My Weeend of Terror

Chapt. 1

My name is Al, and my story starts in the last month of high school. I just turned 18 last month. I'm 6' 1" blond, and fairly athletic.My girlfriend Niki and I are getting ready to go on a two week field trip with our science club before graduation.She's an excellent student, dark hair, 5' 7" and gorgeous. We celebrated our 18th birthday together last weekend. My mom and dad gave us a coming of age party. We invited some friends over that had also turned 18 and had a great time horse playing in the pool. My mom and dad are pretty liberal so we were able to get away with quite a bit. Excluding, of course, taking a girl to the bedroom, or stripping off our suits. Drinking alcohol was also a no-no. Other than that we were pretty free to do what we wanted. Dad worked the barbecue, and we all filled up on steaks and burgers. We ate, danced and everyone had a great time. The party finally broke up about midnight, after the neighbors started calling about all the noise. I took Niki home and kissed her goodnight, telling her I'd pick her up in the morning and we'd go shopping for the gear we'd need for the trip this weekend.

Our club had decided that it would be exciting if our field trip was an exploration of the caves in the Cascades around the Spirit Lake Mountains, in the Mount St. Helens area. There have been some strange occurrences since the eruption in 1980. There had been a lot of destruction in the aftermath, and several caves had been gouged out by the lava flow. Now, twenty-eight years later, our club decided that investigating the place from top to bottom would help end some of the wilder superstitious talk.

We had a great time shopping. Niki kept trying to put things in our basket that we really didn't need, then when she'd go on to the next item I'd put the last one back. She was having such a great time picking things out she didn't notice till we were almost checked out that half of the things she'd chosen were missing. She gave a quizzical look, put her hands on her shapely hips and raised her eyebrows. She then looked at me, and with a small upward motion of the corners of her mouth said. "Well?" Of course pretending not to know what she was talking about. I just looked at her with this innocent, wide eyed, confused look and answered, "What?" Still, with a little uncertainty in her voice, not really knowing exactly what she had put in the basket.

"I'm sure I put more things then this into the basket."

I looked at the basket, then up to her with the same look as before.

" I guess not or it would still be there wouldn't it?

I could see she was catching on as her brows pulled down.

"Ya right! I guess the little store gremlin swiped them.and put them neatly back on the shelves."

Everyone in the checkout line got a big laugh out of it, including Niki. All in all we had a lot of fun on our first shopping trip together.

After the club had decided to explore the Mount St. Helens caves, a couple of my friends and I had driven up there to find and photograph some of the more interesting ones. Niki and I arrived Friday evening. The rest of the club members were already there waiting for us. We unloaded our sleeping gear and helped carry the rest of the equipment that the others brought. We set up our camp site near the entrance to the cave we had all decided on. It was out of the way and more secluded then the others. Soon everything was finished and a campfire was started for dinner. After we finished dinner we all sat around and discussed what the plan would be for safely descending into the cave. We decided to pair up and each couple would have a radio in case they got separated from the group. Each couple would also carry a rope, flash lights, a first aid kit, and enough water and dehydrated food for two people for several days. Everyone had brought along some warm clothes. Even though it was still the middle of summer, the temperature, especially deep underground, would drop considerably. Several of us had brought cameras. We decided to pair off so that each couple had one. I had brought mine so Niki and I were able to stay together. After that we talked about what we might find.

It was getting late, so we all decided to turn in, and get an early start in the morning. Niki and I had decided earlier, as we were getting our things together to go, that we would share a tent when we got there. Since neither of us had ever had sex before, the thought of us sleeping together was very arousing. I wondered if she was thinking about it too, and if so, if it affected her like it did me. We zipped our bags together and used our body heat to keep warm. Niki snuggled up next to me, with her head on my shoulder. We talked about tomorrow and the possibility of finding something interesting. Then we talked about the chance of being able to take some great pictures to put on our Webshots site. We kissed goodnight, and settled in. I lie there wondering if we would find evidence of strange occurrences.

