When they mentioned the preservation of the creature the majority of them looked baffled, and nobody gave any proper explanation to why it had not rotted away. It clearly had been there for a great deal of time!
So when it was completely dug out and eventually lifted out into daylight all the scientists frantically talked, studied, and photographed it, avoiding giving much scientific explanations, and remained interested in the study its preservation and the uses it could have if they found something new there.
Bryson examined it to find the best way of killing it, if it was one of those beasts in the wood! Yet where had they appeared from, and they were invisible and partially invisible? So how could they handle such a thing? Would it be impossible to kill something that was invisible? Yet could it have killed while invisible? All the stories of encounters, which some of them could have been from them, as well as many other things, gave accounts of deaths! Did they fully materialize to carry out their attacks?
Bryson was still confused at what they were up against. They had nothing but a monster creature, from somewhere. Their vague examinations of its features and organs gave little, and showed little of its natural environment.
Yet when the helicopter was getting ready to take off, and all the people there were discussing the creature, he realized that they no longer believed it was one of the things in the wood and was something else, and Merton and Mortimer had lost interest in it completely, also thinking so, as all their examinations of it showed it was only a new form of animal.
The helicopter lifted off sweeping out low and increasing its height, with its deafening thuds rattling him to the bone, while simultaneously shattering their eardrums, making him wonder how the pilots never damaged themselves, and realized how much he had adapted to the deep desolate silence at the location, and he watched it vanish into the horizon, leaving its impression firmly in his minds.
Chapter 9
The Exploration
It was shocking how fast they started to realize the truth and that they should actually have left on the helicopter! When the early winter night started edging into the region all their recollections of the night before started emerging, and that they had not achieved their mission of leaving the wood, and at least getting to the castle.
The place was a public menace and should be marked as a danger zone and fenced off! Even as the sun edged into the horizon Bryson saw things that should not be there start to appear about the place, even the ground beneath them seemed to sag like it were turning into swamp.
Bryson felt like he had a sixth sense that could not detect the supernatural, and his brain detected other things caused by it.
The plan was to follow the rest of the tunnel, which they had dug into earlier, and they would find where that went and at least be away from their location.
A peculiar whistle haunted them, which could not be properly heard, like sounds animals hear that humans cannot, which came from no real location and shadowed them, irritating them trying to identify it and its location.
The tunnel was the same, and when they started marching into it Bryson heard scrambling movements and panic-stricken voices behind him and wondered if they had timed it too late, and if something had happened to the last people to enter and they did not know if they should go back or ignore it.
They soon discovered that it was only the last people that entered had seen a light deep in the wood before they entered!
If there were a death he wondered how the police would handle the situation if confronted with it and what the outcome would be?
“We better have our weapons ready anyway!” Mitchell warned his men behind him, as he stood in front of them, removing his weapon and putting it back, and waited for the others to remove their weapons and get the feel of them.
Merton went with Mitchell, in front of everyone, and Bryson and Mortimer followed them, with others in their usual formation following.
It was not as bad as it had been! They had renewed the energy in their lights and had more equipment that they needed, and could easily camp out in the tunnel if they needed to, and were not trapped, plodding on into the night.
Bryson tested the floor of the tunnel, which was dry packed mud and rock, wondering if it was a new form of mining that had created the walls. The technology behind it could be worth a great deal if it was what he thought it was, and the technology behind it was unknown, just like the creature that they found there, which had incredibly been able to burrow through the ground with its immense size, which they had not heard of before, which he would have dismissed as impossible.
It surprised him that if the technology to do it existed, and was unknown, how did it get there? Where did it come from?
Yet there was no proof and he did not know if he ever could prove it existed, and even doubted if the evidence and technology would be found, and yet could something like the creature have created the tunnel though?
Merton shifted around and spoke silently with Mortimer in conversations breaking the deep silence that kept emerging.
Bryson noticed the shaft prevented water flooding it by descending slightly. Small amounts of water had seeped through cracks, flowing down it to places it could exit from the tunnel. Yet he still never knew if it was deliberately built for long lasting use, and most of all why it was built, and he recalled the people that had made the human sacrifice back in the cavity. Yet that never made sense either! Why go to such lengths to build a tunnel and cavity? The time it would have taken could have been incredible!
“Who built this?” Mitchell moaned loudly once, trying to get them to give him something to solve one of the mysteries, but nobody replied and he thought of some other conclusion.
It reminded Bryson of the shaft that he had seen in the last castle, and had been built by William Randall. Yet the other tunnels there were made in the normal way without such technology. Yet the castle, if it existed, was built there about 1880, according the information they had heard. The technology of the tunnel was far more advanced, even by the current technology.
