Freed

by Holly Hook

  Les shakes his head. “It will be up to you to find one,” he says. He smiles. His teeth seem really white in the dim light. “Come on,” he says. “I'll leave a few people here to make sure these two don't decide to leave us.”

  He waves us towards the entrance to the chamber. I follow.

  And look back at Weslie and Antoine one more time. She's petting Pit again and he's rubbing on her legs. But then Pit finally separates from her and follows. His tail is low. He's sad. The orange in his eyes doesn't seem as vibrant as it was before.

  Our paths split here. Maybe for good.

  Pit joins me.

  We had to do it. We have to get everyone out of here. It's not like these people are going to hurt Antoine or Weslie or anything—right? They just need some help.

  I duck through the opening and manage one last look at my new friends, friends who might never get to see Earth again. Antoine smiles. Maybe he'll be happy working on this project for them. But what if he never finds a cure? What if he has to work down here for the rest of his life? I hope he likes his lab, whatever it turns out to be. He has another man cave to work in now, without Ned telling him what he can and can't do.

  I straighten up in the chamber and Shawn's right behind me. It's just the three of us now along with Pit. I pet him and he perks up a bit. “It'll be okay,” I tell him.

  Shawn hugs me from the side and kisses me on the cheek. “You know, I liked your new friends. I wish they could have come back home with us.”

  “So do I,” I say, keeping my voice low.

  “You may turn your lights back on,” Les says from the darkness ahead of us.

  We shuffle along the dark cave and I turn on the lantern again. Travis squints. Light erupts and we're surrounded by black stone and red streaks.

  Pit whimpers. Is he hungry again? He must be. I've seen him eat a lot of Dwellers since I came here. His metabolism must be fast.

  “Come on,” Les says. He's a dim figure ahead of us. “Follow me.”

  We follow. At least Les has passed the Pit Test of Approval. Pit hasn't growled at him yet. Not like he did with Garrett. I don't blame him there. Garrett's likely the one who tossed him in that hole so I wouldn't find my way to Wompitt in the first place. It didn't work. If I hadn't found him, he'd be dead by now, or very close to it, dying of thirst.

  “Keep coming,” Les says. “We must return to the river. There's a cave there that leads up to the surface that you'll need me to show you. It's the one that my people will take the workers up through.”

  “Is it a straight shot?” Shawn asks. “Easy to navigate?”

  “I think it used to be an underground creek that fed into the river,” Les says. His voice echoes off the stone. I can barely make him out. He's staying out of the toxic light. There are more quiet voices from the cave up ahead. His people walk ahead of us. We're heading through a maze of black and red and hungry cracks. “It's a pretty straight shot. It goes right up to a small underground lake that's been mostly depleted by the Dwellers. I think they draw the water to give to their workers from there. There's still some water in it today, but the level is much lower than it used to be.”

  “And from the lake?” I ask. This feels so empty without Weslie here. I wonder how she's going to fare staying down here, looking for a cure.

  Maybe she did this for Jaden just as much as for Antoine.

  I wonder how long it will be before they see the sun again.

  “There is another cave that will take you up towards the surface from the lake,” Les explains. “It will be on the right side of the chamber. It's huge and you can't miss it. If I remember right, it will come up somewhere in a forest with giant trees. Sometimes, the Dwellers use it to go in and out, so I can't be sure if you'll run into them or not. There are lots of little caves that they use to get to the surface in this area.”

  “We're under the giant forest,” I say, mostly to myself. We're a couple days away from Wompitt. How far have we gone underground?

  Far.

  Too far.

  And will I be able to get Shawn and Travis to Wompitt from there? It might just be a matter of finding that surface river again, the one that I followed to that purple arrow on the rock. And we still have Pit. He'll lead the way.

  But home.

  I still need a way back. Not to Wompitt, even though that's my next choice. But we'll be going back to the settlement without Antoine. He was our mission in the first place. We'll be going back useless. And Baxter might be there, having already run from the elevator. We'll have to face him. And Ned, empty-handed.

