A World Below

by Wesley King

  “Well,” Eric said, turning to the sun, “let’s go for a walk.”

  Twenty-Nine Hours Later

  * * *

  OFFICER BROWN WATCHED IN TREPIDATION as the team descended into the opening. There were ten of them in all, each with climber’s equipment, miner’s caps, and first aid supplies. The all-clear had finally come from the geologists, and they had wasted no time.

  The search needed to begin if they had any chance of finding survivors down there. Mr. Baker had woken up again and given them the exact location of the fall, so they at least had somewhere to start. He had been knocked unconscious and caught on the shore of a river, and had managed to crawl back up through the hole. He suspected the kids might have been dragged deeper underground. It was going to be a long search, and no one was very hopeful.

  Officer Brown stood behind the yellow tape with the rest of the crowd. Cameras were flashing, reporters were talking, and the families were standing together, holding hands and watching. He saw Ms. Johnson standing alone, her arms folded over her chest, tears in her eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Rodrigues were close by, along with the Pikes, Lewskis, the Tams. All of the families were there today, waiting for news. He felt a nudge on his arm and saw his partner step up beside him.

  “Well, at least we’ll finally get some answers,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Officer Brown said. “I’m not sure if that’s good or bad yet.”

  “We did the best we could.”

  “We waited,” he said grimly. “We did nothing, really, but wait.”

  “As we were ordered.” She gave him a pat on the shoulder. “You should get some sleep.”

  He looked at her incredulously. “Now?”

  “It’s going to take them a while, Dan. Go home and see your family. You’ve barely been home since this started. I’ll call you as soon as the team is back. You can come and help then.”

  “All right,” he mumbled. “Thanks, Mel. Call me right away, no matter what.”

  “I will.”

  He forced a smile and started back to his car, thinking about the waiting families. He couldn’t imagine what they were thinking. They all knew the odds. The rescue team wasn’t expecting to find many survivors. Maybe none at all.

  He sighed as he reached the cruiser, pulling open the car door. Mel was right. He needed to hug his daughter and his wife. He needed to stop staring at that cave and wishing for a miracle. Instead, he took a last look out at the horizon, wondering if the rescue team would be back before sundown. And then he saw a shape on the horizon. No. Shapes.

  Fourteen Days Later

  * * *

  ERIC LIFTED HIS HEAD SLEEPILY as Mr. Baker skipped into class. He figured Mr. Baker was probably the only person on Earth who could still skip with a knee-high cast and crutches. The bruises and cuts on Mr. Baker’s face had mostly healed, leaving just a few puckered white scars that Mr. Baker affectionately referred to as his “explorer’s initiation.”

  The rest of the class was back in school by now too; many had stayed home for several days nursing their injuries—mental and physical—but things were starting to feel normal. Eric had assumed most students would just stay home for the rest of the school year. Exams had been cancelled and summer break was only a few days away now, but it seemed everybody wanted to be back in the classroom. He certainly did. It was . . . comforting, somehow.

  Eric had come back just a few days after their escape from the caves. He had been ready to return to school right away, but he also wanted to spend some time with his mom. She had barely left his side. He had even caught her sitting next to his bed one night when he woke up, as if she was afraid to let him out of her sight. But she had gone back to work now, and he’d insisted that she go out on a date with Frank. They were on their third date now, and Eric even kind of liked him.

  He wasn’t the first one back to class, though. Jordan had already told Mr. Baker what really happened in the caves and sworn him to secrecy, and Mr. Baker had quizzed them all relentlessly since. He seemed disappointed he’d missed all the excitement, but he was also endlessly fascinated by the story.

  Mr. Baker spun on his heel at the front of the class, grinning.

  “Morning, class!”

  “Morning, Mr. Baker,” a few of the Keeners replied.

