Waypoint: Cache Quest Oregon (13 page)

Lacey was standing a foot away from the cavern’s wall; she was touching the stone, trying to make sense of something. Ben walked over to her and saw that on the stone someone had engraved something. It was a drawing, it looked like it may be a replica of the map that was on the original sign at the beginning of the tunnel, but there was something different about this map, it looked as if it had been there for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.

“Do you think this is a petra glyph?” Lacey asked. She continued tracing it with her finger.

“A what?”

“A petra glyph, it’s an ancient drawing done by natives, usually trying to relay an important message.” She looked over to him; he looked back at her blankly.

“Uh, sure it could be, I guess.” He nodded. When he looked at it closer he saw that it did look almost exactly like the original map, except on this drawing one of the lines extended farther than the rest, not like the original, and at the end of that line was a drawing of the sun. The original on the outside of the cave looked similar, but it showed that all the tunnels ended shortly after they began, none of the tunnels on the original stretched as far as this was indicating. “What do you think it means?” Ben asked.

“I think it is the same map from outside, but I think this one is showing another way out.” Lacey pointed at the sun, “that is the only thing that would make sense, right?” Ben nodded, that was a good guess he thought. “So I wonder,” she looked at the drawing again, then turned and looked at the cavern. There were two tunnels taking off from the far wall. “So you think we should take the one on the right?” She asked Ben.

“Yeah, I think so.” he replied.

“Okay, so the one on the right looks like it ends, there are some small tunnels that branch off of it, but they all dead end. The tunnel on the left leads to the branching off of the tunnel that looks like it will lead us to the outside.” She moved her finger along the lines, tracing the pathway that led toward the drawing of the sun.

“Okay, but one problem,” Ben said. “What if that tunnel is blocked now, I mean this could be ancient, it might not lead to the outside anymore.”

“Well, we don’t have to go that way to get out; it will just be nice to know that there are potentially two ways out of this place.” She looked at Ben trying to relieve his concern.

“Okay, I just think we should try to go out the way we came in, ya know ‘cause at least then we know what to expect.” He turned and began walking to the tunnel on the right, Lacey followed him quickly. They weaved around tight corners and under low over hangings of rocks; in the distance they could hear water dripping. Lacey looked at all the walls, hoping she would see another petra glyph. She wondered if anyone else had seen that before, surely one of the guides knew it was there, she told herself. She noticed Ben kneeling down to tie his shoe so she went on ahead, now completely in awe of this space, as she rounded another corner the tunnel forked. As she waited for Ben she looked at the ceiling, she was amazed to see a tunnel take off above her head, with her headlamp shining up into the space above her head it almost looked like a huge skylight. There was no natural light coming in from the top, but she was amazed at how many tubes and tunnels had been created. Ben came up behind her and she motioned for him to look up, he too was amazed but continued down the tunnel that forked off to the right.

The sound of water got louder and louder, it was coming from the other side of the wall to their right, as Ben looked down to the floor he noticed that the wall didn’t connect with the floor, there was a space at the bottom of it. He took his hard hat off and lay down on the tunnel’s floor. He shined his light through the small opening at the base of the rock wall; he could see what appeared to be the base of a waterfall. It was pouring and splashing into a large pool of water. Lacey lay down next to him and peeked under, she couldn’t believe her eyes, how did a waterfall get down here? She wondered.

They stood up and continued walking down the tunnel, as their light from their headlamps illuminated the space ahead of them it appeared that the tunnel stopped. They didn’t think they could be at the end yet, they hadn’t moved far enough. As they approached what appeared to be a dead end they both began to press on the wall that blocked their path, hoping deep down that somehow this was one of those trick walls they had seen in countless movies.

“Maybe there is a special rock we have to press on or something.” Ben said.

“Or maybe something has happened and this path has been blocked, even a small earthquake could have caused enough motion for one of the walls to collapse.” Lacey said as she looked around. “Not that it wouldn’t be totally awesome if this wall did move.” She said with a laugh. She then looked at the ceiling and realized that the path didn’t end, it went up. A large tunnel opened out of the ceiling above their heads. She nudged Ben, and then heard him sigh at the thought of having to climb something. “Oh it’s not that bad.” Lacey said reassuringly.

She grabbed on to a rock that was popping out of the wall and used it to boost herself up, grabbing other small rocks she climbed about seven feet up then saw that the tunnel stretched over above the rock wall that was blocking their path, she shifted her weight then slowly moved over on top of the rock wall. She looked down and saw Ben looking up, his eyes wide with fear. “Okay Ben, did you see how I did it?” She asked. He nodded, took a deep breath then pulled himself onto the same rocks. He concentrated on his aunt who had her arms outstretched, ready to grab him as soon as he was close enough. Once he was high enough he felt her hand on his arm, she steadied him as she pulled him over to the landing on top of the wall. He slid over and sat on the top of the rock wall. He sighed deeply, and then shook the fear from his chest and shoulders. It looked as if the weight of the world had just been lifted from him, Lacey thought.

