An Old Fictional Writing of Mine

Saved from Under the Ground

By: Rachel Yorty

1. Lehava Archeology High School

Gabriella was only thirteen when it started. Her family was moving to some place in Israel from her former home in America. It was nearly midnight and the van was still bumping along the paved road toward an archeology sight that they were going to.

Gabriella loved that her parents worked as being ones that rediscovered history from things that past people had left behind. Gabriella didn’t care about following in her parents’ work, but one day she happened to trip over a dinosaur bone that happened to be the one bone missing from a now complete skeleton.

This had not been long ago, in fact. It had only been about four months earlier. Her parents’ boss was so proud that they were given a promotion to go to Israel and rediscover stuff left from Bible times. As for Gabriella who had been the one to find the bone, was going to Lehava Archeology High School free of tuition charge. Gabriella was not thrilled.

Gabriella didn’t want to become an Archeologist. It was fine for her parents, but Gabriella wanted to become a simple American nurse.

Of course, this was not possible now because (1) Gabriella was fixed into being an Archeologist once she graduated from that School (or at least that’s what she would most likely get a job in), and (2) she wasn’t in America anymore, and she dearly missed it. She also missed her American friends that would speak English to her instead of the friends that she would have at her new school. Since she was in Israel, she would be forced to speak Hebrew morning and night; all day, everyday. This wasn’t a problem, though. Gabriella knew Hebrew. She had since she was five. It was the language taught to her as soon as she had finished learning English.

Gabriella started to doze off into sleep. She concentrated on trying to keep her eyes open, but it was no use. It was past midnight, and she had had a tiring day of traveling on a plane and then four hours in the van. If she could only sleep for an hour or so…

Gabriella was in a corridor. It was lit with seven flaming torches on each side that flickered against the dirt floor. Gabriella was wearing a long flowing dress that got dirt on it as she walked down the corridor. She didn’t seem to care how dirty the white dress got. The dirtier, the better, it seemed.

Gabriella continued to walk. Walk? No; she was now running, though she didn’t realize how she had gone from walking to running.

She was at the end of the dirt corridor. She looked around. There was no light in the room that she now stood. She realized that she must be underground. The lit torches in the corridor continued to flicker, but it seemed to provide her no light in the room.

Scared, Gabriella held her hand in front of her face, but it was so dark that she couldn’t see it. She quickly brought her hand down and looked around. Breathing heavily, Gabriella yelled, “Hello? Is anyone there?” No answer.

Gabriella started to run back to the corridor, but instead gave a yell of surprise as the corridor caved in. She was trapped in the room.

Gabriella whipped her dress around and pressed her body back against the wall that had caved in. She breathed heavily and slowly slouched down against the dirt, making her dress dirtier.

Gabriella started to cry, but looked up to see that there was some light ahead of her. There was also a man. Gabriella started to stifle her crying, and gave a choke of relief laughter.

“Who are you?” Gabriella asked the man. He had tidy brown hair, and wore a red robe. It was very clear that the light was coming from the man.

“Wake up,” The man replied.

“What?” Gabriella asked, confused.

“Wake up, Gabriella. We’re here,” the man said once again.

Gabriella forced her eyes open. She was laying her head against the window of the van. Her dad was on the other side with the door open. His short blonde hair was on the peak of turning gray. His blue eyes were looking weary.

Gabriella’s mother was behind him. Her hair was a curly brown with bright green eyes. Gabriella always loved the bright colored shirts she would wear to express how she’s feeling; today’s colored shirt was white (which Gabriella knew to be her ‘I’m tired’ shirt).

“We’re here. You need to get out and help unpack,” Her dad said.

Reluctantly, she stood up and walked out the open van door. Gabriella now realized that it was around eight o’clock in the morning.

Without taking a big look around the archeology sight, she sleepily took her pillow and two suitcases of clothes and small possessions of hers.

She walked up to the two buildings that seemed to be the only things that Gabriella had really noticed. One was the school building of Lehava Archeology High School and the other building doubled as apartments for adult Archeologists and dormitories for students. The school was on the grounds of an actual archeologist sight. Meaning that most of the students (if not all) had parents that were working on there at that sight.

