It was overcast when I woke up, which didn’t put me in the best mindset for the day. With the naked trees, the gray clouds made everything look almost too dreary. I wanted to crawl back under those nice warm covers to just sleep the rest of the day away. If I had to look at the repetitive scenery of caves, at least let it be on a sunny day. Overcast weather just wasn’t fair, man.
Shrugging at the futility of trying to alter the clouds, I sat down at a little table I somehow didn’t notice the night before. Lori said we had to be out by noon, and it was only seven in the morning. With any luck, the rest of them would sleep in and the weather would brighten up a bit in the meantime. Or maybe we could just take the day off and pretend like we were lumberjacks in our cabins.
My eyes began to wander before settling on an old picture of an actual lumberjack-looking guy and the name of the small town we were in. He was massive and ruggedly handsome. There was no date on the picture that I could see, but it had to be at least seventy years old. It got me thinking about what kind of life he lived, if he had any family, and what the town was like when he was alive. Hell, he still could have been alive for all I really knew.
I started thinking beyond that lumberjack guy and about everyone else. Every person, car, and house we passed on the way there had thousands of stories around them. It was almost overwhelming to me to think about it, and it made me angry at the same time. Everyone was just going about their days as best they could, even when McLeod and Dii Consentes could show up anywhere to end those lives. I looked back at the picture and wondered what that guy might’ve done in this situation. Would he also go about his day-to-day life as best he could, hoping that his town was spared?
The text tone from my phone startled me out of internal strife that formed because of a picture. Probably for the best, that one. The text was from Lori, checking if I was awake. When I responded to the affirmative, she told me to be ready to head out by nine. Megan was still sleeping, and she hadn’t heard from Alex yet, so the plan was to let everyone sleep a bit more. She also threw in the names of some of the caves that we were planning to visit, hopefully with better results this time.
Reading Lizzy’s reaction to the dinner selfie and seeing Megan for the first time nearly gave me enough energy to get me to our checkout time. I had never seen the words “cute”, “precious”, and “adorable” used so much in one space. She was dying to meet that kid. Chloe didn’t exactly share that same level of excitement. Having her blood spray all over her jacket might’ve had something to do with that. She still put a few nice words and hearts in her response.
When I glanced out my window again to see if the weather was any better—which it was—I noticed a small two-story toy shop across the near-empty road. Lori carrying an actual gun around made me want to get a toy one. It had to look real enough, since the goal wasn’t actually to shoot anyone with it. If I needed to, I was going to be screwed. I wanted it on me just in case I needed to pull out something that looked convincing at a quick glance. I didn’t trust my Anomaly to be used offensively without danger to myself or everyone around me.
I checked my pockets for three things. My room key, my wallet, and that little teleporting glass item. Those were my big three things to not lose ever, even though the hotel room key one could be figured out. My wallet could too, in time, but that teleporting item had to be one of the most valuable items on the planet. Dropping it on a walk to a toy store would not win me any popularity contests with Lori, Mrs. Carmichael, or the person who made it.
The walk to the toy store was quick and pleasantly warm. I appreciated that, because it felt like it was getting colder and colder every day. There were still some clouds blocking the sunlight, making me grateful for the bits of warmth I could get.
The building was old, but well-maintained. Lots of love and care went into making it look great. Little spinnable racks were on either side of the wooden door. Cute toys being sold at a discount hung from them. There were cars, trucks, action figures, and loads of little plushies. One in particular caught my eye: a brunette princess in a pink dress. It wasn’t highly detailed or remarkable. Even so, I decided to grab it for Megan. Hopefully she wouldn't prefer a monster truck or something. Maybe she would like both.
There was a kind old man behind the counter who greeted me with a smile when I went inside. The store smelled like a mix of burning firewood and cinnamon, making it very inviting. There were toys everywhere. Maybe that shouldn’t have been a shock, since it was a toy store, but there was hardly any space not occupied by toys. Even walking through the shelves that made up the aisles proved to be tough with how many there were.
“Anything you’re looking for, young man?” the owner, I assumed, asked.
