Chapter 8: Ghost of Cave's Past

"Max, I'm scared." Gazzy said. "And you wouldn't have to be if you didn't trap us in here!" Angel screamed. "Guys, guys calm down! This isn't helping."

"Well, we are trapped. We might as well search for the lab." Fang headed further into the tunnel on the right. Nudge pulled his shirt. "Hold on a second. Shouldn't some of us stay here and try to shift the rock. I mean, well, in case there isn't a lab here or we don't find it..." Nudge trailed off.

"First of all, there is a lab here! Second of all, we already tried, Nudge. It's a lost cause." Fang retorted as if it was the stupidest thing he ever heard. "Let's go." We all followed Fang.

"Are we there yet?" Gazzy asked. "NO! You'll know when we get there, trust me!" We had been walking for twenty minutes now and hadn't come across anything yet except the limestone walls and ceiling and the occasional bit or tiny rock. We were all on the moody side, considering how tired, hungry, and thirsty we were.

"Find anything good yet?" Nudge moaned. "Ooh! Ooh!" Angel screamed excitedly. "What? What?" She picked up a necklace made of coral and seashell. "Can I keep it?" She put it around her neck. "Sure."

"Wait a minute- that means someone was in this cave before." Fang smiled eagerly, but his face quickly dropped. "I doubt it was a scientist. It probably belonged to one of those natives. You know the ones whose huts we stayed in."

"I wonder what happened to the natives. Maybe they all died in a terrible storm." Nudge suggested. "They probably just died out over the years. They might have lived here tens of centuries ago. We don't know." Fang stomped his foot. "ANYWAY! We have to find the lab. I'm not leaving until we do."

"Duh! None of us are. We're trapped, Einstein." Nudge retorted. We headed forward when I felt a pull on my sleeve.

"I'm scared. It's getting really, really dark." Gazzy said. I patted him on the shoulder. "Nudge, didn't you say you were going to bring a flashlight?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to waste the battery. Who knows how long we'll be trapped in this stupid cave." I patted Gazzy on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, but she's right. We should only use it in an emergency."

"But I'm scared!" Gazzy cried. "Then count backwards from a hundred and shut up!" Fang cried. "But I can't count backwards that high." Fang moaned impatiently. "Then learn!" Gazzy knew not to argue anymore.

"One Hundred- uh- uh ninety-nine!" Gazzy kept this up for another ten minutes.

"Nudge get out your flashlight. I think we've reached the end of the cave." It was a great relief to get some light on the subject, but not when we realized that we had reached the end. Nudge turned off the flashlight and Fang screamed a curse word.

"What does #~!* mean?" Angel asked. I gave Fang a dirty look, though I doubted that he could see it in the dark. "It means that Fang doesn't know that we're in mixed company!"

"Now what?" Nudge asked. "We go back and try the left side. That's what we do."

Fang started back. I was getting very tired of walking but I knew how important this was to Fang and how important it should be to us. "I'm hungry!" Gazzy shouted. Of course. He was going through his growth spurt. I should've seen this coming.

"All we have is a half of a coconut. Can't you wait a little while longer? Perhaps until dinner? We need to conserve food. Who knows how long we'll be here?" Gazzy stomped his feet. "No. I'm hungry now. Now!"

"You're acting like such a baby." Angel said. "No I'm not, no I'm not, NO I'M NOT!" Gazzy yelled into her face. "Yes you are, yes you are, yes you are, baby."

"Stop it you two! I'm tired of listening to your stupid arguments. Let's just give Gazzy the coconut and move on! I want to find this lab as soon as possible." Fang screamed. "It's only 2:00PM. We really shouldn't eat yet. Seriously, can't you wait?" Nudge checked her glow-in-the-dark digital watch.

Gazzy was about to scream. "Fine. Take your stupid coconut. Just don't eat it all! Will that make you happy, you immature brat?" Everyone stared at me. I immediately felt guilty for screaming at Gazzy.

"Look, we're all a little edgy-" I started. "Especially you." I took a deep breath. "Shut up Nudge. No one asked you. Anyway, let's just calm ourselves down and continue our search. This is very important. We're fulfilling Iggy's last wish." No one said anything for two minutes.

"Here we are. Back where we started." Nudge said. "Can we please take a rest?"

"No. We must go on." Fang said. "Fang, we'll search much better if we just rest for a few hours, okay." Fang was about to protest, but then agreed. I sat down on the cold, damp cave floor. It felt good to finally sit down and collect my thoughts.

I wondered what Iggy would think about all of this. Would he like the fact that we were trying this hard to fulfill his final wish? If he were here, this whole experience would've been much more enjoyable.

He'd lighten the atmosphere up a bit, Fang wouldn't be as grumpy, and we'd probably all be a lot happier. Of course, if Iggy were here, we wouldn't be doing this.

I rested my head on a lump of soft limestone and took a nap. I dreamt that we were still in the school. Iggy was there. Even though we were miserable, we were happy. We were all together. All of us.

"Max, Max! Wake up. It's tomorrow morning already." Nudge was shaking me. I yawned. "Really?"

"Yeah. Fang's waiting impatiently." I got up slowly only to listen to Fang screaming at me about how behind schedule we were.

"It doesn't matter, we're trapped. We have all of the time in the world." Fang didn't like that answer and abruptly pulled me up by the shirt collar. He quickly let go. "Oh Max, I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

"Yeah fine…" Nudge snickered. "Uh, right then let's continue then… moving on." We headed down the left side tunnel. This one had and extremely low ceiling and I could barely stand, while Fang had to duck the entire time.

"Max, I here footsteps." Angel said. "Oh, it's just you're imagination." Angel grabbed on to me. "No Max, I heard footsteps. Loud footsteps."

"Just try not to think of it." We continued on when I heard something. Probably just a part of the ceiling that fell down. I heard something which sounded like frantic footsteps. Max, now you're imagining things.

"Max I heard them again." Angel said. Maybe we were both imagining. "I heard them too." Nudge said. Okay, I was definitely not imagining the noise I heard.

"It's probably just the wind." Fang said. "Yeah, but we're in a cave and there's no outside air source! The entrance is blocked and we already saw the end of the cave." Nudge said. "It's not the wind."

"I am the ghost of the cave's past. Beware! I will get you, I will get all of you! You have entered my cave! Exit or you all shall die like all of those who entered before you." It was a weird-sounding high-pitched voice. Because the cave was so echoie, we had no idea where the sound came from.

"You will meet the same fate as the natives who entered before you. Ten years to this day." Angel clenched her coral necklace.

"Leave!" Angel was about to cry. "But we're trapped."

"You've been warned…"