by Rada, J. R.
Book of the Hopi
“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”
Genesis 1: 2-4
CHAPTER 45
After Lou stripped out of his scuba gear, he started the ten-mile hike back to chamber one. He complained that he was tired and wanted to climb into his sleeping bag and rest, and he let everyone know it. Christine called for him to wait up, but he ignored her and continued walking. Although she was angry with him for leaving on his own, she knew how exhausted he must feel. She was partly responsible for it. Earlier, when they had been doing a vertical descent down a chimney on the other side of the sump, her pin had slipped from the cave wall and she had fallen to the end of her safety cord. It had been Lou who had supported her weight until she had found her footing again.
“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Alex said as he started off to catch up with Lou. Christine heard Alex yell to Lou, “How about when we get upstairs, we drive into Blanding for something harder than the beer Gary keeps in the refrigerator? I think I saw at least one bar in town.”
Lou said something Christine couldn’t hear and then both men laughed. She turned her attention back to repacking her scuba gear so she could leave with Billy Joe. She didn’t like having the team split up in pairs, but when Lou set his mind to something there was no stopping him. The whole purpose of having four people exploring the cave at once was that if someone was hurt, one person could stay with the injured person and the other two could go for help. That way no one was ever alone.
But now they were divided. She didn’t like the idea at all. She wasn’t sure why since very little had happened during their exploration. Besides her near fall, the most-dangerous thing that had happened was when Lou got caught in the sump. Of course, that didn’t mean the caverns weren’t dangerous.
The exploration on the other side of the flooded sump hadn’t yielded anything except more tunnels and the chasm. There was no indication of a natural opening yet, and Christine wondered if there would be. Instead of leading toward the surface, the chasm went even deeper and the tunnel continued on the other side heading south. If there was a natural entrance to this cave system, they were certainly moving away from it. At the rate they were descending, they might eventually break the old record of 4,369 feet set in the Gouffre de la Pierre St. Martin in France. Think of it! Over four-fifths of a mile below the earth’s surface. They were over 1,500 feet now.
Come to think of it, there might be other records broken by the time these caves were fully explored. Flint-Mammoth Cave’s 180-mile claim to be the longest cave system was certainly in jeopardy.
Today they had managed to explore and map about three-quarters of a mile of passages on the other side of the sump in addition to the half a mile she, Alex, Lou, and Billy Joe had mapped yesterday.
Christine tied the final flap on her backpack shut and hefted it onto her back. Billy Joe was already standing and waiting for her.
“The last of the gentlemen,” she said.
“Think nothing of it,” he replied exaggerating his already pronounced southern drawl.
“You know we’re going to have to set up another camp on the other side of the sump to do overnight explorations. We’re losing too much time hiking back and forth between the surface camp and the passages we’re exploring each day,” Christine said.
“You’re...” Billy Joe started to say before his eyes went wide.
Christine spun around and saw two, tall, pale-white men rising out of the water of the sump. They weren’t wearing any scuba gear so they must have swum through the sump quickly. Their clothes were made of a shimmering black-and-red material Christine had never seen. It reminded her of silk. Each man also carried a metal pipe with a knobby end.
Christine backed away a step from the men. Whoever they were, they didn’t look friendly.
The first man silently lifted his metal pipe and twisted the knobby end. It made a sound like thunder and then what looked to Christine like a giant electrical spark flew out of the end of the pipe. It hit Billy Joe in the center of his chest. He grunted and collapsed on the ground. His body jerked a few times and then lay still.
Christine started to scream, but the second man jumped forward and clamped his hand over her mouth. The taste of the stagnant water on her lips and the sight of Billy Joe lying on the ground with a hole in his chest made her feel nauseous.
Two more pale-skinned men rose out of the water. The first man pointed down the tunnel that Alex and Lou had walked into, and the second pair of men ran off into the darkness.
They were going to kill Alex and Lou just like they had murdered Billy Joe! Christine tried to scream again wanting to warn her friends, but the pale man’s grip was too tight. She couldn’t even open her mouth enough to bite his hand.
Christine heard the clap of thunder that seemed to accompany the electric sparks from the metal pipes, and she heard one person scream. She was sure it had been Alex. Even screaming, his voice was deep. After a minute, the second pair of pale-skinned men returned. The pale-skinned men dove back into the water and disappeared.
If Christine hadn’t been so frightened, she would have laughed. Even in the midst of the danger, she couldn’t help but think all of this looked like a science fiction movie. However, this was real and instead of laughing, she started to cry.
The man holding Christine stepped into the water dragging her with him. He grabbed hold of the guide wire Gary had strung up two days ago to lead the divers through the sump. Christine knew what he was going to do. She took a deep breath and prayed she would be able to hold it long enough.
If she lived, she would finally find out where the caves ended.
CHAPTER 46
Peter leaned back against the wall of the sacred kiva. This room had always been a place of meditation and worship for him. Despite the danger of what it represented, it was even a place of safety for him. And now, it had also become his place of mourning.
His friend Adam was dead.
