by Abhishek Roy
“How will we break through this?” Ram muttered.
“I was thinking if a jack-knife could do the job,” I offered.
“You have one? Yeah! Let’s try!” Vivek exclaimed and fished out my jack-knife from my bag. He flicked it up and started scraping away the mortar from the bricks. After a few slashes, the jack-knife managed to pierce the old mortar. Vivek cut every piece and finally, pulled out the brick.
“Aha! The first brick is down. This won’t take time at all. After all, the binding agent has weathered over the years.” He dropped the brick and the three of us cut away the mortar turn by turn. After prying out a few more bricks and creating a large hole, we helped Vivek kick the brick wall. Now that it was weaker, the bricks near the hole fell away quite easily and we managed to create an orifice large enough for us to get through.
We entered a dark and musty antechamber. Some places had broken and surely, the path looked dangerous. Vivek flicked on the torch on his mobile and I activated my handheld bulb which ran on my body heat. Together, we headed down the passageway to somewhere no human had been for a long time.
***
We walked a long distance, following the tight and dark passageway. As we delved deeper underground, the air became tighter too but the temperature remained unchanged — cold, probably in the single digits of Celsius scale.
Finally, we arrived at the end of the corridor. A solid stone wall marked the dead end but the last six feet of the corridor’s floor was missing. There was a dark hole from where, we could hear the gentle sound of water lapping the rocky surroundings.
“This is just like the man had said - the corridor led to a body of subterranean water. Even the poem mentioned swimming to be done. So who goes in first?” asked Vivek.
“Wait. Don’t you think down there might be the plants or vines that the verse referred to? They could be tricky,” Ram frowned.
“But do we have any other choice? We have to jump in, no?” Vivek patted Ram on his back and he acquiesced. Both of them looked at me and I knew what they meant.
“Okay, okay. I’ll go in first.” I said. After putting my handheld bulb in my bag, I jumped down the hole, only to land seven feet below in cold, dark and deep water.
“Is it fine?” Ram called out from above when I surfaced.
Vivek’s torch lit up the space around me. “I can’t see anything more than a feet away. Its complete darkness but it seems like a big body of water. Pretty deep too. You guys can come in,” I replied back, splashing some water.
Vivek and Ram dropped in behind me. Initially, they seemed to be a little perturbed by the darkness but Vivek illuminated the place by his torch and we could then get our bearings right.
The entire place was like a cavernous pathway, extending into darkness on our either side. The walls, like the underground city, were featureless but the massive body of water seemed like a river flowing languorously beneath the surface of earth. We tried seeing the bottom of the water-body and could not make it out by the beam of torchlight. We discerned that it was around twenty to thirty metres deep.
“So where do we go?” I asked while wading water but Vivek stopped me abruptly.
“There is something odd down at the bottom. Over there.” He pointed with his torch. We followed the shaft of light and sure enough, we saw something moving. Dauntingly, we swam a little closer.
“Holy cow! It’s a whirlpool! A large whirlpool!” cried Vivek.
“My God! But why aren’t we getting sucked in. Even the water level seems to be pretty constant and peaceful.” Ram swam a little further away. “I am not going near that. No way!“
All of a sudden, something smooth slithered past my feet extremely fast. I turned around and spotted a dark body, immense in size and shaped like a seal, disappear into the darkness. For a moment, I stayed still. I looked at Vivek and Ram but they were talking to each other.
“Did you guys see that?”
“See what?” Ram asked me.
“There is something in here. Something large.”
“Hey Ram! My feet! I am getting hurt!” Vivek scolded him.
“But I didn’t do anything!” Ram had started hyperventilating.
Then, the creature exposed itself with a loud reptilian roar. Its head exploded out of the inky waters and for the first time, we could figure out its sheer size. Its head was elongated, like a barracuda but the size of my entire arm. The head was placed on a long and slender neck, about 5 meters long. The neck snaked out of the surface of water and then we could see the rest of its body which was shaped like a seal. It had four large flippers and short tail for swimming. The entire creature must have been at least 10 metres in length and pretty muscular and wide.
