PETE AND JENNY IN ONE OF THE ENTRANCES

CHAPTER FIVE

 PETE AND JENNY IN ONE OF THE ENTRANCES

The architectural design of land of gold was done in a kind of maze. This made it hard to find ones way around the corridors that led from one chamber to another. Most often when you passed through a particular chamber, it might be impossible to ever see that chamber again. But it was a possibility if an intruder could remember the paths and colored arrow markings they would have followed in to each corridor that took one in to the chambers.This was so because the whole land and everything found within it were all made of gold of same colour.

Pete and Jenny at the beginning of their journey had followed the black arrow indicator that directed them on the walls into the entrances in their bid to escape from the creatures that had killed Charley. However, the creatures had all gathered at the gates to kill them both. Some had even found their way through the holes on the walls of the land, leading directly into the land where they could go after Pete and Jenny.

As the groups of the creatures came closer to them, the deeper they were forced into the land of gold.This made it impossible to ever return through the same path they took into a chamber except they would face the creatures and kill them since it would mean risking the chance of being attacked by those creatures directly and got killed.

"Look, Jenny, ahead is another entrance that leads into another corridor like the one we entered earlier,"Pete observed calmly. "I think those that have the black arrows on the walls must be the entrances that take us to similar passages and corridors leading to new golden chambers whenever we appear at the end of the passage way," Pete concluded.

"Does it mean that if we entered through a particular colour of arrow on the wall we will continue meeting the same colour of arrow on the wall? "Jenny asked. "But of all the things in this place, including all we have seen in each chamber we entered; only these arrows that have a different colour from that of gold," she concluded, "Yes,it is true, Jenny, I took note of this fact as well."

"Pete, what could this mean? "What could what mean?"

"Colours that each arrow represents. Could it mean those colours would lead us out of those gates?

"That sounds very intelligent, Jenny," Pete responded as they kept running along the corridors, jumping obstacles made of gold lying on tile floor.

"Well, so far the black arrows seem to keep leading us deeper into the Land of Gold," Jenny said."Do you think the creatures are still following us behind Pete?"

"It's difficult to say, except we stop and wait for a moment, possibly we would see them as they approach towards us before they see us. Then we can be sure and have no choice but to keep running for our lives, deeper and deeper into the land of gold, 'Pete concluded.

"No! I don't want to wait and see those ugly beasts, monsters and serpents. Let's just keep on running, Pete." Pete gave his sister his hand as he aided her overcoming a big chest filled with golden jewels; some even littered the floor made of tiles. She leapt upwards and holding her brother's hands, made a good jump over the chest of jewels. They continued running forward; ahead of them was a new entrance at the end of the passage way.

Back at home. It has been almost three months since the Tolen's discovered their three children had gone suddenly missing. Mrs. Tolen could remember vividly how she had come into the sitting room, after dropping Mary at school, and was greeted with an unusual silence. She had called out for Charley, Pete and Jenny; but there was no answer.

It was then it dawned on her that her kids were not in the house. Before she left for Mary's school, they had been watching television in the sitting room. But now that she returned from the school, emptiness stared at her. She had placed a call to her husband to notify him of the sudden disappearance of the three children. Mr. Tolen who had served the State Police at Zinatano, before he retired and went into Private Security Service, had rushed into his boss's office to notify him of the development and asked for permission so he could go to the police and report the matter.

Mr. Tolen hurried out of the security post and headed for the police head quarters he had served as a police superintendent in Zinatano before retirement. As he drove along the streets in his official car, he could recall how excited and light-hearted the children were before he left for office that morning. The joy that hitherto attended his new job vis-à-vis improvement on the family's welfare was instantly replaced with melancholy. Tears poured down his face as he drove into the police headquarters.

As he walked into some of the offices, several police officers stood up to solute him in the regular police manner. He saluted them all back and asked to see the District Police Officer (DPO) urgently. He was ushered into the DPO's office. After salutation and exchange of pleasantries, he told the DPO about his missing children. The DPO was stunned about Mr. Tolen predicament.

