The Lost Treasure Map Series (89 page)

Cameron examined the end of the rope to see
how it broke and realized that it broke as he and the others had
been moving around a lot while coming down, and he realized that
they had not even examined it properly.

He ignored it and returned to watching
Simpson enthusiastically rolling parts of the boulder out the hole!
He realized the rope could have been cut on a sharp rock by them
rushing about, and going up or down the tunnel.

Above him, in the black shaft above, he
examined the other part of the rope dangling about, in occasionally
gusts of wind blowing in, and he searched for a sharp rock on the
side of the tunnel, and then he looked for anything that could do
it but in was far too dim, and for some reason he thought he could
easily climb there, even though it was completely vertically with
nothing to really grip.

He was sure he could do it, and wondered if
he had been some form of climber, and he was so enthralled in
finding his own identity he decided to see what would happen if he
started to climb it, and if any memories returned to him.

So he stared to climb and to his amazement
his mind and body seemed to alter and he climbed the wall of mud
and rocks in massive leaps, as though gravity never existed, not
knowing how he managed to remain up without falling, and as he
swiftly reached the rope he watched Simpson below staring up,
staggered by his speed and strange ability, and Cameron grabbed the
rope and leapt up it and was soon at the top of the well.

Chapter 3

The Wood

The whole
account of the lion was now incredible to Cameron and he could
hardly believe the events of the past days and that they were on
the trail of a massive killer lion!

The last of
the sunlight was vanishing within the small wood, in front of them,
into the western horizon, with the night there engulfing them, and
he studied his surroundings and the bright blue Linn Products
building through the trees, trying to explain why the small wood
could actually shelter the beast.

Perhaps the
lion was hungry and waiting to get a human alone! Sightings clearly
gave the wood as the location of it!

Fifteen of
their armed soldiers were there, and a few police, and he kept
wondering why the police had not been used in the first place. They
had weapons! They could have used animal handlers!

There was
something different about the lion that was extraordinary and
vastly dangerous that he could not grasp! All the soldiers and
police were in a line through the wood and they were nervous and
ready with their guns as they started searching!

Cameron
marched on with his rifle pointing at the undergrowth directly
ahead, while he watched
Simpson
, Fogler, and Hanks at his side, and saw
their eyes wide and alert, ready for action.

As they moved
on they heard a helicopter appear in the distance and they
increased their speed, but they slowed as it emerged with its sound
beating heavily everywhere, as it started circling the above wood
with its searchlight beaming through the trees, and he wondered
what the hell had they done! The lion would go crazy and he
expected the thing to come flying straight out at them through the
dark wood, and he was left considering if they could even shoot it
accurately in the environment and dimness at such a speed! He was
unsure if they could hit such a moving dark target!

“
What
the hell would that lion be doing here?” Fogler moaned, trying to
get an answer, and Cameron saw that they did not fully believe it
was there.

The wood
looked empty of animals in all the places he saw, and he considered
their search for it.

Though the
adventure brought them to life after a long rest earlier and from
inactivity! The information was little and no evidence had been
given, and in the end everything seemed to add up to little, and
yet he still thought they would find something, but it was strange.
His memory loss confused him! At times he seemed go from one
character to another as though he had been two different people,
and deep within him he sensed something was hidden away. It was
also as if he was gasping over its discovery! Which was stupid
unless it was of great danger!

The vegetation
around them was thick but suddenly his eyes darted about and
spotted something, as if he was looking for something there at
another part of his brain, and he searched what was there and he
was surprised as the plants and undergrowth were withered and burnt
as though a terrific heat had blasted through there.

To his
surprise when they moved further into the region all the soldiers
started talking of it and he saw it all across his front, as though
something of tremendous heat had been ahead somewhere, but the
strange thing was there was nothing ahead and he searched the
entire front area for signs of a fire and found nothing!

Had someone
nearby been working on something, with some form of rocket
propulsion, and the blast had gone straight through the wood?

How could
anyone over at the blue building not have noticed?

He spotted an
old gravestone and fence and saw by the soldiers there that there
was nothing there! The source seemed to be near the furthest away
point from the building and road, and he gasped for no reason and
started examining there and saw something had done incredible
damage! Something had exploded or something!

“
Looks
like kids have been camping out over there?” Simpson uttered,
examining where his eyes were on, wondering what his startled look
was for.

While they
neared the spot their reactions altered and they seemed to forget
the killer lion and started examining the place with great
interest!

All the
soldiers approached the place searching everything they could see!
Looking for explanations!

“
What
the hell happened here!” one of the soldiers replied, approaching
the place first. “Looks like someone exploded some form of
bomb!”

“
Bomb!”
Simpson replied. “Like a miniature atomic one!”

All the
ground, rocks and dirt, was melted deep into the ground by intense
heat, and the center point was covered in a strange substance and
metal.

“
What
happened here?” a police sergeant continued, wandering up to them,
picking up loose bits of the ground, and Cameron wondered if the
police would investigate it!

Chapter 4

The Discovery

Early the next morning Malone took them back
to the site to investigate what was there more decisively and to
try and answer unanswered questions that had accumulated on the
previous night!

Military
scientists arrived and they all marched into the wood to the site,
where they were going to carry out examinations of what they could
find, and remove samples.

