Chosen (42 page)

I kept going.  The rock was wet here, which didn’t do anything to ease my nerves.  Water dripped down from jagged cracks running along the ceiling, making the entire structure seem very precarious.  If the rock was already cracking, I didn’t want to think about how little it might take for it to suffer another collapse.  I picked my way forward carefully, desperately hoping that my presence wouldn’t upset the delicate balance that held everything up.  If another part of the roof fell here – even if it missed me – it meant my way would be blocked, and I would be lost underground. 

I ventured deeper, spurred on by a feeling of responsibility for Liz and a dread of being down here alone.  The pathetically weak beam of light from the flashlight barely made it to the rocks in front of me.  The rotting smell seemed to get worse as I went farther down. 

I heard a scuttle up ahead and froze.  I fumbled for the light, hiding it in my jacket before managing to turn it off.  I didn’t want to alert anybody, or anything, to my presence.  What was that noise?  My heart was beating like a jackhammer.  I forced my breathing to remain calm.  Whatever made the sound couldn’t see me anymore, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t hear me.

I waited a long, anxious minute, consciously counting to sixty.  Nothing happened.  Just to be safe, I waited another minute.  I didn’t hear anything else.  I took a step forward slowly, shifting my weight so as not to make any noise, and strained my ears for the slightest hint of other movement.  There was nothing.  I took a breath, and surprised myself when I smelled clean air.  The rotting smell was gone – or at least, it had dissipated.  I took another feeling step in the dark, careful not to trip over anything.  The smell had returned.  It seemed like it was wafting back and forth, carried by the thin streams of air that moved through the tunnels.

I dared to turn my flashlight on.  I couldn’t move forward without it.  I shone it ahead.  It landed on the largest rat I had ever seen.

I let out a terrified shriek and fell to the ground.  The rat was a monster.  It had a thick black body with dirty, matted fur, and stood taller than my knees.  Its entire face and snout was blistered.  Clumps of fur had fallen away, revealing bloody, blotchy skin.  It stared at me with black, beady eyes.  I realized with horror that the smell was coming from
it
.  The thing was so diseased and enormous that the entire cavern was filled with its stench. 

It wiggled its nose and started toward me.  I let out another screech, grabbed a rock from the ground, and threw it.  I prayed that my aim was good.  The rock flew through the air but missed hitting the rat’s head.  Instead, it hit one side of its enormous body.  The rat made a shrill noise and scuttled the other way.     

I pushed myself to my feet shakily.  For a second, I contemplated going back.  That encounter had sapped the nerve right out of me.  But I knew that what lay behind me held just as much danger as what was ahead.  I couldn’t just abandon the other girls.  Gritting my teeth, I pressed onward.

With the rat now gone, the tunnel’s air became fresher, and I moved faster.  I was still cognizant of the potential frailty of the roof.  But, I wanted to be reunited with the others as quickly as possible.  Being down here alone was not a pleasant experience.

I walked forward, placing my steps carefully.  The light from the flashlight was getting weaker by the minute.  I didn’t want to be by myself when the batteries finally gave out.  After a few minutes, I thought I heard voices up ahead.

I ran forward.  The voices were definitely there, and they sounded like Ashley and the others.

“Hello?” I cried out.  The tunnel ended in a T.  The voices were coming from around the corner.  “Are you guys there?”

I heard footsteps, and then a shadow peeked out.  A light shone on me. 

“Tracy!” Ashley exclaimed gladly.  She aimed her flashlight away so I could see her and ran up to me.  “I’m so glad you found us!  Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine.  How’s Madison?”

“I’ll live,” came the sardonic reply from around the corner.  I saw Madison hobbling toward us, with Eve holding her up.  I ran up to them, and gave Madison a quick hug.  After a brief pause, I did the same for Eve.

“Watch it,” Eve said, pushing me off, but I thought I could hear the slightest bit of relief in her voice.

“Are we close?” I asked them.

