The Cave Chapter 2

The Cave Chapter 2

 

 

Phil Lam had just entered the cave when the earthquake struck. He was an edaphologist specializing in agrology by training and trade, but a true geologist specializing in geomorphology, by heart. He loved to study caves and natural holes in the ground and whenever he had any free time he did just that. Despite the science that had been crammed into his brain through years of education, primarily in Canada, he often had a romantic attitude toward all things, living and non-living, on the planet. He didn’t just see igneous erosion when looking at stalagmites, but instead a wondrous and almost magical formation of rock.

 

He had always had an interest in rocks rather than biological things and had decided at a very young age to become a geologist, but his father disapproved. He had to convince his father he could earn a living in at least edaphology, the study of how soil interacts with living things, just to be allowed to study an earth science. He now worked for a huge biotechnology company, making his father content, and freeing up his personal time to get back to his true interest of geomorphology, the study of the creation of features due to physical, chemical, and biological processes.

 

A few moments before the ceiling crashed down, Phil had been observing it as he came through entrance to the cave. He couldn’t tell for sure, but assumed that the structure had been weakened significantly. Strewn about the landscape outside were rock formations that had been removed from the cave. Phil had not studied this particular cave, but did know that many formations from other caves in China had been removed and taken elsewhere. It looked unnatural to him. Phil preferred to leave the cave in the cave and not exploit it outside.

 

It was the way of things in his country, he supposed. After the failure of The Great Leap Forward, the bizarre turnout of The Cultural Revolution, and the millions upon millions of Chinese that died during those half-thought-out and idiotic ideas of Mao, the country was still behind the rest of the world. The government, in its lust for power and world domination paid little attention to things like proper excavation techniques or preserving natural areas.

 

This had been proven to him when he was approached by government officials shortly after landing a job at a large American company. The company was doing research in the development and sustainability of higher yielding crops. That was why he was hired, to work alongside biological engineers with his understanding of the soil. It was an American company, so it paid well for the scientists it hired. The company opted to work in China primarily because of lenient laws regarding their experimentation on living things, even if only plants. With enough money, one could do almost anything in China. On the other hand, China had its own ideas for self advancement, and as much as they feigned to not endorse it, they were fond of stealing other people’s knowledge, technology, and even rights in some cases, and using it for the betterment of themselves.

 

Phil had agreed to help the government, but in truth was hoping to be transferred outside of China and avoid dealing with his government altogether. He had no ties to this place, just blood and culture, but what were they, without knowledge, a true and free knowledge? He couldn’t refuse to help them as most people who did that were no longer heard from again.

 

He heard a loud cracking sound, as if the world’s biggest piece of concrete was suddenly and forcefully snapped in two

 

Phil happened to glance behind him as the earth shook and rocks, great and small, giant boulders and tiny granules of stone, immediately issued forth from overhead and came crashing down. As it was much brighter outside the cave, he noticed two silhouettes coming in from the sunlight. He saw a boulder the size of a small car crush a little girl and another, the size of a watermelon land on the head of the elderly woman walking beside her. Then, there was complete darkness for a moment as the mouth of the cave was completely filled with rubble.

 

It took him about three seconds, but he realized that he needed to get deeper inside the cave to be safer, so he ran forward quickly and tripped over a former piece of the cave’s ceiling as it seemed as though it was almost complete darkness ahead. He was immediately back on his feet and running again when his eyes started adjusting to the minimal, colorful lighting inside the cave.

 

He wasn’t quite fast enough.

 

 

*****

 

 

The walkway had turned abruptly to the right at the top of the stairway. The cave continued on for a couple more meters. Vincent had noticed it was full of loose rubble as he turned right. He had scouted ahead a little to see daylight in the distance, the literal light at the end of the tunnel, maybe five hundred meters or so, before he came back to inform Tommy that the exit was near.

 

When the earth cracked like thunder, all the loose rocks immediately started pouring down the stairway, but very little entered the final section of the cave with him where the walkway leveled off, as the law of gravity came into effect all the rubble followed the path of least resistance, downward…directly toward those still coming up the concrete stairs.

“Tommy!” Vincent yelled. The crashing of stone meeting stone was deafening in the close quarters and Vincent knew no one could hear him. Although he yelled as loudly as he possibly could, he couldn’t even hear himself.

 

He yelled Tommy’s name again, several moments later, and could hear himself. He was about to yell again when he inhaled too much dust that sent him into a coughing fit. He made his way farther from the cave-in to avoid breathing in any more particles of earth, coughing all the while.

 

The lighting in this area of the cave, basically a man-made exit, was white. Those who had designed the lighting in the cave probably decided that those viewing it had probably had enough of the colored lights, and there were no natural formations here to illuminate with unusual lighting.

 

As he brought his coughing fit under control, away from the area of collapse, as the sound of rocks flowing like water ceased, as the dust began to settle and give him more visibility, he realized that if Tommy was still alive, and it didn’t seem likely, he was completely cut off from the exit.

 

Vincent turned around to judge the distance to his own exit and realized that there was no light at the end of the tunnel any more. It seemed that he too was cut off from any exit.

 

 

*****

 

 

Guo Lanyu was enjoying himself. His son invited him to the cave and he always enjoyed spending time with his son and his son’s family. His eldest granddaughter wasn’t here today, as she was off planning for her wedding. Guo certainly felt his age that day. He was told that he could only see the “dry” part of the cave, as it was relatively flat and easier for an older person to navigate successfully, too much climbing and descending in the “wet” part of the cave for a man his age. That was fine with him. This part was beautiful enough with the colored lights and wonderful structures. He was winded walking the short distance to the back section of the “dry” part.