Over and over he thought of it and did not have a clue what a tunnel was doing in a wood! Why had they gone to such lengths to construct it? What hidden motive had been behind it?
They had to have put it there for logical reasons as all the constructions that he could recall had been built for. They had built them for their needs!
“Was it originally part of water system,” Merton mumbled to Mortimer, confused at the enormous distance it had, trying to recollect something such as it.
“Therefore, we should meet with where the water went!” Mitchell answered.
Merton pointed the light straight out in front of him, illuminating the ground many feet further down into it, and examined it. And he lunged forward as if he had decided that he wanted get to the source of it as soon as possible. He shifted down examining it going into the darkness, which seemed to go on endlessly, searching for any evidence of anything.
Its main feature now was its neat perfect size that continuously held without altering, but not from moving downwards now, making it resemble a mine but far more expertly constructed than that, as though built to last a long time like a sewer.
Bryson even wondered if people had found gold or other precious metal there, in a great amount, and had gone out of their way to cover it up, making sure nobody heard of it.
Occasionally he had watched Mitchell and his men examine the ground and mud for anything of value!
Webs shrouded the roof and corners about it again and occasionally they had to wave scraping them away from them, while the radiance from the lights made insects scurry away, especially when they saw them.
The builders must have known where all the rock had been as they avoided going through areas where it was not there, and must have been able to check for miles where it had been before building it, and he wondered what they would have done if there had not been any rock there as the tunnel would have collapsed if it had not been built in it, and the
y surely would have needed something to hold it all up.
Large tree roots had been sliced off and their lower areas were gone and some had grown again in places, and they had to walk around them, and the amount of mud increased and the tunnel started to lose shape in places where it sagged, and small collapses of the roof and sides appeared and they started to worry about not being able to reach their destination.
The tunnel went endlessly on into the distance turning in different directions, through nothing but the upper wood, and Bryson marched off into it preparing himself for what they might meet with, and wondering if it had collapsed if they could go back and follow its direction from the outside in the morning.
He was sure that they had compasses in their equipment and knew the general direction anyway, but could they accurately find the place if it was buried away deep in the wood, if it actually led there anyway.
His thoughts went to the wood again and its strange eerie confines and he wondered what normal animals actually existed there during the day, and how they survived.
What dangers could the wood hold? Did it have only something of an incomprehensible nature existing in its darkness?
All the significations of it were startling! The other day he had mostly not believed that it could be there never mind there being a tunnel going under it.
The journey kept giving him feelings of how absurd it was with it going so far into it. The direction and his perspective of where they were had altered so much he was positive that if they had to turn back that he personally could not find where it led to in the above wood.
At times it seemed like some of the others were there just to handle a fantasy situation more than anything!
“Want one?” Merton moaned, handing the cigarettes out again, puffing out smoke everywhere, and they all slowed and he took a break from the endless routine.
Mitchell removed his phone like it was a communicator and silently started trying to contact someone, and when he could not he tried to contact other places, and look surprised at it again.
“This place must be the only place in northern hemisphere you can’t get a signal?” he joked, putting it firmly away.
He stood trying to grasp the situation, and what was there.
“There has to be something blocking the signal ...” Mortimer continued, with his investigation of the phenomenon. “It has to be pretty powerful too ...”
“What has to be powerful?” he asked, still investigating their paranormal investigation and nature, not fully grasping something.
Mortimer never replied and Mitchell ignored him.
“What the hell is out here?” Mitchell muttered to himself later, with a worried glare, and rubbed his fingers over the perfectly flat smooth tunnel wall.
“At this rate we’ll be spending the night here after all!” Mortimer replied, with his professional tone.
“We better have our weapons ready if we leave here!” Mitchell moaned, removing a more powerful weapon, which he had got off the helicopter, and put it away, and Bryson realized that they were more confident of killing the things in the above wood now that they had found the dead creature, and had examined it, and thought they could kill them once they properly appeared.
His men also removed their weapons to get the feel of them.
The situation was confusing and Bryson did not fully get if they could kill them!
“Could that fog stop the communicators working ...?” Mitchell asked them, still trying to grasp the situation, and surprised them with his attitude.
“Some conditions may create such occurrences!” Mortimer jokingly replied.
“Not normally!” Merton continued. “But this fog and it being out here changes the rules.”
“So once again nothing!” Mitchell answered, getting ready to continue walking faster. “Don’t forget those things attacked us ...”
They were experiencing new things and Bryson wondered again if he could prevent something from happening.
