“Good,” Hunter replied. Then he raised his gun to the back corner of the man’s head and squeezed the trigger. Dark red fragments splattered the cavern wall and a moment later the body of the agent dropped into the gushing stream below. If anyone was down there, they would have made it known when the corpse dropped.
Hunter shone his light down into the subterranean tunnel and, satisfied that the coast was clear, jumped in.
The cold, mountain water had initially shocked Tommy, but it was carrying him away from trouble-or so he hoped. He had no idea where the underground river was taking him. It was shallow and almost moved him along like a lazy river at a water park. Fortunately, his light was waterproof so, he could see around the passageway. He’d been able to right himself as he floated along downstream so. There wasn’t much to see, just carved out rock for the most part. It was hard to tell whether the place was natural or manmade.
The cavernous room they’d just left clearly had manmade components to it. He was amazed by the constructive ability of the ancients to build such elaborate and large-scale things. At the moment, though, he was more concerned about where he was going. As he peered through the darkness in front of him, something terrifying came into view,or disappeared from view as it were.
The river seemed to drop over the edge of an underground waterfall. Swimming against the current would be impossible. The only thing Tommy could do was brace himself and hope the drop wasn’t a big one. He neared the edge and pulled his legs and arms in tight, preparing for the fall. The sound of crashing water grew louder as he got closer. The moment he went over the lip of the river’s end, he felt the air below him open up. Instinctively, he kicked his legs back and forth, wondering when the fall would end. It only lasted a few seconds before he hit the churning water below. He sunk deep into the black pool of liquid until he felt the bottom. Frantically, he pushed hard off the floor with his feet and shot towards the surface. His head emerged and he took a big, wet breath of air. Quickly, he searched around the area with his flashlight and spotted what looked like an underground beach where the water met land.
Tommy paddled hard and soon found himself staggering up onto the sandy earth. He hunched over with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. Out of the corner of his eye he caught movement on the ceiling. Another flashlight was bobbing around. Someone was coming down the river.
Adriana walked back over to the corner of the short corridor and stretched out, wrapping her foot around to the ledge.
“I hope you know what you’re doing” Sean said as he looked on with a concerned eye.
“So do I,” she sighed. “That path leads to another corridor on the other side. It’s our only way out, now.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. But there was no choice.
“What’s that noise?” Emily asked as she stepped closer to the lip of the drop off.
“I hear it too,” Adriana said, breaking her concentration for a moment as she brought her right foot next to the left on the ledge.
“It sounds like a lot of squeaking and flapping…oh crap,” Emily backed away from the edge slowly, eyes wide with fear. “Bats!” she screamed loudly as she jumped back.
A gust of air blew up into the alcove where the three were standing and within seconds they were engulfed in the small, flying beasts. Hundreds of bats fluttered around them, squeaking incessantly. The three occupants of the ledge covered their faces and heads and crouched low to the ground in hopes that the creatures would ignore them. Emily screamed as one of the animals got stuck in her hair momentarily. She stood up, yelling, and swatted her hands wildly at the winged rodents like she had walked into a cobweb.
Adriana pressed herself hard up against the shaft wall and tried to remain calm.
After what seemed like several minutes, the horde of bats gradually disappeared.
Emily was still waving her hands around in the air as if the bats were still there. Sean smiled at her. “Hey, Em! They’re gone.” She stopped waving her hands and looked around, uncertain. “By the way,” he added, “don’t ever give me crap about being scared of heights again.”
Tommy didn’t know who was coming down the river. Even if Will had seen what happened and tried to make a break for the trap door he could have been shot by the remaining two pursuers. Hurriedly, he turned off his own light and crept into a recessed area of the cave. He watched as the person in the river above tumbled over the waterfall and into the pool. The man broke the surface and as his light floated near by, it illuminated his face just enough for Tommy to tell that it was Will.
“Will,” Tommy yelled over the sound of the crashing water. He turned on his light as he emerged from the dark corner. “Over here!”
Will grabbed his light and shone it on the shore where Tommy was waving. “I took out one of them, but the other guy is still up there,” he said after he climbed out of the water next to Schultz.
Tommy looked around, shining his light onto the drab walls of the cavern. In a corner about thirty feet away he noticed that the sandy floor seemed to continue around the cavern wall. “Over there,” he said quietly.
The two men took off towards what appeared to be a path. They reached it a few moments later and Tommy looked back at the waterfall. Nothing. He and Will turned and darted into a narrow corridor, not seeing the dark figure of a body falling into the black pool.
In the pale light of their flashlights, Sean could see that the bats were making their way through the door across the abyss. Apparently, the alcove provided no means of escape for them either.
After a few minutes the obnoxious noise had grown quieter. He looked at Adriana who, for the first time since he’d met her, appeared to show a little uncertainty. He nodded reassuringly and stepped carefully over to where the ledge jutted out from the left side of the pit’s wall. Then he turned with a feigned playful grin. “Ladies first?” he motioned with his hand to Emily, obviously not excited about traversing the deep crevasse over the narrow stone bridge.
Starks had gotten over her moment of weakness and was back to being her confident self. She stepped out boldly, pressing her back up against the wall as she shuffled along the ledge right behind Villa.
Once the two women were on their way, Sean lingered momentarily at the edge. His former partner looked back at him and shined her flashlight on his face. “You realize this is the only way out, right?” She asked sarcastically. “Just don’t look down and keep your body pressed to the wall like we’re doing.”
Adriana was already halfway to the other side of the pit when he finally forced himself to step over to the narrow walkway. He gripped his flashlight tightly and pressed his back to the wall as hard as he could. A slight draft of cold air drifted up from the abyss below. Wyatt felt a vein of fear tear through his abdomen as his nerves went on overload. A quick glance to his side told him that the two women had nearly reached the door already. So he shuffled his feet, inch by inch, trying hard not to look down into the empty blackness.
“Come on, you’re doing great,” he heard Emily encourage him loudly from the ledge about twenty feet away. “Just keep moving slow like that and you’ll be fine.”
He continued inching sideways, his intense focus was on the wall just behind him. But his peripheral vision couldn’t help but register the chasm below. Momentarily, he wavered and had to stop to take a deep breath. After regaining his thoughts, he pushed himself onward.