Tom Pawlik: Beckon

Ben came to a halt. “Hold up. I want to set an anchor just to be safe.”

Jack tried to stop but lost his footing and skidded into Rudy, knocking him off balance as well. They both landed on their backs but kept sliding down the passage.

“Whoa!”

It was a surreal experience as Jack felt himself gaining momentum. Kicking his feet against the sides of the tunnel, he tried to stop, but it seemed like the mud was everywhere. Limbs flailing, the two of them slammed into Ben, who was also struggling to keep himself from falling.

The chain reaction sent all three racing down a chute without a sled. Suddenly the tunnel dropped away sharply beneath them, and they plummeted nearly straight down for an endless moment through solid darkness.

Jack plunged into a dark pool of frigid water. The cold tore through him like icy razors slicing his skin as he struggled to keep his thoughts from scattering into panic. He could feel gravel and rocks beneath his feet, but he was in water up to his waist and the cold was nearly overwhelming.

A light blinked on in the darkness, and Jack could make out Ben’s large frame standing a few yards off clutching one of the flashlights.

Now Jack saw the pit was maybe fifteen or twenty feet across. Smooth rock walls loomed on all sides, and water cascaded from above in a steady stream. There was no place to climb up out of the cold. It looked to Jack like they had fallen into the bottom of a well.

“This is just great.” Rudy’s frantic voice sounded from the shadows behind Jack. “What are we gonna do now?”

“Don’t panic, for one thing,” came Ben’s gruff reply. “Get your ropes off.”

Jack untied the rope from his waist and fumbled beneath the water for his own flashlight. He could feel his teeth chattering. “Wh-where are we?”

Ben was scanning the walls. “Looks like some kind of pit.”

Jack found his light and peered up at the ledge. He spotted the tunnel they had fallen from about twenty feet up. A grim realization was beginning to set into his mind. He looked at Rudy and could tell he’d come to the same conclusion.

“W-we can’t climb back up that w-way,” he said.

“Check your packs,” Ben said. “Make sure we have everything.”

Jack swung his pack around and inspected its contents. His minicam was moist but not ruined; his canvas pack had obviously protected it during the initial fall into the water. He slipped the camera back into its nylon case and zipped it tight. It wasn’t waterproof, but hopefully it would stay dry enough. Although from the look of their predicament, the fate of his video equipment hardly seemed important anymore.

He continued struggling to keep his mind off his father, but he couldn’t help wondering if he had fallen down this shaft as well and died alone here in the dark. He shuddered at the thought of stumbling across his father’s bones somewhere under the water.

“W-we’re gonna freeze down here.” Rudy shivered.

“Shut up!” Ben’s voice took on an irritated edge. “Quit talking like that. Just keep looking for a way out.”

Jack pointed his light back up at the ledge. “Do you think if we boosted Rudy, he could climb back up?”

Rudy shook his head, shivering. “It’s too high.”

Ben shone his beam on the streamlets of water pouring down from the darkness overhead. “The shaft isn’t filling with water, so it’s got to be going somewhere.”

Jack nodded. “Another tunnel?”

“Probably underwater somewhere.” Ben began searching the perimeter of the shaft. “There’s gotta be an outlet.”

Then Jack got an idea. He unzipped his pack, unwrapped one of his granola bars, and set the plastic wrapper on the water like a tiny canoe. It spun in the eddies and swirls but soon began drifting toward one of the walls. As if drawn by an invisible thread.

He looked up at Ben. “What do you think?”

Ben didn’t reply. His stern, leathery countenance seemed fixated on the wrapper as it picked up speed. In moments it bounced into the smooth rock wall and bobbed against the side.

Ben looked at Jack. “Glowsticks.”

Jack dug further in his pack and produced a couple of the chemlights. He snapped them and shook them up until they gave off a pale green glow.

Ben grabbed them, sucked in a few deep breaths, and ducked under the surface. Jack was shivering at just the thought of being fully submerged again in the bone-chilling water.

A moment later Ben came back up, shaking. “L-looks like some kind of sh-shaft down there,” he said. “But I can’t see how far it goes.”

Jack was heartened by the news. “How wide is it? Can we fit through?”

“I dunno. A couple feet.” Ben set about uncoiling another length of rope and tied it onto his belt.

Rudy was shivering worse now. “Wh-what are you d-doing?”

Ben slipped off his pack and handed it to him. “I’m gonna see how far it goes.”

“Through there?” Rudy’s eyes widened. “Y-you’re c-c-crazy.”

Ben handed the other end of the rope to Jack and took a handful of glowsticks. “Keep it tight. If I tug twice, pull me back through.”

He sucked in a few more deep breaths and disappeared under the surface again. Jack felt the rope slip through his hand as he fed it into the tunnel. He soon lost track of how much length had gone in. Maybe twenty feet. Maybe thirty. Finally the rope stopped pulling, and Jack stood with his flashlight tucked under his chin, holding the coil in his numb hands above the surface.

“What happened?” Rudy asked, his face drained of all color.

Jack shrugged and pulled back gently on the rope to keep the tension. Then he gave it one short tug. A moment later he felt a single tug in reply and breathed a relieved sigh. “I think he’s okay.”

Nearly a full minute later, Ben emerged again, gasping for breath, his teeth chattering. “It c-comes out into an-nother chamber. The tunnel’s about twenty-five feet long, and it gets a little narrow in the middle.”

“How narrow?” Rudy said.

“It was t-tight for me, but you g-guys should make it no problem.”

Rudy turned to Jack, shaking his head. “Jack… I’m telling you, I will freak out down there.”

“Well, we don’t have any choice,” Jack said, trying to sound firm but supportive. The last thing he needed was Rudy getting hysterical.

“I’m gonna get stuck!”

“If Ben can make it, you can too.”

“But I can’t—”

“Rudy.” Jack grabbed the collar of his sweatshirt and jerked him close, shining the light in his face. “It’s real simple. You either stay here and die for sure from hypothermia or take your chances down there. Now man up and let’s do this.”

Ben was already uncoiling several lengths of rope. “I’ll go first. Then you send the packs through, and you two come last.” He turned to Rudy. “All you gotta do is follow the rope. Hand over hand. Got it?”

Rudy was shivering too badly for Jack to tell if he was nodding or not. He slapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll do fine. You’ll be through before you know it.”

“I’ll tug three times for you to send the packs,” Ben said. “Then I’ll give three more tugs when you’re clear to come through.”

Jack and Rudy nodded.

They tied their packs to the rope, and Ben started sucking in deep breaths. Jack could see he was fighting off the effects of the cold, and Jack himself was starting to go numb. He could feel his mind shutting down as the blue beams of their flashlights began to flutter in his eyes.

Ben ducked under again, trailing the rope behind him. A minute later Jack felt three tugs and began feeding the rope through the tunnel. He could tell by the feel of the rope that one of the packs snagged a bit somewhere in the darkness, but after a sharp yank, it continued pulling through.