Its sharp and jagged teeth glistened in the torch light and so did its light and watery eyes.
Due to the shock, Vivek dropped his mobile and as soon as it fell in the water, the light dimmed. Simultaneously, the creature which had aimed straight for us dived back into the water near the torch which had floated away from us. All this had happened in seconds and soon enough, a calm descended into the cavern.
All of us were shell shocked. This was the stuff of dinosaur movies and now...
“I think I understand now,” Vivek broke the silence. In the darkness, I could barely make out Vivek and Ram’s faces and both of them seemed to be drained out of blood.
“The line which says The path belongs to the Dolichodeira. Dolichodeira is much more than a plant. I remember watching this series on the Discovery channel about dinosaurs. In one particular episode, they showed a similar beast called the Plesiosaurus Dolichodeirus. It is a serpentine dinosaur which lived in water. Seems like whoever wrote that verse in the diary tricked us into believing the creature was an innocuous plant.”
I spotted the dark silhouette of the creature whiz past us and to our shock, we saw a second silhouette appear from somewhere.
“If these creatures are dinosaurs who survived extinction, then they must have lived here all their life, in the dark. So they are fascinated by light, like in the poem,” Vivek finally spoke.
“I remember too now! But I think there is something else to it. Maybe human involvement in their existence. The Plesiosaurus was much smaller than these creatures. They seemed to have.. .mutated,” I said quietly.
“What are we supposed to- AARRGGHH!” Ram shouted as three of the humungous creatures burst out of their water, their faces dark and their eyes and teeth shining. Their roars resounded through the cavern. However, they missed us by a feet and their glistening leathery bodies disappeared into the water.
“Guys! They seem to be very inaccurate. They probably rely on sense more than sight,” I told Vivek and Ram.
“But where are we supposed to go! We just jumped down that hole and now we are trapped with the whirlpool and these dino... “ Ram cried but I stopped him.
“A whirlpool that doesn’t drain out the water and some dinosaurs that are attracted to light...” I thought aloud. A plan popped up in my head and I rummaged in my wet bag in the darkness. I found what I was looking for and just before a Plesiosaur was about to pounce on us, I activated my handheld bulb and held it in front of it and closed my eyes. Immediately, the creature stopped in is tracks. It loomed over the surface of water with its entire 5 meter neck craned over my hand. The beast stared at my bulb, which looked like a glowing orb in my palm, with its watery and beady eyes.
I opened my eyes and found the colossal creature floating in the cavern. Its huge body treaded water right in front of my puny little size. However, it stayed transfixed at the bulb in my hand. I waited for it to do something but it didn’t. The Plesiosaur was hypnotized.
Bring light to them and they will be your friend
If not, they will be your last nemesis
Slowly, another neck protruded out of the water and then another and another. In a matter of a few minutes, two dozen necks dotted the water surface in the cavernous corridor. The beasts had stayed here all their life and
interbred. Some must have died but the others had survived. In this place where food was a problem, I felt that these creatures were cannibalistic or survived on plankton like microorganisms in the water-body. They must have had some other method of respiration not seen in our animals.
“I think we should go to the whirlpool.” I whispered to Vivek and Ram.
“Are you crazy? We will drown,” Ram protested.
“The fearless swimmer wins all. Remember?” Vivek was sounding determined now. “Give me the bulb, Mathias. I’ll hold them out for you both. You and Ram have to go to the whirlpool.“
“What about you Vivek?” My eyes widened.
“I will try my best to come along. If not...then I want to thank you for this wonderful journey.”
“Shut up! You have to come,” frowned Ram.
“Fine. Now go!” Vivek took my handheld bulb and slowly, Ram and I plunged into the water. We kept an eye out for the dinosaurs but none of them moved. The two of us swam down to the bottom of the waterbody, towards the whirling vortex of water. Our ears pained because of the pressure above us but we braved the challenge.
