Bones littered the hellish chamber. Thirteen skulls-some intact, some smashed-provided a possible indication of the head count. There were likely many more skeletons, William considered-from those who never made it to the shore, resting on the bottom of the underground lake. He cringed at the sight of what appeared to be a child’s femur; its attached foot-bone still wore a decayed sneaker. It was horrible enough for parents to think they had lost their child to drowning, yet it was better than knowing the truth of the situation-that their child died of starvation in an underground cavern, with the remains stirred about.
“I’m guessing he did this,” Betty said with conviction, pointing at the only completely intact skeleton-a man who appeared to have hung himself with shreds of fabric fashioned into a noose and looped around an outcropped rock along the cavern wall. “He probably went nuts, made all this mess, and then found his own way out.”
A wave of fear took grip, inspiring William to search under every outcropping in the cavern for an exit. Yet there were no visible tunnels anywhere, except for the large opening of the waterfall that had brought them in. Small spots of light entered the cavern from the center of the ceiling, some fifty feet above, through tiny cracks and fissures in the earth. “Look, the surface is right there,” he said, pointing up, while surveying the area for the best way to reach the top.
Betty watched with an amused smirk as William made several attempts to climb the cavern walls. He strained to grip the rocks, but the sides sloped inward-like a dome-so he couldn’t get more than ten feet up before stumbling back down.
Giant stalactites and stalagmites met each other in several places along the shore, providing the only smooth surfaces, which Betty took advantage of to rest upon. William, on the other hand, tried to scale several of the slippery stalagmites with even less success than he had with the cavern walls. He groaned as he slid onto the jagged rocks, swearing from the added cuts inflicted on his bare feet.
“If there was really a way out, there wouldn’t be so many folks who died down here,” Betty said, with her last words echoing, as if the chamber was confirming their fate. “But at least we have each other for company.”
William tuned Betty out, focusing his concentration on the waterfall. His gaze shifted to the underground cenote as an idea began to take shape. “Maybe there is a way out!” he said.
Betty looked his way with a raised eyebrow.
“The waterfall keeps dumping water in here. So why doesn’t it fill up this entire chamber?” he asked.
“Do I look like a geologist?” she asked, standing up. She moved near William by the shore.
William pointed at the cenote. “The water is draining off down there. There has to be another tunnel that continues out.”
“How does that help us exactly?” she asked.
“Because we have something that no one else ever had,” he said.
“What’s that?”
“Scuba gear,” he said with a proud grin. William rushed over to his equipment and checked the pressure gauge, cursing at it. “Look Betty, there’s only about four hundred pounds of air left in this tank. That may not be enough to get us through, but I’d rather die trying to get out of here than to sit here and die of starvation in this messed up place. There’s not enough air for me to check it out first by myself. We have to both go together… now.”
“Oh, I don’t know about this,” she said.
William pulled his scuba gear back on, manually inflated his vest, secured his mask to his face, and entered the water of the underground cenote. He clenched his teeth from the pain of the jagged rocks further digging into his injured feet. “Well, come on,” he hollered.
Betty just stood there like a statue, with a worried look carved into her face.
“Or what, you’d rather stay here with these skeletons?” William asked, as he slipped on his fins.
Her eyes opened wide. “Okay, let’s do this,” she said, and jumped into the lake.
William floated over to Betty and handed her his alternate regulator. “When you’re ready, bite down on this mouthpiece and just breathe. We’re low on air, so try to breathe as slow as you can. But don’t hold your breath. When you feel pain in your ears, just pop them… the same way you do on an airplane. Are you cool?”
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Betty asked.
William removed his mask that had begun to fog over. He spit on the lens, wiped it with his fingers, sloshed it around in the water, and put it back on. “Yeah Betty, my dad taught me to dive when I was ten. Now hang on to these straps on my vest and don’t let go. Just keep breathing, okay?”
Betty nodded, already breathing from the regulator.
William popped the primary regulator into his mouth and released the air from his vest. As the two began to sink, William spotted the skeleton hanging by its neck. It appeared to be staring right at him, giving him the chills just as they slipped underwater.
