The Shasta Caper, Chapter Thirty One is now posted on ImagineNation!

Chapter Thirty-One

The other side of paradise must look this, Samuel thought to himself as he woke up, stretching his feelings to see if anything was near that might affect him and his companions. It was something he didn't like to talk about. His ability to sense danger and to see around him without using his eyes. At least his physical eyes. He knew better though. Not all eyes were physical, which is why most popular Buddhist literature and India literature, as well as the American dollar bill used a third eye as symbols.

The ability to see into worlds normally invisible to man had enabled him to save his and Jimbo's lives many a time. It was a gift and he also knew that if he misused it, he could lose it. Many a pyschic and occultist found such gifts and used them to covet fame and fortune, and unfortunately fell from Grace and lost their powers over time. The hidden world was a gift to man and not a treasure to be spent on common things.

He sat up. 

Nanny was sleeping on her side, curled up into a fetal position inside her sleeping bag. Her mouth was slightly open and drooling slightly. He smiled, then looked at his best friend and long time partner and companion. Jimbo was laying on his back with his hands folded across his chest like a dead man. But dead he wasn't. He was snoring loud enough to scare off a rattlesnake, but even that noise didn't bother Nanny, who had been more tired than she pretended to be.

Samuel smiled again. People were such complex and yet simple creations. They were layered with seemingly complex motivations and habits, that usually unwound to the same things...the same basic desires and needs: to be loved, to be wanted, to be cared for.

He cared deeply for both of them, even if Nanny was just a momentary friend, she was still precious to him. He felt a disturbance and turned to see Al seated in a lotus posture next to him, his eyes flashing with amusement.

"Sam, your thoughts do you credit."

"Thanks, old timer." He answered with a grin.

Al held up a thumb. "You should live so long."

"I'll consider that after I'm seated at your table in heaven." Samuel retorted.

Al laughed. He laughed at most things, but Samuel knew he had a huge heart and cared deeply about life. He had been such a man in his earthly years as well. Once he had sat with Samuel when  he was imprisoned by a cult in Egypt and explained to him how tormented he had felt for a time by the way his information had brought about the death of tens of thousands with the atomic bomb, and later the fears of so many millions during the Cold War.

"Angels shouldn't have to apologize for what they've done." Al had told him.

Samuel had laughed. "You're no angel, Al."

Al had smiled, but not responded to that, which immediately got Samuel to thinking maybe he had missed something in his observations.

"So what now?" Samuel asked in his mind.

Al shrugged. "Some secrets are better left untouched, but you and Jim have never been ones to do that, have you?

Samuel nodded. "Got me in one."

"And second." Al continued. "I wouldn't want you to do anything differently. A closed mind is a loop that ends in self defeat and acrimony. Hail to the hearty soul who dares to climb the stairway to knowledge, and hence to self discovery and heaven."

"Man!" Samuel thought. "You sure are wordy this morning."

"I've had my morning manna." Al said jokingly, then manifested a piece of cloud in his right hand and began eating on it.

Samuel laughed so loud that Nanny woke up. "Eveything all right?"

She sat up, rubbing her eyes, looking at the amusement on Samuel's face. 

"Perfect." He responded. "Just talking with an old friend."

"Oh, him!" She said, nodding at Al, who gave her a thumbs up too. "He and Marilyn sang me to sleep last night. They sound cute together."

"More like off key." Samuel shot back.

Nanny laughed. "But lovable."

Al gave her two thumbs up and vanished.

"Does he always do that too?" She asked, finally all the way awake.

"It's his way of saying good-bye." Samuel said with a shrug. "No accounting for the manners of man or angel, especially angels."

"I thought you said he wasn't an angel."

Samuel did a double take. "You can read minds too?"

"Sometimes, especially when I'm relaxed." She said. "So now what?"

"We eat and hike." Jimbo growled, sitting up to yawn. "You two gotta go yapping and break into a man's dreams. I was just about to eat a ten piece pizza loaded with everything." He complained.

Nanny and Samuel laughed.

They spent the next ten minutes packing and going to the bathroom in various places outside, but when through they met at a large leaf that was perfect to sit comfortably upon, like a soft green sofa.

Nanny bounced on it like a child a few times, then looked at Samuel. "I wish we had these trees back home."

"Yeah. So they can be cut down and destroyed like all our other forests." Samuel groused angrily.