“We’re almost there.”

“Let’s hurry,” I said.  I was conscious of how late it must be getting, and remembered what Chris said to me. 
Be there at midnight, if you value your friends.

“Of course,” Ashley replied.  “Come on.  It’s right here.”

I was led around the corner.  There, at one end of the tunnel, was an enormous heap of rubble blocking the way.  However, that was not the natural end of the cave.  The rocks there looked distinctly out of place, especially when contrasted to the surrounding walls.  And there was a certain kind of order to the pile.  It was like they had been placed there by hand to look haphazard.

I frowned at Ashley.  “This is a dead end.”

“If I have my bearings right, the other side should open up right into your tunnel, where we can find Liz.”

“But how are we going to get through?”

“The wall’s not as thick as it seems,” said Madison.  “If we know what to do, we can carve out a hole big enough to climb through.”

“To the other side?” I asked doubtfully.

“Right,” answered Ashley.  “But it could be a bit risky.  You have to trust us.”

I took a deep breath.  I’d gone this far with them already.  “I do.”

 “Good.  Eve?”

As soon as Eve reached for her pocket, I knew what she was doing.  She pulled out a small silver bundle of cloth, and picked it open carefully.  There was only one crystal in the middle.  Eve picked it up delicately between two fingers and held it out in front of her.  I could see her focusing on it.  After a second, the now-familiar blue light burst forth from the crystal, freezing everybody and everything.  The crystal coated our surroundings with its shine, and cut off all the sounds of the world.  I couldn’t move, of course, but I watched Eve curiously.  Her eyes were focused on the rock in front of us, darting from side to side as she examined the pile.  After a long moment, she nodded almost imperceptibly, and the light from the crystal went out.

“What was that all about?”

“Detecting faults in the rock,” Madison explained.  “To see how we’re going to get through.”

Eve pointed to a section of the pile.  “Over there,” she said.

“Wait, you can do that?” I asked.  “Then why didn’t you do it before to check the stability of the cave?  Any of us could have been killed when the roof came down!”

“Not everyone is as strong as you,” came Eve’s reply, dripping with sarcasm.

“It takes a lot out of you,” Ashley explained patiently, placing a hand on my shoulder.  “Even the smallest thing places enormous strain on an individual.”

Suddenly Eve staggered and fell to one knee.

“Are you alright?” I cried out.  I started to move to her but Ashley held me back.

“It’s nothing,” Eve said tightly.  “Just a bit of after-sickness.”

“I thought you were past that?”

“Again, Tracy, not everyone is gifted with the natural abilities you have.”  She sounded irritated.

Madison hobbled over and tried to help Eve up, but she was pushed away.  After a few seconds, Eve stood on her own.  “Well?” she demanded.  “Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help me move the rock?”

Ashley jumped and started working, lifting rocks up from where Eve was pointing and setting them aside.  I hurried to do the same.  It took us a while, even with the benefit of Eve’s directions.  But, in the end, we moved enough rocks to make a narrow hole that any of us could squeeze through.

“You’re sure this is the right way?” I asked Ashley when we finished.  The flashlights we had gave just enough light to see to the other side of the hole, but in there was just darkness. 

“Yes,” she answered.  “I hope.  I’ll go first.”

“No.”  I caught her sleeve.  “None of this would have happened without me.  I’ll be the first to go.”

She looked at me for a second, then nodded.  “Be careful.”

I bent down to my knees and crawled head-first into the narrow opening.  Feelings of claustrophobia came back unbidden.  The space was tight.  My back scraped against the top.  The rock was cold to the touch, and in that small space seemed to seep away all my body heat.  I inched forward, propelling myself carefully.  I couldn’t see anything, so I had to go entirely by feel, placing one hand warily in front of the other.  I continued on that way for a few feet, making my way through the space slowly. 

