by Otto Schafer
“David! Language,” Lenny said in a mock scold. “You kiss your momma with that mouth?”
“No, but I kiss your mom with this mouth,” David said with a snort.
Garrett lifted his bike over the tracks and stashed it in the woods. “Let’s do this – I want to get to the library and check on Pete. The tunnel should be right here.” He pointed over the side of the ravine.
Lenny leaned out over the side. “I see it,” he said as he started backing away from the edge.
Garrett nodded. “It’s really steep. Our best bet is to ease down—”
“I’ll go first!” Lenny ran past the two boys and leapt over the side.
“Holy shit!” David shouted.
Both Garrett and David ran forward to watch Lenny as he slid recklessly down the steep embankment towards the large concrete culvert protruding a dozen feet above the silty water of the Sangamon River. When Lenny reached the smooth concrete of the culvert, he spun around so he was facing back towards Garrett and David. He shot them a wry smile just as gravity yanked him off the edge of the culvert and downward towards the river. But as he dropped, he grabbed the edge of the culvert and swung his body inward, allowing his momentum to carry him effortlessly into the mouth of the tunnel. He landed softly, as if he had performed the stunt hundreds of times before.
“Dude! You’re crazier than a shithouse rat!” David said.
Garrett jumped over next. The bank was so steep he was able to slide while staying up on both feet, as if riding a surfboard. Just before he got to the top of the culvert, he sat down and rolled to his stomach as he slid. Going over the culvert’s edge, he caught the lip with his hands and swung inside.
“Crazy sons a’ bitches!” David shouted, choosing a far more conservative approach to the culvert. One that required sliding from sapling to sapling on his bottom. “You guys know that’s probably the worst part of the Sangamon, right? If you had lost your footing or tripped, you’d be floating down river.” He scrambled for a handhold on a thick vine. “You’d be fighting like hell to get out before going over the old busted dam or getting stuck under a brush pile.”
“Get in here, man,” Lenny said, laughing.
Still sitting on his bottom, David carefully slid out to the edge of the culvert, allowing his legs to dangle over the side before turning over onto his stomach and chest. Finally, he gently slid his torso over the concrete edge, and for a moment that lasted far too long, he just hung there, unable to go back up, but not able to drop into the opening for fear of falling.
“You’re like a foot from the bottom, man – just drop,” Lenny said.
“Lenny, man, I’m way shorter than you. Are you sure it’s only a foot? You better not let me fall in!” he said.
Garrett laughed. “We got you – just drop.”
David dropped to his feet, landing on the edge of the culvert opening. His heels hung over the culvert’s edge, forcing him to balance on the balls of his feet. He teetered there on the brink for a frightful second, wide-eyed, his oddly thick adolescent mustache twitching and arms flailing, before finally losing his balance completely and tipping backwards towards the river.
Garrett quickly lunged forward and snatched David by the collar of his shirt, pulling him forward into the tunnel. “Gotcha,” he said, smiling.
David steadied himself, placing his hands on his knees as he puffed out a relieved breath. “Whew! Dude… my asshole puckered! I thought I was going over for sure,” he said, peering uneasily over the edge.
“Nah, bro, I wasn’t going to let you fall,” Garrett said easily.
Lenny smirked at his friend. “I got a question. Why you think God let a chickenshit kid like you grow facial hair this early in life? You should probably go ahead and shave that off till you grow some balls to go along with it. I mean talk about putting the cart befo—”
“Piss off, Lenny! Sorry I don’t want to end up in the drink, but you ain’t got to hate on my ’stache just because you can’t grow one.”
“That’s what I like about you, man – you give it just as good as you take it.”
Clicking on his flashlight, David began to peer down the tunnel. “So, Garrett, during lunch, Lenny brought me up to speed on all this crazy shit you guys got yourself into. What are we looking for exactly?”
“First, we need to find this archway made of old bricks,” Lenny said.
“Come on, it’s right back here.” Garrett moved quickly down the large pipe.
“Man, I’d love to get my skateboard in here! I forgot how huge this culvert is,” David said.
“Well, here we are, check it out,” Garrett said as they reached the end of the pipe. The walls on both sides were not round like the culvert but perfectly vertical until near the top, where they began to make their slow arch. In the newer concrete culvert, they could stretch up and touch the top of the pipe, but at the transition to the archway it extended upward a good three feet further. The culvert they stood in now was like a round peg mating into a much larger square hole. The difference in the two sizes had been made up for by adding modern bricks to fill the gap between the two sections.
“Wow, it’s so much bigger than I thought it would be,” Lenny said.
“Yeah, it’s big alright, but watch for bats… and rats,” David said uneasily as they began moving further into the tunnel. “Remember when Jack whacked that bat back here, Garrett?”
Garrett frowned absently. “Yeah, I remember.” He was focused on the ceiling and wondering how he would be able to inspect the upper portion of the arch without a ladder.
“Rats?” Lenny said, looking down the archway tunnel.
The culvert dropped a couple feet into a pool of stagnant water. The distance across seemed to be maybe twenty feet before it stepped back up into a smaller tunnel.
“Sometimes, and those suckers can swim too,” Garrett said.
