Free Aegis: Catalyst Grove by Nathan Roten

the door behind them.   Graham led the way to the back side of the desk, where he had been just a few hours before.   Counting the squares, Graham settled his right hand on the 5 th section.   “This one.   This is the door.”   Using his hand this time, Graham pushed against the hidden door until he heard the click.   Letting off pressure, the door moved a few inches letting a small gust hit Damien’s face.
    “ Asombroso!   This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!”  
    Reaching into his left pant pocket, Graham pulled out a small plastic flashlight he had gotten as a gift years ago.   It was a child’s toy, but since they did not get gifts often, Graham had taken good care of it.   He pushed the little black switch up and the hidden staircase flooded with light.   The stairs were steep and covered with cobwebs.   Pointing his light to the left wall, he pointed to the tic marks on the wall.  
    “See, I told ya.”  
    “Wow.   These were made by slaves all those years ago?”  
    “Yea, I guess.   This led them to their freedom, and now, it is going to lead to ours.”
    Graham could hardly contain his excitement.   They were going to do it.   They were going on their first real adventure.   This went well beyond sneaking around and eavesdropping on conversations.   They were about to step into a secret tunnel of which they had no idea where it would lead to.   They were going to tromp through the forest during the darkest part of the night and make their way to a secret meeting with people who could do things that seemed impossible.   This is the sort of thing you only read about in books, but tonight, it was all really happening.
    “You ok?   What are you waiting for?” asked Damien.
    Coming back from his thoughts, Graham looked at Damien with a smile on his face.   “Nothing amigo.   Absolutely nothing.   I have never been better.”
    Testing each step by easing their bodyweight onto it, they made their way down the staircase.   Graham turned around to the door, taking hold of the small strap on the backside and closed it shut.   Now on the dirt floor, Graham took the lead as he shined his flashlight down the path.   It was pretty impressive.   About every ten feet or so, there were large rustic timbers bracing the walls and ceiling of the narrow tunnel.   Graham could almost stretch out his arms and touch both walls at the same time.  
    Resisting the urge to explore, they both knew they were under a restricted time limit.   Picking up speed, they began jogging down the tunnel ducking under large cobwebs and passing boxes of blankets and small barrels.   Graham kept count of the timber braces as they ran through the tunnel.   They must have been a good 800 feet from the stairs now.  
    Graham slowed down a little to catch his breath.   Damien was right beside him and matched his pace.   At the very end of the beam of light, Damien could see the beginning of another set of stairs.
    “We made it.   We are at the other end!”   Ecstatic, Damien took off in a sprint towards the stairs.  
    “Hey, wait up!   You are going to break your neck running in the dark.”  
    Graham took off after Damien trying to shine the light ahead of him so that he didn’t run into anything.   Damien never did enjoy confined spaces, nor did he like dark spaces, especially when those spaces have been in the dark for decades.   There was no telling what sorts of creatures and crawling insects were down here.   The sooner he could get out, the better.   Not concerning himself with testing the stairs, Damien leaped from the ground and made his way to the top.   Before the word “STOP” could come out of Graham’s mouth, Damien’s head slammed against a large wooden trap door which appeared to be part of the floor of the structure above.
    “OUCH!!” cried Damen.
    “I told you to wait up.”  
    “Shut it,” Damien said, rubbing the small bump forming on the top of his head.   “I