Inhabited

by Ike Hamill

  She turned to move down the tunnel. Roger followed, but he didn’t turn his back on the shaft. On the floor, the flag stood as a monument to their presence. The plastic flag fluttered in the breeze from the shaft.

  Chapter Eight — Cave

  THEY FELL INTO PAIRS as they walked. Justin and Miguel took the lead, arguing over the map. Kristin and Joy followed behind. In the back, Travis and Carlos pulled up the rear.

  “How’s the bakery?” Travis asked.

  “It’s fine,” Carlos said. He ran his fingers along the wall. “I don’t want to get stuck there too long though, you know? It’s a placeholder job.”

  Travis nodded. “It’s easier to find a job when you have a job, trust me.”

  “What do you keep looking at?” Carlos asked.

  “Huh?”

  Travis hadn’t even realized he was doing it. He kept turning around to look where they’d been. He leaned in close to Carlos to answer in a whisper. “I think Ryan is following us. He took my bag. I bet he’s going to try to scare us.”

  “If I know anything about Ryan, he’s probably asleep in the back seat of the Jeep by now. That guy is such a lightweight. He does the same thing every weekend. He gets high and then passes out. I bet you just left your bag and then forgot it. You remember that time you gave away your harmonica and then you accused everyone of stealing it?”

  “Yes,” Travis said. His light shone down at his shuffling feet as he hung his head.

  “You were mad for a week.”

  “I remember.”

  “When that girl came back into town and thanked you again, you should have seen the look on your face.”

  “I remember,” Travis said.

  Carlos laughed at him.

  “You’re probably right,” Travis said. He turned around and walked backwards while he considered the passageway behind them one more time.

  He plowed right into Joy’s back.

  Everyone was silent.

  “What?” Travis asked.

  “Shhh!” Justin said.

  Miguel pointed towards the darkness where their lights failed to penetrate.

  For a whole minute, nobody spoke. Travis stole several glances over his shoulder—now it was simply habit.

  Justin threw up his hands. “It was right there. I guess it was a shadow.”

  “Hold on,” Miguel said. “Everyone stay quiet.” Miguel crouched down and inched forward. He held his hand out in front of him with his fingers curled down. “Come here!” he called. “Come on. It’s okay.” He continued to creep forward, keeping his body low.

  Kristin cocked her head. “What was that sound?”

  “Come on, pup. Don’t be afraid.”

  Travis leaned forward and whispered to Justin. “Is there a dog down here?”

  Justin didn’t take his eyes off Miguel, but he whispered back. “I thought I saw one. It was probably just a shadow. Miguel might have seen it too.”

  Miguel stopped, turned his head to listen for a second, and then stood up. “Nothing.” He turned back to join the group.

  They formed a rough circle, facing each other. Their headlamps joined to create a safe-haven of light between them.

  “Shouldn’t we be to your special place by now?” Joy asked. “Are you sure you’re reading that map right?”

  “He’s reading it right,” Justin answered, “but I’m not sure we didn’t miss something. The side-tunnel may be hard to spot.”

  “What side is it supposed to be on?” Joy asked.

  “Izquierda,” Miguel said.

  “Left,” Travis said.

  “Thanks,” Joy said.

  “Is that it?” Kristin asked. She was pointing towards the darkness.

  Justin followed the line of her finger and then began to walk into the darkness. Compared to the combined light of all their lamps, it looked like Justin was walking into a black abyss.

  “I think she’s right,” Justin called.

  Miguel began to follow.

  “Wait!” Joy said. Miguel stopped and Justin turned back.

  “What?”

  “Where’s your bag, Miguel? You were carrying ropes and tools. Where did you put your bag?”

  He reached around to his own back, spinning as he felt for the missing pack.

  Travis laughed a little at the sight. Miguel reminded him of a dog trying to chase its tail.

  “Shut up,” Miguel said. “Where is it? I had it a minute ago.”

  “You definitely had it when we all stood up. I counted. The only one missing was Travis’s.”

