David woke up in a damp cave, his surroundings only illuminated by the soft glow of fungus and moss. Stalactites hung down around him. He didn't know where he was or how long he had been there. As he stood up, he could feel the warm damp air on his skin. The sound of runoff dripping from stalactites, the faint skitters of insects disturbed by his movement. He felt disoriented and confused but knew that he must find out what had happened. The last thing he remembered was his vision going blurry in his house and hitting his head after taking one of the caffeine supplements given to him by Kile. Now he was in a damp cave with only a T-shirt and shorts. He could feel the damp stone beneath his feet.
'Is this a dream, did I lose consciousness? Where am I? How did I get here?'
The questions flooded his mind like a tide.
'What should he do? Where should he go? How can I get help? Is there a way out? Which way should I go? Should I stay here and hope someone rescues me?'
Through all the turmoil he remembered his past. Back a few years ago he had went exploring a cave system with a few of his coworkers. One thing he learned is he should always keep moving and mark a trail so he could find his way back. David did a quick once over of himself to make sure he had no wounds and to see what tools or supplies he had with him. In his pockets he found 3 sticks of gum, a empty glue bottle, 2 sanding sticks, an exact-o knife cover, and on his belt, his trusty knife from when he was still in school.
David began to look around, glowing moss clung to the walls and floor, millipedes, centipedes, beetles, ants, lizards, and tiny bats moved around him. A small trail of ants came and went from a small crack in the rock to his right. A lizard slowly stalked a pair of beetles. Above him four small bats hung down from the ceiling.
David slowly stood and approached the only source of illumination he could find.
'What is this stuff? It looks useful but it could be deadly. I'll cut a small piece and see what happens. I'm already stuck in this place, what's the worst that could happen.'
David took his knife and cut a piece of glowing moss to see what would happen. The glowing moss fell off the wall and onto the stony ground. David decided to pick it up hoping that it wouldn't be toxic or affect him. The moss felt cold and mushy in his hand, but the glow remained.
'I can cut up a bunch of this and use it as a light source and markers so I can find my way back if needed.'
David started down one of the many paths he found. As he went along, he placed small clumps of the glowing moss as markers for when he needed to head back for more. After what felt like hours and miles down 5 different paths, he found a tunnel that headed upwards. As he went the air grew warmer and drier. He came across a boulder covered in some sort of brown fungus. He had no idea what it was and if it would be poisonous. His only hope was to try and see what happened. He took some of his sweat and flicked it towards the fungus. Steam started to rise from the fungus, and it seemed to boil and burst. The spores were released from the fungus and made contact with a small 6-legged beetle. The beetle started to writhe in pain before its outer shell started to cave in on itself. David started to sprint down the path he had come, knowing that if the fungus had that reaction to his sweat he would die if he inhaled the spores.
Hours later he would return, using his shirt, he fashioned into a mask for himself as he slowly trudged his way back towards the fungus. Using the moss as a light source he returned. Seeing that the fungus spores had settled on the ground he realized the only way through was to burst the fungus and wait for all the spores to settle before continuing on the path. He went from stalactite to stalactite collecting the small amounts of water and moister he could into the empty glue bottle. Once he had filled the glue bottle halfway, he returned to the fungus and flung the water at it before running to not get caught in the spore burst. For hours he repeated this process until there was a big enough path for him over the boulder. Once to the top of the boulder the path dropped again. Not knowing how far down it was he threw a small clump of moss over the edge, counting the second till it hit solid ground.
"1 second....3 seconds....5 seconds!!!"
The moss hit the floor of the tunnel bellow him. He knew he wouldn't be able to jump down the pit without hurting himself he would need to climb down. But as he looked over the side along the way down, he noticed more clumps of the same toxic fungus jutting out from the rock in blotchy patches.
Realizing in order to safely descend, he would need to continue his strategy of collecting water and bursting the fungus.
Time passed, David no longer knew how long he had been stuck in this cave system. He would collect water runoff from the stalactites to drink and use against the fungus. He found centipedes and beetles to eat from the cave walls and a bioluminescent spider with 16 legs the size of a human hand that feed on the moss and fungus. He would go on to name these spider "cave glowers".
