The Empty and the Unknown

10 - Exploration

I awoke groggily and sat up. My back ached from sleeping on the stone, though just about every other part of my body did, too. Titus was already up, sitting in a portable field that encompassed both of us. He had begun eating the scrambled eggs of one of his MREs and pointed towards another that lie on the ground. I twisted off my helmet, and set it aside. 

"I've only been up for about 30 minutes. You looked like you were pretty tired so I just let you sleep," he said through a mouthful of food, "I prepped another one for you, it's just scrambled eggs, ham, and toast."

"Ah, thanks." I found a fork in the bag, then began eating some of the ham, "Is it still raining?" 

"Yeah, unfortunately. The lightning's stopped, but it's still pouring outside." 

"Huh. Well, I guess we're stuck here awhile." 

"No kidding." 

We finished our breakfast pretty quickly, though we didn't get ready to leave because we had nowhere to go, or so I thought.

"What if we go down the cave." Titus suddenly said.

"What?" I questioned, putting my aching back against the field, which was soothingly colder than the air inside of the bubble. 

"Well we can't go out, so we might as well explore the cave."

"Yeah, but, who knows how deep it is, or even if it's safe. If you haven't noticed, almost everything on this planet is hostile, not to mention that just exploring was a danger all in itself. 

"Oh come on, we survived, didn't we? Who knows, maybe we'll find something down there that could help us repair the ship." He reasoned.

"We're no-" My argument was cut off by a loud buzzing, coming from the backpack. "What is that?" 

I reached towards my bag to find the source of the buzzing, before pulling out my holopad. It flashed awake and displayed a message that read "You guys safe?" 

"It's a message from the ship!" I said to Titus.

"Yeah, we're safe. We had to seek shelter in a cave, but we're safe." I replied, and it sent back the voice recording.

Not long after that, a message came in that read, "Good to hear. Talk to you later. XOXO Gage."

I snorted at his signature, and Titus was amused as well. I turned the holopad off and stuffed it back in its pouch.

"As I was saying, we're not going down there," I told him.

"Come on, we can use the holopads for navigation, and we don't even have to go far. It's not like we have anything better to do." He argued, though it bordered on whining.

"Fine," I ceded, "But we're only exploring an hour, then we head back, okay?" 

"Sounds good!" He shot up, collecting all his things excitedly. 

"Didn't know you had such a passion for cave-exploration." I mused, collecting my stuff and locking on my helmet. 

He put his on as well, "What can I say, never judge a book by its cover."

We let the field down and I turned on my holopad's tracker by triple-tapping its pouch. It vibrated, letting me know it was on, and we set off. 

As we walked down the cave, we passed several of the living rock organisms, all varying in sizes, some hanging off the ceiling like stalactites, however all of them pulsed at the same rate, almost synchronously with each other. As the light from the cave's opening started to disappear, a bright flashlight on the side of my helmet flickered on. 

After walking for about 15 minutes, we came to a fork in the cave. Three equally sized tunnels, much smaller than the cave we were in, diverging away from one another.

"This doesn't seem... natural," Titus observed.

I stepped towards the left-most tunnel and noticed a distinct trail, "That's because it's not." I motioned to the trail, and he approached it as well, "It's sulfuric acid." 

"Well, I guess we know why there aren't any above ground."

"Still, if this is part of there cave, you'd think we'd have seen one." 

"Maybe they're visiting a friend?" He joked.

"Sure. That's probably it."

"Should we continue?" 

"Yeah, but ready your weapons, they could be down here any minute." 

I unclipped my rifle and held it at my side. We continued down the path, weapons in hand, treading cautiously. The tunnel narrowed as we got deeper, forcing us to crawl through some parts of it. 

After some time of crawling, we came to an opening. A large hollowed out room, filled with gelatinous, amber colored sacks that hung from the ceiling, suspended about two feet off of the ground. 

"What the hell is this?" I got closer to one, but the flashlight didn't penetrate through the thick substance, and I couldn't see what was inside.

"I'm not sure. Eggs, possibly." He answered. 

"Why would they leave this place unoccupied?" 

Titus shrugged, "I don't know, I wouldn't touch it though."

"I think it's time to turn back." I said as I stared at the dozen or so sacks, "This place gives me the creeps."

"There's another tunnel there, though," He pointed to a tunnel on the far side

"So? This place isn't safe." 

He gave me a pleading look, and I sighed, "Fine, but this is the last creepy tunnel we're exploring." 

He led the way, and I crouched down, following him into the tunnel. This tunnel was much shorter, and after about a minute, Titus came to a stop and I accidentally ran into him.

"What is it?" I asked, backing up a bit.

"Uh... See for yourself." 

He crawled out of the hole, and I came out behind him. I brushed the acid off, which had weathered the knees and gloves of the suit. "What are you so worried about?" I said, then lifted my flashlight into the room and realized what was bothering him.

A colossal room with hundreds of the creatures' tunnels, some even going into the floor. A few pulsing rocks dotted the area, glowing so intensely that our flashlights automatically disabled and we stood in an astounded silence.

"What the hell is this place?" I asked, feeling awestruck and slightly terrified, "How many of these things are there?"

Titus brought out his holopad and attempted to contact Gage. "I don't know, but the holopads aren't working, we must be too deep. I think we should leave before they come back."

"Yeah." I aimed my flashlight down, and turned towards the tunnel we entered, "Actually, you know, I think we might be a little late for that." I said, greeted by the snarling face of an alien.