Return to Atlantis

Chapter 1 - The Seal of Atlantis

Lindsey Miles alighted into the mouth of a cave---a silhouette figure against the outside daylight to the dark interiors of the cavern. She exhaled a smoky breath into the cool summer air of the Alaskan Denali mountains; panting as she did so. It has been a long and difficult trudge.

A girl of 18, she was a petite and slender young lady in khaki shorts, warm tights, and an overcoat. Her long, wavy auburn hair formed a messy bun on her head. If not for the current situation she is in, Lindsey Miles would usually sport smiling brown eyes and a cheery demeanour. But today her eyes were full of serious contemplation and anxiousness as she surveyed the cavern infront of her.

She couldn't believe what she was doing; hiking in the mountains on her own. She has managed so far, much to her self-amazement.

She held a flash-light in her hand and waved it against the darkness, barely illuminating anything.

She then felt for the crystal pendant on her necklace that rested on her chest, gripping it--- an instinctual habit of hers when she felt she needed encouragement; and she could feel her heart thumping against her fist and it wasn't only because she was out of breath from climbing down the ravines to get to the cave's entrance a while ago. The cavern isn't particularly inviting.

She braved her way in.

'Where are you, uncle?' her mind kept clamoring. It has been four weeks since his disappearance.

A great archaeologist is hailed missing. Search operations have unfolded. Yet, Douglas Miles could not be found. Two days ago the search was ultimately called off.

"No, we cannot just give up on him. My uncle is out there somewhere," Lindsey had begged, to which the Search Operations Superintendent, a tall middle-aged man, apologetically responded. "Miss Miles, we have done everything we could. I am afraid we have ran out of resources for this operation. We have extended this search for as much as we could but we have no options left."

"But Sir I know he IS alive! I just know it, I can feel he is alive! He is out there somewhere waiting for help," Lindsey clamored. She could not explain it - this strong intuition she can't ignore.

It was no use talking to the Superintendent. She came out of the makeshift tent of the central search party command post in disdain. She looked around the camp grounds situated in the mountain interiors as everyone was getting busy packing up. It was buzzling with activity around her. The tents have gone down; the vans are loaded, people in military uniforms were purposely walking about here and there. She looked up at the clear blue sky - it was the beginning of summer - and to the rugged mountain path blanketed in snow just beyond.

Returning to the camp grounds all the way from Kansas after 3 weeks in contempt of the news that the search is folding, she knew there was no convincing the authorities. But she came anyway, somehow she felt she needed to.

She had been wanting to be involved in the search ops from the get-go but the authorities' prohibitions despite her being an apprentice archaeologist left her on the outside. Today she is making the call herself.

She looked around as everyone was minding their own business. Slowly she walked past everyone in a nonchalant way, made her way to a gap in the fencing sealing off the path entrance that was slowly being dismantled. Out of the clearing, she quietly sneaked her way out and into the paths without anyone noticing her.

Lindsey Miles - a young, aspiring archaeology student embarked on her own search. It led her here, in the mouth of a hidden and secluded cave sitting discreetly on the side of the mountain. It wasn't her own volition that brought her here. Something had beckoned her, guiding her every step.