The Fifty

We watch as Jerry starts to run in the direction of the airstrip with Ollie lumbering along behind. They disappear into the trees and we immediately follow suit, clambering up the rocks to the treeline.

There is renewed vigor in our steps as we head to the safety of Abigail and the promise of escape. The jungle has proven to be a very dangerous place... not that this comes as a surprise. The Yanomami factor was something we didn't expect and don't seem equipped to deal with. They have superior numbers, stealth, knowledge of the jungle, and tricks with frogs and shit that we would never have hit on in a hundred years.

We move fast. I turn and expect to see Antonelli falling behind. What I see is him right on my tail and an impatience that signals he is ready to get the hell out of here. As we go we hear a buzzing in the jungle that doesn't seem to fit. It grows in our ears as we run, fighting to be heard over the pounding of our hearts and the rasping of our breath.

After five minutes of this sprint Lou is the one that finally stops on the trail ahead and puts one hand on his hip, leaning over to one side. Both Chris and I stop with him, the sound of our breath like departing locomotives in a railyard.
"What's.... wrong... old man?" Antonelli puffs out the words.
"Yeah Lou... " I try to catch my breath but it is yards ahead of me, "tired?"
Lou lifts his shirt to show a fresh bruising above his hip about ten inches up.
"I think I cracked a rib in that fall."
"Pussy... "
He doesn't smile back.
"Come on, Lou... "
I stop short at the sound of Jerry and Ollie pounding through the jungle and up to our position.

"Holy SHIT!" I can't believe we found you guys." Jerry slings his hunting rifle over his back and catches me in a bear hug, then turns to Lou who straight arms him.
"Broken rib." I tell him.
Jerry reaches up and grabs his shoulder. He gives Antonelli a firm handshake and introduces himself, then grabs him up too.
Ollie smiles at the two of us, resting a short barrel pump shotgun on his shoulder. He sports two wide ammunition belts stuffed with shotgun shells. He doesn't utter a word at first. Then in that deep timbered voice...
"eh Walker?"
Lou smiles, "When we get the fuck out of here I will stone the hell out of you, you big ox."
The Aztec giant smiles and nods, then holds out a canteen and we all take a pull.

That buzzing that we hear comes clear as we hold our spot in this jungle. It is the sound of a thousand chanting Yanomami. There is no concern for stealth, no sneaking stillness in the jungle, just sheer numbers to ward off the invaders.

"Jesus Christ... sounds like there are a million of them." Jerry says, starting toward the east once more.
"How far is Abigail?" I ask, bringing up the rear behind Ollie.
"Not far now... a couple hundred yards. It's a short strip. Big enough for Abby if you juice her up before you let off the brakes."

"The miners told me they used that for supplies and equipment." I hear Chris say.
Jerry shrugs, "Probably used a lot of SkyCranes, those cargo helo's they use for logging. They are pretty popular out here."
Lou asks Jerry about extra weapons. Aside from the rifle and shotgun, they have a forty-five and a couple of extra clips. The pistol and clips make their way back to Antonelli.
I guess I will just throw rocks.

As we beat our way through the plantlife, we can hear the calls of the Yanomami as they approach. They are close enough for us to hear individual voices over the growing roar of crowd noise. There are way to many of them. Once they know where we are, that will be it. We need to get to Abby. If we have to fight them, let it be with engines running and us rolling the hell out of here.

We make our way through the jungle until we come to a crossroads of sorts, a wide swath cut out of the jungle that crosses our path. Jerry stops and we gather.
"This leads to the airfield."
He points in the opposite direction, "And this leads to a abandon mining camp. We followed it this morning."
"Abandon my ass, they killed every one of those miners." Lou tells him
"You think?" Jerry asks.
"Oh yeah, saw a couple of the executions first hand."

I look at him,"Why are we stopping?"

I am a little impatient. We start down the path, slowly at first... until the first spear hits home ahead of us and on the right.
"Oh SHIT."

The five of us break into a run up the path. Behind us, if we were to look, is the bulk of the Yanomami nation about five seconds behind us. Those would be the ones we can see. We all run for all it is worth. No heroics, no turning and standing our ground. With all things considered, the hero is going to bail into Abigail and leave these natives to their jungle. I think we have all had enough of Yanomami hospitality.

We round a large outcropping of rock and there she is, a sweet sight indeed. Abigail sits on a grass runway, starboard side and tail showing our way... her skin shining in the sunlight. Out of her starboard cargo door is a fifty caliber machine gun laying at rest, hanging from the mounting lanyards that keep it in the middle of the door.

