Cave Dwellers (9 page)

   Zaac shook his head, trying to clear it.

   “If you put one hand on my shoulder and hold my hand with the other, do you think that may be enough to steady you? I’ll lead us as well as I can.    

Ramira reached around and took his left hand in her
left hand.  “Now place your right hand on my shoulder.”

   With Zaac gripping her, she started forward. She navigated him around boulders, helped him to duck and assisted him over obstacles. She had to stop at one point to squeeze through a narrow enclosure,
then helped him do the same thing. Progress was slow but they pressed on.

   Abruptly she came to a halt. “There’s a hole here around three feet across. It looks like a chimney that goes down. I’m going to jump across, then guide you up to the edge. I will reach across and take your hand. When I say jump, you leap across after me. You should be able to jump across without a problem.”

   “I don’t know. Maybe I should build a fire so that I can see to jump across.”

   “Sure, if you want but it would take more time to get a fire going than it would to just make the jump.”

   Zaac thought about it for a few seconds. She was right, even if he didn’t like the situation. “Okay. I am going to trust you. Just don’t let me fall.”

   Ramira couldn’t help but smile. “If I let you fall, who will keep me company?”

   He couldn’t argue with that. “I’m ready when you are.”

   Within a minute, they were both safely across. They continued up the cave, travelling steadily for several hours before Ramira suddenly stopped.

   “What?” Zaac asked.

   “There appear to be boulders sticking out from each of the walls. On the other side of the boulders, there are some shapes—a lot of little creatures on the walls and along the floor. Some type of bug or something. There are also a couple of larger creatures. I’m not sure what they are but they may be eating the bugs. I’ve watched you build fires. Let me try so we can get a better look.”

   Gathering the supplies caused enough noise that whatever varmints were there scurried away. It took several tries but Ramira managed to get a good sized spark on the cotton ball, which jumped into a flame. She had torn a page into shreds and she added those, soon getting a tiny fire going.

   “I wonder what they were.” Zaac was very interested. “That is the first life form we’ve come across besides insects.”

   Ramira used her hands as she tried to describe them. “They were the size of a groundhog or raccoon. Hopefully we’ll get a better look at them later. But the most important thing is what they were doing here.”

   “What do you mean?” Zaac asked in bewilderment.

   “They were eating bugs.” She walked to the boulders. Reaching across, she picked a bug off of the wall. Taking a few steps further, she bent over and grabbed another one off the cave floor. She turned around and came back holding a bug in each hand. Sitting beside Zaac, she held them close to the fire, where they could see. One was a cave cricket. The other resembled some type of cockroach.

   Zaac watched her with curiosity. “What are you going to do with those?”

   “We are going to eat them.”

   “You have got to be kidding me,” Zaac said shaking his head. “I know I’m hungry, but not that hungry. Have you ever eaten a bug?”

   “No, but I’ve eaten a worm.” Ramira smiled, remembering the occasion. “We were at camp and that was one of the dares the boys gave the girls. A couple of years ago I wrote a report on insect eating. You’d be surprised at how many places they eat bugs. There is a place in London where they serve it as fine cuisine. They serve locusts and crickets. They even have a bug salad. From what I read, half of the customers order something with bugs. It’s also a common form of street food in Thailand.”

   “Just because some people have lost their minds doesn’t mean that I have. That is just plain gross.” Zaac screwed up his face.

   Ramira wouldn’t be dissuaded. “If a person gets hungry enough, they will eat about anything. I don’t know about you, but I am pretty hungry. Our attitudes toward food are purely psychological. Once you overcome that barrier, you’ll be fine. Can I borrow your Leatherman?”

   Zaac retrieved the Leatherman. She opened it and with the pliers, she removed the heads of the insects, then the legs and the wings. She remembered these were the parts that often got hung up in the throat. She took a bottle of water to help wash down any remains.

   “Here goes nothing,” she said as she stuck the cricket in her mouth. Biting through the exoskeleton, she chewed quickly and swallowed, her face crinkling up. A nutty flavour filled her mouth. After a swallow of water, she stuck the bug that looked like a cockroach in her mouth. Since it was larger, the chewing took longer but she soon had it swallowed along with another mouthful of water.

   “That wasn’t so bad. The flavour reminded me a little of macadamia nuts.  I’ve tasted worse.”

   Zaac sat there astonished. “You ate those like it was nothing.”

   “It won’t replace pizza, but right now, we need nourishment and there isn’t anything else.”

   Ramira took the Leatherman over with her and as she gathered more bugs, she plucked the heads off. When she had about ten, she came back over to the fire and started repeating the process.

   After she had eaten her fourth bug and was getting ready to start on the fifth, Zaac spoke up, “I might as well give it a try. I am hungry enough to eat about anything. Can I have one of the crickets?”

   Taking a bottle of water out, he stuck the cricket in his mouth. When he took his first chew, he closed his eyes and made a very strange face. Chewing faster, he finally managed to swallow and quickly took a couple drinks of water.

   “Yuck. That was awful.”

   Ramira had to laugh at his difficulty. “Your face was priceless. Here, try one of the other ones,” she said passing him a second bug.

   He made just as many faces getting that one down. “I don’t know how you do it. But we don’t really have much choice in the matter, do we?”

   “If we want to keep up our strength we don’t.” She popped another bug into her mouth.

   Finishing off the ten bugs, they gathered twelve more and soon those were gone too. They topped them off with two swallows of Gatorade. Even though their taste buds rejected the bugs, their
digestive system devoured them for the much needed nutrition.

