TWENTY YEARS LATER


“Is there a reason why we have to be out here right now?” Faber asked. “We already finished documenting the jellyfish in the area.”

“Boss wants us to check out some strange currents by this island.” Gambello responded. They had been working off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada for a couple days now documenting the influx of jellyfish that was invading the area. So far the results had been inconclusive even though they had the full backing of the Canadian government. It was frustrating for them, especially since they were used to more exciting projects. Dominic Faber and Al Gambello were best friends from birth and part of a salvage unit in the Canadian Navy, but had education in the field of marine biology. That’s why they were in a very different project than normal. It also had something to do with punishment for running a little side job as sports bookies on the bases. Strictly against protocol. Their past performance was the only reason that they still worked for the Navy and weren’t discharged.

As they headed to the island, they put their surveying equipment in the water. Getting closer to the island, they noticed the abnormal reading on the equipment. Running out to the deck, Gambello saw Faber struggling with the equipment. The devices were rushing past the boat deep in the water making the cable taut. Gambello leaped at Faber and they threw themselves at the deck just before the cable snapped. The whiplash from the cable destroyed some of the windows on the bridge and scratched the paint, but other than that there wasn’t any damage. Picking themselves up off the deck, Faber wordlessly thanked Gambello. They had saved eachothers lives so many times that they stopped keeping track.

“How could something have that much torque on the cable?” Faber wondered out loud. “The cables won’t snap unless there was 1200 pounds of weight.” Whether it was an animal that did that, or some insane current that snapped the current, Faber was determined to find out. “Let’s head down there and find out what caused that.” Gambello wasn’t too keen on the idea, but there was no way that he would let Faber go down there without a diving partner.

The crew gave them the OK sign and the two of them dropped into the water, immersing themselves in the frigid Canadian water. They waited for the bubbles to clear up, and when they looked beyond their masks there was nothing out of the ordinary. Gambello was lower in the water than Faber, so he took the lead heading to where the device was transmitting. As he travelled deeper he noticed that the current seemed to be picking up. “Slow down Faber.” he said through his radio. He wanted to be cautious about what they did, the device was picked up easily and almost flipped the boat shortly before. As he floated there he noticed the current was making him drift farther from the boat. He corrected his course and drifted up to meet with Faber. As they rose, there was a large shadow racing towards them from the depths. Faber saw it first and shoved Gambello away. He kicked away from the beast as it raced past them and buffeted them both. Gambello was shoved out of harms way and he floated to the surface a little dazed. Faber wasn’t so lucky. He was knocked down deeper towards the strong current and was swept away. He was tumbling away from the boat, going faster and faster towards the cliff wall of Oak Island. His arms were flailing around and he felt his hand hit something. Acting on instinct he grabbed on for dear life.

Gambello arrived up on the boat and immediately looked for spare tanks so he could go down and find his companion. The crew subdued him though, preventing him from going to his own death, even though he was raving about losing the only person who was close to him. As the truth hit him he collapsed on the deck, all the life gone out of him.


“Gambello, we have a new reading from the device we lost earlier.” A crewman said a couple minutes later.

“Double check your reading.” he replied. It hadn’t moved for the past hour, why would it move now? Then it hit him. “Wait! Tell me the reading.” he yelled at the crewman.

“It seems to be on the island.” Gambello knew it had to be Faber. There would be no other explanation that he could think of that would cause the device to move. Well, the only explanation he wanted to believe at least. They accelerated toward the island, and Gambello was the first one out of the boat. Following the GPS on the device, the crew headed towards the center of the island. Instead of finding a washed up device or Faber, there was a hole. Just a giant hole in the ground. There looked to be some sort of construction, but that had been ages ago based on the rotting planks. There were platforms at various levels of the pit, and there seemed to be algae in some locations. There was no water around them, so it was puzzling to the men. Gambello started to head towards the planks leading into the depths of the pit.

“Are you serious?” The captain asked Gambello.

“Completely.” he replied. “I want you and your men to go to the ship and radio in a rescue crew. I’m pretty sure we’ll need it.” As the men left him, one stayed behind with him to assist. “Tanner, are you ready to delve into Hell?” Gambello said him.

Without anything else, the two men headed down the pit, making sure to step cautiously along the rotting planks.

