by Greig Beck
Captain Okembu looked back up at the group on the ledge, and his eyes met with Matt’s for a split second, before his arm and the blade swept down, cutting the rope below them.
The stricken commando fell into space. He didn’t flail his arms and didn’t say a word. He had already known what was coming.
“Bastard!” Khaled aimed down at Captain Okembu and fired, but Rachel knocked his gun up.
“Forget it. He did what he had to do to save the women,” she said fiercely.
Khaled’s eyes blazed. “No, this coward saved himself.”
“Sure did. But what were his options? Wait until the rope snapped and they all died? Or maybe wait until the next RPG blew them all off the wall?” She met his furious gaze.
Khaled showed gritted teeth, and then glared back down at the Chadian captain. “I still curse him and all his ancestors.”
“Let’s try and pull them in, before we all get to meet our ancestors,” Matt said.
“I can get my hand under the rope now.” Joshua had wormed his fingers under the fibers.
They all grabbed on and hauled, dragging the rope and the swinging climbers up and then over the ledge.
Greta knelt for a moment to untie her belt and let Eleanor gently come free. She then held a bottle of water to her lips and let the woman sip. Matt was touched by how gentle the large woman could be.
Okembu got to his feet, his eyes steady and challenging. His hand rested on the butt of his gun. “I had no choice.” He looked along each of their faces, stopping at Khaled’s.
The Saudi also got to his feet, with the hulking Saeeb behind him. The man looked more hostile than anyone Matt had ever seen in his life, and he bet murder was on his mind.
“I had – no – choice.” Okembu’s fingers slowly moved down on the gun.
“We know,” Rachel said, stepping between Khaled and Saeeb.
The next RPG blast was so close it blew them all flat.
“Into the cave!” Joshua yelled.
They rushed into the mysterious cave and Matt looked over his shoulder to see two screaming smoke trails darting toward them.
“Incoming!” he yelled the word and then dived inside the mouth of the cavern and scrambled forward on knees and elbows.
The first RPG impacted above them, the second just inside the mouth of their cave. It felt like an earthquake as tonnes of rock came down in a waterfall of stone. Boulders as big as refrigerators thumped into the cave mouth, and a wall of dust billowed up just as they were plunged into a stygian darkness.
*
Drusus held up a hand. “It’s over.”
Aetius stood and cradled his rifle. “Should we follow them? We can reopen the cave with shaped charges.”
“No, we wait.” Drusus narrowed his eyes as he stared up at the collapsed cave high up on the sheer mountain wall. “It’s not us they need to fear now.”
*
A rock the size of his fist cracked across Matt’s forehead and he saw stars. He rolled into a ball to protect himself from more blows, and lay there, waiting for the trembling and bouncing stones to finish their mad dance inside the cave. It was several minutes before the first flashlight went on.
“Is everyone okay?” Rachel sat up, moving her light around. “Sound off.”
There was silence as more lights came on. “Matt, Khaled?” She yelled now.
“Cough – here.” From the Saudi.
“Matt?”
Matt wiped his eyes and mouth. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.” He felt his forehead for the expected gash or at least huge egg, but there was nothing. Oddly, there was a sensation of movement under the skin, but it quickly went away. Lucky, he told himself as he picked his shirt up from the cave floor, and put it back on.
“Greta, Eleanor?”
The voice was faint. “Yes, my dear; we’re both alive.”
Captain Okembu and Saeeb both answered at once.
“Joshua, where are you?” Rachel waited.
Several lights panned around, searching for the parasitologist.
“Shit, where the hell is he?” Rachel got to her feet.
There was a groan and the sound of rocks sliding. She whipped the light to the source. The man was down with some of the debris covering his legs. Rachel was first to him and set to pushing off some of the larger stones.
Matt and Saeeb helped him to sit up. His legs and back were scratched and there was blood seeping through his torn clothing. In the glare of the lights his face was chalk-white from either the dust or the pain. He put his fingertips to his scalp, and they came away red.
