A story I wrote for Biochem class

[Zephyr of the Mist]

Alternate assignment, let's just say that I'm better at writing than memorizing metabolic pathways.  Also my first ever attempt at something approaching the Horror genre, though it's kind of weak imho, probably because of the whole 'having to keep track of the metabolic pathway' thing.



"Stop whipping me with branches you twit."

"It's not my fault that you're following so close."

"You bloody, pock-faced—"

"Oh leave it you two, we've been hiking for an hour already and we're nowhere near this 'haunted house' of yours."

"If they continue being recalcitrant I will walk between them, then they might stop."

"Doubt it, but thanks anyway."

The chatter faded for a time and the crunch of gravel and last year's leaf litter filled the afternoon air, at least until some new scuffle broke out.

The young woman leading the group stepped into the clearing...and stopped.  There was indeed a house there, if one was generous with the term, though 'hut' might have been closer to the truth.

"Beeeeen! You said there was a house here, not some abandoned shack!" Melissa's whine cut through the air like a piece of shrapnel; only dangerous if you stepped into its trajectory.

"Come on guys, we've already hiked out here, we should at least explore a little before heading back."
"Meathead has a point for once—ow!"

Sheri threateningly cocked her foot back for another kick.  "Watch your audience, genius.  Try not to insult a guy in front of his girlfriend, capice?"

"Yes mistress, please don't beat this poor one anymore, mistress."

It was a close thing, but she resisted the urge to kick him in the...area somewhat higher than his shin. 

"Don't push it, leaf juice-boy."

"DON'T CALL TEA 'LEAF JUICE'!"

"Stop being a caustic little boil of a Brit and I will."

Leanne stepped up and put a hand on both of their mouths. "This is going nowhere, stop arguing."

"Mrph."

Peter rolled his eyes but didn't press the issue. Leanne was scary as hell when she was pushed. "Unf."

"Good."

Ben looked at the sky and said, "We've got at least four hours of light left, so there's plenty of time to look around. Besides, I've heard there's more to this place than meets the eye."

A general grumble came from the other five but no one objected or left.

Ben took the lead and cautiously pushed open the door. "Come on guys, there's nothing to be scared of." He flipped on his dad's super-ruggedized flashlight and made sure the strap was around his wrist. He was dead meat if he lost it.

The rest of them filed into the small building after him and gathered around the—rather incongruous—metal ring set into the floor.

Mike looked around, extremely unimpressed.  "Might—achoo! dreary in here, isn't it?"

"Bless you!"

He sniffled a bit and blew his nose. "Well, we've already explored this part, who wants to go down first?"

Ben shrugged and pulled hard on the ring.  "Oof! Holy...Mel, you're a farm girl, give me a hand with this thing!"

In the end it took three of them to lift the trapdoor out of the dirt enough to prop it open.

"Huh... According to all the horror movies and books these things are supposed to smell terrible, but it just smells like a damp basement."

Peter snorted. "As if we could be stars in a horror story. The only ones here that fit THAT role are Ben and me, the rest of you aren't NEARLY stereotypical enough." Quietly, he laughed to himself, "And I'd either be the first to die or the last in that case."

Ben's voice echoed strangely from the bottom of the hole. "Come on guys, I don't want to walk back in the dark!"

Sheri followed him down, then Mike and Peter went, and Melissa and Leanne brought up the rear. 

"A-are you sure this place won't collapse on us?" Sheri sounded as though she was trying not to panic and scream on the slopes of an avalanche-prone mountain.

Ben shone his flashlight at the walls. "Nah, look, this's built with solid fieldstone. See, look up." He traced a line of stones on the ceiling with the light, "You can see the keystones for the arch up there; if it was going to collapse it woulda done so when it was first built. I doubt an air strike could take this baby out now that the stones are settled in."

They continued walking, albeit with some nervous whispering. Ben's dad was one of those people who built anything they needed themselves and he'd picked up some of that, but that didn't make him a structural engineer either.

