9 Tales Told in the Dark 15

by 9 Tales Told in the Dark

  “Well all right!” I said happily, allowing my eyes to accustom themselves to the gloom of the tunnel. We were all wearing electric headlamps with backups, but it still takes a second to adjust, otherwise you end up tripping over your own feet.

  “Whelp, Jim, this is your find. Lead on buddy,” said Bill once we'd had a chance for our eyes to adjust.

  Sure enough about 150 feet in we came to a set of stone steps leading us further down. But so far luck was with us, and they were bone dry and dusty with the years they'd spent entombed away from the eyes of man.

  The stairs went down for a goodly distance and then came to another landing leading forward. “It never ceases to amaze me,” said Andrea, “all of this cut stone down here, and most people don't even know it.”

  “The time and craftsmanship is really unreal. The fact they got these things built so quickly,” said Jim from the front.

  “Heck it's been 15 years and the still aren't done fixing I-81 in Pennsylvania yet,” I joked. “And they have all kinds of bulldozers and cement.”

  After a while walking at this new level, we reached a branching in to a much larger arched tunnel. It was hard to tell what it had been used for. What we had been in was obviously some kind of access passageway, but this was much wider.

  “So what do you think Bill,” Jim asked, “subway or sewer?”

  “I don't know,” Melissa piped in, “aren't we a little deep for a subway now?”

  We all stopped in this new tunnel, trying both to decide on a direction, but also trying to puzzle out what it had been used for. It had a relatively high ceiling maybe 50 feet and was a good 75 feet across, so it had the possibility of being almost anything.

  “Really hard to say,” said Bill rubbing his chin, ”enough dirt and mud have packed down here, even if it was an old trolley tunnel, the rails would be covered over, or they might have pulled them up for the steel. That's even assuming they even put them in. Wouldn't be the first planned tunnel that never got completed in history.”

  “Well let's head off to the right for a bit and see if something gives us a clue,” said Jim, “Melissa you've been sketching a bit right?”

  “Yes indeedy do,” chirped Melissa happily.

  “Whelp, let’s get some distance in and see what we see, “Bill said smiling happily.

  We moved along at a decent pace for a while after that, going as best as I could figure, and due south. There were relatively regularly spaced out side passages coming in to this one, most likely other service tunnels like the one we had come in through ourselves. The stone work in this section of tunnel was still stunningly solid for all of its obvious age. Few stones had fallen out anywhere.

  Eventually I noticed one of the passages that branched in to this one, looked different than the others. The one we came in from and the ones we regularly saw, were thin in comparison and the walls built straight up, with only a sharp arch at the very top. This entrance almost looked like another main tunnel coming in, it's entrance almost an entire smooth arch, but not near as large as the one we were in.

  “Hold up a sec,” I said, “let's check this side passage. It's different than the others.”

  “Huh?! So it is,” said Jim coming back a bit from his place in the front to look at it. Jim went into the passage and called back, “Well it does seem to have a bit of run to it, it's a different design so I got to admit, I'm a bit curious. What say, everybody?”

  “Well, we're here, and I need something else on this sketch,” said Melissa.

  We all agreed and made the turn down this new passage. After a hundred feet or so, the nature of it changed a bit. Where most of what we had been in had been dry and dusty, this part started to get damp. The floor now was more like hard mud and not dry packed dirt. The stonework now began to have fungus on it. Drips of water came through the ceiling in places.

  “Be careful up here guys,” Jim called back. “We got another set of steps coming up, and it's been getting a bit slick. Congrats Larry, you found the only place in these entire tunnels that's slimy.”

  “Yeah, Larry! See what you did,” Melissa said jokingly.

  “Oh yeah, all my fault, I was just hiking along down here and said 'You know what would be great? Slimy mold',” I kidded back.

  “Well at least he admits to it, Bill,” joked Andrea poking her husband in the back.

  “That's because he does not have a life commitment to a soul mate who will later hold the admission against him.” said Bill.

  Finally after what seemed like another depth of curious length we reached the bottom of this second set of stone steps. This opened to another large north/south passageway. From looking at it, this seemed even more obviously a former sewer. There was a low center section with walkways along either side, leaving for dry inspection of its needed work far below the city of its day.

  “Well it looks like we have another one of those north south questions,” said Jim.

  “I think since we've been heading due south as is, we might as well continue,” said Melissa. “If we don't find anything interesting that way, we know we have all of the Northern parts of those tunnels.”

  “That's true enough, less to muddle up our game plan with,” said Bill.

  So, we continued southward. While this section had obviously once been a sewer way, and was no longer as dry as the upper areas, thankfully it wasn't in full flow. I certainly wouldn't have enjoyed walking in it in full flood, it's still a sewer after all.

  “No matter what happens now,” Andrea said, “today’s wild goose chase actually seems to have netted us a goose.”

  “Seriously, Jim, this has been a hell of a lead already,” agreed Bill.

  “Whelp, depending on how long I can keep it open for us, there's a lot of other leads to check out too,” said Jim. “Hey! What's this?” Jim pulled up short. “Bill help me get some light on this.”

  “Whaddya got, bud?”