  So far, everyone had kept their word. The official story was that they had fallen through a crack, washed into a lake, and managed to find their way back out again after a long but completely uneventful walk through the caves. Strangely, not one of them could remember where they had come out of the caves . . . just that it was somewhere in the desert. They blamed fatigue.

  Eric glanced over at Silvia. Hanging out more with Silvia was the best thing that had come out of the field trip. Things had been crazy for a while: cameras, interviews, reporters waiting outside their homes. The group had taken on a lot of names in the newspapers, and finally The Carlsbad Kids seemed to stick. Through it all, Eric and Silvia had stayed close, having formed a strange bond in the caverns, even in the short time they actually spent together. When they were alone, they would wonder about Carlos and Eva and Jana and what was happening down there. And when they had nightmares about spiders or beetles, they would call each other. Even Ashley had begun to warm up to him. She seemed a lot less interested in acting cool since they’d come back. Silvia had joked that they’d all forgotten parts of themselves down there.

  “How are we all today?” Mr. Baker asked. “I’ve been thinking about our field trip.”

  There were a few wary looks. Generally, they had tried to keep that topic out of the class in an attempt to get back to normalcy. Eric and Silvia exchanged a quick look across the room.

  Mr. Baker smiled. “For one thing, in all the excitement, I forgot about the prize.”

  He went to his desk and fished something out of his bag. It was the copy of Jim White’s Own Story. It was a bit ragged and curled, but besides that it had held together remarkably well.

  “When I heard your stories, I was thinking about the amazing bravery and resourcefulness of my class. And the science! Fascinating that vegetation is growing down there. And yet I forgot to consider a more basic question: Who are they? How did they get there? And then, when I thought about the stories you had told me, especially Eric, I had a thought. And that shall be our skill-testing question,” Mr. Baker said with a flourish. “Who are these people?”

  The class fell silent. Eric stared at Mr. Baker for a moment, thinking of what Carlos had told him. That he was the fourth King. Their great-grandfather had led his people down here 118 years ago.

  Which was right around the time . . .

  “Carlos’s great-grandfather . . . ,” Eric said in wonder. “Juarez Santi. He was the Kid.”

  “Very good, Eric!” Mr. Baker said. “My guess exactly. The book is yours! In it you will read about the Kid, who then disappeared from attention. I imagine he explored the caves well after Jim White had moved on, and then, three years later, he led people down into that great, undiscovered world and became the very first Midnight King.”

  Eric gratefully accepted the book, tucking it into his backpack.

  “But that was the good news.” Mr. Baker was no longer smiling. “We have a bit of a problem.”

  The class fell silent.

  “The University of New Mexico has just announced that they will be launching a scientific expedition into the caves—down into the river the same way we went. The seismic activity has abated and they feel it’s safe enough to do so. They are sending an entire team.”

  Eric felt his skin go cold. He looked at Silvia and saw the same concern on her face.

  “When are they going?” Eric asked.

  “In one month,” he said, heading over to the calendar to draw a big X on one Monday in July. “I just read it in the newspaper this morning. A full expedition. They want to explore it all.”

  “But . . . they’ll find Medianoche,” Silvia said.

  Mr. Baker nodded. “Most likely. Unless they�
��re warned. It could be dangerous for the scientists too. Carlos’s soldiers may decide to . . . remove the threat. It could be a big debacle.”

  “What do you mean by unless they’re warned?” Tom asked carefully.

  Eric sighed and leaned back in his chair. “It means we’re going on another field trip.”

  Author’s Note

  * * *

  When I was a kid, I wanted to run away. Not because my parents were mean or because I got grounded a lot, but because I wanted adventure. I loved adventure stories—especially ones where kids had to survive on their own. In my imaginary journeys, there were no adults allowed.

  In fact, one of my all-time favorite books is the fabulous My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. All these years later, now that I am one of those grown-ups I was trying to escape from, it plays a part in my book. Funny how things work.