We all started out early the next morning. This was to be Niki's and my first cave exploration. I was pretty excited, and I could tell that Niki was too by the way she kept squeezing my arm. The group traveled quite a ways in before we came to our first branch.

The cave was what you might expect. The farther in we got the cooler it became. The ground was angling at a slight downward slope, and the walls were becoming damp. We were reminded to notch the rock wall at each branch to mark the exit route. The group split up at the first branch. Another couple joined us, and the rest continued on. The tunnel we chose continued to slope downwards, and the temperature started dropping rapidly. About an hour later we came upon our second branch. We split here from the other couple. We had been traveling without a break. The tunnel continued to be large enough to walk upright in, though it was getting more and more damp. Not knowing how much farther this passage continued we decided to rest here and eat, then return to the camp site.

That evening after dinner there was a big discussion on whether or not it had been a wise decision to split our group at the second branch, and rejoin again later on at a set time for heading back to camp. The other group had also encountered a second branch, but had decided not to split up. They had continued on until they came upon a third split. There they stopped and returned to camp. Some of the members were a little concerned about the splitting up of the groups, and worried that we'd get too scattered. After going over all the pros and cons on the safety of it, the club leader impressed upon everyone that if we were going to split up again, he thought it would be alright. It was important though, that each couple keep in constant communication with the others over the radios, especially if the path branched again. Then it would be imperative that the direction that is chosen was announced over the radio and clearly marked. A vote was then taken, and the vote to split up at the branches won out.

Niki and I called it a night, and went to our tent. We decided to sleep without our clothes that night. Even though it wouldn't be as safe, it was definitely more comfortable. So we undressed down to our underwear, and snuggled up together in the sleeping bag. This was our first time sleeping together this way, and we were a little nervous at first. We talked for awhile, and I could feel her body gradually relaxing against me. We kissed goodnight. When we felt it turning passionate we decided we'd better get to sleep, before we got carried away, and were up all night. Morning came all to quickly, as we woke up hearing the rest of the club already up and about. Niki got up and dressed. I noticed right away that she sure looked sexy in the morning in only her panties and bra, and that's as descriptive as I'm going to get here. Sorry. I felt myself becoming aroused and starting to harden. Luckily, before I could suggest that she come back to bed, she went out to clean up. I got up and dressed and got our things together for the new day.

We all ate breakfast and the same couples were assigned to each group. We also made sure that each couple had a working radio. We reached the cave in good spirits, and headed down to the first tunnel split. When we reached it we went over the safety plans again, rechecked our equipment, and headed down the tunnel we'd taken before. The other group headed down theirs. We soon reached the second branch and said good luck to the other couple in our group as we split up. The branch we took angled down in a sweeping curve. We headed on down, knowing we only had three more hours to explore as much of this area as we could before heading back to the split at the agreed upon time. The deeper we went the cooler it got. Eventually we heard the sound of water and noticed that the tunnel was getting quite wet and the ground was slippery. We turned a sharply descending curve in the path, and came upon an ever increasing flow of water along one side. Our path was steadily widening, probably the result of the flow of the water on the stone. Walking on downward, we entered a fairly large open cavern like area.

The stalactite formations suspended from the ceiling, and the stalagmites rising from the ground were beautiful. They were streaked with the different shades of orange, reds, and yellows of the minerals from the earth above and shades of green on the stalagmites from the growth of lichen and moss. We stood gazing at the beauty of the open area. The differing colors of the walls and formations were breathtaking. I fished out our camera and started taking pictures of it all. The water flow we'd been following emptied into a large lake then continued on down through a small opening at the far end of the cavern. I took several pictures of that as well. I stepped back as far as I could and took a panoramic picture of as much of the entire cavern as I could get. The view was beyound description.

