The landscape appeared alien and unforgiving, cruel and uncompromising. Even the air was harsh, dry as a bone and burning with each inhale, as if every breath of it stole some of her water away from her. Sarah preferred thick forests with towering trees and deep shadowed glades to this relentless bright light and crippling heat.
The sight of their destination finally appeared like a mirage on the horizon. It did not endear Sarah any further to the arid landscape. The looming mountain may have promised shade, but that tight hole at the base of it, barely visible behind a cluster of large boulders, did not promise safety. Quite the opposite. It looked like it would crush anyone foolish enough to try to crawl inside. The twisted metal grating that had been pulled from the cave entrance and tossed to one side made the impression of danger worse.
“Oh hell no!” Sarah said, stopping in her tracks as Beth and Matt moved closer to the cave entrance. “There is no way I’m going through that hole.”
Beth chuckled as she dropped her pack to dig out her mining hat. “Come on, Sarah, you’re not that big.” She eyed Sarah’s generous hips, chewing on her filler-plumped bottom lip. “I mean, if Matt can fit his shoulders through the opening, you should be able to fit your butt through there.”
If Sarah’s cheeks weren’t already on fire from the heat, they would now be burning with embarrassment as she avoided looking in Matt’s direction. She’d heard his laugh just fine. She had no response to Beth’s offhanded comment. Her friend hadn’t meant any harm by it. They had both struggled with their weight when they were in school. Beth had grown out of her chubbiness, but she knew how much it hurt to deal with the jokes and jibes, so she was usually careful with what she said to Sarah. This time, she was obviously too excited about this little venture to be careful of Sarah’s feelings.
They were both now staring at her, waiting for her to agree to crawl into that cave opening with them. A quick glance at Matt showed that he had his mining hat on, and a rope already looped around his shoulder. His camera was already strapped to his chest. Sarah had a sinking suspicion he was recording everything, including the big butt comment and her reaction.
“I could just wait out here,” she said, allowing her pack to slide off her shoulder, bending with it to slow its descent to the ground. She unzipped it and pulled out her phone. “Someone needs to be outside where we can get a decent signal, in case of emergency.”
Beth propped her hands on her hips. “That wasn’t the deal, Sarah. You said you would go into the cave with us. Come on. Don’t let me down now!” She pointed a finger at Sarah. “You owe me, girl.”
Sarah bowed her head, unable to meet Beth’s eyes any longer. She did owe Beth. She’d been the one to come to Sarah’s rescue when she found out she was pregnant at fifteen and left home.
She had never gone back to her parents after that. They’d been happy to let her remain living with Beth and her mom at the time. She hadn’t even bothered to contact them when Beth’s mom got a new boyfriend and Sarah had to move out. Beth had helped her buy a beat up old van that she ended up living in. She’d also given Sarah food and supplies to keep her going.
Beth had been the best friend a girl could have. Sarah hadn’t had the chance to repay her. This was a small sacrifice to make up for all Beth had done for her.
Without more protest, Sarah pulled out the mining hat they’d given her and set it on her head, strapping it under her chin. She sucked in a few more arid breaths that scorched her lungs and did little to quell a stomach queasy with nerves. Then she made her way to the cave entrance where Matt was already low-crawling his way through.
Beth gestured for Sarah to follow Matt, promising to bring up the rear. Sarah swallowed her fear, nodding, aware now that they were filming. She wanted to watch every word she uttered so it wasn’t caught on camera.
She managed to avoid a sudden onset of claustrophobia only by focusing on Matt’s feet ahead of her as she crawled behind him. She felt the rock above her catching on her pack, tugging it, restraining her as the straps tightened around her arms. After a short bout of panic, she realized she could twist and turn to break her pack free, flinching every time a chunk of rock clattered down with their passage.
Then, Matt climbed to his hands and knees ahead of her. He crawled for another half dozen feet before he was able to stand. Seeing him climb to his feet had Sarah moving faster, eager to get out of the tight space of the tunnel into a more open part.
Once she stood on her feet, able to straighten up to her full height, she started sucking in desperate breaths, realizing that she’d been holding her breath for far too long. Now, the drafts of air she pulled in were thick with must, the stench redolent of stale air, vermin, and long dead things. She turned to face the tunnel entrance, seeing nothing but Beth coming up behind her. The light from the opening was so faint as to be barely perceptible with their headlamps and the camera lights on.
Sarah was surprised by how far they’d managed to crawl. She turned back to look at the rest of the tunnel and noted something immediately. “This is a manmade tunnel.”
Matt brushed dirt off his shirt and jeans. Even the gym-rat was breathing a little heavier from crawling through the beginning of the tunnel. “It’s a horizontal shaft into an abandoned mine. The entrance was caved in at some point and that hole dug out of it again, but the rest of the shaft is solid.”
Sarah glanced at him in surprise, then looked back at Beth, who had already brushed off her clothes. She had taken out a mirror to check her face, and was now wiping at a smudge of dirt on her cheek.
“You knew this was an abandoned mine?” Sarah spotted a portion of the old mine cart track peeking out from a pile of dirt and rubble. “Why didn’t you just say so? I think that’s a hell of a lot more interesting than a simple cave.”
Beth snapped her mirror closed and tucked it into the pocket of her shirt. She shrugged as she met Sarah’s eyes. “Technically, we’re not supposed to be here. I wasn’t sure you’d want to break the law, so I told you it was just a cave.” She turned to regard the dark shaft ahead of them.
“Dammit, Beth!” Sarah bit her lip to keep more frustrated words from spilling forth, reminding herself they were on camera still. “What is this place?”
Beth shrugged again. “An abandoned mine. That’s all.” She jerked her chin towards the darkness that their lights couldn’t penetrate. “Let’s keep going since we’re already this far in.”
With a sigh, Sarah followed in Matt’s footsteps, listening to the echo of his voice as he began to narrate for the camera. She found his overacting and his constant references to potential ghosts and spooky mine-monsters eye rolling but kept her comments to herself. This was apparently his show, though he gave Beth a few chances to speak as well. That was yet another fact Beth had misrepresented. Sarah wouldn’t have been so willing to come here if she’d known it was for Matt rather than Beth.
The two were probably disappointed as they headed deeper into the shaft, finding nothing very interesting along the way, except for a handful of rusted old cans. There were several offshoots of the main tunnel, but they ended in such short distances that their lights were able to reveal the far walls without them further exploring those areas. Sarah was about to call the exploration a bust. She felt a bit disappointed herself now that she had come this far only to view walls of uninteresting rock scarred by pickaxes and a couple of rusted cans.