Faber was rushing towards the cliff at a breakneck pace. He closed his eyes as he approached the cliff. Making peace with his maker, he braced for impact. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes again and realized he was racing through a giant tunnel in the side of the cliff. Spreading himself out to create drag, he noticed for the first time what he grabbed. The device was trailing closely behind, sending out a GPS ping every couple seconds. “Maybe there’s still hope for me.” Faber thought.
The current slowed a little the farther he got into the tunnel, enough so that he could hear a loud buzz fill the water around him. Rounding a curve, he peered through the darkness. Horror filled him when he found the source of the buzz. Faber was still moving towards a giant fan at a swift pace, though still not as fast as when he first entered. Just as soon as he was going to cut through the fan, he felt a jarring impact across his back. He had hit one of the few bars across the tunnel and was wrapped around it. Slick seaweed coated the bar and Faber started to slip towards the fan again. Grabbing the seaweed, he narrowly avoided going into the fan, but this wouldn’t hold for long. He started looking for an escape, and nearly missed the small maintenance door to his left. Struggling over to the door, he narrowly avoided being pulled into the fan. As he reached the door, he latched onto the handle and pulled with all his remaining strength. The door wouldn’t budge. Faber’s grip was slipping off the handle but he was determined to hold on. He tasted stale air and looked down at his air gauge. “I’m out of air.” he realized. Everything seemed to go quiet as darkness descended over Faber.

“Hold on to my hand!” Gambello shouted. Tanner had stepped on a bad plank and crashed through the platform. He managed to land awkwardly on a rock outcropping, but the fall took out the levels above the two men. There was no going back. Tanner’s leg was twisted in a painful position underneath him and he cried out in pain as he reached out to Gambello. The dust was swirling around them as thick as fog.
Tanner made a last ditch effort to reach Gambello’s hand, and succeeded. He hung there with his bad leg hanging lamely. Gambello heaved Tanner up and an animal like scream emerged from his throat. As Tanner’s leg was pulled over the side of the platform, his broken leg flopped around banging painfully on the wood planks. Heaving him over the side, Gambello paused for a short breath before he thought about what he had to do next.
“I don’t want to leave you up here.” he said to Tanner.
“Go ahead, I can’t walk like this, even with some support.” Tanner replied. He was right, the bone was protruding from his skin a little bit, and he was sobbing with every breath.
Gambello found a small chunk of wood that didn’t seem too mossy. “Bite down on this.” he told Tanner. Gambello reached down and gingerly took one of Tanner’s arms and continued to put him into a firemans hold. Tanner moaned through the wood, but he didn’t pass out, so there was a bright side to everythingl. Gambello walked down the planks with Tanner across his shoulders, taking careful steps.
After a while, he heard a slight drip of water below him. Getting down the final plank, he found a large pool of water. The only way to continue on was to take a tunnel carved into the side of the wall.
“At least we’ll be walking on a flat surface.” Gambello thought. He was tired from climbing down the platforms and paused for another breather. He leaned against the wall with Tanner still on his back. He was afraid of setting him down, because it would’ve been too painful for Tanner to be picked back up.
While he was resting, a low growl emerged from inside the tunnel.

