The Cavern

Joe punched in that morning at 7:00am at his small job at a gift shop for the Unending Caverns attraction in Utah. He dully walked around taking inventory of the merchandise. As always, the shelves were full. Hardly a hundred people came each month of the year. He had taken the job for the summer to help pay for his college tuition. He hadn't expected a lot of business, but three weeks into the job, he had but nine customers on his shift. Still, it was nothing to complain about. He was payed six dollars an hour, and for hardly any work at all. His shift was from seven to three every day of the business week. The weekend duty was covered by another two salesmen. Joe waited and waited for hours inside the tiny shop. One or two cars dotted the parking lot that morning. One belonged to his boss. The other to some customer or debt collector, and the bike in the corner belonged to Joe.

“ I hope it isn't another debt come to collect. That will mean a cut in pay” Joe said with a dull monotone. It was true. The caverns had lost a lot of money due to the lack of tourism. So, Thom, the owner of the place, had taken out a few loans to pay for all the services required to keep the place running. Joe's fears turned out to be misplaced, the man was just one of the very few tourists who wanted to see the caverns. He doubted the tour would last long. Most of the time the tourists got bored of the unsightly caverns and cut the hour long tour short about forty-five minutes. He watched as his boss and the man descended into the caverns. An hour passed, and the two men still had not emerged from the dark caverns. Another hour, and another hour and another hour passed and Joe still had not seen hide or tail of either of them. In fact there were a few more customers waiting for their tour. About six more were waiting around the entrance.

“ Come on in” Joe said as the summer sun grew hot. The sweating tourists gladly entered the air-conditioned gift shop.

“ Where is the tour guide?” asked some lady.

“ He went down with someone else earlier, but he should be back soon” Joe said trying to save the money that the business would gain. They waited another thirty minutes, and Joe had not come back.

“ Okay, ummm, I am sorry for the delay. So I will take you on the basic tour of the caverns for half price due to the time that has passed.” said Joe. The group gladly agreed to this. Joe knew the basic tour rout and the exit fairly well, and he knew that it got dark under ground so he took a large flashlight.

“ Okay, this way” he shouted and took them all to the service lift. They all piled in and Joe hit the button that started the small electric wench that pulled the lift down to the cavern floor. Once the lift stopped moving, Joe opened the door and led the tour group down the basic rout.

The inky darkness of the caverns crept into view. Joe looked at the faces of the tourists just before they descended into the foreboding hole. They all, as one, turned their heads up to the fair blue sky and piercing light that shot in through the tiny opening of the caverns. Finally the lift screeched to an abrupt halt on the cavern floor.

" Okay people! Remember that this place is called the Endless Cavern for a reason. Stick together in a single final line and I will get us through this place without getting into too much trouble" Joe shouted in his most elaborated voice.

Joe spied a small child in the corner reaching up to touch the wall.

" Be careful!" Joe shouted. " The wall leachers might get you."

" What are wall leachers?" asked the little boy.

" Well, they attach to your skin and suck the blood right out of you!" Joe said enthusiastically.

The boy screamed and jumped back from the wall as the tour group laughed. Joe then proceeded to lead the people through the winding labyrinth of tunnels and quoted the dozen facts about the caverns.

" These caverns have been a death trap for centuries. Settlers from the east would fall into one of the pits and wander in the ink-black dark for days until they died from starvation, random accidents, dehydration, and some say the Dark dwellers live here."

" Excuse me sir, but would you like to tell us what this legend was?" said a lady somewhere in the crowd.

" Yes mam. The Dark Dwellers were supposedly humans that survived the darkness of the caverns. They were said to hunt those who fell into the caverns. They would proceed to form a dark ritual that brought a grisly end to the victim. They were boiled alive and beheaded right before dead. After the centuries these Dark Dwellers were changed into a monstrosity Large eyes, large noses, small limbs, and an intelligence that was staggering were just a few of the weapons in their arsenal of doom. They could climb up walls and their tiny limbs allowed them to skid into tiny holes and cracks in the walls. The men that fell in here were brought to insanity by the monsters before killed as I have described. The custom was that whoever got to the head and swallowed the brains of the victim was said to gain any abilities that the victim might have had. I don't know why anyone would eat a brain of a retard then" Joe laughed.

The crowd laughed along with him. Their laughing echoed eerily through the hallowed caverns. Joe had to wonder what had happened to his boss and the man with him. They should have run into them by now, or seen at least a sign of them. Halfway through the tour, the group found the answer to Joe questions.

" Uhg!" shouted a tourist.

" What?" Joe said.

