The Cave

PART III: The War Continues

Chapter 17

The light shifted to a brighter pitch. Was it his eyes adjusting or was it the room itself? Everything seemed to grow simultaneously larger and smaller like he had difficulty auto-focusing with his eyes. He wanted to continue to the altar but it was not tenable—————-he stumbled around like a drunken buffoon. He stood like a stone sculpture with hypnotically possessed eyes that couldn't stray from their frigid position. He took a couple of steps back to see if it would help his eyes adjust to the altar. He fell over a piece of rock jutting up from the ground.

"Ouch. Damn. What the heck?" he said falling backwards "Really? In the middle of the room?" he said after he had landed on the floor. Twisting at the last second with arm outstretched had braced him for the impact. He was lucky not to hit his head hard again. Another concussion considering all that happened leading up to this incident could've caused much mental duress.

Frank realized that the rock was not a rock. It was artificially sculpted. It pointed towards the wall where the rocks were shaded a different hue. He sat on the ground rubbing his arm. This enabled the sensory disparity he was experiencing to dissipate. He was finally able to walk and perceive objects with relative normalcy.

Frank took a few steps toward the oddly configured (artificially tampered) rocks in the corner. He stopped dead in his tracks. The wall stuck out at a good eight feet from the rest of the wall. He needed to be this close to realize the anomaly. He felt a faint rumbling in the distance. He investigated the rock wall. One of the items he had removed from the duffel bag was a pickaxe that he now picked up from the even floor.

Frank's mind was as efficient as a computer as he went to work. The rock chipped away rather easily. Like a man possessed during a harrowing quest for buried treasure, his mind refused to rationalize his actions, instead he choose the quickest route to payoff. He reasoned that behind this wall would be further swag, perhaps surpassing even the chalices (they would be more difficult to transport than smaller trinkets). Part of him laughed at the mythos carved into the walls around him, another part of him felt a creeping primal fear, another part of him jumped for joy at the prospect of a discovery that would obviously make him rich and famous.

After thirty minutes of continuous labor, he made a hole large enough to stick his entire body through. He put the flashlight through the hole first. What Frank saw was an ostensible statue of an Icuali. He shined the light on the face then the body. Here it stood before him: the unbelievable yet true alien creature that once haunted these caves and countryside.

Frank touched the body. The chest was as tough as sand paper, though not as abrasive. The skin felt almost like rock. So this is a statue? He was secretly hoping that it was real. Disappointed, he poked around more. He touched the bat-like wings that were folded. The skin was remarkably smooth and the wings were very sturdy. Frank set the light down on top of the hole in the rock-wall, so as to have both hands free. Well if it isn't real, then why is it here and not guarding the entrance to the room? His dormant instinct for survival came to the forefront of his psyche. I don't have time for this right now. I need to get out of here. I have no idea how long I was out before. He looked back at the altar.

He climbed back through the little hole in the wall. All I need to do is get one of these chalices into the bag. I don't trust them staying here. Later I might not be able to get back and someone else will reap the rewards! There were still some items in the bag that he had deemed "emergency items." He had fifteen yards of rope and a bottle of water. He chugged the water, and deposited the rope on the ground. He grabbed one of the chalices. He pulled yet it wouldn't budge, it was fixed to the altar. He again examined the rods and the series of intersecting and overlapping lines he had used before to stimulate the roof to actuate.