Freed

by Holly Hook

  “Wow,” Shawn says as I finish my story. “For the first couple of days, you know, I thought we were just down under that crappy neighborhood. I didn't think we hopped across the universe.”

  “Or into another universe,” I say. “I still don't know where we are.”

  “You were brave out there, Elaine.”

  And Shawn kisses me on the cheek. He's proud. I'm so glad he's here. That I came back for him. I'm glowing inside and I feel like it's lighting up this burrow, not the lamp. I did something right after all.

  I'm no longer that girl who ran and abandoned Shawn.

  But I eye the solid darkness ahead.

  I'm still the girl who's going to have to get rid of Garrett and shatter our family for a second time. Just like my father did, even if he was trying to do the right thing. How can I do this right? Is there even a way?

  The darkness recedes ahead from the lamp, then closes in again behind us. We have a little bubble of light. I listen for any sounds, but there's nothing. Nothing at all. Any Dwellers have left this tunnel or they're much farther down.

  “How long does this go?” Antoine asks. I can tell he's just asking to get his mind off other, worse things.

  “Probably miles,” I tell him. “Weslie and Pit and I have been walking through the dark for quite a while now. If that lantern runs out of oil or whatever, we'll have to go to the torches and we have plenty of those.” I can't imagine being in complete dark down here. I'll lose it just like Weslie. I haven't done that before.

  “Hello?” Travis calls down the tunnel. “Talia—are you still here?”

  His voice echoes back at us as if some ghost has caught it and thrown it back. Other than that, nothing.

  Pit stays close to me, rubbing on his legs. “A Harehound?” Shawn asks. “He doesn't bite, does he?”

  “Only if you're a Dweller. He's really smart,” I say. “There could be a very good reason he was growling at Garrett up in those hills. Garrett didn't want me to get to Wompitt and behind those walls. He knew Pit would lead me there. Garrett must have been the one to shove Pit in that hole.”

  “He's cool,” Shawn says. “I don't think we can take him back home with us.”

  A pang goes through me as I look at Pit. His magenta spots bounce up and down as he walks and his shoulder blades undulate. If we go home, we will have to leave Pit here. I don't want to. He's the closest thing I've had to a pet since I was little and Mom and Dad got me that goldfish that died the day after I put it in the fishbowl because Mom forgot to tell me I had to change the water. I don't want to leave him here, but he won't have anything to eat on Earth. There are no Dwellers, unless he decides to hang around that abandoned house they took Talia out of. And I can't risk having him do that. Someone might pick him up and stick him in a zoo or something because he looks so weird.

  If we succeed, there's going to be a point I need to say goodbye.

  If we die, same thing.

  And how long will Pit live, anyway?

  Travis stops and the lantern swings in his hand. “I see something really weird ahead.”

  Weslie sucks in a breath. “What?” It's the first word she's spoken in a while.

  “I don't know. It almost looks like there's some weird liquid on the floor.” He holds up the lantern. “Look.”

  Shawn and I squeeze in beside him.

  The floor dips a little bit ahead. There's more of the red ore here than the orange. The walls almost appear bloody. Right over the dip is something that looks like a vaporous red mass. I can't even see the other end of it.

  “It's...some kind of gas,” I say. “I wonder if it's coming off that red ore or something and sinking into this low spot here.”

  Travis backs up. “I don't know what it does,” he says.

  Antoine pushes ahead. “A gas?”

  “Yes,” I say. “Do you have any idea what it could be?”

  He walks to the very edge of the dip, where the gas starts. It's a faint red, all right, and I can't tell how deep it is. It's as if gas has been leaking out of the walls and collecting here for a while. “I'm not sure what this is,” Antoine says. “I've never been down on this level. But I think maybe this red ore is leaking it. It's probably like this all over in this mine. This is just a spot where a lot of it has had a chance to gather.”

  “Do you think it's flammable?” I ask.