"How three children could be missing the same time?"he asked rhetorically. Well, Mr. Tolen, I will employ every available official prerogative to locate the children. Right away, I will deplore a team for their search" "Yes, sir I need you to prepare a police team to start immediate search for my missing kids."

"In fact I want them to search everywhere, including neighbouring city of Kakulta, which is not under your jurisdiction as District Police Officer (DPO) of Zinatano. However, I would request a cover letter and search warrant and endorsement from the Commissioner. "The DPO leaned back on his chair as he concluded. Then he quickly added: "You just have to be patient Mr. Tolen; you know how things work around here; it may take a day or two to have those search warrants and covering letters endorsed by the Commissioner. All the same I won't relent in my efforts."He leaned back on his chair a second time.

"Thank you DPO; I do appreciate your advice and deployment of the search team to help find my missing children. I will return to my wife for now." "Any information the search team gets about their whereabouts, please let me know." Mr. Tolen stood up, gave the DPO a salute, followed by a handshake and walked out. As he drove home, he was seized with sorrow and depression over his missing children.

As he drove into the parkway in front of his house, he could see Mrs. Tolen sitting in front of the staircase, while little Mary was busy playing with the chickens and Jenny's dog Billy. Raising her head up and seeing her father, she shouted papa,papa,papa, as Mr. Tolen rushed to carry her amid greeting Mrs. Tolen with a hug and a peck on her right check. "How did it go at the police station,"she asked.

"Well, the DPO promised to set up a police search team. They would be empowered with a cover letter and search warrant. This will facilitate their search when they eventually get into the city of Kalkulta." "What?"shouted Mrs. Tolen." Don't tell me my kids are in Kalkulta! Do you remember sometimes ago you came home telling a story of certain boys giving a story about missing persons in Kalkulta city? You equally said something about a strange 'land of gold." She stopped and stared at her husband. Mr. Tolen shrugged and dropped Mary.

"Yes, I did encounter that incidence at the Mandames Tavern, where I had gone to meet my good friend Mr. Pantane sometime ago before I started my new job. But I still don't have clear evidence about the existence of such a land,and all the news going around about this place are yet to be ascertained by any authority as an existing place. In fact, stories about the Land of Gold only circulated among the people mostly from Kalkulta city and a very small group I have come to know about here in Zinatano city," Mr. Tolen concluded.

"Look at me dear, you don't need to worry about our predicament. I will do anything to find Charley, Pete and Jenny". "In fact, I am certain the police search team would be on the search from tomorrow, we should have a positive feedback from the DPO before the week runs out… Is dinner ready?" Mr. Tolen suddenly changed the topic as he asked for the dinner from the receding figure of his wife he heading for the dining table.

Suddenly he was seized by the reality of the unknown condition of his children wherever they might be now. He was brought to the awareness of the possibility of them not having anything for dinner. As Pete and Jenny approached the new entrance to a new chamber at the end of the corridor and passage way, they noticed the black arrow indicating to the chamber.

"Stop!"Pete shouted at Jenny."Don't go into the entrance yet, this one looks kind of different from the other entrances we have followed so far. "Pete, we should not waste more time, those creatures are right behind us,if they do catch up with us, you or I might not survive the attack." "Ok, Jenny let's go inside. You will go first and I will follow you behind."

She headed straight for the entrance with Pete following behind. As they came into the passage way in this particular chamber, they discovered it had a similar bridge with the one they had earlier crossed to help Charley. Jenny jumped forward and speeding across the bridge as she headed for the other side across, Pete also followed her behind as they both kept running at a top speed to reach the other side.

From now here came this whirlwind,so sudden that as it spurned round and round across the bridge towards Jenny, Pete shouted at Jenny to hold on tight to those side ropes on the bridge quickly, that they would aid her not to fall off the bridge into the hole beneath them. As he spoke, the whirlwind had raced towards Jenny, picking her from the bridge and dropping her straight into the hole under it!

