Day 22

[Only 9298 words to go!]

Chapter 29

[This needs to be earlier in the book, possibly right after Hugo wakes up]
“Did you take care of it?” The man asked.
Maya looked at him, “Of course I did. It was no trouble at all.”
“Does he know that he is the key to the whole thing?”
“He has no idea.”
“What about Bonanza. He could ruin everything.”
Maya considered. She didn’t know what to say for sure. “I think that he is not as bumbling as he looks, but more bumbling than he thinks.”
The man nodded. He took a sip of his coffee. His hands were cold in the morning chill. Maya pulled the collar of her jacket up around her ears, and looked around the countryside. They sat on a small hill at the north end of the refuge, looking south. So far, they had been so successful. Hugo had unwittingly shown them the way. The only thing that could go wrong now, would be if he realized it.


Chapter 30


They crawled over the breakdown for about ten yards. The rocks scraped their knees, but not too badly. As the cave opened up, they paused to let their eyes adjust to the darkness. Mandy’s headlamp shown in the darkness, but until her eyes adjusted, she could not see into the corner. Mrs. McGregor’s flashlight lit up the whole place. They sat and listened.
As their eyes became accustomed to the dark, they began to look around. Mandy could make out many foot prints in the wet soil that had blown in to the cave over the centuries. The caves in the refuge are young, they knew, relative to others like them. The last lava flow had occured within the last two centuries. The native people’s oral history told of vast flows appearing over the winter season. None of the caves, however, were in those flows, only in those older than two thousand years.
The cave had a main passage leading out of this room. Directly above it, ran a smaller tunnel, not tall enough to walk in, but one could crawl. Mandy chose to take the walking tunnel, when she noticed something like one of the symbols that they had seen on the trees carved in the rock. She looked at the upper passageway dubiously. She thought how much easier it would be to just take the lower passage and, when they didn’t find anything, turn around and head back out. Mrs. McGregor, saw the symbol also, and without a word, began climb up the gradual incline to the right of the main passageway, toward the smaller of the two.
Mandy thought that she should say something, or at least go first, but as Mrs. McGregor scrambled up to the ledge outside the upper passageway, she realized that it was she, not Mrs. McGregor who had less experience in such things. Mrs. McGregor looked down on Mandy. “It’s a bit of a reach right there.” She pointed her flashlight at a handhold so that Mandy saw it.
Mandy climbed up. At the top, they found another symbol carved in the rock this one looked similar to the one that Mandy had recognized as meaning heaven in Japanese. After looking at the photographs in the visitor center, however, she realized that they could be from anywhere. Mandy led the way into the upper passage way. The smooth floor made for easy passage; they didn’t have to struggle to crawl under the ceiling. They didn’t have to crawl more than about thirty feet when the passageway turned to the right and opened up enough that they could walk almost upright. They took care not to bump their heads. Mandy wished that she had atleast brought a hat to warn her when she was about to hit something. Mrs. McGregor had put on a stocking cap just before they had entered.
The passageway straightened out and led them gradually downward for another forty yards or so, when it split again, this time horizontally. Both passageways looked exactly the same to Mandy. She looked at the ground, hunting for footprints or any sign of which way the should go. She found a small bead of wax on the floor, but it sat right in front of the Y. She shrugged. Mrs. McGregor, meanwhile looked along the walls. “Here we are.” She pointed to a third symbol carved just inside the righthand passageway. “I think that we are getting close.”
They walked for forty more yards, then came to a blind corner. As they rounded the corner, the passageway opened up into a room ten feet hight and twenty five across. It smelled well used. All around, they could see signs of habitation. Or at least occupation. That wasn’t really it, though. It seemed more like a storeroom of sorts. In one corner, they found a pile of what looked like robes. On the cuffs, they found dark stains. Near the robes, sitting on a rock shelf, that had been brought in, sat three knives. Wine bottles, empty and full, sat in piles around the room. Two lanterns sat beside a pile of candles.
Mandy walked toward some waterproof looking boxes. She carefully opened one and found foodstuffs, mostly junkfood. She looked at Mrs. McGregor and shrugged. Someone had been here recently, but they could not tell how recently. Mandy carefully closed the lid of the box and opened her mouth to say something when Mrs. McGregor raised her hand to silence her. She put her finger to her lip and then pointed to the way that they had come. Someone was coming down the passageway after them.