"Where'd ya think they got the rocks from? There's no field around for miles, not even a patch of trees that're younger than the rest." Mike sounded like he was trying to fill the silence, but doing a very poor job of it.  They were all trying to suppress thoughts of ghosts and such. Silly of them, really, since they came here specifically because it was supposed to be haunted.

"OH MY GOD!"

They all froze like deer for a split second.  Who was that? It didn't sound like any of...

"Leanne!" Melissa fumbled out her keychain flashlight.

She wasn't anywhere to be seen. Melissa squeezed the frog light until her hand trembled. "Leanne?" She could only see a few yards behind her in the relatively weak beam of the keychain, and she slowly edged forward, calling Leanne's name the whole time.

It seemed like an eternity before she caught the white glare off a pair of tennis. Leanne was staring at some point in the air, her frozen expression somewhere in the transition between bored and terrified.

Melissa ran up to the other girl and looked worriedly at her face. "Leanne! Leanne! Are you alright?!" She hesitated to touch her, but when she grabbed her arm and shook her gently Leanne whipped her arms up over her face with a small shriek.

"Is she goin' ta be alright?" Peter said, genuine concern writ in his voice.

"I am fine." Leanne's voice sounded the same as ever at least.

"Are you sure?" Mike sounded a little worried as well, which was surprising.

"I was lost in my thoughts and walked into an unexpectedly cold area. I overreacted. That is all."

'I don't believe you' was written across every face. In all caps. With Day-glo paint.

She calmly returned their looks with a blank one of her own.

Peter shrugged. "If the lady says she's fine then she must be fine. Even if she obviously isn't."

That earned him a class-A glare from the 'lady' in question and a few quiet chuckles from the other guys.

Ben cleared his throat, "Should we keep going or go back? There's still plenty of time before we have to get out of here."

"Let's keep going, there is much to explore yet."

"Okay, you heard the lady, let's keep going."

Melissa and Sheri thought it would be a good idea to hold hands, but that idea was shot down with gusto by the adjacent Mike and Peter.

Leanne felt something in her pocket shift, so she brought it out to get a better look.

She produced a rattling cardboard box with a dark, rough patch on the side. The top of the box read 'Spelunker's Friend! Phosphorus Matches!' with a 50's cartoon of a boy heading into a dark cave. She hadn't had any matches when she left her house.

She hastily put the box back in her pocket. Whatever that thing had been, at least it had given her something practical.

"Hey, Lee, what happened to your earring?"

She checked her ears and then scowled. "I must have lost it coming down or something. Drat, this was my favorite pair."

"Hey, is it just me or are our footsteps getting louder?" Sheri's voice certainly carried well at least, though that might not have had anything to do with the echoes.

"I think you're just getting scared, and I take it back, you would indeed work as a character in a horror flick."

"Oi, Pete, be glad she can't see you, because the heat bloom alone from her glare is toasting my eyebrows."

"Thank you, Michel my friend, for volunteering to be my shield, and it's PeteR."

Ben ignored the two snarkers and concentrated on leading. He concentrated a little too hard though, and completely missed a piece of wood sticking up from the floor. "GAH!"  *Thump* "Ohfuckthathurt."

Sheri leaned over him, "Are you okay? You didn't twist anything, did you?"

"Ow. No, I'm fine, I just managed to skin my arm a bit. I landed completely wrong I think." He brushed himself off with as much dignity as he could muster at the moment and inspected his wrist and forearm clinically. "I lost a little skin is all, I'm barely even bleeding."

Something on the floor caught his eye, however. Damn. I guess I lost a little more than skin. My bracelet's become a casualty as well. He picked it up and inspected it as he walked behind Sheri. Since the tunnel had become too narrow for them to swap places without one of them stepping over the other like she had a few minutes ago, it was easier to let her lead.

"Ben, I can repair it for you if you like, I have pliers and some scraps of chain at home."

He smiled and rolled his eyes. Figures. He gave her the broken bracelet and it disappeared into her pocket.

They had walked maybe a hundred feet when Sheri stopped so suddenly that Ben ran into her back. "Sheri, why'd you stop?"

There was no reply.

