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Under Down Under
Is
a novel by modern day Australian story teller, Gerry Forster. It concerns
a
party of adventurers who venture into Northern Australia’s volcanic
outback
and, following a labyrinth of tunnels and shafts under an extinct volcano,
find
their hair-raising way down into the Earth’s amazing interior!
Here’s a glimpse of what’s awaiting you inside!
The black tunnel had continued to trend downwards and they were all
rapidly growing totally disheartened. Also, they had begun to notice
several disturbing things. A rather unpleasant smell had begun to
pervade the hitherto reasonably fresh air, and several times now, they
had spotted vague flitting movements just on the limit of their
torch-beams. Chas said they were probably bats, disturbed by their
lights, but Drew and Errol both felt that it might be something a bit
more sinister than mere bats. Anyhow, who was to know if there were
any such things as bats on the inner surface? They might be moving
into a totally alien environment to that outer crust they had left far
behind? Also they had begun to notice occasional dark entrances along
the corridor’s dank walls at strangely regular intervals, far more so
than one would normally find in a natural cave system.
Chas commented: “Man! Et’s like walkin’
doon the main street of a desairted village, en the sma’ hoors o’ the
morning when naebody’s aboot – not even the moon! Even doon tae cats
and rats scutterin’ aboot en the dairk! Aye! An’ bluidy bats, tae!”
After his nasty encounter with the large
reptilian thing that had bitten him in the volcano’s lava-chamber,
Errol, had been especially wary of anything that “scuttered aboot” in
the dark. And he’d seen a good many smallish shapes flitting around
both on the floor and the walls, as well as overhead, down this
corridor! One thing was for sure. They weren’t goddamn cats, rats or
bats! They were a tad too big for any of these! He hoped they were
simply the products of his fertile imagination! “Only this and nothing
more!” as dear old Edgar Allan Poe had said in his poem: “The Raven.”
Errol had a great affinity with Poe!
As they continued on their dismal gloomy way. Drew
suddenly stopped. “Hey! What the hell is that?” he gasped. He backed up
a little and pointed down one of the side passages. The others looked
too. At its farther end, there was a faint reddish glow which seemed to
emanate from another passage, and as they watched, they saw a curious
horned figure, wearing what appeared to be a short semi-transparent
cape, momentarily silhouetted against the glow. Then it seemed to turn
sideways and disappear, but not before it had looked back in their
direction and waved a beckoning arm.
“Well! I’ll be blowed!” said Drew, consumed with
curiosity. “Did you fellers see that? Looked just like a bloke in some
sort of bloody cloak waving at us!”
“Aye, Ah saw, him alricht!” said the
professor grimly. “An’ he looked joost like Auld Nick hemsailf, tae me!
Ah wouldnae gang doon yon tunnel if ye bluidy paid me! Ah’ve goat tae
admit, Andrae, Ah’m no happy aboot this parteculair veceenity!”
Start reading
Gerry Forster’s
gripping epic of the Inner Earth!
Download Episode
One of
‘Under Down
Under’
today!
700 pages in colour (zip file - 3.1
megs.)
Click here to
download
Under Down Under.
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