Inhabited (12 page)

Justin led the way. Their winding path reminded him of an old stream bed. It made sense, he supposed. The caves must have been formed by water erosion. The rocks swept through curves. He heard the sound of dripping water from off in the distance.

“You guys remember that earthquake a few years ago?” Miguel asked.

Justin whipped around and flashed his light across Miguel’s face. “Shut up. There’s not going to be an earthquake.”

“No,” Miguel said. “That’s not what I was saying. I was just thinking that maybe the reason the miners never found that gold is because it wasn’t there when the mine was open.”

“These caves must be thousands of years old,” Travis said.

“Right, but not that crack,” Miguel said. “That crack that led from the mine to the caves could have opened up in that earthquake. Maybe the mine was close to the caves the whole time, but nobody knew. Then the earthquake comes and suddenly they’re connected.”

Justin shrugged. “It still doesn’t explain why you have a map to gold that nobody took.”

“We worked hard for that gold,” Travis said. “Maybe they didn’t know they had to look for quartz and then smash it out of the wall.”

“First,
everyone
knows that. Second, Miguel had a piece of quartz with gold in it. Third, it was a map to gold. They knew gold was here but they didn’t come get it? What sense does that make?”

“This is it,” Miguel said.

“Are you sure?” Travis asked. He turned and looked back the way they had come. He made angles with his arms pointing at the far points of the cave.

“Look down,” Miguel said.

Justin did. There was some sand scattered on the rocks. It was disturbed in a trail going to the right. The trail disappeared into a crack.
 

“Where’s the ledge?” Justin asked.

Miguel moved around him. He approached carefully and dropped down to all fours as he got closer to the place where the floor fell away. Miguel hung his head over the edge and pointed his light into the crack. “There’s a gap, but the ledge is there.” He looked down again. “There’s some rocks stuck down there. I think maybe part of the ledge broke off. Yeah, see here? There’s a spot where the exposed rock looks fresh.”

“Fresh?” Justin asked. “Rocks can look fresh?”

“Maybe we should set up a rope?” Miguel asked. “Help each other over.”

“We don’t have ropes,” Travis said. “In the one pack we have left, all we have is carbide, water for the lamps, baggies, and a couple of flashlights.”

“And gold,” Justin said.

“Right,” Travis said.

“Okay, so one of you guys hold my arm,” Miguel said.

Justin came forward. He glanced at the ledge they were going to try to reach and then he found a place where he could grab the wall to anchor himself. He offered his other hand to Miguel. Using Justin’s grip for safety, Miguel stretched his foot out as far as he could to step on the other side of the ledge. He was at the limits of his tendons and the fabric of his pants by the time he got his toe to the other side. With that foot secure, he braced himself on the opposite wall of the crack.

“Okay, let go,” Miguel said.

“You sure?” Justin asked.
 

Miguel nodded. He pushed off with his trailing foot and pulled with his arms. Justin was certain that Miguel wasn’t going to make it. His heart pounded until Miguel finally landed his second foot safely on the other side.

“You go next,” Justin said to Travis.

“Fuck you,” Travis said.

“I’m taller, and I can make it easier. You’re going to need me to push you off from this side.”

“Oh.” Travis moved around Justin.
 

He tried to execute the same maneuver that Miguel had accomplished. It didn’t work for him. Travis stretched his leg to its limit and Justin reached as far as he could to give him more slack.
 

“Just take my hand,” Miguel said. “I can haul you up.” He reached out from the other side. They brushed fingers a couple of times before they closed their grip. As soon as Travis tried to pull, Miguel realized that he was over balanced. He didn’t have enough to pull on to get them both to safety.
 

“You’re pulling me down,” Miguel said between clenched teeth.

Travis relinquished his grip on the wall and dedicated both hands to holding onto Miguel.
 

Miguel grunted with the effort.

“I’ll boost you,” Justin said.

When Justin grabbed ahold of Travis’s leg, Travis yelled, “Hey! Get off.”
 

