Darkening Ruins

By Jacob Davies

A group of rock climbers find out that locals found a giant hole in the middle of the rainforest, their curiosity peaked and they set off to explore the area not knowing what they would find. While descending they find a cave, inside there are markings and strange rock formations and without much thought, they trekked forward. They had no idea what they got themselves into...
Monsters... Labyrinths and the blood rituals... The rock climbers thought they would find a secret cave and instead they found a hell that would seal their fates, now it was up to them to survive with whatever means necessary... Not everyone will survive and only the strong and intelligent make it out alive...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jacob Davies
• Release date: Jun 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463305744

Jacob Davies

My name is Jacob and I am a aspiring writer,Yes I know we all say that and then we end up in one of those jobs that pays the bills, but I love working in Childcare, so I got the happy job. I love my job, but my passion is writing and has been since I was eleven year old and was running around my adopted family's property yelling and screaming, acting out my pages. I fell in love with story telling and always forget how to spell 'Story'.My other interests are graphic art, childcare, photography, music, movies and video games. I would refer to myself as a happy go lucky socially awkward geek who likes to makes others laugh... therefore I aplogise for all the death in my books and future books.... and pretty much everything I write. I know I am weird and different and I have embraced that in my books, so please enjoy!

Book preview

THE DARKENING

RUINS

BY JACOB DAVIES

CHAPTER ONE

*CAMERA ONE*

I am Samantha Gray, and today myself and six of my closest colleagues are going to be climbing down into this amazing hole formation in the Amazon Forest. Now, of course, all of us have taken expert rock climbing lessons, so please do not attempt what we are doing without prior experience, Samantha Gray said. She was a fetching redhead, with delicate features and a thin frame, her eyes were a light green, and her freckles were barely visible on the skin. She was a well-known adventurer and one of the best and brightest in her field of semiotic studies, learning codes and symbols from all over the world and exploring into many different cultures. She decided she wanted a little bit more of a challenge and when she heard that every exploration group who ventured into the Amazon Forest’s chasm disappeared, she saw that as the perfect way to test herself. So as soon as she made that decision, she got a group together of six specialists who she thought would be helpful in getting through the Amazon and exploring caves.

The first one she chose was Max, no last name. A strapping American with boyish good looks and a swimmer’s body, chiselled in both face and body and yet had a standard look from an American. He had an extensive knowledge of both modern and ancient history and was an old friend of Samantha’s, Sam, they just attached the ropes, we are ready to start our descent. Max walked up to Samantha for only a moment before returning to the locals who volunteered to help set up the rock-climbing equipment.

As you may have heard, my colleague Max just got us the all-clear from the locals. You don’t want to go down into any caves or crevasse without someone knowing your location because otherwise, you could end up hurting yourself or others and then be stuck with no medical help, Samantha spoke into the camera slowly. It was a small disk-like camera that could be clipped into headbands that we're able to strap all the way around the head tightly.

Sam, we gotta go! Max yelled standing next to the edge looking down, the rest of the team was already latching their clips to the ropes and made sure that had all of their equipment. She walked over to them, grabbing her harness out of one of the locals’ hands and then passing out the other four cameras to her team. Not all of them received a camera though, as some requested not to be carrying it around.

Alright, can you all please clip the cameras into your headband before we descend into the hole, I want to be able to show the viewer all the footage of the cave and exactly what we are seeing, Samantha showed them how to place them on the headband and then showed them how to replace the extremely long-lasting batteries, how they can last up to 32 hours before dying. They all finished clipping them in and rearranged them so that they were sitting comfortably.

Oh… Could you please, if it isn’t too much trouble… Could you please clip in mine? Andrea asked. She was a shy Asian woman with a heart of gold, sporting not so fashionable glasses and took care of her skin and health due to her passions with science. She was the one passionate about sciences, though mainly interested in chemistry and biology. She’s written research articles about the reaction of elements and rocks inside of caves, to the bacteria that live in caves and can be affected by different types of weather.

Samantha snatched the camera out of her hand and then clipped it into her headband, fastening it so tightly her head was starting to hurt… It was probably on purpose.

Andrea, if it falls off at any point then just ask Max or I to clip it back in. It’s essential that we get the footage from every angle in case we miss something, Samantha warned Andrea, patting her on the back and watching as she tried to look up at the camera attached to her head.

Oh okay, yeah I will try to do that… I hope I remember, Andrea was a lovely person, but when it came to social situations, she was a little timid and tried not to get into social positions that she couldn’t get out of. This was a real step for her to accept going on a risky trip; she was a little bit scared of not being able to stay in control.

*CAMERA TWO*.

Max look over here, Samantha said getting Max’s attention, then she cleared her throat, look into the camera and begin talking again, We are now descending into the hole located in the Amazon Forest, but the cameras hopefully won’t take too long to focus on our surroundings. Please be wary when watching this that are footage won’t always be perfect and were sorry for that. The camera was slighting coming in and out, then finally, after a little bit of wait; it came through clear as crystal.

She just finished fixing the coverage when a medium-sized rock came falling down towards her, she quickly swung herself to the side and scraped her hand against the rocks. She glanced down at the cut on her arm and heard Max’s voice call out, Hey Sam, you alright?