I feel a burst of energy at seeing her and bolt ahead of the boys in a quick dash to her cargo door. I haul myself up under the fifty and turn to see what was on our tails as we ran up the path. Beyond the boys, about a hundred yards or so, must be a couple of thousand Yanomami.
"HURRY GODDAMNIT." I yell to them, not sure how much this fifty is going to move in as I let loose with it. I draw back the cocking lever, look down at the can of belted ammunition... big can, and pull the trigger.
The coolest thing since sliced bread. Sounds fucking awesome. I mow down the first and second line of little indians as they make the clearing of the airfield.
I hear the boys hopping up behind me through the port cargo door. Below me and back by the tail is Ollie. Shotgun un-shouldered he starts blasting away at the encroaching Yanomami, taking their legs out from under them as they skirt around the fifty and the fire I am laying down.

I feel Abby's number one fire and that familiar smell, a little rich, as she motors up. They are coming fast, sheer numbers, trying to make it to the plane to capture and kill us. I hear Chris cussing them as he carefully places shots with the forty-five as they start in from his side of the jungle.
There is a moment where Jerry throttles up the number one to move her even before he starts the other engine.
"SHIT... CHOCKS." He calls from the cockpit.
Ollie is still on the ground. I see Lou out of the corner of my eye heading down for the port door.
"Ollie is down there, he will clear them." I call over the roar of the fifty.
"OLLIE... PULL THE CHOCKS."
Behind me Lou joins Antonelli at the port door, first with the Kimber, then when the ammo between the two of them are gone, he lets loose with the 30/30.

Abigail lurches forward. I have the fifty aimed lower and lower as I am fending off the approaching hoard of Yanomami. Spears, darts, arrows, rocks, everything is coming at us through the doors, bouncing off the sides of the fuselage. The chocks go sailing out into the oncoming surge of Yanomami, followed by four rounds from the shotgun as Ollie tries to make it to the door.

Things happen quickly. Ollie leaps into the opening at my feet as I blast away with the fifty into the crowd of indians. A spear catches Ollie in the upper leg and he screams in pain. There are no more shots coming from Abby's port side cargo door... ammunition is spent. It is about half a heartbeat before the first explosion rocks Abigail. Chris has found the vest I wear for effect and has thrown the first of the three remaining grenades attached to it.

Lou is at my feet, pulling with all his might on Ollie as he inches up in through the cargo door. Something flies by my head, thrown from inside Abby out into the crowd. Jerry has the number two started now and we are picking up speed as the second grenade blows. Shrapnel hits the side of the plane and peppers the tail.
A score of Yanomami fall in pieces, others are knocked down by the small blast wave.
Jerry turns in the cockpit as the tail begins to lift.
"JESUS CHRIST... WATCH WHERE YOU THROW THOSE THINGS."
We hold onto Ollie, who is now half inside the door, too big to muscle up into the cargo hold without him assisting. I release the fifty and reach down to help. Just then Lou repositions and goes to grab Ollies belt to get him all the way in.

It is a lucky shot. Might as well have hit the Brazilian lottery, that is how lucky this little fuck is. The Yanomami are coming out of the brush as we make our way down the strip for take off. They are throwing everything at us they can... and one guy blowing darts hits Lou right in the chest, burying the shaft several inches in.
While that still registers on me, Lou falls forward and out of the cargo hold. I try to grab him, but I am too late and he tumbles to the ground.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT... JERRY LOU IS DOWN!"
Jerry turns and sees me looking out the cargo door. I feel the engines and brakes working together to slow us down. At the same time I know what Jerry is thinking... what now.

One second, two seconds, three... I have to act quickly. I unhook the lanyards from the fifty and toss it out the door, ammo can next. Then I dive out and roll to a stop. Behind me I feel the thud of Ollie, who dives out after me. Oh shit, here they come, hundreds of them that are up this far on the strip. Ollie is up to me and grabs up the fifty as I take the ammo can. He struggles to hold the big gun, but when he finds his grip he starts spraying the Yanomami as they make it up to Lou's body. He isn't moving, but that keeps him out of the line of fire.

Behind us I can hear Jerry turning Abigail on the strip and then motoring up towards us. Ollie stays on the trigger as we approach Lou's position. Several of the Yanomami stick his body with spears before Ollie can take them out. All at once Ollie takes a knee, I drop the ammo can, and he covers me as I run in to pick up Lou.
Even over the deafening report of the fifty I can hear the angry cries of the Yanomami hoard. Spears grow out of the ground all around Lou as I grab an arm and then, when I realize he is totally out of it, I sling him over my shoulders in a fireman's carry.

