Disclaimer: Faramir the Stupendous is not mine, etc.

A special thanks to reviewers!! You guys are great!! And particularly to Raksha the Demon: the key word you used is "large". Faramir answers a similar question later, so I'm just going to let him answer you. Teehee. :)

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Chapter 4: Trapped

Faramir braced himself against the rock collapsing from the ceiling in the tunnel, using his own body to protect Eomer's, but the impact never came. After the rocks had stopped falling, he lifted his head, not quite knowing what had happened. He did know, however, that he was alive, and even that he could not explain. [Why have we not been crushed?] Faramir moved to the side as Eomer struggled to sit up.

"Eomer, are you all right?" He looked his companion straight in the eye, but he could not see any pain or haziness.

"I'm fine. It's you I'm more worried about."

Faramir shrugged. "I don't think there's anything wrong with me." He felt no pain, so he knew he was not wounded. But his thoughts were muddled. [How did we survive?] Faramir stood up, taking in his surroundings. The tunnel where Eomer had been standing a few moments before was completely filled with rock and debris. A large amount of dust was circling in the air, blocking his vision, and Faramir waved at it with his hand. Finally, the dust settled, and Faramir saw something that frightened him – the tunnel was completely blocked to them. In a panic, he whirled around, hoping against hope that the other direction would be different. "We are trapped."

"We are trapped," Faramir repeated to himself for no real reason. "I can't believe we are trapped."

Eomer looked worriedly around him. "There is no other way out. I thought that maybe another tunnel might have been opened during the collapse, but there isn't any."

"Maybe we can dig ourselves out. We would probably be able to move most of the stones, and the cave-in is probably not that large, since we were so close and we weren't crushed." Faramir jumped up, and began to explore the rock wall with Eomer's torch, since he dropped his own during the collapse.

"No!" Eomer stopped Faramir before he could pull away any of the rock. "If we did that, we would likely cause another collapse, one that would kill us this time. We can't do that."

"What do we do then?" Faramir's desperation was mounting, and his voice sounded more hysterical than he would have wanted.

"Wait for someone to find us." Eomer dropped to the ground and put his head in his hands. "I just hope we don't have to wait long."

Faramir slumped to the ground beside him, saying nothing, but his thoughts were anything but silent. [It could take days, even weeks! We could starve before help comes! Or there could be another collapse! There must be something we can do!] He began to panic, as the full realization of their predicament came on him. [It is so small and cramped,] he thought, as he fidgeted uncomfortably. A thousand doubts flooded his mind, but foremost was the doubt of discovery. One question kept plaguing him, until at last he had to ask it. "Eomer, did you tell anyone exactly where in the Caves we were going to? Does anyone know exactly where we are?"

Eomer soberly stared at him. "No." Faramir let out an involuntary sigh. "But there is still hope, Faramir." He looked at Eomer skeptically. "Everyone knows that the Glittering Caves are most spectacular here. Since we will not be returning, and this crash will certainly have echoed throughout the Keep, then I think they will assume we are here, since only something drastic would have prevented us from returning."

Faramir nodded his head. "How could this have happened? Has there ever been a collapse before? The rock has been here for years..." He shuddered as he considered how long. [The longer they've been here, the more unsteady they must be.] Faramir looked at the cave around him. [The walls seem closer than they were before.] He shook the thought away.

"No, there's never been a collapse. But the battle here – it must have weakened the foundations..."

"I don't think so, Eomer – if these passages had been weakened by the battle, then they would have collapsed long ago." He forced himself to think the matter through, in a desperate attempt to occupy his mind with something to reason out. "Something must have caused this." He stood up, and began pacing back and forth, trying to ignore the loud echoes his boots made.

"What does it matter? All we can know is that we are here, and most likely will be for a long time!" Eomer was beginning to become frustrated. "Personally I don't care why we're here! All I know is that I wish we weren't!"

"I think that figuring out why the rocks have crashed is giving us, or at least me, a much-needed distraction from the fact that we are trapped for however long in a grimy, dank, cold, tiny cave underneath a fortress!" Faramir lost his temper for a moment, but he was immediately ashamed of it. "I'm sorry Eomer," he said quietly, as Eomer scowled and then looked away. "I shouldn't have lost my patience."

"No need to apologize. I was no charmer myself." Eomer gave a wry smile. He paused, then looked guiltily back at Faramir. "So – how do you think we got here? You've gotten me interested now."

