What Lies Beneath

Jennie Beaumont remembered not feeling afraid that morning.  It was one of those deviously gorgeous days in the middle of summer where the temptation of doing things outdoors was only tempered by the miserable heat.  She, Sarah, and Millie had been chattering excitedly since they left Traviston on this wilderness excursion, a birthday present from Connor.  The wolf in question sat in the front passenger seat with Kris Sheffield, a college friend and their guide for the day.  Having long abandoned the highway for gravel backroads, the land rover jostled its occupants through the forest, the dappled shade of the canopy above creating that almost uncanny variation of cool and heat through the window.  As they neared their destination, Kris began talking about the history of Snake’s Den and caving in general.  The cat explained the cave’s formation by Snake Creek as it wound its way below ground until it finally joined the Katoosee River that runs by Traviston.  They laid out rules like always keeping your helmet on and secured at all times, or not wandering down any side paths no matter how tempting they might appear.

The freshman girls listened intently to these instructions, having learned on the drive down that Kris was one of the best guides in the area, and the fifth generation of Sheffields to carry on a tradition of delving below ground.  Connor had been on numerous treks with Kris and vouched for their expertise.  Millie was ecstatic as she was when Connor told her about this present; the dragoness loved any activity that involved the outdoors.  And Sarah’s family was always going hiking or rock climbing, so while she had never been caving before, she was always up for a wilderness adventure like this.  With so much eagerness and experience among the group, Jennie felt like the odd one out.  Her parents weren’t really the adventurous type, and trips to the beach were about as close as they ever got to the outdoors. But Jennie was always ready to try something new, and given how excited her two other friends had been, the bunny was simply swept along in her own naive enthusiasm and accepted Millie’s invitation without question.

As the girls tumbled out of the vehicle once it parked, Jennie noted the innocuous hole in the moss-covered rock face as more mysterious than intimidating.  It certainly looked old, like the maw of some monstrous snapping turtle yawning, waiting for something foolish to step into its jaws.  But before that comparison could fester into anything more unsettling, the bunny was distracted by Kris passing out hard hats and headlamps.  She even laughed aloud as Millie, upon fastening her helmet, began a comical imitation of an olde tyme prospector, joining in with the other girls in exclaiming there was “gold in them thar hills.”

Eventually the teens settled down long enough for Kris to go over their route.  First would be the initial descent into Snake’s Den until they reached the Burrow, the main passage carved by Snake Creek.  They would follow the subterranean river downstream, then when the creek descended deeper they would take an adjacent tunnel back to the surface.  The last part of the trip would be a passage known as The Squeeze, a narrow tunnel they would have to scramble through on their stomachs.  Even then, Jennie only felt thankful she had worn junk clothes as instructed, the warning that she would get dirty making even more sense now.

Satisfied that everyone was ready, Kris led the way with Connor taking up the rear to prevent the girls from straggling.  Approaching the cave, Jennie picked her downward path through the loose stones just at the mouth of the cave.  Every one of those first steps threatened to twist an ankle and end the trip before it began.  Watching Kris and Sarah ahead of her made Jennie a little jealous, as their guide and her bird friend seemed much more sure-footed.  Fortunately Connor was there to help both her and Millie, until eventually the stones grew smaller and less frequent, and finally gave way to packed earth and stone.  Jennie looked about the passage as she continued walking, the white beam of her headlamp casting the jagged rock formations they passed in stark shadows.

Despite all the headlamps and the adults’ flashlights, Jennie could not shake how eerie the stone passageway was.  The air was damp and cool, a welcome reprieve from the heat outside, but with an uncanny stillness she had never experienced before.  It smelled of earth and stagnant water down there, bringing to mind the root cellar in her grandparents’ house upstate.  Jennie hated it when Mimi asked her to get things from that hole in the ground, where the single lightbulb cast too many shadows, and it felt like anything could be lurking in the dark behind ramshackle wooden shelves of jars and cans and boxes.  She started to sense those unwelcome phantoms in the tunnel around her now — boulders and crevices that could conceal things with spindly arms and teeth like needles and cloudy, walleyed gazes.  The only relief was that she could swing her head around a dark corner or through a stubborn gap and quickly banish the shadows and the monsters conjured up by her own mind.

And then she started to hear the roar.

It had started in the background, the sound of a waterfall.  But as the tunnel leveled out the sound of rushing water reverberated off every wall, multiplying the noise to what felt like deafening levels.  Kris had to shout and wave their flashlight to make sure the group stopped when instructed, pausing on a ledge overlooking the rushing creek they had come to see.