  “Come on,” Carlos said. “This is impossible. How do two bags disappear? What did you do with it?”

  “Nothing!” Miguel said. “I swear. I’ve been walking ahead of you guys the whole time. Did you see me put it anywhere? Besides, I put my candy in that bag. The last thing I would do is lose it on purpose.”

  “Don’t encourage him,” Justin said. “He gets off on playing tricks. Let’s keep going. When he doesn’t get a response from us, he’ll give up the game.”

  “It’s not a game,” Miguel said. He made a point of searching around the tunnel for his bag, but it would have been completely obvious if it had been anywhere near. The tunnel lacked any real hiding places.

  Travis glanced back down the tunnel. If one of the lost bags hadn’t been his own, he would have probably assumed it was one of Miguel’s weird jokes. If Ryan was behind all this, he was operating at a completely new level. Ryan was generally too clumsy to be very devious.

  Joy had moved forward to join Justin.

  “I’ve never seen this before,” she said. “Incredible.”

  Based on Joy’s surprise, Kristin and Carlos moved forward as well. Justin put his hand on Miguel’s back. “Come on. We’ll find your bag later.” He led Miguel forward.

  It was a cool optical illusion to watch Carlos disappear. One second, he was moving towards a crack in the wall. The next second, he had vanished. Shifting to the side, Travis understood. Part of the mine wall jutted out as the other part fell away. Seen from most angles, the walls overlapped and appeared to be continuous. But once his light hit it correctly, Travis saw the gap. Turning his body to the side, Travis was easily able to slip into the fissure.

  -o-o-o-o-o-

  The nature of the rock changed immediately. Instead of gray, chalky walls, the rock here was damp and red. The passage narrowed quickly. As Travis moved through it, he could feel the dampness of the rock. He put his hand down as he slipped around a bend and his fingers came away with red clay. The crack curved. Travis saw Miguel hunch over to match his body to the shape of the fissure. Travis did the same.

  He glanced back towards the mine. The way their passageway narrowed, it almost looked like the rocks were squeezing together to crush them. Travis hurried to keep up with the others.

  Miguel caught his arm.

  “Watch yourself,” Miguel said. He pointed down.

  The crack in the rocks continued down. They were now traversing a ledge along the narrow passage. Below, the fissure continued. A misstep would mean falling into a tight squeeze. The danger only lasted a few yards. Travis saw where it opened back up and a hand reached out to pull him around the corner. They stood on a platform of red rock. The cavern opened up around them.

  Travis turned his head, moving his light around quickly to take in the space.

  “This room is bigger than my whole apartment,” he said. He looked up to the ceiling where some of the sharp edges looked wet.

  “It’s cleaner, too,” Justin said. That brought a laugh from the group. The walls played tricks with the sound of their laughter. The noise reverberated intensely for a second but dissipated rapidly. Travis thought it sounded like the cave was mocking them.

  “So you’ve never been here before?” Kristin asked Joy.

  “No,” Joy said. She ran her hand along the jagged wall. “No, if my Dad had known about this cave, he would have been here every weekend. He wasn’t that much into mines, but he loved
caves. This would have been right up his alley.”

  Justin moved around the others so he could hover over Miguel’s shoulder.

  Miguel studied his map.

  “We need to go…” Miguel spun and traced his finger on the paper. “That way. You should find another passage behind where that rock juts out.”

  Carlos moved in the direction that Miguel was pointing.

  Justin started to follow. Travis didn’t want to be at the back of the group anymore. He rushed to get around Kristin and Joy. He didn’t make it far before his lamp began to spit and sputter. His headlamp dimmed before it went out.

  “Hang on,” Joy said. “You need more water. We’ll probably all need water soon.”

  She reached up to take Travis’s helmet, but he pulled back. Since his bag was gone, his helmet was his last possession. He already knew that without it he would feel naked and vulnerable. Still, he needed light. Travis took it off and handed it to her.

