The World Beneath: Part 1

I was originally gonna post The World Beneath on Day of the Dinosaur and split it into two parts. But because Day of the Dinosaur was postponed, I decided to post Part 1 today, and Part 2 tomorrow on Day of the Dinosaur. Enjoy... The World Beneath Location: Gold Mine near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula Pedro traveled down the mine shaft, pick axe in hand. The tunnel is damp, the occasional drop of water splattering on the cold, hard ground. Pedro does not really like the other mine workers, he prefers to work alone. As he nears the end of the tunnel, he realizes it’s a dead end. Pedro swings his pick at the stone, the sound of metal on rock sounds throughout the mine. He swings again and a crack begins to form. He swings one final time and the wall gives way. A falling rock lands on his helmet, knocking out his head lamp. As he peers down the dark tunnel, he barely makes out a silhouette. Then, two yellow, reptilian eyes form in the dark. The creature snarls and a row of glistening white teeth form. Pedro begins to yell, but his yell gets choked off as something grabs his throat. A few hours later, the other workers come to the site. All that’s there is a pick axe, helmet, and a single tooth. Location: Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania John Smith, the museum’s lead paleontologist, is in the lab examining a hadrosaur bone when the door opens with a squeak. He looks up and sees his fellow researcher Gregory Jones enter, holding a small plastic bag. “Hey John. You got a minute,” Gregory asked. “Yeah, what’s up,” John replied. “This came in the mail today,” Greg says as he holds up the bag. “Looks like a tooth.” “Sure is, but notice something unique?” “Other than it’s a dinosaur tooth, not really.” “How about the fact that it’s not a fossil.” “Let me see it,” John says as he takes the bag from Greg. John takes the tooth out of the bag and walks over to a microscope. As he places it on the stand, his reaction turns from confusion to shock. “Well I’ll be damned.” “I know. I couldn’t believe it at first either.” “It is certainly not a fossil.” “Can you tell what species it is?” “Oh yeah, it’s a Deinonychus.” “The man-sized raptor with a nasty set of claws?” “You got it.” “Oh, my favorite,” Greg said sarcastically. “Where’d this come from?” “Gold mine near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Why do you ask?” “We’re gonna take a little trip,” John said with a grin. Location: Private airport 6 miles outside of Washington DC John and his brother Brian, who agreed to come along, approach the airport. At the entrance stands Greg. “We all ready?” Greg asked. “Not quite, we have one more person coming,” John replied. As if on cue, a forest green Jeep Wrangler pulled up. A tall man wearing tan cargo shorts and a matching hunting vest and shirt exits the Jeep. In his hand was a gun case. “Who’s that?” asked Greg. “You’ll see,” John said with a wink. The man approached the group and immediately introduced himself. “I’m Led Timmons.” “The big game hunter?” asked Brian, surprise clearly in his voice. “Yep. Your brother invited me along. I figured it might be worth it. Might find some pretty nice trophies on this trip.” “What kind of gun is that?” Greg asked eyeing the case in Led’s hand. “DSR-50. This bad boy will drop an elephant at six hundred yards,” Led said with pride in his voice. “Come on, we’re wasting time,” Brian said with growing impatience. “You’re right. Let’s get moving,” John finally said. As the team began to get on the plane, John looked out at the landscape before him. He knew this trip would be dangerous and wanted to take one more look at the world he knew before he left. Then, he walked in and took his seat. The plane began to lift off. Destination, Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Location: Gold Mine, now abandoned As the team pulled up to the gold mine, Greg started getting a little nervous. He knew what might be down there. All they had for protection was Led’s rifle and the pistols he, Brian, and John brought just to be safe. He kept these thoughts to himself though. He didn’t want to sound like a coward. The car they rented came to a halt about ten yards from the mine entrance. After checking their supplies, the team headed in. It was extremely dark, and they had to turn on their flashlights immediately. As they made their way down the shaft, the group found the tunnel Pedro took. “Let’s go,” John said with determination. After a short walk, they find the opening Pedro created. The