LC 02 - Questionable Remains (24 page)

It wasn't a far jump across the chasm, she told herself.
Just do it. If you're going to get out of here, you're going to have
to be confident and unhesitant. Don't look down. She looked
down. She thought about becoming wedged between the
narrow walls of the crevasse. Already she was suffocating.
She couldn't do it. Again she examined the walls of the cave
for another, more accessible, opening. She found herself
back at the one hole that she could find leading from the
cavern.

"You have to do it." The voice echoed in the chamber
again, like some spirit, not herself. "You have to do it. Dear
God, please help me," she prayed. She stepped back and
leaped, landing hard, falling forward, catching herself with
another step and slipping. She fell again, but not hard. Oh,
no, the light. What if she had broken the light? She pressed
the switch off, then on. The beam of light reflected off the
wall. Be more careful, she told herself. Be more careful.

The passageway was narrow and gently curved. It did go
upward. She felt confident. She was moving, going up. She
turned a curve and was again slapped with desperation.
The way was blocked by breakdown, huge boulders fallen from a collapsed ceiling. She nervously examined the ceiling above her head. It looked stable. She looked again at the
boulders blocking her path and tears stung her eyes. She
wanted to sink to her knees. Instead she shone the light
around the breakdown and the walls of the passage.

She found one small opening to her right. Her flashlight
revealed a rocky passage that led downward at a very steep
angle farther into the depths of the earth. Tears dropped on
her cheeks. Her head hurt. Should she go back, she wondered, and look for another opening? What if she had
missed a different passage? It was so dark, she could have
missed a passage hidden behind a stalagmite, or breakdown or-

"No," she whispered. These emotional ups and downs
and insecurities could end her life as surely as the hazards
in the cave. If she was going to save herself, she was going
to have to reach some equilibrium within herself. She sat
down and turned off the flashlight.

The darkness engulfed her like a thick, suffocating blanket. She closed her eyes. She fought the panic rising in her
by thinking about how people in other desperate lifethreatening situations had survived. How, in the most dire
circumstances, the most hostile environments, people had
survived. The Eskimo, the African bushmen, the Indians of
Terra del Fuego-even Bruno Bettelheim in Dachau. People
who lived and survived in the most severe circumstances
had one major characteristic in common; she knew that.
They learned and understood their environment to an
extraordinarily high degree, and they faced their fate with
courage.

The path might lead downward for a while, but she
would find a passage that led up to the surface. She would
bring to the front of her mind any knowledge she had
learned from Harley or her geology classes that would help.
She would be alert for dangers or signs that an opening to
the outside was near, like pack rats that live in caves but have to get to the surface for food. She would do these
things, and she would get out of this cave, and when she
did, she would find whoever put her here and . . . She
turned on the flashlight, took a deep breath, and started
down the yawning throat of the passage.

Calderon lit his torch and stepped into the entrance to the cave,
motioning for the others to do the same. Finally, he thought.
Finally he was on the brink of getting the riches he deserved.

They entered into an underground room and quickly found the
one passageway that led off of it. Calderon searched the walls for
the sign that his cousins had told him he would find. But there
was so much wall, and the light was so dim. There! There was the
mark, carved into the zuall. It was true, then. There was treasure
here! He was at the right place. He rubbed the symbol with his fingers as if by touching it, it would tell him more.

"This is it," he said. "This is the way."

It has to be, thought Diego. It is the only way. He was, after
all these years, becoming weary of his old friend. Perhaps he was
getting old and simply wanted to go home. Perhaps lie wearied of
Esteban because lie knew that he would not share the treasuremuch of it anyway. Diego, of course, expressed none of his
thoughts. He simply followed Esteban Calderon down the passage.

Piaquay, Tesca, and Roberto lit their torches and entered the
cave. The first chamber was small and littered with rocks.
Footsteps in the fine dirt led to a winding narrow passageway that
sloped gently downward. It is so winding, thought Piaquay.
This must be the path where the serpents slithered out of
the underworld. He listened for the conquistadores, but heard no
sounds except his own footfalls. He stopped and listened again.
Quiet. It was then that he saw carved into the rock the shape of a
hand with an eye in the center. The symbol of the ability to see into
the future. Were the devils following this sign? Did they know of it? Yes, he answered himself. There were many willing to trade
these devils information for the hard metal axes and knives they
carried.

The passage suddenly opened onto a large cavern with a vaulted ceiling. Piaquay looked up and thought he saw the stars. He
blinked and looked again.

"The sky?" asked Roberto to no one in particular. "No, some
kind of shining stones." What a place is this, he thought to himself.

After what seemed like several leagues the passage forked.
Piaquay knelt, holding his torch over the ground, looking for
tracks or some kind of disturbance that marked recent passage.
The cave floor was rocky, but he saw arrangements of pebbles that
indicated shuffling feet had passed. He examined the walls of the
entrance to the passage. Again, the sign. They were following the
sign. He led the way down a steep passage strewn with large boulders. The way was more difficult. They had to weave around the
large stones, squeezing between some and climbing over others.
His torch burned low, and he stopped and lit another one, then
proceeded, listening, always listening. His heart beat faster at the
thought of avenging the deaths of those he loved and removing
these evil demons from his land.

