by S. S. Taylor
I didn’t like the darkness at all.
“I don’t feel right,” Sukey said. “I’m so tired all of a sudden.”
“I know what you mean.” The little bit of exertion had exhausted me, too. “It must be because we’re so hungry. Keep drinking water. We won’t run out of that.”
In the last six months, ever since Dad had disappeared and we’d lost our Explorer rations, I’d been really hungry. A few times, we’d gone a couple of days without meat or milk, but there’d always been something, a box of stale crackers, a couple of apples from one of our trees, a piece of cheese traded for copper at the markets. This was different. There was absolutely nothing to eat down here.
“We ate yesterday,” M.K. said, as though she was trying to convince herself.
“We had a few bites of beans and beef jerky yesterday.” Sukey sighed. “It feels like it was a year ago. We should have gone back to get my backpack.”
“If we’d gone back to get your backpack,” Zander told her, “we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”
Sukey was silent for a moment and then she said, “You’re right. We’d be sitting in some BNDL prison somewhere.”
“That’s a little melodramatic, don’t you think?” I asked her.
“I don’t think so. Lazlo wasn’t lying. BNDL is ruthless. I once heard my mother talking to a friend of hers about someone they knew. He went on an expedition to China, looking for a mountain pass or something. And he disappeared. Just never came back. Some of his friends, including Delilah, flew out there to see if they could find him. They found some people who said he had been seen talking to a man and a woman wearing black Explorer’s uniforms with red patches on their jackets.”
“BNDL,” I said. “What happened then?”
“I don’t know. They stopped talking about it.”
“But… they couldn’t have… killed him. Could they?” I don’t know why the thought was so shocking to me.
“You’d be surprised. I heard…” She hesitated. “Forget it. It’s just gossip.”
“What’s just gossip?” Something in her voice made me think she’d been about to tell us something important.
“Nothing. Nothing definite. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
I think we were all too tired and hungry to press her. “We have to think,” Zander said after a minute. “There must be something to eat down here.”
“There’s nothing down here but those slugs,” I said.
“They are protein,” Zander said after a minute.
“What?” Sukey’s face was shocked in the low light. “You wouldn’t…?”
“Hold on.” Zander switched his light back on and we saw him searching the walls of the tunnel. A minute later and he was back, holding one of the slimy slugs. He put it on the ground and we all watched as it writhed on the cold stone. Its flesh was plump and green. I felt my stomach turn.
“No,” I said. “No way. I’m not eating raw slug.”
“We have to have protein,” Zander said. “And it won’t be raw. We’ll figure out a way to cook it. I’m sure there are lots of cultures where they eat slugs.”
“Zander,” Sukey said in an exasperated tone, “in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s no wood down here.”
“Hang on.” M.K. was rummaging in Zander’s vest and she came up with the flame thrower she’d used to start the fire. She pressed the button on the top and a flame shot out of the box. She directed it at the slug and it writhed for a few seconds and then was still. A hideous odor of burning flesh filled our noses.
“Aghhhh!” I pinched my nose, trying to keep the awful smell out, but nothing helped. M.K. closed the flamethrower and we all stared at the smoking slug.
“No,” Sukey said. “Just, no.”
“Yeah,” Zander said. “You’re right.” He kicked the slug into the river, where it hissed as it hit the cold water and was sucked below the surface.
We all stood there, dejected, staring into the darkness.
M.K. spoke up. “Is this it? We can’t go any farther.”
Sukey went over and kicked the wall of the cavern. “Ow,” she said.
M.K. gave Sukey her jacket back and started rummaging around in her vest, taking out a couple of utilities.
“I was just thinking,” she said. “Dad made it across the river somehow and Dad left the vests for us.”
