The Alien Orb (6 page)

They soon discovered that it was only the
last people that entered had seen a light deep in the wood before
they entered!

If there were a death he wondered how the
police would handle the situation if confronted with it and what
the outcome would be?

“
We
better have our weapons ready anyway!” Mitchell warned his men
behind him, as he stood in front of them, removing his weapon and
putting it back, and waited for the others to remove their weapons
and get the feel of them.

Merton went
with Mitchell, in front of everyone, and Bryson and Mortimer
followed them, with others in their usual formation following.

It was not as
bad as it had been! They had renewed the energy in their lights and
had more equipment that they needed, and could easily camp out in
the tunnel if they needed to, and were not trapped, plodding on
into the night.

Bryson tested the floor of the tunnel, which
was dry packed mud and rock, wondering if it was a new form of
mining that had created the walls. The technology behind it could
be worth a great deal if it was what he thought it was, and the
technology behind it was unknown, just like the creature that they
found there, which had incredibly been able to burrow through the
ground with its immense size, which they had not heard of before,
which he would have dismissed as impossible.

It surprised him that if the technology to
do it existed, and was unknown, how did it get there? Where did it
come from?

Yet there was no proof and he did not know
if he ever could prove it existed, and even doubted if the evidence
and technology would be found, and yet could something like the
creature have created the tunnel though?

Merton shifted around and spoke silently
with Mortimer in conversations breaking the deep silence that kept
emerging.

Bryson noticed the shaft prevented water
flooding it by descending slightly. Small amounts of water had
seeped through cracks, flowing down it to places it could exit from
the tunnel. Yet he still never knew if it was deliberately built
for long lasting use, and most of all why it was built, and he
recalled the people that had made the human sacrifice back in the
cavity. Yet that never made sense either! Why go to such lengths to
build a tunnel and cavity? The time it would have taken could have
been incredible!

“
Who built this?
”
Mitchell moaned loudly
once, trying to get them to give him something to solve one of the
mysteries, but nobody replied and he thought of some other
conclusion.

It reminded Bryson of the shaft that he had
seen in the last castle, and had been built by William Randall. Yet
the other tunnels there were made in the normal way without such
technology. Yet the castle, if it existed, was built there about
1880, according the information they had heard. The technology of
the tunnel was far more advanced, even by the current
technology.

Over and over he thought of it and did not
have a clue what a tunnel was doing in a wood! Why had they gone to
such lengths to construct it? What hidden motive had been behind
it?

They had to have put it there for logical
reasons as all the constructions that he could recall had been
built for. They had built them for their needs!

“
Was it originally part of water
system,
”
Merton mumbled to Mortimer, confused at the enormous distance
it had, trying to recollect something such as it.

“
Therefore, we should meet with where
the water went!
”
Mitchell answered.

Merton pointed the light straight out in
front of him, illuminating the ground many feet further down into
it, and examined it. And he lunged forward as if he had decided
that he wanted get to the source of it as soon as possible. He
shifted down examining it going into the darkness, which seemed to
go on endlessly, searching for any evidence of anything.

Its main feature now was its neat perfect
size that continuously held without altering, but not from moving
downwards now, making it resemble a mine but far more expertly
constructed than that, as though built to last a long time like a
sewer.

Bryson even wondered if people had found
gold or other precious metal there, in a great amount, and had gone
out of their way to cover it up, making sure nobody heard of
it.

Occasionally he had watched Mitchell and his
men examine the ground and mud for anything of value!

Webs shrouded the roof and corners about it
again and occasionally they had to wave scraping them away from
them, while the radiance from the lights made insects scurry away,
especially when they saw them.

The builders must have known where all the
rock had been as they avoided going through areas where it was not
there, and must have been able to check for miles where it had been
before building it, and he wondered what they would have done if
there had not been any rock there as the tunnel would have
collapsed if it had not been built in it, and they surely would
have needed something to hold it all up.

Large tree roots had been sliced off and
their lower areas were gone and some had grown again in places, and
they had to walk around them, and the amount of mud increased and
the tunnel started to lose shape in places where it sagged, and
small collapses of the roof and sides appeared and they started to
worry about not being able to reach their destination.

The tunnel went endlessly on into the
distance turning in different directions, through nothing but the
upper wood, and Bryson marched off into it preparing himself for
what they might meet with, and wondering if it had collapsed if
they could go back and follow its direction from the outside in the
morning.

He was sure that they had compasses in their
equipment and knew the general direction anyway, but could they
accurately find the place if it was buried away deep in the wood,
if it actually led there anyway.

His thoughts went to the wood again and its
strange eerie confines and he wondered what normal animals actually
existed there during the day, and how they survived.

What dangers could the wood hold? Did it
have only something of an incomprehensible nature existing in its
darkness?

All the significations of it were startling!
The other day he had mostly not believed that it could be there
never mind there being a tunnel going under it.

The journey kept giving him feelings of how
absurd it was with it going so far into it. The direction and his
perspective of where they were had altered so much he was positive
that if they had to turn back that he personally could not find
where it led to in the above wood.

At times it seemed like some of the others
were there just to handle a fantasy situation more than
anything!

