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«… the last time I played with you (it feels like it was in a past life), you disappointed me a lot. Don’t let me down this time, we have a whole bunch of blind kittens there. We won’t let them drown in this damn bucket!»
With these words, he turns me around and gives me a slight push towards the tunnel. That’s what Alex is! I am seething with indignation, but at the same time, this rage gives me strength, pushes me forward. What did I actually expect to hear?! Dying slobbering declaration of love or «leave me and live if you have to»? I’m angry with him, but even more angry with myself when I reach the next fork. The hated echo is heard:
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: four hours and thirty minutes.»
Both passages are light, luckily for me. However, I am desperate. We’re wasting time again! What if I get lost in these caves? Will someone come looking for me? Alex will run to save his blind kittens. Again I feel a fit of anger and without further thought I head to the first grotto. Dead end. Relief. Disappointment. Second grotto. Long, tapering at the end. I have to get on all fours and crawl, so I remind myself of Alice in Wonderland. Now I will look out of the rabbit hole and see the magical alluring freedom… But instead of it – another dark hall. What to do next? I don’t have a flashlight. Reason insists on going back to Alex and exploring the grotto together.
«Losing time, losing time» … this thought knocks in my head. Ignoring the voice of reason, I enter the grotto, find a wall by touch and move along it, carefully examining the surface with my hands. Nothing, just a smooth, damp wall. I walk in a circle, constantly keeping in sight the bright passage from where I just came, in fear that if I look away for a minute, it will disappear. And then I will forever remain in pitch darkness! Once again I approach the light without finding a single tunnel. It was a dead-end grotto.
***
Alex is already waiting for me at the same place.
«Where do you roam? Your walk is clearly too long! My tunnel ends with a large light grotto with three dark tunnels. Please tell me that you have found a way out!»
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: four hours zero-zero minutes.» a metallic voice replies instead of me.
***
I can hardly breathe when we return to the rest of the players. Thirsty tongue sticks to the palate. The wetsuit wicks moisture away from the body, but sweat flows from the forehead in three streams and is poured into the eyes and behind the collar.
Runner and Joleo are already in place. Runner makes a caustic comment to us, but I ignore it. We describe our discovery – an impressive size open grotto with three dark tunnels and only two lanterns to explore. This means that we will not be able to check all three cave passages at the same time.
Joleo reports that at the end of the path he explored, the corridor narrows, leaving a narrow dark hole. Where it leads is hard to say. Firstly, you can get into it only by moving on all fours, and secondly, you need to crawl, apparently, for a long time. Therefore, Runner and Joleo returned to make a joint decision.
«The hole may be a way out, but in case it’s just a dead end – we are lost», Planck is thinking aloud.
«No no no!» Yu suddenly shouts, «This cannot be a way out! I will never go there for anything in the world! Three tunnels are three chances. Do you hear? We have more opportunities to get out of these damn caves if we follow Alex’s path», the girl squats and starts sobbing uncontrollably. BeBe hugs her shoulders:
«Yu is right», she supports her friend, «according to the theory of probability, we have more chances with three outputs than with one».
Alex is doing a small vote. Everyone raises their hands in favor. The prospect of being in a dark narrow corridor in a cave gradually filled with water can drive even the most persistent crazy.
«Wait!» everyone turns to Martha, «it seems to me that we are missing something extremely important».
«What exactly?» Runner snaps, «Now is not the time for philosophical reflection. Are there specific proposals – go ahead!»
«Let her tell,» Blonda interrupts impatiently.
«I don’t know for sure»…
«And you’d better know», Runner gets up and walks in the direction from where Alex and I just came running.
«It’s just illogical. We advance at random, which is not the case in a good quest».
«We aren’t in a „good“ quest. This is an incomprehensible game of some sick perverts who lured us into a wormhole», Alex objects.
«And yet, my intuition suggests that we don’t notice something, something obvious»…
I stare at Martha in amazement. Now that she has voiced this thought out loud, I understand that all this time I have been thinking about the same thing. She’s right, something is wrong here. Until that moment, despite the danger and cruelty of the assignments, there was an iron logic behind everything. Now it is slipping away from us somewhere further and further…
«We have no time for speculation. Stop banging around irrelevant», Runner demands. And to confirm his words the voice is heard again:
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: three hours and thirty minutes.»
«I just… No, nothing. Let’s start,» Martha brushes aside, and without further discussion, we head towards the three dark tunnels Alex found.