She fiddled with one of the utilities and some fabric shot out of one end. “I don’t know what that is. Maybe it’s another tent.” She shoved the fabric back in, replaced it, and fiddled with another gadget box, pushing a button on top. “I wonder what—”
Suddenly there was a loud whoosh and we couldn’t see M.K. at all as a huge expanse of gray plastic ejected from the utility and inflated almost instantaneously.
In a little under a minute, M.K. was standing next to a large boat.
“Wow,” she said. “I thought it might be a rope or something.”
Thirty-three
We piled into the boat. It was a good vessel, made of an ultra-light rubber coated with something that made it quite durable. There were even some oars that had inflated when the boat did, and Sukey and I each took one while Zander and M.K. huddled in the bottom, trying to get warm after their dip in the river. I laid my vest out on the side of the boat so that Pucci’s feet wouldn’t puncture the rubber.
We wanted to save whatever was left of Zander’s light, so we switched it off and started down the dark river. It was strange, knowing we were moving but unable to see the sides of the cavern passing by as we went.
The river wound on through the rock and we floated along on the swift current, winding our way through the darkness. The caverns were filled with a mossy green scent that reminded me of frogs and fish.
The river was moving so quickly that Sukey and I didn’t even need to paddle.
“What do you think the Nackleys are doing right now?” I asked them.
“I bet they’re still digging,” M.K. said. “Did you see how many shovels they had?”
“They’re pretty determined,” Zander said. “And now that it’s been in the paper and everything, they probably feel like they have to find it. Leo Nackley would be humiliated if they went home empty-handed.”
“I wonder why BNDL’s so interested, anyway?” Sukey asked after a minute.
“What do you mean? It’s a treasure in gold, who wouldn’t be interested?” M.K. snorted. “Gold’s about the only thing that matters anymore.”
“But maybe there’s something else that BNDL wants to find,” Sukey said. “Something other than the treasure.”
“Like what?” I hadn’t thought about that.
“Well, I was thinking. Why did they establish BNDL in the first place?”
“For the resources,” I said, catching on. “It was after they discovered Gryluminum in Grygia and they realized that there might be all kinds of other resources, metals they could mine, coal, diamonds, agricultural land. All kinds of things.”
“Right. So what if there’s something here that they’re looking for?”
“Like what?” Zander asked. “You couldn’t farm very well down here. It’s too hot. And you’d need wa—” He grinned. “Oh.”
“Exactly,” Sukey said. “I was thinking about what they said about your dad and Munopia. The water. A new source of water in this part of the Southwest. That’s a big deal. There have been all these droughts lately, right? The legend goes that Dan Foley saw the golden treasure in an old mine, right? Well, you need water for a gold mine. Maybe they think that Dan Foley’s treasure will lead them to a river—this river. And then, of course, there’s the gold. I’m sure ANDLC would love to take the gold.”
We were all quiet for a while, just thinking as the boat took us to wherever it was that we were going. After half an hour or so, the current slowed and we seemed to be in a new part of the cavern.
Next to me, Sukey was alert, her eyes focused on the water, and I sensed that she was tensing up even before I beca
me aware of the feeling that someone was watching us. Pucci seemed to sense it, too. He hopped around at the front of the boat, calling into the darkness as though he was hoping someone would answer him, and then flew up to Zander’s shoulder, where he cawed and complained.
“Pucci’s nervous,” Zander said, and as we looked ahead of us into the darkness, we could see that it was now lit up by what seemed like hundreds of tiny lights.
Or eyes.
There was a new smell in this part of the cavern, something musty that reminded me of a nest of rodents.
“What is that?” M.K. asked. “What’s out there?”
We stared up at the pairs of lights shining in the darkness, and as if in answer, one set of eyes seemed to detach from the others and we felt something swoosh through the air over our heads.
“We were wondering what might eat those giant slugs,” Zander said. “I think we may have figured it out.”
“Quick, turn on your light,” I told him. “We’ve got to see what it is.” Zander switched it on, looked up, and in the weak light from his vest, we saw them.
