To quickly recap: Friends Eve and Sara were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. They checked inside and discovered a large cave with primitive drawings on its walls. As they venture deeper inside there’s a tremor, causing a cave in that traps them inside.
Having little choice, they go further inside, hoping to find another exit. They come to a chamber with crystals embedded in the walls that have a hypnotic affect on Eve, then follow a ledge alongside a chasm. They’re almost out of food and water when they find crystals, like the ones in the mosaic. Eve wants to gather up the crystals, but Sara finds another ledge and is sure they’re close to a way out. At this point, a crazed Eve shoves her over the side.
With no sign of remorse, Eve turned and went back to the stones scattered over the floor. Crouching down, she focused her attention on the stones and began sorting through them.
“Only the best,” she muttered. “Only the most worthy.”
When her pack was full, she raised her head and looked around. A frown creased her forehead.
“I should have kept her pack,” she said.
Shaking her head at her lack of foresight, she stood up and shouldered her pack. Oblivious to the weight of it on her back, she started back the way they’d come.
Eve moved slowly, retracing the path she and Sara had taken just a short time before. She couldn’t shake the feeling she was forgetting something, something important. At least, it had been important to her once. But now . . .
Now she wasn’t sure of anything except for the need to keep moving. On her back, the stones she was carrying glowed softly.
Eve reached the natural cave that had multiple exits and stood in the center, considering her options. How had she decided before? She couldn’t remember. All she knew was that she had to get back to the chamber with the mosaic, even if it meant retracing every step she’d taken thus far.
“Which way, which way,” she muttered. She really didn’t want to follow that narrow ledge again, especially not with a pack of rocks strapped to her back, but she would if she had to. “There has to be another way.”
There was a whisper in the air. Eve dipped her head to one side to listen. “A short cut, really? That would be most helpful.”
She looked carefully at the choices before her, checking for something specific. Her eyes lit up as she found what she was looking for, and she entered the new passage without hesitation.
This passage seemed to be one of the natural ones, the walls were rough and the path uneven. Eve moved with careful precision. It wouldn’t do to stumble or fall, hurting herself. There’d be no rescue if she did.
Her step faltered. No one else. She was alone. Why was she alone? She knew better than to go spelunking without a partner. But wait. She hadn’t been spelunking, she’d been rock climbing. Rock climbing with someone, but who?
Eve shook her head. Her breath came out in a gust. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she get back to the mosaic with her stones. It was calling to her. She never should have left it. But if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have found the stones.
After an hour or two, Eve’s energy began to flag. She came to a split in the passage and paused. Which way should she go?
She listened, and at first could hear nothing but the sound of her own breathing, her own heartbeat. But then she heard something else. Was that…yes it was! She could hear water dripping.
Eve followed the sound into a passage which ended in a cul-de-sac. There was a niche in the rock that was dripping water into a naturally formed bowl. There was no question that the water would be safe to drink. The science of it eluded her, but she remembered reading something about water filtered through limestone being pure.
Eve shrugged off her pack and removed the empty plastic bottles she’d stuck in the mesh on the side of it. She filled the first bottle and then drank the whole thing down, letting out a sigh of relief. “That tasted better than a cold brew on a hot day.”
Refilling the bottle, she it aside to carry with her, then filled the other two, tucking them back in the mesh.
Part of her just wanted to sit and rest for a while, but there was another part of her that needed to keep moving. With a sigh, she got to her feet again, shouldering the pack with the softly glowing stones.
Making her way back to the split, Eve continued on her way. One step in front of the other, each step taking her closer to her goal. Whenever her utter aloneness started to make her nervous, or the darkness and the walls started to press in on her, then the stones she was carrying would pulse, their energy soothing her, blanking her mind to everything but moving forward.
Twice she came to forks in the tunnel, and each time she hesitated only momentarily before making her selection and moving forward. Eve had no way of knowing how long she’d been following the tunnel, but in less time than she expected it spat her out in the back of the chamber housing the mosaic.
Missed an installment? Catch up here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six
No comments:
Post a Comment