We stopped a few feet away from the funnel and studied it for a moment. It led down into a large and deep circular depression in the rocky riverbed. Surprisingly, we noticed a few metal parts and realised that the depression actually held a device that stirred up the whirlpool. A few parts turned and rotated at regular intervals and the funnel started from a large slit circumscribing the device.
Ram pointed at the funnel and motioned me to go. As always, I swam to the vortex first and ever so slowly, entered it, hoping to come out somewhere.
The whirlpool turned out to be more powerful than I thought and pulled me in. I was sucked in fast and my body turned helplessly. Everything above me, the water and the ominous silhouettes of the Plesiosaurs blurred away as I was soon taken into the heart of the machine. There was a gentle humming noise as the device whirred. A few pistons pumped and some otherworldly mechanical parts worked synchronously getting their energy from God knows where. In a fleeting instant, I was drowning and wondering whether I have made a horrible mistake. But in a few seconds I was out of the water and fell on a slightly wet but dusty floor, face first.
***
Ram’s story
UNKOWN PART OF DERINKUYU YERALTI SEHRI
March 14, 2017, Tuesday, 1527 hours
Ram watched as Mathias was pulled into the vicious current and disappeared from his view. He wanted to cry but couldn’t do so underwater. He felt totally trapped - out of breath, a whirlpool to plunge into and two dozen ominous dinosaurs above him.
Ram looked up at Vivek who had been watching them all this time. The Plesiosaurs had started to come closer to him ever so slightly.
Ram signalled him to come along and counted with his fingers -
Three, two, one and -
Ram turned and swam into the whirlpool with all the courage he could muster and was pulled into it with a powerful tug. He turned and twisted and was spewed out on the other side of the device, right on top of Mathias.
***
Vivek’s story
UNKOWN PART OF DERINKUYU YERALTI SEHRI
March 14, 2017, Tuesday, 1528 hours
Vivek let go of Mathias’s bulb and dived down towards the whirlpool. He swam downwards with the best strokes he could while the orb-like bulb bobbed up and down in the water. All the beasts craned over the tiny source of light, having seen Vivek dive down but indifferent towards him...for now.
The bulb had already started to dim and the Plesiosaurs were surprised. They didn’t want the light to go. Meanwhile, Vivek and swum 10 metres down.
Nine more metres to go.
The bulb had almost died out but still glowed faintly.
Seven more metres to go.
The bulb was out.
Five metres left.
The Plesiosaurs were rooted to their positions until the reality of the situation hit them hard. All of them looked at the tiny figure of Vivek just a few feet away from the whirlpool.
Two metres more.
All the plesiosaurs dived into the water and swam like meteors towards Vivek.
Last one metre to go.
A plesiosaur bit down hard on his left shoe. Vivek let out a big bubble of air from his mouth. His chest burnt but he swam forward.
Zero metres.
Vivek was whisked away into the whirlpool. His shoe came loose and stayed with the Plesiosaur as a souvenir while he vanished into the opening.
Vivek rushed towards the hole at the bottom and was spat out by the device. He fell on the old stone floor clumsily, soaking wet, beside the dripping bodies of Mathias and Ram.
***
Mathias’s story
UNKOWN PART OF DERINKUYU YERALTI SEHRI
March 14, 2017, Tuesday, 1530 hours
“Phew!” sighed Vivek as he spat out some water and gulped in large amounts of air. We spent a few minutes gathering ourselves after our encounter with mutated dinosaurs who were never known to exist.
Ram and I had started to get up in the total darkness but Vivek was still lying face down on the ancient stone floor. Few bands of light on the machine illuminated it and bathed our surroundings in an incandescent green glow.
The reptilian groan of one of the beasts echoed from the device.
“Hahaha!” Vivek laughed loudly. “Hahahaha!” Vivek laughed even louder and rolled over his back. He held his stomach and kept laughing.
