Scouts

by Shannon Greenland

  I don’t immediately move. Climb up on his shoulders? That means I’ll be touching him.

  Scarlett pushes past me, fluffing her blond hair as she does. “I’ll do it.”

  Edge’s lips quirk into this puzzled smile, like he has no clue why I’m frozen. I watch as Scarlett wraps her spandex-covered legs around his neck and he lifts her up high.

  She gives a little squeal that snaps me out of my nervous haze, and I scowl up at her. Hey, that’s supposed to be me up there!

  Squinting, she peers out across the field of sugarcane. “I see the other side. But it’s a really long way. I can’t see anything to the right or left.”

  Edge lowers her back down, and she takes a bit too much time climbing off.

  “Well, all right, then.” He picks up Hoppy and starts off through the towering stalks. “Here we go.”

  We fall into a sort of hodgepodge clump, with Edge leading the way and all of us using our arms to move green and brown stalks and leaves aside, making our way through the field.

  “Ow!” says Fynn.

  Over his shoulder Rocky shoots him a look. “Well, don’t walk behind me if you don’t want to get hit.”

  Fynn flips him off, Rocky ignores it, and I sigh.

  Scarlett cringes. “Ugh. This is awful.”

  “How much farther?” Beans asks.

  Why is he asking that? He’s the one with the compass.

  “Ow!” This from Fynn again.

  “Well, stop walking behind Rocky,” I snap at Fynn before realizing I just took Rocky’s side again.

  Sigh. Okay, next time I’ll take Fynn’s.

  A few more minutes go by, and I wipe a bead of sweat trailing down my neck.

  Rocky turns to look behind us. I follow his gaze to see nothing but cane, and my nerves frazzle a little. I don’t like that I can’t see the other side. I don’t like it at all. What if this is like one of those weird mazes and we never come out the other end? I really hope Beans knows what he’s doing.

  A shadow rolls by and dark clouds move in.

  Beans nudges me, and I glance over to see him put his finger to his lips. He points over to the left, where—tucked between stalks and embedded in the ground—there lies another one of those silver balls, with matching dust glittering on the ground and on some of the surrounding stalks, too.

  I nod for him to go get it while the others keep moving forward, and Beans tiptoes over to the left. This sphere is smaller than the first one, but just as bright and smooth and silver.

  Beans takes his pack off and rummages inside. I glance quickly forward to see the back of Rocky. A few more steps and my friends will be out of sight. Back to Beans as he picks up the object with a pair of his underwear.

  Gross!

  He wraps the sphere and places it inside his backpack and then makes his way back over to me.

  “Um, underwear?” I ask.

  He shrugs. “I saw that Edge didn’t touch the first one, so I figured I’d better not touch this one.”

  “Yeah, but underwear?”

  “What? They’re clean.”

  “Annie!” Edge yells urgently. “Beans!”

  “Coming!” we yell back, and take off in the direction we think their voices are coming from.

  CHAPTER 15

  Too many minutes later and after several rounds of Marco Polo, me and Beans finally catch up to the others.

  And they’re not happy.

  In fact, all of them are giving us the same disciplinary faces that teachers tend to give.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. “We got sidetracked.”

  Edge turns around and stalks off. “Well, don’t get sidetracked again.”

  I stick my tongue out at him and it makes me feel a little better. Though I don’t like Edge being irritated with me. My friends being mad at me is one thing, but Edge—I don’t know, it’s different.

  On we trudge through the field with Beans checking the compass every now and then. I don’t know how much time passes, but it seems like ages.

  “Are we sure we’re doing okay?” I ask.

  Edge pauses and glances over to Beans, who nods and says, “Lift Scarlett up to double-check.”

  Edge motions to Scarlett, and she happily goes right up onto his shoulders. I might have climbed up there this time if he’d asked.

  “The other side’s just over there.” She peers straight ahead, then to the right, then behind us, and then to the left. “Oh, my God,” she whispers, pushing at Edge’s shoulders. “Let me down. Let me down!”