David started to become gaunt and wiry, a beard started to form, and his hair grew long and unkempt. He started marking what he thought were the days with the bioluminescent blood of insects he would hunt. Drawing pictures of his family and friends and of his old life before being trapped in this living hell of a cave. He became obsessed with escaping, of finding a way out, of not dying in this cave.
Over time he made it further and further through the tunnel system, learning how the different plants, fungus, moss, insects and animals acted and what to do when he encountered them.
3 weeks by his own marking, he had been in the cave when he finally came across what he could only describe as an oasis. A large underground aquafer with thousands of insects living and feeding around it. He would call this place his new home at least the thought so.
2 days after finding the oasis disaster would strike. A massive cave glower at least 3 times the size of David entered the oasis accompanied by hundreds of its young. Hiding in the far corner of the oasis where he had made his makeshift home out of moss and lose rock. David would realize the cave glowers he had been hunting were merely the infants and now their parent was here to find out who had been killing its children.
Trying to be as stealthy as he possibly could, David stuck to far reaches of the oasis, avoiding the patches of glowing moss and any old shells of insects he had eaten to avoid making noise. He thought he was being stealthy, but the mother cave glower had long spotted him and was observing him with curiosity.
As David crept past the remains of an infant cave glower its mother became enraged and let out hiss and whistle before charging towards David.
David seeing the massive cave glower rushing towards him dashed with all his might towards the tunnel he had spent weeks clearing.
"NO! I don't want to die like this; I'm not your food; In the miles of tunnels why did you have to come after me. Look at me I'm all skin and bones; I probably don't even taste that good!!"
David yelled as he ran, using the stalactites and stalagmites to try and slow down the mother but she was gaining on him.
Dodging to the left as the mother pounced and smashed through a stalagetite. David continued sprinting, the chittering and clicking of the mother grew louder as it reoriented itself at him.
Knowing he couldnt outrun it forever David decided the only thing he could do was fight and hopefully put up enough of a challenge were the mother would think he wasnt worth the effort.
He sprinted towards a rock outcropping hoping she would pounce again and at the last second he could dodge. But the mother was far smarter than David thought. She went around the rocks by running along the far wall, striking out with one of her legs, slicing into David's pantleg cutting his skin and leaving a burning sensation in his calf.
David's adrenalin spiked as he felt another sharp pain along his ear. The mother's leg had missed his head barely. Using his monentum he rolled to the left avoiding the mother as it crashed into the floor. Bringing his knife up as he slashed at the nearest leg.
He felt it as the blade broke skin tearing through fibers and tiny nerves. He quickly pulled the blade back and continued to run; the mother let out a hiss of pain as blade was torn from her leg.
David contiuned to sprint until he eventally reached the cliff he had spent days clearing.
He frantically started climbing hoping that if he made it to the top, he could use the high ground and his knife to deter the mother spider.
As he climbed, he could hear and feel the mother spider getting closer, the burning in his calf grew and grew as if on fire. The adrenaline pumping through his veins kept him going but he knew he must have been bleeding from a dozen small wounds. He could feel the rock biting into his skin as he frantically climbed. Hand over hand, inch by inch he climbed, terrified as he gave every ounce of energy and strength he had to get as far from the mother as he could.
He had made it ten feet up the cliff when the mother's leg pierced his arm. She had been following, watching, enjoying how David struggled. But now she had grown bored. With a sickening crunch and tear, David's arm was ripped open. He fell screaming down the cliff, knowing the fate that awaited him. He would be torn apart, eaten alive at worst, put out of his misery quickly at best.
He hit the ground with a thud; the wind knocked from his lungs and his ripped apart arm laying at a weird angle. He struggled to rise, begging in his mind to let his death be quick and as painless as possible. The mother on the other hand had different plans for him. He would be used as food for her young. She slowly stalked her way back down the side of the cliff, coming to a stop in front of where David lay. As he started to rise, she started to circle, knowing he possessed some sort of instrument or device that could hurt her. She wished to finish him off so her young could feed but dared not be hasty for one of her legs had already felt his retaliation.
