It got cooler as they went deeper into the earth, farther away from the sun. Evie had thought maybe it would get warmer, considering they were in a volcano, but they weren’t going toward the magma. They were heading through the wall to the outside.
It was also damp. And claustrophobic.
And then Benedict stopped. He turned, and Evie threw her arm up, shading her eyes from the LED light of the camera now facing her. Benedict quickly turned it to the side and said, “It gets a little narrow here. Headfirst.”
Headfirst?
Evie stood in alarm as she watched Benedict lower himself to the ground, and that’s when she saw what seemed to be a tall rock wall dead end. She looked down, and realized that Benedict was slowly lowering himself headfirst into a hole not much larger than his body. She had an instant flashback to when this whole adventure had begun. To escaping the Andersons’ burning home through their tunnel. Immediately her gut contracted. It was like she was back at the house, pushing her way to safety, leaving the Andersons behind, terrified that the tunnel was going to collapse on her. Slowly Benedict’s body was engulfed by the hole, and Evie stood there and watched.
“Are you okay?” whispered Sebastian from behind her.
She just nodded. She had to be okay. What other choice did she have? She took a step forward and then sat herself on the ground. She looked into the hole. Now that Benedict had made his way all the way through it, his camera LED highlighted what was beyond. The hole opened into a small cavern, big enough maybe just for her and him.
“You can do this,” said Sebastian.
I’ve already done this, Evie thought.
She lay down on her stomach and reached through the hole, grabbing on to the sharp rock on the other side. Then she started to pull with her arms and wiggle her legs at the same time. As her head went through, she realized she’d have to turn her body a little to the side now to avoid a protruding rock on her right. She used it to propel herself forward even more, sliding along her side. Finally her head poked out into the small cavern. She reached out and grabbed for Benedict’s extended hand, and he helped her as she slid the rest of her body through. In short order she was in the small cavern with Benedict.
“Good,” he said with a relaxed smile. “Now you help the boy.” And he turned and started to crawl through another tight crevice, taking most of the light with him.
Evie prepared herself. Then, just as Benedict had done with her, she grabbed Sebastian’s extended hand. She helped him crawl through the hole to join her. In the dim light she could see the sparkle of his outfit, and it made her smile. Reminded her that the world wasn’t always scary. It was often kind of silly, too.
“What?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
“You’re so sparkly.”
He shook his head. “Go on. I’ll help Catherine.”
Evie nodded and turned to follow the diminishing light through the narrow crevice, Benedict waiting on the other side to assist. And on it went much like this. A chain of helpfulness. And they continued. And they wended and wound and worked their way through, deeper and deeper and farther and farther down.
Hopefully toward an escape.
Time passed. At least it felt like time passed. It was really hard to tell in the dark deep. It did feel like they were really heading somewhere. They were now getting quite good at this cave-crawling thing.
Benedict stopped suddenly, and so did the rest. No one bumped into anyone else. They knew how this worked. He turned to them, and Evie waited for some kind of instruction. She couldn’t see behind him. Would they go down? Up? To the side?
“We have to go back,” he said.
“What?” asked Catherine from the end of the line.
“It’s a dead end.”
Evie felt her heart in her throat. “I thought you knew the way,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm.
“I thought I did too. I made a wrong turn somewhere. We need to turn back. Find the spot. Try again.”
It helped that he sounded so relaxed about it all, but since that was how he always sounded, Evie didn’t know if it meant that he was confident they would find their way or simply that he was always relaxed. There was much shuffling as Benedict and Catherine switched places so Benedict could lead them back. Evie was now behind Sebastian, and they began to return the way they’d come. It was both easier and harder to do. Easier in that Evie knew what to expect, harder in that everything they’d done they now had to do in reverse. There was also a lot more climbing upward, which she wasn’t used to.
Benedict stopped again.
“Let’s go this way.” He turned the opposite way this time inside a tight cavern, and they each followed behind. They clambered for a bit, and then the tunnel started to get narrow. And more narrow. And Evie had to turn sideways, and if she had to turn sideways, she wondered how the adults were managing it. And then, once again, they stopped.
“Go back?” asked Sebastian in front of her.
“Go back,” agreed Benedict.
Catherine led them back this time. When they arrived in the tight cavern again, they decided to continue to retrace their steps. Up and back.
Up and back.
And then Benedict suggested they climb up a wall to a hole some six feet above their heads. So they tried that. He went first, then helped hoist Evie up. Then Catherine came up and helped Sebastian. And they crawled on hands and knees there.
Evie was getting tired. Her eyes were getting heavy. It almost felt like the world around her was getting dimmer.
Or was it that the world around her was getting dimmer?
“Benedict, the battery,” said Catherine.
“I know,” he replied, almost wistfully.
“Do you have any more?”
“I do.”
“Good.”
“In my camera bag.”
There was a long pause as the light of the LED dimmed just a bit more.
