Jarrick’s boot slid on the rubble of rock on the hillside, it took him almost three feet to catch hold and stop his descent. He wasn’t on a steep hill or cliff, just on the side of a small hill. The sun was at midday and the heat was intense almost 120 degrees. He loved to just drive as far into the desert as he could go and spend the day hiking and exploring. This hill seemed odd to his previous explorations, it was not big, but sprung up in the middle of an otherwise large expanse of flat desert land. His slide disturbed the sand and pebbles. Looking down by his foot where a small area of sand was swirling, a small vortex was devouring small pebbles. Before he could process the danger this foretold the ground opened up beneath his weight and he felt the full force of gravity as he hurtled through the void. He hit hard and his legs crumpled beneath him. A splintering sharp pain shot up his ankle, diminishing at his knee joint to a dull ache in his hip. He fought for a sip of air after his back crashed hard to the dirt floor under him.
Catching the sweet oxygen and filling his lungs he let go of the fear that had taken hold and tried to focus on the pain to assess the severity of any injuries. His ankle looked to be the worse off, but it was not broken, probably a bad sprain. It was painful; Jarrick looked around for the backpack he was carrying so he could get out his first aid kit. It was too far for him to reach without getting up, he contemplated if he should just scoot himself to avoid putting weight on his ankle until he wrapped it. Making the decision he rolled over and half Army crawled the short distance, sharp pebbles dug into his arms and stuck from the pressure. Once close enough he reached out grabbing the braided Para cord loop his name tag hung on. Clenching his fist he rolled back over and drug the backpack to his chest. Sitting up as he unzipped the bag and positioned it on his lap Jarrick took another deep painful breath. He reasoned in his mind that it was just bruising and prayed that there was not a broken rib. Brushing the gravel off his forearms he noticed the wet sticky feel of a small amount of blood. Debris was still trickling in from where he had fallen through but the light was fading. He looked up and saw that the hole he had created was slowly closing back up with a landslide of larger rocks and earth from the top of the hill. At the top of the backpack he fished out his flashlight, clicked the button forward and illuminated the space he was occupying. A thick cloud of brown particles dancing in the beam of light obscured his view. His thoughts quickly snapped back to wrapping his ankle and getting out of the way of any larger, more dangerous debris that may break through the surface.
At the bottom of his pack he felt the hard plastic box and pulled it out. Directing the stream of light down he pinned the flashlight under his chin, the pop of the clasp opening on the box echoed around him. The dark blue roll of cohesive wrap bandage sat on top to the right, once in his hand he set the box beside him. Pulling up his pant leg and extracting his foot from his boot he slid his sock off revealing the purple discoloration of his ankle that had already begun to swell. Crossing under the arch of his foot and around his ankle the bandage provided a small amount of pressure. Once sock and boot were back on supporting the joint he opened a packet of aspirin and popped them into his mouth. In a panic he realized his water bottle wasn’t attached to the bag anymore. He felt his heart rate speed up and he began to chant “no, no, no, no.” He twirled around on his butt shining the light close to the compact dirt floor trying to capture the water bottle. Near where his backpack had landed the glint of the metal brought tremendous relief. Tenderly standing up and brushing the dust off his front Jarrick let his weight gradually fall to his bad ankle. The tenderness was not near as bad as he had expected, but he still did not trust his full weight on it and slightly limped toward the water bottle.
The coolness of the metal in his palm stung the small cut at the base of his thumb. Wanting to gulp in the refreshing liquid he restrained himself to a small sip. Who knew how long it would take to find his way back to the surface. With the settling of the dirt he could now see through the glow of the flashlight two separate tunnels going in different directions. The space he was in was about the size of his bedroom in his apartment back in the city, not big, but somewhat spacey. As he shone the ray into the tunnel to his right he could see large fractured rocks blocking the way, with a void behind too dark to see. The tunnel in front of him was open and as he stepped close he could feel the flow of air. There seemed to be no choice to make. Inserting his arms into the loops of the backpack he jerked his shoulders to bring it to a more comfortable resting place on his back and took a step forward into the unknown darkness of the tunnel.
More Tomorrow!