Chapter 8: The Journey Part 1
After investigating the area, more submersibles and pods have emerged to the underground air pocket and made their way to shore. Soon, the wagons and trucks were unloaded from the submersibles and parked by the cave to continue the expedition.
Once every task was completed, the entire crew decided to hold a small memorial service to honor the other crew members who tragically lost their lives to the Leviathan.
Sweet knelt down by the pool and placed a soldier's helmet with a lit candle onto the water. The remaining crew members stood by to watch the floating lit helmet.
Rourke sighed, and held his hat in his hands. "Seven hours ago, we started this expedition with 200 of the finest men and women I've ever known," Rourke said, beginning his eulogy. "We're all that's left. I won't sugar-coat it gentlemen. We have a crisis on our hands. But we've been up this particular creek before, and we've always come through, paddle or no paddle. I see no reason to change that policy now. From here on in, everyone pulls double duty. Everyone drives, everyone works."
Emily felt a sense of sorrow when Milo translated Rourke's eulogy. It brought back a flashback of when she and Milo were at their grandfather's funeral in 1911. All she could remember was being in a small church in Fishkill, a sea of black clothing worn by people, an overwhelming scent of lilies and forget-me-nots diffusing the area, and her grandfather's lifeless body lying still in his coffin for the display.
"Looks like all our chances for survival rest with you, Mr. and Ms. Thatch," Rourke said, as he and everyone looked at the siblings. "You both and that little book."
Yes sir, Emily signed.
"We're all gonna die," Mrs. Packard sarcastically said, and flicked away her cigarette.
"Okay, people. Saddle up," Rourke ordered.
Without wasting a moment, the remaining crew began to continue the expedition.
"Lieutenant, I want this convoy moving five minutes ago," Rourke said.
"Moliere, you're on point," Helga ordered. "No, Vinny. Audrey's taking the oiler." Vinny glanced at the German woman and shrugged his shoulders, before getting into his trucks. Audrey cranked up her vehicle until the front lights turned on. "You know the rules. I want you 50 yards behind that truck at all times. And, Packard, put out that cigarette."
Rourke watched Mole climb up a ladder to his digger, a gargantuan vehicle with a driller in the front to drill through walls and tunnels.
A honking sound was heard and Rourke turned around to learn of the source of the sound. Milo was standing by a truck and pressing the red squeaker on a car horn, smiling in a childlike way. Emily was at the other side, loading up her belongings.
Frowning in annoyance, Rourke made his way over to the truck. He clasped his hand on the horn and pulled it off, leaving Milo to hold the red rubber ball in his fingers.
"Are you sure you're checked out on this class of vehicle?" Rourke asked.
"Uhh?" Milo asked, confused.
"Can you drive a truck?" the middle-aged man asked, rephrasing his question.
Milo scoffed and chuckled. "Of course, I can drive a truck," the young man bragged, as he got into the vehicle with Emily sitting next to him. "I mean, sure, you got your steering, and your gas, and your brake, and of course, this metal, uh, looking thing."
Rourke stared at the young man in disbelief, realizing that Milo didn't know a vehicle at the back of his hand.
"Okay, so it was a bumper car at Coney Island," Milo admitted, before smiling with insistence. "But it's the same basic principle!"
Rourke sighed in exasperation, realizing that this wasn't going to work out.
As the expedition began to move, Milo was having a difficult time driving the truck as he led the crew. He struggled with starting and stopping the truck forcefully and kept pressing on the break. Emily poked her head out from the truck and looked behind to see the team growing impatient.
"Come on! Move it!" one driver from behind yelled.
"Sorry about… Sorry about that!" Milo apologized.
Mole leaned out from his digger, honked his horn, and glared. The vehicles from behind were halted and getting more annoyed with the Thatch siblings.
"Come on, civilian," another driver yelled.
Milo was sitting in his car and used his finger to move the steering wheel with an expression of pout and disappointment. Milo and Emily's truck was attached by a rope and towed by Mole's digger. Emily crossed her arms and shook her head at her older brother with disdain.
The lights from the vehicles illuminated the darkness of the tunnel, revealing gigantic columns on the side. Within a matter of a moment, the expedition began.
The crew traveled on winding roads through tunnels and caverns along with their vehicles, doing the best they can to stay safe. Then, they came across various gorges, and had to lower their trucks down to safety into nearby ledges.
Then, the expedition came to a fork in the road. There was a giant statue in the shape of a skull with two roads leading to the eyes. They stopped and wondered which way they should go. Milo carefully read through the Journal to create a dialect. When he figured it out, he looked back with a smile, and pointed to the left.
