The Lost Treasure Map Series

by V Bertolaccini

  Thick chemical smells from outside blew in, from gusts of wind, from the concentrated swamp pools pouring out gases through the freezing air giving it a sulfur stench, which some of them gave occasional coughs to, when it hit deep in their lungs.

  By their anxious reactions he sensed that they believed that something was actually deep in the cave. Although the descriptions that some of the archaeologists gave still made it too unacceptable to him to believe fully what they had suggested, and that the cave could lead somewhere. Yet it would be better for them to go as far into it as they could as if they things returned they stood a better chance away inside, and them not being there if they just looked into the gap in the cliff – and he was sure their voices could be heard outside and they were progressively growing louder, and Mitchell’s men could talk really loud.

  What was here? Everything was a mystery all around them! The castle if it existed was specified in vivid detail as something like a specified location of the resting place of something. His mind conjured up vague visions of spooky medieval things roaming ancient dungeons. Yet again it was far too vague and he could not remember anything like it remotely turning true for some reason!

  When the scientists and archaeologists that had been deeper into the cave returned, they all started discussing going deeper inwards and everyone seemed to go along with it, especially as they kept suggesting it was warmer and out of the range of the cold wind blowing inwards.

  Bryson joined some of the men at the entrance studying the fog clouds over at the swamp areas, seeing what it did, and saw that it reacted little now, now that they were not in it, and he wondered if it was part of something, like animals with poisons and defense systems against being attacked, and he was sure that it was not bothering them now as they were no longer a threat, and near it.

  Suddenly, a light appeared deep in the fog to their side, and Mitchell asked them to move in the cave, surely considering the same things. Bryson watched it vibrating and brighten, and a beam pointed near them.

  They moved in and away, while one man suggested covering the cave entrance, but they decided not to chance their luck as it may pick up any abnormalities, and even that the entrance was covered up.

  Chapter 5

  The Tunnel

  Bryson rushed along, grasping his torch, and joined Mitchell and Mortimer leading the men into the depths of the tunnel, going below the hill, as the cave descended towards somewhere, nobody there could distinguish.

  What could be at the end of such a cave? Bryson and, as far as he saw, nobody else had heard of caves like it. Its walls looked cut by something with a powerful force, and they regularly examined it expecting to see marks from some form of digging machine.

  When it changed direction and went from one direction to another they examined its corners trying to see how it had been formed, and what natural occurrence could cause it.

  They had started off trying to find a good location to spend the night, and then the further away from the dangers outside they got the happier they were, and the more they explored it the more they wanted to see and discover what was there.

  Bryson confusedly looked ahead for anything dangerous to leap out at them. It was surprising now that they had the encounter outside that they left it open and that anything could appear.

  Their reactions created a less tense atmosphere amongst them, making Bryson wonder what they were all thinking! What were their true feelings now? He was sure he and Mortimer had different thoughts of things after their past experiences.

  It was phenomenal, they had been surely nearly killed and they never had a clue by what! What was its motivation? Was it animal motivations? Did it intend to consume them or kill a danger to it?

  Should they leave it there, hidden away at the place, or have the police informed? How would they handle something that was supernatural? He could not decide the outcome of it!

  Mitchell was not stupid and he did not push things too far, if he could help it.

  One time the light shifted downwards creating a bright circle of light where Bryon could closely examine the dirt and saw the debris from the walls and picked some pieces up and examined it, examining its cut edges, considering what had occurred there.

  It reminded Bryson of a shaft that had been built for some work to take place. But when he thought of it he did not have a clue what it was. What was a tunnel doing out there? Why had they gone to such lengths to construct it? What hidden motive had been behind it?

  They had to have built it for logical reasons, as all the constructions were, which he could recall. They would only build it for their needs!

  “Perhaps it’s part of a mine for something,” Merton concluded, trying to push things further long, trying to recollect something such as it.

  “What happened to all the roads and constructions that they would’ve had?” Mortimer replied.

  “How could they have built everything with all those trees being there?” Mitchell answered. “There’d be gaps leading through. Nobody would get anything through all that! Unless it was built a long time ago ... And it all grew over it!”

  “Perhaps it’s another part of the castle,” Merton spoke, trying to recollect something; maybe from his memories.

  “You’re psychic researchers?” Mitchell replied, looking alert, and considering something that had been bothering him. “As well as scientists! What’re your thoughts of all that stuff outside ...?”

  “It is pretty hard to tell,” he replied, “especially at this stage ... Things are so muddled, and we’ve so little ... We’re not even sure that castle exists! Or is in rubble ...”

  “I’ve never seen anything like that! Something has to be behind it! And I’m sure it’s not all from this world whatever it is!”

  “I’m pretty sure of that. It seems in an entirely different environment, than it was designed for.”