What astounded
Cameron was that only within visible distance of there that their
attitude drastically altered! The heat from it had had more of an
effect than the soldiers had realized in the darkness! Things
somehow took a different perspective than the damage from normal
fire and heat damage and they all looked closely in detail for
why.

“
I was
just thinking!” one of the aged scientists stated. “Could it have
been the energy surge that was detected in this region?”

“
But we
do not fully know what or of the amount detected!” another
scientist stated, staring over where the occurrence took place,
with his mouth wide open.

The soldiers
were dazed and wondering what and how they had detected anything,
and what they were going to unravel there and just how dangerous it
was! Why were the scientists reacting so peculiar to it?

“
Its
powers have incredible properties,” the first scientist continued.
“There are many peculiarities here!”

“
It
looks like something sent out an energy surge!” he replied, after
he examined powerful damage to the trees, with many trees blown
over.

“
Could
that not have just been a massive wind surges?” Simpson finally
moaned.

Cameron gasped
and examined a slight look of horror on the scientist’s face, and
watched him moan back, “A weather disturbance wouldn’t do that like
that!”

“
I’ll
believe the theories when I have proof!” Simpson uttered to the
other soldiers.

“
They’re
probably altering an explosion of some unknown explosive ...”
Fogler replied. “Someone could have been testing out something from
where they worked!”

Simpson gave a
short burst of laughter, and replied, “Someone has removed some
classified explosive and tested it out! I don’t know what it is but
I somehow think it could be far more confidential for anyone to
remove anything and detonate it in a public place! Why not go up on
the moors near the army camp?”

“
It’d be
an incredible military innovation if it did!” the scientist
remarked, while listening in, making them all go silent wondering
what they were actually talking of!

“
What
happens if it is something new?” Fogler replied confused, and they
ignored him and moved in slowly to where the occurrence had
occurred, and they stood in a circle around its circular shape,
with most of them gasping at the sheer magnitude of what something
had done there.

Cameron stood
staring with his eyes wide open beside the gasping startled
scientists, who were now at a loss of words!

Fogler finally
could not help reply, “What the hell was it then?”

The region was
covered strange melted unknown substances and looked like nothing
they had seen before.

“
Are we
going to go through with releasing it to the media?” Malone firmly
asked the head scientist, to clarify the situation.

“
How can
they keep it a secret?” the scientist moaned, startled and annoyed
that his discovery might be hidden away. “The whole place may be at
the center of attention of the world media when the media
arrive!”

“
We
could chase the media away and claim it was something
else?”

The scientists
just stared at him with shock not believing what had heard, and
replied, “Alright! It could be a military secret or part of a
confidential project!”

“
We’ll
allow them here at the moment anyway! There’s nothing that can be
identified with anything! It is not customary to classify anything
without an order anyway. And if we show the media it someone may
recognize it and turn up! While they may never know of it if we
don’t!”

“
Correct!” one of the scientists acknowledged.

Away in the
distance Cameron heard a car and a voice and he was sure it was
someone from the media driving there. Even though he could not
understand how he heard it! He was sure he had never heard someone
in a vehicle before!

Chapter 5

The Media

Television and newspaper reporters and
cameramen arrived at the site to capture what they had found and
Cameron watched on shocked! One of them was one of the people he
had overheard in the car driving there and looked as he imagined
him!

They were amazed at the large military
presence and could not get to what was there, and then were more
startled at the scientists and their keenness and
secretiveness!

At the edge of the crash site they stood
confused trying to work out what it was and what had occurred, and
Cameron was amazed by how it looked and how incredible it was in
bright sunlight now blasting through the trees.

At the army camp the night before he had
become convinced that it had only looked like something in the
darkness and dim torchlight. Yet what the hell could crash almost
vertically with such force and power?

Cameron realized after a few smiling glances
from reporters that they found his facial appearance amusing, and
he wondered why almost everyone saw him at a certain distance
gasped and studied his face and appearance. It was like for almost
a few seconds they thought he was someone else and someone famous!
Someone they considered amusing! One woman reporter even moved in
close to him and started questioning him, after being unable to
ignore his resemblances, and he coolly ignored it and behaved like
a soldier and gave information of the discovery and a detailed
account of what had happened when they had found it.

What confused him more was that she
recognized his voice too!

When the police started carrying out
investigations nearby he soon forgot their reactions, and they
reported to the increasing media presence their reported accounts
of an identified flying object crashing down there, which he had a
hard time believing and he realized later that they had meant
unidentified aircraft.

The police investigations also told of the
giant killer lion that had been witnessed nearby and they realized
that it could exist again and Malone soon joined the police making
a more detailed investigation!

Accounts of what was believed to be an
earthquake tremor, an immense explosion, and sounds of what sounded
like an airplane crashing down were the most reported! Some were
startling and of a giant meteorite impact, and of a bright light
shooting down! Sightings of fierce light and smoke from burning in
the wood was later told by people nearby and on the main road. Many
thought it was some form of social gathering!

Yet nothing solved what had actually
happened, and what had crashed into the wood! Yet the media was
sure that something would be found and they had the police carry
out a national investigation, and especially to locate any missing
planes and anything that had been in the vicinity.