The Alien Artifact 9 (Novelette) by V Bertolaccini Page A

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scientists, working at the equipment, and the most experienced,
kept giving reactions and startled expressions to what was below,
and I knew they could not be totally sure, as such things were not
accurate, especially in dealing with the unknown.
    In the end
they started working away in documenting their findings and giving
their theories, and my attempts at finding what were unsuccessful,
as they wished them only to be found when total proof was
found.
    Had they found
something incredible below, and they soon started influencing the
archeologists into working faster, and shifting everything out the
way, and they dug away at the ground at the exact point the tunnel
was believed to be below, and the scientists occasionally offered
them help or at the least their theories at how close they
were.
    It never took
long for me to start to recall the occurrence that had occurred
when I first came down the above shaft in the darkness, and what
had happened to me, and I suddenly realized that the shaft did go
under the ground, and the tunnel below was the bottom of it, which
I was sure I saw, and that at some point, well before the hospital
had been built, something had covered the tunnel up, and I wondered
why the above shaft was built directly over it.
    Had someone
hidden it away under the hospital? Was it hidden away for a reason?
And what could it possibly be?
    Would we even
survive to see what was there? Going by what had happened to me
already I had to believe something was there! The strange powers I
had were too powerful and deadly! The equipment and the increasing
signs of there being a danger below had increased at an alarming
rate, as they advanced forwards.
    They examined strange alterations and erratic
characterizations on the
equipment, and even the paranormal scientists started reacting more
strangely than I had seen them and I wondered how it would affect
everyone if what had occurred to me in the above shaft occurred to
everyone.
    When one of
the archeologists hit something solid, and revealed a solid stone
slab, everyone went around the hole to see it, and watched two
archeologists lift the slab and reveal a deep dark tunnel going
straight down into the ground, far below, and I realized it was
identical in size and shape as the above shaft, and gasped at what
had happened to me when I had entered it.
     

Chapter 22
     
    The Cavity
     
    The archeologists sat around the entrance,
occasionally giving silent whispers to each other, and avoiding
giving anyone else any information on what they were doing, and
everyone knew they were not keen to go down into it, and sat
resting.
    I realized that I was slowly being chosen,
and that the paranormal scientists wanted me to go, and I knew I
would, and I just could not avoid it, and in the end decided to get
it over with, and made it known to them, and sat at the edge
entrance.
    One archeologist shone his light around the
hole, and deep into the chamber, which went deep below somewhere,
and seemed to discover something, and the answer to one of his
queries.
    “ What do you reckon ’ s down
there? ” I
asked him, trying to see in it as far as I could with the light,
but only saw darkness.
    He left and returned with a brighter torch
and pointed it at a point at the edge of it, and he waited for me
to reply, and I looked and I saw it, and I saw dark stone steps
vanishing below, but I could not see them reach the top of the
entrance, just below us, and wondered why, and I considered if
there had been something there and it had either been taken away or
had collapsed, which could indicated the steps could also have
collapsed further down.
    When Oswald came down from above with
Higgins holding ropes and equipment I knew the time had come for me
to get ready and enter it, which I still never knew anything about,
and I swiftly got ready and they tied me to a rope and started
hoisting me down, and I finally entered its confines, and realized
there could be something of value below