The Forbidden Cave sat atop a grassy hill adorned with trees. A sharp rocky incline held the entrance. The thirty S.I.D. members that stood facing the cave could not see far in. After a couple feet, it became pitch black.

Even though everyone had a flashlight and a backpack full of state of the art protection, a couple couldn’t help but gulp. Ben was one of them. The only saving grace was that they were going in during the day. The cave was far more dangerous at night.

At least Geisinger was right there in front of them all, going through the obligatory safety briefing. If anything was going to put Ben’s mind at ease, it was this.

“There will be six groups in total.” Geisinger announced. “Each one will have five people and you will be assigned to one by myself. Group one will remain outside at the entrance. They will create a forcefield blocking the entrance once we are done. All other groups will be going in. Under no circumstances are you to leave your group and venture out into the cave alone, for any reason. Do not wander off. If someone in your group gets lost, you are to report it immediately.”

He held up a black device that looked like a larger version of an old cell phone, with a screen on top and an array of number dials on the bottom.

“Your communicators are designed to automatically contact me. You can change this by dialing 329 then followed by the number of the group you want to contact. It will call the communicator of that group’s designated leader.” He gestured toward himself. “I will be the leader of group six. If anybody goes missing, you will contact me and I will relay that message to all the other groups. I will send the number you have to dial to all of you in case anyone forgets. The communicators also come with an electronic map of the cave. Use it.”

He clipped the communicator back onto the side of his utility belt. He then took out the shock cannon strapped to his back.

“Do not put your shock cannon in the ‘kill’ setting unless you are in danger. NEVER point them at any of your group members and unless the situation calls for it, or I order you to take them out, have them on your back at all times.” He pointed to a switch on the top of the cannon. “You may all notice your shock cannons have a new setting, ‘pick up’. If you switch it on, your cannon will turn to a mode where you can use it to pick up small objects. This is to be used when you locate the area of Antonio’s death, to pick up the rocks he was crushed by. This mode is still in its infancy, and it can not be used to pick up heavy objects. Do not try to do so.”

He put the cannon back onto his back.

“One last thing. Johanna, the young girl who was in this cave with Antonio, claimed that a strange white light emanated on the floors and walls right before his death. It likely came from within the room he was crushed. Keep watch for anything emanating a bright white light. Avoid it if you can. Attack if necessary. Is that all clear?”

Geisinger’s speech was answered by a chorus of “Yes sir”.

“Good.” He said. “Let’s get to work.”

***

Traversing through the Forbidden Cave never became even the slightest bit comfortable, no matter how many times the S.I.D. went inside. It was always the same dark and damp series of caverns every time. The maze-like structure was sure to make anyone who came in without a map lost. And if the pits or creatures inside didn’t kill them, the dehydration certainly would.

Ben could not be more excited to leave this place to rot.

Luckily the areas his group were walking through were vast and open, a far cry from the cramped paths he usually saw. There were a lot of rooms like this too, perhaps the cave wasn’t as cramped as he first thought.

“Approaching forty minutes.” The leader of Ben’s group, Angela announced.

“I still think an update every five minutes is excessive.” Tyler replied behind Ben.

“Five minutes doesn’t feel like five minutes in here.” Ben argued.

“Yeah, it feels like an hour, and it’s gonna feel like two if she keeps doing this.”

“I’m surprised I’m not the one bitching the most. I hate this place.” Ben said.

“Yeah, welcome to the club.” Angela said. “It doesn’t make you special to- DUCK!”

All five members of the group immediately got down on their knees and covered their heads as a swarm of bats flew at them from above. The bats went so low they could feel the air pass by their hands. A couple seconds after they heard all the horrible squeals fade in the distance, they hesitantly came back up.

“Do you hate bats too, Ben?” Tyler asked. “If so, welcome to the club.”

Ben lightly hit his shoulder. Angela walked up to them. “Hey, let’s stay focused, alright? Did either of you get bit?”

“Nope, I’m clean.” Tyler answered.

“No.” Ben said.

Angela raised her voice for the two in the back.

“Grant, Shania. You're a little too far away. Come closer.”

The two new recruits walked up to her, each with a look of shock on their faces.

