How big was this mountain? A mile across? Two? Three? Did this tunnel even go all the way through? Maybe it had only been for trams to come in, get ore, and carry it out. How long should I go before giving up?
Lost in thought, I put my foot down and took a split second to realize it hadn’t landed on anything. Suddenly I was sliding downward into a bottomless hole.
A yelp of surprise escaped my mouth as I fell, scrabbling wildly at the dirt wall. No no no no my brain screamed as my fingers clawed for something, anything to hold on to. My right hand instinctively closed around… a root! I threw my left hand up to grab it and hung there for a moment, my mouth dry with terror and my brain firing incoherently. The root was already giving, pulling out of the dirt. Slowly I tilted my head downward—the narrow beam of light couldn’t pierce the darkness enough for me to see if there was any bottom.
I looked up and blinked as several flashlights shone in my face. I could see my team clustered around the opening above.
Nate began feeding a rope down to me—he’d already tied a loop in the end to make it easier to hold on to. Letting go of my root felt like risking death. My heart pounded and a clammy sweat beaded my forehead.
“Do it!” Nate said firmly.
It was what I needed to break the vise of fear holding me. I grabbed the rope with one hand, then the other, letting go of the root that had saved my life. Then Nate, Bunny, and Jolie began to pull me up.
By the time I clambered gracelessly out of the pit, I’d had time to be less afraid and more embarrassed. Some leader I was. I crawled over to the wall and sat against it for a minute, my chest heaving.
“You okay?” Nate asked.
I nodded and stood up. Unclipping my canteen from my pack, I took a long swig, then wiped my mouth on my sleeve and said, “Okay, everyone. Avoid that hole.”
How’s that for good leaderly advice?
22
WE WENT AROUND THE PIT on the other side and headed deeper into the mountain’s guts. I decided to give it five more minutes and if no end was in sight then, I would call it quits.
But after five minutes, I just couldn’t give up. We went on for six minutes, seven, eight…
“Look!” Levi said. “Light!”
I sighed with relief once we were out of that damn tunnel. It was nearly dusk—not much daylight left. The train tracks curved off into the woods and I decided to stick with the road.
“This is stupid,” Mills said. “We should be up high somewhere, hiding and watching.”
“Yeah?” Bunny said. With her smooth dark skin and her kinky hair cut close to her head, she looked beautiful—and deadly. I was glad she hadn’t been at the Crazy House; I wouldn’t have wanted to fight her. “How long should we stay hidden, somewhere up high? Days? I’d rather be a moving target than a sitting target.”
Thank you, Bunny, I thought.
This abandoned road led to an abandoned… cell? But there was no boundary fence around it, and no signs saying B-25-600 or whatever—no designation at all.
We just walked right into it. The buildings were empty, with broken windows and some doors hanging open. We walked past a doctor’s office, its sign dangling by one chain: DR. ELIZABETH MARKS, GENERAL AND FAMILY MEDICINE. Then a grocery co-op, its windows broken and its shelves bare: MCDUFF’S GROCERY.
“Where’s… where’s all the United signs?” I asked, looking around. “How come it’s Dr. Marks, and not the United Health Center? And McDuff’s Grocery, not the United Food Co-op?”
“That is weird,” Bunny said.
“At home it was United everything,” Levi agreed.
It was like that all the way down the empty, overgrown street. Only people’s names. Like this place had never been a cell at all.
Turning to Jolie, I made the gesture of taking a picture.
Jolie nodded and took out her camera. She was aiming it at one of the weird signs when ping! It got shot out of her hand!
“Take cover!” I yelled, and the team scattered instantly, their training making them obey without thinking. Five seconds later I couldn’t see any of them. Nate and I dove over a broken windowsill into a “café.” I tapped the comm on my collar. “Report?” I asked. “Anyone see the sniper? Anyone hurt?”
“I’m with Jolie, and we’re fine,” Levi answered. “Her hand is okay.”
“I’m good,” said Mills. “But I can’t see shit.”