  This book is my own humble addition to that tradition of nature adventure stories. It’s a love letter to all the things that make those stories grand: courage, independence, and friendship. I have always found that adventure and fear have a curious habit of bringing people together. When people work together to survive, they discover that they are very much alike. They don’t have time for cliques and bullies and gossip. I always loved that aspect of adventure stories, and it’s why I chose to use three main characters. I wanted readers to experience the story from different perspectives: from one person wrapped in fear, another in their self-imposed isolation, and a third who couldn’t move on from the past. In some ways, I have been every one of those people. I suspect the same is true for you. Sometimes it’s good to remember that we are all just finding our way through the dark.

  I knew this story was going to take place in a cave, and Carlsbad Caverns was the perfect setting. Though I have never been there personally, I am fascinated by its geology, its history, and, like all caves, its secrets. It truly is as magnificent as described in this book, and the story of Jim White and the Kid is also true (so are the four hundred thousand bats!). There has been speculation that Native Americans may have first discovered Carlsbad Caverns, and it seems likely, but Jim White was the first person to document his exploration. I researched the caverns extensively—and cave geology and zoology in general—through a bunch of different media, and a lot of that real-life information is in this book. These glow worms really do exist (including the long strands of mucus!), and Jordan’s map is real. However, I decided to add a few details of my own: minor changes like giant spiders, a subterranean shark, and a lost civilization. In fact, I added a whole new world below the explored sections of the caverns. But who’s to say that it isn’t there? The world is still full of mystery.

  If you have a chance, perhaps you can explore the wonders of Carlsbad Caverns yourself. Who knows? Maybe I will see you there.

  And if you enjoyed exploring Carlsbad Caverns with our three heroes, there is plenty more to learn about this world-famous site. Check out these online resources:

  National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/cave/index.htm

  National Geographic: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/us_carlsbadcaverns

  Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad,_New_Mexico

  Or watch the amazing Planet Earth episode “Caves” from the BBC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oUe8pusk3I).

  And if you want to read the books mentioned in this story, they are:

  My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (E.P. Dutton, 1959)

  Jim White’s Own Story by James Larkin White, as told to Frank Ernest Nicholson (1932)

  Remember: Everyone has a story. What’s yours?

  Your friend in spelunking,

  Wesley King

  About the Author

  * * *

  WESLEY KING is the author of the Edgar Award–winning OCDaniel, which Booklist praised, “This perceptive first-person narrative is sometimes painful, sometimes amusing, and always rewarding,” in a starred review. It also received the Silver Birch Award, a kids’ choice award in King’s native Ontario, and was a Bank Street Best Book of the Year. It has been published in four countries. His first middle-grade novel, The Incredible Space Raiders from Space! (2015), was called “a well-crafted coming-of-age story” by Publishers Weekly. Wesley lives near the ocean in Nova Scotia.

  A Paula Wiseman Book

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  ALSO BY WESLEY KING

  The Incredible Space Raiders from Space!

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2018 by Wesley King

  Jacket illustrations copyright © 2018 by Nancy Liang

  Jacket flap texture copyright © 2018 by Thinkstock.com

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  Jacket design by Lucy Ruth Cummins

  Interior design by Tom Daly

  The text for this book was set in Weiss Std.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publishing Data:

  Names: King, Wesley, author.

  Title: A world below / Wesley King.

  Description: First Edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2018. | “A Paula Wiseman Book.” | Summary: Mr. Baker’s eighth grade class thought they were in for a normal field trip to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, but their journey takes a terrifying turn when an earthquake hits and the students are plunged into a frigid underground lake, forcing them to fight for survival and find their way back above ground.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017015619 | ISBN 9781481478229 (hardback) | ISBN 9781481478243 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: School field trips—Fiction. | Earthquakes—Fiction. | Survival—Fiction. | Carlsbad Caverns (N.M.)—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / Survival Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Science Fiction. | JUVENILE FICTION / Mysteries & Detective Stories.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.K58922 Wo 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017015619