  “Les,” I ask. “Where is there another gateway?”

  He looks back at me. “I don't know. The Society keeps those guarded. Only they know where a gateway would be. There must be more than one around underground. Do you remember which one you came through?”

  “Gateway?” Travis asks.

  “Remember that thing where everything got all funny for a minute, when we were going down those stairs?” I ask.

  “Yes.”

  “That was it. I don't know how we're going to get back to it.”

  He shakes his head. “I knew it. I knew we went through something weird.”

  “Well, we can't just walk around those mines, hoping we get lucky,” Shawn says. “Those gnome things will be all over us. I never ever want to feel like that again.”

  The air opens up around us and the rock seems to fall away on either side. The air's cooler, wetter, mustier. We're close to the river again. Back in the huge chamber. Les stops for a second and looks into the darkness, at something that we can't see. “There's still quite a walk to the cave the three of you need,” he says. “I'll take you there, but I can't take you all the way to the surface. The light will kill me.”

  “Understandable,” Shawn says. He hikes the pack up higher on his back. The dynamite sticks still stand out.

  “You take care of Weslie and Antoine,” I say. I sound so protective. “And you escort them out of here as soon as you find a cure. And I hope you do find a cure,” I say.

  “Hurry,” Les says. “I don't like lingering out here.”

  We follow. There are other voices, too, low voices echoing out of what must be caves that we can't see. There must be caverns going everywhere from this spot. Runoff tunnels. The Disgraced have scattered and they're heading up to the upper mines to steal some Slimestone. Antoine's getting ready to run more experiments.

  “We will let them go after they've done all they can for us,” Les says. “We will not treat them badly.”

  “Weslie—my friend—she hates it down here. No offense.”

  “We all hate it down here,” Les says. “We will make sure the Dwellers don't get to her again. I can tell she's been down here before. It's in her eyes.”

  We walk in silence for a long time. Somewhere back in the darkness, Weslie and Antoine are getting used to the dim, gem-filled chamber. I wonder if the Disgraced will give them any of those gems in exchange for their service. They might even get to go back to Earth rich. If anyone deserves it, it's the two of them. I want to see them happy. I want to see them again, period.

  At last, the river quiets and we spot the huge open ceiling that marks the chasm we came down. The light from the lantern falls on the trail that leads back up to the worm burrow turned mine. The workers are still trapped, still trying to find a way out. On the other side of the river, the giant Flamestone vein still knifes down even further into the ground. It sparkles a bit in the dim light. I missed it before.

  Five of Les's people wait by the entrance to the trail. They're awaiting orders. They haven't gone into the mine yet. Les eyes the vein across the river. His eyes are hungry. “I wish we could get to that,” he says. “That would set us all for life.”

  “Why don't you?” I ask. “It's right there across the water. You can start digging right here.”

  “We've tried,” he says. “If you look close, you can see that the vein goes down into an even deeper cave. I've heard no
monsters that way...but no one who goes down there ever comes back out.”

  “Why?” Travis asks. His face falls. “Oh. Talia might be down there if there's a cave. It might be why we haven't seen her yet.”

  I let out a breath. Look close. Les is right. There's an opposite shore—and a dark opening that's swallowing the huge vein of Flamestone. The vein curves into blackness, hugging the ceiling.

  Les looks over the water. “We call that Demon Cave.”

  “Demon cave?” I'm not liking this. “Why?”

  “Have you seen any of that red gas yet?” he asks.

  “Yes,” I say. “We walked through some, but we never breathed it in.”

  “There's a lot of it in there. Brainstone—the red ore you see everywhere—leaks it all the time. It likes to gather in low places. The gas doesn't kill you, but it makes you...crazy. Confused. You see things that you don't want to see. Some of our people have gone down there, desperate for food, and they never came back out. The cure is to get out of the gas and breathe some normal air, but I haven't been able to mount a rescue mission. We have no air tanks or gas masks on hand. You, on the other hand, do.”

