Prompt: The cave was deep and seemed to go on forever. Lucy looked at her friends reluctantly. She wasn't sure she wanted to go any further. She stood at the opening of the dark entrance undecided.
The cave was deep and seemed to go on forever. Lucy looked at her friends reluctantly. She wasn't sure she wanted to go any further. She stood at the opening of the dark entrance undecided, but only for a moment.It was Kevin who snapped her out of her fear. All it had taken was his reassuring hands having come to rest upon her shoulders and and the look of confidence flashing from his eyes directly into hers.
"We have to do this, Luc... for Eric."
"I know."
And she did know. But the thought of going back into that cave had started a terror coursing through Lucy that she just couldn't seem to shake. Her mind shot back to the first time the three of them had stood there together, only that time they had been three of five. Kevin gave her shoulders a sharp snap to force her from the memory as he watched it begin to take her over.
"Come on... We have to go NOW!"
She shrugged her pack, repositioning it over her shoulders and slowly started forward into the darkness, meeting Cliff's worried gaze with promise. The dim headlamps all three wore offered little help in the darkness but a little help was all they needed having left a trail of wall markings on their way out the day before; L's scratched into the walls would lead them through the incredible confusion of tunnels to the one that still held Ellie.
The whole trip had been Ellie's brainstorm. Having just graduated from college, it was to be their 'school finale of FUNNN!!!' she'd promised. The group of five had been inseparable since junior year swim team tryouts; Lucy the shy, Kevin the bold, Cliff the charmer, Eric the brain and Ellie... the heart. Eric and Ellie had started dating around the end of first year had spent the last year fitting wedding plans in between study plans, but this was to be one weekend, for all of them, filled with nothing but adventure. Ellie had wanted to do a cave dive forever but talking the rest if the gang into it hadn't been easy. Once she had, they had poured over books and videos and taken a safety course as an upgrade to their existing dive certificates. Lucy had been the least experienced diver of the group and here now, in the depths of the cave she almost felt guilty as they would their way back to the tiny opening in wait.
"I'll go first," Cliff whispered in a rush as he took of his pack and handed it, along with the crowbar to Kevin, "pass the packs through before you follow."
It was eerily quiet as the three began dressing for the water. Lucy couldn't keep her eyes from the line set tied around the large flat rock where she and Ellie had sat prepping just hours before, both had been enthralled in anticipation. Cliff watched her closely and moved to block her view as he saw her eyes beginning to flood with memory.
It had taken all three of them to get Eric out of that cave, his leg having been shattered by the massive underwater boulder that had tipped when Ellie had caught the rope on it. It had caught Eric first, smashing his leg between its force and the wall of the underwater cavern they'd found just four hundred yards, or so, into the system of sea tunnels. Ellie had started for Eric in a panic when she saw the blood darkening the water around him and in doing so, had swum herself right into the crease where the boulder would come to rest.
Lucy had witnessed it all, as had Cliff who followed her but Kevin had been in the lead and was still moving forward. Cliff had motioned Lucy to go after Kev as he started for Eric having slipped his mask in his terror and pain. Lucy had finally reached Ellie, she was frantically pushing at the rock that had her pinned but her eyes were somehow entirely calm; it was Lucy who was starting to panic. She looked up to see the last fin disappear through the tiny opening, a trail of lingering blood and terror began to cover her as she tore her fingers in a rush to loosen that damned boulder.
It felt like days had passed but was in fact only minutes before Cliff was pulling Lucy away from Ellie and motioning her toward the surface. Lucy shook her head no, but he pushed he roughly away and demanded she go. The instant she had surfaced, Kevin was on his way back in.
"Try and stop the bleeding, use whatever you can... we'll get her out....."
Eric was unconscious, he'd put up a huge fight in leaving Ellie so whether one of the boys had knocked him out or he'd just lost too much air she couldn't say, but he was alive.
She had wanted to go back down but she knew she had to stay with Eric. He'd lost so much blood and was groaning in pain as he started to waken. His teeth set to chattering as the cold set into him. He tried to ask but couldn't.
"They're still down there, they won't give up on her... her tank was damaged in the hit but Kev took mine back down for her."
Eric had nodded and Lucy had continued to pray as she held him close in effort to warm him. He had slipped back into unconsciousness before Cliff and Kevin had surfaced only twenty minutes after she'd come up herself. She'd waited, she'd waited frozen in her fear but Ellie... Ellie hadn't surfaced.
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