Found

by Holly Hook

  Jaden nods and leans to the left passage. “This way.”

  We enter the corridor. The cave here gets so narrow that we have to sidestep through and hold our torches away so we don't burn ourselves. I find it necessary to take off my backpack. Weslie goes into panic breathing mode, but she manages to calm once the space opens.

  I really, really don't like this.

  I straighten up and look around. Baxter stands there like a silent, angry guard. Somewhere, water gurgles.

  “This place is huge,” Weslie says, holding up her torch.

  I turn and my feet sink into sand. We stand on the shore of some underground river. It bubbles and flows farther into the cave, reflecting the light of our torches back at us. The ceiling of the chamber spreads far overhead and stalactites the size of cars hang down, low and ancient. Water drips everywhere and the place smells of moisture. I train my ears, but hear nothing but the water. So far. The Dwellers can't be that distant. This is their element.

  Baxter rubs his hands down the stone, studying it. “The walls are devoid of ores here. This is a place they haven't grown to yet. That's good news for us. There might not be many creatures looking to eat it.”

  “Or this is a place that the Dwellers have already depleted,” I say, thinking of Antoine's lessons. “They might have eaten all the Flamestone here and moved on.” I like that thought. It means they might not come this way looking for a meal, at least.

  Weslie shrinks closer to us. “This river leads down even farther. How many miles in are we?”

  “We need to follow this,” Jaden says. “And I think we've walked seven or eight miles by now. The edge of the mines starts about ten more miles from here.”

  “I thought the mines were forty miles from Wompitt,” I tell him. My voice echoes back at me.

  “That one entrance most people escape out of is,” he says. He looks away from the light like he's ashamed to face me. “The mines are huge. There's more abandoned parts than parts in use. The Flamestone Society told me that their mines extend out to that forest with the giant trees.”

  “That's enormous,” I say. “I've seen one of the abandoned parts.” My legs tremble. I'm tired already. Hungry. Weslie doesn't look like she's faring any better. She hands Baxter the torch and cups some of the water in her hands. Drinks. I do the same. The water here is crisp and clean, at least.

  “We need to go,” Jaden says. He coughs. “I don't feel very good.”

  And then he leans over and throws up on the sand.

  Weslie jumps back. “Jaden, come on. Stop faking this.”

  He gags again and straightens up. “Does this look like I'm faking? You know how hard it is to barf on command? I didn't even stick my finger down my throat. It's kind of hard when your hands are tied. And my stomach is rolling.”

  “At least that didn't go in the water,” I say, turning away. I'm relieved that we still have a way to go before we reach the mines. Maybe walking around this cave is safer than walking outside. What time is it out there?

  I might never see the sun again.

  We walk down the river while Baxter walks behind Jaden. He doesn’t throw up again. Maybe the guilt is getting to him. The shore's sand, all right, almost as if this river has sunk right down into the ground. I can't tell if there are any fish swimming around, but I look. I know how to catch them now, at least.

  “This is weird,” I say. “Are those glowing mushrooms on the walls?”

  There's a faint blue glow up ahead. We're getting closer to it. The tunnel gets narrower and the stone around us stays smooth. I still see no signs of any ores. This is an area devoid of them.

  “It looks like it,” Weslie says. She sounds calmer now. More focused. Maybe the hope of light is helping her calm down a bit. Or maybe this cave doesn't remind her of the mines too much. There aren't any Dwellers yet or Megapedes. If she's right, the worst monsters are on levels below this.

  A few bats flap past us. I jump.

  “I hate those,” Weslie says. “Even though they didn't hang out in the mines too much.”

  “Are the bats here dangerous?” I ask everyone.

  “Not that I'm aware,” Baxter says. “Keep walking. I want to find Antoine and get out of here as soon as we can.”

  “We haven't seen anything really dangerous yet,” I say.

  Jaden leans against the wall and groans. “I really don't feel good, guys.”

  “I--” I turn to face him. We all stop right there next to the river, and next to a whole cluster of glowing blue mushrooms. Jaden's cast in a blue glow. He slumps against the wall, eyes about rolling up into his head.

