Buffalo Mesa Mummy

Chapter 14

A few minutes later they stood looking down the tunnel that they hoped would bring them to where Samantha’s body lay. The passage was about seven feet high and five wide in most places and the floor was pretty smooth.

Peter and Maria walked side by side with her holding the lantern so they could see around them. Charlie, who was tall enough to see over their shoulders, followed close behind.

“How long do you think it took for this to be carved out of the rock?” Charlie asked.

“Thousands, tens of thousands of years, maybe. I don’t know. It doesn’t rain a lot around here so it would seem like it would take a pretty long time.” Peter surmised.

“But,” Maria said, “Remember this whole area was the bottom of a sea at one time. Maybe when the water went away there was a lot more rain than there is now. All this was grassland at one time so it must have rained more back then. Remember why this is called Buffalo Mesa? Cave drawings showing herds of Bison grazing on fields of grass have been found right around here.”

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter how or when this passage got here. We are here now and so is Samantha McMillan.” Charlie stated, more anxious to move than talk.

Reminded of their quest, they continued on in silence for a while. Sometimes the passageway narrowed and they had to go single file and several times the ceiling was so low they almost had to crawl.

“Shouldn’t we be getting close now?” Charlie asked.

“Not yet. It seems like we are moving faster and farther than we are, but I imagine we are nearly half way.” Peter answered. 

The passage had narrowed to about two feet wide and Peter was in front on the other two. He stopped so suddenly Maria ran into the back of him and Charlie crashed into both of them.

“What is the matter?” Maria asked as she lifted the lantern, which she had barely kept from dropping, over Peters head and looked past him. All she could see in front of them was water.

Charlie crowded in to see what was going on.

“That looks like water.” Charlie stated.

“You think?” Maria said as she rolled her eyes.

“Can we get past it?” Maria asked.

Instead of answering, Peter stepped forward carefully until he was right at the edge of the water and scanned the area. He took a flashlight from his fanny pack and shined it around the wall of the room. The water covered the floor of a large room at least fifty feet across and he could see that there was no way around the water.

“How deep is it?” Maria asked and then added, “It looks cold.”

In answer Peter took off his left shoe and sock and then slowly placed his foot in the water. The water went up to his calf before he touched bottom.

“Oh, it isn’t too cold.” Peter said through clenched teeth.

“Peter says it isn’t too very cold, so that means it is like one degree above freezing solid.” Maria snorted.

“I will see how far I can get.” Peter stated as he took off his other shoe and carefully eased himself across the pool of water. By the time he got a third of the way across the water was just above his knees.

“So far so good! I can see the bottom and it is pretty flat.” Peter called across his shoulder.

“Isn’t this when he disappears under the water and thrashes around while a creature everyone thought was extinct pulls him into the depths of the bottomless pit?” Charlie whispered to Maria.