"Sheri? Sheri!?" There wasn't enough room to slide past her so he pulled on her shoulder to spin her around, but somehow he couldn't budge her. "Sheri!" He was pulling on her hard enough to send her flying into the wall but it was like she was a statue nailed to the floor.

A hand on his shoulder nearly sent him through the roof and he barely stopped himself from smashing Mike's head against the wall as he spun around. "God, don't DO that. I nearly cracked your head open."

"Stop and breathe, man, you're wigging out."

Hearing Mike use words like 'man' and 'wigging out' was enough of a surprise to partially derail the panic that nearly had him running around in circles. He dug his fingernails into his palm until he could think again.

"What happened up there? Did something happen to Sheri?" Melissa sounded worried as well, small wonder, after what she'd seen happen to Leanne.

"It looks like it's something like what happened earlier, maybe she'll snap out of it on her own in a few minutes." He did his best to keep his voice from squeaking or breaking and tried very hard to believe it.

A couple of years passed while they waited. None of them wanted to continue exploring anymore, but they didn't want to leave Sheri either.

Ben gathered his courage again and gently took hold of Sheri's shoulder. He flooded with relief when her body moved easily.

"Sheri? Sheri, are you okay?"

Nothing happened for a split second.

"Oh f—" She stepped back so suddenly that she whacked her head on Ben's chin. "—fructose."

He shook the stars away and had to ask, "Fructose?"

She settled for leaning into him until he was sure she was trying to back up through him. He gently gripped her shoulders again and gave her a little shake. "Sheri, come on. We're all still here."

She let out a big whooshing breath and shook herself like a cat that got sprayed. "I'm fine, but I don't think I want to explore anymore."

"I second that!" said Mike and Peter together.

Melissa shivered and said, "Me three."

"Okay, then let's turn this train around and go home. We've all had enough of this I think." Everyone murmured in agreement.

Peter pulled out a flashlight of his own and handed it to Leanne so she could lead, since the hallway was still only one person wide.

Sheri turned and started to walk forward as well, but a tinkling, rattling sound from her pocket caught her attention. She pulled a glass vial out that hadn't been there earlier. Inside was some sticks of wood with...globs of paint? No, they were matches. And there was a bit of sandpaper in there as well. She nearly dropped the container and her insides to knotted up, but she forced herself to put the matches back in her pocket. A bit of light never hurt anyone. On a hunch she checked her ears and neck. She was missing the earring at the top of her ear. She shrugged, not really concerned since it was one of a pair. At least she still had her house key.

They walked for a while with only the sounds of their footsteps. When Ben thought that they were getting close to the ladder he heard a quiet, "Oh no."

He craned his neck to see around everyone's head, but they were all doing the same and he couldn't get a clear view. "What? What is it?"

Peter spoke up. "The tunnel splits and goes off in two directions. I don't know how we missed it on the way in."

Everyone started talking.

"What should we do?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think we should split up?"

"Hell if I know."

"We have to do something."

"Yeah, but what?"

The echoes weren't dying away like they should; instead they were getting louder until it sounded like there were twenty people crowded in the tunnel instead of just six.

"Everybody quiet!" Melissa had to yell to make herself heard over the reverberating sound, but once everyone stopped talking the echoes died away. "I think we should split up and three of us take each tunnel. If one group finds the way out they should head back and leave one person waiting at the entrance of the right tunnel. While we walk there should be one person keeping one hand in contact with the wall at all times, that way no one will have kind of thing happen again."

"I think that sounds like an excellent idea. We should be reasonably close to the exit, so if you've been walking for more than fifteen minutes you're probably on the wrong path and should head back to the junction to wait for the other group."

"Sounds good to me."

"Okay, Mike and I will go with Sheri, Mel and Lee with Peter."

For once neither Mike nor Peter argued and the small group split ways.

Sheri walked down the right hand fork, but she stopped a few feet in and waited for the other group to get a ways down their fork. "Could I walk in the back please? There's enough room to switch places where it forks, I really don't want to lead if I can help it."

