D. Thomas - Backlash

Lewis didn’t move at first, but a low moan let the others know he was alive. It seemed to take a while just to figure out which limbs he was supposed to move, and in which direction, to slowly untangle himself. “Don’t try that one at home,” he finally stammered, getting to his hands and knees.

Miller still stood directly behind the rock he had thrown down, staring across with his mouth open and his eyes wide. He slowly closed his mouth and swallowed, probably the hardest swallow of his life. He spoke in a trembling voice. “Son, I think you owe me a new pair of pants.”

Lewis let out a hearty laugh. Miller immediately joined in. Soon, Samantha, who still had a white-knuckle grip on her end of the rope, was doubled over in laughter too, easing the stress that was pent up inside her.

“We want to be able to retrieve this rope so let me secure my end to something, then you wrap yours around that huge boulder back there,” Lewis said as he indicated the only large rock on that side of the crevasse. “After you get it wrapped around, throw the slack over here and I will tie it off again.”

It didn’t take long to get the rope setup. Samantha was first to make the crossing, easily scooting across on her stomach, hooking the rope with her feet to maintain her balance. Lewis helped her clear the sharp edge of the wall, then looked across to Miller, who had already donned Lewis’s dive harness and tied the regulator onto one of the loose straps. The scuba tank was gone but Lewis knew that anything had the potential to become a tool in a survival situation. “I like the way you think, Doc,” Lewis offered. “Red rover, red rover, send the professor on over!” Like Samantha, Miller made the crossing with no problems. The trio shared a series of high-fives before Lewis untied one end of the rope, pulling the other to retrieve the rope from around the large boulder. Soon, all the rope was coiled at his feet.

With the latest obstacle out of the way, everyone turned towards the two exits on this side of the chamber. Samantha and Miller each stared at Lewis expectantly. Pantomiming the flip of a coin, Lewis pointed at the lower entrance and said, “Tails. Let’s check the basement first. Hopefully, it will be a total bore — I’ve had enough excitement for a while.”

Nobody argued as Lewis got down on all fours and crawled through the opening. It was smaller than anything they had seen in a while but easy to scoot through. The passage dropped steadily for a short distance, then ended abruptly at the site of a cave-in. There was just enough room for Samantha and Miller to squeeze in next to Lewis and look at the rubble pile.

“At least we still have the upper tunnel to try,” Samantha said in a hopeful voice.

Miller was a little further back than the other two so he turned first, leading the way back. His absence made it easy for Samantha to spin around and follow. Lewis began to turn as well, stopping suddenly. “Quiet!” he hissed at the others. Everyone froze. Lewis whispered, “I thought I heard a voice… There! Did you hear that?”

Samantha’s eyes widened as she squirmed back around, rejoining Lewis. “I hear something too,” she said as she quietly worked closer to the pile of rocks that ended the narrow tunnel. She moved her head back and forth like some kind of charmed snake, suddenly exclaiming, “It is coming from here!” She frantically pointed to a narrow hole near the bottom of the pile.

Lewis leaned in closer. She was right. He shouted into the hole, “Can you hear me!” Hearing no response, he tried again, “Is anybody there!” This time they all heard their friends’ voices answering back. The problem was they couldn’t understand what was being said because there was too much echoing. Lewis tried shouting, “You. Need. To. Talk. Slower,” slowly enunciating each word.

The reply was unmistakably Gonzalez’s, and she was pausing after each word, but Lewis still couldn’t understand the message. Lewis turned back to Miller and asked, “Does your communication expertise include Morse code by any chance?”

“Afraid not,” the professor replied, slowly shaking his head.

Samantha clapped her hands together loudly, saying, “My father served in the Navy. He thought it was imperative that I know Morse code, so he made the entire family spend a week each summer with no other form of communication. I’m a bit rusty, but I can manage.” Lewis moved aside, allowing Samantha to edge up to the hole. “What should I say?” she asked.

Lewis thought for a moment before answering, “Try ‘Do you understand?’”

Samantha removed her headlamp, reaching it as far into the hole as she could. As the mining engineer began quickly switching her light on and off, Miller and Lewis extinguished their lamps, watching her form the dots and dashes of Morse code. As soon as she finished, Samantha turned her light off and peered into the hole, looking for a response. They heard a muffled male voice, but again the words were impossible to make out. Samantha tried her message again. Nothing…

Lewis whispered to the others, “Maybe they can’t see your light. Sound would travel around bends much better than light: try shouting the dots and dashes, slow and steady.”

Samantha repeated the message, this time yelling out either a quick, “dot,” or a slower, “daassshhh.” A quick garbled response could be heard, followed by a few seconds of silence. Then came a muffled but patterned reply. Lewis couldn’t make out either of the words, but one was clearly longer than the other. Samantha translated, “Understood. Four at bottom of pit. Stuck.” She then turned her light back on and looked back to Lewis.

Lewis wasted no time. “Let them know help is on the way, but we have some rocks to move first.”

Samantha passed the message along before examining the rock pile with a trained eye. She pointed to a band of larger rocks. “I believe we could remove everything below here without causing a collapse.”

Lewis trusted her judgment and did not hesitate, gripping the rocks closest to the communication hole, prying them lose. After ten laborious minutes of hard work, the hole was big enough for Miller to work as well. Samantha remained back in a position to keep an eye on everything, twice halting the process to point out areas requiring extra caution. Ten more minutes and the hole was big enough to squeeze through. Lewis went first, exhaling all his breath to get his chest to fit.

The others followed more easily. “We will have to widen that for our friend Stonewood,” Lewis said to the others with a sly smile. “And, let’s keep your explosion theory to ourselves until we know more about what is going on,” he added, looking at Samantha.

Now that they were past the cave-in, they were able to crawl along the small tunnel past several gradual corners before coming to a dramatic turn: a turn leading straight down. Lewis crept to the edge and peered over to see a pair of headlamps shining back up at him. “Is everyone okay down there?” he asked.

Gonzalez was looking back up, “Quinn! Thank God! We’re fine. Stuck, but fine.” It was good to see her beautiful face and hear her exotic voice again.

Stonewood pushed his way into view, elaborating, “We have reached a dead end. This vertical shaft is the only way out but the opening is twenty feet over our heads.”

He paused, allowing Pierre to add, “The surface is like polished glass. It’s too smooth, even for the great Pierre.”

Lewis was already working. “Give us a few minutes and we will get a rope down to you. Do you have the gear?”

Gonzalez was back. “Yeah, we’ve got it all here. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything we could use.” As she finished speaking, Lewis lowered the rope to the ground at her feet.