A good twenty feet above his head.
“Taylor? Can you hear me? Are you okay? Can you hearme?”
Will’s head appeared in the opening above.
“Brandt!”
“Jesus Christ. You scared the shit out of me,MacAllister.”
You and me both. But Taylor refrained fromsaying it. Will sounded about as rattled as Taylor’d ever heardhim.
“You can move? Are you injured?”
Taylor slowly picked himself up. “I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Uh, I think so.” He moved into the shaft ofsunlight, brushing the grit and pine needles from his clothes andhands. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Do you see a way to climb up?”
Taylor looked around. He was forced to reluctantlyadmit, “No.”
Will swore.
“Tell me about it. Why does this stuff always happento me?” He thought of all the movies he’d seen where caves werefilled with snakes or skeletons or bears. Occasionally treasure,true, but usually snakes, skeletons, and bears. With hisluck? At the very least, giant spiders.
It occurred to Taylor that Will had been silent fora couple of minutes. He looked up. Will was still there, lookingdown at him. Taylor began to see Will’s predicament.
“See, if you’d gone for help when I asked…”
“Not funny,” Will said tersely.
“All right, all right.” He felt around in hispockets. He was going to have bruises all over his body fromfalling on the junk he carried. He pulled out his pencil flashlightand shone it slowly around the walls of his prison.Rock…earth…jutting roots…a darker shadow…
He went to examine it.
“What are you doing?” Will called.
“Hang on.”
That darker shadow turned out to be a slit in thewall. Taylor shone his light into it. He could feel cool airpushing against his skin.
He moved back into the ring of light. Was it fading?He couldn’t tell.
“There’s some kind of an opening in the wall. Maybea tunnel.”
Will was shaking his head. “No. Not a goodidea.”
“Really? What’s your plan?”
Silence. Poor Will. Taylor sympathized. Will didn’tlike not being in control, and this situation was definitely out ofcontrol.
“Listen. Try and find the girl. I’ll see if I canfind another way out of here.”
“You listen. Some of these New Mexico caves arehuge. Miles long. You can’t tell how big yours might be from thechamber you’re standing in. And there isn’t going to be any light.You won’t be able to see a foot in front of you.”
“I’ll be able to see exactly a foot in front of me.”Taylor held up his pencil flashlight.
“Seriously?”
“We don’t have a lot of time here, Brandt. Ourfriends in the hearse could be closing in on Hedwig right now. Youneed to go.”
“Do you have a way to mark your trail?”
Taylor held on to his patience with an effort. “Icould take a leaf from Riley’s book, but no. Short answer? No.”
Will raked a nervous hand through his hair. “I don’tlike this.”
“I’m not loving it either. Would you just go hurryup and find Hedwig? She’s probably giving birth under a tree rightnow.”
Will swore. “All right. But…watch yourself. Don’t doanything I wouldn’t do.”
“You mean besides falling into an undergroundcave?”
“Besides that.” Will stood up. “I’ll be back.” Hedisappeared from the opening.
“So you keep telling me,” Taylor muttered.
* * * * *
The tunnel smelled weird. It smelled sulfurous andanimal. Hopefully there was no poison gas…
Maybe the tunnel led to the center of the earth.Maybe it was the pathway to hell. Either way, it was pitch-dark andnarrow — and perhaps he was even working against an upward incline.It was hard to tell in the disorienting dark. So narrow in a coupleof spots that Taylor had to fight with himself to keep going. Hehad never been claustrophobic before, but the fear of gettingtrapped in this hole in the ground kept skyrocketing his pulse andturning his legs to jelly.
As lean and wiry as Taylor was, he had to wrigglethrough a couple of very tight places, and he wasn’t sure he couldwriggle back. It was only the knowledge that Will needed him — andthe belief that the cool wafts of fresh air he felt on hisperspiring face meant there was an opening somewhere close by —that kept him moving.
He was surprised to find he was about as scared ashe’d ever been. He was not going to like being in tight, enclosedspaces after this; that was for sure.
The flashlight beam fluttered against the slickdarkness like a white moth, and a couple of times — to his frankhorror — it faded out.
If the light went entirely, he wasn’t sure hewouldn’t break. Better not to think about it. Better to just keepmoving, keep pushing and wriggling — forget about the fact that heprobably couldn’t get back if his life depended on it, that hemight die, wedged here beneath this fucking mountain.
There was more air against his face. He could feel…abreeze. And perhaps the pitchy blackness was fading a little?
Yes. There was light ahead. Light spilling through ajagged lightning-shaped opening.
He sped up, stumbling toward it, almost dizzy withrelief.
Fresh air. Daylight. Freedom. He was embarrassinglyclose to hyperventilating his abject gratitude. Thank God there wasno one to witness — and he sure as hell was never going to tellWill how bad it had been. How bad he had let it become in hismind.
Taylor reached the opening. It too was narrow, butit would have had to be the size of a paper cut to prevent him fromgetting out. He stuck his left hand and leg through and started towriggle.
The sound of voices stopped him.
Male and female.
“I can’t tell if they came this way or not,” themale voice said.
Not Will.
Taylor drew hastily back. He listened.
The woman answered, but her voice was less distinct.She was farther down the hillside, already past the cave but out ofhis sight line.
He heard a clattering sound of falling rocks. Itsounded still farther away. So where were they?
Taylor stuck his arm and leg out of the opening andbegan to twist. The rocks tore his shirt and scraped his skin, butthat didn’t matter. It was wide enough, and he was gettingthrough.
He wriggled some more, and then he was out. Out intothe amber sunlight. Yellow dust
