Down the Throat of the Mountain

by Jennifer Erickson

  "Yes, and--"

  "A Chamber of Wonders."

  "If you know so much, why are you asking me?" Janie shot back.

  Andrea put a restraining hand on her father.

  Ron closed his eyes. "Sorry."

  Janie continued, "She wants me to inherit the company, which I don't want, but that doesn't matter. And I think she wants to go away to the, you know, the upside-down topsy-turvy."

  Ron pinched the bridge of his nose. "And today is the big surge?"

  "I think it's more dangerous than she lets on."

  "No kidding," said Andrea. She turned to Ron. "Who else is in the cave right now? Pete?"

  "I'll try to talk some sense into him," said Ron. He started toward the stairs, then looked back. "Janie, get out of here."

  Chapter 49

  It had been a long journey for Margaret, all these years, but she was back. Back in the Chamber of Wonders, where she belonged, with Joe. She was full, so full of thankfulness and love. Full of joy. All those things she had been missing as she flung herself at life like a bird against a windowpane. And now she had those things back, she would never give them up again.

  Margaret saw Pete, leaping and bawling in his despair. He was so blind. What better place for that young girl to end her time on earth than here, at the place the Utes had called the Womb of the World? Melanie was home. Margaret knew it. She could feel her spirit pulse through the place. If Pete would only pause for just a moment, perhaps he could feel it too.

  She saw Janie, denying her inheritance. Then she saw the cave collapse. At first, it was tragic. The world would never have its second Delphi. But then she realized it didn't really matter.

  With a warm embrace, Joe met her there, at the center of it all, and she melted into him, into love, into life. Just in time. Or maybe it had always meant to be this way. Maybe she had all the time in the world. They were two eagles, talons gripped together, falling from the sky.

  The chamber expanded, and then it collapsed, swallowing her whole. Her ego burned up. Her body disintegrated. The boundary between her and Joe blurred and then vanished. And she felt love, boundless love. The kind of love she had always wanted but had lacked as she waited, waited for Joe to be whole again. And now they were one with everything, together. And she realized that they had never been apart. It had only been illusion.

  Chapter 50

  Pete's daughter was trapped, still trapped, behind what was left of the stone wall. And every time he tried to pull her free, she seemed to come apart. He could feel the tearing.

  Pete took up the hammer drill that Andrea had abandoned, wedged the shovel bit in a crack between two stones, turned off the safety and pulled the trigger.

  "Don't worry, Sweetheart," he crooned. "I'll get you out. Just stay still."

  He knew that she was dead. He knew that he had stopped making sense, but he still had to get her out. As though she were trapped in hell by accident and only he had the power to pull her up to heaven.

  Pebbles rained down from the cracked ceiling. He paused in his work.

  Ron arrived behind him, gasping, with his goddamned Hefty bags. Pete shook him off and continued to drill.

  Then there was something like a whump. Pete paused.

  Ron hauled him up and away as rocks rained from the ceiling. Pete fought him off and struggled back toward his daughter. Ron grabbed him around the waist and dragged him backward. They wrestled and Ron put himself between Pete and Mel's body.

  Ron shouted, "She's already--"

  And then the tunnel collapsed in earnest. And where, moments before, Ron had stood, there was only a pile of limestone.

  Pete heard a deep boom that vibrated in his chest and throat. And even against his will, he was running away.

  Chapter 51

  Janie sat in her car, wanting to leave Long Shot and never return, yet curiously reluctant.

  Sure, Ron had kicked her out. And it wasn't like she wanted to stay. She'd done her duty. She could go.

  Janie uncurled her fingers to examine the gold nugget with bear-claw scratches that Aunt M had slipped into her hood with that awkward hug. It was probably worth a lot of money: money for dog food and propane and car repairs.

  Was this the reason Aunt M had lured her into the cave? This stupid bear?

  With a shiver of disgust, she plopped it into the ashtray among the spare fuses and Canadian pennies and gum wrappers, and shut the tray so she wouldn't see it.

  Ka-boom!

  Janie leapt from her car and goggled around her. The mountain burped. The air filled with dust. Trees swayed. A rock bounced down the hillside, coming to rest at Janie's feet. The building looked fine at first. Then a tendril of smoke issued from the roof.

