The Lost Treasure Map Series (78 page)

The mess was shocking! Things had
deteriorated and fungus had shrouded everything at one time and an
ancient bed was left rotted away within the room, with small
amounts of ancient furniture around the edges falling to pieces,
and Bryson attempted to age it all but never succeeded.

“
This bed is almost
human,
”
Merton muttered, humorously, examining its remains, watching
a dust cloud from their entrance float in beams of light, from
streaks of light coming through a thin crack in the roof, from
powerful starlight now going overhead, and they looked at it all
with some fascination!

There were many mysteries everywhere and
Bryson noticed nobody attempted to make any claims at answering it
all! They took things as they appeared about them. Yet surely
something might arrive to allow them to explain them!

They then crept around the room shifting
things with fascination, and Bryson spotted part of a drawing in
some rubbish and quickly removed it and examined it as he listened
to the creaks and cracks of Merton making his way across the
rubbish scattered across the floor to view it.

“
That
’
s strange!
”
Merton stated, as he moved in
close.

“
What is?
”
Bryson replied, trying to see what
he was staring at.

“
Those trees in it,
”
he answered.
“
They are almost
Earth trees!
”

“
So they are!
”
he replied, realizing that he had
missed it.

Bryson
’s
attention fell on the bed again
trying to imagine what age it was, but he could not be sure. There
was a large amount of differences and there was no reason for it
being there.

The place interested him and he liked such
places and their history, imagining all the past events and what
strange beings had been there, and all the many hours and days and
thoughts that they had spent there and all the things that they had
done, and he wondered what the future would hold for there and
fantasized it being in the future. What would the future be for the
island? And what would the outcome of their investigations there
be?

What would happen if the island arrived back
at the Earth and stayed there? Would this be the end of the
desolation of it? And would the place be so deadly that they would
have to isolate it from humanity?

A small drawer became visible under the legs
of some piece of furniture in the corner of the room and he saw it
had not been seen, and investigated it with interest, while he
considered the room from different perspectives. He wondered if the
people had just slowly left there after the damage there or if they
had all left to go somewhere else, or had they all just died out
there?

The stiff drawer revealed it had been full
of old clothes that had rotted away and he looked through it
considering what had been there, but there was not enough of it
left.

Mortimer never investigated anything any
further and watched on, while Merton copied Bryson and searched
unusual places and any objects that he came to.

“
This place gets more
gruesome!
”
Bryson muttered.
“
It must have been the biggest castle ever
built! And it could have held a future race too! It must have been
the most magnificence building to live in at one time, with luxury
beyond other people
’
s wildest dreams! And look at where it ended
up! One of the worst deadliest places!
”

He wondered if something might occur to
mankind in millions of years with the world turning desolate like
the castle? Could this be really what happens to the whole of
civilization? Will the remains of the human race end up living in
the remains of everything, treating it as desolate gruesome remains
of an ancient race obsessed with wealth and power, building immense
structures for unknown strange reasons?

“
An incredible place with perhaps an
even more incredible history!
”
he remarked, flicking a strange insect away
from him.

“
Do you think that we are making a
mistake being here?
”
Merton asked, seeing his change of
feelings.
“
This place could be cursed with deaths? And
not just in small amounts?
”

“
A buried away ruthless place with
many lost secrets!
”

“
Let
’s
check somewhere
else!
” Mortimer moaned
loudly.

As they left they were amazed at how far the
others were going to search there now, and Mortimer gave a
surprised look at what some of the archeologists were doing and
that they were frantically yanking up types of floorboards all over
the place, as well as in specific places.

As Bryson followed Merton along the corridor
he watched Merton become surprised and stand with his mouth wide
open, and one of the men there whispered something in his ear and
he realized something and nodded back in agreement, making Bryson
wonder what they had realized, and why their search techniques had
turned frantic.

“
A
good
way!
”
Merton revealed.
“
We can get this place searched
properly if they all carry on like this!
”

“
Why is this floor so different from
the rest of the castle?
”
Bryson muttered out loud, trying to discover
some hidden away clue to what had happened there.

It was like being an insect in the back of a
television and trying to realize what was there, and trying to see
it at an entirely new perspective.

When nobody answered or showed the slightest
bit of interest, and they were all more involved in their work, he
moved along the corridor and realized that it was a good idea
copying and helping them search again.

He
remained ready to go to anywhere when anything was occurring,
and
wandered around just to see what he randomly found
and stopped at what looked like antiques, wondering what they were
worth. The owners were immensely wealthy and could easily have left
things of value!

His next surprise was that the others were
more interested than he had thought in checking the value of the
things. He knew how eager the Exploration Association members and
Parker were in getting hold of the treasure, but he thought that
they were more interested in scientific discoveries like Merton and
Mortimer.

While he searched a repetitive forceful
hammering appeared in the distance and occasionally interrupted him
enough to stop and listen and wonder why someone was so determined
to break through something!