  Immediately he does, and she scrambles to hide in the stalks, motioning us down, too. “Th-th-there are men,” she whispers. “They’re dressed in that military camo stuff.” She points to the left. “That way. A whole group of them.”

  I give Beans a worried look.

  “What are they doing?” Edge quietly asks.

  “They’re walking through the stalks just like us.”

  “They’re after it, too,” Beans says. “They’re the ‘others.’ Whatever fell must be really important if the military’s after it, too.”

  I think of the two silver balls we have. What will the military do to us if they find out we have them? Do they even know about them? Do they know about the silver dust? Surely they have to. They’re the military.

  The area around us darkens, and I glance up to see more murky clouds drifting in, some even pitch-black. A cool breeze blows through the stalks, sifting them, and what’s left of the sun completely disappears behind the mess in the sky.

  Rocky gets to his feet. “We better go.”

  Sprinkles of rain begin to lightly splatter, and keeping low, we continue moving through the stalks. Just as we step free from the field of cane, a wild bolt of lightning tears through the sky, and we take off toward the woods in front of us. Thunder cracks the air around us, and we yell. With bad storms they say the heavens open and rain pours, and that is exactly what happens next.

  “This way!” Edge yells over the storm, and sprints into the dark woods carrying Hoppy.

  Rain saturates my sneakers, and I slip and slide and squish my way behind Edge. Thunder cracks louder than the first time and it propels me into a full sprint. Edge races up a hill, ducks beneath a clump of trees, and disappears into a big opening cut in the side of the hill. I don’t think twice about following. Neither do the others.

  We flick on the three flashlights we have left, and though I entered the opening bent over, I discover I can stand to my full height. In front of me, Edge has to stay hunched over, as do Rocky, Fynn, and Scarlett, but Beans and I can pretty much walk upright.

  We stop to catch our breath. “Do you think they saw us?” I ask.

  Edge shakes his head. “Doubt it. That storm’s crazy. They’re probably also running for cover. Let’s get moving. I know where we’re going.”

  We shuffle farther into the darkness and enter another cave. Actually—I glance around—we’re in a big tunnel. About four feet wide and I’d say about as tall as Mom, and she’s five three.

  Beneath my soggy sneakers trickles a teeny-tiny trail of water. The walls aren’t “live,” to use Beans’s term. No mud or softness. I reach out and touch them. They’re hard and shiny and slick. Like black rock. Shale—that’s what it is.

  “What if they come this way?” Fynn asks.

  Edge lets Hoppy down to walk beside us. “I don’t think we need to worry. Unless you’re a local, you don’t know about these caves.”

  “Yeah, but if they’re the military, they probably have satellite imaging and stuff,” Beans says.

  “Maybe. But the good news is that these caverns will keep us dry from the thunderstorm, and we’ll still be heading in the direction of the meteor. Like I said, I know where we’re going.”

  “You said ‘good news.’ What’s the bad?” Fynn asks.

  “Bats.”

  “What?” Scarlett yelps.

  I spin my flashlight onto her at the same time Edge says, “Lower your voice.”

  �
�No.” She shakes her head. “No.” And starts backing away toward the entrance.

  “Scarlett,” Edge says again. “It’s no big deal. Just keep your voice down.”

  She backs up some more, still shaking her head. Something behind her catches my attention. I flash my light and see the background more clearly. There’s a fork. A second tunnel. The one on the right looks strange. Darker than the one on the left, which is the one we came through.

  I reach for her. “Scarlett, stop.”

  “You can’t make me!” She turns.

  And she runs.

  “Scarlett!” I yell as she takes the wrong fork. “Not that way!” But she disappears into the darkness.

  I don’t think twice as I take off after her.

  “Annie!” my friends holler, and their voices echo through the tunnel.

  My flashlight catches a hint of Scarlett’s blond hair and I run faster. “Scarlett!”

