t gonna make much difference.’
‘Good points, I’ll go get it,’ Trish said, and zoomed off back down the tunnel.
‘Nothing like being reminded you’re about to be squished by a multi-trillion tonne space rock to motivate you,’ Jason said wryly, as he watched Trish go.
A short while later, with Trish having returned, it wasn’t long before Sarah slowly descended into the earth, supported by Jason and Trish above. Fortunately the width of the hole was narrow enough that she could brace herself on the way down; this meant Trish and Jason didn’t have to take her full weight on the descent.
Light in hand, she could see the bottom drawing ever closer. ‘You’re going to have to take my full weight now,’ she said, her voice still muffled slightly by her mask. ‘I’m dropping down into another chamber of some kind.’
The rope tightened as Jason and Trish took the strain, and the rock face on either side disappeared as Sarah entered the larger void. Dangling on the end of the rope, her feet finally touched down onto a surface strewn with loose rock.
‘I’m down!’ she called up to them.
‘Leave the rope attached,’ Trish shouted back. ‘You don’t know what’s down there.’
‘Will do,’ she replied. It was sound advice; it might be dangerous already, but there was no need to increase the risk even further.
Sarah had been expecting to find herself in cramped quarters, but shining the torch around she saw she stood in the middle of a substantial cavern, by the look of it a natural formation. The cave walls loomed at the edges of the torchlight. Large boulders had fallen down randomly, standing tall and immobile on the floor like sentries guarding a forbidden temple.
Sarah fed out some more of the rope still attached to her small waist harness to enable her to move with more freedom.
She walked past a particularly large rock, caressing its surface with a hand as she went, her fingers brushing off small particles of rock and dust which cascaded to the ground.
Switching to a wider beam, she increased the torch’s power output and was greeted with a fabulous sight. Twenty feet away, two stone pillars stood either side of a massive stone plinth of a circular design. Approaching it, her excitement peaked as she caught sight of the glint of metal. Taking the torch, she extended its small built-in tripod, positioning it on the floor, and then turned on her head torch. On closer inspection the stonework was smooth and well crafted, yet disappointingly lacking any kind of detailing.
Unable to see on top of the circular plinth due to its height, Sarah stepped back a few paces and then ran and jumped up, placing her hands on the flat surface above and hauling herself upwards and onto her knees. The sudden movement sent more dust swirling and dancing around her in the ice-blue glow of the torchlight that now bathed the area.
As the dust settled, it became clear what she’d glimpsed moments before. In the centre of the platform sat a large metallic ovoid canister, much like the one in Turkey, but with a couple of differences, the main one being it had a deep dark red hue.
‘Oh, my God,’ she said, unable to believe her luck. Taking out her computer, she took some video.
‘Are you okay, Sarah?!’ Trish called out, her voice sounding distant.
Sarah looked back over her shoulder. ‘Yes, I’m fine!’
Trish’s interruption made Sarah remember time was still a scarce commodity; she couldn’t afford to stand and gawp. Rolling the artefact onto its side with a dull thud, she lugged it back to the bottom of the shaft.
Not wanting to stand underneath as Trish and Jason hauled it up, Sarah had time for a quick sweep of the rest of the cave. It consisted of various natural features, but the one that caught her eye was a large mass of debris that had collapsed in from the ceiling. Her light revealed a deep black void hidden behind the fallen rock. On approach, Sarah noticed a carved stone column still stood on one side of the opening. This was no natural formation; it was a purpose built tunnel.
Now free of the rope, Sarah’s instinct was to investigate so she climbed up the rubble pile and pushed her way through a tight gap, sending small rocks and gravel clattering and slithering down the slope behind her.
Inside, the tunnel petered out after thirty yards, completely sealed by another huge landslip. As she was about to turn back something caught her eye. Clambering over a couple of the larger boulders she dropped down between them into a small clearing. Almost beneath her feet the unmistakable forms of bone protruded through a layer of loose sediment. Bending down, she lifted her mask and blew hard at the surfaces. Dirt parted and a thick dust eddied upwards, uncovering a small group of bones, not animal but humanoid. Her heart beat faster.
The bones appeared odd, thin and elongated. She touched one and moved her hand along its length. It was a bone from an arm, a humerus. Standing up and adjusting her head torch, she withdrew her computer to take some in situ photos. As always, she had a ten pound coin to hand to add scale to the image.
After visually analysing them further she deduced the remains belonged to a single individual, probably taller than seven feet but nowhere near the size of the bones they’d found previously. Also, there was no skull, only bones from one arm, a hand and some other fragments. Sarah surveyed the scene and wondered if this creature – whoever, or whatever, it was – had been killed by the falling rocks during an earthquake. It seemed a likely scenario considering the precarious nature of the surrounding terrain.
Returning to the present, she had to remind herself she wasn’t dreaming. She couldn’t believe it, not only had she found a canister but bones, too.
These remains might even be from another monster-sized species of hominid
, she thought,
perhaps a relative of Homo gigantis, or a sub species
. It was incredible, was her luck changing?
At the moment it is
, she told herself, giddy with sweet success. With her spirits soaring, she carefully collected up the bones and deposited them into her rucksack.
As she squeezed back out into the main chamber, her bag, now fuller, caught on one of the rocks above. Twisting to help it through, her shoulder dislodged a piece of crumbling earth, which in turn shifted the rocks around her. Without warning a large stone directly above dropped a few inches, smashing the light on her head and plunging her into darkness. As her eyes adjusted to the faint light emanating from her larger torch, which rested beneath the shaft some way away, Sarah could tell she had a problem before even looking. Her leg was trapped.
‘Shit,’ she said, struggling to free herself. The rock wouldn’t budge; she was held tight. ‘Fucking hell!’ she said, a sense of panic upon her. She leaned back, bracing her free foot against another boulder, and pushed with all her might, grunting in exertion. Held fast, she paused as Jason called out to her, his voice faint.
‘Sarah, where are you? The rope’s ready for you!’
Sarah didn’t reply; taking a few deep breaths, she gathered herself. Lifting her foot up higher, she sought and found better purchase with her hands, then pushed out with as much strength as she could muster. She cried out as she strained every sinew, fought with every breath, and then – suddenly – she was free and tumbling backwards, before landing heavily on one side and bruising a shoulder.
In pain, but awash with relief, Sarah scrambled to her feet and checked the bag to make sure the bones hadn’t been damaged in the fall. Thankfully they seemed to be okay.