The Wonders Of Vast Emptiness

Chapter Eleven: The Cave

Head suddenly dripping with sweat in fear, hands all clammy, he woke up Dr. Twolson. While one is as panicked as this, it is quite the challenge to talk in a whisper. Nevertheless, Sam did it, in quite a hurried whisper I might add, he said, "Dr. Twolson! Dr. Twolson, wake up! They're here! They've found us." Dr. Twolson was sleeping quite deeply, but one of these words was enough to have him shooting out of where he was lying on the floor.

"Goodness! We have to leave, now!" The two looped around, and then tried to look for a place to hide. They were found by the leader, who barked, "THERE THEY ARE! BLOODY HELL, MEN! GET AFTER THEM!!!!!!" At this very loud order, the two men began chasing down Dr. Twolson and Sam.

Sam remembered a bottle of water he had packed, and it was long empty by now, and it was a very thick glass.

He threw it perfectly between the guards, and it knocked both of them out. The leader, thinking that they had been caught, was outraged when he saw the two men sprawled on the floor, almighty bruises on the head.

"YOU COMPLETE PRATS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SITTING HERE, KNOCKED OUT? THEY MAY BE TOO FAR GONE TO CATCH NOW!!" screamed the leader, enough to wake one of the men up. "Please, sir, the younger boy threw a glass bottle at our heads. Hurts like the bloody dickens. Knocked us out. We couldn't do anything." At this point, Sam and Dr. Twolson had scrambled up a not-too-steep mountain, contrary to how tall it was. At the top they found a cave.

The cave was very dark, and Sam felt around in his pocket for some matches, he knew he had some. Once he had found the matches, he took a nearby stick and lit a makeshift torch. Inside was a person. "Hello, what are you doing here?" asked the person. When they didn't reply, the person said, "I'm looking for 2 people."

Sam froze. As he and Dr. Twolson were slowly backing out of the cave, Sam said, "Good luck on your find." The person had a malevolent grin on his face. "I don't need good luck when I've already found them."

It was the leader. Terrified, Sam and Dr. Twolson tried to run. Dr. Twolson got out, but Sam was held down by a very sharp dagger. "Run one more step and his neck gets sliced." Suddenly, a transparent blue thing appeared. A gateway!

Dr. Twolson could easily climb through, but Sam couldn't as he really was in a sticky situation at that precise moment. He wanted to go through, but protecting Sam was his life's goal at the moment.

Locating a loose rock, Dr. Twolson expertly threw a heavy stick at it, and it crumbled and fell on top of the leader, who screamed in rage. He had just enough time to throw his dagger directly at Dr. Twolson. Sam was too busy thanking his friend to notice.

Dr. Twolson fell onto the hard surface. "Are you alright? Oh-" The dagger was inside Dr. Twolson quite far. Blood stained his shirt. "Oh no, oh no!" said Sam, his tears flowing down hard now. Dr. Twolson weakly looked up. "I did my one job, which was protecting you from the evils of the wonders of vast emptiness. I'm afraid I can't anymore."

"NO! We'll get you to a doctor - and we'll-" Sam began to say, but Dr. Twolson shook his head. "I can't leave you again, Sam. You'll have to go through the gateway." The tears stained the dirt ground.

"No, I can't leave you either. What about Edna?" "My dear wife loves me very much, but she'll understand what happened." And with those words, Dr. Twolson used his last bits of strength to lightly push Sam through the gateway. Sam was falling- falling back into the Earth.

He tumbled out into the laboratory, unable to move or speak. He was still crying profusely, and then Edna came in. "What- what happened?" she asked. "Dr- Your husband- he was stabbed- he pushed me through."

Edna's eyes sparkled with tears, and they quietly fell to the floor. "I knew something like this might happen," she said. "And no, don't go off thinking I'm blaming you. I'm not. This universe still has many places to explore, and neither you nor my husband would know which ones are good and which ones are bad." At this, Edna and Sam stopped crying, and Edna offered him tea.

"Well, now you have to go back to school, I'm afraid. We will have to get that in order." The two talked for a while, but then Edna said it might be best for him to go to his dorm. She used the transportation device, and they both whizzed back to the college."

"I guess I might say I'll see you soon." "You too, Edna." As that was said, the two departed, and then Sam headed up to his dorm. Sam felt older, but he was still the same boy in the same college dorm in the same country in the same place. Would there be more adventures? Well, these were questions for another day, and Sam went to sleep.

THE END