White Cave Escape Read online

  “Look out—here comes another one!” yelled Craig. Sure enough, the whine of another Scooper could be heard above the treetops.

  “Oh, man!” moaned Tony.

  “Follow me!” yelled Colin. He scrambled the rest of the way up the rocky hill…and disappeared from sight.

  “Where’d he go?” Shawn yelled. He glanced around wildly. The fire was advancing on all sides now. A few metres away, a fir tree burst into flame. “Come on!” Motioning the others to follow, Shawn clambered up to the peak where Colin had vanished. And stopped short.

  A sinkhole, bigger than any other they’d seen, gaped at their feet. At the bottom of the pit, white boulders reared up like teeth from some giant, prehistoric beast…and behind them yawned the black mouth of a cave.

  “Oh man,” breathed Tony.

  Just then, with a noise like a hundred hungry chainsaws, the Scooper punched through the smoke like a great, yellow bird of prey. It rumbled towards them, dropping lower…lower. There was a mechanical whine as the cargo doors in its huge belly started to open…

  “Jump!” yelled Shawn.

  chapter

  18

  The White Cave

  Shawn launched himself into the air above the sinkhole. The white jaws of the cave gaped wide as its black throat rushed up to swallow him. At the same instant, there was a horrific roar. The world flashed from white to black, and the air suddenly became liquid. Freezing water enveloped him. Shawn felt himself tumbling over and over. It was like being inside a washing machine. Hard objects pummelled his body, sending him crashing against even harder objects. He had no idea which way was up and which way was down. He was drowning in a deafening darkness.

  Then rock was pressing against him, squeezing him on all sides.

  And still the water sucked at him, pulling his body along an impossibly tight channel. It was heart-stoppingly cold. Shawn tried to lift his face above the water, but his head smacked against solid stone.

  I’m going to drown, he thought in disbelief. I lived through a forest fire only to drown underground!

  And suddenly he was angry. Furious.

  No way! Shawn thought. Not like this. Not after coming this far…

  He thrashed his legs wildly, clawing at the rock with his fingers, propelling himself forward. His lungs were bursting. A red haze swam in front of his eyes.

  He had to breathe. He had to.

  His fingernails scraped desperately against the rock. His kicks became weaker.

  In another second it would be over. Shawn knew what would happen.

  He would open his mouth and his aching lungs would expand one last time, sucking in the freezing water. And its liquid blackness would fill him, turning him into nothingness from the inside out.

  Suddenly the rock walls fell away from his scrabbling fingers. The tunnel abruptly released its vice-like grip on his body, ejecting him into a dark, subterranean void in a primal gush of water.

  And then the water was gone.

  It dropped him like a broken toy and retreated, muttering and hissing, into invisible cracks and crevices. Shawn was left sprawling on a slab of wet rock. Coughing and choking, he retched up a bellyful of water. For a long time he lay there, gulping air into his waterlogged body and trying to remember how to move. Finally he was able to roll over and push himself into a sitting position.

  It was absolutely black.

  Shawn raised his hand in front of his face. He couldn’t see it. He moved his hand closer. It was freaky—he knew his hand was there, but it was utterly invisible. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

  They didn’t.

  Shawn moved his hand closer until he felt his palm brush the tip of his nose. He still couldn’t make out even the faintest outline of his hand. The darkness was absolute.

  “Craig?” he choked out.

  His voice had a hollow, echoing sound.

  “Petra? Tony? Anyone?”

  chapter

  19

  Trapped

  “Ohhhhh,” groaned Tony. “That wasn’t nearly as fun as Splash Mountain!”

  He picked himself up from the wet floor of the cave, rubbing his backside.

  “No kidding,” moaned Petra. She moved out of the shadows into the dim, watery light that seemed to be leaking from behind a mess of rubble somewhere above her head. “I feel like a goldfish that just got flushed down the toilet. Are you okay, Craig?”

  There was a rattle of loose rock and then a splash as Craig slid down from on top of a boulder and dropped into the puddle beside them.

  “I’m okay,” he said. “Soggy, and a little banged up, but still in one piece. How about you, Shawn?”

  No answer.

  “Shawn?”

  They peered into the recesses of the cave, waiting for one of the shadows to shift and morph into a slim, sandy-haired boy. But no figure emerged from the darkness.

  “Oh, no…” whispered Petra.

  “Shawn!” Craig called again, in alarm. His voice echoed weirdly off of the stone walls.

  A tall, slim figure staggered out from behind a column of rock.

  “There you are!” Petra exclaimed in relief, sloshing through the water towards him. “Are you all right, Shawn?”

  The tall boy shook his head and limped towards them.

  “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Petra asked, concern sharpening her voice.

  The boy shook his head again. “There’s nothing wrong with me…except that I’m not Shawn,” the figure answered in a wry voice. He moved into the feeble light.

  It was Colin.

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” he said.

