“How can I help?” Ben asked.
“We may call on you to go down with the initial party – we may need you to lead the way.”
“I’m ready, willing and able, Mr. Walton: As soon as you’re ready, I’m ready.”
TWENTY
As the water continued to rise in the circular chamber, the center of the small pond started to bubble, like the water was beginning to boil.
Cody realized that the ancient ladder was not an option for escape anymore, and went back to his original idea. “We can climb up here,” he shouted, standing in front of the pile of rocks and debris brought down by the earthquake. “We form a human chain,” he continued as he took Mark’s hand in his, “everyone grab hold of the person behind you!”
Starting up the steep grade of scattered stones and sand, Cody led the way. He pulled Mark, who pulled Valerie, who pulled Harper, who pulled Alex, who finally pulled along Don Williams, the weakest link in the chain.
The swirling water began to rise at an alarming rate. Don screamed as it crawled up his legs. “The water is on me! It’s about to cover me!” he said in a panic.
Cody was astonished when he turned to look down at Don and the rising black water. The center of the pond was now sweeping upward, lapping against the walls of the cavern like a circular tsunami. Don suddenly disappeared in the rising wave.
“Pull,” Cody shouted, “everybody, pull!”
Cody reached the path and climbed over the rocky edge; he went to his knees as he pulled Mark up next to him. Then he helped Mark pull up all the rest – except for Don Williams.
Now the rising water was at the edge of the path. Cody estimated that the water just below their feet had to be at least sixty feet deep, and it was still rising. As the group stood on the narrow path, a huge wave came at them from the whipping surface of the water.
“Hang on to the wall!” Cody managed to yell before they were all overtaken by the rushing water. After the wave subsided, Cody looked around him to see if everyone was still there. He saw four people clinging to the rocky wall and a fifth sprawled out on the path. Don Williams had been washed up like a floundering mackerel by the powerful wave. “We’ve got to get back into the main cavern,” Cody shouted as he helped Don get to his feet. Cody wondered if the rapidly rising water would ever start to finally recede.
The six reached the surface of the main chamber in less than fifteen minutes, but the water was still on their heels. The group stood less than a hundred yards from the main access shaft that led to the surface. Cody took the lead as they all walked through ankle deep water toward their only escape route.
“Where in the hell is all this water coming from,” Mark asked as he looked at Cody.
The weary group was down to two functioning lanterns, one held by Cody and one held by Mark.
Cody’s dirty face appeared eerie in the dim yellow glow, but the dirty face held a broad smile. “Isn’t this exactly what we wished for when we first got the contract from the state?” Cody asked, keeping the grin; “We promised them water at 150 feet, and I’d say we did pretty good at holding up our end of the bargain.”
Mark laughed, even as the rising water began to seep through the top of his boots. “You’re right, Boss, Larson Engineering always delivers.” Mark’s lantern suddenly went dark. At the same time Cody’s lantern lost most of its glow, and began to rapidly dim.
The dim glow from Cody’s lantern finally totally disappeared. He stood in the darkness as the rest of the group pulled up close behind him.
Valerie put her hand out and touched Cody’s arm. “We’re trapped, aren’t we.” The comment was a statement, not a question.
“The shaft to the surface is still in front of us,” Cody said, in the oppressive darkness, “probably no more than 25 yards away, somehow, we just need to find it.”
The swirling water was now at everyone’s knees.
TWENTY – ONE
The torches lining the rock walls suddenly came to life.
Cody didn’t care how or why, he just knew they could see now. He started wading toward the shaft, pulling Valerie along as the others sloshed forward close behind. Cody could see the wire cage and the hoisting frame assembly now. As they all approached the shaft in thigh high water, their relief turned to despair. The cage and frame assembly lay bent and tangled in the middle of a mound of rock and sand. Cody could see well enough to realize that the shaft was totally blocked with debris. The earthquake and its aftershocks had blocked any chance of using the shaft. “The people topside know we’re down here,” he said as he turned to everyone behind him. “They are all professionals, and I’m sure they’re working hard on a solution to get us up to the surface as fast as they can.”
“If the water doesn’t stop rising, they’ll have to float us out of here,” Mark said.
Cody turned to his chief engineer, “Mark, you may have just said the magic word,” he said with excitement; “Everybody look for floating debris or anything we can use for floatation. This chamber must be thirty feet tall; it would take all of the water in Lake Michigan to fill it to the top.”
The flickering flames from the burning torches reflected in the water and produced a scene that reminded Cody of the River-Walk areas he’d visited in San Antonio and Savannah. It also made him think of the Nile River at night. He had never been there, but he’d remember a few travel videos from Egypt. The dancing light reflections on the black water were beautiful in a deadly sort of way. A lot of the beaming light would end up reflecting off the eyes of the watching crocodiles.
“I found something,” Valerie called out, “something floating – something big.”
As everyone turned toward her voice, they could see the long object she was touching. Cody thought at first that the object must be a large log, but then he got a better view as the light played upon its lacquered surface. “An Egyptian coffin,” he said standing next to Valerie in chest deep water.
