Camden

Another assignment for apologetics. This one was fun. I struggled with ending it. :D I just wanted it to keep going!


CAMDEN

“Ready?”
Maddie grinned at him and gave him a thumbs-up. “Ready. Are you?”
Camden swatted at several mosquitoes buzzing around him, and mopped off the sweat running down his brow in small streams. It had run down his neck and back, soaking his shirt. Maddie had decided to be nice and not comment sarcastically on how the dense jungle atmosphere was bringing out the best in Camden. Davin hadn’t been so nice. Maddie had stayed out of the heated argument that had followed after that. To be totally honest, the atmosphere, the heat, the bugs, and this assignment was bringing the worst out in all of them.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Camden replied to her question.
Camden looked up to their party’s third member and leader, Davin, and said, “Wheel us down.”
Davin started cranking the wheel, easing out slack in the rope attached to the vests Camden and Maddie had secured around their bodies. Holding onto the now taut rope, they walked down the steep walls of the cave that ran almost perfectly vertically to unknown depth into the earth.
It was almost an instant change of climate. As they made their way down into the cave, the air was much less humid, and it was cooler. The farther down into the earth they went, the colder it got. Camden felt chills crawl across his skin as his sweat dried.
The wall they were walking down suddenly jutted out and they cautiously followed it, the lights on their helmets sweeping through the vast space below them, looking for an end to this pit that felt like it could go on forever. Maddie kept looking down, looking for a floor to this thing, but she found none.
She felt Camden tap her shoulder and they both halted their descent. They had come a ledge in the wall. It jutted out a bit, then the wall resumed its course straight down. They steadied their feet on the ledge and rested for a minute. Looking around to see exactly how far the ledge extended, Maddie caught something in the beam of her head-light.
Was that…was that…?
Her heart started racing, pounding in her ears, as she carefully bent her knees to reach for the object. She picked it up, and tried to remember how to breathe. “Camden…”
He looked over at what she had, and a few words slipped out of his mouth. He reached over and took it from her. It was a flashlight that looked like it had been chewed in half. Blood stains covered the smooth plastic surface. There was no point in trying to see if it still worked. The entire bottom half had been brutally shredded off.
“How in the world…” he muttered in shock as he turned it over in his hand. “It must be from the party that went down before us a couple of months ago.”
Maddie looked over at him. “What in the world’s down here?” she whispered.
His face, illuminated in her head beam, told her his answer. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
They’d already had to deal with the rumors and myths of the native tribal people about this place. It came with the job. It was sacred and holy ground to the neighboring tribes. They held human sacrifices here every season in order to keep their god appeased. Most parties of investigators or archaeologists paid no heed to the warnings the tribes desperately forced upon them. And most of the members in all parties never returned. Davin had insisted they try a new way. All three of them had gone through enough to know most of the time rumors didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. There was always a seed of truth somewhere.
It was that seed of truth they needed to be able to discern, interpret, and act upon, Davin said. Be cautions, not paranoid. “We’re here for a reason,” Davin had instructed them before they went down. “We do have a mission in mind. But I don’t care what any government says. Your lives come first, before whatever treasure we’re supposed to find down there. If something happens, you get out of there.”
But Camden wasn’t about to give up yet – not so soon. “Come on,” he whispered. He didn’t know why they were whispering. This place demanded quietness. It practically shouted not to be disturbed. “Someone must have stumbled across something they weren’t supposed to. We have the warning, and now we know we need to be even more careful.”
They continued on down.
They could barely see the light of the hole above them by the time the floor came in sight. Long before they stepped foot down on ground once again, they halted and took a long, careful inspection. “Looks like sand,” Maddie commented.
“Yeah,” Camden agreed. “Swept clean. Pure white. Not many people have tracked through here.”
She gave him the Look. “That’s not funny.”
“I didn’t think so either.”
The coast looked clear, so they climbed down the remaining twelve feet and their feet were finally rested on the soft, smooth sand. If Maddie was expecting something to come lunging out of the darkness towards her throat the second her feet touched ground, it didn’t happen.
The cave now stretched to the right and left, and the ceiling would quite obviously get much lower. After some discussion and looking at an old, rough map that nobody knew for sure whether it was correct or not, the two decided to head to the right.
Maddie could stand up straight as they went along, but Camden had to crouch.
