Cave Dwellers (3 page)

   “I didn’t either but here we are. Hopefully we can find a way out.”

   Noticing what appeared to be little scratches or small lacerations on her neck and around her hands, Zaac asked, “Were you bitten by any of the bats or are these scratches from the fall?”

   “I don’t know,” Ramira said. “I didn’t know what was happening when they came up the tunnel. It sounded like a stampede,
then I was surrounded.”

   “Do you think you can stand?”

   “Yes. I tried standing earlier but I hit my head. I’m so glad to have someone else down here with me. How is it that you have a flashlight?”

   “I was mountain biking. One time I got caught out after dark and didn’t have a light. Since then I’ve started carrying a headlamp and flashlight just in case. I also have some fire starter materials. I’ve never had to use them before, but I think they may come in handy down here.
Remnants of my Boy Scout days.”  Zaac laughed.

   “It’s so nice to have some light. I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. I thought I could use my cellphone for light but it must have gotten lost in the fall.” Ramira thought for a moment.

“You must be the guy I saw on the other side of the lake with a bicycle. When the quake started I saw a crack open up and head right toward you and down you went.”

  
“Yep. That would be me. I was mountain biking and took a small break. I was getting ready to start up the trail when the quake hit. It all happened so fast I didn’t even have a chance to react.”

    Zaac knew that time was of the essence. “We had better get started,” he said. “I’m not sure how long this might take. I’ve only got one set of spare batteries for the flashlight and one set for the headlamp.”

   “Any idea which way we should go?”

   Zaac pointed back down the tunnel, “The bats flew this way so maybe there might be a way out up ahead.”

   “Okay. You lead and I’ll follow.” Ramira stood up.

   “Stay close to me and watch your head,”

   “I’ll stay so close you’ll think I’m your shadow. Just don’t get us lost.”

   “Very funny,” Zaac said, laughing. “I don’t really think I can do any worse than we already are.”

   Zaac started in the direction the bats took. They had to bend low to keep from bumping their heads. The tunnel starting sloping downward after they had traveled around one hundred yards. Soon they had to stoop even lower and were reduced to bear walking. It was back-breaking and progress was agonizingly slow.

   When they reached yet another bend that angled around to the right, Ramira asked with a strain in her voice, “Can we stop for a few minutes? This is tiring.”

   “Sure. I was starting to get a little tired myself.” Zaac turned and sat down. They leaned back against the cave wall.

   “While we don’t need the light, it might be best to turn it off. We have to conserve the batteries.” He was checking with her, wanting her agreement.

   “Do we really have to? If you turn it off, everything will be completely dark. That gives me the creeps,” Ramira said with a little shudder.

   “I don’t like it either, but we don’t know how long we might need the light.”

   “I know you’re right but it still makes my skin crawl. Would you mind if I got close to you so I can feel you beside me?” She pleaded with her eyes. “I don’t think it would be as scary that way.”

   “You can hold on to my arm if that will make you feel better.” He scooted towards her.

   Ramira snuggled up and wrapped her arms around his left arm. “You can turn off the flashlight now,” she said with a little more assurance than she felt.

   “Here goes.” He turned off the light. Everything went black again. He could feel her grip tighten on his arm.

   “Are you okay?” he asked.

   “Yes. It isn’t as bad, knowing you are here with me. When I first landed down in these caves, in complete darkness, I was frightened to death. It’s terrible not knowing where you are, not being able to see anything.” Ramira shivered.

   “I didn’t know where I was either, but I did have some lights to turn on. I’m sure it was awful to have been in your shoes.”

   Suddenly a small rumble sounded next to Ramira. The sound caused her to jump.

   “What was that?” she asked apprehensively.

   Zaac laughed. “I think that was my stomach. With all of the excitement, I haven’t really thought much about food. I think my stomach is protesting this lack of attention.”

   Ramira laughed. “I thought it sounded like a stomach rumbling, but in the darkness, it startled me. Now that you mentioned it, I’m a little hungry myself.”

   Turning on his flashlight, Zaac looked in his backpack. “I’ve got five energy bars, two apples, some beef jerky, three bottles of Gatorade and three and a half bottles of water.”

   “I wasn’t planning on spending a long time out today. All I have is a ham sandwich, a bag of Goldfish crackers, a Snickers Bar, a couple of bottles of water and a Mountain Dew,” Ramira added.

   “The way I see it is we have two choices. We can eat our fill thinking we might get out of here in a couple of hours.” Zaac hoped this would be the case but he doubted it. “Or we can ration the food not knowing how long we might be here. What do you think?”

   Ramira thought about the two choices. “Maybe we ought to eat sparingly. It would probably be best to conserve the food.”

   “So what do we eat first?”

   “Let’s split the sandwich and one of the apples.”

   Zaac pulled out a Yellow Delicious Apple and a bottle of Gatorade. “I think it would be good to drink one of these Gatorades. We could probably use the nutrients.”

   “Okay.” Ramira divided the sandwich in half and handed one part to Zaac.

   Zaac got out his Leatherman and cut the apple down the middle handing one half to Ramira. They savoured each bite, chewing it slowly as if they were trying to imprint the taste in their minds.

   After eating, they both sat quietly, absorbed in their separate thoughts. Zaac couldn’t help wondering whether they would ever find a way out. Plus, he felt the responsibility fell on his shoulders. The caves didn’t have exit signs on them. There was no diagram with a map, saying ‘you are here’. He had no way to know where they were or how to get out.