"Come on already just do it, why do you keep toying with me! What is this - revenge for me eating your kids? Well, I'm not going to apologies, it's how the world works, I was hungry, and I needed to eat something."
The mother stopped circling standing in front of the path David had just run. It hissed and clicked as if communicating, but David couldn't understand. All he knew was that he would die if he didn't do anything. All he had was a glue bottle filled with water and a knife, it would be stupid to try a stick of gum or a sanding stick to fight a monster.
His eyes darted around the area searching hoping for anything that might be useful. He noticed the cut he had made on the mother's leg and a patch of fungus on the far side of the tunnel. He started coming up with a plan. If he could just get the mother near the fungus and cause it to rupture, he might just be able to win.
The only issue now was how would he make the plan happen. The mother cave glower had him cornered and wounded. His stamina was at its wits end and his left arm was useless. Every time he would step either left or right the mother would do the same keeping him cornered against the cliff face.
What could he do?
'Should I just make a run for it and hope I make it? No, that won't work it's too fast and my calf is injured. I need some sort of distraction'
His thoughts were all over the place, he decided if that he was going to die, he would do so on his terms. Taking a stick of gum from his pocket, he unfolded it and started chewing. The familiar sensation of the chewing gum brought about a wave of calm he hadn't expected. Removing his bloodied and torn shirt, he folded it up and tied it around his head forming the same mask he had made for himself after his first encounter with the fungus. He crumpled up the gum wrapping into a ball and threw it towards the left side of the mother cave glower. Not knowing what was being hurtled towards her the mother instinctually moved to dodge. Using this opening, David started sprinting towards the fungus. Still in disbelief that the wrapper had distracted the mother for even a second put David in a sense of euphoria. Enraged and fed up with this prey's antics the mother charged ready to finish David off. The sharp tips of her front four legs stabbed down towards David, aiming for the killing blow.
Knowing he was about to die David did the unthinkable he dove into the fungus, letting his sweat touch and start a reaction. He felt his skin burn as the spores from the fungus met the sweat on his skin. He could feel it burning and eating away at his skin. Using his knife, he cut into the fungus, watching a spores ruptured from them engulfing both himself and the mother cave glower.
Using the spore clouds to obscure both his and the mother's vision, he started hacking at the mother's legs hoping to wound her enough to survive the encounter. His blade bit deep into her tough skin, getting stuck before it could cause any major damage, but the desired effect happened. The mother started to panic, it was being attacked, and the spores were pouring into the wounds causing pain. Having lived and grown up in these tunnels she knew that the spores were deadly when large amounts were inhaled. She started retreating, trying to escape the spore cloud as quickly as possible.
David's wounds were being cauterized from the burns the fungus caused when making contact with his blood and sweat. Forcing himself to stay conscious despite the pain, he made his way from the cloud of spores. His body was now covered is chemical burns from where the spores had met sweat and blood, but he was alive, barely.
He could see the mother cave glower stumbling away clearly in pain. The spores had gotten into her airways and were burning them. David wanted to flee, to find somewhere to rest but he knew if the mother survived it would come back to hunt him again. He slowly opened the water filled glue bottle preparing to pour it into the mother's mouth if he got the chance. Dragging himself towards the struggling mother he readied himself. The mother struggling to breath and in pain saw David coming towards her with a small object in his hand. Seeing the creature that had caused her so much pain, she lunged at him, mouth opened wide ready to tear him apart. David tossed the glue bottle at the mother's mouth hoping it would cause the spores to once again burn, hopefully ruining the mother's lungs. The mother did not care even at the burning started once again inside her, all she wanted was this creature to die, for her offspring to feed on it remains.
Seeing the mother unaffected, David became terrified as it came charging at him. He was stabbed and dragged down the tunnel by the mother. He started lashing out with his knife desperate to get free. His back ripped and bled as he was dragged along the stone of the tunnel. He hit his head once... twice, the world blurred.
'Is this how I die? Why did this happen to me? At least I died fighting.' His thoughts ended as the world went black.