" There is something sticky and red on the walls!" shouted the tourist.

" Let me have a look." said Joe.

Joe walked over to where the tourist was standing and felt along the walls. As the tourist said, his hand came away sticky and slightly red. Joe flipped on his flashlight and pointed it at the wall. The wall was oozing with red. Joe lifted his eyes to see the source. There was his boss, impaled on a stalagmite. He stood mouth agape below his boss's corpse. A panic was starting to ripple through the crowd as they all noticed the horrible and gruesome sight.

" Don't panic!" he managed to blurt out. " Let's just head for the exit as fast as we can in an orderly fashion."

The word " orderly" wasn't an accurate term for what came next. The tourist sprinted toward the exit. They found it and as the first few made their way out into the blessed day light, the stones crumbled and collapsed onto the arched doorway. The tourists and Joe screamed at the top of their lungs at this. They didn't notice the shadow's start to move. Joe clicked on his halogen flashlight and pointed it at the ceiling. He managed to get everyone moving to where they had entered. They didn't see nor hear the silent scream as the shadows engulfed the stragglers that fell too far back. One rather heftier tourist manage to shriek before the darkness managed to grab him. The other tourists turn to see a dozen horrid creatures drooling as their fellow was dragged back. Joe managed to hold himself upright as the monsters tore straight into the tourists gut and spilled his intestines over the cave floor.

" Run!" Joe shouted.

The crowd needed no second word as they hustled their way towards the lift. All the while, they tried to help each other, but none wanted to be last in line. They had almost made it when stones fell on their heads and concussed them into unconsciousness Joe's last hazy sight was of a big eyed, and small creature lifting him above its head and carried him off.

Joe awakened to the sound of popping and sizzling. Dreaming of a barbecue, he looked up and opened his mouth to ask for another hot dog when everything came into icy clarity. He was tied to a stone pillar in front of a scalding hot spring of water. The tourists seemed to be less in number now. That was when Joe recognized what the monsters were holding. Open mouthed and their faces wearing their last expressions of pain and fright on their faces, the heads of the dead men and women and, in some cases children, were being cuddled by these creatures.

" Oh my God, they're real." Joe whispered in horror. He tried to remember back to the stories to see if they had any weakness, but his thoughts were interrupted as he was picked up and carried over to the pool. He screamed and kicked, and he was lucky enough to get free. He ran back to the pillars and managed to slice through the ropes of a few of the prisoners with his pocket knife. They all scattered into the deadly tunnels. Joe fought his way against the stones until he saw light. One of the faster creatures managed to grab him as he just made it out and bit into Joe's leg. Joe reached down and pulled the creature off and sliced through its throat. Joe ran into the daylight to find police and ambulances ready. Some of the prisoners had made it out and told their story to the officials, but weren't believed until Joe jumped out with one on his leg.

" Don't worry son, this place is rigged to blow in one minute. Those blasted things will be in pieces before evening." said one of the cops.

Joe's mind felt numb as he heard the explosion. Joe went to therapy for three months and returned to his life. He was able to forget the things that had happened in the cavern,but there was something bothering him. The endless caverns weren't named for their length. They were actually very short, but the thing was. That the caverns were never forgotten They would flow you forever. Joe scratched the scar on his ankle from the bite of the savage. The doctors said it was permanent, but nothing to worry about. They had even found a tooth in it! Joe kept that thing in his drawer ever since. Not as a memento, but as a way to lose it. He never forgot where it was though. Every now and then, Joe thought he caught a glimpse of those horrid shadows again, but he dismissed them to his wild imagination. Joe went to his room after a long day of college. He had several test to study for, but he decided to crash for a few hours. Around midnight, Joe heard a tapping on his window. He thought it was a branch, but the sound persisted. he looked over and saw a savage in the window. His eyes widened as the thing opened the window. It came up close to him and spoke in a raspy voice.

" Hey kid. I need my tooth back."

Reviews

[Celeste]

Hey there! This was actually an interesting read. But you could improve in some cases:
- "Run!!!!" Joe shouted." Try to just stick with just one exclamation point. And since you've been using the word 'shouted' a few times already, another word choice would be nice.
- You have a lot of run-on sentences. Though I think you just forgot to put periods there (especially in the last paragraph).
- "John scratched the scar on his ankle from..." Maybe you meant Joe instead of John?
- "...but the thing was. That the caverns..." Take out the period and replace it with a comma. Continue the sentence.

Okay. Aside from those little mistakes, I enjoyed reading your story! I personally liked the whole Dark Dweller thing. The ending was really nice, too!