The Fear Chronicles

Rock Bottom

A field trip to the Laurel Caverns. Literally a one hour drive from the school. Field trips were supposed to be to famous places, like the Empire State Building, or Washington D.C. Not some local attraction. As she sat on the bus, Grace wondered why the school board had to ruin her eighth grade year with a boring trip to some caves.

"I can't wait to get there! I was here when I was really little." Ellen, he bubbly best friend, was chewing her ear off with mindless chatter. "I feel so bad for you. Being claustrophobic."

Grace scowled. "I'm fine. I just hate the whole idea of a field trip to some caves." 

She was not fine. She hated the feeling of being completely enclosed, unable to move. Her older brother used to lock her in her closet when they were little kids. The dark made it unbearable. She would dream and bawl until someone found her. 

"It'll be fine. I'll be okay." She muttered, and put her headphones back in.

}}}}}}{{{{{{

"Okay everyone! Now we are going to climb down this fissure. Make sure your harnesses are securely fastened to the cable!" The tour guide called to them as she crawled to the ledge. "This part is new and unexplored. You get an exclusive first look!"

Grace nervously followed, moving rigidly and unsteadily. Once she got there, the only things she could see was what was illuminated by her head lamp. And it was only rocks. I can do this. I can do this, She thought to herself as she clipped her harness to the steel cable that ran down into the abyss of nothing. Anxiously, she glanced up at the rock ceiling. The cable was attached to a rock that hung down further than the other ones. It was looped through the rock, and bolted down as well. It looks pretty safe, She thought, trying to reassure herself.

She carefully attached her harness to the cable, and began to descend. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. But she made it to the bottom without a scratch. The guide smiled and called to the rest of the class.

"Okay, come on down!"

And then it all went horribly wrong.

The steel cable held, but the rock holding it didn't. When all of her classmates attached their harnesses and started to climb, the rock cracked and crumbled. The roof started to cave in, dropping tons of rock on top of them.

}}}}}}{{{{{{

I'm stuck here now. My broken leg burns like fire, the bone sticking out, blood glistening in the dim light of my headlamp. My ragged gasps echo rapidly in the small chamber that is now my tomb. 

But the worst thing is the bodies. 

The crushed, deformed and mutilated corpses that were my classmates are scattered around me. The tour guide's once beaming eyes are smashed, with a rock still stuck in her skull. Ellen is silent now, her cheerful and friendly smile gone, along with the rest of her head. My breaths have become shallow, slow. 

My light slowly fades to red...