She sighed. "Why can't people see that we're all part of a big chain, that if you break one link, you break all of them?"

"Oh, I think they see it." Jimbo said, yawning again. "They just like the touch of money and power more than the love and affection of those they could help."

Nanny had no response to that.

Samuel touched her right arm lightly and pressed it. "If you look at the world as a school, then it's not so bad."

"How so?" She asked. "We're too old to be in school."

"Nanny, there's not a soul on earth that's not in school. The whole planet's a school."

Jimbo snorted. "Yeah, this outlaw here thinks we're all here to learn how to get along and play nice."

"Well that's not happening." Nanny replied. She remembered her first grade and the two bullies that had shoved her into the mud that day and how she had met them twenty years later and they were executives in the forest service, stealing public funds. "Not at all."

Samuel touched her again. "Don't judge them so harshly. Some do change. And even if not in this life..."

"Another, if you believe everything my hairy faced partner spouts from those pretty lips of his."

Samuel scowled at Jimbo and he laughed.  It was a running joke between them about Samuel being virtually hairless and having very feminine lips.

Samuel stood up and shrugged on his backpack. It was mostly dry now and didn't feel so chilled as it had the day before.

Samuel threw Nanny's to her and she shrugged into hers, and he shouldered his with a shrug, not even straining. They had barely emptied the treasure trove he kept in that pack. It had to weight about a hundred pounds, and he carried it like it was no heavier than a feather. Strong man.

At least that's what Nanny thought.

Samuel knew Jimbo was strong in many ways, besides the physical and one way which had kept them in friendship for decades. Jimbo had a big heart. Big as the state he was born in: Texas.

A shadow came across them. They turned to look. The floating city was passing to the North West this morning. It eclipsed the bright light above them, which seemed to radiate from everywhere and a great shadow passed over them momentarily.

"So now what?" Nanny asked.

Samuel felt the presence above him and wondered that himself. The people of the city were conscious of them, but doing nothing about it. That got him to thinking about a great many things, and mostly not good.

"We keep on moving West."

"Why?" Nanny asked.

Jimbo touched her arm and pointed.

She turned to look and on the other side of the teepee was a  huge inscription on the tree from which the leaves had fallen. "For those who pass this way, know that you are not alone and we have passed this way before....Jules."

"Oh my God!" Nanny cried out. "He really did go to the Center of the Earth!"

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Thirty --- is now posted on ImagineNation.

Chapter Thirty

Samuel was the first to recover from the shock of the flood of water that washed over them. They had landed just shy of it striking them directly, but close enough for it to soak them through and through, and as the flood continued, it widened and swept them with it. They tumbled and turned, gasping for air, but somehow managing to hold onto each other as they shot along a meadow of pure green and golden grass that gradually went upwards. As it did, the force of the rampaging water beneath them lost momentum and eventually, they found themselves laying on a beach of white stone and huge sunflowers that rose into the sky almost fifteen feet tall. 

"Ow." 

"Can't disagree." Nanny said, sitting up between the two men. "I feel like I've rode a Broncho maniac for ten hours."

Jimbo swiped at his hair and beard, gathering as much moisture as he could and squeezing it away, as he examined his body for wounds. 

"Sam?"

"Ow."

Jimbo looked over and Samuel was a mess. He was sitting in a patch of sharp rock, many of which had cut his jeans in dozens of places. His legs were bleeding and then he noticed his own. "Ah hell!" He groaned as he realized he was cut as well.

Nanny was the only one to get home free. She managed to shrug out of her backpack, which had shrunk a few sizes to cling to her during the flood, and gather a small med kit.

"Thank God for smart women." Jimbo sighed, as she pressed soothing antiintefectant salve over his wounds.

"And thank God for dumb men who need them." Nanny responded, causing Samuel to chuckle until he realized his lungs hurt.

He suddenly threw up. Almost a pint of water spit out.

Jimbo gave him an alarmed look.

Samuel held up a hand. "Someones gotta donate skin to the cause. I just happen to donate it from the inside and out."

He looked at the blood in his hands, then at Nanny.

She shook her head. "You're fine."

"How can you tell?" Samuel asked.

"Because the bloods from the tears in your lips and your bleeding nose, silly."

Samuel felt his nose, then looked at the blood on his fingers. "Oh."

"Some big detective, you are." She scalded him.

Jimbo laughed. "Got you there, Sammie."

"You too, bearded wonder." She reminded him.

