With heavy labors breaths, Ellaway curled up on the ground, frighten and alone. She had crawl on all fours up and down her path for what seemed like days, but it couldn’t have been more than an hour, since dim twilight still streamed into the gloomy tunnel. Her legs and arms were scratched raw from endlessly dragging them on the ground. Dead leaves and twigs were tangled in her hair, along with a few spiders.
The last peak of the sun started to dip down below the horizon. Old, stuffy, humid air suffocated Ellaway. It felt as though she had layers and layers of clothing wrapped around her that she couldn’t get off. The smell of rotten leaves and musty air made her nose twitched with irritation. Beads of sweat clung to her clammy skin. The tall trees around her swayed in a luxurious breeze, but she felt none of it through the thick tangled branches.
Ellaway sat back up. She was too exhausted to crawl any farther that night. So she dug through her pack and brought out the little rations she had left, strips of jerky and dried fruit. She tore off some chews of jerky and had a few dried apples and deiced that that would have to be good enough for the night.
Curling back on to the ground, she closed her eyes and waited for sleep. Her thoughts wondered aimlessly, wondering where Ripple was now…
Light shone gently on Ellaway’s eyes as dawn awoke the world. The rustling of a squirrel squirming in the under brush, brought her softly to life. Ellaway sat up and looked around, with a sigh she slumped back to the ground. She gave a little irritated grunt and moaned, “You better appreciate this Ripple. Crawling on all fours all through the forest, ridiculous.” After a good stretch and a wide yawn, she sat back up.
Groaning, Ellaway searched through her pack for water and bandaging cloth. She drank deeply from her skins, but was careful since this was her last supply. Putting the skins down she looked at her bleeding hands and knees, covered with dirt. Hesitantly, she poured a little water on her hands. It burned as water seeped into her cuts. Gently she wiped off as much mud and muck as she could and started to tend to her sensitive knee. Once she cleansed her wounds as best she could, she wrapped them a few times, in hopes that they wouldn’t get worse.
Begrudgingly she climbed onto all fours and started to crawl. Her limbs felt a little better, but were still sore. She lolled her head downward and dragged her body across the floor. As she did, she felt that something was wrong. Everything around her looked slightly familiar. She stopped and looked around more carefully.
‘Surely this is the way I just came from.’ she thought. With her forehead furrowed in confusion she turned around and looked down that way of the tunnel, but it looked no different. Ellaway dejectedly sat on the ground searching for something different between the two sides, glancing at one, then turning to the other, examining the edges and ground, hunting for her own trail. But nothing seemed to signify which direction she should head. Finally she turned around and walked the opposite way.
She crawled on and on, over the coarse surface and unfortunately she felt more and more uneasy that she was going the wrong way. Every once in a while she would stop and look behind her. After crawling for at least a half an hour with no avail over the growing terror that she was lost, she fixedly turned the other direction and tramped off that way. Nothing seemed right, she couldn’t be going the right way.
Aggravated, Ellaway threw her self up against the tunnel wall, breathing deeply. She rested her elbows on her knees and started to rub her head, wondering how she got into this mess. With a sign she pulled her back pack on to her lap and grabbed some of the few dried barriers and started munching while she tried to choose the right path.
As she studied the tunnel, a small singular bird stood atop the invisible cage right above her. It jumped on the roof and twittered as it went. Ellaway wondered how it saw its perch as it scurried from branch to branch. Fascinated, she watched the bird, finding a glimmer of joy watching its blue chest and dark eyes. It suddenly perked up and stopped its singing to listen, and as quickly as it came, it flew off. Ellaway looked down at her pruned berries and picked out a fat one. Inquisitively, she stared down the path and took notice of the placement of the sun, trying to figure out where north was.
The forest seemed oddly quietly after the solitary bird flew off; she listened intently and noticed that not a single bird could be heard.
Out of the silence came a soft unearthly moan looming down the tunnel. From the still air, a rush of wind caught Ellaways breath. A stench of death clung to the air making Ellaway’s eyes water.
Hesitantly, she started toward the moan. Her whole body was tense and wary, but she moved forward. With every step the moaning grew louder and sent shivers down her spine. Ahead she saw a lump laying on the ground. As she moved forward the smell of rot grew stronger. The sound of the moan reverberated off the tunnel walls. Ellaway finally crept close enough to see the lump was an unsightly scene of a weathered human carcass laying huddled against the tunnel wall. Ellaway gasped and with wide eyes and repulsed back.