We split up and started exploring the area. Niki was searching a small alcove at the back of the cavern, when I heard her cry out. I hurried over to her. She was just standing there looking into the area she'd been checking. I shone my light in and saw what had startled her. There was a pile of bones, and after a closer inspection, I found that they were not only animal bones, but also human bones. I'm not an expert, but thinking back to the pictures and the different types and shapes of human skulls in my biology classes, some were more primitive then others. The way the bones were broken and some of the skulls crushed, whatever had put them there had to be a very large animal, or one with very strong jaws. We also found some unidentifiable prints leading in and out of the lake. I took pictures of the bones before we disturbed them and of the prints I had found by the edge of the lake. Niki took some castings of them, while I started to gather up as many different samples as I could. By the time I'd gotten all the bones together, and the castings were dry, it was getting near time to return to the others. We gathered up all our samples and hurried back up the passageway, anxious to show the group what we'd found.

We met the other couple waiting for us at the branch. We told them what we had discovered, and showed them some of the samples. They told us that they had also taken some castings of some strange footprints, but had found no evidence of any bones. Excitedly we hurried on, anxious to show the rest of the group our find. After we all got back to the campsite, we examined all of the samples that the groups had brought back. We discovered that whatever had made the prints in our cavern had roamed throughout the entire cave. Each group had found signs of our mysterious animal. It seemed, though, that he only fed in the cavern that we were in. Probably because of the access to the lake, or maybe thats where it entered the cave. No one in the group could identify the type of animal that made the prints. One member had brought a book of known animal prints, but ours didn't match any of them.

We recorded and packed away all the specimens, cleaned up, and had dinner. By then it was getting pretty late so we called it a night. Niki and I headed for our tent. We laid there talking about the discoveries we'd made that day, and just enjoyed lying close together, snuggling. Niki had her head on my shoulder, her leg draped across mine. I was thinking of how nice that felt as I driftted off to sleep. The next morning came too soon, as we again awoke to the sounds of the rest of the club members outside.

Today would be the last day of our field trip, so we were kind of anxious to get started. We still had a lot of the cave that was unexplored. I think that's where our troubles first started. We became too anxious and forgot the rule of always checking our direction, the way we got there, and most important, the path in front of us. We got ready and joined the rest of the group outside. After a short breakfast we were ready to descend. Niki and I hurried down the path leading to the cavern we'd been exploring. Then fate took a hand in the outcome of our day. The last time going down there we hadn't noticed another path that branched off of ours. It was right after a large curve. This time though in our rush to get to the cavern and explore the rest of it, we inadvertently took that branch instead of the previously chosen one. After about a hundred yards of shallow descent, we came to another curve. Too late though, I thought to myself, "Where did this second curve come from?"

I started to tell Niki to wait a minute, when in the middle of the curve the path suddenly sloped abruptly downward. Caught unexpectedly, Niki slipped on the loose sand. I grabbed her jacket as she lost her balance and started sliding down the steep path. Her forward momentum pulled me off balance, and we were both sliding down this slope with nothing to grab onto. After about a dozen feet the path ended in a seven foot drop into another, smaller, cavern with a small pool of water at one end. We were both unhurt by the fall. Niki had landed on her pack which broke her fall and kept her from hitting her head. After we got our wind back and checked ourselves for injuries we set about looking for a way out.

After more than an hour of trying to find ways to get back up to the path we had come down so abuptly, and searching the walls of the cavern, we came up empty. We realized that help was not going to come soon, if at all. We decided to go over the area again in case we'd missed anything. Niki was searching along the edge of the pool, when she called me over. She had found some more foot prints, like those we had found in the other cavern, only these were heading in and out of the water. It seemed that whatever type of animal it was, lived here and reached the other cavern and his outside food supply, by swimming from one pond to the other. This also meant that it would be back, probably for the night. That left only two choices for us since there was no other way out. We could use our radios to reach the others and hope that they could get here before its original resident got back. The only other choice we had, hoping that the small lakes joined because of the footprints we'd descovered, was to swim from this lake to the one we'd been to yesterday. We both knew it was very risky but we were both very good swimmers having been on the school swim team together. We also knew that this choice would be our last resort.

