by Andie Anderson

Created on: January 28, 2009

The Quarry

Some say the deepest part was over a hundred and fifty feet but in those days, only a crazy person would try and navigate the curcuitous passages that lay beneath the dark cool waters outside Driscoll, Maryland.

Mandy and John Blake had just taken up SCUBA, the acronym meaning 'Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

March 8, 1985:

"Hey, give me the tanks would you?" The outside temperature was 58 degrees F. and the water was 78 degrees F. He checked the tanks carefully and began to put the awkward buoyancy vest on her.

There were no other divers here today. Mandy brought a baggie with cut up hot dogs for the fish. John had found an opening in the rock wall below her. There were strange markings above the orifice. It looked ancient. He pulled out his underwater slate and tried to copy the symbol. He noticed something slightly moving inside. He went in closer and reached out to touch it, it was a white-pink color and fleshy feeling. There was a slight change in the current, almost imperceptable. He felt a tug on his right arm. It then pulled violently. There was a growing cloud of green that enveloped him now. It was his own blood.

When you go underwater the light spectrum changes, red becomes green, other colors change as well. His arm was gone. He lurched around in terror and saw Mandy but she wasn't paying any attention. He was yanked head first into the cave, the thing spasmodically swallowing the ragged flesh torn from a body covered in neophrene.

Mandy turned, realizing she hadn't watched to make sure John was all right. She went down to the hole and before she could do anything, she saw the enormous eyes glare coldly at her. She saw the fleshy appendage dangling from the maw. She tried to to propel to the surface, but was grabbed sideways and pulled into the cave.

Bob had been worrying about them for hours. He told the police where he thought his friends went. About midnight the detective called back. "We found a mask, a dive slate, and a piece of a wetsuit. We've sent divers down but the water is too murky from the rain."

Last day of March- 1985-

It was ancient Pisquoti Indian. The tribe no longer existed. It died out 10,000 ago, however their language was similar to the Algonquin tribe today.

It said, 'The Earth Shaker Lives Here, do not

anger him, for he will steal the lives of our

children'.

The Earth Shaker was a giant turtle, said to be the lifeforce of the land and water in Indian legends.

I knew better, the only turtle that could be big enough to kill a person was a giant Snapping Turtle. One record specimen weighed well over 240 lbs. Just how big they got, no one really knew. Extinct Megalodon sharks were over 50 feet long.

There is a "No Diving" sign at the Quarry now, but no one pays any attention to it. After all, myths and legends are the stuff from our fears and nightmares.

They're just stories from the primitive past.

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