From the corner of your eye you see the one in front of you winding up to leap. You crouch down, put one foot on the wall, and leap hard. Six feet is a lot of distance to cover without a running start. As the lizard leaps at you, you push off hard and fly over the lava. The heat is even more oppressive as you pass over.
You reach the far wall and hit it hard, and start to bounce off. You also find your left foot has no traction. As you start to fall, you desperately throw yourself sideways onto the ledge, which amazingly stops you from slipping into the lava.
One of the lizards tries the jump, and makes it, but cannot grab onto anything. It slips and falls into the lava.
You crawl. Slowly, deliberately, but steadily deeper into the passage that leads away from the lava flow. The lizards do not try to follow you.
The next few hours are hell. Your head is pounding from the heat, and you have several moderate burns. Your vision is blurry from the smoke, and you've developed a nasty cough, which more than once has made you drop to your knees. The only good thing is that the lizards appear to have given up their pursuit of you.
As you feel another coughing fit coming on, you slump against a wall to rest and turn off the lamp to conserve its battery. As you do, you notice that the cavern does not get as dark as it usually goes. There is some ambient light. You blink several times to clear the dust from your eyes and pan around. It seems to be coming from a side channel a few feet ahead. Ignoring the cough, you stand and continue around the corner. As you do, you feel a breeze of fresh air. Along one side of the tunnel is a thin crack that's letting in light. You kick against the thin stone and it cracks away. You do this again several times and quickly form an opening large enough for you to fit through.
You are up on a hillside. Within a few minutes, you are able to spot a stream and pond as landmarks to get your bearings. The village is a few hours away, but you can at least get to the road before it gets dark if you're fast. The exhilaration of escaping the tunnels makes you forget the cough and fatigue, and you head back home. Not the most enjoyable of explorations, but one that you lived to tell.
The End.