“They don’t call them river rats for nothing,” David said.
“Well, this is going to suck,” Garrett said, as he took his first tentative step. The water was colder, fouler, and deeper than he had hoped, reaching mid-shin. This meant he could not see the bottom; hell, he couldn’t even see his feet.
Lenny stepped into the water behind him. “Bro… Nasty.”
“Garrett, man, if I get in that water with these shoes my dad will kill me. If I had known yesterday, I could have brought my crap ones, but these are my good shoes,” David said apologetically.
“Look, David, it’s cool,” Garrett said. “I’m wearing my junker work shoes. Just keep an eye out for rats.”
“I freaking hate rats,” Lenny said, taking another cautious step.
David nodded, sweeping his flashlight back and forth across the top of the water. “Yeah, no doubt.”
Moving quickly, Garrett walked to the opposite end of the tunnel. “Lenny, start down there and I will work my way towards you. We can meet in the middle.”
“Cool.”
Garrett inspected all the bricks from the water to as far above his head as he could reach. Even though he couldn’t see the bricks above with much detail, he cast his light up the arch of each staggered row anyway, just in case there was something obvious.
Lenny worked from the opposite end back towards Garrett.
All the bricks looked pretty much the same with only slight variations. Some were different in color, some had chips missing out of them, but as far as shape, size, and texture they were pretty much the same. Garrett didn’t even know what he was looking for other than finding a brick that somehow was not like the others, and this made him feel like he was hunting for a needle in a haystack.
Then he found it… a brick that didn’t look like the others.
Instantly his adrenaline surged, giving him renewed focus. “We got something, guys!” he said excitedly.
“What is it? What have you got?” David asked, leaning out over the water, one arm on the wall and the other extended outward with the flashlight beam pointing.
Lenny w
aded over.
Garrett had been three-quarters of the way down the south wall and about two bricks above the water line when he had noticed something carved into the brick. “Initials! We have initials here,” he said in amazement.
“Abraham Lincoln’s initials?” Lenny asked.
The initials were carved carefully into the upper right-hand corner of the brick. They were small and could have easily been overlooked. At first Garrett thought he had indeed found Lincoln’s initials but quickly realized he was looking at a.r., not a.l.
“Well, no… but this has to mean something,” he said, feeling less sure of his find.
“Hold on a second,” Lenny said, pulling a folded notebook from his pants pocket.
“What’s that for?”
“So we can find these again.” Lenny said as he started counting the number of bricks from the arch down towards the water. He tallied a total of thirteen rows to reach the initialed brick. Next, he determined the left-to-right location on the wall by counting the number of bricks from the closer side, which happened to be the far side from the entrance, back to the initialed brick. However, as he was counting across, he found another brick with initials. “Check it out, Garrett. This brick has the letters b.g. carved into the upper right-hand corner, and in the exact size and style of the a.r. brick.”
“What do you think means?” Garrett asked.
They continued to search in the general area, and Garrett found a third brick. “Got another! This one is marked j.c. in the same size, style, and position as the other two.”
Lenny noted the location.
They searched for a while longer and, just when he was ready to call it quits, Lenny found one more brick with two small initials in the upper right-hand corner just like the previous three.
“We got it – we freaking got it! a.l., baby!”
Garrett splashed over. “Hell, yeah!”
“You shitting me?” David asked excitedly.
“Nope! Check it out, Garrett!” Lenny laughed, marking the location in his notepad.
“That’s a.l. alright. Okay, let’s get out of here and show the gang what we’ve found.”
“Agreed, this place smells like shit,” David said. Just as the words left his mouth, they heard a noise from the entry of the tunnel.
“Did you hear that?” Lenny asked in a whisper.
“Yeah,” David whispered back.
Garrett nodded silently.
They were only about twenty yards from the entrance and they could clearly see no one was in the tunnel, yet they all had heard it. They slowly began making their way towards the tunnel entrance when dirt and rock spilled over from above the culvert, as if someone was hurrying away from the entrance and scrambling to get up the embankment outside. Or worse, about to come over the side and enter the tunnel.
Had Jack followed them? They froze, unsure what to do. The last thing we need is Jack finding out our best clue – if that happened there’d be no keeping this from him, Garrett thought, giving the other boys a look of warning as he held a finger to his lips.
The boys waited apprehensively for feet to appear over the side of the culvert, but after a long moment, when no feet came into view, David whispered, “I think whoever was there is gone.”
“I don’t know, but there’s only one way to be sure,” Garrett said, stepping to the mouth of the tunnel. He turned and faced them, then jumped up, grabbed the top of the tunnel, and pulled his head above the upper edge, hoping he didn’t get a mouth full of shoe for his curiosity. “Nothing,” he grunted, dropping back down into the tunnel. “But if someone was up there, they might have overheard everything.”
“I’m freaking out.” David shook his head. “That’s the second time in the last hour my asshole puckered. Can we please get out of here before there’s a third?”
“Yeah, I agree. Let’s get to the library, but do me a favor,” Lenny said.
“What’s that?”
“When you get home tonight, please shave that ’stache, pussy.”
