Parallel

Parallel

©2006, Basil Sands

There were eight of them.  Eight friends who loved adventure, excitement, even danger.   Skiing, bungee jumping, sky diving, surfing, rock climbing.  There wasn't much they weren't willing to try.  John, Mitch, Kevin, Bryan, Steve, George, Jin, and Marcus, friends since high school and all through college they were irrepressible in their search for that next adrenaline rush.

Which is how they got to the cave.  After a beautiful summers day exploring the wilderness of an Alaskan mountain range they had stepped into this cave to rest a bit in the shade.  The sun had been beating down on them relentlessly since the early morning.  Contrary to most perceptions, Alaskan summers can get down right hot, well into the 90's and beyond in the interior regions. Today had been one of those hot days.

Up here at the 4000 foot level, where the direct sun made seemed to be cooking their faces, the shade of the cave was quite refreshing.  Sitting just inside the entrance they got their food out and were having a delicious lunch of jerky, granola and Gatorade. 

The cave entrance was about 20 feet across and seemed to be pretty straight going back.  Judging by the lack of dampness or draft,  it felt to be about 30 or 40 feet deep but was very dark at the back. 

"I wonder how deep this cave is?" asked John, flashing his torch towards the darkness deeper in the cave.

"Whoa, dude." Said Jin, "Did you see that?"

 "See what?"

"Flash your light back there again."

John flashed his torch toward the back of the cave, but saw nothing.

"What are you talking about, man?  I don't see anything." He replied.

"That's what I mean.  There was no reflection of anything." Jin said.

Jin took his own torch and pointed it towards the wall of the cave near them, and ran it back along the side of the cave towards the darkness at the rear while the others watched the circle of light enlarge as it shone farther down the length of the cave.  About 30 feet back from them, his light stopped reflecting off the wall.

Bryan looked up "Dude, don't try to get all freaky on us.  That's just the extent of the beam, it diffuses after that. "

"Hey, it better not be diffusing that close, this is a freakin' expensive torch that's supposed to cast a beam at least 200 feet."  Came the response.

"Yeah well, it's obviously not working right." Quipped Steven.

"Guys, I think Jin has something." Said Mitch.  "Check out this laser pointer."

Mitch ran his laser pointer across the opposite wall from Jin's beam.  At  the same distance back, the laser dot vanished.  It should have carried on for several hundred feet before they would lose sight of it, but it was clearly gone. 

"Ok," said John, "so what exactly is this supposed to mean anyway?"

"Um, it would seem that there is nothing back there." Answered Marcus.

"Yeah, my point from the beginning, so what's the big deal." Said Bryan, sounding irritated.

Mitch moved his laser pointer around in a circle bringing it back to a place they could see the dot, the moving it forward again trying to shine on all the possible surfaces that should have been there.

"Nothing…as in no walls, no floor, no ceiling.  Nothing."

"It's a cavern, you moron.  It's probably just a steep drop into a cavern." Commented Steve.

"I don't think so." Said Kevin.

"Oh, why is that professor?"  said Bryan.

They had always called Kevin "professor" because of his knack for knowing something about almost everything.  If Kevin hadn't read it, heard it, seen it, or imagined it,  it probably didn't exist.

"Well, "Kevin started, "If that were a cavern, then we would hear an echo of some sort coming back from it.  Even just our normal volume of conversation would have reverberated to some degree.  But it only sounds like we are in a small room, not more than a few meters long."

All of them fell silent.  They knew the professor was right.  They had explored a good many caves together.  They knew that they would have felt the room was larger if it were in fact larger.  The echo of their voices or the sound of distant water would have given it away.  If not those signs, there would have at least been a draft through the cave as the cold, dense air inside escaped to the lower pressure outside.

They all looked around at each other, then to the end of the cave. 

George stood to his feet and said, "Ok, let's just figure this out logically.  Jin, let me see that flashlight."  He took the torch and said, "Follow me gents, and we will see what is at the end."

