“Are you okay?” Ben ran over to her. Lacey couldn’t hold back and tears poured down her face.
“I think it’s broken!” she wailed. Ben got down on the cave floor next to her and rolled up her pant leg, sure enough there was a gross and awkward bend right in the middle of her shin.
“Yeah, um, I’m gonna say that’s broken.” He looked at her, not knowing what to do. “Let’s get out of here!” He said as he stood, he needed to find something to use to brace her leg, but there were no sticks or any straight objects in the cave. “Quick give me the cell phone, I’m gonna call 911! ”
“What? We aren’t leaving!” Lacey yelled through her tears. “We came so far, the treasure is right there and you want to leave?” anger started to take over.
“Look at your leg!” he pointed to the gross angle of her bone. “We need to get you help!”
“Look, Ben I know you’re scared to climb up there.” Lacey continued to cry.
“I’m not scared! We just need to get you out of here!” he stomped.
“Ben,” Lacey motioned for him to come back to her side, he moped as he made his way over to her, his arms were crossed and he had a look that was either anger or terror, Lacey couldn’t tell which. “Ben, ya know, it’s okay to be afraid, everyone’s afraid of something. It’s just not okay to allow that fear to control your life. Sometimes when you’re freaked out, you have to breathe deep, and take the microphone away from that voice in your head that’s telling you to be afraid. Without the microphone, that voice, that fear, its got nothing on you.” She wiped the tears from her eyes and moaned in pain. To her surprise Ben’s arms unfolded off his chest and a look of peace came over his face. He walked over to the wall, looked up to the ledge, then began pulling himself up slowly.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this, especially after seeing your nasty leg!” Ben called down to her. Lacey laughed through the tears. He was making great progress, his movements were slow and shaky, but he was moving up, and that to Lacey, was all that mattered.
Ben was almost to the top of the ledge, as he peeked over the side he saw a case that was identical to the one they had found at Devil’s Punchbowl. This case was lying open on the ledge; inside of it was a bright green neon light and a slip of paper. Ben slid onto the ledge, his stomach calmed until he looked down at his aunt. Wow, she’s a long ways down! He tried to ignore his fear, but then noticed that the wall was nonexistent next to the case. It was balancing on a small bridge of slimy rock, on one side was the cavern where Lacey was sitting, and on the other side was pure darkness. Even with the neon light shining he couldn’t see the end of the vast blackness that consumed the hole on the other side of the case. He was overwhelmed with both fear and excitement. He reached into the case and picked up the slip of paper, he looked at it quickly, only seeing the word ‘Congratulations!’ then dropped it back in the case as he heard Lacey scream. Ben looked down to see a man standing behind Lacey with his hand over her mouth. With the green glow it was hard to see who the man was, but Ben decided it must be Blue Van Man.
“Let go of her!” Ben yelled. He closed the case and suddenly the room went black. As he stood he turned on his headlamp and shined it directly at the man. He shook in fear as he looked down; he tried to maintain his balance, but was having a hard time not swaying back and forth.
“Ben, you’re gonna fall, toss me the case!” The man ordered. “I’m not -” The man tried to speak but Ben cut him off.
“Yeah right! So you can steal our money!” How could this happen? Just when he had finally climbed something and they were finally done, this jerk comes back. A lump grew in his throat, but he focused in on Lacey, took a deep breath, and chose to take control of the situation.
The man began to yell, “No, you don’t -” just then Lacey took every last bit of strength she had and elbowed the man in the face. She tried to crawl away as the man bent over holding his face with both hands. He stood wiping blood from his nose, “That was a mistake!” the man yelled as he moved toward Lacey.
“Wait!” Ben yelled. “Leave her alone!” he looked at the black hole behind the case, then threatened, “Leave her alone or I’ll throw the case into the hole on the other side of the ledge!”
“But then you won’t get the money!” The man yelled back.
“Duh!” Ben shook his head at the man’s stupidity, “Yeah I won’t get the money, but neither will you! I’ll do it!” For effect Ben held the case over the black hole, he tried not to shake, but the fear was consuming him. Breathe! He recited in his head.