*CAMERA ONE*

Yeah, just gotta get my footing, let’s keep going! Samantha called out facing her camera at him; she faced the camera down flashing her small wound so that the camera could record the extent of the damage. At this point, you can see that I have accidentally scraped my arm while dodging a small rock slide. It is only minor, and unfortunately, I will just have to settle with the first aid kit.

Hey guys, I think that I have found the entrance on the side of the hole! Adam called out. His rugged Italian charms not far with his scruffy black hair, five o’clock shadow and his body built like a warrior. Adam was into the whole Extreme sports craze and can be seen bungee jumping off skyscrapers and snorkelling with sharks in the ocean. He was mainly chosen for being the muscle and being good in tight situations; he wasn’t known for having a metal down in problematic positions.

Samantha tried to grab Max’s attention so that he would face the camera in her direction, but for some reason, he was looking down to get his footing. So, she improvised facing her camera down as well at the hole and began to speak as clearly as she while still climbing, Adam, has currently found a small cave that we believe goes deeper into the ground and the entrance is in the side of the hole. We are now all trying to climb towards that area slowly and carefully.

The seven team members made it down to the area quite easily, but unfortunately, Donny wasn’t the most graceful or skilled when it came to climbing. Danny was more into zoology and loved learning as many different languages as his brain could hold, but he was not the sort of guy to escape to the gym every moment he had free. He was lucky enough to have the appearance of a younger person, a lot more youthful than he already was. Andrea even looked up at him for a moment and said, Danny, careful up there, climbing down can be dangerous.

*CAMERA TWO*

Everyone picked themselves up as soon as they made it to the cavern entrance. Samantha grabbed Max’s shoulder, turning him around so that she would be able to talk into the camera once again, Okay… So, we all made it safely down the side of the hole. Accidents happen, of course, and there was a slight chance that we could have lost Danny, but we all safely made it to this point. Even though Samantha finished talking, Max kept his camera on her while they progressed through the cave, it seemed to get darker the further in they got with no visible light source. They started to wonder if the other teams came across the cave as well.

Uh… Hey Whinny, can you give us some light? Donny asked, his head darting around, with every single sound causing him to move his head. He looked over at her, and she started to search through her bad and passed out torches that she had found stowed in the bottom. Then gave the larger lantern to Samantha as she would be the one that talked most often, she had to have had the light so she could put into on her face without being blinded.

Whinny come on, say hi to the camera. She is our demolitions expert and also known for her passion for the science of rocks… Oh sorry, I mean Geology, Max said, pointing the camera at her face, she wasn’t the most open person when it came to getting her picture taken. Which didn’t make sense as she had a beautiful earthy skin tone, with wavy black hair and hey curves often attracted males, but her well-spoken manner and sharp wit often scared them off. She even tried to walk ahead so that he wouldn’t have the chance to get her on camera, but she caught up and flashed the torch towards her.

Hi camera, She replied, sounding a little annoyed, she did say that she didn’t want to be focused on within the documentary and wanted to only come for the adventure side of things. Then the lights started to flicker, a cool breeze came, and they found themselves at a dead end… Returning the entrance of the cave defeated…

CHAPTER TWO

Hello there.

My name is Samantha Gray and what you have just seen is the documentary of the descent into a cave we thought impossible, our first attempt led us to believe that the cave was empty and ended at a wall of rock. We returned to our camp on the surface ready to plan our second decent hoping to make it further into the hole before our second discovery; we even made sure that we climbed down at a different spot of the hole… But somehow, I don’t know-how… We ended up at the entrance of the exact same cave.

I am not an expert on rocks myself, but what we were seeing inside of the cave was not normal and more of like a rock hybrid that we were unable to unidentified. Some sort of normal rock with a shiny surface, blackish grey in colour with flecks of brown covering the walls, there was even something etched into it.

Okay, I think we should start again, remember to keep the cameras on Sam as much as possible. We will find something this time I am sure, Max said, pointing forward. I had my camera fixated on him mainly because he was now at the head of the pack, though my lighting was the brightest thanks to still getting stuck with the lantern. I glanced around, but everything looked the same to me, but there was a noise like trickling water in the background… Even though I couldn’t see any droplets or a water source.

What is that? Whinny asked, looking ahead. Max and Adam rushed ahead to look at something, I couldn’t see it, and it was too dark for me to look ahead. Andrea, ` Donny and Cole stayed back with me, Cole being the last person in our group and the least like to ramble on. Cole is our British mute, well he wasn’t really mute, he just didn’t talk very much, and well, of course, he was British. I admired the fact that even though he got down into the dirt, he would still keep his blonde hair clean and his appearance was always perfect like he was suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. He was known for his research in the biochemical field and his part-time research in unusual flora and fauna. I met him when I was asking to be part of another trek in the Amazon Jungle, though we drank too much the night before and missed out on exploring some of the most amazing ruins. Strange enough the guise and the rest of the group went missing as well, they didn’t try to contact us at the base, and no one reported seeing them again… I don’t know whether I am that upset for not being there or whether I could have done something…

Anyway, we finally caught up to the other three and noticed that they had come across some sort of strange device, it looked like it made out of a stone wheel that was stuck in the ground and there was a rope wrapped around it. Max decided for some reason that the best thing to do was to touch it because when you see something that could be dangerous, the smartest thing to do is touch it. I watched as he reached the rope and it snapped, the two pieces jetted backwards, and the room started to vibrate slightly. At first, we had no idea what it was doing, and then we looked behind us to see that it was sealing us inside of the cave, with