The further along they went, the more the chill on Maddie’s spine grew. She knew Camden felt the same way, because he was joking around. “Look’s like no one’s home,” he said, grabbing her arm when she tripped over something and almost went sprawling onto the floor. She steadied herself and they plunged on.
“That’s not funny, Cam.”
“Well, wouldn’t you agree? If they were, don’t you think we’d be down in the grave by now?”
“Well, I’d be in heaven.”
“I’ve known a lot of women, Maddie,” Cam scoffed. “And a lot of them would say the same thing. Some of them I can see in heaven singing in the angel choir, but not you. Good grief, I know you too well. You really think God would let you in heaven?”
She knew he was teasing, but it still hurt. Camden had been her friend for a long time now. He’d known the Maddie that drank and partied and did other things she shouldn’t do. He knew that even now she was struggling with breaking her smoking habit. He was also one of the few friends that had decided not to disown her when she “got religious.” He’d stuck with her, even though he commented all the time on how she had “gotten weird on him.” It got tiring, his teasing did, but he never deserted her, and she appreciated him for it.
“I still don’t see how you can believe in the existence of a God, Maddie,” he said as they walked on. “When evolution has proved itself time after time, and there are still people in this world like you who refuse to give up the old faith. Just accept the truth of it, Maddles.” She could hear the earnestness in his voice. “Science has proven the Christian God doesn’t exist. I know it’s nice to believe that there’s someone in control over all this mess we human beings are in, but it’s just…not so.”
She shook her head, and her light moved with her, jiggling from side to side with her head. “I’m sorry, Cam. But I have to disagree. Science has not proven that the Christian God can’t exist. God is omnipotent, and everywhere at once. First of all it would be impossible prove he doesn’t exist. But creationists have so much backup for God creating the world.”
“You talking about the Intelligent Design movement?”
“Well, it’s most definitely a start.”
“What grounds to they have for their beliefs?”
The air was still cold, but it was getting dry, stiff, and thin. It was getting more difficult to breathe. Maddie took slower breaths as she tried to explain. “You’ve been around enough to know how complex this world is, Camden. Everything hangs in a delicate balance. Stray but just a little from one side or to the other, and life as we know it would cease to exist. That’s a lot of chance in and of itself, but when you look at the numbers, it’s even more stunning. Take the earth for example. Say there are 1022 planets in the universe. The chances that our planet would form naturally by chance is 10138. That’s huge!”
“That’s just one example.”
“Did you major in a science?” she said sarcastically.
“Yeah, biology. Why?”
“You should know this. The distance of the earth from the sun. If it were just a little bit closer, we’d burn. If it was just a bit farther, we’d freeze. The size of the moon. If it were much larger than it was now, the tides would be way too big. The tilt of the earth is exact for the livable climates humans need. If the gravitational force were altered by just 10-38, the sun and earth would cease to exist. All of these are just a few examples of how precise our earth and universe have to be. The chances are not even imaginable. And yet evolutionists still expect the world to believe it all happened by random chance? That takes more faith than it does for me to believe in a creator God, Cam!”
“To tell you the truth, Maddie, I’ve thought about all this. And in my most honest moment of truth, like now, walking with you deep in the center of the earth, I would agree with you. It doesn’t make sense that evolutionists hold to their ideas.”
“So let me get this straight. You believe creationism makes more sense, but you don’t want to believe it?”
“Sort of.”
“Why?”
Camden opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, he stepped on something that crunched brutally underneath his weight. The breath was sucked out of both of them as he jerked back like a spring, grabbing Maddie and pulling her back as well. He searched the floor with his light, looking for the source to the sound.
There, wedged in the sand, was what had once been a complete human skull, before Camden had crushed it underneath his boot. He swallowed, and looked over at his friend. Maddie’s face was white, her eyes wide. “What was that you were saying about God?” he asked.
Her eyes flicked over and met his. “You’re scared of dying, aren’t you?”
He serenely nodded. Oh, the depth to that statement.
Maddie ached for her friend. She wanted so desperately for him to find the peace she’d only recently discovered. She slipped her hand into his, gave it a squeeze, then pulled away. They walked on, stepping on several other human bones along the way. A femur here, a hand with fingers there. Maddie just tried to ignore them, her eyes snapping shut each time she heard and felt a crunch underneath her boot. Camden was there, quietly breathing beside her, touching her shoulder every once in a while to let her know all was well.
