Your BBS/GBG Ships (Taking Requests)

Death Beneath Our Feet (Sminity)

People: Craig and Jaren

There will be other people in this one-shot, but the mains are Craig and Jaren.
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~*Craig's POV*~

The truck came to a rumbling stop as we reached the site. I looked to my dig partner. I heard the other two trucks come to a stop somewhere behind us. I looked around the area. All around us was jungle, minus our dig. Thick brush stuck out from the base of the trees. Throwing open the doors and climbing out, I backed up as Jaren started to drive closer to the dig, before pulling a u-turn and leaving the back of the truck to the site. He soon climbed out after the other two trucks followed suite. He came up to me.

"So," he started, "anything specific we're supposed to be looking for today?" I smiled at him and rolled my eyes. He never looked at the papers. He never had any clues what we're looking for until we've reached the site and after I told him. But usually, even then, he would just step onto the site and somehow know what it is exactly that we're looking for.

He was one of our top diggers. He would always know where to dig, and how deep. Not to mention, guess what it is that we're actually digging towards. Everyone in our squad found it quite incredible. We were lucky when he was first assigned to our group. And there were also sites that he would say weren't ours, but would say we should still dig. And within a week or so, we would get letters that would say we were given the wrong coordinates to our dig sites. We still would have been digging, though, since there was always something at those sites. I've been a little curious ever since I've notice this trend. It was almost like he could tell the future or something. I pulled the folded document out of my pocket. Jaren snatched it from my hands and slowly unfolded it.

His eyes scanned the paper. The smile on his lips slowly disappearing. I cocked an eyebrow as he finished reading. He looked to me.

"We're looking for a catacomb?" He asked quietly. I sighed. He was never really comfortable when it came to dead bodies. Something about his past he hasn't told anyone about. I rubbed his shoulder.

"Don't worry." I reassured him. "Just help us dig to the catacomb. Once the bodies get involved, you can tap out." I watched as he took a breath and nodded. He quietly walked to the back of the truck and threw the door open, removing some of our supplies and bringing them over to the small sets of tents that were set up. Someone came up beside me. Evan stood to my right.

"He read the paper?" He asked, looking to me. I nodded. "Lets see if he'll find it without having to dig, like always." I watched Jaren as he went back to grab more supplies from the truck.

"Lets watch him, see if anything happens." Evan nodded. "Tell the others to keep an eye on him." With that, I left Evan to speak with the others. I went to the truck and started removing supplies. There were still shovels, pickaxes, more tents, and several boxes of brushes and food. We would be receiving an excavator within a day or two, so until then, we were supposed to try and find anything on the surface. I grabbed the tents and moved them to a more grassy area of the site. I dropped the tents and went back to the truck. I had to help Jaren move the barrels of pickaxes, and then the shovels. He remained quiet, his face still blank. I sighed.

"Why are you so afraid of corpses anyways?" He shook his head.

"Reasons." Was the only thing he said as we went back into silence. We placed the shovels under the open tents. Jaren went back to close the doors to the truck. I watched as a breeze blew his dark brown hair slightly. He was soon standing beside me as we looked over the site. Evan, Tyler, Brian and David standing with us. I placed my hands on my hips.

"So," Evan started, "you gonna do your trick or...?" He looked to Jaren. I glared at Evan, but Jaren sighed. Slowly, he walked out onto the site. I shuffled over to Evan and punched him in the arm. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Dude, you know how hard it is for him to do something like this." I scolded. "You know he can't stand corpses." Evan rubbed the back of his neck. Jaren was several meters from the centre of the dig.

"I know. But, it's incredible how he's able to do stuff like this." I sighed, rolling my neck and looking to the sky. We remained silent for another few minutes as I continued to stare upwards. Then, someone was nudging my arm.

"He stopped." Tyler mumbled next to me. I slowly lifted my head. Jaren reached the centre of the site now. I snapped into attention. His body was rigid. Even from here, I could tell he was shaking.

"Jaren?" I called. "You okay bud?" He shook his head. We all looked to each other before slowly walking towards him. He turned to us as we approached. The second we saw his expression, we rushed towards him. He was deathly pale, enough that we were terrified for him. His shaking was a lot worse then what I thought, and he looked like he was about to puke. I grabbed his elbow and upper arm as Tyler copied my actions on his other side. We pulled him from the site and sat him on one of the foldable tables under the open tents. He gripped the table with shaking hands. He was holding his breath as well.

"Jaren, breath." Brian urged. I let loose a sigh of relief as he did what was told. "What happened? You just, froze." Jaren shook his head.

"We shouldn't dig here." He mumbled. This surprised us. Never once since Jaren joined our team has he told us not to dig somewhere. I looked to the others, and silently shooed them away. They left with some complaining.

"Okay, what's going on?" I asked. He looked up at me. He let out a chuckle, but there was no amusement in it.

"There isn't a catacomb. But there are bodies." I took a step back from him. I had to ask him
how he knew. I had to ask him about his 'ability'.

"Alright, I'm gonna be blunt here. How are you always able to tell what's buried at our sites?" He looked to me.

"Ever since I was a child, I was always able to tell what was beneath my feet. The further down, the harder to tell what it is. The closer to the surface, the better the details are. And right now, we're over top of an enormous sacrifice." I stumbled back. Sure, I was amazed that he could tell what was beneath his feet. But a sacrifice. Then something hit me.

"Did something happen when you were a child that gave you your fear of corpses?" He nodded. I held my breath.

"The first day I had received my 'gift', I had been in my backyard. I was, what, six by then. Little did my parents know that our house was built over top of a graveyard. I got quite a scare that day." He shook his head. I wanted to comfort him, but how? I sat beside him. "Im gonna assume that you want to tell the others like this?" I shook my head.

"Not until you want to." He nodded. "But now I believe that we can't dig here." He gave me a small smile.

"So I guess we should pack up then, huh." I nodded. We slowly stood and walked to the others. After explaining to them why we need to pack up, I texted our overseer who would have brought the excavator not to come and the reasons, and then we were off. I glanced to Jaren every so often. What kind of horrors has he seen?