  A wave of fear washes over me. He closes his eyes.

  “Jaden,” I say. I grab his shoulders while Baxter watches. Even Weslie draws close, but says nothing. “What is going on here?”

  He's sweating. It's cool down here and he shouldn't be.

  “Roll up your sleeve,” I say. “I want to see your tattoo.” What if the green Slimestone tattoos have a bad effect like the Flamestone ones do? The Flamestone ones are supposed to burn if the member spills the secrets of the Society on Earth. What if Jaden's does something similar? He had to spill his secrets to Ned and the rest of us. Maybe it's activated something to punish him.

  Jaden groans and holds out his hands. “I can’t do it.”

  So I do it for him.

  “Whoa,” Baxter says, backing away.

  The green spiral on Jaden's forearm is pulsing.

  It's disgusting. The spiral itself pulses up and down as if it's pumping something into him. The Slimestone. I never asked Antoine what kind of effects it has. I never really thought about the stuff, even if the Dwellers and the Megapede seem to be made out of it. I wonder if we cut open his tattoo if we'll smell that stench that filled the air when I killed the Megapede. I don't want to know the answer to that.

  “It's poisoning him,” Weslie says at last.

  “Poisoning me?” Jaden asks. He breathes hard. Sweat beads on his forehead.

  Baxter straightens up. “Then we need to hurry, before he dies,” he says. “The Flamestone Society set this up this way so he could never lead us to their captives.”

  Jaden sighs. He studies glowing mushrooms, takes a breath, and blinks.

  “I'm feeling a little better,” he says. “I don’t think I’m going to die. It’s just that…for a few seconds there I did.”

  I breathe a sigh of relief. I don't want to see someone die in front of me. Weslie's eyes are shiny with tears. She's done this before. I don't want to her to have to see it again, even if the guy in front of us did betray Wompitt. Even if she's not his friend anymore.

  Jaden stands up and brushes one of the glowing mushrooms. “I don't know what that was,” he says. “But I never want to feel it again.”

  “Are you sure you're okay?” I ask. He really is sick. I can believe him now.

  “I can walk. I'm fine.”

  Baxter waves us further down the river. “Come on,” he barks. “We find Antoine and we get out of here.”

  I want to add that we need to find Shawn and Talia and Travis as well. I'm down here for them, too. I'm finally doing something to help them. I'm not going to let Baxter keep us from that goal. If Weslie needs to return to the surface, I understand. Completely.

  We walk and Weslie holds onto Jaden's arm. He's still bound.

  “What did the Society tell you about your tattoo?” I ask.

  “They told me it would keep me from getting sick from the Dwellers,” he says. “It does that. I don't understand why they gave me a green swirl instead of a flame.”

  I think I have an idea. They didn't really trust Jaden and didn't want him as a full member. They're using him. He's a victim here just like the rest of us and he doesn't even know. They saw how vulnerable he was. How desperate he was to find his mother. They might not even have her after all.

  “Did they tell you anything else?” I ask.

  “No.”

  “Then we'll have to keep a
n eye on you. Let us know if you feel sick again.”

  We keep walking. The river keeps going down. Aren't these rivers supposed to surface eventually? It doesn't make sense that we keep going down. How far down are we now? A mile? Two? Five? I wave my hand through the air, but it's only gotten a little bit warmer since we started descending down from the main chamber.

  “We don't have too much longer,” Jaden says. “Don't you see where the river curves up ahead? After that, it's just a few more miles and we reach the entrance to the mines. I think.”

  I follow his gaze. Jaden's eyes are trained on something ahead, but all I can see is darkness. The whole cave slopes right down into it.

  “I think this is the river that cuts through where the miners sleep,” he says. “Well, eventually. The mine's still kind of far away, but I can't be sure. There are a lot of underground rivers in this place. And some lakes.”

  “Jaden, how can you see up there?” I ask.

  He looks at me like I'm asking how he can manage to eat or go to the bathroom. “You can't?”

