Chapter 5 5 ~ Wes ~ The Cave of Anubis

We woke up early in the morning, raring to go. Bruce and I spent some time over breakfast quizzing each other on the words, their meanings, and the etymology of each word we had to have memorized. We headed over to the mercantile for breakfast and some information on where to go.

Mr. Riggs, good morning, how you doing?"

"Doin' well boys, where are you headed today?"

"First, we need food, but afterward, we need to find some caves for my uncle. He's writing a book about some theories on the possibility of Celtic travelers in North America. There's a place called the Caves of Anubis that is supposed to be a Celtic site. Do you know where we can find it?"

"I do, but the old boy that owns them doesn't take kindly to folks goin' on his property," said Riggs.

"If you give us his name, we would be more than willing to see if he'll give us permission," I said.

"I don't know. I don't want to get him mad at me, you seem like some nice kids. Isn't it kind of weird that your uncle is sending you instead of going himself?"

"He has to be in Italy this summer on business and doesn't want this unexpected trip to slow him down on his research. He figured it would be a good experience for us," said Bruce.

"I'll give you directions to his place. I won't give you his name. It's up to you to find a way to ask him about It." said Riggs.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Riggs, we won't tell him how we found him," I said.

The ranch where the cave was located was a good five miles away. The cave itself could end up being several miles further. Another day of walking. We were lucky that was all the farther it was, we didn't have any kind of transportation of our own. It was still early morning, so we filled up our backpacks and headed down the road taking a turn at the first intersection as Mr. Riggs directed.

The house of the rancher sat alone on a small rise. Its siding was worn with the paint peeling off in crispy little flakes. The relentless wind would make short work of sandblasting the boards bare of any paint at all as the sun baked down on the surface of the house.

"I don't know why, but I'm feeling anxious about meeting this guy," said Bruce.

"Yeah, me too. I think it's just because we're in the middle of nowhere. I mean, there is no one around this part of the country for 300 miles in any direction. It's hard to believe they're still places in this country so isolated."

"You're making me feel better."

"Sorry, I think we're both feeling the fact that we're on our own in a whole new way." We stepped up on the porch and it echoed our steps like a huge wooden drum. I knocked on the door. I heard some shuffling inside. The old metal knob turned, and the door opened.

"What you boys want? Where you from? I never heard of any twins around here."

"Hi Mister, we heard you were the owner of some important caves in this area," I said.

"Who gave you my name? I'll make whoever told you pay for bringing more graffiti painting delinquents to my caves."

"Oh sir, no! My Uncle is writing a book about the Celts as the possible true discoverers of America. I assure you we have no desire to do any damage to any cave. We want no more than to take some photos and gather some information. He merely wants us to see it and document that the cave does exist before he can go further in his research."

"The last thing I need is some more archeologists coming around and bringing more traffic and people around."

"Oh no sir," said Bruce. "He already pretty much has his treatise written, as he's referencing those who have been here before. He just wanted us to substantiate their claim, so he isn't spitting in the wind by assuming it's the truth."

"Yes sir," I said. "He knows you can't always believe what you read on the internet, so he gave us this task to check out if the facts are true."

"Well, they are, so be on your way now."

"Sir, all we need to do is take one or two photos. Can we do that?" said Bruce.

"I don't have time to take you."

"If you would let us know where to go, we can just go take a couple of photos and then we'll be out of here," I said. "We'll even come back by and let you know we're on our way home."

"Okay boys, I'll give you three hours. The cave is two miles on down this road and then you'll have to turn down a driveway for another mile which goes past the bluff where the caves are. That should be plenty of time to walk there, take a couple of pictures and get back here to check in before going back the way you came-to Kenton Kabins, I'm guessing."

"Yes sir," we both said at once. "We'll make it back in three."

"You do that. If you don't, I'll send my man to come looking for you, and you don't want him to do that."

"Yes sir." We turned around and started walking at a fast clip.

"That didn't help my anxiety level," said Bruce quietly.

"Mine either. Let's go get this done and get out of here. Good storytelling, by the way," I said.

"I'm taking my cues from you. I've done enough research on these caves, I could probably write the book myself."

The walk to the cave was lonely and quiet. All we heard were the occasional call of a bird, and those were few and far between. We walked up a slow rise. The grass on the sides of the road was sparse. A mesa came into view in the distance. As we came closer, the little road that was no more than a cattle path veered off to the left toward the mesa.

"I'm thinking we're headed to the mesa," said Bruce. I don't know where else in the landscape of nothingness would have anything else like a cave in it."

"I guess we'll find out pretty quick," I said. As we got closer to the mesa, we saw a dark recess at the bottom. It was beginning to look like the photo in the packet I printed off at the library.

"There it is. Let's go over the words right quick while we walk the last little way."

"Okay, the words are expensive, governor, impression, independence, submarine, transportation, and unfinished," said Bruce. "Let's go over the meanings of the prefixes, suffixes, and root words. If we know all of those, we should be able to answer whatever the Guardian asks."

As we walked up the path to the cave, we quizzed each other, making sure we knew what it all meant. We climbed up to the cave and found it wasn't too deep. There were some interesting markings on the walls. It didn't look like anything that was left by Native Americans. We went into the main room of the cave. It wasn't deep, but it was dark. We looked around wondering where the Guardian was when suddenly everything went black.

We woke up in the back of a pickup traveling down a bumpy road with our hands tied behind our backs. "Bruce, you okay," I asked.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, I think they knocked us out with ether or something. I smell something weird, I'm not sure what it was. Why though?" I asked.

"POE," said Bruce. "Who else could it be?" The truck it a bump and jarred them.

"Ow! Oh, man. I didn't even think about that. What do you think they'll do with us? How will we meet with the Guardian if we can't meet him in the cave?" I asked.

"I don't know, we have to figure out a way to escape."