God Stones: Books 1 - 3

by Otto Schafer

  Breanne’s mouth parted as she watched Janis move through the water toward the spot with an effortless ease. It was strange, as if the girl were speaking to the current, coaxing it to move in a different direction than where the natural flow of gravity was telling it to go.

  The water changed course, flowing around Janis, Lenny, and Pete as if an invisible wall had been inserted into the water around them. Gradually, half the tunnel was choked off. Breanne, Garrett, Paul, and David rushed forward into the dry pocket created by Janis’s invisible wall.

  Janis opened her eyes and smiled. “Can you find them now, Lenny?”

  “Whoa! Janis? That’s awesome!” Pete said.

  The others all shot one another awed looks. But not David. He just smiled tightly. Breanne knew he was still waiting and hoping. She wished she could give him her visions. “Just be patient, David.”

  David looked down at the wet brick floor. “Didn’t Garrett and Lenny’s teacher guy say we would all feel something? Didn’t he say we were all Garrett’s chosen? Sages, right? Which is like mages. Which is the same thing as wizards. Well, I still don’t feel anything and honestly it sucks. I want to help, Bre – I want to do something,” David said quietly.

  “Don’t feel bad, bro – I don’t feel anything either,” Lenny said.

  “Like you need it. You’re a freaking martial arts expert and a circus acrobat all rolled into one. Plus, you got that badass staff the teacher guy gave you. I got squat.”

  Lenny shrugged. “Well, you have a manly mustache.”

  “Really, Lenny?” David said.

  Lenny shrugged and turned away, pointing the flashlight toward where the rows started to curve from wall to ceiling, and began counting in a low, rapid mumble. When he reached row thirteen, he shouted it aloud. “Thirteen! Yep, right here! Okay, this one says j.c. on it. Give me the screwdriver and hammer, Pete!” Lenny held out his hand.

  “Wait… Wait, wait, wait, just wait,” Pete said, waving him off.

  Lenny shot him a look. “Wait for what? We don’t have time to wait, Pete, we need to move.”

  “I worked on this passage a little more and I’m pretty sure we have to do this right or something bad will happen.”

  “What do you mean something bad?” Breanne asked.

  Pete pulled a folded-up piece of paper out of his backpack. “I copied the instruction parts down separately, so we would have them.” He cleared his throat. “It says, Once inside, look for the archway, which holds a xxx xxx xxx. When you find xxx xxx remove xxx beloved xxx and, once removed, reach inside and pull the lever. This will allow the way to open, showing you the path.”

  Breanne scanned the brick wall with reverence. She couldn’t believe Abraham Lincoln actually built this. “So what does it mean, Pete?”

  “If we do this wrong, I think we’ll trigger the first booby trap. Look, we have four bricks with initials. j.c., who we know is John Calhoun. b.g., who we know is Bowling Green. a.l.,, Abraham Lincoln, and then our mystery brick initialed a.r.”

  “Okay?” Garrett said.

  “After close analysis of that sentence, I believe the key word here is ‘beloved.’ This leads me to believe we are looking for a woman’s initials, which could only leave us with a.r. Why, you ask? Because—”

  Garrett spun his finger. “Please, Pete!”

  “Okay, I will get right to it, but only because I am cold, and we are probably going to die if I don’t.” Pete cleared his throat dramatically. “When you find xxx xxx remove xxx should read something like, when you find her initials remove my beloved a.r.’s brick. And once removed, reach inside and pull the lever.” “So here is my theory: a.r. was Abraham Lincolns first love – Ann Rutledge. His beloved Ann Rutledge.”

  “Nice, Pete,” Breanne said.

  Janis waved her hands back and forth in the water wall and giggled. “You’re a genius, Petey.”

  “Alright, man,” Lenny said, holding out an open hand. “I’ll take your word for it. Now can I have the screwdriver and hammer?”

  Pete smiled and gave Lenny the tools.

  A moment later Lenny had freed the brick initialed a.r. He started to reach inside the hole, then stopped abruptly. “Pete. How sure are you that you’re right about this?”