The rocky passage opened into a cavern so large their torches lit
only a short distance. It was colder here. Wind blew from somewhere. Another entrance? Carried on the wind he heard a cry. He
listened. Was it the demons he followed or something else, or simply his own imagination?

"We must split up here and follow the walls to look for a passage," he said.

It was Roberto who found the opening. Piaquay checked for the
mark before lie led the way into yet another twisted passage. We
are getting close, thought Piaquay, as he followed the winding
route to the room of the snake.

The passageway Esteban Calderon followed terminated at a
great stone. In the flickering light of his torch he saw an ancient
carving of a serpent with wings, horns, and what looked like rays coming from a large crystal in the middle of its forehead.
Calderon's heart raced as he stood before the stone. He touched the
engraving, tracing it with his fingers.

"This is it," he whispered. "This is it. Move it, move the stone."
He held the torches as his men gathered around the stone and
pushed. It was heavy. "Harder," ordered Calderon, "harder."

The men grunted and groaned as they pushed on the heavy
boulder.

"It's no use," said Diego, but just then the stone shifted.

"It's moving. It's moving. Push harder. Put your backs into it."

The stone moved little by little, revealing a dark opening.

Lindsay thought that she had been climbing downward for
hours. She wished her watch hadn't broken. She knew that
with no objective markers the passage of time could be
deceiving. Her legs ached. Her head felt as if it was in a
vise. She tried to think of nothing but each step as she
picked her way through the rubble. With some footsteps,
rubble loosened and boulders slid down the passage.
When that happened, she stood still and prayed. Surely
this shaft wouldn't go down forever. When she reached the
end of it, she would reward herself with a piece of the
nutri-bar in her pack. She was thirsty. Water, she hadn't
thought of water. Surely, there would be water somewhere.
Maybe she would find an underground stream or pond.
But maybe it was a dry cave and she would die of thirst,
maybe the batteries would run out, maybe ... She stepped
on a rock and started another slide.

"Oh, please," she whispered. "I'll pay attention, I promise."

The sliding stopped and she continued. Just ahead, the
tunnel curved. As she reached the curve she realized that it
wasn't as steep. Suddenly she stepped out of the narrow
sloping passage into a large chamber. She sighed with relief.
Rest. She would rest here.

She shone her flashlight around the chamber. It was huge,
bigger than an airplane hangar. In fact, the entire Atlanta
airport would have fit. There could be a hundred passages leading from this room, she thought with dismay. Don't think about
that now, she told herself. Rest. She walked a distance from
the shaft she had emerged from to get past the rubble that
had accumulated in front of it. She sat down on a large
boulder, breathing heavily. She was dead tired. The batteries. She switched off the light. Darkness. It continued to surprise her how utterly black dark could be.

Lindsay took off her backpack, then switched on the
light again. She pulled out a candle, matches, and a piece of
the aluminum foil. She put the foil around the candle to
catch the melting wax and stood it up by supporting it with
rocks. She lit the candle and turned off the flashlight. There
was a surprising amount of light, and it shone all around
on the rocks and floor, not just forward like the beam from
the flashlight. It was comforting. She unwrapped one of the
nutri-bars and broke off a fourth of it. She took a small bite
and chewed slowly, savoring it.

She could use the candle in some of the passages. It
would save the batteries. That was a joyful thought.
Lindsay finished the allotment of food and rewrapped the
rest, tucking it safely in the backpack. She was exhausted.
She wondered if she should try to sleep. How long had it
been since she became lost? An hour? Two hours? Three? A
day, even? In a place where nothing moved, no daylight, no
shadows, it was hard to tell how fast time was passing. No,
no sleep now. It was better to make as much progress as she
could while she was still in good condition. She still had to
locate water. And she was at a much lower level than when
she entered the cave. She had to find a way up. She stood up
and put on her backpack. She would travel close to the wall
so that she could look for a passage and take the first one
that led up. This would get her out. Always go up. Then she
had a thought. This is a mountainous area. There might be an entrance to the cave at a lower level. Of course, how stupid of her. Any tunnel might be a way out. Which one? No,
she thought. Don't confuse yourself. Going up is a good plan.
She needed a rational plan or she would just be wandering
around in the cave. She took the candle and walked from
the center of the chamber to the rocky wall. It seemed like a
long distance. She watched for signs that animals had been
here, but saw none. There were more signs of life on the
moon, she thought.

Lindsay found a passageway quickly. It led upward to a
dead end. She retraced her steps and followed the wall until
she found another passage. She used the candle to light the
way. She wound her way through the tunnel and emerged
into another large room as big as the one she left, from the
looks of it. She switched on her flashlight and shone it
around. She let the light linger on several rock formations
that looked familiar. It was the same room. She had circled
about and gone nowhere. All that time and energy wasted!
She used the flashlight to try to find another passage, shining it along and up and down the wall. She walked a long
way, looking. Nothing. She shone the light behind her and
out into the cavern. She had a sense she had reached the
other side of the room and was going along the opposite
wall. Like space curving back on itself. At this rate, she
would be back to the steep tunnel she had descended from.
She felt as though she was in the far reaches of space, cut off
from time and humanity. But the terrible reality was that
time did pass; her body felt the effects of gravity, stress, and
the lack of water, and it would get worse as time went on.
Don't think about that, she chided herself. Push on.