“Sarcophagus,” Valerie corrected him, “probably, 300 B.C. or later, they used a lot of cypress for construction during the later dynasties.”
Cody estimated that the carved wooden box must have been at least ten feet long, and probably three feet in diameter. The carving on the top face was that of a full grown Egyptian man with his arms folded across his chest. The intricate carving was brightly painted and gilded with gold and silver. The floating Egyptian casket was certainly big enough for everybody to hang onto.
“We’ve found an Egyptian life raft,” Harper Harris said with excitement.
As the group clung to both sides of the casket, their feet finally came off the stone floor. The water immediately below them was now over six feet deep and continuing to rise.
Cody carefully watched the water’s surface to see if it was flowing in any particular direction. If it was, it would indicate that the water was headed to an opening somewhere in the chamber. The water swirled and seemed agitated, but wasn’t flowing. He looked up and could barely make out the stone ceiling twenty feet above him. By now, he knew that they had at least ten feet of water below them. He seriously started thinking about the possibility of the swirling water rising to the point where they would actually float to the ceiling – that’s where they would all drown.
The water was also rising toward the burning torches and everyone in the group knew that they would be in the darkness again soon. “Everybody hold on and kick, pushing west.” Cody said, “The chamber has got to end at some point and we’ll take our chance by heading west. If we head toward the Pacific Ocean, maybe there’s an outlet somewhere in that direction.”
Cody knew that they had very little light left from the flickering torches on the walls and he knew that everyone was beyond exhaustion. He also knew that it was only a matter of time before people started to give up and simply sink below the surface.
Valerie hung on to the big casket with both hands and kicked hard with her feet. Her arms ached and her legs began to cramp, but she was determined not to give up – she
couldn’t give up. She was about to say something to Cody, when she saw the first one – a moving ripple in the water that wasn’t water. She opened her eyes wider and stared harder at the slick movement in the water. She stared at the dark reflection of two small glowing dots. The reptile raised its head and returned the stare; fixing its yellow eyes on Valerie’s pale face.
TWENTY – TWO
Ben stood with the chief site engineer as the new shaft was being drilled. A small pilot shaft would be placed in the space of the old shaft and used to clean out the sand and debris caused by the quake. Bill Walton had shown him a computer generated CAD drawing indicating the new shaft and its proposed entry point into the chamber. If all went as planned, the new shaft would be complete and operational within sixteen hours.
“When the shaft is complete,” Bill had said, “we’ll drop the first search and rescue team in. We’re not using the caged personnel car, there was no time to rebuild the support structure. These men will be lowered to the site by bucket line.”
Ben and the site engineer watched as the six man crew assembled the pilot drill from several long sections of pipe.
“As soon as we get the debris cleared, the large drill head will begin operation,” the engineer standing next to Ben said.
“Will you still use the carbon-fiber liner?”
The engineer pointed to a flatbed trailer parked close by. The trailer carried at least eight very large diameter pipes. Ben immediately thought about water or sewer pipes. “Tungsten-steel,” the engineer had said, “the walls won’t collapse inward like the carbon-fiber did.”
Ben could only imagine the cost of the six foot diameter pipes, but he didn’t care, as long as they could furnish a way to get his boss and friends to the surface.
The engineer stood silent and said nothing for a few minutes. The two men watched the pilot shaft extensions being inserted into the twelve inch diameter pilot hole.
“What was it like down there?” the engineer finally asked.
Ben looked into the eyes of the engineer and thought about the question. “About as scary as scary can get,” he answered without wanting to get into details.
“And you’re ready to go back down?”
“I’ll do what ever I need to do to help my friends.
“I believe Mr. Walton wants you to guide the S and R team once they are on site.”
“I’m not sure how much help I’ll really be,” Ben responded, “but I’d be proud to guide the search and rescue effort. My primary goal now is to go back and help find the others, and I’ll do whatever’s necessary to accomplish that goal.”
The engineer’s face clouded as he put a hand on his helmet. He wore a headset with attached boom mike and spoke clearly into the mike. “Roger, confirm twenty feet.” He looked at Ben as he continued to listen to the voice of the drill director. “The pilot shaft drill head is twenty feet away from the ceiling of the chamber; we should have puncture and final break through at any minute.”
The camera cable was now being inserted into the drilling tube. As soon as the drill reached the chamber, the small cable would be guided through the hole. It would be the same procedure that Cody had used when the chamber was first discovered, only this camera was much smaller and much more sophisticated.
“Head’s through!” the engineer shouted as he brought an electronic tablet up in his right hand. “The camera’s going in, we can watch here,” he added as he moved the tablet in front of Ben.
At first Ben could see only darkness. Then the night vision feature was activated. The scene in the chamber still showed troubling green blackness.
“The LED’s are coming on line,” the engineer said, as he and Ben bent forward over the small screen.
Ben’s mind raced as he questioned the incredible picture he now stared at. What he saw was impossible. A large body of black water rippled below the camera lights – a body of water less than ten feet away from the chamber ceiling.
