The Book of Sight (18 page)

“We’re coming,” Alex shouted to Adam.

Eve stripped off her shoes and socks. “Should I take Adam his stuff with mine?”

“No,” Logan said. “The tallest people should carry the stuff. Less chance of it getting wet. Dominic and I can divide it up. No one has anything very heavy.”

Not in the mood to argue, Eve stuffed everything into her backpack. Taking a breath to brace herself, she stepped into the water. Adam was right, it
was
cold, but not the bitterly freezing water she was expecting. Encouraged by this hopeful sign, she hurried forward. Adam, still standing in the same spot, called back encouragement to her. As the water rose up to her knees, she began to feel the pull of the current and slowed her steps, being sure to plant her feet carefully. She could see the far bank now and her confidence grew.

“Go ahead,” she told Adam. “I’m right behind you.”

He nodded and turned.

When she looked up two steps later, he was gone.

“Adam? Adam!”

Eve could hear yelling from the bank behind her, too. Unthinking, she pushed forward, calling Adam’s name. It came as such a shock, she didn’t even have time to hold her breath. One minute her feet were on solid rock, the next minute they were standing on nothing, and her body was pulled under in a surge of rushing water.

T
he second he saw Adam get sucked under the water, a strange sort of purposeful calm came over Dominic. Alex gave a scream and Dominic saw Eve look up. In some horrible way, he knew what was going to happen.

“Eve, stop right there!” he shouted. “Turn back!”

Unhearing, she plunged forward and was swept off her feet in seconds.

Without even realizing he had done it, Dominic had removed his socks and shoes. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Logan had done the same. They both waded into the water.

“Stay right there,” he said to Alex. “See if you can find anything that might work as rope.”

He didn’t turn around to see if she had listened. Logan was a step ahead of him and had almost arrived at the spot where Adam had disappeared. Somehow Dominic knew just what to do.

“Logan, stop. Don’t let it pull you. You have to jump in and swim with the current.” He saw Logan give a small nod, and together they plunged in.

Cold, vicious water swirled around him, pulling him under. He tried to swim evenly, keeping pace with the current, but he kept crashing his hands and legs into rocks and being knocked off balance. His flashlight was quickly ripped from his hand, and the world was black. If his eyes were going to be useless, he knew he would have to rely on his ears to find the others. But all he could hear was the rushing and gurgling of the water around him. He wondered where Logan was and if he was all right.

He heard a yell and almost simultaneously smashed into a rock wall. For a second the breath was knocked from him, and he knew that he was going to drown. But then an arm bumped his. Instinctively, he took hold and kicked up for air. The frothing water was pinning him to the wall, but he was able to suck in one breath before the current pulled him back down. The next time he struggled to the surface, he felt something jagged hit his head. Without thinking, he reached up and grabbed on, just barely managing to avoid being sucked back under as he gripped a tiny ledge sticking out of the rock face. It was impossible to see anything in the dark, but he thought the arm he was holding was Adam’s. It was still flailing in desperation, so Dominic took that as a good sign. At least Adam was still alive. Dominic tightened his grip on the rock ledge.

“Hold still!” he shouted over the roaring of the water. “I have you and I’ve found something to hold onto.”

The flailing stopped. Dominic gave a great heave, fearing the worst, but the next minute Adam was shouting right in his ear.

“Dominic?”

“Yes!” he yelled back. “I can’t hold on much longer. Try to grab for the ledge.”

He felt Adam’s free hand scrabbling on the hard rock and then a sudden relief as the weight of the arm dragging him down was lifted.

“You have a hold?”

“For now.”

“We have to move toward the bank. Can you?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m letting go of your arm. We both need two hands.”

“Okay.”

With two hands, Dominic found it possible to slowly creep along the ledge, the water pulling terrifyingly at his body the whole time. His arms were screaming in agony, but he knew if he let go now he’d never get a grip again. After a few minutes that seemed like an eternity, he felt the pull of the water let up slightly. He tried to shout back encouragement to Adam, but wasn’t sure if Adam could hear him. Dominic didn’t have the energy to check on him. They had to get out of this current now.