“Everyone!” Kris shouted, “since we’ve reached the Burrow now, I want to show you what this place looks like without the aid of lights.  Get close enough so that you can hold paws with the person on either side of you.”  Jennie shuffled about on the ledge until she was within arm’s reach of both her friends, watching Kris with a little trepidation.  “Alright, on the count of three, turn off your headlamps and then return to holding your partner’s paws. One, two, three!”

Out went the lights, and with them the last of Jennie’s courage.  The cave was black — not just dark like Mimi's root cellar, but so dark that, if her paws weren’t otherwise occupied, she could have scooped up some of the darkness and held it.  The bunny never thought anything could be worse than the cellar, but this cloying darkness was indeed worse.  It clung to her fur, and the omnipresent roar mixed with the echoing giggles from Millie and Sarah made Jennie feel like she was standing in an unearthly void.  It was as if the whole world had disappeared, and if she took a step in any direction she would fall into the void and never be seen again.  It didn’t help that she couldn’t tell if the gangly pale shapes she was seeing were the nightmare monsters from her imagination or just the after-effect of dousing their lights.  I mean, she knew they had to be fake, since monsters weren’t real, but down this far who knew what could live in the dark like this there was no way to know it was just dark so dark you couldn’t see a paw in front of you face and—

Jennie felt the paw to her left lurch forward, and screamed.  Immediately the lights came on, and the cave was its previous mix of grays and shadow.  Jennie looked over at Millie, embarrassment and concern clearly visible on her face.

“Sorry, my paw was falling asleep…you were squeezing it really tightly.”

“Are you ok, Jennie?” Connor asked, equally concerned, “if you want, you and I can backtrack and meet Kris and the others at the end.”

For a split second, with the awkward roaring pause, Jennie was about to take the wolf up on his offer.  She hadn’t expected the dark to get to her, and knowing there was still time to get out was an offer too good to pass up.  But then she looked at Millie, and thought about how that would take Connor away from the group, and the guilt of ruining Millie’s birthday outing quickly overpowered her fear.

“Th-that’s ok…just as long as we keep the lights on I think I’ll be fine.”

“Is everything ok back there?”  Kris shouted, nodding as Connor gave them a thumbs-up and relayed Jennie’s comments.  “No more lights out, promise!  We’ll need them for the rest of the trip.  Speaking of, let’s get going…lunch is waiting for us on the other side.”

The group trundled forward in single file, following the river along the stone shelf for a good way.  The cavern down here was much more open, which didn’t help Jennie’s nerves.  She focused as much as possible on the ground in front of her and the path directly ahead, willing every step despite the slowly mounting dread.  The roar of the water was getting to her, adding to everything else the fear of slipping into the current and being dragged away.  It didn’t help that she managed to catch a glimpse of the deeper-down where that water was headed.  When they finally began their ascent, passing by a giant hole where the creek seemed to just fall away into the black, Jennie quickly looked away with a shudder, following the slightly narrower but upward sloping tunnel their guide had taken.

At first Jennie started to feel better, remembering what Kris had called this part of the trek.  It was definitely the narrowest passage so far, but she couldn’t touch both walls with outstretched arms, so it didn’t feel so bad.  It helped that the roar had receded behind them, and it felt like she could actually hear herself think again.  Plus there weren’t any boulders or side tunnels for things to hide in, so it almost felt cozy.  That is, until Kris’s next instructions made her entire body go cold.

“Alright, time to crawl through the Squeeze!”

Jennie looked ahead in time to see the slanted crack in the stone wall ahead, cutting the face in two with no more than two feet of clearance in between.  She watched as Kris and then Sarah slid onto their stomachs and started to shimmy through the gap.  Now she really did wish she had taken Connor up on his offer.  But there was no point in backing out now; it would be faster to go through this gauntlet than retrace hours of hiking.  So with a tight feeling under her ribs, Jennie scrambled into the Squeeze.  The passage lived up to its name.  Jennie shimmied along as quickly as she could, quickly closing the gap with Sarah.  She urged herself to move faster, feeling panic rising in her chest with every passing moment.  She just wanted out of the cave as quickly as possible now.  With her head forced to look down the tunnel, she thought she could see the palest hints of daylight beyond the cavers in front of her.

Of course, that’s when her helmet got stuck.

