Chapter 1: David Green

David sat by the campfire, embracing its warm glow. The forest felt still as all that could be heard was the crackling of the flames and the melodic strum of Judas’s banjo. The stars could be seen plastered across the night sky like beads of light.

“I think I heard something,”  Marty said with a shake in his voice. 

David ignored him as he poked the fire with a stick. Marty had always been the paranoid type as long as David could remember. It didn’t help that he was completely unfamiliar with living in the wilderness.

“Have no fear my friend, this will calm your nerves”, Judas responded. He then pulled a leather bound book from his backpack and tossed it to Marty, who barely caught it. 

“Seriously, a bible?” Marty responded with a scowl. “ I’m a Biologist not a magician. You got anything more practical, like a shotgun?”

“For through God, nothing is impossible. Luke 1:37”, Judas responded. In the time that Marty and David worked with Judas, David had considered him a religious man. He seemed as if he were a preacher or church man in the local town.

“What about you David? You believe in the supernatural?” Marty asked while trying to ignore Judas’s smug expression.

“I think that something could be out there whether good or bad, and stop with the questions Marty, you're giving me a headache”, David said. 

“My bad. I guess I’m just a little spooked by the reports I read”, Marty said as he looked into the mouth of the cave before them. The trees help to hide it into the nearby mountainside. 

David had his suspicions about the mission when he read the reports as well. He would have refused, but the Government made it clear that his cooperation was barely a choice. 

“What reports?” Judas asked as he put away his banjo for a bottle of whiskey.

“Apparently two te-” David started before he was interrupted by Marty. 

“You can’t tell him that, it’s classified”, Marty said in a whispery voice. 

“It doesn’t matter, besides he deserves to know what he is a part of”, David retorted. Marty nodded as he continued to look into the cave entrance, no more than 50 feet away from their camp.

“The research tower y'all government boys built is like a mile away and we are the only ones here, nobody is gonna hear us”, Judas said with a burp. “So what are we doing out here?”. 

“I’ll start from the beginning”, David said as he tried to collect his thoughts. “The US military was testing an experimental sonar in a classified city of Tennessee, nearby this location. The sonar was never finished but it did detect an abnormality under the state. On January 6th, 2035 the government officially decided to put together a team to study it. As research into the abnormality continued it was discovered that there was a large cavern deep below the Earth's crust.”

David paused as he pulled a cigar and lighter from his jacket pocket. He couldn’t help but feel a bit stressed when talking about the situation. “It sounds like something out of science- fiction”, David thought to himself.

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“If that’s the case, then why do we have to sit out here watching a cave?” Judas asked. 

“Well, me and the other scientists at the research tower have discovered that there is a kind of interference from the cavern that shuts down most electronics and technology at a certain range, so drilling isn’t an option”, Marty explained as he readjusted his glasses.

David could see the look of confusion Judas tried to hide by tilting his hat.

“Basically the only way down there is a natural opening that exists in there”, Marty said as he pointed to the mouth of the cave. “It might be just a sheer drop or a path down, no way of knowing since we can’t send any drones down”.

Marty began to fidget as he quickly averted his eyes from the darkness of the cave. 

“The problem that has our friend Marty here so shook is that the Government sent two teams down there and neither came back.”, David said as he exhaled a plume of smoke.

“Each team had a mix of military and scientific personnel. The first team, codenamed Echo, was sent down 2 months ago with the mission of exploring the cavern. The second team, codenamed Foxtrot, was sent down a week ago before the end of November with the mission of locating the previous team”, Marty said. 

The conversation fell silent as David took another inhale of his cigar. The fire began to dim as the charred wood crumbled into ash. David wondered about what could cause the teams to just disappear as they did. 

“Maybe they simply fell to their deaths and this is all a waste”, David thought. He flicked his cigar into the smoldering flames.

“That's a hell of a lot to unpack”, Judas said. “But that doesn't explain why I was hired or why we have to sit out here”.

“The Government hired you because they wanted locals with experience on the land to help the research staff integrate to the area”, David responded. “They hired me because I’m a survivalist with military experience, pretty much a perfect candidate for another expedition”.

“And I’m here to study if the interference created from the cavern is affecting the surrounding environment”, Marty added.

“You can’t even find your way through the forest”, Judas said with a laugh. Before Marty could respond, a loud beeping started to emanate from his backpack. 

“The point is that someone has to monitor the cave entrance as well as keep an eye on this research equipment as everyone else sleeps. The three of us just pulled the short straw”, David said as Marty scrambled through his bag to find the source of the sound.

“Maybe the cave is taking them to the underworld”, Judas said jokingly.

“He just wants to scare us”, David thought. However, he noticed Marty was staring at a device in his hand with a confused expression.

“What the Fuck”, Marty shouted as he jumped to his feet. David had never seen Marty move that quickly before, especially with how scrawny he was.

“We need to get back to the research tower now”, Marty said as he began stuffing cameras and equipment into his backpack. His demeanor was more panicked than usual which made David feel uneasy.

“What's the problem?”, David asked as he placed a hand near his pistol. It was a 1911 9mm and David considered it his most trusted tool, rivaled only by the large combat knife he kept strapped to his leg.

Just then the ground began to rumble faintly causing Judas to nearly fall off the water cooler he was sitting on.

“My computer’s seismograph is detecting an anomaly, this behavior has never happened before”, Marty said as he ran to grab the camera nearest to the base of the cave.

The rumbling in the ground became more severe. David could hardly stand up straight as he tried to make his way toward Marty. 

“Marty, get back here now”, David yelled as he tried to get closer.

Marty let out a cry as the ground, beneath him and the camera, gave way. The two fell into the black void that seemingly grew as the earth pulled apart. 

“It’s like a damn Earthquake”, Judas shouted as he held on to a nearby tree.

The crack in the ground quickly stretched from the cave's base as chunks of earth fell into the void beneath. David tried to move away from the cave but the rumbling beneath his feet made him stagger. The crack behind him grew closer but he dared not to look back.

“Gotta keep moving”, David thought as he tried to stay upright.

The ground beneath David gave way causing him to fall into the chasm. David instinctively reached for anything within arms length to hold himself. His hand caught a tree root that he clinged to for dear life.

“Grab the Banjo”, Judas shouted. 

David looked up to see Judas at the edge of the chasm reaching out to him with his banjo. Before David could reach for it the ground gave way further causing both he and Judas to fall into the void below. 

David watched as the night sky grew further away until no light could reach him. All that surrounded him now was darkness and the wind whistling past him on his descent. 

“Well, I guess the other teams fell to their deaths”, David thought grimly. 

A strange feeling began to envelope his body as he fell. It was as if he was being electrocuted with a high voltage battery. David tried to keep his mind off the pain but eventually lost consciousness.