The pain wrapped around him from back to front. He felt like he was sinking down into lava. Something flowed into his ears. He heard the sound of a machine gun going off in each ear and then silence. His lungs began to burn with each inhale. He coughed and felt the heat penetrating deep into his chest.
Suddenly, the darkness exploded into a million stars. He was looking into the depths of space. The stars exploded and left him looking at an unbroken, unfocused field of red. His sense of smell went next. Ryan smelled lilacs and roses and then hot ammonia. After that, he smelled nothing.
His skin flared with one more white-hot sensation.
Ryan knew no more.
H
E
STARED
AT
THE
body for several minutes before he got the nerve to move closer. It was the arm that had moved. The cuff of Miguel’s shirt had moved to the side. Travis watched Miguel’s back as he advanced. He was watching for any sign of respiration—there was none.
“Miguel?” Travis asked. He didn’t like the way his voice echoed in the giant room. It was a lonely sound.
He scooted forward until his foot was within reach of Miguel’s hand. With the tip of his shoe, he nudged the shirt cuff up.
Travis shook his head, rejecting what he saw.
He moved a little closer to verify.
The tips of Miguel’s fingers were missing. They had disappeared into the rock. Travis gathered his nerve and used his shoe to nudge Miguel’s hand. The fingers were stuck there.
Travis stood up. He circled Miguel’s body. The blood stains on the rock were beginning to disappear. The toe of Miguel’s shoe was embedded in the rock as well.
Travis shuddered. He backed away and then realized that he was moving downhill, towards the white floor of the giant room. He turned and began walking away quickly. This time he didn’t look back.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Travis was almost around to the other side of the outlet when he saw a way out. The smooth bowl of the cave was broken by a crack that was a few inches wide. Its jagged path offered just enough of a handhold for Travis to climb up to one of the holes.
He walked as high as he could and then jammed his fingers into the crack. His feet pedaled at the smooth rock until he found enough friction to push himself upwards to the next grip. When he finally got his foot up high enough to reach the crack, the going was easier.
Travis finally pulled himself up over the lip of the hole and exhaled as he flopped down on his back. He looked back over the massive cave with its white floor. Somewhere, across the expanse, Miguel’s body was being absorbed into the floor. Travis shook away the thought and turned his attention to the new tunnel he had reached. He prayed that it didn’t peter out.
He followed the tube, always watching hopefully down to the next bend. One of these would exit to the mine, or even better, out to the night sky. He was sure of it.
The tube stretched out into a straight section. His light couldn’t find the end of it.
He ducked into a crouch reflexively when the blast of air hit him from behind. It was warm and smelled like rotten eggs. The breeze was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Travis stood back up slowly and continued down the passage.
He slowed again when he saw a black spot on the wall. As he got closer, he saw another, and then a third.
They were portraits. The one on the far right was signed.
“Robert Clyde, 1896,” Travis read aloud. In the portrait, the boy’s eyes were beautiful, but sad. Travis moved away from the wall as he continued walking. He didn’t like the way the faces watched him as he moved by. He kept expecting their open mouths to call to him, or their eyes to blink. A crack opened at his feet along the other side of the passage. Travis struck a balance, walking between the crack and the portraits. He was driven forward by the thought of that putrid air from behind. He felt like he was being driven, like a steer into a killing chute.
The portraits finally ran out. He hadn’t bothered to count, but glancing back he saw that they stretched as far as his light.
Travis continued on and stopped at a mark on the floor. Someone had disturbed the cave dust—it was unmistakable. Shining his light down into the crack, he saw that there was enough room to easily fit down into that space and there was a ledge down there. Even more interesting, there was half of a footprint on the ledge.
He glanced around, trying to decide what to do.
If there was someone else in the cave, he wanted to know who it was. Travis lowered himself over the edge and dropped down to the ledge. Once he ducked through he shone his light through to another big cave. To some extent, all these caves looked alike. Still, there was something familiar about this cavern. Travis looked back to make sure he could remember where he had been. He climbed down the rocks.
Something white and rectangular caught his light in the distance. Travis picked up speed.
He dropped down to the sandy bottom of this big cave and saw more footprints. He spotted the second white rectangle and then the third. They were paperback books, and they were spread out up the stone wall on various ledges.
He stooped and picked one up.
It was one of the paperback books that Carlos had found in the moldy bag.
Travis looked up and down the cave and began to realize where he was. He had traveled all that distance and lost a friend just to come back to the same shitty cave that they’d started in. It was too much. He felt like his head was going to explode with frustration. Travis put his hands on either side of his helmet and turned his face up towards the ceiling.
“FUCK THIS CAVE!”
J
USTIN
COUNTED
OFF
THE
seconds.
“Twenty-one, one-thousand, twenty-two, one-thousand.”
He slipped the end of the match between the gap.
“It’s not the same,” he said. He sighed and leaned back. The spread of the walls was measurable, but it wasn’t consistent. He had no way of predicting how long he would have to wait before the crevice was passable again. To be fair, he didn’t know if the whole crevice moved at the same rate.
There was nothing to do but wait.
Justin turned down his lamp until the flame sputtered. He lowered his head.
“…ck this cave,” echoed from the rocks.
Justin sat up. His eyes were wide open.
“Hello?” he called. “HELLO?”
He waited a few seconds.
“Justin?” Travis called.
Justin jumped to his feet. He pulled the straps of his bag tight and glanced at his scattered matches before he rushed back down the crevice. It wasn’t until he was nearing the edge that his paranoia kicked in. What if this was yet another way that the cave was screwing with him?
“Travis?”
“Yeah! I’m right here,” Travis called from somewhere beyond the gap.
Justin saw his light but couldn’t see his face.
“Be careful,” Justin said. “There’s a big hole there.”
