‘Where, and when will we hide it?’ asked Brain.
‘I’ll think of that when we get to it.’
As if it’d been waiting for the souls to leave, the cavern began to rumble once more. Taking Pony by the hand, I pulled her back to the tunnel we’d come out of hours earlier. The cave floor was shaking under our feet, and small cracks had begun to show on the roof. At first, I could feel gravel and sand falling from the roof to rest in my hair. Suddenly small rocks began to fall, and my head started to sting from their impact. I knew things were getting really bad when I heard a thud on the ground as a larger rock fell.
‘Run!’ I yelled.’ C’mon Dog the caves collapsing.’
Dog ran past, while I pulled Pony along with me. We heard the sound of large rocks collapsing in the cavern behind us, sealing off our pathway back. It was a long run. Small rocks and dust kept falling from the roof, and I just wanted to make it out of the tunnel alive, but as we neared its end, our feet began to splash in the water from the river.
Wading into the cavern with the last two tunnels, we were waist deep in overflow from the river. Dog was swimming. No decision was necessary. With only one tunnel left, we waded to the one Dog had swum to, the river was pouring in, and the only other tunnel led back to the river. It would’ve already been filled with water.
‘Get in Pony,’ I yelled over the thundering noise of the cave, and the gush of the rushing water. Holding the amphora tight to my chest with one hand I pushed Pony into the tunnel behind Dog. I was about to wade through when a load bearing rock fell from above the archway and snapped my arm in two. My hand fell limp, and I lost Pony’s hand as more rocks fell. I became separated from the others.
An unearthly scream escaped my lips as pain coursed through my body. I could hear Pony’s wailing from the other side of the rocks as the arch finished collapsing. I almost drowned trying to fight the pain from my break. I was treading water when I heard Pony, who hadn’t moved on, wailing from behind the rocks. I knew I was going to have to yell again, even though every breath I took, sent sharp stabbing pains through my body.
‘Get out Pony,’ I shouted. ‘I’m okay. I’ll get out through the river.’
‘Jo,’ Pony screamed. Then I heard Dog barking.
‘Get Pony out Dog,’ I called while holding my arm at the break. ‘I’ve got another exit. Get her out.’
I couldn’t see shit!
The pain was so bad; I was just glad the river water was cold. It helped to keep me from passing out. I felt along the length of my arm and could feel jagged bone sticking out through my skin.
‘Farrrk!’ I yelled. ‘You’re going to take a bit longer to heal.’
I could still hear Pony’s cries, but they were moving further away. There was only one option if I was going to get out, the snake-infested river… not that there weren’t any snakes swimming with me while waiting for my arm to heal because I knew there were. I’d just learned to adapt in the past few hours… I’m nothing if not adaptable they’ll one day put on my headstone.
‘Headstone?’ Brain laughed then went quiet again.
The cavern kept filling. I was treading water, and my head had begun to smack against the roof. By the time I took hold of the top of the archway to the last tunnel, I was sure drowning was in my future.
Or snake bite.
I hadn’t seen any spiders yet, but was sure they’d be there trying to get out somewhere. I was hoping I’d make it through the tunnel alive but supposed I’d float to the top eventually. I hoped that the rocks on the other side would still have a small opening in them, too small for the water to rush out, but big enough for me to squeeze through.
What’d ya reckon?
Yeah! Shit creek comes to mind for me too.
Descent
I was waiting for my arm to heal, and the pain was unbearable. Every time I moved my feet to tread water, pain sparked through my body, wrenching another earth-shattering scream from me. I was just glad I couldn’t hear Pony anymore. I held tight to the amphora with my good arm, as the cavern filled with water.
Breathing was about to become a problem, and the pain in my head from smacking against the roof in a rhythmic pattern, had become the only thing keeping my mind off the break. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally felt the bone bend back to meet the other half. That hurt! Then they knitted together and, my skin closed around the break, it felt like a long zip, zipping from my elbow to my hand.