spot he was attacked. After checking the immediate area, they continued on. Finally, after nearly a half hour of walking, the team sees light ahead. “I guess that’s where it leads,” remarked Brian. The four men have to squint as the reach the exit due to the bright light. Before them is perhaps the most amazing sight in the world. They are standing on a massive overlook on the side of a cliff. On either side is a trail leading down to ground level. But the most fantastic part is the scene before them. A huge area of forests, fields, and rivers are spread out in front of them. Moving amongst the plants, herds of dinosaurs go about their daily business. Small herbivores like Dryosaurus dart between the legs of the larger ceratopsians, hadrosaurs, and stegosaurs. But even these giants are dwarfed by the massive sauropods like Titanosaurus browsing on the treetops. “Extraordinary,” exclaimed John. “I can understand why there’s water, probably from underground lakes and streams, but why is there light down here?” asked Brian. “There, said Greg, look at the “ceiling”. Looks like some kind of bacteria growing up there and I guess they give off light.” The four men are utterly awestruck. While they thought there may be dinosaurs down here, they never though in a million years, or in this case, sixty-five million years, there would actually be dinosaurs down here. “Which is your favorite?” Greg asked. “Out of this group? I’d say the Triceratops herd over there,” John said pointing at the group of elephant sized, three horned dinosaurs. “I like the one’s with the crazy crests. What are they called? Oh yeah, Parasaurolophus,” Brian replied. “I don’t know exact names,” Led admitted, “but those big ones over there look cool,” he said pointing at a trio of Titanosaurus’. As the team stares at the dinosaurs, Brian gets the feeling something’s behind them. His thought is confirmed when he feels the breath of something on his back. It smells faintly of fish and rotting flesh. The four turn to see a massive creature standing behind them. The Spinosaurus snarls as he flexes his massive arms, the giant claws hanging ominously at the end of each finger. The tall sail on his back turns from dull brown to bright red in a sign of aggression as he bares the long teeth in his crocodile like jaws. “Run!” John yells as the Spinosaurus let’s out a blood-curdling screech. The team runs down one of the trails, the Spinosaurus just a few feet behind them. As the four men reach the bottom of the trail, they turn and run into the dense forest. The Spinosaurus manages to smash through a few of the trees, but the forest is just too dense for him to enter. With a final roar, he turns and moves on in frustration. After running a considerable distance anyways, the men finally stop. “I think we lost him,” John finally says. The four men sit down and rest for a minute. They each take a sip of water from their flasks and soon, they’re back on their feet. It takes a second to register, but they soon realize they ran farther than they thought. As they exit the forest, the realize they walked the wrong way and are now even farther from the cave. In fact, they’ve walked another ten miles from the cave and did not even realize it. The team is now looking at a small clearing in the forest. A herd of small Dryosaurus browse before them. “What do you suggest we do John?” asked Brian. “Well, we came down here to research dinosaurs and that’s what we’ll do,” replied John bluntly. “Works for me. I could use a nice long vacation anyways,” Brian said with a chuckle. “Hello! Does anyone else realize we were just attacked by a seven ton killing machine!” Greg shouts. “Relax Greg. We won’t be down here too long. We’ll slowly make our way back to the cave and observe the dinosaurs and ecosystem along the way,” John said. “Works for me,” Led quipped. “Fine, but if something happens, I’m blaming you John,” Greg warned. “I think I can live with that,” John said with a smirk. Location: Large Field about 18 miles from the cave The team is making it’s way through a field when they came across one of the many rivers in the underground world. “Let’s stop and refill our flasks,” Led suggested. “Sounds like a plan,” agreed Brian. While refilling their flasks, a herd of Stegosaurus’ eventually showed up to quench their thirst. “Let’s get out of their way. They may be vegetarians, but who knows how they’ll react to us,” said John. The four men slowly begin to back away from the multi-ton herbivores. However, Greg accidentally steps on a stick and it breaks with a loud