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Chapter 0.71 Enter...the Rooster
Chapter 0.73 Sleepy time….
Chapter 0.77 Operation cheesecake
Chapter 0.78 a       More nonsense
Chapter 0.78 b    Margo's Farm
Chapter 0.79.1.3    Missing
Chapter 0.79 ditto The Captive
Chapter 0.80          The fungus among us
Chapter something    the mushroom asylum
Chapter 0.813        Operation Portobello
Chapter 0.836        Return to the Sinkhole
Chapter 0.85        the Young & the Brave

A few days later

Chapter 0.89

    The headline in the local newspaper, the New Age Examiner, read ”EXPLOSION ROCKS STATE FOREST”, but by all accounts, the story printed by the paper was categorically incongruent with the events that had transpired a few nights earlier. Investigators were quoted saying that they believed the explosion was due to a natural gas build up in the subsurface of the region, and since natural gas reserves were being discovered all over this part of the state, no one questioned this conclusion. There was no mention of a body count, shrapnel from grenades, or a kayak. There were no sightings of the hot air balloon, no mention of gunfire, and the hundreds of dead crows on the ridge top received no press either. It was as if nothing had transpired that night, which provoked the notion of a giant cover-up or conspiracy by the family.
    The newspaper reported that the explosion tore through several layers of rock, exposing a new cavern in the subsurface, below the virgin forest. The forest, noted the paper, had been originally ravaged by the Wooly Adagid mite, but the explosion destroyed the remaining hemlock trees. Just a few stumps were all that remained of the once majestic forest. The waterfall and stream were transformed into spectacular water features based on these reports. Instead of falling just a few feet, the water fell into the cavern below making a waterfall that was at least thirty feet high. It fed into a subterraneous stream that disappeared into the darkness of the subsurface. Investigators were reported to say that they had to crawl down the sinkhole slopes, which were covered with poison ivy vines that oozed the toxic oils from the blistering heat from the explosion. The family didn't know what to take from the article, and the fact that they had not heard from Beauhenna signaled to them that things were not looking very good. Still, they had held out hope that she was alive but had no evidence to prove it.
    Like all news outlets, the newspaper failed to report the actual story that transpired in Knotting Valley. They failed to report that HG was hit in the head by the falling kayak, and his blood and brains oozed out of him like spiral art on a canvas of moss and ferns. It failed to report that Beauhenna, Chamomile, and a short fat goon fell through the air from the balloon when Gilligan cut the rope ladder. The goon let go of the ladder in mid air and was stabbed by the spiky trunk of a tree when he plummeted toward the ground. Another tree caught the falling rope ladder that Beauhenna clutched and as a result, she dangled in mid air twenty feet above the surface. Chamomile couldn't help releasing her grip on Beauhenna's feet when the ladder was snagged and hit the ground below. She was knocked out when the branch that held Beauhenna broke, causing her to break Beauhenna's fall.
    Quickly realizing the danger within the sinkhole, Beauhenna ran to her hollowed out tree stump for cover. There were goons running amuck in the moments just before dawn, and she was desperate to escape from them, though she didn't know how she would do it. Suddenly, an incredible explosion shook the bedrock and echoed throughout the valley, causing even more pandemonium. White light, followed by yellow, and then fallout eclipsed the early hours of the morning, and after a short while, the chaos simply ended. A few goons could be heard groaning in agony and the waterfall sounded much louder, but nothing could draw Beauhenna from her stump. She sat in her hut throughout the morning for a time period that seemed like an eternity.
    It wasn't until the songbirds in the valley began to sing that she poked her head outside of the stump to see the remains of the forest. She was immediately aware of how lucky it was that her stump had withstood the awesome power of the explosion. A few goons were on the other side of the hole, collecting the injured and dead, but they were working so intently, they did not notice her slip out into the open, yet into the fog. Before her, where the precious forest once stood, was an empty, void. A new cavern, located below the bedrock on which she stood, opened up in front of her and provided a new route for the cold clear stream that had flowed through the forest. Water cascaded from the original waterfall into the new cavern, dancing on the rock ledges below until joining another substantial subterranean stream, which disappeared into the darkness.
    Below her was a labyrinth of caves and around her were a pile of dangerous goons, poison ivy and mushrooms. It was obvious that she had to make a quick decision. As she peered into the abyss, the abyss looked back at her and she realized her only escape route was into the sunken unknown. Nearby, she found the kayak that had fallen from the balloon, and packing her bow and arrows into the bungees, placing her geological bag into the bulkheads, and taking one last look around her, she quickly dropped the boat and its paddle into the sinkhole and jumped into the hole herself.

To be continued...Where will this story go? Will Beef's powers ever be revealed? Have we seen the last of Chamomile?