Mike sighed and rolled his eyes, but turned around.

He ended up being the one in the lead, since Ben was the one with the flashlight and they couldn't afford for anything to happen to him.

He made sure he trailed his fingers along the wall as they walked along, though he hoped that it wouldn't be too long, or else he'd end up rubbing them raw.

They walked in tense silence for what seemed an interminably long time, until Mike noticed something.

"Where the hell did my class ring go?" He checked the rest of his person and the ground and didn't find it, though he found he was also missing his watch, though thankfully whatever pickpocketing imp took them at least had left his crucifix necklace alone.

He also retained his cellphone, which he shoved deep into his jacket pocket and zipped it shut, determined to not lose that too.

Ben was watching Mike panic about his class ring when something on the ground caught his eye. It was Mike's rings. He pocketed them with a little grin. He'd let that jerkwad worry for a little while; he'd give them back when they got out of here, it's not like he wanted to keep the things.

Mike swore under his breath at whatever caused him to lose his rings and sulked. He sulked so hard that he completely lost track of what was going on around him.

Ben smacked into someone for the second time that day. "Dammit Mike, warn me when you gotta...Mike? Oi... Not again."

"He's...?"

"Yeah."

She didn't grab his arm, quite, but she did stand very close. He would have enjoyed it under different circumstances.

They waited a few minutes for whatever-it-was to stop or leave or vanish or whatever.

Time slid by one second at a time.

At last, Ben steeled himself and gently shook Mike's shoulder. He was expecting him to take a step back or something similar, so he backed up.

He wasn't expecting the snake-quick left hook that connected with his shoulder and whacked his head against the wall.

"Dude, what the hell?" He gently touched his head and made sure that there wasn't any damage, though
his shoulder felt like he'd tried to ram open a door.

Mike staggered a bit and leaned against the wall. "Sorry...I don't know...what happened. Reflexes or something. I guess." He felt his chest as though he was searching for something. "Oh hell no, not my crucifix too. I really really want to get out of here."


Continued below, stupid post limit.

[Zephyr of the Mist]

This sucks rocks. Mike thought. First my rings and now my crucifix, what's next, my underwear? He checked to make sure he still had his precious iPhone. Oh thank God. Wait, what? He pulled a feather out of his pocket, one with a wire hook on the end. Why do I have a feather earring in my pocket? And...a box of matches?

'Spelunker's Friend! Phosphorus Matches!' proclaimed the box in bright yellow letters. There was a cartoon kid on there too, about to go into a dark cave or something.

"That's Leanne's earring!" Sheri's voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"I'm sure of it! She was showing them off last week in that 'I'm not bragging' way she has."

"We should keep moving, it's probably going to get dark before we get back home already, so we shouldn't dawdle." He shoved the earring in with his phone and zipped the pocket shut and put the matches on the other side and pushed off the wall.

Sheri peered at Mike's back as they walked. Was it just her or was he acting a little strange? Then, a light bulb lit up. She smiled to herself and decided not to say anything. At least, not yet.

They didn't get very far before another misfortune befell them. Or rather, befell Mike.

*Thump* "Unnnghgoddammitthathurt."

"Well, it looks like we're going the right way, if that's the same piece of wood I tripped over."

"Shut up and give me a hand, airbag."

"Sure thing, Twinkle Toes."

Of course, the first thing Mike did was check on his precious electronics. "WHAT? NO! Oh please please please don't be broken! Noooooooo..."

Sheri reached around Ben and patted Mike's shoulder, "You can probably get everything off of it easily, the SIM card is most likely still intact. And maybe it's not really broken, maybe the battery got dislodged or something and it'll be fixed in no time when you get back home."

He took a deep breath and let it out. She was right, 'not functioning' didn't necessarily mean 'broken', but they needed to get out of here first.

He quickly checked that Leanne's earring was undamaged—whew—but the matches had vanished. He shrugged. Oh well.

"Guys, I think we have a problem." Then the light went out.

"Really God? Really?"

"Oh shush Mike."

"Does anyone have a light source?"