crack. The stegosaurs have poor eyesight and react violently to anything they can’t see. The herd bellows loudly, and using their noses, charges the group of men. “Get out of their way!” yelled Brian. The stegosaurs are somewhat slow and the team escapes them pretty easily. They start following the river upstream and pass a mixed herd of Triceratops and Iguanodons.It seems as though the Triceratops have an affinity for ferns, while the Iguanodons prefer shrubs. “They look really majestic when they aren’t trying to kill us,” Greg remarked. “They’re animals Greg. They’ll do what they do,” John replied. “I suppose,” Greg said finally. “Hey, is it getting darker,” Brian said, noticing the ever growing darkness. “Yeah it is,” Led agreed. “I guess the bacteria are going to “sleep” and when they do, they stop giving off light,” John said. The team stood there for a minute as the dinosaurs begin to leave the field, each going to their respective bedding areas. “I suggest we find a place to make camp,” Led finally said. “Sounds good,” John agreed. Location: Clearing surrounded by forest The group huddles around a small campfire that Led made as they eat the dinner they brought with them. Without stars or a moon, the night is completely pitch black. The surrounding forest buzzes with activity as insects and other nocturnal creatures go about their business. The four men exchange idle chit chat and trade food, unaware of the dangers of a forest at night. Led just told a joke when Brian noticed something. “Everyone quiet,” Brian commanded. “What is it,” Greg whispered. “Look over there,” Brian said pointing to their left. As the men looked in the direction of Brian’s outstretched finger, two yellow eyes appeared. Then two more sets appeared. The first creature snarled, his white teeth showing splotches of dried blood on them. Then the men heard a snap behind them and whirled around to see four more sets of eyes. “Deinonychus,” John whispered simply. “What do we do,” Greg asked. “Just wait. We’re not sure of their intentions yet,” John said. More eyes begin to appear around the team. The four men draw their guns and make a circle around the fire. The circle of eyes begin to move closer to the group. “I’m getting really uncomfortable right now,” whispered Brian. “Just stay calm,” John warned. Then, without warning, a raptor leaped out of the forest, it’s thirteen foot body sailing through the air, deadly sickle claws extended. With amazing speed, Brian raised his gun and fired, hitting the raptor right in it’s feathered chest. The deadly predator’s lifeless body falls to the ground. Two more raptors attack, this time, they charge the group on foot. Together, John and Led raise their guns and take out the attackers. Just then, Greg let’s out a cry of pain. The group turns to see his shoulder slashed open clear to bone thanks to a raptor’s sickle claw. Brian shoots the raptor in the head and it falls immediately. John then picks up a fire covered log and hurls it at the raptors. The raptors scatter and the smell of burnt flesh and feathers fills the air. Finally, the raptors leave. “Alright, sit down Greg,” John said panting. As Greg sits down holding his bleeding shoulder, Led gets the first-aid kit and starts to work on the injury. “This should do the trick for now,” Led said applying a bandage after sanitizing the injury. “How do you know,” questioned Greg. “When you’re a big game hunter, you tend to learn how to take care of animal injuries pretty quickly,” Led replied. As Greg shrugged, a move he regretted due to the pain, John stood up. “We’ll post a guard and switch off every hour throughout the night,” he said. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll take the first shift if you want,” Led said. Nobody objected to this. As the night went on, the four men took turns watching each other’s back until morning. End of Part 1 Spinosaurus- [img]http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130521065413/primeval/images/1/18/Spino-4.1-2.jpg[/img] [img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RrgmTgRyli8/T6rZmIYh7xI/AAAAAAAAAL0/km5zKUsJw_E/s1600/Spinosaurus4.jpg[/img] [img]http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130521064948/primeval/images/a/aa/Spino-4.1-1.jpg[/img] Deinonychus- [img]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120803012339/dinosaurs/images/4/4d/COTDDeinonychus.jpg[/img] [img]http://netstorage.discovery.com/feeds/brightcove/asset-stills/dsc/125995790888012962900901197_102TerribleClaw.jpg[/img] (I will have pics for all the carnivores used).