Billie puts her hand on your shoulder.
"Look, I've got some camping supplies that I was keeping ready for this summer. I'll pack two days worth just in case things go bad."
"Two days? Come on, if we're gone for that long, Vargunza is going to thing I skipped town.""Hope for the best, plan for the worst. We'll keep this simple, scope the cave see if we can find an exit, mark the path and come back."
"If every thing goes right it should be a twenty minute adventure."
"Pack three bags then, I'll see if I can find Zeke."Billie nods and grabs some durable looking backpacks out of a footlocker she keeps tucked in the eaves
Suggested listening:
Heading downstairs you make your way to Zeke's room.
He seems to be in, you can hear the muffled sound of music coming from his room.
It sounds to be a fast, angry Skacore cover of Careless Whisper.
You rap on the door calling his name and the music comes to a stop.
The door opens a crack and the smell of ozone wafts from his room.
"Maggie."
"Zeke.""Thanks for taking it easy on the Segway, how'd she handle?
"Do you want the honest answer or the nice answer?""Honesty helps me in the long run."
"It handles like riding a meth addled Kangaroo who desperately wants to buck me onto the truck of the nearest Oldsmobile.""But did it?"
"No?""Then the latest stabilizer is working like a charm!"
"Aaaaaaannnnnyyyy wayyyyyy."
"So.. Billie and I may have discovered a portal to an unknown destination in the attic.""Riiiighhttt. I'll take a hint, I'll stop brewing this week's batch of go juice until I can get my ventilation back to 100%."
"I....I'm not fucking with you Zeke."The door opens. Zeke is wearing jeans with a stained and worn labcoat with a Ramones T-shirt underneath. His hair is styled in a Magenta mohawk.
He's of average height and is a bit pale with all the time he spends tinkering in his room or the garage
"Okay, I'll bite, I'll meet you in the attic in a second, I just want to get some vodka, if you two are bonkers off the fumes, usually ethanol helps to bring you down."
You shrug and head towards the attic.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be the one taking a few shots after seeing this."
Back to the Attic, Billie is just about done with packing. You help her grab a few for things. Chalk, Rope, spare batteries.
As you zip up the last pack Zeke comes up with a bottle of Stoli and two shot glasses.
His jaw, the bottle, and the glassware drop.
"I've been hitting the Go Juice too hard."
He immediately takes the bottle of Vodka and takes a bracing gulp.
"Yeah, this is pretty wild. So, can we count you in."
"Yeah...I mean No, I mean... Well, I'd like to tag along, but A: We need someone to make sure the door stays open, and B: If something does go wrong, we need a witness."
"I could do that!""This is your door Maggie, you're coming with me."
"Right, which means I'll sit by and keep a record of this, let me set up a camera first."
A few more minutes go by as you two don your packs.
Zeke returns with a camera, a stand, and a chair. He sets up the camera and aims it towards the door.
"Okay state your names."
"Magnolia Darwin""Wilhelmina Taylor."
Zeke pops his head in frame
"And I'm Ezekiel Robinson"
"It is currently 4:15 PM on the 22nd of January, 2022."
"What you're seeing here is not digital trickery, this is one hundred percent real."
He pivots the camera around the door, showing that only one side goes into the cave the other simply reveals the rest of the attic.
"We have no idea where this came from or where it goes, but these two intrepid women will be the first to explore this phenomenon."
"A bit overdramatic Zeke..."
"This is exactly the right amount of dramatic Billie. We're seeing things no one has ever seen before."
"Well, we're heading in."
"Wait! Take this."
Zeke hands you a GoPro with a head mount.
"We need footage of the other side."
"S-sure thing."
You strap the camera to your forehead and turn it on.The two of you give a thumbs up and walk past the threshold. Flicking on the flashlights.
The smell of wet rock and mildew hang in the air. Dark basalt seems to make up the floor, and the walls are limestone and marble carved away from millennia of erosion.
"Jesus, this place is huge. Do you think we're still on Earth?""Well...we can still breath here and this looks like the caves I've seen when I was a kid."
You sweep the area with your flashlight and for a moment a glitter of light bounces back.
Turning back you see Billie marking the wall with a piece of Blue chalk.
"Billie...I think there's something over this way.""Like what?"
"I'm not sure."As you two head towards the source of the momentary glitter, you are almost blinded as your lights hit a corridor of crystals.
The walls and ceilings are made up of large clear crystals which give off a dull blue light but also refract the flashlight illumination back as a dazzling light show."
The basalt floor runs through it, providing a safe walkway through.
"It's like walking through a giant geode..."
