Underground Pizza Delivery

Chapter 3 - An Unexpected Discovery

The next day at school, most of the boys were noticeably anxious. Vance's mother couldn't help but be surprised by how quiet he was at breakfast. Paul and Ricky barely spoke a word to each other the entire day, which may have been normal for Paul, but it was strange for Ricky to not crack at least one joke in the morning. They were all nervous about their after-school plans, but Dennis on the other hand was ecstatic. From the moment he got home, he barely took his eyes off from his textbook. This didn't come as a surprise to his parents. Dennis was always an avid reader, but if they had any idea what he was reading, he surely would've been grounded for at least a week, but Dennis was careful to keep the cover hidden.

By the time Dennis got to class that morning, he had finished reading nearly two thirds of the entire textbook. He decided instead of reading during class like he did the day before, he would try to pay attention, but instead, all he could do was daydream about what they might find at the history museum. He imagined giant statues and sculptors of the Prokopian kings and gifted heroes he read about. He imagined skeletons of ancient creatures that roamed Prokopios hanging from the ceiling and paintings done by famous Prokopian artists of the major battles and historic events. For a second day in a row, his new teachers were disappointed in the student they anticipated being their star pupil, but Dennis was okay with that. For the first time in his life, he wasn't worried about school, or what others thought about him. He was just excited about the possibilities of what might lie ahead that day.

As soon as the final bell rang, he went straight to Gamill Park and patiently waited for the rest of the boys to get there. He had been reading for about 10 minutes when they finally got there.

"All right Dee, we're all here!" Vance called out with an obvious sarcasm. "So, which way is your bookmark museum?"

"See that gate?" Dennis replied, while pointing towards an opening to the surface that looked exactly like the gate that he went down the day before. "If we go down there, we can make it to the museum in 10 minutes"

Paul politely raised his right hand, keeping his left warmly in his blue sweater pocket.

"What if it's locked?" He asked.

"Good question!" Dennis replied. "I already checked, and the weirdest thing has been going on. None of the gates have been locked since yesterday. The guards must have forgotten to lock them or something."

Truth was, over the past few years, the guards rarely ever locked the gates. Since no one ever thought of going underneath, it was pointless. The worse thing that would happen would be people throwing trash in themselves, and all that did was save them a trip.

"Well then. What are we waiting for? Let's go to the surface!" Ricky said, surprisingly excited, but not at the idea of the museum as much as the opportunity to do something illegal with his best friends.

With that, they all quietly began walking towards the gate, and sure enough, just as Dennis said, it was unlocked. Dennis held the gate door open while keeping a look out, while the others because their descent down the rusted metal ladder.

As Vance passed Dennis, he leaned over and whispered, "I swear Dennis, if we die down here, I'm killing you"

Dennis didn't even bother pointing out the problem with Vance's logic. He closed the gate behind him and started climbing down. When he got to the bottom, the others were waiting, and barely able to see each other. Dennis had forgotten how bad the visibility was down there. Thankfully, this time he came prepared, and pulled out the flashlight he borrowed from his parents.

He turned his wrist too look at his homemade smart watch and waited for the map to load. Once it fully rendered, he pointed towards the direction the map told him to go.