CHAPTER 2 - INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

The cave interior looked like the mouth of a fossilized leviathan, the ceiling filled with a jaw of stalactites. The ground was rocky but smooth and moist from the shallow stream running through the center of it, making it slippery and impossible to run on. Still, they moved as fast as they could. 

“You lead the way now.” Amy said moving right behind Mr Chevalier.

“Ok. There will be a bifurcation ahead. We take the right one.” he said, panting while staring at his phone. 

He has never been this tired in his entire life, but at least he took a break from the unbearable heat of the forest. The temperature dropped a lot inside the cave and the deeper they ventured into it, the cooler it became. It would be a nice place to rest if there wasn’t a drunk man with a loaded gun chasing right behind them.

“Hey you two!” the brute shouted from a distance. “Stop! You can’t be here!”

The cave carried the echoed warning from the man all the way to their ears, giving them an increased sense of urgency. 

“Here!” Mr Chevalier said, pointing at the right tunnel.

The ceiling dropped and the tunnel descended at a dangerous inclination with part of the stream water still flowing into it. If it wasn’t for the rocky surface it would look like a big water slide. A big and dark water slide. There was almost no sunlight down there anymore, making this descent even more perilous.

Mr Chevalier opened his backpack and removed two headlamps from it, giving one to Amy.

“I came prepared,” he said, winking at her. “Here. Put this on. Quick.”

They adjusted their headlamps, turned them on and illuminated their way down. As they progressed, Amy let out a stifled grunt. The ground was slippery and at the same time the smoothed out rocks could have edges as sharp as knives. And one of those had just cut a big gash on Amy’s left foot sole. 

Stopping once more, Mr Chevalier removed his shirt from his backpack, ripped it in half and used the rags to roll them around Amy’s feet, creating a small layer of protection. He then began to unlace his boots, but she stopped him.

“We need to go.” she said. “He’s gonna be here soon.”

“Well, well, well…” the brute said from the top of the tunnel. Amy and Mr Chevalier were visible thanks to their headlamps, almost twenty meters away . “I’m gonna kill the blonde guy and then take the woman with me.” he said again, with a belly laugh.

“Turn it off!” Mr Chevalier told Amy, turning his headlamp off. 

She did the same and then both disappeared in the darkness. 

“What the fuck! Where are you, little shits!?” the brute cursed. “I will kill you anyway!” he said and then shot his gun twice.

The sound of the gunshots reverberated inside the tunnel and then another sound was heard right after it. The sound of many wings flapping and creatures screeching. 

“Bats.” Mr Chevalier said. “Just cover yourself.”

Over a hundread bats were disturbed by the gunshots and flew past Amy and Mr Chevalier, who were lying on the ground with their faces covered. 

“Oh... fuck!” the brute said as the bats stormed through him. Scared of the bats, he tried to shoo them away and carelessly took a few steps forward, stepping on a slippery rocky patch and falling belly first into the stream water, his body going for a ride down the rocky water slide and zooming past both of them as he screamed in fear.

Amy and Mr Chevalier turned on their headlamps again. There was no sign of the brute but they heard a loud bump several seconds after he zoomed past them. 

“He is not screaming anymore.” Mr Chevalier said. “I think he reached the end of the tunnel and knocked himself unconscious.”

“Or worse...” Amy said. “Or should I say ‘or better’?”

They cautiously continued all the way down the tunnel until they reached a huge chamber with a high ceiling. As suspected, the drunk man hit his head on a huge stalagmite after he sped out of the tunnel and was knocked out unconscious, a small pool of blood forming around his head.

“Take his boots.” Mr Chevalier said.

Amy wasted no time and removed the man’s boots and socks. The socks had a foul stench and Amy had to look away and hold her breath while putting them on.

“Now you know how I felt with those shitty ants.” Mr Chevalier said with a laugh. He was amusing himself now that he was in his environment and Amy was the rookie following his lead.

“Ok. I’m ready.” Amy said. 

The boots were several numbers bigger than hers, but it was either that or slicing her feet open. She laced the boots as tight as possible so she wouldn’t feel clumsy walking with them.

Mr Chevalier turned on his phone again. 

“Merde…” he said.

“What is it?” Amy asked.

“Battery is down to only five percent. Hope it’s enough.” he said.

He walked around the chamber, looking in every direction and then back at his phone screen several times. He seemed lost.

“There is no way out,” he said.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Look around. There is no way out. This is a dead end.” he said, sounding a bit desperate.

“But what does the app say? Where does it tell us we have to go?” she asked.

“It shows a way up,” he said. “But there is no way up. There is no other way out of here except from where we just came.”

“Well, let’s take a closer look. Maybe we’re missing something.” she said.

They both walked slowly around the circular chamber, palming the walls and illuminating it up and down with their headlamps while looking for any clues. 

After half an hour they had circled the chamber more than a few times and Mr Chevalier decided to take a break and sat down to rest.

“Wait…”  Amy said. “Look. I think I found it!” 

Mr Chevalier jumped to his feet and walked to her side.

“Where?” he asked.

She pointed all the way up to a small hole on the wall, close to the ceiling.

“Yes. Yes! That’s it!” he said, excited. “Oh, Mon Cheri. I could kiss you right now.”

“Only if you wanna end up like our friend there.” she said, pointing the headlamp at the still unconscious drunk man.

“Can you rock climb?” he asked. “This is gonna be a difficult one. It’s very slippery. A drop from that altitude could break several bones. And if that happens, the only way out of here is if I carry you back to the miners camp. And then we’re both dead anyway.”