***
All players literally tumble down from fatigue when they finally reach their goal – a spacious, light grotto. The height of the walls is significantly lower than the first hall, where we woke up a little over three hours ago. However, there is still not the slightest chance to climb up due to the smooth surface, treated for years by the salty ocean waters.
Apart from the dark tunnel we just came from, the cave has three more exits, which Alex spoke about. («Or entrances,» I note to myself sadly).
We are catching our breath for ten minutes, then dive in twos – me with Alex and Runner with Joleo – into two of the available passages. I shudder when the familiar metallic voice announces the inevitable:
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: three hours zero-zero minutes.»
It takes about ten minutes before we reach the next bright room.
«Oh no,» I whisper and cover my mouth with the hand in horror. Alex just shakes his head silently. A new fork opens in front of us: three more dark corridors.
***
We return to the others almost at the same time as Runner and Joleo do. I don’t even need to hear their story to understand from their expressions: there is also a fork in the other tunnel. There remains one uncharted dark corridor. If at the end of it there is no way out, this means the end, inevitable death: we simply will not have time to explore all the newly discovered grottoes. And we can only hope that the whole task was a complete farce. The countdown will end, the lights will turn on, and Maestro will announce some next test for our emotional endurance, as then, during the «plane crash». Another announcement interrupts my thoughts:
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: two hours and thirty minutes.»
The lights will turn on and Maestro… Wait a minute! A hunch dawns on me and makes me shudder with annoyance. How could we be so blind?!
«Martha was right!»
Everyone turns their heads to me, interrupting the heated discussions. I continue, trembling with excitement:
«All this time, the clue was under our nose, and we ignored it, instead of sitting down and thinking. And we made an unfortunate mistake!»
«What’s clue?!»
«It’s in your hand, Alex! Yours and Runner’s! These are two lanterns. Do you hear? Two, not three or four!
«So what? I don’t see any connection,» Blonda asks nervously, but not without hope in her voice.
«It’s obvious! Remember, Maestro gave a hint:
«Let the light guide you
To your cherished goal,
Leave doubts in the shadows
Bury them into oblivion.»
We can simultaneously explore two dark grottoes and as many light ones as we like, in this case we are moving towards the light…
«But as soon as the third dark tunnel appears at the same time – this is the wrong path, which must be buried in oblivion. We only have two flashlights! You are a genius, Lavina!» Alex jumps to his feet despite his tiredness.
Everyone livens up noticeably, unexpectedly receiving a clue, at least something resembling a hope to get out of our common grave.
«So far we’ve been going relatively well and, judging by the narrowing of the walls and the lowering of the ceiling height, in the right direction. We’ve never met three dark passages at the same time. Until then,» Planck says excitedly.
«We shouldn’t have come here. The right path is the very narrow hole that we so carefully tried to avoid,» Joleo sums up.
«No! No! No! This isn’t true! What if this grotto is the final destination?!» Yu looks around pleading. «Why can’t we wait for the tide and just float up like the corks? Planck, how will the water behave when it arrives at the grotto?»
For a while, Planck ponders her proposal:
«I’m afraid it’s impossible to predict. I don’t have enough information about our location for that. It all depends on the geographic latitude. The water can come slowly enough that we just get tired of staying on its surface and drown before we can reach the top of the cave. But if the tide passes quickly, then, on the contrary, under the pressure of water we can be knocked down, taken into a whirlpool, hit against the rocks… But the main danger is that this grotto can not completely flood, but only to a certain level. Then the chances of getting out are zero. It remains to wait for low tide and stay on the water until that time… And we still don’t take into account the relief on the surface…»
«If this is really a way out,» Martha interrupts him calmly, «then the organizers plan to kill at least one person today,» after a pause, she adds, «I can’t swim at all».
Martha is right. The organizers of the game must know about this. The question about the ability to swim was clearly present in the questionnaire.
«Be that as it may, we must return. I don’t want to become fish food. Whoever wishes can stay here and hope for a miracle. And I went to hope for a miracle where I can still do something».
With that, Runner turns and walks without hesitation into the tunnel we just came from. Planck, Martha and Alex follow him.
