Cave Dwellers (4 page)

   No answer.

   Her fears began to run rampant: Did something happen to him? Did he get stuck? Was he hurt? Did
he fall in a hole? Should I go after him? Should I wait? What would I do if something did happen to him? I don’t think I could manage down here on my own.

   Fear of the unknown began to get the better of her. She started trembling.

   She knew that unless Zaac was hurt, he wouldn’t leave her alone so long. She decided that she should give him a little more time. She settled back to wait a little bit more, trying to get her panic under control.

   Now that she had time to focus on herself, she noticed something strange. Her body did not feel normal. Something was off but she wasn’t sure what. Her heart was beating rapidly. She broke out in a sweat.

   What was going on?

   In fact, her body was far from normal. A change was taking place, the first of several that she would experience as a result of the bat bites—for that’s what the marks on her skin were. The bites were not infected with rabies. These bats had never seen the open air. All their lives had been spent in the vast network of caves into which Zaac and Ramira had tumbled. No man had ever encountered their kind before. Their saliva was special. Being bitten by one bat might not cause much reaction but being bitten by several could infect and alter the victim.
Ramira was now experiencing the transformation from these bites. It would require several days for the full effects to be noticeable.

   Zaac stopped and took a couple of deep breaths. There had to be a way to turn around. Sticking his head out of the opening, he looked to either side. There was nothing useful that he could see on his right or left. He noticed a ledge about four feet below the opening, protruding about three inches.

   That should work, he thought, as long as he could hold on, maneuver his body out and get a foot onto the ledge. He wriggled forward, keeping a grip on the inside of the tunnel with his left hand. He located a handhold on the cavern wall for his right hand.

    Supporting his weight, he was able to work his right leg out and down. With his left foot on the tunnel floor, he lowered his right foot carefully. He shifted his body until he finally touched the ledge. Readjusting his grip, he lowered his left leg onto the ledge.
That done, he was able to reverse his body and crawl back into the tunnel.

   He paused to catch his breath, grateful that the maneuver had worked. Now he had to get back to Ramira. She would be worried. He was gone longer than he had planned.

   Crawling back as fast as he could, he reached the point where she was at last able to hear him.

   “Hello,” he hollered.

   Without a pause he heard a shout back, “Hey, are you okay?”

   “I’m fine. I’ll be back with you in a few minutes.” He rushed as fast as he could under the circumstances until finally he reached her.

   “I’m so glad to see you,” Ramira said. Without thinking, she threw her arms around Zaac. “I was really starting to worry. I tried hollering for you but you didn’t answer.”

   “I know. I’m sorry.” He looked into her frightened eyes and regretted the anguish he had caused her. “I crawled up to the cavern that I saw. It was big, but I couldn’t see the bottom. There was no way to get out into it, to explore, without the proper equipment. It was tough to turn around so I could
crawl back front-first.”

   “If something had happened to you, I don’t know what I would have done. Anymore exploring you do, I’m coming.”

   “Okay by me. I’d enjoy the company. That particular cave wasn’t a good one for two people, though. I had a hard enough time turning around myself, much less with another person.”

   Zaac noticed that something seemed strange about Ramira. It was cool, yet she had small beads of perspiration on her forehead.

   “Are you feeling okay?” he asked. All he needed was for her to get sick.

   “I’m not sure. Something seems off with my body, but I don’t know what it is.”

   “I hope you aren’t coming down with something. Let’s have some water, then see if we can find a good spot to rest and spend the night.”

  
“Sounds good. Do you have a watch?” She looked at his wrist. “I don’t have any way to tell time. I normally use my cellphone.”

   “Yes. My waterproof Casio is still running smoothly.” He laughed. “It’s just about four.”

   “Wow. Only four. It feels like it should be much later.” In fact, it felt like days had passed, not hours.

   They finished off the half bottle of water and started back down the cave using their awkward bear crawl. It took a little more than two hours to reach the spot where Zaac had found Ramira, and just a little longer to get to the cavern where he had encountered the bats.

   “This is the spot where I heard you hollering,” he said. “The bats were hanging from the roof of this cavern. I must have startled them and they flew up the cave where you were. That’s the tunnel I came out of into this cavern. Let’s try this cave on the right and see where it leads.”

  “Can we rest a minute?”
Ramira asked, feeling drained. “I’m getting tired.”

   “Let’s get out of this cavern first.” He looked around. “There are a lot of bat droppings here.”

   “I know. It’s stinky. Maybe we can find a place to rest up in that cave.”

   Once they were inside it, the going was much easier. After a few minutes, Zaac stopped. “This place looks as good as any. We might as well eat something to keep up our strength too.”  

   “That sounds like a wonderful idea to me.” Ramira dropped to the cave floor.

   “Do you like beef jerky?”

   “It’s not my favorite but I can eat it. A slice of pizza would sure taste good right now.”

   Zaac handed her a piece of jerky and took one for
himself. Pulling out a couple of energy bars, he also gave one of those.

   “Will that be enough?” He wished he had more to offer.

   “It’ll be fine,” she said. “If it isn’t, we can always eat a few crackers to make up the difference.”

   “You mentioned pizza. I work part time at Aemilio’s at the strip mall close to our house. Even though it is called Aemilio’s, the owner’s name is
Carlo. Funny, uh? They have a pizza buffet and salad bar. Have you ever heard of it?”