Jimbo looked down, abash at her mental thrashing of him.

Then he and Samuel both broke into laughter. 

She gave Samuel a frustrated look. "Will you keep still so I can clean your wounds!"

Samuel stilled and she applied salve to his wounds too.

Jimbo stood up, and loosened his backpack. He looked into it. "Everything's fine. Man they weren't kidding when they said this pack was watertight."

Nanny finished working on Samuel, then got up and stretched. "I could eat a horse!" She exclaimed.

Samuel got up, then kicked off his sneakers. "Should have worn boots, Jimbo."

"Yeah. But do you ever?"

Samuel nodded. He looked over at Al, who was seated on a large boulder with M, who was knitting a blanket. Al smiled at him and waved. "I'm glad someone's enjoying all of this."

Jimbo gave Samuel a look.

"Them?"

"You need to ask."

"Oh." Jimbo sighed. "This invisible friend stuff sure can tax a cowboy's soul."

Nanny looked around. "There's cowboys here?"

Jimbo cackled. She grinned at him, then pointed to the horizon. "Am I imagining things or is that city closer than it was?"

They turned that way to look, ignoring the large body of water behind them that was gradually diminishing, revealing a path of devastation it had created.

"You're right." Jimbo agreed.

Samuel closed his eyes a moment. "The city is floating."

He opened his eyes. "Some kind of occult energy is motivating its movement. I can feel it with my third eye."

Jimbo growled. "Hell, Sammie, it don't take a damned Houdini to tell it's moving of its own accord, just look at its shadow.

Everyone looked and could see the shadow of the city passing over the land as it slowly moved in a Northeasterly direction.

"Well, one thing's for sure." Nanny said, interrupting their thoughts. "We're not getting up into that without a balloon or a rocket. It's gotta be at least a mile in the air."

"Who would have believed that such a thing existed inside Mount Shasta." Jimbo commented.

Samuel tapped him on his shoulder and pointed upwards. 

Jimbo looked, then cursed. "Dear God in heaven!"

Nanny looked up too. 

Above them was a sky filled with trees and forests, streams, rivers and a vast ocean. 

"We're not in Kansas anymore." Samuel stated.

Jimbo grinned. "Good thing, because I forgot to bring my ruby slippers."

Nanny laughed. "Now that was funny."

"Really." Jimbo asked.

"No, but the image of you in slippers was." She laughed.

Jimbo looked over at Samuel, who was grinning. "Can I kill her now?"

"Be my guest." Samuel said.

They all three laughed.

Samuel turned back the way they had come. 

There was a huge mountain that climbed upwards from that direction, but no sign of an exit or entrance. "Whatever we came down through, it's not there anymore."

"How can that be?" Jimbo asked. "Something that big just don't vanish."

"Jimbo, some laws are the same everywhere, and some aren't." Samuel said mysteriously.

Without further word he began walking towards the North East. Al and M were dancing in that direction, holding each other's hands like a grand waltzing couple.

Jimbo and Nanny fell into march behind him. 

Nanny poked Jimbo in his ribs. 

"Hey!" He growled. "Easy on the bacon."

"You mean pork, don't you?" She laughed.

She sobered and then said. "I'm glad I came with you guys, but is it always this crazy when you two hang out?"

"Sometimes."

"Remind me to visit you two when we get out of here."

Jimbo stopped and looked into her eyes. "I'd love that."

And for the first time, she looked down, blushing. He had meant it and she had seen it in his eyes.

She smiled coyly, the hurried up to catch up to Samuel. Jimbo smiled and caught up with them as they paused at the brink of a huge forest of golden barked trees whose leaves were all eat least ten feet across and ribbed like a cannon's innards.

Several of the leaves had fallen at the base of a tree and lay together like a teepee.

Samuel went to the pile and peeked under. "Clear." He looked back at them. "I think we should rest and eat some before we go further."

Nanny joined him as he went into the teepee of leaves, then smelled the aroma, like that of cinnamon and mint. "I could market this to all the gals back home."

"Yeah. But don't you have a small problem." Jimbo asked as he set his backpack down and dropped to a sit beside her. 

"What's that?"

"There's no way back."

She pondered that and remained silent. How would they get back and at that moment she felt her body shiver with a cold that was unfamiliar to her. The fear of being lost. Absolutely lost!

The Butterfly and the Robot CGI short is now posted on ImagineNation

The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Chapter Five: The Scorpion Strikes is now posted on ImagineNation.

