11 ruins: Chapter 1

Instructions

CHAPTER 1 Rocks tumbled to the ground behind Wilson. The cave ceiling seemed to be getting closer, like a trash compactor had swallowed him up from where he lay. The pain from his leg, or what was probably left of it, erased his ability to properly comprehend what was around. The stone walls looked like a thousand hurricanes swirling around him. The darkness came in like night, it wasn’t there and then it was, sweeping across his vision like waves covered footprints in the sand. One of the wall hurricanes seemingly picked up speed before it cracked like glass and shattered over him. A light gleamed from the hole. How Wilson wanted to just reach out and grab it, make it his, wrap his body around it. A gleam caught his eye as it zoomed through the light, towards his neck. The darkness completely encased his vision, and his consciousness passed like a leaf in the wind on a stormy day. A shock of electricity jolted him back into visual world. He could feel the strength returning to his hands, and his eyes put he night behind them. The hurricanes began to subside. Everything about him felt as light as a bird, ready to fly away into a new day. Everything except for his neck. Automatically, he reached for it. A cold piece of metal ran under his fingers. The bumps were jagged and sharp, like it was a hundred tiny swords piercing his skin. His hand jerked away violently. This seemed to be a problem for future Wilson. Not something that should be dealt with in the present. He could only think of escape. Then the cave finished collapsing in on itself, burying Wilson under a few tons of rock. His mind cleared, and he remembered what had happened. Wilson’s family had been exploring a cave with their friends. Their tour guide had said it was one of the oldest caves open to the public. Inside the cave there was passages that had been flooded many years and stalagmites were scattered across the ground like a thousand dice that had just been rolled. Then there was the crystals. Stretching from ceiling to floor, the colorful prisms were everywhere you looked in some caves. The guide said there were around 5 tons of them that had been found in the cave, even with many of the underwater parts yet to be explored. It was when Wilson was exiting one of these cave when the ground shook like a giant was walking above them. Soon, the exit behind them, the only way back up to the surface, was barricaded along with all the other paths. Except for one, leading further downward into darkness. Trying to keep everyone calm, the guide reminded the group of the digging team they had placed at the entrance for rescues, and told them to sit down and wait for help. That didn’t help in the slightest. The screams of fear were so loud Wilson thought they would’ve been heard half way across the continent. In an attempt to save his eardrums, he carefully snuck out of the group, not that anyone would have noticed anyway, and walked briskly down the path on his own. That’s when it went wrong for him. The ceiling cracked once more, and in a desperate attempt to avoid getting crushed, he sprinted as fast as he could away from the new cracks on the ceiling. Unfortunately for him, he forgot to watch his step and tripped over on of the many stalagmites, sending him to the ground like a plane with both engines destroyed. Wilson’s upper half of his body managed to get out of the deadly wave of rock, but his legs weren’t so lucky, bringing him back to his current predicament.