Disclaimer: read ch. 1 for it.

NybCR: thanks for the review and the advice.

Aranel3: about Hannah calling Alana "girl"- originally Hannah was gonna be an African American modeled after a friend of mine and she says 'girl' a lot. But then I changed it, but when I did I just over read that part. When I revise this story later on, I'll be sure to fix it. I was referring to the islands. As I have said I'm not from there so forgive me for mistakes like that.

Chapter 2: In the gloom of darkness

"How long have we been walking?" Hannah asked as she dragged her pack behind her.

" I don't know, maybe a few hours?" Alana answered.

" It seems that this tunnel will never end."

Hannah huffed. " We are almost there." Ben said. He was leading the group followed by Alana and Hannah.

" How do you know?" Alana asked.

" I don't, it just feels that way." was the reply. The two girls sighed.

" Can we stop Ben? You know, to catch our breathe and take a drink of water?" Hannah asked a few minutes later.
When Ben seemed to hesitate, Alana added. " Where ever we are going isn't going anywhere. Why not rest for a half hour or so? It won't do any harm." Ben relented and they all sat down to drink a little water and eat a little of the emergency food. " I wonder if their looking for us." Alana said absently.

" I would think so." said Ben.

" Maybe they think we've died." Hannah said.

Alana looked at her like she grew another head. " Don't say that!" she wailed.

"Positive thoughts. We need to keep positive thoughts." Ben said, looking pointedly at Hannah. She shrugged and said.

" Shouldn't we save the battery energy and turn off the flashlight until we get up again."

"We can't do that, something hairy or slimy might come." Alana said. She wasn't all to keen on being here in absolute darkness in a tunnel with god knows what.

" Han is right Alana, it would be smart. Don't worry nothing will come." Ben said turning off his flashlight. " Why don't we each take a little nap, so we wont be as tired. One person asleep with two people awake." Hannah volunteered to sleep first and she was soon snoring softly, oblivious to everything around her. After she woke up Alana slept, though it took her a while longer to actually fall asleep, and then Ben. Once they were all ready to go, they shouldered their packs again, turned on the flashlights, and set down the never-ending tunnel.
Three hours went by in silence when Ben called back over his shoulder. " We've come to the end of the tunnel, but it isn't a way out."

" What?" shrieked Hannah. "That's impossible!"

" Bloody hell." Alana said under her breath. " Han, you have to see this!" Hannah walked up besides the two and gasped in surprised. From what they could see it was an underwater air pocket. But in the little air pocket bubble were glorious white buildings. Some where destroyed by fire and most had a fine sheet of what looked like salt. Probably from the sea. As they walked towards the center they were able to tell that it resembled a 5-pointed star. And in the very center was a very high mountain. Nearby their seemed to be buildings of grand size, the group went in to find out that is was a burial chamber of some sort, with some type of writing on the white marble coffins.

"I think I know what this is." Ben said, studying the writing.

" What?" Alana and Hannah said simultaneously.

" I think this is Numenor!" he said excitingly as he looked up.
" You must be crazy, Ben, Numenor or Middle-Earth don't exist. Tolkien made it up."said Hannah.

" I think he may be right, Han, just listen to him." Alana said as she walked to another marble coffin.

" You remember reading how Numenor got swallowed up by the sea? Well I think this is it. I mean it has lots of similarities. For example: shaped as a 5-pointed star. The mountain, which I think is called Meneltarma, right in the center, and the language. You know how I studied the languages in Middle-earth? Elvish, and such. Well... I know this! This is the coffin of 'Tar-Anarion. Son of Tar-Ancalime, eigth King of Numenor.' This is absolutely amazing. I can't believe this!" He said. He sounded like a little boy on the morning of Christmas.

"Are you sure it says that?" Alana said. When he nodded, she looked at Hannah and grinned. " Do you know what this means? If Numenor existed, so did Middle-Earth, which means so did elves and hobbits and dwarves and... The War of the Ring actually happened!"

" This is amazing!" Hannah added, eyes big. " Come Ben, Alana! We've got to explore!" and they did. For what seemed like days they explored every building. They found baskets and jewels and graves. Wilted flowers and food uneaten. Fences half fenced and baskets half made could be found. It was amazing, an archaeologists dream find. But what made it more exciting was the fact that this place was from a famous author, and it was real! It was really real! They walked every inch of the huge island. From the docks to see the brilliant boats that were destroyed when it was swallowed up to the palace to Meneltarma to the fields.

" Just think what this place would of looked like in the daytime. Everything bustling about flowers and birds and all sorts..." an awed Alana said.

"It's sad to think about..." Ben agreed.

" Do you think we should tell everyone when we get back about this?" Hannah asked. They all noticed that she said 'when' and not 'if'.
They all thought about that. Did they really want to do that? If they told, people would come down here and mess everything about, and all of the U.K. would be an archaeological site. Thousands of people digging everywhere, in dumps in parks and in backyards. Did they really want that?
"No... let's just... let's just keep it to ourselves, mates." Ben said slowly. And they agreed. Some things, no matter how exciting should remain lost. Numenor was lost to the world a long time ago and it should remain that way. They sat down to eat and rest before making the long way back. About 5 hours into the tunnel they heard other voices and beams of light.
They ran up and were relieved to find that it was a search party, looking for them. "Yeah, Yeah. We're OK. Dead end, down that tunnel. We went to check it out, thinking it was a way out, but just came to a dead end. We slept there and then made our way back here." Ben said to the search parties questions. And the people believed him. They helped the three students out of the cave and into the blazing sun and clean fresh air. They all did not look back.

And if anyone did rediscover Numenor again, Hannah, Alana, and Ben did not know for they heard nothing from it. They all wondered if Tolkien himself saw Numenor and everything, making it into a book so people would know, but think it was fiction.

The End

A/N

OK... sorry about all the mistakes I have made people, I'll be fixing it later on. This story was originally made to be only chapter long, but I got lazy so I just cut it into two sections. Hope you like it and leave me a review to tell me what you think!

-Sofia