In The Shadows of the Cavern of Death (Shadows of Death Book 1) (8 page)

BOOK: In The Shadows of the Cavern of Death (Shadows of Death Book 1)
12.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“I’ll be fine. Nothing’s broken,” I replied, looking around to see what he saw. He wouldn’t have taken me to this spot if there wasn’t something. It took a few moments to see what he saw or more precisely feel what he felt––a breeze. Moving forward, I held out my hand, looking for the source, and there––that was it! It was coming from a crack in the wall, not big enough to enter, with the stones that filled it. They weren’t large like the ones that covered the entrance, but small enough to move if we were careful.

“I going to go down and get the packs, I want you to slowly start shifting this section here,” Tristian said, before turning and leaving without another word.

Focusing on the job he had given me, I didn’t hear him return and was startled when he got down next to me and started to work. We worked like this for days in silence, barely a word passing our lips, before we would fall exhaustedly asleep just to start again the next time we woke. It’s hard to tell how much time had passed before it was cleared––enough for us to move through time having no meaning in this place. The day after we cleared it enough that we could have moved through, he wouldn’t let us go, insisting that we rest first and collect our strength before going in because he didn’t know what we would find.

As much as I wanted to rush in, I knew he was right. We ate much more than we had previously, wanting our strength before crawling into each other’s arms to share our body heat, the cold of the cave more bearable this way. When we woke, our bodies were stiff from the cold and the hardness of the ground, and taking a few moments for ourselves, we moved in different directions for privacy.

During our quick breakfast, Tristian broke the silence. “We’ll tie the rope to us, hooking us together. This way if there is a problem the other will be able to help.”

“Agreed,” I whispered, walking over to the edge and pulling the rope up. When I turned back, I saw that Tristian had already put our supplies away. Tying one end of the rope around me, he then tied the other end around his waist. Taking my pack from his hand––we had already emptied the girls’ packs into ours to make it easier to carry––we moved into our hole, pushing our bags in front of us to make it easier to move through the small opening.

It was the right move. The farther we moved in, the tighter it became, making it hard to move, but it would have been impossible if the bags had been on our backs. Slowly and steadily we made our way forward, stopping every so often to widen the narrow space, the small movements causing our muscles to cramp. We were forced to sleep the first night in our little tunnel that seemed to have no end. Hour after hour we moved forward, turns and twists, up and down we went, until we final reached what I feared didn’t exist: an exit. An exit that would have been Tristian’s death if we hadn’t been attached by the rope. One minute we were going forward, the next I was being dragged forward as Tristian free-fell into the darkness. If the tunnel had been any wider, we would have both fallen to our deaths. The narrowness saved us as I was able to wedge myself in, stopping our forward motion.

Gasping from the pain of the rope around my waist, I said, “Tristian are you OK?”

When he whispered “yes” I almost cried in relief. “There’s a drop here, watch your step,” he said drily, causing me to giggle. “Hold on, I’m going to see how deep it is,” he ordered, making me wonder if he was losing it. Hold on? What else did he expect me to do? After a few moments of waiting, he said, “It’s not too deep, are you secure enough that I can swing to the wall?”

Bracing my back and knees more firmly into the walls, I said, “I’m ready, go for it.”

It took three swings for him to get a good grip. Each swing tore into my hands and body as I held him into the air.

“Misty, you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I hoarsely answered, unable to keep the pain from my voice.

“I have a good hold, I want you to move slowly forward, keeping a tight hold on your pack. Mine fell to the ground, so it will be no help to us. We’re going to need the climbing equipment in yours, so whatever you do, don’t drop it. I’m on a small ledge, so if you fall I’ll be able to hold us, but do me a favor and try not to test the theory.”