Mole drove his digger, and the others followed him to the left tunnel. Suddenly, a giant bug appeared and roared! The crew immediately ran away!
Milo grew confused and wondered what went wrong. He checked the book and realized that he made a mistake. He turned back to the crew and sheepishly pointed to the right.
Sweet, Audrey, Mrs. Packard, Cookie, Vinny, and Mole angrily glared at the young man. Emily sighed in frustration, before pinching the bridge of her nose.
The expedition journeyed through a dark underground cave and passed by a waterfall. Little did the crew know that they were being watched. Shadowy masked figures ran by and growled, watching their every move.
At a rest stop, Emily was writing down some notes in a notebook, while Milo took a long swig from his water canteen. After breathing a sigh of relief from the refreshing drink, Milo wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
Vinny then came up to the Thatch siblings with a look of concern. "You didn't just drink that did you?" he asked, worried.
"Mm-hm," Milo nodded, smiling.
"That's not good. That's nitroglycerin!" The Italian man said.
Milo gasped in terror when he found out that he drunk a toxic chemical. The young man held his breath and grabbed his throat. The dirty blonde woman yelped in worry.
"Don't move, eh, don't breathe, don't do anything," Vinny said, trying to keep the sibling's calm. "Except pray, maybe."
During Vinny's advice, Milo cautiously and slowly lowered the canteen on the cart, unaware that a familiar moving light was sneaking up from behind him.
Mole suddenly jumped up and shouted, "BOOM!"
The young man jumped back and screamed, and leapt onto his sister. Vinny and Mole walked away, and laughed out loud.
The dirty blonde glared at the men. Jerks! she signed.
The convoy journeyed through the tunnels. Milo and Emily were walking along with the soldiers and trucks. Milo glanced at the journal to read the next dialect.
Soon, the group arrived by a large and steep hill. While the vehicles went around, most of the crew decided to climb up the hill.
Sweet was at the top of the hill and helping Vinny, Mole, and Audrey up. Milo and Emily were the last ones to follow up. The young man reached his hand out to the African American man to help him up, but Sweet ignored him and just walked away with the others.
Emily was growing more annoyed at the way the crew was treating her and her brother.
Later on, the crew took a campout, and were sitting around a bonfire watching Cookie cook a large sausage. Milo and Emily were sitting in their area, surrounded by books. The young man was hard at work looking through the Journal and instructed Emily to write down important notes.
The next day, the convoy continued to travel until they reached a dead end. A titanic stone pillar was blocking their way and stood at the edge of a cliff.
"Good night! Will you look at the size of this?" Milo exclaimed, impressed by the massive size and his voice echoed through the caverns. "It's gotta be half a mile high, at least. It… It must have taken hundred… No, pfft, thousands of years to carve this thing."
After Vinny set up his explosives, he dragged Milo away by his trench coat until they were at a safe distant. The Italian man knelt down by his TNT detonator and pushed down the lever, creating an explosion. Vinny smirked at the sight, and the Thatch siblings stood there in shock. After the explosive sound died down, the pillar falls forward and reaches the other side, creating a bridge.
"Hey, look, I made a bridge," Vinny said. "It only took me like, what, 10 seconds. 11, tops."
They went further across the pillar as the figures from before run through. One of them stopped to observe the expedition group and grew curious.
Emily glanced over to her right and gasped. At a higher cliff, she saw the strange figure looking back at her. Filled with franticness, the dirty blonde tapped her brother's shoulder urgently and attempted to point over at the strange figure, but by the time Milo looked over, the figure was gone.
The crew stopped for a camp-out for a meal and rest. Emily was sitting near Milo and was sketching a drawing in her sketchbook. Milo was busy studying the journal while everyone was wandering around and sitting by their tents unwinding for the evening.
Emily grunted for a moment, clenched her teeth, and sharply inhaled; she was feeling a sharp and painful cramp in her stomach. The young woman set down her drawing pencil and sketchbook and placed her hands on her abdomen to try to soothe the pain.
Early this morning, Emily had started her 'time of the month' which meant wearing protective clothing underneath, constant trips to the privy, painful cramps, taking painkillers, and worse of all, mood swings and irritation.
Milo looked up from his research and saw his little sister in discomfort. He stood up from his sitting area and made his way to the dirty blonde. Milo stood in front of her and she looked up at him.
"You doing okay, Em?" Milo asked, signing with his face expressing concern.
Never better, Emily signed. She flattened her right hand and moved it in an 's' sign. The dirty blonde lifted it up in front of her mouth and moved her hand to the right, forming it into a fist with her thumb up. Just my bad luck that Mother Nature decided to send me a monthly visitor.