Beneath the surface, he jerked a glow-stick from a pocket on his buoyancy vest and cracked it between his hands, illuminating the area around them with its green fluorescent light. The sediment stirred up from the waterfall made it difficult to see very far ahead. He touched bottom at about thirty feet. He controlled his breath until neutrally buoyant and hovered with Betty until he felt a current pulling them along.
William turned and followed the current, having a hard time keeping his balance with Betty hanging on behind him. Giant stalagmites lurched out from the murky water, and he pushed off of the limestone pillars as they appeared in his path.
Out of the gloomy darkness, a faint red light materialized. Then it was gone. For a moment, he thought he had imagined it, but there it was again, even brighter as they neared it. The light went out again, and William wondered what could be causing it. When the red light illuminated again, an enormous snake charged at them with menacing eyes, mouth opened wide, about to swallow them whole!
William screamed through his regulator, paddling with his arms to back away from it. But then he relaxed when he realized that he had been startled by an elaborate carving of a serpent’s head at the entrance of the tunnel; the red light beamed out of its mouth. He caught his breath and allowed the current to suck them in through the serpent’s gaping jaws. William felt astounded by the discovery, thinking that it may be a significant archeological find, should they live to tell anyone about it.
Upon passing through the entrance, William had expected to see a rough tunnel, like the cavern dives that are well known in the Yucatan. However, what he saw before him, amidst the occasional blast of light, defied logic. A spherical tunnel, perhaps twenty feet in diameter, continued straight ahead into the darkness, like a gigantic drainage pipe. As the current pulled them forward, William slid his hand along the side of the tunnel, surprised by its metallic texture. He snapped his hand back after sensing a static discharge emanating from it.
The current moved them along without any effort, as though they were on a ride at Disney World. An entire section of the tube just ahead of them lit up with points of light spaced apart, lining the tunnel from top to bottom as far as he could see. Then it went dark again.
On the next interval they entered the brightest portion of the tunnel; it blasted them from all angles, flashing like a strobe light. Their velocity picked up as though they had been caught in a rip current. William strained his eyes to get a look at one of the points of light streaking past him. The objects appeared triangular, with light emanating from their crystalline structure. The light changed from red to orange to yellow. Its brilliance surrounded them until he could see nothing else but the light.
William kept his hands outstretched ahead of himself, fearing he might smash into something at the end of the ride. Several minutes elapsed, and he worried that their air would run out at any moment.
As they sped forward, he wondered how such a tunnel could be there in that remote part of the world. The lights flickered faster and faster, until an intense white flash forced William to shield his eyes from the glare.
Their speed slowed with the suddenness of a fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier. The brightness faded, and William opened his eyes. He let loose a muffled cheer, thrilled to see the sun gleaming through the silky blue of the surface above. They had escaped! As they ascended, William glanced back and noticed the same carving as before-a hideous face of a snake, with a pulsing red light beaming out of its mouth.
William shot a few bursts of air into his vest as they broke through the surface. He spit his regulator out and took in a deep breath. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
Betty still clung to William; her eyes were closed tight, and she continued to breathe from her regulator. William shook her to get her attention. “Betty, it’s okay.”
She opened her large green eyes, and a smile spread across her face from ear to ear when she realized that they were free. “You did it!” she said, hugging him tight to her wet body.
William laughed. “Yep, we made it, Betty. We’re back. We’re…” He scanned the dense jungle all around them, “…in another lake… in the middle of freaking nowhere.”
“But we’re out! Thank God!” Betty said, cheering to the sky.
William surveyed the landscape surrounding the lake, trying to determine the best exit point. “Over there,” he said, pointing to a rocky ledge protruding from the jungle. It looked like a boat ramp, the way it angled down into the water.
Betty’s expression changed from excitement to terror. “William!” She pointed over his shoulder.
William looked back and spotted three giant dark forms fast approaching on the surface of the cenote. “Alligators!” he said.
“Actually,” Betty said, back-peddling away, “they’re crocodiles.”
“Yeah? Well, actually, they’re coming this way!”
