Hiding History

"I still don't get it."

"Good, cause it's not your job to know, Jason. Just get that we're here and it's done."

"You can't be serious, Arnold? After all those years of having a settlement there, we're just going to abandon it because of some brutes? Most of them aren't properly trained enough to wield a sword, let alone an axe."

Arnold cuffed him over the head, ringing his helmet. "Sticking to your training will kill you faster than you can chuse your own poison. You've never fought berserkers before. Stopping crying over spilt milk. They wanted it, named it Iceland; now its done."

"So, what are we doing over here? We've never been out this far."

"Wrong, you've never been out this far. We already dropped a swine herd here before, and on our 2nd trip we dropped a team of ten men."

"You mean to tell me that there's potentially a settlement here already?"

"If they played nice enough with the natives, sure, why not? Listen, all we're doing is ensuring our profits remain ours. Warring nations already claimed the largest chunks of he world, but are too afraid to cross a little blue drink is all."

Blasting a horn, they signaling their arrival. Leaving the vessel out at deeper waters, they rowed their skiffs to shore. Bringing in the boats, they wandered further inland until they came across a log cabin.

Knocking on the door in a peculiar rhythm, a pair of eyes greeted them before undoing all of its locks on the inside.

"So, what's the surrounding landscape look like?" The man sitting across from him produced a map. Tapping onto the parchment Arnold stated, "So this is us right here?" The man nodded. "So, were are we looking at setting up?" The man dragged his finger near to one of the beaches, but still far away enough inland.

"Alright lads, let's get to work."

Over the next several weeks they set up their worksite, prepping their tools. While Arnold was looking over the building schematics, he asked one of the stone masons about a certain drawing he's never seen before.

"What's the purpose of this?"

"Ever heard of Giza's pyramids?"

"Indeed. Who hasn't?"

"Well, they use a contraption sort of like this to help with their construction."

"A water elevator, really?"

"Yes, but instead we'll be pumping out water, building our tunnels down there."

"Interesting."

***

Author's notes: Well, I was able to keep this one at 400 words exactly. As mentioned in an earlier writing, this was a challenge between Donna Fox and I. I had no idea how she did it, but she managed to keep her 1st draft to the 400 word limit. Props to her. I had to make an entirely different story just to reset my word count. Please, check out her profile and creepy horror story as embed below.

Thank You.