Chapter 9: The Journey Part 2
A few days later, Mole's sore groin had healed and the crew began to move again. They entered an area filled with pure white snow. Everyone was dressed in their heavy winter gear to keep themselves properly warm from the freezing cold air.
Milo was dressed in a thick winter trench coat, a thick hat, mittens, and boots. He was reading a dialect in the journal, while his teeth chattered frantically from the cold.
Rourke and Helga looked at him impatiently. Once the young man finished, he pointed over to the way out.
Emily, in her heavy winter gear, did the best she could to warm up her brother.
Later on, the crew arrived at a dead end. There was an enormous and thick stone wall, blocking their way. Milo, Emily, Rourke, Helga, Vinny, Audrey, Cookie, and a crew member stood there with their shadows dancing in front of them.
"Looks like we have a little roadblock," Rourke said, and glanced at Vinny. "Vinny, what do you think?"
"I could unroad block that if I had about two hundred of these," Vinny answered as he pulled out a dynamite. "Problem is, I only got about ten. Plus, you know, five of my own." The Italian man pulled out more explosives and smaller bombs in his other hand.
Rourke rolled his eyes in disdain, "and a couple of cherry bombs, a road flare."
Vinny turned to the Thatch siblings, and smirked at them. "Hey, too bad we don't have some nitroglycerin, eh, Milo and Emily?" He teasingly asked.
Milo frowned at the Italian man, and Mole began to laugh hysterically. Emily glared at the two men, and stuck her tongue out, blowing a raspberry.
"Looks like we're gonna have to dig," Rourke ordered.
Mole regained his composure from laughing, gasped with joy at the mention of digging, and grinned. "It will be my pleasure," he said, giving a thumbs-up.
Mole activated the engine of his digger and began to drill through the wall. Big pieces of rocks and rubble began to spread out from the powerful drill. As the French man continued to drill a mere few inches, the controls in front of him began to crackle and spark! The driller stopped, and fire and smoke burst out of the exhaust pipes, causing the machine to break down and stop. Back at the front, Mole began to cough from the smoke and grew extremely frustrated.
"Oh! Stupid!" Mole yelled as he banged his head on the steering wheel and loud honks were heard. "You! Are! Stupid!"
Audrey opened up the back hatch of the driller to inspect the damage of the engines. Milo and Emily stood behind her and watched.
"I don't understand it," Audrey said. She crawled into the hatch and threw out some pieces. Milo and Emily ducked their heads to prevent themselves from getting hit by the flying pieces. "I just tuned this thing up this morning."
"Umm…" Milo hesitantly began to say something before Audrey announced, "It looks like the rotor's shot!"
The Puerto Rican girl climbed out of the hatch and glanced back in frustration. "I'm gonna have to pull a spare from one of the trucks," she said.
Audrey walked away from the driller to the other vehicles.
"Can I…" Milo attempted to ask, hoping to be of some help.
"¡No toques nada (Don't touch anything)!" Audrey snapped in Spanish and glared at Milo. "I'll be right back."
As Audrey walked away from the driller, Milo glanced at the engine, realizing that there was something familiar about it. He looked back to see that Audrey wasn't in sight. He turned two valves, and it made a hissing and growling noise. He looked back nervously for the young girl. He quickly grabbed Audrey's wrench and wacked it hard against the pipes.
Within a matter of seconds, black smoke puffed from the exhaust pipes and turned into a gray color. Then, the boiler came back to life!
"She lives!" Mole exclaimed with joy.
Audrey came back to find Milo climbing out of the engine hull with Emily standing next to him.
"Hey! What'd you do?" she asked, wanting to know how Milo was able to get the engine working again.
He fixed up your problem due to a similar experience from the museum, Emily signed.
The young man looked back and smiled smugly at the teenage girl. "Well, you know, the boiler in this baby is a Humac model P-54 stroke 813. Now, we got the 814 back at the museum. The heating cores on the whole Humac line have always been a little, you know, temperamental, so sometimes you gotta… boom!" Milo explained, hitting his fist into his palm.
Audrey placed her hands on her hips and gave him a look.
"Persuade 'em a little."
"Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much. Shut up," Audrey said, sarcastically. She walked to the engine hull and shoved Milo away. Emily stepped back nervously away from the teenage girl. Audrey knelt down and gripped on the door and shut it closed. She spun around to the siblings and formed her left hand into a punching fist.
The young man flinched back in surprise.
"Two for flinching," Audrey said, and gave two punches on Milo's left arm before storming away to her vehicle.
Once she was gone, Milo rubbed his arm and winced in pain. Emily glared back at the young girl, before turning around to help Milo.
Mole laughed with happiness in the background. He started to drill through the wall with his driller, and formed a tunnel. The rest of the expedition began to follow after him, moving more faster than ever.
Later on, the expedition stopped and glanced up the ceiling of the cavern. Hanging from the ceiling was a large hive. It had a green light glowing above a long stone bridge that went across a giant gorge. Milo looked in the Journal to find a picture that matched the hive.
"This is it," Milo muttered. "It's gotta be."
Rourke decided that this was a good time for the crew to stop in this area and get some rest.
"All right, we'll make camp here," announced Rourke.
"Why is it glowing?" Audrey asked with concern.
"Pah! It's a natural phosphorescence," Mole said.
"That thing is going to keep me up all night, I know it," Vinny said, pointing at the hive.