"Yeah," Milo signed, giving an awkward facial expression. He knew that talking about his sister's 'time of the month' was a very delicate subject. "Has the painkiller worn off?"
Yes, Emily signed.
"Tell you what," the young man signed. "I'll go visit Sweet and see if he has a medication or a remedy to help you."
Thanks Milo, I'd appreciate that, the dirty blonde signed.
Milo gave his sister a gentle pat on her shoulder and left their area to look for Sweet. Emily picked up her drawing pencil and went back to her drawing to distract herself.
Whenever the woman was facing problems due to discrimination, prejudice, bullying, and stress, focusing on a hobby like fitness or arts-and-crafts gives her comfort. The hobbies she enjoyed were knitting, painting, drawing, reading a good novel, tennis, and horseback riding. The more she focuses on the hobby or sport, the stress and tension she feels, start to dwindle, and give her a sense of peace.
Mole and Vinny were walking past Milo and Emily's area and saw the dirty blonde alone. The two watched Emily's hand moving gracefully across her sketchbook with the pencil scratching across the paper.
Thinking about the last prank they played on Milo, Vinny and Mole whispered to each other. They grinned and came up with another idea for a prank on Emily.
The two men went to a tanker full of fresh water for cooking, drinking, bathing, and laundry. Vinny pulled out an empty canteen and held it under the spigot. Mole turned on the switch and water poured out; it entered the opening of the canteen. After about two minutes, Mole turned off the switch and it stopped the water. The canteen was very full.
Mole and Vinny went back to the Thatch sibling's area and stopped to see that Emily was still occupied in her artbook. They grinned with mischief and snuck up.
Once they were right behind her, Mole pulled the back of her blouse and Vinny tipped down the canteen of cold water and it poured down her spine.
Emily flinched when she felt something cold and wet pouring down the back of her dress. She gasped, jumped, and fell out of her seat landing on the ground. She looked back and saw Vinny holding a canteen and was laughing with Mole.
Bad memories overcame her mind and made her eyes glow into a shade of red. Emily grew into a deep rage, and gritted her teeth. She stood up on both feet and stormed up to a laughing Vinny and tapped his shoulder.
Vinny began to face the young woman and the next thing he felt was hard contact on his left cheek. It turned out that Emily had slapped him. The man's face was swung to the right side and his jaw was nearly dislocated. Once the pain disappeared, he looked back with his hand touching where she hit him and stared at her with wide eyes.
Then, Emily turned towards a hysterical Mole, got into a defensive stance, and with all of her might, she kicked the French man right between the legs.
Meanwhile, Milo was at the other area of the camp and was talking to Dr. Sweet. He told the African-American man about Emily's 'time of the month' and asked for his help. Sweet agreed and decided to mix-up a decoction to help Emily.
The medical officer went into his tent and pulled out a wooden box full of plants and herbs and placed it next to a stove.
He pulled out a metal tea kettle, a canteen of water, a metal tea strainer, and a metal drinking cup. Sweet's hands reached for a smooth sumac and a California sagebrush. He broke up the plants into tiny pieces and poured them into a mortar.
Sweet grabbed a pestle and with firm pressure, he crushed up the plants until they were formed into a powder with a few remnants. The African American man poured the mixture of the sumac and sagebrush into the tea strainer and closed it shut. Sweet placed the metal tea strainer over the cup and waited patiently for the water to boil.
The kettle began to whistle sending out a loud noise, indicating that the water was ready and hot. Sweet removed the kettle and poured the hot and steaming water into the cup. The steam evaporated from the water as it went through the strainer and the water turned it darker. Nodding in satisfaction, the African American took the cup and pulled out a few pieces of a ginger plant.
"There Milo," Sweet gave the cup of the herbal decoction to the young man. "This drink should help your sister. Here are a few pieces of fresh ginger she can chew on. It should help her be relieved from the cramps."
"Thanks, Sweet," Milo said, taking the cup and ginger pieces. "Let's hope this drink can also settle her mood swings. Emily can get a bit short tempered and crabby when she's on her T.O.M."
"EEEEEEEEEEOOOWWWW!" a shout echoed through the caverns and startled both Milo and Sweet.
"What was that?" Sweet asked.
The two men hurried back to where the sound came from and arrived back to Milo's area. Milo and Sweet halted when they saw Mole lying on the ground on his side and was covering his groin with his hands.
Emily was standing up and had an extremely sharp glare on her face and signed fiercely. Everyone, including Audrey, Cookie, and Mrs. Packard, who heard Mole's screaming came running to the area. They all gasped in alarm at the sight.
