As I fitted my body into the hole I thought about the markings on the rock wall that I had seen. HUBER. I wondered what they could mean. I wondered how long that had been written on that wall waiting for me. I wondered why it smelled so bad down there. Once my body was all the way in, I took my first full breath of cave air. It smelled like burning tires mixed with ten-year-old moldy cheese. At least it was warm. I covered my nose with my hand but then realized I was going to need my hand.

    My eyes started to adjust to the darkness of the cave.  I could see there were some stone steps. I had expected to see rough rock and a natural-looking hole in the ground. Instead, it looked as if it had been hand carved. As far as I knew, no one lived anywhere near this place. I couldn’t imagine who had done this. I stepped down the stairs slowly, trying to be as careful as I could. 

    The smell and the lack of light really was creeping me out. With every inch I went deeper, the darker and smellier it got. Before long it was too dark to go any further. I was afraid I would trip or step in a hole. I didn’t even want to imagine what might be hidden in the dark. I remembered I had my Everlight in my back pocket. 

    I thought of the Everlight’s jingle that had played on their commercial back home.

“Never light without Everlight.” The company claimed that this light would shine forever. It had a lifetime guarantee that it would never run out of juice. Dad had said it was my lifeline. I bet he had no idea how true that was. 

    I actually hummed the jingle aloud trying to calm myself. There was some ice on it, but I figured it would melt away before long. The tune I hummed, bounced off the chamber walls. I clicked the button to the on position. Warm golden light flooded the cave and I finally could see what was in front of me. 

    I strapped the light to my head and continued down the length of the cave. I was expecting to hit a dead end at any second, but the farther I got the more I realized that I might have actually found something important. What was this cave doing out here in the middle of nowhere?

    The stale cave air grew warmer. Although I didn’t care for the smell, the temperature was a welcome change. I couldn’t believe my luck. Less than an hour before I had been worried that I would not live through the night. That thought was far away. I started to think about what my friends back home might be doing at the moment. 

     Because I was deep in thought, I almost didn’t notice the huge wall that appeared in front of me. The passageway opened up into a giant room with an entire wall of carved writing. I stopped and stared at the wall. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was amazing. I walked up to it and looked close. I didn’t recognize anything on the wall, but I could tell that someone had something important to say. 

    I knelt down and dug through my backpack. Dad had told me a hundred times to never leave home without my sketchbook. He always kept one with him.

He would write notes in it and draw things that he wanted to remember. 

    I pushed the frozen water bottle out of the way. I moved a few coils of rope and found what I was looking for. Dad had bought me this sketchbook for this trip. I hadn’t written in it yet, but I excitedly opened it to it’s first page. I began to copy down things that looked important on the wall. I figured, if I ever got back home, I’d want to be able to look some of this stuff up. 

    As I scanned the wall I found a map etched into the rock. I studied it for a long few minutes before I copied it down. I didn’t recognize the names or the places but it was clear that this map showed the path that someone had followed on a trip. I copied the map and the names down in my sketchbook. There were countless symbols and letters that I didn’t recognize. Some of the symbols were like little pictures, others were just nonsense. In all I spent a few hours looking over the wall and copying down everything I could. I didn’t know why, but I was almost sure that it was going to be important somehow. 

    My eyes needed a break. I had been looking at the wall and my sketchbook close up for too long. I began to look around to see what else I could learn about this place. Most of the chamber was just carved stone. I scanned over it all carefully making sure I didn’t miss anything. 

There were a set of steps that lead up to the carved wall. Near the base something caught my eye. I walked over and kneeled down to get a closer look. There was an object hidden below the edge of the stairs. I pointed my light down at it as I reached in to grab whatever it was. When I pulled it into the light I realized that it was a small box.

 On the top it had a metallic sphere and straps wrapped around the sides. I tried spinning it. As I did, it clicked as it went in a circle but nothing happened. I pulled at the lid again hoping it had unlocked somehow. 

    I tried spinning it the other direction for a few turns. Nothing happened. I then tried spinning it both ways a few times. Still nothing happened. 

    I was ready to leave the box and keep exploring. I let out a deep sigh because I didn’t like puzzles much. When my breath hit the silver ball on top of the box it made a popping sound and the box clicked open.