  “Not sure, it's a different rock set right in the middle of the walkway. Some kind of writing on it.”

  I came up to join them to find everybody surrounding a rock not of the dull gray of the others. A large slab right in the middle of the walk, not a set of cut stones like the rest. We all knelt down to try and brush it off, to get a better look at it.

  “Hey Jim is right,” said Melissa. ”Something's carved in this.”

  “Well it's not in English,” Andrea said.

  “Anybody recognize it?” I asked.

  Bill rubbed his chin for a moment and then said, “Could be Dutch maybe? They settled the town first and all.”

  “Any of us speak any Dutch at all?” asked Jim.

  “Well,” Andrea said, “if we can get some rubbings I think I can get a few of the words translated.

  “I've got some extra paper, and my pencils,” said Melissa.

  “There's a few spots here, if I could get a crowbar in, we could see what it's covering without disturbing it too bad,” I said.

  We took some water and scrubbed off the worst of the ick. It took a bit of patting dry to get it as clean as we were going to get it. Melissa then took out some larger sheets she had with her and a few pencils out of her pack and set to work. She didn't have that much with her, so she focused on to the larger words carved in to the slab, of what we had now determined as marble.

  “Whelp, it doesn't look like a grave stone or anything,” said Jim.

  “Be weird to bury somebody all the way down here anyway,” I agreed.

  “Well we've been down here for a while, we got some rough ideas where we are in the city. I'm pretty sure we all know what's got our interest. Let's call it a day, see if we can't get a translation on the slab, We can come back next week with some crowbars to see about maybe getting that thing open,” said Bill.

  “Want me to see if I can get my hands on a full pry bar?” I asked.

  “Naw,” Jim said. “This is making the owner nervous enough. Let's not let anybody see us coming in here next week looking like we're gonna brea
k the joint up. Assuming he's going to be still cool with it.”

  “Alright gang,” said Bill. “We got a game plan, let's head to the surface.”

  Concentration at my job for the next week was devilishly difficult to come by. I mean this looked like a hell of a find. Once we popped open the slab and did the mapping, this would add a considerable amount of details to the understanding of how the city itself had built up. Andrea had done as much translation of the rubbing and she had been able. She had been able to figure out that it said “Danger” and warned people to not enter under the slab. This made it even more curious, not that we were particularly worried about something that was dangerous over 400 years ago, but what had the Dutch been worried about? Finding out if there were any clues would also be a massive increase in knowledge.

  Like I said, it made for a hard week of trying to concentrate on work.

  “Well are we all excited?,” I asked as we piled in to Bill's Suburban.

  “I think that would be a 'Duh',” said Angela. Now I didn't feel so bad. If Angela was revved for this I couldn't have been over re-acting.

  Soon enough we were at the building and into the cellar. We probably made record time as we geared up. Excitement was pretty high. If anything I was running slightly behind everyone else as my coverall pant leg kept hooking on my boot. But soon enough everyone had their coveralls and helmets on, lights lit, and packs slung to go find out about our mystery.

  My pack weighed me down some as we moved through the charted parts of our journey. But then again I had a pretty serious crowbar stuffed in there. I only had to hope at this point it didn't damage my backup light. But thankfully it was all walking to where we were going, so that lessened the possibilities of it getting crushed, or the crowbar damaging the pack itself.

  We moved much faster overall, even with a few of us carrying crow bars and mini-sledges. Excitement moves the feet faster for one, and we knew exactly where we wanted to get to, and we knew exactly what to expect along the way. Conversation was a little light, everyone was to some degree curious to see if we could find what the Dutch settlers had deemed such a threat so long ago. Everyone playing out scenarios in their own head as to what it could be.

  Finally after what seemed like an eternity, we were back at the dirty white marble slab itself.

  “Alright, I know I have a crowbar to help get this up, who else?” I asked.

  Jim and Bill's hands shot up, and Bill said, “Let's start with scraping around the edges a bit. It'll help break it loose faster. Less mud in the cracks, less we got to get moving.”

  With that we set to work. In many ways it would have been easier if it had been dryer here. Yes the mud was softer which made it easier to dig in to, but when it's dry it cracks out in bunches and is more brittle. The pliability of the moister mud means you really have to dig it out, which adds a ton of time on.

  Finally after about an hour of it, the three of us, with the girls taking shifts seemed to have cleared out as much as we were going to be safely able to. “There's a few of pry spots on each side of it, I think they were carved in to make it easier to lower it in place,” said Jim.

  “Well we don't need to lift it out all the way, just need to move it a bit and slide it so we can slip through,” Melissa said.

  “Why don't me and Jim get on this one side. Bill, you get at the head of it. Melissa and Andrea, give whoever looks like their struggling some extra weight,” I said.

  We all slotted in our crowbars in to likely looking holes and began to heave on them. At first nothing seemed to happen and I was regretting not saying blow it and bringing a full pry bar. But eventually the mud that was left caking it in place began to give way and it began to lift up.

  “Alright let it down, everybody get a drink of water,” said Bill. “I'm pretty sure it'll pop up on the next try. Andrea, Melissa, as soon as it lifts up enough give a shove on it on that side and get it moving open.”