Gabriella had been told that there would most likely not be many students there because it was a private school specifically for the archeologists’ children that worked on that sight. The building that served as the school was more like a tent than anything because every year the school would pack everything up into a moving van and move to a new archeologist sight to teach children there at that sight.

Gabriella pulled and carried her things from the van to the front desk that was stationed right outside the tented school building.

Sitting behind that desk was a woman that looked like she was in her late twenties or early thirties. Long, blonde hair flowed down to her waist and blown beautifully in the light morning breeze. The woman wore a smile and had her hands folded on the desk as she waited for them to come.

“Good morning!” The lady called as they reached the desk. “Was there any trouble getting here? We were expecting all arrivals at seven o’clock this morning. The staff was getting worried that you wouldn’t show up.”

Gabriella’s dad smiled weakly back at the lady. He placed down all the luggage that he had on the ground and reached out for a paper that the lady was handing him. As he wrote, he said, “No, there wasn’t any trouble. We just underestimated the time it would take to get here, that’s all.”

Gabriella’s dad put the pen back down and smiled again at the lady. “My name is Ms. Friar,” The lady started. Gabriella was hardly aware that Ms. Friar was talking to her. “This year, we only have twenty-one students. Normally we have at least thirty, but this number of students is fine, too.

“Gabriella, your dormitory is number 12. You will be sharing it with Olivia Corner. As for Mr. and Mrs. Kimberly, your apartment is room 11,” Mr. Friar smiled at Gabriella’s parents as if asking them to leave. When they didn’t, Ms. Friar plowed on.

“Now, this school has four teachers. Mr. Cannon teaches Science,” – Ms. Friar started to count the teachers off on her fingers – “Mrs. Cannon teaches Math, I, Ms. Friar, teach History/Archeology, and Miss Mukai teaches everything else, such as Hebrew, English, Art, Music, and Composition.

“So,” Ms. Friar pointed to the firm building and said, “You can bring all your stuff up to the apartment or dormitory. Term starts in one week. I suggest that you get some sleep. You all look exhausted.” Gabriella couldn’t help but hear a little laugh in her voice as she said it, though.

Gabriella dragged her two suitcases and pillow up to the building. It wasn’t very pretty inside, but that didn’t matter. The conditions were at least livable for a whole year.

There were no escalators, but instead many stairs, and the last thing Gabriella wanted to do was climb stairs. But she managed to climb two sets of stairs and then there was a fork in the staircases.

Gabriella looked at the signs on the walls. Over the left staircase was the word, “Dormitories.” Over the right one was the word, “Apartments.”

Gabriella looked at her parents. Now was the time that they split up. “Well,” Gabriella said, “I’ll visit the Archeologist sight tomorrow while you two are working.”

 “Yeah,” Her mom said, brightly, “Maybe you can find something to give us an even bigger promotion. If we’re lucky, something that proves what we’re out to prove.”

Gabriella was so tired that she didn’t really know what her mom had said and she had a feeling that her mom didn’t either. She began to climb the steps toward the dormitories.

Gabriella was now standing in a hall lit with round light bulbs. In between these wall lights were doors. On the doors were numbers in order. #1… #2…#3…Gabriella counted. She continued until she reached #12.

Gabriella opened the door and found that the room already had luggage in it. A window separated two beds; one that was occupied by who must have been Olivia Corner.

Gabriella carefully placed her luggage down on the ground so as not to wake Olivia. She then took her pillow and placed it on the unoccupied bed.

The sheets on the bed that she had set her pillow on was nice and tidy. Gabriella was thankful that the school provided the sheets because she had forgotten to pack some.

Gabriella tore the sheets away so that she could get under them. She then laid her head on her pillow and fell asleep.

Gabriella was back in the underground room. She was wearing the white dress and her back was against the dirt wall that now trapped her.

“Who are you?” Gabriella asked the man that wore the red robes, but shown white light. The man standing in front of her would not answer. “Who are you?” Gabriella shouted.

The man started to walk toward her. Gabriella flattened herself more against the pile of dirt getting it even dirtier. “Just call me Gabriel,” He said.

“I want your real name. Who are you?” Gabriella was starting to get annoyed.

