Escape, a New Life (16 page)

IN THE CAVERN, Abby tried not to struggle against the current.  Instead, she attempted to work with it.  She had swam past the center of the channel before she entered the cavern, hoping that would give her a better chance to make it to the ledge on the far side.  The current toward the edge was not as strong as the center, but it was still formidable.  Her legs kicked and she pumped her arms until they burned near her shoulders.  As hard as she tried, she could not get close enough to grab the ledge.

He fingertips brushed the rock occasionally, but that was as close as she could get.  She called out, “Emily! 
Em!  Can you hear me?”  She listened and heard nothing but the rushing water.  As she was being pulled along, she felt as if she were being pulled down.  Her fears were confirmed when her head dipped under the water momentarily. 

She kicked her muscles into high gear and pumped her arms and legs with every ounce of her strength, trying to make it to the ledge.  It was so close now.  Her hands slapped against the face of the rock, but still she could not get a grip. 
The edge that she would have to grab onto was just a little too high.  It would be out of her reach even if the current were not dragging her down. 

Finally
, her head went fully underwater.  As she was pulled diagonally down and across the rock face, her hands scrambled to grab onto anything they could in the dark.  The problem was that the face of the rock was as smooth as glass.  

Suddenly
, her left hand bounced off of something jutting from the wall.  She instinctively reached out with her right hand and latched onto it, then quickly grabbed on with her other hand to keep her from being swept away.  The moving current was still pulling her legs behind her, but she held on with a death grip.  Whatever she was holding, felt like a bar.  Making sure her grip was tight with her right hand, she let go with her left to feel around the wall.  About a foot above was another bar-like object jutting out. 

It felt the same as what she was holding onto
, and seemed just as secure to the wall.  There was no time for debate; her lungs were starting to ache.  She grabbed on with her left hand and pulled herself up.  Repeating the same steps, she found another bar above this one.  Could this be a ladder?  There was no time to think about it.  She repeated the process, feeling, grabbing, and pulling herself up.  Her lungs were burning, and she desperately wanted to take a breath.  Her shoulders felt as though they were being ripped from her joints by the mighty current trying to tear her away.

At last
her face broke the surface of the water, and she sucked in a lungful of air.  Wrapping her arms around the bar, she clung on for her life.  All around her was nothing but darkness.  The light at the entrance to the cavern was gone.  She knew she could not hold on here indefinitely.  She also knew she could not go back down.  Up was the only option. 

She began climbing up.  It was a struggle at first, as she had to rely entirely on her upper body strength to hoist herself out of the water.  It became significantly easier once her feet came out of the water
, and she could use her legs, as well.  After a few steps, the bars disappeared, and instead her hands found a flat, horizontal, hard, wet surface.  She felt around with her arms and hands.  This must be it.  She pulled herself up to the ledge, rolled over and flopped on her back.

When her breathing finally slowed, she sat up.  There was the sound of a waterfall.  Not a pleasant trickling sound, but a massive rushing
sound, as though she were in a room near Niagara Falls.  She yelled out for Emily, but she could barely hear her own voice over the roar of rushing water. 

From her seated position
, she felt the floor all around her.  Her hands found the wall next to her.  As far as she could reach, she felt the damp rock of the floor.  Abby started to stand up, then paused.  It occurred to her that if she were to take a wrong step, or slip, she would likely fall right back into the water below.  She could not see the water, but its deafening rush made her keenly aware that falling in would result in certain death.

Still, she could not sit in the darkness forever.  She thought about Eric.  She was sure he would come in after her when she did not come out, despite whatever protest Robert would
mount.  Odds were that he would not be as lucky as she had been.  She had to act quickly.

Standing, her legs shook with a mixture of adrenaline and fatigue.  She put one hand against the wall for balance, and blindly reached ahead with the other.  In this manner
, she began shuffling across the floor, always keeping one hand on the wall. Staying close to it, she kept both feet on the floor, shuffling along.  This way, she would not drift off course and back into the water. 

Abby crept along for what seemed like forever.  She developed a system where she shuffled one foot way ahead, feeling to make sure there was ground.  Then
, she would slowly bring the other foot in line to the same position.  Every few steps she called out to Emily, hoping she was in here.  If she could not respond, at least she would hear Abby’s voice and know that she was not alone.

Her front foot slipped off the edge
directly in front of her.  In her panic she flailed out with her arms, losing her balance.  Her other foot slipped out from under her on the damp floor, and she landed on her tailbone with a thud.  Feet dangling over the edge, she put her hands out to feel in front of her.  Her right hand clanged off something that felt like a bar or a pipe.  She grabbed on and pulled it.  Whatever it was, it was solid as a rock.  It did not budge.

She felt along the length of the object, as far as she could from her seated
position.  It seemed to have no end.  Not one that she could feel anyway.  She moved her arms below it and felt nothing but air.  Moving her arms above it, her left hand smacked into another object that seemed to be the same size.  The object seemed to be a long metal pipe, like a railing. 

Abby backed up so her feet were entirely on the ledge.  She kept her hand on the cool metal pipe
, feeling along its length.  To her right, she met up with the wall, to her left, the pipe bent and went back toward the direction where she had just come from, running parallel to the wall about five feet away from it.  Keeping her right hand on what she was thinking of as a railing, she stretched her arms as far as she could until her left hand felt the dampness of the wall. 

She began walking
back in the other direction like this, back in the direction from where she had come.  She had more confidence this time.  Having already been this way, and having the benefit of a guide on each side, the railing to her right and the wall to her left, she moved quickly.