  I think of the gas masks crammed into Weslie's pack. The three of them. Two for us, and one for Antoine if we were to find him.

  We're not finished with this deal yet, after all.

  The first gas mask is showing from the top of Shawn's pack, right next to the dynamite.

  Shawn looks behind him. His face falls. “Oh,” he says. “Oh. I didn't even realize I had that.”

  “We need your help,” Les says. “You go down there. We are missing a woman and a little girl. They went down there three days ago, trying to find food. I have also seen the Dwellers taking workers down there, one by one.”

  My heart leaps.

  Talia.

  This must be where she is.

  “Right,” I say. Thoughts spin through my head. What if the gas masks don't work for that brain fog that's supposed to be down there? What if the Dwellers are still down there and they aren't affected? “Is that red gas flammable?” I ask. I'm stalling for time.

  “No. But there may be spots down there without enough oxygen to breathe,” Les explains, “just because the gas might displace that out of the air. Your gas masks won't help you if there isn't enough oxygen. It just might help filter out the crazy stuff. So keep that safety lantern with you. I wish you good luck. I will wait here for you to return. Once you come back with our people, I will send my party after the trapped workers.”

  Shawn drops his pack. I wait for Travis to crack a joke, but he doesn't. Pit lies down, looking across the river at the new cavern. His ears are flat.

  There's nothing funny here. We have no choice but to go down there and we're not even sure the masks will work.

  We're all nervous. This is scary. It sounds even scarier than the giant worm for some strange reason. Why is that? All we have to do is put on the masks and make sure we don't have to scratch our noses or sneeze. Why am I so scared?

  Shawn sifts through the pack. “You guys came prepared,” he says. “Wow. How did you manage to carry this around?”

  “Ask Weslie,” I say. “Oh, wait—we can't. She's back there in the chamber.” I say it loud enough for Les to hear. “I hope I can ask her again.” This is too much.

  “I think we are being very gracious,” Les says. He speaks with the patience of a leader. “Very gracious, risking ourselves in order to get all of you back to the surface.”

  “Les,” I say. “The workers here have never seen the surface of this world. When they get there, they won't know what to do. You'll need to tell them there's a settlement out there. Tell them to find the river and the rock with the purple arrow on it, and to follow that.”

  Les nods. “I know where the river is. I've been to the surface at night. I've seen it.”

  “And tell them to keep light with them at all times. The Dwellers might go after them.”

  “I will,” Les says.

  “And also tell them,” I say, “that if we can, we will come back and show them all how to get back home.”

  Les nods. “Got it.”

  I wonder what those workers will do when they emerge into the sunlight. When they realize that they're no longer on Earth. Travis hadn't even realized that we're in a new world at first. Some of the workers must be hoping that we're still in the same world, that they can just get to the surface, make a 911 call, and return home. Their hopes will be shattered as soon as they reach the light. Like mine. We have to keep them sane. We have to keep them hoping.

  There has to be a way home. There has to be.

  What am I thinking? I'm just distracting myself from the thoughts of going down into that cave. That's all.

  But I have to do what's right here.

  I have to rescue Talia and complete the job. I have to face Garrett one more time and do what my father couldn't.

  “Here,” Shawn says, tossing me a gas mask. “It won't look good on you, but it's better than you turning into that crazy lady back up in the mine.”

  Travis flinches when he says that. There are no jokes about that now, even with the two people responsible for her death far back in the darkness.

  I take the mask and put it over my face. The world turns into black plastic and glass. My vision's limited and I sound like Darth Vader when I breathe. Fantastic. I feel like some giant bug. I'll fit in great down here.

  Shawn puts on his mask and so does Travis. Travis picks up the lantern. “Should we take our weapons?” he asks Les. His voice sounds muffled from under the mask.

