The Assumption (The Hypothesis of Giants Series, Book One)

Chapter 10: Plymouth Tartarus

"Otus what are you doing here?" she cried out, not believing this was happening.

"Glad to see you too!" He smiled and propped her into the overalls pocket where Mrs. Xiomy was lying down, passed out. Aurora quickly hurried to her side and tried to shake her awake out of her fainting spell.

Aurora looked up at Otus and asked, "Where is Boreas?"

"He is safe. He'll explain everything once we get there."

"Once we get where?"

Mrs. Xiomy came out of her unconscious state and then screamed a high, piercing scream that turned into a fit of hysterical laughter. Mrs. Xiomy then fainted again and was lying lifeless in Otus's pocket, her head leaning against Aurora's chest. Otus continued taking huge leaps into the air, and in the distance Aurora could make out sirens signaling their escape. Fear once again overwhelmed her knowing that the Inspector would be looking for them. She clutched onto Mrs. Xiomy's hand until they reached the Candlewick Park cave where Otus had been hiding for the past three days. Aurora spotted the Fiat hidden in the forsythia bushes, and she felt her heart skip a beat knowing that Boreas must have driven it here. Did he even have a license? She hoped Newton was all right.

Otus removed the wooden panel and started to trudge through the cave, and Aurora searched madly for Boreas, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Otus, where is he?" she asked fearful that Boreas was not as fortunate as them with their narrow escape.

Otus smiled back. "Boreas is safe. You will see him in a minute. We have to get out of this cave before it fills with water."

She had no idea what he was talking about as they headed deeper into the dark cold cave. The water was up to Otus's ankles, and he had to duck in order to not hit his head on the top of the cave ceiling. There were some graffiti art on the sides of the cave that was barely legible that read, "No Trespassing" and "Haunted." There was nothing and no one else in that cave. They reached the solid wall foundation at the back, and it was a dead end. The water was now gushing with great velocity into the cave due to high tide and was already up to Otus's waistline. There was nowhere else to turn. The water continued to rise, inching higher and higher. Otus pushed on the cave wall, and it appeared to be moving. It was not the end of the cave wall at all but an illusion, and before she could comprehend this fact, the granite wall continued opening like elevator doors and revealed a glass structure that was as large as the cave wall itself. Otus took a careful step onto the glass floor of the contraption, and the cave walls started to close them in like a sarcophagus. A grated floor drained the water out of the contraption that they were now in. It was pitch dark, and Aurora began to feel as if they were trapped. Just then the walls began to vibrate, and Aurora dug her nails into Otus's skin, alarmed, as they started to plummet downward into the Atlantic Ocean.

"We are going under!" Aurora cried out in disbelief. "We will be killed!"

Otus laughed heartily. "That's what I thought too! But I'm still here. Unless it's my ghost that is carrying you."

Aurora didn't have a choice but to trust Otus as the elevator continued to submerge beneath sea level and shot out like a rocket from the cave and into the ocean.

Aurora could not believe that she could breathe. She was sure that her lungs would collapse from the pressure like so many deep sea divers she had read about. However, oxygen pumped into her lungs just as it would on land. They continued to travel on a vertical course, and the glass elevator cast a minimal amount of light as it illuminated sea turtles, fish, and beautiful coral and anemone swaying with the ocean current. The elevator itself was a remarkable invention, octagonal in shape with each panel made out of glass, and though electronically run, it did not have any wires attached. It was being controlled by a central hub.