  Antoine takes his hand and rubs it across the red ore. “I've been digging around this stuff all day,” he says. “The Flamestone has been sparking around it and this stuff hasn't caught fire, so I don't think it's flammable. If it was, we'd all be dead down here already. But I doubt it's going to be healthy to breathe.”

  “Fantastic,” Shawn says. “There's no way but forward, right?”

  I think of the gas masks in Weslie's pack. We might need those. She shifts and makes a motion to take her pack off, but Travis holds up a hand.

  “Right. If it's not that deep, maybe we can walk through this. Keep our heads above it. But what about this little Harehound guy? He's short.”

  Pit seems to get it. He backs away and looks up at me with those big orange eyes. I'm not walking through that crap.

  “We might have to lift Pit,” I say. I hate the idea of walking through, even if we don't have our skin burn off.

  “Well, there's one way to test this,” Travis says, stepping forward.

  “Travis!” I yell.

  His shoe sinks in the gas. It wisps a little bit, then settles back around his foot. He looks back at us and smiles. “Doesn't hurt.”

  “Well, how deep is it?” Shawn asks. “How deep is the middle? And what if this keeps going down?”

  Travis takes another step in. The gas goes up to his shins. And another. Up to his knees. And a fourth step. Almost up to his waist. He stands there, waiting for something to happen. My heart pounds. But Travis just smiles again. “It's safe to walk through,” he says. “Just don't stick your head in it, even though I know it's tempting. We might have to lift that dog guy over this, though. He's not going to have a good time if we don't. And sorry, I'm not breathing it to see what it does. If you want to do that, Mr. Scientist, go right ahead.”

  “If we had some Dwellers, we could try it,” Antoine says. “They always make good test subjects.”

  “Well, we don't,” I say. “Maybe this stuff doesn't affect them if they managed to bring people through here. Someone help me lift Pit.”

  Shawn extends his arms to Pit. Pit seems to get the message, and jumps up into his grasp. Shawn makes a face as Pit's nose rubs against his cheek. “You're right. He's smart.”

  Travis takes another step backwards. “So far, so good,” he says. “It's not getting any deeper and I think I see the other side. If there was a hole in here, all this gas would have gone down there, so I think we're pretty safe to walk across.”

  “Well, we can't get to Talia if we don't get across,” I say. I suck in a breath and hold it.

  “Our masks,” Weslie says.

  “We don't need them.” Travis keeps walking. The gas stays around his middle. He's right. It's not getting deeper.

  And we walk across.

  Pit keeps a tight grip on Shawn, digging into his back with his claws. I step into the vapor and it comes up almost to my chest before the dip stops rising. How did the Dwellers ever cart Talia through this? Maybe they can hold their breath for a long time or something, or maybe they're not affected by these mine gases. I look down. The red vapor hugs me like bloody fog and I can see through it almost to my shoes, but panic starts to steal over me. Is my skin tingling a little? I'm not as tall as the guys. My nose is closer to it. Weslie stays silent behind me. The light shines on the vapor. Yes. It looks like it came off the red ore, whatever it is. I've seen what Slimestone can do to people. I don't want to know what this does to people.

  “Keep going,” Weslie says. I'm the shortest person here. The one closest to the vapor.

  And then the ground dips a bit more, bringing the gas up to my chest.
My chest hurts with my holding my breath and I have to breathe. I look up at the ceiling and let out the air. I suck in a little more. It might not even be clean. Which way are we going again? Why do I feel confused all of a sudden?

  And then the ground comes upward. The vapor sinks back to my waist, then my hips. We're coming out of it.

  Ground.

  Travis steps up and scoots to the side to make room for us. Shawn sets Pit down and Pit wags his tail. I climb the rest of the way out of the gas and my confusion goes away. Of course. We're standing in the tunnel that leads to wherever Talia is. It's so disorienting down here. I hope there aren't any more fumes.

  Weslie is the last out. She keeps her chin up, staying out of the fumes as much as she can. “This stuff doesn't seem to be flammable,” she says. “I think you're right about that.”