  “No. I can't. Either my vision's getting really bad, or you know something that we don't.”

  “I can’t see a thing, either,” Weslie says.

  “I can,” he says. “I don’t get it.”

  I wonder if we're under the giant forest by now or even the giant river. What if we’re walking under where those Dweller nests were in the giant forest? The ones that Pit guided me through? We could be. Maybe the sun's going down and they're up on the surface, looking for us. Maybe they won't expect us to come underground with them.

  And where is Pit?

  Jaden sent him away on purpose.

  I hate the thought of never seeing him again. He'd work well down here.

  “But Jaden, how can you see?” Weslie asks, repeating my question.

  “I just can. I can see all the way up to where the cave curves. It's probably another mile down this slope here.” The water rushes faster as if urging us on. Go faster, it seems to say. This way. But the water can't care about our mission. We might not even make it back. It sure won't cry if we don't.

  Steven Wompitt tried this before. And failed.

  I wonder if he came this way and if we're going to run into his skeleton. And his friends' skeletons. Why didn't Ned go with him? If I had a sibling, I'd never let them come down here alone. Steven must have been so scared, being the first to try.

  What happened to him? Did he get caught and worked to death, or did the Megapede eat him?

  He's not alive now, that's for sure. Not if the mines are as bad as Weslie says. There's no way the Flamestone Society would have done anything other than put him in the deepest parts.

  And does Ned still want the arm of a Flamestone member? I never asked him.

  I hope not.

  Jaden squints and leans ahead. “There are more glowing mushrooms up there,” he says. “I remember passing those. It's a pretty big section of them, so we'll have enough light to see by. There's more of them the deeper you go.”

  Somewhere, more bats flutter. Their wings echo off the walls and make me jump. Weslie screams this time.

  “Quiet,” Baxter tells her. I'd forgotten he was there. “We don't want anything down here to find us.”

  “The worst monsters are much father down,” Jaden says.

  “You had better not be lying,” I say. I search for Weslie. I put her between Jaden and I, but she still doesn't speak. “It was bats,” I tell her. “That's all. They won't hurt us.” I never hated bats, but never loved them, either.

  “But we're heading downward,” she says. “These caves get worse the deeper you go.”

  We are heading downward. I squint, but I can't see the second patch of glowing mushrooms yet that Jaden speaks of. Maybe his eyes are better than mine.

  “I think we have another half mile,” he says. “Then the river turns left and goes down a bit farther.”

  “How far down are we?” I ask.

  Jaden shrugs. “I'm guessing a couple of miles.”

  “Is your tattoo still pulsing?” I ask.

  “It doesn't feel like it is.”

  I wonder if it has something to do with his improved eyesight. I'll see if he’s truthful in a few minutes.

  At last, I start to see the blue glow of more mushrooms. It's very faint at first, like some distant city in the night casting its glow on the sky, but it gets more bright the closer we get. At last, I can see what Jaden means: the river makes a sharp turn up ahead. The rock is still brownish here with no trace of ores, but where it turns, I see the first green streaks of Slimestone. We're heading into a deeper, and probably more dangerous, layer. I'm not looking forward to that part. To the creatures and toxic gases that are supposed to be lurking down here.

  “I told you,” Jaden says.

  We turn around the curve.

  “Whoa,” Weslie says.

  I stop and lower the torch. The rock farther down the river is more gray. Yes. We're heading into a deeper region. But there are also more glowing mushrooms here than I've ever seen in my life. The entire corridor is lined with them. They stick out of the walls like giant round shelves. The river cuts through, sparkling and reflecting the light. It looks like a river of magical blue energy, flowing towards some strange hub underground. It’s amazing.

  “Wow,” Weslie says. “This is cool.”

  And there's enough light here to see by. That’s even better.

  “Do you think we can extinguish our torches?” I ask.

  Jaden squints, his eyes adjusting to the light. Does something look off about them? I'm not sure. This are no stadium lights or anything. But something's off. “Maybe.”

  “I didn't want your opinion,” I say. “We won't all have bat sonar like you do.”

