Granger quickly approached, and then lowered himself to his knees, holding the lamp over the hole. A warm breeze caressed his slick face, and the smell of water was even stronger. It wasn’t the sharp tang of mineral salts that can build up at the edges of subterranean thermal pools, but more the smell of salt marshes, weed and exposed rock on a tidal edge.

It didn’t make sense. The Arctic Gulf waters were currently around ten degrees, but this smelled like tropical water, and besides, the ocean itself was miles away. Could there be a breach somewhere below him? But even that defied logic, as he must have been half a mile below sea level by now, and the pressure should have caused an upwelling. Where he was now, should have been submerged.

There might be another explanation – this was the home of the Bad Water. He squinted down into the hole, but could see nothing with his carbide lamp’s base shielding the illumination. He placed the lamp to the side, and pulled his pack off his shoulders so he could retrieve his flashlight. He lay flat and pointed the weak yellow beam downward. Nothing but more blackness, but he was sure he could hear the lapping of a surf, or perhaps it was the ocean sound one hears when pressing a seashell to their ear.

He got to his knees and shone the light in an arc over the cave floor; there were several more of the holes – Swiss cheese, he thought, with some trepidation. He rose to his feet too quickly, his knee knocking over the lamp.

“Damn it all,” he cursed and righted the lamp, but immediately smelt the unmistakable acrid odor of acetylene gas. He looked down at the simple brass and tin mechanism; it fizzed, and there was what he feared – a leak.

“No you don’t, you temperamental sonofabitch!”

Granger knew he had only seconds, and swung the lamp hard, flinging it to the end of the cave, and turned preparing to sprint for the crevice he had slipped through. For the briefest of seconds, he heard the clang of the brass and steel striking stone, before that small sound was quickly absorbed into the roar and flash of an explosion.

The blast was enormous, laying him flat, and before the first echo could reverberate, Granger felt a ripple run through the stone beneath him. He lay still in the utter darkness for a second, and then felt around the cave floor for his flashlight, thankfully locating it quickly. He placed the small string loop at its end over his wrist and then switched it on. The sepia beam swirled with dust.

The smell of burned gases, ozone, and choking dust were strong. Granger coughed as he got slowly to his feet, wincing at the pain in his knees, and knowing he was surely missing the skin on both.