CHAPTER 17: Underground
"Let's eat something," said Albert. An idea that's welcomed by everyone. He pointed to a nearby rock. "We use that as our table."
Stear lit up a paper on special wood he invented to make fire quicker. Everyone felt better as soon as the fire was on. Happily they munched biscuits, sandwiches, and a can of sardines. For drink the cooked some tea. Their spirit roared again after their stomachs were full.
"I wonder what's there." Albert flashed his torch around him. "Look, this is not a cave. It's an underground tunnel!"
"Do you think we can arrive at the underground storage from here?" Neal muttered.
"Good idea. Let's check," Albert stepped ahead.
Three of them moved deeper and deeper to the tunnel when they heard a loud grumble. The earth was shaking and before Neal knew what happened, he heard Albert shout.
"Cave flooding! Run!"
Neal turned and saw water came in. The dry area they were having lunch was now filled with water.
"I go get our water," said Stear. He dashed to pick their backpacks.
"Come back! Ignore it!" cried Albert.
Neal followed Albert's advice. While running he saw their food bag was swallowed by water from the corner of his eyes. It was amazing how fast the water caught up. In the next second, he heard some loud roar and felt being pushed forward then lifted up. His feet started to lose touch with the ground. In panic, he saw a ledge on his right. With one mighty kick, he jumped and landed on it, stomach first. He met Albert who had jumped earlier.
"Where's Ste-" Neal stopped, seeing a hand shot out from inside the water, approaching him. His cousin was lurching in and out in the enormous wave.
"Your hand!" Neal screamed. He reached out his own hand blindly in the dark water. By a miracle he felt Stear's hands. Gritting his teeth Neal pulled and pulled but the water pulled Stear stronger.
"Find something for your foot!" Albert jumped in, pulling Stear's other hand.
Neal felt Stear's hand slipping away. The water was clearly much mightier than them.
"Step on something for Christ's sake," screamed Albert.
Just when Neal thought it was hopeless suddenly Stear felt light. Apprently, he found something to rest his foot on. Together, the two men pulled him up. Stear flew safely and landed on the ledge.
"Bloody hell!" Stear breathed. "That's close!"
In horrid, they saw the huge rock they were using as a table floating pass them by, engulfed by the water.
"We lost all our food," said Neal.
"And the map!" Stear lamented. "The water snapped it from my hand."
"That's ok. I have the original. Neal patted his soaked jacket. Let's explore and see if we can go out from here."
Having no other choice, they kept on walking along the ledge.
"I guess this cave wasn't here in the past. The water made this with natural erosion over time," murmured Albert, looking at the map.
They kept on walking until the ledge ended. It's a dead end. The three men stared at the wall disappointedly.
"Let's look at the map again and estimate of our location," said Stear.
They got nothing. It seemed they had to go back. They were very confused.
"Strange. I thought... Let me get my compass. Spread the map on the ground," said Albert.
"Okay." Neal spread the map and threw himself to the ground. "Let's-" His voice stopped abruptly followed by a sharp yelp.
Albert and Stear turned. To their horror, Neal disappeared. He's simply gone only his torch remained on the ground. Albert shone his torch to where Neal was. There was a big hole on the ground.
"Neal? Neal!" shouted Stear, panicked stricken. "Answer us! Neal!"
"Shh!" said Albert. "Listen"
"Stear...bert... here!" A distant voice came to their ears.
"He's down there!" said Albert, looking at the hole. "Neal you okay?"
Albert and Stear rushed to the hole.
"I guess... dark... can't see..." They heard.
"I guess Neal found the old well," murmured Stear, shining the hole with their torch. It had an iron ladder fastened on one side.
"Stay there, I rescue you!" cried Albert. He looked at Stear. "I go down."
Albert entered the hole and tested the iron ladder. It looked strong. He gave a thumb up to Stear and started to climb down. Occasionally he yelled, giving Stear updates of his situation.
"Blast! The ladder stopped here. I'll continue with the rope. Neal, hang on!" Putting the torch between his teeth, Albert untied his rope from his belt and tied it to the last rung of the iron ladder. After testing it, he slid down the rope. He found Neal on the bottom of the well looking up at him.
"Hello," Albert said cheerfully. Neal grinned. "Can I join you?"
Albert jumped down and gave Neal a high five.
"Let's go back! You first!" said Albert.
Neal was about to climb up when he saw something from the light in Albert's torch.
"Wait... Did you see that? On your left...," said Neal.
There was a solid wooden door with rusty iron frame. Albert and Neal looked at one another, barely could contain their excitements.
"The underground storage!" they whispered almost at the same time.
"Hey, how's everything down there?" asked Stear impatiently.
"We think we find the underground storage!" Albert and Neal shouted back at him.
"What?" Stear could only catch broken syllabus. "I go down. Now!"
Without waiting for their permission, Stear climbed down the iron ladder and slid down the rope. He's holding on to the rope with hands, knees and feet, glad that he did that often in one of the military training in France. He never used it at war, who knew he needed the skill now.
Stear saw the flashlight Albert shone at him. Then he heard a TICK sound and felt he's falling to the ground. Apparently the iron's rung where Albert tied the string to broke.
"Blimey! We can't go back!" Stear horridly, holding the metal rod. Equally in anguish, Albert stared blankly up.