Justin shoved. With the extra momentum, Miguel was able to fall backwards, pulling Travis to the unbroken part of the ledge. Travis hauled Miguel back up to his feet.

“You stay there,” Miguel said to Justin. “We’ll go make sure help is coming. Maybe we can get some ropes from one of the other bags.”

Justin shook his head. “No way. I’m going to jump.”

“Don’t jump,” Travis said. “You’ll just hit the corner. You don’t have a straight shot.”

“Then you guys can catch me,” Justin said.

“No man,” Miguel said. “Seriously. It’s not worth it. Wait there, where you’re safe.”

“Safe? What makes you think I’m safe. I probably only have an hour of light left,” Justin said. “If they’ve gone to get help, then you’re not going to have any ropes until Joy gets back with the Jeep.”

“She’s smart,” Travis said. “She probably left somebody behind with the gear in case we got out, you know?”

“I’m going to jump,” Justin said.

“No!” Miguel said. “We’re going. Don’t jump. We won’t catch you.”

“You guys are assholes. At least give me a flashlight,” Justin said. He waited and watched their lights turn towards each other. They whispered something between them before Travis turned so Miguel could dig in the bag.

“Here,” Miguel said. He tossed something and tracked it with his light. As the object came down, Miguel’s light shone in Justin’s eyes and he barely caught it. It was a candle.
 

“Heads up,” Miguel said.

Justin looked up in time to see a small box of matches flipping through the air. He caught that with one hand.
 

“Thanks a lot,” Justin said.

“The flashlight would probably only last an hour. A candle will go a lot longer,” Miguel said. “Besides, we can’t use a candle when we’re walking, but you’re staying in one place.”

“Yeah,” Justin said, frowning. “Thanks.” He turned away from the crack and began to walk towards the middle of the cave.

R
OGER
LOOKED
AT
THE
floor. He swept his light up to the wall and then across the ceiling. There was nothing to indicate anyone had been there. He had heard a woman’s voice. Hell, he had heard a conversation and saw the lights. Then, nothing. Where could the people have gone?

It didn’t make any sense.

Roger covered his mouth with his hand and spoke to himself as he thought.

“Hallucination. Dream. Ghosts,” he mumbled. “Three possibilities. Four if I allow that someone could be fucking with me. But how?”

He pointed his light down the tunnel one way and then the other.
 

“Straight tunnels in a grid. If it were a mine, wouldn’t they follow the ore? Wouldn’t there be big sections carved away to dig up the good stuff? What were they doing here?”

He walked a few paces.

“Does it matter? I have to get out. I’ve got nothing.”

He patted his pockets. That assessment wasn’t exactly true. He began to pull things out. He had the cards he had made for the numbers. He had the original sheet of paper from Dr. Deb. He also had some matches, his house key, and his wallet. That had been a debate with himself at home—should he bring his wallet to a mine? Since he didn’t have anything of real value in it, he had decided on yes.

At the moment, the cards and the paper seemed most useful. They were white and very visible against the rocks, and they were disposable.

He began to walk back towards the last intersection he had found.
 

Roger looked at his cards for a moment while he devised a plan. He would mark where he had come from with a tiny corner of paper. He would place it on the right wall, one foot in from the intersection. He nodded and considered the idea in reverse. To track backwards, he would simply examine the right wall of every option and then take the tunnel with the paper. It might not help him find his way out, but it would stop him from walking in circles.

First, he needed a starting point. While he thought, he peeled the tape from a card.

Roger considered the problem even longer. He thought about when he and Florida had left hangman’s room. He thought about when she’d run away and how he had chased her. After replaying it in his head several times, he thought he had a pretty good grip on how it had played out.

“She ran down that one tunnel, took a left, got to the next intersection and I lost her,” he mumbled. “Then I heard the voices and saw the light. I went right and came down here.”

He marked the corner of the tunnel and tried to backtrack his route.

It looked familiar, but then again, all the tunnels looked the same.

At the next intersection, he marked it and continued on.
 

