“Well, the ranger said it was privately owned for a long time. It was probably some kids or something messing around,” Justin said. “Besides, cave paintings are pretty common.”
“I know, but doesn’t it all just feel a little bit off to you?” Declan felt his skin crawl as he looked around, feeling more than just the presence of the walls closing in on him.
There was something else there too, a steady shuffling noise that was bled subtly into the general echo of the cave.
“I think this place has you spooked,” Justin said, trying not to laugh. “Stay close to me, I’ll keep you safe.”
Declan punched his brother playfully on the arm. “Fuck you.” He smiled, and they hurried on after the group. Declan smiled, but he could not shake the feeling of dread. It clung to him like a veil, clouding his senses, threatening to smother him at any moment.
They found the others gathered together on a small viewing platform. The passage had widened and the cool air felt like a welcome release to Declan’s sweat-covered skin. People were taking turns to walk to the viewing platform, crouching down to peer at something on a far lower level than where they stood.
“Is that the spring?” the young boy asked.
“No, this is actually a secluded pool created within the cave. It has, to the best of my knowledge, never been touched by man. Of course, I can only speak from what I’ve been told, but there is no way down or back up from it.” Ranger Tim was talking to the boy, playing a heavy layer of mystique onto everything, but for Declan, the world held a sinister undertone.
“This place probably holds a lot of secrets, right?” Declan spoke up before he realized.
“Oh yes, more than we could ever truly hope to understand,” Tim replied, getting back to his feet and ready to lead them further.
Before they set off, Justin and Declan took the chance to jump onto the platform. Crouching down, the lights from their helmets reflected on the surface of the water in a pool that looked to have been cut and set into the rock face.
“Now that’s impressive,” Justin said, staring at the shimmering surface.
“It sure is,” Declan replied. “It’s like in its own little private space.”
“Pretty cool,” Justin said, nodding and turning.
The brothers walked back to the group, who were waiting for them.
“Okay, perfect, now if everybody would follow me, we have one large descent until we reach the main chamber,” Tim spoke, holding his hand in the air as he did, like a child at school. “I will ask you all to please stay behind me. Don’t be tempted to jump ahead, the path moves this way for a reason. There is also a bridge that we need to cross. Please do not crowd it, but also do not worry. It is as sturdy as anything you have ever come across.” Declan couldn’t help but wonder if that was really the case, why there was a need to mention it at all, but he decided better than to voice his question.
They continued walking, hitting a steady decline until they suddenly found themselves in a snaking maze of ropes, twisting their way back and forth in long sweeping turns, like a group of tourists standing in line for a ride at Disneyland.
The snaking passage went on for some time, and while there appeared to be no obvious reason for its design, everybody neatly followed the path laid out for them.
“Why do I get the impression that there is going to be a rollercoaster waiting for us at the end of this?” Justin asked his brother.
“Yeah, maybe some little mine cars that we all have to sit in,” Declan answered and the brothers both started laughing.
“Maybe they can even put in a nice sudden drop, take us down to the goblins,” Zeke added, making the brothers jump with his sudden intrusion. Neither had been aware he was that close by.
“That would be something,” Declan said, laughing.
“You boys just never grow up, do you?” Zeke’s wife said in mock despair. “Come on, you old goat, before you get us into trouble for falling behind.”
Zeke rolled his eyes at his wife’s demands and turned back to follow her.
They reached the end of the queue and were mildly disappointed when they saw there was no ride waiting for them. The cave had grown wide and shallow around them, the walls moving further away while the ceiling above their heads inched closer to them, the jagged spikes that descended shallowing to little more than an undulating surface. The effect, for those that were paying attention, was disorienting and made it feel as if they were being crushed.
As short ways ahead of them, the group could see the bridge that Tim had mentioned. It was about twenty feet long and connected to portions of a cave together, allowing their tour to continue. The bridge looked sturdy enough from distance, and Tim moved across it without hesitation.
The group followed; only the young boy paused to look over the side while his mother shuffled along, terrified of falling.
Declan and Justin were part of the last few people to cross, doing so without a second thought, until a strange howl echoed through the cave. The sound came rumbling through the cave, surrounding them, making it impossible to identify a specific direction. The noise swirled around them like an autumn wind, whipping it into a frenzy as if attacking those caught in its path.
Declan turned around, feeling the constant draft against his skin, convinced it was the rushing wind of a charging devil rising up to claim them.
In their group, someone screamed. The bridge rattled and shook. Zeke and his wife froze, holding on to both sides of the structure as if they could somehow hold it aloft.
“Everybody, head this way, toward me,” Ranger Tim’s voice called out, trying to stem the rising panic. “Nothing to be alarmed about.”
His words were drowned out the din of crumbling rock, swiftly followed by the unmistakable sound of wrenched metal. It echoed through the chamber, telling everybody exactly what was happening, but not giving them the time needed to react. Declan looked around and felt his brother’s hands clamp onto him, the grip one fueled by terror. A heartbeat later and the ground beneath his feet shifted. The bridge collapsed, dropping several feet before stopping with a sudden lurch.
