No dreams and no nightmares; in fact, Samuel could not be entirely sure he had slept at all. His eyes opened slowly, and the starry ceiling met his sight. He tried to get up, but the aching pain was unimaginable; every muscle in his body had cramped during the night, and even moving a finger sent a jolt of agony down his arm.
Samuel stretched his right arm; it hurt, but he could not lay there forever. He then swung his right arm over his body and pushed up so he was on his stomach. Then, Samuel placed his left arm on the floor and attempted to lift himself onto his knees, but the pain forced him back down. Determined, Samuel tried again, breathing deep with every motion, and succeeded this time.
Samuel put himself on one foot and lifted himself onto his feet with one quick motion, maybe too fast.
Samuel yelled as all his muscles commanded him to return to the floor. He ignored them, took a step forward, and stumbled slightly. Samuel thought back to the other day, specifically the chase. He had never exercised so much in his life, and this pain was his body telling him never to attempt to run like an athlete without practising first.
He noticed that he was still wet. The steam from the pool kept the air humid and prevented either himself or his clothes from drying out.
Then Samuel remembered his phone; he darted to his trousers and pulled it and his wallet out. He attempted to turn it on, but he could not do so; it had become waterlogged.
“Shit,” Samuel grunted; he liked that phone. Samuel put it to one side and then opened his wallet; his £20 note was ruined and had become a blank sheet of fabric, but aside from that, everything else was fine.
Samuel turned to face the pool and took in his surroundings. The first thing that became apparent was how warm it was in the cavern; the steam made the air close, and even the stone he was standing on was warm.
“The water must warm this entire place,” Samuel mused to himself. “At least I won’t freeze to death when winter rolls around,” he said to the humid air.
Samuel then noticed how thirsty he was and hobbled towards the water. Kneeling, he cupped his hands and brought some warm liquid to his face; he knew there were fish in it, and they did their business in it, but Samuel did not care.
It was just about how he expected it to be. Warm water was never very nice, but it did the trick; his thirst vanished. As he stood back up, he smacked his lips; Samuel could taste that the water was full of minerals, not surprising really for a hot spring.
As he stood there, wriggling his toes, he noticed that surrounding the pool was a series of ledges of varying height, but what was strange about them was that they were all perfectly square, with not a single rounded edge among them. Now that he thought about it, if you removed the ceiling and looked straight down, it would look remarkably like an amphitheatre.
Samuel walked up to the nearest one to examine it, his legs protesting each step; the stone was made from the same material as the tunnel. The ledge came up to his knees, and he climbed on top of it with some effort.
Looking back at where he had slept, he noticed that the area was flat; he then looked back at the ledges. This place did not just look like a pool; it was a pool. This entire area had been carved out of solid rock; it had taken time and effort on an unimaginable scale and was merely a luxury.
Whoever built this had never faced the difficulties Samuel had. For some reason, the knowledge, or more accurately, the assumption that this place was not a natural formation, made the sense of unease he had felt before vanish.
Samuel climbed up from one ledge to the next; moving was becoming more manageable now to get a better view of this impressive feat of engineering. As he climbed higher and higher, Samuel was now about fifteen meters off the ground; he looked up at the lights on the ceiling. They were coming into focus, and he could have sworn they were moving.
Another ledge presented itself before Samuel. It was taller than he was, and with a slight hop, he grabbed the top of the ledge. Samuel attempted to haul himself up, but it was indeed a struggle; Samuel's arms strained under the effort of hauling his twelve-stone frame. He let go; the edges of the ledge had begun to dig into his palms, and the rock was slightly slippery from the damp air.
Samuel, however, was undeterred. Taking a few steps back, as far away from the ledge he wanted to climb as he could, he quickly sprinted and jumped. Once more, he grabbed the ledge but used his legs this time. His feet scrabbled against the side. It was rather funny watching this under-toned young man scrabble up the wall in only his birthday suit, but slowly he climbed higher.
He placed his right arm onto the top of the ledge and swung his left leg onto it as well and, with a little bit more effort, finally succeeded in dragging his entire body up.