I went over to check out our supplies while Niki continued to search out the cave. Everything was there, even the radio. I discovered a problem when I got the radio out of her pack and tried to call for help. It had gotten smashed when Niki had fallen. This suddenly reduced our choices of getting out. Not ready to make the obvious choice we sat down to try and figure out, calmly, what our odds were. We could stay here and wait for rescue. We had enough food, and the rest of the group would certainly find us, with time. The only problem was that the footprints indicated that the odds were very good that we were in an unknown carnivorous animals bedroom. We finally came to the conclusion that to stay here and wait for the rest to find us might take hours. Then, if they didn't arrive before the resident of this cavern did, we'd be trapped. Without some type of weapon we wouldn't have a chance. Reluctantly we decided that since we were both strong swimmers we'd try the lakes. We stripped down to our underwear and Niki wore my tee shirt, which covered her to just below her butt. We tied the rope around our waists to keep us together, wished each other luck, and dove in.

Chapt 2

My first contact with that cold underground water was a huge shock to my system. I only hoped that Niki could handle the extreme change to her body temperature. We swam deeper in the direction of where the water seemed to empty out of this cavern. We came upon the rock wall at the end of the lake and started following it around looking for the exit. My body was becoming numb from the cold temperature of the water. I could feel my movements slowing down as my blood thickened. I was also runnig out of air. We hadn't found the exit yet and feeling a tug on the rope I stopped looking. I turned around, and looked at Niki pointing toward the surface. We swam up heading for the shore. We climbed out onto the beach close to where we had entered. We were both shivering and gasping for air. After a few moments rest we used our clothing to dry off some. Niki decided to leave my tee-shirt on, as her panties and bra were almost transparent. We ate some chocolate energy bars from our supply packs to increase our blood sugar, then snuggled together hoping to raise our body temperatures. I know that sitting here cuddling with a near naked girl was sure raising mine, especially with us both being at our sexual peaks.

After awhile Niki turned around in my arms, gently kissed me, laid her head on my shoulder and said.

"As much as I'm enjoying this closeness in our present attire, and would love to continue it, I think we had better try and figure out another way of finding that exit before the present resident returns. I don't think he'd get the same enjoyment from my attire that I notice your getting."

I noticed that the last part of that was given with a slight smile. I grudgingly pulled my thoughts back to where they belonged. Gave a big exaggerated sigh, I kissed her on the forehead and said with a touch of hopefulness in my voice,

"Maybe we can pick this up at the lake when we get back. You know, same outfits. We could jump in the lake get all wet and then try to get warm snuggling under a blanket. We wouldn't even have to worry about some old monster interrupting us. Knocking my head off while I'm ogling you."

The only response this brought forth was a soft chuckle, another light kiss on the neck, and a very soft "we'll see." We reluctantly detached ourselves from each other and started throwing out different ideas, aware that time was rapidly getting away from us. Also the batteries in our camp light weren't going to last much longer without recharging. The thought of being down here in the dark when our friend got back really didn't appeal to us. Then Niki had an idea.

"Since our flashlights and camp light are waterproof. We could wrap one of them up in plastic, tie the end of the rope around it to keep the water out, then toss it into the flow of the lake and let it pull the light toward the opening. Then we could just follow the light out through the opening."

Her idea sounded like it might just work and was the best one we'd come up with. We got one of the flashlights and wrapped it up in a specimen bag then tied the rope to it and tossed it into the center of the lake. At first it started to sink before the current caught it and slowly started pulling it. When it reached the opening in the wall we tied the other end of the rope around us so that we'd be able to stay connected. We kissed, wished each other good luck then took a deep breath and dove in again.