Chapter Nineteen
She took me ever deeper until I was almost afraid that I would never see the sun again or I would step foot in Hades’ underworld. When we emerged in a vast cavern, I gaped in astonishment. I had read about the Crystal Cave in Mexico but its beauty was limited to those scientists who braved its dangers because of the extreme conditions of the cave - heat, maneuverability and the like. Plus, they had re-flooded it to preserve the spires. This cavern, although smaller was a comfortable 68° and there were open paths between the crystals. Not all of the were plain quartz, I could see topaz in golden yellow, rose quartz, and even amethyst. Crystals as large around as a full grown heavy man and in clusters resembling pipe organs. One particularly fine cluster looked like a purple aster only it was the size of a Uke’s tire. Any one of them would make us a millionaire yet I noticed no one had so much as broken off a piece nor picked up one of the shards.
To one of the Native Americans, this place clearly belonged to the World of the Dead and when we passed old burial platforms, I knew why it was a sacred place. The old ones laid to rest here had been placed in graves over a 1000 years before white men had stepped foot on this continent. I could tell by the archaic pottery and grave ornaments on the skeletons and by the patina on the bones.
“Who were they?” I whispered reverently and Rachel shrugged.
“Not Cheyenne or Arapahoe. These people came before us. We had our archaeologist examine them without disturbing the graves and they dated the pottery at around 1000 to 1200 B.C.E. Some even had clothing still on them – buckskin with painted geometric and floral designs that bore a resemblance to Egyptian motifs.”
“Did they do DNA?”
“No. The Tribal Council would not allow that. To touch the bones of our ancestors is taboo. A sacrilege. It does not hold the same connotation as the ‘chindi’ of the Navajo but braves have gone to war over burial grounds being disturbed.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
“There is an entrance through here to the upper world in the desert where my brother has stored a vehicle, papers, cash and a map to the Interstate. We’ll leave the Reservation and head north to the border, lose ourselves in the woods and cross into Canada. There’s a big Reservation that straddles both countries and the natives will take us in until we can establish a new identity for you – a family, school, and papers.”
“I want to go home,” I said flatly.
“They’ll look for you there,” she shook her head.
“That’s the last place they’ll look. I don’t remember where it is, they made sure of that when they wiped my memories. So how can I go someplace I don’t know?”
“Why do you want to go back? What’s so important you’d risk everything?” She argued.
“I haven’t a clue, just an intuition that says I have to do it,” I returned. “With or without you.”
“I can’t go with you,” she said. “If I disappear, they’ll link me with you and it’ll make it too easy to spot you. I was going to take you to the car and then return home.”
“Was?” I asked.
“We left without meds, just hours after you died, were revived and had major surgery, Lakan. How far do you think you’ll get on your own? You’re barely moving under your own steam; I’ve been carrying you for the last hour.” She let go and my legs wobbled. I said down on the nearest stump which turned out to be a flat crystal of white quartz the size of a piano. It reflected the lights strung up on slender poles like Christmas garlands on a tree. I wondered where the power came from that fed all these lights. There had to be a substation somewhere.
I yawned, found myself slowly sinking down the side of the slab until my back was on it and my feet on the cavern floor. “I’ll just rest here a bit,” I mumbled and was vaguely aware that she had removed her jacket to use as a pillow under my head. She sat next to me, gathered my upper body against her and I fell asleep in minutes warmed by a very soft and fragrant girl.
*****
“You got anything to eat or drink?” I asked her before I opened my eyes. My head was tucked on her chest, a surprisingly soft and sweet-scented pillow.
“Good morning to you, too,” she returned tartly.
“Yeah? How do you know what time it is?”
She flipped open her cell phone and held up her watch. “Indiglo.” I read both, she had them synchronized at 5:43 AM.
“Christ on a crutch,” I said. “I don’t get up until noon.”
“Really? I thought you were a country boy up with the chickens.”
“Chicken tenders maybe. So, is there anything to eat? Or drink? Did you think to grab anything before we took off on this jaunt?”
“No. I wasn’t exactly planning a picnic but an escape,” she snapped. “As for water, there’s the underground river that runs through here.”
I realized I had heard the soft susurrations of running water in the background as a subliminal noise that barely registered. I knew it was safe to drink but I wasn’t sure if I could get to it.
“Let me,” Rachel said, sighed and walked over under one of the lightbulbs. Once she was fifteen feet from the light, she disappeared from my sight. I strained and could barely make out a dim form moving through a forest of stalagmites. The harder I strained, the easier it was to discern shapes against her moving body. When my ears heard her gasp and then a loud splash, I leaped to my feet and ran for the now faint glimmer of water.
“Rachel!” I shouted and heard her call my name from further away. The river here was running at a good clip; my brain automatically calculated the distance from her voice and where I stood, the rate at which she was moving and the river.
