Cameron realized some of his memory was returning and he considered how dangerous the lion was and wondered what a circus was doing with a killer lion! He was sure it was illegal to have such an animal!
“What proof is there that it exists?”
“Farmers have reported seeing the thing to the police! We’ve just arrived and are to investigate the incident!”
A shiver ran up his spine as he considered the danger he had been in out in the field in the pool of mud and he considered if it had anything to do with how he ended up there.
Chapter 2
The Treasure
Cameron’s gaze went out into a field through the small group of trees, searching for any disturbances and signs that the lion was about. The thing would surely give itself away there, and he took comfort in there being no signs from the crows flying overhead reacting to anything!
Malone said he was going to visit one of the farmers that had witnessed the killer lion and he wondered what the hell they were talking about! The whole incident seemed strange now!
His gaze returned to the well, and its large circular hole at his front, going deep into the ground.
The top had clearly been recently dug away from being buried under rotten wooden planks and soil, hidden away in the middle of the small group of trees, and he studied Simpson who had a rope and harness tightly attached around him as Fogler and Hanks arrived and brought a torch, from the road on the edge of the trees, on Floors Road, and Cameron wondered why the hell they thought there was anything there! Then he realized that Rudolf Hess had parachuted down there or at the other side of the road, at the farm!
His close inspection of the tunnel showed it clearly had been an ancient well and had been covered over a long time ago, and he wondered why they had not used a nearby stream and if it were something else.
“What’s the hell’s there?” he conclusively moaned, after waiting for them to say something, with him almost screaming for them to tell him! They refused to give him anything about anything, and what they had been doing there before he had lost his memory!
They had secretively left the army camp when the others had not been around, and all four of them were at the mysterious hole searching for signs of what was there.
“Am I the only one going down there?” Simpson moaned, sadistically.
Seeing the other two were not interested in going down, Cameron decided he would like to see what was there. Anything that could give him anything on what he had been doing before he had lost his memory was of more value than anything else!
He announced it, searching them for any sign of disagreements.
He was surprised that they all nodded in agreement and one removed another harness and rope for him and he realized that he might have been down the hole already, going by their reactions, and he had become aware earlier that they had been down the hole searching for treasure.
The hole was large with more than enough room to fit both of them at the bottom and when Simpson left and vanished into its darkness he started attaching the harness to him, and gasped at how he knew how to fit it, and not know why, and he realized that he had to have done it recently.
He swiftly entered the hole once he was ready as he did not want to miss anything, and the action, even though they had been there before, and he wondered again what exactly they were doing.
“What exactly will I be doing down there?” he asked Fogler casually, desperate for anything, and any clue.
But again they totally ignored his request and insisted in not saying a thing, leaving him dazzled, but more determined to get to the bottom of all the mysteries.
What were they after? What in the hell would soldiers want?
He had to leave it and gasped as he released the rope, edging him downwards into the deep abyss, inhaling gasps of air, eagerly seeking the unimaginable and what was hidden away.
As he went down he chuckled as he recalled a story a young soldier had told them in their tent and that a teacher had once asked their class what organ of the body could expand itself ten times its size when stimulated.
When nobody had put up their hand she had asked a girl, and she had stood up blushing furiously, and had shouted, “How dare you ask such a question! I going home and I will have my parents report you to the headmaster and the police ...!”
The teacher had ignored her reaction and had asked the same question over, and a boy had stood and replied with, “The correct answer is the iris of the human eye!”
“Very good!” she had replied, and had turned to the girl and had announced, “I have three things to say to you! Firstly, it’s clear you never did your homework! Secondly, you have a dirty and vicious mind! Thirdly, I fear someday you’re going to be disappointed in willies expanding!”
“What the hell are you doing?” Fogler hollered down, staring at him, and Cameron realized that he had stopped lowering himself, and had been laughing to himself, and he watched his distant face studying him as though he now thought he had gone mad!
He yearned to explore so he quickly continued, while he tried to grasp shapes buried away down in the dimness just below, and he could not figure out what could be there! There was not any suggestion and it reminded him of his memory of himself! What could cause such an occurrence?
He recalled once watching archeologists at work at the top of a construction but he could not recall what he was doing there and certain other things, and it confused him and left him staggered at the dangers he could confront.
Suddenly he flew down the shaft uncontrollably and crashed into the ground and immediately jumped to his feet as the rope above him fell on top of him.
The fall had been a large one and he was staggered at the impact, but he was even more staggered that he had not broken anything and he seemed to have no damage to his body.
The end of the rope, where it had broken, had clearly been worn away for a long time and he could not believe that they had not even seen it, and going by the two soldiers above they had not even noticed.