"My phone, as you know, is functionally bricked right now, so no!" There was a short hysterical giggle that was quickly muffled.

"Wait, I think I might. But I don't know how to use sandpaper to light a match."

"Give it here, I can."

It took a few fumbling tries to sort out a match and give Ben the sandpaper strip, but it only took two tries to get a match lit.

"Stupid flashlight has a defect, I just have to bend the tab behind the light bulb back into place and it'll work just fine, it happens every now and then, probably became a problem when I took a spill the first time, we're just lucky that we had a match since I can't do this in the dark. You're going to need another couple matches before I get this fixed."

"No problem, there's five more in here."

In the end it took all but two of the matches to get the flashlight working again. "Let's hope we don't need to do this again."

"Yeah."

"Indeed."

"Give me the last of them so I have them on hand, just in case."

"Sure." She dug the vial out of her pocket and handed it over. She paused, then put her hand back in her pocket and searched it until she found the thing that had jabbed her. Her missing earring. This is getting seriously weird.

Ben put the vial in his pocket with Mike's rings. Except now there was just a ring. Crap. A quick scan of the ground revealed nothing.

"Let's move, we're probably only a hundred yards from the trapdoor and I don't feel like hanging out here anymore."

"Yeah, let's."

They walked as quickly as they could without actually running.

Ben surreptitiously checked his pockets, and found that Mike's other ring was missing. Shit.

Sheri was also alert for missing items, given how she had already had one thing vanish from a hole through her ear no less, and then reappear in the pocket of some jeans that were too tight to easily get into, she was, rather reasonably, a little paranoid by this point. When she realized that her and Ben's anniversary ring was gone she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She decided to do both when she couldn't find her house key. Mom and Dad are going to kill meeeee.

The tunnel had one last card to play though. Ben's foot came down on a loose patch of gravel and went flying out from under him. The flashlight soared out of his grip, hit the ceiling, went out and clattered away.

Stupid stupid stupid. I forgot to put the wrist strap back on after I repaired it. Stupid. He kicked himself as he tried to get his wind back.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"You know, even if we are in a horror story we haven't done anything stupid like the characters in them usually do, I mean, we haven't run around screaming or anything and we didn't let anyone go off alone and besides it's not like there's monsters there might be ghosts but there's not monsters right and we haven't panicked at all and all run in different directions—"

"Sheri, stop babbling, we'll be fine, just let me get the matches and we'll be able to see again."

It took him a minute to find the darn things and the head on the first one crumbled on him. The second one lit without any trouble though, and Mike quickly spotted the flashlight, oddly enough.  Ben could have sworn that he had heard it land behind Sheri.

When Sheri found her missing ring in another place it could not have gotten, she decided that she was going to sleep with the lights on for a while.

Like the rest of my life.

*     *     *

"Okay, does anyone still have any jewelry left to appease the angry tunnel gods? Because I'm fresh out. All I've got is the flashlight and my dead mp3 player."

A quiet but very angry voice said, "They absconded with my earring and my wallet and gave me a cheap, vending-machine-junk ring with a cross on it in return. This was NOT a fair trade."

"I'm fresh out, I'm just glad that I still have my keys."

"Well, I guess we'll have to hope that they go after Lee, since she's the one with the booty."

Her growl echoed a little longer than it really should have.

"Let's head back. We're obviously getting nowhere, we haven't found anything familiar and we've been
walking for far too long." Melissa was getting thoroughly tired of having her things vanish and reappear, and it's not like she had much left either!

"I agree."

"Well then, ladies, shall we turn around?  Unless of course you all prefer to walk backwards."

Melissa was getting thoroughly tired of Peter as well.

They had walked far enough that Peter's flashlight was noticeably dimmer than it had been. She was worried that they'd be in the dark before long and she'd be forced to use her frog light for who knew how long.

They walked in silence for about ten minutes, then Peter said, "Do you smell that?"

"No?"

"I swear, it smells like outside. Hurry up, before it goes away!"

He pushed them into almost a trot for several minutes, Mel went along with it because she was willing to take any chance that they might get out of this place, even if Peter seemed a little delusional right then.

