The warnings of the park rangers meant nothing to the young adventures. They had warned them of the dangers inside the caves, of the paths they must stay on at all times, but the group refused to listen.

            The group of young men were a bit odd; An average height yet extremely intimidating man – no more that twenty-five years old - taking position of the group’s leader, a man of equal height with an oddly attractive face – the park rangers joked about giving him a long wig and sticking him in a crowd of women. No one would know the difference. Two men – not even twenty years of age – that never left each other’s sides and gave off the feeling that they were probably brothers or best friends, another boy who was no more than five feet seven inches tall, and another who followed behind the others and towered to six-feet one inch in height – which threw off the rangers because, well, how often do you see a teenage boy of far eastern decent grow to that height?

            The two middle boys stood as close as they could together, the slightly more attractive one complaining of the damp and smelly air around them and the other one quietly listening to the rant. The most attractive of the group whined as well about the possibility of bats flying over his head and nabbing at his hair and possibly clawing at his face – which even he himself described as handsome and flawless in all aspects.

            The shorter boy and the leader of the group were silent aside from when the leader gave orders of where to step and how to move to avoid certain obstacles, which all but the tallest boy easily avoided.

            The tallest boy’s shirt read in big bold letters “Z-E-L-O”, his nickname, along with his birth year, 96, printed below. He answered by that name to everyone other than the group, who called him by his birth name.

            He was all for obeying his elders or superiors, but something made him want to stray from the laid path and explore the hidden parts of the cave system like he would frequently do in his video games, the only disappointing part being the unlikelihood of him finding zombies or skeletons walking around trying to hunt him down.

            He used his badgering brothers as a chance to escape, not wanting to listen to the second eldest gripe about his hair any longer. He slipped between to elevated rocks and into an opening on the side of the original trail. His vision strained against the pitch-black darkness and he was forced to put his hands in front of him as guides seeing as he had no one to direct him past anything or to tell him when to duck underneath low cave ceilings.

            The air was tainted with the smell of decaying rats and other small mammals that had ventured through and never found their way back to the light. He used a facial mask he had stolen from one of the middle children and used it to shield his mouth and nose from the smell and foul air.

            The smell soon become overwhelming even through the mask and he decided to turn back and find his group. He made it only a few feet before he hit a wall and stumbled back where his head hit a low break in the ceiling and scared a few resting bats into fleeing to find a new spot. He groaned lowly and turned back to find a new route to take, hoping to somehow break free.

            He heard a soft voice ahead of him that sounded similar to the shortest of the group and he directed his path towards it, calling out to the boy. “Jongup!” He shouted through the mask, coughing as his throat filled with dust from the cave walls. “Jongup, wait up!” He coughed again and quickened his pace.

            “Junhong?” The voice called back but was slightly higher and strained in tone instead of the quiet but deep-ish tone he usually spoke in.  “Junhonggie, where are you?” Zelo cringed at the nickname.

            “I don’t know where I am.” He coughed more violently than before, more dust and smoke filling his lungs. He saw a bright flash ahead of him and he almost instinctively ran towards it surprisingly without running into any walls or low breaks.

            The air grew warmer with every second, hotter and hotter as he ran with smoke bellowing out towards him and filling his lungs. Out of the corner of his eye, he was able to catch a glimpse of flames rising from his arm bringing the smell of burning flesh with it. He diverted his attention back to his front, running towards the flickering and blinding light ahead of him. He knew what caused the light, but nothing could stop him. Something drew him in.

            “Help me!” His brother’s voice rang through, deafening the boy but bringing him closer. “Help me, please!” He ran faster, choking and crying out as he ran towards the voice.

            “I’m trying!” His cries were weak but loud enough to be heard on the other side of the tunnel. “Come towards me!” He struggled more and more with each step, his legs growing weaker and the flames engulfing his body and sending off a stronger smell now mixed in with the smell of burning hair, but he felt nothing. His body became numb and his balance was lost, his foot catching a rock and sending him tumbling out of the cave into the bright daylight where his group and park rangers met him.

