“I doubt that very much,” Tom said. “But I'm better at following orders, so be careful. You know I prefer it down here in the cool water than trekking across the scorching desert.”
Sam nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
He then dipped his head below the narrow ceiling and disappeared.
Chapter Sixty-One
Sam drifted along the tunnel, with no more than an inch or two of air between the water and the ceiling. He kept his eyes opened while floating on his back. The blue glow from his DARPA thermal suit reflected off the ceiling back down at him, as though it were a mirror. Occasionally, every twenty or so feet, a gap would form where the glow would be absorbed by an area of darkness. These areas, he soon discovered, occurred when the ceiling had collapsed leaving a small opening.
He floated into the first large one he found. It formed where three stones, each no larger than a soda can, had fallen from the roof. Not big enough to surface his entire head, but good enough for him to place his mouth inside and breath the air trapped above.
The air was not stale and foul, but felt cool, and delicious on his throat.
Sam waited there for ten or so seconds as he caught his breath, not wanting to wait any longer in case he drew the last of the air out. He dipped again and floated well below the roof line. It was at least another forty or fifty feet before he found another opening.
This one was much larger, and capable of supporting his entire body. It looked clear to him that a large pocket of the tunnel had collapsed. He surfaced and took a couple deep breaths. His eyes scanned the area. The opening appeared to go to another level. The light of his suit shined upwards approximately twenty feet until it reached another, thoroughly damaged ceiling. Bits of limestone and sand intermingled through a gaping hole where the ceiling of a second tunnel passed through the cave-in.
Sam waited until his eyes adjusted to his new environment and then grinned. There was definitely a second tunnel, about ten feet above. Two tunnels are better than one — especially when the second one is high and dry. He tried to grip the remaining stone walls and climb. The rocks he put his weight on fell apart in his hands. He tried another grip, followed by a third. Each one broke in his hands, sending more stones tumbling down.
He stared at the second tunnel. It was clearly visible now that he’d identified it. He shook his head and cursed to himself. Ten feet, I can’t reach a meager ten feet?
Sam dropped back into the water and continued to swim down the flooded tunnel. He didn’t get very far. A second large cave-in blocked his progression any further down the tunnel. The water sped past him, as its pressure became confined to two small cracks in the limestone wall. Neither was big enough for even Zara to slip through. Definitely too small for him to make it.
Sam performed a swimmer’s tumble-turn against the pile of stone rubble which blocked his progress through the original tunnel, and started swimming hard against the current. He surfaced at the large opening to catch his breath and then swam all the way back to where he’d left Tom and Zara. It was a much harder swim going back against the current.
Surfacing, he took several deep breaths. Tom held onto the side of his right arm to stop him from floating down the current, and waited.
Zara asked, “Any luck?”
Sam said, “Maybe.”
She looked at him like he was a fool. “What does maybe mean? We can either get through or we can’t. Which one is it?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know yet. It’s a maybe. But I’m willing to give it a try.”
Tom asked, “What have we got?”
“There’s a cave-in approximately eighty feet ahead. The current is still getting past, through two small cracks in the limestone. Real small cracks. Even Zara wouldn’t fit through, which means it’s not going to be an option for either of us. About twenty feet back from there, there’s an opening in the ceiling where another cave-in occurred. Above it I can see a second tunnel. High and dry. It looks like a good option. But we’ve got a problem…”
Zara frowned. It said, don’t we always? “What’s the problem?”
Sam said, “The tunnel’s ten feet above, and the walls are too unstable to climb.”
Tom said, “Okay, but surely we can get past that. I mean, between the three of us, we can build some sort of human chain or something and remove the obstacle of ten feet?”
“I think you’ll find we need a human pyramid,” Zara corrected him.
Tom shrugged. “Either way, it must be possible?”
Chapter Sixty-Two
Ten minutes later all three of them surfaced inside the large opening where Sam had found the second tunnel. The opening was just wide enough for all three of them to fit inside. Sam watched as Tom and Zara glanced around, judging their quandary.
Zara was the first to see it. “We have a problem.”
Sam said, “Yeah, it took me a while to work it out too. But there has to be another way.”
Tom said, “What’s the problem? I could almost reach the second tunnel myself. If I had something to stand on.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
Tom’s smile disappeared. “There’s nothing for me to stand on, is there?”
“Afraid not,” Sam said. “Which means, we can’t make a human pyramid because the person at the bottom will just sink lower in the water until we’re all underwater.”
Zara said, “There must be a way!”
Tom nodded. “All we need is for a couple of these stones to hold and I can reach the second tunnel.”
Sam watched as Tom tried the first stone he could reach. It fell away the same as the other ones Sam had tried. He then tried to use oppositional force between the two sides of the cave-in to climb upwards, but the opening was too wide for that to be of any use.
After the fourth fall, Tom stopped and looked at Zara. “You want to have a try. You’re a lot lighter than we are?”
“Sure.”
Zara reached for a much lower stone and gripped it. Lithe and agile, like a cat, she managed to use the hold to reach a second one. She spread the weight between both holds, leaning forward as she climbed to distribute the pressures evenly. Two feet from the top, a third stone held her weight. She paused there, as she studied the climb. She needed to jump to reach the top. It wasn’t an easy jump, but it wasn’t impossible, either.
She bent her arms and legs, slowly increasing the tension in her muscles ready to jump. Sam watched her muscles contract with the explosive force of an elite athlete. It was an easy jump for her — until the two stones she was pushing off, broke under the intense pressure.
Zara fell backwards into the water.
Sam grabbed her shoulder and helped her to surface inside the opening again. He watched her catch her breath. “You did well. Better than Tom or I.”
“But not good enough.” She shook her head.
Tom said, “You can try again. You’ll make it. Just give it time.”
They gave it time, but despite their best efforts, they were no closer to reaching the second tunnel an hour later.
Zara cursed the opening. “After all that we’ve done to get here, we’re going to fail because of ten lousy feet!”
Sam said, “It’s not over yet.”
“What do you mean?” She looked like she wanted to hit him and his confidence. “Of course it is. We’ve found the only way out. And it’s impossible to access. The water’s too low to ever reach the top of that wall.”
Sam persisted. “Even so, there will be a way. It might just take some time, that’s all.”
Zara’s mouth was set hard. Her face, normally vivid with expression, showed nothing but the despondence of impossibility. “How? It’s not like you can raise the height of the water.”