Authors: Robert Storey
‘At the bottom, on the left?’ Jason said, as he moved to Sarah’s side; both were now crouching down.
‘Yes, it’s definitely big enough to drop through. We’ll need a rope.’
‘On it,’ Jason said, and hurried away towards their camp.
After putting her socks and shoes back on Sarah didn’t have to wait long for Jason to return. Securing the short rope he gave her to a tree, Sarah lowered herself down inside, while Trish and Jason lit her way. Gaining her footing at the bottom, she withdrew her own torch and investigated the gap in the rocks. Unlike the unstable ceiling in the South African cave, the collapsed wall consisted of hard, dense stone with no signs of loose sediment. Satisfied it wasn’t going anywhere, she switched on her head torch and clambered lower, positioning herself over the hole.
‘I’m going through,’ she told them, ‘Jason, get down here and tie me off with the longer rope.’
Once secured, Sarah was soon dropping into the pitch-black fissure. With Jason ensuring she didn’t fall, Sarah helped herself move into the earth, close packed rock hemming her in on all sides. The stone around her didn’t open up again, as she’d expected, and after a few moments her feet found their way down onto a flat outcrop where water seeped in from an unknown source, soaking the area with a cold dampness. Able to scrunch down into a squat, she illuminated her surroundings. Initially she’d thought she was resting on a stone that blocked her way, but in fact it was a flat surface, the bottom of the shaft.
Immediately in front of her face the dislodged rock wall, which had fallen to wedge itself against the opposite side of the shaft at her back, angled away down to this horizontal floor, creating a triangular space that led to a letterbox shaped hole. The collapse had reduced what must have been a tunnel to this slit of an entrance, the ceiling left hanging, precariously suspended above.
‘I’m at the bottom,’ she called up. ‘I’m taking the rope off and moving in further.’
‘Be careful,’ Jason’s voice came back as she unhitched the rope.
Struggling in the limited space she pulled her shoulders round with difficulty and manoeuvred herself until she lay on her back inside the slot, the water saturating her top and clinging to her skin. The hole was so tight she had to angle her head to the side to stop her face touching the surface above. Thankfully she wasn’t claustrophobic, but even so she had to fight down that telltale sense of panic most people experienced when met with such confined quarters. The fear of not getting back out, of becoming trapped unable to move; tons of rock pinning you down, was powerful, tangible … primal. Forcing her mind to ignore such thoughts and to concentrate on the job in hand, she squirmed her way forwards an inch at a time.
After what seemed like the length of a football pitch, but in actuality was about forty feet, she broke free. Getting to her feet, she now stood in a large tunnel. From this side it was clear to see that the ceiling had subsided from its original position to create the crawl space she’d just negotiated.
Bending down, she called back to Jason. ‘I’m through, there’s a big tunnel down here!’
‘Great,’ she heard Jason say, ‘I’m coming down. Trish is staying up top to keep an eye on our gear.’
‘How are you with really tight spaces?’ she said.
‘Fine,’ came the response.
Ten minutes later Jason was scrambling up alongside her. ‘You weren’t kidding about tight space. I thought I was gonna get stuck at one point.’
‘That’s all this paunch,’ she said, giving his stomach a pat.
Jason looked down at his waist with an aggrieved expression.
Sarah laughed and slapped him on the arm. ‘Come on, fatty, let’s take a look around.’
‘Fatty?!’ he squawked, making Sarah laugh even harder.
Increasing the power of her torch she noted the tunnel’s high ceiling and the deep cracks throughout its structure. Water dripped in from above, trickling down the walls.
‘It goes on for quite a way,’ she said, her voice echoing slightly, ‘and it looks like it slopes down near the end, too.’
Moving down the passage with Jason at her back, she clambered past a large chunk of rock which had fallen from the ceiling. As they made their way along, Sarah noticed the uneven surfaces of the walls altering, becoming smoother. The layers of different types of rock could still be identified, but they’d been rubbed down and polished. A lot of effort had gone into its construction.
As they reached the slope, the tunnel took a sharp downwards turn to the left and, after angling the torch, it was apparent they needed to watch their step to keep from slipping over, as the surface glistened with a thin film of flowing water. Sarah weighed up the risks of continuing before deciding it wise to go back and get some more rope and a few supplies to aid their descent.