I put my hand in front of me once again.  Instead of hard rock, I found only empty air.  I had already started shifting my body weight to that hand.  Grasping at nothing, I fell forward, and tumbled out, landing upside down on the other side of the wall.

“Tracy?” a worried voice called from the other side.  “Are you all right?”

“Just fine,” I groaned.  I retrieved the flashlight from my pocket and shone it around.  The light allowed me to see my surroundings.  I was relieved when I recognized the walls.  Ashley had been right: The hole I had just climbed though emerged straight into the cave Chris had shown me before.  If I strained, I could even hear the sounds of the ocean, and the continuing downpour, coming from the large entrance to my right.  “Ashley, you were right!  You found the way to the crystal cave!”

“Told you I knew where I was going,” Ashley said from just behind me.  I squawked in surprise.  The girl had followed right behind me as soon as I crawled into the hole!  She lowered herself more gracefully than I had, then turned around to help Madison down.  Eve came last of all, grumbling that we should have taken the time to make the hole wider.

“Now what?” Madison asked.

“This way,” I said.  “We’re close.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven – A Deadly Game

I led the way quickly.  Every step filled me with more and more apprehension.  I didn’t know what we would find at the end of the cave.  Chris would be there, presumably with Liz.  But the circumstances that led to them being there were entirely unclear.  I knew that it wasn’t like we were just going to meet Chris there without a care in the world.  Something had driven him to
kidnap
Liz and bring her here against her will.  I prayed desperately that it was just a misunderstanding, that everything would turn out fine in the end .  Something told me that what awaited us was not going to be so rosy.  Still, I held out hope.

The note he left had been pretty ominous.  He had demanded for
me
to come.  Why, I couldn’t imagine.  All I knew was that if I didn’t show up, Liz could get hurt.  Regardless of the rift between us, I couldn’t let that happen.  There were still so many questions in my head, so many uncertainties and unknowns that played into all this that I couldn’t even begin to sort them out. 

I noticed a faint glow from ahead and skidded to an abrupt stop.  The apprehension that had been building inside me shifted into full-out fear.  I knew the light came from the end of the tunnel, where it would be time to face Chris and god-knows-what-else.

Eve, who hadn’t been paying much attention, nearly walked into me.  Ashley pulled her back just in time.  She made a vexed sound in response.  I took a deep breath.  I couldn’t get mad at the others now.  We were all in this together.  I noticed my pulse was racing, and realized with a start that my entire body was shaking.  Something bad was waiting at the end of the cave, and I would have to face it head on.

“We’re here,” I whispered, motioning to Ashley to turn off her light.  I didn’t want to alert Chris to our presence.  “See the glow up ahead?  That’s where Liz should be.”

“Now what?” Madison asked.

“Well, he said he wants Tracy.  Right?” Eve said in a voice just a tad too loud for the situation.  “Let’s just bring her there and be done with it.”

“And then what?” Ashley demanded.  “We just leave her there?  I’m not about to swap Tracy with Liz and call it a day.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Eve grumbled, but Ashley continued.  “What we need to do, actually, is figure out what’s going on.  I want to make sure Liz isn’t in any danger.  Hopefully she’s not.  But, just in case… we have to know exactly what it is and how to stop it.”

“And why she was brought here,” I added.  I had no idea what would cause Chris, or anybody, to take Liz away like this.  Suddenly, I was filled with new doubt about the expedition.  If Liz were in real danger, rushing headfirst after her probably wasn’t the smartest plan.  Yet, that’s exactly what we were doing.  Looking back, I realized abashedly that we should have brought an adult: a teacher, a faculty member, or
anybody
else who would know what to do.  But, we hadn’t.  Now, we had to live with the consequences.

Suddenly a loud shout drifted down the tunnel.  “GODDAMMIT, WHERE ARE THEY?”  I recognized the voice immediately.  It was Chris. 

“You’re wasting your time!” came the thin reply.  It sounded like Liz, but her voice was muffled.  “They’ll never come.”