Todd Pitts - The Serpent Passage

Betty just stood there like a statue, with a worried look carved into her face.

“Or what, you’d rather stay here with these skeletons?” William asked, as he slipped on his fins.

Her eyes opened wide. “Okay, let’s do this,” she said, and jumped into the lake.

William floated over to Betty and handed her his alternate regulator. “When you’re ready, bite down on this mouthpiece and just breathe. We’re low on air, so try to breathe as slow as you can. But don’t hold your breath. When you feel pain in your ears, just pop them… the same way you do on an airplane. Are you cool?”

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Betty asked.

William removed his mask that had begun to fog over. He spit on the lens, wiped it with his fingers, sloshed it around in the water, and put it back on. “Yeah Betty, my dad taught me to dive when I was ten. Now hang on to these straps on my vest and don’t let go. Just keep breathing, okay?”

Betty nodded, already breathing from the regulator.

William popped the primary regulator into his mouth and released the air from his vest. As the two began to sink, William spotted the skeleton hanging by its neck. It appeared to be staring right at him, giving him the chills just as they slipped underwater.

Beneath the surface, he jerked a glow-stick from a pocket on his buoyancy vest and cracked it between his hands, illuminating the area around them with its green fluorescent light. The sediment stirred up from the waterfall made it difficult to see very far ahead. He touched bottom at about thirty feet. He controlled his breath until neutrally buoyant and hovered with Betty until he felt a current pulling them along.

William turned and followed the current, having a hard time keeping his balance with Betty hanging on behind him. Giant stalagmites lurched out from the murky water, and he pushed off of the limestone pillars as they appeared in his path.

Out of the gloomy darkness, a faint red light materialized. Then it was gone. For a moment, he thought he had imagined it, but there it was again, even brighter as they neared it. The light went out again, and William wondered what could be causing it. When the red light illuminated again, an enormous snake charged at them with menacing eyes, mouth opened wide, about to swallow them whole!

William screamed through his regulator, paddling with his arms to back away from it. But then he relaxed when he realized that he had been startled by an elaborate carving of a serpent’s head at the entrance of the tunnel; the red light beamed out of its mouth. He caught his breath and allowed the current to suck them in through the serpent’s gaping jaws. William felt astounded by the discovery, thinking that it may be a significant archeological find, should they live to tell anyone about it.

Upon passing through the entrance, William had expected to see a rough tunnel, like the cavern dives that are well known in the Yucatan. However, what he saw before him, amidst the occasional blast of light, defied logic. A spherical tunnel, perhaps twenty feet in diameter, continued straight ahead into the darkness, like a gigantic drainage pipe. As the current pulled them forward, William slid his hand along the side of the tunnel, surprised by its metallic texture. He snapped his hand back after sensing a static discharge emanating from it.

The current moved them along without any effort, as though they were on a ride at Disney World. An entire section of the tube just ahead of them lit up with points of light spaced apart, lining the tunnel from top to bottom as far as he could see. Then it went dark again.

On the next interval they entered the brightest portion of the tunnel; it blasted them from all angles, flashing like a strobe light. Their velocity picked up as though they had been caught in a rip current. William strained his eyes to get a look at one of the points of light streaking past him. The objects appeared triangular, with light emanating from their crystalline structure. The light changed from red to orange to yellow. Its brilliance surrounded them until he could see nothing else but the light.

William kept his hands outstretched ahead of himself, fearing he might smash into something at the end of the ride. Several minutes elapsed, and he worried that their air would run out at any moment.

As they sped forward, he wondered how such a tunnel could be there in that remote part of the world. The lights flickered faster and faster, until an intense white flash forced William to shield his eyes from the glare.

Their speed slowed with the suddenness of a fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier. The brightness faded, and William opened his eyes. He let loose a muffled cheer, thrilled to see the sun gleaming through the silky blue of the surface above. They had escaped! As they ascended, William glanced back and noticed the same carving as before-a hideous face of a snake, with a pulsing red light beaming out of its mouth.

William shot a few bursts of air into his vest as they broke through the surface. He spit his regulator out and took in a deep breath. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

Betty still clung to William; her eyes were closed tight, and she continued to breathe from her regulator. William shook her to get her attention. “Betty, it’s okay.”

She opened her large green eyes, and a smile spread across her face from ear to ear when she realized that they were free. “You did it!” she said, hugging him tight to her wet body.

William laughed. “Yep, we made it, Betty. We’re back. We’re…” He scanned the dense jungle all around them, “…in another lake… in the middle of freaking nowhere.”

“But we’re out! Thank God!” Betty said, cheering to the sky.

William surveyed the landscape surrounding the lake, trying to determine the best exit point. “Over there,” he said, pointing to a rocky ledge protruding from the jungle. It looked like a boat ramp, the way it angled down into the water.

Betty’s expression changed from excitement to terror. “William!” She pointed over his shoulder.

William looked back and spotted three giant dark forms fast approaching on the surface of the cenote. “Alligators!” he said.

“Actually,” Betty said, back-peddling away, “they’re crocodiles.”

“Yeah? Well, actually, they’re coming this way!”

Betty swam as though she was trying out for the Olympic swim team and out-distanced William; he was slowed by the heavy equipment on his back.

The crocodiles closed the gap on William. As he sensed the collective wave of their approach, he managed to unbuckle and free himself of the scuba gear. He took a quick breath and dove under water to swim at a faster pace. A moment later, he surfaced right near the edge of the cenote, popped out, and scrambled up the ledge beside Betty.

Betty let loose a big sigh. “Oh, for heaven sakes, William, I thought they had you!” she said, gesturing to the crocodiles.

William looked back to the water and watched his equipment being ripped to shreds. A froth of bubbles blasted out from the tank through the severed tubes. “My scuba gear!” He groaned, while pulling his mask beneath his chin, remembering another detail. “Oh, crap,” he muttered.

“What?”

“The scuba tank was a rental. Now I’ll have to pay for that old tank too. My mom’s gonna be so pissed.” He ripped off his fins, glaring at the giant reptiles. “Still hungry? Here’s your damn dessert!” He threw his fins at them. The crocodiles pulled his equipment out of site beneath the surface.

“I’d say you got your money’s worth for the gear,” Betty said. “It saved our lives after all. Hey, I’ll pay you back for all that. It’s the least I can do.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “At least I won’t have to lug all that equipment back to the restaurant with us now.”