The Cave
(Episode 12)
Without thinking twice, I dived after Amitabh and grabbed his hand just at the nick of time and held on to a rung of the guardrail with my other hand. Amitabh dangled above the crocodiles. I tried to pull him up, but the oscillatory movement of the bridge made it difficult. The crocodiles went into a frenzy and kept leaping from the water to catch him. Their jaws clapped with a loud noise each time they caught empty air inches below is his legs, and they splashed up water into the air upon landing into the water. Every time the crocs missed, Amitabh yelled and Sister Elizabeth’s Blood of Jesus! grew louder. Both Amitabh and I sweated profusely. I grunted every time I pulled. Oh, this wasn’t getting any easier!
The bridge started quaking, and I knew we had little time left. My ears tickled; it picked up a shattering sound. My heart jumped to my mouth. I prayed it wasn’t what I was thinking. Holy Father in Heaven! It was exactly as I feared. The deck began shattering into pieces from the beginning of the bridge and was racing towards us in a domino reaction. Fatima, Lilian, and Sister Elizabeth cupped their faces in their palms. Just when I had lost all hopes, Michael rushed down—at the risk of his own life—and grabbed my hand and started pulling. The next thing I knew was that Ubong was pulling Michael and Fiona was pulling Ubong. The very moment they pulled us up, and we made it to the other side, the bridge crumbled down into the swamp.
Under normal circumstances, I would have collapsed to the ground to catch my breath and wrap my head around how I almost ended in the crocodiles’ bellies. But this present condition would not permit that. We picked ourselves up immediately and began running. I spotted a big rock ahead and called out to the others to head to it. There must be a cave somewhere in it that could serve as a refuge from the weather. In an instant, the rain poured down, whipping our heads and backs like a soldier’s koboko.
* * *
We ran into the cave, dripping of water. The cave was big but dark. Ubong’s and Fatima’s phones were still intact, so they switched on the torches. Immediately, the light illuminated the cave and cast out-of-proportion shadows on the walls. My teeth clattered. From the way the shadows on the wall were shivering as if they were locked down in a shaking contest, I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling the biting cold. Since we had no source of heat, everyone engaged in different activities to keep ourselves warm. While some chafed their palms and placed them on their cheeks, others huddled together. Amitabh rested his head on his mother’s laps and slept off. The rain raged on outside, ripping trees apart. Before long, we started sleeping off one after the other.
Fiona stood up instead and walked towards the entrance of the cave. She stood and stared at the rain outside while fiddling with the necklace around her neck, completely lost in thought. I approached her, wrapped my hands around her from behind and whispered into her ear, “what are you thinking about, beauty?” She relaxed and leaned back her body against mine. I felt the warmth of her body. She explained that she was thinking about all we had been through in the last five hours or so and expressed her fears over what laid ahead.
She turned around, still wrapped in my arms. It was then I noticed the crescent moon shaped pendant attached to the necklace. I held her hand and led her back inside. We sat down and had a heart-to-heart talk, and I encouraged her. She must have noticed the conviction burning in my eyes when I assured her that we would survive no matter what laid ahead. All along, she kept fiddling with the pendant as if it was a kind of good luck charm. Looking at her and the necklace, I was convinced it meant a great deal to her. I asked her about it, and she didn’t hesitate to tell me the story behind the necklace.
The necklace once belonged to her dying mother. Fiona was about seventeen at that time, and her mother had been very ill. Even after several efforts and money, her condition didn’t improve. On the day she eventually died, her mother had held Fiona’s hand and placed the necklace with the pendant in her palm. She forced a smile and told her that the chain would prove useful someday. Shortly after uttering those words, her mother died in her hands. I saw the pain she carried in her heart when she narrated the story. She must have loved that woman dearly. Since that day, she had never taken the necklace off. It had proved to be a tangible reminder of her mother’s love, pain, and motivation to fight for life.
I drew her closer and rocked her shoulder while she nestled her head on mine. We both said nothing anymore. I couldn’t think of a better way to comfort her. We remained in that position until sleep took the better of both of us.
By the time we woke up, the day had already broken, and the rain had stopped. The ray of light from the rising sun filtered through the trees and shone into the cave, giving us a better view of our surrounding. It was then I realised that the cave was bigger than we had imagined. I saw what appeared to be an entrance to a tunnel. It was so dark that it sent cold shivers down my spine. One after the other, others woke up too. Some yawned. Some stretched, and others did both.
Fatima suggested that we checked the cave perhaps we could find items that might be useful to us. The idea sounded good, and we started combing the cave. I saw some ancient inscriptions and drawings on the walls of the cave that intrigued me. Fatima wandered off deeper into the cave. Her leg hit a hard spherical object on the floor. She looked down and immediately froze and screamed. When we rushed to her side, we were equally shocked by what we saw.
In front of us were skulls and human bones. There were plenty of them littering the ground from that point on. I looked at Michael, and he returned my gaze. Lilian wanted to scream, but Biggie quickly covered her mouth.
“Sshhhhhhh!” I signalled to all to seal their mouths and carefully backtrack.
However, Fatima could not move. She remained glued to the same spot, whimpering. She covered her mouth with one hand and pointed towards the tunnel with the other. We all turned our eyes to the direction and froze too.
To be continued … Watch Out for the Next Episode!