 

As he reached the end, he saw the tour guide sitting down on a stone bench. He decided to sit down beside her. He needed a little breather.

 

In his eighty-seven years he had seen much. He was a young man during the Great Leap Forward, and he had seen many people die, including two of his own children. Most of the deaths during the Cultural Revolution occurred in the cities, not rural areas, and he only was able to witness all the brainwashed and ignorant teenagers, some of whom had taken part in the murder and torture of what they and Mao perceived to be the bourgeois elements of society, come to the countryside to attempt to farm, but mostly die. No, the Great Leap Forward was much worse in Guo’s mind.

 

He still remembered the forced communes that they were all made to live in, and then the soldiers destroying his own home. The communes were not too bad at first. They were all told that there would be no more money in use. They would work for points and points could be redeemed for favors or good things. He and his three children were forced to live in a tent that could barely accommodate them. It seemed okay at first, as he could still work the land, the one thing he was good at, the one thing he loved, but that changed too.

 

The food in the canteens was free at first, but after a few months that changed. They were also told that they would no longer farm in this commune, but make steel in small, inferior furnaces. No one in his village, or later his commune, knew how to make steel. The surrounding forests were completely decimated to produce the wood that was to burn hot enough to make steel. No one knew what they were doing, but it was easy to cut down trees, when he was no longer allowed to farm. He started receiving less points, but that wasn’t the only problem, as soon after meals at the canteens began to cost an increasing number of points. Soon there were three families living in the tent, and there was not enough room for them all to sleep at one time. When they tried to add tarps and plastic bags to increase their living space they were told that all work must be in making steel only. Often the adults stayed awake or slept outside so that the children could sleep, for they were forced to work as well.

 

By 1960 all Guo could do was look at the land that he used to farm, the land that used to have trees, but at that point, as far as he could see, there was nothing growing at all, but the fires continued to burn. The people that were sent to teach them how to make steel in what was really only a furnace slightly better than a campfire, didn’t seem to know what they were doing either. All steel produced was inferior and brittle, and the local government took to lying to the national government, often claiming that the steel produced was of good quality and in excess of five times the real amount.

 

Guo remembered clearly when his neighbor, Yang Han, tried to escape. He was captured, and to make an example of him, was shot in the head in front of the entire commune. His wife refused to eat or speak after that and she soon joined him in death. The commune tried their best to look after his children, but all were starving, as one family had to work all day to produce enough points for food that would have, in the past, been equivalent for one meal for one person. Despite the rhetoric they were fed about community and strength and everyone taking care of everyone else for a stronger brighter future, people still looked after their own children first. Soon, Han’s children died, as there was nothing to be done when everyone was just trying to stay alive.

 

Then, other children started dying. Guo’s own daughter got sick, Guo and his wife refused to eat, saving their own rations for their daughter, but she soon stopped eating, yet she would drink water and it took her over a week to waste away and die. When one of his sons got sick and refused to eat, Guo strangled him in his sleep so as not to watch him waste away and die of hunger.

 

All the while, the fires burned, the scrap metal was turned into useless steel, and blackness and soot coated everything. When it rained and was cold, the steel produced couldn’t even rightly be called steel, but still they were forced to work. Everything turned black, the soot was everywhere and the only good thing about the rain was that it made him feel partially clean, even if it was cold. However, the soot mixed with the water and mud creating a blackness as far as one could see.

 

They were forced to stop working for several hours once a week to listen to a lecture on the benefits of communism. It was the way of the future. Russia was also attempting a technological leap forward. Guo and his commune were told that within fifteen years Russia would overtake the US economically and China would overtake the UK in the same amount of time. Guo didn’t see that happening when no one had anything to eat. Tales of people starving in all the cities reached his ears, and he believed that. That was one thing he could believe.

 

Some members of the commune began secretly planting their own crops. At first they were punished, publicly flogged and had their points taken away. Later, they were mostly left alone. However, once a secret garden was discovered, the soldiers and leaders usually confiscated all the food for themselves. Guo took to planting little clusters in various places, tending them at night while the camp slept. Most of them were found and taken, but Guo’s meticulous nature of multiple gardens is what kept him alive. By 1961 no food was being brought to the commune anymore and the leaders were forced to allow some of the people to grow crops. Still, most of the crops were taken elsewhere or eaten by others. The adults and remaining children started dying.

 

That was the worst part of it. Out of the 30,000 people who initially comprised the commune, only 437 were alive in 1962, when the government left, and they were allowed to start farming again. They couldn’t eat overnight, and even though they began planting crops in earnest, over another 200 died of starvation. In 1963 205 humans were left out of the original 30,000. Guo later read that 18 million people died during that time. He was never allowed to read about other estimates of 55.6 million.

 

China was a different place in his old age. He knew those that shared his culture, under correct guidance, could do it. It seemed China was in an economically stable state that day as he came near the end of the “dry” section of the cave. This gave Guo some solace. However, he was always a little suspicious of things, as he had seen too much death in his life. He was happy that things seemed well, but always ready for some unforeseen misfortune to enter his life.

 

He was sitting on a bench in a little alcove at the anterior section of that portion of the cave when the cave-in occurred. One moment he was smiling at his son and grandchildren, all part of the tour group, the next moment they were buried under an immense amount of rubble, and then there was complete darkness as his lungs began to fill up with dust and miniscule elements of debris. Guo just watched in horror as his entire lineage, save his eldest granddaughter, was wiped out of existence.