He knew he made the right call when he heard the echoes change about five seconds before they broke out into a small room, but after the claustrophobic nature of the tunnels it was like a cathedral in comparison. He knew he felt a breeze coming from that dark opening over there, just because it was dark didn't mean that it wasn't a way out, night might have come, that would make it dark, so he was going to take the chance, if he was wrong they could just backtrack, right?

When they broke out of the tunnels Leanne was surprised, she would admit. She hadn't expected Crazy Pete to actually find a way out; even she could tell that the air was fresher. She was surprised again when Peter ran for a dark opening in the wall like there were tigers after him. That was the last thing she saw. The sound that came next she felt rather than heard. A very low-pitched, but very loud, *thump*. She smelled freshly exposed soil.

"Is he dead?" Melissa couldn't keep her voice from cracking, she was too scared.

"I don't know, I cannot see anything."

Melissa patted her pockets until she found her frog light, it didn't illuminate much but it was enough to show them both that the tunnel out was completely blocked, there was even more dirt slowly falling and it looked like it was going to collapse entirely.

"Even if it was short enough that he escaped, there is more soil there than we could tunnel through easily, we should continue to look for the others."

"Good idea. I am never leaving the house without a box of glowsticks ever again!"

Leanne walked to the tunnel opposite the collapse and received her largest shock in a day that seemed determined to make every surprise she encountered thereafter an anticlimax.  There were people coming out of the tunnel.

Four people to be precise. One had a flashlight that was at least as bright as Ben's and they both squinted as their eyes adjusted to the bright light.

"Well hey there, I must say I didn't expect to find anyone else down here, you wouldn't happen to know where the exit is, would you? We've been down here for at least twelve hours and we're getting pretty tired of it by now."

"Um, we're stuck too, only we've only been down here for a little while but we're still lost. Do you know where you've been? Then at least we wouldn't have to look where someone else's already looked and it might save us some time..."

"Tell ya what, you can tag along with us, that way we can all search together. You won't be gettin' far with that little nightlight."

"We would be most grateful."

"Yes please!"

"Well then, you just stick between Dan and Denise and we'll get this caravan on the road."

They obediently slotted themselves into the space that opened up in the line and plunged back into the tunnels.

It was nice to be able to see well again, and these people moved with the surety of experienced hikers which made it easy to keep the pace up. Leanne offered them some of the fruit leather that she always carried for an emergency snack but they declined, saying that once they got out they'd eat the stuff they had back in their car.

"We've gone lots longer than twelve hours without food, ain't that right Darryl?"

Darryl laughed, "Sure have, once Denise forgot to bring fishing line and it took two whole days to catch something in a snare. At least it didn't rain, like it did that one time up in Bear River."

"Faugh, would you drop that already? I already apologized for that! Several times!"

"It's still a great story though."

Dan snorted but held his peace. "Lesson from the wise, kids: Never forget the ductape."

Leanne rarely acted without a rational reason, but every now and then she made an exception. "Mel, hold onto my bracelet for me."

"Wha?"

She dangled the beaded bracelet over her shoulder. "Hang onto it for me."

"Oookay... May I ask why or are you being your usual 'inscrootable' self?"

"Just a hunch."

Melissa knew better than to ask, but she had a feeling that even Leanne wasn't entirely sure why she was doing it.

They walked for at least fifteen minutes without tripping or having anything disappear, which was a nice change. When she felt her foot go sideways instead of back the first thought that ran through her mind was, Melissa, you idiot, you just had to jinx it.

She whacked her head a good one on the way down and had the bizarre feeling that her eyeballs collided somehow. She shook her head to clear it and checked her pockets. Both the light frog and the bracelet were gone.

"Dammit!"

Leanne helped Melissa to her feet, "Did anyone else lose anything?"

Denise cleared her throat, "I lost my earring." The rest of them answered in the negative.

"Ah well that's fine, Mel and I can be buddies then," Denise slung an arm across Melissa's shoulders as best as the confines allowed. "Since we're both with barely any decoration at all compared to you fine fellows."