  I almost feel like I'm going to suffocate in this thing. I'm glad Weslie had the foresight to pack these. She knew there might be dangerous gases down here, especially on the lower levels, and she was right. Without these, our search for Talia would have ended on this shore.

  “Take your weapons,” Les instructs. “I have never been very far down there myself. When I tried to go after my friends, I had to turn back since I was beginning to hallucinate. It's Demon Cave for everyone who dares go down there.”

  “That sounds like fun,” Travis says. He gives Les a thumbs-up. “Now how to we get across?”

  “First, put out your lantern so you don't attract the Light Eaters,” Les instructs. “I see one swimming down the river a little ways. You'll wade across. The water will only come up to your chests or so. Then you'll notice a red glow when you get close to the cave. Brainstone gives off a glow when there's a lot of it. Descend carefully. It's not so steep that you'll fall. I think that cave was another creek at one point. But it might be a bit hard to see down there.”

  “Thanks,” Shawn says. He gives Les a thumbs-up. Or is he flipping Les off? I can't tell in the dim light. But Les's expression doesn't harden.

  “I'll go first,” Travis says.

  “Remember what I said about the guy who always gets killed?” Shawn asks.

  But Travis steps into the water and dims his lantern. I wait for one of the Light Eaters to jump up and fight him for it, but it never happens. They must not be infesting these waters, then. Maybe there's just one every few hundred feet or so.

  “Hey, I was going to be the hero,” Shawn says. He still holds Weslie's gun. Then he steps in. “The water's not that cold,” he tells me, extending his hand. “Come on. If anyone's going to have to deal with those Light Eaters, it's Travis.”

  I take his hand and we wade into the river.

  It's not flowing very fast, not fast enough to knock us off our feet. The water rises to my chest before it stops getting deeper. The floor is just smooth stone. The water bogs down my clothes. This river has been here for a long time, eroding everything. That's good for us. I keep breathing through the mask, taking slow, deep breaths. We all sound like we're snoring really bad, but I'm glad to have this and some protection against the red gas down there. But it won't protect us from the lack of oxygen. Only our safety lamp will do that. When will it stop burning, anyway?

  Pit swims b
eside me, moving his paws under the water. Both his ears stand up as water splashes me. He's coming with us. We don't have a gas mask for him. Will Pit suffer from any insanity down there? Maybe the gas only affects people.

  But he didn't want to step in it before. Why would he now?

  “The glow,” Travis says at last.

  He stops. Beyond him, past the dim light of the lantern, I spot it.

  The tunnel, branching downward from the shore. There's a faint red light illuminating it. It looks like the inside of a blood vessel, there's so much Brainstone in the walls. It's very creepy and I can see a bit of the red gas, listless and hugging the floor. The gas gets deeper the farther in the tunnel goes, and if I look hard enough, I see a spot about fifty feet down where it comes all the way up to the ceiling. There must be a lot of it in that tunnel if Les had to turn and come back, leaving his people behind in there.

  That's where Talia is.

  The giant Flamestone vein turns out of the chasm and hugs the ceiling, going further down this tunnel. It's leading us even deeper into the world. The Dwellers would have brought someone down here for sure.

  “Well,” Shawn says. “This is where we need to go.”

  Chapter Seven

  Heart

  Pit gets out of the river and shakes himself off, just like a dog. Water sprays everywhere. I face him. “You sure you want to go down there?”

  Pit stares down at the gas, then back up at me. I see doubt in his eyes. He's not sure. I know him well enough now to realize that's what he's thinking.

  “I think Pit should stay here,” Shawn says. “We don't know what this crap will do to him. Even Les might not know.”

  I glance across the river. Les is out of sight now, standing in the dark. He's somewhere across the water.

  “Good luck,” he says, voice echoing across the river.

  “Thanks,” I tell him. I lean down and hug Pit. He's wet, but so am I. It doesn't matter. “Stay here,” I tell him.

  He cocks his head at me, faces the gas, and stands up.