  “Pretty damn sure. Like ninety-nine percent,” Pete said.

  “And if, on that one percent chance you’re wrong, what will happen to my hand?” Lenny asked.

  “I thought you were going take my word for it?”

  Lenny paused, his fingers wiggling in front of the opening.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. But whatever it is, it won’t be good,” Pete said.

  Lenny stood up. “I like my hand, bro.”

  Pete bent down and reached into the hole. “Ninety-nine percent is pretty good odds.”

  “Please be careful, Petey,” Janis said.

  “Guys, I feel the lever!” Pete grabbed it and pulled. Nothing happened. He grunted and pulled again as hard as he could.

  Near the opposite end of the old brick portion of the arched tunnel, a single brick fell from where the wall met the curved ceiling, splashing into the current.

  Everyone spun, aiming their lights toward where the brick had fallen just in time to see a huge chunk of wall and ceiling collapse. Bricks rained down, splashing into the current below.

  “Holy crap!” Lenny said.

  “Wow, guess that’s our path,” Breanne said.

  Everyone followed her toward the newly collapsed section of brick. Janis moved too, which moved the dry pocket along with them.

  “I’ll go first,” Garrett said. The opening was high enough that he was forced to jump up and pull himself over the wall. Lenny went next, and together he and Garrett helped pull everyone else over while Paul helped lift them from his side. Once Janis was pulled over the wall, the now raging drainage water resumed its natural flow, much deeper and fiercer than before.

  David glanced over at Janis. “I sure hope you can do something with this water when we leave, or we won’t be able to get back out.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” she said.

  “Everyone, be still. Don’t move until I get my bearings.” Pete shone his light along the wall of the arched tunnel. They were now on the opposite side, behind the wall they had stood in front of only moments ago. “My god, this place is amazing,” Pete said, motioning everyone to follow. Carefully he led them down some crudely cut steps along the narrow corridor.

  “Look at that!” Breanne said, pointing at mechanisms on the back side of the brick wall. Metal-forged blades connected to pivoting bars on counterweights. Everything was covered in rust, but the blades still looked sharp.

  Pete stooped to inspect one. “Lenny, Garrett – ho-ly, look at this!”

  They eased forward, stopping next to Pete and Breanne.

  “Whoa!” Lenny said.

  “Yeah, if we had reached inside any of the other bricks and pulled those levers…” Pete swallowed.

  “Yeah… it would’ve released the counterweight and no more hand!” Garrett said.

  “Exactly.”

  Lenny looked up and studied some old wooden beams. “What do you make of that, Pete?”

  “I think if we’d broke through the wall, the tunnel itself would have collapsed. See those?” Pete pointed at a few precariously positioned timber braces near the ceiling of the tunnel. “If we’d smashed the wall, those would’ve come down, and I think the tunnel would have come down with them – at least the entrance.”

  Lenny whistled.

  Breanne felt a thudding in her chest as memories began to flood her. Memories of a collapse on a dig site in Mexico where she nearly got her family killed. Then a flash of a more recent memory on Oak Island, trapped in the treasure tunnel at the bottom of the Money Pit. Had it really happened that morning? It felt like a lifetime ago. She started to breathe really hard as the worst memory came. This one was a lifetime ago but felt like yesterday. The memory she feared most. The memory of her mot
her, shattered glass, and blood.

  “Can you guys believe we are inside Lincoln’s hidden freaking tunnel!” Pete said, trying to take it all in. “These beams were put here by Lincoln and Bowling Green! Those mechanisms… and look over here,” he said, pointing to some old tools – shovels, a pickaxe, and an axe. “Can you imagine the value of this stuff? These are Lincoln’s tools!”

  Breanne wished she could give a shit, she really did, but the fact was she couldn’t. She didn’t figure anyone else really did either. She needed to find a way to wake her father, and they all had to stop Apep – stop the end of the world.

  Maybe it was the melancholy look on Garrett’s face or lack of enthusiasm on everyone else’s, but Pete’s excitement seemed to fade quickly as he flushed with embarrassment.

  Garrett looked at Pete with an empty smile that said he knew his friend meant well.