Simpson examined him in the dim torchlight gasping at him crashing into the ground where he had been earlier, and that he would have been flattened by it, and to Cameron’s amazement he found another thick metal torch smashed into pieces where he had landed on his back, and he examined his back unable to find a bruise or sore.
How could he have fallen so far and not be injured? He surely should have broken bones!
He considered it as he tested areas of his body but there were no signs of anything!
“That was some fall, Dave!” Simpson eventually replied, focusing the beam of light from the torch up the shaft to where he had been, and Fogler and Hanks showed themselves at the top of the well and shouted down.
It looked as if they had been examining the surrounding fields, away in the distance.
Even though Cameron was not sure what would be accomplished anywhere it was mysterious and fascinating now! They were clearly searching for something of value down in the tunnel, and he could not even imagine what!
Cameron removed objects about him that had been dug up from the muck at the bottom of the well and he played with them seeing what they were or if he could find anything, while Simpson dug away with a spade with some expertise, clearly from being at work there for a while.
In the corner he spotted an old rolled up jacket, and asked Simpson, “Whose is that?”
“Yours!” he replied firmly, while stopping digging. “Has none of your memory returned yet?”
“Nothing about myself! I wondered what happened!”
Simpson continued and started chipping away at a giant boulder with chisel and hammer to break it up, and shoved it over into the muck that he was throwing out at this side.
Cameron played with jacket wondering why he could not imagine wearing the old tattered thing, and decided to check the pockets to see if there was anything.
He groaned in despair and shoved the remains of the rope away from him and he dug his hands deep into the si
de pockets of the jacket and found nothing, but he felt a hole in one where he could shove his hand into and played around in the lining and finally felt a piece of paper and removed it.
It had smudged lines and writing and he could not see it properly in the dimness and shoved it into his trouser pocket to examine when he could see it properly in normal light, and considered how long the torches would last.
Cameron examined the end of the rope to see how it broke and realized that it broke as he and the others had been moving around a lot while coming down, and he realized that they had not even examined it properly.
He ignored it and returned to watching Simpson enthusiastically rolling parts of the boulder out the hole! He realized the rope could have been cut on a sharp rock by them rushing about, and going up or down the tunnel.
Above him, in the black shaft above, he examined the other part of the rope dangling about, in occasionally gusts of wind blowing in, and he searched for a sharp rock on the side of the tunnel, and then he looked for anything that could do it but in was far too dim, and for some reason he thought he could easily climb there, even though it was completely vertically with nothing to really grip.
He was sure he could do it, and wondered if he had been some form of climber, and he was so enthralled in finding his own identity he decided to see what would happen if he started to climb it, and if any memories returned to him.
So he stared to climb and to his amazement his mind and body seemed to alter and he climbed the wall of mud and rocks in massive leaps, as though gravity never existed, not knowing how he managed to remain up without falling, and as he swiftly reached the rope he watched Simpson below staring up, staggered by his speed and strange ability, and Cameron grabbed the rope and leapt up it and was soon at the top of the well.
Chapter 3
The Wood
The whole account of the lion was now incredible to Cameron and he could hardly believe the events of the past days and that they were on the trail of a massive killer lion!
The last of the sunlight was vanishing within the small wood, in front of them, into the western horizon, with the night there engulfing them, and he studied his surroundings and the bright blue Linn Products building through the trees, trying to explain why the small wood could actually shelter the beast.
Perhaps the lion was hungry and waiting to get a human alone! Sightings clearly gave the wood as the location of it!
Fifteen of their armed soldiers were there, and a few police, and he kept wondering why the police had not been used in the first place. They had weapons! They could have used animal handlers!
There was something different about the lion that was extraordinary and vastly dangerous that he could not grasp! All the soldiers and police were in a line through the wood and they were nervous and ready with their guns as they started searching!
Cameron marched on with his rifle pointing at the undergrowth directly ahead, while he watched Simpson, Fogler, and Hanks at his side, and saw their eyes wide and alert, ready for action.
As they moved on they heard a helicopter appear in the distance and they increased their speed, but they slowed as it emerged with its sound beating heavily everywhere, as it started circling the above wood with its searchlight beaming through the trees, and he wondered what the hell had they done! The lion would go crazy and he expected the thing to come flying straight out at them through the dark wood, and he was left considering if they could even shoot it accurately in the environment and dimness at such a speed! He was unsure if they could hit such a moving dark target!
“What the hell would that lion be doing here?” Fogler moaned, trying to get an answer, and Cameron saw that they did not fully believe it was there.