Betty swam as though she was trying out for the Olympic swim team and out-distanced William; he was slowed by the heavy equipment on his back.
The crocodiles closed the gap on William. As he sensed the collective wave of their approach, he managed to unbuckle and free himself of the scuba gear. He took a quick breath and dove under water to swim at a faster pace. A moment later, he surfaced right near the edge of the cenote, popped out, and scrambled up the ledge beside Betty.
Betty let loose a big sigh. “Oh, for heaven sakes, William, I thought they had you!” she said, gesturing to the crocodiles.
William looked back to the water and watched his equipment being ripped to shreds. A froth of bubbles blasted out from the tank through the severed tubes. “My scuba gear!” He groaned, while pulling his mask beneath his chin, remembering another detail. “Oh, crap,” he muttered.
“What?”
“The scuba tank was a rental. Now I’ll have to pay for that old tank too. My mom’s gonna be so pissed.” He ripped off his fins, glaring at the giant reptiles. “Still hungry? Here’s your damn dessert!” He threw his fins at them. The crocodiles pulled his equipment out of site beneath the surface.
“I’d say you got your money’s worth for the gear,” Betty said. “It saved our lives after all. Hey, I’ll pay you back for all that. It’s the least I can do.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “At least I won’t have to lug all that equipment back to the restaurant with us now.”
They climbed further up the rocks, a safe distance away from the unfriendly inhabitants of the cenote. William plopped down, still annoyed about losing all his gear. He removed his mask and glowered at it. “My mom doesn’t want me to dive anymore. She’s probably right… just gets me into trouble.” He tossed the mask over his shoulder into a nearby bush, thinking that he might give up scuba diving altogether.
Betty sat beside him with an odd stare. “Why did you have a rental tank if you weren’t supposed to be diving?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
William regarded Betty with a sneaky smile. “Yeah, about that… there’s not much else to do around here. I didn’t want to follow that particular rule.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. I’d still be down in that bonefilled crap hole!” Betty said.
William laughed at her remark and shook his head in disbelief. He picked up a small rock beside him and flung it into the cenote. While watching the ripples expand, he contemplated the impact of his choices in life, relieved that at least this decision seemed right. “No one’s ever gonna believe this story, Betty. I mean no one.”
“Yeah, and topped off by those God damn gators, no less,” she said.
“You mean crocodiles?” he asked with a wink, and they were both in hysterics, bending over with tears running down their faces. This went on for the next several minutes until they regained their composure.
After a long silence, Betty looked over at William with a thoughtful smile. “Why did you do it, Will? Why the heck did you come after me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t have a clue. I just felt… compelled to.”
“Well, it was a crazy thing to do,” she said in a scolding tone. “But I thank you, Sir.”
A warm breeze drifted by, causing the leaves in the palm trees above them to flutter, flashing the sunlight around them. It reminded William of the unusual tunnel. “What do you suppose those lights were down there?” he asked.
“Yeah, what was that?” she asked. “I had my eyes shut-thought it was a flashlight dangling by my face.”
“Oh… so I guess you didn’t see the giant snake carvings either?” he asked.
Betty just stared at him, scratching her head.
“This is an odd discovery, Betty… like X-Files odd.”
“Oh yeah, that’s a good show,” she said. William could see that she still didn’t know what he was referring to.
William became serious, realizing something very important. “Oh… my… God!” he said, jumping up.
“What is it?” Betty sprang to an immediate stance and scrambled away from the lake, as if she thought a crocodile had made its way over.
“They’ll think we’re dead,” William blurted. “Your husband already does. We need to hustle back before my mom gets any wind of this. It would devastate her.” He checked his watch. “It’s six-thirty. Hopefully, we can make it back before sundown.” He looked to the sky with a confused expression, squinting from the glare of the sun. “That’s strange.”
“What?”
“The sun,” he said, pointing at it. “It’s in the middle of the sky.”
“Well, of course it is,” she said. “Where did you expect to find it?”
“At this time of day, shouldn’t it be a little further down-closer to the horizon?”
Betty looked at the sky and shrugged. “Don’t know what to say to that, Will.”