“Ready?” She asked him. He shook his head; they both stood and realized immediately that the ceiling was much lower as their hard hats cracked against it. Lacey bent down a bit, then turned, a scream started to come out of her mouth, then she quickly slapped her hand across her face to block the noise as she fell back to the ground. Ben was shocked; it took him a second to understand what he was seeing.

In front of them were thousands of little green dots, they appeared to be floating in the air, when the light was shined directly on them, it revealed that there were hundreds, if not thousands of bats hanging from the ceiling. Ben dropped to the ground next to his aunt, who was now in tears. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “We’ll just crawl a little ways until we’re away from them.” He grabbed his aunt’s hand and pulled her along the floor. They peered up every few feet, praying each time the ceiling would be black. They seemed to crawl for ages, then finally the tunnel grew taller, and the eyes slowly disappeared. They stood and both hurried along the path, both were rubbing their arms and scratching their necks, just the sight of the bats had made them itch with fear.

The air felt humid and cold, the sound of water splashing grew louder and louder. As they walked the light from their headlamps seemed to glimmer and glisten in the distance. They rounded a corner to the right and entered a huge cavern, both of their jaws dropped in amazement. There was a huge pool of crystal clear water, and a huge waterfall that seemed to come out of the ceiling, poured into it. The entire room was illuminated with an eerie green glow. The waterfall looked like an iridescent green paint, and the pool of water was a magnificent shimmering green oasis. Ben turned his headlamp off, and then motioned to Lacey to do the same. Even without their lights the room was brilliantly lit. They both looked around the cavern in awe and noticed almost simultaneously that near the top of the waterfall, almost thirty feet up, was a rock ledge, it almost glowed, the light was so intensely bright.

“That’s where the light’s coming from.” Ben said eagerly. He looked at Lacey, who was already heading over to the cavern wall. “What are you doing?”

“You know what green is, right Ben?” she asked as she analyzed the wall then tested a few rocks for handholds, finding one that seemed suitable she used all her strength and pulled herself up.

“No, what?” Ben asked.

“It’s the color of money.”

18

L
acey reached up higher and grabbed onto another piece of slippery rock that stuck out of the cave’s wall. She was half way to the top, about fifteen feet up in the air, when the rock she was using as a foothold came dislodged from the wall. Suddenly she was falling and scraping against the side of the rough wall, as she landed she and Ben heard a loud snapping noise come from her leg. She screamed in agony.

“Are you okay?” Ben ran over to her. Lacey couldn’t hold back and tears poured down her face.

“I think it’s broken!” she wailed. Ben got down on the cave floor next to her and rolled up her pant leg, sure enough there was a gross and awkward bend right in the middle of her shin.

“Yeah, um, I’m gonna say that’s broken.” He looked at her, not knowing what to do. “Let’s get out of here!” He said as he stood, he needed to find something to use to brace her leg, but there were no sticks or any straight objects in the cave. “Quick give me the cell phone, I’m gonna call 911! ”

“What? We aren’t leaving!” Lacey yelled through her tears. “We came so far, the treasure is right there and you want to leave?” anger started to take over.

“Look at your leg!” he pointed to the gross angle of her bone. “We need to get you help!”

“Look, Ben I know you’re scared to climb up there.” Lacey continued to cry.

“I’m not scared! We just need to get you out of here!” he stomped.

“Ben,” Lacey motioned for him to come back to her side, he moped as he made his way over to her, his arms were crossed and he had a look that was either anger or terror, Lacey couldn’t tell which. “Ben, ya know, it’s okay to be afraid, everyone’s afraid of something. It’s just not okay to allow that fear to control your life. Sometimes when you’re freaked out, you have to breathe deep, and take the microphone away from that voice in your head that’s telling you to be afraid. Without the microphone, that voice, that fear, its got nothing on you.” She wiped the tears from her eyes and moaned in pain. To her surprise Ben’s arms unfolded off his chest and a look of peace came over his face. He walked over to the wall, looked up to the ledge, then began pulling himself up slowly.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this, especially after seeing your nasty leg!” Ben called down to her. Lacey laughed through the tears. He was making great progress, his movements were slow and shaky, but he was moving up, and that to Lacey, was all that mattered.