   “You have to be kidding me. Karlie and I ate there last night while we were out shopping for her to buy a new outfit.
Like she really needs another one.”

   “I had to work last night. I make most of the pizzas when I’m working.”

   “I thought you looked familiar. I think we saw you rolling dough while we were waiting to be seated. You seemed to be hard at work. Last night the place was packed.”

   “The weekends usually are. They also have a steady clientele during the week. With the cheap prices they charge, I can see why.”

   “Why is it called Aemilio’s, when Carlo is the owner’s name?” Ramira asked.

   “Aemilio is his father’s name. He opened the first restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina. Carlo opened one here while his brother opened another one in Charlotte.”

   Ramira looked around, distracted by their predicament from thoughts of pizza. “I hope the cave stays this large. It makes traveling much easier.”

   “I do too. If you don’t mind, I am going to turn off the light again.” He took off his headlamp. “We probably need to save it as much as possible for when we’re traveling.”

   “Let me get a bottle of water first.” Opening her pack, she pulled out a bottle. “Go ahead.”

   She took a swallow of water and followed it with a bite of beef jerky. “I don’t remember beef jerky tasting this good.”

   “It is probably the fact that you’re famished.”

  
“Zaac? Do you think we’ll find a way out of here? What if we don’t?”

   “We’ll get out of here. We’ll do what it takes to survive until then. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

   “I always thought that I was stronger than this, that I would be able to handle anything.”

   “You are doing pretty well under the circumstances.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “You’re stronger than you realize. I don’t believe there is anyone that would be prepared for what happened to us.”

   “You seem to be calm. You are handling it all pretty well. What prepared you for this?”

   “I don’t know.” He thought about the question. “Boy Scouts tried to prepare us for a lot of the ‘what ifs.’ Not this ‘what if’ though. Mountain climbing might have helped some. When you’re climbing, you always seem to get in some precarious situations that you have to think your way through. My best friend Matt and I go climbing and mountain biking
whenever we get the opportunity. He would have been with me today if he didn’t have to work. ”

   Finishing their beef jerky, they ate the energy bars in silence. Ramira took a couple more swallows of water.

   “Would you like some water?”

   “Yes.” Reaching for it in the dark, his hand brushed against hers. A strange tingling and warmth passed through him. “Thanks.”

   “You’re welcome. I feel a little better now that I’ve eaten.”

  
“Me too. We should probably be going.” Zaac waited to see if she disagreed. “Hopefully we will find a way out of here today. If not, we need to find a place to spend the night.”

   Zaac turned on his headlamp.

   “Would you like to take the headlamp and lead?”

   Ramira shook her head, “No! You’re doing just fine.”

   Zaac started off again with Ramira close behind. The cave afforded easy walking without any bending. After traveling about 800 feet, they reached a cross-section that offered a branch in each direction. One to the right. One to the left. Another went straight. The one to the right seemed smaller than the other two.

   Zaac checked out each one.

   “Which way should we go?”

   “You’re asking me?” Looking to the right branch, she said, “I don’t like the look of that one. It’s already getting smaller. I don’t think I want to walk on all fours again.”

   “Yeah, I’m with you there. That leaves the left branch and the one straight ahead.”

   They both looked down one branch and then the other, undecided. Glancing downward, Ramira noticed a change in the floor in the branch that led straight ahead. Walking a few steps, she bent down and rubbed her hand on the floor.

   “Isn’t this different from the hard rock we’ve been walking on? It looks like a mixture of dirt and sand.”

   Kneeling beside her, Zaac brushed his hand against the floor bottom. “Yes it is. This is different.”

   He noticed the floor had an upward slant to it. “I think you picked the way we should go.”

   “Okay,
Let’s give it a try.”

   The cave widened after about fifty yards, enabling them to walk side by side. Up ahead they noticed a bend that angled toward the right, which they followed.
Hanging from the ceiling were a couple of oddly shaped rock formations.

   “What are those?” Zaac asked.

   “I think they’re called stalactites. I’ve seen them in caverns and caves on vacation.”

   Reaching out, Zaac rubbed his hand over one of them. “Those are neat.”

   “It takes thousands of years for them to form. It takes about 200 years for them to grow an inch.” She remembered the tour guide’s narrative.

   After they had traveled another 100 feet, the cave narrowed, and they had to go back to single file. Fifty feet further on, they stopped in amazement. The small cavern they had entered was filled with stalactites. In several spots, there were formations that appeared to grow from the ground.

   “Wow,” Zaac said.

   “This is awesome.” Ramira looked around in amazement.

   She walked over to one strange formation. “Look at this one.”

   Zaac joined her. The stalactite appeared to be growing down from the ceiling and also growing up from the ground. It was joined in the middle.

   “Weird,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

   Ramira ran her hand over it. “Do you think we can spend the night here?”

   “It’s probably as good a place as any.”

   Looking across the cavern, he noticed a formation growing from the ground that afforded a nice rounded back support. It looked almost comfortable. He sat down and leaned against it.

   “There is room for two if you want to join me.” He patted the area beside him.

   “You do look very comfortable.” Ramira smiled. She sat down beside him.

   “How are you feeling?” Zaac had noticed her slowing down.

   “I’m exhausted.” She could feel the toll her body was taking. “What a day.”

   “Tell me about it. When the ground opened under me and I went down, I thought that I was a goner.” 

  
“Me too. I can’t believe we survived.” With a sudden shudder, she added, “It seemed like my life flashed before my eyes.”