Deadly Cavern

"Are you sure this is it?"

Jake squatted down and leaned his head into the opening. Barely three-and-a-half feet high and two feet wide, the jagged, oblong hole seemed to want to swallow anyone who dared to enter. Moving forward, he withdrew his green flip-top lighter, the tell-tale 'click, zip' of the lid and striker echoing into the darkness. The flame jumped up and began an erratic dance, flashing yellow and blue, leaning toward the black emptiness as if it were eager to lead the way further into the tunnel.

"I got a breeze," he said, the rock absorbing most of the timbre of his voice yet still bouncing it around a few times before fading entirely. "It has to go somewhere." He backed out and stood, looking over to Harry for some kind of verification.

"Well, we didn't come all this way for nothing." They secured their backpacks, switched on their flashlights, and ducked into the entrance.

There were stories circulating the region that some others had tried exploring the cavern, never to be seen again. The boys shrugged off all warnings, dismissing them as "old wives' tales".

"Stick close in case there are surprises," Jake called from the lead. No matter how confident he acted, something in the back of his mind told him not to go in.

"Not scared, are you?" Harry's voice quavered slightly. Maybe he had the same misgivings, but Jake knew him well enough to realize he would never admit to any doubts.

"Dream on, Dude. You don't sound too sure of yourself, though." They had a long history of braving situations where others dared not. Bravado, false or not, had seen the 16-year-old duo through many a predicament neither would have ventured into alone.

"I'm fine. Just keep going."

Jake slowly moved further in. He came to the first turn and looked back. The opening seemed as small as a pin hole. He hadn't realized they had gone that far. "Still with me?" He was breathing a little harder than usual, and noticed Harry was too.

"Yeah, I'm okay. How's it look up there?"

"It's narrowing down. Curves to the right and looks like it slopes downward."

He heard Harry mumble, "Great," but made no comment. They had room enough to duck-walk until the turn, then were forced to begin 'army crawling' on bellies and elbows. Jake could hear Harry grunting as the two continued.

Jake stopped. "Wait," he whispered.

"What, wait? You're not going to chicken out, are you?"

"Shut up, Dude. I thought I heard something."

Silence. A faint clicking, like a clock running out of juice. 'Click...click, click' Jake could not tell if it came from in front or behind.

Harry whispered back, "I don't hear anything."

"Maybe... It's nothing. Come on."

They began moving again. A tunnel branched off to the right, but looked to end ten feet or so in. They followed the main corridor further, but when it curved to the left, Jake let out an expletive.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"It ends here, too." He led his beam to all sides, but saw nothing but solid rock. "Maybe that side tunnel was it."

"You said it ended."

"Yeah, but maybe it went up. I didn't look real hard."

They slowly inched backward to the offshoot, and Harry went in first. Jake followed when he heard him whistle.