  Joy dug in her bag and pulled out a bottle of water. She poured carefully, using his upside-down helmet to catch any spillage. When she had lit the flame again, she handed him back a recharged lamp. Travis felt better with it back on his head.

  “Everybody want to hand me their lamps?” Joy asked.

  From around the corner, they heard Carlos.

  “¡Diablo!” he said.

  Travis rushed to catch up. He came around the rock to find Carlos crouching and Justin standing. Between them was a canvas bag.

  “My bag!” Travis said.

  Carlos teased up the flap with the end of his flashlight. He flipped it open.

  “It’s a bag, but not your bag,” Carlos said.

  Travis drew closer and looked as Carlos picked through the contents. He found matches, a lighter, some stubby candles, a flashlight, and a couple of paperback books. The covers of the books showed smoking guns, long legs, and fedoras. The bag was spotted with mildew.

  “Someone else has trouble hanging onto gear,” Justin said. Carlos stood up and Justin nudged the bag with his foot.

  Joy appeared with her bottle of water. “Let me refill your lamps.”

  “We found this,” Carlos said, pointing.

  Miguel moved to the bag and began to paw through the contents.

  “What’s the date on those books?” Joy asked.

  Miguel flipped through and called out years. “Seventy-six. Seventy-seven. Another seventy-seven.” When he finished he looked at his fingers and wiped them on his shirt. “Everything in there is sticky.”

  “So we know it’s no older than seventy-seven,” Joy said. She shrugged. “I wish people wouldn’t leave garbage in the cave.”

  “Give me the lighter,” Travis said. “The matches, too. Can’t hurt.” He moved to the bag and picked out a couple of the longest candles as well. Travis stuffed things into his pockets as Joy filled the lamps of the rest of their group.

  “We can do one more filling and then we have to turn back,” she said. “We never use more than half of our budgeted water. The rest we save for an emergency.”

  “It’s okay,” Miguel said. “According to the map, we’re almost there.” He began to climb one of the rocks and headed towards an arched hole in the side wall.

  -o-o-o-o-o-

  “Where did he get that map?” Joy asked.

  Travis turned back. “I’m not sure. I think he said it was from his uncle or his grandfather.”

  “I thought his whole family came here from Venezuela when he was a kid,” Kristin said.

  “I don’t know. Maybe his uncle came earlier,” Travis said.

  Miguel and Justin were way off to the side. They were on a high ledge, a dozen yards to the right, working their way down the wall.

  “Hey! Miguel!” Travis called. The way his voice echoed made him cringe. He resolved to keep his voice down.

  Miguel didn’t answer, he just waved dismissively and went back to his whispers with Justin. They were solving a problem and didn’t want to be bothered.

  “I think the way is over here,” Carlos said. He had followed the rock around the next bend and come back with his arms folded. “I’ll show you.”

  “I think we should all stay within sight of each other,” Joy said. “The last thing we want to do is split up. It might not seem like a complicated cave, but you would be surprised at how different everything will look when we turn around and head back.”

  “This is the only way out,” Carlos said. “I don’t know what those guys think they are doing.”

  They all spun when Miguel whistled. The sharp noise ripped through the cave like an alarm. When he realized the source, Travis straightened back up.

  “What?” Travis yelled.

  “Come up here. We need help.”

  Carlos and Travis held out hands for Joy, but she pushed herself up to the ledge and moved right by them.

  “My father always used to say, ‘Take nothing but memories. Leave nothing but footprints.’ I’m certain that rule includes physically moving one of the rocks,” Joy said.

  “Listen,” Miguel said. “It’s not like we’d be the first. You can see these scrapes over here. This rock was moved to this spot on purpose. It’s on the map.”

  “Where did you get the map?” Joy asked.

  “My abuelito,” Miguel said.

  “So your grandfather moved this rock?” Travis asked.

  “No. He never came in here. He bargained it from a Duende.” Miguel saw that they were confused. “You know, a Duende. What do you guys call it?”

  “Call what?” Joy asked. She looked to Travis.

