by Brian Toal
“Okay Dad. See you later.”
“Watch out for the equipment.” Charlie called after him, then turned back to the group of men.
“Did you hear what that guy said?” Chris asked as soon as the two of them had moved away from the group of men.”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s check it out.” Chris said excitedly. “Maybe we can get inside.”
“Maybe, although it could just be a wall. There might be nothing behind it but dirt.”
“Oh, come on Todd! There has to be an inside. Nobody would build something out of stone blocks this size, unless they were making a fort or something.”
“Natives didn’t build forts. Only white guys did that.”
“Whatever...” Chris stepped out ahead of him, the rock wall rising above his head at a slight angle until it disappeared into the hillside above.
The work-crew had only started on this portion of the rail line the day before, but already they had removed more than ten feet of overburden and gravel. The gravel being trucked back to where the actual rail line was being constructed, while the track-hoes continued to bring the level down to the specified depth. The discovery of the rock outcrop had slowed their progress on this side of the cut. But they had continued to excavate, following along the rock face until they had reached a corner, then they had followed that face back to the original dimensions, leaving a triangular piece of hillside and exposed rock buttress projecting into the planned right-of-way.
Ahead of him, Chris turned the corner, and for a moment Todd paused looking up at the exposed rock. Two sides of the stone blocks were visible at the corner with the leading edge a smooth right angle.
“Todd, look! Here’s what they were talking about.” Chris was on his hands and knees before a large opening between two blocks. Above and beside him the rock face was scraped and chipped and Todd could see each individual claw mark left by the hydraulically driven bucket of the track-hoe.
“Can you see anything?”
“Not much.” Chris said, as he dropped to his stomach, his feet scuffling in the dirt as he pushed himself forward.
Todd leaned over Chris’ prostrate form, looking into the crack between the rocks. Grey granite slabs rose to each side, less than a foot apart, just wide enough for Chris to wriggle forward. A weak breeze blew from the opening, cool against his cheeks. He watched as Chris extended his arms above his head, pressing his hands against the rock face as his feet kicked in the dirt inching his way forward.
“I can feel something.” Chris grunted a moment later. “It’s an edge or something.”
“Probably the back of the stone. Can you go any further?”
“I don’t know.”
Todd watched as Chris moved forward once again, slower this time, his head and shoulders disappearing from view as he moved around behind the granite slab.
“There’s a space back here, but I can’t see where it goes.”
“Let me see.” Todd pulled on Chris’ shoe, urging him to back out.
Instead, Chris’ legs trashed in the air below him, one running shoe catching Todd squarely on the chin as Chris pulled himself inside, his body sliding around the stone block and into the darkness beyond.
“Ho-ly! You made it.” Todd said, rubbing the dirt off his chin.
“Todd come on! There’s another tunnel back here.”
“Can you see anything?”
“A little. But it’s real small and I can’t turn around.”
“Is it safe?” He called, knowing the answer.
“Sure, it’s safe. Come on Todd!”
Todd looked once more along the exposed face and at the hillside that rose above him, then at the small opening in front of him. He had been in caves before, some in Kentucky and some smaller ones in Ohio. Of course, they had been escorted tours where thousands of people had gone before, but the small passageways and tight turns hadn’t frightened him then. This was just another cave - only they would be the first to explore it. He put the worms down in the shade of a large rock just behind him, then laying down in the dirt he began to work his way inside.
The cool wind flowed over him, his legs still warm in the sun outside, as he pulled and pushed his way forward. “Chris, are you okay?” He called, as his fingers felt the hard edge of the back-side of the granite block.
“Yeah. I’m in a tunnel, but it’s really small.”
“Can you get out?”
“I could if I wanted. But I’d have to back up.”
“Hold on...” With a grunt, Todd pulled himself forward, spying the white of Chris’ running shoes as his head moved out behind the rock face.
Chris lay on his side in a high but narrow crack, his chest and back pressed tight against the rock. With an effort he rose on one arm, looking back at Todd. “I’m going to move forward. All you got to do is pull yourself around the rock. It’s kind of tight, but I did it.”
“I’m bigger than you.” Todd said, mostly to himself as he watched Chris slither forward. Then pulling as best as he could with his hands and pushing with his feet, he forced his body around the tight turn. Chris was already ten feet in front of him, his gasps of exertion loud in the cool air. “Can you see anything?” Todd called after him.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“What do you mean...maybe?”
“There’s something up here. But I can’t see what it is.”
“Another tunnel?”
There was no response and for a while neither of them said anything. Both of them fighting their way forward, the light growing dimmer as they advanced. Then ahead of him Chris stopped.
“Todd I can see light.”
“Like sunlight?”
“Yeah, there’s a big room up here, with cracks in the walls.”
“We must be back around front.”
“I guess, but I don’t know if I can get down, there’s too much of a drop.”
“What’s it look like?” Todd pulled himself forward until Chris’ running shoes were almost in his face.
“Umm... It’s a room for sure. It’s not very wide, but it looks long.”
“Maybe there’s another way out.”
“Maybe... I’m on a ledge and I’m going to push myself out a bit, but don’t come any closer. I don’t want to fall over.