"We take care of that later. Let's see what's inside." Neal pulled Stear up and gestured at the wooden door. "Look what we found."
Neal pushed the door handle down, it didn't move. He pushed the door, kicked, shook, banged it, but the door stood still.
BANG!
Neal hit his shovel at the door. The door stood stoically like nothing happened. He hit it again and again... Yet the door stood obstinately strong.
Stear put his hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Let's use a more subtle way." He grinned.
Stear took a wire from his pocket and inserted it into the door keyhole. In a moment which seemed like forever, finally they heard a click. Stear pushed the handle down and the door moved. Neal's heart leaped like it had never before.
"It's unlocked now." Stear grinned. Albert and Neal watched him in awe. "You should enter first, Neal."
"Welcome home, Neal," Albert said giving him a ceremonious bow.
Neal grinned in delight. He pushed the door handle down and pushed the door. It opened with a creaking noise. Holding their breath, they went inside, flashing their torches in anticipation for shiny yellow objects.
It was a room with a hard rock wall. At the back, they found bricks piled neatly. Excitedly Neal rushed approaching the pile of bricks and picked one.
"No!" Neal cried.
Albert and Stear who stood at the door quickly came to his sides.
"It's not gold! It's just ... bricks... stone bricks!"
Stear and Albert picked up one too and examined it themselves. No shiny yellow metal. The blocks were just stone brick with dull gray color. Randomly they picked some more brick underneath it, behind it, and son on - but they all were the same. Gray dull color stone brick. They were not gold.
"So it's only a legend after all!" Neal muttered disappointedly. Poor mom, dad, and Eliza, what to do now?
"I'm sorry Neal." Stear patted his cousin's back.
Albert quietly shook his head.
"Useless bricks!" screamed Neal angrily.
"They must be used to build the ruin we saw outside," Stear muttered.
"What's the use of stone bricks!" Neal picked one brick and smashed it to the ground. Venting his anger, he smashed it with his shovel until it cracked.
"Let's go," said Neal. He didn't want to be there for a second more.
Albert sighed and followed behind him.
Shaking his head, Stear gazed at the broken rock. He turned around to leave too when he saw a peculiar gleam reflection from his flashlight.
"Wait… !" yelled Stear. Suddenly he realized something. He picked up the partly broken brick and flashed his flashlight on to it. "By stroke of genius! Look!"
Neal and Albert saw the shiny yellow reflection light too and dashed to Stear's side. Some bright yellow light gleamed underneath the dull dark color of the brick.
"There is gold hidden inside the brick!" cried Stear excitedly.
Neal stared dumbfoundedly at the dull yellow shining object. Too excited to talk, all kinds of relieved thoughts raced in his mind.
"Gold!" Albert whispered.
Neal couldn't speak. He picked another brick, smashed it with his shovel, and shone his flashlight with it. Again, inside had the yellow-colored object.
"Gold!" Neal exclaimed. His heart beat fast. He felt so safe now. There's a hope to rescue his parents and Eliza.
"Your great-great-grandfather hid them and disguised them as bricks to build the construction outside. What a smart careful man!" praised Albert.
"Oh, you're so rich, Neal!" cried Stear.
After the celebration over and they calmed down, sadly they remembered that they're trapped in the well.
Neal found a half chocolate in his pocket and shared it with Albert and Stear. He got much smaller share compared to if he ate all by himself, but surprisingly it never tasted better.
They sat down feeling hungry. Thirst started to creep up, too
I have so much gold but I will die here, thought Neal miserably. Poor mom, dad, Eliza. He thought of Candy too. Then he looked at Albert and Stear. They're nice... Joining the adventure to help him. Too bad it's too late to realize it. He spent the whole life hating them, especially Albert. Of course it's better late than never, still -
"Don't worry," Albert spoke again trying to lift their spirit. "George will look for us if we don't come back tomorrow."
Neal felt a bit better.
"Just relax, I did this all the time in the trench without food for days even! One has amazing tolerance to hunger and idleness. Trust me," said Stear cheerfully. "Just sit still to save energy and think of nothing or chat with friends. If only we had cigarettes, it would be perfect."
"I thought you're flying planes not a foot solider in the trench," said Neal.
"Only until my plane was shot down… I broke a few bones. They expected to release me in two months but then the influenza came. I still can't believe I survived it - the flu I mean not the war."
"Why didn't you contact us?" asked Neal.
Stear shook his head. "The infra structure was in total mess by then. No more nurses, no more doctors... Everyone was killed by the damn virus or bombs!" said Stear. "Since I have a college degree and recovered, which means I am immune, they trained me to be a medical staff. I acted as a stretcher bearers too to collect the wounded in the trenches."
"That's really awful," said Neal, shaking his head.
Albert nodded.
"Lucky me Stear went back to Chicago right on time." He smiled. "I was about to catch my family when I got a headache. Soon later, I had fever so I high I couldn't remember a thing. George said Stear took care of me." Albert looked at Stear and smiled gratefully at him.
"Scary flu. I wonder how mom, dad, and Eliza doing," said Neal, feeling really scared now.
"What's going on with them, Neal?" asked Stear.
-to be continued-
Thanks for reading.
Elsa: They found the gold. HK! Thanks.