“Yeah, okay. Jesus, I’m glad you’re here. I thought you might be dead. Wait…”
Justin shifted his eyes and tilted his head as he waited. “Wait for what?”
“How do I know it’s really you?” Travis asked.
Justin smiled. “Because you let Hilary Cramer’s brother touch your balls for a…”
“Okay,” Travis said. Justin heard the laugh in his voice. “That’s fine. No need to dredge up the past. How did you get over there?”
“I braced myself between the walls. I stretched out like Superman, you know? I wouldn’t recommend it now though. The gap is getting bigger every minute.”
“Seriously?” Travis asked.
“Wait—how did you get back there? We were in opposite positions the last time we talked.”
“It was a long hairy trip around,” Travis said. “Listen—Miguel didn’t make it. He breathed in poison or something.”
Justin didn’t know what to say. He wanted to object. Travis had to be wrong. People their age didn’t just die. But there was something in Travis’s voice that made him bite his tongue.
“Hey, how are we going to get you back from there?” Travis asked.
“No,” Justin said. “We need to get you to this side. This is the way out.”
“I’ve been that way,” Travis said. “The crack that leads back to the mines is closed. You just go up and around and wind up back here. Besides, there’s dangerous shit over there.”
Justin nodded even though Travis couldn’t see him.
“The crack is opening again. I see what you’re saying—it’s definitely closed now—but I’ve been measuring it. It’s reopening as we speak. I don’t know how long it will take, but if we wait for it, we can get back to the mine. I’ve got to ask you something. Don’t think I’m crazy, okay?”
Travis took a second before he answered. “Sure.”
“When Miguel went, did it seem like the cave was eating him.”
There was no answer from Travis. Justin realized that he should have waited until they were face to face before he asked such a weird question, but his theories were consuming him.
Travis’s voice finally came. “Yeah. It did.”
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Are you sure about this?” Justin called. He had his end of the rope looped around a sturdy rock. After that, the rope was looped around his own waist. He was leaning back to put tension on it.
“It’s solid on this end. Just keep your end tight.”
“We can wait until the gap closes,” Justin said.
“How long is that going to take?” Travis asked. “Besides, as far as we know, this gap will only close when your crevice closes again.”
Justin shrugged. It was a good point. He leaned back a little more and the rope creaked. He had no idea how long the rope had been in the cave. Justin didn’t even know what Travis had connected the rope to on the other end. But Travis was desperate to make it across the gap. Truth be told, Justin was pretty desperate to see another living face again.
“I’m ready,” Justin called.
Justin was pulled forward as Travis put his weight on the rope. He raised his foot and braced it against the rock he was using as his anchor. The rope creaked even more, but it stayed taut. Justin glanced over his shoulder to see where the rope was pulled over the rocks. The whole thing would have been much easier if not for the curve in the tunnel over the gap. Instead of a straight shot, Travis was forced to climb around a corner. Justin had no idea how his friend was going to pull it off.
The rope bounced and tugged as Travis moved. It dug into Justin’s skin as he resisted the pull.
He heard Travis grunting his way around the corner. When he looked to see Travis’s progress, he barked out a laugh and almost lost his grip.
“You said I was crazy when I wanted to stop and get my jeans,” Travis said between panting breaths.
He had taken off his pants and tied the legs together. Travis was using the loop of denim as a sling to keep himself tethered to the rope.
“No,” Justin said, laughing, “I said you were a pain in the ass. I never said you were crazy. The rest of us had the decency to bring underground clothes with us.”
“Forgive me for not keeping a change of clothes at Ryan’s house,” Travis said.
Justin secured the rope with one hand and put his other hand out for Travis. When he was close enough, Travis reached over and pulled himself up to the ledge. The slack came off and Justin let go. He inspected the rope burns around his midsection.
Travis was taking off his shoes so he could put his jeans back on.
“Everyone else gets Ryan’s mom to do their laundry. I don’t know why you don’t do that,” Justin said.
Travis stood up and fed the end of the rope back around the rock.
“She won’t do mine anymore,” Travis said. “You remember the incident?”
Justin shook his head.
“The summer after graduation? We got blitzed on rum behind the Downtown Market?”
Justin nodded. “Right. Yes! Didn’t you have a little accident that night?”
Travis made a flourish with his hand.
“You tried to get Ryan’s mom to wash your shit-pants?”
“They were my only pants,” Travis said.
Justin doubled-over laughing.
Travis flicked the end of the rope, sending a wave around the corner of the rock. While Justin got control of himself, Travis flicked the rope a few more times.
Justin wiped his eye and straightened back up. Still catching his breath from the laughter, he asked, “What are you doing?”
Travis gave one more flick and the rope went slack. He reeled it in, looping it around his arm. Justin’s mouth fell open as he watched. The end of the rope was fashioned into a noose.
Justin stammered with disbelief. “You didn’t have the end tied to anything?”
“It was over one of those sticking-up things. One of those rocks.”
“A stalagmite? Are you serious?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Those aren’t sturdy. You dumbass,” Justin said.
“It worked,” Travis said.
Justin shook his head. “Come on. I’ll show you the matches.”
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Okay. Cool?” Travis said. He nudged his foot towards Justin’s line of matches on the rock.
“Don’t touch!” Justin said. He put his hand on Justin’s arm.
“I don’t get it.”
“I put these down some time ago. I don’t know exactly how long it has been. When I started, I could only fit three matches across there. Now it’s up to six and a half. The gap is getting wider. You see where that footprint disappears behind that rock? When I came here, that footprint wasn’t even visible. In fact, I think you and Miguel got stopped at least ten feet back.”
“No,” Travis said. “We backtracked to there because we couldn’t go any farther here. We had to back up to a spot where we could reach both sides and there was somewhere to go.”