The water had just reached the roof, and there wasn’t much air left in the cavern. With the pain gone, I gave my hand a few good squeezes, then tilted my head back to take one last deep breath against the cave roof. Ready or not it didn’t matter. I had to make my move through the tunnel. Pushing myself under the water, I began my swim… to somewhere.
If I’d drowned in the small cavern, I wouldn’t have been able to propel myself down the short tunnel. I just hoped it led to the river. The one thing I hadn’t calculated on was the tunnel completely bypassing it altogether. My head smacked against a large rock pile, and I was able to come up for air a short distance from the cavern.
‘At least I didn’t die that time, Brain.’
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘at least we did not die.’
‘Yeah, sorry about that. We.’
I couldn’t see a thing, but knew there must’ve been a hole somewhere because I could hear water rushing down the other side of the rocks.
‘What the hell!’ I screamed as something brushed against my stomach.
Feeling along the rocks, and keeping my face against the roof of the cave for air, I began looking for an escape from whatever was in the water with me… snakes and spiders… Unsure of where I was going, I knew it was further into the caves, and not out of them. The souls from the banshee’s vesture had shown me there was another exit deep in the system, but I had no idea if it’d already collapsed.
‘There!’ I proclaimed as if I’d found the lost treasure, and not a gap in a rock pile that was going to take me to god knows where… and I’m not talking about Ann.
Scrambling into the hole, I desperately tried to get away from the creepy crawlies floating and swimming around with me, also attempting escape. It was interesting to say the least; knowing they were there, even though I couldn’t see them.
Terrifying ordeal comes to mind.
‘I wonder where they came from?’ Brain asked.
I thought for a minute, as I finally pulled myself out of the water to sit on what felt like the thin lip of a great precipice.
‘I don’t know!’ I said.
‘Those snakes would’ve been coming from dry land, and the spiders, they could’ve dropped from the roof,’ I was thinking, just as the precarious pile of rocks crumbled beneath my weight.
Then the next thing I knew, I was sliding on flowing water and gravel, down a steep rock face on my back, holding tight to the amphora as I travelled at some speed. The rock was smooth and wet. The cave was dark, and I could find nothing to grab hold of on my descent into what I could only think would be Hell. It took a long time to reach the bottom, longer than it took me to swim there.
I started to slide through sharp bones and the further I slid, the more they sliced into my flesh. Just when I thought it was never going to come to an end, I came to an abrupt stop. The heels of my shoes had hooked on something, and although my feet had stopped, my arse hadn’t. It kept sliding until it smacked up against my heels, and I became airborne once again.
Flying through the air, I knew nothing good was going to come from it, as a familiar smell reach my nasal passages. The amphora and I splash landed in either the same body fluid pool as earlier or a different one.
Does it really matter? I was still in a pool of body fluids.
My nasal passages may have suffered more than a little desensitisation, but my chuck chundering effect was still working wonderfully… thank you for asking.
Swimming in fluids using one hand, which granted, had diluted a little due to the overflow from the
river, I continuously projectile vomited while looking for land. I also knew I was swimming with snakes. They were rubbing against my legs, and I consoled myself with the fact that I was immortal.
‘If they did bite me, I’d come back again,’ I thought. It didn’t make me feel any better, but it kept me from panicking too much.
‘What if you drop the amphora in the fluids when you die?’ asked Brain. ‘Will you dive into the pool looking for it?’
Ignoring the horrible possible future Brain had graphically etched into my mind, I thankfully came across a few protruding rocks to rest against, between my searches for land.
‘Use your head,’ said Brain. ‘It usually finds land before you do.’
‘You know, Brain, if you have nothing constructive to offer… shut up!’
‘Oh God!’ I thought, throwing up again.
Brain had distracted me, and I’d opened my mouth to take a breath, but had lost my rhythm. Instead of swallowing air, I swallowed body fluids. He wasn’t completely wrong though, while I was swimming around and throwing up, my head did hit land… or rock… which as far as I was concerned was land, down in the caves.