“Who are you?” Gabriella continued to ask.

“I’m Olivia Corner; now wake up!” The man yelled.

Gabriella snapped her eyes open. She turned over in her bed and saw Olivia standing over her. “Why were you asking who I was?” Olivia asked, sounding a bit worried, “The lady at the front desk should have told you.”

Gabriella sat up and looked at her. “Sorry; bad dream.” Gabriella ran her fingers through her hair.

“Bad dream?” Olivia sounded excited, “I love hearing dreams! Could you tell me?”

Gabriella told her all about the lit corridor and the cave in. She also told her of the white dress that she liked to get dirty for some reason. She then explained that she was asking the man who he was, and that’s why she was saying that.

Gabriella waited for Olivia’s response. Olivia had a big smile on her face and said, “That sounds like a cool, and mysterious dream. I wish I had dreams. Well, I’m sure I do, I just can’t ever remember them.”

There was then some awkward silence before Olivia got off the bed and said, “You’d better get dressed. It’s eleven thirty-seven already. Lunch will be ready in eight minutes. I can’t wait to meet the other students. It’s always different each year. Of course, except Nick Cannon. He’s always here on account of his parents. So, get up! What are you waiting for?”

Gabriella got up and finally got a good look at Olivia. She had really short brown hair and a comical face. Her face shape seemed almost a perfect round and ears like an elf’s. She wore blue jeans and a brown T-shirt that read, Just digging up the facts!

Gabriella managed to pull on some Bermudas and a pink, plain T-shirt. She put some socks and shoes on while Olivia waited for her, which Gabriella wish she hadn’t.

After that, the two of them walked down the many staircases to the cafeteria. The room was filled with people and the sound of chatter. It smelled of pasta.

“Mmm…” Olivia inhaled deeply. “It smells good, doesn’t it? The school doesn’t have its own cooks, so they use the ones that originally just cook for the archeologists. Last year, the cooks were awful. I would hope that they’re better this year…”

But Gabriella was hardly listening to Olivia. She could instantly pick out among the many adults who the students were. They were at there own separate table on the left. There were indeed nineteen students sitting there as she had counted many times while Olivia rambled on.

“So,” Olivia stopped rambling, “Shall we go get some food?” Gabriella and Olivia walked over to the food line.

It was indeed spaghetti as Gabriella had guessed. They brought their plates over to the table of students.

“Hi there,” called a girl that looked of age thirteen. She had long, straight, black hair. She had the kind of look that made you know that she would want to get you in trouble for something. “My name’s Beth Grover. This is only my first year here, you?”

Gabriella swallowed a bite of spaghetti and replied by saying, “This is my first year, too.”

Olivia then said, “This is my third year at this school, but this is the first year that I’m attending it.”

Gabriella and Beth stared at her. “What?” Olivia replied to the stares. “I’m fostered by Miss Mukai. Is there a problem with that?” Olivia was not using her usual rambling tone of voice, but sounded like she really was offended.

“Sorry,” Gabriella said, “We didn’t know.”

“Oh, no!” Olivia exclaimed, “I’m the one who should be sorry. I can fly off the handle sometimes.”

There was a silence that followed that before Gabriella heard a semi-deep voice say, “You must be Gabriella?” – Gabriella turned around to see a very tan boy with black hair and wore a polo, black pants, and sunglasses on even though they were inside – “The one that found that missing dinosaur bone?” He put in.

“Oh, yeah, that was me,” Gabriella gave a small nervous laugh because now everyone at that table was staring at her. “I really just stumbled upon it. Literally.” Gabriella mumbled that last word.

“Modest, I like that,” He said, smiling at her. “My name’s Nick Cannon; fifteen years of age.” Nick offered his hand to her, but being nervous, Gabriella didn’t take it.

Nick withdrew his hand and said, “So, this is your first year here, correct?”

Gabriella continued to be nervous as everyone had stopped talking and was listening to the conversation. “Y-y-yes,” Gabriella muttered.

Some girls listening giggled. “Cool,” Nick said, and continued eating.

A cook leaned close to a megaphone and yelled, “Seconds!” As three girls got up from the table to get second helpings, they introduced their names to Gabriella.