They climbed further up the rocks, pushed aside the thick vegetation, and stepped into the shade of the tropical forest. “Look!” William said, pointing to the remnants of a trail overgrown by the jungle. “I bet this path leads back to the Cenote Azul.”
Betty became distracted by a mango tree nearby; its branches were hanging low to the ground from the weight of the ripened fruit. She maneuvered around the rotting mangos on the ground and plucked a couple of plump reddish-green mangos from a branch. “Hungry?” she asked, tossing one to William.
“Thanks,” he said, digging his fingers into the mango, the sweet juice squirting out. He tore it into two pieces and devoured the mango from the inside-out. Betty, on the other hand, ate her mango like an apple-peel and all.
When they finished their snack, William wiped his hands on his shorts and clapped them together in an inspirational manner. “Okay, let’s get going,” he said, and began marching up the trail. Every step accompanied a twinge of pain from his injured feet, but he tuned it out. He had to get back before his mom found out he was missing. William knew his mom would be upset for what he did, but there had to be some merit for rescuing Betty. He figured he might even make the news, and imagined his story going viral on the internet. That would get his girlfriend’s attention back, he thought.
“So where did you say you’re from?” Betty asked.
William slapped the side of his head to ward off a pesky mosquito buzzing in his ear, and then he whacked at one biting his thigh. “Right now, we’re staying at my grandfather’s estate in Calderas, but I grew up mostly in California,” he said.
“So your mom is Mexican?”
“Yep, and half Mayan, too.”
Betty picked up her pace and moved ahead of William, giving him a curious stare. “You don’t look Hispanic,” she said. “You have blonde hair and blue eyes.”
“I know. Everyone says I’m my dad’s little clone,” he said with his voice cracking. “They say the only thing I got from my mom was her blood type.”
“I’ll have to invite you and your folks over for dinner before you go back to the states. How long are you in town?” she asked.
Their walk slowed until they came to a complete stop, looking all around, unable to find the continuation of the trail. They retraced their steps and discovered where a fallen tree had diverted them off course. After climbing over the tree trunk, they rested there for a moment before continuing on.
“I’m not sure when… or if… we’re going back to the states,” William said with a mixture of sadness and frustration. “You see… my dad died last winter.”
Betty put her arm around his shoulder. “Oh, I’m so sorry, William. How did he…”
“A scuba accident,” he said, pulling away from her, blinking hard to keep his emotions locked down. “I can’t have my mom thinking the same of me. We have to get back.” He walked at an even faster pace up the trail.
“I guess we’re neighbors then,” Betty said, changing the focus of the conversation. “We live right here in Bacalar now, but I’m from lots of places.”
As Betty continued to chatter on about her life story, William replied with an occasional, “uh huh,” while focusing his attention on the trail ahead; he was more concerned about the lizards and snakes that darted by. In many places, the thick jungle vegetation obscured their path, and their progress slowed even more when they had to duck under and climb over fallen trees-a process that went on for a couple hours.
William tapped on his watch, wondering why it displayed 9:10; it was still light as day.
“When my folks heard that Burt and I were moving to Mexico, they let me have it-never liked the idea.” Betty bumped into William after he stopped suddenly.
“What’s the matter?”
“Be quiet,” he whispered, standing very still-gazing into the jungle ahead. Amidst the loud buzz of insects was a faint, rhythmic beat. “Do you hear that?”
Betty tilted her head and cupped a hand behind her ear. “Like what?” she asked.
“Like a drum beat,” he said. “Boom… k’boom… k’boom. Don’t you hear it?”
She shook her head. “Your hearing must be better than mine.”
“I think we’re getting close to the restaurant,” he said with a big smile.
They continued on for another hour until they came across a small cenote, about thirty feet in diameter, along the side of the trail.
Betty jumped into the lake with a big splash, drinking from the cool water while swimming in place. After the crocodile incident, William took a moment to survey the area for any dangers. Drenched with sweat, and itching from the mosquito bites that he had endured along their hike, he also plunged into the refreshing lake.
After satisfying his thirst, William climbed onto a rock and examined his feet; they throbbed with pain.
