"Sam, keep that fucking light still!” To Sam, the opportunity to take the cave deep into the mountain's layers — to travel into the mountain as if they were a blood cell in the circulatory system of the very stone itself — was like heaven on Earth. Sam couldn't wait to get through this cave-in and continue exploring the tunnel. Will wanted to know what lay beyond as well, but for the moment he didn't give a good goddamn about the tunnel or geology or the fact that he had to piss like a racehorse. His world narrowed to his hands, his arms, and the damn stubborn pumpkin-shaped boulder streaked with his blood.
"Try a little to the left, Will,” Samuel said again.
"Yeah, thanks for the tip, Einstein,” Will said. But for lack of a better idea, he pushed it hard to the left — and it slid a good two inches.
"Oh shoot!” Samuel said. “Holy moley, it's moving!"
"I think I've almost got it,” Will said, grunting and panting. He had it now. Oh, it wanted to fight him, but it was too late, he had that bastard of a rock and he wasn't letting go.
Will felt the thud of footsteps approaching from up the tunnel. Douglas Nadia moved with all the grace of a drunken elephant. Will always wondered how someone so thin could make so much noise.
"Where have you been, Douglas?” Samuel asked. “We've been working on this boulder for the last twenty minutes."
"What do you mean we?” Will said. He pushed, and with each fractional movement he listened for the sounds of settling rock, but nothing moved except the pumpkin-shaped boulder.
"I did a little chiseling back up at the plateau,” Douglas said. His thick Texan drawl betrayed his excitement.
Samuel sounded immensely annoyed. “Douglas, please tell me you didn't carve your name on the tunnel mouth."
"Hell no. I carved all our names. Hey, you think we'll find any more cave drawings, or maybe another goofy knife like last time?"
"Who cares about that?” Samuel asked. “Once we're through, and if this tunnel continues to descend, I surmise we'll drop below the next sedimentary layer within fifty feet or so. That will give us a real good look at this mountain's composition."
"You crack me up, Anderson,” Douglas said, his sharp laugh bouncing off the rough, narrow walls. “We've found some lost Injun tribe in here, maybe even with buried treasure, and all you can think of is geology. You're a screwball."
The two continued to babble, but Will tuned them out. The rock was the last obstacle that stood between them and continued exploration. They'd found the opening while researching Samuel's Ph.D. thesis. The Wah Wah Mountains were only a three-hour drive from Brigham Young University, and yet were a wild and obscure treasure of geological wonders. The thick limestone mountains seemed to rise straight out of southwestern Utah's scrub-brush deserts.
Five months earlier, they'd been a thousand feet up the side of an unnamed peak when they discovered a small plateau and a dark, cramped opening. The opening led into a long, slender tunnel that traveled well over one hundred yards into the mountain before dead-ending at the ancient cave-in. Low on supplies, they'd decided to head home and try again later.
Now, well supplied and eager to explore the caves, they had to clear a path through the cumbersome boulders to access the tunnel they knew lay beyond. For three days they'd probed the cave-in, placing small charges of dynamite to help break up the tightly packed rocks. Following each blast, they labored to clear loose stones. It had been three days of noisy, backbreaking work, but the intensive effort was all but forgotten as Will slowly worried the last stone clear.
That stone finally came loose with a horrible, grinding sound of protest. As Will pushed it free, they held their collective breaths, waiting for the suspended rockfall to give way and crush them all.
Nothing happened.
"Take that,” Will said, his voice an exhausted whisper. “Take that, you piece of shit."
"Quit cursing,” Samuel said. “Hurry up and get out of there, will you?"
Will wanted to squeeze out of the opening, sit up, and wring Samuel's neck, but he didn't have the strength. Samuel and Douglas each took an ankle and pulled, hauling Will out like a dead animal.
Samuel rushed to the opening, laying flat and letting his light probe the newfound depths.
"How's it look?” Douglas asked, leaning on Samuel's shoulder and craning his head for a peek.
Samuel's exuberant yell pealed off the stone wall, accompanied by the hint of an echo from the unexplored passage beyond. “Looks like a straight shot! As far as I can see — at least another fifty yards!"
Samuel whooped triumphantly. Douglas's Texan yelp joined in. Will lay flat on his back, stomach heaving, sweat pooling in sandy little lumps on the cave floor.
Douglas slapped at Will's thigh, “Get up, lazybones. Lookit Samuel — he's already crawling in."
Will remained on his back, breathing deeply, but turned his head to see Samuel's skinny body wiggle through the narrow opening. Will thought it looked like the rocks were a giant stone mouth with pursed lips, and Samuel was a piece of slurped spaghetti.
"You go on ahead,” Will said.
Douglas again whacked Will's thigh. “Get up, rich boy."
With effort, Will lifted himself to one elbow. “Doug, you hit me again and I swear I'll—"
"Fellas,” Samuel interrupted. Both Douglas and Will jumped slightly as Samuel's head suddenly reappeared in the narrow opening. “Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?” Douglas and Will said together.
"That sound,” Samuel said. A lock of his thin blond hair fell free from under his helmet, dangling on his high forehead. Only his head and hands were visible. In the poor lighting, he looked like a talking guillotine victim perched on a wall of tan and red boulders.
"Sounded like sand blowing across the desert or something like that,” Samuel said. “Didn't you hear it?"
"Didn't hear a thing,” Douglas said. Will simply fell to his back again, staring back down the pitch-black tunnel, ignoring the overexuberant Samuel. Sometimes he hated that kid's nonstop energy.
"Maybe there's a connecting tunnel down here and there's some air circulation,” Samuel said quietly. “Oh, forget it. Come on, fellas, let's see where this thing leads."
"I think rich boy is staying here,” Douglas said, aiming a slap at Will's thigh but pulling back at the last second, avoiding contact.
Will said nothing, merely raised his hand, extended his middle finger, and let the hand whump heavily back into dry silt.
Samuel's head disappeared into the dark hole. Douglas laughed and followed him headfirst into the mouth, working his way into the confined opening.
Will lay motionless, eyes closed, listening to his friends’ excited laughter fade into nothingness. He'd catch up to the goldbrickers in a moment, he just needed to rest. The cave was so peaceful, so still. He'd just close his eyes for a few minutes, just relax in the motionless, timeless caverns. Just a catnap, perhaps, and then—
His eyes flew open, yet he remained deathly still. He'd heard the faintest echo of a noise, a noise that somehow didn't belong in that serene place. A faint clicking, the sound of metal tapping rock. And another sound, something he couldn't put his finger on and yet it stirred recollections of Chicago, his hometown.
He strained to grasp the noise again, as if by concentrating his hearing he could tear free of the thick veil of silence enveloping the tunnel. Not moving, not breathing, not understanding the cause of his sudden fear, he listened.
And heard the noises again.
click-click, click, click-click
The clicking, followed by that hissing, breathy, scraping sound. He immediately understood why the noise made Samuel think of a sandstorm, but that analogy wasn't quite right. Samuel had spent all twenty-two years of his life in the deserts of southern Utah. For Will, however, the sound brought back memories of Chicago's powerful weather.