There was “McKenzie Sutton” who had brown hair pulled back in a pony-tail and a chubby little nose, “Lilly Higgins” who had red hair pulled back in a very tight bun and looked sickly pale, and “Leona Jordan” that was Asian and had pitch black hair that went a little past her shoulders.

“See the kind of nutters that come to this school sometimes?” Olivia had leaned over to Gabriella and whispered.

“What do you mean?” Gabriella asked, thinking that none of the three girls that had introduced themselves seemed at all strange.

“You’ll find out soon enough. I’ve heard that Lilly Higgins thinks that she’s a teacher – that’s what I’ve heard at least,” Olivia added quickly at the looks on Beth and Gabriella’s faces.

“Well, I’m not going to sit hear and listen to you two gossip. Good day.” And with that, Beth got up and walked out of the cafeteria without even taking her tray.

Olivia and Gabriella stared at each other, shocked by this behavior. “Glad I’m not sharing a dormitory with her,” Gabriella whispered to Olivia. Olivia nodded.

2.    Bows on the Loose

That afternoon was quite boring. Olivia and Gabriella sat in their dormitory; Olivia was reading a magazine while Gabriella read through her Old Testament Bible.

Olivia put her magazine down. “Why are you reading that?” she asked.

Gabriella looked up. “What do mean?”

“That!” Olivia pointed to the Bible, “Why do you read it?”

Gabriella looked at the cover. “Oh,” she started, “Well, because it would be good to brush up on the history of what we’re trying to find. Since we are looking for stuff from Bible times, why not read about it?”

Olivia stared at Gabriella. “Well, not really. I’ve heard that there’s supposed to be catacombs in this area. That’s what we’re really trying to find if you ask me. So, you would be better off with the New Testament Bible. That’s around the date of stuff that we’ll be finding in this place.” Olivia propped her magazine up over her head again.

Gabriella tried to read again, but the thought that it wouldn’t help her in Archeology class made it less interesting. Gabriella set it aside.

The door banged open and Gabriella instinctively looked up. Standing in the doorway was a boy that looked like he should be in fourth grade, but obviously wasn’t. He had dirty blonde hair with a chubby little face and looked like a dare-devil.

Olivia gave a little scream, and Gabriella was puzzled by it. Olivia yelled at the boy, “These are the girl dormitories! The ones that are for boys are on your left staircase. What if you walked in on one of us naked? Out!”

The boy didn’t move, but looked annoyed with Olivia. “Have either of you seen my pet rattle snake? Bows got out of her cage again,” he said lazily.

Olivia and Gabriella’s eyes popped out. Gabriella spoke first.

“What do you mean, ‘again’?”

“A rattle snake?”

“Named Bows?”

“Why would you have a poisonous snake?”

“The school shouldn’t have let you!”

The boy looked from one stunned face to the other as they talked. Finally, the boy said, “I’ll just go ask someone else. Keep you’re eyes open for her. If you find her, just call for me.”

“And your name is . . . ?” Gabriella asked, because Olivia was still too stunned to speak.

“Jacob Lucki; and you must be Gabriella. Nick told me about you,” Jacob smiled, and turned before he could see Gabriella blush.

On that Tuesday morning, Olivia and Gabriella set out for the Archeology sight accompanied by Gabriella’s parents. They each had shovels and gloves.

As they walked out onto the archeology sight, the sun beat down on Gabriella more than ever. The four of them started to dig.

An hour later, they hadn’t hit anything except the end of their water bottles. “It’s so hot!” Olivia complained, letting her head drop back so that her face was facing the sky. Gabriella whacked her on the back of the head so that Olivia’s head was upright again.

“You’re free to go,” Gabriella said. Olivia looked strangely at her. Gabriella started to dig. “Say hi to Bows for me if you go, okay?”

At these words, Olivia started to dig faster and harder than Gabriella. Gabriella smirked.

Gabriella continued to dig for another two hours without finding anything. During that time, Gabriella was thinking. Why was she out here digging when she didn’t want to become an Archeologist, and school hadn’t even started? Because I don’t want to be inside with Bows, a voice inside her head answered; where is Bows? How should I know? What did her shovel just hit?

