I might change this 'The Scroll' to Nickel Creek, but maybe not.
If you're reading this.. I am dead. No, not really, well maybe. This is the story of Hunt for the Infinite Scroll.
I had this 'I am dead' idea on a whim, and let's see what happens now.
My friend Charlotte told me about her parents finding this abandoned cave near the creek by our school, when they were younger. I was so intrigued I thought I'd take some time to go explore the cave myself. Turns out I was going to find the cave and so much more.
I am randomly coming up with these names and places. I don't particularly have a plan going into this but I am having fun, and that's all that matters.
My name is Will Monitor. I was 14 when I decided to explore the cave. This cave was near the Nickel Creek, the creek where supposedly the recipe for the famous Timmy's Hot Ham and Cheese was found washed up.
Nickel Creek is a band that I'm currently listening too. They're pretty good live:NPR Tiny Desk Concert Link
Why was a Hot Ham and Cheese famous, and why did it need a recipe, I will never know, but it was famous. One time the National News came to our town to film a story on Timmy. My parents went to school with Timmy, they always thought he'd end up famous. They'd always talk about how friendly and popular Timmy was. All the ladies loved him, and he was just perfect.
I obviously have an idea that Timmy is going to either go bankrupt or cheat on his wife or secretly be something nefarious.
My life changed when I walked into the cave next to Nickel Creek, one rainy Saturday morning..
I really thought that I was just going find this cave and I'd see a waterfall or something like that. What I found was much cooler.
When I found the cave, it was no more than a toddler sized hole in a boulder. Which meant that I had to lay on my stomach and crawl in but I was used to that sort of thing, but only because I'd been on a few adventures with my church when I was younger. We'd go to this other local cave and walk-through the cave where people used to mine for gold, or do some archeological digs. There were two types of tours in that cave. You could walk-through or crawl-through; I, the daring and not-at-all claustrophobic Will Monitor would always choose the crawl-through tours. These tours would have you crawling on your stomach for prolonged periods of time while in water, you would have a guide with you so you'd always know you'd be safe, but it was still the fact that the height of the ceiling was no taller than 25 inches tall.
With all that said, I knew I could do this, maybe. I crawled in and after 20 minutes of crawling the space opened up. Mind you, I don't have any cave exploring equipment so I've only really got a flashlight and some old worn out boots from my brother Mortimer. Yes, his name is Mortimer Monitor, my parents thought it would be funny. Mortimer did not think it was funny.
So I've got my boots and my flashlight and when I'm finally able to stand up from the crawl the cave is probably 10 miles high, it is absolutely gigantic; which should've been the first sign that things weren't right here.
Because, outside this was just a boulder, but maybe I went downward instead of straight. I couldn't really tell from the crawl. I start by looking around with my flashlight and I can hear so much noise. There are water streams everywhere, there are bats and animals scurrying all over the floor, I can hear every breath I take, it is so loud. It is very dark too, I turned off my flashlight to get a good look at the cave without my flashlight and I can't see anything. But what I do see is a tiny speck of golden light about 200 feet to my right, at least I think it's to my right. What does any other 14 year old boy do in a strange cave, I follow the light.
I turn my flashlight on so I don't step on any animals as I'm walking and I eventually get to the light, it is coming from what looks like a slit in the wall. I've got to investigate, so I shimmy my way through the slit and then I see it. I see the scroll. By this point I'd never heard of the Infinite Scroll, but I would soon find out.
The scroll is sitting on top of a rock formation about 4 feet off the ground, and the scroll itself is emitting the golden light that shown through the room. I have no idea how this scroll is emitting light from it, but it is. The scroll is probably the width of a standard piece of paper but it has golden-brown end-pieces and the paper is a bright white. I inch forward and I notice that all the sound is gone, there are no animals I can hear, I can't hear myself breathing, I hear absolutely nothing. I keep getting closer to the scroll, almost like the scroll needs me to take it.
I continue closer and closer, until I'm right on top of it. The scroll was unrolled just enough to see what looks like the title of the page, and it says, "The Infinite Scroll: The Key to Save the Universe". I just had to laugh, the Key to Save the Universe, really? I'm interested of course, so I lean in to pick up the scroll to read it more and when I pick up the scroll everything goes black.