“We didn’t get bit.” Grant said, shaking. “Well, I didn’t…” He turned toward Shania. “Did you?”

She shook her head.

“Good.” Angela said. “The bats in here will kill you in twenty minutes. It’s basically super rabies. So if you two are lying…”

Shania and Grant’s faces turned to dread, but they both shook their heads “no”.

“Alright.” Angela motioned for them to begin moving again. “Let’s go.”

The group went quiet and began marching onwards. Shania approached Ben from the back as they did.

“Angela wasn’t being serious, was she?” She asked nervously.

“Technically no.” Ben answered. “It kills you in forty minutes.”

Shania’s eyes widened in horror and she stopped. Ben had to beckon her to keep going.

***

At this point Geisinger had been leading his group down a series of cramped passageways for a full two and a half hours. There was nothing in immediate sight except rock walls and the intense darkness that enveloped all that surrounded them.

Well, except for the spiders. With each step he swore he saw more of them.

“Shit!” Coleman exclaimed beside him.

“What?” Geisinger asked

“It’s these fucking bugs. They’re everywhere.”

He looked at the walls and floor ahead of them and realized that they were almost covered in spiders.

“You got to be fucking kidding me.” Bethany said.

“There weren’t this many before.” Stephen pointed out. “What happened?”

Geisinger turned his flashlight to a higher intensity and pointed it directly in front of him. In the distance, he was able to make out the faint image of a rock wall, a dead end marking the point where the path they were traveling on stopped.

“Johanna said the place where he died was full of spiders.” He said. “This might be it.”

“Of course it was full of spiders. Why wouldn’t it be?” Coleman complained.

Geisinger got out his communicator and turned on the speaker. He began talking in an ancient language, doing very specific, calculated motions with his free hand, as if communicating in sign language.

After about twenty seconds, he switched back to English. “Let us be shielded from the bugs. Let the forces in the air protect us from them.”

A light blue, transparent forcefield began forming over all of their bodies as Geisinger put his communicator away.

“The spell’s good for thirty minutes.” He said. “We have to be fast.”

“Great.” Bethany said.

Geisinger marched forward onto the path. Everyone following him was very peculiar about how they stepped to avoid as many spiders as possible, even if intellectually they knew they couldn’t get on their skin. The human brain can be such a stupid thing. At least none of them looked venomous.

Very shortly into their walk, the group saw a drop in elevation, with a large pile of broken rocks in between where they were standing and the end of the path.

“Thank god there aren’t many spiders on that debris.” Bethany said, relieved.

“You two hate spiders that much?” Maria asked Bethany and Coleman.

“Yeah, most people do.” Bethany answered.

“Not us.” Maria retorted. “We deal with far scarier stuff. We can take a few spiders.”

“It’s the way they look.” Coleman explained. “Eight eyes, eight angular legs, fast, unpredictable, hairs all over them and that fat fucking bulbous ass in the back.”

“Oh c’mon, the only places with spiders big enough so you can see all of that are like, Australia and Brazil.” Maria cringed as they all finally reached the point right before the drop off. “Oh… I really need to stop taking those smell enhancers.”

“Does it smell like a dead body’s under there?” Geisinger asked her.

“Yes.” She said.

“Good.” He took his communicator out again and switched it to scanning mode. He moved it over every inch of the debris.

“Antonio’s body is still there.” He said. “It’s intact enough to move into a body bag, but we need to be careful. The spiders haven’t gotten to it yet but if we’re not fast enough they will once they’re all lifted.”

“Fast and careful at the same time doesn’t make any sense.” Stephen said.

“That’s the way we do it.” Geisinger said back. “Stephen, get the body bag ready. Everyone else, take out your shock cannons, flip them to pick up mode.”

“How long will this take?” Bethany asked.

“Probably twenty-five minutes, give or take.” Geisinger answered.

“And how many more minutes will this spell last?” She asked again.

“About twenty-seven.”

Silence fell upon the area as everyone quickly took out their shock cannons.

“I fucking love my job.” Coleman said.

Geisinger snickered.

***

It took twenty minutes before they saw any part of his body, but they will never forget the moment they finally did.

