To quickly recap: Friends Eve and Sara were rock climbing and stumbled across a large cave with primitive drawings on its walls. A rock slide traps them inside. Having little choice, they go deeper into the cave, hoping to find another exit. The cave system seems to be a mixture of natural and man-made and the further into it they go, the stranger Eve starts acting. Just as Sara thinks they’re getting close to a way out, Eve shoves her off of a ledge into a chasm. Now they must each find their way. But there's something else going on as well . . .
The fungus tasted only slightly better than it smelled, but if it kept her alive that was all that really mattered. Eve chewed slowly and thoroughly, washing it down with a sip from the bottle of water she was carrying. She waited a moment, just to see if there were any aftereffects, but there was no nausea, no dizziness. Relieved, she broke off another piece and ate it. It wasn’t haute cuisine, but it filled her empty stomach.
As Eve got used to the texture and taste of the fungus, she began to eat faster and faster. It really didn’t taste so bad, once you got used to it. And more importantly, it would keep her alive so she could do what she had to do.
Soon she was ripping off chunks as fast as she could, stuffing them in her face and swallowing them down. Of course she realized her mistake only seconds after the massive amount of fungus she was ingesting hit her achingly empty stomach.
Eve had just enough warning to back away and turn around before she doubled over, vomiting up the fungus she’d just eaten.
Stupid! She should have known better than to gorge herself after having done without food for so long. It was a rookie mistake, and one she didn’t intend to make again. When she was certain she’d purged everything, she rinsed her mouth out with water from her bottle, then sat with her back against the stone wall to catch her breath.
She sipped from her water bottle, giving her stomach time to settle. Eve knew it wasn’t the fungus itself that made her sick, it was the amount she ate, and the speed with which she ate it. Though it couldn’t have been more than a few days that she’d been without food, it was enough time for her stomach to start to shrink.
She was lucky she found the fungus when she did, she reminded herself. Between it and the water in the other tunnel, she had a real chance of survival.
Discretion being the better part of valor, Eve got to her feet and went back over to the fungus. She broke off a couple of large pieces, but rather than eat them right away, she decided to take them with her. She could always come back for more.
As she made her way back out to the cave, she wondered how fast fungus grew. She needed to be a little more careful, make sure her demand didn’t outstrip her supply. After all, she didn’t even know how it started growing there in the first place. It might be a fluke and once it was gone, that would be it.
There seemed to be no reason to keep going on to the cave with the paintings, so Eve retraced her steps back to the mosaic cave. Peace stole over her as she stared up at the mosaic once more. She hadn’t even realized how tense she’d become until she started to relax.
There was a roughness to the wall abutting the mural that formed a narrow ledge. Eve set her lantern on it, freeing her hands so she could sit down beside the stones spilling out of her pack. Nibbling on one of the pieces of fungus she’d brought back with her, she studied the mosaic in the soft luminosity from the light. The other mosaic, the on the opposite wall depicting an actual scene, held no appeal for her. Her attention was riveted on the abstract mosaic.
It rose and fell, dipped and swirled, the workmanship exquisite. The design seemed almost random but she was able to follow the pattern it formed. It was mesmerizing, pulsing with life. As she continued to stare at it, it began to glow.
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Missed an installment? Catch up here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten, Part Eleven, Part Twelve
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