“So what are some other evidences for a God?” he asked her after a while.
His voice, though hushed, sounded harsh and loud in the still air all around them. She had to force herself to speak up enough for him to hear her. “I’m sure you know about the oxygen levels in the air. There’s 21% oxygen in the air. If it was 25%, we would all blow up. If it were 15%, we would all suffocate.”
A sudden stench filled the air, and she almost gagged. They both stopped. Camden took in the air, but Maddie covered her nose. “Man, what is that?”
“I have no idea!” he whispered. He sounded amazed. “Man, there’s something strangely alive in a deathly way down here.”
Well, the live human sacrifices every season had to disappear somewhere.
What a pleasant thought.
“Hey, Maddie, look.” He touched her arm, and she looked to where he was pointing at the ground. There was a large, smooth stroke in the sand, almost like a ripple, only much larger, much wider, and a bit more shallow. It was about eight feet long, a foot and a half wide. There were more, too, suggesting something of much larger size. “What do you suppose that is?”
She recognized the pattern, but only on a much smaller scale. It made her heart race. “It’s a slithering snake track, Cam.”
“Then what’s that?”
Near the slithering tracks was a huge imprint, about twice the size of Camden’s head. Around the imprint were three pricks in the sand. Claws.
“This thing slithers and crawls at the same time?” Camden breathed.
“Cam…” Maddie said. Their eyes met and she knew they were both thinking the exact same thing: snakes don’t crawl. Other land animals don’t slither. What is this thing?!
“Well…” Camden straightened up again as best he could and motioned for them to keep on. “Life goes on. What about intelligent design itself? Any argument for that?” They started walking, talking even quieter now.
“Yeah. You remember that flashlight we found on the ledge way back?”
“Mm-hm.”
“When you were looking at that, did you ever consider that it had been there for ages, and through time it had just evolved alongside the rock walls?”
“Uh…yes. I did.”
She gave his arm a swat and he chuckled. “No, Maddie, I didn’t.”
“Why?” She answered her own question. “Because looking at that it was obvious that intelligence was behind the design of that flashlight. It was obvious someone made the parts specifically to go together, and then put them together in a pattern that made sense, that had a purpose, and that portrayed the intelligence of the creator. The earth is the same way.”
The stench was getting stronger with every step, more putrid, more rotten smelling. It became overwhelming. They had to stop once because Maddie vomited on the side of the path. Camden stood and held her hair back from her face until she was through, and they slogged on, despite the fear that was no longer settling as a chill in their spine. It was coursing through their whole bodies, surging through their veins and nerves.
“Are you afraid to die?”
Camden’s voice was soft, low, hushed. Maddie shook her head. “No, I’m not. You don’t have to be either, you know.”
His answer was even softer than before. “I know.”
Movement ahead of them. They both jerked to a stop. Camden’s light flickered, then went out. He swore under his breath. Two seconds later, Maddie’s did the same thing.
More movement ahead of them. Something was breathing. Something big.
Camden’s arm came out of the darkness and swept her back up against the wall with him. They stood there, trying to quiet their breathing, chests rising and falling with quick pants. The hair on the back of their necks was standing high, and their hearts were in their throats.
The thing moved again. There was a slight hissing sound, followed by a throaty growl that sounded like it came from deep within a monstrous beast of humongous size. Camden’s fingers brushed down her arm until they found her hand. Then his hand captured hers and squeezed. I’m here. You won’t die alone.
She squeezed back. I’d rather not die at all, but thanks anyway.
It hissed again, this thing they’d stumbled across that they couldn’t see, but could only hear, and easily smell. It was moving again, towards them. It could probably see them. If not, it could most definitely smell them.
Camden took a deep breath and closed his eyes, though the darkness was no different. And he prayed his first prayer. Okay God, I leave it up to you to interpret all that’s in my heart. I know the story, I know the steps. But I’m kind of running out of time to spell it all out. I think you know already. Maddie says you do. Let’s just leave it at this: I’ve been pushing you away for far too long. I’m done doing that. Oh, and one more thing. This he said out loud, so Maddie could hear him. “I’m not afraid to die, God.”
That just might be his first and last prayer.