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Twenty-Nine is now posted on ImagineNation.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Al sat on top the statue in a very untenable position, almost laughing. Samuel grinned. Al didn't take it all that seriously, though he was certain whoever had built it must have, or did now. It was the nature of all cults that they found themselves to be more important than anyone else, even though the truth was all people were equally as important to God.

"I think it's a good sign." Samuel said.

"Why you grinning?" Jimbo demanded.

"Let's just say it's an inside joke and leave it at that." Samuel said, then turned back the way they could go. 

"Well. If this is heaven, it's definitely the wrong direction." Nanny sighed.

Jimbo put an arm around her shoulders. "Buck up, cowgirl, hell never had it this good."

Samuel laughed.

Jimbo grinned at him and they began descending the spiral staircase that seemed to descend forever into the darkness below.

"I don't get it." Nanny finally said, no longer able to contain her curiosity.

"Here we are, maybe several miles beneath the earth..."

"Or Shasta." Jimbo pointed out.

"Or Shasta." Nanny went on. "And yet both of you act as if it were no big thing."

"Nanny." Sam said, pausing a moment in their descent to look at her. He could see fear tinging her expression and his words softened a bit. "It's like this, when you've been through as much as Jimbo and I, and seen as much as we have, there's not a lot anymore that can shake us."

"Except death, of course." Jimbo said with a snort.

"Well, yeah. There's that." Samuel agreed. "But even death is not so scary anymore. We've both seen dead and undead."

Nanny stopped him there with a finger to his lips. "Dead and undead? What in the hell is that?"

"Jimbo." Samuel said.

Jimbo sat down and pulled out a twinkie for everyone. "Might as well have a snack. This staircase ain't getting any shorter."

They ate for a moment in silence, then Nanny looked at Jimbo. He nodded. "It's like this. The dead are those that die and go into the Light. And the undead are those that refuse to do so."

"Either because they're afraid God is going to zap them with a destructo beam or send them to Hell." Samuel interjected.

"Or worse." Samuel  continued. "Make them eat their shorts."

Nanny gave him a surprised look, then hit him on his shoulder with his fist. "Stop that! That's just...just..."

"Unholy?" Jimbo asked with a smirk.

"No. Stupid!" She finally said.

"Oh." Jimbo replied, giving Samuel a look for help.

Samuel finished his Twinkie, then licked his fingers. "Nanny. God has a plan for all of us, it's just that we also have a plan for all of us, and they often times clash and when that happens we bail heaven to stay on earth."

"Hence the Undead." Jimbo added.

"You mean people are still here on Earth...well under Earth in our case...and don't go to heaven?"

"There is no heaven." Jimbo said. "Or hell. Only what we make of our lives, which can be either one."

Nanny looked even more confused. Samuel put a hand on her arm and patted it gently. "Nanny, it's a lot to get a handle on if you don't  have the background, but it's the truth. People don't really die, and yes some people stay earthbound. For the most part they're tormented souls trying to put that last piece of the puzzle of their life back together again, but some are horrible monsters, not in the sense that they're dragons and that sort of thing, but they use people...real, living people...to carry on their obsessison."

"Hence, the dead and the Undead." Jimbo finished.

Nanny shook her head and got up. "Too much information."

She began down the staircase, not looking back.

"I'm worried about her, Sammie." Jimbo said in a whisper.

Samuel looked at him and shook his head. "She's facing quite a few challenges." He saw M giving him a smile and shaking her head, then smiling again. "But I think her intuition is good and strong and she will figure it out. One way or the other."

Jimbo sighed and reslung his backpack. "I hope so. God only knows what we're going to find at the end of this rainbow...and I don't think it's the Wonderful City of Oz either."

Samuel stepped down beside him and descended with him. "You never know."

They continued in silence for what was at least another hour and then they noticed something. Jimbo first. He stopped and sniffed the air. "Cattle."

"What?" Nanny asked, running back up to them. "Cattle. Where?"

"Close." Jimbo said. "Real close."

"How can you tell?" Nanny asked.

Jimbo winked at her. "Because their crap smells a lot worse when you're on top of them."

Nanny punched him again.

Jimbo sighed and gave Samuel the look of a wounded man. "Sometimes, I don't know why I even bother."

Nanny laughed, then gave him a hug. "This is why, you big jerk."

He laughed and hugged her back.