    Was it possible that this box was opened by breath? It had to have been down here for hundreds of years. It didn’t seem like it could have had that kind of technology. As the lid swung open I reached in the box. With surprise I pulled out a small object. My eyes grew wide as I saw that it was glowing.

    “Bioluminescent,” I said to myself, as I turned it over in my hand. It was heavy and thick and shaped in a half circle. It had a carved pattern in it that almost looked like a maze. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew it was a keeper. After inspecting it for a few minutes I tucked it into my bag. This trip was turning out to be quite an adventure. 

    I started to get that feeling I would sometimes get when I was late to something. I had spent a lot of time looking at the carved wall. I needed to get back to the mission. I thought of Dad stranded at the bottom of the Seam. 

Although it scared me to go farther, I knew I needed to stick to my plan. As I walked deeper into the cave I could hear the flat stone floor under my feet. 

This cave must have been a lot of work to carve. I ran my fingers along the wall. It wasn’t like one of those caves you see in the movies, but instead, it was smooth. 

After another half hour of walking deeper into the dark I came to a bunch of doorways. I was glad to have my light because there was no way I would have known that they were there otherwise. They were massive and there were a bunch of them in a row. 

 I spent a long time looking at each as I walked the length of the chamber. They all seemed like they were ready to fall down. They must have been down here for hundreds of years. Most were cracked and broken, but some still held together.

    I noticed that there were symbols over each passageway. Each symbol looked different. Again I pulled my sketchbook out and sketched some of the symbols I found on each door. I checked to see if I had seen any of them on the rock wall. If I had, I didn’t write them down. I wondered for a long time what the symbols could mean. 

I paced back and forth in front of each door sketching the symbols for a long few minutes when I realized that one looked familiar. I slid my pack off my back and dug through to find the small half circle object from the box. I held it up in front of the door. It glowed bright and I could see that the symbol over the door frame was the same as the thing in my hand. I still didn’t know what it meant, but it was the only thing I had to go on. I put the half circle thing away and stared at the door for a long time before I decided what I’d do.

    I could feel my heart pounding as I stepped through. For some reason this felt like the last safe step I took. 

I hoped that this path would lead to Dad, but with each step it felt like I was getting farther away. I didn’t have another choice. I wanted to try my best to find a way to save him, but I was starting to feel like this was just a shot in the dark… the very dark. 

    Once I passed through the door, I imagined all the things that could go wrong. I could run out of air, water, or food before long. I hoped my Everlight would last. I wished that Dad was with me. If he was here, this would just be a fun adventure. I felt more alone than I had ever been. I was a million miles from my family and I had no idea where Dad was. 

    If I had just done what he told me back at the Seam, then we wouldn’t be in this position. I wouldn’t be wandering around in the dark, and he wouldn’t be stuck in a canyon. I would have kicked myself if I wasn’t walking. I hoped that Dad was still alive. I hoped I could stay alive long enough to find him. 

    I tried to push all of that out of my mind. It didn’t help to be mad at myself. There would be plenty of time for that later. To get my mind off of Dad, I began to think about what type of creatures might live down here in the dark. 

There could be lizards, snakes, crickets, maybe even rats. I liked critters. It’d be fun to catch some while I was down here. 

As I walked, I thought I heard something in the tunnel behind me. I spun around only to find the same passageway that I had just walked down. Ok, maybe I was spooking myself out. Just keep moving, I told myself. 

There it was again. I was sure I heard it this time. It was like the sound of rushing air. Like the way a large animal might breath, but it couldn’t be that. It was coming from behind me, and if there was a large animal I would have seen it. I stopped and pointed  my light back just to reassure myself. I didn’t see anything. I took a deep breath and turned back around. 

    Ok, I was really starting to get creeped out now. This time I heard, not only the breathy sound but something else. Something kind of like scratching.  It sounded like my dog’s claws as he walked across our kitchen floor. I spun around quickly to make sure I wasn’t being followed. I couldn’t see anything but I was almost sure there was something out there. 