TWENTY – THREE
When Valerie screamed, Cody turned to see the flexing reptile quickly swim passed her, and then he saw the second and third snake moving through the water close behind the first. “It’s okay Valerie,” he called out, “They’re just water snakes, trying to find their way through the chamber.”
As soon as he had said those encouraging words to Valerie, Cody’s voice froze in his throat. Now, he could clearly see the quivering rattlers raised in the water at the end of each snake. He quickly realized that the rattlesnakes had been trapped by the rising water and were desperately trying to save themselves.
Alex Bell was the first to get bit. He screamed as he clawed the side of the floating casket. “A snake’s on my arm!”
Mark was next to Alex and jerked the tail of the snake just as it struck. Even though very little venom was injected into Alex, he began to feel sick immediately. More rattlesnakes floated by as Cody swam his way around to Alex and Mark.
The light from the flaming torches on the walls suddenly went out.
They now floated in the dark water – In blackness so complete that it could almost be touched – in a blackness that hid the terrifying truth that now surrounded them. At least two dozen desert rattlesnakes circled the bobbing Sarcophagus.
“Everybody on top of the Casket!” Cody yelled as he and Mark began to shift Alex’s limp body out of the water. “Everybody on top, and hold on to each other!”
The pressure of six people pulling at the top of the casket caused it to separate along its middle. More snakes swam close by as the Sarcophagus broke into two pieces. The top was like a hollowed out canoe, but the bottom section of the wooden coffin held a shrouded body; a totally incased mummy. The two pieces were held together by a series of wooden hinges.
Mark and Cody managed to get Alex into the floating top of the Sarcophagus. The two floating casket pieces rocked back and forth to the point of almost sinking as everyone desperately lurched upward out the dark water, frantic to get away from the snakes.
As Valerie scrambled onto the top section of the bobbing Sarcophagus, she yelled out into the darkness. Frustrated and scared, she now assumed that they were all destined to die in the rising black water of the chamber. “Horus, we don’t understand this.” she shouted, the echo from her voice bouncing from the water’s surface up to the rocky ceiling and back. “We are not your enemies – we are not evil people – why are you doing this?”
A light appeared in the darkness, at first just a glow in front of them, then the glow became brighter and brighter. They all notice that the water began to recede, as the mysterious light washed around them and bathed the sides of the chamber.
“There is a way,” a booming voice said, and the head of the Falcon appeared in the glowing mist.
At that very moment, the receding water began to flow, but not west, as Cody had predicted. The surface of the dark sea started to flow slowly to the east, toward the mountains.
“We’re moving,” Valerie shouted again in the glowing light.
The water began to move faster and faster, as the glow around them slowly faded to black.
Alex Bell was very sick, but Cody thought the technician would make a full recovery from the snake bite. Harper Harris rode in the top part of the Sarcophagus watching over his friend while Cody, Valerie, Mark Stone and Don Williams held tight to the sides of the broken casket. Don was on the side that held the shrouded body and looked directly at the tightly wrapped head. He could almost swear that he saw the head move before they lost the glow of Horus’s light.
The Sarcophagus began to pick up more and more speed as it headed east through the chamber. Even without light, Cody knew that the wide chamber was beginning to narrow. Then the floating casket bounced off a rock wall and dropped several feet over a dark water fall. The bouncing coffin and the splashing water made Cody think about riding the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland when he was a ten years old. Even though the Disney ride scared him, he knew that he wouldn’t die – he wasn’t so sure
about this ride.
Cody could hear the roar of the rushing water ahead of them and warned everyone to hold on tighter. He knew that they were now riding a raging river in a narrow tunnel, and that the river was rapidly dropping in elevation. The bouncing Sarcophagus dropped down another four feet and faced an even higher waterfall.
As the front of the coffin boat pitched over the tall rapid, Valerie saw it, rushing toward them. “Light!” she screamed; “there’s daylight in front of us!”
TWENTY – FOUR
“The chamber is full of water!” Ben had exclaimed when he first saw the images streaming live from the shaft camera. But within minutes of his panic, he could see the water level dropping – receding faster and faster.
“This will change everything,” the engineer said with a moan. “Our guys are not prepared for water rescue. We’ll need to bring in divers.”
“But the water is going down,” Ben said, “maybe it will totally recede all the way to the floor.”
“That would be great, Mr. Smith, but meanwhile were stuck here waiting to see.”
Ben watched the small flat screen and estimate that the dark water was dropping at a rate of at least two feet a minute. At that rate he knew that it would clear the chamber within the hour. “Keep the team ready - prepared to go at any time,” he said, “the water will be out of there in no time.”
The huge, six foot diameter main drill head had come back on line and was boring a large shaft around the initial pilot hole. It would break through within a matter of minutes and provide the team members access into the space. If the water continued to recede, the team could go down in less than an hour.
The engineer was about to ask Ben a question when his headset buzzed with a call. He nodded as he answered, and his eyebrows went up. He showed Ben the streaming video on his tablet as he talked, “We can see it; looks to be rising as fast as it was dropping.”
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