Chapter 12: The Belly of Death
"The lights are going out all over Britain. They may not come back on within my life time."
"We're getting nowhere fast." said Zack as the walked through the caves.
"I disagree," said Bailey. "We're getting nowhere slowly."
The cave they went into was the entrance to a tunnel. It was perfectly regular, like a colossal pipe leading to the Earth's core. There had been no branches off the passage, however with the twists the tunnel made and the impenetrable darkness, they had no idea where they were.
"Hold on," Zack said. "Everyone turn off your flashlights." They did as instructed. Darkness was absolute, but as their eyes adjusted something else revealed itself. A dull light could be seen from far away now; the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. They all ran full tilt toward it: man, woman, and wolf.
They emerged out of the tunnel to find themselves underwater. They were at the sea bottom staring up towards the surface. They looked like they were in some kind of town. It had buildings, streets, even sidewalks. Swimming above them, below the tumultuous waves, were hundreds of brightly colored, luminescent fish.
"I know where we are." said Maya "Cody and I saw this at the bottom of the Bay."
"What? When?" Zack asked.
"If we're at the bottom of the ocean," interrupted London, "What's keeping the water out of here?"
"Nothing." said Bailey pointing her flashlight at the border between air and water. The water shimmered and rippled with the currents with nothing visibly holding it back. "It's being kept out by some unseen force."
"What can do that?" asked Maya.
"Nothing humans have invented, yet." said Bailey. "This is where all the lines intersected on the schematic we saw. It had a bunch of circles around it." She looked down the street; both left and right. The road disappeared as it curved. "These streets must have been those circles. The street curves around a central structure."
"We need to find a path to the center." said Zack.
After running for a while down the path they found a street that was perpendicular to theirs. They went down to find it ended at another street that curved around the center. They again went down this one and the process repeated itself. It was the geographical equivalent of peeling an onion.
Four layers in, Bailey stopped dead at an obelisk.
"What is it?" Zack asked.
Bailey pointed at the obelisk. It had an image embossed on it of planet Earth surrounded by a laurel wreath.
"So?" asked Zack.
"That's the symbol of the United Nations. They didn't even exist until 1945."
"The UN built this place?" Maya asked.
"It was definitely built by people, here, on this planet." said Bailey.
"With all the overgrowth and ruin..." said Maya.
"It must have been built centuries ago..." said Zack.
"But the technology they would have needed..." said Bailey.
"To make giant metal buildings in the middle of nowhere..." said Maya.
"Using a language that's never been seen before..." said Zack.
"Making an invisible forcefield..." said Bailey.
"It must have been built..." said Maya.
"centuries from now." Zack finished. Utterly mystified, they persevered to the city center.
Finally, they made it to the middle. There was a huge hole in the ground, as far across as a football field and a perfect circle. The perimeter was surrounded by huge monoliths. In the hole was a giant crystal. It was a perfect sphere in shape. It dimly reflected the light above it. There was something active beneath its surface. It looked like a hundred million shadows were squirming around inside.
"Now we know why this was marked by a diamond." said Bailey as she pulled London away from the edge. London looked as if she had finally found true love.
"Look there," Zack said, pointing to the left edge of the hole. "There's some kind of bridge that goes over it."
They started walking toward it when they saw...
"Cody!" Zack screamed. Cody turned around from his spot behind one of the monoliths. The twins ran to each other and embraced.
"I ran down here when I saw the light." Cody said when they released. "When I walked into the city I followed..."
ca-thunk ca-thunk ca-thunk
Pepé was hopping towards the bridge when all of a sudden he diverted and tackled the nearest monolith. Then he tackled it again. And again.
"Does he want to push it over?" asked London.
"No." said Cody walking up to Pepé. As Pepé came back down Cody grabbed him and smashed his side against the monolith, then threw him down on the ground.
"Are you out of your mind?" Bailey shrieked. "The Egyptian Government is going to be inditing our dead bodies."
Cody didn't pay her any attention. He jambed his fingers into the seal of the sarcophagus and heaved. The top came off and they saw the ancient king. He looked as good as could be expected after four millenniums. The scepter he was holding looked good as new. It was a long silver rod cylindrical at the top but tapered to a point at the bottom. The only detail on it was a transparent band a few centimeters from the top. It revealed a crystal that shined so brightly that none of them could look at it directly.
Cody reached in and grabbed it. "Sorry, Pepé." he said and wrenched it out of the mummies hands. He started walking out across the bridge. They all followed him cautiously.
Cody couldn't say exactly what he was doing. The best he could figure was that the scepter was moving him forward like it had been compelling the old sarcophagus all this time. He finally came to the end. It was not actually a bridge, it stopped in the dead center of the hole over the crystal. At his feet, Cody saw that the surface of the bridge was completely smooth, without even the smallest hint of texture, except for one small dent where the pointy end of the scepter would fit.
The scepter was resonating gently in his grasp. It seemed almost excited, as if it had been waiting and hoping for this day. Cody clasped it in both of his hands and stabbed it down into the dent.
The crystal beneath him exploded with light. What was twisting shadow a moment before was now white fire and lighting inside it. The light it emitted was so bright that shutting your eyes made it no darker. Images started bursting forth out of the monoliths by the thousands. They were like countless TV screens floating independently of monitors. They all circled around the children on the bridge. They clutched each other for safety. Cody was still gripping the scepter firmly. Zack got closer to Cody to find that his twin was crying blood.
"I know what this island is!" Cody screamed.
On the North side of the island in the Pyramid, The schematic room lit up and the glyphs stared moving around the walls. Outside, a forcefield blossomed to life above the fruit trees.
Further south, the pits in the valley were still capped off glowed dully and became transparent hundreds of different animals could be seen frozen in time inside the giant canisters.
In the islands' interior, the desks in the Bivouac had screens and consoles appear on them. The door at the back opened to reveal another portal to the world beneath.
On the Peak, the meridians carved into the Stonehenge glowed a bright white. Beams of energy emanated from the pillars and shot out into space.
On the beach, the waves were racing away from the island. The island was floating, pulling itself out of the sea.
Zack was desperately trying to pry his twin's fingers off the scepter.
"We built this, our species did, in the future!" yelled Cody, his wide eyes crying blood, staring straight ahead.
"Good for us! Let go!" yelled Zack.
"Our planet was dead! We made so many mistakes!" yelled Cody, staring intently at something only he could see that the crystal was showing him.
"Was holding on to a killer scepter one of them?" yelled Zack.
"We were determined to survive! We finally had the technology to rebuild our planet!" yelled Cody.
"Cool story bro! Now unclench!" yelled Zack.
"They sent back this ship and others like it to collect samples. Something went wrong, this ship didn't make it back." yelled Cody.
"When did your grip get this strong?" Zack raged. Except for Cody they were all hunkering down on the bridge trying to steady themselves. They were feeling a sensation similar to being spun around very fast, then falling out of an airplane, then being handed a math exam on the way down.
"The trees at the Pyramid, the animals we saw, they were the seeds of new ecosystems in the future!" yelled Cody.
"Whoop-de-frickin'-do!" yelled Zack. "Let go of the damn-!"
And then there was only light: pure, pervasive, perfect white.