“Don’t do it Ben!” The man yelled. “Toss me the case, so you can climb down!”
Ben dropped his head, defeat seemed to overcome him. He couldn’t win this, he was thirty feet up, he had to somehow climb down, and he couldn’t hold the case and climb at the same time. Even if he could, the man would surely steal the case from them as soon as Ben was on the ground. He stared at Lacey and remembered what she had said about giving the voice of fear too much power, Shut up! He told the voice in his head. As he scolded himself a feeling of warmth overcame him and the weight of a hand pressed on his shoulder. He looked to his shoulder and saw the same old, crippled fingers he had seen in the lighthouse. He followed the black cloaked arm with his eyes until he met the face of the old man from the lighthouse.
“Benjamin” the man’s voice whistled through his lips.
“Yes?” Ben said with a shaky voice.
“I’ve watched you on this journey, you need to trust yourself, your strength. Sometimes in life you don’t need a G.P.S. unit, you have to trust your inner compass. It will not fail you, just as you have not failed it.” The man’s bright blue eyes shone intensly. Ben realized he knew these eyes, over and over again he had seen them and he had learned to trust them.
Lacey looked up at Ben, she could see he was in a battle with himself, and then suddenly he yelled, “Aunt Lacey! I’m sorry, but it’s not worth it, please don’t be mad at me!” Lacey’s eyes widened as she saw the case being thrown through the air, it was flying with amazing speed, and it was aimed directly at her. She covered her head with her hands, and then out of the corner of her eye saw Blue Van Man dive in front of her. The case hit him directly in the head, with a loud impacting crack. He fell to the ground unconscious.
Ben slid onto the wall from the ledge, tears running down his face, he was so overwhelmed. He almost hit his Aunt; he was aiming at the Blue Van Man, but with his uncontrolled shaking the case wound up going off course. He climbed down the wall, the fear was still there, but he knew they had to get out of this cave. With Lacey’s broken leg, it could take hours. He quickly lowered himself from rock to rock, without even realizing it he was almost at the bottom with a few feet left to go he jumped off the wall and ran over to Lacey, “See that,” he said, pointing to the man lying on the floor. “He wanted that money so bad he ended up diving for it and knocking himself out! Serves him right!” Ben glared at the unconscious body lying before him.
“Let’s take the case and get out of here.” Lacey said as she started to crawl again.
“No, I don’t want to take it.” Ben said casually. Lacey looked back at him,
“Have you gone completely insane?” She asked.
“If we take it, he’ll just keep coming after us.” he stared at her and suddenly she saw that he was terrified of this man, and just wanted this to be over.
“Is that what you really want to do, Ben?” She asked.
“I want us to stay alive; the money isn’t worth us getting hurt, or killed.” He walked over to Lacey and helped her up. He supported the side of her body with the broken leg as she hopped along next to him.
“You’re sure you don’t want the money, cause if you change your mind, I’m not coming back down her to get it!”
“There wasn’t even money in the case anyways.” Ben said.
“What do you mean?” Lacey stopped hopping for a moment and caught her breath.
“There was a slip of paper, all
I had time to read was ‘congratulations,’ but for all we know, it could just be another clue.” Ben motioned for them to keep moving.
“Huh,” Lacey shook her head with disappointment, “well that sounds about right for this whole thing, doesn’t it? Ya know I bet there isn’t even money at all!” She tried to convince herself, so the disappointment would go away. As they approached the part of the tunnel that was covered with bats, suddenly the thought of the money wasn’t important anymore. They both lay on the floor; Ben helped Lacey crawl along, quiet tears poured down her cheeks, partly from the pain, mostly from the fear. They were now approaching the drop off in the tunnel. Lacey swung herself over the edge to reach the next section of tunnel, Ben held onto her arms, and she slowly slid down the wall until her good foot touched the ground. Ben let go, then slowly climbed over the edge and made his way down all the rock that protruded from the wall. They continued to hobble down the tunnel.