It took a while for Gabriella to register what she had just thought. Gabriella was about to plunge her shovel back in the ground, but thought best of it. What if it was breakable?

Instead, Gabriella got down on all fours and started to dig with her hands. Sure enough, her fingers brushed over something that wasn’t dirt.

Gabriella got excited. She looked around for her parents and spotted them over next to the water tent getting a drink. “Mom! Dad!” She yelled. Not only did her parents look, but also everyone on the archeology sight looked over at her. Gabriella didn’t care. “I found something!”

Her parents came running over to her, and Olivia who stood beside her beamed at her. “I told you that you would find something!” She cheered.

Her dad knelt at the place where Gabriella had been digging and her mom was standing over him with her hand on his back. Gabriella’s mom’s smile was comfortably warm and pleasant. The sun that beat down on them suddenly felt to Gabriella like going into a fireplace room after shoveling snow.

“Good job, Gabs!” Her dad smiled up at her. “How about you take Olivia with you and go up to the building? The adults will finish uncovering this. We’ll tell you tomorrow what it is.”

Gabriella, pleased with herself, walked away with Olivia at her side. She didn’t even think that there might be a damper on this terrific evening.

Gabriella opened the door to let Olivia through. The air-conditioned building seemed to wash over them giving Gabriella deep relieve that they had some electricity.

“I call shower first!” Olivia yelled and ran up the stairs to the dormitory.

Gabriella broke away from her thoughts and ran up the stairs after her yelling, “Oh, no you don’t!” The two of them laughed the whole way to the dormitory.

They calmed down when they reached the top of the stairs. Still giggling, they walked together to the dormitory. “But seriously,” Olivia started as she opened the dormitory door, “I get the shower first.”

While Olivia – who happened to be singing, Doodle all the Day, except that her lyrics were, digging all the day – took a shower, Gabriella thought that she would take a small nap. It wasn’t very comfortable, though, because she was all sweaty and she stuck to the sheets.

Either way, she managed to get to sleep for the twenty minutes that Olivia was in the shower.

Gabriella was back in the room. The man was standing right in front of her. Not knowing what to do, she started to dig with her nails against the dirt that had caved. The man just stood there watching her. He didn’t try to stop her, nor did he help her. Gabriel simply watched.

Realizing that Gabriel wasn’t going to stop her, she turned her back on the man and started to dig furiously with her bare hands. The man continued to watch. Gabriella clawed at the dirt. Though dirt fell on the floor of the room, she didn’t seem to be making even a dent in the mass of dirt.

Finally giving up, she retreated to crying on the floor. “It’s no use!” She sobbed. “No use at all! We’re trapped! We’re going to die in here!”

Gabriel screamed, but it sounded like a girlish scream. “I know, right?” Gabriella said, though she hadn’t expected this reaction to what she had said before.

Gabriel screamed again and said, “Gabriella! Help!” and gave another screech.

Gabriella opened her eyes. She realized now that it was Olivia that was screaming from the shower. “Gabriella! Here! Quick!”

Gabriella sprang out of bed and ran into the bathroom. She saw Olivia wrapped in a purple towel. She had shampoo in her hair, but shampoo wasn’t the only thing there.

‘P-p-please tell me that I haven’t found Bows,” Olivia pleaded. Gabriella stared at the rattlesnake that had wrapped some of itself around Olivia’s neck so that it wouldn’t fall off. The rattle was right in front of Olivia’s face, and the head poked over Olivia’s head. Bow’s forked tongue stuck out of its mouth and hissed at Gabriella.

“Don’t… move,” Gabriella said just above a whisper. Gabriella started to back away. Olivia gave a nervous whimper and turned her eyes up towards the snake’s head. Bows gave a loud hiss, and Olivia gave a muffled scream. “I’m going for help. In the mean time, act like a statue and don’t talk!”

Gabriella continued to walk backwards with caution. Not until she was half way across the dormitory did she break out into a run. Gabriella knew that the slower she took, the more time the snake had to decide whether to strike.