  “I don't know,” Weslie says. Her torch light mixes in with that of the mushrooms. It casts shadows under them and makes the entire cave look made of Swiss cheese. “We can see here, but if any Dwellers run through this, I don't think this is enough to hurt them. They do okay in dim light. Otherwise they wouldn’t have pulled Jaden through here. If he's telling the truth.” She glares at him.

  “I agree,” Baxter says. “We leave one torch lit. We should conserve them, but we also need to be careful. We need to guarantee enough to get back home.”

  “At least we know to follow the river,” I say.

  My stomach rumbles. There's a large, flat boulder free of mushrooms near by. “You think we should stop here and eat?”

  “I think we should,” Baxter says.

  Weslie looks at me. “Agreed,” she says. “It could be our last meal for all we know.” Then she winces at her own words. She could be right and none of us wants to admit that. “Let's see what Ned packed for us.”

  She sets her back down in the dim light. I stand there, listening for any Dwellers. There's just the flowing water. What if when night falls on the surface, they make another charge on Wompitt? They'll come up through this tunnel with another target in mind. It could even be one of us. Jaden could be lying. Maybe they're planning on weakening us, one by one, or forcing the residents of Wompitt to leave their town and chance the wilderness. I can't imagine such a huge group surviving for long out there when food is scarce.

  I stare ahead into the river sloping down. I set my pack of Flamestone down on the ground. At least the ground here isn't damp. This boulder is pretty dry.

  Jaden leans back on the rock. “I'm hungry now. I guess that means I'm feeling better.”

  “I hope so,” I say automatically. The water looks blue flowing away, like that blue lava I saw a video of when I was watching Facebook some time last month. That's been so long ago.

  “Jerky,” Weslie says. “It's better than nothing. I guess anything else would have spoiled.”

  “It would have,” Baxter says. “Now hand me some.”

  I'm really beginning to not like the guy. I can see why he and Ned get along so well.

  Weslie hands him a piece. I wonder if An
toine found the way to make this stuff. I wouldn't have any idea how to do it. Weslie gives me a piece and I go to work eating. I hope there's more food where we're going. I wonder if you can eat these glowing mushrooms. Antoine might know. I'm not going to risk it if I don't know for sure. They could be poison.

  “Want some?” Weslie asks Jaden.

  He sits on the ground. “No. I'm good.”

  “But you said you were hungry,” Weslie tells him. "You had better eat if you're going to keep leading us down."

  “I thought I was. Maybe I'm not. I'm good now.”

  I nod at Weslie. He's acting weird and we need to keep an eye on him.

  It takes me about five minutes to work through the piece of jerky. I chew and listen to everyone else eating. Weslie sits cross legged on the boulder next to me, staring down the river. At least there's a little bit of light here. My eyes have adjusted, but I don't have vision like Jaden says he has. The cave slopes down into more pale blue glow and beyond that, darkness. If I listen carefully, the water's making more rushing noises ahead. There might be rapids down that way. I hope we have dry land to walk on. The Dwellers must have had some if they brought Jaden down here so many times.

  I stare at him again. He's hunched over on the ground and I hear a loud crunch like he's biting into something.

  “I thought you weren't hungry,” I tell him.

  “I changed my mind.” He pushes my backpack away.

  My backpack. There's no food in there. I didn't see him reaching into the other pack.

  Something's weird. “What are you getting in my stuff for?” I stand.

  "You're getting in Elaine's stuff?" Weslie asks.

  I wonder if he's trying to steal something. But my Megapede jaw still sits in the back pocket. What if he's used it to cut his binds? I was stupid to leave my pack there by him. I circle the boulder to face him. I check his wrists, but they're still bound. “Jaden. What is going on here?”

  He's got a piece of my Flamestone in both hands. And he's biting into it. The dust crumbles down onto his tunic.

  “Jaden!” I'm shocked more than anything.

  He drops the Flamestone. His mouth falls open and I catch some of the residue on his teeth. My mind spins. It doesn't make any sense.