Placing the amphora on the edge, I held to the side while trying to stop myself throwing up. Feeling around, I found a rock strong enough to pull myself out.
Keeping one hand close to the amphora, I almost knocked it into the water.
‘Fuck!’ I said out of panic as I recalled Brains earlier comment as I pushed the amphora back from the edge as far as I could.
I finally pulled myself from the water when, once I was seated, a strange sound caught my attention. Quietly sitting in the dark with the amphora securely back on my lap, I brought my knees-up to my chest to protect it. Wrapping my arms around them, it was a hope they could act as a buffer for whatever was coming at me. It also muffled the sound of the pounding of my heart.
‘Snakes or spiders?’ I was thinking to myself. ‘What else lives in caves, and is social media right, and every critter I encounter in Australia will kill me? Damn it for being the last video to come through my feed.’
‘Stop panicking Josephine,’ said Brain. ‘Social media is not always right, and I do recall we also watched a video, which said people in high paying corporate positions are psychopaths. Are you a psychopath?’
‘Good point Brain! And never say that again, okay?’
As if from a distance I could hear slithering, then realised it wasn’t from a distance at all, the water only made it sound like it was. I knew what was coming, and the noise of it grew louder, closer, nearer. First, water from the river began to gush down the rock I’d slid down on, but it wasn’t the water I could hear, it was the snakes that’d been caught up in the overflow.
Frozen to the spot, I heard them as they started to hit the pool. There were hundreds of splashes with more slithering bodies flowing down around me. I was so busy listening to the horrific sounds of their splash, I wasn’t prepared for what was to follow.
They began to bump into me, slither over me, under me and around me.
‘They must be biological weapons!’ I shrieked while looking skywards.
I was too terrified for words and could have called on something to help, but unless I could materialise hundreds of snake handlers, I had no idea what I could call that would make them stop.
‘I could call for a light,’ I thought but knew seeing the snakes would’ve been worse. I didn’t know how long they’d been flowing down that rock, but it seemed like forever. I’d been holding my knees to my chest for so long; I wasn’t quite sure if I could unfold myself again.
A sudden guttural groan escaped from the depths of the cave, and the ground I was sitting on began to shake. It was time to move, but move to where? Closing my eyes, I searched my mind for the schematics the souls had shown me. From what I could recall, I had to go deeper in, before I could climb out.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said with a bit of a whimper, feeling utterly pathetic, ‘but could you please send me three souls to light my way so I can make my way through the snakes?’
Boom! Suddenly the cave lit up, and three souls were sitting on my right shoulder.
‘Thank you,’ I said with a calming sigh. ‘I don’t need you to stay for long. I just need to get a good look around, so I can use the map the souls of the banshee showed me, to find my way out.’
‘It’s all right Andoré. We can look for the next path to your journey’s end. Hold tight to the amphora,’ the souls said, as they flew off in different directions.
I was able to get a good look at my surroundings. A shudder ran up my spine when I saw the pool of fluids was just one large snake pit. There was something else that caught my eye. It looked like a stalactite, but it was moving.
‘What is that?’ I thought as I stood up and carefully walked to what looked like a rock, hanging from the roof of the cave.
‘What is that?’ I asked again as I approached the odd-looking stalactite. Placing my right index finger on it, I ran it down a little, and the rock began to crumble beneath my touch. Pulling my finger back as if it’d been bitten, I moved in for a closer look.
‘That’s not rock,’ I was thinking. ‘It’s dirt. How odd. Probably a tree root.’
As I turned to walk away, something caught my eye, so I looked back. I moved closer to get a better look, and my eyes were probably an inch from it when the souls returned.
‘What?’ I asked as they all spoke at the same time. Looking at my shoulder where they were sitting, one said loud and clear, ‘Ants!’
Looking back at the stalactite, I saw the earth had begun to crumble, and thousands of ants began falling at my feet.
‘This way,’ called the souls, and I followed their light down a tunnel, away from the ants… and by extension… the snakes!