"Ooh my God, Jenny where are you? "Pete cried out loud as he stared below towards the direction the whirlwind had pushed Jenny to fall into the hole. He bent down, leaning forward so as to see clearly into the hole Jenny fell into. When he heard her shouting but very faintly from the depths below where she had fallen into, Pete desperately made efforts to help her; but he could not locate her from the depth of the cave. She kept screaming for help until her voice was no more audible for him to hear. Helpless, Pete stood with his hands over his hips; the thoughts of jumping into the same hole came running through his head.

As he felt the grip of anxiety run through his adrenaline, he let go of himself and into the hole. Passing through several depths, he started talking to himself, saying, "I am the cause of all this trouble. Charley is dead. Now he is a statue of gold that would never leave the land of gold, Jenny has fallen into this deep hole as the whirl wind pushed her.

Now who knows what has happened to her beneath those depths? Pete gradually dropped like a stone, but to his surprise, he landed on a heap of golden dust particles. This had cushioned and softened his impact with the floor he dropped on. Pete slowly stood up from the heap of gold dust, and started dusting off and removing every particle he could see from his body.

Then he turned and started heading for the stairs or steps ahead of him, they laid across the passageway or corridor bounded by two walls that led to another chamber he could see above him. Climbing through the very lengthy steps upwards he noticed different ancient weapons that adorned the walls, like a museum or gallery collection of ancient artefacts. Each of these weapons looked so very attractive and tempting to touch.

Each of them was made of pure and solid gold. When Pete finally appeared above the step sand walked hurriedly into the new chamber, he noticed Jenny, sitting at an angle on the floor at the other end. She was shacking, crying and sobbing,with her head facing downwards.

"Jenny,are you alright?"Pete asked,looking towards her direction.

"Oh! Pete, you've found me at last, how did you get down here?" Jenny asked. "I thought I would never see you again."

Pete cried out, "Jenny, yes I had to jump into the hole knowing this was my only option. And I found myself on a heap of golden dust particles. They cushioned my impact against the floor and not even a scratch came upon me."

"That was exactly what happened to me too,"Jenny responded."Pete, I want to go back home," Jenny cried out. "I no longer enjoy being in this place. How do we ever find our way out of this place?"

"I am glad I found you, Jenny. This chamber is so far the most beautiful amongst the others we came across in this land of gold."Jenny was silent and sternly looking at Pete as he spoke those words. Then he added: "But I think we should start moving before those creatures looking for us would eventually catch up with us. " They began to climb their way fully into the chamber they had just entered after falling into that hole; inside were so beautifully tiles and the walls had paintings of different kind of weapons,and ugly creepy creatures.

"Pete, I am becoming uncomfortable around this particular chamber,I don't feel safe here anymore,look at those paintings they are no different from the same ones Charley had touched that caused his death," Jenny said. "Pete, if you must touch any of those paintings on the wall,please ensure you touch only guns, swords, knives and those strange alien looking weapons, then she pointed straight ahead.

"Wow, just check out how beautiful everything here is made. I have to go a bit closer and take a better look at those weapons.May be we could use them to fight against those creature following us; if only they would come to life like the other painting at the other side where Charley was killed." Pete continued..

"Jenny, they almost seem like real," he added as he drew closer to the paintings on the wall. Then Pete stretched his hand forward to reach for a certain weapon, as he held on the golden image, imagining that he was holding a real gun in his mind. Suddenly, the gun popped out of the wall, right into his hands.

"Wow, Pete screamed,the weapon is active and real Jenny,hold on to it and let me get another." As he passed it to Jenny, he reached for another, then another until he had collected so many golden weapons of different forms.

"You see, I told you they would all come real and alive; thank God. Pete, you did not mistakenly touch any paintings of those ugly creatures. "Unknown to Pete and Jenny, they were in the presence of hovering 'invisible watchers' above them similar to the look of angels watching all they had been doing throughout in this new chamber Pete and Jenny had entered.