“Actually, yes, there is.” I made my way backward and walked up to his counter. “My friends and I are on our way back from an airsoft tournament, and I lost one of my guns. Do you have a replacement pistol?”
“Hm, airsoft pistol?” He stroked his white beard and looked deep in thought. Suddenly, his eyes came to life as he recalled something. “I might have just what you’re looking for!”
The old man went off into a backroom. In the brief moment that the door was open, I could see more toys lining the hall and a skinny spiral staircase leading up. I wondered if he lived on the second story. Back in Oregon, there were some older stores like this one. Most of them just used the second story as storage. The kid in me recognized how awesome it would be to live among all these toys. If he had grandkids, they had to have a blast every time they came by for a visit.
The man didn’t return for a while, and I was starting to get worried he might’ve fallen. I still had plenty of time until Lori wanted us to leave, but my concern was if he got hurt. I went to the door he disappeared through and the internal debate between checking on him and minding my own business began. I knew I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if he was hurt because I was too scared to check on him, so I decided to push through.
“Aha, found it!” the man yelled. I heard footsteps on metal, so I quickly scrambled back to the counter, trying to make it look like I was just browsing all the toys he had around. He opened the door and I looked surprised to see him. “How’s this, young man?”
He placed a black pistol onto the counter. As I expected, it had an orange tip on the end of a barrel, which I’d have to remove later. It was smaller than Lori’s actual handgun. That was fine. I just wanted to have it in case I needed a quick way to startle someone. I grabbed it, pointed it toward the wall, and got a feel for the size and weight of it. It was still just an imitation gun, so it wasn’t hard to wield at all. I really wanted to get it.
“This is perfect, sir.” I set the gun and the princess plushie on the counter to pay for them. He looked a bit quizzically at the two clashing items. He looked at them for a few seconds before shrugging. “Thank you for finding it for me.”
“Not a problem at all, son. Is this one for a girl back home?” He tapped a few buttons on the cash register, which looked decades old. “That’ll be ten dollars even.”
“For my younger sister. She loves princesses.” I pulled a ten out of my wallet, happy I didn’t have to fight with change. “Is that right? This seems...low for all these.”
“Ah, no such thing. That princess is on the discount rack, and I’ve had that old toy gun upstairs for ages now. One less thing to have to trip on, right?”
I couldn’t argue with that. One less toy in there would make it ever so slightly easier to get around, but they all seemed important to the old man. I couldn’t blame him for not parting with any of them he didn’t sell. With another thanks, I gathered up my things and made my way out. The chances of me being back in this spot again had to be astronomically low, but I made a note to come back if I was in town.
I crossed the street, after looking both ways of course, and walked back to my hotel room. I had the airsoft gun in the back of my jeans with much less fear than Lori had. I still had around an hour to wait until we needed to go, so I spent that time packing everything up and double checking that I had all my belongings. My teleporting stone thingy and wallet were still in my pockets. Like my first hotel stay, I made sure that everything was as nice and made up as possible.
I gathered up all my belongings and went to Lori’s room, making sure to carry the princess behind my back. When I knocked, she opened it almost immediately. She had put on some makeup again, but her outfit was suited for caving and getting dirty. It didn’t slip past me that my small friend looked disappointed it was me and not Alex at her door. Behind Lori was Megan, brushing her teeth and looking just about ready to go herself.
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“Morning, kiddo,” I said, walking inside. When she turned around to see me, she was met with the princess toy I got her. “Sorry it’s not the nicest thing ever, but-”
Before I could finish, she grabbed the toy with a huge, muffled squeal. She hugged to her chest and gently bounced on the bed. She finished brushing her teeth in a hurry so she could actually talk to me instead of making weird grunting sounds. “I love her! Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
She ran into me to wrap her little arms around my waist. I ruffled her hair, beyond happy that she was so excited to get it. Megan took it and placed it next to Max. I wondered what kind of name she might give her new friend. Hopefully the princess and Max would make a happy family for Megan.
Lori must’ve been watching the window, because she let Alex in before he even knocked. He looked surprised and a bit weirded out. We greeted each other while Megan made sure to show him about the great new friend she got. She mentioned that I got it for her, which made me beam with some pride. Alex might’ve been all cool, handsome, brooding, and muscular, but he didn’t get the little girl a toy that made her squeal with happiness.
