Descent of Earth

 Chapter 1

By Joseph Badon

Chapter 1

The Wayside

"I think I've found something!  It's here!  It's here!"  The youngest struggled for breath.

"what is it Blain?  Did you find it?  Is this the spot?"

Dropping to his knees,  Blain begins frantically brushing off the dirt revealing the hidden door underneath.  "It's here Alfred,  just as the scroll said… the hidden passage to the 'Ladder of Jacob'!"

"Let me see this,"  Nudging his way into the huddle, Gregory, the oldest and wisest investigates, "Hmmph, could be…"

"Could be?"  Alfred interrupts, "Could be?  Blain is right.  This is precisely where the ancient texts predicts the entrance of the tunnel to be.  This will lead us straight to the 'Ladder of Jacob'… the greatest archeological find since the Dead Sea Scrolls.  It right where it says!  And all you can do is speculate?"

Gregory pauses… "Open her up."

"wait a second!"  Jeffrey cautiously interjects, cupping his hard safari hat in his hands, "You know that dusty old scroll also warned us of intruding on the artifact.  Whoever wrote those directions might be setting us up for a trap."

Gregory waves his hand, hushing Jeffery and pausing once more…

"open her up."

Heeding the instructions of their leader,  the other three slowly and carefully open the very heavy and very dusty stone door.  Light creeps into the hole beneath and a large gasp of air emits from the earth below the explorers feet.  The four friends pause for a moment as fear seems to pass through each of them as a cold chill. 

"Okay… I'm a little freaked out."  Mumbles Jeffrey.

"Lay the door down."  Gregory directs as he hurries for the closest lantern.

            The sun begins to set and darkness quickly falls.  The desert cools down very fast this time of year and this fact only seems to unnerve a couple of the curious explorers.  Great trembling seems to be in the air.

Lowering a lantern into the dark hole beneath only serves to reveal an ancient staircase, roughly hewn out of raw rock as though no human hands could have made it but perfectly formed as granite stairs.  The oldest and wisest extends his hand gripping the large burning lantern into the blackness as far as his nerves will take him. 

"Oh my.."

"That… Where?"

"Where does it end?"

            The rough stairwell seemed to go on forever.  It seems to travel downward as far as the lamp would take them.

"I need more light."  The oldest gruffed out a few words.

Blain dashed off into what is now the blackness of desert.

"Here's the spotlight sir"

"fire it up."

            The thousand candle spotlight seemed to very slowly warm up as though it knew anticipation was great.  Either that or God seemed to slow down time for the expectation was unbearable. 

            As soon as the bulb warmed and the tunnle's contents were revealed an unusual gasp came over all four of them…. It seems that even the powerful spotlight was not enough to reach the stairwell's destination.

There a moment of silence and awe.

"Pack up… " Gregory broke up the silence, "We're going in!"

"Where are we going?"  Jefferey Questioned.

"We're descending into the Earth."

"What?  Are you crazy?"  Jefferey threw up his hands, "into the dark endless cave?  We don't have the supplies!  We don't have the time, support, or the funding!  We could all die down there!  We don't know what's down there!"

"Now you look here," Gregory rebuttles, starting to get a little red.  Jabbing his right pointer finger into his left hand as though about to make a valid point, Gregory fires away; "I have been researching this for half of my life,  if we turn back now to get more funding, the French or the Germans could find out and like that…" Snapping his fingers, "They could make the find and it would be all over.  Do you hear me?  All over!"

Blain and Alfred slowly walk behind Gregory as to show their support.

Jefferey stands astonished, "You are all crazy!" Waving his hands as if he were washing himself from the whole thing,  "You can all go be crazy together.  I'm going to be safe.  This is far enough for me.  I quit."

"Fine."  Gregory easily agrees, "Blain, call one of the locals to pick up Jefferey when the sun rises…"

Gregory slowly eyeballs each of his three companions individually…"As for me… I'm going in."