SHORT STORIES VOL 1 INCLUDING: ROMANCE, COMEDY, DRAMA, SCI-FI, HORROR & MORE

Chapter 3: Darkness

Jeff awoke on the cold stone where he had been for days, or at least he thought it had been days. The cave-in had occurred suddenly, pinning him from the waist down under a mass of loose rock that came from far above him and his spelunking partner, Mike. Mike had been in front of him and received what they believed were minor injuries after being hit by a few of the falling rocks. Now, as Jeff lay in the near-total darkness of the cave, he questioned if the injuries had been more severe than they had thought and if Mike had made it out to get the help he so desperately needed.

The excursion was one Jeff and Mike had been carefully planning for over a month. The cave system was well known, but the area within the cave they were planning to explore and map had yet to be investigated since the cave was discovered. Many of the tunnels were so narrow they had to be crawled through, which was a deterrent for most. For Jeff and Mike, the tight, challenging spaces made the experience better. To be the first humans to see a chamber was exhilarating, and they loved the feeling.

Now, Jeff felt only the cold stone chilling him to the bone and the numbness of being trapped under a mountain of stone, unable to move. The one consolation he took was that he could no longer feel the searing pain from his broken bones and crushed body. Jeff was so tired. He wondered if it was because of the time he had been awake or the extent of his injuries as he fought to keep his eyes open in his fading light.

Jeff’s only light source, his single headlamp, had been damaged in the cave-in and began flicking. They had planned on being in the cave for less than twelve hours at a time, so before they entered the cave, he had put new batteries in his lamp, which would last approximately thirty-six hours. With it failing, he would be in total darkness and impossibly trapped. They both had backup light sources in their backpacks. His pack included chemical light sticks, but he could not reach them. He shivered either at the thought of the darkness about to envelope him or the chill of the cave.

Jeff listened to the sounds of the cave as he watched as the last of his meager light went out. In a way, it brought him peace because he could no longer see the rocks that pinned him. In another way, it brought him a sense of panic, not knowing what could be right beside him in the blackness of the cave. He began to focus on his breathing to help control the fear he felt welling up inside of him.

He had never thought he would be trapped in a cave and need to be rescued. Jeff volunteered with a unit that specialized in cave rescues. He had seen people trapped and killed in ways many would think impossible, and often, they were from things that could have been prevented. He had always thought it couldn’t happen to him because he was so careful, and yet, here he was, crushed under a rock slide that he and Mike had not seen or heard coming. It was as if the rocks had been dropped from above and landed on him. Almost as if the cave had aimed for him. Jeff started to laugh at that idea. The cave aiming for him was utterly ridiculous.

The sharp crack of rock hitting rock down the tunnel made Jeff stop laughing and jump. The sudden movement caused pain to rack his body and his breath to catch in his throat. He struggled to regain control of his breathing as the sudden pain slowly decreased as he lay motionless.

“Hello?” Jeff called out. “Is someone there?”

Jeff intently listened for anything to indicate Mike had returned with help. His heart sank as he was met with only the light sound of water dripping in the distance and his own breathing. He was still panting, trying to catch his breath from his sudden start.

“Mike?” Jeff yelled again, knowing he would not get a reply. “Mike? Where are you?”

Jeff’s eyes began to well with tears as he lay pinned, listening to the echoes of his voice disappear into the black of the cave. He had heard the horror stories of people being hopelessly trapped within caves, yet he had never thought it could happen to him. He and Mike had the most experience and training of anyone he knew. They would see the danger and avoid it. He shouldn’t be trapped. He should have known. Now, he lay crushed under a mountain, and he was going to die alone.

Mike had left Jeff after promising he would bring back help. Jeff knew it had been hours since Mike had begun to make his way out of the cave. They had strung lines as they explored the cave. There was a guideline for him to get out and find his way back to Jeff. Something had to have happened to Mike. There was no other explanation.

Jeff was beginning to sob when he started to hear the whispers from a narrow side tunnel that led away from the main passage where he was trapped. Jeff took deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself so he could be quiet and listen. The tunnel the sound emanated from was narrow, so much so that neither he nor Mike would fit through the opening. Mike and any rescuers he brought back would use the main passage, not that one. He could feel his pulse quicken as he strained to make out words that couldn’t possibly be coming from that tunnel. They were voices, and he could make out syllables, but it did not sound like any form of speech he had ever heard before.

Jeff forced himself to shakily call out, “Hello? Who’s there?”

He was met with a deafening silence. The whispers stopped as soon as he uttered a sound. He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears as he strained to pick out any sound other than dripping water.

