Burial Pt. 3

On my return through the squeeze I began to hear a low rumble that seemed to come from far away. I did not think much of it. Finally I got through the squeeze for the second time. That passage made everything else on the way out seem easy in my mind and re-surfacing seemed only an easy trip away.

As I gathered my belongings to return through this side passage to the main hall the low rumble I heard earlier shifted into a sound that paralyzed my mind with fear. The claustrophobia of the squeeze and the fear of losing my way were nothing compared to this. The sound of water beginning to fill the tunnel I was crouched in.

While I had been underground the storm outside had continued to rage. The cave had been so dry I never considered the possibility that it could flood, but a record rainfall had turned these tunnels into an overflow for a nearby river. Where the ground had been dry, now within seconds, water poured around my feet, turning from a trickle into a swift ankle deep flow that grew while I watched.

Now there was no time for fear. No time to consider the wisest course of action. I grabbed my sack of equipment and began a hunched scramble out towards the main tunnel. As I entered the main hall of the cave, water continued to flow around me. The low rumble I ignored only moments ago had now become a roar as water poured in from around me.

Like the mythical moment of enlightenment, my mind was entirely devoid of thought and feeling as I left that place. Only an intense will to survive pulled me free from those dark flows, into the sunlight now emerging from the clouds, in a sky I almost had forgotten in my time underground.