“Oh, Alex, can you do me a favor?” I pulled out the toy gun and handed it to him, with the barrel pointing down. “Can you use your power to get that orange tip off the end? It’s just a toy, but I got it to look scary if I need to surprise someone in a pinch.”
“Sure thing,” he said, taking the gun from me. His hand glowed and he effortlessly crushed the plastic end in an instant. When he gave it back, I loved how much better it looked. It wouldn’t fool any enthusiasts, so I was counting on not running into any. “I like that idea for you. The moment of distraction it might buy could save your life.”
“Get your butts in gear, team, today’s our day.” Lori walked to the hotel’s office while we put everything back up in the SUV. The hotels were nice and all, but I would not miss having to load and unload that stupid suitcase.
Megan and I took our usual spots in the middle row. She decided to name the princess Dana, and she was already making Dana and Max play with each other. Lori took the driver’s spot, having to adjust with her gun still in the back of her pants. She either got over her fear, or just resigned herself to the possibility of getting her butt shot.
“First cave today is called Megan’s Reach.” Lori made sure to put emphasis on the little girl’s name, not that she needed to. She perked up immediately at the sound of her name. “Guess they named it after our hero in training, huh?”
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Megan’s energy and Lori’s attitude revitalized me. We were eager to get started too.
The drive was short. It only took a few minutes to get there. This one wasn’t a touristy cave. Or at least not on a weekday it wasn’t. Lori activated the Anomaly detector bracelet, and like the previous day, there was a notification straight ahead and one behind us. There were camping grounds in the area behind us, so having another person there with an Anomaly wouldn’t be a massive shock. Lori wasn’t letting herself get discouraged this time.
Carefully, we made our way through the cave. This one didn’t have nearly as many people coming to it, so we had to be careful and make better use of our senses without the benefit of tourist paths. It wasn’t long before we all had our headlamps on. We made sure someone was always keeping a hold of Megan since she didn’t have her own lamp. Having to make sure she didn’t get hurt coupled with the less-traveled path made it much harder on us, but we persevered through.
Megan’s Reach was beautiful like all the other caves we saw, though it had the same issues with repeated scenery I was tired of. I wasn’t a caver, so the actual exploring of it just wasn’t my thing. The was nice, sure, but I didn’t have to walk God-knows-how-far into one just for cool formations. I thought about that while I almost broke my ankle for the third time on a near-fall.
“Wait, guys,” Lori said, stopping the group. Excitement rolled off her while she grabbed at my shirt sleeve. “It’s blinking faster!”
As fast as we could, we raced forward. It was my job to make sure Megan stayed safe while we rushed through the cave. You could cut the tension in the group with a knife. The next step was trying to find the source. Lori's detector showed that we were just feet away.
Everyone stayed near each other while hunting for any physical clue. My hands began shaking when I realized that we might actually be at our goal. The entire thing felt mysterious and dangerous on top of bordering on surreal insanity. We really were hunting treasure in this random cave. This hardly touched, hardly explored cave. Who knew how many people had even been this deep in over the past century?
“Guys, this rock has a gap in it.” It was Alex who made the find. Lori and I both found him looking around a large boulder, trying to find a way past. The rock looked just natural enough if one didn’t spend too much time checking it out with lights shining on it. “There’s no moving it with my enhanced strength. We’d need an actual strongman for this one.”
“And here I thought you were the brawn of the group, bud,” I said, walking up to the gap. “Instead, you just sleep in on our big days.”
“Yeah, this is a bit of an issue.” Alex didn’t comment on my joke in any way. His focus was all on our large obstacle. If there was any time for Megan to reveal she could move the Earth, it would have been then. Looking at her, she was just as frustrated as we were. “If your power was more developed, you might be able to get a shield in there and expand it. That’d still be a longshot with a lot more training.”
“How about you break it down?” Lori asked, gently placing a hand on Alex’s biceps. “You might not be strong enough to move it, but why not just punch through it?”