“I’m hallucinating,” Jeff said out loud as he began to laugh. “I have to be hearing things. It must be the sensory deprivation of the dark. Either that or my injuries are finally going to kill me, and my brain is short-circuiting. If I’m going to die in here, I wish it would go ahead and happen. I don’t want to lay here and die from dehydration or starvation.”

A stone slammed onto the cave floor and skittered down the tunnel, ricocheting off the walls as it traveled away from Jeff. In the total darkness, he instinctively turned his head toward the sound. He shivered again as his breath caught in his throat.

“Help me!” Jeff yelled. “Where are you? Please, say something!”

He could hear movement near the entrance to the side tunnel and began to panic. His mind raced as he tried to fathom what could be there in the black with him. Nothing that would be living in the cave should be large enough to make the sounds he was hearing. He listened to the distinct footsteps as they moved around him.

“Who are you?! Why won’t you help me?” Jeff screamed.

The echoes of his shouts were met with indistinguishable murmuring in the side tunnel and near where he lay. He swung his arm toward where the sounds were coming from, striking nothing but air and sending pain shooting through his battered body. Jeff lay gasping as he tried to regain his composure and let the pain ease. He could hear rocks being moved around him. Jeff lay motionless and silent, knowing there was nothing he could do. He could not fight or free himself. He was at the mercy of the cave and what was lurking within.

Jeff could feel himself slipping into unconsciousness as the sounds around him became louder. The murmuring seemed to be adding voices as the clinking of the rock increased in frequency. As he lay pinned on the edge of lucidity, he began to hear another sound mixed in with the noise around him. It was something that snapped him back to consciousness.

Jeff turned his head so he could face down the tunnel and called, “Mike? Mike!”

“Hang on, Jeff! We’re coming!” Mike yelled.

Tears of relief began to flow from Jeff’s eyes and into his hair as he lay, listening to footsteps start to draw near. At the same time as he heard his rescuers’ footsteps coming closer, he heard the skittering beside him become more distant and disappear down the narrow side tunnel. He looked toward the small opening as lights began to flicker and play in the tunnel. In the brief flashes of light, he saw nothing but the opening.

“How did you get those rocks moved?” Mike asked as he kneeled down by Jeff’s head.

Jeff glanced in the direction where Mike’s headlamp was shining. He could see that many rocks had been moved away from him and were now piled to the side.

“I didn’t,” Jeff breathed. “They must have landed like that.”

“Don’t worry, Jeff. We are going to get you out of here as quickly as we can,” said one of his rescuers as he began to assess the situation. “The good news is it doesn’t look like any of the rocks that are on you are overly large. There are just a lot of them. We’ll get you out of here. In the meantime, I am going to give you something for the pain while we get this done.”

Jeff felt the paramedic insert the needle for the IV line into his vein and soon felt the warmth of the medication wash over him. He drifted in and out of consciousness, occasionally being jolted back to reality when a sudden wave of pain would hit as the rocks were being moved off him. Jeff had no idea how long it took for the rescuers to free him. Jeff had felt like mere minutes had passed from when the rescuer crew arrived until he was loaded onto the stretcher thanks to the medication, but he knew it had to be far longer.

Jeff felt the warm sunshine land on his face as they exited the cave. He squinted as he looked around, trying to locate Mike and thank him for bringing help to him. His blurry eyes scanned the crowd that had gathered as he tried to find his friend.

“Where’s Mike?” Jeff asked.

“Your friend is right here behind…” the team member began before trailing off. “That’s weird. He was right here following me. Don’t worry. We will make sure he gets to the hospital. He will be right behind you.”

Before Jeff could say anything in reply, he was loaded into the waiting ambulance and taken to the hospital.

-

It had been six months since the accident. Jeff was recovering from his injuries but was still having difficulty processing Mike’s disappearance. The rescue squad had gone back into the cave thinking that he had somehow lost his way on the trip out of the cave, but there was no sign of him.

Jeff’s injuries were something he could deal with and process because he knew what had happened and was living with the consequences. Losing Mike was something different. It made no sense. There was no reason he should have gotten lost as they were exiting the cave. He was in a group and knew the way out.

Jeff kept thinking about something he saw at the mouth of the cave that he had written off as a hallucination. He could have sworn he had seen a nearly transparent hand with long and bony fingers reach out of the cave before recoiling back into the darkness as he was loaded into the ambulance. If it had been real, could that have been what happened to Mike? The answers would have to wait until he was fully healed and could go back into the cave to find out. Mike had returned to find him, and he would do the same for Mike.