Chapter 31

Hugo looked at the lanteren. He tried to see how far away the floor must be, but the light from the lantern blinded him. He thought about trying to free his other hand, but thought that he would probably fall out of the hole if he did.
Well, he thought, I guess I have to make a choice here. I can’t go back. I either have to drop the lantern and hope for the best, or I can squirm out of here and try to protect it. He felt the heat coming up his arm past the bail and decided what he must do. He looked at the underside of the hole, hoping to find someplace to hand the lantern, or grab on to so hat he could swind down. The smooth ceiling offered nothing.
He held the lantern up as high and as far from himself as he could. All was blackness. “Here goes,” he said, and slowly pitched the lantern back under his legs. He opened his eyes wide, trying to see everthing that he could before the lanteren fell, crashed to the ground, and went out.
All he could see were shadows dancing around in front of his eyes before the lanteren stopped in mid flight. It clanged against the wall. And then hung there. Hugo stared at it. He couldn’t understand what had happened: his mind refused to acknwledge that the lanteren still lit the room. The room! He quickly looked around the room expecting at any moment for the light to go out. The floor lay about six feet below the hole. He thought that probably he could wriggle free of the hole and swing down flopping his legs on the floor before having to let go. He had so feard that he would have to dive head first into the blackness, now knowing when he would hit.
And the club! It lay directly under the hole, thought it had rolled a little to the right. He felt such relief. He still couldn’t understand why he could still see. Why hadn’t the lantern gone out? He looked at it, still hanging from the hole. I should just get down and go take a look, he thought. He carefull found a handhold with his free hand under his waist and wriggled his torso until he could free his other hand. He found a hold for it as well and somersaulted free. His feet hit the floor with a thud and he fell to sitting but he was free!. He picked up the club and cradled it against his chest. I’m free! he thought.
I’m so tired, he thought. He breathed in and out, his breath coming quickly. He still sweated, though the longer he sat, the more chilled he felt. Reluctantly, he stood up and walked to the lantern. It had caught on an artificial protrusion, as though it had been put there just for that purpose. It probably has, he thought. He took the lantern from the hook and looked around the room. He didn’t see an exit. The flat floor extended to the edge of the lantern light. The walls were smooth. The only exit that he could see went through the ceiling, back the way he had come. He hung his head. He felt like crying. No, he thought. He walked around the room searching the walls for an exit. Opposite the lantern hook, he found a crack in the wall, just large enough to admit a full grown person. It had been cleverly obscured by a rock and the angle of the crack itself. He had to step down into a hole just before the crack, the angle his body and slide in sideways. He held the club in his leading hand and the lantern in the other. He had only to move this way, hugging the rock, for about ten feet before the passageway opened up and he could walk upright.
He turned a corner, and could see light ahead. The passageway opened into a huge entry room. Breakdown blocked his way, so he scrambled over the top toward the hole. He climbed a pile of breakdown thrity feet toward the hole. When he reached the top of the pile, they hole still stood out of his grasp. Ten feet above him, he could see that the sun shone and that whispy clouds had begun to form in the late morning sky. He looked around for a ladder, a way to pile the rocks higher, a stick, anything. He found nothing.
“Hey,” He called. “Hey!” He felt frantic. “Is anyone up there?”
He thought that he heard voices. “Hey! Can anyone hear me up there? I’m stuck down here.”
A face appeared over the rim of the hole. “Hugo?” a voice said. “Is that you?”
Hugo stared at the face. “Maya?” He asked.