Chapter 11

That first night after Nika's kidnapping, Vincent and Verla didn't sleep at all. By now they had recovered the water bags from the two birdmen that had attempt to kidnap Verla therefore for the moment water was not an immediate problem. But they remained on guard all night in case the birdmen should come on foot and attack them again.

Morning found them in a depressed mood and after eating a little, they moved again southward along the length of the gorge. The temperature was cooler and less dry in the high wall-enclosed gorge and whenever they found the need to rest, it was easy for them to find shade under one of the small trees growing there.

It was during one of these rest periods - which were very frequent since Verla still had much trouble walking - that Verla discovered a small hole between two large rocks lying against the steep cliff, which made up one of the walls of the gorge. It was late in the day when she made the discovery and Vincent figured that it would be worth investigating since it could provide them with a safe place for the night.

He threw a small rock within the hole and he listened. They heard it roll for a few seconds, then there came back to them the distinct sound that the stone made as it hit a wall or something hard. A maelstrom of echoes followed this, which was an indication that there was a large cavity deep inside.

Vincent was pretty sure that if he tried hard enough, he could squeeze through the hole even if it meant the loss of skin, but since Verla was a lot thinner than he was and she insisted on getting in, he let her crawl inside to investigate. No sooner had she gone through than she shouted back to him that he should push their knapsacks through and he should try to follow her inside. She said that she could see a very large room ahead of her but more important still, she also added that the walls everywhere were coated with moisture.

Five minutes later Vincent had succeeded in moving some smaller rocks out of the way and he managed to squeeze his larger body through the opening. As soon as he stood next to Verla he found himself in a large rectangular cave. Even in the dim light, which was coming through the small hole of the opening where they had both entered, he could tell that the excavation had been man made since the granite walls were much too smooth and regular.

True enough, there was much dampness inside and water droplets were coating the rocks everywhere. They even found a few places where water was dripping from the ceiling. It took them only a few minutes to place all of their available containers under the dripping water.

Sleep came easily to both of them that night. It was their first time in many days that they were able to swallow five or six mouthfuls of water at a time. Ever since they had undertaken the crossing of the dry plain they had never been able to fully quench their thirst once. But now all of their water bags and bottles were full of the precious liquid and sleep was the most urgent thing that they needed.

Morning came with some of its light filtering into their hiding place. Now that the problem of the water had been solved, and after that restful night, the memories of the previous day with the loss of Nika hit them fully. But they both knew that they couldn't change anything that had already happened and they tried to forget the painful memories of her kidnapping. From now on, only her memory would live in their mind and that memory at the moment was evoking silent grief.

The previous evening they had been so preoccupied with the collection of water that they hadn't bothered to explore too much the place they were in. So as soon as they were done eating a little, Vincent decided to have a look around. He took the small battery powered light from his knapsack and he proceeded to aim the beam of light everywhere in the large room. It was about ten feet high and close to twenty feet wide and much longer than it was wide.

To their rear was the rough side of the cave with the small hole they had entered, while far ahead of them the cave was limited by a pile of rocks that reached to the ceiling. Both parallel and opposite remaining sides were smooth granite that had been carved by human hands, Vincent figured that the pile of rocks that made up the side in front of them must have fallen when part of the roof collapsed.

It was thus logical to expect that there should be something on the other side of the fallen rocks pile and he thus climbed to the very top and he began to roll aside a few of the larger rocks.

He soon had exposed a dark hole leading into another chamber. When he sent the beam of light through that new hole, he was amazed to see what looked like a wide passage with a very flat surface for the floor and walls. To all appearances, it was a wide tunnel since his beam of light wouldn't fall on anything when he pointed it to his right. On his left a huge door blocked the tunnel, but on his right the tunnel seemed to go on farther than his light beam could reach.

Where it led and for what purpose it had been constructed, he hadn't the faintest idea. It was all very mysterious to him and in the back of his mind he tended to associate those responsible for the construction of this tunnel with the ones that had built the arch leading to his world.

He came down from the pile of rocks and he explained to Verla what he had just discovered.

"We must make a decision. We have one of three choices." But before he had time to continue she said in a determined voice,

"We will do what you decide."

"No. Our lives might depend on the decision we make now and it is only fair that you have your say about it."

"I will go with you, whatever you choose."

She took a step closer to him and she took his hand in hers just like Nika would have done had she been there.