“Whatever, Lenny. I would but I would hate to disappoint your mom!” David grinned, somehow making the ’stache waggle like a caterpillar on the move.
Garrett laughed.
“Eww, no. Don’t ever do that! Never! Ever! What are you, a seventies porn star?” Lenny shook out his shoulders in disgust. “Creepy bastard. You look like someone parents should keep their kids away from.”
28
Tentacles
Present day
Oak Island, Nova Scotia
“Pops… can we please open it now, see what’s inside, and get out of here?” Paul asked.
Bre drew in a breath as she rubbed her temples, trying to loosen the grip of her headache.
“No, not here, let’s get it topside where we can all see it. I want Jerry to be there too.” Charles looked around at the plants. “Plus, I don’t think we should open it in this place,” he said nervously.
“Right,” Edward said. “But it looks really heavy – hopefully Paul and I can carry it.”
Paul sighed, clearly disappointed. “Well, let’s go then. My head is hurting worse, and I’m starting to sweat in here.”
With all the excitement upon entering the room, no one had noticed how warm it was, but now all of them took notice. They noticed something else, too – their clothes were no longer wet from the trek through the icy water; they were completely dry.
“Let’s go,” Edward said, reaching for the Ark.
“Wait! Do not touch it! I will touch it first,” Charles said, waving the brothers off as if it were suddenly about to burst into flames.
“What the hell?” Edward said, startled at his father’s sudden outburst.
“I’m sorry, Ed. Just let me be the first to touch it, okay?”
Edward shrugged.
“Daddy, no. Don’t touch it!” Breanne shouted. She reached out to intercept his arm, but she was too late.
Her father clenched his teeth and pressed his eyes closed tight as he slapped a hand on top of the lid, only to quickly snatch it away again. Nothing happened. He sighed, relief plain on his face.
“Dammit, Dad!” Breanne scolded.
“Bre, what’s the big deal?” Paul asked.
“Don’t you remember what Dad said about the Ark? In the biblical accounts, only the high priest was allowed to touch the Ark. In one account a man was even killed when he reached out to steady the tipping Ark as it was being transported.”
“Look, I never put much faith in any of the Old Testament stuff, but I had to be sure before I let you guys touch it, that’s all. Now come here, all of you. Lay your hands on it and feel this!”
Each placed a hand atop the lid between the golden dragons.
“It… it feels so otherworldly,” Edward said. “Like an energy or power. A warmth – no, something more… something moving, no, pulsing through the lid, through me!”
“I feel it tingling all the way down into my toes,” Paul said.
Her father looked at them as though he were about to cry. “This must be of God!”
Breanne pulled her hand away, unsure of what she felt.
“Okay, let’s go,” her father said, standing and dusting himself off. He grabbed hold of the vines and pulled them loose, clearing them away from the Ark. They radiated light at his touch but they yielded, offering no resistance.
“This is even creepier than the altar,” Paul said. “This whole pace is full of this electric… I don’t know… energy, and it’s all coming from this thing!”
“It’s the Ark, my boy, and it’s wonderful, absolutely wonderful,” her father said.
“Let’s just get it topside. On the count of three, lift,” Edward said. “One, two, three, lift!”
Her brothers lifted with an abrupt jerk, expecting it to take a colossal effort to raise the Ark, but in fact it did not. The men stumbled, nearly falling, as the Ark came up off the floor, stopping just short of slamming into the ceiling of the low chamber. It was as if they
had placed all their strength into lifting a pillow.
“What the hell?” Paul said, his eyes widened in wonder.
“How can it be this light, Pops? It feels like it is made of Styrofoam!” Edward said.
“I don’t know, Ed. This thing is supposed to contain a pot of manna, Aaron’s rod, and two stone tablets – the Ten Commandments. And there is all the gold in the trim and in the dragons on the lid. Seems as though it should be heavy, but who knows what power any one of the items inside could hold?”
They turned to the doorway. The vines once again covered every inch, twisted like intricate braids made of foliage. Her father stepped forward and pushed against the living wall. The vines danced with illumination from his touch, but they did not move.
“Why aren’t they moving?” Edward asked.
“I don’t know.” Her father gripped the thick vines in each hand and tried to pull them apart, but they held fast. “Open, damn you!” he shouted, his pull becoming a desperate yank.
Her brothers gingerly placed the Ark on the ground and stood on each side of the door, gripping fistfuls of the thick vines. They gave each other a silent nod and began straining against the vines, but the vines didn’t move.
“What in God’s name is this? Do you have knives?” Charles asked.
Paul knelt and pulled a boot knife as Edward unsheathed a scuba knife from his hip.
“Wait, Daddy, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
But her brothers didn’t wait – they started hacking at the vines. For every vine they managed to cut through, another grew in its place. The foliage on the walls of the room began to shake violently. “Stop. You’re pissing it off!” Breanne screamed.
Her brothers stopped, seeing little good anyway. “We’ll never cut through this, Pops!” Edward said. “It’s no use.”
“Why in the hell won’t it let us out?” her father demanded.
“Can’t you feel the hate? It hates us,” Breanne said.
“What do you mean it hates us? It practically welcomed us in, dammit!” Her father grabbed the vines and pulled again.