Sarcastic bastard. Rolling my eyes, I unwedged myself and inched forward, keeping a death grip on my bag. Reaching the edge, I put my light in my mouth and looked over. It was a sheer drop from here, no wonder he had gone flying––there was nothing to latch on to. Our exit jutted out and where I needed to be was about five feet under me. Wiggling my way back in, I got out a spike, hammer, and rope. Tying the rope to a clip and hooking it to the spike, I turned onto my back and went back to the edge, leaning out and hammering it into the solid rock before moving back and repacking my bag. Taking a deep breath, I went back onto my back and made my way out until I was in a sitting position with my legs in our tunnel and my upper body held by my grip on the rope that was hooked to the hoop on my harness.

Swinging my bag around, I put it on my back to free up my hands, then, taking a deep breath, I pulled myself out until I was dangling in the nothingness before repelling myself down to Tristian. Having more than enough climbing gear for both of us, since I had one of the girls’, we easily made our way down to the cave’s floor. The cave had a damp smell to it and also another that I couldn’t place, an ammonia-type smell. Though weak, it was still powerful and grew more so the deeper we went in. Covering our noses and mouths with pieces of cloth to dampen the smell, we moved forward, the cave floor turning mushy. A strange sound echoed above us, and turning our light up, beady eyes stared back. I don’t know if it was the light or our presence that disturbed them, but suddenly the little monsters took flight, swooping around us. Grabbing my arm, Tristian dragged me to a shelf of jutted rocks that we were able to hide under. In awe, we watched the black mass swoop and turn, having never seen anything the likes of it before except in school. Yes, that’s where I knew these creatures from––they were supposed to be extinct, along with all other creatures. They were called bats, it was a night creature that hunted in the dark and once lived in caves. Amazed, I watched as they just disappeared down a small tunnel straight across from us.

“Come on, let’s go before they come back,” Tristian said, trying to pull me back the way we came.

Digging my heels in, I shook my head and pointed at the way the bats went. “No, we have to go that way, it’s the way out!” I excitedly said.

“Are you crazy, if those things come back through, we’ll have no place to hide and besides, we don’t know where that leads to.”

Ripping my arm from his grip, I ran for the tunnel. “No, I remember this from school. These animals are night creatures and hunt outdoor––they’d have an exit and that’s it!” Climbing into the tunnel, I looked behind me at the stubborn man. “I’ve trusted you. Now it’s your turn to trust me,” I declared before moving in, sure that he would follow.

“You couldn’t find an exit that smelled better?” he complained from behind me.

Smiling, I rushed forward, not wanting to be caught in here if the bats returned any more than he did. For all of my jumping in and saying that it was an exit, I was only guessing and I hoped I was right because those things freaked me out and I didn’t want to be trapped in this small space with them. After about fifteen minutes, I started to worry until I smelled something. Excited, I moved quicker, ignoring Tristian’s warnings to slow down. A pale light in the darkness loomed ahead of me. Reaching it, I put my hand down and came up with nothing. Off balance, my body fell forward, my chest hitting the ground as I stared at the abyss that I almost pitched myself into. Scrambling back until my hand were safely on a firm surface, my heart beating in fear, I almost broke down and cried thinking that again we had only found a dead end, until I looked up and saw something that I had never expected to see in my life, the sky. It was far up in the distance, but it was there. “Tristian,” I dazedly said, trying to form words.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered urgently, scared by my voice. I could feel him gripping my leg, shaking it, trying to get me to speak but for a long moment. I couldn’t, unable to put my thoughts to words. “Damn you, answer me now!” Tristian demanded, yelling, uncaring of who heard him, too afraid of my silence to let it continue.

“I see it, Tristian. I see the sky,” I whispered in awe.

For a long time we sat in silence as he digested what I said. Most likely he was as overwhelmed as I was. “How do we reach it, Misty?” he finally asked, breaking me from my daze.

Yes, I wanted to reach it, feel it upon my skin. “There’s a narrow ravine here that we can fit into. We had better use the spikes to get out of this tunnel, because it looks like a long drop if we misstep, but after that we’ll be able to easily climb up.” Wiggling my fingers toward him, I said, “I’ll need your spikes and hammer. I never took my bag off my back, so I can’t reach mine.”

