Breaking In, the second night

The rope was not hard to find. Clothesline from my garage. So, a few days later the group of us was headed off to finish what we had started.

The trip over we were getting ourselves psyched up. We started with what could be down there. The tunnels? Remains? Some kind of treasure? We knew there was something there and as we approached in dark cars, we let our imaginations run.

Soon, though, the conversation turned. We had been there a couple nights before, which meant the police might be on high alert. We would need to park in a better spot and we needed to be even more cautious. It was at least $400 dollars each if we got caught. We needed to be like the wind. I looked around my car, a tan escort, there was no way we were going to be like the wind.

We arrived excited by the prospect of discovery and scared we were going to get caught.

We parked in the parking lot beside the one we had parked at a few nights ago. This one gave us a little more distance and was darker. It was also raining, which seemed to be good in terms of not being seen or heard. We walked near the trees and bushes watching to make sure we were not being watched.

When we got close enough and no cars were on the road, we ran to the pole barn in back. We walked in and immediately started looking around. Is someone here? Has anything moved? Is it ok to do this? We determined it was, so we moved back to the hole.

I pulled the rope out of my backpack and began tying it to the pole. The group talked about who would be the first to drop. It would need to be someone who could climb back, who wasn't likely to get hurt and preferably someone fairly light. There were a couple of us who fit the bill, but I said I would go first. I was scared.

It is not easy to figure out how to drop into a hole without a wall or ladder to help you. Every aborted attempt caused my heart to race even more. The cop would be here any minute I thought, but I didn't want to fall to the concrete floor below. I hung my legs into the hole using the pole and shifted to the rope. I shifted my weight and fell for foot before catching myself with the rope.

My hands hurt, but I was ok.

At first it was pitch black down there. The only light I could see was from above. Slowly, though, my eyes adjusted. I could see something, a hole or door, at the far side of the room I was in. It was much larger than a normal door. There were plants poking through. The room was the same size as the one above. My mind was starting to put in together.

"Guys," I asked, "can one of you walk down to the end of the building away from the house."

One of them did and what I had just suspected turned out to be true. I wasn't down in an entrance to the tunnels, or some treasure room. I was now on the first floor of a barn, having done a Tarzan from the second. A bust.

My decent seemed, to me, to have made a lot of noise, so after just a few minutes I knew we needed to go. We returned the way we came with just one hitch. Halfway across the street a car was suddenly on the road. We were in it's headlight. Cops! I thought and broke into a run. My friends ran around me.

We made it into the lot from the first night, but we kept running. We needed to get to the cars. Across the lot, into the next, then I her a thwack from behind me. I see my friend Tim on the ground. Come on, my mind is screaming, but he's holding his throat.

In the dark of the lot he had missed the fact a chain separated the lots, which meant he ran full speed into a throat level chain. He was OK, but stunned. I went back.

Every expectation from that night did not happen. No tunnels. No police chase. So, you might think it was a complete bust, but I can't help but feel differently about it. This was something that seems to happen so rarely. This was an adventure.