Sam switched on his headlamp, then started his descent. Because of the approaching storm, the gusting wind swirled down into the mouth, threatening to send him into a spin. The forty-foot cavern dropped straight down. A little more than halfway into his descent, he stopped to take stock. The cavern floor wasn’t more than twenty feet wide and completely empty. There was no sense in going any farther. No Zoe, no treasure, just a few jagged rocks that would kill anyone falling from the top.
So, what happened to Zoe?
He began his ascent, this time unable to control the spin as the wind rushed by. The beam from his headlamp bounced off the cavern walls, a dance of light and shadows. When he looked back, he caught a glimpse of a crevice about five feet below the cavern mouth—and Zoe’s booted foot just visible between the rocks. Odd, because he hadn’t seen her on the way down, and from here, he couldn’t see any way into the crevice from the cave mouth. “Zoe!” he shouted.
He wasn’t sure if it was the wind or her moaning.
“Don’t move. We’re coming to get you.”
Sam returned to the cliff’s edge. He climbed out, then took a slow look around the cavern mouth, again seeing the large boulder jutting out to the right, the same place he’d seen the gravel falling.
“Where is she?” Dimitris asked.
“I think she fell beneath that boulder.”
The space beneath the massive rock was dark and narrow. Had he not seen her foot on his ascent, they never would’ve found her.
Nikos looked down, trying to see. “How are you going to get to her?”
“I think I can slide down under the rock and pull her up. It’ll be tight, but doable.”
The two men lowered Sam tow
ard the cave and the rock. Once in front of it, he rearranged his harness. “Ready.”
While Nikos and Dimitris controlled the tension, he crawled on his stomach, headfirst into the crevice.
“Zoe?” he said as he worked himself beneath the boulder.
“I’m here,” came a weak voice.
He still couldn’t see her. He maneuvered farther, finally seeing her looking up at him, then closing her eyes as gravel rained down on top of her. She’d slid into the steep crevice, too far to climb out on her own. “Anything broken?” he asked. “You can wiggle all your fingers and toes?”
“No. My right arm hurts and I can’t move my hand.”
“You’ve got quite the lump on your forehead.”
She touched it with her left hand, then pulled her fingers back. “No blood. That’s a good sign, yes?”
“A good sign,” Sam said, not sure if she’d been knocked out or just stunned from the fall. “We’ll do this slowly. Okay?”
She nodded.
Sam reached down, but when he touched Zoe’s right arm she cried out. He called up to Nikos. “Give me about another foot of length.” Nikos let out the rope. This time, Sam grasped her around her torso, staying well away from the injured arm. “I’m going to pull you up. If anything doesn’t feel right, let me know.”
“Okay.”
“Ready,” Sam called out.
Nikos and Dimitris started pulling on the rope as Sam held Zoe. When they cleared the space beneath the boulder, he helped her onto the small ledge.
She tried to lift her right arm, the pain so sharp she stopped. “I think it’s broken.”
Sam eyed the lump a few inches above her wrist. “It looks like it.” He twisted around and said, “Nikos, drop the second harness.” Then, looking back at Zoe, said, “We’ll get you up with that.”
She nodded, then looked down past the crevice, giving a pained smile. “I found the cave.”
“You did at that.” He caught the harness that Dimitris tossed down, then helped Zoe into it. Nikos and Dimitris lifted her to the top.