“And your bag is…,” said Catherine slowly.
“Back on top of the mountain.”
At first it didn’t quite sink in for Evie just how dire the situation was. Okay, so they’d have to go along in the dark. It wasn’t like it was easy going to begin with. But as the light dimmed yet again, it finally hit her how bad this was. They couldn’t look for holes and caverns. They couldn’t properly seek a way out. They would have to stumble blindly now. Feel their way along. What if they missed the exit? They couldn’t even retrace their steps. They could be trapped inside the volcano. Forever.
It was only then that Evie registered the silence around her. It seemed quite obvious to her that she wasn’t the only one having this thought. In the silence in the mountain, the light dimmed again. And again.
And then went out.
Sebastian knew that his memory of what he had seen on their journey underground was woefully inadequate for the task at hand, considering he now couldn’t see anything, but he also knew that his memory was pretty much all they had.
“I think…I think I can get us out,” he said to no one or everyone. It was freaky, talking into the blackness like this. “I think I can remember the way. But it would take us back up, not down. And the men are waiting for us.”
“I think at this point it’s a risk we have to take,” replied Catherine’s voice.
“Then we need to turn around and I’ll take the lead. And we need to all hold on to each other,” said Sebastian, not feeling sure of this plan in the least but thinking it really was the only one they had.
First, though, they had to crawl back out to the cavern in order to switch spots. It was tough enough turning around in such a small space, but then to climb down six feet in the darkness? It was truly terrifying. Fortunately Catherine was brave and found the edge and was able to lower herself comfortably to the ground with ease and then help the others.
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br /> Even after they were upright, Sebastian discovered a new challenge. He didn’t really know where the front was. He stretched out his arms and felt for a wall and then carefully moved forward, tracing with his fingers as he went, until he finally came upon the exit.
“I found it,” he said with relief. “I guess it’s time to get in line.”
He felt Catherine’s warm firm hand on his shoulder as he inched forward, bit by bit, his hands on the walls beside him. It was feeling more impossible to translate his visual memory into something tactile. He touched a small jutting-out bit with his left hand. Was it what he was looking for? He felt around some more, and his hand slipped into an open space. Yes! Okay. This was getting them somewhere. They could do this. They could…He reached out farther and hit a wall. This wasn’t the space he’d thought it was. And he’d been so sure. He felt around a little more, beginning to get a bit frantic. Okay, so maybe this wasn’t the opening. But the opening had to be here somewhere. He reached around more, but he couldn’t find it. Why couldn’t he find it? He took a step forward and could sense the line behind him moving likewise, and he was filled with guilt that they trusted him when he wasn’t trusting himself right now.
That scared him more than anything else. More than the dark, more than the possibility of staying down here forever. He couldn’t trust himself.
This was too hard. And he was getting too flustered. Breathe. Breathe.
Oh no.
He couldn’t control it.
He was having one of his panic attacks. It was the university park bench all over again, or like when he’d confronted the men in black at the Reptile Realm. But this one seemed even worse, and at the worst possible moment. He had done so well up until now, had fought it so well. He had thought he was really getting the hang of this adventuring thing.
His chest got tighter, his breath shallower, he was getting dizzy, though in the darkness, mercifully, the world couldn’t spin. He leaned against the wall.
“Sebastian, are you okay?” asked Catherine.
“I…”
“What’s that?” asked Evie from farther back.
“She asked if I was okay. I’m having a bit of a panic attack,” explained Sebastian, a lot more calmly than he felt.
“Oh no. Okay. Just try to slow your breathing if you can. Take your time, there’s no rush. But what I meant when I asked ‘What’s that?’ was, what’s that to the right, sort of ahead? I feel like I can see something. Can anyone else see that?” Evie said.
Sebastian looked forward while trying desperately to slow down his breathing. And sure enough it was almost as if he could see the faintest outline of a wall ahead. He stumbled toward it, and he felt Catherine’s hand slip off his shoulder. “Sebastian!” she said.
“I see it too.” He walked quickly forward, and it felt like if he kept walking, he’d be okay. He’d be able to breathe again. It was getting lighter. He could see shadows. Could he see shadows? Was it just his imagination? Was he seeing things? Had he lost enough oxygen that he was hallucinating? But Evie had seen it too. He moved toward the shadows. This would help him. This would calm him down. He just had to…
A blinding white light.
Sebastian staggered backward.
“What’s going on?” said Catherine loudly, and Sebastian was relieved that he wasn’t the only person experiencing this. It was not a hallucination after all.
“Is that you, famous explorers?” said an unfamiliar voice. The light swung to the side. “It is! It is you! Ah, see? Great minds think alike.”
“But fools seldom differ,” muttered Sebastian to himself, completing the saying.
“What was that? Who are you? Where did you come from?” asked the voice.
Sebastian looked up finally, and now that his eyes had grown accustomed to the light again, he saw a young man standing before him, with wide eyes and wearing a friendly smile.
