"I can't believe those guys," I muttered. "I can't fucking believe I'm here, in the dark, alone in a cave, like a bear."
They hadn't left me behind, so much as I had stomped off in annoyance, because the guy *I* was supposed to be on a date with seemed more into the cute friend-of-a-friend his friend had invited. And I was frustrated an annoyed, because I'd allowed my roommates to talk me into even going on a group date in the first place.
I decided to go back to the car. The cave wasn't a super well-known one; it wasn't even a tourist trap. But there was still a path worn in the dirt, and a signpost at the back of the cave mouth with a little historical note and a map of the known safe routes.
I was hurrying down the narrow path. I could see it getting brighter as I got close to the mouth of the cave, and I walked faster, until I was practically jogging-I tripped and fell and barely caught myself.
Swearing, I looked down and saw one of my boots was untied. So I kind of tiptoed around for a little bit before finding an area where i could sit to fix it.
That turned out to be a bad idea. Hiking leggings be damned, because the stupid things split from my crotch all the way up my ass!
I stood back up, feeling like something out of Bridget Jones was unfortunately happening to me in real life-and then I turned around twice, tripped over my shoelace again, an fell-again.
This time though, I fell backwards over the rock I'd been meaning to sit on. And afterwards I rolled for kind of a long time-long enough to panic that I was going to end up dead in a crevasse-but then I hit another wall with a bump that knocked the wind out of me, and I was just glad not to be dead.
I sat up as soon as I could breathe right again. If I looked up, I could see, just up the incline, a sliver of light from outside; I guess I'd been closer to the mouth of the cave than I'd thought. It didn't even look like that hard of a climb; the incline was easy, and there were no sharp rocks, but handholds everywhere. It looked like it had been smoothed by dripping rain, over a long, long time, leaving divots here and there.
I was glad I'd worn a down vest, and was just congratulating myself when something dripped on me.
I didn't scream-but only because you know you're not supposed to scream in caves. Not in real life. I figured it would scare the bats or make the stalactites fall off because of the vibrations or whatever.
Anyway. I didn't scream. I did grab my cellphone and turn the flashlight on, an aim it at the ceiling in time to see the first slime drop down on me.
They were about the size of an exercise ball, big and squishy and round or ovoid; they were a shimmery dark gray color.
I knew they couldn't actually dissolve human flesh or bones, and that all that stuff about them eating the flesh off spelunkers was a myth, but that didn't make me feel better-i also knew they were attracted to salt, and would sometimes accidentally suffocate people just trying to get the salt in the sweat off their faces. It would be too embarrassing to get suffocated to death by some kind of pseudo-plant-fungus-thing that didn't even have a brain, I thought-but it would be just my luck. I was having the shitty day to end all shitty days.
The slime had landed on my thighs and was kind of wobbling there. It felt a little bit like having a lapful of lukewarm gelatin, slightly jiggly.
"Okay, big fella," I said, pushing at it gently. "You gotta get off me. These leggings were expensive and I have to be able to return them. No stains!"
Of course the slime didn't respond, because a) they aren't animals and b) they aren't sentient, so it just kind of...rolled off my legs. It flopped to the ground and bounced a little.
I giggled, because it was cute and a little funny. I thought a sharp rock was going to fall and kill me and I got a harmless, slightly annoying jelly-plant instead.
It rolled a little ways off, bumped into a rock, and seemed to pool there, like melted taffy or something.
"Welp, bye little dude," I said. "Um. You...be...safe? I don't know, do people still eat you guys? Does any animal eat you?"
The slime did not move or answer.