Cave Dwellers (2 page)

   Then the cave suddenly opened into a cavern, with dimensions that looked to be about ten feet by twenty. The cavern appeared to bear around to the left but it also had a fork to the right. Water trickled from the fork on the right into the cavern and ran across the floor to the main area.

   A small ledge jutted out two feet from the floor. Zaac was about to sit on it when his hand felt something sticky and slimy. Jerking his hand away, he turned his palm over and smelled a strong pungent odor.

   “Yuck,” he said involuntarily. Rubbing his hand on the side of the cave only got more of the goo on him. It was Zaac’s first encounter with guano, the droppings of cave dwelling bats.

   A shrieking wail started up overhead and rapidly increased in intensity. It seemed to be coming from all points of the cave. The ceiling was covered with bats.

   Just as he was thinking, ‘oh no’, he heard a distinct “help!” coming from the right fork of the cave.

   “Can anyone hear me? . . . Please help me.”

   Abruptly the bats swooped down and filled the cavern. Zaac ducked, getting on his hands and knees and instinctively covering his head.

   A high pitched female scream vibrated into the cave.

2

   Ramira woke up and stretched her toes out under the covers, thinking about what her day held in store. She climbed out of bed at 7:20 and did what she did first thing every morning: turned on her laptop. While it booted up, she took a shower and brushed her hair. Back at her PC, she changed her status to “Off to my special spot.
Looking forward to our girls’ night.” Then on her main page, she noticed a post from Karlie, one of her best friends.

   “Very funny,” it said. The two girls had gone shopping the night before, and Ramira had posted pictures on Facebook of Karlie in various outfits she had tried on.

   “It was meant to be. LOL,” she responded and logged off. Putting on jeans and a sweater she headed downstairs.

   The tantalizing aroma of bacon filled the air. She found Laura, her mother, in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

   “You hungry?” Laura asked as she flipped a couple of eggs with a spatula.

   “Yes. It smells delicious.” Ramira took some juice out of the fridge.

   Frank, her father, was at the table reading the morning paper and having a cup of coffee. “Good morning Ray,” he said.

  
“Morning Dad. How was the movie last night?”

   “It was qreat.
Definitely worth seeing. What’s up with you today?”

   “I’m going up to my spot by the lake to get away and start preparing for exams. I’ll be back for dinner and the girls. They should be here around five.”

   “Girls?” Frank looked bewildered.

   “You didn’t forget did you?” asked Ray, knowing he had. “We talked about it and planned it last week. Jessica and Sarah are coming over for dinner, a movie and to spend the night.”

   “Of course I didn’t forget,” he said with a grin on his face that didn’t reassure her one bit. “I definitely remembered the girls’ night.” He looked down at his paper, attempting innocence.

   “Breakfast is ready,” Laura called, getting Frank off the hook. “Will you get the boys Ray?”

   Ray went to the family room where she could hear her brothers, as always busily playing on their Wii Nintendo system. This morning it was the Mario Sports Mix.

   “Time for breakfast,” Ray said. She might as well have been talking to the wall.

   “Just a few more minutes,” James responded.

   “Breakfast is ready now and mom said for me to get you two brats in there,” Ramira stated with authority in her voice.

   “Okay, okay,” Nathaniel said and they turned off the game.

   The three of them went back into the dining room where the breakfast was on the table. They were all digging in when Ramira saw her mother give her father a wink.
Probably reassuring him about the girls’ night.

   Afterward, Ray went up to her bedroom to get ready to leave. Her hair was still a little damp so she finished drying it and put on some make-up, ending with her lip gloss. She got her trig, Spanish and sociology books and put them in her backpack along with her jacket. Grabbing her cellphone she headed back downstairs to the kitchen.

   Ramira fixed a ham sandwich for lunch, threw in some Goldfish cheddar crackers for a snack, added a couple of Snickers, a couple of bottles of water and a diet Mountain Dew. Placing it all in her backpack, she headed toward the door.

   “I’m off,” she said.

   “Be careful and have fun. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day,” Laura said. Ramira felt a little guilty at the sight of her mother loading the dishwasher, but she had to study. Exams were coming up.

   “Don’t get eaten by a bear,” her dad joked. “Call if you have any problems.”

   “Okay I will. See ya around 4:30.”

   Ramira’s mom had a Hyundai Sante Fe. Laura was given a key for it on her eighteen
birthday. She was allowed to use the vehicle when her mother didn’t need it. Ramira often took the SUV to go grocery shopping or do other errands for her mother, some of which involved taking her younger brothers places. 

   She started the SUV and backed out of the driveway. The neighbour on one side was out in the yard working on her flowers. She threw her hand in the air, still holding a trowel, to wave. Ray waved back as she started down the road.

   It took only a few minutes to reach the dirt road that would take her to the northeast side of the lake. Since the road was bumpy, Ray slowed down to avoid rattling the vehicle too much. After about a mile, she pulled off on the left side overlooking the lake.

   Ray paused to admire the stunning view over the trees and the water. It never ceased to amaze her, the tranquility and majesty of this spot. She got out of the SUV, grabbed her backpack and headed down the short path to the lake. Her favourite place to sit and be alone was here looking out over the lake with the mountains in the background.

   There was a trail on the other side of the lake that ran through the mountains and up to another road. People that rode mountain bikes often parked up on the road and traveled this trail getting their exercise and enjoying great scenery in the meantime.        

   Ramira glanced across the lake where the trail transversed the opposite side. There appeared to be a bike over there with someone resting at the base of a tree. She couldn’t make out any details—the
distance was too far. It looked as though the person was standing up—or so it seemed.