“Hahaha!” Ram looked at him and started laughing too.
As the reason hit me, I bent over and laughed my heart out. For a moment, all our pain and distress was gone. Even after being more than a 100 meters beneath the Anatolian plateau where no one would find you, after almost getting eaten by a family of dinosaurs, we stood in a quiet place with a strange whirlpool making device sticking out of the roof. We had survived all of this, somehow, and had no way turning back.
“What in the name of God have we got ourselves into?” Vivek burst out into laughing and so did we. Ram roared with laughter and couldn’t help but sit back down on the floor, wiping the tears from his cheeks.
“And because of who? You rascals!” yelled Vivek. He rolled over his stomach and covered his face in laughter. Slowly, our laughter died out. Vivek hauled himself up, breathing for more air after laughing. Ram was coughing and I wiped the water off my face.
“Oh... “ Vivek stretched himself a little. “Was that some dream?” He chuckled.
“I don’t know. What are we supposed to do now? I guess we have found the ninth level.” Ram stood, arms akimbo.
“People. Have you observed this machine?” I pointed at the machine protruding from the ceiling. It was conical in shape and extended about five feet below the ceiling, another six feet above the floor. Some pipes, strange and complex machine parts in all shapes and sizes and dotted bands of light surrounded the cone. The orifice was large enough for us. The inside of this orifice was lined by a score of wide corrugated metal bands which moved extremely fast and in different directions.
I walked beneath the conical device and marvelled at the things going on inside. The metal bands, along with a few more contraptions, seemed to stop the raging water a feet or two above the orifice.
“Wow! This looks like a really advanced device which creates a powerful whirlpool but doesn’t drain away the water,” I looked at Vivek and Ram standing beside me. ”The fearless swimmer wins all.“
“But where is the man of Bor-nu and the final key?” Ram asked anxiously.
“I think we should explore this ninth level to find out more.” Vivek led the two of us away from the device and we began walking along the corridor. As soon as we did, our eyes fell on the strange stone walls. There was no electrical light source to light up the corridor and yet, the walls and the roof glowed a numinous blue colour. In fact, large patches of something made the walls glow, with some cracks in between them.
“Whoa! What is this?” I mumbled. All of us walk
ed to the walls. On careful observation, we saw very little movement, as if the patches of phosphorescent blue light were alive.
“Oh! This is like the Waitomo caves in New Zealand!” Vivek looked up at the roof. The niches and cracks were all filled with the glowing substance. It also hung from the hair thin stalactites.
“These are glow worms. They glow by bioluminescence - luminescence due to biochemical reactions. Most of these insects glow green but some have a different colour. This species evolved differently and so has a totally different colour. You can see this in the Waitomo caves of New Zealand.”
“Wonderful!” Ram breathed.
“Come on. We can’t stay stuck over here.”
We followed Vivek while we walked down the length of the glowing cave-like corridor. Finally, we spotted a strange capsule, about 15 feet long. It was more ovoid than spherical and looked very sleek and slender. However, it looked very old. The capsule was made out of some dark bronze coloured metal which lent it a very wooden look. There were a few scratches and the metal looked like it had corroded away from some places.
As we went closer to it, a number of tiny valve like protrusions became visible to us. They riddled the surface at regular intervals and glowed a deep red. The capsule was placed in a long cylindrical shaft, dipping about a metre beneath the ground and rising to a metre above the roof. The right side was blocked and the left side extended away into darkness. When we looked down to see where the capsule was standing, we backed away because it wasn’t standing on anything.
“There is a two foot gap between the capsule and the floor,” I exclaimed, my eyes wide.
“It’s floating! In fact, it isn’t touching any surface! Neither the walls nor the roof!” exclaimed Ram.
The only glass was the windshield of the capsule. It was made of solid metal. There was no gap, no crack nor any orifice through which we could see inside. We were wondering what to do next when suddenly I felt a warmth next to my chest. I looked down to see the amulet glowing again! However, this time it was glowing green.