As they reached the large cavern that contained the beautiful stalactites Ben heard footsteps behind them. “Shoot, I think he’s coming!” He quickened his pace, trying to help Lacey as much as possible. Lacey pulled his arm and motioned for them to try the other tunnel.
“He’ll think we went the way we came in, but remember the petra glyph? There is potentially another way out, and if not then we’ll just make sure he is ahead of us. He probably just wants to get out of here before we can call the cops.” Ben looked at her with fear, and then suddenly heard loud screeches and a buzzing noise. Within seconds they could hear the man screaming, he had awoken the bats. Thousands of bats flew out of the tunnel and swarmed past Ben and Lacey. They heard the man’s screaming and footsteps get louder and saw a beam of light curve around a corner in the tunnel behind them. Ben poked his head up, checking for bats, a few still flew in the cavern, but most were flying into the tunnel that Lacey had suggested they try to escape from.
“Do you want to follow the bats?” Ben pointed.
“Well at this point, I’d say they are smarter than we are.” Lacey laughed. They turned into the tunnel that the drawing had specified could be a potential escape route; hoping it would lead them to daylight, and not just a swarm of angry bats.
Ben’s shoulder ached from supporting his aunt as they moved through the tunnel, with every hop she would moan or cry from the horrible pain in her leg. Ben slowed down then stopped completely, Lacey tried to control her crying; she was working on at least maintaining a low volume.
“Ya know what is strange?” Ben rubbed his shoulder as he looked back behind them. “That was a big guy, how do you think he fit under the crawl space? Ya know, the one that was right before the cavern, on our way in.” he looked at her and realized she didn’t have an answer.
“I don’t know…you don’t think…” She only got a few words out before Ben grabbed her arm and starting forcing her to continue moving. He looked behind them again and saw the glow of a flashlight.
After a hundred feet more Lacey’s sobs became louder and louder, the pain in her leg was just too much, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Ben,” she cried, “just leave me here, when you get outside, go get help.” She couldn’t move anymore, the pain was too intense.
“No way!” Ben moved in front of Lacey and bent over slightly, motioning for her to piggyback. She hopped forward, and then he grabbed her legs, being careful of her broken shin, and lifted her onto his back. He was moving slowly, but they were making more headway than before. She continued to cry; every movement sent a stabbing pain running up and down her leg.
They came around a sharp corner and about fifty feet ahead of them there was a sliver of light. The tunnel became very narrow; they couldn’t fit through with Lacey on Ben’s back so he carefully let her down then had her go through first. He looked behind them as they squeezed through the tight, narrow, tunnel. The light was growing behind them; the man must be right on their tail. Once through the small opening the tunnel widened and a few beams of sunlight became intensely strong. Ahead of them was a large opening, but piles of rocks blocked most of the opening. There was enough room for them to get out; it looked as if someone had recently opened the pathway. Ben supported Lacey and helped her shimmy out and over the piles of rocks. Quickly he climbed out following her.
In the distance Lacey could see a crowd of people, she turned to show Ben, but he was looking back at something. Suddenly a large hand came down on Ben’s shoulder. Lacey fell to the ground and watched in horror as Ben faced Blue Van Man. Ben yelled in pure anger, “I’m sick of this, we gave you the money!” A loud groan came out of Ben’s mouth, the man tried to speak, just as the sound was coming out of his lips, Ben spun quickly, doing a high round kick that landed directly on the man’s jaw. Once again the man collapsed.
Lacey noticed the crowd of people running over to them now, Ben turned and saw them also, he was shocked at the amount of people watching them. He helped Lacey up and again supported her as they came closer to the crowd. Ben’s mom and a tall man in a dark suit ran over to them. “Are you okay?” The man asked.
“She broke her leg!” Tears came to Ben’s eyes, “and that guy has been trying to kill us!” The man ran over to Blue Van Man. The tears were flowing freely down Ben’s cheeks now. He was completely overwhelmed. His mom came up and hugged him, trying to give comfort; surprisingly he hugged her tight and wouldn’t let go. Some of the crowd came and helped Lacey; they set her on the ground then called for help.