  “Oh!” Petra started in surprise. “Colin! I’m not dis—I mean, I thought you were—I’m glad you’re safe,” she said awkwardly. “You’re limping,” she added.

  Colin grimaced. “Twisted my ankle when I jumped. No biggie. We’re missing somebody?”

  “Shawn,” Craig told him, worried. “We can’t find him.”

  “Did he make it into the cave?” Colin asked.

  “I—I’m not sure…” said Petra uneasily. “We all jumped and, well, everything’s kind of a blur after that.”

  But Colin was already climbing up a scree-littered slope towards the source of the light.

  “Hey—where are you going?” Petra demanded.

  “The cave entrance is up here,” said Colin shortly. “Maybe Shawn is, too.”

  Colin’s head and shoulders disappeared behind a great, lopsided boulder perched at the top of the rocky incline. They heard him scrabbling among the rocks. Some loose stones and a few twigs and branches slithered down past his feet and fell to the cave floor in front of them. They heard Colin swearing softly under his breath.

  “What’s up?” Tony called. There was no answer. Up in the shadows, Colin was grunting and huffing like he was struggling to lift something very heavy.

  “Hey! Pyro Boy! What’s the deal?” Tony called in a louder voice.

  With an angry grunt, Colin scuttled backwards and dropped back down beside them.

  “The deal is that the cave entrance is blocked with trees and rocks and mud washed down by the water bomber. We’re sealed in. And don’t call me Pyro Boy!”

  “Any sign of Shawn?” Craig asked. Colin shook his head. Craig swallowed hard. Colin patted the younger boy’s shoulder awkwardly. “Don’t worry, kid. Your brother’s probably on the other side of that mess trying to dig us out right now.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” said Craig, brightening. But Colin’s dark eyes met Petra’s worried ones and the thought passed unspoken between them: Or maybe he’s under that mess, buried in mangled trees and mud.

  “So, Pyro Boy, what’s your plan for getting out of here, seeing as the White Caves were your brilliant idea and all?” said Tony.

  “You’re alive, aren’t you?” growled Colin. “And I said, DON’T call me Pyro Boy!”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” said Tony with exaggerated politeness. “Would you rather be known as
the Human Torch instead?”

  With a cry, Colin launched himself at Tony in a flying tackle. Both boys went down in a pile of flailing fists and kicking feet.

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake,” groaned Petra.

  “Guys, guys—break it up!” pleaded Craig, hovering over the scuffling pair.

  Petra bent down over the puddle of water on the cave floor. Using her hands as a scoop, she sloshed the icy-cold water over the two fighting boys: “KNOCK. IT. OFF!” she ordered.

  Spluttering, the two boys rolled apart, glaring at each other.

  “I did not start that fire!” Colin insisted in a ragged voice. “And just so you know, I’ve been watching that fawn ever since it was born in the spring. I never, ever meant for those guys to chase it. I never meant for any of this—” he broke off, his voice thick with misery. Stumbling to his feet, Colin limped away into the shadows at the back of the cave.

  “Geez, Tony,” muttered Petra, giving him a shove.

  “What? What did I say?” asked Tony.

  Petra sighed. “You guys check out the cave mouth. See if you can pull away any of the debris and at least see through to the outside. We need to know if the fire’s out…and maybe Shawn is out there.” Petra tried to sound hopeful, for Craig’s sake.

  “What are you going to do?” Craig wanted to know.

  “I’m going to talk to Colin.”

  Petra picked her way carefully across the uneven, rocky floor. A shallow stream chuckled its way through the centre of the cavern before disappearing into the blackness at the back of the cave. Petra hopped over the water and felt her way along the cave wall. It was very dark. She almost bumped into Colin before she saw him. He was sitting slumped against a boulder, his head in his hands.

  “Hey,” said Petra.

  “What do you want?” mumbled Colin.

  “You okay?”

  “Swell,” muttered Colin. He shook his head and rubbed his sleeve roughly over his eyes. Sighing heavily, he turned to face Petra.

  “Look,” he said. “I’m sorry you guys had to get stuck with me. I know you all hate me and I don’t blame you, so just pretend like I’m not here, okay?”

  Petra looked into the dark, pain-filled eyes of the older boy. She regarded him in silence for a moment.

  “I don’t hate you,” she said at last. “I mean, I did when I saw you in the quarry, but I don’t now. I think you were in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong guys.”

  “No kidding,” said Colin. “I was stupid—so stupid—to bring them there!” He slapped his hand against the cave wall in frustration.

  “I won’t argue with you on that one,” said Petra. “It was dumb. And you went along with what those jerks were doing, which was way dumber.”

  “Thanks for pointing that out,” said Colin. A shudder shook his body and he covered his face with his hands. “This is so messed up! The forest, all those animals…So much is gone. How am I ever going to fix this? How can I ever make this right?”

  Petra hesitated, then reached out a hand and touched Colin’s shoulder.

  “Some things can’t be fixed,” she said quietly. “Sometimes all we can do is to try to make things better than they are.”