  “Don’t ask me. That’s some Venezuelan shit,” Travis said, shaking his head.

  Miguel gestured. “You know—it’s one of those little guys. It’s like an elf at Christmas, but it’s not. They don’t work for Santa.”

  Carlos shook his head. “You’ve never been more foreign than you are right now.”

  Miguel laughed. “I don’t know what to tell you. My abuelito—my grandfather—used to bargain sometimes with this little dwarf guy. The old people all thought he was mystical or something. He was probably just a dwarf. Anyway, that’s where he got the map and the ore. It was probably a bunch of dwarfs in here who moved the rock. If they can do it, then so can we.”

  They all looked to Joy.

  “There is precedent for moving rocks if it’s to access a new area. I suppose that since we’re not breaking anything, it might be okay.”

  Justin waved them over to the side of the rock. The thing was about waist-high on Travis. He crouched down to push on a lower part of the rock so others could push higher up.

  “Let’s get it rocking,” Justin said. “No pun intended.”

  They grunted as they pushed. When the rock started to move, they fell into a rhythm. Travis could see that the rock hadn’t just been shoved into position, the edges had been chinked with smaller rocks, and the resulting gaps had been filled with sand. Everything fell away as the rock really began to move.

  “One more,” Justin said, grunting. He was wrong, it took two more pushes.

  A crack opened in the improvised mortar. Travis heard air escape from the cave beyond. It seemed to exhale a giant sigh. For a second, it seemed like a yellow light was coming from behind the rock. Travis realized that it was just the glow of someone else’s headlamp reflecting off the damp rocks.

  When the rock finally went, it didn’t stop. The edge they rolled it on was round, and the ledge sloped away. The rock kept moving and picked up speed.

  They stood and watched it roll back to its flat side, but by then it was too late. The rock had already reached the edge of the ledge. It tumbled down to the path below, filling the cave with a terrible sound. The rock bounced and broke apart. The halves rolled opposite directions until they came to a stop.

  “So much for footprints,” Kristin said.

  “Sorry, Dad,” Joy said.

  They turned their lights back to the hole that they had uncovered.

  “What?” Mi
guel asked.

  Travis was closest, kneeling where the rock had recently sat. He reached out to the place on the wall that the rock had uncovered.

  “Don’t touch it!” Justin yelled.

  Travis looked back at him and rolled his eyes. “It’s just chalk or something.”

  The rock had revealed a nearly round hole that was easily big enough to crawl through. At least it would have been, but the hole had almost been sealed from the other side. In contrast to the red rock, the circular hole was filled in with white powder, packed until it was rigid. Only through the very center could Travis peer through to the other side. The porthole was maybe the size of a grapefruit.

  Before anyone else could object, Travis poked at the chalk accumulation, right near the center of the hole. It crumbled away easily from his finger.

  He jerked his hand and hauled his finger back close to his body. He whipped around to the group and screamed. “It burns! My fucking finger is burning off! It’s burning.”

  Joy fumbled for her bottle of water. She spun the cap off and rushed forward to pour it on Travis’s hand. When she dropped to her knees next to him, Travis showed his hand and broke into a smile.

  “Just kidding,” he said.

  “Jerk,” Joy said. She splashed water at his face.

  -o-o-o-o-o-

  Travis laughed and wiped water from his brow. He frowned.

  “Ow! Shit!” Travis ducked down and wiped furiously at his head with his hands. “Fuck, guys! What the fuck?”

  “Very funny,” Carlos said. “Quit screwing around.”

  “I’m serious,” Travis said. He rose back up and Joy emitted a surprised shout. There was white smoke coming from Travis’s forehead, just underneath the brow of his helmet.

  “Shit,” Joy said. She pulled a rag from her bag and lunged for Travis. He saw her coming and scrambled back.

  “Get away from me what that shit. Damn it!” Travis flopped backwards and pulled himself away from her. He was flailing on the ground, kicking blindly to try to escape.

  “Grab him before he falls,” Joy shouted. “Hold him!”