A minute later, his right leg bumped into solid rock. At first a terrible fear gripped him. He was boxed in! But then he realized that his arm wasn’t touching anything. He slowly let go with his right arm and reached out. It was the bank! With a final heave and a grunt, he pulled himself up on the solid rock and laid his head back, exhausted. Even the relief he felt when Adam clambered up beside him only reached his brain through a haze.

“What about Eve?” asked Adam, panting. “Is she okay?”

Another surge of adrenaline made Dominic sit up. “I don’t know. Logan jumped in to help, too.”

“What? So they are both still in there?”

“I don’t know.”

Adam started shouting, “Eve! Logan! Can you hear me? Logan! Eve!”

“Shut up! I think I hear something,” said Dominic.

It was faint but it was Logan. Dominic strained to pick out the words over the rush of the water, “Eve…legs…pull….”

“What’s he saying?” asked Adam.

“Shh! I can’t tell. I think he has Eve.”

“Logan! Come toward us. There’s a ledge to hold onto!” yelled Adam.

“…legs wedged…afraid…”

“I think they’re stuck,” said Dominic. “We may have to go in after them.”

“How? We barely made it out.”

“I know. But we don’t have a choice. I would give anything for some rope.”

“Okay,” Adam sounded subdued. “If we’re going we’d better go. They won’t last long in that current.”

Dominic groaned and stuck his legs back into the water. He felt along the side wall for the ledge to grip. Just as he was about to slide off the bank, something floppy struck him in the legs, tangling around his foot. Before he could stop himself, he yelled, imagining nasty water creatures living in the dark. But then he realized that it didn’t have the texture of a fish. He reached down and pulled, using his hands to feel what his eyes couldn’t see. It was long and thin, with knots every so often. Much thicker than rope, but it was some sort of cloth material, only wet and heavy.

“Hey, this is a sweatshirt!” Adam was beside him feeling the strange item. “Here’s its hood.”

Something clicked into place in Dominic’s mind. Alex. She had made them a rope. Dominic’s heart swelled with hope for the first time.

“Logan! Hold on! We have a rope! We’re throwing it to you!”

“…rope?”

“Just hold on! When it gets to you, grab on and yell!”

Adam held one end of the rope while Dominic threw the other as far as he could out into the surging water.

“Did it reach you? Do you have it?”

“…can’t see…”

“It didn’t make it,” Dominic said to Adam. “We need to pull it in and try over.”

Frantically, they hauled in the makeshift rope and cast it out again. This time they heard a shout.

“Do you have it?”

“…touched…wait…”

They waited in tense silence for a moment.

“Got it!”

Practically crying with relief, Adam and Dominic both pulled on the rope and slowly, hand over hand, dragged Logan toward them. They couldn’t see him, but they heard his
oof
of surprise when he hit the bank. On hands and knees, Dominic reached over and helped pull Logan up. He was clutching Eve with one hand and the rope with the other. Adam dragged Eve up onto the edge. She wasn’t talking.

“Is she breathing?” asked Dominic.

Adam was huddled over her. “I can’t tell.” Dominic could hear the sounds of Adam starting CPR.

“She was talking when I first crashed into her, but then at some point she went under and I think she swallowed some water,” said Logan.

Adam was counting softly to himself. Suddenly there was a gagging sound, and Adam jumped back, crashing into Dominic. “Eew. She puked on me.”

“So sorry,” said Eve through violent coughs.

And then they were all laughing, huddled together and unable to stop themselves. Dominic couldn’t see the others, but just feeling them around him and knowing that somehow they had all survived was like a drug. After a few minutes, they finally calmed down.

“Where did you get that rope?” asked Logan.

“It floated down the river to us,” Dominic said. “Alex must have made it. It feels like all our clothes tied together. What happened to you? How did you find Eve?”

“I crashed into her when I hit the wall. She grabbed on to me and we almost went through the outlet, but I managed to wedge my legs against the opening and hold on. At some point I felt her start to let go and realized that she had swallowed water. I tried to hold her above the water, but it was impossible to move without getting sucked through. If it hadn’t been for that rope, we would have been goners.”