  “Thankfully,” I manage. The tunnel continues on into the dark. There's another little dip ahead, full of the red gas, but it's not as far across as this one. “As long as we don't have to go downwards, I think we'll be fine. I don't want to find out what this gas does to you.”

  And we continue.

  Pit walks through the second dip, scattering the vapor. It settles back in behind him. There's another round of scraping ahead and Pit stops. Looks into the dark and backs away. I scramble to the front, readying my axe.

  “Elaine!” Shawn says.

  “I've got this.” I have to keep it from grabbing the lantern. That's what it's after.

  A Light Eater emerges, huge eyes trained on the lantern in Travis's upraised arm. I lift my axe. Swing as it runs for him.

  “Whoa!” Travis crashes into the wall and light bobs.

  A tentacle slaps against me, reaching for the light. A sick squishing sound fills the air. My axe goes right through its soft body. Slime splatters. I breathe out and grasp the axe harder, which hangs by my legs. Two halves of the Light Eater flop to the ground, right in the vapor. Green slime flows out. Pit backs away. The tentacles still wiggle. They don't know that their owner is dead.

  “Elaine,” Travis says, stepping away from the wall. “You used to never even step on bugs. Now you're blowing up giant worms and cutting things in half with this axe.”

  “It's better than what I had to do,” Antoine says. Then I remember. This is the same axe he had to finish off the crazy woman with.

  I don't think I can do that. Can I?

  “Is the tunnel opening up ahead?” Shawn asks. He leans forward like he's trying to make something out in the dark. It's hopeless. He's just trying to change the subject.

  But he's right. There's another two glowing mushrooms up ahead, like they're sentinels guarding the gate to something. A draft blows against my face. We're about to come out into something big. A cave, maybe. Something that we could all possibly escape out of.

  My heart leaps. “That might be,” I say. “Quick—let's get some real light over here.”

  The five of us rush forward. I can't wait to find a way out of here. To get away from that dead woman and the blood on this heavy axe. Then we can go back and tell the others there's an escape somewhere. These people won't be trapped down here, waiting to starve and die of thirst. Sweat evaporates off my back. It's cooler this way, too.

  “Elaine!”

  Shawn grabs my shoulder and I stop.

  A stray pebble slides out from under my shoe and falls.

  And falls.

  And then, plink.

  It's a drop off.

  As in, major drop off.

  I stand at the edge of a void. It's pitch black. I've emerged from the tunnel and we're now on the edge of something vast and huge.

  These caves go even lower than the mines. Weslie was right.

  It's unbelievable. No cave should be able to go this deep. The pressure from the rocks above should crush any cave that tries to form.

  And yet, here's this chasm.

  I step back, legs shaky. I curse. I almost went off the edge. Shawn hugs me from behind and I let out a breath, trying not to panic. This is that stupid rock climbing wall at summer camp again, only worse. Much, much worse. My stomach heaves. I might throw up.

  “Stay back,” Shawn says. “I'll get a closer look.”

  He lets go. I stand next to Weslie while Shawn steps forward and stands on the edge of the void. Maybe this really is a void that goes down forever. This world gets stranger and stranger.

  Shawn looks down for a long time. “I can't see anything,” he says.

  Travis joins him. He's silent. I step forward a bit. Weslie joins me. She hasn't spoken since we got through that gas.

  All of us stand there at the edge of the tunnel and on the edge of this void. I glance down, trying to make out anything. I'm dizzy. I hate heights. I hate this. The tree was one thing. Even that stupid climbing wall at camp was one thing. This is different. I can't even see the bottom of this.

  “What is this?” Travis asks. “Marco!”

  “Come on,” I say. My voice is shaking.

  “I'm just trying to break up the tension here,” he says. “And by the way, there's no 'polo' again.”

  “Bad sign,” Shawn says. He takes a step forward and stands on the edge.

  “Shawn!” I yell. He's freaking me out.