I feel the sting of a spear. Thrown from some distance, it hasn't got the velocity to do much damage, but it has torn through the flesh and muscle just below Lou's body on my back. Abigail roars up beside me. Ollies stays on the gun as I duck the wingtip and then clamber toward the door. Antonelli is right there, pulling Lou off of me, then helping me up into the plane.
"COME ON, COME ON, COME ON GODDAMN IT" Jerry is frantic.
The shooting stops as Ollie runs for the door. Both Chris and I, pumped full of adrenaline take his arms and with a leap on his part we haul his giant body into the hold.
"GO GO GO"

Jerry puts the coals to her. We can hear the feel her hit the bodies as she plows through the living barricade of indians that block the runway. We do our best to clear the doors as they try to gain entrance, but as we pick up speed, their attempts are at last over.

"JAKE GET UP HERE.
I feel her tail leave the ground and the deck levels out as I run for the right seat. The end of the strip is coming up quick and there is a barrier of triple terrace jungle at the end of it that looks a hundred feet high. In front of us, as far as the eye can see, are Yanomami. Their whole arsenol makes it way to the cockpit windows as we mow them down. You can hear the fragmented spears and arrows hitting the fuselage after making contact with the props, along with indian remains I can only assume.
I give her flaps, and then we pull for all it is worth.
"COME ON, BABY... COME ON." Jerry coaxes a climb that matches the cannon shot that Lou and I took out of that canyon in Colombia. The ground below drops away and we look at blue sky as Abigail powers up and up and up. I try to get the gear up before they catch in the tops of the trees but am too late. She shudders as the gear drag and tear through the trees. For a moment we start to level and Jerry sounds like he is praying. But then she climbs higher and higher until we leave the jungle several hundred feet below.

We made it... we are free... we are alive.
"Jake."
Chris calls my name, but not with urgency. He is next to Lou's body, two fingers to the bloody neck where he hoped to find a pulse. Chris looks at me as I kneel beside him.
"He's dead."

White Water

Step by step, inch by inch we descend into the next chamber where Lou is waiting. I have turned my light on to better identify hand holds. Chris keeps looking down and it is screwing up his descent.
"HEY... you stepped on my fingers, asshole."
"Sorry, man, I can't see what you are doing."
"You don't need to, just keep a good hold with your hands and your other foot, and then let me guide your foot to the next spot."
"Yeah, that sounds easy to you."
"Just do it."

From the looks of the light coming from below us, Lou is pacing. We have spent way too much time in these caverns. We have given any advantage we might have had to the Yanomami by entering that first cave. They know the caverns, they know where we are, and the only reason we aren't head to head with them right now is because we took the path not taken. As if on cue with my thoughts, Chris whispers something down to me.

"What?" I say a little to loud.
"I hear someone coming." Chris whispers back to me.
Now the light from below shines up the hole, "What... what is happening?"
"Chris hears something."
Lou throws his hand up over his light and then repositions it to shine in his chamber.
"Hurry the fuck up. It has to be the Yanomami."
"You think? I thought it might be the Mary Kay girl or something."
"Just hurry up."

Chris tries to move faster. I too can hear the sounds of the natives in the chamber above. It will only be a matter of moments before they discover we aren't in the entrance cave or the offering chamber.
"Come on... come on Chris." Lou forces a whisper up the hole.
I hear the slide on the good Kimber as Lou checks to see if he has one in the chamber. A nervous habit of his.

Then there is a sudden cry of alarm above us as we are discovered by one of them. He calls to the others and both Chris and I release our grip on the side of the vertical chamber. We drop about ten feet to the hard rock of the cavern floor below and stay on our feet. Lou has the Kimber at the ready and puts his light back up front. He takes a quick look up the hole and takes a shot. Nothing.

The three of us make a run for the river twenty feet away and we leap in feet first. As we do this the first of about a dozen Yanomami come down the hole, a leg breaking jump for any of us. They don't seem to have sustained any injury. We turn in the river as the current rushes us away from their growing numbers. Spears clack to the ground on the rocky back of this flow, a few splashes from the more accurately thrown projectiles. Then, outside of the reach of our headlamps, splashes from the braver of their warriors that have taken up the chase.

We spin in the current, trying to see what is coming. Lou is in the lead, his headlamp reaching into the blackness to show the frothing white water of the underground rapids we are approaching.