Gabriella’s bare feet pounded against the hard floor. She burst through the front door and into the dirt archeology sight. ‘JACOB LUCKI!” Gabriella screamed with all her might as she dodged holes in the ground and kicked up dust as she came towards the water tent. Jacob was there along side Ms. Friar. Everyone looked at her.

“Jacob I-don’t-know-your-middle-name Lucki!” Gabriella stormed. There were a few giggles from those that were watching.

“Yes?” Jacob asked.

“Your Bows is about to bite Olivia if you don’t take care of that stupid snake!” Gabriella stormed.

“Don’t worry,” Jacob smiled, “Bows won’t bite anyone or anything unless I give her the signal that she can. I’ve trained her by using her dinner mice.”

Gabriella’s eyes flamed dangerously. “Jacob Lucki! Olivia could be dead by now! Come on!”

Jacob and Gabriella ran back towards the building and up the stairs. The whole way there, Gabriella told herself, She is alive. She is alive. Though, she wasn’t too convinced of herself.

Gabriella and Jacob opened the door to the dormitory carefully so as not to alarm Bows into attacking. Gabriella listened for Olivia to say something, but she didn’t. Gabriella’s heart seemed to plummet.

The two of them reached the bathroom and Olivia did scream. “This time I am pretty much naked!” she screamed and pulled the towel up a bit.

“Olivia, don’t move. Now is not the time to be modest,” Jacob said. He pointed with his right hand to Bows. Gabriella and Olivia watched without daring to breathe. Bows watched him with hardly a hiss.

Jacob swung his pointing hand away from the snake and pointed towards Gabriella. Gabriella’s heart leapt out of her chest. Was Jacob telling the snake to bite her?

Bows looked evilly at Gabriella. Her eyes were wide with fear as the snake slithered down from Olivia – who gave another whimper – and started to slither towards Gabriella who started to back away.

Bows started to gain speed and opened her mouth to strike. Gabriella screamed; Olivia yelled, “No!” and Jacob clunked a cage right down in front of Bows who slithered into it.

Jacob slammed the cage door shut and lifted it off the ground. He stared admiringly at it as Bows continued to strike at nothing.

Gabriella’s heart slowed down. It had been beating so fast before. “What was that for?” Gabriella yelled at Jacob after the shock had worn off.

“Well,” Jacob smiled evilly at her, “One, I don’t have a signal for getting Bows off of people; and two, I don’t like you!”

“Why?” Gabriella asked.

Jacob smiled even more. “It’s because you shout too much. You really need to calm down sometimes.”

Jacob set the cage on a chair and took a mouse out of his pocket. He opened the cage door just enough to let the mouse through. Jacob gave the signal, and Bows bit into the mouse.

“Ewe!” both the girls cried in unison.

Jacob grabbed the cage and smiled at the two girls that were huddled in the crevice between the beds. “If that is all, I will be going then.” And with that, he left the room, slamming the door behind him.

“Like I said yesterday,” Olivia –who was still wearing her purple towel and shampooed hair – said, “this school attracts weirdoes.”

2. The Secret Catacomb

Gabriella woke up the next morning –Wednesday – at nine o’clock and went to breakfast with Olivia. The two of them found out through the day that many rumors had been flying through the school and archeologists. Some thought that Olivia was dead, and that Gabriella was in the hospital. The worst rumor was that Gabriella and Jacob were dating each other.

“I tell you, I am not dead! Do I look like a ghost to you? Don’t answer that,” Gabriella heard Olivia shouting to a blonde haired girl that was a year older. They were in the hallway outside the dormitories. The blonde girl had just bumped into Olivia and exclaimed, “You’re alive! I thought you were dead.”

Gabriella was in the doorway of the dormitory, and the two of them didn’t know she was there. Gabriella was glad for that because then she would probably be asked if she was dating Jacob, and Gabriella would fly off the handle worse than Olivia had.

The blonde girl cowered under Olivia’s rage, and ran for it. Olivia turned around to see Gabriella standing there. “Oh, hey,” She said.

“Hey,” Gabriella answered. There was silence. Gabriella broke it. “For the record,” She started, “you do look a little pale.”

Olivia laughed a little at this. Gabriella smiled. “So, who was that?” Gabriella asked.