Flesh was still rotting off the bone of the corpse. Ants and insects crawled over the decaying muscles. His back was to the tunnel, exposing his sunken face and empty eye sockets. Ellaway shivered as another whiff of decay lapsed over her.
The moaning seemed to come from the tunnel, as though it was warning trespassers to turn around before they met the same fate. But since she had defiantly not passed a dead body the night before, she knew she was going the right way.
Shakily, she got back on hands and knees and with all of her will, she moved forward. Her face skewed up in disgust. She slowly passed his head, telling herself it was just dead, like a chicken.
But the hand of the corpse shot out and grabbed her wrist! Ellaway shrieked and tried to pull off the decayed hand. The moaning grew louder, pulsing in her ears and head. The grip on her hand tightened. In the moan she distinctly heard a whisper, “Turn back, turn back, turn back…” It faded out, but the moaning continued and the wind picked up, swirling her hair around madly. Ellaway felt her panic rise as the dead rose it’s head and two glaring red lights shone back into hers. Barely breathing with panic, she kicked him hard in the head. Slowly he let go, Ellaway crawled away side ways, watching the carcasses huddle back onto the floor. He made no sign to follow her.
Hurriedly, she crawl down the tunnel till the moaning died out. Catching her breath she rested her head between her knees. Her whole body was trembling. She tried to take deep breaths, but they kept coming in short gasps and a lump jumped to her throat. Squeezing her eyes, Ellaway cried in loud rasping breaths.
Ellaway sighed and whipped at her tear stained cheeks. With stuttering breaths she tried to calm herself, “Oh now, that wasn’t so bad, just got to get a grip on myself.” With a few more sniffles, she started back down her path muttering, “Just got to keep going.”
Noon fell upon Ellaway as she shakily shook a water snake from her hand. Like her it was stuck in this trap, never to escape the woes of this tiny space. It was a harmless snake ensnared in this confinement. She stood still watching it till it slithered around a branch and curled up in the sun to nap.
She marched by watching it carefully to make sure it wouldn’t snap at her at the last minute and crawled on. Once she had past, she let her head loll downward again, staring at brown earth and dirt as she trudged on. Her bandages tied around her hands and knees were now speckled with blood and smeared in dirt. Aggravated, the wound on her leg stung painfully. But she crawled on.
With no warning, Ellaway plunged forward a half foot deep in boggy water.
Shocked, Ellaway leaped back, away from the waters edge and looked up. There in the middle of her path, a lake rippled out from where she had fallen in.
The tunnel’s branches twisted down the depths of the lake till it was swallowed in the darkness of the murky, thick water. It appeared that, for some reason, the tunnel was built straight through the lake, all the way down to its sandy floor. Like everything else in the heartless tunnel, the water with in the branches couldn’t escape, it couldn’t even splash between the spaced branches. Instead, the water waved against the tunnels walls like the ocean upon towering cliffs, trying to join the rest of the lake that extended far past the tunnel.
Fishes and snakes swam in the tunnel, trapped like the water they were bathed in. Startled, Ellaway sat looking at the lake in awe as the strange water lapsed on the walls that kept it.
Dauntingly, Ellaway realized the massiveness of this obstacle. It was not a small lake. She could still see the other side through the dark tunnel, but stretched far enough to be quite a swim. Ellaway examined the surrounding area for any way around the dirty waters; she would hate to have to continue her crawl, not only hungry and tired, but wet and cold as well. Plus the trip across would be one to worry about, diving her wounded leg in dirt fill water didn’t necessarily seem a wise thing to do. Then there was the issue of keeping her pack dry.
However the more she looked it over, the more convinced she was that there was no other chose but to swim. She removed her shoes, placing them in her satchel and carefully threw her knotted hair in a rough pony tail. With one more overview of the looming tunnel, she dove head first into the lagoon. Cold water chilled her whole body, making her tingle with goose bumbles. However the next patch of water seemed relatively warm.