With that he shone the flashlight on the floor a few feet in front and started walking towards the back of the cave.  The others hesitantly rose to follow him.

He slowed down as he approached the distance at which the light beams had vanished earlier.

He stopped and dropped to one knee. 

The others came up behind him slowly, expecting to be at the edge of a great precipice.  They stopped a few feet back and watched for his response.

"Uh…this is kind of weird guys." He said.

"What is?"

"My light…it just…uh….stops." he replied.

There was a deep, excessively dark shadow on the floor where his torch was pointed that seemed to absorb the light.  He backed his light beam up to where it started to reflect off the floors surface again.  Directing the light forward again to the shadow he was able to find the exact spot where the light vanished.

There was a sharp edge to the darkness that seemed almost like a large flat non-reflective wall.

He laid down on his belly and slowly walked his fingertips forward toward the place here his light beam disappeared. 

He kept his fingers moving into the shadow until he was in it up to his forearm.

"Well, what is it?" one of the others whispered.

George looked back at them while keeping his hand in the shadow.  "Um, it feels like the rest of the cave, except that I can't see anything, like the end of the arm for instance. This is really weird."

"Can you move your arm around in there? " asked Kevin

"You'd better make sure you can pull your arm back, dude." Said Jin, "What if there is like some poison gas or something that's killing your nerves and you just can't feel your arm being chewed off my some alien monster or something?"

"Shut up, man!  Don't be freaking us out like that!"  snapped Bryan

George moved his hand around in the darkness of the shadow.  Then he stuck his other hand in as well. 

Seeing that there was no problem so far, he rose to his knees and slid his hands along the floor until he reached a side wall. Then he ran his hands up the wall as far as he could reach. 

"It all seems fine to me, except that light just doesn't reflect out of it."

"This is too weird." Said Mitch in a very nervous sounding tone.

Kevin moved toward the center of the shadow where George had first put his hands in.  He slowly scooted his right foot into the shadow, staring at it as the line of shadow seemed to swallow his shoe.  He continued until his leg was in the shadow up to the middle of his thigh.

He looked back at the others as he put his arm and the right half of his body into it as well.  Standing there for a moment, he turned toward them, the went further into the shadow, until his face was in. 

Pulling back out again he said, "This is really interesting.  There seems to be total shadow on the other side.  I can see you guys but its like I am looking through a silk screen or something."

At that he stepped fully into shadow.

They stood there staring for a moment.  There were no sounds.  Kevin didn't step back out to tell them it was OK.  He didn't come back.

George went to the spot Kevin had entered from and called his name.

No response.

He reached his hand into the shadow.  There was nothing there.  He got closer to the shadow, and put his head into the shadow.  He jumped back slightly, and exclaimed, "Whoa! … Wow!….  I uh…huh." And stepped in to the shadow.

"What the hell!" shouted Bryan.  "Where did they go?"

"George!  Kevin!"  John called out,  "That's enough…get back here or we're going to kick your butts!"

"What is going on here.  Are you guys a bunch of wusses?  Let's go in there and drag their sorry butts back." Proclaimed Bryan as he walked towards the shadow. 

Mitch, who was right behind him, said in a loud, overly forceful tone, "This is so stupid, what do they think we are a bunch of high school kids again."

They stepped into the shadow, and vanished.

The other four men stood still in the dumbfounded silence, mouths open, staring at the dark shadow. 

Jin looked at the other three and said, "Uh, half of our group just disappeared."

"If this is a joke come back guys!" shouted John.  "You know better than goofing around in a cave.  Someone's gonna get hurt in there!"

Silence. 

Marcus spoke for the first time since they started checking out this shadow.

"I have a feeling they are not joking.  I don't what is going on, but we need to get on the other side of that shadow and figure out what is going on."

Steve looked at him,  fear in this eyes.  "I really don't like this, man.  I really don't like this at all. There could be some huge hole that they fell into over there, could be methane or some other gas coming up that knocked them out."

Marcus stepped toward the shadow, Jin followed.  Both stepped into the shadow leaving John and Steve standing alone in the cave.