“Doesn’t look too good, Will,” Betty said, noticing the cuts and blisters on the bottom of his feet.
“Doesn’t feel too good either. How are yours?”
“Oh, don’t worry about my footsies. They’re hard as a rock,” she said, lifting a foot out of the water in his direction. “I’ve been hoppin’ around these parts without shoes for some years now. But you… we’re gonna have to do something about your feet.”
While William sat at the cenote’s edge with his feet soaking in the water, Betty went ashore and plucked several thick leaves from a nearby bush. She removed her shirt and walked topless over to the cenote. William’s eyes popped open, getting a good look at her figure. He turned away before she caught him staring. Betty grabbed a rock near the water’s edge and cut the bottom half of her shirt loose. She put the top half back on and tore the remaining pieces of fabric into thin strips. She sat beside William and snatched one of his feet from the water, putting it onto her lap. She laid a piece of the shirt over the bottom of his foot, followed by several layers of leaves, and secured them with strips of the torn-up shirt.
As he watched Betty occupy herself with his other foot, William couldn’t help noticing what great shape she was in. Although slender, with a nice figure, she also had firm well-defined muscles. He recalled how she had kept up with him on their long hike, and she seemed to have even more stamina than he did.
Betty finished wrapping his foot and looked up. William’s eyes jumped up to meet hers. “Everything okay?” she asked.
“Er, uh,” he blushed, removing his foot from her lap. “You’re doing pretty well through all this, for a woman your age,” he said, trying to say something to excuse how he had been staring at her body.
“A woman of my age?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
Betty laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll take that as a compliment. How old are you?” she asked.
William got up and walked around, trying out his makeshift shoes. “I’m… almost eighteen,” he said, lowering the pitch of his voice when he spoke.
Betty smiled. “I remember when I used to say almost.” She stood and brushed the dirt from her shorts. “My next almost has a big four in front of it!”
“No way!” William said. “I figured you were in your early thirties.”
“Yeah, nice try,” she said with a raised eyebrow.
“No really, you look great.” He found it hard to believe that she was even older than his mom.
“Well, thank you for that. I guess it’s because I go swimming every day. It keeps me young,” Betty said, brushing back her hair in an exaggerated way, like she was pretending to be a model posing at a photo shoot.
They snacked on some papayas they discovered near the cenote and resumed their journey up the jungle path. It occurred to William that he could no longer hear the drum beat that he had heard before, and he assumed that it meant the restaurant had already closed. He checked his watch, which read 10:03. “You know my watch is way ahead for some reason. What time do you think it is?”
Betty peered through the thick canopy of palm and mahogany trees overhead. “Hard to say… maybe four or five.”
“That’s what I’d guess too,” William said. Yet he recalled that is was almost 4:00 when he first went after Betty. He had been with her for five or six hours, which would mean that his watch was correct. As they plodded forward, he contemplated the time issue with a perplexed expression frozen on his face, recalculating the hours again to try to make sense of it.
A short distance ahead, the trail took on a groomed appearance. The jungle had been cut back, widening the path. Large rocks lined each side of the trail that extended far ahead. They stopped and hugged each other in celebration. William was certain that they would soon be back at the Cenote Azul.
Although exhausted, the excitement of the improved trail quickened William’s pace. He marched on with renewed energy to reach the end of his adventure, with Betty whistling a happy tune beside him.
After hiking another ten minutes or so, a paved road intersected the trail from their left. “A street!” William said, rushing to the man-made path. He stopped to examine the white road, reaching down to touch its unusual surface.
“What’s the matter?” Betty asked, noticing his look of concern.
“I’ve never seen a road this white before. It feels all… chalky,” he said, rubbing his fingers together. “Well, a road’s a road,” she said.
The white path had two options to travel. After a moment of hesitation, William chose to continue in the same direction that they had been heading. A pleasant smile crossed his face as he thought about how he would soon be back at his grandfather’s estate, in his airconditioned room, soaking his feet in a tub of cool water, and sipping on an ice-cold soda.
Upon rounding a bend in the trail, William’s happy mood dropped with the swiftness that venetian blinds shut out the light. Ahead of them was a horrific sight.
