A Touch Too Real

For just a moment, Cody found himself feeling truly lost. From four, there was only him. No one would be looking for them for a while. What had begun as just another episode was now frighteningly real. Another flash of lightning jolted Cody out of his thoughts and he grimaced. Damn it, he was a survivalist. What difference did it make how the situation had arisen, now that it was here? He still had to think of shelter and all the other necessities to make it out alive. 

He knew trying to find the others in the current weather was impossible. Even worse was the knowledge that getting himself hurt looking for them wouldn't help anyone at all. He took a moment to reorient himself and then struck out for the cave again. Inside, it was just as he'd found it so surprisingly few minutes ago. His pack held the fire-making materials and he was quick to utilize them, building up just enough light to get a good look around first. Just inside the mouth of the cave, a few feet out of the rain and wind, the floor 'rolled' downwards in a series of smooth, gentle slopes and curved off to the right. What little rain fell inside the cave was quick to collect in a natural channel in the stone and slid away into the darkness, hardly more than a trickle. Extra careful not to fall, Cody made his way around the corner to a narrow, open chamber that was dry as a bone and perhaps smelled just a little stale. 

What little firewood he had managed to secure in his pack from the original camp caught quickly when he built his proper fire on the floor and he divested himself of his garments. In doing so, he noticed with a silent curse that his ankle jewelry was missing. With a rounded corner of the cave to reflect the heat back at him, he carefully wrung the water out of his clothes and re-dressed. He huddled near the fire with a weary sigh and prepared himself for a long, cold night that he suspected would get worse before it got better. 

Morning dawned bright, but dreary, and woke him with a glow from the cave mouth. The fire had died down to all but the smallest of cinders and he stretched, stiff and sore from the night's abuse. After a moment of adjusting to the sunlight, Cody headed for the river, his pack secure on his person. The body of water was bloated, choked with fallen trees and dark with the unsettled mud washed from its banks. A smell of wet loam and decay pervaded the air heavily; the aftermath of large storm. It took several minutes, much longer than he was happy to spend, to find the particular off-shoot he was looking for and he approached cautiously to look. 

With the sun shining down, it was easy to see inside. The water was rushing down the hole, churning and spinning around inside like a bottled whirlpool, until it reached what appeared to be the bottom some fifteen feet down and the pool frothed under the constant impact. A scrap of cloth hung gamely to the rocks along one side, flapping and beating against the stone under the water's spray. Cody tried to recall who had been wearing a black shirt, but he could only curse himself for not noticing before. He surveyed the tunnel, looking for handhold and footholds so that he might attempt to climb down, but nothing looked even remotely sufficient. 

Even as he looked down at the bracelet on his wrist, he knew the likelihood of finding any of the missing three was slim. Finding them alive, nevermind uninjured, seemed so far from possible he almost decided not to try. The bracelet, colored according to the maker as chocolate brown and coyote brown, seemed to make his decision for him. He removed the pin from the buckle and began unraveling it as he looked around for a sturdy anchor point. A fat tree, though dark from the night's rain, stood within two feet of the pit and didn't move no matter how he shoved or pulled on it. Using the buckle to create a loop around the tree, Cody prepared himself and stepped carefully back into the hole. The thin cord bit into his palms as he descended, slowly taking each step and keeping his eyes trained for every potential accident. It seemed to take forever to finally lay foot on the ledge that hung over the pool at the bottom, and when he stopped there after testing his weight on it, he took a moment to wipe and massage his hands against the strain of the task.

There was just enough room on the ledge for him to kneel down and peer over it without touching the icy waters. Relief flashed over him as he saw the body fetched up on a protruding rock just a half dozen feet away. The man had been wedged on a slope of rock that left him above the waterline and his chest was visibly rising and falling with each breath. In that same instant, a startling sense of disappointment pervaded him as he realized he wasn't looking at Dave. It was the crewman who'd slipped first and, besides some bruising and a torn up shirt, he didn't seem to be in terrible shape. A small touch of panic settled on the survivalist as he recognized the disappointment and he shoved all of it away in a hurry. Now, he reminded himself firmly, was not the time for those kinds of thoughts.

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So there's the snippet that is 'Chapter 2'. What are your thoughts?