“That fucking hurt.” He breathed deeply and then coughed, holding his chest. “I think I might have a broken rib or two.” He grimaced.
Rachel sat back. “Well, the good news is, if you can feel pain, you’re alive. So there’s that.” Rachel patted his shoulder. “And the bad news… what do we do now?”
Matt turned his light to the rear of the cave. “Joshua, what was back there?”
The scientist groaned and sat up. “I don’t know. I only went in a few feet. But didn’t have a chance to explore before we were attacked. It keeps going, I think.”
“Might be another way out,” Okembu said.
“Out is unlikely. We’re over 250 feet up, and still a few thousand more up to the peak.” Joshua rubbed dust from his hair and looked miserable. “More than likely it’ll dead-end or lead to another portal on the cliff face. Bottom line, we’re fucked.”
“No, but you’ll be fucked with that lay down and die attitude, mister.” Rachel got to her feet.
“Hey! Remember why we came.” Matt dusted himself down. “This might be the cave that leads to the Garden of Eden.”
“And the wellspring,” Eleanor added quietly.
Matt turned to the group. “People have been here before. Just before we came in I saw a metal piton hammered into the wall. It was old, but it tells me that someone had been here within the last century.”
“Clarence, I bet,” Eleanor said reverently.
“Might have been.” Matt shone his light toward the back of the cave, and the beam stood out starkly in the still-drifting dust clouds. “We need to see what we’ve got to deal with.”
“I agree, especially while we still have working flashlights.” Khaled stood. “Is everyone okay to walk?”
They all got to their feet, giving Khaled his answer. Greta stood and lifted Eleanor van Helling into place. Only Joshua needed help standing. The scientist gripped his ribcage.
“I think we should stay here.” Captain Okembu stood rod straight in the darkness. “People will come looking for me. Maybe we can dig our way out.”
The next explosion was muffled, but still rained dust and debris down on their heads. Eleanor squeaked, and everyone froze, waiting.
“Jesus,” Matt said and turned to the collapsed entrance. “Give it a rest, you bastards, we’re already buried.” He shone his light toward Okembu. “I’m thinking digging our way out that way might not be a good idea.”
Dust still swirled inside the cave. And Matt lifted the front of his T-shirt to cover his mouth and nose. “Besides, if anyone does come, all they’ll find is a few dead bodies, the jeeps gone and no sign of us. No reason to think we’re stuck in a cave, hundreds of feet up a mountain side.”
Okembu cursed under his breath.
Khaled shone his beam toward the back of the cave. “It goes on for quite some way, but the dust is hanging in the air – there is not a breath of air movement. Could mean a sealed environment.”
“And maybe not,” Matt said. “I’ve been in caves before, and you only need to drop down into a new chamber to find air circulation. There’s nothing to keep us here, so…”
“A waste of time.” Okembu stared up at the dark ceiling, and then slammed a fist down onto his thigh. “Why did I come with you fools? You wasted my time, and now it looks like you have condemned me to death.”
“You chose to be here, my friend.” Khaled’s face was grim. “
You chose to climb. You chose to accompany your men, and you chose to extract even more money from us.” Khaled’s mouth curled into a small smile. “In fact, you made every single decision all by your greedy self. So I am happy you are now in here.”
“Cool it,” Rachel said. “We haven’t wasted our time – yet.” She pointed at one of the cave walls. “Matt, look.”
Matt squinted, and then walked closer to where she was pointing. He grinned, slapped the rock and then turned back to the group.
“The mark of Noah.”
*
“That says Noah?” Rachel looked at the few scratched scars on the wall. She could have quite easily assumed they were a few odd chisel marks in the stone. She reached up to trace them with a fingertip. “It could be characters, I guess.”
“It is; it’s the oldest form of his name. It also means ‘rest, comfort’.” Matt turned, looking at the cave’s wall and ceiling. “Perhaps when the water was high, this might have been one of the places they took their rest and comfort in.”