Ahead of him, Chris cautiously moved forward and Todd could see a new light source illuminating his head and shoulders. He reached forward and, slowly, so that Chris could sense what he was doing, he pressed Chris’ legs to the floor. Todd couldn’t see what was ahead of his cousin, but as he watched, Chris’ head and shoulders disappeared from view.
“Todd there’s something out here.”
“What?”
“It’s a box.”
“A box?”
“Well, not really a box. It’s bigger than that, but it’s made out of metal.”
For a moment Todd said nothing as his mind filled with pictures of pirate treasure chests, gold coins and bullion. “What...what does it look like?”
“It’s too big to be a treasure chest.” Chris responded, and Todd figured that he too must have been thinking along the same lines of fame and fortune. “It looks like a machine or something. It’s got tubes and stuff coming out of the top.”
“A machine? What would a machine be doing in here?”
“I don’t know, but it looks like it’s made of gold.”
“What?”
“It looks like it’s made of gold. It’s covered with dirt, but the parts I can see, are gold colored.”
“Let me see.” Todd tried to push himself up and over Chris’ legs.
“Hold on. Hold on! Stop it!” Chris struggled underneath him. “Let me go forward. If you hold my legs maybe I can get down.”
Again, he pinned Chris’ feet to the floor as his cousin moved forward, until only his hips remained on the stone ledge, his upper body hanging into space below. Todd was close enough to see into the room although he couldn’t see the floor. More grey ston
e, with the far wall perhaps ten feet away, the seams between the blocks clearly visible in the sunlight that illuminated the chamber.
“Let me go!” He heard Chris cry from below. “I can almost touch the ground.”
Todd released his grip and was nearly rewarded with another kick in the jaw as Chris’ legs flipped into space, followed a moment later by a soft thud. Quickly Todd grabbed the edge of the stone ledge and pulled himself forward. Below him Chris rolled over on his back.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I guess. It was a bit further than I figured.”
Chris lay about five feet below him - a bit far for a comfortable landing while doing a handstand. Knowing he would have to do the same shortly, Todd raised his head. “Where is this...ho-ly!”
The chamber was about ten feet wide, and thirty long, the walls and floor constructed of the same grey granite as the outside. In fact, he was likely looking at the backside the wall they had so recently been inspecting, as numerous rays of sunlight lasered through cracks between the slabs. But it was the object at the far end of the long chamber that held his attention. In the diffused sunlight it gleamed. Although mostly covered in grime any parts that were exposed radiated a golden light across the chamber. Brilliant reflections against the walls, brightening the darkest corners with its own yellow light. Chris’ description had been correct. It was a rectangular box about eight feet long by four in height and width. But it was much more than simply a box. One end was entirely covered over in a multitude of twisted pipes and tubes, and the one long side he could see, was festooned with protrusions and bumps.
Chris had got to his feet below him and was now staring in the same direction. “What do you think it is, Todd?”
“I don’t know, but one thing’s for sure - that crew chief was right. Somebody built this place and they probably built it to keep people away from that.”
ONE – THREE
Beth Rutherford's fortieth birthday would be in three weeks, the fifteen years since her marriage on her twenty-fifth birthday having smoothed the overt curves of her youth. Her blond, sun bleached hair was trimmed practically short, to fall just below the collar of her uniform, where its shine accented the white material, as well as her perpetually sunburnt face.
She had taken the temporary position of Company Nurse with NorthCan, during her two-month leave of absence from St. John's Hospital, Emergency Department in Detroit. The NorthCan job had involved ninety percent unloading and sorting medical supplies, as well as setting up the clinic in the four-room double-wide trailer with the large treatment room, the four metal examination beds and rows of cabinets and dispensing trays. The remaining ten percent of her time had been more directly associated with nursing and medical assistance - mostly advice and treatment for muscle pains, sprained ankles or other minor, work-related injuries. Although she had set two broken fingers, which had occurred during an impromptu baseball game, when a dozer operator decided to catch a line drive without the assistance and protection of a baseball glove. The ball had folded two of his fingers straight back to his wrist.
She rotated the last two bottles in the cabinet she was stocking, so the labels pointed forward, and stood up, smoothing her white hospital blouse over her matching pant suit.
She had lost five pounds this summer. The unaccustomed physical work of unloading boxes off the supply train, wheeling them over to the office, unpacking them and sorting the contents, had trimmed the weight off effortlessly.
She wasn't sure if anyone had noticed this five-pound victory. Charlie certainly hadn't. But Beth had always been slim and the extra pounds had accumulated unnoticeably to anyone but herself.
She heard at least two sets of boots clumping up the four stairs to the infirmary door and she turned as it opened.
"Well here she is, work'n at it still." A large man, hair growing in clumps on his mostly bald head greeted her, stomping his feet upon the entrance carpet. "It's going to be drab, sad place when we come back and you are gone."
"Well, Tyson, I will be replaced."
"Yeah, by some company medic, sitt'n in here playing solitaire. I thought you did a real good job. Making the place from nothing into something good."