  All she could think of was Pete, down in the cave with his dead daughter.

  Chapter 52

  A yellow Tercel screeched to a halt next to Janie as she ran into the street.

  Roxy's boyfriend Charlie flung open his car door and pelted straight for the darkened lobby. Janie followed. A blur of grey fur came out of the darkness going in the opposite direction and shot between Janie's legs. Janie was pretty sure it was a pack rat.

  Janie and Charlie took the stairs to the ballroom two at a time. Through a haze of smoke, Janie spotted Andrea, descending from the third floor on wobbly legs. She was covered in soot, her hair frizzy and singed. She gripped the railing with both hands and stopped every few steps to gasp and cough.

  Janie ran to help her but Andrea batted her away.

  Charlie pushed past Janie.

  Janie shrank aside as Charlie swept Andrea into his arms and carried her down. It would have been chivalrous if Andrea hadn't fought him the whole way.

  In the lobby, Andrea squirmed out of Charlie's grasp and stumbled outside to her car, where she leaned on the hood hacking and trembling. Janie stood by, helplessly.

  "Where's Roxy?" Charlie asked Andrea.

  "And Pete and your dad," Janie added.

  Andrea pointed toward the ground and launched into another fit of coughing.

  The volunteer fire department showed up, sirens blaring. A guy in a Jeep. Five guys in a battered tanker truck, still pulling up their Nomex pants. The gapers at the casino across the street cheered at their arrival.

  Charlie ran over to the firefighters, gestured toward the building and shouted. The guy from the Jeep kept shaking his head. Just like the sheriffs, the fire fighters were afraid to enter the building.

  Charlie looked back Janie's way, a plea in his eyes.

  So much for sanity. So much for not getting involved. Janie sighed and waved Charlie over, then led him into the smoldering building.

  It was dark. The electricity was out. Coughing from the smoke, Janie motioned Charlie to follow her. They clattered through the lobby to the kitchen, then past the abandoned sinks and pantries. At the back of the kitchen, a thick steel door stood ajar.

  Gingerly, Janie swung the door the rest of the way open, peered down into a dim stairway.

  "That way," she said. The odor assaulted her. The exact smell of fear.

  Charlie didn't move.

  She glanced at his face, his eyebrows drawn together in concentration. No, that wasn't concentration. That was terror.

  She stroked his gorgeous, muscular back. She didn't really need to touch him, but she was only human.

  Charlie snapped out of it.

  He stuffed his hand into his front pocket, brought out his cell phone. When he touched the screen, it bathed the dark stairway in bluish light.

  Down, they went.

  In the basement hallway, the vault door stood open.

  They crept through the airlock and into the empty cavern. Charlie's coughs echoed. Water dripped.

  Janie stooped to pick up the security guard's stolen gun with two fingers.

  Charlie turned. "What are you doing?"

  "It's a gun."

  "I noticed."

  "Somebody could step on it and get hurt." She tossed it out of the way. It c
lacked into the far wall. Bang! Janie and Charlie both jumped.

  "Jesus!" he said. "Would you just chill?"

  "I am chill," she said. She was at least as chill as he was.

  He quaked with fear. The light from his phone bounced all over the cave walls.

  Janie plopped to her stomach and squirmed through the slot toward the rest of the cave. Charlie followed.

  On the other side, shattered limestone boulders blocked the tunnel completely. Rubble filled the Crypt below them. They could go no farther.

  Charlie had to do his own inspection, of course, while Janie gave impatient explanations and rocked from foot to foot. He seemed to be operating in slow motion. Even his speech was slow. If they didn't leave soon, the same thing would happen to her. She could feel it, like rising water.

  A stone the size of a toaster plummeted from the ceiling and slammed to the floor beside her. That was her signal.

  "Let's go!" she barked.

  She wormed back through the slot, screaming motivational profanity.

  Smoke swirled past as she ran through the basement. Her eyes watered. Smoke crushed her lungs.

  Panicked, she sprinted up and through the kitchen to the lobby, then out to the street. Charlie knocked past her on the home stretch.