“I could ask the same of you,” Sebastian replied.
“Peter!” said Catherine. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to find you, to warn you. There’s been an incident outside of town in the jungle. On the path to the top of the mountain. A helicopter crashed and they did not have permission to be here. They’re bad people. I think they’re the bad people after you, Mr. Barnes,” said Peter.
“That they are, Peter,” said Benedict. “Do you know the way out?”
“Of course. Follow me, follow me,” he said with a smile. Then he turned to Sebastian. “I’m Peter.”
“Uh, I’m Sebastian.”
“Not now, Peter,” said Benedict, though he didn’t sound remotely frustrated.
With Peter as their guide, and with a light to see by now, the five of them worked their way through the mountain quickly and efficiently. It wasn’t easier going. It still required a lot of crawling and climbing, and at one point walking along a narrow edge over a deep chasm. But they made it through the mountain, and finally Sebastian could smell the fresh air just around the corner.
Sure enough they climbed up, one at a time, through a narrow crevice out into the lush jungle. Sebastian had never been happier to see daylight in his life.
They stood for a moment, gathering themselves. Sebastian wasn’t certain whether the others were thinking what he was thinking—that if it hadn’t been for Peter, they likely would not have made it out, they quite likely would have perished inside that mountain—but he could feel a palpable sense of relief wash over not just him but the whole group.
“We need to go to the house,” said Benedict after a moment. “We need to get you the map and letter.”
Sebastian was a little surprised by that. For some reason—and he realized there was no evidence to support his hypothesis, but still—he had assumed that Benedict would be coming with them, would be actively helping them. Not just giving them what they needed.
“To the house!” announced Peter, and he assumed the role of leader again, taking them back through the jungle.
It had certainly been a long day. Of course, days couldn’t actually be different lengths from one another,* but climbing mountains on both the outside and inside could make any day seem truly overwhelming. Evie’s muscles ached, her body was completely exhausted, and she was pretty sure she was out of adrenaline. Could one run out of adrenaline?
But Evie and the others couldn’t rest. They had to keep going. And keep going they did. How many hours had they been scrambling through rock and now dense trees? How many hours climbing over, ducking under, and going to the left and right of things? She should have worn a watch. Then again, did she really want to know?
All she knew was that the light was getting warmer in tone, hued with orange, and she could tell the sun was starting to think it might be time for dinner. Dinner. How long had it been since she’d eaten anything?
So it made sense that the relief she felt as they emerged onto the narrow path that led into town was so strong that she nearly wept. And the small cheer that went up in the square as they arrived moved her even more. Even though she had no idea why they were cheering in the first place.
Evie was quite surprised to see the town square so full compared to earlier in the day. She was even more surprised when one of the boys around her age who’d been playing soccer ran up to her and gave her a big hug.
“We won!” he said with a smile in a thick accent.
“Oh, congratulations,” said Evie. She supposed they took soccer very seriously. She knew that many countries did.
The teenagers who had directed Evie and Catherine to Peter earlier in the day came over. “He means we defeated the helicopter,” said the teen boy.
“You did what?” asked Catherine.
“It kept flying around. They did not have permission to be here,” explained the teen girl.
“Isa and I called the authorities, but the
children, they thought they could help,” said the teen.
Evie glanced over at the boy her age. He’d been joined by his friends, and they stood nearby, grinning, draping arms over each other’s shoulders and looking quite proud of themselves.
“We made a…a…” The boy stopped. He didn’t have the word for it. He gestured with his hands, pulling his right hand back and aiming for the sky.
“A slingshot?” asked Sebastian.
Oh yeah, thought Evie, that’s what he’s miming.
“Yes. A big one. We sent our ball. And the helicopter fell,” said the boy.
The other children laughed at that and gave each other high fives.
“You brought down the helicopter?” Benedict was obviously surprised. Evie was too, for that matter. It made no sense. How could something as small as a soccer ball bring down such a large machine? Then again, she did recall Sebastian saying something about that earlier.
“We told them it couldn’t have really done that,” said Isa quietly to just them. “But they said they saw it. So we will allow them to believe it.”
“No, it’s true. I was in the helicopter. It wasn’t the ball, but the ball was the thing that threw off the pilot. It was a tree that actually brought us down. But without the ball, nothing would have happened,” said Sebastian.
Evie smiled. She was happy that the kids were right. She was happy in general when her peers were right, especially around adults. She felt vindicated.
“You were in the helicopter?” Isa’s expression turned dark. Evie looked around. The faces of the other townspeople were likewise suddenly suspicious.
“He was kidnapped! He’s one of us. He escaped,” said Evie quickly. Their expressions softened, though they didn’t appear entirely trusting. “But right now we have to leave quickly because soon those men will know that we’re not up the mountain anymore. They’ll come for us.”
The Reckless Rescue Page 21
