Suddenly from up above them, they hear Jiron cry out. James looks up but other than some shale falling along the side of the canyon doesn’t see anything.
“Jiron!” James cries out. “Are you alright?” When no answer is forthcoming, he doubles his speed, sending a cascade of rocks down below him. Miko hurries along beside him.
When they near where they believe Jiron had been, they see a darker shadow ahead of them in the shadows. He quickly realizes that it’s a hole in the side of the canyon.
“Miko,” he says to him where he’s climbing, “stay there. It looks like he may have fallen into a hole.”
“Okay,” Miko replies as he comes to a halt, maintaining his balance on the unstable surface.
James moves to the edge of the hole and peers over the edge but all he can see is blackness. “Jiron!” he whispers down.
“James,” he hears him reply from down below.
“You okay?” he asks, concerned.
“Yes, I only fell about fifteen feet,” he tells him. “Help me out of here, will you?”
“Sure,” he says. He creates his glowing orb so he can see how to get him out.
As the orb begins shining, it reveals the face of a corpse only inches from his own. James screams and jumps back in panic, the light from the orb disappearing when his concentration is broken. He loses his balance and tumbles down the side of the canyon for twenty feet before coming to a stop. His heart beating wildly, he picks himself up just as Miko reaches his side.
“What happened?” Miko asks, eyes wide with fear.
“Thought I saw something,” he replies.
“What?” he inquires with a quaver in his voice.
“A dead guy,” he replies.
“Dead?” Miko asks, in a fearful tone.
“It’s probably just someone who had been buried here,” he explains. “It just took me by surprise is all.” Getting back to his feet, he climbs back up to the hole.
“James!” he hears Jiron yelling as he again approaches the hole. “Where are you?”
He comes to the edge and says, “Sorry, got startled and lost my balance.”
“You okay?” Jiron asks from the dark below.
“I think so,” he says, “maybe some scratches. I think you may have fallen in someone’s burial mound.”
The orb once more springs to life and he can see what had startled him. On the right edge of the opening, a corpse is lying on its back and its face had been only inches from James’ when he made the orb.
He looks down to see Jiron standing in the middle of a circular room with several resting places for the deceased set in tiers along the walls. The whole room looks to be rather crudely done, the biers just dug out from the walls and the dead placed within.
“How are we going to get you out of there?” James asks. “We’ve got no rope.”
“I could try climbing up along the walls,” he says, indicating the biers where the corpses are resting.
“Alright,” James says. The whole place gives him the creeps and the corpse that’s lying exposed next to him seems almost to be looking at him. But he’s sure that’s just his overactive imagination.
He watches as Jiron begins to climb up the biers. He’s being careful not to disturb the dead any more than is absolutely necessary.
Suddenly, from behind him, he hears Miko cry out as the earth beneath him gives way and he falls. “James!” he screams as he drops below the surface.
“What happened?” Jiron asks from where he’s climbing up.
James looks back to Jiron and says, “Miko just fell through, this whole place must be riddled with these things.”
“James!” he hears Miko’s panicked cry.
“Just hold there a moment,” he says to Jiron. “I need to check on him.”
“Don’t take too long,” he says from halfway up the side of the biers.
James moves over to where Miko had fallen through and when he reaches the side of the hole, the ground beneath him caves-in as well, and he lands upon a bier. “YAAAA!” he cries out when he feels the bones of the dead under him and rolls off the bier, falling another few feet to the floor.
He feels a hand on his shoulder, “James, you okay?” Miko’s voice quavers in fear and worry.
The orb blossoms into light again and Miko cries out in shock when he sees the dead lining the walls around him. One corpse lies in a heap in the middle of the floor, most likely the one James had landed on when he initially fell.
“Calm down!” James exclaims commandingly, trying to halt the panic he sees trying to consume Miko.
He gets up and grabs a hold of him and shakes him slightly. “Miko!” he cries, trying to get him to focus on his face.
Miko’s eyes slowly relax as they focus on James standing there in front of him.
“Relax,” he assures him, “you’re okay.”
“Where are we?” Miko asks when he gets the panic under control.
James glances around the small burial chamber and says, “I think we’re in a burial mound.” He sees an opening in the side of the chamber and moves toward it, “Looks like it might be part of a catacomb.”
“What’s that?” asks Miko, keeping very close to James.
“A catacomb is a place where people are buried,” he explains. “It’s usually associated with a church or a religion.”
“Jiron!” James hollers out the opening.
They hear some movement coming toward them and are relieved when they see him move into the orb’s light.
“You both okay?”
“Physically we’re fine,” replies James as he nods over to Miko.
Nodding, Jiron understands when he sees the frightened look on his face. “What are we to do now?”
“I think we’re in a catacomb,” James tells him. “If so, it must lead somewhere. Maybe we could follow it and find the way out.”
Miko’s eyes widen when he hears that. “Are you crazy?” he asks. “We should leave, this is no place for the living.”
“If we go back up, as likely as not we’ll fall through again,” he explains. “Plus, they’ll never find us here unless they stumble upon the opening. Which, in the dark is unlikely.”
“How do you know there’s even a way out?” Miko asks.
“I don’t,” he replies. “But the dead had to be brought here somehow.”
“The two chambers we fell in were connected,” Jiron says. “Stands to reason there would be a way out.”
James moves closer to Miko and says soothingly, “Just stay close and we’ll make it out, okay?”
Miko nods his head.
James moves to the opening of the burial chamber and takes the lead. Before leaving, he glances over his shoulder and says, “Follow me and stay close.”
Jiron nods his head and Miko says, “Don’t worry about that.”
He turns back toward the opening and leaves the burial chamber.
Chapter Fourteen
A small crude path extends from the burial chamber. James steps out and follows it as it passes by another chamber. They can see the hole in the roof where Jiron had fallen through and the rubble on the floor from the collapsed ceiling as they make their way past the opening.
“Wonder why they dug it so close to the surface?” Jiron muses.
“Probably wasn’t when this had been done,” James replies. “Over time, when the walls of the canyon had eroded away by wind and rain, the distance between the chambers and the surface gradually diminished. Now
