Midnight and the jungle is alive with the whirring hiss of millions upon millions of strange and exotic insects. The palms and mangroves sway slightly in the mild wind -- perhaps a warning of an oncoming storm - while, sitting nestled amid this nocturnal netherworld, is a camp; nothing extravagant - a few tents, some equipment. All is dark now, save for one solitary light --
In a small, dingy tent at the camp's edge, a lone researcher sits hunched over a map. He squints somewhat as moths flutter about the dim, flickering light.
The silence is suddenly broken by a visitor-
Krako, it's nearly 2 am! If you can't get yourself to sleep, at least turn your damned light off! I can't sleep myself with that thing glaring through my window!
 
Silence, Lokumba! Can't you see that I'm on the verge of a great and terrible discovery?
Listen, you, I'm tired of hearing about all your garbage! Discovery shmiscovery! Now, we both have a lot of heavy dirt-moving to do tomorrow, so just get yourself to sleep!
Ah, Lokumba, my poor deluded friend -- You think only of such petty things --
Petty things like our JOBS? Like making some damn MONEY, for once?
Money? Haha -- I LAUGH at your need for money, for soon I will be among the richest men in the world! Yes, the WORLD!
Oh, great. Here we go.
I have stumbled upon a secret so strange, so terrifying --
How much is this going to cost?
 
Lokumba, Lokumba ... I'm surprised at you. Cost? What need have we for money?
Oh, well, I suppose you have a point, Krako. I shouldn't focus so much on money and material gain . . .
. . . when we can just STEAL everything we need!
Euh...Well, I suppose you'd better tell me about it.
It all started ... with THIS BOOK!
I hope that's not DIANETICS.
Haha, no, no -- I'm long over my Dianetics phase. But THIS, my friend, THIS is our key to fame, money, and fortune!I
 
Money AND fortune, hm? Oh ... This wouldn't be your long-awaited novel, would it?
THE CELERON PROPHECIES? No, no, that's still in the works. Having difficulties in the third act, you know.
Well, what is it, then?
It is the holder of a secret so strange, so -
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is it?
It's a logbook. The logbook of an archaeological research team.
Not the --
Yes! The team that was mysteriously massacred near here only three short years ago.
But - but how did you get it?
I purchsed it from a mysterious one-eyed man in the flea-ridden back end of the porno section of the smuggler's market in Zahal-Kexch.
The porno section?
I was - uh - researching. Adventurer stuff.
Mm.
 
 
 
In any case, the one-eyed man warned me of the book's dangers. He warned me that it might reveal secrets about the expedition - secrets no man should ever know!
Did it?
No. Mostly it's a lot of pottery sorting information, with some amusing caricatures of the writer's fellow archaeologists.
How much did this thing cost?
1500 dollars, but what does that matter? It's priceless!
You blew fifteen hundred dollars in the Zahal-Kexch flea market? That was your last money!
Correction - It was YOUR last money. You didn't think I'd spend my OWN money on something like this, did you?!
Oh, great. Ultra-great. You know, Krako, once we're done with this portering job, I'm going to cut open your liver and -
Well, I'M done with this job right now, so commence with the liver-cutting, my friend! Haha! Carrying bags and such for those filthy rich eco-tourist hippies ... Forget that business! From now on, It's back to my wild, adventurous ways! Look here -
This topographic map shows exactly where the massacre took place. Look! It's almost exactly where we are now!
Did they ever find out who killed them?
No. But I will. And when I do, the dollars will just come rolling in.
Ah . . . How do you figure that?
When I find the secret, Lokumba, everyone will pay me oodles and oodles of money to find out what it is.
Everyone?
Well, the archaeologists' families, anyway. Wouldn't YOU pay to find who brutally massacred YOUR relatives?
YOU brutally massacred my relatives, remember?
Oh, yes. Sorry about that. It was dark, you know.
Oh, don't worry about it. S'nothing.
Now, I've been doing a great deal of research, and it seems to me that these dark blobs right here have something to do with it. Perhaps an ancient race of giant dark blobs invaded the camp, killing the --
Those are caves, Krako.
They are? Well, we'll see about that!
I think you need sleep. Now.
Sleep? And give up my search? Never! Perhaps these 'caves', as you call them, are responsible for the massacre! Perhaps all the archaeologists fell into these caves and DIED! Yes!
 
No. Their dismembered bodies were found lying all over the temples.
Hmm...Yet there must be some connection to the caves.
Can you please just turn off the light and go to sleep? Please?!
Oh, where's your spirit of adventure, Lokumba? There's no time for sleep - We must go out and explore these caves!
You don't even have any proof that the caves have anything to do with this!
Don't I? Look at this!
What?
It's here somewhere ... in this filing cabinet ...
Ah, Krako, you poor victim of premature egomaniacal senility -- you'll never be a flying ace again, that's for sure. Under normal circumstances, I'd murder you and eat your carcass in a second, but you were my father's best friend, and I promised him on his death bed that I'd always guard you from evil. And, as a proud member of the Ximbaxaca tribe, Wisconsin chapter, and the Lion's Club, I must always uphold my sacred vows of trust, loyalty, and justice, and therefore must protect you 'till you die.
 
What was that, Lokumba?
Oh, just repeating information we both already know, Krako.
Yes. Odd how that tendency sometimes pops up. But see here -- I've found what I was looking for!
What is it?
Why, Lokumba, you ignorant fool - It's a photograph!
I realize that, but what is it a photograph OF?
An archaeological find made deep in the jungle. See that thing there, sticking up from the ground? It's an ancient well discovered by the expedition before it was massacred.
Where did you get this?
It's on permanent unauthorized loan from our cruel hippie ecotourist masters.
You stole it.
Yes! The fools wanted us to take them to the well --
-- But I said, 'No dice!' See, the well must go deep down into the ground . . . into the CAVES! Perhaps, if we can climb down the well before those dastardly hippies do, we can discover what's down there that killed the -- Are you following my train of thought, Lokumba? Lokumba?
 
Uh oh.
 
 
Read the Next Chapter!