Sacrifice (ONC 2023)

Chapter 5

I think I might just be insane. Only someone out of their mind would come up with a plan like this. The plan was as follows:

All the small rocks blocking the entrance couldn't be moved for long without the entire thing collapsing - the rocks were originally part of the sandstone ceiling, everything above that was and so if we remove the rocks all that sand stored above us would come crashing down like a tonne of bricks. My thought was that we move the tiny stones out the way really quickly and run through before the sand falls again. Downside: if there is no way back then we're stuck in wherever this tunnel leads to, but we might as well try. The entrance we came in will be blocked by a sand pile up from the storm. Great plan in my opinion.

"Sil you're completely mad!"

Apparently not in Tarquin's.

"Why not just give it a go?" I asked him pointedly, "It's not like we have another option!"

His reaction was just to give a resigned sigh and step aside, gesturing with his hand for me to step up and give it a try. Sometimes I don't understand how we became best friends, or how we still are to be honest. Walking forward, I turned and faced my friends, with my back to the blockade, Eliza on her feet again with the support of Axel, who had his hand around her waist.

"Alright," I spoke up, knowing I had their undivided attention, "what we need to do is quite simple, but we only get one shot at it: Ax you keep Eli upright and the two of you get ready to go through as soon as we have a clear path, got it?"

Ax nodded determinedly while Eli looked a bit more uncertain, but nodded in agreement.

"Tarq," I continued, turning to face the aforementioned, "I need you to help me move the stones, my plan is to use the minor, handheld throwing explosives. Now, you know how to use these better than I do, so I'll leave that bit up to you."

The familiar smirk crept its way back up to Tarq's lips, "Leave it to me Sil."

"Great, now, we only get one shot at this so we need to make this count people! If this doesn't work then we're all stuck down here so, no pressure!"

The sing-song tone to my voice was there to mask the panic: if we failed here then we failed for good; pleasant thoughts. The hand held explosives were a stroke of good luck on the space centres part, used for destruction from a long distance range, they had to come into contact with a surface with a certain amount of force to detonate and Tarq, feeling the need to cause even more havoc, had mastered the art of getting it perfect nine times out of ten.Thank our lucky stars! I chuckled nervously, there was no chance this could go any way but swimmingly! (Note the sarcasm dripping from this sentence.)

Luckily the explosions caused by these HEDs (Handheld Explosive Devices) were pretty tame so we didn't have to back up very far to be safe from the blast radius. We stood about ten feet back and had Ax and Eli do a test run to see how quickly they could make it to the wall: about two and a half seconds. Hopefully they would have that much time. We returned to those positions and waited, holding our breath, as Tarquin readied himself to throw the HED.

The whole of Mars seemed to turn in slow motion as his arm arced up and over our heads, releasing the HED at the crest of the arc. It sailed through the air and hit perfectly on the trigger point, detonating on impact. The dust cloud that formed as a result blocked our vision but we had no time to worry about what might be behind it.

"GO GO GO!" I yelled, shoving Ax and Eli forward, Tarq following close on their heels and myself bringing up the rear. It was a mad four second dash through the newly cleared tunnel, but it felt like hours, as though the explosion had shattered time itself and everything had shut off. My head swung from side to side as I watched Tarq sprint in front of me, I was urging him to go faster, but the adrenaline coursing through my veins forced the words back down, caught up in the heat of the moment. I could see the red dust begin to clear and I knew if I looked up I would probably be met with the sight of red sand, freed from the dam that kept it in place, able to flow openly downwards and spread out into the cave.

We kept sprinting and it wasn't until about ten metres down the other side of the tunnel that time seemed to finally catch up with us and sound returned to the world. I was hit by the sounds of frenzied breaths, rushing sand and, loudest of all, my own hammering heartbeat.

I can't believe that worked!

With the adrenaline of the moment ebbing away, we all took a moment to observe our surroundings: there wasn't much to see. Just the same old tunnel we were in before. The only difference was that the way ahead of us was now free and we could continue our pointless journey to who knows where. The silence was broken by Eli, who began to laugh hysterically, tears in the corners of her eyes as she clung to Axel, who put both his arms around her waist, allowing her to bury her head into his shoulder, the sounds of her giggles now muffled by his suit but still very much audible.

Tarquin began to approach the pair. "Hey guys, this is cute and all but-" he was cut off as Ax sent him a death glare that, if looks could kill, would have sent him straight through the floor to share a tea party with the devil! "Ok, ok. Leaving now." Tarq backtracked, walking away with his hands raised in mock surrender and returned to stand by my side, the two of us quietly observing the pair, waiting for them to be ready to continue.

Tarq leaned over to me, still watching out teammates, hands now firmly by his sides. "Was It something I said?". I only sighed, a small grin creeping its way onto my face, "No. No it wasn't."

The two lovebirds parted and turned to face us, Eli's giggling had finally quieted.

"I can't believe we all survived!" She placed her fingertips gently on her cheeks, as though checking she was in fact real.

"Yes," I said, glancing behind me at the continuation of the tunnel. I began to absently follow it, the others falling into step behind me. Throughout the walk, it was as though my senses became more muffled, the further we walked, a ringing building up in my ears and my legs just seemed to know where they were leading me. The strongest feeling in my body was a sort of tugging in my chest, pulling me forward on an invisible rope, dragging me towards whatever was at the end of this tunnel. I had no idea where the exit was, or if there even was an exit, these tunnels were naturally formed so they could just be a never ending maze for all we knew! Maybe it was a bad idea us coming down here, maybe we should have just turned around and tried to fight our way back the route we had come, or maybe we should have found a different cave all together and I should have devoted more time to the protection of my team by researching what was out here on the surface. This was probably all my fault, I shouldn't even be leader of this stupid expedition anyway, if I hadn't signed up, Tarq wouldn't have either and then we wouldn't need to care about what happened to a group of astronauts on Mars we had never even met before! Who am I kidding, I wouldn't trade this, any of this, for the world or Mars! These experiences, these people, are everything to me.

I was brought out of my stupor by a sharp tugging feeling in my chest, whatever was leading me here was getting impatient. I redirected my attention to the tunnel and, to my surprise, there was a light, probably about a hundred odd metres in front of me, where the tunnel opened up into a cave, I couldn't take the pulling any more and broke out into a sprint, my arms pumping, carrying me towards the cave, the others calling after me. I didn't listen, running like my life depended on it. I skidded to a top in the cave entrance, there, to my right, was a skeleton, propped up against the wall, with five words written in red on the wall:

DO NOT MAKE OUR MISTAKE.