Nearly a full minute later, Ben emerged again, gasping for breath, his teeth chattering. “It c-comes out into an-nother chamber. The tunnel’s about twenty-five feet long, and it gets a little narrow in the middle.”
“How narrow?” Rudy said.
“It was t-tight for me, but you g-guys should make it no problem.”
Rudy turned to Jack, shaking his head. “Jack… I’m telling you, I will freak out down there.”
“Well, we don’t have any choice,” Jack said, trying to sound firm but supportive. The last thing he needed was Rudy getting hysterical.
“I’m gonna get stuck!”
“If Ben can make it, you can too.”
“But I can’t—”
“Rudy.” Jack grabbed the collar of his sweatshirt and jerked him close, shining the light in his face. “It’s real simple. You either stay here and die for sure from hypothermia or take your chances down there. Now man up and let’s do this.”
Ben was already uncoiling several lengths of rope. “I’ll go first. Then you send the packs through, and you two come last.” He turned to Rudy. “All you gotta do is follow the rope. Hand over hand. Got it?”
Rudy was shivering too badly for Jack to tell if he was nodding or not. He slapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll do fine. You’ll be through before you know it.”
“I’ll tug three times for you to send the packs,” Ben said. “Then I’ll give three more tugs when you’re clear to come through.”
Jack and Rudy nodded.
They tied their packs to the rope, and Ben started sucking in deep breaths. Jack could see he was fighting off the effects of the cold, and Jack himself was starting to go numb. He could feel his mind shutting down as the blue beams of their flashlights began to flutter in his eyes.
Ben ducked under again, trailing the rope behind him. A minute later Jack felt three tugs and began feeding the rope through the tunnel. He could tell by the feel of the rope that one of the packs snagged a bit somewhere in the darkness, but after a sharp yank, it continued pulling through.
Rudy was rubbing his arms and hugging his slim frame. “I c-can’t believe this is hap-p-pening. I knew I should’ve st-tayed home.”
“Keep it together, Rudy,” Jack said as he waited for Ben’s signal. “You got to stay focused.”
Suddenly the rope tugged three more times.
Jack clutched Rudy’s arm. “Okay, it’s our turn,” he said. “You go first and I’ll be right behind you.”
Rudy’s lips trembled. “I c-can’t….”
Jack shook him. “Rudy—you can do this. You’re not going to get stuck.”
Jack thrust the rope into his hands and pushed him toward the tunnel, shouting positive reinforcements like some kind of desperate life coach.
Rudy sucked in several deep breaths; then Jack pressed his head under the water and guided him to the opening. A moment later Jack followed, ducking under the surface as a thousand needles of ice pricked his flesh. He fumbled blindly for the rope, following it into utter darkness.
Jack kept his eyes squeezed tight as the sharp edges of the tunnel scraped past him, closing in tighter the farther he went. It was smaller than he had expected, and at one point he felt like he would get stuck in the middle of the passage and drown. Panic began to swell inside his chest.
He could still feel Rudy’s feet ahead of him, thrashing wildly, and at least took some comfort in knowing he wasn’t completely alone. As the chill of the water sliced through him, memories burst in his brain like flashbulbs going off. Memories of his father. A funeral without a body. The big, empty rooms of his house.
He fought back his terror and tried to concentrate on the rope.
His lungs burned.
His arms throbbed from the cold.
And then he was out.
Chapter 06
Jack surfaced, coughing and gasping for breath. He retrieved his flashlight from under his belt and flicked it back on, finding himself in a secondary pool within a much larger chamber. Ben was standing nearby, helping Rudy climb onto the rocky bank.
Jack waded to the side and scrambled onto the rocks. He lay there, clutching his flashlight and shuddering uncontrollably. “Wh-what do we d-do n-now?”
Ben had arranged their backpacks along the bank and was already going through them. “We need to take inventory of everything we have. I need to see what we’ve got to work with here.”
He was moving like some kind of robot, seemingly no longer affected by the cold. Probably due to his military training, Jack thought. Meanwhile Rudy was huddled on the shore, hugging his shoulders.
“I suggest you guys get changed,” Ben said. “We need to get out of our wet clothes.” He stripped off his shirt and slipped on the extra clothing he’d brought along.
Jack inched his way over and felt his own extra clothes. They were still mostly dry. He pulled off his wet clothing and slipped into his shorts and sweatshirt. It wasn’t much to keep him warm down in this cave, but it was better than staying in his wet clothes.
“What are we going to do?” he asked again.
Ben didn’t look up. “Find another way out.”
Rudy stirred at that comment. “What if there isn’t one?”
Ben shone his flashlight in Rudy’s face. “There’s always another way out.”
Rudy had brought along a pair of sweatpants and a nylon jacket in his pack. Jack tossed them over to him. “Rudy, get changed. You’re not going to do us any good if you get hypothermia.”
Rudy took his clothes and quietly began changing as Jack inspected the rest of the chamber. It was larger than he had first thought, more than a hundred feet across with a high, arched ceiling. Ben was already moving around the perimeter, shining the beam along the jagged black walls. The pool they had emerged from flowed out down a shallow trough along the floor of the chamber and disappeared again into a side tunnel. That tunnel seemed to be the only way out of the chamber.
Ben pointed his light down the passage. “Looks like we follow the stream.”
Ten minutes later, they had repacked their gear and were headed off down the side passage. Before long, Jack began to smell something. A sharp, pungent odor.
“Ugh, what is that?”
“Sulfur,” Ben said. “This whole part of the country is very geologically active. A lot of hot springs and geysers and stuff. We’re pretty close to Yellowstone.”
They walked down the tunnel for several minutes and emerged again in a chamber even larger than the previous one. Jack could tell it was warmer here than in the tunnel. And he was thankful for that, but the smell of sulfur was stronger as well.
The chamber was uneven, with several side passages and large boulders scattered throughout. Twisting white stalagmites rose from the floor along with various other rock formations, which gave the cavern a crowded and cluttered appearance. And the most curious thing was that everything seemed to be covered with a pale, glossy substance. It was spongy, fibrous, and slick, and it shrouded the entire room.
They’d just begun moving through the chamber when Ben stopped and pointed his light at the floor, where a large puddle of water frothed and bubbled. “It’s a hot spring,” he said. “Some kind of hydrothermal vent.”
Jack drew up beside him and cast his light across the steaming pool, gurgling beneath a layer of thick foam. He swept his light forward and found a second pool a few yards ahead. In fact, the more he scanned the cavern, the more he found.