After a few seconds, I felt the tools graze my fingers, and I greedily grasped them and pulled them forward. With shaking hands, I reached out, leaning into the abyss while Tristian held my feet, wanting to get some hooks down low as well as high so that we had hand and foot holds. It seemed to take forever to get everything done before I could tell Tristian to pull me back. Sliding the hammer back to him, I waited impatiently for him to get his supplies back into the bag.

When he finally said that he was ready, I was about to jump out of my skin with my excitement. With slow, even movements, I went forward, grasping the spike in front of me as I twisted and turned my way out. Finally free, I could reach both sides of the wall easily, which would make this an easy climb. The first that we have had since we began our journey. Moving to get out of Tristian’s way, I waited until he was all the way out and securely situated before I started my journey up. The smells that began to assault my senses were overwhelming. I had never smelled anything like them before, and had nothing to compare them to. The pale light of the moon grew brighter the closer we got, acting like shards of glass through my eyes after being so long in the darkness. As I reached up and felt the lip of the small ravine, my hand landed on something soft and wet, causing me to jerk back. Not about to be a coward when I was so close, I forced myself to put my hand back and pull myself the rest of the way to freedom.

 

Dragging myself out of the hole across from the sweet-smelling green stuff that surrounded me, I stared at in wonder until I came to my senses and scrambled out of Tristian’s way. I can honestly say that I will remember my first look at the surface of our world to the day I die. Looking around, it was a vast open space unlike anything I had ever seen in my life and it was as terrifying as it was exhilarating. Where we came out was slightly high in the air, high enough that I could see the tops of trees. Even in the dark I could see that they were green in color, the moon shining as bright as day would have been in the cavern. Bright stars glowed in the sky above and large mountains in the distance. Bringing my face to look at the ground, I started to shake, the openness of this world making me nervous. A pretty pink thing caught my eye and with shaking hands, I reached forward to touch the softest thing I had ever felt before, the petal of a flower. Leaning forward, I brought my nose to it and smelled the most amazing thing. Though I knew the names of most of these things, their smells, their feel, and even most of their uses were never explained to us, but two of those things could never have been explained. Now that I’d seen them in life, only experience allowed me to understand.

Like a child, I was giddy in my excitement. I pulled my shoes and socks from my feet, wanting to feel the grass bare against them. It tickled at first, but I set them firmly down, kneading my toes into the grass. It was amazing. With a huge smile, I turned to Tristian. Who was in the same state as I was, overwhelmed with everything he was seeing.

Standing up, I walked cautiously, the light breeze tickling me with warm air. A splashing sound caught my attention and wanting to go explore, I ran over to Tristian, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet. Tugging him behind me, we cautiously went toward the sound that was not far from us. It was a large body of water and it flowed through the land. Moving closer, I noticed that is was surrounded by animals, the most amazing things I had ever seen. They showed no fear of us, just raised their heads to stare as if they were as curious of us as we were of them.

Not wanting to frighten them, I slowly lowered myself to the ground. Smiling, I lifted my face to gaze up at Tristian. “Well, Tristian, I guess your father was right,” I whispered.

Lowering down next to me, he curiously asked, “My father was often right about many things, but which are you referring to?”

“I asked him if he thought the world above still existed and do you what he told me?”

Tristian shook his head.

“That he believed the land would heal itself and life would find a way to rebuild from the destruction we had caused.” Looking out at the beauty in front of us, I continued, “and one day our people would walk upon it once more.”

“And we have to find a way to free our people, so that they can join us,” he finished for me. Moving closer to him, I laid my head against his chest as he leaned against the tree behind him, wrapping his arms around me. Together we sat like that until sleep took us, enjoying the magic and peace of our new world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOOK: In The Shadows of the Cavern of Death (Shadows of Death Book 1)
12.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Sari Robins by When Seducing a Spy
The Apartment by Danielle Steel
The Alcoholics by Jim Thompson
Trick (Master's Boys) by Patricia Logan
Summerfall by Claire Legrand