It is a thrashing we take. In and out of the surge, our only mark that we are above the flow is the rapid intake of breath that we take when we are clear. We are bounced off of the sides of this underground canyon, spun this way and that. All of a sudden a suffocating darkness surrounds us. Lou's and my headlamp are disabled by the underground rapids and we are now in total darkness.

I am thrown from side to side, tumbled like a semi-precious gemstone, gasping for breath when I feel the cool air of the caverns, sealing up when I feel the surge cover my face as I am taken down by the current. I feel Chris bump by me and then I surface for a quick gulp of air in the pitch black of the chamber. The current is strong. I have never river rafted before, but from what I have seen on the Discovery Channel this has got to be a number four on the rapids scale.

In the violence of it all I consider that this might be it... the end. The finale of one hell of a run. I am hanging my hopes on blind faith in Lou's decision to make the leap into this flow. That he knows something that we cannot see. It is this faith, like the faith one keeps in death, that keeps me waiting for what comes next. I take my final breath not knowing if I am the only one left alive. The hell of this black tunnel becomes like a long, black crypt as the stone walls and ceiling close in around us and we are no longer sensing the air above. Just this vein of liquid death we are riding into eternity. It is now that I see, or think I see, light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

The flash of sunlight is blinding. There is only a second or two of morning sun, the heat of it like an answered prayer. Never before had air smelled sweeter, the warmth of this light like being held to the bossom of Mother Nature herself. I hear choking, coughing both behind and in front of me and fight to adjust my eyes. This registers as a good thing. We are alive. But there is no time to celebrate before we feel the end of the rapids and... the falls.
Lou calls out a warning... more of a yell of sorts that is totally indistinguishable over the roar of the coming waterfall. We have enough time to tense up for the unknown. Then we are in the open air, the water falling beside us, under us.

I don't know what height of fall kills a man, or how it kills a man. All I know is that I am counting as I fall. Funny that this is what I do with my chance before I die, counting from one to six. When I finally hit the pool below, I am at the mercy of the human condition. I just have to wait to find out if I am alive or dead.

Once again we are under water. But this time it is different. There is brilliant light surrounding us even thirty feet under this sapphire blue pool. There is a timeless moment in which I marvel at this light, at the beauty of this pool, at the fact that I am still alive. Then, with a waining sense about me I realize one way that a fall of this nature can kill you. I have been thrown with great force thirty feet below the surface of the water, the air in my body being squeezed out with the increasing pressure.

There is a scramble of energy that has my arms and legs clawing through the depths toward the mirror sheen of the surface. I burst from its hold on me like a surfacing nuclear sub from beneath a Japanese fishing boat, taking in air as I rise out of the water. I can sense the splashes of our pursuers as they hit the water behind me. I reach out for the bank and see that both Lou and Antonelli are sprawled on the wet rocks at the base of the pool.

"Jesus, we made it." I call out, not caring about the Yanomami in the water behind me. Just caring that my friends are safe.
"That was one hell of a ride, boys."
Nothing.
I pull up next to Chris, who is on his back with his eyes open. I haul myself out, rolling over and propping up on my elbows. It is now that I can see the falls coming out of the side of the mountain. It must be at least eighty feet up, a column of water shooting like a firehose out of the blackness of the caverns.
Lou coughs and chokes a gallon of water out of his lungs.
Chris, on the other hand, is not moving.

"Hey big boy... " I give him a shove. He chokes with a start and rolls quickly on his side, coughing up a froth of river water. Lou struggles to his feet and manages to pull the pack off his back. Somehow the Kimber he had tucked in the small of his back has made the trip. He looks to both sides of the bank and then sets the pack down and quickly fishes through it. A moment later he finds what he is looking for and in a single motion releases the clip and slaps a new one in as the empty falls into the open pack.

The first shot is just over my head. I don't even have time to protest as the round hits home in the first Yanomami to reach us. Lou changes position and then fires twice more, killing two more natives that have made their way up the bank.

He drops the weapon back down to his side and scans the opposite shore. There the bodies of the other three Yanomami that had taken up the chase are floating in the water at the shoreline.

"We need to get off this shoreline. We're just sitting ducks out here."
Lou hefts the pack on his shoulders. We have lost the MP5's. There is nothing in the pack to use in our defense except one percussion grenade and three more clips for the Kimber.

