Excerpts Taken From Marcus P. Kellum’s Personal Journal.
three days of hauling have brought my mixture to the spot of my previous camp. we might have reached my destination sooner if it had not been for the superstitions of some of the hired labor. many had to be sent back during the journey and a few more were so frightened by the time that we reached the plateau that even waving various bills under their noses could not convince them to move any further.
nevertheless, i reached the outcropping with little or no trouble and sent them all away. i could finish by myself. after a day's labor (no small labor, i might add), i was able to arrange barrels of my explosive around the area of the cavern doors. i set up the detonator and was preparing for the blast just as night was falling - hoping to shroud my escape in the gloom of the evening.
as i twisted the last wires to my electrical charge, i heard a sound that shocked me to the very core of my bones.
"S'yaleth Gund!" said the voice and i froze.
it was the same slithering language as i had heard in my rooms so many months ago. i nervously finished my work on the detonator and did not turn around. whatever happened, i knew that it was my duty, my destiny to seal this door forever.
a jab in my back brought me out of my frozen state. for a brief second, i tasted and felt that familiar ozone flavor all around myself. i leapt to the side, grasping the detonator at the same time. i was too close, but the chance had to be taken. i had been discovered.
a boom rolled through the ground and i realized that an alarm had been sounded. i rolled in the dirt, heard that voice again, but all was lost as a gave the detonator three quick compressions and the dusk erupted in a ball of fire.
i never saw who it was who had spoken to me and jabbed at me with that horrific spear.
as the explosion went up, the rock i was lying on tilted forty-five degrees and my camp was pitched downward as the major part of the plateau sank into an ever widening hole. the great doors collapsed in on themselves and were buried under many tons of sandy rock. everything was sliding towards the great fire that was burning in the center. only a stray tree root saved me as i slid.
i hauled myself up and away from the wreck - only just in time as the entire shelf of rock disappeared in the conflagration. i managed to drag myself away from the destruction and find a spot of relative safety. i stood looked back as the whole area took on a new shape. the fires had all sunk beneath the plateau of rock, their smoke issuing from various newly formed cracks.
as i was sure my work was done, i turned to make my way back to civilization. i wiped my brow and turned back to the arduous journey ahead of me. i neared the cliffs that would lead me back to the town and began to climb down.
suddenly, a rocking boom rolled through the ground. it felt as if i were witnessing an earthquake. i scrabbled back up the path that i had come down, only to see the fleeting remnants of a gargantuan hand reaching out of the ground at the former site of the doorway. the hand was scaly and black. its size could have been compared to the size of a large city bus. it strained upward for an instant and then was pulled under the earth's crust as if it belonged to a drowning man.
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