  Pete smiled back weakly with a look that said, I’m sorry, man.

  In that moment, Breanne knew these were good kids – good friends. In a way she envied that. Her life had been organized around a sole purpose: become a great archeologist like her father. Her mission simply didn’t lend itself to close relationships outside of her own family. She knew, too, whether she wanted to admit it or not, her isolation was self-imposed. She chose to shut everyone else out. As she watched the wordless interaction between Pete and Garrett, she knew she had missed out on something important.

  Pete aimed his flashlight down the tunnel, but it revealed only a sharp bend some fifty yards ahead. “Okay, according to Lincoln, the next trap is a hidden pit. If we fall in, we die,” Pete said.

  “Um, yeah, that sounds awful, so uh, what’s the plan for the pit, Pete?” David asked.

  “Lincoln said once we turn the corner, the pit is twenty paces ahead.”

  They all started walking in single file downward at a steep pitch. Once they rounded the corner, the small man-made tunnel funneled down to a cave that was obviously natural. It widened only slightly, but the ceiling rose higher – maybe twenty or thirty feet.

  The smell was rancid, and the taste of the air was even worse, like a mix of feces and ammonia. Breanne knew that smell. She stopped short and pointed her light upward.

  The entire ceiling was covered in bats.

  The Petersburg kids gasped. “Oh my god. Please tell me those things are going to stay put?!” David asked, practically pressing his face into Paul’s back.

  Paul shrugged him off and shot him a disapproving frown.

  “It’s okay, David. Just move slow and be quiet. They will likely stay put until time to feed,” Breanne said.

  “You’re not afraid of them?”

  “I’ve been in caves and underground places all over the world – this isn’t the worst thing lurking in the dark,” Breanne said matter-of-factly.

  David spun to face Breanne, his eyes widening in horror. “What? Really? You had to say that!”

  Breanne laughed. For the first time since she danced with her father at the bottom of the Money Pit, she actually laughed. It felt good, for a second, but then the guilt washed over her. She had no right to laugh – not until her father was safe.

  “So, when do these things feed?” David asked, turning his eyes resolutely forward.

  “Usually, well, right around now, I would guess. They’re nocturnal, so—”

  As if on cue, the cave erupted in shrill squeaks as the bats dropped from the ceiling, consuming the group in a cloud of flapping wings. David screamed at a pitch Breanne wouldn’t have thought possible for a boy. Everyone dropped to their hands and knees, ducking their heads. Everyone except Janis. She smiled and watched as the bats flipped their wings all around her. Within seconds nearly all the bats had evacuated the tunnel into the wet night air with the exception of one.

  Breanne watched in horror as one lowly bat landed on David’s back.

  David screeched and began flailing like a man on fire, blindly pushing past Paul, swatting frantically and screaming, “Get it off! Get it off me!”

  “It’s okay, David, just stand still,” Breanne said, trying to calm him down.

  “David, stop running! The pit, David! Stop!” Pete shouted, but it was no use. A second later, David dropped like a rock.

  21

  Red Rubies

  Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1

  Petersburg, Illinois

  “David!” Pete shouted.

  Everyone jumped to their feet and ran forward toward the pit.

  The pit had been cleverly concealed with flat, thinly milled boards, then covered with dirt and, over time, a thick layer of bat guano. The old rotted boards collapsed easily under David’s weight.

  Pete was the first to get to the edge. “David! Oh man! Hold on!”

  “Help me, Pete! Jesus, help me! I’m going to fall! Shit! I’m going to fall!” he shouted as he clung to the edge of the pit, trying desperately to hold on.

  Pete dove forward and grabbed David’s wrist just as his fingertips slipped off the edge. Pete couldn’t hold him and now he was being dragged headfirst over the side.

  “Christ, Pete, don’t let me go, man. Please don’t let me go!” David pleaded, his eyes filled with a genuine fear.

  “I’m not going to… let you… go! Guys… little help… please!”

  Garrett and Lenny dove in unison, sliding on their stomachs, arms outstretched and fingers splayed, until they were clutching Pete’s ankles with both hands. For a long second, they hung there, not moving either up or down.