The wood looked empty of animals in all the places he saw, and he considered their search for it.
Though the adventure brought them to life after a long rest earlier and from inactivity! The information was little and no evidence had been given, and in the end everything seemed to add up to little, and yet he still thought they would find something, but it was strange. His memory loss confused him! At times he seemed go from one character to another as though he had been two different people, and deep within him he sensed something was hidden away. It was also as if he was gasping over its discovery! Which was stupid unless it was of great danger!
The vegetation around them was thick but suddenly his eyes darted about and spotted something, as if he was looking for something there at another part of his brain, and he searched what was there and he was surprised as the plants and undergrowth were withered and burnt as though a terrific heat had blasted through there.
To his surprise when they moved further into the region all the soldiers started talking of it and he saw it all across his front, as though something of tremendous heat had been ahead somewhere, but the strange thing was there was nothing ahead and he searched the entire front area for signs of a fire and found nothing!
Had someone nearby been working on something, with some form of rocket propulsion, and the blast had gone straight through the wood?
How could anyone over at the blue building not have noticed?
He spotted an old gravestone and fence and saw by the soldiers there that there was nothing there! The source seemed to be near the furthest away point from the building and road, and he gasped for no reason and started examining there and saw something had done incredible damage! Something had exploded or something!
“Looks like kids have been camping out over there?” Simpson uttered, examining where his eyes were on, wondering what his startled look was for.
While they neared the spot their reactions altered and they seemed to forget the killer lion and started examining the place with great interest!
All the soldiers approached the place searching everything they could see! Looking for explanations!
“What the hell happened here!” one of the soldiers replied, approaching the place first. “Looks like someone exploded some form of bomb!”
“Bomb!” Simpson replied. “Like a miniature atomic one!”
All the ground, rocks and dirt, was melted deep into the ground by intense heat, and the center point was covered in a strange substance and metal.
“What happened here?” a police sergeant continued, wandering up to them, picking up loose bits of the ground, and Cameron wondered if the police would investigate it!
Chapter 4
The Discovery
Early the next morning Malone took them back to the site to investigate what was there more decisively and to try and answer unanswered questions that had accumulated on the previous night!
Military scientists arrived and they all marched into the wood to the site, where they were going to carry out examinations of what they could find, and remove samples.
What astounded Cameron was that only within visible distance of there that their attitude drastically altered! The heat from it had had more of an effect than the soldiers had realized in the darkness! Things somehow took a different perspective than the damage from normal fire and heat damage and they all looked closely in detail for why.
“I was just thinking!” one of the aged scientists stated. “Could it have been the energy surge that was detected in this region?”
“But we do not fully know what or of the amount detected!” another scientist stated, staring over where the occurrence took place, with his mouth wide open.
The soldiers were dazed and wondering what and how they had detected anything, and what they were going to unravel there and just how dangerous it was! Why were the scientists reacting so peculiar to it?
“Its powers have incredible properties,” the first scientist continued. “There are many peculiarities here!”
“It looks like something sent out an energy surge!” he replied, after he examined powerful damage to the trees, with many trees blown over.
“Could that not have just been a massive wind surges?” Simpson finally moaned.
Camero
n gasped and examined a slight look of horror on the scientist’s face, and watched him moan back, “A weather disturbance wouldn’t do that like that!”
“I’ll believe the theories when I have proof!” Simpson uttered to the other soldiers.
“They’re probably altering an explosion of some unknown explosive ...” Fogler replied. “Someone could have been testing out something from where they worked!”
Simpson gave a short burst of laughter, and replied, “Someone has removed some classified explosive and tested it out! I don’t know what it is but I somehow think it could be far more confidential for anyone to remove anything and detonate it in a public place! Why not go up on the moors near the army camp?”
“It’d be an incredible military innovation if it did!” the scientist remarked, while listening in, making them all go silent wondering what they were actually talking of!
“What happens if it is something new?” Fogler replied confused, and they ignored him and moved in slowly to where the occurrence had occurred, and they stood in a circle around its circular shape, with most of them gasping at the sheer magnitude of what something had done there.
Cameron stood staring with his eyes wide open beside the gasping startled scientists, who were now at a loss of words!
Fogler finally could not help reply, “What the hell was it then?”
The region was covered strange melted unknown substances and looked like nothing they had seen before.
“Are we going to go through with releasing it to the media?” Malone firmly asked the head scientist, to clarify the situation.
“How can they keep it a secret?” the scientist moaned, startled and annoyed that his discovery might be hidden away. “The whole place may be at the center of attention of the world media when the media arrive!”
“We could chase the media away and claim it was something else?”
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