Joshua’s light wobbled as he brought it closer. “Well, if we’re going to be trapped, at least we might be trapped in the right place.”
“This is what you came for?” Okembu asked.
“No, this is just a signpost.” Matt moved his light to the interior. “We need to go deeper.”
“These mountains are not a good place. They have many caves, some very deep.” Okembu’s eyes shone white in the darkness.
“I know, you told us, taboo, right?” Matt said softly, and then sighed. “But the Captain’s right; we need to watch our step. Anyone wanders off in here and they might find they’ll be the next artifact uncovered in another thousand years.”
“So we follow the yellow brick road,” Rachel said.
“Yellow brick road?” Okembu frowned.
“Forget it.” Rachel shone her light back into the darkness and headed off.
The group stayed close together. Matt, Rachel and Khaled led them out. Greta and Eleanor were next, then came Okembu, and finally Saeeb helped Joshua hobble along at the rear.
Rachel’s senses were on high alert. There were eight of them remaining – only an hour before, there had been 15 including Okembu’s drivers. Nearly half their number had been killed in the blink of an eye.
She felt a pang of loss for the affable Professor Abdul Ebadi. The man was enormously enthusiastic, and though he had at least died doing what he loved, he might have just missed out on something that could have been classed as the absolute peak of his life’s work.
Rachel’s eyes shifted over her shoulder to the tall and sullen Chad Army captain. The guy looked angry all the time now. Three of his men had been killed and he hadn’t even mentioned them – out here, life was cheap or worthless, she guessed.
“I can smell something,” Okembu said, sniffing.
“Rock dust, minerals, maybe even some of the residue from the explosives,” Joshua said.
“Fool, I know more about those things than you lambs who live in western cities. What I smell is earth, fresh earth, and not cave or desert dust. “
Rachel sniffed. She could smell nothing but ancient dryness. But maybe that was due the floating particles that tickled her nose and got deep into the nasal passages, making her want to hock it out.
“Any more signs?” she whispered to Matt, not knowing why she felt the need to hush her voice.
“Nothing,” Matt said. “Yet, but the passage goes on, and luckily it’s not narrowing.”
They continued on, the cave bending to the left, and then angling down slightly. Rachel felt the perspiration trickling down her back, even though it must have been 20 degrees cooler in the cave. Thankfully, the gentle breath of a breeze dried the sweat on her forehead and gave some relief.
Breeze?
“Hey,” she said. “Anyone else feel that?”
“Yes, and for a few minutes now,” Khaled said. “It’s coming from up ahead.”
They increased their pace until Matt’s sudden scream jolted some and made the rest cringe. Saeeb’s gun was immediately up.
“He’s fallen.” Khaled held them back from the circular pit in the center of the cave.
“Matt!” Rachel dived forward, allowing herself to slide to the edge. She shone her light down into the void. Matt lay about a dozen feet down on a flat ledge, he was pushing himself up to sit, and holding his head.
“Don’t move!” she yelled.
Beyond him, there was nothing but darkness. It was sheer luck he had fallen where he had, because if he’d missed the ledge, he would have disappeared into nothingness.
“I’m okay.” He looked up at them, his face white and squinting at all the lights beaming down on him. He put a hand over his eyes and then turned to look around.
“This is it.” He faced them again. “This is where we need to be.” He pointed. “Look…”
*
Matt sat still for a few moments to let his dizziness subside. He inhaled, smelling the odors on the breeze. Okembu had been right – it did now smell like fresh earth, and there was something else: dampness, obvious after the dryness of the cave.
He hated caves, and darkness and pressing walls of jagged stone. He’d been in them before, and it never ended well. But for some reason in here, it felt… right. In fact, it felt better than right, it felt like, home. He shook his flashlight and it immediately came back to life. Shining it around he saw there were smooth stones beneath him. He got up to crouch; what he had landed on was no natural outcrop of rock, but instead a platform of interlocking stones.