The nature of the stop sent everybody on the bridge stumbling, and before them, Zeke lost his balance. He cried out in pain, and Declan saw the way the man’s ankle buckled beneath him.
“Give me your hand,” Tim called out, reaching down towards them.
Tara was closest, scrambling against the wall. She jumped and took hold of Tim’s outstretched arm, but it was too late. The bridge gave out and suddenly, they were all falling.
Justin screamed.
Zeke screamed.
Tilly, Zeke’s wife, screamed, and Declan knew for sure that he screamed.
They fell into the darkness, swallowed by the cave. Looking back, the crowd of panicked faces watched on helpless. Tara still swung from Ranger Tim’s hand, her legs kicking frantically in the air as she fought more than helped her escape.
Darkness consumed them, the lights of their helmets trying in vain to fight against the totality of the cave, thrashing around not settling long enough to show anything. It was cold and the rushing air was a shrill whistle in their ears. There was no way of knowing when it would be over, not until the jarring impact, and the explosion of pain that overtook them.
Chapter Eleven
Justin thought he was a dead man. He first realized it as they started to fall. The sudden stop and the pain merely confirmed it for him.
The acoustics of the cave did not help, amplifying the sound and throwing it around so that echoes and fresh cries of pain mixed together into an indistinguishable noise. A sweeping, surging tide of icy cold enveloped him, sucking him down further.
Water.
It rushed into his mouth, flooding his lungs before Justin could react. He fought, unable to separate the feeling of pain from anything else. All he knew was that he would not die without a fight. Justin swam, kicking and pulling himself, unsure if he was even swimming in the right direction.
&
nbsp; His lungs burned and he could feel that something wasn’t quite right in his body. His left arm was not working properly. His movements grew labored, his body tired, and just as Justin was considering admitting defeat, he broke the surface of the pool. The noise that greeted him was the cries of the others that had fallen. He could hear them splashing around in the water but had no idea where they were.
The darkness was completed. Justin couldn’t tell if he was a few feet from solid ground, or if there was no form of sanctuary to be found.
The water was moving. He could feel the current pulling him. Faster and faster, they were descending, dropping even deeper into the earth. At least that was how it felt.
The rock came out of nowhere, a solid, immovable object that caught Justin’s body and sent a fresh wave of pain shooting through him.
The rock was cold and slick with slime. There was nowhere for Justin to find purchase, while the growing power of the current pulled at his legs, trying to drag him down. Panic began to creep in, the sound of the water roaring in his ears.
The blow was sudden, and there was no way to see what hit him. He thought he felt a hand grab at him, but he was too bust struggling and fighting to stay alive. The pull of the water was too much, and he sank below the surface, sucked down by the greedy water gods. Rocks scraped and stabbed at him, etching burning abrasions into his flesh. The underground tunnel acted like a water slide of death, trapping whoever it caught until they drowned.
Justin was tired and weak; the cold water had numbed his body, but then suddenly, he was falling again, crashing down into a second pool, the water even colder than the first. It was shallower, however, and Justin could push himself from the bottom back up to the surface.
The light came from nowhere, blinding him. It filled Justin’s field of vision, thrusting him from blindness into blindness, albeit from the opposite side of the spectrum.
Someone grabbed him by the arm and hauled him out of the water. The ground was hard and jagged beneath him, but Justin lay there, exhausted, allowing the pain to settle so he could get an idea of what had happened. Everything still felt like a blur.
“Your shoulder is out of the socket,” Declan’s familiar voice rang in his ear. It wavered in and out of range, but Justin would never not be able to recognize his brother.
“Dec?” Justin couldn’t muster the strength to add anything else to the statement.
“Hold on. This is going to hurt.” Justin felt Declan’s hands slide under him, elevating his shoulder.
He felt a sharp pain shoot this his left arm as his brother tried to move it into position. There was a sudden burst of pressure, and the pain increased to a level Justin had not previously known. The audible pop rang in his ears and made him think of a bone snapping. Then suddenly, the worst of the pain was gone, dropping down to a dull ache.
“There you go,” Declan said. “Wait here. I need to look for the others.”
He was gone again, and Justin was left in the dark. His heart thumped in his ears, and he could still hear the splashes of the others in the water.
It hurt, but Justin pushed himself into a sitting position, Justin could make out Declan in the dark, the light from his helmet tracing over the water like a searchlight. The splashes had died down, replaced by the sound of someone weeping. It came from close by.
“Hello?” Justin called.
The crying stopped for a moment, the creator of the sound startled by his voice.
“Who’s there?” a frail voice asked, sounding on the verge of breaking.
“It’s Justin. I was on the bridge … when it fell.” It was a woman, Justin could tell that much, but his brain was still scrambled; he couldn’t think clearly enough to place anybody else on the bridge at the moment of its collapse.
“Who are you?” he asked, unashamed.
“Tilly,” the voice came back, even softer.
“Zeke’s wife,” Justin said, not so much a question but more a statement.