Faber remembered snippets of conversations and blurry images as he drifted in and out of consciousness.
“BP falling fast!” he remembered.
“Bring the defib.” another voice said. The rest of the voices sounded mumbled and jumbled together as Faber passed into sweet darkness again. Many people say it’s a bad feeling to be out cold, but in reality there is no feeling. There’s a floating sensation, and unlike sleep there aren’t any dreams. It’s just nothing, almost like being dead.
He woke up in a small room, lying on a bed. The room was sparsely furnished. There weren’t any windows, and the door was made of thick steel plates. The ground was concrete with one light flickering from the ceiling. All in all, it was basically a jail cell.
Faber attempted to get up, but immediately stopped when he a sharp pain shoot up his back. He groaned loudly as he sank back into his cot, appreciating that his saviors had the decency to give him a blanket. Apparently someone outside must have heard him, as a few minutes later there was a clank and rattle of a key as the lock was disengaged. The door opened up, and in walked in a small man in a doctor’s coat. He was maybe 60 or so with thinning grey hair and a slight limp in his step.
“How are you feeling?” he asked Faber as he started checking his breathing. “You were almost sucked in there. Luckily one of our sensors was tripped and the fan was immediately shut down.”
“Where am I?” Faber asked. He had many questions, but thought that this was the most pressing.
“You, my friend, are at the most secret place in Canada. Even the government doesn’t know we’re down here. You are in the Money Pit.”
Faber was stunned into silence. “Even the government doesn’t know about this? What am I doing here?” he thought. His mind was working in overdrive. Even though this man wasn’t hostile, he had been locked up before he came in. The man finished his check up on Faber and took a step back.
“You seem to be fine internally.” the man said. “We took X-Rays and MRI’s. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong, although your back was hit pretty hard and my be sore for a couple days. Why don’t I show you where you’ll be staying.
Faber just nodded as the man helped him out of the cot. There was a wheelchair out in the corridor, and the man helped him into that before wheeling Faber away. The facility was spectacular. The fact that this had remained a secret for so long was miraculous. The man, who introduced himself as Henry Lawson, pointed out the crews quarters, which would have rivaled any cruise ships amenities. There was a lounge and bar with pool tables for off time, along with a full movie theatre and game room. As Faber was pushed to the sleeping arrangements, he noticed what looked like windows. “That’s impossible.” he thought. “We’re in the bottom of a pit.”
Lawson noticed that he was staring at the “window” and said, “it’s a screen projecting the outside view. It reminds everybody what the sun looks like, even if they don’t actually feel it’s heat.”
Faber’s room was far from the cell the he was in earlier. The bed was opulent and there was a plush red carpet covering the floor. On one wall was a floor to ceiling bookcase and on the other was a T.V. screen that was, at the moment, giving news about the Money Pit. The complex was basically a city, and it was all underground. The engineering that it must’ve taken to accomplish this task would have been immense and many years in the making.
Even though Faber thought the complex was a marvel of engineering, he was still confused about what it was for. For all he knew, it could be a nuclear testing base. He prepared to exit the wheelchair, but Lawson motioned him back down. “Do you want to know why we’re here, young man?” he asked Faber.
After Faber nodded, Lawson remained silent and started to push his chair deeper into the bowels of the complex.

Gambello was talking his time, walking through the tunnel with Tanner still on his back. There was a great darkness descending on them. It was more than the lack of light from the receding mouth of the tunnel. A deep sense of malice emerged from deeper within the tunnel. Every now and then a low growl escaped from further down the tunnel, which at first made Gambello hesitate. It had become such a common occurrence, though, that he began to think it was just some timbers groaning from the weight of the earth above them. The darkness was continuously engulfing the two men. They were isolated from civilization, deep in an unknown territory stumbling along in darkness. The growl or groan, whatever it was, came suddenly directly in front of the men. Accompanied was the soft padding of footsteps. There was no doubt that this was some animal, and not the groaning of timbers. Gambello heard a snarl that was less than five feet in front of him. As his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, he saw the hunched shadow of what seemed like a lion. "That's impossible." He thought. "We're in the middle of Canada." As the cat made a move to spring at the defenseless figure of Gambello, who away still carrying Tanner, a loud CLANG filled the air. The cat was distracted for just a moment, but it was the moment that Gambello needed. Gambello scooped up a rock and he swiftly placed Tanner on the ground in the same motion as he raced towards the distracted cat. There was a small struggle, but once the dust cleared, Gambello emerged victorious. Getting a closer look, Gambello noticed massive fangs. It almost seemed like the saber tooth tiger from the movie The Ice Age. He didn’t have time to ponder the situation, as voices drifted towards him from deeper within the tunnel. As lights approached, he yelled and waved his arms around. The voices started to come increasingly closer, with the pounding of footsteps accompanying it. As they approached Gambello, they noticed the tiger lying beside him, dead.
“Well, it looks like he found the subject.” One of the men said. One of the women raced towards the tiger and examined him.
“How could you do this?” She demanded. “You have no idea how much trouble you have caused us!”
Gambello said nothing, he just gestured to Tanner who was leaned against the wall of the tunnel. His eyelids were half open, but they were glazed over. When the women saw him, she gasped. Tanner’s health had declined rapidly since his leg broke. He had acquired an infection from the wound in his leg and it was spreading to the rest of his body. The others created a makeshift stretcher with their shirts and lifted him onto it. Gambello and the strangers raced deeper into the tunnel, until they reached a large metal door. “This must have been the source of the loud clang.” Gambello thought. The door slid open once they got close, presumably somebody was watching and opened it for them. The men carrying Tanner raced to the left, and Gambello went to follow, but the woman and a couple others steered him down another hallway. He was directed into a small cell like room, with one cot and a flickering light. It looked like it had been occupied recently. He waited a couple hours and still nobody had come for him.