We hike up off the rocks and head for the treeline. Just before we dissappear into the triple terrace jungle I am stopped in my tracks by a shrill whistle, the rise and fall of it a familiar sound. I turn and try to separate echo from the source. Once again the whistle, like a boatswain's call. I scan the top of the mountainside and see the waving arms... it is Jerry and Ollie. They are a hundred and fifty feet above us.

Somehow, with nothing but dumb luck as our guide, we have been spit out of the mountain in their vicinity. Fortunately they were alerted by the gunfire just below their position. As Lou and Chris step up to my side, we watch as they try to signal us. Lou drops the pack off his back and pulls out the field glasses.
"They are motioning toward the... " He looks up at he sun, then down at the shadows of the trees up from the shoreline, "East."
"The airstrip?"
Lou continues to watch them throught the field glasses. Jerry must be able to tell because now he is not waving, but making some kind of hand signals.
"He is telling us that the airstrip is to the east."
"Is that all?"
"No... " He pauses while he takes in the next part of the message. "The natives are massing to the north." He watches a moment longer and then drops the field glasses down.
"We need to get moving, now."

A Face in the Crowd

We move slowly, like convicts on a chain gang. Lou is cautious with the shadows, as though they might open up in front of him and drop him into oblivion. Step by step, inch by inch, we continue into the expanse of this new cavern.

It is immense. Our footfalls echo repeatedly, creating a white noise that masks any possibility of hearing approaching Yanomami. I feel a private comfort at first. The echoes come in just over the voices I hear in the cave around me. For now I am just following Chris who is following Lou. The blind leading the blind as far as I know.

My mind races, a disconnected free association. Short bursts of thought after which I sail through nothingness for what seems like an eternity. When I finally touch the ground of semi-sanity again it is a jolt and I hang on for dear life.

How long, how far, how is it that we are in here in the first place. My inner dialogue sounds as mad as a hatter and it is playing a tug of war with my grip on reality. There is a pause in this frog induced psychosis. Lou has stopped at intersecting branches of this cavern. The resulting collisions nearly light some scalps on fire.

"HEY... " Lou brushes the embers from his hair.
I have ignited Chris' shirt in one spot and give a hearty slap to extinguish it. He turns and looks at me with raised eyebrows.
"I accidently caught you on fire."
"Let's hope so."

We continue on for what seems like the better part of an hour, but only minutes have passed. The top of this cavern has come down to greet us and at times we have to duck to make passage. I am afraid to ask if Lou is feeling the same thing I am feeling. If so we might as well have Betty Crocker up front for the good it will do us. Finally, after yet another choice of direction at a rocky intersection, Chris rakes his scalp when he should have ducked. After checking his head for blood, Chris asks the question that had been on my lips several hundred times in the last few minutes.
"Where in the FUCK are we going?"

Lou is silent, just keeps shuffling along.
"HEY... come on, man, where does this lead?" He takes a hold of Lou's shoulder and spins him around.
"Oh... hey, man, lights are on but no one is home."

There are a thousand voices whispering from the darkness of the cavern. I don't know if Chris can hear them. I say something in response to Chris, who turns and looks at me.
"Shit, man, if there are any Yanomami in this cave they sure know we're here now. You don't have to yell. I'm right here."
He hands me his his torch and then takes Lou by both shoulders.
"Lou?" He gives him a little shake, "Come on, Lou, snap out of it."
Lou's torch falls to the floor as the revival effort continues. It rolls to the side of the path and extinguishes in a shallow dribble of a water that seems to run the length of the course we are following.
"Ah crap."
"The floor." Lou comes out of it.
"Hey, there you are."
"The floor... it's shiney."
"Yeah, okay Lou."
"Spiders."
"What?" Antonelli's eyes dart around the cavern floor and then on his clothing.
"Spiders everywhere."
"Hey, that shit ain't funny."

I hear him talking, his voice is the same volume as the ones I hear in the darkness just outside of range of my torch. I force my voice into a whisper.
"Did he say spiders?"
"Yeah he did. Are there any on me?"
Antonelli gets a little frantic. He writhes around, brushing himself off like he was covered with tarantulas or something. But there is nothing there. At least I don't think so.

I set the torches down to help him, not realizing they will roll off of the path and meet the same fate that Lou's had. Before I can take the two steps forward to Chris, the torches extinguish and we are in total darkness.
Silence for a good ten count, even for the voices I hear, and then...
"Nice one."
Antonelli is no longer slapping at himself. I suspect his hands are now on his hips and there is a look of disgust on his face.
"Nobody move."