He grinned and rubbed at the stone. I don’t believe it, he thought, and looked up to the group. “Steps!” He turned back to follow them with his light. They led from the ledge he was on to then curve around the outside of the circular pit. It reminded him of the inside of one of the large smoke stacks he had seen on a trip to London once. Inside the huge funnel structure, there were maintenance steps winding up and corkscrewing all the way up to the light – except here, they spiraled down into the darkness.
Matt crept to the edge and shone his light down further. He couldn’t see the bottom, but the steps continued ever onward into the gloom.
“Hey!” Matt yelled and waited for the echo to finish.
“What is it?” Rachel yelled down to him.
He turned and put a finger to his lips. “Shush – I’m checking something.”
“Hey!” Matt yelled again, and listened, this time holding his breath and counting.
There was no echo. That usually meant the cave was so large that the reverberation return simply got lost, as the sound waves travelled too far and dissipated. Matt went to kneel back from the edge, when from the depths there was a blink of yellow light that drew his head back around. What the? He leaned forward, bringing his light around to where he had seen the glow. Had he seen two lights or one? He kept motionless, just staring for several moments.
“What are you doing?” Rachel’s impatient voice made him jump.
“Nothing, I thought…” He knelt back again. “It’s nothing.” He panned his light around once more. About five feet up the mark of Noah was etched into the wall.
“This is it.”
“What have you got?” Rachel yelled back.
“Big cave, but there’s a way down. And I can feel a breeze coming up.” He got to one knee. “Can you make it down to here?” He shone his light on the cave wall. He could see there probably had been steps once, but they looked to have broken off long ago. To get down it’d mean a jump.
There was a hurried conversation above.
“Yes, we think so. We’ll lower each other down,” Khaled said.
There was more discussion, followed by scraping and scuffing of boots on rock, and then Khaled was eased down. Saeeb stretched out, lowering him while he held onto his leather belt.
At the end of the belt and with his arms fully extended, Khaled only had about four feet left to go. Normally this would not have presented a problem, but as the
ledge Matt was standing on was narrow, and over its edge a seeming bottomless void, the Saudi needed to drop and stick.
“Ready when you are,” Matt said softly, standing back but hands ready to catch him.
Khaled let go, and landed lightly, bending his knees and grabbing the rock wall. Matt put an arm around him, but he was fine.
“No problem.” Matt patted his shoulder, and then looked up. “Next.”
It was Joshua’s turn then, straining and sweating as his ribs undoubtedly screamed as he extended his arms. He landed with a grunt and an expression of unadulterated pain. Both Matt and Khaled grabbed at him, as he wobbled for a second or two.
“We got you.” Matt held on for a few seconds more. “You okay?”
“Not really, but I’m down.” Joshua held his side and moved out of the way. His face looked drawn and he glanced around nervously.
Some skittering against rock and Matt looked up to see Rachel’s legs easing down.
“Stand back.”
She landed like a cat, and immediately straightened. Next came Greta who refused to let Eleanor drop by herself so still had the tiny bird-like woman strapped to her back. Greta had no trouble hanging on, but the extra weight on her back when she dropped caused her to thrust her arms wide for a second, until both Matt and Khaled grabbed her.
“We’ve got you,” Khaled said.
The woman lurched forward and hugged the stone. Her eyes were squeezed shut. Matt had his arm around her and felt the small body of Eleanor van Helling on her back. She squirmed slightly, and he had the strange sensation of a baby moving in a mother’s belly. Matt recoiled and looking across at Khaled he saw that he too had moved back from the big woman.
From behind him there came the sound of rocks falling into the pit – had they dislodged them? he wondered.
Captain Okembu came next and seemed to be moving too fast.
“Take it easy; it’s a long way down if you miss,” Matt said.
Okembu snorted and let go. He landed lightly, not needing their hands on him as his long arms allowed him to come nearly all the way to the ledge. The last to come was Saeeb, and Matt knew the guy was going to be a problem.