Three Paths

"What are these?" I shone my flashlight at the moving lights and took a closer look.

Under the light, I saw a bunch of translucent-looking worms, wriggling and twisting.

These must be glowworms.

They had their network of silk threads hanging vertically, trapping prey attracted by their bioluminescent light.

"We must get across the water. I presume everyone can swim?" Amy Lee asked as she peered across the body of water.

I nodded, and so did everyone else.

"One of us must first swim across, holding one end of the rope.

"Then we can tie both ends of the rope, one higher than the other, onto the rock formations.

"With that done, we can try to zip line our backpacks over."

Amy Lee laid out her plan, with Sea Snake Fang nodding approvingly beside her.

I volunteered to go first.

When I was young, during school, I'd always placed first in swimming competitions.

So, I was more than confident in handling the swim across.

"Bobby, shine the way for me," I said, passing my flashlight to him. I tied the end of the rope to my waist, then plunged into the water.

The still, dark water was freezing cold.

Feeling my muscles beginning to tense from the cold, I started swimming to get my blood circulating and warm myself up.

The dead water now splashed as I began swimming.

I wasn't wrong about my swimming skills; I still had it in me.

Very soon, I was halfway across.

I started to feel something brushing my legs.

Initially, I thought it might be some plant or something.

But then I realized there was no sunlight in the cave; no plants would survive.

It couldn't have been plants; it must have been something else.

I looked into the water, all dark and eerie.

A huge mouth suddenly came at me.

I startled and drank a mouthful of water.

It was a huge fish, white-colored, with no eyes.

I pulled out my survival knife and stabbed the top of its head.

It tried to swim away due to the pain.

I got pulled along but didn't want to let go.

The team, sensing the sudden force pulling me, grabbed the rope and tried to pull me back.

With the tug, I was able to pull my survival knife out of the fish's head.

I swam to the surface, took a few deep breaths, and shouted at Bobby, "I need the flashlight."

Bobby let go of the rope, picked up the flashlight he had dropped, and shined it my way.

I then submerged and waited for it to strike again.

With the now dim flashlight shining through, I could see it coming, just barely.

This time I was ready for the damn thing.

When it got close, I went into a stabbing frenzy.

Very soon, it stopped moving, slowly sinking into the abyss below.

I emerged again, gave an "OK" signal, and continued swimming.

When I reached the other side of the water,

I tied the rope to a stone stilt protruding from the ground.

The backpacks went across with the carabiner smoothly.

Some heavier ones got stuck halfway; we just had to swim and drag them along.

After all the backpacks were successfully brought across, the last person untied the rope and swam over.

We then kept the rope to be used later, whenever needed.

After all the exhaustion, we lit a fire with solid fuel to warm and try to dry ourselves.

It was also a good time to hydrate ourselves with some water.

"How big was the fish?" Bobby asked, curious to know.

"Around two meters," I replied.

He stretched out his arms, trying to gauge how big it was. "Really? There's nothing to eat here. How could it get so big?"

"I don't know, maybe from eating the bats?"

I made a blind guess, but who knows, I might have been right.

When everyone felt better, we continued our way into the cave.

Then the cave narrowed again.

Soon we came up to a junction with three paths.

We shined our flashlights into each of the paths.

The paths were far deeper than our flashlights could shine through.

"We might have to separate into three groups.

"Our flashlights, water, and food might not last if we went through these three paths one by one."

Amy Lee briefed us on what she thought and let the team decide on what we should do.

"I concur; that is the same thing I would say." Sea Snake Fang once again was pleased with Amy Lee's read of the situation and decision.

"How do we inform the others that we are on the correct path?" I asked.

"Good question. We will have to backtrack and meet here after an hour," Amy Lee replied.

"So how should we group?" Firecracker Tan asked.

Good question.

How best to group and ensure the highest survival chances for every group?

We were at odd numbers now, so one of the paths would have someone going alone.

I thought about it and said, "I can go alone. Bobby, you can go with Firecracker Tan or Sea Snake Fang."

This was the best I could think of.

Firecracker Tan had his dynamite.

Either Amy Lee or Sea Snake Fang just had to pass me their pistol; then it would be the best scenario.

"No, Sam, I need to protect you, buddy," Bobby protested.

I shot a stare at Bobby, shook my head, and said, "You will be much safer with Firecracker Tan. He is experienced, and with his dynamite, you are much safer with him."

Even though I was glad that he wanted to be there for me, my rational side convinced me I was right.

Try to keep everyone safe, as best as I could.

So, it was decided: Bobby with Firecracker Tan, Amy Lee with Sea Snake Fang.

I would go alone with the pistol from Sea Snake Fang.

With that, I chose the leftmost path and went into it.

After walking for a few hundred meters, the path opened up.

Bingo!

There were some skeletons lying around.

The clothes had already decomposed.

What was left now were their rifles and emblems.

I picked up one emblem and shone light on it. It was squarish with Chinese characters inscribed: '蘭芳大统制共和國' (Lan Fang Republic).