The storm had been raging all night when Maya and Daniel finally reached the mountain.
Their friend Alex had disappeared two days earlier while exploring the area. Everyone had searched the forest, but nobody had found him.
Then Daniel noticed something.
“Look,” he said, pointing toward a narrow opening between two huge rocks.
It was the entrance to a cave.
Maya switched on her flashlight.
“Alex might be in there.”
They carefully entered.
The cave was cold and completely dark. Water dripped from the ceiling, and every sound echoed through the tunnels.
“Alex!” Maya shouted.
For a moment, there was no answer.
Then they heard a faint voice.
“Help…”
Maya froze.
“That was him!”
They hurried deeper into the cave until they found Alex trapped behind a fallen rock. His leg was injured, and he could barely move.
“You found me,” Alex whispered.
“We’re getting you out,” Daniel promised.
Together, they tried to move the rock, but it was too heavy.
Suddenly, they heard a deep rumbling sound.
The ground shook.
“An earthquake!” Daniel shouted.
Small rocks began falling from the ceiling.
“We have to get out now!”
Daniel and Maya pulled Alex away from the fallen rocks while the cave shook around them. They slowly carried him toward the entrance.
But the path they had used was blocked.
“We’re trapped,” Maya said.
Alex pointed toward a narrow tunnel.
“There was another way out. I saw it when I came in.”
They followed the tunnel, crawling through the darkness as more rocks crashed behind them.
Finally, they saw light.
They pushed through the opening and collapsed onto the ground outside.
A rescue helicopter spotted them minutes later.
Alex was taken to the hospital and survived.
When the rescuers later returned to the cave, they discovered something strange.
Alex’s backpack was still inside.
But beside it was a second backpack.
Nobody knew who it belonged to.
And inside that backpack was a photograph of Alex standing in front of the cave.
On the back, someone had written:
“You weren’t the first person to find this cave.”