Getting back on his feet, he was now on the highest ledge in the cavern. Looking down, he got a slight sense of vertigo. Shaking his head slightly, he turned his attention to the lights. They were much more precise now, and they were indeed moving. Then Samuel observed that the lights were being dragged behind long, thin, almost transparent tubes. Samuel finally realised what they were…worms, thousands of worms.
The entire ceiling was crawling with them. Glow worms, so many they, illuminated the whole cavern. Samuel was in awe.
Samuel drew his face closer to inspect the worms more closely. They were around fifteen centimetres long with no visible head. When they moved, their entire body contracted and then extended again. Samuel reached his hand up towards the ceiling and prodded the nearest worm. It immediately pulled itself in a thick tube of mucus, like a fat slug, and its backside began to flash like a strobe light.
A small amount of slime stuck to his finger.
“Eww,” Samuel said in a deliberately over-the-top fashion. He wiped his finger on the wall. These creatures were impressive, all living on barren rock, holding on no matter what life threw at them. Samuel admired the little worms for their perseverance.
Yet that did leave a question: just what were they feeding on? There had to be some source of nourishment.
Samuel looked away from his living light bulbs and back to the cavern. He saw in the distance that one ledge extended out over the pool; it was long and relatively thin.
“A diving board,” said Samuel with slight indifference. He supposed it made sense, though he doubted one made of stone would be effective.
Samuel sat down, placing his head in his hands until one more point of interest caught his eye. Around fifty meters from the edge of the pool was a rectangular opening. It was another tunnel that led away from the cavern.
Of course, there was a tunnel; if this place was man-made, it had to have an entrance.
“I really am an idiot,” Samuel said to himself.
Samuel pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He jumped down from the ledge and climbed down towards the opening. He slipped slightly halfway down and fell on his backside. His breathing became sharp, and a sudden adrenaline spike surged. He would have almost certainly cracked his head open if he had fallen.
He proceeded far more steadily than he had before. He reached the bottom and walked towards the opening. He stopped along the way to check on his clothes.
“Still damp,” he mumbled to himself. As he approached the entrance, he saw it was around three metres in height and four metres wide. The glow from the cavern only reached approximately ten metres down its length before total darkness won out.
Samuel paused as he took a few steps forward, judging whether he should step into the blackness. He was safe here, had food, clean water, and shelter as long as he watched his step. Yet Samuel needed sunlight, and fish could not sustain him forever, not to mention raw fish. Samuel had no idea what might await him, but he could not stand spending fifty years inside a cave. In the end, he decided to take the risk.
He took step after step, his bare feet slapping on the ground, leaving the gentle light of the worms behind. The air quickly became dry, but the warmth did not change. After the myriad terrible ones, a good idea finally surfaced in his head. Samuel jogged back into the cavern, collected his clothes and carried them down the corridor.
Samuel lay them down in the corridor; the warm, dry air would dry his clothes. He took a few more steps, and the darkness swallowed him. Samuel continued further along the corridor, carefully proceeding in case the ground suddenly gave way. He placed his hands on the wall, feeling for any defect or imperfection, but he found none; its smooth rock was flawless.
His mouth was getting dry, and his eyes stung; there must have been no moisture in the air.
After around ten minutes, he saw a faint light perforate the darkness ahead of him. The weak light highlighted a set of steps. Samuel took four steps up and banged his head.
“Bugger,” Samuel grunted, rubbing his scalp.
Removing his hand from his head, a dull throb echoed throughout his skull; he placed his hands on the ceiling and ran his fingers along the seam where the light trickled through.
A slight draft came through the crack. Samuel put both hands on the ceiling and gave a sharp push. The ceiling moved ever so slightly. It was a slab, and beyond it was the outside world. Taking two more steps up and using his legs, he pushed up; the slab was heavy but not immovable.
Surprisingly, he was feeling much better; he had pulled muscles before, and they had never recovered this quickly.
Slowly, the stone was raised higher until enough for the light from outside to brighten up the corridor, and a gust of cool air flooded into the passage.
