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<center><img src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/06/14/22/11/arctic-139394_960_720.jpg"></center><center><a href="https://pixabay.com/es/users/12019-12019/"><sup>Source</sup></a></center>

<center><h1>Hollow Earth</h1></center>


Shit! They're coming for me. With my leg broken, I won't get very far, I won't be able to escape. Seeing the positive side of the matter, I will not die from the cold, I will surely die faster and less stormy. 

Stupid James! you had to make me swallow the red pill to have the same fate as you. Surely you must be happy that soon I'll meet you and you can say to my face "I told you so!" Bah! Actually, the stupid one was me going to your funeral, what was I supposed to do there? I've always disliked you and you know it, but Martha...

It was your wife Martha who called me, She was suffering a lot and I could not have left her alone in such a hard time, I remember the funeral as if it had been this morning, that's where it all started.

<center><b>* * *</b></center>

It was still early when they had buried the body and all present began to withdraw, that's when Martha gave me the worn-out agenda "I'm sure James would have wanted you to keep it," she said, as she glanced sideways at the two gorillas dressed in apparently distracted black suits. How unobservant I am! I was unable to realize that we were being watched from that very moment. Martha knew and that's why she didn't say anything about the investigation, she knew that my journalistic instinct would lead me to put together the pieces of the puzzle and follow in your footsteps. She couldn't have had a better strategy, if she had told me what you were up to, I would have laughed out loud in my heart, I wouldn't have taken into account another one of your crazy conspiracy theories.

I came home without noticing anything strange in the ceremony or on the way home (yes, I must have had some sort of selective blindness) and everything had gone normally, the death of a colleague from cardiac arrest, the grief of his wife, an inheritance for nothing special... The next day I would return to my routine, cover the protest of the cement factory workers, have lunch with Jane, walk in the park for a while and order pizza for dinner, but I did not.

I could swear that it was your ghost who did not let me sleep that night, despite feeling tired and sleepy, the thoughts overflowed my head, it did not occur to me to look for other reading material to distract the mind than the booklet inherited. As I supposed, you still continued with the same thing as always, dragging the theories that we discussed in the university. During the first pages, I had the impulse to abandon the reading of the agenda and take Kafka back, but then I found the page where you talked about your trip to Antarctica.

For a moment I thought I was reading a science fiction book, you told everything in great detail: The ships coming out of the crater, the big floodgates closing, everything well documented and most importantly, this time you had proof! Did Martha know about this? Knowing them I would say that you never said anything to her not to put her in danger and she would never read your stuff out of respect.

The curiosity was immediate, I went online to see the image captured by satellite in the coordinates where you took the photographs, obviously I did not find more than a large white spot, only ice.

<center><b>* * *</b></center>

I had to see those photographs, so I asked Martha for access to your computer, to my surprise there was nothing there concerning your research, which seemed quite strange to me. I went to your office, Mr. Weller was a little reluctant, but in the end, he agreed to let me have a look there I began to be intrigued when I realized that they had replaced the computer's hard drive and that Mr. Weller knew nothing about it.

I did a little more research on the last days of your life, looking for answers to find more questions. You were scheduled for an interview with one of the most important magazines in the country, but you died the day before. A heart attack after drinking coffee in a small restaurant, coffee! Since when the hell do you drink coffee? Obviously, someone didn't want you to show up for that interview and made sure you didn't, but I had no way to prove my suspicions, unless...

I decided to follow in your footsteps and travel to Antarctica myself in search of evidence, of course, taking my precautions, which I now feel were of no use to me. They didn't even let our helicopter come near to see the opening and they shot us down with a missile, a bloody missile!

<center><b>* * *</b></center>

Those dogs come to finish us off, or rather, to finish me off, as I am the only one of the crew still standing. I hear them coming, their helicopter has landed nearby, the cold breath of death caresses my neck.

I see the most beautiful angel of death approaching, a tall, spiky blonde with short hair and eyes confused with the blue of the sky. 

"Get up with your hands up" She commands me, Why lift me up? Why don't you kill me here and now my delicate angel? 

"I'm sorry, miss, my leg's hurt and I can't get up," I tell her, the girl nods her head and two of her henchmen come to pick me up and take me to their helicopter.

"You're in serious trouble, Mr. Fisher,"  the blonde tells me as we rise in the middle of the frozen dessert.

We enter inside the cavity, it's an amazing landscape! It looks like I have traveled about 100 years into the future, a great city of metal and rock imposes itself beneath the frozen surface, vehicles that seem to float in the air parade in an orderly fashion establishing a complex pattern in three dimensions. For a moment I think I am delirious, possibly due to the sudden change in climate, my mind becomes clouded and my consciousness abandons me.

<center><b>* * *</b></center>

I woke up in the middle of a large room, comfortably prostrate in a. Sofa? My leg is miraculously completely healed. Am I dreaming? They have placed a kind of desk in front of me and behind it is a door that opens slowly.

"Good afternoon Mr. Fisher, are you all right?" my host asks me as he closes the door. He is a tall and robust man, but with a face marked by soft and delicate features, his blond hair contrasts with the blue of eyes that seem to scrutinize my being.

"I've had better days, no doubt" I answer him, but wanting to ask a lot of questions instead of answering.

"You must have a lot of questions, but you understand, I won't be able to answer all of then" the fucking prince charming takes my word for it, "however, I will answer that question you are asking yourself right now. Why haven't we already killed you? You see, you made a fuss before you came out here, and the fact that you didn't come back alive would arouse a lot of suspicions".

"I'm a cautious man, I've made it very clear that if anything happens to me on this trip it's because there's some truth in James's hollow earth theory and also that his death was not something natural," I say, letting out a little smile.

"That's why you'll come back without a scratch, but you won't say anything to anyone about everything you've seen here, we can't touch you, but Martha..." the man pauses and sits on one side of the desk, "we know that you love her, you always have, it would be very sad if she decided to commit suicide by not enduring the loss of her husband".

I've been petrified, do I really love Martha? How the hell can these guys know my feelings better than I do? Now she is in danger because of me, I will not be able to expose these people without her suffering a certain death.

"We'll be watching you." my anonymous interlocutor says to me by way of farewell.

<br><center><h3>The End.</h3></center><br>

<center><img src="https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/darthgexe/ybalGBJc-darth.png"/></center>

<div class="pull-left"><img src="https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmbSLE8GrrmZuhHyQSHXg1CucEgnqyaaQfqdVxr2iH3DaJ/tell%20a%20story%20final.jpg"><center><sup>Artwork by Mad Uncle Studios</sup></center></div>
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This is my participation for the <a href="https://steempeak.com/tellastorytome/@bananafish/tell-a-story-to-me-hollow-earth"> Tell A Story To Me Contest</a> from @calluna and @bananafish. I really enjoyed writing this story and I hope you like it, do not hesitate to comment.

Thank you for reading.

<center><img src="https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/darthgexe/xBwlAIT0-darthgexe.png"/></center>
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