Faramir smiled at his expression. "So you're interested now?" He forced himself to give a small laugh.

"As you say, it's something else to think about."

Faramir ran a hand through his hair. "Well," he said, as he thought. "It was the fortress, not the caverns, that sustained the real damage from the battle. The Orcs from Isengard, you once told me, blasted through the Deeping Wall and the Front Gate."

"Yes, but what does that have to do with the caves?"

Faramir's mind was thinking quickly now, as he continued his guesses. "There are so many men working on Helm's Deep right now. What if one of them made a wall collapse, or created some other disturbance? The vibrations might increase as they traveled further down, through all the chambers in the caves. We are now under the fortress, are we not?"

"Yes, we are," Eomer said, beginning to understand Faramir's theory.

"Well, you heard a crashing noise from above before the ceiling collapsed. I'm sure that was rock, and as it fell above us, it must have broken the ceiling, which would have been below it, and then –" Faramir didn't bother to finish his sentence, knowing that Eomer could guess the rest. The long sentence used most of Faramir's breath, and he found that he was having trouble regaining it, as the air did not seem to satisfy his lungs. [I hope we don't run out of air to breathe], he thought suddenly, and the idea of suffocating made him begin to panic again, causing even more shortness of breath. But he took control of his mind, and forced himself to focus on the shape of the pebble at his foot, for lack of anything better.

"Faramir," Eomer said slowly. Faramir sensed the doubt and worry in his voice. [Why is he suddenly so worried? He was confident of our rescue only a few moments ago.] "If you are right, then the collapse must have been large." Faramir nodded his head, suddenly tired and apprehensive. "Then the wall of stone must also be large."

Faramir sat upright. "You're right," he said. "It could spread for a mile, or even more."

Eomer voiced the fear that rose in Faramir's heart. "If so, then they will never get us out."

Faramir took a moment to digest this. [They will never get us out!] Panic again spread through him. [They must! They can't just leave us here to die!] "There must be something we can do!"

"If you have any suggestions, Faramir, then please tell me," Eomer replied bitterly. "It is hopeless. We are trapped, and I do not think that we will get out."

Faramir leaned back against the wall again, and drew his cloak closer around himself. [The walls are so close, so close. . . they are going to fall any moment, it seems.] He sighed heavily. [I wish I had never tried to reason it out. At least I could have had the happiness of thinking that there might be a chance.] Faramir moved his hands over the torch that lay on the ground beside him. [I wish it wasn't so cold and damp.]

Eomer looked at the torch as well. "It will burn out in a few hours, so we had better enjoy it while we can." He moved his hands over the warm glow as well. "And there's no point in burning anything of ours to keep a fire going. Whatever we gained in heat and light would be minimal next to what we lost in warm cloaks."

Faramir nodded numbly. As the pair sat in silence, Faramir began to notice small things – how loud his breath seemed, how small the cave was, how little light the torch gave off. He began to breathe more heavily, as he thought again and again about the possibility of another collapse. When he finally began to shiver, Eomer said something.

"Faramir, are you sure that you are all right? I don't think I've ever seen you so pale before," Eomer said with a worried glance.

"I'm just a little uncomfortable," Faramir said. [Very comfortable is more like it.] "And a bit tired."

Eomer frowned slightly. "Actually, it was thoughtless of me to bring you down here now. You haven't really rested since you first came here."

"That doesn't mean anything. I've gone for days without sleep at times."

"Still," Eomer smiled faintly. "I think that maybe we should get some rest. We could take turns, and set a watch."

"A watch? What for?"

"We are both tired, I know, but if we both fall asleep then we might miss someone looking for us."

"And what's the chances of that?" Now that Faramir knew there was no hope for rescue, he did not want to delude himself, or let anyone else delude him, into thinking otherwise.

"Small as they are, I have hope. We aren't just common everyday workers, you know, even though you might pass for one." Eomer grinned, and Faramir found himself doing the same for no reason. "So why don't you fall asleep, and then I will wake you up in a while, and you can stay up while I rest?"

"No, Eomer, you can rest first." [After all, he's probably more tired than I am.]

"Faramir, I insist that you go to sleep. I know that I am not, which means that either you can sleep now, or sleep after I do. So unless you intend on keeping a very long vigil, I suggest you get some rest."

Faramir sighed. "If you're sure," he said, finally realizing how very tired he was. He lay down, rested his head on his arm, and tried to wrap his cloak around himself. Almost immediately he began to sleep.