The man in the suit tried to rouse Blue Van Man, “What on earth happened?” he asked Ben.
“I kicked him square in the jaw.” Ben said confidently. “He was gonna kill us, even after we gave him the money.” He pointed to the case in the unconscious man’s hand.
“No, no Ben,” The man paused, “see we have the money.” The man pointed to a large check that a few people were holding. “Ben, this man is a photo journalist; I hired him to follow you guys to take pictures for our campaign.” The man in the suit bent over Blue Van Man. Everyone in the crowd looked at Ben; embarrassment blushed across his face,
“Oh…my bad.” He said sheepishly. The crowd continued to stare at him; he buried his face in his mom’s shoulder. Something occurred to Ben though and he looked at the check again, he looked at Lacey, she was resting on the ground. He wasn’t sure if he was reading incorrectly, or if there had been some sort of huge error. “Aunt Lacey, look at the check.” He pointed. Lacey’s jaw dropped, she knew she was delusional from the severe pain, her brain couldn’t quite articulate what she was seeing, and the only thing that made sense was that she just wasn’t seeing straight.
“Ben, can you see that?” She asked.
“Uh huh.” He sighed in disbelief.
“My eyes must be messed up,” she said as she focused on the check, “aren’t there way too many zeros and commas?” She asked.
19
Blue Van Man moaned loudly and sat up. He looked around and didn’t seem shocked at all to be surrounded by a huge crowd of people. He looked over at Ben, who was standing next to his mom. The man next to him rose and walked over to Ben.
“Ben, looks like we need to clear a few things up.” he looked at the cameramen and motioned for them to begin recording. “I’m Stan Berton from United Cellular; we, along with Garmin, sponsored the geocaching contest with the Cocoaliscious Cereal Company.” Ben’s eyes lit up as a sense of understanding came over him. “Bruce here,” he pointed to Blue Van Man, “is a photo journalist, who was hired to follow you on this adventure and take pictures, so that we can use them in our new advertising campaign.” Ben looked at Bruce,
“Sorry man. If I would have known, ya know, that you weren’t trying to kill us and steal the money, well I never would have, um…kicked your butt. “ he said.
Bruce stood up, “I tried to tell you, but the boss here didn’t want you to know, so that the pictures would be real. If you would have known you would have acted differently and the photos wouldn’t be authentic.” he said. “But for a kid, you really prot
ected yourself, and your aunt here.” He motioned to Lacey, who was now being attended to by emergency personnel. He walked over to Ben and handed him the case.
Stan began talking again, “So Ben, I understand that you were under the impression that the grand prize was ten thousand dollars?”
“Yeah, but that’s not ten grand.” Ben pointed to the large check.
“Yeah, well see you read the wrong part of the instructions, the grand prize is actually one million dollars.” Everyone in the crowd cheered and hollered with excitement, it was even better knowing that Ben had no clue how much he was really getting. The people holding the check walked over to Ben, whose mouth was wide open and handed him the check. “You also get another cell phone; you can keep the one we gave you at Crater Lake.” Stan now looked directly at the cameras, “United Cellular is now offering Garmin GPS capability on our new one hundred percent water proof cell phones, never again will you have to worry about being lost, whether you are just going about your daily routine or on a treasure hunt for one million dollars.” He smiled broadly, as he recited his rehearsed lines. The cameras turned off and Stan regained his casual demeanor. “Sorry, I had to do that for the advertising.” he said to Ben.
“So we get a million dollars?” Ben asked, still in disbelief.
“Well, you get a million dollars, yes.” Stan noticed the questioning look on Ben’s face, “The prize money can only be given to one individual, since the cereal was purchased by your mom, and the toy compass was yours, Ben, the money is yours.” Stan looked at Lacey, “Sorry, but I’m sure you understand,” he said to her.
Lacey’s smile faded, but when she looked at Ben she regained her excitement, “It’s okay Ben, you earned that money!” She said trying to reassure him.
“No, we were a team!” Ben said firmly. He looked at Lacey.
Waypoint: Cache Quest Oregon (Waypoint Book Series) Page 12