Snow On The Tombstones: A Collection of Flash Fiction and Vignettes

A Report To The Commission On The Discovery Of 'Homo sapiens superioris'

To the members of the Commission,

I understand that it sounds crazy-- like something out of a 1950s B-sci-fi-horror movie-- but I have to get this off my chest. I have to tell someone about this, and so I have turned to the only people on the internet that I know will believe me. It is with this in mind, dear Hollow Earth Commission members, that I submit my testimony into evidence.

I am a researcher who was stationed in Antarctica who was working for an astrophysics program at the time of this event. I should mention: I'm not an astrophysicist. I'm medical personnel for the base the actual researchers work on; I was also researching the effects of Antarctica on the human body. This happened years ago and the memory plagues me, even now, as I sit in my bunk to wait out yet another blizzard.

It was on a night like this one, when the world was full of white snow and my hands were freezing inside their gloves. The researchers were stationed on a different base and I was left alone with a dog that wasn't mine. It was nice to have some time to myself, at first, but I became restless and decided to start poking around the base. (Yes, I know I'm a snoop. That's a moral failing I'm not ashamed to admit.)

It was then that I discovered that the senior researchers weren't actually here for understanding cosmic rays and solar physics. I found it in a journal kept by Rutherford F. Fullmer; it was a detailed map and account of a visit he had to a place under the earth. I assumed it was fiction, at first, but I was ultimately alarmed by the level of detail and intimate knowledge he disclosed. He also spoke of an entrance to this world inside our "hollow Earth" that I could reach by moving some boxes under the table in the storage room.

So, while I was snowed in and had nothing else to do, I decided to poke around some more and see if it was true.

And it was.

Commissioners, there is a world under our feet that is vastly different from our own. The climate is constantly tropical, which has led to the formation of a culture similar to the ones that we have, only more advanced and powerful than we could ever know. They captured me there, held me for days, and fed me little food and water. At least, they thought they were feeding me.

They're capable of consuming poison, you see, and metals. They're capable of things we can only dream of-- flight, lasers, time travel, you name it. Their mental capacity is greater than our own.

It is with great concern and the discovery of what Rutherford Fullmer called Homo sapiens superioris that I submit this report and an enclosed copy of his journal to you.