That got chuckles from her companions and a quiet giggle from Melissa.

They hurried on at their earlier pace, which was starting to make Melissa's calves hurt, but she wasn't going to complain unless it got so bad she couldn't keep up. Her necklace and ring were both gone, along with her frog light, and if she didn't want to get left in the dark with her imagination she would have to keep up.

She kept checking her pockets out of habit, since things seemed to appear almost as often as they disappeared.

They kept up their pace for another ten minutes before both Melissa's and Leanne's legs started to give out and they had to sit against the wall for a bit.

"You girls did good keeping up with us trail pounders for so long."

"What do you mean? We've only been at this for half an hour, that's kind of pathetic."

Dan gave Melissa a look. "Girl, your timesense is waaaay off; it's been closer to three half-hours than one."

Melissa looked at Leanne. Lee quirked an eyebrow. Mel shrugged. Lee rolled her eyes and pressed her lips together and that made Mel's eyebrows rise.

"So, are you going to let us in on your private conversation or do we get to play charades?"

Both girls jumped and found something absolutely fascinating to stare at on the opposite wall.

Melissa's hand crept into her pockets automatically after a few minutes, but this time they found something besides cloth. She pulled out the necklace and examined it. The fine chain supported a simple, silver Christian cross and that was all.

"Did you get something this time?"

She mutely held up her find.

"Eh, wow, that's a pretty piece. I got one too, plus a compass. You two are like a good luck charm; I've never gotten anything quite this good."

She nodded and put the necklace back in her pocket. Then she shoved off the wall and stood up. "I'm about rested, how about you, Lee?"

"Satisfactory."

"Well, we're good to go."

"One of the perks of being young..."

"Indeed."

They continued for what must have been nearly half an hour before Darryl tripped and nearly knocked Denise off her feet.

"Whoa, that was a nasty spill. You lose anything?"

"Not as far as I can tell."

"Weird, was it someone else this time?"

"Aye, I lost my last earring and my new sparkly, but I kept my compass."

"Well, at least it let you keep the good stuff."

"Tru dat."

"Since Darryl's not injured, shall we keep moving?"

Their reply was a unanimous step forward.

They had been walking for nearly an hour when suddenly Melissa slipped sideways again with a shriek. But this time she kept sliding sideways into a patch of darkness near the base of the wall. Leanne dashed forward and caught Melissa's hand, but her momentum pulled her away.

"MELISSA!" Leanne groped for any sign of the other girl but found none. "Melissa..." She wanted to dive into the hole after her but she knew that that would accomplish nothing.

"C'mon girl, if we don't move we'll never get out of here."

She allowed herself to be hauled to her feet and obediently trotted along, though right then she just wanted to sit in a corner and rot.

It was a surprise that it took a whole ten minutes for her to stumble and fall. She found herself sliding down a steep slope of loose gravel, and she couldn't find it in her to care in the least what was at the end of it.

*     *     *

"Well that was easier than expected. What next?"

"----, ----------- ------ --------------- ------------------- ---------------- ---- ---------- ----------- ---- ----- ------- ---- ----- -------- -----------, ------- ---- ------- ----- ------ ------ -------."

"You know we can't do that!"

"-- ------ ---- --- ---."

"You still don't have to ask every single time!"

"Hey, guys, this way! I think I can hear them calling for...something-ri. Should we do the same thing?"

"Why mess with a classic?"

"Got a point."

[spoiler]The text was supposed to be Mathmatica1, but apparently the forum doesn't do Greek, so we end up with weird boxes. Click below for the "translation" [spoiler]"Well, we could chuck the rest of them down your hidey-holes, they'll find their way out some time."

"It doesn't hurt to ask."[/spoiler][/spoiler]

[Blobsndrees]

metabolic pathway... like cellular respiration?

like this...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFBr3ANCkb4

[Zephyr of the Mist]

yep, though I'm happy to say that mine is less cheesy by several orders of magnitude. 

[Blobsndrees]

hm? I passed my exam cuz of that lol