Treasure Tunnel

Saylor stopped walking and stretched her hands toward the sky, twisting her torso this way and that as she watched the clouds above her drift by.

“The sun is hotter than it used to be,” she said out loud, even though there was no one around to hear her voice.

She folded her body toward the ground, reached her hands behind her legs and grabbed the back of her calves, stretching her lower back as she took a deep breath.

“One, two, three,” once again she spoke out loud.

She wiggled her entire body as she stood up straight again. She eyed her surroundings and began turning around in a circle. She could feel the dust as it sought out her skin and she knew the red dirt she was walking on was making little poofy red dust clouds around her ankles with every tiny step she took.

The landscape was spotted with cactus, scrub trees and rocks, all on a blanket of crimson dirt. In the distance a mountain cast a shadow making the dirt look black, that was her destination for the day.

“You might as well get moving Mittens, that giant rock isn’t getting any closer with you just standing here stretching your body as if you nothing but time,” she chided herself. She knew if her brother were here that would be exactly what he would be saying to her. She smiled at the thought of him and the nickname he’d given her when she was just a toddler, and hoped she would see him again someday.

Poof, poof, poof. Red dust boiled around her feet and ankles then settled on her body, from the tips of her toes to her knees. She ignored the way it tickled and trudged onward toward the rock mountain.

It had been nine days since Saylor had seen another person, and even though she was happy to know someone else was still alive, she did not make herself known to him. He looked scary; her body involuntarily shivered at the thought of the scraggly looking mongrel of a man that was rifling through a trash bin next to a convenience store that was once a hubbub of activity, but now stood silent and shattered, a shell of a building where once a thriving business once stood.

Eight weeks had passed since the great grid collapse, and two years since the pandemic first began. Life was no longer anything like it once was. The last time she watched the news, which was about six months ago, nearly 90% of the earth’s population had been wiped away from the virus that seemingly appeared out of no where on the tenth of June, 2056. The news called it a sister-virus to the COVID-19 virus of 2020. They talked as if the virus had been hibernating for the past 36 years, sleeping and mutating, gaining strength, it was like evil had multiplied.

“I’m not sure I like it here!” Saylor said to the road that stretched on before her. “Endless red. How can there be so much red in one place? It’s ugly and dirty and disgusting,” her voice grew louder with each word. “I want to be somewhere else! I do not want to be here anymore! I don’t want to be alone anymore!”

If there had been anyone around to hear it, they would have heard the desperation in her voice. They would have felt her sadness and saw the tears that slid down her checks and onto her shirt, making tiny red mud puddles wherever they landed. But no one was there. Her words were swallowed up by the atmosphere.

“I hate it here now,” she screamed into the air as she clenched her fists and stomped her feet before trudging onward toward the rock mountain that she knew would give her some relief from the relentless sun that was beating down upon her, baking her skin and making her hair wet with sweat.

Finally, after what seemed like hours Saylor stepped into the shade. and was suddenly overcome by an overwhelming sense of relief. No longer feeling the need to squint, she opened her eyes wide and felt her dried tears pull at her skin and eyelashes.

It wasn’t enough for Saylor to be bathed in shade, she felt compelled to continue walking toward the rock that jutted out of the ground and straight toward the sky, she felt as if the rock itself was pulling her toward it.

“There’s a tunnel,” she said toward the rock. “You have a tunnel going right through you!”

Saylor began running. She reached the rock and standing next to the tunnel entrance she reached out her hands and placed both of them on the mountain she had been walking toward for the better part of the day. She bowed her head, felt the coolness of the rock on the palms of her hands, took a deep breath, and watched as several tears fell into the deep red dirt. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she took a step away from the rock, and peered upward at the massive boulder before turning and walking into the tunnel.

She did not have to bend down, but she knew if the top of the tunnel were any shorter, she would have to duck to avoid hitting her head. She stopped just inside the tunnel and sat down to rest for a while. The sandy floor of the tunnel was soft and the rock wall behind her gave her back some much-needed relief. She folder her hands in her lap as she stretched her dirt cover legs straight out in front of her, then promptly fell asleep.

Saylor woke with a start when she felt something skim across her legs. With flailing hands, she batted whatever it was away, but she saw nothing that indicated there was ever anything near. No animal tracks, no animal smell, no animal at all. She gazed through the opening of the tunnel and figured her mind was playing tricks on her in her dreams. The sun was beginning to set amid clouds on the horizon and she was glad she had found the tunnel.

Looking around she noticed footprints in the dirt near the wall opposite of where she sat. And something else.

“What is that?” she asked the air as she got onto her hands and knees and crawled the short distance across the tunnel without taking her eyes off the object that was tucked into a crack in the wall.

“What in the world?” she openly wondered as she reached toward it. Ever so gently she took a hold of it and pulled it from it’s resting place. She sat down, criss – cross – applesauce and opened the little black book that someone had placed into the opening of the tunnel wall.

Excitement well up inside of her as she turned the black book this way and that. She wanted to open it, but also wanted to imagine for a moment what could be inside. The first thoughts she had were from her teenage mind; maybe there were lists of favorite songs, favorite restaurants, cute boys. Then she shifted gears and thought with her twenty-something year old brain; maybe there were lists of businesses to start, baby names, or how to succeed in life.

Saylor closed her eyes as she clutched the treasure in her hands. Both fear and excitement wrestled inside of her until she finally opened the little black book to the first page and began reading.

Dear Rambling Wanderer,

Apparently, you have found this little black book. Let me assure you where it leads will be well worth your journey to a place that will forever be a part of your story. Come with me as we travel to a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’ as they say. But first, let’s get you started with something to show you this is not a fantasy novel, but rather an honest to goodness guide to the life you want to have. Go back to the crack in the wall where you found this book and reach inside until you feel the soft cloth of a small bag….

Without letting go of the book, Saylor went back to the crack in the wall and reached her hand in as far as she could. She patted her fingertips on the rock.

“There it is,” she squealed as she grasped the soft cloth with the tips of her fingers, gently pulling it into her hand, then out of the crack. It was cinched shut with a string, so she pulled at it until it loosened. She tipped it and felt something come tumbling toward her open hand.

It looked like a prescription bottle. Saylor opened the lid and peered inside at what appeared to be a roll of money. She stuck her finger in and pulled at the tight roll of paper until she was able to grasp it.

“Money!” Saylor began laughing while counting the bills. “$20,000! What in the world am I going to do with $20,000 in a world that is almost all the way empty of people?” She sighed at the irony, rolled up the bills, placed them back into the bottle and shoved it deep into her pocket before opening the little black book again.

Now that you have found the money, let’s get you back into civilization. Follow the tunnel, it will not be long before you find the treasure that is more valuable than the money you now have; a thriving civilization is waiting for you to become a part of it. They have been waiting for a Saylor, there has been a void in the new world, a void only you will be able to fill.

Oh, and by the way, I miss you Mittens.

“Mittens??” Saylor screamed with excitement at the thought of seeing her brother once again.