CHAPTER 14

BRINGING BACK LIFE

            The rock and gravel continued to flow past us like waves of debris that eventually became slower and slower. As the flow slowed down, rays of light began to show through the immense dust in the air. I coughed as I ingested debris and dust into my lungs. As I coughed, so did Simon. I was glad to hear him. Coughing meant he was alive. The roar of the gravel flow had been deafening. Even in the silence, I was still hearing the roar of the gravel in my head.

            As the dust began to settle, my eyes adjusted to the scene. The opening above me was now a wide-open tunnel going nearly twenty feet in the air. Below us, where the floor once was, was a cavernous, dark hole. I sat on the edge and looked down, and twenty feet below me in the darkness was now a hill of rock, gravel, and sand. There were no openings to see beyond that point. There was no rope between us. There was no sign of the other men. Above us, All I could see was a rope hanging in mid-air, unreachable. A ray of light was shining down from above. I thought it was the end.

            My throat was dry with dust. No moisture at all in my mouth. I couldn't say a word. I put my hand on Simon’s chest to feel the air pass in and out of his lungs. I reached around my waist and pulled out a handkerchief and put it over his airway. I did not want him breathing in any more of the dust. I looked him over. He was pretty banged up. His head had been bleeding but the sand and dirt had packed itself into the wound and had stopped the bleeding from continuing. I looked at his limp body and his hands were severely cut up. I looked at his legs. His right leg was clearly broken. It was twisted backward from the knee down. His left leg seemed bent backward behind his entire body at the knee. Then I noticed, at the end of his thigh on his left leg, where the knee should have been, was blood, and in the blood was what looked like a thick stick. Around the stick, it was muddy and caked with blood. This was no stick. It was his femur bone sticking out. It had broken like a twig, and the other portion of the leg was underneath him, most likely still attached to the knee cartilage. I closed my eyes avoiding the sight of this young man and how he had been mangled by the cave-in.

            As I kept my hand on his chest, he suddenly took a deep breath and gasped. I pulled the handkerchief off his face to allow him the air he needed to come in. I watched as he opened his eyes as wide as he could. He was awake. He continued to gasp for air and his body began to shake. He was in shock. I took off my over shirt and covered him with it. I knew I needed to warm him up.

I then called out with all my might, “Help!” but it was weak, my mouth and throat dry. I had no water so I tried to get my saliva glands working. I knew I needed some moisture in my mouth to call out for help. I then heard a woman’s voice, “Jack, I am on my way! Jack!” It was Mimi. I looked up and could see her floating down on the rope. She looked like an angel floating above us with the beams of sunlight showing through the floating dust particles. She repelled herself off the wall in the open space. She then called up above her, “Keep lowering me. I can seem them.” There was then a bark. Over Mimi’s shoulder, I could see a head peaking out of her knapsack. It was Mum. They had come down to find us.

            As Mimi got closer she flung her weight to the sloped wall opposite us. Her feet landed and she held onto the rope as she walked down the slope until she was directly across from us on a ledge several feet away. She then took a tight hold of the rope and swung herself over to our ledge. She crouched down next to me. Mum jumped out of the knapsack and rushed over to Simon and began to lick the wound on his head. And just like Mimi had taken care of Mum on the side of the road, she grabbed for her water and poured it into my mouth and over my face. I drank it in and coughed again. I was finally able to speak.

           “Give…the water to Simon.”

            Mimi took her canteen and put it next to Simon’s mouth. She took her hand and ran it over his forehead and spoke to him.

           “Simon. It is all right. You are going to be fine. Can you hear me, Simon?” He did not answer. Mum barked at him to get a response.

            I interrupted her, “Bayne?”

           She said nothing about him. She just continued to help Simon. I asked her again.

          “He’s gone. He has taken the bone with him to Athens.”

          “What!”

          “Cadmus tried to stop him, Jack. But he wouldn't listen.”

           I could not believe this. I didn’t want to hear it. I was in shock myself.

         “Jack, did you hear me?” I nodded that I did.

           I asked, “We don't even know what the bone is? It may not be what we were looking for?”

         “Cadmus told him Jack. But he didn’t want to listen. He told Cadmus it didn’t matter. This was what we needed.” She paused. “Jack, he left before any of this happened. As soon as he was out with the bone, he and Cadmus took it to one of the tents to look it over. Fifteen minutes later, he was gone. Cadmus returned to the cave and told us he had left with the bone, bound for Athens.”

            And with that, I thought, so was all our hard work. Bayne had left me with a huge mess to clean up here. I was certain he was off with the bone to do what he wished. There was nothing left to do. I was in no condition to stop him. I had responsibilities here to clean up.

