Part III

Joe lifted himself into a hole and slid back into the crevice to sit down. He shone his headlamp around and squinted his eyes to adjust to the darker darkness inside, as his light illuminated the little there was.
Unable to stand up, Joe crouched as he scanned the walls for an opening. He rubbed his shoulder against the side as he crawled along, looking for a tunnel.
Nothing.
Grunting, Joe tried to focus. Above, below, and all along; it all led to black. There was nothing in here for Joe to see and being more humid inside than out, Joe jumped out as fast as he could.
Back at the end of the first room, Joe stared at the tunnels above and below and chose to jump down a few boulders.
Jumping up and down the rocks proved to be more challenging than Joe remembered. He thought it would be easier now that he was bigger and had longer legs. Easier to reach, he thought. Less effort. But the opposite was turning out to be true. The most awkward movements and bends and jumps required the use of muscles Joe hadn’t counted on in a while. Things he thought would be easier were turning out to be harder.
He poked his head around in a few more holes and slid into a couple of tunnels. One Joe swore was no bigger than the entrance of his dryer. He had gotten down and started crawling through on his hands and knees. Pretty soon he was sliding on his belly with his elbows out in front, military crawling.
Once he crawled all the way in and he felt the compression on his chest, his mind started racing to try and free his body as fast as he could. But his body was so constricted it would barely move. All that rock surrounding him made Joe feel like he was being eaten alive. Swallowed hole or left petrified in the Earth.
He wondered if that was what it felt like to be a paraplegic because it was absolutely terrifying. He felt trapped.
Yet as terrifying as this was for Joe, he never lost sight of the end of the tunnel as he raced to it. It was only about 12 feet long.
***
In another tunnel John feel instant pressure in his head and he knows that he is upside down. He fights for his breaths as his lungs adjust to the rock being pressed into them. John gasps his breaths as one arm dangles above him. His other is pinned beside him. But all he can feel is the pressure in his head instantly. Pounding.
“Joe! …” John cough. “Holy shit,.. man” the last word comes out of John almost as a whisper as he struggles for his breaths.
This can’t be the Birth Canal.
Trying to ignore the pounding in his head, John surveys his body. He can barely move anything but nothing feels broken. He’s stuck, he knows that. He’s vaguely aware of the arm dangling in front of his face. The one thats pinned is actually more comfortable.
He wiggles his feet but the farther up his legs he tries to shake, the less his body responds. He can barely move his hips. John uses his free hand to adjust his headlamp. Directly in front of him is rock.
And when he looks down, the way his body if facing, its a dead end. There’s nothing there except dirt and more rock. He reaches his arm out above him and traces all the way from in front of his face, over his head, and to the other side.
Panic runs through him.
Instantly he wants out. He thrusts his body backwards as hard as he can. Using both his arms to help propel him backwards, John attempts to push and wiggle his way out. He pushes his free arm against the wall and pushes the fingertips on his other arm against the side as he propels his second arm backwards with his stomach.
He breathes in and out; thrusting himself out of breathe as he inhales sharply, over and over again. Trying to constrict his chest as he pulls backwards.
But he can’t unfold his body. He can’t get his chest back over the rock and his legs are no help, just dangling in the air. He can’t use them and instead they’re just throwing off his centre of gravity, making it harder for him to push himself out.
If only someone could just grab his legs and pull him out as hard as they can. “Joeeee” he coughed, as he yells for his brother again. He can hear the pressure from his head coming through in his voice. His body is being compressed and being upside down is putting immense pressure on his head. He can feel the fluids beginning to drip into his head. And he can feel the blood pooling. His body can’t fight gravity to pump the blood out of his brain while he’s upside down like this. As a med student, nobody needs to tell him how dangerous it is being in a situation like this too long.
He whines and tries to cry out again for his brother. He can barely breath and his head is throbbing but who knows when Joe will find him? And the less tine John has to stay like this the better. So he keeps trying to make noise, hoping Joe will hear.
John begins to lose track of where the noise is coming from; in his throat or in his head.
Am I lucid? But John can feel the pain in his head. The intense throbbing. So he’s alive. Conscious? Can you feel pain when your conscious? All these variables. I think, therefore I am. Why did that come into his head? I feel pain therefore I am conscious?
Losing his train of thought, John closes his eyes, to be more comfortable. Its easier to ignore the pain in his head when his eyes are closed.
Strangely though, his feet are beginning to feel like razor blades are being pumped through their veins.
He tries to cry out about that, too. So Joe can find him faster.

***

At first the sound is faint. Hard to even hear over the constant drip of water that seems to leak out of every corner of the cave. He ignores it at first, barely even sure he heard something outside of his thoughts. But again and again, he hears the same little cries.
John must be calling him, Joe thought. He’s found the Birth Canal and this is his victory cry. Typical John. Always the one that gets the glory. Joe just had to pretend to be comfortable in he shadows. Really, he had just gotten used to it.
He turned around and tried to follow the sound.
The tunnel it was coming from was one of the smaller tunnels that he’s seen so far. He had to crouch down just to shine his lit inside and he was sure of two things. The noise was coming from the end of that tunnel and it was going to be a tight squeeze. But, he had also heard the tales about the Birth Canal.
So he tightened his accessories and got on his hands and knees to start crawling through.