  Before they'd even caught their breath, Andrea was reprimanding them. The gist was, Andrea had a plan and they had just run off and left her with nobody to boss around. Good to see she was back to her old self.

  Then, Aunt M's artist friend Gary drove up looking crazed and babbling about Aunt M's sensitive nature and how she needed someone strong to show her how to love herself.

  Next thing Janie knew, they were all headed for the secret entrance up on the mountainside.

  Andrea said, "We have to move fast before there are any more collapses."

  Janie raised her head to say, "How are we going to rescue anybody from the upper entrance?" It was a stupid plan, as far as she could see. The two parts of the cave had just been severed by rockfall.

  They all ignored her. Maybe they knew something Janie didn't. Plus, it was better to do something pointless than to stand around doing nothing, she guessed.

  Gary and Charlie sprinted for their vehicles. They drove off without her.

  Janie slipped into Andrea's station wagon as Andrea rummaged in the cargo area for a headlamp.

  As Andrea started the car, she glanced over at Janie, probably debating whether to make her walk. Janie sat straight and stared through the windshield, cheeks burning.

  "Fine," said Andrea, rolling her eyes.

  Chapter 53

  When Andrea jerked to a stop at the pullout above timberline, the two men were already jogging uphill, each carrying a tool box.

  Gary the artist shouted back, "Bring that red case, too!"

  Andrea heaved it out of the back of his truck. Janie grabbed the handle from the other side, and the two of them struggled uphill, tool case between them.

  As they approached, Janie realized with a start that a third man had joined Charlie and Gary at the cave's mouth. He wore a bathrobe, fluttering in the mountain breeze. Jeff.

  Gary kneeled at the grate, already welding. Or unwelding. He tossed aside a dangerous looking chrome flower, which set the dry grass smoldering. Janie stomped out the fire.

  Janie turned on Jeff. "What are you doing here? I thought you ran away."

  "Well I didn't."

  "Either did I," said Janie.

  "Wait a minute," Andrea said. "How are we going to get to them from here? The only way to reach them is through the Corkscrew and the Crypt, and the Crypt is full of rockfall."

  "Exactly!" said Janie.

  "No," said Jeff. " I'm going down the shaft, not the Corkscrew tunnel."

  "How?"

  "Still working on that part."

  Charlie jumped up, said, "I have a rope!" and ran off.

  Janie glared at Jeff.

  Gary stashed his tools, swung the grate open and pointed. "Do not touch this part here. It will barbeque your hand."

  Charlie came running with a backpack.

  One-by-one, they lowered themselves through the bars.

  Gary steadied himself on a tool box, trying to get his legs under him.

  "I'll be there in a minute," he called. It didn't look like he was going anywhere.

  By the time Janie crept to the edge of the shaft where Roxy had almost died, Charlie was drilling into the cave wall. Jeff shouted over the drone and rattle of the drill. At first, Janie ignored him, then she realized he was explaining the cave layout.

  "Luckily, it's been dry the past couple of weeks, so the water is probably pretty low, but I'm still going to have to do some swimming," he said, as Charlie showed Janie how to screw hangers and nuts onto the bolts he'd inserted.

  Charlie lifted a cluster of clanking gear and a rope out of his pack.

  "So you just carry this stuff around?" Andrea asked Charlie.

  "He's a rock climber," Janie answered for him, happy to be a step ahead of Andrea for a change.

  "The thing is," Charlie mumbled, sorting gear into piles, "I don't swim."

  "Actually, swimming might not even help. It'll probably be more like a waterslide. Or a drain," Jeff added, helpfully. "But you can stay up here and mind the rope."

  "Is this some sort of suicide plan you've got?" Janie blurted.

  Charlie and Andrea looked from Janie to Jeff.

  He didn't reply.

  "You're on your own," said Janie.

  "That's about what I'd expect from you."

  Janie seethed. He was such an asshole.

  Charlie helped Jeff into a harness made of nylon webbing. Jeff sucked in his gut while Charlie tried to thread the belt through the buckle to fasten it.

  "This isn't going to work," Charlie said. "It's too small. Take it off and I'll see if I can rig something else..." He sounded doubtful.

  Andrea spoke, "I'll do it."

  "Do you know how to rappel?"