I could feel my heart beating fast now. Sweat started to drip from my forehead. Is it hot in here? I thought. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was scared. What was I doing down here in the dark? I was being followed by something and I didn’t want to get stuck down here. I told myself that it was probably just a cave lizard. I was sure that sounds got amplified in such a tight space. All the self talk didn’t seem to help. 

    I decided if I hadn’t found anything important within 100 more steps, I would turn back. 1, 2, 3... 55, 56... I was glad that the noises that had been following me had stopped- that is until I got to 98.  

I had hoped that I was just imagining things, but as I got to 99, I realized that was just wishful thinking. I spun around and pointed my light. In the enormous opening behind me stood the scariest varmint I had ever seen. Am I still dreaming? I thought. It was impossible. It was huge, and it was stinky.

    It had the look of a hairless cave rat with one very important difference. It was as big as a circus elephant. From its head to its tail, it had to be at least the length of two cars. It had teeth the size of fence posts and it was covered in wrinkles.

    The worst thing about it was the smell. I could feel its hot breath blasting down the cave from where I froze. It was like month old garbage that had been dumped into a steamy stew. I gagged and nearly threw up when I smelled it. 

    As I moved away from the giant cave rat, I tried to see if I could slip by him and go back the way I came. The critter’s eyes widened. It seemed to realize that its lunch was about to make a run for it. As it did, I noticed farther down the cave there were two more of these giant rodents. I knew I had to bolt, but I could feel my knees shaking.

    “Sit!” I said aloud, hoping it might respond to the same kind of commands my dog did. “Play dead!” I tried again. I slowly squatted down and picked up two rocks, one for each hand. I threw one down the length of the cave in the opposite direction. “Go fetch,” I said with a tremble in my voice. I found out quickly that when faced with giant cave rats, throwing things should be on the ‘do not do’ list. The rat rushed forward with impressive speed. 

It moved with a shimmy and a wrinkly waddle. It was more of a quick scoot than a run. I turned and jetted as quickly as I possibly could. I ran deeper into the cave since my way back was blocked. 

Everyone thinks that mice only squeak. I’m here to tell you, if you ever find a mouse that is twenty three hundred pounds and the size of a school bus, the sound he makes is not a squeak. The cave critter that was now chasing me, let out the nastiest bellow I had ever heard. His voice sounded more like a burp than any cave creature I ever imagined. Not to mention that his breath smelled like a greasy fart. 

    I could hear his claws scratching on the cave floor as I ran as fast as I possibly could. The sound of the claws were definitely getting closer. I could feel my heart beating super fast and my lungs were starting to burn. I knew that I could only outrun him for so long before he finally caught up to me and had his snack. I could hear his huge teeth opening and slamming shut right behind my rump. My mind was racing for some plan on how to get out of this terrible situation.

 I was beginning to get tired and thought before long I was going to have to slow down or my heart might burst. I realized in the confusion that in my left hand I was still holding the second rock I had picked up before I made a run for it. I had been so scared I had forgotten to drop it after trying to make the cave rat fetch the other one. 

    With my legs still pumping as fast as possible, I tossed the rock over my shoulder. I couldn’t look back because I knew it would slow me down but it sounded like the rock went right in the rat’s open mouth. His mouth closed down hard and I could hear the sound of him choking. His footsteps slowed as he swallowed. Within seconds I could hear his claws on the cave at full speed again. 

    The rock had slowed him down and bought me a few steps, but I was still in terrible danger. Without warning, the passageway opened up into a huge cavern. The path ended in a terrible drop-off. With the giant charging mouse behind me, I had to think quickly. 

As I came to the end of the path, I whipped my backpack off and opened it quickly. I was still in motion and knew that I couldn’t stop or I would be dead. I reached into my pack and pulled out a rope. I was glad that Dad told me to save it. I could tell I only had a few more steps before I got to the ledge and then the big drop-off. 

    Five steps before the drop-off, I made a loop in the rope. Four steps before the drop-off, I tied a slip knot in the loop. Three steps before the drop-off, I lifted the lasso over my head. Two steps before the drop-off, I slung the loop around a jagged rock. On my last step, I jerked the rope to make sure it caught, and then I leaped off the edge.