The air that rushed past him chilled him to the bone; it was not that the air was frigid; It was just that it was hot inside, and Samuel could feel the difference. Samuel lowered the slab and walked back inside, rubbing his body, and realised that he was dry, so he ran back down the corridor.
Samuel reached his clothes. He had been right; his clothes had almost completely dried out in the parched air. He dressed and once again proceeded down the corridor.
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He returned to the stairs and once more lifted the slab. The air was still cold but much easier to bear. There was, however, another problem. He had become so accustomed to the darkness and dull light underground that the sun's sharp rays stung his eyes.
He snapped them shut and retreated underground. Once the pain had passed, he decided on a new strategy. He lifted the slab slightly and then slid it along the ground. Slowly, he stepped out from the underground and could not believe what he saw. He found himself in another cave.
All that effort was to discover another cave. Samuel took some consolation; this was nothing like the one he had slept in. This one had jagged, rough rock formations and was very shallow. This one had been forged by nature.
He took the last few steps upward and fully emerged into the outside world. He looked out of the cave and saw a slight clearing that radiated from its mouth. The orange sun hung low in the sky; it was either early morning or late evening; either way, he had slept all night.
He turned his head to look at the steps; the slab was clearly out of place, its beautiful, glistening form starkly contrasting with the rough, ugly stone surrounding it. This puzzled him slightly. After all, surely, if he could notice something so obvious, why had no one else done so? He had found no evidence that anyone else had ever set foot in the cavern.
Samuel chalked it up to sheer bad luck on everyone else’s part. Samuel was about to leave when he suddenly remembered the slab. He moved towards it and moved it back into place, with a slight gap so that he could remove it again with little effort, and then left the cave. It needed a name.
He needed something that fitted this unnecessary addition to his home.
“The extension, that certainly fits,” Samuel chuckled to himself. Samuel's neighbour had had one installed when he was young; the noise had bothered him immensely, and he had disliked them ever since. With that, he stepped out once again into the outside world.
The forest stretched out before him. It was gorgeous as always; the dew in the tree leaves reflected the sunlight, and the leaves looked like they were made of gold, but it was still unnerving. Looking at the forest from the outside for the first time made it seem all the more malicious. However, it could simply be that he now knew who waited for him inside.
Samuel turned himself around, and he saw a vast rock formation that stretched many metres into the air. The cave was set in it. The stones looked like the remains of a once mighty mountain, eroded after countless millennia. It all looked rather sombre and out of place in the middle of the forest.
Samuel decided to explore, keeping the small mountain to his left; he set off. Samuel was not yet confident enough to enter the forest again. He concluded that he would become more familiar with the land before venturing out under its canopy again.
He ran his left hand along the stone, not for any reason he felt like it. The rock's rough texture began to numb Samuel’s fingers after a while. Each step brought him further away from his new home, and it made him slightly nervous.
The sun was climbing higher in the sky, so it was morning after all, and the day steadily became warmer. Samuel was once again reminded of home. It had been December only three days ago, so why was it summer? Has he travelled through time as well as space?
Perhaps he was hooked up to a simulation, and none of this war was real. Samuel shook his head; so many possible explanations, each one more preposterous than the last.
His thoughts began to drift to the previous day. Samuel tried to make sense of all that had happened. First, the children had seen his face; this itself had not frightened them; only when they saw him completely did they scream. Samuel shuddered slightly; their screams still haunted him. After they had run straight home and told their parents, only one of them came, the woman, and she only believed the children when she saw him.
She had not believed them, almost like humans were fairy tales. Could that be it in this place; humans were just myth and legend? Perhaps to those people, Samuel was just a monster to be slain.
“The boy,” Samuel whispered, the character the insect boy had been playing was pretending to be a human. All this would also explain their instantaneous fear and hatred of him.
They had arranged for a mob to run him into the ground and set dogs on him. Had it not been for an incredible bit of luck finding the cavern, they would have succeeded. Samuel concluded that he should keep his distance from everyone from now on.
As he walked on, his hand suddenly fell away from him. It felt as though he had missed a step. Samuel found himself near a cave. At first, he assumed he had gone full circle and was back home, but on closer inspection, this was another cave entirely. This one was far deeper and not as high.
