by catt dahman
Theo slid a spliff into his teacher’s hand, laughing.
They settled down after that, knowing that they would be able to explore the cave and find the secrets it held. Rolling out pad and bags, they slept in the plane like sardines; Audrina, situated between Tony’s soft snoring and Emma’s plump body, felt safe, warm, and somehow at peace; it was the best night’s sleep they had had in a week.
Chapter Three: Belly of the Cave
“I have a hunch, but Emma, what do you think about this?” Rick asked.
Emma knelt as everyone stood around her, looking down at the body, a skeleton. The bones refused to give up many secrets as she looked at them. The bones were all together, not torn apart, and there were some dried remains along the bones but mostly were cleaned and dressed in a German officer’s clothing from long before. It was one of the oddest things they had seen so far.
Found in a corner, the body was something Pak found and showed to the others, hoping they could figure out why this man was there. Pak was finding a private place to pee when he saw the body shoved into a corner beneath a few rocks, almost hidden. Because the corner was so deep, the body was missed in their initial searches, and only his light reflecting on a random button helped Pak find the body.
“He has been flayed,” Shimei said it. No one wanted to admit what he was looking at. “Why did they take away his skin and redress him?”
Pak nodded, “And why did they hide him? It’s like they didn’t want someone or something to get to him.”
“Predators? Maybe that’s why he was hidden,” Rick said.
“Why is a German officer here at all? Obviously, he was on the airplane when it crashed, and we’ll never figure out what happened to him. It’s way past time for us to leave and let someone else deal with this,” Tate declared, huffing and ready to go. “Germans on a plane, that’s beyond us. Seriously.”
Shimei snickered, “Again, sounds like the start of a bad joke. Three Germans are on a plane and crash….”
Tate raised his voice, “This is serious. We have to report it to the police.”
“I am a cop, and I have the report,” Luke said, tired of Tate and the constant refrain to leave the cave. “But this is going to take the FFA and pathologists and fancy testing. And it also is going to take some background on this whole flight, again FFA area.”
“So we need experts, not cops or pretend cavers,” Tate said. He wiped away sweat from his face; he was so angry he was pouring perspiration.
“Private flight and a German officer way back then. At the end of the Second World War, Why? My God, Tate, don’t you see? This is now bigger than some weird big chicken bones and a crashed plane and a cave. We’re in the center of the United States, and this is the crash site of a plane carrying German officers in uniform!” Audrina explained again.
“And?” Tate asked, but he looked a little nervous.
“And. And why would German officers be on an American flight at the end of the war, and why didn’t any one recover the bodies? Obviously someone was alive, and yet, our own country left the bodies and the plane buried here for some reason. This would have been very serious news and very important,” Audrina finished.
“Even today, this is huge. I can imagine we’ll have to sign non-disclosure releases and be talked to by some big people with the FFA and maybe the government, too,” Tony said.
Ann huffed, “I knew this was a mistake. They’ll do something to us to keep us from telling we found it.”
“Or erase our memories,” Corrine said, “like one of those shows.” She sang the creepy tune from a sci-fi show.
The cave had done a remarkable job with preservation of the body, allowing it to dry and remain in place for scores of years and now to be discovered. Almost everyone crowded around the body to take notes or investigate and offer suggestions and theories as to what the new find meant. More than anything, they wondered why the body had grievous injuries unrelated to a plane crash and how that fit into the puzzle.
Emma pointed, “See the marks here and here? That had to be a sharp instrument. It looks as if someone scraped and removed the muscle and flesh. All over. Then he redressed him. There is very little decomp on the clothing.”
“Any idea how he died?”
“No. He has a broken arm, but it could have been anything that killed him. If he was in the crash, then maybe it was a head injury or soft tissue injury, and then it killed him a little later than the rest. Or maybe they killed him…the survivors….” Emma sat back.
