Markus spent several minutes trying to make small talk with the bat-woman. It seemed her fear of him was slowly subsiding and she was beginning to relax a little. The dagger she held in the right hand was now drooping, with the arm resting on her thighs as she sat on the ground listening. She was still being cautious, but was no longer outright hostile to him.
Although there was some progress with body language, actual communication was essentially nothing. She also seemed to be dealing with a headache which further distracted the conversation attempts. Markus saw the bat-woman's eyes occasionally glance to his rifle, and could only assume her large ears are extremely sensitive to sounds. He began to think that as long as he had the weapon, she wouldn't completely trust him. Now might be a good time to return home.
“Miss, I'm going to take a couple of pictures of the spider” Markus says as he points to the spider corpse. “and then I'm heading back to the portal that's inside there.” He continues with his finger moving to the corridor opening.
The bat-woman doesn't really acknowledge his plan. He sees that her eyes did follow his finger, but she goes back to silently staring at him from the ground. Markus sighs, and runs his free hand over his hair in frustration. He begins to back away from the woman, turning to walk toward the dead spider. He's disappointed the communication efforts failed. There were numerous things he wanted to ask the exotic stranger.
As Markus reaches the corpse of the spider, he once again pulls out the digital camera used earlier. He begins to take pictures of the spider, slowly walking around to capture all the unique features. There are some angles in which the bat-woman comes into view, allowing Markus the opportunity to sneak several photos of her. He soon reviews the pictures taken and once finished, puts the digital camera away as he thought about the next thing to do.
Between the mysterious portal that transported him, the giant spider that almost killed him, and the bat-woman that couldn't understand him, Markus has had enough of wherever he is. It was time to head back home and meet up with Dan again. This adventure was only supposed to be a quick survey to see if anything interesting could be found through the portal. Once he gets back, they both need to think about how to use the information gathered.
Markus starts to head to the opening that leads to the portal room. As he starts walking, Markus turns around to quickly wave goodbye to the mysterious bat-woman. “Nice meeting you miss! Take care and be careful!”
She's still sitting in the same spot, but he doesn't see her meekly imitating the wave goodbye with some of her fingers. He turns around and heads through the corridor with his rifle held in both hands, wondering if getting back to the cavern will be as simple as jumping into the gateway again.
Markus passes by the glowing stones once more as he follows the corridor. Walking briskly, darkness soon surrounds him as he nears the sharp turn and light-less portion of the hallway. He flips his vest flashlight on and makes the turn for the way home. When Markus reaches the opening connected to the portal room, the air feels much heavier and the room seems much darker.
It quickly dawns on Markus the shimmering light of the gateway is missing. He looks over to the location of where the portal would be, but only sees pitch black. A chill runs down his spine and panic begins to set in. Markus throws the backpack from his shoulders unto the dirt in a single frantic motion.
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“No. No. God no!” His words are nervous as he unzips the backpack looking for something. He pulls out a larger flashlight and quickly turns it on with his left hand. Zipping the backpack up and loading it on his shoulders again, he rushes straight to where the portal should be, guided by only two beams of light in total darkness.
Markus runs the entire distance to the area where the gateways are. As he nears the portals, he uses the large flashlight to look for the rope tied around the stone. The rope can't be seen at all as he waves the flashlight around. Even the stone holding the rope seems to have disappeared too. Markus doesn't understand how they're missing and keeps running till he reaches the portals.
Markus now stands in front of the gateway that brought him to the area. The blue shimmer of the portal is truly gone, only solid stone is visible now. Another chill returns to Markus, with sweat beginning to appear across his body as he realizes the way home is cutoff.
“Oh my god. No. This can't be happening!” Markus yells in a panicked tone. In desperation, he rushes toward the portal and smashes his body against the stone. Pain shoots across his left shoulder, but his body simply bounces off the rock wall. As he leans against the stone, he repeatedly rams his shoulder into the rock. Nothing was happening, and Markus begins pounding his left hand against the stone wall. The beams of the flashlights are now dancing in the darkness.
“Dan! Dan! Open the portal!” Markus begins to yell for his friend as he hoped for some miracle. “Help me out! Don't leave me here!”
Markus backs away from the inert portal and starts to frantically search the area for anything that could possibly open the gateway back up. Instead, he finds that his situation is much worse. The flashlights reveal a small crater right next to the portal outline at the nine o'clock position. It looks as if a large object was smashed against the stone. Portions of the portal outline were now cracked and broken beside the crater.
“That's not good.” Markus says as he realizes that not only is the portal closed, but now it might also be broken. The flashlights begin to look around for signs of whatever caused the damage. An idea then jumps into Markus' head. He turns around to were the stone tied with the rope would've been.
It makes sense to him as to why those items are now missing, and how a crater would suddenly appear on the wall. An incredible force had somehow pulled the large stone through the portal, causing it to bounce off the wall on its way out. The portal is indeed damaged now.
Questions begin to fill Markus' mind about how that could've happened. Did Dan somehow find a way to pull the rope with enough force? Was it the giant spider? Could the portal have been forced to close? Regardless of how it happened, the end result was the same for Markus. There was no way to go back home now.
Markus begins to pace back and forth as he thinks about different ideas for his predicament. He thinks about possibly setting up camp in the room to try to repair the gateway or to wait for help. He then freezes, slowly turning the flashlights toward the western room opening. Another thought makes his plans for the portal room worthless.
Looking toward the western opening, Markus realizes the giant spider almost certainly came from that corridor. The beams of light don't reach that far back, but no other explanation would make as much sense. Even if he kept a campfire going, or somehow had the flashlights on the entire time, staying in the portal room was inviting certain death if one or more giant spiders showed up. Markus knew he was at an incredible disadvantage if he fought another one of the creatures in total darkness. He had to leave the portal room immediately.
Another quick scan of the silent portal reveals nothing else. Markus can't believe he has to abandon the area, but it's simply too dangerous to stay. He turns his body toward the eastern opening and begins another sprint. The beams from his flashlights bounce all around him as he runs. He makes sure to use the large flashlight in a wide arc to help reveal any potential dangers within the darkness. Luckily, he reaches the eastern opening without trouble. Markus turns around for a quick glance behind him before slipping back into the corridor.