Chapter twenty two
Caverns of Stone

It was so quiet inside the cave. Too quiet. Their footsteps echoed eerily off the wall and it reminded Sam of the temple and how they'd almost died in there. He was sure they would almost die in here, too. It was a pattern. An annoyingly predictable pattern he could do nothing about. Mission, crazy stuff, traitor, fighting Snitch Gravel, Snitch Gravel leaves, get the jewel. Or die trying.

This time, he could totally get why Snitch Gravel left. But he was right there, next to them. He didn't even make a move to pull his gun out, summon some men to deal with them. Do something. Just screw with them.

You guys are more like me every day.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? How were they like him? Because they started killing people? Except, they didn't. They did shoot at people, but mostly in non-vital areas, just to take them out. Destruction? That was Ron's doing. So how were they like him?

We started the fire. It was Tom shooting the boiler and making the building explode that gave Ron the idea to blow the place up in the first place. Or maybe Snitch Gravel just said that to screw with him mind because Sam was sure their enemy knew him well enough to anticipate what his words would do to him.

Interesting. I have an enemy. It felt like another lifetime completely, but he could remember his father telling them how he and Jerry were good kids and had no enemies. The word enemy had felt very dramatic at the time. Until dear old dad passed his enemy on to them. Gee, thanks Dad! Life would be so boring without Snitch Gravel in it.

"Um, Sam?" Jim said carefully.

Sam snapped out of his miserable thoughts and focused on his surroundings enough to realize that they'd stopped walking at a crossroad. And about eight tunnels lead away from that one point.

"Great. Now what?" Sam mumbled.

"Do we at least have any idea where this diamond is?" Jimmy asked, annoyed.

"In one of the caves. It's basically one giant maze," Tom recited. "We're on our own. No map, no leads, no clues."

"Do you think there might actually be some sort of center room?" Jerry asked.

"Is it even on the floor or inside the walls?" Billy asked. "Do we like have to mine for it?"

Sam clutched his head. God, they were so up a creek without a paddle. "Let's just start looking. We're a lot of people? How big could these caves be?"

"Um, enormous," Jim said. "But I do believe the tunnels do meet around and might lead to a common place where maybe the diamond is."

"Okay, so we split up. The sooner the better." Sam waved them away in different directions and picked a tunnel for himself.

But once he was alone in the dark cold corridor, he no longer felt so brave. Caves were creepy and greasy and wet. And he was tired. Like really, really tired. His adrenaline rush faded the moment they'd entered the caves and now all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep and no longer think. Not about the diamond, about Snitch Gravel and his parting words, about Tom being tortured.

Water dripped somewhere, and Sam wondered if there was actually water in the cave. Could be. Caves were damp and dreary by definition and made by water. A few more steps. Just a few more. He didn't want to make a few more steps. He dropped on the floor and brought his knees to his chest. His head buzzed, his body ached, and sweat covered him from head to foot as his brain suddenly decided it was the best time to process the last twenty four hours. He hadn't slept in over twenty four hours.

Dead children. They were trying to make me. Health crack, mysterious hooded men trying to turn Tom into Kyle, peeling his skin off. It hurts, but it's okay. Fire. Fire swallowing everything. And Angie. Smiling. Kissing Tom. Who looked like him. Still in a shitstorm here. Shitstorm was an understatement. If only he could...

Sam jerked awake and rubbed his eyes. Shit, he'd completely dozed off instead of searching for the diamond. Cold sweat trickled down his back and he felt the need for a paper bag to blow into. He had nothing but his little spy kit. Because he was nothing but a little amateur.

You're still alive, Debbie Downer. At least.

He pushed himself to his feet and started off down the tunnel again, pointing his flashlight at the walls and floor. Not the ceiling since it was probably full of bats. Being a city boy, Sam wasn't exactly a fan of wild animals, though after the jungle and all the bugs/snakes/monkeys/other deadly stuff, this was easy.

Just as he was wondering how high the tunnel was and if he should chance to check for bats, the tunnel gave way under his foot. He fell face forward and the rest of the floor collapsed under him. With a chilling whoosh, he plummeted through the air and crashed against the floor below.

"Crap, my bones," he moaned.

"You scared the shit out of us."

Sam jumped into a sitting position and stared at Tom and Angie who were right next to him. "How'd you two get down here?"

"Down here?" Angie asked, confused. She then pointed her flashlight at the hole in the ceiling. "I had no idea there was an up there."

"We just followed our tunnels, met up about half an hour ago and then ended up here where you almost crushed us," Tom said.

"This is weird," Sam mumbled. "How do we get back up there?"

"Do you think the diamond is at the top or something?" Angie asked.

