Under The Ancients (in the process)

Chapter 1

I pried at the rusted metal door, sealed by centuries of being out of use. My archaeological team and I had been exploring the ruins of the ancient metropolis, which the inhabitants called “New York city” for years now finding rich artifacts and learning about the ancient culture. Earlier this year, we were digging in what appeared to be a rubble covered asphalt path resembling ones found in other civilizations from the time, like New Orleans, and Austin, both down south maybe, with some connection to the northern city. We came across a pitch black system of ancient catacombs, lined with fading cave paintings, that were colorful absurd, and abstractly resembled the characters of the language that connects us to the ancient people: English. We were attracted to the catacomb the ancient art, and the idea of a tunnel system attracted us so, we broke ground. When we broke ground to take out the roof for entry into the catacombs, pickaxes broke the concrete cover, and my team and I descended into unknown darkness, that had not been seen for 1026 years. When we entered on that day in 3139, the tunnels reeked of dead animals and gasoline (an oil based substance that provided power to ancient machines that was bad for us and is why our world is as polluted as it is). 

The special shovel we were using to pry open the door in the side of the round concrete tube, that appeared to go on for miles, was not making the door move at all. We needed to complete this exploration. So, we decided to use an unprofessional tool only used by tomb raiders, the Z2000 laser cutter. We took out the laser hole cutter. “The cutter is out” John an archaeologist from the Republic of North Africa and southeast Eurasia exclaimed. 

“Lets do this” Said Erick the expert on ancient culture. 

We chose a radius to cut that we could all fit through with our gear.We cut the hole. There was a loud crash from the falling metal circle that echoed throughout the tunnel. Through the door, we found a room with many monitors and keyboards from ancient computers,a worn out desk chair looking ready to break, and ancient cup like items on the floor. Being Archaeologists we went to work dusting off artifacts, bagging them, taking ancient hard drives from the computers to take to the base camp for computer analyzation. We uncovered a common artifact from the time, a special plastic rod with a small button that makes a metal ink covered sharp tip. Printed on the plastic rod was what appeared to be an ancient company's logo “BIC”. My team and I extracted the artifacts from our mysterious ancestors’ society and began our long journey back to camp. The metal rods from our ancestors which guided the ancient cars sometimes found in the tunnels, lay parallel to the walls, some broken, some rusted, all dangerous. The ancient tunnel system creaked as we advanced towards base camp along the dimly glowing LED paint-coated line we had left to help us find our way back to the camp.  The creaking began again, but this time louder and echoed much longer and louder. Then came the rumbling. We heard loud rumbling down the tunnel we were traveling through. We turned the corner, the metal rods were not connected but were pointing straight into the ancient, paint and dust blanketing the wall. The rumble. Then a screech. An ear-smashing crash came, and one of the ancient carts barreled down the inclined tunnel. My team exchanged curses and then we all lined up against the wall, looking for safe shelter like another door. The cart barreled fast getting much closer every second. 5 second, no door. 4 seconds,no door. 3 seconds, no door. 2 seconds,no door, but a cavity in the wall. 1 second all but one of us had fit into the wall’s shallow cavity, all but one... 0 seconds, the cart clipped the last crew member. We heard a scream, and suddenly we were down an archaeologist. The cart flew down hitting the wall on the corner causing the wall to fall in on itself on the side that was facing the cart's origin. Suddenly there was a peaceful silence. My team and I slowly exited the life saving, just too small cavity in the wall of the mysteriously dangerous tunnels. We trekked to the cart's origin and found the cart fell due to another cave in forcing it down. We turned on our 78 hour lamps, and set up base camp next to the same cavity. We emptied our backpacks of all our emergency survival and field gear. There was muffled crying originating from the scared members of my team.

 We had 12 78-hour lamps, 36 MRE’s (meals ready to eat), 12 bottles of water, our Z2000 laser cutter, a water filtration system,a backpack generator, and shovels and tools from field work. We placed the lamps around camp, and put up our temporary shelters. The tunnel seemed to wrap itself around us. my watches small indiglo light glowed reading 19:23. My team was checking themselves for cuts scrapes bruises and other injuries. I slowly attempted to make my way to the rest of my tem avoiding debris and broken rails. The tunnel was only about 18 meters wide so getting across to my team was a very short stroll. I approached my assistant team leader I started to acknowledge him "We need to come up with a..."

"Hey amigo chill, we should sit down set up chairs and then study the map and make a plan." he told me in a quiet voice.

"NO, I CAN'T CHILL WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU BRO!? HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO CHILL!"  I heard my voice echo everyone was staring.

"WHAT ARE Y'ALL LOOKING AT? SET UP THE CAMP"

I decided to quiet myself down.

"what do you think we should do?.."

"Amigo chill I cant think like this for one we need oxygen we only have 48 hours of oxygen, we only have supplies for three days and thats if we all have 1 meal a day. Also we are really low on water only 12 bottles for 12 people...WE NEED TO FIND A WAY OUT!" he exclaimed.

"Ok lets chill" I replied.

We put down our emergency compact cots and sat across from each other staring at each other both with a stressed look in our eyes. I took out my notebook and wrote our problems down, looking for a solution.