"No no no!" Kagi cried, running as fast as she could to catch up to the light. A boulder fell and smashed the ground in front of her, causing her to trip over it and roll. She regained her balance though, and frantically tried to reach the others once again. Not that it would matter if she did though, because just before they reached the daylight the entrance collapsed and they were plunged into darkness.
Dylan dodged out of the way just before being crushed under tons of rock, but in his efforts managed to launch himself right into Avery, who was following behind him. They landed with a tumble, and Dylan attempted to dislodge himself from her.
"Sorry. You al–" He trailed off as his gaze rested on the collapsed entrance. His face fell.
No….
Avery jumped at the loudness of the rocks falling, and she squeaked in surprise when the guy in front of her stumbled into her. They fell to the ground, and she scraped her elbows when she used them to catch herself instead of hitting her head, which was finally beginning to clear up from nearly drowning.
“Ouch,” she muttered, pushing herself into a sitting position as she rubbed her elbows. She looked up at the entrance of the tunnel and groaned, cursing lightly under her breath. “That’s not good…”
"No. No. We're not trapped, Dylan said quietly, "We just need to…. to… Think, I guess. Damn."
Dylan sat down in the darkness. He felt oddly comfortable surrounded by shadow, but just dismissed the feeling. He was barely able to make out the silhouette of his unfortunate victim, and he was thankful, because he went red in the face. "Well, uh, girl? Person? One I fell on, what's your name?"
Avery snorted at his stuttering, which, admittedly, was kind of cute…
“It’s… It’s, uh, Avery,” she answered quietly, rubbing at her head. She coughed and shook her head at the rawness of her throat. She hadn't thought that nearly drowning would be so painful for your throat…
(Awww!)
"Avery… right," Dylan laughed, in part trying to cover up his stammering, but also attempting to hide the guilt in his voice, "uh, first thing, sorry for tackling you. My bad. Secondly, you said we should follow the river, right? Well underground lake or no, it's better than sitting here. So now I apologize for letting that idea sit."
This much Dylan knew was true now. Without any light, the only guide they had was the sound of rushing water. They'd be hitting their heads on stuff a lot, but it was still better….
Dylan, you disrespectful swine, you never even gave her your name!
The thought had come out of nowhere, snapped him out of logic mode. Immediately Dylan switched topics in his head, and he couldn't follow any other train of thought in his head, except enough to say, "I'm Dylan."
(boing)
(Boing)
( You disrespectful swine! hahaha )
"And I could be internally bleeding," Kagi whispered under her breath, quiet enough that only she could hear it. As the two continued to exchange pleasantries, she sighed and stood, beginning to walk deeper into the cave, back down to the river. "We really probably should be leaving," she advised. "Lets swap information on the way."
Avery glanced at the other girl, then back to the boy. She blinked up at him as he spoke, listening quietly. He paused for a moment, and she started to agree, but then he spoke again.
“I’m Dylan,” he said, seemingly out of the blue.
She chuckled softly and stuck her hand out. “I would say it’s nice to meet you, but I wish it was a better situation than this…”
Then the other girl was speaking, and she looked over at her. She chewed on her lip in thought. “What kind of information do you mean? Personal information? Information about how we got here?”
Dylan shook his head, "I don't know about ya'll, but I can't remember squat about how I got here."
Or how I ended up with a blindfold over my eyes…
Maybe that had something to do with it. "Did anyone else wake up with a blindfold on?"
"I did." Kagi agreed, gripping the back of her neck with her hand. "Not a pleasant feeling."
“I did, too,” Avery said with a nod. “And I also don’t remember anything about how I got here. All I remember is my name and waking up, blindfolded and soaking wet.”
The water came back into view, and Kagi sighed. She really didn't want to get back in there, but she didn't exactly have a choice. "We're going to have to swim, aren't we?" she asked.
Dylan shuddered, glancing around the… darkness, really. He couldn't see squat. Swimming in darkness was not a smart move, but without light, he couldn't see any others.
Still, it wasn't a good risk to take. "Does anyone have any sorta light source we can use? We'd be much better off if we could actually see."
They're not going to, Dylan. You're stupid for even asking.
He tried to put that thought aside and failed.
Kagi felt around in her pockets, just in case. Something bulky seemed to be in one of them, and she pulled out a large Pocket knife with multiple features, one of them being a flashlight.
"Well look at that," she whispered in awe. "That was fortunate." and with a content shrug, she clicked it on.
Dylan narrowed his eyes, but kept his mouth shut. That just seemed a little too convenient. They'd all been captured, judging from the blindfolds, but they didn't know who had captured them. To have ended up they did with a tool like was just too much to be a coincidence. Weirder things have happened already, but still.
Hoping for some validation of his fears, he looked to Avery, trying to find a reaction.
Avery raised her eyebrows at the tool, wrapped her arms around herself. “Why would whoever sent us here let you keep that?” she mused quietly, almost as if to herself. “Tell me I’m not the only one to find that a little… sketchy…” She glanced at the others’ faces, blinking at them curiously.
"Your probably right," Kagi began, waving the flashlight around as if to test it. "But I don't think we have any other options. We're kind of at our lowest points here." She thought for a moment, however, and then sighed. "But maybe we shouldn't use it. I just don't know how else we could see."
Dylan stepped forward, "Let's use it for now. If anything happens, there are four of us."
He began wading into the water a little, shivering slightly as he felt it swirl around his ankles. Turning to face the others, he shrugged. "Anyone want to take a bet on how deep this is?"
Avery nodded in agreement with the other two. “That sounds like a good plan,” she said as she followed her to the edge of the water. “Maybe… Ten feet? It could be hundreds, though. It’s hard to tell without enough light in here.”
Kagi stepped into the water and gritted her teeth against the chill, praying that she would survive all of this. "It probably doesn't get deeper than about twenty feet; unless this leads out into the ocean. But the water doesn't taste very salty."
“Yeah, maybe, but you never know. We should be careful,” Avery said, some protective instinct coming over her.
Dylan faked a smile, "Oh boy, how I love tossing myself into unknown waters with reckless abandon!" He laughed in earnest, "We'll get by okay, I feel. There's nothing else in this part of the cave but us."
As he said that he realized he believed himself. He was sure they were alone. With no proof, no indicator. It simply felt like they were alone, so it had to be so.
The darkness beyond them was so still.
Kagi went deeper into the water, lighting the way with her flashlight. "We better be alone," she muttered.