This had been the place where Adam’s death had started even though it had ended in Utah. This was where Adam had received his visions that led him north. If Sarah and David were to be believed, and there was no reason not to believe them, then the Bow Clan was in Tu´waqachi. All the precautions taken by the old Hopis had failed. The Bow Clan had found another way to the surface. If the Bow Clan had found their way to the surface, could the dark kachinas be far behind?
Adam had been right. Something David had done while he was in the caves had upset the balance of the Third and Fourth Worlds. David had angered the dark kachinas enough that they had sent Bow Clansmen into Tu´waqachi to kill him.
Peter closed his eyes and inhaled the smoke deeply letting it ease the tension from his body. Was he even worthy to be in this kiva? Adam had been pure of heart and had received visions of the danger. David had been worthy and had recalled his lost memories. Wasn’t Peter worthy to receive a vision to understand what was happening?
Taiowa, Peter prayed to himself, what can be done to restore order to the Fourth World?
Now that the Bow Clan was loose upon the world, how long would it be before the dark kachinas were free and unleashed on the land? Did it even matter what the Hopis had done to keep the worlds separate?
His own grandfather had told him the story of the Bow Clan when he was much younger. It was not one of the legends the Hopi told the white scientists, even when those scientists were their friends. Very few people even outside of Oraibi knew the purpose of the sacred kiva. This was a Hopi problem and so it was the Hopis’ responsibility to solve it.
Had they failed?
After all these years of faithful duty, had faith finally given way to disbelief?
During the time the Hopi nation was confined to the small area called their reserv
ation, a man had wandered into Oraibi. If this had been another Hopi, not much attention would have been paid to him. Even if it had been a white man, he might have gone unnoticed, for there were many white men who came into the villages on the three mesas. But this man’s skin had been pale-white like milk.
He staggered into the town plaza shielding his face from sun with his long fingers. The medicine man was called for to administer to the man, but no one approached the stranger. Everyone was afraid of him because of his pale skin and white hair. He was like no one the Hopis had ever seen.
The medicine man approached the strange man and spoke to him in the language of the Hopi. The pale-skinned man replied and they were able to communicate. Not with words, though. The pale-skinned man had sent his thoughts directly into the medicine man’s head.
The medicine man led the strange man into a room where it was dark and cool. The pale-skinned man lowered his arm, but he still had to squint even though there was very little light in the room. His eyes were quite large and round.
As the medicine man and the stranger communicated, the pale-skinned man told the medicine man about the Sun Clan. They were a splinter group from the Bow Clan who refused to follow the ways of the dark kachinas. They believed in Taiowa and wanted to live in Tu´waqachi. The stranger had been part of an exploration party trying to find the sipapu, but the party had been attacked by the Bow Clan. He had escaped their attack and gotten lost in the caves. While he was trying to find his way back to the Sun Clan, he had found the sipapu.
When the medicine man asked where the sipapu was, the white-skinned man said there was a hole in the ground near the edge of the mesa. That is where he had come from. He was very anxious to return to his people through the sipapu and lead them to safety, but he was too weak to go very far.
The medicine man knew about the sipapu. Oraibi had been built to guard it, but nothing had ever come through the emergence hole. Many had even begun to doubt the old legends because the white men told the Hopis their beliefs were superstition. Now all the Hopi would know the truth about the legends.
The medicine man prepared a drink for the Heroz - that was the pale-skinned man’s name - and left him to rest. After a few days, Heroz recovered from his wounds, and was ready to return to Kuskurza. Most of Oraibi watched him disappear into the hole near the edge of the mesa.
Once Heroz had gone, the medicine man advised the town to seal up the sipapu and hide it from view. If Kuskurza’s Sun Clan would not keep the dark kachinas imprisoned, then Tu´waqachi’s Sun Clan would. Neither the Bow Clan or the dark kachinas could be allowed to emerge from the sipapu. Now that the Hopis knew the legends were true, even greater steps needed to be taken to protect the Fourth World.
The strongest Sun Clansmen in Oraibi had hammered the large stone into the sipapu. Then they had built the sacred kiva around the hole to hide it from view. As the years passed, all but the faithful forgot about the incident. Fewer people visited the sacred kiva because there were other kivas closer in town.
Peter was jolted out of his remembrances by the sound of screams. He sat upright and listened. He heard nothing. He stood up to walk to the ladder to leave the kiva, and he heard the screams again. Only they were not coming from anywhere outside the kiva, and not from anywhere inside the kiva either. They were coming from inside Peter’s head.
He listened to see if he could understand any of the words, but he could not. All he heard were screams. Was he receiving Adam’s visions now?
CHAPTER 47
Jared laid down the latest issue of Time and yawned. Gary looked up from the microwave TV dinner of dry roast beef and foul-tasting carrots and peas he was eating.
“Enjoy your boredom, Jared. Tomorrow you and I are back in the ground,” Gary said.
Jared stretched. “By the way, where are the others? It’s almost nine,” he said as he looked at the clock on the microwave oven.
“Nine?” Gary set aside his fork and glanced at his watch. “You’re right. I wonder where they are? I expected them back an hour ago.”
“Maybe we should go down and see if we can find them,” Jared thought out loud.