Amy approached the wall and tried to find places to grip on it with her hand as a test.

“I… I don’t know.” she said. “I have never done it before.”

“Alright. We’re in this together. And I need you.” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “I can’t do this without you. I really can’t. So, this is what we’re gonna do.”

He put his backpack on the ground and checked his equipment.

“Ok. This rope should be enough.” he said, showing it to her. “I will climb all the way up and then I will use this.” he said again, showing her a piece of equipment. “This is called a cam. I will slide this into a crack in the rocks, connect the rope to it and send it down to you. Ok?”

He put it all back inside his backpack and walked to the wall. It was pitch dark and he took his time shining his headlamp light on the twenty meters of wall in front of him. He carefully studied it to decide which path he was going to take and once the pathway was clear, he started to climb.

The surface was mostly smooth but had some rugged patches caused by the natural erosion of time and the concentrated deposit of minerals. Mr Chevalier plotted the safest route instead of the fastest one. It was a slow climb filled with tension and there were times Amy had to avert her eyes in agony, like when Mr Chevalier couldn’t reach the next hold by extending his arm, so he had to swing his body and make a risky jump to grab it, his whole body hanging by the grip of his fingers until he could find his next footing.

All the suspense aside, Mr Chevalier looked as good in his element as Amy was outside in the forest. Once reaching the top, he took his gear out of the backpack and found a place to put the cam. In a matter of a few minutes, Amy saw the rope being thrown down to her.

She tied the rope around her waist as instructed by Mr Chevalier and then began to climb. The first few attempts were almost discouraging as she couldn't move up an inch. Her feet kept slipping away and she couldn’t find the best way to pull herself up. With Mr Chevalier’s help, pulling the rope as she climbed, she began to make quick progress.

When she was very close to the top, she missed her footing and dropped a few meters. She shook in fear and when she looked down to try to see how far she was from the ground, the headlamp fell. There was no way she was gonna climb down there to retrieve it. So she used Mr Chevalier’s help and he illuminated the rest of her way up.

Once both were up there, they continued their journey deeper into the cave system. Since there was nowhere else to go, they decided to press forward without checking Mr Chevalier’s phone and save what’s left of its battery. 

“Merde! The rope!” he said, slapping his forehead and shaking his head in disbelief.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I forgot to get the rope. I think all the adrenaline messed with my head.” he said and turned around to go back and retrieve it.

Just as they started to walk back, they heard a loud grunt. Then a flash of light shone on their faces. The brute that was left unconscious had woken up and climbed the rope using Amy’s headlamp.

“You… fucking…” the brute said, breathing really hard. 

His forehead was wet from sweat and blood. His feet were also bleeding, since he had to climb barefoot. He looked exhausted, which Amy and Mr Chevalier saw as a window of opportunity.

“Run. Fucking run!” he said to her.

Both turned around again and ran away from the brute. Or as fast as one could move in those tunnels.

The brute pulled his gun, but his vision was blurred by the blood and sweat running down his eyes. He tried to wipe them clean with his forearm and then remembered what happened the last time he shot his gun inside one of these tunnels. Deciding to be more cautious this time, he  took a few very deep breaths and went after them.

Mr Chevalier led the way with Amy right  behind him. It was hard to properly illuminate their path with only one headlamp and moving fast didn’t make it any easier. To make things worse, Mr Chevalier’s headlamp turned off.

“Wait. Stop!” Mr Chevalier shouted, stretching his arms to prevent Amy from going past him.

He removed the headlamp and shook it. Then he slapped it a few times and it turned on again. Holding it in his hand, he pointed the headlamp to the ground in front of them. They had reached the end of the tunnel. One more step and they would have fallen into a vertical drop. He tried to illuminate far ahead and around, but it felt like the whole cave system had vanished into an infinite void. And then his headlamp failed again. He tried to turn it on, but it didn’t work. Either its batteries died or it malfunctioned.

“Putain de merde!” he said with a mix of anger and frustration, then decided to turn on his phone. Battery was down to one percent. 

Without any other source of light but the phone screen, Amy curiously stood close to him to check this phone app Mr Chevalier used so often. There was a 3D map of the cave system and the GPS marked their exact location in it. Mr Chevalier just zoomed in on the area they were in. 

“We have to climb down. It’s only a ten meters descent but that’s still high enough to seriously injure us in case of a fall.” he said.

“What is that on the ground at the end?” she said, pointing at the screen.

He touched the screen and moved the map to see what she was pointing at. 

“Looks like water,” he said. “We’re climbing down to a five meters deep pool of water.” 

“Is that deep enough for us to jump?”

“There is no way to know if the water is still there. It could all be gone by now.” 

Then the phone turned off. 

Battery was gone. 

They were in complete darkness. 

Until they saw a flash of light on their faces. The brute arrived, panting a lot. His face was painted with dirt, sweat and blood. 

“You… little… shits!” the exhausted brute said through bloodstained gritted teeth while pointing his gun at them. “Girl. Come here… step away from him.” he said again, pointing his gun at Mr Chevalier.

Amy grabbed Mr Chevalier’s phone and dropped it into the void. They both heard the sound of it hitting water. They looked at each other, nodded and jumped.

“What in the fuck?” The brute said confused and fired his gun, but the two were already gone.

Then he heard the familiar sound of many wings flapping and creatures screeching.

“Shit…” he said before he was stormed by a hundred bats. Again.