Now, closing your eyes in total darkness does nothing to increase your feeling of security. I leave them open and cover my ears instead. The voices, now chanting in more than a whisper, are back in force. In this all encompassing darkness I am seeing something, a kind of reverse shadow, pale figures in the blackness.
They are Yanomami, walking with arms full, heading back from the way we came. But they aren't coming from the way we are going. They seem to be coming from the path we did not select.

It is all lost in the glare of red light from the flare that Chris has found in remaining pack. He takes the flare to the side of the path and grabs up the torches.
After sitting Lou down so he won't wander off, he tears a large amount of fabric from his shirt. I follow suit and we wrap the cloth around the top of the torch and I expect Antonelli to ignite them with the flare.
"We might as well use the flare first... it's already lit. We save the torches until we are almost spent on the flare, capice?"
I nod.

He puts Lou between us and starts down the path that Lou had chosen. We proceed very slow... Chris even more careful than Lou at this point. I listen to the echo of our steps and realize that the voices are gone.
"Hey." I whisper. I can hear that just fine.
"What." Chris stops.
"No more voices."
"Just yours and mine, so?"
"Just checking."
"Jesus... what the fuck is wrong with you two?"

I look at the floor in the brightness of the flare. The wide, shiney path we had been following is much more narrow and it's shine diminished.
"Something isn't right here."
Chris stops a second time.
"Now what?"
I point to the floor of this narrowed section of cavern.
"This path was three feet wide where it was shiney and worn. Now it is just... like ten inches or so."
"Hey, Columbo, cut to the chase."
"This isn't right. I think we should have gone the other way." I take a knee and touch the ground here.
"You're as nutty as my Aunt Kathy's fruitcake. Let's get going."
Chris turns and takes two or three steps and rounds a bend. Then he and the flare are gone.

It is total darkness. I have one hand on Lou, who has said nothing up until now.
"You never take your eyes off the trail."
"Is that you, Lou?"
"Who the fuck else is standing here, Nancy?"
"Well... welcome back. I was wondering if that shit wore off of you too."
"What shit?"
"That frog shit."
"Oh... "

"HEY... HEY!"
Our eyes adjust to the total darkness and we can see the faint glow of red around the turn. We shuffle forward and for a moment we can see the outline of Antonelli as he dangles from the edge of a vertical shaft.
Lou snaps on his headlight. I had totally forgotten about the damn thing. I turn my on and am instantly told to turn it off.
"We only need the one, Jake... save yours for later."

It takes everything have to wrench Chris up and out of that hole. The operation has us all worn out before it is over. He is on his back puffing like a locomotive once we have him safe.
"I... can't... believe... this... shit."

Once breathing is back to normal, and the echo of the last complaint has faded, Lou makes an observation.
"Hey... do you hear that?"
We all stop breathing for a moment and try to get a fix on what he is talking about.
There is the sound, albeit faint, of running water. A river, or a brook that is doing a whole lot of babbling.
"Yeah, I hear it."
"Me... to." Chris reports, still a little out of breath.

Lou rolls onto his belly and shimmys up to the hole.
"Hold my legs."
I grab his legs around the shins and he scoots out over a rounded edge of the hole next to the spot we just pulled Chris from.
"Hey... it's a ways down there, but it is a good flow. It goes somewhere."
"Well, that's reassuring."
"A free flow like this and it is making an exit from these caverns... you can bet on it."

Unlike the last hole we tried to get out of, that stinking pit in the middle of the jungle, this one is a bit more user friendly. It is much more volcanic in nature and provides for hand and foot holds. Lou, of course, is the first one down.
"It's pretty sharp, cuts the hell out of you, but you can make it."
His light shines back up at us from a good two stories down. It turns back to the chamber he is standing in.
"There is a underground river in here. He looks back up at us and I shield my eyes."
"I'll check it out."
He is gone for a moment or two, and then we can see the light returning to the hole.
Once again he looks up at us.
"Oh yeah, it is a deep son of a bitch. The way it is moving I think we can just hop in and ride it on out of here."

"Oh HELL no."
"Come on, Chris, it's the only way out of here."
"You go. I'll wait for the bus."
"Come on, man, I will help you."
"How in the hell are you going to help me? Got a spare lower leg I can borrow, a real one? This thing didn't come with a hiking boot, you know?"
I take a moment. We can't leave him here.

"I will go down first, and then when you start down, I will make sure your feet are planted in the right spots... okay?"
"That's going to work? Or are we both going to end up at the bottom of this hole using the express route?"
"It'll work, Chris... it has to."