"Into the Dark"

[Dox Maturin 0]

This log is a recap of the previous sim from Dox's perspective.

 

"Into the Dark"

Duty Log 0705.07

 

Dox breathed in the icy air as flakes of snow trickled down and stuck to the skin on his face. He turned, looking back at the group as they mounted their horses, some less ceremoniously than others, and drew together. The breed they were given was quite agreeable, and even a novice rider could easily control the beast. That was fortunate, because Corizon appeared to be the only experienced rider among them. For a few seconds the scene was comical.

 

A gush of cold wind brought Dox's attention back to the mountains in the distance. It was there that the signal had originated and that they had come to investigate. The minerals in the earth made transporting difficult, and even his tricorder at short range could not see clearly through the rock. But from the reports he had read earlier they had a specific location for them to look.

 

"The signal is originating from those mountains," he said as he pointed with a shivering finger to one of the far cavern entrances. "We can enter there."

 

The group trotted along the path, their horses kicking up powdery snow with every step and forming a billowing white cloud behind them. The cold was diminished only by the small Avalon sun that hung just above the horizon, peering through a pair of mountains and lighting the valley below them. As they winded around a curve they found themselves on a cliff with a wide precipice. Dox looked from the sun to the cavern. They were close now.

 

A shiver ran up his back, but not from the cold. He turned his horse away from the group and stopped at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the steep drop to the patchy forest below. Something was not right. Was it the green trees, some capped with snow while others suspiciously were bare? Was it the way the sun shined in his eyes, reflecting off the mountainside? Or was it that the wind died on occasion, as if time had stopped to give spying eyes a good look at him.

 

It was the same random feeling he always had, a feeling that something was going to happen. It was the same feeling that kept him awake at night, staring up at the ceiling from the hard floor as he lay next to his bed, a bed always untouched and unslept in, watching the tiny bits of dust on the walls as they danced in the shadows. Eyes were always on him, always watching. As he lay on the floor, as he did every night since his discharge from the war, he was reminded of the jagged rocks that he slept upon while on the planet Andaman. Cracks, pops and screams from the black dark in the distance, he would forever hear them, reminding him that he never left that ground. Even after rescue, he stayed there in his mind - stayed with her, laying on those cold rocks, gripping his fist on his ragged uniform that had been soaked in her blood.

 

"Are you okay, Dox?" a voice called out behind him and shook him from his daze. He turned around and smiled at Pilot, nodding, and pulling his horse back around to meet up with the group.

 

As they approached the mouth of the cave Dox continued to scan, trying to find a suitable - not to mention safe - path through the mountain tunnels. He dismounted his horse and approached the entrance. Again the feeling of being watched overwhelmed him. The wind turned direction, being slowly sucked into the cave and drawing Dox in with it. So subtle, unnoticeable, but it terrified him to his core. He dug into the snow until he reached the earth a few inches down, running his hand over the wet rock. His tricorder beeped as Corizon stormed ahead into the cave, prompting Dox to rise to his feet and follow the others in.

 

He shined his small light around the walls, looking for...something. The walls were jagged, natural. But as they drew deeper into the cave they changed, becoming smoother. Not as if they were carved by water, but as if they were deliberately shaved. And then it all made sense, as they came to a dead end, a drop off.

 

Dox shined his light down, but it was too deep for it to penetrate and the light vanished into nothing. Yet again he was faced with plunging into the dark. The whistling of the wind from the black hole; they sounded like distant screams. But it was another officers light that caught his interest, as well as the attention of the rest of the group; the perfectly carved staircase leading down into the abyss.

Edited May 7, 2007 by Ens Dox Maturin