The rope reminded Dominic. “Alex must be worried. We need to go back up stream and find her.”

“How are we supposed to do that without any light?” asked Logan.

“Slowly, I guess,” said Eve weakly.

They all laughed again, hysteria just barely kept at bay. “At least Alex should still have a light when we find her, not that I’ll get much benefit from it,” said Adam. “I lost my glasses in the water.”

“Speaking of light,” said Logan. “Do you guys see that?”

They did. Far away, a tiny point of light was moving toward them.

L
eft alone on the bank of a rushing river in a giant underground cavern, sick with worry about her friends, and feeling the dark press in around her as if it would extinguish her little flashlight, it was easily the worst moment of Alex’s life.

She saw Logan and Dominic dive into the water and disappear from sight, and a panic rose up in her throat, almost choking her. In that moment, it was all she could do to keep from throwing herself into the water as well. But Dominic’s last words to her were still ringing in her ears.
Find something to use as a rope
. Her panic took a new direction.

She began to rummage, snatching up each backpack and dumping its contents on the ground. A few items caught her eye but were rejected nearly as quickly as they were seized upon. Some rubber bands. A necklace. Dental floss. At that last one, Alex screamed in frustration. This was useless. There was nothing. Then her eye fell on the ace bandage from her first aid kit. But, no, it was only about two feet long. Unless…

With sudden inspiration, Alex whirled around and seized the pile of discarded clothes. It was perfect. Starting with the socks, she tied everything together, carefully double and triple knotting, praying that getting wet would make the knot stronger. Unsure how long a rope would be needed, she stripped off her own socks and shoes, adding the laces to the very end. That was it. The best she could do.

Gathering up the whole hodgepodge pile in her hand and balancing her flashlight on top, she began to make her way downstream as quickly as possible. She had only gone about four feet when she slipped and, unable to catch her balance with her hands so full, sprawled face first on the rocky ground. The soft rope cushioned her fall, and she was unhurt, but her flashlight rolled off with a thunk and went out.

By this time she could hear yelling very faintly from up ahead. There was no time to lose. She felt frantically around for the flashlight with no luck. She knew she had no chance of feeling her way along in the dark. Another yell reached her. There was no choice.

Alex stood up and began slowly creeping along, praying she wouldn’t misstep and fall into the water. Two steps, three, four. She tried unsuccessfully to remember how far away the end of the cavern was. More yelling. Five steps, six steps. She bashed her bare toe on a rock and cried out in pain. Seven steps, eight.

With no warning, her right foot came down in about a foot of water. She fell sideways this time, into the river. Flinging out her hands to catch herself, Alex let go of the rope. The water wasn’t deep, and Alex was able to get back up on the bank in no time, but the rope was gone, carried away by the rapid water.

Alex collapsed in despair. She sat huddled alone on the bank in the dark, sobbing and dripping and shivering uncontrollably, listening as the shouting from downstream continued. She didn’t know if she could bear to hear the last drowning cries of her friends. Alex covered her ears and cried harder. She had no idea how long she sat there, but at some point she heard something that caused her to raise her head. It was quiet.

Was that it then? Were they all dead?

A sudden sense of horror at being alone in the dark with all her dead friends spurred Alex into action. She crawled back upstream, feeling carefully around for her lost flashlight. When she arrived at the pile of junk that was the emptied out backpacks and realized that she had missed the flashlight, she had to stifle another sob. She turned back, this time walking and trying to count the steps she had taken before falling. A few steps in, she stepped on it, falling for the third time and skinning both knees. Clutching the precious plastic tube to her chest, she felt for the switch. A few frantic flips of the switch and a tightening of the battery cover later, the light came on. Alex cried out in hysterical relief.

Now that she had the light, she had to decide what to do. Should she just head out of the cave and go get help? Or should she attempt to look for her friends? Was there any chance that anyone was still alive? The thought of hunting by herself in the dark and maybe finding someone’s body washed up on the bank was almost more than she could bear. But in the end, she knew she couldn’t just leave without knowing for sure that no one still needed her help. With only a short pause to put her shoes back on, Alex headed downstream again.