skittering down the hillside to land in one of the many bogs, where it slowly sank beneath the dark waters.
The mountain groaned, rocks creaking. The floor beneath their feet trembled, shuddered and rippled with sudden life.
“Hold on,” Jubal called to his sisters. “Earthquake.”
They all reached to grab any hold they could. Joie found a couple of finger pockets to stick her fingers in and hoped that terrible dread filling her stomach didn’t mean the passage itself would shift and narrow. Gabrielle placed her fist into a tight fist jam with one hand and braced herself with a flat palm with the other, biting her lip, afraid the ceiling would cave in. Jubal had to use an under-cling, praying the floor wouldn’t drop from beneath him as the ground shook.
Outside the passage, the rocks rolled away from the outcropping, settling into a random pile of innocent-looking stones just at the base of the slowly narrowing crack. The grinding of rock echoed through the cave, a terrible ominous sound that reverberated down the tight passage. Darkness settled into the entryway of the cave and the siblings immediately switched on the lights built into their helmets.
Joie moved quickly through the narrow hall, well ahead of her brother and sister. The ceiling dropped with every foot, so she was forced to bend over, eventually crawling on all fours and then sliding on her stomach.
“It’s tight here, Jubal,” she called back to her brother. The sense of urgency driving her was tempered by the building knots in her stomach. The cave didn’t feel right to her.
Normally, caves were a place of absolute wonder. Fascinating, mysterious, the last frontier for those like Joie, who needed to walk where no one else had gone, to discover things and see things no one else had dared to see.
Around her, the coolness of the rock called to her; the steady sound of water streaming from numerous cracks and the sudden chasms plunging into darkness below added to the surreal experience of pushing through a tight crevice on her stomach. She wiggled through until she could feel the cool air coming from a subterranean chamber.
Just up ahead was a perfect tube where powerful, swirling water had blasted through the limestone for hundreds of years, carving an opening. She entered it without hesitation, ignoring the flashing warning sign deep in her stomach. Hard knots coiled tighter, becoming the herald of dark dread. Everything inside her demanded she keep going, even when she had to maneuver her body at odd angles to slither through the tunnel.
“Slow down, Joie,” Jubal cautioned. “Stay within sight of us.”
“I don’t like the way she’s acting,” Gabrielle whispered. “I’ve never seen her like this. She always obeys the safety rules, you know that, Jubal. Something is really wrong.” She felt sick, her stomach churning, her mind filled with a terrible trepidation. “Something terrible is going to happen if we don’t stop her.”
Jubal waited, but Gabrielle didn’t move; she remained wedged in the narrow hall, blocking him from continuing. “Keep going, Gabrielle,” he said. “We’ll catch up to her and talk sense to her. She’s been caving for years. She’s not going to forget everything she’s ever learned.”
“Ever since she was hurt in Austria, she’s been different,” Gabrielle pointed out. “Distracted. Driven.”
“She’s always very focused when she’s going into a cave. And this is a big discovery, an unexplored cave. We have no idea what we’re going to find. Of course she’s excited.”
“You know it isn’t just that; she’s been different this entire trip. Even before that. She’s quieter. Joie isn’t quiet. Now she seems to be somewhere else half the time. I feel like we’re losing her, Jubal—as if something is pulling her into another world where we can’t follow.”
Jubal sighed loudly. “I wish I could say I don’t know what you mean, but that’s why I came on this trip. I’ve been worried about her too.” He reached out and pushed at his sister. “Move it. I can’t even hear her now.”