  “Well no time like the present,” Jim said after we'd all made an effort at re-hydrating. ”Let's get to it!” We all heaved away again and this time the slab lifted up much easier. Melissa and Angela seeing the inky black beyond as it began to clear the lip started to shove hard. Nothing happened much for a second, and then with a grating noise the slab began to slide sideways.

  When I saw a corner had slid past the lip I dropped my crowbar and began to help with the shoving until Bill cried out, “Hold up, hold up!”

  “What's up?,” I asked.

  “Well, first off, we don't want to open it all the way up, just enough to get in, we still gotta put it back,” he said. “Secondly, you started pinching my damned finger, I think I'm bleeding a bit.”

  “Sorry about that honey!,” Angela exclaimed. ”Are you going to be alright?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine, just a scrape, and I've had my shots,” he said smiling a little despite the pain.

  Jim turned his light up and poked his head in to the now gaping hole in front of us. “How do you feel about more steps?” he asked.

  “You're kidding?” I said.

  “Nope, they come right up to the wall itself,” he said. With that he slid in through the opening. “Oh cooooooolllll!” he enthused.

  “Well what?” asked Melissa.

  “Be careful to stay to the side we opened,” Jim said. ” The far side seems to open in to some kind of pit, but after a few steps you can stand right up. Can't tell how far down this goes though. Can't see bottom at all.”

  “Whelp, no reason to whine about my boo-boo. I'm right behind you,” said Bill sliding through the opening.

  When it was finally my turn I slid in under the massive slab. The stone steps seemed practically ancient, but showed very little wear or tear in their centers from the pounding of human feet. “Whatever they built this for, they sure didn't use it much,” I grunted as I worked my way down until I could finally sit up.

  “Let's take a break get some more water, a snack if you got em,” said Jim.

  “Yeah, it's eating my light,” said Bill.” I think we're gonna be heading downwards for a bit. “After we had rested for a minute or two mainly in the dark, most of us killing our lights to conserve on batteries, we began our descent. After about 50 feet it became apparent we were now angling in a circle as if moving along and down a pit.

  “Must have been an old well,” mused Jim from the front.

  “If they closed it because the water was polluted they should see it now,” I joked.

  I have no real way of knowing how deep we were when Bill called out, ”What in the hell is that?”

  There was a large brown shape clinging to the blank wall across the pit and above from us. It was hard to see from this distance, the pit being at least 50 feet across itself. It was large equal to or greater than the size of a large man. We all got our lights on to it trying to make out what it was.

  “Hey,” said Melissa. ”Those things are all over the wall opposite the stairs, same with below us.”

  “Is it starting to make a noise?” asked Andrea.

  That's when its head snapped up and stared at us! Some things stay with you forever. The site of this thing, almost bat-like will be with me forever. Thick fur tufted on its head. It's huge ears coming to a point, and, it's almost beady eyes staring at us balefully, full of annoyance and spite.

  “What in the hell?” said Jim. The thing unfolded itself slightly, and then released however it was gripping the wall. It plummeted towards all of us, but clearly drawn by his light and the sound of his voice slammed full force into Jim!

  Bill lunged at it and slammed it in its hairy back with both hands balled in to one crushing fist. The thing almost negligently raised its head and flicked what appeared to be a clawed wing back, sending Bill plunging screaming in to the abyss, his scream cutting off with a sickening thud from far below! It was almost impossible not to notice the thing had blood all over its face, and that Jim who had stopped moving had blood all over his front!

  “Holy shit!
” I yelled, “we gotta go!”

  “But Bill......,” Andrea moaned.

  “Fell at least 100 feet and there is a nightmare between us Andrea. C'mon!,” yelled Melissa from directly in front of me.

  Andrea just stood there though staring at us and pointing to where Bill had just been in front of her. A moan was emerging from her, but she didn't move at all, despite the horrible sounds of gurgitation from further in front of her where the creature still sat astride Jim!

  “Andrea, COME ON we have GOT TO GO!” yelled Melissa tugging on the stricken woman.

  “Melissa come on we gotta go!” I barked.

  It seemed like Andrea's feet had over ridden her brain and she might be starting to follow. Out of the dark though, another of the wretched things slammed in to her, the force almost taking Melissa with it, as the thing and Andrea fell in the direction of the feast that Jim had become!

  Melissa blinked for a second, but something clicked inside her and she started to sprint towards me. Taking her actions as a cue, I turned and began to bound up the stairs as fast as my legs would carry me. I kept an ear for Melissa behind me, but the younger smaller caver was matching me step for step. Survival instincts being stronger than any horror in both of us for the moment.

  We ran with all our might and stamina up the seemingly endless stairs. I tried desperately to ignore the other sound joining Melissa's step behind me, the hideous fleshy noises the things made landing on the steps below us, the sounds if anything getting closer, like they were trying to time it, and use their weight to stun their prey......stun, their, prey......us, their prey!

  After an eternity, my lamp lit upon the marble slab that had been these creatures gate keeper all these years. “We're almost there,” I gasped back to Melissa.