The Secret in the Cavern

I stood up and dusted myself off. Looking around it didn't look as dark as it had from outside. The floor was covered in thick dust and turning around I peered at the base of the door. Just as I had hoped, I saw another huge boot print in the dust dripping in mud. Shining my flashlight along the floor they grew fainter as they headed off toward the right side of the cabin. Other footprints of the same size lay around it as though whatever the beast was, it visited the cave entrance often.

"Come on down," I said to Mike. I started to slip my poncho off as the cavern was plenty dry. I gently shook the water from it and set it aside. The light was still fairly bright outside despite the thunderstorm that had darkened the summer sky.

With a loud 'flump' Mike landed right behind me. His knees buckled as he landed, probably thrown off balance because of his pack.

"Jade, have you seen anything yet?" he said as he stepped up next to me.

He was looking around now as I was. The wind had blown up the dust a bit as did our drops onto the floor. The dust was fine and choking us up a bit but he moisture in the air was causing it to settle out fast. We both heard another 'flump' and turned around.

Jack was the smart one. He had taken his pack off and dropped it to the floor.

"Nice catch," he said with a grin. He swung his other leg over the door and dropped to the floor much more gracefully than I or Mike had. He started looking around now too.
The room stretched out from us beyond sight to the right. The left wall curved with it as though it was a tunnel deliberately built and designed to move right. It was about twenty feet across and fifteen feet high. The rock was cracked in large uneven pieces but looked fairly stable. The floor, covered in dirt had uneven gravel on the bottom of it but we could see that didn't last. The further in it went the less dirt there was and the gravel was bigger.
We started to step forward when Mike objected.
"We need to call Mom and let her know we are okay," he said, getting out the cellphone. I nodded to him.
He flipped it open Star Trek style and pretended he was Captain Kirk radioing for the Enterprise.
"We seem to be trapped in an alien cavern with no means of escape. The cavern is blocking the transporter beams and there is no sign of intelligent life anywhere." I rolled my eyes.
"C'mon Mike," Jack started. "Let's get going!"
Mike fixed his eyes on Jack. "Nope, still no sign." Jack slugged him in the arm.
"OW! Thant's my eating arm!" he whined, rubbing his bicep.
"Just do it." I said.
"No signal," he answered back, turning the cellphone to me. Sure enough the antenna was there so it wasn't completely dead but I have never successfully made a call like that. I took it.
"Give me a boost," I said, trying to climb back up the grated door. Mike and jack both grabbed a leg and pushed me up where I could get a foothold on the hinge. I climbed the rest of the way up to the top and hooked my arm through the bar. Mike and Jack stayed underneath in case I fell.
"Anything?" they asked together.
I flipped the lid open and I got one bar of signal. Considering the phone displayed eight bars when at its best, this wasn't much of an improvement. Dialing our home number, it took forever to connect. I heard a very broken ringing and then Mom answer.
"--lo? Ja--yo-- --kay?" I heard. The storm was not helping.
"Mom!" I yelled. I always made fun of people who yelled into their cellphones as though they thought it would travel farther or send clearer. But there I was doing it.
The call cut off and the screen said the call was lost.
"I'll just text her. That should get through OK."
I fumbled with the phone. I was starting to lose feeling in my right arm from hanging off the bar for so long. I kept the message short and sweet. 'All OK. Safe from storm. Call back when it's over.' and pressed send. I waited to see if it would send. A full minute crawled by before I finally saw "Message sent" show on the screen.
I pulled my arm through still holding the phone and began to climb down. Turning to see if Mike and Jack had moved for me to drop down, I could not see them. I turned my head and grabbed the grate with my left arm.
The phone slipped out of my numb hand and I clumsily grabbed for it nearly letting go. It was too far and just a short second later I heard a crack and a clatter.
I jumped not caring now if the boys were below me. I landed square and bent kneed. Lunging forward at the phone I found it inches from one single rock protruding about an inch above the dusty floor. It had landed right on it. The small screen was broken completely out of the phone and all the lights were off.
"No, no no NO!" I said, panicking. I brushed the dust and glass debris off of the phone. I flipped it open and there was a similar spiderweb-like crack on the main screen. Also no light and no sounds. The phone was dead.
"Smooth move, idiot!" Mike snapped at me. "Did your text at least make it?"
"Yes," I said glaring back at them. "Where were you two. If you had been there you could have caught it."
"We just walked a few feet that way too look down the tunnel, that's all," Jack said defensively. "Sorry."
Mike and I glared at each other as any good brother and sister would do when it was neither of our faults. Jack just stood by and watched the battle of the stares. Finally he said, "C'mon, let's get started."
We walked forward and the cave started to curve back left a little. It remained perfectly level but the dirt started to dissipate. The crushed rock remained almost as though some one had intentionally put the gravel there. It looked natural though like ti was entirely gravel from this cave.
"It's a lava tube," Mike said finally. Jack looked over at him, quizzically. He had no idea what a lava tube was.
"An ancient underground lava river ran through here, then cooled and shrank down, cracking as it went." I said by way of explanation. Jack just nodded. We kept walking and after abut five minutes all signs of any footprints were gone.
"Good thing it is a lava tube," Mike continued. That means that usually there is only one cavern, no real way to get lost."
"How deep does it go?" Jack asked.
Mike piped up again. I rolled my eyes again. Here is where Mike gets his brain out and rolls it around for us.