            Mimi, Simon and I made it out of the cave. Simon was awake and alert. He looked to have at least two broken legs and luckily for him the sand and dirt caked over his wounds and stopped him from bleeding to death. Mimi went with him to Larissa to a hospital there. I would stay at the site until everyone was out. Uri told me that we had lost two men, Pelle and another man who had gone down to free the rope. Both men were likely buried in the rubble that was below where Simon and I were. There were no voices or sounds and it was unlikely they could have survived. Uri sent a man down with Mimi to Larissa to get a rescue party together to bring the men out.

            I then spoke with Cadmus about the bone. He told me he was fairly certain it was not human. He said he was just a geologist and it was only his opinion. He also said that Bayne would hear nothing of it. He was going to take his bone to Athens and have it checked out. Cadmus and I discussed the fact that the dig here was done. Certainly, the deaths of two men and the costs of the rescue efforts were going to use the rest of the grant money. Word would also spread quickly within the local communities that the unearthing of the giant bone killed two men. The giants got their revenge on those that disturbed their eternal slumber. It would be hard for anyone to build a crew willing to return to the site of such destruction.

            Cadmus agreed to stay on as a consultant to the rescue team. Both Uri and Cadmus tried to get me to seek medical attention but I was not going anywhere until the two men were found. I stayed at the site for as long as it would take. My head had been bleeding but it, too, was compacted with sand and dirt and the bleeding had stopped. I felt fine physically but I was tired. I could not believe how things had turned out.

            That night, Mimi returned to the site and to our tent. She told me that Simon was doing fine but that he was going to lose one of his legs. There was nothing they could do to save it from the knee down. He also had a broken hand and several broken ribs. His condition was serious but stable and he was doing all right.

           She asked me, “Who is Fedoras?”

            I thought and then I smiled. “Why?” I asked.

          “He said he knows our cause is worthwhile. He said Fedoras had visited him and told him he would be safe.”

            I told her the story that Simon had told us about his grandfather and the local giant, Fedoras. I told Mimi that with all that had happened that I didn’t think our trip was well worth the costs. That with the death of two men soon to be confirmed that I was sure it was time to go home.

            Mimi said, “Jack, we aren’t going anywhere right away. You need to go to the hospital yourself. I think it would also be best for us to take break for a while. We’re in Greece. Let’s take some time for us to get back on our feet for a while. We were given a full year sabbatical from the university and we’ve been working non-stop here for months. We need a break.”

            I let Uri and Cadmus know that we would be packing it all up but only after the bodies were found. Uri stayed on as well. The two bodies of Pelle and Nicoli were eventually found. Uri escorted them back to their homes with a modest sum of our money to pay for their burial. Mimi and I stayed and broke down the camp ourselves. Everyone else was gone. Uri picked up all the supplies, and we parted ways. He was a good man. He told me to understand that death comes unexpectedly and that it has little to do with us. It is about the fates of man and the greatest of life, and its balance.

          Mimi and I decided to find a place in Athens to take a month or just to relax. We wanted to see more of Greece and even go into Turkey and Italy before returning home. I relieved Cadmus of any duty to stay. I thanked him for his help. We both agreed to keep in touch. As we parted ways, it was clear to me that he wasn’t truly ready to let go.

         He turned and said, “Jack, don’t let this stop you. I was envious of your passion when we met that day in Athens. It was that passion that brought me here, and I am glad I was a part of this.’

         I didn’t know what to say. I felt the entire project was a complete failure. I figured he would feel the same. It didn’t matter. I just felt like I didn’t care anymore.

        Then we saw it. Bayne on the cover of the local newspaper with his “Giant Bone”. The headline read, “Giant Bone Unearthed.” Bayne was making news all over the world. First in Greece and then in Europe, and we could only assume the U.S.

       While we were in Athens for that month, we even heard that the National Geographic Society was going to do a story on Bayne and the “Giant Bone.” I was crushed. I had not heard from him and had no way to get in touch with him. We weren’t exactly sure where he was. Somewhere back in the states, we assumed.

       Mimi tried to get my mind off of it all. She suggested we get out of Athens and go on to Italy. Mimi’s family was from Italy, and she had never been there before. She knew the chances of coming back to Europe seemed slim. So we would use what little money we still had to travel to Italy. Then we would be going home. Mimi hoped I would do some personal research while we were in Italy. She was determined to get my mind on other things.

        As we prepared to leave for Italy, we read that scientists in Athens and Europe quickly reported that the bone Bayne claimed to be from a giant was likely that of a mastodon. The entire story of a giant bone was reported to be nothing more than a hoax. The National Geographic story ran anyway, saying that initial tests were inconclusive and that further testing would be needed to authenticate the claim that this bone was that of a giant human. Their story made it clear that this proof of any giants was inconclusive.”