Cave Divers

The spinning of the helicopter’s propellers spread the dust of the desert in all different directions.

“Okay David” the helmet-less pilot yelled. “This is as far as I can lower the chopper, you’re gonna have to abseil down.” The pilot looked at the man in red, padded overalls dangling his legs off the side of the helicopter. David pushed himself off. Before he could hit the ground the rope attached to his harness violently jerked him from the ground and he unclipped the rope.

He stood next to a dark abyss. A ravine running along the desert stretching beyond the horizon. He was at the end of the ravine, he stared down into the gaping mouth. Nothing could be seen beyond a few metres despite the morning sun beating down on him and the desert. Static came from his pocket. He reached in and pulled out a walkie talkie.

“Now once you reach the bottom of the ravine I’ll still be able to talk to you, just make sure to keep talking to me so I know you haven’t died,” The pilot said

“Thanks, I feel much better,” David said.

He scanned the edge for where the sand turned into stone and firmly attached one end of his rope to the stone and threw the other end down into the unknown. He began his descent downwards seeing the light above slowly start to grow smaller. Soon it was pitch black with the only light source being the small torch hooked onto his vest.

“Make everything smaller, makes me lighter and more mobile,” David had said earlier.

“Should have brought a bigger torch,” David was saying.

He continued descending, his arms aching from the climbing, down the rock face feeling for each crevice in the pitch black. Much later ground arrived underneath him.

David unclipped himself and stiffly took out his radio.

“I did it.”

A few seconds of static

“That took a long time, how deep are you?” The pilot said.

David looked up trying to get his bearings.

“Looks like I’ve climbed at least a few hundred metres,” He said through heavy breathing. “Let me just…catch my breath and I’ll start exploring the ravine.”

The path was thin, just barely wide enough for him to walk on. He walked along it being guided only by his dim light and the occasional rock that would stick out of the wall and hit him. A sudden flash of blue light emanated from the end of the ravine and disappeared just as quick. Another flash, this time green, lit up and then went away. David walked towards the light and slowly gained speed until he was running towards the flashes of light.

He stopped before a small doorway. He walked through and found himself at the end of a platform jutting out from the wall. He saw a giant round area completely lit up. The round area funnelled down to…a city. It was unmistakably a city, the buildings were all made of bamboo wood with sharp corners but they were all densely packed together conforming to the shape of the stone roads. Thousands of creatures of different colours, shapes and sizes were packed into one road. They were watching a long, slick, green creature crawling in front of them as the crowd cheered it on. It was almost as wide as the road and as tall as the buildings. As they were passed

“Hey, I found something.”

He explained what he had seen to the pilot.

“You have to come back so we can tell everybody about this” the pilot said

“Are you sure? I could just watch this festival a little longer”

“Just come back, I don’t want you to fall and die or anything.”

“Okay fine.”

As soon as David turned around he was greeted by a solid stone wall. He slapped his hand on it but it wouldn’t budge. He pressed the button on his walkie talkie.

“Hello?” Static “Hello?” More static. He looked at bowl shaped stone below leading to the city, only one way to go. He pulled out his ice axes and slowly crawled along the face of the wall.

One hour later, dead arms, no strength, no breath. His hands started shaking and the axe slipped out of the crevice. Soon David followed, tumbling down the rest of the stone wall shortly before hitting the bottom of the basin. He sat up stretching his back out.

“Jesus,” he said looking up at the platform he climbed down from. He pulled himself up and leant against the wall of a building for support.

“Are you okay mista?” Said a high pitched voice coming from the road.

“Don’t worry I’m…” He saw two purple heads looking at him from it’s one body “…fine.”

“Wait how do you. Err, how do you two know english?” David asked

“Who’s english?” they asked simultaneously. Before he could open his mouth he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head and heard the crack of his skull hitting the ground.

Muffled voices slowly filled David’s ears as the blanket of sleep was pulled off him. The entire room was pure white, the corners of the room were masked by the glow of the walls.

“Hey the surfie is waking up,” A voice said. David groaned as he rolled himself over and pushed himself off the floor. “Surfie! Hurry up,” the voice said. David had finally scrambled to his feet, swaying side to side.

“What’s a surfie?” David mumbled

“You, a surface dweller.” David was being watched through a small window leading to even more glowing white. Two human shaped people stared from biohazard suits.

“How…how” A sharp pain stung his head, he grabbed the back of his head. Blood coated his hand, everything went fuzzy and he once again felt the numbness of unconsciousness take over

He woke up with a pounding headache in a brown leather chair. The small room seemed to have been taken straight from the Victorian era. It was complete with walnut coloured wallpaper and bookshelves everywhere. Opposite David was another human shaped person in a biohazard suit.

“Sorry for the injury, we thought it was more effective than asking you to come with us.” David rubbed his head, still hurting.

“Ever heard of chloroform?” He said

“Chloro-what? In any case I’m sorry about all that. I’d speak to you in person but you are a surface dweller, can’t be to careful with diseases. We had one fella with smallpox come in, next thing you know it wipes out nearly the entire towm”

“I’m really confused” David said

“Don’t worry, we just need you to stay under quarantine for a little while.”

“How long is quarantine?”

“I don’t think you want to know.”

“How long!” David said clenching his fist. The person took a deep breath.

“Five years.” The person said. David got up from his chair.

“Five years! I can’t wait that long, I have to get back to the surface now.”

“I’m sorry but that’s procedure, why do you think we have so many books here?” David sat back in the chair. Another biohazard suited person walked in holding a human in his arms

“Found another one” He said dropping the human

“Hold on” David said kneeling beside the unconscious body. He rolled the body over and the helicopter pilot’s asleep face stared back at him.