16 - Another Death Mission

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Pope reaches the bottom of the ladder first

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Pope reaches the bottom of the ladder first.
"Hey. Hey— come on Stella," he calls up.

"Dude, I'm coming, chill," I mumble, climbing down the last few rungs as Cleo closes the door above us. I hit the dirt floor and sweep my flashlight around, the beam catching thick, undisturbed layers of dust that made the whole space feel like something no one had breathed in for a very long time.

"Coffins. Coffins," Pope mutters, moving from one to the next with a kind of nervous, methodical reverence.

"Hey check it out. Confederate money from the Civil War," Pope says, picking up a dusty bill, the paper crumbling faintly at the edges where his fingers touched it.

"That means no one's been down here in over 100 years," I said.

"And Blackbeard was here 150 years before that. Keep pushing."

"This place gives me the creeps Pope," I mumble as we walk, the dark pressing close around the thin beam of my flashlight in a way that made my skin prickle with every step.

My light hits a cracked brick wall. I pause, stepping toward it.
"Hey Pope I found something. Look at this. Pope Pope," I called.

"Yeah?" he says, coming over.

"It looks like they walled this in." I said

He touched the brick.
"Hold on a second."

He goes to grab an old sword off the wall.

"You're using that to knock it down?" I ask, disbelief cutting through my nerves for a second.

"I mean...uh...yeah."

I stare at him for two seconds, then shove the whole section of loose bricks with my hands. It collapses easy, a soft cloud of dust and grit billowing up around us.

"Or we can do it that way," he mutters.

He peers inside.
"So...who's going in?"

"Nose goes," I say immediately, tapping my nose.

He tries, but I already beat him.
"Shit," he mumbles.

"You wanna stay out here by yourself?" he asks.

I think for a beat, weighing the two terrible options against each other.
"You still go first."

He sighs.
"Can I have my flashlight?"

"Oh— yeah sorry," I hand it over.

"Thank you," he mutters, crawling in.





I get down on all fours and crawl in after him, the tight space pressing in from every side, the stale air thick and close around us.

"I can't believe I'm doing this again. You guys know I don't like caves, and I definitely don't like tunnels. Not after the first death mission. This is bullshit." I mumbled

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