“Yes. Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” Justin answered, trying to pinpoint her position to him.
“Have you seen Zeke?” Her voice was almost gone, the question too hard for her to pose.
“I can’t see anything,” Justin said, his words making Tilly cry once more.
Justin couldn’t think of anything else to say, so he surrendered to the darkness and the pain. His shoulder ached, his head throbbed, and he could feel the warmth of blood trickling down his neck. His body stung, like hitting a belly flop into the pool, And then there was the all-encompassing pain that hid specific injuries under the cloud of general agony. Being blind didn’t help, and had it not been for the glint of the wet rock under the beam of Declan’s helmet light, he would have been terrified that the blindness was the result of injury rather than location.
He tried to move each limb in turn and assess for injury, but his head was too fuzzy to tell him anything.
“Justin, dude, you still with me?” Declan was back, his light shining right on Justin’s face.
Justin winced, squinting as the pain in his head increased sharply. “Yeah, but dude, the light.”
“Oh, sorry.” The light disappeared for a moment and came back from the side, set against the rock in such a way that the light direct glow of the bulb hit the wet rock, and its reflection cast a dim glow over an area of the cavern they had landed in.
“Where are we?” Justin asked, his head swimming.
Declan crouched down beside his brother and lifted his head, peering closely at him. “I have no idea. Best I can tell is we landed in an underground river and it pulled us down deeper into the caves.” Declan spoke, but the words were merely an answer to a question. His attention was focused on his brother’s head.
“How bad is it?” Justin winced, dizziness washing over him every time Declan moved his head.
“It’s an ugly gash, but you will live. We can bandage it up and hopefully slow the bleeding,” Declan said, grabbing a couple of lengths of cloth and wrapping it around his brother’s head.
“Where did you get that from?” Justin needed to talk, to fight off crippling nausea that churned his stomach and the encroaching waves of tempting darkness.
“I got it from Tara, it’s a piece of her shirt,” Declan said, but from the tone of his voice, Justin was sure that there was something else that his brother wasn’t saying.
Carefully, Declan bandaged Justin’s head, packing the wound as best he could with the second piece of fabric, which he rolled into a ball.
“There, I’m no miracle worker, and it will probably leave you with a nasty scar, but it’s the best I can do.” Declan helped his brother up to his feet. “We need to keep moving, and well, I need your help with all this, bro.”
“What?” Justin asked, woozy, leaning on Declan with close to his whole body weight. He felt increasing waves of nausea hit him in the gut, wrenching it as if someone were throwing his insides through a wood chipper.
Declan led Justin through the dark. They passed Tilly, who was curled up in a ball, her back pressed against the side of the rock. He had been drawn to the light Declan created, like a moth, and when they looked at her, she shook her head wildly, her eyes wide with terror.
The sound of falling water grew in intensity, and Justin realized that they were moving closer to the water.
“Wait here,” Declan said, the support for his brother disappearing as Declan dropped to the cave floor.
Justin swayed on his feet as thundering gusts of pain shot through him, lighting up the darkness of his mind like flashes of fork lightning during a heavy summer storm.
Declan rose again, and soon another shaft of light appeared, slicing through the darkness as best it could manage.
“Here, take this.” Declan handed the helmet to Justin, who took it and placed it on his head.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?” Justin asked, confused.
“No, she’s over there,” Declan answered, his hand appearing in the bea
m of light, pointing further ahead.
Justin moved forward, peering into the darkness when suddenly, Tara appeared. Only, she no longer looked like the pretty young woman that she had been when they met a few hours earlier.
Now, her face was swollen and purple, her skull split open with thick globs of grey brain tissue bubbling up from the gash that had been created. Her neck was twisted so that her head lay at an angle that did not work with the position of her body. Likewise, her legs tucked up beneath her, while one of her arms was snapped, the bone piercing her skin and rising into the air, its jagged tip clinging to strips of meat that it had pulled along with it.
“Jesus, what happened?” Justin asked, covering his hand with his mouth.
“Best I can guess is she fell and hit hard, and then when we came through and into the pool, she got thrown too far and hit the ground,” Declan said. “What are we going to do with her?”
Justin thought about it for a second before his response came. “We have to leave her here.” He felt bad for reaching such a conclusion so fast, but the truth was staring him in the face. They couldn’t carry her with them. They needed to get out.
“I was hoping you would say that,” Declan said. “Because I didn’t want to think that I was a cold-hearted bastard.”
Justin gave his brother a pat on the back.
“Was there anybody else?” Justin asked.
“I don’t know. I found her, then I found you. Tilly pulled herself out of the water, best I can tell. She’s a tough one.”
“Seems like it. What about Zeke? He was on the bridge with us too.” Justin’s head pulsed in time with the pounding beats of his heart, but he felt good for being up and about, or as good as he could expect to feel given their current situation.
“Shit, I wasn’t thinking. Let’s have a look around for him.” Declan took his brother’s arm, and together they made their way over the cave floor.
The water’s edge was slippery, the rocks covered in slimy algae, and it was far from a smooth walking surface.
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