The Ascent

Chapter 17

When they reached the round area that signified the end of the explored part of the cave, the children suddenly gasped in fear. Scanning their surroundings quickly, Jasmine realized what the problem was and let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, I should have warned you," Jasmine said calmly while all the children hung to Asher as if clinging to dear life. "They put a few exhibits for the tourists to show them how it would have looked like when the cavemen lived here."

Using the flashlight, they could soon see the static human figures representing the caveman, standing hunched over. Next to them was a sad-looking replica of fire that looked even more pathetic than Jasmine remembered from her last visit. Then again, how good could the orange plastic flames look?

"How do they know what the cavemen looked like and what they did?" Isaac asked, circling the strange figures, unimpressed. "I thought that was so long ago that they don't have reliable information about their lives."

"I am not sure. I guess the scientists based it on the archeological and skeleton findings," Jasmine said, finding it strange that it would be a topic of discussion at that moment.

Seeing that Isaac was unsatisfied with her answer and finding it easier to talk about those unimportant things than to think about their predicament, she tried to further explain it.

"I guess they combined their findings and their imagination and came up with this," Jasmine said, not too confident about her answer.

"Huh," Isaac said as he continued to inspect the exhibit.

As the clouds of fear parted above their heads, Arman and Ariyana started studying the strange scene as well, children's curiosity undeterred by the fear of adults.

"Is this as deep as the cave goes?" Asher asked quietly while the children were otherwise occupied.

"This is the main cavern," Jasmine said, thinking through what she had been told on one of the guided tours she had taken. "This is as far as one can go standing up. If I understood correctly, there are a few smaller crawl tunnels, but they didn't explore much of those."

"I don't like that," Asher whispered, musing out loud. "They might not be able to come in through those, but some animals might. We need to sleep with our backs to the wall that has no holes in it whatsoever."

As he said that, he moved the flashlight left and right, examining different parts of the cave. Focused on their safety, Asher didn't notice the children shaking from the cold. Thus, Jasmine decided it was time for her to do her part.

Using the weak light of her binoculars, Jasmine returned to the stairs. Then she broke the wooden handholds gathering them in her arms for fire. They were easier to break than she anticipated, to her relief.

"They should have made new ones long ago," Jasmine mused, seeing how weak the old handrail had become. "Someone could have broken their neck."

Then she proceeded to the dark corner on her right, remembering there was a small stand with different pamphlets explaining the history of the cave and how it came to be. The layer of dust on them only confirmed Jasmine's previous thought about it being a nice little forgotten place to hide in.

When she was a child, there were many paid guided tours. However, as time passed and more exciting things were made, most people forgot about this little gem. Even those who made the exhibit the children were inspecting didn't bother visiting anymore. Only Jasmine visited occasionally, but the lights never went out. Not until that day.

Refusing to think about the dangers outside, Jasmine squeezed her eyes shut, banishing all thoughts that had nothing to do with the present moment. Then she stuffed as many pieces of paper in her pockets as possible. With her little load, she returned to the cavern where Asher was still inspecting things, marking lines in the dusty ground. The children had tired of the novelty of the strange figures and were huddled together, shivering.