The Forest, by Ben Greenfield - Chapter 4: "The Cave"

The Forest Chapter 4 the Cave See this? In his excitement, Taryn didn't correct his brother that he could in fact not see anything, but instead crawled forward on his stomach towards River's voice. I'm coming. As river maneuvered to turn his body back around, Taran held on to his brother's one good leg for guidance and followed river as he slid forward inch by inch on his belly into the crevice. He felt hard rock scraping against his shoulders and a cold stone floor under his body. Then the space suddenly seemed to grow wider. He let go of River's leg. He could crawl, then stoop, then stand. He listened to River's voice echoing off the stone walls as he described their surroundings. I can barely see anything, but I felt my way around. Just like you, brother. Huh? Terran was quiet. He didn't like hearing any reminder that he was blind. The cave doesn't go back very far, but over here. River excitedly pulled Terran by the arm and directed Terran's hands into a deep pile of what felt like pine needles, dry leaves, clumps of soft sod, and forest debris. Is some kind of a nest, almost like a debris shelter. I don't know what made it, but it's way too big to be a squirrel. Maybe a beaver or a rabbit or something. Anyways, it's big enough for both of us to fit the cave walls. Don't go back very deep, see? He led Terran just a few feet back and guided Terran's hands along a cold stone wall. River kept talking quickly and there's water here. Here in the corner. A little pool of water. I think it's dripping from the ceiling of the cave. I can touch the top of the cave here and it's a little bit wet. Terran nodded vigorously, visualizing this all in his mind. A small shallow cave with a bed of debris and a pool of water. This meant shelter, protection, and to nourish their dry and parched throats and bodies. Hydration. Terran knew that cave water could possibly have a lot of contaminants like farmland, pesticide runoff, radiation, metals, leaks from nearby septic tanks, and other chemicals. But with no people around, this seemed pretty unlikely to him. It made sense that they could probably drink from puddles formed by dripping water because it would be more likely to have been filtered by the soil and the rocks above before dripping down onto the floor of the cave. At least it seemed that way to Terran, and at this point he was definitely worried, willing to take a chance. So he crawled into the corner of the cave and thrust his entire face down into the shallow pool, then immediately realized it was much shallower than he thought. His forehead lightly scraped against the hard stone at the bottom of the water, but he barely noticed. The water was colder than he thought a still, shallow pool could ever be, and as he sipped and sucked it into his mouth, it felt like the most delicious chocolate milkshake he'd ever tasted. He felt the water coat his dry, chapped lips, then cool and calm the cuts on his lips, then seep like lifeblood into his stomach. Terran heard a satisfied moan and realized river was there by his side, face also buried in the pool, lapping at the water. Terran smiled. For some reason, his thoughts shifted to the bird. If the little creature had been trying to kill them, it had certainly not succeeded. Or perhaps it had, and they would both be horribly sick within a few hours from some kind of poisonous pathogenic living in the cave. But at this point, he didn't care. He just kept drinking and drinking and drinking. He didn't really remember crawling from the pool into the giant pile of debris. He didn't remember nestling up against River's warm body, then pulling leaves, sticks, and dirt over himself. He didn't remember closing his eyes and passing out in a state of utter exhaustion, a satisfied smile on his face. Despite the ever growing pangs of hunger in his stomach, all he remembered was water. Then more darkness. He woke to the sound of River's voice. This is so weird. Terran opened his eyes. His heart fluttered for a moment as he waited to see shapes, shadows, sunlight, and life. Perhaps a night of sleep had somehow healed his vision. Perhaps yesterday had all been just a horrible nightmare. Instead, everything was the same with his eyes open as it had been with his eyes closed. Of course, for a hopeful boy, it was far more frustrating for the entire world to be dark when his eyes were open. What? River. I moved during the night. Tern frowned. Loud thumps during the night as river fell from the bed were a common occurrence back home. As was finding his brother curled up in a corner, slumbering in his pajamas. Or mumbling random sentences while sleepwalking. Or crawling through the bedroom. Brother, you do that every night. Yeah, but I woke with half my body in this pool of water. Terran paused, a puzzled look on his face. It simply wasn't that out of the ordinary for his brother to wake up in strange areas of the room. Huh? He stretched his arm up above his head and let out a great yawn. I'm so hungry, Riv. Let's go find food. And my leg doesn't hurt. What? What, brother? My leg. It's kind of wet and it's kind of purple around where the break was, but it doesn't hurt. I can walk and everything. Tern felt his brother sit down on the debris pile beside him, grab his hand and guide it to the spot where there had been such horrible swelling the day before. He could feel the moisture on River's leg from where his brother had rolled into the water during the night. He could feel indentations on the leg where the cabbage poultice had been crushed and wrapped around the injury. He could feel that river had untied the cedar strands and t shirt shreds and completely removed the splint. But his brother was right. The swelling was gone. There was no inflammatory warmth. It was as if the leg had never been broken. Terran's mind moved fast. Did the water have some kind of healing medicine? Was there something in this cave that could magically heal a broken leg at that speed? He'd heard of special cold therapy rooms that could somehow kill pain and make injuries heal faster. Had his brother accidentally discovered some new, similar way to heal his broken body? He knew what to do. He dropped to all his fours and half scrambled, half crawled to the pool. He frantically thrust his hands into the water, then splashed the water onto his eyes. Then he did it again. And again and again. If this water could fix a broken leg, it could surely fix his broken eyes. Over the sound of the water around his ears, he heard river shouting at him, but he kept desperately splashing. Then he straightened up, water dripping from his hair, his forehead, and his chin. He opened one eye, then the other eye. Nothing. You're getting our water all dirty, Terran. Terran looked in River's direction. You slept in it, Riv. His voice became quiet. I thought maybe it could fix my eyes like it fixed your leg. He heard shuffling and footsteps, then felt his brother's arms wrapped around his neck. Terran. Don't worry, brother. We'll fix your eyes. I know we will. Terran rubbed his cold, wet face against River's soft, dry hoodie and kneeled for a moment in silence. He tried to hold back more tears, but despite his efforts to be strong, still sniffled softly, attempting to make it sound like he was just clearing water out of his nose. He felt his stomach rumble and realized he'd been chewing the rough insides of his cheeks during the night. Normally, the boys would have feasted between meals on shelled walnuts, plump raisins, crispy rice cakes, nut butter, crunchy carrot sticks and anything else they fancied when swinging open a well stocked refrigerator. He couldn't remember ever going this long without eating anything at all. They had to find food. They had to figure out where they were. They had to make it to the top of that pen.