Olivia looked back down the hall as if expecting her to come back. Olivia turned back around. “Oh, that was Jeannette Crowman. She was here last year. She’s in love with Jacob, so I wouldn’t come across her if I were you.”

There was more silence.

“Well, I’m going to go down to the archeology sight. Care to come with?” Olivia asked.

Gabriella bit her lips together. “You go ahead. I’ll meet up with you later. I need to get a few things.”

Olivia shrugged, said okay, and walked down the stairs. Gabriella went back into the dormitory. She really didn’t need anything except a few minutes alone. Gabriella lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She didn’t know how long she had laid there, but it was long enough for her to sleep for about ten minutes.

“Gabriel! We’re trapped!” Gabriella yelled to the man whose light was the only light in the room.

“That’s not true,” Gabriel said.

Gabriella looked up. “What do you mean? Of course we are!” she sobbed.

“I’m not trapped. I can get out.”

Gabriella forced her eyes open. She didn’t want to sleep now. She had to get to the archeology sight. Gabriella got off of the bed and walked out the dormitory and down the stairs. She paused at the bottom of the stairs. She heard around the corner two voices. One was Jacob, and the other was Ms. Friar. Gabriella listened to the conversation.

“Jacob, you get rid of that snake!” Ms. Friar yelled, “and when I say get rid, I mean kill it! I’d rather have a dead rattle snake than a hand full of dead students.”

There was a pause. Then Jacob said, “What if I just set Bows free? Eventually she would die because this place doesn’t have the mice that Bows eats. That way I won’t have to kill her directly.”

Another pause. “Very well,” Ms. Friar said, “but you set her outside without any food, water, and in a cage so that she can’t bite any of the students. You understand? Also, the cage that the rattle snake – “

“She has a name!” Jacob yelled making Gabriella jump.

“Very well,” Ms. Friar sighed, “Also, the cage that Bows is in is to be far away from the archeology sight.”

“Fine,” Jacob spat. Gabriella heard them walking towards the place that she was, so she backed up and pretended that she had just come down the stairs.

“Oh, Miss Kimberly,” Ms. Friar smiled up at Gabriella, “Your parents are waiting outside to show you the artifact that you found. I think you might find it quite interesting.”

Ms. Friar walked upstairs with her blonde hair swaying as she walked. Jacob had already left to go out onto the archeology sight. Gabriella did the same.

When she walked out of the air-conditioned building, it seemed hot and humid, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been the day before. Gabriella walked over to the water tent where she saw her mom and dad looking from an object to a paper on which they would write. Gabriella walked closer to them. Her parents realized she was there, so they stopped writing and looked up.

“There’s our little archeologist!” Her dad proclaimed with a smile.

Gabriella leaned over and whispered, “Dad, you’re embarrassing me!”

Mr. Kimberly looked up at her and said, “Well, then I’m doing my job!” He laughed at his own joke, and then looked back at the artifact. “Honey, you found a very important artifact that will most certainly help us. I am guessing that this” – he held up something that looked like a half of a pot – “was made by a Christian. Take a look at that sign at the bottom there.” Gabriella’s dad turned it over and pointed to a round symbol:

Gabriella looked back up at her smiling dad. “You see,” her dad started by pointing at the symbol, “The Christians that used the catacombs would identify themselves to other Christians by drawing a fish. If you look closely, you can see that the potter highlighted a fish in the middle. That way if a roman soldier got a hold of it, the fish would be camouflaged. They wouldn’t know what the fish in the symbol meant.”

Gabriella looked at her dad. She had found something very important to their search. Gabriella would have smiled, but the sun had drained all her energy. “That’s cool. But it’s hot out here. I’m going inside. Bye!” and Gabriella left with a wave of her hand.

On the next day – Thursday – Gabriella went out to the archeology sight after lunch that day. It was almost a pleasantly, cool day.

“Good day to be out, isn’t it? This is most likely going to be the coolest day of the season. Enjoy it while it last,” Olivia said as she plunged her trowel into the ground. They were standing outside at the archeology sight. The clouds hid the sun, and a slightly cool breeze blew enjoyably on Gabriella and Olivia who were the only ones outside.