I dove in, a shallow dive and the water was a sudden shock. It was ice cold. I knew within minutes, Rachel would be unable to move and would drown before hypothermia could take her. I swam furiously, my chest muscles pulling but I shoved the pain down and concentrated only on reaching her. The current helped, pushing me along until I was going at least a mile or two faster than the water.
“Rachel?” I called and got a mouthful of ice cold pure water that tasted curiously like Perrier. Ahead of me, I could just barely make out a white oval that I knew was her face.
My reaching hands grabbed her hair and such was her apathy that my snatch didn’t cause a reaction as I dragged her into my arms by a handful of her locks losing some in the process.
Next, I tried to swim for the banks but all I could grab were sheer rock walls as my ears picked up the sound of rapids. I kicked as hard as I could for the sides hoping to find something to grab onto but there was nothing.
We entered the stretch that contained the rapids and here, I could see the ghostly luminescence of the frothy water. Enough so that it highlighted the stalagmites causing the river to roil like an angry child in a tantrum. Not enough to keep me from bouncing off them or breaking bones, just enough to steer Rachel’s body away from the worst of the impacts. Thankfully, the river took us through that section fast and the next stretch was a soft curve of relatively quiet water that felt warmer, too. I was tired, achingly cold and hurting. I knew ribs were broken and suspected maybe an ankle or two.
I sensed something under my feet, held my breath and dropped to touch gravel. Once I knew the ground was underneath me, I lunged towards the sides of the river bank and felt it coming up under me. I stood up and waded through the quieter waters of a shoal and onto a gravel bank. Staggered as I climbed the shallow hill and set Rachel down. The cold was affecting my brain, it took me several minutes to associate the stuff underneath us as plants or grass. When I looked up, I saw stars but they didn’t look familiar until my tired, cold brain deduced that I was looking at the night sky through a collapsed cavern ceiling. Quickly, the sights, sounds, and scents of the afterworld rushed in on me. I wanted only to lay down and let nature take over but I barely recognized that if I didn’t do something both of us would die here. If Rachel wasn’t already dead from the cold.
I shook her, tried to listen for her heartbeat but I was shivering too much myself.
“F-f-f-fire,” I chattered. “G-g-g-gotta –m-m-make f-f-fire.” Dumbly, I stared around, broke off pieces of the brush that grew around nearly everywhere and then reached for the rocks scattered within reach. There was a lot of quartz, nuggets of what I suspected was gold but finally, I found flint and a striker stone. Cold fingers, a desperate need and a body going into shock and hypothermia did not make starting a life-giving fire easy. Yet somehow, I managed.
The blaze was a beacon in the dark sinkhole. I could see the wall; the cave was as big as a Cathedral and had the same hushed atmosphere. The river curled around one side appearing from a large tunnel and disappearing down another.
Grass, brush, and small trees grew in the center where light could reach, an area about the size of a small banquet room. The trees were manzanita, juniper and cedar, the brush yaupon and mesquite. I saw prickly pear and Spanish dagger. Both could provide some antiseptic salve and had some food value. In fact, prickly pear jelly was a gourmet item I had enjoyed at Hamilton’s.
I kept the fire small enough knowing that my fuel was limited. Once it was hot enough to make my ring rocks hiss, I set about digging a shallow pit just the size of a grave and deep enough to hold two bodies. It took a long time and I prayed the fire was enough to keep her alive until I finished. Once I judged it deep enough, I pushed the rocks into the bottom. Over that, I put handfuls of grass and needles, stripped off my clothes which had somehow dried on me. Then, I removed all of Rachel’s things except for her underwear. Her skin was gray and had the texture of cold rubber. When my fingers lifted off of it, no blood rushed to fill the spot.
“Oh God, Rachel,” I moaned in despair. “Please don’t die.”
I pushed her into the hole and lay on top of her, using one hand to arrange her damp and cold clothing over the top on the sticks I had used as joists. My body heat and the warmed stones under us slowly filled the hollow and the moisture from damp clothing made our breathing easier. It wasn’t a sweat lodge but the closest thing to it that I could build.
I fell asleep unable to stay awake even though I feared she was too far gone. It was shivering that woke me. At first, I thought it was because the wet clothes had fallen exposing my back. Then, I realized it was underneath me and I was rising and falling as she breathed. I felt the flutter of her breath on my cheek.
“Rachel?” I asked raising myself off her by leaning on my elbows. She mumbled something. Her black eyes opened and she looked directly into mine. She kissed me. Rolled her body and arched her arms around my back, pressing into the dip above my hips. Her nails dug lightly into my skin and sent a lightning jab of pleasure through me. “Rachel?” It was a question for which I didn’t have an answer but she did and she showed me a world of pleasure that was almost pain yet I would have endured torture to remain in it.