‘Where does this go?’ I asked as I ran.
‘Away from there,’ was the unanimous reply.
‘They could be any one of my friends,’ I thought while trying to keep up.
The tunnel was long, winding, and all downhill. It wasn’t exactly what the other souls had shown me, but it was close enough. They didn’t tell me about the huge white spiders, nor, what looked like either rats or moles scurrying along the same tunnel as me. I wasn’t even sure if we had moles in Australia?
I was doing a lot of running, ducking, and sidestepping, and I didn’t think it was going to stop. Then I recalled the souls had been gone for a while when they went looking for a way out of the snake cave. Finally, the tunnel began to fan out into another large cavern. I heard a low growl as I entered, and it seemed to be coming from a tunnel to the left of me. Looking around, I could see lots of different arches, all leading in different directions, and it was dry.
‘We must go Andoré! You are free to continue your journey. We must return to the Rim,’ they said as they disappeared.
‘What? Why?’ I called after them, ‘but which is the tunnel out?’
They’d already left.
‘God damn it! Next time be more specific with your requests, you idiot!’ I chided myself. Alone in the dark again, I recalled seeing a fire pit in the middle of the cavern. Moving through the darkness in that direction, I eventually kicked my open-toed lace-up into it.
‘Ouch!’
‘Can you see anything to light a fire with?’ I asked Brain.
‘I hate being the bearer of bad tidings Josephine, but surely you know by now if you cannot see something, neither can I.’
‘Then what about a little moral support! Do ya think you could manage that?’ I asked. I wasn’t feeling very charitable at that moment.
‘Why not just call for a fire?’ Brain quipped.
‘What, you mean like the lance and the club?’
‘Yes Josephine, that is what I mean,’ said Brain, who obviously thought he was the size of a planet, and I had him parking automobiles.
‘Okay, I will,’ I said to prove him wrong more than anything else, thinking he was a bloody sook.
‘I’d
like a fire to light the room,’ I commanded, pointing my index finger at the fire pit, ‘there.’
All of a sudden a small fire began to build from the coals, and as it grew, I was able to see the room again. I could’ve thanked Brain, but I wasn’t ready to be humble.
With the cavern lit up, I saw nine tunnels leading from it. The water hadn’t reached yet, so there was thick fine dust covering the floor. The cavern looked unused, and my shoes had left deep impressions in the dust. While checking my footprints, I noticed other footprints in the dust… animal footprints, then I again heard a low growl from one of the tunnels. Looking around to work out which one, my eyes were drawn to the second from the end, on my left.
‘We’re not going down that tunnel, Brain unless I’ve tried out all the others first.’
‘As you wish, Josephine.’
I stood around the fire for a little while trying to dry off as best I could. My eyes darted from one tunnel to the next as if I thought they could see through walls…
‘Do I have that ability Brain?’ I asked with hope in my voice.
‘No,’ is all he said.
Trying to figure out which tunnel to take to get out, wasn’t an easy task. I heard the sound of rockfall, but it was further away from where I was. Suddenly there was a loud noise, and the ground beneath my feet shook.
Holding tight to the amphora, I was certain the caves I’d escaped from had just collapsed. I was so glad I’d called the souls when I did, because I had no idea how my immortality would work if I’d been trapped under an entire mountain of rock.
‘Let us not go there again,’ said Brain as if he’d been there before. I was going to ask him what he meant when a rush of wind and gravel shot out from the tunnel I’d used to get to the cavern.
I watched as the flames of the fire, burning without wood, almost went out when the dust from the floor flew through the air. Believing I was safe again… well as safe as I could be in a system of caves that were collapsing, I started to think about trying each of the tunnels for my escape route.
It was only a matter of time before the cavern I was in would collapse as well. Without any warning, the sand beneath my feet began to sink. Looking down, I saw water was seeping into the cavern from the tunnel that’d collapsed.
Josephine Marlin and The Alternatives Page 24