"Yeah. I've been thinking that it must be in the hardest to reach place." He eased his way to his feet and rubbed his aching butt. "Let's just follow the tunnel and see where it goes."

Tom and Angie nodded, and the three of them set off in the darkness. It was a good thing that they'd met up, because they could save their batteries that way, especially since Sam had decided to take a nap with the light on.

But they were all tired and silent, and from time to time, Tom would wince or groan which meant the healing crack was probably wearing off. Sam could hear Angie whispering to him from time to time, but he didn't know what to say. Sorry Snitch Gravel tortured you and now you hurt like hell? It felt a little inappropriate. So he started thinking about a solution, about how to make this entire trip as fast and as least painful as possible. Fortunately, they'd started climbing some time ago and it felt like they were close. Sam really hoped they were, because the tunnel had gotten so low, he actually had to bend a little to avoid scraping the top of his head against the ceiling.

"This is annoying," Tom mumbled.

"What are you complaining about?" Angie asked merrily, just because she was a head shorter than them.

"Soon, about nothing!" Sam said victoriously as they exited the tunnel into a much taller, dryer one. The rock around them was reddish now rather than dank and grey and he could finally stretch his neck properly. "I think we're on the right track here."

"See, I'm not the only one," Jimmy said.

Sam turned on the spot to see Jimmy, Jerry, Billy and Jim coming from a different direction, all of them looking relieved. Sam had to admit that so was he, finally, because all of them meeting there could only mean one thing. There really was a center and they were very close to it.

"Where are Kyle and William?" Tom asked.

"Didn't see them," Jerry answered worried.

"God, let's hope they didn't meet up and killed each other," Billy said.

Sam tuned Jerry's outrage out and focused on the tunnel instead. He wasn't too worried about Kyle and William missing. If this was truly the center, they'd get there too. Maybe their tunnels were longer and more winded or maybe...

He stopped before he put his foot down, getting a horribly bad feeling. The floor didn't feel right. They could fall like he did the first time and then there would be no way to get back up here. But up here... where could the diamond be? They'd met in what looked like another crossroad, except there were only three tunnels leading out. One was the one they'd come through. Another was probably where the others came from. Which left only one.

"Where did you guys come from?" he asked.

"That way," Jimmy said, pointing to his left. "Which leaves that one the only tunnel left to go."

"And it only took us four hours." Billy rubbed his chin. "I don't trust this. This is too easy."

The others laughed, but Sam didn't feel like it. Because karma was a bitch and Billy was right. So, most likely, they'd all fall through the floor. In the eerie silence that followed, he could hear the stone crumbling.

"Don't move," he called out.

Everyone froze, looking at him confused.

"Don't you hear it? The floor?"

The crumbling sound came again, as if the stone was struggling to stay together. All of them in the same place at the same time were more weight, more pressure than the floor could handle.

"We need to spread out."

They all spread out against the walls. As Angie stepped back, stone crumble under her feet. She jumped back in shock. When she landed, the floor opened up under her.

"Angie!" Tom rushed to her, but Jimmy grabbed his arm and rammed him against the wall. He slid to the floor with a grunt.

"Sorry," Jimmy said desperately. "But we have to stay still."

They could all hear the sound of Angie hitting the floor below. Followed by another rumbling sound of falling rocks. Then another. Damning all sense, Sam rushed to the hole and looked down in time to see Angie smashing through a third floor. How could there be so many floors beneath them?

"Ropes!" Sam called as the others gathered around him. "Jerry, you stay here. The others... use the first rope to lower us down."

The others immediately started moving and Sam climbed down to the next floor as quickly as possible, his heart pounding inside his head, trying to keep it together, because there was no alternative. Jim was left behind on the next floor, then Billy, then Jimmy. Tom and Sam reached the last floor. Angie was right under them. Sam handed Tom the rope and got ready to go down.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Tom asked hysterically. "I'm going down after her."

"No you're not." Sam said much calmer than he felt, tying the rope around his chest.

Tom grabbed his shoulder and squeezed so hard, it hurt. "Yes, I am."

"Tom, Angie fell thirty feet through rock floors. She could be dead." And he couldn't believe he'd managed to say that without breaking down. "I don't want you to go down there and lose your head. If she's still alive, we have to get her up as soon as possible. So I want you to give orders to the rest of the team while I'm gone, okay?"

Tom just tilted his head and Sam took that as his cue to go. So he handed Tom his rope and lowered himself into the unknown.

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We're nearing the end. Only two or three chapters to go, depending on how the story turns out. I hope you're all excited!

So, what do you think about Snitch Gravel's parting words? Is Sam right? Was it just to mess with them, or do they mean more?

Also, yeah, I'm still hurting people. I'm not done with that. More mystery to come. Stay tuned and don't forget to vote and comment.