  Her hair vanishes, and what can only be described as a bloodcurdling scream rebounds back to me. My guts clench with utter fear. Then my toe catches on something, and I trip and roll, and suddenly I’m sliding down a black, muddy chute.

  Terrifying darkness engulfs me, and my arms and legs flail to grab on to something. But I’m going too fast! And oh, my God, what’s at the bottom? Sharp rocks? Hungry cave animals? Water? “NO-O-O!”

  CHAPTER 16

  I land hard on my feet, and the jarring ricochets through my bones. My feet slide out from under me, and I plunk down onto my butt straight into something thick and gunky. All the air leaves my lungs, and I gasp it right back in, realizing I’m alive. I’m alive!

  I hear crying. Scarlett’s somewhere nearby.

  I blink. And I blink again. What happened to my flashlight?

  It’s black. So black—I hold my hand in front of my face—I can’t even see my fingers. Blood races through my body, and the beat of my pulse throbs in my ears. My senses prick to high alert, and I yell, “Help!”

  “I’m here.” Scarlett whimpers. “Annie?”

  I take a breath. And then another.

  “Are you okay?” she whispers from my left.

  I hear movement, and then her hand touches me, and we both scream before simultaneously reaching out. We cling to each other, crying, gasping for air. We’re alone in the dark and we have no clue where we are. Where the others are. How to get out. What if there is no way out? What if we’re going to die in this dark tunnel?

  Minutes pass, and we both gradually go from crying to sniveling and gasping to breathing. Slowly, my racing pulse begins to thump steadily and deeply, and with it the realization that I’m not hurt.

  I take a second and move my arms and my legs, then my hands and my feet. Yes, I’m okay.

  Scarlett sniffs, and I don’t bother hiding the irritation in my tone when I ask, “What were you thinking?”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry. I thought I was running back toward the entrance.”

  With a sigh, I push her away. “Just help me look for the flashlight. It had to have fallen with me.”

  Scarlett grabs on to me. “Please don’t let go of me.”

  I stop feeling around for the light and look in her direction. “Scarlett, are you afraid of the dark?”

  “Yes.” She whimpers. “Please. Please don’t let go of me.”

  Her pleading tone softens my temper, and I grab her hand. “Okay. I won’t let go. Just start feeling around for the light.”

  She death-grips my hand back. “Okay. Okay.”

  For the next several minutes we crawl around in the dark and the mud. I don’t even want to think about what I might be touching.

  The boys—they’re somewhere above us. I know that much. I can’t hear them, but I know they’re up there somewhere. I tell myself not to think about our situation because that’s just scary. Too scary. What if we can’t find the flashlight? What if we can’t get out of here?

  Should we scream and see if someone hears us?

  But if we scream, it might wake up the bats. Or shake something loose. I once saw on TV how these people were caught in a cave and a loud noise made the cave crumble. Yeah, we both need to stay silent.

  “Found it.” Scarlett breathes a sigh of relief and immediately flicks on the light.

  Black and white dots swim in my vision, and it takes a second for my eyes to adjust, but when they do, I blink hard and look around. We’re in a small room about the size of my parents’ master bathroom. Mud covers the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. The room is compact, and neither one of us can stand up in it. It’s a good thing we were crawling and didn’t try. We would’ve banged our heads.

  Scarlett points the light up to where we both just came from—a narrow, muddy hole above our heads. I stare at the flashlight beam as it glows into the darkness, gradually blurring into nothing. There’s really no telling how far down we slid. With all that mud, there’s no way we’re climbing back out.

  She moves the light around the room, and straight across from where we sit is our way out—a hole, an opening in the wall.

  Together we move toward it, crawling through the mud and gunk. Scarlett shines the light into the hole and I grimace.

  There are worms. Everywhere. Short. Long. Fat. Skinny. Creeping all over one another. Completely covering the walls, the floor, and the ceiling of the crawl space.

  “That is so nasty,” she says.