Beth smiled, "Thanks Tyson, that's real nice of you." Tyson Greene was still a dozer operator, although both he and her husband had started with NorthCan at the same time many years ago. Tyson seemed to have an absolute need to ensure everyone he worked with, knew that Charlie, now the Operations Manager, was still Tyson’s 'good old work buddy'. Part of his method, if the boss himself wasn't around, was constantly curring favour with the boss's wife.
Beth turned and addressed the other man, a large black man a foot taller than Tyson. "Jason, what are you guys doing here?"
'Charlie wants us to pick up those First Aid Kits you fixed up," he replied. Then he paused looking around the clinic, with its neatly stocked medical cabinets and four metal beds. "But I do agree with Tyson, you did a good job here." He stopped looking at the four beds. "Hopefully, we will never need all four of those beds."
"I hope not either. You guys be careful when you get going with the pit. A long ways to a proper hospital from here."
"You got that right. I don't think I've ever worked so far away from noth'n."
"Yeah, you people are certainly on your own up here. Be real careful when it all begins."
Jason nodded, "You bet. So where are these kits, Charlie wants us to pick up?"
At Charlie's urging, Beth had removed the First Aid kits from the company vehicles as they were serviced in the camp workshop. Then she had inspected the contents, replenished any depleted supplies or packages that had been opened or appeared damaged. She had made better progress than she had hoped, because the majority of the vehicles were not being used and had been parked behind the workshop. She had upgraded over thirty First Aid Kits in the last three days and they were stacked on the floor in front of her desk, ready to be reinstalled.
"They’re over there, in front of the desk...don't worry about your boots," she said as Jason hesitated to step off the mat. "I've got to wash the floor tonight anyway."
"They aren't too muddy anyway. It's pretty dry out there." Jason said, making conversation. "I hear they got a good-sized fire going down by Hearst."
"Yes, it’s been a dry summer. Todd complains his Dad won’t let him have any campfires."
“Yeah, it’s tough. Hope we all can have one though, when we ship out in a week. Always nice to have a bit of a party, before we leave. You’re going home then too, I hear.”
“Yes. The summer will be over. Back to school for Todd and back to work for me.”
“Charlie staying on?”
“Until the setup is complete. A few more housing units have got to come in. Then he has to wait until the full-time staff arrives.”
“Good you could come up for the summer anyway. I know it made a difference to me, having my wife and kids here.”
Jason’s two children were a bit young to have interacted with Todd this summer, but Beth had seen the two of them, a boy and a girl, racing around the growing trailer park on their pink and blue bicycles. They were hard to miss being the only two black children among a sea of white red-necks.
“It was good for Todd. He doesn’t get to see much of his Dad anymore.”
“I hear ya. That’s the way it is with this sort of work, never seems to be enough time.”
“He’s taking the boys fishing today.”
“Good for him, wish I got more of a chance to do that sort of stuff.”
Beth laughed, “Todd has been here for close to two months, but this is the first time he has done anything with his Dad.”
“Oh.” Jason took a step back as Tyson grunted by him. A load of First Aid kits obscuring most of his face. “I hope they catch a big one.”
“What do you think it is?” Chris stood back from the long metal box in front of him, his cousin by his side. “Do you think it could be a casket, like for a ....” He hesitat
ed at the word, as a shiver ran through his body, “... for a mummy?”
“No, I don’t think so. I think it was meant to do something.”
“Do something? Like what?” Cautiously Chris took a step forward, then placed both his hands deliberately on the metal top. Hoping and praying his warm touch would not activate some secret hinge. Images of shriveled mummies filled his mind, resurrected from the many horror movies he had watched within the safety of his own home. He stood silent for a moment, teeth clenched, his hands shaking upon the cool metal. Waiting. Sharp beams of sunlight stabbed the gloom, brilliant dabs of iridescence against the grey stone, or shattered brilliance on the gold metal in front of him. The metal warmed slightly under his touch and slowly he relaxed his jaw muscles and took a breath. “Maybe you’re right.” He said leaning over the long metal top. “Maybe it’s some sort of machine.”
“I think so.” Todd stepped up beside him. “Look at the tubes and stuff. A machine would have things like that.”
A wide lip ran all the way around the edge of the box, raised above the center by several inches as if to contain whatever might be placed in the middle. Besides the raised edge the rest of the top was flat, a golden sheen of metal under a layer of grime and little flakes of broken stone. But one end was different. A maze of pipes and conduit rose from the far end of the box as well as from either side, arching over the top, and joining in the center, so that the last three feet was shrouded in a golden hood of curved pipes and tubes. It was impossible to see through the twisted maze, as many of the pipes were only the diameter of a pencil, intertwined and racked between the larger ones, with the only opening centered over the flat top. Chris leaned over the wide table to peer under the canopy of metal. “But how could it be a machine? Machines are...well, I thought this place was really old. That guy outside said it might even be ten thousand years old.”
Todd shrugged. “He doesn’t know any more than we do. Only an archeologist could tell how old this place is.”
“But a machine?” Chris didn’t understand. Even if the worker outside had been wrong, this building had to be ancient. “How long have people made machines?”
