Chapter 3: Clues Underground

Scooby and his pals were the first to disembark from the ship and then they helped the rest of the crew haul the necessary vehicles and equipment onto the underground shore. As the group looked around, they were astonished. The air pocket was a vast cavern half a mile under the earth with the roof standing four stories high. The air had a salty smell to it, but it was breathable nonetheless.

"Man, what a ride!" Fred mused.

"You said it, Freddy. I'm just glad we escaped with our lives," said Shaggy. "What I wouldn't give for a fried fish sandwich right about now."

"Hmm, rish sandwich," Scooby moaned as he licked his lips. "Yum-yum-yum-yum-yum."

Then Captain Walton said, "We'll get a good meal eventually, Scooby. It's time for us to get moving."

With that, the explorers began the long journey toward the plausible location of Atlantis. They went in army jeeps and trucks while taking care to get some walking done as well. Now having a drilling machine was too expensive for this journey as the budget for the Atlantis expedition was quite small, so instead, portable laser drills would be utilized in case of unexpected road blocks. Fortunately for the group, they had little trouble along the way and made steady progress for the first few days of their journey underground.

Velma helped guide the explorers through the neolithic maze, and along the way, they noticed many archaeological wonders that seemed to be pointing more and more to explanations for the existence of the civilization described. The first thing they saw was a fork in the tunnel between a crumbling statue of a man wearing a crown topped with a fish, and Velma explained that they had to take the right passage as the left contained a death trap of poisoned arrows. They also had to drive the trucks and jeeps through an underground river as stonefish were lurking below and they couldn't risk anyone stepping on them and getting hurt. In the next part of the tunnel, the group passed an inscription which Velma translated as: "Choose only the marked road to find us". At first, no one knew what it meant, but it turned out that the path to Atlantis clearly had depressions in it from years of being walked over, and so the gang kept to this path.

Four days into their journey, the group was sitting together around a campfire warming bread and meat and swapping stories about their homes and lives. Scooby and the gang were so glad to have made new friends on this trip and told the group about so many of the mysteries they had solved in their early teenage years. After a hearty meal and a chat, Captain Walton checked his watch and saw it was time for the group to retire for the night. Little did they know they too were being observed.

...

While Shaggy, Velma, Fred, and Daphne slept in their tents, Scooby stayed up to keep a watch on the campsite in case anything peculiar happened. The gang had spoken to the rest of the crew and Captain Walton had agreed to have Scooby as the team's official guard dog. While Scooby was patrolling the perimeter, he kept looking to the left and the right, hoping that nothing was sneaking up on him.

Suddenly, a shadow moved in the inky blackness of the cave. Scooby looked to the left, but saw nothing. Thinking his mind was playing tricks on him, the Great Dane continued his patrol when something moved again. Poor Scooby was nervous enough, but now he was bordering on being scared. Scooby slowly approached the rocks where the shadow had hidden, and a split second later, got the shock of his life. A frightening figure leapt from behind the rock brandishing a spear with a hook on its tip. It appeared to be a man, but its face was hidden by a helmet and mask with glowing eyes that resembled a fish's face.

Scooby cried, "Rikes! Relp! Re-e-elp!" He ran for his life as the mysterious figure and a few others sprinted down the tunnel and disappeared. Meanwhile, Scooby ran back to the others and grabbed a ladle, and banged on a stew pot to alert the others. The rest of the gang woke suddenly and Fred said, "Hey, what's with the racket, Scoob?"

Scooby tried to mime the figure he saw and said to his friends, "I saw this thing rom- rom rehind the rocks! It ras rawful! It ras- it ras big rike that!..."

Shaggy understood what Scooby was telling them and it spooked him. "A fish-man? You saw it too?"

The rest of the crew came over and then Dr. Addleson said, "Kids, I know we're all excited to be here, but by my clock, we've only spent three hours asleep and it's past midnight."

"At ease, Doctor," said Captain Walton. "Scooby wouldn't have woken us if there wasn't any cause for alarm."

The gang explained what Scooby saw, but they still found it hard to believe. Then Scooby began sniffing around, then pointed. Shaggy and the others came to look and noticed something that really set them on edge.

"There are footprints here," Daphne said. "And they look human."

"That is strange," Mr. Milton said curiously. Then he said to Captain Walton, "Sir, request permission to continue moving forward."

"Like, I request permission to rescind that request," Shaggy shivered. "We've got fish-people lurking around out there!"

Fred said, "Come on, Shaggy. This is an opportunity to discover the greatest historical site since King Tut's tomb. Tell me that doesn't sound appealing."

Shaggy was set to thinking there. He hadn't recalled the last time he felt adventurous and so he said, "Yeah. I never thought of it that way. What do you think, Scoob?"

Scooby shook his head fearfully, which prompted Daphne to say, "Would you lead the way for a couple of Scooby Snax?"

Daphne had done it. She had said the magic words. Scooby suddenly sat on his haunches and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

With that, the red-head beauty tossed a handful of Scooby Snax, prompting Scooby to leap up in the air and catch them in his mouth, and after eating his favorite treats, he felt the fire of courage in him once again. "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!"

Everyone in the group smiled, and then Captain Walton said, "All right, everybody. Let's pack up camp and keep moving. We've got a city to search for and possibly unpleasant surprise visitors tonight. We need to be out of this cave in twenty minutes."

With that, the crew and the gang pulled up their tents and packed their equipment, and in a matter of minutes, they were on the move again. The trek through the winding maze was long so most of the group could sleep while those driving the trucks and jeeps were awake.

After at least six hours, the crew came to the site of a large bridge which was beginning to fall apart. After a while, Captain Walton determined that the bridge was too dangerous to cross. Some of the crew were ready to give it up and go home, but Daphne noticed something and said, "Guys, look!"

Everyone looked, and a glimmer of hope entered their eyes. A path wide enough for an off-road vehicle to travel on was on the left side of the bridge. Even though it led down to another underground river, Velma determined that the crew's laser drills might be able to forge an upward path to help them get across and continue the journey. With that, Martin Williams and a handful of drillers led the group down the path and through the underground river. Then the men began carving a new path wide enough for all the vehicles to travel on and level enough to climb. The group cheered when they were on the other side of the bridge and then the expedition continued.