"It is not for a woman to question the decision of her man, but it is her duty to accept that decision."

Vincent then realized that she was proclaiming herself to be his woman and he felt very proud of her at that moment. With much emotion in his voice he then said to her,

"Just the same, let me explain the three choices we have. First we can go through that hole and follow that tunnel, but there is no way to know what we will find at the end. Second, we can continue southward outside and go in the direction we last saw the birdmen take Nika in the hope that we could possibly find her. Thirdly, we can take the water and turn back to the edge of the plain. With the extra water bags from the birdmen we could probably make it back there now that there are only two of us."

Looking at her while he let her think about what he had just said, he admired her beautiful grey eyes and her high cheek bones. It took much of his willpower not to stare at her splendid breasts that were so close to his reach and so voluptuous in their appearance. He noticed that each sphere of flesh was topped at its exact centre with a nipple as big as his thumb. He could feel the effect it was having on him as his hardness began to twitch in his torn pants. At last he said to her,

"If you want to go back I will go with you until we cross the desert, then I will return here and look for Nika. I will not abandon her."

"I have already told you, I will go where you go. All of my people are probably dead now and so is Lomac. You are the only one left that I care for and I will stay with you."

"Very well, if this is what you want then we will go into that hole and we will follow the tunnel. It seems to be going toward the south and this is the direction that the birdmen went with Nika. We might as well travel south inside the tunnel, for one thing it will be much easier, and I think it will be much safer as well."

He helped her climb the pile of rocks with her knapsack then once she had squeezed through the opening he gave her the bags of water and the rest of their possessions. During this process he was in contact more than once with her breasts and he couldn't prevent himself from finding pleasure whenever this happened.

Once they were in the main tunnel he had to use his battery-powered light but since he didn't have any spare batteries, he switched it on for only a few seconds at a time - and this only once in a while. Thus they had to walk in the darkness much of the time while keeping one arm stretched and touching the smooth wall. He wanted to save the batteries as much as possible.

The width of the tunnel was at least twenty feet with a height that must have been ten feet. As for the floor it seemed level when they were walking on it but when he sent the beam of light far ahead of them they could detect a noticeable downward inclination. The tunnel was going deeper into the ground.

Walking on a flat and hard surface was quite a change from walking on the soft sand on which they had been traveling for the last several days. Even though they were in total darkness much of the time, they seemed to be covering a lot more distance in the same length of time. Of course he no longer had to carry Verla on his back now, but she still held on to his shoulder most of the time so as to take some of the weight off her healing leg.

By Vincent's watch, they had been walking in the tunnel for a couple of hours now and still it was going deeper even if the angle of depression was small. As for exits out of the tunnel, they didn't see any.

Now that the water problem was solved, - there was dripping water in many places - Vincent began thinking about their food supply. They had a few slabs of dried smoked meat remaining, dry crackers, some dehydrated eggs, biscuits and half a pound of coffee. He figured that it was enough to last them at least a week.

When they stopped to eat, he made use of the opportunity to examine more closely the material of the floor and walls of the tunnel. It was some kind of dark green plastic that was extremely hard; he couldn't scratch it even with his knife. Of course it was evident that the technology to produce this sort of material was certainly not known in his world.

They rested for an hour and then resumed walking. He was now holding Verla around the waist to help her walk. Soon he could feel the warmth of her body as one of her breasts kept rubbing against his shirt.

He gradually began to experience an intimate need for her. It bothered him to be subjected to these feelings, especially so soon after the lost of Nika, but he couldn't do anything about how his body was reacting. Still he had to cope with the guilt he felt. It occurred to him though, that sooner or later he was going to make love to Verla.

When they stopped for the night, they stretched over their sleeping bags on the floor of the tunnel and he did make love to her. As soon as she was lying on Nika's sleeping bag next to him, she reached for his hand. This soon led to his kissing her and after a while he crawled on top of her. At last he was able to feel her breasts to his heart's content, those same breasts that had been tempting him so much in the last couple of days.

They were more voluminous than those of Nika and when he got his hardness deep inside her, she immediately threw her legs around his waists as he felt her urgency. Yes, she was so tight and yet so slippery. While he was pumping into her, he couldn't prevent his mind from thinking about the many different men she had had and more important still, how old could she be. But despite the fact that he knew that she had had numerous sex partners, - at least half of the men in the village of Haski had fucked her for one thing - she was still as tight as a teenager on her graduation prom.