We didn’t have to go far to find Simon. He was on his way to find us. Before we reached the intersection, he popped into view ahead and waved enthusiastically.
“I found the way into the cave,” he said.
“We found the monster,” I said.
His waving hand drooped. “Down here?”
“It found another way in. As much as I’d like to explore this place and as much as I’d like to see that creature out of commission, I don’t think we’re capable of taking it on, and right now, it’s between us and the others, so we can’t count on them and that sword for protection.”
Simon’s shoulders slumped.
“Look, we can still wait outside the hole or by their motorcycles and see what they come out with.”
“Agreed,” Temi said.
“I wish I’d at least caught some pictures of it,” Simon said. “You didn’t take one of it swimming, did you?”
“Sorry, no. But there’s some gold back there.” I jerked a thumb behind us. “We can come back before the general populace finds this place and collect enough to pay the bills for a few months. No need to keep ads-or sensationalist pictures-plastered all over our business site.”
Simon shrugged in defeat and turned around.
We made it back to the intersection and climbed up the way we’d descended. The smooth walls didn’t offer any handholds, and soon we were all streaming with sweat. Temi never complained, but I heard hisses of pain, though she tried to stifle them. The leg she favored stuck out behind her, so she was using only her arms and her good leg to climb up the slope.
I kept waiting for the light to appear ahead of us, but it never did. My brow furrowed in confusion when we came to a dead end. I pointed my flashlight at the coarse rock blocking the way.
“There’s only one tunnel, right? We didn’t go up a wrong one somehow, did we?”
“No,” Simon said, his voice grim and without the confusion in mine. “This is our tunnel.”
The truth dawned on me. “Oh.”
The creature had blocked the exit.
CHAPTER 24
Pushing against a boulder isn’t comfortable under any circumstances. I recommend it even less when doing it in a four-foot-wide tunnel with two other people trying to help. After suffering Simon’s hair up my nose and Temi’s elbow in my back for a small eternity-at least thirty seconds-I backed off and slumped to the ground. The others sighed and sank to their butts as well.
I pointed at Simon’s nose. “I want you to remember this the next time you wish to insult, demean, or stick your tongue out at a man-slaying monster.”
Simon opened his mouth as if he’d protest, but then he flopped against the wall. “Yeah, I am feeling a bit like the fox in the hunter’s trap.”
I rolled to an upright position, insomuch as I could in the low tunnel. “Let’s see this other exit you found.”
“We’re going into the cavern?” Temi asked.
“I don’t know. We can take a look. Didn’t you want to warn the others?”
“It may be too late by now,” she muttered.
“If they’re dead, we have to get that sword so someone can put it to use on the monster,” Simon said.
“Someone, not us,” I said. “Maybe we could recruit some uber warrior to use it.”
“Do they have uber warriors in Prescott?” Temi asked.
“I’m sure there are black belts in some martial art, not to mention all those soldiers who rolled in. At the least, there are better fighters than us. Besides-” I pointed at the boulder, “-we’re not getting out that way without explosives, and I forgot to pack the TNT.”
I started sliding back down the tunnel. At this point, I was willing to risk being horribly slain for the chance to stand up straight and stretch for a few seconds.
“I think they use C4 these days,” Temi said, crawling after me. With her stiff leg and six-foot frame, she had to be aching for a chance to stand up even more than I.
“Yeah, but we don’t have any of that,” I said.
“You have TNT?”
“In our storage locker in Phoenix,” Simon said. “We found some old unexploded sticks while we were scavenging around the Superstition Mountains. Don’t tell the manager. It’s not legal.”
“Legal? Is it safe?” Temi asked.
“No,” I said. “The sticks were tucked at the bottom of a crate of dusty mining helmets and lamps we found on an old claim. We’re lucky we didn’t blow ourselves up coming down the bumpy road out of the mountains.”
At the intersection, I headed right this time. Simon’s tunnel was shorter than ours had been and we soon reached the cavern again. The passage had sloped downward, so we didn’t come out so high up on the wall, and there were a few feet of a granite shoreline beneath us this time instead of pointy rocks. The underground lake stretched to the left and the front, but a narrow ledge ran along the cavern wall to the right.
A crash came from somewhere ahead, like rock toppling onto rock. I doubted that was Eleriss and Jakatra, but at least they’d hear it and know something else was down here with them, assuming they were still alive. If the monster had made the noise, that meant it was relatively far ahead of us. Good.
Simon peered over my shoulder. “We going out or staying here?”
I exhaled slowly. “We can’t get out the other way, so I think our best bet is to catch up with the others and hope they can help us escape. The predator dropped through a hole in the ceiling, but it was thirty feet above the water. I don’t see how we could get out that way. Also, if we were to stay here, and the creature finished whatever it’s down here doing, then it’d have nothing better to do than stake out these tunnel exits until we ran out of food and water and hunger drove us to desperation. If we’re going to try and get past it, better to do so while it’s distracted.”
“You’ve been thinking about this a lot, haven’t you?” Temi asked.
“I’ve thought about little else for the last ten minutes.”
I probed the cavern with my flashlight, making sure there wasn’t anything inimical crouching in the darkness, before dropping down to the granite beach. While I waited for the others to join me, I studied the uneven stone ceiling overhead, wondering if any more holes might lead out. I had a feeling the creature had found a special way in, one that involved holding one’s breath for a few minutes and navigating all sorts of ups and downs through a watery passage. If there were easily accessible entrances, we’d see bats and other signs of animal visitors.
“It’s stale smelling in here.” Simon shrugged off his backpack and pulled out a yellow and black device.
“Methane detector,” I told Temi when she looked at it curiously. “Though it’s not as if we can get out if the cave is full of methane, so I’m not sure I’d like to know.”
“You just want to nod off and fall in the lake and drown?” Simon asked.
“Sounds like a better way to go than decapitation and mutilation.”
“You know,” Temi said, “when I decided to drive across the state to ask if you’d hire me, these aren’t the sorts of conversations I imagined would be common during the work day.”
“We’ll have to update our pamphlet,” I said.
Simon returned the gas meter to his backpack and issued a thumbs up. “The levels aren’t any worse than in your average dairy barn.”
“Comforting.”
I headed off along the ledge. The uneven ground and the need to jump across channels of water made the going slow, and Temi gestured for Simon to go ahead of her. I made sure not to outpace her. Splitting up would be crazy. Being down here at all was crazy.
Another crash boomed from up ahead. The sound made me think of stone columns being tipped over. I hoped that creature wasn’t trying to bring down the cave on our heads.
I kept our pace steady and even. I wanted to catch up with the others-and their sword-but I was afraid we’d run into the creature first, and I couldn’t imagine my bow or whip harming it. We needed a weapon that could make a dent in the predator’s hide. Preferably a dent in its heart. If it had one. Maybe the creature was made entirely of plastic, or maybe it was some mechanical construct with a plastic hide.