  "You can show me." Her voice shook.

  "Me too," Janie piped up. No! No! No! She really had to stop volunteering for stuff.

  Moments later Janie was strapped in and Charlie was lowering her over the edge. Why did these things always happen to her? She bumped and scraped down a rock wall, tumbled off the ledge where Roxy had landed weeks ago, then descended through clear air as pebbles and dirt rained down on her. Charlie had strapped a helmet with a headlamp on her head. It fell down over one eye. Pebbles clattered off the helmet and smacked into her shoulders and arms. Janie hugged herself and winced.

  When her feet hit water, she yelped, then yelled, "Stop! Stop!" but she was up to her waist before her descent halted. She sobbed and thrashed around as a current carried her sideways and occasionally dunked her. Then one of her toes grazed the bottom.

  Janie shone her headlamp on the walls of the shaft. Water drained away through a sloped passage to the side. It also tugged at her from below. It didn't look too bad, Janie told herself. Who was she fooling? It looked terrifying.

  "What do you see?" Charlie called down.

  "A scary drain."

  She half-paddled, half-walked around until she found a place she could stand. Keeping a one handed death grip on a horn of rock, she struggled out of the harness. Charlie pulled it up with the rope.

  Andrea descended a few minutes later, yelping as pebbles rained on her. Janie still wore Charlie's helmet. Thok, thok went the rocks on the helmet. Ploink, they dropped into the water around her. A big one bruised her collar bone.

  As Andrea spiraled toward the water, Janie reached out to steady her. Janie took a flailing foot to the face.

  The hail of rocks slowed as Andrea hit the water.

  "Crap, that's cold," said Andrea.

  Janie had been too scared to notice, but it explained why she was shaking so much. Well, that and the terror.

  Janie helped Andrea out of the harness.

  "I'll stay here to bring you up," Charlie's voice echoed. "But hurry up.
It's raining."

  "What does that have to do with anything?" Janie asked Andrea.

  Andrea ignored her (big surprise there), and started moving faster.

  Andrea and Janie peered into the narrow, water-worn chute that sloped down, then curved away. Jeff's "waterslide". Gulp.

  They argued about who should go first. Actually, they didn't exactly argue. It was more like they each pretended to be polite by allowing the other to go first. Janie won, or lost (depending on your point of view), and she ended up going first.

  "Because you're so much braver," said Andrea.

  Was that sarcasm?

  Janie stuck her legs in the hole. Sat at the lip. A couple of inches of water slipped past her in a constant stream. Before she lost her nerve, she started easing herself down, slowing her progress with her hands.

  Behind her, Andrea yelped. When Janie turned to look, Andrea was gone.

  "Andrea? Andrea?" Janie couldn't hear anything but rushing water and muffled yelling from Charlie. Panicking, she tried to pull herself back up to where Andrea disappeared, but it was too slippery and she couldn't get foot holds. She lost her grip and shot down the waterslide on her back, spine grinding against rock.

  "AAAaargh!" A mouthful of water cut off her scream.

  She had a brief impression of wavy limestone in flashes of light from the headlamp before she brought her slide to a halt, arms and legs splayed. Just below her was a drop-off. Janie crab walked down a few feet, peered over the edge.

  Across the way and twenty feet below, an underground waterfall thundered into a shallow pool that drained away through the rocks. Andrea lay in the water, motionless. As Janie watched, Andrea raised herself on her elbows and feebly dragged herself toward the edge. Janie forgot about her own predicament. Somehow, she scrambled down, and in a flash she was there, squatting next to Andrea.

  Andrea's headlamp lay on the ground nearby. Janie estimated she had free-fallen about thirty feet.

  "We're fucked. We're so fucked. We're so fucking fucked," Janie muttered as she checked Andrea over. "What hurts, Andrea?"

  "Everything."

  "Okay. That's okay," Janie lied. "We'll just have to figure out how to get out of here."

  "Yeah, right," Andrea choked.

  Janie settled Andrea on dry ground, then hovered awkwardly. What to do next?

  "I'm gonna go look around," Janie called over the roar of the waterfall. "Just stay here for a sec."

  Andrea groaned.

  "I'll be right back. I promise."