High in the walls of the cavern, on every possible surface, were hundreds of huge nests made of sticks and rocks. And sitting in the nests were giant birds.
They looked a bit like buzzards or vultures, with long necks and bald heads, but they were easily twice the size of any buzzard I’d ever seen. Their beaks looked sharp and their feathers, green and black, gleamed in the darkness. As we stared at them, they realized that we were there. As a group, they stirred, flexing their wings and stretching out of the nests. One launched itself into the air and sailed toward us, making a strange gurgling sound down in its throat.
“What do we do?” Sukey asked. I could barely see her face in the low light, but she sounded really scared.
Zander was now sitting up in the boat and looking around him at the birds. “They must be some kind of vulture,” he said. “But their beaks and heads are more like raptors’. I’ve never seen anything quite like them. Let me see your spyglass.”
“Zander,” I said. “I don’t care if they’re a brand-new species no one’s ever seen before. They’re coming after us.”
“We’ve got to row,” Sukey said. “I think we can get away from them. Come on, Kit. Look up ahead.” I did and saw what she meant. The ceiling of the cavern got gradually lower ahead of us. If we could squeeze beneath it, we might be able to escape the birds.
As though the birds had noticed our distress, others started detaching themselves from the wall and flying slowly toward us.
“Row harder, you two,” Zander called out.
“We’re trying,” Sukey said. “Here, Zander, you take over. I have an idea.” He did as she said.
She crawled to the back of the boat and suddenly a loud shot reverberated through the cavern. “Take that, you freaks!” she yelled.
“What are you doing?” Zander stopped paddling as he looked over his shoulder at her. “Did you just shoot at them?”
“I might be able to scare them off.”
“Are you crazy? The bullet’s liable to ricochet off the rock and kill one of us.”
“Oh, sorry. I guess you’re—help!” I turned around to find one of the birds landing on Sukey’s back. Its wicked beak struck at her hair and head and I swung at it with my oar. Pucci attacked, his metal talons out in front of him and the bird flew off with a strange clucking sound.
“Come on,” I said. “Everyone help us. We’ve got to get out of here.” Zander and I rowed with everything we had and Sukey and M.K. bent over and used their hands to paddle in the water. As I rowed, I felt wings brush my face and I reached up again to swipe at the horrible birds.
Suddenly there was a loud whoosh and I watched as one of the birds transformed into a fireball and plunged into the water, sputtering and flapping its wings until the flames were out.
“M.K.!” I yelled. When I turned around she was holding the flamethrower utility and grinning. “You’re going to set us all on fire!” We were almost to the place where the ceiling of the caverns dropped.
“I don’t think it’s high enough,” I said, trying to figure out how much clearance there was in the dim light. “We’re going to hit the rock.”
“We’ve got to try,” Zander said. “All right, everyone, when I get to three, duck.”
I felt one of the birds grabbing at my back with its talons, trying to pull me up into the air. It almost succeeded. Pucci squawked and knocked the bird away. I felt something wet splatter against my face.
“Damn it. Get away from me!” M.K. shouted and I knew that one of them was attacking her, too. “Damn! I dropped the flamethrower into the water. I have to—”
“No time to look for it,” I called. “We’re almost there. One.”
I waved my arms in the air. The birds were all around me and I felt one get ahold of my hair and try to lift me off the seat.
“Two,” Zander called.
I swung at the bird and felt it detach for a second before trying to get a better grip.
And then we were looking directly at the wall of rock.
“Three!”
We ducked.
Thirty-four
I felt rock scrape against my back and heard Sukey scream, but in a couple of seconds we had cleared the rock and were floating along quietly in a new part of the system of caverns. The river was bordered on both sides by sandy little beaches and a rocky floor that stretched out toward the high rock walls, which were made of the same beige limestone we’d seen in Drowned Man’s Canyon.
“Did the birds follow us?” I asked the others. When I turned to look, I could see that we were alone in the cavern. My heart was pounding and I wasn’t taking in the details very well.