   They started again up the passage with Ramira leading. The travel was slow but uneventful until the ceiling lowered, requiring them once again to use the bear crawl. This lasted only half an hour, with Zaac bumping his head once in the darkness. Then the height increased and they walked normally for an hour. Suddenly the cave ended. The only opening was a small one on the right about three feet high.

   Ramira quickly built a fire enabling Zaac to see. Having him wait, she crawled in the hole until only her legs below the knees were visible. Flipping over, she paused then retreated back out.

   “The hole turns into a chimney that looks to be about eight feet high. The cave passage continues normally at that point off to the right. I’ll climb up through the chimney first. After I get on top, I’ll turn around and reach back down. When you stand up, you should be able to touch my hand.”

   Zaac wanted to do his part since she was leading so well. “I’ll take both of the packs in with me and pass them up to you after you reach the top.”

  
“Sounds good.” She started into the hole. “I’ll let you know when I get there.”

   Ramira disappeared. Within a few minutes, she called for Zaac to follow. When he started into the hole, the light from the fire quickly turned to
darkness. He pushed the packs ahead of him until they couldn’t go any further. Turning over on his back, he felt the opening to the chimney. He squirmed and wiggled until he was able to sit up. After a lot of maneuvering and twisting, he could stand in the tight confines of the chimney. He passed the packs up and was shortly sitting beside Ramira.

   They rested for a few minutes and drank some water before continuing up the passage. They soon reached a cavern with walls that gave off a pale green phosphorescent glow. They ran their hands over the strange illumination. It was soft to the touch.

   “Is it some type of moss?” Ramira asked. An eerie light bathed her face.

   “I think it is.” Zaac was grateful for the light. “I’ve read of phosphorescent moss but I’ve never seen any. It grows in some caves.”

   “You want to stop here for the night?”

   “We might as well. This is the first time that I have been able to see since the cellphone died, apart from when we built a fire.”

   Ramira found a bedtime snack for both of them which consisted of some more bugs, and they settled in for the night. Little did she know the strange chemical reaction their new diet would create in them.

8

   Zaac woke up first to a beautiful glow from the phosphorescent moss. It was nice to be able to see, even if only a little bit. Thoughts of his family and friends crossed his mind. His best friend, Matt, usually went out with him biking or mountain climbing. He was glad that Matt wasn’t with him the day the earthquake happened. It was a miracle that he had survived the fall. Matt might not have been so lucky. They would probably assume that he was dead. Would they keep searching for him? He was sure they would find the vehicle and his bike. His thoughts were broken when Ramira woke.

   Opening her eyes, she glanced over at him. “How long have you been awake?”

  
“Just a few minutes. It was nice waking up and being able to see.”

   “No kidding,” Ramira said, rubbing her eyes.

   They finished off the last bottled water that was brought, donned their packs and started out for the day. Neither was in the mood for bugs first thing in the morning.

   They had traveled for no more than an hour when they heard a muffled sound. With each step, it grew louder. As they progressed, the sound became a continuous, vibrating roar. Turning a bend, they emerged onto a cliff ledge behind an immense waterfall that plummeted to an underground lake. The lake, at least seven acres in size, was only part of a colossal cavern of immense proportions, at least 89,000 square yards,
equivalent to fourteen football fields. The whole place was illuminated by phosphorescent moss along the walls and parts of the floor.

   Some of the moss gave off a pale green glow, similar to the moss they had seen earlier. Some gave off a blue light. Other moss was incandescent yellow. Zaac and Ramira stood mesmerized at the spectacle.

   “I have never seen anything so beautiful,” Ramira said.

   “Neither have I. This is truly amazing. I didn’t know underground caverns could be so big.”

   “It’s huge.”

   It took them several minutes to get to the bottom. Once there, they could see a breathtaking view. The lake made up a third of the cavern floor. About an acre of dry ground was visible on the other side. Most of the land was on their side.

   Before they could start exploring, they were startled by a high-pitched squawking sound, and two large megapetomeinon flew off the ledge on the far end of the lake. The megapetomeinon, a beautiful large flying bird, had the colours of a rainbow, yellow and orange blending into red, blue and purple.

   The megapetomeinon belonged to the order Pterosauria. The ones in the cavern were a type of pterosaur descended from a group that had been trapped during the cretaceous period. A large cave passage allowed flight in and out of the cavern where a few of the large pterosaurs had dwelled before that, but an earthquake eventually closed the exit.

   The megapetomeinon had a wingspan of forty-two feet. It was larger than the Quetzalcoatlus which had been found in the Big Bend National Park in Texas. Claws on the front of each wing went unnoticed until they were unfolded. The claws were used for both offence and defence—and for climbing and clinging to rock walls.

    Ramira and Zaac rushed back to the cave corner and squatted, hoping the huge birds had missed seeing them. In fact they had been noticed by the megapetomeinon but mammals were not part of the bird’s diet. Megapetomeinon ate fish. As the birds swooped down, skimming the water, they each ducked their heads below the surface and came up with a fish. Just as they were rising up with their lunch, another five flew off the ledge and circled around the lake until each of them lunged down for a fish. While two of them flew back up to the ledge, two others landed on the side of the lake where Zaac and Ramira cowered, and the other crossed the water to enjoy his catch.

   As the smaller of the birds was finishing its fish, the larger one snuck up and pecked it on the tail. It then took off, running, with the smaller one in pursuit. Zaac noticed that both of the birds could run faster than he could. The chase lasted for a couple of minutes until the larger one went to the edge of the lake and the smaller one flew up, landed on the larger bird’s back and pushed it beneath the surface. The smaller bird then flew up and circled the lake with the larger one flying after it, darting toward it and then away.