The Mountain and The City: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale (32 page)

The hairy man looks away and says, “Ladies and gentlemen, the harbinger of doom,” and a bunch of people we can't see start to laugh. He turns the camera around to show all the people talking and taking pictures. The ones in front look like news people. The way Mom sits up, I can tell she's surprised.

“Please excuse our leader,” she smiles, “he likes to dig first and ask questions later. We believe he watched too many action movies as a kid.”

The camera suddenly shakes and turns back to the hairy man. He looks mad, but he talks like he's trying to hide it from the news people. “Yes, well, aren't we all about ready for some answers?” They clap and yell. Very quietly I hear mom call the hairy man a word I can't say. “As you know, to my left is the first, entirely new and previously unknown dig site in years. It was such a well-kept secret, in fact, that we were only led here by deciphering clues found on several artifacts recovered sixty miles from here. That and the most expensive x-ray satellite in human history, which our sponsors can to.”

One of the people with no mouths behind us says, “Such a ham.”

Another says, “That should be you there.”

“Just let him have his day in the sun,” mom tells them.

The hairy man points behind him. “If you make your way to the entrance, you'll find my team waiting for you. I'll join you there just as soon as I get hooked up here.” He fake smiles until they leave, then he turns back to the camera. “What the hell was that?”

“You're the one throwing insults. If we're lucky enough to have another dig after you screw this one up, stick to the schedule we agree on.”

The hairy man grabs the camera and puts it on his ear so we can see what he's seeing: news people, tents, machines, and a big rope around an even bigger hole. Science people stand all around it, doing things that look important.

“It's only two hours,” the hairy man says, “it's not the end of the world.”

**

The hole in the ground is bigger than I thought it was. It's so big that if our house fell into it, it would eat the house up and ask for more. It isn't empty, though. It has one of the triangle buildings down in it.

“That's what your mother was doing all summer,” mom says.

“You built that?”

A couple people laugh. “Digging it up, silly. I couldn't build something that big if I had ten summers.”

“But you built the hole, didn't you? And the hole is even bigger than the building.”

“Good point. I like the way you look at things.” She types on the computer and brings up one of the news channels, then she flicks it with her finger up to the big screen. She types in another and tells me to get this one. I flick it and it shoots up to the screen to join the other one. Now we can see the triangle building from three, different ways.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the hairy man says to the news people, “if you direct your attention to the sand under your feet, you'll find it isn't like any you've ever seen. That's because we've changed the way it binds together by altering its static cohesion. That's what keeps a hole of this size from collapsing back into itself. We got the idea from Howard Carter, a legend in the field who solved a similar problem by wetting the sand, if you can imagine. Consider this a complicated modernization of that poetically simple solution.”

One of the people behind us says, “He doesn't even bother to mention that it was Cait's invention.”

“That's alright.” Mom pulls the hair away from my face. “The important thing is what we find inside.”

**

I don't like when too many people look at me. When that happens it's good to put water on my face and feel how cool it is on my cheeks.

I come back from the bathroom to see mom waving me over, saying, “You're missing it!” On the screen, the hairy man and the news are all showing the exact, same thing: a machine up against a flat rock, and the flat rock has a picture of an eye on it. Mom says it's the eye of Horus, a symbol of protection.

There's a high, loud sound like at the dentist's office and then CRACK the wall breaks right in half. All the news people lean in to take pictures of the flat rock being pulled out of the way by the machine, but then this WOOSH of air comes out of the dark and blows their hair and clothes, and the people shout like they smell something bad, the news people, the science people, all of them coughing and spitting.

“Is everyone okay?” Mom sounds worried. “Can you hear me?”

The science person next to us hits the buttons so fast I can't see his fingers. “The air sensors picked up a broad spectrum of foreign matter. I'm comparing it against the bacteria catalog.”

“Check for carcinogens while you're at it. Phillip, are you there?”

There's loud coughing as the screen shows the hairy man's feet. Something wet splashes the sand and Mom turns my head away as I realize what it is.

“I'm alright,” he says, “I'm alright, I'm alright. Just a little dizzy.”

“The test came back clean for anything serious,” the science person says. “Just some mild bacteria. No known toxins.”

“You should take a physical sample anyway,” mom says to the hairy man, “delay the breach until we're sure.”

“I'm not waiting three days for lab results, the air sensors are perfectly accurate.”

“Don't play it fast and loose. That site has been there three thousand years, it'll be there in three days.”

“But the cameras won't.” The hairy man walks back to the dark place where the flat rock used to be and tells the news people everything's okay.

“Phillip? Phillip? That bastard turned off his mike.” She thinks for a second. “Put me through to Alicia.”

“She's up, go ahead.”

“Alicia?”

The nice girl's face pops up on the screen. “Morning, Cait. Morning, everyone. Hi, Silvia!” She waves at me.

“Where are you right now?”

Alicia's hand gets big and she turns the screen to show a roomful of machines and glass. It's the tent mom used to call me from. She said it was a special tent, that the walls were strong because in the place with the sand and sun there was wind so bad it could rip open a regular tent.

“Didn't you want to be there when they breached the seal?”

Alicia sighs. “Phillip insisted I stay here and keep at it.”

“You're better off. He lost his breakfast the moment they got it open.”