  I blow out a breath. “Good thing you’re not Fynn. He’d rather stay in this room and die of an infectious disease than crawl through that.”

  She looks over at me. “How far do you think it is?”

  “I don’t know. Let’s just get in there and make it quick.”

  Scarlett nods. “You first.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Me first. Of course.

  Taking the flashlight from Scarlett, I stare down the length of the crawl space again as it glistens and creeps with worms. I turn to her. “Like I said—fast. Got it?”

  She nods. “Got it.”

  I take a breath. “Okay, here goes.”

  Carefully, I climb up into the crawl space, and my fingers and knees immediately sink into mud and squirming worms. One plops onto my back, and I fight the urge to cringe.

  Scarlett pushes my foot. “Go!”

  I take off as fast as I can, holding the flashlight and shuffling through the muck. In my peripheral vision I see one particularly fat creature crawling down my shoulder.

  “Oh.” Scarlett moans. “Gross.”

  Faster I go, trying not to think about the fact we’re slugging our way through worm poop, too. At least they’re not spiders. Just the thought of that makes me shiver.

  I hear Scarlett spit, and I immediately press my lips together. I’m not getting one of these things in my mouth!

  The crawl space opens wide, and I slide out of it and onto a dirt floor. Scarlett plops down right beside me, and we both immediately jump to our feet. The flashlight beam bounces around as we hop and jump and sling worms off our bodies.

  I grab one crawling up Scarlett’s back and fling it aside. She slides one out of my back pocket and tosses it into the crawl space.

  We look at each other… and burst out laughing. I have no clue what I look like, but I imagine it’s just like her. Top to bottom muck.

  She runs her hands down her arms and lobs off black ick. “I don’t even want to know what’s on me.”

  I laugh even harder. “I’d give anything to see Fynn do what we just did.”

  She chuckles. “He’d never make it.”

  “You’re right about that.” Still smiling, I flash the light around the room we’re now in.

  It’s big, just like the one that had Basinger’s skeleton, but empty. No stalagmites or stalactites. Nothing at all. Just a big dry room.

  “I bet you hate that you’re stuck with me,” Scarlett mumbles.

  The smile still lingering on my face falls away, and I turn to look at her. She’s staring around the room, pretending lik
e she didn’t say what she just said. It reminds me of yesterday, when she commented on how great it must be to have such good friends.

  And, like yesterday, guilt nestles in, and it mixes with pity.

  She looks over at me and smiles a little, and I give her a playful shove. “I like being in here with you,” I tell her, surprised to find myself actually meaning it.

  She makes a face, and we both chuckle.

  “Come on.” I nod toward the center of the room. “Let’s find a way out.”

  As we walk side by side, I start thinking about my friends. What if we don’t get out? What if we can’t find them? We’re going to be in so much trouble. “Everyone was heading in the other direction, right?”

  Scarlett stops and looks around. “Actually, we came down the chute and crawled through the hole.” She points. “They should be above us somewhere in that direction.” She grabs the light and shines it on another crawl space, this one smaller than the one with the worms. “There.”

  Together we get closer and survey the opening. It sits about three feet off the ground. No bugs. Nothing. Just a nice dry hole. But small. We’ll have to crawl on our bellies.

  She takes a deep breath. “I’ll go first this time.”

  Into the hole she goes, and I follow. On our stomachs we slowly crawl, and the farther in we go, the smaller and smaller the hole becomes, until I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to continue.

  “Ravioli or spaghetti?” she asks.

  “Huh?”

  “I’ve got to think about something else or I’m going to claustrophobically freak out on you. So ravioli or spaghetti?”

  “Ravioli.”

  “Gum or lollipops?”

  “Gum.”

  “Pepperoni or cheese pizza?”

  “Cheese.”

  “Coke or Pepsi?”

  “Coke.”

  “Hamburgers or hot dogs?”

  “Hot dogs.”

  “Have you ever kissed a boy?”

  Rocky pops into my mind and my face heats up. Why would I think of him in the same sentence as kissing?