Rick paced, wondering about the German officer’s body. He muttered that at least the stewardess fit in with this and they had crashed obviously in the middle 1950s. Why no one knew about this or knew and left the bodies behind was a real mystery. He was repeating what they already knew.
“I want to leave,” Ann said, “we have no business down here and no business fooling around with dead people. We need to let real authorities know and deal with all this,” she said glaring at Luke and Tony.
“We have seen everything and have a great story and have had adventures,” Rick paused. “We’ll pack out, and we can talk more about this and see what the authorities do. It’s fascinating.”
“Doc,” Theo held out the end of his climbing rope as he walked over, his face puzzled, “Can anyone explain to me why my rope was cut?”
While the rest took notes and looked over the body Pak found, Theo checked his line. He was worried.
Rick took the rope and looked it over. The end, cut by some sharp instrument, didn’t look natural; someone from above them had purposely cut their rope to leave them down below. Before Rick could say a word, all the members in the group began speaking at once, asking questions, talking over one another.
Ann was loudest, asking how they expected to get out as she reminded them she had not wanted to come down there. She put her hands on her hips and demanded to know what Theo thought they would do now and why he had allowed this to happen. She almost screamed that Theo should have anticipated a danger like this.
Not really listening, Rick waited until they were almost finished talking and then held his hand out for silence. “Let Theo speak.” He hoped they had vented and could listen now.
“I’m assuming no one here did this since it was cut from the top.”
“No kidding?” Ann snapped, but she did glance around at everyone for suspicious-looking reactions. She and Tate traded worried looks and shrugged, wondering. Was it possible?
“I warned you. Now, they want us to keep quiet,” Tate hissed.
That was somehow possible.
“The top? None of us….” Tony’s face showed he caught on. Someone above had cut the rope, “Can you climb?” He had a million questions, but that seemed the most logical one to ask. In his training, knowing the solution could help relieve stress quickly and allow them to figure out the rest afterwards.
“Not sure. Maybe, I can if I find the handholds. It’ll be hard; yeah, I can climb it and tie it again. I can do anything, yanno.” Theo flexed a little, showing off, and a few sighed or laughed a little, releasing some stress as he wanted, but he had more to add, “But what if I’m halfway and someone decides to cut the rope again?”
Tony blinked. He should have thought of that. He knew better than to assume a situation was isolated.
“Why would they cut it if you were climbing? Why would they anyway?” Ann stared at Theo harshly, demanding the answer.
Shimei looked at Rick as if he could do something, “Doc, I mean, come on. This ain’t right. We can’t just sit here forever and not get out. Theo can’t risk his life that way.”
“Who the hell are you?” Luke yelled. He ran away from the group, staring upwards.
“What is he?” Emma started across the sloping ground, intending to climb up to where Luke had run, scaling the incline athletically and with ease since he was tall. Emma stared upwards as well. Sunlight from above flashed as someone or something moved around the stones where they had all wiggled by to be
lay themselves down into the cave system. “Hello?”
She looked at Luke. He seemed alarmed for some reason.
As more of the group gathered to look upwards, Emma felt chilled. A movement was above them, and that was whom Luke was yelling to. Maybe he thought this was who had cut his rope.
“Move,” Luke pushed Daisy and Pak, who followed him, and dodged, mystifying most of the rest; several rocks fell, barely missing some of them. Dust and pebbles rained down. Rocks as big as a fist crashed into the cavern floor, scoring the granite. Luke barely saw the rocks before they tumbled down, not expecting an attack.
It was as if a bomb had gone off as rocks the size of basketballs and smaller rained down with large boulders, some flat and some round that exploded against the rock ground. Noise filled the cave, echoing and almost deafening the explorers. It was nearly impossible to breathe as tiny pebbles and dirt filled the darkness of the cave like a deadly fog.
Haylee turned to run and landed flat on her back as her ankle gave out. Beside her, Wyatt screamed as he fell to his belly, the weight of a small boulder pinning him.