Roger’s eyes reported nothing, but the hair on the back of his neck made him pause. Against his better judgement, he reached up and shut off his headlamp. Roger blinked at the darkness and waited for his eyes to adjust. He gave up. There was nothing. He fumbled for the switch to turn his light back on. Just before his finger found the switch again, he stopped.

The glow was there. If he looked straight forward, he didn’t see it. But if he turned his head slightly to the side, his peripheral vision picked up the yellow light. Roger crept forward in the dark towards the shaft. He stopped a few feet away, when the glow was obvious. He had found the shaft to the hangman’s room.

He didn’t want to turn on his light. He didn’t want anything to draw more attention to himself.

Roger backed away. He traced his finger down the wall of the tunnel and stared at the yellow glow.

He stopped.
 

The light was changing. He blinked again.

It almost looked like a black smoke was coming down from the shaft, obscuring the light. His brain tried to make sense of what he was seeing. It tried to form the dark mass into the shape of a person, or a bat, or anything. If it was smoke, he couldn’t smell it.

Roger backed up more.
 

After a few more paces, the smoke was blotting out the yellow light.
 

Roger’s hand found the intersection. It was already marked, but he didn’t want to take the turn in the dark. That was a sure way to get lost.

Roger took a breath in slowly and turned on his light.

The tunnel looked perfectly normal in the light from his headlamp. He was too far back to see the hole in the ceiling of the tunnel, but…

“That’s perfectly normal, right?” he asked himself. A chill ran down his back. He glanced at his scrap of paper—yes, he had marked this tunnel. This tunnel was special though. It was the tunnel with the hangman’s room. He tore another dot of paper and set it next to the first. The hangman’s tunnel was double-marked. He would know it if he ever came back this direction. He was beginning to believe that coming back this direction was a very bad idea.

His light swung back upwards with his attention and he saw down the tunnel again. Something had happened. Roger was paralyzed at the sight. The tunnel was easily half as deep as it had been a second before. Either that, or his light was now refusing to penetrate the depths. Whatever the reason, Roger didn’t want to stick around to see if the phenomenon would progress.

He oriented himself and turned. He walked quickly backwards, keeping his light focused on the last intersection. When he got to the next break in the wall, he found his dot and verified that this tunnel was marked as well. He saw the flaw in his plan. He could easily tell if he’d been in a tunnel, but he didn’t know which was the next tunnel to explore.
 

“Fuck it,” he said.

He had a pretty good idea of where he’d left off. He went straight across and turned his back so he could walk forward. It took all his willpower to not look over his shoulder. Roger broke into a jog. It didn’t last long. He didn’t have the stamina to keep it up.

Another intersection and he dropped another of his breadcrumbs.

“How did Hansel and Gretel get to the gingerbread house?” Roger whispered to himself. “Didn’t some bird lead them there? Wait.” He stopped. “Yeah, a bird. And there was a bird that helped them once they escaped, too. And birds ate the breadcrumbs. That story is lousy with birds.”
 

He walked on.

A sound, like a distant release of air, stopped Roger in his tracks. He spun slowly, fearing what he might find in the tunnel behind him. It was just a normal tunnel. The rock walls looked the same as every other rock wall he’d seen. Still, there was something back there in the darkness. Even if he couldn’t see it, he could feel the presence. Roger tried to shake it out of his head. He tried to not think about the mountain of dirt and rocks above his head, keeping him from seeing daylight. There was an exit here somewhere, and he was going to find it.

He was Hansel. Gretel had run away and he hadn’t met the witch yet, but he was going to shove her in the oven and get away. That was the full extent of his plan.

Roger came to the next intersection. He left behind a breadcrumb and decided to continue straight. Eventually, if he kept heading one consistent direction, he would have to find
something
. That was the plan, at least.

There could be worse things. As far as he knew, he was still getting paid to walk around underground. For a second, he imagined himself stumbling around the tunnels in complete darkness. That might happen when the batteries in his light wore out. He had matches, but those would make a lousy light source.

The cave was too quiet. The sound of his feet shuffling across the rocks was a lonely sound. Roger started talking to himself again just so he wouldn’t have to listen to his own feet.