The Cave Chapter 3

The Cave Chapter 3

 

 

Zhang Hanyue was enjoying her day before the cave-in. That night she had plans to go on another date with a man she had met recently at a restaurant. Their first date had been wonderful. He wasn’t the best looking man she had ever seen, but he was still handsome in his own unique way, broad shoulders, tall, with a gorgeous smile. He had been incredibly kind to her and she sensed a sincerity in that kindness. Many men feigned kindness to impress women; she knew and had experienced that multiple times. Jojo, however, seemed to just ooze kindness, and not just to her, but to anyone he came in contact with on their first date, warmly greeting the waitress, laughing with others at the adjoining table and even buying them a round of drinks. He just seemed genuinely nice.

 

She was a tour guide at the Taiji Cave. There was a spring in her step and a song in her voice as she rattled off the stories behind the structures in the cave. This was her second tour of the day, and was most likely to be her last. The cave didn’t draw as many tourists in the winter months. Of course, she couldn’t get off work early as they always found busy work for her until her shift was over, but at least she wouldn’t have to stay late today. Anytime she stayed late, it was never monetarily compensated.

 

She was explaining to the tour group the reasoning behind the stone benches here at the end of the “dry” section of the cave. She had no idea if the things she said were true or not, but they were taught to her in her training. She sat down on one of the benches to show that people could actually sit on them. An elderly man came over and sat down next to her. He smiled a mostly toothless smile, looking tired he gleamed back at the group, probably his family.

 

That was when the cave collapsed. With an awesome sound of furious nature, the cave just seemed to pour the contents of its ceiling onto the ground.

 

The tourists, all looking at her with anticipation, suddenly vanished. All was darkness. There weren’t any lights in this area, save one, that seemed to instantly go out. She immediately started coughing and tasted dust in her mouth. She grabbed the bottom of her sweater and put it over her mouth, but still continued to cough. It was almost a fight, getting her lungs to breathe in air was an effort.

 

The old man was coughing horribly next to her and soon he started wheezing irregularly. Still in much discomfort, she grabbed the old man’s shirt with her free hand and tried to pull it over his mouth, but it was too tight. She held her breath and used both hands to rip open the dress shirt without care of buttons and put a section over the old man’s mouth. Then she grabbed his hands and put them up to his face so that he could hold his own shirt.

 

The dust was now getting into her eyes, stinging them and making them water. She closed them tightly, hoping that she would be able to breathe again soon.

 

A few minutes passed and the old man had ceased coughing before her. The air was still thick with dust but it seemed less of an effort to breathe. She was able to open her eyes again, but it seemed to matter little, once open she only gazed on blackness.

 

 

*****

 

 

The cave-in happened fast. Tommy had only had time to back down a few steps before the massive tide of stone was upon them. It was a freak thing, really, that he and Shawn were still alive. Amidst the other rubble, a giant boulder came crashing down the stairs and was too big to continue. It lodged itself tightly into the corridor, and remained, preventing the rest of the debris from crushing them both.

 

“Holy shit,” said Shawn.

 

“Yeah…” Shawn had it correct. Tommy didn’t know what else to say. “We just got lucky.”

 

The boulder had stopped a mere three feet in front of them. Other rubble and debris was seeping around it, but the largest pieces were still small stones that bounced harmlessly down the stairway. Soon, no light shone through the small areas that the boulder hadn’t covered.

 

“I hope Vincent’s okay,” said Tommy.

 

“I’m sure he is, it looked like he had turned to the right up there. The collapse seemed to have come from directly ahead.”

 

“I don’t think we are getting out this way. How do you think the rest of the cave is?” Tommy then realized how quickly his heart was beating, he almost found it difficult to breathe. It suddenly dawned on him just how close he had come to death.

 

“I have no idea how the rest of the cave is, but listen…” Tommy did listen. He heard faint cracking and crumbling noises in the distance that echoed toward his ears from far off.

 

“Did you check your cell? I have no signal.”

 

“Me too.”

 

“It sounds like other areas of the cave are coming down. I hope we can get out.”

 

Then, Shawn spoke again, “Yeah, me too. Ya know, you were right about one thing for sure.”

 

“What’s that?”

 

“We’re not getting out this way.”

 

 

*****

 

 

Phil found himself unable to move, by that, his arm was pinned under a large boulder. He counted himself lucky to be alive. He had run when the collapse started, but not fast enough. He had used the left arm of his jacket, pressed tightly against his nose and mouth, in an attempt to not breathe in so much dust, unable to significantly pull up his shirt with only one hand at his disposal.

 

Boulders lay strewn about the inner chamber of the large entrance way, but the multi-colored lights were still shining on. He was sure that his arm was broken. The pain was sharp, bad…excruciating, but he was beginning to have the use of his brain in matters other than pain. He was partially up against the wall of the cave, his head and neck vertical, his upper back doing the bending, and the rest of his body horizontal. He knew this would already be slightly painful if his arm wasn’t crushed and lying beneath a huge stone. The back of his skull was pressed up against the stone wall. This was going to get unbearable really soon.

 

“H…hello?” he called out into the darkness. Only silence greeted him in the dust-filled air. He knew he couldn’t possibly be alone in here, but it seemed he was, at least in this section. There still could be people in other sections.