“What the hell!” Betty said, throwing her hands up.
“This… this can’t be real… can it? This must be some sort of bizarre tourist attraction, right?” William asked.
Along the side of the paved trail, William stared at a long pole sticking out of the ground, with what appeared to be, the decapitated head of a man; blood dripped and splattered onto the road below. William reached up and touched the tongue protruding out of its mouth. He snapped his hand back as though it bit him. “It’s real,” he said with certainty. He staggered, feeling dizzy.
“Are you okay?” Betty asked, grabbing his arm to support him.
William took some deep breaths until the lightheaded feeling passed. “I’m fine. I don’t do too well with…” he looked up again, wincing, “rotting decapitated heads on sticks!” he said, fighting off the urge to throw up.
Betty did a double-take at the trail ahead. “Oh, my God. William, look!” she said, pointing down the path; it was lined with dozens of heads on either side of the trail. William continued on, glancing up at the impaled heads above him, smelling the stench of rotting flesh in the air. The heads were of Mayan men; their foreheads sloped back, with scars and tattoos on their faces. Some had even sharpened teeth.
Vultures pecked away at the flesh. One bird glanced down at them as they passed, and then plucked out an eyeball, gobbling it up.
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Betty whispered. “I think we should go back.”
“There’s something up there-in the clearing,” William said, pointing ahead. A huge red building was visible at the end of the trail through the foliage.
Betty tugged at William’s arm. “Whoever did this probably lives over there. I don’t want to be added to this collection!”
“We have to see what’s going on here. We have to notify the authorities about this!” William insisted.
When they reached the end of the plaster road, William gawked at the structure ahead. “It’s a Mayan pyramid,” he said in a confused tone.
“It’s painted all red! I say we leave,” Betty said, trying to pull him back.
“Hold on. Let’s see if anyone is around.”
While they crouched behind some brush outside the clearing, William surveyed the area. He felt stunned by the beauty of the large pyramid; it was painted in a striking dark red, a dramatic contrast to the white courtyard that sparkled in the sun’s glare. He could see part of another large building up a hill, with thick vegetation surrounding it.
They waited for ten minutes, but no one showed up. A disturbed look began to cross William’s face as he studied the pyramid, noting its architecture. “I have a funny feeling that I’ve been here before,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“That pyramid… the design of it… the doorways at the top.” He looked around the clearing. “There’s something really familiar about this place.”
“I think you’d remember seeing painted Mayan ruins, William.”
“I’m going up there-to the top of that pyramid. I need to check something.”
“Are you insane?” Betty said, grabbing his arm.
“I have to know for sure,” he said, pulling away. “I’ll run up there real quick and come right back. Just stay here, okay?”
“Like I’m going anywhere,” she said, sinking deeper into the brush.
William bolted from the cover of the jungle and sprinted to the pyramid, glancing around as he ran, half-expecting someone to chase after him. He reached the base of the pyramid and paused for a second, struck by the building’s perfection-not a single chipped or eroded stone-stuccoed and painted like… his eyes grew wide at the thought. He scrambled up the steep stairway. Upon reaching the top, he went to the entrance at the far right and looked up, mouth agape, staring in disbelief at the engraving on the three wooden support beams above the doorway. “That’s impossible,” he said.
Moving further inside, he studied the narrow chamber. Square openings along the back wall cast light in the shadowy corners where decorative animal masks were hanging.
He heard Betty calling for him. As William exited the chamber, she had just reached the final steps at the top of the pyramid; a frightened look was affixed on her face. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
“They’re coming!” she blurted. “I heard their drums down the trail.”
He cocked his head to listen. “I hear them too.” He grabbed Betty’s arm, pulling her inside the chamber just as men poured into the courtyard below them.
“I told you this was a stupid idea!” Betty said. “Now we’re really in a pickle.”
“Quiet!” he whispered, and peeked around the entrance for a better view.
More than a hundred men wearing loincloths and colorful feathered headdresses marched from the jungle’s edge into the courtyard. Moving in two separate columns, they formed a big circle in front of the pyramid. As they came to a stop, they each turned to face the center and aimed their spears skyward.