Once they saw a fragment of Antonio’s crushed head popping out of the rocks, the stench became unbearable. Maria in particular had to constantly stop herself from gagging. They began working as quickly as they could just to muffle the smell in the body bag.

It took another five minutes before Stephen finally secured the last of Antonio’s remains in the bag. Thankfully the bag had been affected by the same spell the group was under, and as such it was immune from spiders getting in.

“Please don’t take your gloves off.” Maria said as Stephen tied up the bag.

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

After a scan confirmed without a doubt the remains did indeed belong to Antonio Donner, Geisinger took hold of the front of the body bag and Stephen took the back. Slowly, they began the trek out of the spider-ridden dead end.

“You know, this spell runs out in like a minute.” Maria reminded everyone.

The trek suddenly became very fast.

They made it out of the passageway with fifteen seconds to spare.

“I should get a raise next time I have to do something like that.” Bethany said as the forcefields around all of them faded.

“Ben was right, this place sucks.” Stephen said. “I don’t want to spend another minute in here.”

“Coleman, relay a message to all the other groups. Tell them we’ve found Antonio and to immediately start making their way back to the entrance.” Geisinger commanded. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

***

None of the groups waited once the announcement was made. Any second longer in that cave was a second wasted.

Unfortunately, since the pathways inside the cave were so confusing, people often had to stop and look back at their maps just to remind themselves where they were. Ben didn’t keep track of how many times his group stopped, but it had to be at least ten. After a while, he started to wonder why he wasn’t seeing more human remains from those who got lost.

Then again, he didn’t even want to think about what could’ve happened to those bodies.

Angela wasn’t providing constant time updates anymore, so Ben wasn’t sure how long it had been. But it was probably about an hour or so into the walk when he suddenly whipped his head around. He could’ve sworn he saw something out of the corner of his eye. But when he looked, nothing was there.

He shook his head and kept walking.

***

Shania jolted her head back. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Tyler asked her.

“I thought I heard something.”

“Well if you did, it’s all the more reason to walk even faster.” He tugged on her shoulder. “Come on.”

Uneasy, Shania turned back around and continued walking. Only half a minute later, Ben turned his head around too.

“Something is definitely following us.” He said.

Shania and Grant’s faces fell and they both instinctively reached for their shock cannons.

“Hold it.” Angela told them. “Ben, we have to keep moving. If something is following us, we’ll know soon.”

“Might be too late then.” He said.

“Are you even one hundred percent sure we’re being followed?” She asked.

“Positive.” He said as he slowly crept away from her.

“Ben.” Angela said. “Let’s go.”

He didn’t respond.

“Ben!” She exclaimed.

Again, he didn’t respond.

“C’mon Ben, we need to leave.” She said.

This time, he stopped, moving his flashlight all around to ensure nothing was on the walls or ceiling behind. He rested his hand on a rock on the wall next to him.

“I just wanted to make sure we’re safe.” He said. He searched for a few seconds longer then put his flashlight down. “Alright, let’s go.”

He turned around and pushed himself off the wall. Right after he did, he heard the sound of a rock slowly sliding back. He quickly brought his flashlight back up and looked at where he just had his hand. The rock he laid it on was moving backwards into the wall, as if attached to a mechanism pulling it.

“Ben?” Angela asked him.

He turned back toward her with a confused look on his face. He took a few steps toward her and the group before suddenly they all heard a deep rumbling all around them.

Everyone stopped, fear spreading on their faces and preparing for a sudden attack.

“What the hell was that?” Tyler asked quietly.

“Check the ceiling, it might start-”

Ben was cut off when the floor beneath him suddenly disappeared and he fell into the new hole. It happened so fast he didn’t even have time to scream or yell for help.

“BEN!” Everyone in his group called out, but the floor covered back up as soon as he fell under. Angela desperately clawed at the ground to try and find some way to get where he was, but it was hopeless. They couldn’t even track where he was going on their maps. How could there still be undiscovered rooms in this cave?

Everyone was so shell shocked at first, none of them could even speak a word.

Then Angela took out her communicator and frantically dialed 329-6. She put it up to her mouth.

“C’mon answer you pieces of shit.”

“This is group six, what’s going on?” She heard Geisinger’s voice ask.

“Yes, group two. Ben’s gone!”