Her wounded leg stung from the exposure of the dirty water, but there was nothing for her to do about it but swim on. Her side hit against the woven branches. She redirected her swim to the middle of the passageway, taking it slow so not to waste her energy. She splashed lightly as she swam on the surface of the lake. In her trouble-free swim, she saw a strange dark shadow starting to emerge out of the dark gloomy waters below.
Ellaway couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but unconcerned, she paddled on. But as it drew closer to her, Ellaway started to be more wary of its presents.
Gradually it started to get larger and take on more shape. It was longer than Ellaway and darker than the mucky water surrounding it. It was shaped like an over sized shark, with a fat, thick tail, and huge fins.
Ellaway’s mind started to race, a thing that size needed something comparable to feed it, and she had a feeling that she was that something. Panicked, Ellaway picked up her pace as the beast kept floating higher.
Her legs started kicking harder, the monster below took notice and weaved his body faster in the water. Oddly it wasn’t just trying to follow her it was attempting to get ahead of Ellaway. Soon her swim turned into a fatal race with the fish.
Ellaway glanced at the beast swimming below. With a shock, she glared at it once more, the fish was swimming backwards! Ellaway watch it more closely and indeed its head was at her feet. His tail lashed madly in reverse while his fins were flopped toward his head instead of toward his tail. It’s body must have been to long to turn around in the narrow passageway.
It was a very strange sight to see a fish swimming backward but Ellaway didn’t have the time to watch the funny movement. Slowly the creature made his way in front of her. He was rising to the surface of the water. Ellaway’s heart was beating hard against her chest and each breath was more laborious then the last. Her ribs felt like they were collapsing in on them selves. She stopped mid swim and frantically darted back toward shore.
The monster followed her and started to open his wide mouth ready to gulp her in a single bite. Ellaway looked around for an escape, the shore was too far to reach. She was trapped inside the lane of the tunnel. Hopelessly, she looked up. With one last effort, and the fish drawing near, Ellaway jumped up as swift and as high as she could and latched onto the hovering branches. She caught it and as she rapped her legs around a free branch, the fish dashed by, biting down on nothing but water and dirt. Ellaway let out a sigh of relief and panted heavily hoping the fish couldn’t jump. The fish disappointedly swam beneath her, but never made an attempt to reach her.
Ellaway sighed heavily. She held on to the wet branches like a leech to it’s prey. The dark figure of the beast paced below her. She watched it as in swam back and forth beneath her, waiting for her to fall.
She glanced back the way she had come and towards her destination; she had only swam a third of the length between both shores. The only thing left for her to do was climb. Her head, fortunately was already facing the opposite shore. Steadily, Ellaway moved toward the distant land. She carefully searched for a strong hold for one hand than the other, then moved her legs in pace. It was slow and tedious work like climbing a horizontal cliff. Her wet hair and pack back swung underneath her as she moved from branch to branch.
She had thought crawling was strenuous, but now she would have taken creeping on all four limbs compared to this, any day. Her cracked and bleeding hands stung profusely as she held onto the branches, especially as salty drops of sweat burned her wounds. The only relief she had was her cold wet clothes clinging to her body, cooling her in the sweltering tunnel.
All she could see was the bars of her entrapment and the leafy tree tops above with a few specks of the blue sky far beyond her reach. The wish to be out of the dark tunnel and woods swelled with in her chest ready to spill out in rage and fury. However taking deep heavy breaths, she calmed herself and climbed on.
Noon past by as Ellaway made her climb, her arms and legs trembled and shook with pain as she held on, threatening to give way and drop her into the depths below, into the belly of the hungry beast. Her hands bled profusely through her cloth. She was a few lengths a way from the nearing shore and the waters edge started to be more in focus, but it was far enough that it made Ellaway weary to look at the distance. To motivate herself she kept telling her tired body that they only had to make to a small ways more.
The beast glided beneath her, patiently waiting for her expected fall. Ellaway’s shirt and pants had dried from her earlier dip in the waters, making the tunnel even more hot and stuffy. Beads of sweet rolled down her fore head and dripped into her hair.
She kept moving her body, but had to stop to rest. He arms trembled from climbing. The soreness that enveloped her hole body was almost unbearable. She had to keep moving. She had to get to the other side. But she had nothing left in her, her eyes slowly closed and tears squeezed through her eye lids. Not an once of her could move on.
Darkness over came her and with a start she fell towards the water below…
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