Chapter 16

Chapter 16

“Keep moving and take the path that brings the most pain.” Red said, it was the third clue.

“We’re going to have to go through the head room Katie.” I told her.

“That’s a nice name for it.” She said.

“Common Katie.”

“Brady, I can’t.” she said.

“Look Katie there are two other tunnels on the other side, you have to come with us.”

“I-I can’t.” she said again.

“Fine, we’ll leave you here with you buddy.” I gestured to the skeleton.

“You’re a rat.” She said.

“Come on.” I told her.

            We all stepped into the minefield of heads and bones. I was thoroughly disgusted with this and Katie was freaking out. You could hear her whimpering form anywhere in the room. It was too dark to see anything and by trying to duck down to avoid the heads I tripped over one of the skeletons and fell onto another completely shattering it. Amongst all the bones all I could do was squeak.

“That desperate for friends Brady?” Katie said. Even though she was freaked out from the corps’.

            Scott chuckled, but in one moment of distraction he tripped over a different set of bones and fell.

            Katie laughed.

“Oh geeze!” Scott shouted he jumped up and hit his head on some of the others that were dangling from the ceiling. Red helped me up and we all tried to avoid the mess of bone and white as best we could.

“Which way do we go?” I asked.

“Most pain.” Red mumbled.

“Down this way!” someone shouted from the other end of the room.

“Good, we got to catch them, they have the map.” Davri said.

            Katie walked into one of the left tunnel tripping over something and fell. 3 darts flew from one side of the tunnel to the other.

“If those would have hit her she would have gotten hurt.” I said.

“Most pain let’s go.” Scott said quickly. He handed me his flashlight and helped Katie up.

“Hurry!” Davri shouted.

“Brady!” Scott said.

            I took the chance and threw the flashlight into the other tunnel, “Turn your flashlights off, to lead them off.” I told them. They did so and we walked quickly down the other tunnel trying carefully to avoid rocks that we could trip over, after a couple of seconds we heard the horrified shouts from behind us.

            We would have gone farther walking without the light from our flashlights but whoever was in front tripped so we turned them back on and walked slower and deeper into the tunnel. Soon jagged rocks formed from the ceiling becoming longer and longer until they reached the ground. This made the once large tunnel become smaller and smaller until we all had to walk single-file while the stalagmites grew short again.

            The cave was pitch black and the light from our flashlights could only reach so far. Sooner or later the battery would burn out leaving us in a tunnel that would seem never ending. There was also the possibility of another booby trap like the one Katie had stepped into.

            While the cave seemed scary it could also be quite beautiful. Dark green vines grew from the floor twirling and wrapping around the other vines with leaves sprouting from the long chords of vine. The cave was cold and damp, it seemed almost romantic if we weren’t on the run.

            We came to another division in the path. Standing before the wall of rock was a carving. It showed a man standing tall and proud, he pointed his finger to the right. In his other hand was a chain that shackled his slave. The slave was on his knees and his fingers were pointed inwardly as if the fingers pointed left.

            I took out the map and read the third line, “El dedo que senala el camino se tenira, what would that mean?”

“Um hold up.” Katie flipped through her book once again, “The finger that points the way will be stained.” She said.

“So we go right.” Scott said.

“No, the finger will be stained.” I told him, “You know, black people are like…Stained.”

“So left.” Red said, he and Scott led the way while Katie and I followed behind them.

“I don’t see why people would call them stained.” Katie said. She shivered and clutched her shoulder in the cold.

“Well, there was this whole big Greek story about it.”

“Wanna tell me? We got time.”

“Okay well before there we’re any black people there were white people.”

“Well obviously.” She said.

“There was a man named Samsung and he was in love with the most beautiful woman in the world, her name was Jessica. But Jessica had a problem, she never knew if she was really beautiful or not, and no matter how much Samsung told her how gorgeous she was Jessica never believed him. So Samsung sold everything he owned down to the every own clothes on his back to buy Jessica a silver mirror.

 When he presented Jessica with the silver handheld mirror, she fell instantly in love with herself. The only problem was, was that she thought she was too beautiful for any man, so she sent Samsung away.”

“That’s why you don’t trust gals.” Scott said, I looked at him and chuckled.

