Mike returned at first light. The rain had softened the ground further. As he peered into the hole he had dug, he noticed a small opening beneath the chain that hadn’t been there before.
Curious, he poked his spade into the void.
Suddenly, the earth groaned. The ground beneath Mike’s feet collapsed, and he tumbled straight down into the darkness.
He landed on solid stone. Shaken but unhurt, he clicked on his flashlight. He wasn’t in a random sinkhole; he was inside a man-made chamber.
The beam of his light swept across the stone walls, and Mike froze. The walls were covered in strange scratches. They weren’t natural cracks. Someone had frantically carved symbols into the rock centuries ago.
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