“
Want one?
”
Merton moaned, handing the
cigarettes out again, puffing out smoke everywhere, and they all
slowed and he took a break from the endless routine.

Mitchell removed his phone like it was a
communicator and silently started trying to contact someone, and
when he could not he tried to contact other places, and look
surprised at it again.

“
This
place must be the only place in northern hemisphere you can’t get a
signal?” he joked, putting it firmly away.

He stood
trying to grasp the situation, and what was there.

“
There
has to be something blocking the signal ...” Mortimer continued,
with his investigation of the phenomenon. “It has to be pretty
powerful too ...”

“
What
has to be powerful?” he asked, still investigating their paranormal
investigation and nature, not fully grasping something.

Mortimer never
replied and Mitchell ignored him.

“
What
the hell is out here?” Mitchell muttered to himself later, with a
worried glare, and rubbed his fingers over the perfectly flat
smooth tunnel wall.

“
At this
rate we’ll be spending the night here after all!” Mortimer replied,
with his professional tone.

“
We
better have our weapons ready if we leave here!” Mitchell moaned,
removing a more powerful weapon, which he had got off the
helicopter, and put it away, and Bryson realized that they were
more confident of killing the things in the above wood now that
they had found the dead creature, and had examined it, and thought
they could kill them once they properly appeared.

His men also
removed their weapons to get the feel of them.

The situation
was confusing and Bryson did not fully get if they could kill
them!

“
Could
that fog stop the communicators working ...?” Mitchell asked them,
still trying to grasp the situation, and surprised them with his
attitude.

“
Some
conditions may create such occurrences!” Mortimer jokingly
replied.

“
Not
normally!” Merton continued. “But this fog and it being out here
changes the rules.”

“
So once
again nothing!” Mitchell answered, getting ready to continue
walking faster. “Don’t forget those things attacked us
...”

They were
experiencing new things and Bryson wondered again if he could
prevent something from happening.

He did not
know if Mitchell could do something stupid. His reactions were
different, and he saw that he could attack whatever was out there
if it appeared at a later stage, and he recalled that he had
originally believed that he would before they had been attacked,
and realized the same situation could happen again – only they
might not be as lucky the next time – but if he watched what he did
and planned ahead he was sure he could survive.

His thoughts
went back to the paranormal scientists and their work again, and
him not completing his mission of discovering what existed there
and how to deal with.

Why had
nothing been discovered in the world except what they had come up
with? This fact confused him incredibly as most of his life he had
unsuccessfully investigated everything there and not found
anything. It was true they were rare occurrences and he thought
they did not fully know what they were talking about. All the stuff
was a mess! False claims and facts that other things were behind
things kept appearing!

The creature
found embedded in the tunnel now never appeared like it was of
supernatural origins.

The technology
and all the research used would have at least properly proven its
existence all over the world by now! But what were they up against
now, and was it the same as at the last castle?

Again he decided to find and record anything
that he could and use it as evidence of what was there! On him he
had miniature cameras, recorders, and notebook to record his
findings, and he remembered why they were not needed anyway, and
kept by him in case the paranormal scientists and scientists never
recorded anything. The amount of equipment they would have was
enough, and the most advanced. If they never captured anything then
he was sure there would be nothing to record, and he recalled the
recordings and findings that they had made of those things that
attacked them in the wood, even though they never had a chance to
use the heavier stuff, and they got everything they wanted on the
dead creature trapped in tunnel, whatever it was.

Bryson realized again that he would properly
never experience anything like this place again and wondered what
the outcome of it would be. He would remember it forever, and he
was sure he would be remembered in history for taking part in it
all, if things turned out like he imagined it that is.

Bryson sensed something, and looked
over to where Mitchell
’
s eyes were staring furiously and saw debris
covering the ground ahead, away at the end of the tunnel, and while
their pace quickened he started to wonder what was going to happen
as Mitchell and the others started to react strangely and
viciously, and in horror of there being extreme danger, and he
waited observing their reactions and decided to react to what
happened.

What could be so dangerous about the tunnel
being collapsed? The worst that could happen was that there was no
exit and that they would have to walk back, which would only put
them about half a day behind, and they could sleep in the safety of
the tunnel.

On their approach there it became clear that
the ground had collapsed years before, through corrosion from water
and weight, and that there was a way out of it, to escape from the
tunnel there, and he started to realize what the problem was and
why they were reacting so much.

Chapter 10

The Castle

They had become trapped in the dark wood,
freezing in the deep snow, hiding behind trees, while the lights
and creatures shifted about violently smashing things around them,
while the amount of them and their powers grew, while Mitchell and
his men had their weapons ready.

Bryson now knew why having the military
there could be a mistake, and he had realized it when they had
escaped from the tunnel into the dark wood and had witnessed
Mitchell and his men launching into shooting rounds of
ammunition.

Thick snow
shrouded everything everywhere creating a mind-bending landscape,
and they were too exhausted to attempt to recognize anything. It
was shocking how they could have got lost!

They should
have stuck to being in the tunnel! They could easily have entered
the other half of the tunnel in the morning!

The blackness
and snow had turned to a nightmare!