  Shawn takes the lantern from Travis. How can he stand right there and not freak out? He holds it up. “This...is some kind of round pit or something. I think I can see the edges. Wait. Yeah. This has edges. Elaine, come and look. Or not.”

  I gulp. I know I have to.

  This is the tunnel that Talia got led down.

  She could be somewhere in this void for all I know.

  My chest constricts. What if she is here? At the bottom? Maybe the Dwellers do throw people into chasms after all. Maybe Talia didn't work hard enough for them and they decided to dispose of her. I have to look. I have to see if there's some way she could still be alive.

  I tiptoe to the edge of the hole, past Pit. He stays back, not wanting to get any closer. That makes two of us who hate drop offs, then. Weslie and Antoine whisper in low voices. I can do this. I can stand here and look at this. I've done everything else so far.

  Except kill.

  “Stop there.” Shawn takes my arm and I feel better. We're right on the very edge. My toes almost hang over blackness. I look up and the dizziness fades. Shawn's still holding up the lantern like he's trying to guide someone to us.

  It's a chasm, all right. It appears to have been carved out by a mansion-sized bowling ball that got dropped from the heavens and kept smashing down to the center of this world. I squint and make out the ragged edge of the other side. There's no sound. Except--

  “Is that water?” Antoine asks. “I swear, I hear some.”

  “You must have good hearing,” I say.

  “No. I hear it, too,” Weslie says. “Listen.”

  I do. There's the distant sound of flowing water, all right. Is it coming from below?

  “That could be a river,” I say. “Down there. At the bottom.” Hope rises inside me. A river means water. Maybe even fish. Survival until the workers can dig their way out of here.

  But how do we get to it?

  “Should we try jumping to see if we land in it?” Travis asks.

  “Sounds like a great idea,” Shawn says. He takes a step back, much to my relief. “We're kidding.”

  “I figured,” she says.

  “Even if there is water down there, it's so far down we or the workers won't be able to get to it,” I say. This could be where Talia is rotting right now. She could have gotten swept away by that river that's over ten times lower in the ground as the other one we traveled along in the other cave. “This lantern isn't giving us much light. We need to light a torch to really see.”

  “Wait,” Shawn says, edging to the left. He's facing something. “There's a trail that goes down the side of this hole. Really. I'm serious. Looks like that worm dug it out.”

  I squeeze in next to him, glad he's between me and the void.

&
nbsp; He's right. There's a wide trail edging down along the side of the chasm and it begins right here. The worm carved this out, all right. The trail’s round. Seven feet across, just with a gaping void on one side. The worm must have eaten its way up around this giant pit and decided to dig through this layer and form the giant network of burrows. Maybe it was going after the miners in the first place or sensed their vibrations from the layers above. I try to avoid facing the chasm. Down there is its home turf.

  “I think you're right,” Travis says. “That's good for us, now that it's dead.”

  “But also bad,” I say. “It might have friends down there.”

  “Don't say that,” Weslie says.

  “How much dynamite do you have left?” Shawn asks her.

  “Four sticks.”

  “That makes me feel better,” he says.

  “And me,” I say.

  Antoine steps forward and looks down the trail. It curves into darkness, following the border of the chasm. “Maybe this trail spirals all the way down to the bottom and we can follow it to the water. It won't hurt. I hope.”

  “Who's first?” Travis asks. “Any volunteers? You, Pit?”

  He waves Pit closer, but he stays where he is.

  “You, Weslie? And Antoine?”

  Weslie shakes her head. She has no words.

  “Okay. I'll be the hero,” Travis says. “Me first. But if I see any friends of that dead worm, we had better do the fastest running back up here that we've ever done.”

  “Deal,” Shawn says.

  I face Weslie, then Shawn. They frown at me. Shawn kisses me on the cheek. I wonder if it's for the last time. Any of these could be our last kisses. I return it. “If we get back to Earth,” I tell him, “We take my mother away from Garrett and live together in a new town. We start a new life.”

  “And Talia comes with us, too,” he says.

  “Agreed.” I know he's saying that just to keep my hope lit.