The Hunt For Atlantis

definitely…

Another clunk, the sound of something large and heavy moving behind the slot in the wall. A mechanism-

Bang!

The pressure on Chase’s arms suddenly increased.

“Jesus!” he gasped, caught by surprise. An extra fifty pounds, at least, had been dropped onto the weight he was already supporting. His elbows bent… and the ceiling began to move faster.

“Shit!” Muscles straining, he forced his arms straight again.

The descending stones slowed-slightly. The passage was only five feet high now, and still shrinking.

“Keep going!” Kari cried. Only eight feet to go, seven, but each step she took became smaller as she fought to keep her balance in her unnatural position.

Chase heard the mechanism rattle again. Teeth clenched, he gasped, “Watch out!” just as-bang! -another weight fell, even heavier than the last. He roared as he forced his arms to stay locked under the extra strain. He was now supporting well over three hundred pounds, and the impact alone when the new weight dropped had almost slammed the bar out of his grip.

One more like that, and the challenge would be over.

The ceiling jolted sharply downwards before slowing again. It hit Kari, making her stumble and fall against one of the poles. A jagged barb stabbed deep into her left bicep. She choked back a scream, trying to pull herself free of the spike, but the ceiling pressed relentlessly down on to her, driving the barb deeper into her arm.

“Nina!” she groaned through the pain. “I’m stuck! You’ll have to get to the end!”

Nina looked down the passage. Only six feet to go-but Kari was blocking the easiest route between the poles. “I can’t make it!”

“Yes you can! You have to! Nina, go!” Kari released her hand.

Sweat streaming down his face, Chase heard the mechanism again. Another weight was about to drop. “I can’t hold it!”

Nina moved.

Bent over, head scraping along the shuddering ceiling, she squashed herself as hard as she could against one wall and squeezed through the first gap. A barb ripped her shirt, but she was through.

Four feet.

Chase braced himself for the impact of the next stone, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hold it.

Nina twisted between the next two poles, but the ceiling was now too low for her to walk upright. She dropped to a crawl, another spike slicing one thigh.

The cold stone blocks pressed against Kari’s face and shoulders, forcing the spike deeper into her arm.

Two feet-

Clunk!

“Shit…” grunted Chase, every muscle tensing.

Nina saw the dark hole set in the far wall start to disappear behind the last ceiling block.

The pain in her arm became unbearable. Kari screamed.

As did Chase, his straining arms finally giving way under the pounding sledgehammer impact of the final weight.

The ceiling shot downwards.

Nina lunged for the hole as the last block dropped like a guillotine blade.

Her hand closed around something: a wooden handle. She pulled it.

Nothing happened-

Thunk.

With an echoing crunch of stone, the ceiling stopped.

Chase opened his eyes. In the distant light, he saw that the wooden bar was now resting an inch above his neck-and barely the length of a finger above that was the cold stone that had been about to crush him.

Kari held perfectly still. Any movement just made the pain in her arm worse. She tried to see what had happened to Nina.

Nina’s right arm was inside the hole in the wall. Trapped inside. The ceiling had dropped so low that she couldn’t pull it back out. Another inch, and it would have first crushed the bone, then sheared off her arm above the elbow.

With another monstrous grinding of stone and a flurry of dust, the ceiling started to ascend.

Chase glanced to his side. The door blocking the entrance opened again.

Nina snatched her arm out of the hole and looked back. Kari’s face, lit spookily from below by the flashlight, was full of pain-but also an almost disbelieving relief. Nina picked her way back through the poles to help her. With a moan, Kari lifted herself off the spike. Blood gushed through the hole in her sleeve.

“Oh God,” Nina said, pressing her hand against the wound. “Eddie! Eddie! Kari’s hurt, she needs help!”

“She’s not the only one,” Chase gasped as he slid out from beneath the bar, then rolled off the stone bench. He pushed himself to his feet, aching arms barely cooperating. “I need some light.”

Nina took the light and directed it down the passage so Chase could make his way through the poles. By the time he was halfway through, the ceiling had returned to its original position and the awful noise had stopped.

There was another clunk, this time from the dead end of the passage.

Nina whipped the flashlight around to see an opening appear, one of the stone blocks in the wall pivoting backwards to reveal darkness beyond.

“Nina…” said Kari, looking at the blood on her shoulder.

“Forget about me, you’re hurt worse than I am. Eddie!”

Barely fitting between the poles, the barbs plucking at his leather jacket, Chase reached them. “What happened? Let me see.”

Nina held up the light. “One of these spikes got her.”

“Jesus,” Chase muttered, carefully peeling back the wet material for a better look. “That’s deep-and the first aid kit’s outside in the village.”

“Forget that,” said Kari, struggling upright. “We don’t have time, we’ve got to keep moving. How long have we got?”

Chase raised his arm to look at his watch, letting out a strained grunt. “Are you okay?” Nina asked.

“Feels like some bugger dropped a car on me. We’ve got… forty-nine minutes.”

“And two challenges to go,” Nina said ruefully.

“We can do them,” said Kari, no doubt in her voice. “Come on.”

Once through the opening, Chase insisted that they stop so he could treat the women’s wounds. By ripping off Kari’s torn sleeve he was able to tie it around her arm to slow the bleeding. The injury to Nina’s shoulder was less deep, so he wadded up one of her sleeves and used it as a makeshift bandage.

“That’s the best I can do for now,” he said apologetically. “You’ll both need stitches when we get back out. And shots too. Don’t want some nasty little bastard insect infecting you with anything.”

Nina shuddered. “God. I can’t believe how close that was.”

“Still got two more to go,” Chase reminded her.

“Yeah, thanks for the reassurance. And you’re sweating.”

“I think this officially counts as hassle.”

“We’ve beaten the Challenge of Strength,” said Kari, cautiously flexing her arm and wincing a little. “So we’ve still got the Challenge of Skill, and of Mind.”

“I was going to say that I hope they’re easier than the last one,” Chase said, “but… I’m not getting that feeling.”