“The flash lights don’t work either professor,” replied Jessica. Dr. Mishra had asked her this from behind the wall that hid her, after noticing that his compass had gone crazy. They were in an alienated world. The ground was all rock though covered with slippery moss, the air smelled damp and unhealthy. The cave was more than 500 feet into the earth, recognizable by only a two foot wide fissure in the earth’s outer crust.
Jessica, a bio-engineering student of Dr. Mishra in the University of Illinois was in her final year and pleased with her accomplishments in the subject, Dr. Mishra had agreed to take the trip to a nearby cave located in the woods adjoining the campus, for any new finding that can help her with her final paper. In fact, Dr.Mishra, in his late 40’s and unmarried, adored the intelligent but pretty 22 year old student. Both were experienced, though amateurs in cave exploring and so the trip was fixed to the cave, which though not famous was inhabited and provided with live subjects of study.
The cave’s hall, standing at only 57 feet deep, was wide enough to pace when in anxiety and this was exactly what Dr. Mishra was doing. Jessica had entered into a chamber that had an opening from the hall and had screamed loudly in awe. The walls of this chamber were so fragile that her scream had brought them in and now a solid wall of rock and sand stood between them. After a few panic strokes, Jessica had regained her calm and was now examining the chamber. The chamber was small and round. There were peculiar signs on the walls which she felt with her hand. The darkness in the chamber was deep but slowly her eyes adjusted to the feeble light coming from the crevices in the fallen rock wall. “This is strange”, she murmured musingly and then shouted “Dr., there are small marks in these walls and each are carved above what look like the openings to some storage areas”. “What do you mean?” asked professor Mishra, trying very hard to keep the anxiety out of his voice. His foremost thought now was to get them out safely back into the sun lit world.
He still had a working flash light with him but two other compasses and another flash light were with Jessica. Their trip was meant to start at dawn and end at dusk and the sky visible above him through the small fissure seemed to be darkening. He attributed this to the clouds as his wrist watch still read 2:32 p.m. He asked, “Have your compasses gone haywire too or is it just the flash lights and my compass?” Jessica now felt for the compass she had been using. She found it lying on the floor, its glass broken and stamped upon by her. So she took the spare compass from her back pack and saw that its needles, which were peculiarly bent, were rotating out of control. “The one unbroken compass is totally out of order, professor…… Sir, do you think it safe to venture further?” she said. “No” came the answer, prompt and commanding. Jessica obeyed and kept her curiosity under control.
After a little more pacing during which time he tried calling for some help from his cell phone (disconnected), he decided to clear the debris themselves and suggested this to Jessica. Both started to scrape for a while and small rocks began to get loose. Slowly a hole large enough for Jessica to crawl out was created. “You have to take a look at this, professor before we leave” she pleaded. Though adamant at his decision of getting them out of there safely first, his curiosity got the worst of him and he peeked through the hole. In the dim light he could not see much so he squeezed his hand, holding the flash light into the hole.
A second scream and there was a bright flash of light.
Will be continued....
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