“What’s happening?” Betty asked.
He turned to her and slumped against the stone wall, letting out a big sigh. “I have been here before, Betty. I was here just a few days ago with my grandfather.”
“What are you talking about?”
A thumping noise drew his attention back outside, where he witnessed the warriors smacking the bottom of their spears against the hard plaster floor in unison, while at the same time chanting, “Chun… chun… chun.”
Another group of men emerged from the jungle with exaggerated headdresses. Behind them, a dozen men wearing only a loincloth carried a litter supporting a man who was likely their leader, William assumed. He wore a feathered headdress of a jaguar’s head, and he was covered in jewelry that sparkled as he approached.
The warriors continued to chant, “Chun… chun… chun…” They thumped their spears against the floor while the leader was carried to the center of the courtyard. After setting the litter down at the base of the pyramid steps, a dozen warriors moved in, forming a semi-circle around the leader.
“What do you mean you’ve been here before?” Betty asked.
William turned to face her. “This place… these are the ruins of Dzibanche… not far from the Cenote Azul. We’re standing in the Temple of the Lintels.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“The carvings on the support beams are the same,” he said, pointing at the ceiling near the entrance. “But these aren’t ruins anymore. There should be a freaking parking lot down there!”
“How can that be?”
“Betty, I have an idea about what’s happening here, but it’s gonna sound crazy.” He paused, becoming distracted by the events in the clearing.
The leader stood atop his litter with his hands raised high. All the warriors dropped to one knee, their spears still aimed up. As they continued to chant, the leader reached into a basket at his feet and pulled out a severed head, holding it by the hair. He displayed it proudly, resulting in an immediate cheer from the warriors. The leader placed the head back in the basket like a precious gift, and he began to speak to his men.
William looked back to Betty. “He’s saying something about an important victory.”
“You speak Mayan?” Betty whispered.
“A little… you know, from my mom. I spent lots of summers down here. It sounds like Yucatec-Maya.” He strained to listen. “But the accent is a little different.”
Rowdy cheers, spears thumping, and boisterous chanting accompanied the leader’s long speech. When he finished his sermon, he gave a signal to one of his men, who blew into a large seashell that sounded like a low-pitched blast from a tuba. With the timing of a chorus line, the warriors stood and shifted their spears to their left hands before resuming their collective thump of spears against the floor.
“What’s going on?” Betty asked.
“The victory is somehow internal to this city. I heard l’aak’tsilil… family. Like a family conflict, maybe?”
“Nice family.”
A gap opened in the crowd, where a group of men were dragged in by the ropes tied around their necks. William felt sorry for the unfortunate captives, as they were whipped along their backs and legs to prod them forward. One of the captives seemed much shorter than the others… he was just a boy! William bit his lower lip, fighting back the urge to yell out when they hit him.
With the captives gathered in the center of the courtyard, they were forced to their knees. They all kept their heads down, except for the boy; he glared at the leader with a hatred that was visible from the top of the pyramid.
Another bellow from the seashell trumpet signaled the warriors to kneel again. The leader raised his hands and spoke like a priest blessing his congregation.
William cupped his hand behind his ear to hear better. “He’s saying something about a division in the royal family. That on this day the Gods will conclude, or…” He paused, thinking for the right word for chuup, “…solidify. Solidify the family division… make the kingdom complete…” He cringed. “Oh, God.”
“What?” Betty asked.
“He’s telling the captives how their sacrifice will empower the kingdom.”
With a final seashell blast, the prisoners were taken away. The leader and his entourage took a different path out. Another man stepped forward, snapping orders, and the remaining warriors dispersed in various directions.
William turned back to Betty with a frightened look.
“Well, what is it already?” she asked. “What’s going on here, William?”
He looked up, thinking back. “That tunnel with the lights… it got us out of the cavern, but…” He stared into Betty’s green eyes.
“What?” she demanded.
“I think it brought us back to the time of the ancient Maya.”
Betty’s jaw dropped, and she was left speechless. William stood frozen in his own thoughts as well, gazing out into the setting Yucatan sun.