After all
, she thought,
who knows what lies ahead?
Retracing their steps, they made their way back through the hole and rejoined Trish, who waited anxiously for them above.
At the camp they gathered up what they needed, put on more suitable clothing, and headed to the shaft once more. This time, however, Trish followed them in.
‘I thought you were going to guard our stuff?’ Jason asked her as she dropped down beside them.
‘It’ll be fine, there’s no one around. And anyway,’ she said, grinning, ‘I can’t let you two have all the fun.’
Jason’s expression turned dubious. ‘It’s really narrow down there. I’m not sure you’ll like it.’
Trish’s smile faded. ‘You think I can’t do it? That I’m some weak little woman?’
‘Not at all,’ he said, regretting the comment. ‘I know plenty of blokes who wouldn’t want to go down there, either. It is pretty tight.’
‘Well, if your lard arse can get through, then mine can.’ She pushed past him to follow Sarah, who had by now disappeared into the hole beneath.
‘What is this?’ he said in complaint and pulled up his shirt to look at his stomach. ‘I’m not sodding fat!’
His complaints fell on deaf ears, however, as Trish had already gone down. ‘I’m not fat,’ he repeated by way of clarification. ‘I just like my food, there’s nothing wrong with that.’ Grumbling to himself, he followed the two women underground.
♦
With all three of them now in the tunnel, they quickly came to the slope where Sarah and Jason had initially turned back.
‘Hold onto this,’ Sarah said, handing them the rope and taking one end for herself. Torch in hand, she moved round the corner, splashing through the trickling stream of water, and carefully made her way down the slick incline. Shining the torch ahead, she studied the new section of passageway as it shrank into the distance. ‘It levels out, but I can’t see the end, even with this torch.’
‘That’s ten thousand lumens isn’t it?’ Trish said.
‘Yeah, it goes a long way,’ Jason told her.
‘We’d better get walking then,’ Sarah said, and motioned for them to follow her down.
After they’d regrouped, a half hour’s walk later they neared the end of the second part of the sodden tunnel, where it branched off in two directions.
‘Left or right?’ Sarah asked.
‘Left,’ Jason said.
‘Right,’ Trish replied at the same time.
‘Can you two never agree on anything?’ Sarah said, exasperated.
‘Eeny meeny it,’ Jason told her.
‘Eh?’ Sarah wondered what on earth he was going on about.
‘Bloody hell, you must know eeny meeny miny moe,’ Jason said in disbelief.
‘Even I know eeny meeny,’ Trish said, piping up from the back.
‘Look, you freaks, I don’t know what sodding eeny meeny is; we’re going left.’ Sarah moved off in that direction.
‘Freaks?’ Jason said, as he trailed along behind. ‘Coming from the person who hasn’t heard of eeny meeny, I think that’s a pot kettle black job if ever I heard one.’
As Jason chuntered on, Sarah pressed ahead, her concentration restored.
The seemingly unending tunnel continued in a shallow downward slope, and the ever-present water had steadily increased in volume and now ran around their shoes, a small stream bubbling and burbling as it made its way over a less than even surface. The waterlogged path levelled off again as it twisted and turned more and more until they eventually walked, splashing, around a corner to find themselves in an enormous expanse. A massive drop to the left drew their eyes downwards. Far below, a dark waterfall could be seen cascading into a narrow, silky black lake; its faint roar drifting up to the three explorers high above. To the right, their torches highlighted a large cavern filled with stalagmites and stalactites that sought to greet one another to form a single dripstone pillar. But what lay ahead was spectacular, the remnants of a bridge spanning a great chasm.
‘Oh, my God,’ Trish murmured in amazement as she took in the sight before them.
Sarah had to agree; it was pretty special. The structure appeared to be a good hundred metres in length by about ten wide. It almost looked like a natural formation; a quick look from one side, however, indicated otherwise. A lack of any kind of natural support hinted that some kind of fabrication was at work. No other features caught the eye except for a tantalising object glinting on the far side. Intrigued, Sarah headed straight for it.
‘Sarah, STOP!’ Trish cried out, her voice echoing around the gigantic chamber.
