I watched all the scientists standing around waiting for something to happen, viewing things differently now, and I realized many were standing near particular places and watching some archeologists actively digging deep into the ground.
Suddenly Marple approached me and showed me the cleaned up scan they got beneath the cavity, and showed me what looked like tunnels below there.
Yet many were faint tunnels that had collapsed, and he showed where the archaeologists were digging and that there was a tunnel below, and I realized they were on to something, and trying to enter it.
I realized it went in the same direction as the tunnel we had followed, but the view of all the tunnels was muddled and I could not see where they were going, and why none of them seemed to lead anywhere, and it looked like something had been removed from it.
Suddenly a vast unstable energy shockwave, from deep below, somewhere, blasted out and vanished, with such force it threatened to smash the cavity, and some rocks fell down across the ground in areas.
I recalled the earthquake and McMurdo’s warnings and I wondered what the hell it really was, and what really was going to happen, and I watched parts of the equipment explode and burst into flames nearby, and scientists quickly turning everything that was undamaged off, while gasping at the power of it.
When it was over many looked glad to be still alive and that nobody had been killed, and that the cavity and roof overhead had not come crashing down on top of them, and most were happy that they could not use the equipment again.
The major scientists were only concerned in what they had found, and I saw them searching through the recorded data, and I moved over to see it.
From what I gathered was that they believed something was stopping them from seeing what was really below and that the new instantaneous scan still showed little that they had not previously seen, and that they had to search below themselves to find it, and I spotted strange reactions from the archaeologists who were digging down to the tunnel, and I saw them starting to break through into what was below.
Chapter 24
White radiance streaked through clouds of dust in the cave from Marple’s bright torch as I shifted down, and Oswald climbed down, and we shifted away into the tunnel, startled at what we were doing, and how far we were going.
Nobody else wanted to join us, and the people who never thought it was too dangerous had no reason to enter it, and only the three of us had firm enough objectives to check it.
It was incredible! I was glad to even see spiders and webs hanging from the rocks, and going over me, as we strolled on through, entering its dark confines, as it seemed so deadly and hideous, with demons lurking in its dark regions.
Once I thought I saw something watching us, from behind us, in the darkness, and carefully listened behind me, for anything, and the slightest clue of it being real.
It surprise me when the tunnel changed direction, and took us in the opposite directions, and I wondered why, as the people who had built surely would have built it straight lines, and we found another cave below, where its roof and our floor had caved in, and we entered the cave below.
When we entered it I sensed something strange, as though there was something else there, and that we were getting closer to where we wanted to go, and I was surprised at the new cave as it was made far better, and had clearly been made by someone else.
It was in a long straight tunnel going downwards and my dreamy sight probed into its confines, and into an abyss going deep into the ground, and I watched silky dust fall down from the roof and blow about in light beams, and the unmarked dust on the ground as we rushed on.
Faint echoes of our noises and breathing could be heard in its extraordinary silence, and I wondered where it led to, and what we were doing, and what the outcome would be.
It was incredible at one point I felt like we were the only people alive, and I was surprised to see a thin fog in an area ahead, and I watched it hover there, and could not grasp why it was there, and wondered if it was gas, and was surprised that Marple just ignored it and marched straight through it, and I realized there was no smell from it, and saw it was little.
It was like entering another time in the past, and expected to see ancient tunnel builders, in their ancient clothing!
I was confused by its length and wondered why it went so deep, and why the builders had gone there for whatever it was.
Out of nowhere I saw a powerful light appear and vanish ahead, and we stopped and studied there, and Marple wondered what it was, and we eventually ignored it.
Later I started to realize the dangers, and if what was there was the same as the killer Santa, and I realized we should not do anything, and ignore it, and I realized whatever it was it had been attempting to copy things, and it was as though it could not properly grasp what it was copying, and I recalled McMurdo’s warning, and his belief it was the devil!
Chapter 25
In dimness at the front of us, just in the light’s range, I watched dim gleams from things in the stone reflect dim light, playing with my hazy tired sight.
Faint echoes of breathing and occasional murmurs could be heard in its extraordinary silence, and by Marple’s sudden frantic reactions I sensed that he believed that something was actually ahead, and I wondered what.
I watched the light probe what was there, and it beamed out over a circular cavity ahead, which had been created using the same method as the tunnel.
The cavity was strange, when I entered it, and never seemed to fit in with what we had already seen!
The roof was at a height of twenty feet, and I caught glimpses of where things had once been, and I listened to surreal echoes of our movements, and as I entered its central region I conjured up vague visions of spooky ancient Roman ghosts in its confines.
I shifted into its fringes, treating it as an archeological find, as I rested from our journey there, and long day, and I curiously watched Marple searching, and wondered what he expected to find there anyway.
At the front an object came into my sight and I saw that a massive black boulder had fallen down behind the tunnel entrance, across the front, where the tunnel would have continued, and I wondered if it had stopped us reaching our real destination, as I and Oswald could not see anything there, and all there was there was the cavity, and yet Marple continued searching it, and looking at his treasure map.
He approached massive the black boulder blocking the entrance, and felt its smoothness with his fingertips, through thick webs and dirt, and looked up startled, and removed his hands, and started examining it, and placed his hands over its surface and traced its perfect shape, measuring it, and he stepped back, and saw something in the dirt below, and started brushing the dirt away from it.
To our surprise he gradually revealed an open-mouthed skeleton with a rusted knife embedded in its chest.
We went over to it and examined it, and discussed what age it could be, and Marple tried to get information about the person, and he searched the remains of the clothing of the man, but nothing was there except pieces of rope where he had been tied.
To me it looked like where devil worship or witchcraft could have taken place.
“Someone gave a human sacrifice here to something!” Marple stated, considering what had happened.
I moved back checking it all in more detail, and I saw its hideous agonized face more, covered in dirt — where the person had hideously died with his mouth open in pain, and had remained that way for centuries.