It took a little while to get to where they were going, so Faber and Lawson traded stories. Faber recounted how he had been sucked into a slipstream under the water after he had been hit by a large object. Lawson later told him how he had been one of the miners in the the last major dig on the Money Pit. He was sent down in the shaft to find a cavern that the crew had found a treasure chest in, among other things. While he was down there, it was flooded just after he found the cavern so he escaped, but vowed to return. They commander hadn’t been found after the flood, so the dig was abandoned. Just before everybody left Lawson made another trip down to the cavern, to find more than just a few chests of gold and a severed hand. When looked at closely, though, it seemed more like a fin on a small fish than a human hand. In the chests there were rare gems, beautiful jewelry, and more. Those discoveries were awe inspiring, but they paled in comparison to the greatest prize. Knowledge. There were thousands of chests filled with what looked like fossils from dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. It could help learn more about the past than ever before.
The most shocking discovery was a small room built into the side of the cavern. On one wall was a perfectly preserved human, or at first glance what looked like a human. Upon further investigation, the feet and hands were replaced with individual fins, and there were gills on both cheeks. The mouth was lined with small, pointed teeth. On a table on the other side of the room there was a waterproof case with blueprints. Piles of blueprints that designed a machine that could do the impossible. It brought the fossils back to life.
“You’re kidding me.” Faber said after this comment.
“Absolutely not. These machines are the most astounding things I’ve ever seen.” Lawson replied. He pushed Faber through a set of doors, and the ceiling just disappeared. It was such a large room, that there would have been no problem fitting two aircraft carriers in it. On one side of the massive room were rows and rows of cages. They stretched as far as Faber could see. Roars and growls emerged from some of the cages. Lining the wall was a giant machine that was covered in screens, buttons, and flashing lights. Suddenly a loud BEEP filled the room, and a panel in the machine slid back. Faber sat there stunned as out walked a mammoth. This wasn’t some elephant with a mutation. It was a legitimate mammoth. As he looked closer at the cages, there were assorted creatures that poked their heads out.
“These machines took billions of dollars to make, not that it was really a money issue. The treasure more than covered all the expenses. The facility was already made. Among the blueprints, we found a map that pointed us towards an entrance. It was much easier, but it opened up to the room you are standing in now, we added the crews quarters after we arrived. Unfortunately there were no other lucky breaks. The room was littered with bodies, both prehistoric creatures, and the fish people that we encountered earlier. The machine was completely ruined and the only thing we salvaged from it was scrap metal. It was remarkable work though. The water is pumped into the pipes that run along the side, and then the machine strips the electrons from the water to use as energy. The water has the added affect of keeping everything from overheating. It then uses the energy to reanimate the fossils. We have to reconstruct the fossils though, which makes it pretty difficult, otherwise the fossils are vaporized. Luckily the blueprints I talked about earlier have the diagrams for many of the creatures here.”
Faber was left with an overwhelming sense of awe. Around him history was being rewritten.
“Based on the reanimations of these animals, we have determined that many of the ideas that we thought were true, are in fact false. For example, the Tyrannosaurus Rex while thought to be the most feared predator, was actually a herbivore. It’s been tough work finding him food, as the sharp teeth are for biting through entire trunks of trees. Trees are the main staple for their diet. We have had to cut trees down around the island, but even that hasn’t been enough to feed our one Tyrannosaurus Rex. We’ve had to bring trees in through our supply submarine. That may be what hit you when you were diving.”
Faber looked at the biggest cage, and there was in fact a T-Rex eating a tree. Snapping it in half with its massive jaws. His thoughts were interrupted by a voice from Lawson’s radio. “Sir, we have the identity of the three intruders. They all work together.”
“Ah, that is good news.” he said, shutting off the radio. Then to Faber, “Let’s go meet your friend Albert Gambello.”

Gambello saw the door open, and in walked the last person he expected. Tears ran down his cheeks as Faber embraced him. All the searching had led to Faber in the end. He knew Faber hadn’t died in the water. After they had caught up, a young man rushed into the room. “Mr. Lawson.” he said. “We’ve found it. We found the location of Atlantis.”
“I understand you two are involved in salvaging.” Lawson said to Gambello and Faber.