And like that, it was over except for a little dust trickling down. At least the entire mountain hadn’t fallen into the cave.
“Everyone stay still. Do not move yet,” Emma ordered, “Rick? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Emma. What should I do?”
“One by one, check for injuries, and get everyone away from the area. We need light as well. Everyone, wait for me or Rick if you can, or help anyone next to you who is injured.” Emma motioned Tony, Shimei, and Audrina to go to Haylee to check her vitals.
Rick gathered everyone back down the slope, and he had Ann clean scrapes, apply ointment, and put Band-Aids on cuts. Emma went to Wyatt. He regained consciousness, the boulder had rolled away, but he said he couldn’t feel anything below his midsection. He tested his reflexes and tried to remain positive, but the fact was he was paralyzed. The paralysis might be caused by swelling of the spinal column or it could just be a bruise or it could be more serious.
“Am I okay?” Wyatt asked.
“You have a problem, and I don’t know how serious it is,” Emma said. “You need scans and tests and equipment we don’t have, so all I know is that it could be a temporary problem or something more long-term and serious.” She didn’t add that without proper care, the chances of this turning more serious increased exponentially.
Rick joined them in time to hear Emma say, “We can’t climb out. Even if Theo and Ed could make the climb, and that’s a big if, whoever is out there has blocked our way out. I think it’s possible we can find another way out, but we have to make choices about our wounded, and we might not be able to bring back help for hours or days.”
Emma took that in. “Wyatt, we’re going to find something and strap you on a back board and flip you. I can’t say it won’t do more damage, but we need to get you to a safe place so no rocks fall on you.” She asked Rick and the rest to do that. It wasn’t something she had to supervise because she didn’t have the first idea how they would manage the job anyway.
Moving him was a bad choice, but they had no other choice in the matter. If another rock fell, Wyatt might be killed. She shrugged at Rick to show she didn’t know how they would do that without doing more harm, but they needed to do it quickly.
“Hi, Haylee, how are you doing, Hon?” Emma tried a cheerful voice.
Audrina shook her head dismally. The time for discretion was long gone. “The rocks caught her hard, Emma. Her arm is pinned. If we move the boulder, she’ll bleed…umm…her arm is under it. The rock is all that’s keeping her from bleeding out.”
Emma blinked, trying to see the whole picture, but it was confusing. Haylee’s arm just above the elbow was up against the boulder, pulsing purple-red, and the big rock sat flat against the floor. Haylee’s arm couldn’t be underneath unless….
She blinked again and with sheer horror, she looked at Audrina. The rock had smashed the bone and flesh flat against the rock floor, and Haylee’s hand and lower arm were pulp. If they rolled the boulder, there would be a ragged mess that would pour blood and kill Haylee automatically. Emma shook her head violently, backing away in horror; she wasn’t going to do anything here because it was too horrible and out of the realm of her training.
Emma wasn’t a battlefield nurse.
Shimei caught Emma’s arm, “Hey. Breathe. You’re our nurse.”
“I…I can’t…we don’t….”
To one side, Shimei yanked Emma almost off her feet and whispered gruffly, “Emma, you are all we have. Her arm is gone. It’s crushed.”
“I…Shi, she’s hurt badly, and I have nothing. I was never taught how to treat field injuries. This is like a war zone with Wyatt hurt and Haylee….”
Shimei gave her a shake, “So we sit and watch her die? Really? Some freakin’ nurse you are. We have the bottom of the barrel in nurses…go figure.”
“Hey, That’s not fair,” replied Emma as her face flooded with color and she sputtered.
“Then try to save her life, Emma. Hon, we need you.”
Emma realized she needed the shake-up and felt more focused now. “I’ll do my best, Shi. Hey, thanks.”
“I don’t know if Haylee knows about her arm; at times, she seems to, but she’s confused. She hurts. She’s scared, and she’s depending on us. On you. Now, I am no doctor, but that arm has to come off and right now, or she’ll die from shock.”