Instinctively she reached for the clip under her chin, until she remembered Kris’s instructions.  With panic slowly rising in her throat, Jennie attempted to move forward, then backward.  But no matter how she pushed and pulled and twisted, the hard hat refused to budge.

“Is Jennie alright?” she could hear Connor calling from behind her.

“I’m stuck.”  The bunny continued to squirm in the trap the cave seemed to have laid for her.  “My helmet is stuck and I can’t get it out.”  She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, in her ears, panting with more than exertion.

I can’t get it out I’m stuck I can’t move gods help I’m stuck and I can’t breath I can’t get out of this stupid cave I’m gonna die I’m never gonna get out and…

“Jennie, I need you to stop struggling for a minute,” the wolf said calmly,  “You’re gonna be fine.  Millie and I can help you out, and we can even get Kris if we have to, but you need to calm down and breathe.”

“But it’s so cramped and this stupid helmet won’t budge I can’t…”

She felt a paw pat the shoulder she couldn’t see.

“Jen,” she heard Millie say, “it’s ok, Mr. Connor and I are right here.  I’m not gonna leave without you.  Can you stop moving for a sec?”

The bunny strained one final time, then stopped.  Jennie began to sob — no tears were shed, just the shaky sound of defeat, embarrassment, and frustration.

“I’m sorry, Millie,” she said, “I’m being a baby and ruining your birthday present.  I should’ve just gone with Connor, then—”

“Shh, hey, it’s ok, Jen, you aren’t ruining anything.  I’m sorry for scaring you earlier…I didn’t know this would bother you so much.”

“Me neither…I just don’t know what to do.”

“Well…maybe tell me about someplace you like?”

“The woods outside the cave.”

“What do you like about it, Jennie?” Connor interjected.

“Um, the way the sun shines through the leaves…”

“Anything else?”

“Um, the way everything this time of year is all green.  And I know it’s stupid hot out there, but I don’t really mind that even.  Especially if there's a breeze.”

“Ok, can you close your eyes a minute and imagine you’re there now?”

“I…I think so,” Jennie did as instructed, trying to visualize the woods they had been in only hours before.

“Take some deep breaths.”

Jennie followed Connor’s instructions, breathing as deeply as she could — which, even in the cramped confines of the cave, was quite deep.  She felt Millie rubbing her shoulder.

“I asked Connor to get pink lemonade to go with lunch.”

“Oooh, that’ll be nice…good call, Mills.”

“Are you feeling any better, Jennie?”

“I…yeah, I think so, Mr. Connor.”

“Good,” Connor instructed, “now I want you to push your head towards us…that should dislodge you, alright?”

“Ok…” Jennie pushed once. Nothing.

“Keep trying…you were moving around a lot, so it might take a few tries.”

“Is everything ok?” Kris called, shining their flashlight back through the passage.

“Jennie’s helmet is stuck, but we’re working on it.”

“Ok, I’m gonna take Sarah up to the exit and then come back in case you need more help.”

“Copy that.”

There was a thud, and Jennie found she could move her head again.

“It’s out!”

“Great work…just take it slow now so you don’t get lodged again.  We have plenty of time to get out.”

Jennie nodded as best she could, then scooted forward.  She could feel Millie periodically touch her near shoulder reassuringly.  She could see the light through the gap ahead.  And as she rolled out of the Squeeze, she felt Kris help her to her feet.

*	*	*

“You doing ok?”

Jennie looked up from her sub sandwich, nodding as Millie flopped down next to her.  The girls were mud monsters, their already grungy clothes were caked with beige and gray mud.  Jennie’s fur was matted, and if it weren’t for the smile on her face as she took a sip of her lemonade she looked miserable.  She watched as Kris and Connor chatted up a storm about college antics, and Sarah was drilling Kris’s brother, Sam, a park ranger who had moved the land rover to the cave exit after the group had started their trek.

“Sarah would make a good ranger,” Millie commented.  Jennie nodded in reply.

“Hey, thanks for helping back there in the Squeeze.”

“I mean, Connor did most of the work…”

“Yeah, but he’s a grown-up…that’s kinda his job, right?”

“I guess,” Millie chuckled.

“But seriously, you could’ve let Connor handle it, but you tried to help too.  And it did…help, I mean.  It was nice to know I wasn’t stuck by myself.”

“Hey, we’re friends!”  Millie lifted her own cup of lemonade in cheers, “We got each other’s backs, right?”

“Yeah,” Jennie tapped her friend’s cup with her own, “we do.”