            “Are you alright, son?” The guard helped him to his feet and straightened his clothing which was oddly intact. “You weren’t supposed to leave the marked trail.”

            He stood quickly and latched onto the park ranger’s uniform, tugging him in the direction of the cave. “There’s a fire! My brother is in there!”

            “Sir, what are you talking about?”

            “The group I came here with,” he tugged the man but he didn’t budge the slightest. “My brother must have left and got caught in the fire!” The rangers furrowed their brows.

            “Son,” the ranger in higher ranking dress stepped forward and rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder – his hand having to reach pretty high given their wide ranged distance in height. “You came here alone today.”

            Zelo stepped away from the rangers and shook his head. “I came here with them!” He furiously wiped at the ashes that still resided on his face and coughed with a cloud of ash and smoke puffing out in front of him. He wiped at his eyes and struggled to refocus, his vision clearer than normal which surprised him a bit more than it should have. Although, his reaction wasn’t based only on his vision, but more on his burnt body which lay in front of him on the ground with the two park rangers from before standing over him and carefully covering him with a black fire blanket.

            As cops and medics arrived, he moved in closer to see himself. He sat on the ground as they folded the blanket to be even with his chest for a better examination of his face and possible identification. Above his shoulders was least effected by the flames; his hair wasn’t as badly burned as he had expected it to be, and his face seemed to be untouched aside from a few minor burns around his eyes.

            It was ruled a suicide by the park rangers and police upon hearing the rangers’ stories.

            Over the course of four years, his group had visited the caves five times, each time being accompanied by the death of a member. During the first visit, the two middle aged boys had wandered off together and gotten lost before a fire was started by a smoker on the far other end of the cave where he had thought he could violate the no smoking laws set by the park without being caught. The area of the cave was always dry unlike the other parts of the systems and was more vulnerable to fires due to the dry atmosphere and litter that previous visitors had disposed of using the lack of light to their advantage. Both boys had been caught in the fire. Neither of them survived.

             The next year, the group came back on the anniversary to pay respect, but the cave had not yet been closed off from visitors. In the grieving, the second oldest member of the group ventured off alone and started a fire with a torch lighter and a bottle of alcohol he had smuggled in with him. He perished.

            Soon after the funeral of his friend, the group’s leader met the same end, claiming that it was all too much for him to handle before sneaking off into the caves and creating a fire in the same way the last boy did.

            The remaining two boys, the youngest ones of the group, returned as well to pay their respect. It wasn’t until Zelo reached the end of the caves that he realized the older boy had disappeared and ran back in a rush to save him. The boy called out to Zelo, wanting to abandon his plan of suicide out of fear. But by time he had reached the fire, the park rangers had beat him and pulled him away from the inferno, telling him it was too late to save the other. It explained why Zelo heard his cries before he himself perished.

            “You finally came,” a deep voice spoke from behind him. He turned around and stood to see the boys who had taken their lives in the previous visits. “It only took a year, but you finally came.”

            “I didn’t want to end my life,” he confessed, looking back at his body.

            “Neither did I,” the smallest boy smiled and stepped towards the body. “Even before I attempted it, I didn’t want to do it, but the pain came over me.”

            “But when I came in here, you were all with me; the rangers even spoke about us.”

            “We all had the same memory,” the eldest spoke. “We experienced what they did,” he gestured to the middle boys who stood as close as they could to each other. “Only the fire was different for us all. You went in to rescue Jongup.”

Zelo looked back at his body and closed his eyes, sighing heavily before looking back at the other’s with a faint smile. “So I’m dead now?” They nodded. He smiled a bit more as the leader stretched awkwardly to wrap an arm around his shoulder. “Dead or not, I’m hungry. Buy me some cherry tomatoes.”