Sarah froze, her foot in mid-air. In her eagerness she’d let her caution slip, forgetting to watch her step. As she looked down she saw the reason for Trish’s warning, a long rift in the stone cut across her path, cleaving the bridge in two. It wasn’t that wide, perhaps a couple of metres, but considering the drop below she’d have fallen to certain death.
‘Thanks,’ Sarah said with her heart in her mouth.
Trish and Jason came to stand by her side. ‘Just watch where you’re going next time,’ Trish said, her tone stern.
‘This is starting to get interesting,’ Jason said, as he strained to see the bottom.
Trish gave him a withering look. ‘If falling down a big hole and getting dead is your idea of interesting, then you’re a bigger idiot than I thought.’
‘Guilty as charged,’ he said. ‘My motto is if you’re gonna die, it might as well be doing something you love.’
Trish humphed. ‘I’d rather do something I love and not die.’
‘Some people just want it all,’ Jason said, as if talking to himself.
Sarah ignored them as their bickering picked up again. She walked back a way and then ran at the gap, leaping across it in a single bound. As Sarah shot past them, Trish and Jason did a surprised double take.
‘Hey, wait for us!’ Jason said, but Sarah was already off to the far end of the bridge, this time with her attention firmly on the ground before her.
Sarah continued to where the end of the bridge opened out into a large plaza. In the middle a huge metal platform, five metres wide and four deep, glinted in the torchlight atop a raised dais. A weathered stone monolith stood immediately behind it and a square object attached to its front face gleamed dully as the beam from Sarah’s torch caressed its surface. In its centre was something that made her heart skip a beat: an indented circle.
Sarah mounted the platform and reached up to feel the circle with her hands. It had the same diameter as the one they’d activated on the surface.
‘Another circle device,’ Trish said as she approached. ‘If it works the same way as the other one, anyone on top will be dropped into a pit, or worse.’
‘Some kind of trap, perhaps?’ Jason said.
Sarah contemplated his suggestion. ‘I don’t think so, what would be the point? No, it must be another door like the other one, it just needs some faith to use it.’
‘Faith isn’t the word I’d use,’ Trish said, ‘and if you think I’m standing on this while it goes all funky and then vanishes, you’ve got another thing coming.’
Sarah looked over at her. ‘Trish, please. We’ve come all this way, discovered these amazing things. I won’t ask anything of you again, I swear, just this one thing, for me?’
‘That’s not fair. You know I’d do anything for you, but we don’t know what will happen, it could be dangerous, surely you must see that?’
‘Come on, Trish,’ Jason said, ‘nothing bad has happened so far. It’ll just be another tunnel or room. Imagine what we might find!’
Trish looked at them both. ‘Fine!’ she said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. ‘But only if we secure ourselves with the rope, agreed?’
‘Deal,’ Sarah said, giving her friend a hug.
Taking out the rope, Sarah quickly tied it around the stone pillar and tested her knot with a few hard tugs. Satisfied it would hold, she returned to the platform and removed her emergency climbing kit from her rucksack, handed a small belt harness to each of them and then secured the rope to these.
‘Will this hold us?’ Trish said in concern.
‘Definitely. This rope uses nano fibres; it’s the strongest stuff around. Anyway, if we stand right next to this block, it has a few handholds, we can grab onto it if the worst happens. Relax, it’ll be fine.’ Sarah gave Trish’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. ‘Are we ready?’ she asked them both as she took off her jacket and rolled up her sleeves.
‘Go for it,’ Jason said, excited.
Still uncertain, Trish hesitated. ‘I suppose.’
Sarah placed her hand in the centre of the monolith’s circle, and either side of her Trish and Jason once more grasped her bare arms.
Nothing happened at first and Sarah was about to take her hand away when she felt a small increase in temperature. ‘I think something’s happening.’
‘Damn right it is,’ Jason said. ‘Look at the floor!’
Sarah glanced down to see the metal they were standing on shimmered and rippled like liquid mercury. Dark abstract patterns formed to swirl across its surface, creating vortices which spun and eddied around their feet, as a single bright blue line ran around the edge of the metal and alongside the monolith to complete the platform’s outline. The circle’s warmth increased and the pendant on her chest grew hot.
‘I don’t like this,’ Trish said, fear creeping into her voice.
The blue glow crept in from the edges, filling the whole area with light. Sarah felt a pulsing sensation throbbing through her feet, and an audible hum grew louder and louder around them.