Alex contemplated it for a moment. Just to be a sport about it, he did try to push it away. Both of his arms glowed yellow and cast a faint light over us. Some dust and a few tiny pebbles came off the top. Right when I thought he might be making headway with it, he grunted and stopped. His work wasn’t nearly enough to make a significant dent in it. If he kept that up for a week, he might’ve been able to get it moved.
“Fine, I’ll just punch a stupid boulder in a dark cave.” Alex’s fists got brighter and we all stepped back. I put up a shield in front of the three of us to keep us protecting from any stray debris. His first punch shattered a chunk of it, sending shards flying back. The shield absorbed the punishment without issue. “Brawn over brains, I guess.”
Alex kept punching the stone, each strike making the rock smaller. Alex’s lamp would shine some light into the gap, but we still couldn’t see anything worthwhile. After a while, the sound of the rock breaking cave me a headache. Megan had been covering her ears nearly the whole time. The rhythmic pummeling made me long for the repetitive sounds of water dripping from the cave’s ceiling. How could I have been so stupid to miss it?
“I think I can get through,” Alex said, wiggling half his body between the boulder and the wall. His voice became confident, and he gave us a rare grin. “We’re in, boys and girls.”
Relief washed over us. After Alex slipped through, I let Megan in next, making sure that she didn’t get hurt on the way. With Megan inside, Lori went next, and I was the last one to make it through. The rock looked jagged from the uneven destruction. I nearly sliced myself at least three times getting through. I have no idea how Alex’s massive frame didn’t get shredded to ribbons.
Now that we were all inside, our shining lamps revealed a perfectly smooth hallway. Something that could not have been naturally formed there. Not quite believing it, I ran my hand over the wall. It came away with a layer of grime that I hastily wiped on the back of my jeans. Megan didn’t seem too impressed with it herself. Lori’s lamp light was flying around everywhere, searching for anything. After taking a moment to soak it all in, something felt weird. It felt like every hair on my arm was standing on end, almost like I was about to get struck by lightning. I ran my hand down my arm to try and shake the feeling.
“Guys,” she whispered, “this is it, isn’t it?”
“We won’t know unless we explore,” I said, trying to keep my own nerves from coming out at the worst time.
“Be careful and stay behind me. We don’t know how stable this place is at all.” Alex led the way as our guide and protector. Lori took Megan’s hand to safely guide her along behind the big guy.
I wanted to observe the walls and my surroundings more, but I was too scared I might trip over something, so I kept my eyes on the ground in front of me. Every step echoed in the hall, eventually getting as bad as Alex punching the rock. I think I was getting irrationally irritable. That weird feeling I noticed when we walked in got worse the farther in we went. It felt like there was something just under the surface of my skin, trying to break out. It took all of my self-restraint to avoid digging into my own flesh.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, we reached an unassuming wooden door. It had no windows and looked like it was older than all our team combined. None of us really knew what to do. Our lamp lights went from the door, its handle, to the wall, and to each other erratically. On Lori’s detector, we were right on top of the green orb. There was still that flashing green arrow behind us, but that one wasn’t our priority.
“Should...we open it?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. It still echoed off the walls, making me cringe at the sound.
“I don’t think we have a choice.” Lori took a deep breath and clapped her hands on her face. “Who wants to do the honors?”
“You’re the leader,” Alex said, stepping back. “All mystery door openings should go to you.”
From what my light would reveal, she looked nervous. That didn’t stop the little lady. She grabbed the brass handle and turned it slowly. It sounded like it wanted to snap off under her hand. With a sharp inhale, she shoved the door open, and we all walked through.
Our eyes adjusted to the surprising light that met us. After my vision settled, I saw that we were in a large, square room. There were tiny beds cut into the walls, most of them with unmoving bodies as the occupants. They were incredibly small and reminded me of cramped prison bunks. At the head and foot of each bed, on the wall, hung a candle to illuminate the space. Dead in the center of the room, there was a big wooden table with books, paper, and other materials that I didn’t recognize. Sitting at it was a surprised man in a suit.
“Well, hello there.” The man stood up and composed himself, a thin smile stretching across his face. “It’s been quite some time since I’ve had guests. Who might you be?”