   She turned to face a flat rock with another large boulder at one end of it. She liked to sit with her back against the boulder or to stretch out on the rock. As she started towards it, though, the ground began to shake.

   “What in the world?” she asked, seemingly only to nature.

   She glanced at the lake and saw the water start to vibrate. Suddenly the level seemed to drop. A crack appeared on the other side, advancing rapidly, and the person she had seen on the opposite shore vanished.

   “Nooooo!” she shouted helplessly.

   Before the sound was even out of her mouth, a crack opened under Ramira’s feet and she dropped. She saw a root and grabbed at it, but the vibrations and her weight were too much. She couldn’t hold on. Down she went with loose dirt falling all around her.

   Ramira could not believe what was happening. She reached out, trying to grab anything that would stop or slow her momentum, but there was nothing. The crack tipped her down an angle and she started to slide instead of fall. She felt first a spray and then a wall of water that engulfed her.

   The crack funnelled into a tunnel and Ramira was swept into it along with the water. She was plunged into complete darkness and bounced from side to side. At one point she did a complete loop as though she were in a roller coaster. Ramira feared she might collide at any moment with a massive wall. She had gone to many family amusement parks. Several of these had water rides. She had been on one called the Awesome Aussie Twister at Carowinds that had black hole features, where a person was plunged into complete darkness. This tunnel was nothing like that. This was serious.

   Ramira’s life flashed before her and her slide seemed to take an eternity. Finally she slammed into a hard surface. The darkness was as black as ink. She could see nothing. Holding up her hand was useless. She couldn’t see that either.

   Water continued to flow around and past her. Reaching out she felt only a hard, rough surface. She didn’t know where she
was, only that she was far underground.

   She ached all over. Tenderly she started feeling her arms and legs, afraid of the worst. Nothing seemed to be broken. Something hard was lodged in her back though. Reaching over her head, she felt her backpack.

   Ahhh, Ramira thought, that must be her books pressing into her back. She sat up and removed her backpack.

   Thinking she might use her cellphone for a light, she reached into her pocket for it.
Nothing. It must have fallen out in all of the tumbling.  

   Ramira knew she was in trouble and needed help. Trying to stand she bumped her head against something hard. “Ouch,” she said reflexively and sat back down.

   “Help,” she hollered desperately. “Can anyone hear me?”

   The only response was silence.

   “Someone, anyone, please, I’m in here,” Ramira screamed. “Is anyone out there? I’m down here. Helpppp!”

   She started feeling around. She was against a cool, rock wall. She held out both arms to tell the width of the place and both extended fully. Reaching up and slowly trying to stand, her hands came to the roof of the cave. This was what she had bumped her head into.

   Sitting back down, Ramira tried to reason out her dilemma and come up with the best possible solution. She could not see a thing, so trying to feel her way in the complete darkness might not be good. She had heard and seen in movies where caves had drop-offs that people could fall into. She definitely didn’t want to do that. Maybe there were mines close by where people worked. If so, her best bet was to stay put for now and see if someone could hear her. With this in mind, she hollered for help again.

   “Can anyone hear me? Is anyone out there?” She shouted,
then paused to listen.

   Suddenly from down the tunnel Ramira heard a shrieking sound. Could it be help? She hollered louder.

   “Help! Someone please help me,” she shouted hoping that whoever it was could hear her.

   The shrieking diminished, replaced by a thunderous roar heading her way. All at once Ramira was enveloped in a fluttering of wings. Bats swarmed past her. All she knew in the darkness was that she was being attacked, or so it felt. Kneeling in a fetal position, she covered her head with her hands, trying to protect herself. She screamed hysterically.

   The cave was swarming with flying rodents; they filled the small enclosure. With this maniacal swarming around her, she didn’t stop screaming until she needed breath. The bustle diminished after forty-five seconds, a stretch of time that had seemed like hours. Soon the thunderous roar stopped as the bats disappeared further up the cave.

   Ramira opened her eyes and looked around, expecting to see only complete darkness again. But down the cave a glimmer of light was visible. It grew stronger.

   Feeling that help might be near, she hollered, “Hello. Is someone there?”

   Suddenly the light dimmed and disappeared.

3

   Hearing the scream, Zaac knew someone else was down here with him and that person was female. As soon as he was sure the bats had left, he rushed across the cavern toward the cave to the right. At the beginning, he was able to walk upright, but eventually he had to stoop to keep going.

   He started toward a bend when he heard a female voice call out, “Hello. Is someone there?”

   Zaac was getting ready to respond when his headlamp dimmed and went out. The battery had drained. It hadn’t occurred to him this morning that he would be using his headlamp much less needing a fresh battery for it.

   “Hello,” he shouted, “I’m here. I just need to get my flashlight and I’ll be right there.”

   He felt around his backpack until he located the zipper. Reaching in, he found the flashlight and turned it on.

   “I found it. I’m coming. Just hold on!” Zaac shouted, hurrying forward.

   As he rounded the bend, Zaac saw a young girl with blonde hair about his age kneeling on the cave floor. Her clothes were wet and disheveled. She appeared as frightened as anyone he had ever seen.

   Rushing up to her, he knelt down and asked, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

   “I don’t think so. My body aches all over though,” responded Ramira looking up at him with relief. The guy standing in front of her was about her age. He had brown hair with clear cut features. Even though she didn’t know him, his face seemed strangely familiar. “I’m not sure what happened. One moment I was standing looking at the beautiful scenery and the next minute the earth opened up and swallowed me.”

   “The same thing happened to me. I think we had a major earthquake that opened the ground and took us down into these underground caves. I’m Zaac. What’s your name?” He smiled at her.

   “Ramira. I didn’t know that this area had any underground caves.” She stated glancing around at the rock walls.