  “As though in confusion ... Of what was occurring around it!”

  “We may be able to find something someday to defend ourselves against it!”

  Mitchell grunted, and looked down at his useless weapon and went back to considering alternatives that would work.

  Mitchell pointed his light straight out in front into the distant darkness there, illuminating different parts of the ground, and he lunged forward, as if he had decided that he wanted to find the answers to everything no matter what, and the sooner the better, just like they had been doing for many years. He shifted along, examining his steps, as he went into the darkness, which seemed to go endlessly on, and he examined everything.

  It resembled an ancient mine, but more expertly constructed than that and that technology, and as though built to last a long time like an ancient sewer.

  It was startling that there were no signs of any materials like bricks and cement in it, which led them to believe that it was something else built by somebody else.

  The tunnel kept going endlessly on into the distance going where there was nothing but wood above, and they marched off into preparing themselves and ignoring their sleepiness.

  What dangers could it hold? Did it have something of an incomprehensible nature existing in its darkness?

  All the significations were startling! The world vanished behind them, and it felt absurd that they were going so far into it. It was like something out of place that should not be there. Especially not at such a location. Nothing seemed to put a conclusion to what it was needed for and why such lengths had been administered to construct it.

  Questions endlessly flashed through Bryson’s mind as he followed Mitchell and Merton’s dark figures trudging on, behind their beams of light.

  Merton seemed obsessed with handling his fantasy situation more than anything!

  “Do you want one?” Merton moaned, handing back his cigarettes to Bryson and Mortimer, who were walking together behind him, as he blew out smoke about him; and they took one each to break the momentum.

  Bryson strolled on blissfully puffing away, wondering where the hell they
were going to this time. They clearly were under the trees, as some roots from trees had managed make their way down and had smashed their way through the rock.

  It was surprising that it had not flooded with the cracks and holes, from water seeping down. Then he saw signs that it had occurred, and saw thick layers of dried mud ahead.

  Mortimer looked happy and in his natural environment with the strange and unusual, with unsolved mysteries everywhere, and he smoked like he was experiencing an expensive cigar, flaring away at his mouth, tasting the smoke, with the smoke spinning through the air behind him.

  The mystery of where it led to was certainly one of the main inspirations that kept them going, seeking an answer they knew they had to receive, driving them on no matter what.

  If they turned back, they would never know, and could even have to face death, so they kept going.

  Bryson realized that none of them would have believed that it went out to that length. Their pace stayed the same, their walk never changed.

  He noticed that they mainly took it for granted that the tunnel had not collapsed anywhere and would reach somewhere, and that they would not have to journey back.

  Bryson spotted something away in the distance and that the others about him had seen it, and they all went there with their heads facing it trying to observe something there that could not be properly observed.

  His head eventually went back to where it had been, watching the tunnel about him, making sure that nothing was in their immediate way. Occasionally continuing with examining what was ahead, until he saw something blocking the tunnel far ahead, and he started to gasp.

  Merton and Mortimer soon noticed launched into a discussion of the problem, and Bryson attempted to hear everything in their silent hushed chants. And he saw that they did not come to any real conclusions!

  When they finally approached it Mortimer suddenly exploded with anger and went calm, on the brink of losing his patience while he marched up to it.

  “Why did they build a wall there?” Merton moaned first, trying to obtain an answer to such absurdity.

  The four of them stood, resting, glancing at individual sections of the wall, as the others stood back at a distance observing them.

  “Whoever built this obviously was different from the builders and did it years later!” Merton remarked. “Something could be hidden behind this? Where do you think this is?”

  “You’re probably right!” Mitchell remarked, touching the strange shapes of the boulders, and way they were put together. “Someone has hidden something away here ...”

  Bryson saw that none of them knew and that they were starting to think that they would have to return to where they had been, but he ignored that as he was positive that would not happen until the morning.

  Merton started feeling along the edge of the wall where there was a crack going around it.

  “We could trying shoving it over,” Merton announced, looking at it, giving Bryson a smile. “With our combined weight ...”

  He mechanically placed his arm against an area of the wall and started to push it and they joined in, and the bricks, which were not cemented, started falling inwards.

  What they then found were thick webs covering the gap left, and they pushed the rest of the stone until it all crumbled and collapsed across the ground.

  Mitchell removed his communicator and silently started trying to see if it now worked, trying to contact somewhere, and when he could not pick it up he put it away.

  “Could that thing back there stop it working?” he asked them, trying to grasp the situation.

  Nobody answered and showed they never knew, and they left it.

  With the lights held out a black gap became visible behind all the thick webs and dirt, and they illuminated the tunnel going on and they moved in, removing the webs and dirt.