“Do you think it’s going to rain?” Gabriella asked, a bit worried. It would not be nice if they got caught in a storm. A rainstorm there would mean really strong wind that would blow two girls any which way.

“It might. Maybe we should dig in the back so that we’re closer to the building if it does,” Olivia suggested. Gabriella agreed, and so they walked around the building to the back.

There was less cool wind there, but the wind level didn’t make much difference to the cool, morning dew. Gabriella hadn’t been in the back of the dormitory building the whole time she had been there. It was strange to see that there was grassy meadow on the horizon. Where they were standing, it looked like the archeology sight, only without holes in it.

“Are you sure we’re allowed to dig back here?” Gabriella asked.

“Oh, yes!” Olivia exclaimed. “The archeologists don’t think that much could be found in the back of the building, so they left it alone. Everything that was found has been found in the front, so…”

“Well, if they haven’t dug back here, then how do they know they won’t find anything?” Gabriella asked.

“Exactly. Let’s start digging, shall we?” Olivia plunged her trowel into the dirt once more.

The two of them dug for a while, and found nothing. A huge wind blew, and almost knocked Olivia off of her feet. “Okay, that’s it! I’m going inside before it starts to rain. Care to come with?” Olivia asked Gabriella.

Gabriella hesitated. Then, something caught her eye down in the hole that she had dug. Dirt blew over a symbol as the wind blew. It looked like it was made of metal.

“You go ahead. I want to check something,” Gabriella waved her hand, signaling for Olivia to go on. She had to shout so that Olivia heard her because of the wind.

“Okay; see you inside.” Olivia then entered through the back door, and disappeared.

Gabriella then turned back to her hole. What was it? She got down on her hands and knees and began to wipe away the dirt that covered the symbol. It was hard to see because the wind pounded against her eyelids, making so that she had to blink rapidly to keep out all the dust that was blowing around.

Gabriella squinted. Then she drew back and stared, forgetting to blink out the dust. She paid for that forgetfulness within less than two seconds when her eyes began to sting and water.

Gabriella rubbed the dust out of her eyes and looked back at the symbol. It was the same symbol as the one on the ancient pot that Gabriella had discovered the day before.

Gabriella felt a rush of excitement. She began to dig ferociously at the dirt surrounding it. It was hard work, and she was digging for about fifteen minutes.

Finally, she saw what it was. It was a square, termite-eaten, wooden trap-door. It looked just big enough to fit one adult through it. Two holes were in the trap-door where there must have been rope tied to it to open it up. The rope was gone now, so she couldn’t open it.

Gabriella used her trowel to pry it open. Instead of it opening nice and clean, the wood broke apart in pieces and fell into a dark hole underneath. It was not a hole that Gabriella, nor Olivia had made.

Gabriella didn’t know what to do. Should she go tell the others about it? If she did that, then they would probably take over it like they did with the pot. But if she went in, it could cave-in, and she would be trapped there.

Gabriella felt a trickle of water run down her arm. It was raining! It began to rain faster very quickly. Gabriella was way too far from the building. The wind would surely knock her back before she got there.

The rain mixed with her curiosity made up her decision. She sat on the dirt in front of the hole, closed her eyes, and before she could jump in it, the rain washed the dirt – and her – into the hole. Gabriella gave a yell of surprise, and landed in the hole with her face in the dirt.

“Phhhht; phhhht!” Gabriella spit dirt out of her mouth. She tried to look around, but it was pitch dark in there.

Gabriella got to her feet. Without a flashlight, she began to feel her way across the walls. Every few feet or so, she would feel a torch in a torch stand, but without anything to light it with, they were of no help to her.

Gabriella then felt something. It had the rough-cut of the symbol of the fish. Gabriella also could tell that it was a button. Gabriella closed her eyes, even though the darkness level was no difference. She pressed the button.

At first, Gabriella didn’t think it had down anything. She opened her eyes. She gave out a yelp as a torch flared up in her face. She leaped sideways and watched as one by one the torches lit themselves.

“Wow,” Gabriella couldn’t help mumbling under her breath.

Gabriella walked down the echoing corridor. Without thinking, she dropped trowel and stared open-mouthed at the room in her dreams with the only difference of a podium with a book laying on it.