"Geez, she looks mad as a hornet!" Cookie exclaimed.
"I wonder what she's saying," Audrey asked.
What is wrong with you, numbskulls? Emily signed.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Milo asked.
"That sister of yours slapped me!" Vinny said.
"And she kicked me below the belt!" Mole added still holding his groin and winced. "She got them good. All because Vinny poured cold water down the dumb blonde's back!"
Emily's eyes widened reading his lips on calling her dumb blonde and signed to Mole, Dumb blonde? I'll show you a dumb blonde!
"What did she say?" Mole asked.
"She says, 'dumb blonde? I'll show you a dumb blonde!'" Milo said, translating for her.
Milo looked back at his sister and gave her a look.
"Emily Beatrice Thatch, have you lost your mind? Why did you do that? Did you really had to kick Mole below the belt?" the young man said in a stern voice.
Emily's mood went from anger to tears of emotion. Though she couldn't sob vocally, all that came out were tears and she began to stomp her boots hard on the earth. Rourke and Helga arrived after hearing the commotion.
"What's going on with your sister, Mr. Thatch?" Rourke asked.
"Emily's having mood swings. It's her lady issues," Milo explained.
"Mole and I pranked the deaf woman by pouring water down her back," Vinny admitted, clutching his sore cheek. "She turned fierce as a bull, slapped me, and kicked Mole in the crotch."
"Mole and Vinny, I believed that we had a discussion on not having child-like behavior during this expedition," Helga said, frowning.
"Ooooooooo!" Mole groaned. "I can't really move myself!"
"I can't believe you two pranked Emily," Milo said, glaring at them. "She doesn't like it when others prank her."
The dirty blonde snapped out of her mood swing of tears when another wave of sharp pain shot through her midsection. She fell forward and landed on her knees and clutched her stomach tight.
Vinny watched as Emily hugged her body, and her eyes squinted shut. His expression of shock and annoyance turned to concern.
"Hey Milo," Vinny asked. "She all right? What's with the dramatics?"
"And why does she attack me like a beast?!" Mole shouted, still doubled over in pain from Emily's karate kick to the groin.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you guys," Milo told the two. "It's a private thing between me and Em."
"Then tell us!" Mole exclaimed. "I need to know!"
"I can't say," Milo said once more, firmly. "But if I were you, I'd consider not trying to mess with Emily when she's in one of her 'moods'."
"Oh boy," Sweet said, sighing. "Looks like I have another patient to help today. Milo, make sure that your sister drinks the tea and chews on the ginger. I'll help Mole."
Milo picked up his sister by her arms and helped her to her feet, he guided her over to the other side of the camp. He guided Emily to sit down on a chair and sat down next to her.
"Here Emily," Milo said, holding up the cup. "Sweet made this drink to help you out. And don't worry, he didn't put anything in there to make you angry."
Emily nodded as she took the cup and held it within her palms. She brought it to her lips, slowly taking a sip from the steaming warm tea. The young woman felt the warm liquid cover her taste buds. It tasted of floral citrus and had a hint of bitterness.
After swallowing her tea, she picked up a piece of raw ginger and popped it into her mouth. Her teeth gnashed on the piece, and it filled her mouth with warmth and spiciness. Within about ten minutes, the cramps began to decrease and Emily was no longer in pain. The dirty blonde heaved a sigh of relief, glad that the pain was over with.
"How do you feel now, Em?" Milo signed.
Better. Emily signed back to her big brother. Then, her expression of pain turned to sadness. You're mad at me, aren't you?
Milo frowned at first. "No, I'm not mad. I'm disappointed," he said firmly, while signing with his hands. "What you did to Mole and Vinny was very foolish, but take it as a learning lesson. You know violence towards people won't solve your problems."
Emily listened to her brother, and her eyes began to fill up with tears. They flowed down her cheeks. She had never felt so hurt and ashamed.
I'm sorry Milo, I don't know what came over me. I just had some awful flashbacks from childhood that revolved around certain people. Seeing those flashbacks caused me to snap when kids outside of school bullied me. Especially that one teacher who abused and humiliated me, Emily signed, before covering her eyes and sobbed.
"Emily, Emily," Milo said, concerned. He placed his hands on his sister's shoulders as she was shaking and breathing uncontrollably. "It's okay, you're okay."
The young man pulled the young woman into a hug and wrapped his arms around her shoulders to comfort her. Milo understood the trigger that caused her to lose her temper at Mole and Vinny.
Back when Emily was around ten years old, she was enjoying her time at the New York School for the Deaf and fitted in with her deaf friends and classmates. At the start of fourth grade, a new teacher arrived and was put into Emily's class.