Samuel inspected the cave for signs of another underground passage, but he found nothing after turning over almost every stone for an out-of-place black slab. It was just an ordinary cave. It was a little disappointing, but it was what it was. Samuel then began to inspect the stones, looking for anything he could use. After a few minutes, he found a pale, faintly glossy stone.
“Flint” he mused to himself “that might come in handy.”
Samuel pocketed a few lumps of flint and left the cave. Samuel then set himself a task; he would learn how to start a fire. He jogged to the forest's edge, looking for any silver birch trees; he remembered that their bark made good tinder. Walking back in the direction he came, Samuel eventually found the tree he wanted after about an hour.
Carefully, Samuel peeled the papery bark of the trunk until he had stuffed his pockets with as much as they could hold. Heading towards the extension, he collected as many twigs and logs as possible. By the time Samuel returned home, he was tired, and his arms began to strain under the weight.
Setting his load down, he arranged his sticks in a little pile and took out his flint. Grabbing a nearby stone, he struck the stone, attempting to create a spark.
He failed no matter how hard he struck the flint or from what angle he could not create a spark. Picking a separate piece of flint, he next tried to hit two pieces together, but once again, he got nothing.
Samuel made attempt after attempt, but he could not get any sparks to form. He was missing something; Samuel knew flint was part of the equation, but he could not recall what the other half was.
Now frustrated beyond words, Samuel threw the flint as hard as he could. The flint struck a stone on the floor. As the flint shattered into dozens of tiny shards, sparks erupted from the rock it had landed on.
With fresh enthusiasm, he dashed to the rock; it was large, around the size of Samuel’s head, with streams of red running through it. Samuel brought his unbroken flint and hit the red streak; once again, sparks came from it. Heading off to pick up his fuel, he placed his hands on the ground, and a sharp stabbing pain arose in his left hand.
Lifting his hand, he saw a shard of flint around the size of his thumb sticking out of his palm. Trickles of blood oozed out of the fresh wound. Placing the fingers of his uninjured hand on the flint, he carefully pulled the foreign body out. The pain was surprising for such a minor injury. When it finally came free, blood began to ooze out. Samuel tore off a piece of his polo shirt and wrapped it around his wound.
He was about to throw the offending shard out of the cave entrance when he realised it could be used to cut apart the fish in the pool. Pocketing the fragment, he moved towards the timber again and dragged it towards the rock. Getting his undamaged flint, Samuel placed the birch bark on the floor and struck the rock again. Sparks came from the stone and landed on the tinder.
It did not, however, catch fire. The glowing orange beads faded away without ceremony or any flames emerging. Samuel struck the stone time after time after time but with no luck. The sun had climbed high into the sky, and sweat was pouring from his face; this was incredibly difficult, and once again, anger welled up inside him and just as he was about to pack the whole thing in, the tinder glowed.
Samuel blew gently on the glowing ember, and it grew bigger. Bringing more of the bark shavings towards it, the flames burst forth. Samuel kept feeding it until it grew large enough to place the larger pieces of wood on. As the fire roared, Samuel sat back and admired his handiwork.
As Samuel gazed into the fire, its warmth and the gentle dancing of the flames comforting him, his stomach began to growl. Unsurprising, he had not eaten anything since the previous day. Samuel could go back to the pool and catch another fish without much effort, but he did not want to leave his fire unattended, not because it might burn anything but because he was concerned it might go out.
Samuel sat there weighing up his options, his indecisiveness starting to annoy even him. In the end, his stomach chose for him. Pushing the slab out of the way, a gust of warm air brushed his face, and he descended into the corridor. He stopped only to move the slab back in place behind him.
As he trotted down the corridor, Samuel once more thought about the fire. He could not leave the fire burning through the night. Not just because he could not tend to it 24/7, he needed sleep, mainly as the fire would be glaringly obvious at night and draw those people to him.
A familiar blue glow appeared ahead, and the cavern opened before him. Jogging towards the pool, he rolled up his right sleeve, lay down by the water’s edge and placed his arm into the pool. He waited patiently as he had done before and caught another fish.