   Ramira was also pondering their predicament.
So much for spending time in her favorite spot. She doubted very seriously that she would be able to make the girls’ night. Her parents would be worried sick. Her dad, who was a policeman in the largest city in the western mountains of North Carolina, would put out a full-scale manhunt. With such a massive quake in the area, were there other cracks that opened up and trapped or even killed people? She was sure there would be signs of the crack at the spot that she loved to visit. Would they assume that she had been killed? With these thoughts running through her mind, tears filled her eyes and she started to cry.

   “What’s wrong?” Zaac asked.

   “I was thinking about my family. What they would think with me not showing up. We were supposed to have a girls’ night tonight. My friends were coming over for dinner. We were going to watch a movie and they planned to spend the night. Now they’ll come over and I won’t even be there. They’ll probably think I’m dead.”

   “They might, but from what I can tell, you are very much alive.” Zaac was hoping to calm her down. “It’ll be okay. We’ll find a way out. It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. But we’ll get out of here.”

   “You think so?” she asked with a glimmer of hope.

  
“Absolutely. We’d better start looking again, though. See if this tunnel we are in goes anywhere. You need help?”

   “No thanks. I think I can manage.”

   “This crawling is very awkward. I feel like a dog walking on all fours.” Zaac was hoping to lighten the moment.

   Ramira laughed.
“Me too. Woof.”

   They started off again. It reminded him of an exercise they use to do in Junior League Football. Only that exercise wasn’t done in a tunnel. It was done on grass at a football field.

   Progress was slow. After they had traveled about a hundred yards, the tunnel shrank. Soon they reached a point where it was only three feet high and close to that in width.

   “This doesn’t look good,” Zaac said.

   “No it doesn’t. Now what?”

   “Let’s stop and rest and think about it. Want some water?”

   “I could use a drink.” Ramira pulled a bottle of water out of her pack. After a couple of swallows, she handed it to Zaac.

   He took a couple of swallows. “Wow. You can forget how good water tastes.”

   “I know what you mean. It’s a little thing, but it matters.”

   Looking at the small crawl space, Zaac turned back to Ramira, “I think it might be best if I left my backpack with you. I’ll crawl up the tunnel and see where it leads. Maybe this narrow part is only a little ways then it opens back up.”

   “You want to leave me here by myself?” she asked. She couldn’t keep her voice from shaking a little.

   “I don’t want to leave you here by yourself,” Zaac said placing his hand on her shoulder. “If you noticed, I said maybe the cave will open back up. But it could narrow down even further. If it does that, I might end up having to crawl out of the cave backwards. That would be hard enough with just one person, much less two.”

   She knew what he said was true, but it didn’t help to relieve her fears. “I still don’t like the idea of being left alone and you going off. What if something were to happen to you? What would I do then?”

   “Nothing is going to happen to me. I’ll yell every few minutes to let you know that I’m okay. I’ll use
the headlamp and leave you with the flashlight. It will probably be hard enough crawling in that narrow cave without having to hold on to a flashlight.” Zaac handed her the flashlight.

   “I need to change the batteries first in the headlamp,” he said. “They died when I was coming toward you at the beginning.”

   “Yes I remember. A light was in sight, then total darkness again.” She held the flashlight for him to retrieve the batteries from his backpack.

   Once his headlamp was back on, Zaac started to crawl up the small enclosure. “Here goes nothing.”

   “Be careful.”

   Zaac had to lay on his belly as he started up the cave. This type of crawling required a lot of wriggling. He would inch up onto his elbows and push forward with his knees. Before long, he was sweating.

   Ramira watched as the light moved farther and farther away. She didn’t want to turn off the flashlight but she knew she should. “I’m going to turn the flashlight off to save the batteries,” she shouted.

   “Good idea,” Zaac hollered back. “I’m okay. I see a bend to the right just ahead. After I get around it, the light will get dimmer. I will keep hollering though.”

   Negotiating the bend, he traveled another ninety feet. The cave became even lower. He really had to squirm to get through. The narrow confines only lasted a few feet then the space opened up again to about three feet high.

   Stopping for a few minutes to catch his breath, he tried to look ahead. It seemed to open up into a much larger cavern, about fifty to sixty feet in front of him. It was hard to judge distance in total darkness, using only a flashlight or headlamp. His perspective was completely off.

   “I think the cave opens up into a much larger cavern just ahead,” Zaac hollered back. “I’m going to crawl on up to that point and see what I can see.”

   It took about ten minutes for Zaac to get there. Once he arrived, he could see that the cave did open up. The cavern was so large he couldn’t see the other side. The rock wall went about fifteen feet to his left and then angled forward an unknown distance. To his right, it continued out of sight. The bottom was invisible and the roof looked to be twenty to thirty feet high and angled upward even further.

   “I don’t think we can go this way,” he said to himself.

   He tried to maneuver around so that he could crawl back the way he had come but the space was too tight.

   The idea of trying to crawl backward all that distance didn’t appeal to him.

   “Now what?” he said.

4

   “Hello. Zaac, can you hear me?” Ramira hollered, a slight quiver in her voice.

   She was getting a little worried. She turned on the flashlight shining it up the cave. “Hello,” She shouted even louder.