"The longest one known is forty miles long in Hawaii," he started. "In Utah, there is one a couple of miles long called Duck Creek. This one is probably shorter.
"How do you know?" Jack asked again.
"Because we have a huge sandstone block over our heads. If it was much longer, there would be more above the surface. There isn't any above us for miles around.
We kept walking deeper into the cave. I looked around some and saw the Mike was probably right. In a few areas I saw chunks of sandstone stalactites and stalagmites having broken through the roof. The ceiling of the tube certainly wasn't very thick above us here. The limestone material for the stalactites had to be getting in from somewhere.
After about fifteen minutes of silent walking we finally reached the end. The roof sloped downward and a broken floor showed where the lava had plugged up as the tube sank below the floor. There was no stalactites here. We must have slowly gone deeper or the lava portion must be thicker here. Furthermore, there were no signs of any animals, beast or otherwise.
"Well, that was fun." Jack said, bored with the walk. "What do we do now?"
I thought for a minute. Mike was right that lava tubes did not usually branch, but intact lava tubes where it had contact with other rocks was also rare.
"Lets go back and look at the stalactite area again."
They nodded. Turning around, we began to walk back toward the entrance.
The tube had been maybe a half mile long at best. Jack was kicking rocks here and there as he walked growing more bored as we went.
"Is there any more granola bars?" he asked, looking over at Mike who was picking up some small rocks.
"Yeah," he said, hucking one of the small rocks down the cave toward the entrance. "Middle small pouch." Jack dug in and pulled three bars out. We each started to eat and I took a swig from my water bag. Mike kept tossing rocks. Each one bounced off of the floor as he threw it.
"We should get home before dinner," he observed before tossing another rock. "What do you want to do? I don't want to waste the rest of Saturday." He punctuated it with the last rock in his hand aiming for a big fat stalagmite that  was short and rounded.
"I don't--" I started, but the rest of my answer caught in my throat as a deafening crash came from the stalagmite. I screamed.
"Run!" Jack yelled as he ran for me. He was heading deeper into the cave not out of it.
"Don't we'll be trapped!" Mike yelled back. "This way!" He pointed toward the wall opposite where the stalagmite had stood. jack grabbed my arm and we started to clamber over the rocks. About a minute later all sound had stopped and we slowed down.
"Quiet! Hold still!" I hissed at the other two. I had heard what sounded like a rock falling. They held still.
"What!?" Mike hissed back.
"Shh!" I snapped back, holding up a finger.
I listened again. I could hear it off in the distance, deeper in the cave where we had just ran from. It wasn't rock falling. It was the sound of rock being dropped against another rock.
"C'mon," I beckoned to the other two. The exchanged nervous looks.
"Hey you two! I whispered. "i heard something and I just wanted to go back and check for a minute."
 Mike and Jack didn't reply but they started to move slowly toward me. We all crept forward trying to stay quiet. I heard the sound again. I stopped.
"Did you hear that?" I said quietly, looking back at the other two. Mike looked rigid with fright. He shook his head no. Clearly he had heard it. Jack looked at him and then nodded at me. He turned his flashlight off.
We stepped forward some more and rounded a bend. There in the floor was a five or six foot hole in the floor where the stalagmite had stood. I looked next to it and the wall, which was only a few feet away looked built up with large flat boulders about the size of kitchen cupboards. They were not lava rock.
I turned my light off. If there was someone or something there, I didn't want to give away my position so easily.
We snuck up to the side of the hole. I leaned over and looked in. Down about four feet was the tip of the stalagmite. It had fallen into a passage about five feet high. Looking at Mike, I indicated to him to turn his light off. I had seen something strange and wanted to confirm it.
Mike shook his head even more frightened at the prospect of being plunged into total darkness. I glared at him and finally Jack grabbed it and turned it off. Mike stifled a yelp that just managed to escape. I looked in amazement too at the hole. A green iridescent light was coming form beyond the hole.
I dropped down. Moving deeper into the hole,  I managed to almost stand up. After a few feet I had passed the rubble of the cave in and crept further forward. The passage only went a few more feet and then turned a corner. I gasped.
The room I was in was massive. Lit by a green phosphorescent glow from three giant glowing boulders hundreds of feet up embedded into the ceiling. It looked like you could fit several church buildings in the space. The mountain certainly wasn't hollow above us, but it was certainly less solid than it looked from the outside.
"You two coming or what?" I turned and yelled at the hole I just dropped down from.
Mike came first. He was shaking like a leaf but calmed a bit as the awesome scene hit his eyes. Jack followed with a similar reaction.
"Wow," he said looking around.
I nodded my head in agreement. I looked at him and smiled at the stunned look on his face. As I watched him smile back. Something then caught my eye above us on a ledge and to the right. I jumped and looked deep into the crevice I saw the movement come from.
A deep dark crevice stood about thirty feet up and to the right. The rocks below it had obvious wear and was free of rock and dust. We all stood frozen though I was listening hard for any more movement. I squinted as I peered into the deep dark crack. A formless lump seemed to be there that I could feel more than see. The room, though lit with green light was still dark  by the usual standard. Too dark to read by even. Still I could swear I could see something there. Hitting it with a beam from my flashlight was the last thing I wanted to do for fear of provoking it to attack.
As I turned over in my head what to do, I heard a sound. It was a deep raspy ragged sound. The same sound I hear when my dad had a bad cold and was breathing badly. It was surely breathing and waiting. Waiting for me.