The Underworld - Part 4

It would be easy to lose track of time down here, I thought. Blackness all around, no visual cues, no auditory signals except of our own deep breathing. We tried the hardware store masks, but quickly dispensed of them as being oppressively hot and suffocating. The ground was smooth and slippery in places, gravely and rough in others. But wet everywhere. My hair was matted to my forehead, and whatever product Chad uses to fix his green locks to their fashionable form had long since lost its hold. His face had an intense zeal to it and the spiky chaos on his head gave him an almost psychotic glow down here. Eddie’s black eye shadow had by now smeared all over his face – maybe Elway after a few years of smack rather than weed.

We moved forward slowly, and passed many side tunnels beckoning with their dark mysteries. The ceiling began to drop somewhat, and where initially we could walk three abreast, the narrowing on the sides soon reduced this to two. Eddie took turns leaning on Chad, then me and hobbling along. After ten minutes or so, it dropped to a point that even this was not feasible and we sat in a group to rest and take stock of the options. It was decided that one of us would sit here with Eddie, while the other two explored a few side passages to look for a way out. My watch said 1 o’clock – we had been down here almost an hour. A brief "Ro-Sham-Bo" battle determined Chad to be the babysitter - Rachel and I backed up, removed the skateboards from our bags, and took the first left.

This tunnel was much tighter, and although initially we could crawl, soon this was abandoned for lying belly down on the skateboard and pulling ourselves along. Wedged between the crook of my right shoulder and the board was the wobbling beam of the flashlight. It was difficult to keep it trained on what’s immediately in front of us, as each pull sent its eye off in a slightly different direction. I could hear our breathing echoing now louder in my ears –my own, and Rachel’s – distinct but together. The scrape of wheels along the uneven ground and the pounding of my heart was the loudest of all. I felt something grab my ankle and a squeak escaped my lips.

"Just making sure you’re still there, Royeeee," came the snickering voice behind me.

We reached another rusty rung ladder but a quick climb up revealed a trapdoor blocked either by rust or who knows what object sitting on the other side. We kept moving as the passage bended back to the right and seemed to smooth out and descend deeper. Indeed we were sliding faster downwards, using our hands to brake our progress rather than propel. I think I could hear something else, too – a gurgling sound or was it someone laughing? Deeper and deeper we rolled, when my front wheels dropped away, spinning in empty air and I fell forward against the retreat of hard fiberglass and then over that into a tangled mess on the dank earth.

I didn’t think I’ve fallen far, a few feet maybe. But the expected suddenness had disoriented me completely. My face felt warm, and I’m sure I’m bleeding from somewhere though no pain registers. A light – there was a light off to my left in this place.

"Roy, Roy! Are you OK?"

I dragged myself to a damp sitting position and crane my head around. Rachel was lying on her board, looking down at me from the mouth of a tunnel a few feet above and behind.

"Yeah, I’m OK. Just a little shaken up." I moved slowly on my knees to reclaim my flashlight, which was flung in my clumsiness and appears half-submerged in a pool a few feet away. She descended with considerably more dexterity and we visually explored the larger cavern in which we found ourselves.

The cement ceiling was much higher here – maybe seven or eight feet and crowned a long narrow room through which a moderate size stream ran, probably two feet across, right to left. The current was slow moving, and the water dark black, but it didn’t have the smell of sewage. Where the flashlights reflected on its surface, it shimmered with a rainbow of colors, almost as if there was gasoline or grease on top of it. It exited through a large hole or maybe another small tunnel in the far wall.

"It’s beautiful," whispered Rachel, awe evident in her voice. She was right – for a second, it mesmerized me and I followed the dancing beams of our torches and dazzle of their touch on the river water. "Oh, baby – you’re bleeding."

Her fingertips were exploring the warm wetness on my forehead, and my focus snapped back to the immediacy of her face in front of me.

"Huh?" The disorientation and vertigo hit me again, and my own fingers wandered up there and met hers, a shiver running up and down my back.

"It’s just a scratch – you’ll live," she declared and her touch darted away from me. "Look!"

She was already splashing through the water to the far bank, and I followed. The water wasn’t deep, six inches at most, but my already damp tennis shoes were fully soaked when I emerged. Rachel was inspecting the far wall where another narrow exit left. To the left and above were scrawled letters in chipping white paint. They read, "JB, Laker Caves ’79."

"What is Eddie’s brother’s name?" I asked.

"I think it’s Jay or Jason. Hey – more writing!" Her eyes were definitely better than mine – I was having trouble focusing well, maybe that fall had shaken me more than I thought. My eyes did not want to stay in one place - they kept shifting and spinning away from my directive. She was inspecting a fainter scratch directly above the hole leading from the room. "’the Heart of the Dragon,’ it says. And there’s an arrow. What do you think it means?"

"Dragon? Are you kidding? Dragons don’t exist, especially underground a frickin’ high school in west Michigan." My voice sounded like I was trying to convince myself though, and this cold wet darkness was a reality that I had not previously experienced. "Have we been gone a long time? It seems like maybe we have – maybe we should climb back and meet the other guys?"

"Oh, Roy – don’t be scared!" her voice had taken on an almost childlike quality and she bounded back to me and threw her arms around my shoulders with an enthusiasm that forced the air from my lungs. "We haven’t been gone five minutes, I’d bet. Don’t worry, sweetie pie – I’ll protect you! We’re going to see a dragon!"

She grabbed my hand and started dragging me into the next black tunnel. The electricity of her touch had returned and was magnified – her hand in mine was as it was supposed to be, and certainly nothing could hurt either of us as long as we were connected. But something bothered me, something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

"Isn’t somebody hurt?" I managed.

"Come on, Roy – Dragons!"