 

He made a rough guess that there was at least ten meters of rubble and stone between him and the exit. That would take a lot of time to get through. Even if this was the only area damaged in what was obviously an earthquake, it would take time. If it was a massive quake with an epicenter elsewhere and there was a lot of damage in heavily populated areas, it could take days before anyone even started bothering with a few potential survivors in some cave.

 

“Shit.”

 

 

*****

 

 

“Fucking China,” Shawn muttered.

 

“Oh, I suppose that it’s the Chinese government and Chinese people’s fault that there was an earthquake?” replied Tommy.

 

“I never had an issue with the people, except when they were supporting the government.” They were slowly making their way back to the bottom of the staircase. The area was still well-lighted and the only reason they weren’t making good time was due to the patches of rubble and small to medium sized stones that they had to make their way through.

 

“So, the government is responsible for the earthquake?”

 

“How do we even know it was an earthquake?” Shawn was tired of this. It was always the same with Tommy, defending everything about China. He usually tried to avoid bringing it up. Tommy was very bright when it came to criticizing the US government, but seemed to think that the Chinese government could do no wrong, or if they did, he and all other foreigners should be grateful to be allowed to reside in the country that liked to rip off and bully the rest of the world.

 

“What else could it possibly be? You think the Chinese government would cause a cave to collapse on its citizens for fun?”

 

“Well, I actually think they would do that, if there was the slightest thing to gain. Maybe it’s something else that they are up to.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t put anything beyond them. If there was a reason..”

 

“You’re paranoid.”

 

“Perhaps, but if there was something to gain and—“

 

The Earth shook again, and there was a loud cracking up the stairs behind them. By looking at Tommy’s face for a brief moment, he knew he was thinking the same thing: the massive boulder that had lodged behind them and prevented the entire stairway from being filled in had broken and now there was a massive amount of rubble heading straight toward them.

 

“Run!”

 

 

*****

 

 

Duoduo was scared. The crashing down of rocks in the distance echoed through the cave with monstrous ferocity. Her first instinct was to look at her mobile phone. Her first instinct in any situation was almost always to look at her phone. She knew what she would see, as she had been looking at it off and on, out of habit, the entire time that she had been in the cave. No signal.

 

Long, the dragon, grabbed her by her arm roughly and started making his way to the exit. She knew better than to oppose him. He could get violent quite quickly, seemingly having no patience whatsoever, at least with her and the other girls.

 

“You’re stupid idea to come visit this cave,” he almost snarled at her. Why did she even bother to ask him to come here? Nothing ever really went well when Long was involved.

 

“I’m sorry…” She didn’t know what else to say as he almost dragged her along at his brisk speed. “We are almost right in the middle of this section. There is a lot of change in elevation, maybe we should go back through the water area?”

 

“Keep your pig-nosed opinions to yourself,” was his reply.

 

She had been called that at school, as well, Pig Nose, Zhu Bizi. On an otherwise pretty face and body, her nose was slightly upturned, her nostrils not exactly vertical, but they might as well have been. That was the first thing she noticed every time she looked in the mirror, and that was what other people always seemed to notice about her upon meeting her. Long seemed to notice it quite often.

 

When she happened to glance at his right arm, she noticed his knife. He often carried it with him, but rarely took it out. He mostly used it for intimidation purposes. He got by on the subway in Nanjing because he always had it on his person, and only bags were checked. He had a special sheath for it,that basically was made of metal and misshapen, almost to resemble a frying pan, to hide the fact it was a knife, so that he could take it on a train. He never flew, so he didn’t need to come up with a creative way to fly with it, but could have probably just put it in his check-in baggage if he didn’t actually need it on his person in the plane.

 

Why is he carrying his knife? She wondered.

 

 

*****

 

 

The three people that were approaching Misaki seemed to be a family. Two older people, maybe in their forties or early fifties, and one younger male, perhaps in his late teens or early twenties had interrupted Misaki and her husband’s brief romantic moment. Misaki, slightly flustered and more than a little embarrassed immediately withdrew from her husband’s embrace.

 

Then, the cave shook. All five of the individuals repositioned their stances, almost instinctively, to avoid losing their balance and being thrown to the floor. Four of them looked around, wide-eyed, in anticipation of some unfortunate things to come.

 

The boy continued to look at Misaki, smiling.

 

The great noise began as stones in other parts of the cave came crashing to the ground and echoing throughout the small network of cavernous space.

 

After a time, the earth stopped shaking, the noise died down, and four of them seemed to collectively sigh in relief. Three of them looked at their mobile phones and were disappointed to see no signal for either the Chinese Intranet or for making calls.

 

Misaki said to her husband, “What was that?”

 

“It’s okay, we’re okay,” Wei said to his wife in Japanese. In Chinese he said to the newcomers, “We’re all okay, right?”

 

The woman said a brief, “Yes.” The man nodded. The boy just smiled.

 

Wei continued, “I think that we should make our way to the exit to see if we can leave that way. From this point, I think it is a bit closer than the entrance.”

 

The second shaking began some moments later. This time Misaki grabbed her husband. The shaking was less violent, and there was much less noise emanating from farther away in the cavern, but still some.

 

Misaki happened to glance at the boy. He was staring at her and no longer smiling.