They descended faster this time and the smell of Cattle grew stronger, and also the smell of...

"Water!" Jimbo said. "Definitely water."

The stairs suddenly banked to the right and they stood on the edge of an opening into a pasture of green and gold, with fleecy clouds flinging themselves across the ceiling of the sky above. Literally a ceiling.

Al and M stood beside Samuel and pointed.

He looked that way and saw a luminous city made of what looked like light from where they stood piercing the sky. "I think we've found our goal."

Jimbo looked that way. "A city under Shasta?"

Nanny gave a gasp of awe. "Then the rumors are all true."

She had no sooner spoken those words than a beautiful luminous craft sailed past overhead in the wide open area, sparkling lights spiraling around its exterior edge, giving it the shape of a saucer, but with a bit of a triangular shape. 

"It's beautiful!" Nanny cried out.

"Look, your cattle." Samuel pointed to their left where a huge grazing area was being swept over by what appeared to be hundreds of beautiful white and gold cows.

Then they heard a rumbling sound. 

Jimbo sniffed the air. "The water smell's gotten stronger. No, wait!"

He spun around as the rumbling grew louder, then a faint spray of water came down the spiraling staircase.

"Sammie, it's not a staircase! It's a water pipe." He yelled and flung them all from the opening to the left as a huge flood of water shot down like a cannon into the space they had stood in.

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Twenty-Eight is now posted on ImagineNation.

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Still thinking!" Jimbo cried out as he plunged ahead like a tiger after prey, with Samuel and Nanny hot on his heels. The walls kept closing in. They almost reached the end of the opening, when the floor suddenly shifted. They plumetted downwards.

They hit a hard surface and began sliding head over heels, over and over, their screams and cries of surprise and pain mingling as they rolled for what seemed like forever.

Finally, the slope evened out and they piled on top of each other.

"Foot!" Jimbo muttered.

"Ankle." Nanny cried out.

Samuel pried free from them and sat up, his right hand glowing. "We're alive."

Jimbo disentangled himself from Nanny and sat up next. "If you can call it that. I have bruises on every inch of my body and bruises on the bruises."

"Speak for yourself." Nanny groused.

"I am." Jimbo growled back.

"Hey!" Samuel said, looking at them. "We're alive."

"Yeah. I suppose so." Nanny grumbled, then she burst into laughter. "Just look at me, I just had the longest free fall slide in the world and I'm complaining about it. People would pay thousands for a fraction of this."

"Where are we?" Jimbo asked, pressing the more urgent question.

Samuel stood up and dusted himself off. He searched the area for awhile and found his backpack, and slipped it on. He found Jimbo's and tried to lift it, but it was to heavy. Jimbo came over and lifted it as light as a feather. "You really need to exercise more, buddy." Jimbo told Samuel.

"I'll remember that if I don't die down here." Samuel said.

"Funny." Jimbo responded with a snort.

"Hey guys! Husband/wifey...remember?"

They both turned on her with glaring eyes. She held up her hands and laughed again. "Seriously,  you guys have some real identity issues."

Samuel shrugged, then pointed his hand towards the opening they had fallen down to. "It looks passable."

"I don't get it, Sam. Why would they try to compress us like a sandwich, then slide us safely to home?"

"Good question. Remind me to answer if when I find out." Samuel answered drily.

Jimbo shook his head, then spotted Nanny's backpack. He shouldered it.

She ran up, then grunted, grabbing at her right ankle. "Damn!"

"What's wrong?"

"I think I sprained it on your jaw."

Jimbo rubbed his jaw. "Ouch! So that was you!"

"Now who's being Mister and Missus Prissy." Samuel teased.

Nanny and Jimbo both shivered at the thought, and turned to look where Samuel was headed. He had gone on, not waiting for them. As they pursued him, they saw that his light was dimming and the corridor of rock was brightening with spots of luminous rock and fern. In a few minutes of walking they found themselves in a wonderland, fantasy of light and color. Spinning rainbows of red, blue green, yellow and orange spun around the petals of flowers unlike any they'd seen before.

Nanny reached out to touch one and it spit at her.

She snatched her hand back. "It's alive."

"Tell us something we don't know." Grumbled Jimbo, rubbing his jaw again. "Are you sure this was an accident?"

"What? My kicking your jaw or the fall?"

Samuel dropped back. "Kids we have bigger problems."