“That night Samsung cried and cried until his white skin washed away turning his skin black. From then on he had to work harder than any other man had ever done. People started to stop paying him taking his black skin as a sign of the devil. Eventually he did get married and have kids that were branded with his same skin.”

“You believe that?” Katie asked.

“Nope, I only heard that from somewheres.”

“Mmm.” She smiled.

We continued walking through the cave.

“Siga el conejo por el agujero.” I said.

“Next clue?” Red asked.

“Yup.”

“It says to follow the rabbit down the hole.” Katie said.

“Do we go down a hole?” Scott asked.

“No I think whoever hid what we’re looking for is a little too smart for a hole.” I said.

            We walked growing wearier by the second. Our feet kicked up dirt as they dragged across the dusty floor. As the dirt settled I saw tiny rabbits that hopped along the bottom of the cave wall.

“Look there.” I pointed to the tiny white rabbits.

“Follow the rabbit.” Katie said. We walked along the wall following the bunnies.

            We picked up our speed almost missing the rabbit that stopped at a black patch on the wall.

“What’s the next clue?” Red asked.

“Caminar por el lado de la pared.” I said.

“Walk up the side of the wall.” Katie said slowly as if saying it slower would make it easier to understand.

“Alright.” Scott said.

            Katie kneeled down by the hole and scratched the black patch with little black flecks coming loose and falling to the floor. She got on her back and started kicking the wall, after a few kicks the wall started to crack. Scott, Red, and I stood there watching Katie show off her power skill. With one final kick, the wall fell through in huge crumbling rocks. There was a small crawling space.

“Guess we crawl now.” Scott said.

“I never want to hear another word about how feeble I am.” She said.

            Katie went in first followed by Red, then me, with Scott behind me. Soon the crawl space became too narrow and Katie couldn’t go any farther.

“It’s only a little farther I can almost fit my arms and head out.” Katie said.

“I can hear water.” Red said.

“So? We’re all stuck unless Katie can squeeze through.” Scott said.

“Push me.” Katie said.

“What?”

“Look, you push my feet while I try to pull myself out with my arms.”

“This is ridiculous.” Scott murmured, I laughed because it was mostly true.

            Katie stuck her arms through the tiny hole, “Okay.”

            Red began to push on her shoes, she slowly slipped through but her shirt got caught on the edges. Katie finally fell through falling to the ground on the other side.

“How far down?” I asked her.

“Only about 5 foot, it didn’t hurt as much as the first time.”

            Once we were all out (with our matching ripped shirts) we headed for the water since our next clue was ‘follow the river that dives, then climb.’ Since a diving river usually meant a waterfall, that’s what we needed to get to.

            The running water echoed through the huge cavern making it harder and harder to find our way to the river. We kept it quiet for no reason, it just felt like it needed to be that way.

“Hey, the walls are wet.” Katie said.

            I looked at the shiny walls and put my hand to it. Cool water more than happily gushed across my fingers, “We’re close.”

“There!” Scott shouted, under an arch we saw a river rushing across rapidly.

“Yes!” Katie cried.

            We ran to the river and just watched it flow. I looked to it’s since of direction seeing no dive. It was probably a little ways away.

            I started to walk down the slippery rock way, “Common but don’t slip.” I said to them.

            I heard a splash and I turned around. Katie and Scott stood at the edge of the water, I looked in and saw an irregular splashing wash past me.

“Hey Brady, guess he wanted to go for a swim!” Scott called to me over the rush of the water.

“I’m sold!” Katie called. And she jumped into the water following Red.

“Let’s go!” Scott said. He jumped into the water splashing a third cold spray onto me.

            I jumped into the freezing cold water after Scott swam past me. The water swept me away like it did to the others. The water was deeper than I thought it would be after a few seconds my feet couldn’t touch the bottom. The river became much faster and harder to control yourself in. I tried to stay afloat, but rocks seemed to come from nowhere as did the waterfall. Soon I began to panic trying to reach the bottom of the river to pull away and swim back, but it was no use I was going to fall over.

            I looked up for a fleeting moment and saw a rock that was in my way. I tried swimming around it but I didn’t have enough time. The river’s momentum slammed me against the rock like I was a rag doll. And then I was falling into pitch blackness.

Author's Note

Tell me if I could improve please please please!