  “Guys! I can’t see the bottom! I don’t think there is a bottom. Oh god! What if there isn’t a bottom?” David shouted.

  “Don’t look… down… David,” Garrett grunted.

  “Now you tell me not to look down. Now you tell me!”

  Breanne was almost there when Paul made it to Pete and threw himself onto his stomach. He reached down, taking hold of one of David’s wrists, allowing Pete to secure David’s other wrist with both his hands. “Alright, David, we got you. We’re going to pull you up.”

  Breanne was at the edge now on her hands and knees. Maybe she could help calm him down. “It’s okay, David, they have you – just relax.”

  “I don’t want to be invisible anymore! I just want to be able to fly. Oh man, please let me get the power to fly,” David begged, his eyes locked with Breanne’s.

  As Paul stretched out into the pit, his headlamp flashed over the side, panning across the bottom far below. It almost seemed as though she was looking down onto a twinkling city from a mountain top, but instead of white lights it was a city made of glittering red rubies. But the illusion shattered when she noticed the ruby lights were moving.

  Breanne drew back involuntarily as her eyes widened and her breath hitched.

  “What? What is it?!” David shouted, swiveling his head to look down.

  “Don’t! David, don’t look. Look at me!” Breanne begged.

  But it was too late.

  David began kicking wildly at the wall. “Get me out! Get me out! Oh god, please get me out!”

  “David, stop fighting us. You’re going to fall!” Pete shouted, unable to hold David’s wrist any longer. His hand slipped from Pete’s grasp.

  David flailed and twisted, his back now facing the wall of the pit.

  “Dammit, kid!” Paul shouted, now holding all his weight by one twisting wrist.

  Breanne watched in horror as below him a thousand rat eyes shone in her brother’s headlamp.

  David continued to flail.

  “Guys, grab me and pull me back before we both go over!” Paul shouted.

  Pete, Lenny, and Garrett jumped into action, grabbing Paul and together pulling a flailing David up and over the edge of the pit.

  David lay there gasping.

  “That’s twice in the last hour I have saved your ass, kid – don’t let there be a third!” Paul said.

  Lenny was leaning out over the edge of the pit, shining his flashlight into its depths. “I’ve never seen river ra
ts this big!”

  Garrett joined him at the edge. “Yeah, well, I have once. Saw one dead in the road. Those things can get as big as a small dog. I’ve just never seen so many. You can’t even see the ground.”

  Pete brushed himself off and peered over the side. “Well, look at it this way, David, I don’t think the rats would have been an issue for you had you fallen.” Pete pointed at the spikes sticking up from the floor of the pit. “You would have been shish-kebabbed by one of those spears long before the rats ate you.”

  Breanne watched David’s eyes get big as the blood drained from his face.

  “You think Lincoln dug this pit? It’s got to be twenty-five feet deep,” Garrett said.

  Breanne eased over next to him and studied the pit. “No way. Even with his pal, that Bowling Green guy, it would have taken them years to dig this.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. Lincoln only refurbished it. Tricked it out with spears. It was the Potawatomi who dug this pit long before Lincoln ever had anything to do with it,” Pete said, nodding his head at Breanne.

  “Really?” Breanne asked skeptically.

  “Yeah, that’s what I was telling you, this Native American kid told Lincoln all about this place and what was inside. He convinced him if it were ever discovered the world would end. He said his people fought to come back here to ensure the white man never found this place. The plan was already in place for Petersburg to be built practically right on top of the entrance, and the Sangamon River was becoming busier and busier with trade.

  “Lincoln promised the boy he would find the entrance and conceal it. Of course, Lincoln didn’t fully believe the sensational story until he found the entrance right where the boy said he would and saw for himself what was inside. If Lincoln was anything, he was a man of honor – a man of his word. And even though it practically destroyed him, he took the secret to his grave… Well, except for the journal.”

  Observing the distance across the pit, Lenny turned to the group. “Any ideas how in the hell we’re going to get across this pit? It’s way too wide to jump. Wait? Does anyone have superpower jumping abilities that I don’t know about? Paul?”