He did not know if Mitchell could do something stupid. His reactions were different, and he saw that he could attack whatever was out there if it appeared at a later stage, and he recalled that he had originally believed that he would before they had been attacked, and realized the same situation could happen again – only they might not be as lucky the next time – but if he watched what he did and planned ahead he was sure he could survive.
His thoughts went back to the paranormal scientists and their work again, and him not completing his mission of discovering what existed there and how to deal with.
Why had nothing been discovered in the world except what they had come up with? This fact confused him incredibly as most of his life he had unsuccessfully investigated everything there and not found anything. It was true they were rare occurrences and he thought they did not fully know what they were talking about. All the stuff was a mess! False claims and facts that other things were behind things kept appearing!
The creature found embedded in the tunnel now never appeared like it was of supernatural origins.
The technology and all the research used would have at least properly proven its existence all over the world by now! But what were they up against now, and was it the same as at the last castle?
Again he decided to find and record anything that he could and use it as evidence of what was there! On him he had miniature cameras, recorders, and notebook to record his findings, and he remembered why they were not needed anyway, and kept by him in case the paranormal scientists and scientists never recorded anything. The amount of equipment they would have was enough, and the most advanced. If they never captured anything then he was sure there would be nothing to record, and he recalled the recordings and findings that they had made of those things that attacked them in the wood, even though they never had a chance to use the heavier stuff, and they got everything they wanted on the dead creature trapped in tunnel, whatever it was.
Bryson realized again that he would properly never experience anything like this place again and wondered what the outcome of it would be. He would remember it forever, and he was sure he would be remembered in history for taking part in it all, if things turned out like he imagined it that is.
Bryson sensed something, and looked over to where Mitchell’s eyes were staring furiously and saw debris covering the ground ahead, away at the end of the tunnel, and while their pace quickened he started to wonder what was going to happen as Mitchell and the others started to react strangely and viciously, and in horror of there being extreme danger, and he waited observing their reactions and decided to react to what happened.
What could be so dangerous about the tunnel being collapsed? The worst that could happen was that there was no exit and that they would have to walk back, which would only put them about half a day behind, and they could sleep in the safety of the tunnel.
On their approach there it became clear that the ground had collapsed years before, through corrosion from water and weight, and that there was a way out of it, to escape from the tunnel there, and he started to realize what the problem was and why they were reacting so much.
Chapter 10
The Castle
They had become trapped in the dark wood, freezing in the deep snow, hiding behind trees, while the lights and creatures shifted about violently smashing things around them, while the amount of them and their powers grew, while Mitchell and his men had their weapons ready.
Bryson now knew why having the military there could be a mistake, and he had realized it when they had escaped from the tunnel into the dark wood and had witnessed Mitchell and his men launching into shooting rounds of ammunition.
Thick snow shrouded everything everywhere creating a mind-bending landscape, and they were too exhausted to attempt to recognize anything. It was shocking how they could have got lost!
They should have stuck to being in the tunnel! They could easily have entered the other half of the tunnel in the morning!
The blackness and snow had tu
rned to a nightmare!
Their legs sank deep into stinking vegetation that resembled quicksand in places, but Mitchell insisted that it was not and continued to take them on through it as if it were not there and only another obstacle – and the further away from the tunnel entrance they went the worse it got, and the fact that they would not be able to return.
Out of nowhere a giant light emerged from the undergrowth, and it pulsated like a living thing, magically illuminating the snow and trees everywhere.
The light allowed them to see everything, and he wondered if it was a type warning like a lion might warn them off.
“Look over there!” one of the scientists suddenly hollered, from over at their side, making them all jump and their adrenalin pump wildly through their veins.
Bryson was one of the first to look and spot what it was, and saw a castle buried away in the landscape and he stood astounded not only by its immense size but because he had a sensation that it had colossal power, and it eventually left him staggered! He sensed many strange things and was sure all the paranormal energy was centered there!
The castle was also blissful and they ignored the dangers around them and watched it. It radiated through the wood like a spellbinding ghost castle, and they forced their legs to move faster.
Its appearance as they moved there, out of the night, amidst the jungle of vegetation, was staggering! The treasure surely had to exist there! Bryson was amazed at the speed that they were now moving away from the disturbances towards it at and started to realize how enthusiastic they were to get to it now. And he even sensed many of the others had known of the treasure for longer than they should have, and were confident it existed.
Mitchell even forgot about his battle and made for the castle, and as Bryson watched him he realized that the tunnel had gone in the direction of the castle, and had led there all along.
It was like a phantom castle glowing in snow and shining from being in moonlight, like it were supernaturally glowing.
The Lost Treasure Map Deluxe Book Collection (2017 Edition) Page 86
