The Last Great Adventure (pt. 4)

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It required less than a minute of discussion for Teddy and Wes to agree that this ancient city had to be found, or—if it was a hoax—found out.

They located the sinkhole without much trouble. The smallish thing described by Conklin had grown in the decades since his passing, and after walking in the direction indicated by Conklin’s directions, they couldn’t have missed it even had they been blindfolded. While the two living explorers could now see where sunlight reached the bottom, they couldn’t see anything that even remotely looked like the remains of a lost civilization. All of the cavern they could see was filled with natural stone formations. Before long, Teddy had fastened their length of rope to a sturdy tree and the friends began to climb carefully into the dark. 

“You know what?” Wes asked between panting breaths at the bottom.

“What?”

Wes smiled wide. “Even if this is a weird prank, this is probably the most fun I’ve had since… I’m not even sure. Probably since that lock-in at your church in 6th grade.”

“Wait… that lock-in? When Liam Worthington accidentally plowed over you while playing Sardines? Didn’t you spend most of that night at an emergency dentist getting your tooth put back?” Teddy screwed up his eyebrows. “Why was that fun?”

“Well, ok that wasn’t fun. Though the next day at school I told Carrie Kessler about how my tooth wasn’t in the same spot, and it felt weird. She kissed me with tongue at the end of that semester. I think it was because of the snaggle tooth.” Wes ran his tongue over the crooked canine tooth. Wes continued, “But no. I just mean, there was something about all scrambling around in the dark trying to find the hidden people. Do you remember how cool it felt to be up past midnight? To know that no one expected us to go to bed at all?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Teddy said with a sigh. “Bruh, we are too young to be this nostalgic about middle school.” As soon as Wes realized the implications of his words, he winced a little. In the excitement since he found the Conklin Stone, he’d forgotten about the heavy weight Wes had trusted him with the night before. “That’s not what I—”

“No man. In a lot of ways you’re right.” Wes looked right into Teddy’s soul. For a moment, the two stood in silence. Comfortable silence. But also sad. “But hey, I’m not dead yet. Let’s see if there’s anything to this old tale.” Wes began to slide-skid down the last bit of slope towards the mouth of a proper cave that opened to the west. A cloud of dust rose behind him.

“So… lost city seems to be a bust, right? But, I can get behind a dank, unexplored cave.” Teddy stood akimbo, surveying the deepening gloom. 

“You spend too much time on reddit man.”

“What?”

“You shouldn’t use words like dank irl,” Wes teased, making air-quotes around the letters.

“Dude, dank is a real word. It doesn’t just mean redditors idea of cool and weird. It means like, damp and dark. Or like… mildewy. Moist.”

Wes shuddered. “Dude, you know I hate that word!” He flipped on a flashlight and began to push deeper into the cave.

Teddy brought out his own flashlight and followed. “Oh come on! It’s a word. I don’t understand why everyone pretends it’s so gross. I think you just think you hate it. It’s like Nickelback, man.”

“What are you talking about, dude?” Wes couldn’t hold back his laughter. 

“Look, I checked out Nickelback on Spotify. They aren’t that bad. They’re just a rock band. I was expecting something genuinely bad. The internet just likes to pile on.”

“You’re absurd, dude. Did I miss it and you fell on your head getting down here?”

“They’re just a mediocre band. A few decent songs, a few corny ones.” Teddy’s voice had risen in volume and pitch as he continued his rant, his gestures growing wilder as he spoke.

Wes laughed again. Teddy was nothing if not stubborn. Once he’d made up his mind to buck the cultural consensus, there was no talking him out of it. “OK man, whatever you say.”

“‘Animals’ is lyrically hilarious, with a driving beat and super catchy chorus. Change my mind!” Teddy spread his arms wide, a physical manifestation of his invitation to argue.

“Hang on. Did you hear that?” Wes held up a finger and motioned for Teddy to quiet himself.

Teddy’s countenance immediately grew serious. He whispered, “hear what?”

Wes kept his voice equally low as he replied, “The sound of a total loser arguing with no one.”

A snort of laughter escaped Teddy as he shoved Wes. “Screw you! I really thought you heard someth—” 

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The high pitched noise, an ice pick in the brain, forced both of them to cover their ears and double over. Their flashlights flickered off.

Despite clamping his hands on his head, squeezing his eyes shut till colored stars swirled violently, nothing brought relief. At the exact moment Teddy resigned himself to an eternity of audible torment, the noise stopped.

Wes did not know how long he crouched there, covering his head as though the assault had been actual blows, but when he slowly began to open his eyes, he could see nothing. For a heartbeat-an-a-half, he wondered if he were blind, but then the two lights came back on. Wes picked his up and turned to find Teddy.

“The hell was that?!” Teddy’s face had paled.

Wes shrugged. Teddy kept staring at him, but the choice of turning back or going forward wasn’t one Wes felt ready to make. 

Eventually, Teddy steeled himself and began to push deeper into the cave. “You coming?”

The ceiling of the cave left plenty of room above them, but the walls began to approach one another, forcing the amatuer spelunkers to transition to single file. Eventually, they had to turn sideways to squeeze further in.

“It opens up again in like 30 more feet, I think. It’s a squeeze, but we can both fit, I think.” Teddy wiggled and shuffled to progress. 

Sure enough, after getting just a bit further, the walls opened back up to expose a large chamber. Both teens scanned the room with their lights, but neither of theirs had the necessary wattage to reveal the far side of the vaulted hall. The floor of the room sat about a meter below the ledge where their tunnel had ended. As they walked carefully into the chamber, they saw something they did not expect:

Evidence of a lost city.