At first, Emily and her friends were so excited to have a new teacher to teach them new lessons and signs. But unfortunately, they were very unlucky.
Their new teacher, Mrs. Eden Caine, was the opposite of what their teachers should be. She was a towering, middle-aged, and very wicked and cruel woman. On the very first day of class, Mrs. Caine began to turn all the students' days at the school into a nightmare. Rather using sign language, she forced Emily and the other children to use oralism instead of their hands to communicate with her. If Emily or her classmates made a simple mistake or did something wrong in the teacher's eyes, Mrs. Caine would lose her temper and punish them by beating their wrists with a ruler, slap them in the faces hard with her book, beat them with a belt, and call them worthless little nothings.
Emily was picked on the most since she couldn't speak out a word, and Mrs. Caine would even taunt her. The teacher threatened the girl that if she were to tell anyone about the abuse, she would get expelled. For a while, Emily kept her mouth shut, feeling miserable and depressed the entire time.
After about three months, Emily came home to her brother and grandfather, holding her head low and clutching her books in her arms. Thaddeus grew concerned and worried upon seeing his granddaughter despondent. Realizing that there was no point in hiding, she looked up to reveal a black eye on the left side of her face and bruises covering her arms.
Thaddeus and Milo grew horrified and asked her what happened. Working up her courage, Emily told them everything about Mrs. Caine and what she endured. She also revealed that the reason she was forbidden to tell anyone, out of fear of getting expelled. Thaddeus grew enraged of learning what his granddaughter went through, and hugged her protectively in his arms, promising to help her.
The next day, Thaddeus arrived at the school with the headmaster to drop off a missing book Emily had accidentally left behind, but he came up with a plan to expose Mrs. Caine's cruelty to the headmaster. When they heard shouting and crying from Mrs. Caine's classroom. The two men hurried over and peered through the door in horror.
The teacher was holding a paddle in her hands and beating Emily on her backside with it. The other students were cornered and holding onto each other in terror. Thaddeus and the headmaster couldn't believe what they heard and witnessed. All that the headmaster was told by Mrs. Caine that her students were doing poorly at their studies.
Now that they both had seen her true colors, the men slammed the door opened and burst in, startling the teacher who froze in shock. Emily got up from the floor and hurried over to her grandfather, crying in his arms. The headmaster furiously reprimanded Mrs. Caine for abusing his students and ultimately fired her on the spot. He reported her to the police and they arrested her, and along with taking away her teaching license.
After Mrs. Caine was kicked out of the school, Emily and her friends breathed sighs of relief that their abusive teacher was gone for good. Unfortunately, Emily had mental and emotional scars from her abuse and had to go through treatment to help her recover. Aside from making progress and moving on, Emily couldn't help but get flashbacks of the abuse once in a while that would make her breakdown. Milo and Thaddeus worked their hardest to help Emily and assure her that it wasn't her fault.
Back in the present, Milo managed to calm Emily down and reassured her that he was there for her. Afterwards, Emily went back to Vinny and Mole. When she arrived back at her area, she found Mole still on the ground, covered by a blanket with Sweet treating him. Vinny stood next to them in concern of his friend and had an ice pack on his cheek. Mrs. Packard, Audrey, and Cookie stood by and watched their companions getting treated. Vinny looked up to see a stoic Emily walking towards them.
"Hey Mole, the deaf girl is back," he warned.
Mole glanced at his left to see Emily stop in front of them. He grew apprehensive, thinking she would attack him again. But the dirty-blonde just stood there and stared at them. She took a deep inhale through her nostrils and exhaled out of her mouth. She began to sign to them warningly.
Don't mess with the deaf woman.
"What?" Vinny asked, narrowing his eyebrow.
Emily sighed in frustration, and reached her right hand in her dress pocket. She pulled out a small notebook and opened it. She took out a pencil, brought it to the paper and scribbled a message. Then she flipped to a clean slate of paper and wrote down another message.
Once she finished writing, she turned to the first page, grasped the notebook firmly in her hand and turned it to the front. Vinny walked over and stood over the short woman. He leaned his head down and read the message out loud:
"Don't mess with the deaf woman."
Emily turned the next page to reveal the next message, and he read it:
"Prank me one more time, and you'll never be able to have children in your future."
After reading his lips, Emily closed her notebook and placed it back in her pocket. She turned away to get herself ready for bed. But she stopped in her tracks, and looked back at Mole and Vinny with a death glare. She placed two of her fingers in front of her brown eyes and pointed back at them. She gave a nod and turned back to go back to her rest area.