“I lost the flamethrower,” M.K. complained. “What are we going to… Wait. You guys! It’s light.”
It wasn’t light, exactly, but as we looked around we realized that there was late, orangey light coming through the ceiling of the cavern, filtering through holes in the rock into the shapes of little moons and stars and other symbols, so that the sun hit the floor and the water through the openings, decorating every surface with dancing spots of golden light.
There were no birds.
“It’s beautiful,” Sukey said in a quiet voice. “I didn’t know how nice it would be to see the sun again, even like this.”
But Zander and I were staring up at the holes in the rock.
“Someone drilled those,” Zander said. “Those aren’t natural.” Pucci flew up to examine them, squawking loudly as if to confirm Zander’s opinion.
“Of course they’re not.” I pointed up at them. “M.K., how would you do something like that?”
“Mechanical drill,” she said. “That’s a lot of precision. Something pretty good.” There was something thin about her voice and when she reached up to rub at her arm, I felt fear wash through me again.
“M.K.?” Sukey asked her. “Does your arm hurt?”
“Just a little.” But she looked pale and I knew that it must be bad for her to admit that it hurt at all.
“Let me see.” Sukey moved next to her and rolled up her sleeve. I heard her gasp when she pulled the bandage aside. “This is really bad. We need to put some of that antibiotic stuff on it…” She trailed off and her eyes widened in alarm. Her backpack. The first-aid kit was in her backpack, back in the cave.
“Where’s that other stuff, the stuff Dad put in our vests?” I put my vest back on and started searching the pockets.
“I put it in my backpack, too,” Sukey said quietly.
“I’ll be fine,” M.K. said. “It’s just a little sore, that’s all.” She pushed her sleeve back up and winced.
“Maybe we can find some kind of medicinal plant when we get to the end,” Zander said. The current had slowed and we were just floating along now, the river moving us through this wider part of the caverns.
“Should we wash it?” I asked Sukey.
“Can’t hurt,” she said.
/> “The water’s moving,” Zander said. “At least it’s not stagnant.” We rowed over to the side of the river and Zander jumped out and pulled the boat ashore as we got out, too.
“Those birds were creepy,” M.K. said, splashing the cold water on her arm. “What was up with them?”
“They must be some kind of subterranean bird of prey,” Zander said. “I think they’ve evolved to eat those slugs. You okay, M.K.?”
She nodded bravely.
I got the map and my compass out of my vest, trying to figure out where we’d landed. “Where are we?” Sukey asked me, looking over my shoulder at the map. When I looked up, I could see that a little wound on her head was oozing blood. There were drops of blood on her jumpsuit and aviator’s jacket, but I was surprised to see the synthetic fabric had held up pretty well to the water and dirt.
“Are you okay? Your head’s bleeding.”
She brushed my concern away. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about M.K. Show me where we are.”
I traced our route on the map and did some calculations, then pointed to a spot near the end of the rows of contour lines that described the tunnel and underground river we’d just traveled. Beyond it, the caverns seemed to widen for another six or seven miles and then end. “Here.”
“We’re near the end,” Sukey said. “Do you think that means that we’re near the mine and the treasure?”
I didn’t say anything, because the truth was that I had no idea. The sun was setting. In an hour it would be almost completely dark again.
“I guess we keep going. Right?” Sukey asked in a small, exhausted voice. But no one answered her. I yawned. I was about as tired as I’d ever been, my muscles aching and my stomach so empty it felt like it was trying to digest itself.
“We’re all tired,” I said. “I think we should rest.”
“But we’ve got to keep going,” Zander said. “According to the map, we’re almost there. There may be plants there.”
“I’m tired,” M.K. said in a thin voice. “And cold. We could get out the sleeping bags. I can share with Sukey.”
“Do you think we could build a fire,” Sukey asked, “to warm up?”