A few moments of silence passed while Maddy digested this. “I suppose you’re right. Unless we piled up stacks of mammoth tusks and stood on top of them or something silly like that…”
“Besides,” Hunt broke in, “We still haven’t seen what else is in this pyramid. If it takes up the entire mountain we climbed up outside to get here, then we can’t be all the way back down yet. It’s hard to judge, to be sure, but I’m guessing we’re at least half but not more than three-quarters of the way down.”
Maddy tore her gaze from the artifacts. “Okay. You’re right. Let’s go. This chamber appears to be constructed exactly the same as the other one, so I recommend starting in the middle space where the left and right passages branched off.”
Reluctantly, they exited the treasure-filled chamber and retreated back down the passage back to the central corridor that had led them to the pair of branching halls with the staircase leading down off the end of the straightaway. Hunt stood at the top of it, eyeing the way down. “Looks okay. Down we go.”
The stepped down in a single file line, Hunt in the lead and Maddy in the middle. The walls here were featureless slabs of stone, with no artwork. Down they went for what seemed like a very long time. Hunt was about to comment about an endless stairway when he saw a new space beckoning below at the bottom of the steps.
“Almost there.” He picked up his pace a little, his torch bouncing around as he descended the final steps.
Jayden and Maddy heard his voice before they reached the bottom. “Huh. That’s disappointing.”
“What is?” Maddy asked.
“Oh, wow! It’s not another treasure room. But You guys are going to love this!
Chapter 36
Jayden and Maddy stood with Hunt in a smaller chamber that was empty except for one recognizable feature.
“It’s the same kind of door lock mechanism as was on the Bimini Road pyramid!” Jayden bent down to inspect it, then looked back to Hunt. “Shall we?”
Hunt nodded. “You do the honors.”
But Maddy was scared. “Wait! What if it lets water in?”
Hunt shook his head. “Unless it’s a very specially constructed trap like in the Giza pyramid, I don’t see how that could happen. We’re several hundred feet above sea level. The Bimini Road pyramid was already underwater so that’s why the airlock. And you notice there is no airlock here, only the door lock mechanism. They’re only using that part of the overall construct.”
She still appeared less than one hundred percent convinced, but acquiesced. “I guess we have to take a chance if we want to get out of here.”
“That’s the spirit!” Jayden said. Then he pressed down on the top of the hexagonal mechanism like they had done to the one in Bimini. The mechanism clicked into place and he lifted the middle section of the chamber out.
“Let’s see if there’s anything inside this one.” Hunt took the internal portion of the hexagonal mechanism from Jayden.
“Probably not,” Maddy guessed. “Because the last one had a clue that led here. Now that we’re here, with the mother lode, so to speak, I’m thinking there’s no need for a clue. But I’ll have a look while you two check out the door.”
Hunt and Jayden angled their torches to be able to peer into the new opening while Maddy examined the removed artifact. She shook it and held it at different angles while examining all sides of it. “I really hate to do this,” she concluded, “but…” Then she dropped the item on the stone floor, where it shattered into pieces.
The three of them looked at the wreckage. Maddy bent down and sifted through it. “Nothing here. This is it!” She waved an arm up toward the treasure chambers. “The treasure of Atlantis.”
“And I’m guessing this is our way out,” Hunt said, indicating the new opening.
Jayden climbed up on top of the portal. “We’ve got another vertical, four-sided chute with a set of rungs carved out of the stone walls. I’ll go first.”
Jayden dropped his torch all the way down the chute. “Let’s get an idea of how far we have to go. Still have two more torches….” The three of them crowded their heads together to watch the torch fall. The orange light receded until it was no longer visible.
“Long way down,” Hunt said.
“Hopefully it just blew out on the way down rather than falling into water,” Maddy said.
“I’ll go first, but I’m in the dark without you guys, so stay close.” With that, Jayden climbed into the vertical tunnel. He set his feet on the rungs hewn out of the stone wall, checked his purchase on the handholds, knowing that a fall was fatal given how far the torch fell, and then he began the descent. He proceeded very slowly since he was in the dark the farther away he got from Hunt.
Hunt started to climb into the chute, but then stood back down and said to Maddy, “I don’t think you should bring your torch. It’s a long climb and you saw what happens if you fall.”
“But then we’ll only have one torch.”
“I won’t drop it. I don’t want to risk your safety for the sake of having one more light.”
“You two lovebirds decide you want to stay in the Grand Treasure Room for the night or what?” Jayden called from down below on the wall.
“Coming…” Hunt experimented with tucking the torch into his waistband but the flame burned him so he abandoned that tactic. “Hey Jayden, still have some of that paracord you got form the parachute?”
“Yeah.”
“I need it.”
Jayden’s exasperated sigh wafted up from below. “Be right there.” Jayden’s head popped up out of the chute and he gripped the rim with one hand while digging into his pocket with the other. Then he handed Hunt a wad of paracord before climbing back down. Hunt wound the cord around the middle of the torch, away from the flame, and then unraveled enough slack so that the torch hung down a safe distance below his feet.
“Just don’t singe my awesome hairdo with that thing, okay?” Jayden warned from below.
“Not into the Lost City look, I guess. Fine, here goes nothing.” Hunt climbed into the chute and began his own descent, waiting for Maddy when he was a sufficient number of rungs down. She climbed in, got her hand- and footholds set, and announced she was ready.
The three of the began climbing down as a group, proceeding slowly and carefully. Hunt’s tied torch rig turned out to be effective, allowing him to have both hands free to climb with minimal interference while still providing light for the group. Down they went, keeping communication to a minimum while each of them focused on their next rung, knowing that a fall from anyone above would likely take out all those below as well.
None of them knew how much time passed; even though Hunt wore his Omega watch, he kept his focus on the climbing, his thoughts free of anything but where the next rung is. They had one scare when a swarm of spiders crawled up the wall past them, causing Maddy to shriek, but Hunt told her to freeze in place. “Calm down, let them pass, they won’t hurt us!”
“They’re crawling on me!”
“It’s okay, Maddy, they don’t want you, let them pass, they crawled over me, too.”
“I think I ate one,” Jayden said. “Not too bad, really. Protein snack. You should try one if you’re hungry.”
After a minute during which Hunt tensed, ready to try and catch Maddy if she fell, the onslaught of arachnids ceased and Maddy settled down. “We good to go again?” Hunt asked.
She said she was, and so the trio continued on their downward journey, now more wary of creatures that might inhabit the vertical tunnel. The going was smooth, though, and after an indeterminate amount of climbing later, the shadows emanating from Hunt’s torch began to change and shift. The floor was getting closer. Jayden warned the others that they were approaching the bottom.