Ben was almost to the top of the ledge, as he peeked over the side he saw a case that was identical to the one they had found at Devil’s Punchbowl. This case was lying open on the ledge; inside of it was a bright green neon light and a slip of paper. Ben slid onto the ledge, his stomach calmed until he looked down at his aunt.
Wow, she’s a long ways down!
He
tried to ignore his fear, but then noticed that the wall was nonexistent next to the case. It was balancing on a small bridge of slimy rock, on one side was the cavern where Lacey was sitting, and on the other side was pure darkness. Even with the neon light shining he couldn’t see the end of the vast blackness that consumed the hole on the other side of the case. He was overwhelmed with both fear and excitement. He reached into the case and picked up the slip of paper, he looked at it quickly, only seeing the word ‘Congratulations!’ then dropped it back in the case as he heard Lacey scream. Ben looked down to see a man standing behind Lacey with his hand over her mouth. With the green glow it was hard to see who the man was, but Ben decided it must be Blue Van Man.

“Let go of her!” Ben yelled. He closed the case and suddenly the room went black. As he stood he turned on his headlamp and shined it directly at the man. He shook in fear as he looked down; he tried to maintain his balance, but was having a hard time not swaying back and forth.

“Ben, you’re gonna fall, toss me the case!” The man ordered. “I’m not -” The man tried to speak but Ben cut him off.

“Yeah right! So you can steal our money!” How could this happen? Just when he had finally climbed something and they were finally done, this jerk comes back. A lump grew in his throat, but he focused in on Lacey, took a deep breath, and chose to take control of the situation.

The man began to yell, “No, you don’t -” just then Lacey took every last bit of strength she had and elbowed the man in the face. She tried to crawl away as the man bent over holding his face with both hands. He stood wiping blood from his nose, “That was a mistake!” the man yelled as he moved toward Lacey.

“Wait!” Ben yelled. “Leave her alone!” he looked at the black hole behind the case, then threatened, “Leave her alone or I’ll throw the case into the hole on the other side of the ledge!”

“But then you won’t get the money!” The man yelled back.

“Duh!” Ben shook his head at the man’s stupidity, “Yeah I won’t get the money, but neither will you! I’ll do it!” For effect Ben held the case over the black hole, he tried not to shake, but the fear was consuming him.
Breathe!
He recited in his head.

“Don’t do it Ben!” The man yelled. “Toss me the case, so you can climb down!”

Ben dropped his head, defeat seemed to overcome him. He couldn’t win this, he was thirty feet up, he had to somehow climb down, and he couldn’t hold the case and climb at the same time. Even if he could, the man would surely steal the case from them as soon as Ben was on the ground. He stared at Lacey and remembered what she had said about giving the voice of fear too much power,
Shut up!
He told the voice in his head. As he scolded himself a feeling of warmth overcame him and the weight of a hand pressed on his shoulder. He looked to his shoulder and saw the same old, crippled fingers he had seen in the lighthouse. He followed the black cloaked arm with his eyes until he met the face of the old man from the lighthouse.

“Benjamin” the man’s voice whistled through his lips.

“Yes?” Ben said with a shaky voice.

“I’ve watched you on this journey, you need to trust yourself, your strength. Sometimes in life you don’t need a G.P.S. unit, you have to trust your inner compass. It will not fail you, just as you have not failed it.” The man’s bright blue eyes shone intensly. Ben realized he knew these eyes, over and over again he had seen them and he had learned to trust them.

Lacey looked up at Ben, she could see he was in a battle with himself, and then suddenly he yelled, “Aunt Lacey! I’m sorry, but it’s not worth it, please don’t be mad at me!” Lacey’s eyes widened as she saw the case being thrown through the air, it was flying with amazing speed, and it was aimed directly at her. She covered her head with her hands, and then out of the corner of her eye saw Blue Van Man dive in front of her. The case hit him directly in the head, with a loud impacting crack. He fell to the ground unconscious.

Ben slid onto the wall from the ledge, tears running down his face, he was so overwhelmed. He almost hit his Aunt; he was aiming at the Blue Van Man, but with his uncontrolled shaking the case wound up going off course. He climbed down the wall, the fear was still there, but he knew they had to get out of this cave. With Lacey’s broken leg, it could take hours. He quickly lowered himself from rock to rock, without even realizing it he was almost at the bottom with a few feet left to go he jumped off the wall and ran over to Lacey, “See that,” he said, pointing to the man lying on the floor. “He wanted that money so bad he ended up diving for it and knocking himself out! Serves him right!” Ben glared at the unconscious body lying before him.

“Let’s take the case and get out of here.” Lacey said as she started to crawl again.

“No, I don’t want to take it.” Ben said casually. Lacey looked back at him,

“Have you gone completely insane?” She asked.

“If we take it, he’ll just keep coming after us.” he stared at her and suddenly she saw that he was terrified of this man, and just wanted this to be over.

“Is that what you really want to do, Ben?” She asked.

“I want us to stay alive; the money isn’t worth us getting hurt, or killed.” He walked over to Lacey and helped her up. He supported the side of her body with the broken leg as she hopped along next to him.