  Bryson watched his shadow flicker along the stone, and his unblinking eyes watched the ground searching for obstructions, and he continued following Mitchell and Merton along.

  Thick cobwebs crawled over his face and covered up everything ahead, and he heard the murmurs of provoked archaeologists behind him, and he realized that Merton had announced something. In the blackness ahead something indistinguishable was emerging, making his heart quicken and at any second he expected to find something deadly, and an immense cavity opened up in front of him.

  Chapter 6

  The Skeleton

  How many centuries had the chamber been hidden away? The distant obscurity was full of chilling silence, which made him feel isolated. Webs hung everywhere around him and he waved his hand in circles scraping them away from him.

  In dimness at the front, just in their light’s range, he watched dim gleams from things in the stone reflect dim light, producing a magical effect upon his hazy tired sight.

  Faint echoes of their breathing and murmurs could be heard in its extraordinary silence, and by their frantic reactions he sensed that they believed that something was actually there. Although the descriptions that some of the archaeologists gave made it too unacceptable to him to believe fully what they had suggested the chamber was. In vivid detail they had specified that the location was a resting place of something! His mind conjured up vague visions of spooky medieval ghosts roaming there.

  Water splashed over his face as it dripped from overhead, from cracks in the rock, and he moved sideways from it.

  With it away from him he cleaned it away from his face, and he watched a light explore what he had missed, and it beamed out over the roof lighting up a vast cavern structure overhead, which had been cut out using the same method as the tunnel.

  The roof was at a height of a hundred feet, and he caught glimpses of where things had once been and he listened to the surreal echoes of the archaeologists giving their explanations.

  He shifted slowly into the fringes of where their lights beamed, as he rested from the journey there and long day, and at his front an object came into sight and he felt its roughness with his fingertips through thick webs and dirt, obscuring a proper view of it, and he placed his hands over it and its shape and hideous outline became clear, and he stepped back jerking his hand away, and saw that it was an open-mouthed skeleton with a rusted knife embedded in its chest.

  The others soon came over and they crowded around it.

  “How recent do you think this happened?” Mitchell asked, examining it up close.

  “A very long time ago ...” one of the archaeologists confirmed first, who had been first to examine it.

  Their voices were changed and more professional, and made surreal echoes about them. Some archaeologist gave silent explanations to what might have happened, but only gave imprecise replies, especially after all the occurrences that had happened.

  With a little amusement Bryson watched Mitchell’s figure hanging over it trying to grasp information about the person, and he searched the clothing of the man, but nothing was there except he spotted some pieces of rope where he had been tied up.

  “This place has definitely been used for devil worship or witchcraft, or similar?” Mitchell asked firmly, unsure what else could have happened.

  “I would say so!” the archaeologists replied.

  “Someone gave a human sacrifice here, a long time ago, then!” he stated to one of his men, who wrote it down.

  They all moved back or away from it, and the archaeologists got to work on checking it in detail – with gasps and surprises when they revealed its hideous agonized face more from webs and dirt – where the person had hideously died with his mouth open in pain, and had remained that way.

  They continued brushing away thick webs and dirt, obscuring a proper view of it, while crumbling bits of gray rot fell off.

  Bryson’s mind slowly grasped its hideous outline, and he stepped back wondering what the place was, and why they were doing it there.

  The others checked everything they could about the cavity and one of the archeologists discovered another tunnel.

  With their lig
hts held out, they all started entering it and continued their journey, and Bryson saw that their lights would slowly drain of power and wondered what would happen.

  The second tunnel was thinner and had a different look and atmosphere, and he realized their thoughts had changed of things. They no longer really thought of the things outside, but of the dead body that they had found cruelly sacrificed, and he continued walking with Mortimer behind Mitchell and Merton.

  It had been a long day and he walked with unblinking eyes, almost hypnotized by the lights shifting over the walls, watching the ground in the glimmer searching for obstructions.

  Occasionally cobwebs crawled over his face, and he no longer heard the murmurs of the archaeologists still discussing their find, and what other people would think of it when they returned.

  Its creepy blackness made his heart beat fast and made him alert, and though, at times, he expected to find something deadly to confront them, he thought they might handle it, even though the things outside could have killed them.

  How many decades had the chamber been hidden away there, and how long ago had the death occurred? The distant obscurity was full of chilling silence, which made him feel isolated.

  Out in front, of the light range, he regularly watched dim gleams from stone lighting up like from a mysterious source, and he would confirm its type when he shifted passed it.

  After listening to more of the archeologists’ allegations he realized that not much had actually been found out! Why had anyone built the tunnels? Why would devil worshippers or whoever made the deadly sacrifices?

  Alright it was hidden away with little chance of anyone finding it, but why there and why go to such lengths to do what they had done?