“Are they okay?”

“Air quality is questionable. The sensors gave the go-ahead but you know I don't like to leave it at that.”

“The old Tutankhamun's revenge. Okay, I'll head out and take a sample.”

“Overnight one to my husband's lab, you'll have your hands full the next few days with all the excitement going on. And Alicia,” mom gets a serious look on her face, “wear a mask.”

Alicia's piece of the screen goes dark. One of the science people says, “Is all that necessary?”

“It doesn't hurt to be careful. We've lost too many reckless archaeologists from not taking the time to do a few simple tests.”

“Excuse me.” Everyone turns to me. “Aren't we supposed to watch history being made?”

They all laugh, and one of them says, “Careful, Cait, she'll be your boss before you know it.”

Mom smiles and makes Phillip's piece of the screen bigger. It's dark, like the screen has been shut off, until he holds up a flashlight and shows the hallway inside the triangle building.

“How does it look,” Mom asks me.

Like a place where people aren't supposed to go.

The news screens follow behind Phillip as he and three science people walk down the dirty hallway pulling webs from their hair, their flashlights showing rocks that fell from the ceiling. They point them out for the others to step around and say how amazing this is, what an honor, and I can tell it bothers mom that she's not there with them to see it.

“Perry,” she says, “get a shot of that wall to your left.” One of the screens turns and shows us a bunch of weird lines on the wall, all close together like writing but made of pictures, and everyone gasps and cheers and starts talking all at once.

“Look, a setting sun.”

“The sign of Amenta. The underworld.”

“Move further down so we can see the rest.”

All I can think is, I don't know why they're so excited. I can draw better than that.

“The sail, for air. And Sekhmet, the red lady, the sender of plagues.”

“Talk about fear of grave-robbers. They're talking about a curse like Apep himself should should be scared.”

Mom says, “Perry, Phillip, whoever...can you turn your head back to the right so we can see the rest of the passage?” A few of the screens turn. “It's the same message,” she says. “All the way down to the end, it's the same warning, repeated over and over.”

**

The machine makes the dentist sound again and CRACK the wall at the end of the hallway opens up. When the machine pulls the wall away, we can see past the hole. There's a room in there, a dark room. The flashlights hit the dust and don't go very far, so we can't see what's inside.

“The smell is stronger now,” one of the people on the screen says.

“We shouldn't rush in until we get a good visual. The satellite image could only pick up a dark spot in this chamber.”

“What's the matter, scared of running into a mummy,” Phillip asks the news screens. He steps into the cloud of dust and a few of them laugh. They stop when a scream comes from the dust and Phillip falls back on his butt.

“Phil, are you hurt?”

“Get your hands off me.” He smacks them away from helping him.

“What was it? Did you trip on something?”

He points to where the dust is lighter now. I squint until I can see a hand reaching up, a thin hand like a Halloween decoration, and behind it a face like one, too, with big holes where the eyes are supposed to be.

“It's just a skeleton,” mom says into my ear. “We all have one.”

“I'm not scared,” I lie.

Someone says,“That's interesting. It's not mummified.”

“There's another. And a third.”

“Look!” One of the news people points to the wall that's being held onto by the machine. On the side that looked into the room it's all scratched up, like someone was trying to get out. Like they scratched it with their fingernails.

“Jesus Christ,” a man says, “they were buried alive.”

It's quiet for a second, then the news people start shouting questions and taking pictures, FLASH, FLASH, and Phillip is telling them to be quiet, stay back, FLASH, FLASH, he warned them about no flash photography, FLASH, and he's still yelling when he realizes they're not taking pictures anymore.

They're looking behind him.

The dust is clear now and we can see into the room. It's the size of my backyard and there's five, no six, no seven skeletons on the floor, some of them on top of each other, some of them against the wall, and in the middle there's a giant hole that goes straight down into the ground, darker than the room. The news screens follow Phillip and Perry and the other science people through the wall and into the room. The science people shine their flashlights down into the hole but it's like trying to make the night go away with a nightlight- all you do is see how dark your room really is.

The walls of the hole are made of rocks. Black rocks. Phillip looks up into one of the screens, and for the first time he doesn't look like he's angry or about to make a mean joke.

“This isn't a tomb,” he says.

“What is it?”

“It's...I don't know. It's some kind of entrance.”

**

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

“Can I come in?

Sometimes my heart feels like the door, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, and when that happens I need to put water on my face and feel how cold it is. Just a little while by myself so I can breathe okay. This never used to happen to me before. Not until-

“Everyone's gone, Sil, I sent them home.” When the door opens mom is talking quiet. “Your face is all wet,” she says.

“It feels good.”

She pushes the wet hair over my ears. “It was just a little get-together to celebrate the big day, if I knew it would be like this I never would have invited them.” She looks over at my lamp. “Can I turn this back on? It's dark in here.”

“It feels good.”

She breathes out, a sound she makes a lot these days. “You know you can always talk to me. You can tell me what bothers you and we can work on it. That's what I'm here for.”

My things are all over the place. I should put them away so I know where they are. I hate when I can't find a toy I'm looking for, everything should be in a place, one place where you can always find it.

“Sil. Please talk to me.”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK again. I don't like this feeling.