“Come on, what could possibly be holding back this much traffic?” thought Allen as his car snailed on, the road so congested that he was moving at top speeds on 15 miles per hour. Even in Connecticut, where everyone left work at the same time every day, rush hour usually didn’t slow down a highway this much.
“Just my luck if an accident happened on this road, just as I’m trying to get another look at that thing I saw earlier today.”
As Allen kept moving, he decided to listen to the traffic report on the radio. Maybe he would get some clues as to what was going on.
“Good afternoon, listener,” crackled the low signal of the traffic report, “today we have some congestion on route 16 in Connecticut. My sources tell me that police have sectioned off part of the road in order to mount an investigation. Details of said investigation have not been released as of yet, but police will be directing traffic at the neck of the congestion.”
Allen turned off the radio at that. That was all he needed to hear. “Of course, I showed the police that footage on my phone, and now they won’t let anyone near that hole.”
Sighing in disappointment, Allen drove on. Eventually, he reached the spot where the police were directing traffic. He saw that, indeed, cop cars were parked in the same spot that he had parked earlier when he saw that purple creature come out of the hole. Police were milling around, talking on their radios, and taking photos.
Looking up, Allen saw an officer wave him past, and Allen was forced to drive on, sparing one last glance at the hole in the ground.
“Sir, the chief is on the radio, and would like to speak with you.”
Officer James Rowe looked upwards to see his partner, Judith, handing him a walkie-talkie.
“Thanks Jud,” he said, talking the device and holding it up to his face. “Sargent Rowe here.” he said into the receiver.
“James, what’s the situation down there?” came the crackly voice of the chief through the device.
“Well sir, we’ve blocked off the road, as directed. It has caused some congestion in the traffic, but we’re directing the cars through it.”
“Have you investigated the hole in the ground yet?” came the reply.
“Our initial search revealed it to be some sort of mine shaft. The opening is too narrow to fit through at the moment, but a visual inspection revealed iron support bars and electric lamps hung throughout a tunnel.”
“When you say the opening is too narrow,” said the Chief, sounding uncertain, “do you mean that whoever dug the shaft had tried to bury the entrance?”
James looked back at the undisturbed grass surrounding the hole. “No sir, whoever dug this was digging upwards from underground.”
“Well Sargent, I need you to get down that hole and investigate what dug it out by any means necessary. Report back to me with any new developments.”
“Yes, sir. Over and out.” James said into the receiver, clicking the button to shut off the device.
“Hey Jud!” James called out, “Do we have any spades or shovels in the trunk?”
“Yeah,” said Judith, her head inside the cruiser’s trunk, “we’ve got some. I presume our orders are to get down there and investigate?”
“That’s right. Let’s get to work here.”
And with that, the police began digging out the ground around the hole, widening the opening. It looked like it would be pretty easy to squeeze down that shaft, although the tunnel only looked tall enough for a man to fit through if they hunched over.
“Alright, I’m going in.” said James, once the opening was large enough. “If I’m not back in 30 minutes, call the chief for back up.”
James pulled out his flashlight and headed down into the tunnel. Looking around, it seemed like a standard mine shaft. Thinking he could find some clues as to who was down here, James grabbed one of the lamps off the wall.
He couldn’t identify the brand, and the light bulb inside did not look like any brand name he knew about. Instead of screwing in, the light bulb had two wires that ran out of it, and into two ends of a cube shaped battery.
At least, James assumed it was the battery. Shining his flashlight on it, he could not see any brand name that might indicate who made it, but all he found were some weird loopy symbols on the bottom, as well as an acrid, tangy smell coming from the battery.
“These look hand made.” thought James as he put the lamp back down. “Plus, that didn’t smell like any battery acid I know. Maybe a different electrolyte was used.”
As James continued down the tunnel, he noticed that the air was getting stale, with a more artificial smell to it. Looking around, he spotted some metal canisters lying around. James guessed that they must have been the air supply that the miners used while digging this tunnel.
As James pressed onwards, he was certain of one thing. “Since these diggers were digging up, that means that this tunnel must lead somewhere else.” he thought as the slope downwards became less steep.
Eventually, James came down into a large (by comparison) cavern. Looking around, James saw some remains of discarded pickaxes, some more empty metal canisters, some lamps that had run out of energy, and most unusual of all…
“Where to now?” thought James. There were no other tunnels that led out of this cavern, and the only thing lower than the floor was a depression in the stone. Shining his flashlight down into the depression, he ran his had along its surface. It was unusually smooth, his skin couldn’t feel any bumps our contours in the stone curve.
Suddenly, James heard what sounded like a crackling sound coming from the depression. He quickly drew his hand back and backed off several paces, shining his flashlight at the spot in the cavern.
His vision was then blinded by a sudden flash of light, and James instinctively reached for his weapon, but the flash had dies down just as soon as it has come, and James suddenly realized that he was no longer alone in the cavern.
Standing in the stone depression was some kind of white furred four legged thing. It was vaguely horse like in appearance, and a long multi-colored mane and tail, and most surprising of all, a long horn jutting from its forehead, as well as a pair of wings at its sides.
Just as James was about to draw his pistol, the creature looked up at him, with large, pale eyes.
James paused for a moment. The irises were pale, with what looked like a white film over them. Perhaps this creature that had appeared out of nowhere couldn’t see him. James began edging back towards the exit of the cavern when the creature opened its mouth, and made some odd noises.
James wasn’t certain, but with the rhythm of the sounds, and the inflection that were put into them, he knew it was a sentence. This creature could speak, apparently.
“Well, I wonder how I’m going to explain this to the rest of the force…”