“I know. The arm has to be removed,” Emma said, more logical. Her brain was functioning, and Shimei gave her a pat on her back.
Audrina shivered but found her voice, “Who has the biggest blade?” She could hardly think about what she would have to do to this woman.
Removing an arm in the best circumstances was painful afterwards and emotionally devastating. How did they expect Emma to do this in a cave with no real medical instruments suited for this kind of surgery? It was pure insanity.
Luke held up a machete, not as large as some, but when he unsheathed it, it had a keen blade and was the best they had. It didn’t have the weight they needed, but it was what they had that could be used quickly and with any power. Luke felt sick that he carried the blade that would be used.
“And who is the strongest at chopping wood?” Audrina gritted her teeth, willing herself not to shut down in shock. She tried to help Emma who seemed able to get her mind around what had to be done. Audrina wanted to turn back time and keep this from happening, to protect Haylee, and to keep them out of this situation. “We need someone to do it who can chop wood. It makes sense.
“Hijo de Perra.” Tony swore, “I’ll do it.”
He glanced at Audrina and Shimei; they gave him nods, letting him know they believed in him.
Emma nodded, “Hurry. Wash the blade, heat it in the fire, and wash it again; then, you’ll do it.”
She talked to Haylee and told her they would help her. Haylee was in vicious pain but listened abstractly as Emma said they were going to get the rock and her arm separated and that Haylee had to breathe steady and be brave as possible. Emma didn’t explain the process but reassured the young woman that they would help her and she could depend on them.
Emma used a clean strip of a shirt to tie a secure tourniquet right above where Haylee’s arm vanished under the rock, “Audrina, Wash her arm well; soak it,” Emma heard herself rattling off nonsense about how this wouldn’t be too difficult and they would all be with her and how Haylee could handle it. The truth was that Emma was going to do what was required to save Haylee but it would be bloody, painful, and might not work.
While Audrina worked, Emma outlined a plan to Theo and Rick who were ready to help, having handed off their other job. Shimei and Corrine were ordered to hold Haylee still and to talk to her no matter what happened.
Around the fire, the others curled up and looked shell-shocked as they half-heartedly tended to Wyatt. Ann and Tate carried on a diatribe about how they should have never come down into the c
ave.
“No shit, Ann. As if we knew this would happen,” Emma yelled, feeling better for shutting Ann’s mouth.
Emma wished she could leave and be uninvolved in this torture.
“Can you do it?” Audrina asked Tony.
He shrugged. “If I don’t who will? She’ll die if we don’t,” He paused, his bluff failing as he admitted, “I guess this is the worst thing I’ve ever had to do.”
Audrina sighed, “You and Theo and Luke are very strong, but they don’t look as if they can do it. I don’t blame them because it’s a hard, terrible thing to have to do, but you may be saving her life this way.”
“Maybe,” Tony said.
“At least you’ll know you tried.” Audrina said.
With everyone in places, Emma gave the go-ahead.
Tony grimaced, his eyes went damp, but he raised his arm back and slammed the machete into the flesh next to the rock. Haylee went poker-stiff, screaming, but Tony steeled himself and carried through, finally breaking through the bone with good aim. Her arm waved free.
Tony let out an unmanly scream as he finished, horrified at his job.
Blood splashed both Emma’s and Audrina’s faces; it was hot and salty. Blood was one fluid people reacted to with disgust or queasiness.
Without a second to think about what he was doing, Tony took the next biggest knife, a broad blade that was red hot from the fire and had to be held with a tee shirt around the hilt. The others had prepared it well. He dimly wondered why he hadn’t refused and chickened out like any normal person would, but here he was, and he would finish the chore.
Tony didn’t know what was happening but was aware his vision was blurred because tears ran down his face, distorting images a little. Dreading the second the hot blade would touch Haylee’s skin, Tony took a deep breath and prayed in his mind, “Get her still. Hurry.”