He realized how much he liked and missed
treasure hunting and the quest, and the discovery of the technology
advances and highly advanced technology was fascinating and
realized why he was there more than ever. The quest, the
exhilaration, the thrill of the chase and unraveling clues gave him
immense excitement and adrenalin surges! He was sure there was
stuff all over the place after seeing their reactions and the
things there already!

Yet even if they found new technology, there
was a good chance that they could not work out what made it tick,
as with the walls of the lower castle! How could they find its
secrets? Some of the scientists said that they had managed to get
samples of it! Yet even if they managed to break one of the walls
to pieces he was sure they would not be capable of properly
studying what made it work, and with returning with it to the
Earth! Did the technology need more advanced technology to study it
properly?

While he considered the
castle
’
s
interior from various perspectives sounds in the background
escalated into a furious rummaging and banging, and he heard the
archeologists excited voices mingled within, which made everyone
about him stand alert and listen. What was happening? What had they
missed by not checking there?

The sounds sounded as if they had really
found something and were trying breakthrough something to get
it!

Bryson stood next to Merton and watched the
room far along the corridor where clouds of dust puffed out, and
heavy thuds of rock being used smashed something open and were
accelerating louder, almost climaxing with them breaking through,
and the people around Bryson marched quickly there, and he joined
them.

“
What the hell are they up
to?
”
Merton
moaned loudly, glaring ahead, fascinated.

The archeologists were strange to them, and
even to the Exploration Association members that they were
connected to, especially them carrying guns on the surveillance
airplane flight!

Bryson still followed behind the
others and watched the room ahead
–
where the cloud of dust increased
in size and moved along the corridor towards them, and they heard
and felt the shudders go through the structure around them, with
the sounds of boulders crashing across the floor, and they knew
that they had broken through to something.

Their looks at each other changed to
bewildered glances, and then to observing everything as they
approached there, and they finally got to the doorway and saw
chunks and pieces of rock scattered everywhere across the room and
the archeologists crowded around an area of the floor where there
was a deep black hole, which they had smashed the floor away to
reveal.

They had discovered a hollow region below
there, where there was a hole leading down. Yet Bryson wondered
what the fuss was about! Plenty of structures could have hollow
regions in them, and he tried to question one of the archeologists
about it but he ignored him, and kept his mouth closed!

One of them finally told them that they had
found that the stone floor had a hole in it, where it had caved in,
and that they had seen a chamber below with something in it when
they shown light through.

Bryson measured the floor with amazement and
realized that he had not even considered it, even after being in
the last castles. It was too modern looking, and not like the old
castles he had seen, and he was fascinated that it was more common
than he had thought. It was phenomenal how thick the floor between
the top floor and the lower floor was, but he had no way of
noticing it as the region between the floors was covered at the
stairs, where they would only have seen it, and it never looked
large enough to conceal anything from where they had been, and he
recalled the other castles and what they had been like.

Yet why had someone gone to such lengths to
conceal this one?

The archeologists saw objects hidden away in
the chamber below and they viciously smashed heavy rocks against
the thick hard stone to make the hole bigger for them to climb in,
and chunks of rocks started crumbling away and crashed down, and
they got ready to climb in.

Chapter 11

The Chamber

Bryson swiftly shifted over to the chamber
once an archeologist there moved away, where there was only room
for one person.

He copied him and lay across the floor with
his head and upper body entering the chamber.

He could not even guess how long it had been
hidden away for! The place had confused their logical deductions
all over the place, and they could not make proper assumptions and
Bryson was surprised that even the most advanced scientists were
stumped.

The obscurity there was full of chilling
deadly silence, with the vast centuries that it had rested there
making it hideous. There was a sensation of death having occurred
there, and it being buried away in one of the deadliest
regions.

Dead alien insects hung everywhere around
the edges of the chamber and Bryson waved his hand in circles
scraping them away from him.

In dimness below, just in the
light
’
s
range, he watched dim gleams from things in stones reflect dim
light, producing a magical effect upon his hazy sight.

Faint echoes of his breathing could be heard
in its extraordinary silence in the chamber, and he sensed that the
archaeologists behind him had found something there and he could
not realize where or what it was!

The descriptions that some of the
archaeologists finally murmured made it unacceptable to believe
what they suggested the chamber was! They specified that the
location was a resting place of something! His mind conjured up
vague visions of spooky alien ghosts resting there.

Water splashed over his face as it dripped
from a crack in the roof overhead, and he moved sideways from
it.

With it away he moved back and cleaned
it away from his face and he watched an
archeologist
’
s light at his side explore the chamber,
which had been clearly cut out using the same method as the canyon,
tunnel, and castle stone.

The chamber was small and things in it
looked fragile and he believed they would be damaged if he entered
it, and he had glimpses of things and tried to guess what they had
been, and he listened to the surreal echoes of the archaeologists
giving their thoughts of what was there.

He shifted his arms slowly down into it and
an archeologist moved in close and shone the light right into
it.