Killing it quickly with a sharp blow to the head, he pulled himself up off the ground, taking care not to put pressure on his wound, the pain having been replaced with a dull ache, and suddenly realised how hard the stone floor was.
Not relishing spending the night on the unforgiving rock, he endeavoured to do something about it after dinner. Samuel remembered yesterday's meal as he reached for his most recent catch. His new home would not become a sty. Samuel picked them both up and headed back outside.
Samuel reached the steps, moved the slab, and stepped again into the fresh air. The fire had become relatively weak in his absence. Almost dashing towards his log pile, he placed new wood onto the fire.
As the flames became healthy again, he picked up the mangled fish skeleton and threw it as far as possible. It made it to the forest edge. Samuel’s attention was now squarely on his dinner. Not wanting another injury, Samuel carefully removed the flint from his pocket and began to prepare the fish.
To begin with, he stuck the shard into the back of the fish’s head. He cut around the fish’s gills. It was a sloppy job, and he would not have won fishmonger of the year, but it did the trick. He pulled the fish's head away from the body, and its guts trailed behind it. Disgusting, but it was nonetheless effective.
“I’ll have to remember that trick,” he said, making a mental note.
Slicing the fish’s belly open, he opened it like a book. After scraping out the organs and removing the spine and as many bones as possible, Samuel picked up one of the thinner twigs. Making a few guide holes with the flint shard, he skewered his meal and carefully positioned it over the fire.
It was not long before the smell of roasting fish filled the extension. It was unbearable; the wonderful smell was driving his stomach wild. Resisting the urge to ram it all into his mouth, he turned the fish around for more even cooking. As the white flesh of the fish steadily turned golden brown, he looked outside.
“Hmm, I hope there aren’t any bears nearby,” Samuel said slightly worriedly.
Samuel moved his meal away from the fire to let it cool slightly. The sun was beginning to set now and was starting to paint the sky orange. It had been quite a day learning how to create a fire and gut a fish; he certainly had not imagined he would be doing it last week. Samuel reached for his dinner and began to eat.
The fish yesterday had been good, but it could not compare to one cooked. It was as though the flakes danced in his mouth; he had never had anything better in his life, and it was making him a little giddy.
Supremely satisfied with his meal, Samuel let it settle in his stomach. He remembered that he had to look for something to soften the floor for tonight; Samuel did not have long soon; the sun would set, and he would not be caught outside after dark.
Leaving the cave, once again placing the slab back in place, he walked to the wood’s edge carrying the remains of his dinner. After discarding them, he carefully searched the forest floor, keeping the extension within view. On the ground, there were a few fallen leaves. Samuel picked them up anyway, willing to accept anything that would make tonight more bearable.
Samuel worked until dusk gathering fallen leaves, pulling up grass and flowers and depositing them outside his home. It was a lot of effort for relatively little gain, but it would have to do. After kicking the remains of his fire until not even an ember remained, he gathered up all of his bedding and climbed down into the corridor.
Finally reaching the cavern, the long walk to and from the outside world becoming a little tedious, he placed his bedding underneath a ledge. He spaced it out evenly, creating a little, raised area for his pillow. Samuel then removed his clothes and added an extra bedding layer between him and the floor.
Samuel lay on his crude bed and felt a stabbing pain in his leg. It was the flint again, but thankfully, the rock did not cause an injury this time. Emptying his pockets and placing everything carefully beside him, Samuel again attempted to lay down on his makeshift bed.
This time was a success. It was not exactly comfortable, but it was an improvement.
Samuel gazed up at the ceiling, watching the worms crawling about, dragging their lights behind them. The glow from their tails was making his eyes heavy. Samuel's thoughts began to drift to what tomorrow would bring. Would he ever meet those people ever again? Or was he firmly out of their territory? Would he ever get home? A slight pang of sorrow filled Samuel’s chest. He let out a deep sigh that echoed throughout the cavern; this calmed him down.
“One thing at a time, Samuel, One thing at a time,” he whispered. The answers would have to come later; for now, he slept.