Rest Stop

We squeeze through a narrow opening in the wall. It is very dark in the cave.Only tiny amount of light shines in. I have to brush up against the wall just so I have some clue of where I am. I carefully rest Olivia against the wall, and I sit down beside her. It is a troubling that we are almost completely in the dark in an unknown area. My hearing is fortunately exceptional, so I can still keep vigil. That's a good thing. One of us should stay alert, and it should be me. Olivia's light is fading fast. She needs the rest. She rests her head on my shoulder and nods off. I stare out into a dark void and listen to her breath. All of the sudden the cave is illuminated. Her sleeping is recharging the pink bubble. Not only is it acting as a space heater, but there is some sort of electricity coming out of it. Shining on our surrounding. I can now fully see the entire cave. It is nothing spectacular, but this is amazing none the less. I view my surroundings. There are countless tally marks up and down the cave walls. I don't know if they signal months, or days or years. I look at the marks closer. One can almost smell the sadness and despair. "Wow." I think to myself. "I see you've made yourself at home." I hear a disgruntled voice yell to me. I turn around to see a skeleton standing at the entrance with his hands on his hips. " I pointed this place out. You could have at least dug me out of the ground." I stare in awe. "Yeah, that's right I'm a skeleton. And you know what skeleton's don't have?" "No." "They don't have muscles. So it was extremely difficult to dig my way out of the snow." "I'm sorry, I had no idea you were alive." "Alive?" The skeleton's eye holes widen a bit to suggest a surprised expression. "Animated, maybe, but alive, no." "I had no idea, you were animated." The skeleton gazes at the tally marks on the wall. "It's ok, you're hardly the first person to make that mistake." "What do you mean? I ask. "You see the marks on the walls?That's all the people who came before you." My heart skips a beat. "You've seen all the travelers die?" I ask. "Maybe not all of them, there might have been some before me." I try and find a silver lining. "Maybe this is good though. Maybe this means that all the dead travelers are animated skeletons like you and you can all give us advice." The skeleton scratches his skull. "Life advice?" He asks. "No advice on how to survive this mountain." "Oh, yeah I would't count on it." "Why not?" I ask. "Because I haven't seen any other skeleton's around. And I've been here a very long time." "Ok, well, you could help us." "I don't really like helping people. But I could tell ya some jokes." I stare at him in bewilderment. "I think it's a good idea too." He says. "Let me get my smokes first. They're buried somewhere outside" I continue to look at him in disbelief. "I was walking, minding my own business and all of a sudden I get buried in an avalanche." He pats me on the back. "I'll be right back." He starts to walk away. He spots Olivia resting and turns to me. "By the way, your girl's cute. I like her mask." He then exits the cave in search of his smokes, and some killer jokes.