He led them forwards where t he path stopped and dropped for what might be miles below. The strips of luminous rocks and flowering plants trailed downwards, giving it the appearance of a vertical landing strip with running lights.

"It' s beautiful!" Nanny said, her voice filled with the awe of a child.

Jimbo looked at the far end of the corridor, which was a good thirty feet away. "I don't think I can jump that far, Sammie."

"I can." Nanny said. 

She looked at Jimbo, who gave her a surprised look. "Yeah. I almost made the Olympics too."

"Is there anything you can't do?" Jimbo asked humrously.

"Yeah. Fall in love with a guy who puts his jaw on my foot."

"Funny, funny, funny." Jimbo said, then laughed. "I think I'm falling in love."

"Don't bother. I'm engaged." Nanny said back, causing Jimbo's smile to vanish.

"Kidding." She said. "Just testing the waters, big guy."

She poked his tummy lightly and grinned. "You're such a softie, you big marshmallow giant."

"She's got you there, Jimbo." Samuel said, loving the lightheartedness of the moment. "But I'm doing the jump."

Nanny went to Samuel and slipped a hand around his waist and leaned into him. "You really think you're up to handling a woman like me?"

As she did, her right hand caught at the nylon rope that was dangling from his backpack. 

Samuel felt his heart kick into high gear. "Uh."

Jimbo laughed. "Man, you actually got him tongue-tied. Never seen that happen before."

"Oh, I'm full of all kinds of surprises." She said, then ran back the way they'd come, the rope shooting out of Samuel's backpack. 

"Hey!" He cried out.

She laughed, then came running at them as the last piece of the rope caught between Samuel's hands. "Don't let go of it." She warned him and then leapt as high as she could.

"Oh Christ!" Jimbo swore as she arced high into the air, her lithe body as graceful as a gazelle in flight.

Samuel saw Al and M gliding alongside her, blowing at her as she flew upwards, as if trying to give her extra height. Then they fell back and came back to Samuel.

Al looked at Sam. "Grab!" He ordered.

Samuel grabbed hold of the nearest thing. Jimbo. The rope began burning through his hands, causing them to burn like hell, as she plummetted.

Nanny missed the other side and with a high pitched scream fell like a rock.

"Damn!" Jimbo cried out and held on for dear life as her weight started to pull Samuel forward. They dug their heels in and prayed she didn't let loose on her end. They felt the rope jerk suddenly, then stilled.

Samuel ran to the edge and looked down. She was hanging onto something about a  hundred yards down. She looked dead, then he heard a light groan. She rolled over, nearly falling off the ledge she lay upon. She waved. "Come on down, it's just what the doctor ordered."

Jimbo sighed with relief. "What a woman."

"I saw her first." Samuel said.

"Technically, I saw her first." Jimbo returned.

Samuel  smiled, then wrapped the rope around Jimbo's wrists. "See you in hell!"

With that, he dropped over the edge, using the rope to rappel down, until he reached the ledge beside Nanny. She was still laying there. 

"I'm sorry if I don't get up to greet you, but I think I broke something." She said light-heartedly, even as her face showed a lot of pain.

A few minutes later Jimbo came down. He dropped the last few feet, then gave the rope above him a tug and it fell into his arms. He wrapped it up and handed it over to Samuel, who stuck it back into his backpack.

Jimbo stooped down and lifted Nanny into his arms. "Like a lift?"

"Anytime, big guy." She told him, winking at Samuel as he did.

Then they turned to look at what she had seen. It was a very large doorway, carved from marble with intricate spiritual symbols inscribed all over it. The door was made of gold and iron. It was partially open.

Samuel pushed on it. At first it wouldn't budge, then it slowly opened to reveal a staircase, well lit and bright. Lit by a descending series of crystals that glowed a soft blue, casting the stairwell in a kind of stardust glow.

"Well, heaven or hell?" Jimbo asked.

Samuel looked down the stairwell. It seemed to go forever. "I'm not taking any bets one way or the other."

They stepped through the door to begin the descent and the heavy door, which must have weighed easily a ton, slammed shut behind them.

Samuel and the others turned to look back and where the door once stood was an ancient carved stature.

"The symbol of Agharta." Nanny almost whispered.

"Hollow Earth." Samuel stated. "The symbol of the Hollow Earth."

The Adventures of Chaptain Marvel, Chapter Four: Death Takes the Wheel is now posted on ImagineNation.

The Adventures of Captain Marvel Chapter Four