Winding Roads {A Creative Writing Journal}

The Cavern (W2R Round 6)

  Purple Belt
  
"I'm not Indiana Jones! There is no way this is gonna work!" Diego shouted from the other end of the chasm.

Archer rolled his eyes, confident his best friend couldn't see his reaction from the other side of the gap.

After spending an entire day exploring the archeological sites scattered around the island at the head researcher's insistence, the two teenagers traveled off the beaten path, up the nearest mountain, and into a previously hidden cave if the lack of modern research equipment was anything to go by.

Their path further into the cave halted in front of a gap too deep for their flashlights to find the bottom, leaving them with only three options: go back, scale around it, or jump. Archer had easily cleared the four-to-five-foot leap to other side.

    If only he could convince Diego to take a risk for the first time in his life.

"I did it!" he yelled back, waving his hands, and subsequently his light, around to emphasize the point.

    Diego patted the "protective padding" around his pudgy middle. "You're like a hundred and fifty pounds soaking wet, man. You didn't need that much momentum."

    "Ugh," Archer groaned and rubbed his free hand over his face, "C'mon, dude. It's like three feet wide, and we'll have to head back to camp soon, so—"

    "—Which is why we should start heading back now," he interrupted.

    "Don't be such a chicken, Di. I will keep going without you," he promised.

    "No, you wouldn't," Diego replied, folding his arms with an air of pure confidence.

    Archer smirked and promptly turned around to follow the path deeper into the cave. One. Two. Three.

"Wait!" Diego called, "Your dad would kill me if I let you go down there by yourself. Just," he sighed, "just wait up for me, okay? I don't have your lack of self-preservation."

"You have enough for both of us, so why should I have any extra?" Archer replied with a knowing grin, "But I guess I can wait for you. I'll need someone to sacrifice to the angry cannibals we'll meet down there."

Diego squeaked (in a manly fashion he would later add), "What? What cannibals? Your dad said this island was uninhabited!"

"I just told ya that to get you on the plane here."

That seemed to be the exact thing to stir Diego up as he backed up a few paces and easily cleared the jump. Archer actually had to move out of the way to avoid being tackled by a very angry best friend currently spitting a few choice words in Spanish. Their high school Spanish class didn't cover that kind of vocabulary, and Archer had a pretty good feeling why.

Archer climbed to his feet, brushing his auburn bangs out of his eyes as he helped Diego stand. He adjusted the shoulder strap to his bag and lightly smacked the flashlight against his free hand when it started to flicker in and out. Once the stream of light became steady, he wordlessly shuffled down the dank passageway with Diego only a half-step away.

"You were joking about the cannibals, right?"

"Yeah, of course," he answered with a shrug then dropped his voice, "Maybe."

Archer stumbled forward at the semi-playful shove against his shoulder. "Not funny, dude."

He only chuckled softly in leu of a real reply, and for a few minutes, they trekked deeper into the cave in a companionable silence. A steady drip of water forming stalagmites echoed from somewhere ahead of them, and Archer prayed that it meant the passage would open up into a real cavern. If it kept narrowing like it currently was, they would have start shuffling sideways. Archer stopped and squinted his eyes.

Wait. Is that...?

Diego grunted when he bumped into his friend's back. "What? Why'd you stop?"

    "There's lights up ahead," he whispered.

   Diego stood on his tiptoes to glance over his shoulder. "Wait? Seriously? I thought there's supposed to be no one down here."

    "I thought so too," he agreed and crouched down, "Follow my lead."

"No! Wait! Archer!" Diego whisper-shouted and audibly groaned when his overly curious friend crawled closer on his hands and knees towards the light.

"Turn off your flashlight," he ordered and simultaneously clicked off his own light. Diego quickly followed suit.

The passage opened up into a massive cavern. Columns of stone where stalactites and stalagmites collided stood sentry around a busy dig site illuminated by modern floodlights.

"Woah," Diego breathed, "How'd they even get those in here?"

"Better question is does Dad know about this?"

   A tall, lanky man with black as his defining fashion color strode into the center of the dig.

"Faster! We ain't got all day! We're lucky we've gone this long uninterrupted. What with Bastian and his crew scavenging above ground."

"Mr. Konrad! We've got something!" one of the men kneeling in the dirt called, and the man in black hurried over to him. Archer and Diego leaned closer over the edge, struggling to both hear and see what was going on.

Archer grumbled and began shifting down the stone ledge leading to the site.

"Archer!" Diego hissed, "What're you doin'?"

"I need a better look."

Diego rolled his eyes and hurried after him, and the two friends half-ran, half-crawled as close as they dared, taking shelter behind one of the floodlights.

"No way," Archer gasped when Mr. Konrad stood with a lidded jar the size of basketball covered in ornate, but faded, red and blue triangles. "They found it."

"Found what?" Diego asked just a little too loudly. Archer winced, and several heads turned in their direction.

Mr. Konrad grinned and stuffed the jar under his arm. "Seems we've got a couple of spies here, boys."

Archer slapped his friend's back. "Time to go!"

Both teens bolted for the passage but were stopped by several rough hands grabbing their bags and shirt collars. They pinwheeled back as the men dragged them back towards the dig, and Konrad looked them both up and down.

"And who might you two be?"

"Diego Garcia."

"Archer Bastian."

"Bastian?" Konrad growled without hesitation. "Make sure they never leave this cave."

The scruffy man beside him pulled out a revolver but then reeled back as shots echoed throughout the cavern. Everyone instinctively ducked.

"Archer! Diego! Take cover!" a familiar voice called from the passageway.

The teens dove behind a stone column and waited for the shooting and yelling to die down. Archer perked up at the sound of pottery shattering, and he dove for the now broken pot, patting the pieces until he found the small gold statue he'd known would be inside.

The shooting and yelling stopped as quickly as it started, and someone called out for the teens.

"Archer! Diego! You boys okay?"

They ambled out of their hiding spot, hands up and eyes squinted against the harsh lighting. A burly form crashed against Archer and pulled him close.

"You're okay. Thank God we made it in time."

"Hey, Dad," Archer replied, returning the hug and pulled away to show him the statue.

"This what you've been looking for?" he asked with a grin.