"We'd probably better go catch up with them." John said

"Have you all lost your minds?" snapped Steve, "We can't all go, what if something really happened to them.  Someone's got to stay with the stuff, and if everybody got hurt in there, whose going to help.  Man!  I can't believe you guys."

"How many adventures have we been on before?" Asked John.

"Huh?"

"How many times have we explored caves, jumped out of planes or off bridges, or climbed 2000 foot high rock walls?" 

"This is not the same!"  replied Steve.

"Why not?" came the reply.

"It isn't, we could see where we were going in those other places!"

"Well, I think there is something really curious going on here.  If you want to stay on this side by your self, go for it.  I'm going in."

"Fine!  Go, if you don't fall down some hole and kill yourself, come back to get your stuff.  In the meantime, I'll sit here with the gear and wait.  If you guys aren't back in an hour, I am leaving!"

"Whatever.  I'll go in and get them, then we'll be back asap." Said John as he walked cautiously into the shadow.

Silence again.

Steve stood alone with the afternoon sunlight illuminating the cave, except for that cursed shadow at the back of the cave.

He fidgeted back and forth and tried not to scream at them to come back.  Regardless of all the danger he had intentionally faced in the past, he was scared, more scared than he had ever been before in his life.

He walked back to the mouth of the cave and sat by the gear his friends had left stacked.  Their half eaten lunches still sitting where they left them.

Minutes ticked on, time seeming to slow down.  The late afternoon light was now reflecting off the inside of the cave, making the shadow more ominous that it had been an hours earlier when they entered.

Looking at his watch, Steve realized they weren't coming back unless he went in.  He certainly didn't want to leave them if there was something wrong, on the other hand he didn't want to step into a hole and get hurt or killed with the rest of them. 

He waited for nearly three hours.  He had to make up his mind.  If he didn't leave the cave soon, it would be too dark to descend the mountain. 

"Hey!  Guys!" he shouted.  "Come back.  Come one guys…don't do this."

"Man…you guys suck!"

He fidgeted around for a moment, then jumped to his feet. 

"Alright.  I'm coming in there.  If you guys have been messing me this whole time, I will seriously kill you all."

Crossing to the back of the cave, he stood next to the shadow.  His heart was pounding so loud it seemed to echo off the cave walls. 

He stretched his hand into the shadow, it disappeared into the blackness.

"Oh!  Crap!", he exclaimed,  "Man!" 

Taking a deep breath he slowly stepped forward until the shadow enveloped him. He looked back as he went into the shadow and saw the gear still there, although it was like looking through a veil.

Turning back to the front, he stepped slowly forward into utter darkness.

The ground was still solid beneath his feet,  a cool mist brushed against his face and the darkness seemed to be dissolving. 

He was only two or three steps in but could no longer see behind him, back to the cave entrance.  He stood for a moment, frozen in fear.  His eyes were starting to make out shapes.

Muffled voices  began to speak.  Growing louder he recognized the voices of Marcus and John.  Then he stepped forward and was shocked to find that he was back in the cave.

All of their stuff was right where he had left it, but now, his friends were all sitting there. 

"Man, you certainly took a long time to make up your mind."  Declared George.

Steve stood there with his mouth open.  He spun around to face the shadow only to see the back wall of the cave.  No shadow, or darkness.  He reached out his hand and touched the solid stone wall, damp and cold.

"Yeah, "  said John, "It's real.  There is no way back."

"Best we can figure," stated Kevin, "is that we are in a parallel universe or something like that, kinda cool, eh?  Since our stuff is all here, exactly as we left it, I assume the rest of this world is also the same as the other side of the shadow. At least I hope so."

"Anyhow, it's getting late, we'd better be getting off this mountain."

"Uh….yeah."  Said Steve, as he shakily picked up his gear.

They moved in silence down the trail they had come up, reaching the bottom before the red sun descended beyond the horizon.  Their vehicles where right where they left them.  This was going to take some time to digest.