Chapter 14: Mineshaft
Tommy lowered his camera.
"How did that just happen?" Tommy asked in shock.
Kronk walked over to tree stump.
"He went missing right in front of us!" Kronk replied.
"I didn't go missing!" a voice cried.
"Chuckie?" Nigel asked.
"Still not missing!" the voice replied.
The group climbed up to the edge of the open stump to see Chuckie below them, hanging onto a root to keep from falling into the dark hole below him.
"If I let go, will I fall into a black hole, or a wormhole, or a pile of snakes?" Chuckie asked nervously.
"No, no, and I'm not sure about the last one." Peter replied.
The root suddenly broke, and the group watched helplessly as the orange haired preteen fell into the darkness. They heard the sound of crumbling and something hitting the ground.
"It's an underground tunnel" Chuckie shouted.
Dil looked back at the others.
"I'm going in." Dil said.
He jumped into the tunnel, Bean following right behind him. Peter turned to the rest of the group.
"You guys do realize that if we go in, we may never come back out, right?" Peter asked.
The group nodded.
"We are all aware of that, Peter. I'm ready to go to the ends of the earth with you, should that have to be." Scroop said.
Danny nodded.
"So would I." Danny added.
"And me." Sulley added.
The rest of the group said similar things. Peter smiled.
"Then let's move on." Peter said.
He jumped down into the tunnel, the others following. Once inside, the group started making their way down the tunnel, with Peter, Chuckie, Dil, Nigel, and Bean in the front.
"I can't believe I'm here! An actual alien lab transport system." Dil said excitedly.
"No, Dil, it's a mineshaft. These had probably been used to move gold during the gold rush. There may be dozens, even hundreds of tunnels under the woods." Peter said.
As Peter talked, Denahi held the point of his spear out and used it to mark a wolf figure on the wall.
"Which makes me think that everyone who went missing probably fell into one of them." Peter said.
"Oh, yeah, right. And the brain-sucking pioneers had nothing to do with it." Dil said.
The group suddenly stopped as Bean stopping walking and stood still, with his back towards everyone else. He then turned around and glared at them, his eyes glowing red.
"Uh, is fire engine red a natural eye color?" Kuzco asked in confusion and slight fear.
Without a word, Bean turned back and headed down the tunnel again. The rest of the group glanced briefly at each other before moving forward.
"Funny. I thought his eyes were blue." Lil said nervously.
"No offense, Dil, but there's something strange about that guy, and not just because I'm suspicious about him." Danny said.
"I know. Isn't it great?" Dil asked.
Danny sighed and shook his head.
"No, Dil, it's not. Glowing red eyes aren't natural. I don't know if any of you guys agree with me, but I'm now positive that Bean's a ghost that may be trying to kill us all." Danny replied, his hands seemingly starting to glow green.
Peter nodded and tightened his grip on his darkened blade.
"You know, I'm actually starting to question whether Bean is who he says he is." Peter said.
After walking a bit longer, the group noticed a drop in temperature. Lil hugged her chest.
"It's getting really cold." Lil said.
"You all know what that means. Starts with a GH and ends with an OST." Dil said.
"How long before we can turn around?" Randall asked in slight aggravation.
"I just hope we'll be able to find our way out when we do." Tommy replied.
Denahi stopped to marked another wolf figure on the wall.
"Oh, we will. I marked the wall. It's a trick that me and my village use whenever we go hunting, to make sure we can find our way back in case we get lost. And since I have the Wolf of Wisdom as my totem, I drew a wolf." Denahi said.
Suddenly, they heard sounds further down the tunnel.
"I just heard people talking." Chuckie whispered.
"Or zombies." Dil said.
"Well, no matter what it is, we've got to check it out." Peter said.
The others agreed and headed towards the voices.