The Staircase Shaped Door

Chapter 3: From the Soil to the Stars part 1

"What? Did you find something?" The others waited, anticipating his answer.

"No, I just got a feeling about an area." Can you help me mark it off, please?" The other Archaeologists turned and went to the tent.

"Okay, just let me put my stuff away." Steve walked into the tent and put his lunch on the table.

"Do you guys want to help?" He asked. They both shook their heads.

"We work off facts, not feel--in--gs." The larger one vomited out the word feelings and snickered.

"Besides we were not authorized to start in a new area. We need to follow the rules...you know that." The one with his eyes magnified to the size of his thick glasses blurted out.

"I understand. But the location we're at has been dead for weeks. I'm going to work with Bert today."  Steve stated leaving the tent.

"Well, it's your funeral. If the higher ups find out..." Steve was out of the tent and couldn't hear the rest of his comment.

"So, why this spot?" Steve asked catching up to Bert.

"I don't know. It's just a feeling." Bert said not wanting to mention why he selected this spot.

They walked for what seemed like miles and stopped. "Do you see that stick?" Bert pointed at the large white pine branch, stuck in the ground.

"Yes."

"I want to mark an area off around that stick."

"Wow, this is a beautiful spot." Steve said.

"It's perfect for an old settlement. There's a pond about 800 feet west from here. You can smell it." Bert said taking a deep breath of the fresh water in the air.

"Okay, let's mark it off." Steve said.

Bert went back to camp, grabbed a metal detector and a hand-held sonar device. Arriving back at the freshly roped off area, he sat the metal detector down and used the sound wave instrument around the area. The waves started to create an image that looked like a large piece of pottery.

"Steve, get a collapsible square and drop it here." Bert pointed to the area of grass were the image appeared on the machine.

Steve grabbed a three meter collapsible square and set it up. It was getting late in the day, so they decided to start digging instead of checking anymore area.

Steve was outside of the trench attaining his mini mattock when Bert felt the strange wind again. This time it seemed to shoot up out of the hole, like air gusting out of a subway grate. He used his hand hoe to smooth the dirt floor and it kept hooking on something. Bert grabbed his whisk broom and dusted off the area revealing a piece of purple colored metal.