Chapter 15: This Is It

Ace “Careful!” Deacon growled.

I laughed and winked back at the girls.

“Sorry. My bad!” I called out to him trying not to laugh.

Colby, Zylen, and I carefully eased Deacon down with the rope.

“Ya. My bad.” Deacon mocked with a growl.

“It would be so funny if we just let go of the rope.” Colby whispered with a laugh.

“I can hear you guys!” Deacon growled.

“Dammit.” Colby sighed.

“Almost to the ground yet?” I asked.

“Ya.” Deacon called up. “And I’m good. You can let go, I’m on the ground.”

“Oh thank the Lord.” Zylen said as she shook her hands and dropped the rope. “He was starting to get heavy.”

I tried to suppress my laugh as I heard Deacon growl.

“See anything?” I asked as I saw the light from the flashlight.

“Not really.” Deacon mumbled and I saw his form walk around.

“Are you sure?” Colby asked as she laid down on the ground and looked down into the ground.

“Colby. Yes I’m sure.”

Colby shrugged. “Just makin’ sure. Damn. Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

“There’s only a bunch of rocks.” Deacon said confused. “I think minerals.”

“So fascinating.” Colby said sarcastically as she rested her head in her palm.

“Ya know.” Deacon yelled. “Maybe you should be the one down here doing this.”

“Nah. I’ll pass.” Colby smirked waving him off.

“Nah I’ll pass.” Deacon mocked in a high pitched voice and started to look around.

A couple minutes went by and still nothing.

Colby groaned and rolled on her back. “This is so boring.”

“You’re fine.” Gabriel laughed as he sat down in the grass.

“This would go a lot faster if someone would help!” Deacon growled.

“He’s such a sour wolf today.” Zylen laughed.

“Heard that!”

“You were meant too!”

“Oooh look at that wolf spider!” Harvey yelled.

“What?” Colby screamed. “Where?”

“Shit!” I yelled as Colby started to fall backward.

“Ace!” Colby yelled as she grabbed my hand.

Which of course made me fall with her.

“Ahh!” We both yelled as we fell down the hole.

Hey! Alice in Wonderland moment!

‘Now is not the time!’ Ava growled.

“Oof.” Someone groaned.

Colby sighed in relief. “Thanks for breaking our fall Deacon.”

“Oh shit. Sorry!” I apologized as I jumped off of him and helped him up.

Deacon groaned as he stood up and rubbed his head. “Ya. No problem.”

“You alright?” I asked as I looked up at him.

He waved me off. “I’m fine. But I should be asking you that. Are you okay?”

I laughed as Deacon checked my arms and my face to see if anything broke.

I swatted his hands away and smiled. “Ya I’m fine.”

Deacon let out a sigh of relief. “Okay good.”

“Hey guys.” Colby mumbled as she was studying a rock looking thing.

“What’s up?” I asked as I grabbed the flashlight off the ground and shined it by Colby.

“Look at this.” She said as she pointed to the object.

“Oh shit.” I gasped as I looked closer. “This is it.”

“What’s it?” Colby asked confused.

“This is where they are getting the ingredients to make the sulfur.”

“How do you know?” Gabriel asked as he looked over the edge.

“These all have sulfur compounds. They can be used with a lot more supplies to be made into sulfur. Sulfur has three amino acids, cysteine, cystine, and methionine, and two vitamins, biotin and thiamine, which are organosulfur compounds.” I replied as I kept looking around.

“Uh. What is an orga-something compound?” Zane asked.

“Organosulfur compounds” I repeated. “Metal sulfides basically. Sulfur has many minerals in it. Some examples are barium sulfate, mercury sulfide, iron sulfide, and zinc sulfide.”

“That’s only some?” Zane asked astonished.

I nodded.

“How can all that stuff be in there?”

“It’s all natural.” I stated. “It could be anywhere in the ground.”

“How do you know this all of this?” Gabriel asked.

“I passed my earth science class in high school with flying colors.” I laughed.

“When it comes to science, Ace is a wiz.” Zylen stated.

“We should take some samples and I can have my lab examine them.” I mumbled.

“You have a lab?” Deacon asked shocked.

I nodded. “I really like science. So my dad and some other pack members built a lab. We have a lot of wolves that majored in many different sciences here when they were in college. Most of them still remember a lot of what they learned so they are our pack scientists.”

Deacon smiled. “That’s awesome.”

“Thanks.” I laughed. “Zylen!”

“Wazz up?” She asked as she looked over the edge.

“Go to my truck and in the toolbox in the bed, there should be some containers and some red tape. Toss them down.”

“On it!” Zylen said as she turned around and left.

“Did you know about this Ace?” Zane asked confused.

I shook my head. “No. I was very young the last time I was here. That was the day that my dad yelled at me because I was playing too close to it. He didn’t know what was down here and he didn’t want to risk sending anyone down here to check it out just in case something would happen. So he just ordered everyone to stay away from here.”

“Ace!” Zylen called. “Here!”

I looked up and held my hands out. “Toss ’em. I’m ready.”

“Here’s one.” Zylen said as she let the container go.

I quickly grabbed it and handed it to Colby. “Hold this real quick please.”

“Okay! Next one.” I said as I held my hands out again.

“Here’s the second one!” Zylen called as she dropped it.

I caught it and turned around to face the wall.

“Colby! Here’s the tape.” Zylen said as she let that go.

“Caught it.” Colby said as she turned to face me.

I opened the container and carefully scooped the dirt up that was surrounding the minerals.

I placed the dirt in the first container and closed the lid.

“Can you tape this up please?” I asked as I handed the container to Colby.

She nodded. “Sure thing. Here’s the other container.”

I smiled a thank you and turned around again.

I carefully picked up the minerals and some smaller rocks and placed them in the second container.

Colby handed me the tap and I wrapped it around the lid just to make sure nothing would fall out or the lid would open up.

“Now let’s get out of here and get these samples to my lab.” I said as I picked up the rope.

“Yes please.” Colby said as she looked around the floor of the hole. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

I laughed. “You’ll be okay.”