Disclaimer: Power Rangers is not mine. The original characters are. I'm not making money from this.
3.
A cool breeze awoke Hudson. He moaned softly. He was absolutely positive he was the most dehydrated anyone could ever have been and still be alive.
Alive…
He was alive. Hudson forced his eyes open expecting to see the desert's night sky. Instead, he saw a dimly lit stone ceiling, seven...maybe eight feet overhead. He bounded to his feet and then remembered the ordeal he had just been through. Immediately, he checked himself for injuries.
Nothing.
No signs of any burns or wounds, nothing charred or smoking, not even the smell of ash or fire: He felt fine
What the…am I dead?
Looking around, Hudson realized he was in a hallway or passageway of sorts. The source of the faint glow was somewhere down the corridor ahead of him. The air flow also seemed to be coming from that direction. Behind him was pitch-black.
Not that way.
Gingerly, he padded down the passage toward the ambience. Hudson chuckled when he was suddenly reminded of Indiana Jones. He hoped a sacrificial lava pit was not waiting for him. If there was, he really hoped he was not deceased.
Rounding a bend in the passage, Hudson emerged into a wider area. Torches atop ancient-looking columns lined the way. The earthen path gave way to giant paving stones, intricately cut and presumably hundreds of pounds in weight. Several were upturned at one of the archways. The architecture was ornate and obviously very old. Waves of cool air carried away the heat emanating from beyond the columns.
Hudson stopped and moved off the path. Peeking through the columns, he found a river of molten magma inching ever so slowly forward. Immediately, he lurched away from the heat and back into the cool breeze. Following his heavy, television-instructed survival training, Hudson continued toward the air flow.
Time lost meaning to Hudson as he trekked on. Both the heat and the cool breeze increased exponentially as did the size of the elaborate passage. Many openings and forks in the path appeared along the way, but Hudson, erring on the side of wisdom for once in his young life, chose to ignore his curiosity and go with flow.
He began to notice symbols etched into the pillars and arches. While he was no archeologist, Hudson was fairly educated and had studied quite a bit of ancient mythology from a number of diverse cultures. None of what he saw was remotely familiar.
"Native American's simple enough to spot, but this…" he mulled aloud. Hudson presumed that anything of this nature in North America would have to be Native American, but this was clearly not.
A wide flight of a few stairs took Hudson into a much narrower passage. Miniscule glowing lights and piping covered the arched corridor. The twin currents of molten rock had vanished into a stone aqueduct system adjacent to the staircase. The cool air gusted from a large door, ten – fifteen feet in height, which stood ominously ajar at the end of path. It was iron-clad and Hudson was sure if it had not been open, it would not be opened.
Hudson brazenly made his way through the passage and squeezed through the doorway. What he found beyond the door was not expected. A vast cavern opened up before Hudson's eyes. It was possibly the largest indoor structure he had ever seen. Larger than any stadium or sports arena, the space seemed to stretch on forever.
Gigantic structures, thoroughfares, and grandiose edifices filled the chamber. The entire surface of the subterranean cave was covered with the large, elaborate stone work from the corridor. Not one bit of earth or natural rock formation could be seen anywhere. It was literally the size of a city's downtown area.
Hudson emerged into what he considered to be the heart of the entire area. The subterranean city stretched out about the same distance to both his right and left. To him, it looked liked his path seemed to have brought him to the central avenue. The ground was paved with a seamless glistening stone; octagonal pillars hundreds of feet tall and at least fifty feet at the base lined the way. There was not one turn or bend. This straight and narrow went on for several miles. A massive temple-like structure lay dead ahead.