It did not take her l
ong to cover the distance.  She would guess that she had shuffled along about fifty feet from one side to the other.  She let out a little yelp at the end when she walked face first into another rock wall, bumping her forehead.  She felt in front of her, and the wall was completely blocking her path.  She had obviously reached the other end of the ledge.  Feeling her way down to the ground, she sat. 

Trapped in the darkness
, she wished that she could see something.  She held her hand inches from her face, but could not make out a thing.  The blackness was wholly encompassing.  She needed a light, a fire, anything to help her figure a way out.

She remembered her knife, still strapped to her leg.  The handle was packed with cotton, and there was a flint.  She had been starting their fires w
ith this for the past few weeks.  It took very little to get the kindling going.  Once she had figured out that she could just use the flint to light up dry leaves instead of the cotton, she had stopped using the cotton all together.  There was plenty left.

Kneeling down on the cool damp rock, she wondering if the surface would be suitable for her plan.  It would have to be.  The waterproof cover on the back of the handle opened with a pop.  Feeling inside with her fingers, she pulled out a small wad of cotton.  It would not burn for long,
but she would get seven to ten seconds of bright flame before it turned into a glowing ember and floated away – hopefully long enough for her to see something useful.  Her eyes were completely adjusted to the pitch black, so any tiny bit of light would be enough for her to see with.  At least that is what she had convinced herself.

Abby
fluffed and set up the cotton on the ground and positioned the flint over it.  Carefully, she scraped the back edge of her knife down the length of the flint, sending a showing of sparks down onto the rock.  The cotton did not catch.  Nor did it catch on the second try.  Adjusting the angle of the flint, she finally got it to catch on the third try. 

Abby looked up
as soon as the cotton lit so that the light would not blind her.  She took in as much as she could in the few seconds that it burned.  Mostly, she was looking at rock.  She still could not see the water below, but she could hear it just fine.  There was in fact a railing next to her that ran the length of the ledge.  On the far side, where she had just walked from, there was what looked like a ladder going up.  The light burned out before she could figure out where it went to, but she was satisfied.  At least she had found something worth investigating.

Holding onto the railing to guide her, she swiftly walked to the far side of the
ledge in the darkness.  Once she was on the other side, she began feeling around for the ladder.  She knew approximately where it was, but finding it in the dark was a bit challenging.  Abby wanted to make sure she was directly at the base of it when she lit the last wad of cotton.  This would give her the best chance of seeing what was up there.

As she felt the smooth wall, her arm knocked into something with a hard edge that scraped her forearm.  Feeling around the object, it seemed to be a large metal box attached to the wall. 
To the left of the metal box, she found the ladder.  She squatted at the base of the ladder and prepared to light her last bit of cotton when she had an idea. 

Standing up, she found the box on the wall
again, and knocked on it.  It was definitely metal.  It was also about six feet above of the floor.  Stretching her arms as high as she could, she was just able to reach over the top of it.  If she could set the cotton on top of it, it would be that much closer to where she was trying to see.  She only had one shot and decided to go for it.

Setting the cotton on top of the box, she stood on her toes.  Reaching as high as she could, she began scraping the knife against the flint.  Sparks flew everywhere.  Everywhere, it seemed, except onto the cotton.  She needed to get higher.  Climbing to the second rung of the ladder she leaned to the side, against the box, where she could arrange the knife and flint over the top.

She leaned carefully against the box, as she had to remove both hands from the ladder to scrape the flint.  She arranged herself well enough that she was able to run the knife down the flint, but then promptly lost her balance, slipping off the ladder and onto the hard, rock floor.  There was a faint glow above her, though.  The cotton had caught fire.  She jumped up and strained her eyes to see as high as she could.  The ladder led to a landing, maybe ten feet above.  It was impossible to see where it led to from there, if anywhere. 

Her eyes rested on the metal box in front of her. 
She noticed a large lever on the right side of it.  Just as the cotton burned out, she saw two words emblazoned across the front in red block letters: “Emergency Shutdown.”

********************

Eric called ahead to Robert, “How much further?”  He was having a hell of a time keeping up with the old guy.

Robert
was silent and continued bounding up the hill.

Looking out to sea, Eric saw that they were
very high above the cavern at this point.  They had been running up the side of the hill for at least fifteen minutes, and he was exhausted.  “Hey!” he yelled, stopping.  “I asked you a question.  Where are we going?  Where is this other way in?  They have been in the water for twenty minutes, at least.  If we don’t get in there soon, who knows if we’ll be able to help them.”

Robert
was several feet ahead when he stopped.  Turning, he stood looking at Eric.  He was sweating heavily, and looked to have somehow lost his deep tan.  He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, as though he wanted to say something, but just could not find the words.  He was speechless.

“What is it?”

He whispered sadly. “There is no other way in Eric.”

“What are you talking about?  You said there’s another way in.
Where is it?”

Robert yelled, “There is no other way!”

“Then what the hell are we doing up here?”

“
The cove is a death trap.  No one who goes in comes out.  That is a fact.  Period.  I am sorry, but Abby and Emily are gone.  Nothing can be done about that.  I could not let all three of you kill yourselves.”

Eric slowly walked toward Robert
. “I’ve been chasing you up this hill while they’ve been drowning?  Is that what you’re telling me?”

“I am sorry.  I truly am.  I really liked Abby.  I wish she had listened to me.
”  Robert’s lip quivered a bit, “But what is done is done.  We cannot change that.  It is too late for them now.”