BeBe stands near the wall, hiding her face in her palms. Joleo approaches the woman and whispers something softly in her ear. I can’t make out the words, but gradually BeBe lifts her face and despair is replaced by some new expression, similar to hope. Finally, she breaks into a faint smile. Joleo carefully takes the woman by the hand and gently leads her behind him, like a frightened child. This is how they join the rest. This gesture touches me deeply. Joleo, so absent-minded and plain at first glance, became a real savior for BeBe in her moments of deep despair. He found the strength for two. I am imbued with indescribable respect for this player. Some people in stressful situations tend to panic, while others, like Joleo, are able to reveal themselves from a new side – full of nobility and human dignity.
My attention turns to Angel and Blonda. The guy sits detached on the floor of the cave, Blonda kneels in front of him and holds his hand.
«Angel, baby, you have to move. (Baby?!) Please come with us», she begs him, “’cause staying here means death. Please don’t leave me alone!»
She either shakes him by the shoulders: «get up, I said, do you hear?», then tearfully asks: «please, follow me.» Angel seems to be in a daze and only occasionally shakes his head.
I really don’t understand anything about human relationships. Blonda, self-confident, sharp tongue beauty, in love with, albeit outwardly attractive, but weak man? It looks like Runner is tormented by the same thoughts. He returns from the tunnel and sharply addresses Blonda:
«Leave the baby here, it’s his choice».
«I’m not going anywhere without him,» she snaps.
«If you don’t go by yourself, I’ll carry you by force,» Runner seethes with indignation and jealousy overwhelming him.
«I’m not going anywhere without him, you understand, you son of a bitch?» she repeats with undisguised contempt.
Runner takes a deep breath and, grabbing Angel by the hand, drags him along, thereby pulling the guy out of a deep trance. It seems that Angel is moving forward by inertia…
Me, Leeloo and Yu close this strange procession of people who are fighting not only for their own lives, but also for the lives of those who have become close to them.
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: two hours zero-zero minutes.»
That’s who all human feelings are definitely alien to.
***
Despite all efforts, our team is progressing unacceptably slowly. Fatigue, thirst and despair do their job. When we finally stand in front of a cramped manhole, which looks like copied from a real horror movie, a voice announces:
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: one hour and thirty minutes.»
This grotto is not much different from the previous ones – convex rocky walls, sounds of drops and inhospitable piercing cold. And yet there is a difference: it ends with the release to freedom. Or a way to nowhere.
It seems to me, that the sound of water is heard in the distance. Fear runs cold in my veins.
«I’ll go ahead,» Runner commands. He is sweating a lot and can hardly keep on his feet. His hands are trembling. «As soon as I get to whatever it is, I’ll immediately give a signal. You are all waiting here, got it?»
«No time for that,» Joleo objects sharply. «We follow you right after».
«What if the hole gets too narrow? I won’t be able to go back and we’ll all be stuck in this damn tomb!»
«Nooo!» Yu falls into uncontrollable sobs again. I try to put my arms around her shoulders, but she struggles.
«In this case», Alex intervenes, «we are still drowned. So what’s the difference where?»
Runner just waves it off and climbs into the tunnel without further protest. Alex, BeBe, Joleo, Planck and Martha follow him at two minutes intervals.
Surprisingly, Angel, without any persuasion, climbs after Blonda. The emotional shake-up obviously did him good.
Only me, Leeloo and Yu remain in the grotto. Yu is sitting on the floor, huddled into a ball and muttering, without ceasing, under her breath «no… no… no.»
«Yu», I try to sound soft, but convincing, «you can’t give up now, one step away from being released. After having come all this nightmarish journey!»
«You don’t understand,» she raises her face, wet with tears, «This isn’t just fear, but a disease that I cannot overcome. Breathing is out of rhythm, and the brain refuses to work. Terror paralyzes the entire body. I am like a fly in a sticky web – any movement only tightens the threads of fear, blocking the access of oxygen and common sense».
«It’s poetic, Yu, but let me tell you that staying here means certain death».
«Until the flooding of the cave system remains: one hour, zero-zero minutes.»
Now not any doubt remains: we hear the sound of water, which gradually fills the grottoes, and is getting closer and closer to us.
«Don’t leave me,» Yu grabs my hand in panic, «You promised. You remember?»
«I won’t. But don’t leave me either», I frantically try to imagine what Alex would say in this situation, «don’t let me down! I don’t want to drown here… because of you, Yu!»
For some reason, from my lips it sounds like an awkward accusation, and not at all as a stimulus to active action. The art of persuasion, apparently, is not my strong point.
Leeloo softly touches my hand and whispers:
«Tell her that she is not alone, that you are also afraid. Tell her the truth».
The girl nods to me encouragingly and finally disappears into the tunnel.