“You’re sure you don’t want the money, cause if you change your mind, I’m not coming back down her to get it!”

“There wasn’t even money in the case anyways.” Ben said.

“What do you mean?” Lacey stopped hopping for a moment and caught her breath.

“There was a slip of paper, all I had time to read was ‘congratulations,’ but for all we know, it could just be another clue.” Ben motioned for them to keep moving.

“Huh,” Lacey shook her head with disappointment, “well that sounds about right for this whole thing, doesn’t it? Ya know I bet there isn’t even money at all!” She tried to convince herself, so the disappointment would go away. As they approached the part of the tunnel that was covered with bats, suddenly the thought of the money wasn’t important anymore. They both lay on the floor; Ben helped Lacey crawl along, quiet tears poured down her cheeks, partly from the pain, mostly from the fear. They were now approaching the drop off in the tunnel. Lacey swung herself over the edge to reach the next section of tunnel, Ben held onto her arms, and she slowly slid down the wall until her good foot touched the ground. Ben let go, then slowly climbed over the edge and made his way down all the rock that protruded from the wall. They continued to hobble down the tunnel.

As they reached the large cavern that contained the beautiful stalactites Ben heard footsteps behind them. “Shoot, I think he’s coming!” He quickened his pace, trying to help Lacey as much as possible. Lacey pulled his arm and motioned for them to try the other tunnel.

“He’ll think we went the way we came in, but remember the petra glyph? There is potentially another way out, and if not then we’ll just make sure he is ahead of us. He probably just wants to get out of here before we can call the cops.” Ben looked at her with fear, and then suddenly heard loud screeches and a buzzing noise. Within seconds they could hear the man screaming, he had awoken the bats. Thousands of bats flew out of the tunnel and swarmed past Ben and Lacey. They heard the man’s screaming and footsteps get louder and saw a beam of light curve around a corner in the tunnel behind them. Ben poked his head up, checking for bats, a few still flew in the cavern, but most were flying into the tunnel that Lacey had suggested they try to escape from.

“Do you want to follow the bats?” Ben pointed.

“Well at this point, I’d say they are smarter than we are.” Lacey laughed. They turned into the tunnel that the drawing had specified could be a potential escape route; hoping it would lead them to daylight, and not just a swarm of angry bats.

Ben’s shoulder ached from supporting his aunt as they moved through the tunnel, with every hop she would moan or cry from the horrible pain in her leg. Ben slowed down then stopped completely, Lacey tried to control her crying; she was working on at least maintaining a low volume.

“Ya know what is strange?” Ben rubbed his shoulder as he looked back behind them. “That was a big guy, how do you think he fit under the crawl space? Ya know, the one that was right before the cavern, on our way in.” he looked at her and realized she didn’t have an answer.

“I don’t know…you don’t think…” She only got a few words out before Ben grabbed her arm and starting forcing her to continue moving. He looked behind them again and saw the glow of a flashlight.

After a hundred feet more Lacey’s sobs became louder and louder, the pain in her leg was just too much, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Ben,” she cried, “just leave me here, when you get outside, go get help.” She couldn’t move anymore, the pain was too intense.

“No way!” Ben moved in front of Lacey and bent over slightly, motioning for her to piggyback. She hopped forward, and then he grabbed her legs, being careful of her broken shin, and lifted her onto his back. He was moving slowly, but they were making more headway than before. She continued to cry; every movement sent a stabbing pain running up and down her leg.

They came around a sharp corner and about fifty feet ahead of them there was a sliver of light. The tunnel became very narrow; they couldn’t fit through with Lacey on Ben’s back so he carefully let her down then had her go through first. He looked behind them as they squeezed through the tight, narrow, tunnel. The light was growing behind them; the man must be right on their tail. Once through the small opening the tunnel widened and a few beams of sunlight became intensely strong. Ahead of them was a large opening, but piles of rocks blocked most of the opening. There was enough room for them to get out; it looked as if someone had recently opened the pathway. Ben supported Lacey and helped her shimmy out and over the piles of rocks. Quickly he climbed out following her.

In the distance Lacey could see a crowd of people, she turned to show Ben, but he was looking back at something. Suddenly a large hand came down on Ben’s shoulder. Lacey fell to the ground and watched in horror as Ben faced Blue Van Man. Ben yelled in pure anger, “I’m sick of this, we gave you the money!” A loud groan came out of Ben’s mouth, the man tried to speak, just as the sound was coming out of his lips, Ben spun quickly, doing a high round kick that landed directly on the man’s jaw. Once again the man collapsed.

Lacey noticed the crowd of people running over to them now, Ben turned and saw them also, he was shocked at the amount of people watching them. He helped Lacey up and again supported her as they came closer to the crowd. Ben’s mom and a tall man in a dark suit ran over to them. “Are you okay?” The man asked.