Gary considered the suggestion and nodded. “Better grab the first aid kit, too. We may need it if they ran into trouble. Lord, I hope there wasn’t a cave in.” That was only one of the many things Gary could think of that might have delayed his four friends from returning.
He grabbed a specially packed knapsack from a shelf in the closet. He opened it up and dumped a coiled, fifty-foot ladder from the bag. He slung his own knapsack over his shoulder, scooped up the ladder, and followed Jared out of the RV.
At the edge of the hole David had fallen into more than six weeks ago, Gary anchored one end of the ladder to the ground and dropped the remainder into the hole. He heard it smack the floor of the cave and then the nylon cords tightened. The nylon loop they usually used to enter the cavern was inside the chamber. Gary could have raised it and used it to lower themselves into the caverns, but since both he and Jared were going into the passages, there would have been no one left to operate the winch to raise them back to the surface.
After they climbed to the bottom of the ladder, Gary and Jared turned on their head lamps.
“Where were they exploring today?” Jared asked.
“On the other side of the sump.”
Jared tried to suppress his shudder. “I sure hope one of them didn’t get caught underneath. You know how dangerous that place is. I’m surprised Lou would go down there again.”
“I don’t think all four of them would have gotten caught. One of them would have gotten out to come and get us.”
Jared sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I sure hope they’re on this side of the sump. I don’t want to have to go in after them.”
They turned off the main passages to the smaller line of passages running through chamber four. After chamber four, the group walked through chamber seventeen. This chamber was nearly filled with a mountain of boulders they had to climb over to get to the other side. Three hours after entering the caverns, they entered the passageway that led to the sump.
Although Gary said nothing, he shared Jared’s concern that something had happened at the sump. He had hoped to meet the others on the way back to the entrance. Then they would be able to laugh about Gary and Jared’s obsessive worrying, but they were nearly at the sump and had seen no one. If only one, two, or even three of them had been hurt, someone would have still been able to come to chamber one and call for help. Why hadn’t they seen or heard anyone yet?
Jared paused and took a deep breath. “Do you smell that?”
Gary took a deep breath. Another smell tainted the usual musty smell of the caverns. Gary tried to place the smell but he couldn’t. It was sweet and heavy. Gary’s stomach churned, and the roast beef he had eaten earlier threatened to rise.
“What is it?” Gary asked.
Jared shrugged.
“Let’s keep going then,” Gary said. “I’m starting to get worried.”
“You’re just starting? I’ve been worried since we climbed down here,” Jared said.
They continued down the passage with Gary in the lead. He stopped suddenly when he saw a boot. Jared looked over Gary’s shoulder and saw the boot lying just inside the circle of light cast by the head lamp. Gary took a hesitant step forward and illuminated the calf of the coveralls.
He took another step forward and illuminated the chest, shoulders, and finally, Lou’s head. His eyes were wide open and staring unblinkingly at the ceiling.
Gary threw off his gloves and kneeled down beside Lou to feel for a pulse at Lou’s neck. There was none. He was dead.
Gary ran down the passageway toward the sump with Jared.
“Christine! Alex! Billy Joe!” they both yelled.
There was no response to their calls but their own echoes.
Then Gary saw Alex sprawled on his stomach just as dead as Lou. He rushed to the side of the tunnel and threw up his dinn
er.
Billy Joe’s body was at the edge of the water. His hand floated in the pool of still water. A black hole replaced his chest.
“Where’s Christine?” Jared asked from behind Gary.
“Christine!” Gary called.
She had to be alive. She just had to. He didn’t know what he would do if she was dead. She had to be alive.
Gary shook his head. “What the hell happened here?”
“I don’t know,” Jared spoke rapidly in a panicked tone, “But I know what we were smelling earlier. It was burnt flesh. Look at Billy Joe.”
Gary stared at the corpse at the water’s edge. In the center of Billy Joe’s chest was a black spot about the size of a saucer. The actual hole in Billy Joe’s chest, Gary saw when he leaned closer, was small. The rest of the black area was scorched cloth and flesh. Gary pinched his nose closed and backed away.
“It almost looks like someone lit a fire on his chest or shot him with a blowtorch,” Jared said.
“Where’s Christine? We found the other three. If she escaped whatever killed them, we should have run into her.”
Both their gazes shifted to the water at the same time. Gary pulled a powerful flashlight from his belt and shined it over the water. There no body floating on top of it. It was only a small, and all to brief, relief.
The water suddenly exploded upward in a large spout. Gary backed away as another spout of water exploded closer to the edge of the shore this time.
Gary saw two divers rise out of the water. Divers came out of the water. A jagged streak of electricity flew from it and hit Jared in the chest. He screamed, clutched at his chest, and fell. Gary didn’t have to take a second look to know his friend was dead. He remembered too well what Billy Joe looked like.
Gary turned and ran back down the tunnel toward chamber seventeen. Behind him, he heard a rock explode near where he had been standing. He only hoped he could outrun whoever was behind him. Then again Alex and Lou hadn’t gotten too far. Had they been running or had they been caught by surprise?