  Colin raised his head and looked at her. His cheeks were wet.

  “I don’t know what to do,” he said, simply.

  “You’re already doing it,” Petra said. “You’re helping us. You helped us get through the Pits of Despair. You carried me away from the fire and across that valley. You helped Shawn on the cliff by making him mad enough to fight his way to the top.”

  Colin looked up at her in surprise.

  Petra shrugged. “I knew what you were doing back there, even if Shawn didn’t. And,” she continued, “you brought us to the White Caves. We made it through fire and water because of you.” She punched him lightly on the arm. “So you see? You’re already doing something. A lot, actually.”

  “But is it enough?” asked Colin.

  “It’s enough for right now,” Petra said, turning back in the direction of the others. “And we still need your help. This isn’t over yet.”

  “I’m not sure the others see it that way.”

  “They will.”

  “Not Tony.”

  “Yeah, well, you have to excuse Tony,” Petra said, as she headed back towards the cave mouth. “He suffers from verbal diarrhea. You can safely ignore at least fifty percent of whatever he says.”

  “I heard that!” Tony’s indignant voice came from the darkness just ahead of them. His round face and bristly hair materialized out of the shadows. “And I’ll have you know that some people actually appreciate my gift of gab, my charming chatter, my vibrant verbiage…”

  “You see what I mean?” said Petra, rolling her eyes at Colin.

  “…my eloquent locution, my proclivity for loquaciousness, my oral artistry…”

  “Tony!” snapped Petra, interrupting him.

  “What?”

  “Did you have something to tell us?”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah…Craig and I checked out the cave mouth and Pyro—I mean, Colin—is right. It’s totally blocked.”

  “Do you have any good news?”

  “Well, there are a few gaps that we can see through—”

  “Which would explain the little bit of light we have down here,” put in Colin.

  “—and it looks like the water bomber put out the worst of the flames, from what we can see of the sinkhole, anyway.”

  “Any sign of Shawn?” asked Petra, her voice tightening.

  Tony shook his head. “No…nothing.”

  “Which means,” said Petra, “that either he’s not outside the cave, or…” She stopped, swallowing hard.

  “Or he’s in no shape to answer,” Tony finished grimly.

  “There’s another possibility,” said Colin.

  “What?” asked Petra and Tony.

  “That he’s here inside the cave.”

  “Where?” demanded Petra, spreading her arms wide. “There’s just this one cavern. We’re here and he’s not. Where else could he be?”

  chapter

  20

  Holes in the Dark

  “The water found a way out of this cavern,” Colin said as he started running his hands along the cave wall. “Maybe we can find one, too.”

  “You think Shawn got swept away with the water?” asked Petra.

  “Maybe.”

  There were footsteps and then Craig was at Petra’s shoulder.

  “What’s keeping you guys?” he asked anxiously. “Did you find something?”

  “Not yet,” Colin told him. “Caves don’t give up their secrets easily. Everybody, spread out,” he ordered. “Feel around with your hands. Check the walls for any holes, crevices, or cracks.”

  They did, sloshing back and forth across the icy stream that trickled through the heart of the cave. Fanning out to different sections of the cave, the kids ran their hands over the cold, damp walls. Craig slipped on what looked like a shiny rock.

  “Whoa!” he exclaimed. “Holy crow—there’s ice down here!”

  Colin nodded. “There’s ice in these caves even in the middle of summer,” he said. “It never gets warmer than two or three degrees down here.”

  “Ice,” moaned Tony. “Why did it have to be ice? I hate ice!” He shivered and rubbed his arms. “Brrrr, it’s cold! What I would give for a nice, warm fire!”

  The others stared at him.

  “What?” said Tony, holding up his hands. “I meant a little fire. Geez.”

  “Actually, Tony’s right,” said Petra. “It is really cold, and all of us are wet. If we don’t get out of here soon, hypothermia is a very real possibility…as much as I hate to say it.”

  “Oh, man,” groaned Tony. “Out of the fire and into the freezer! And did you have to say the H-word?”

  “Hey, guys—I found something!” Craig had crawled up a sloping section of rock and was prying into the dark space where the cave roof met the wa
ll. “There’s an opening up here!”

  “I’ve got news for you,” came Colin’s voice from the far back corner of the cave. “There’s an opening down here, too!”

  The kids scrambled to look in first one and then the other of the openings. Both were small, dark, and forbidding looking. They returned to the centre of the cave and huddled together in the chilly darkness.

  “So what do we do now?” said Craig.

  “Well, we’ve got two choices,” said Petra, nodding in the direction of the two small holes that the boys had discovered. “Do we take the high road or the low road?”

  “We could split up,” said Craig.

  “No way,” said Tony. “Don’t you ever watch TV? Splitting up is never a good idea. Somebody always ends up getting ambushed by aliens or murdered by mummies or swallowed by snakes or tortured by tarantulas or—”

  “TONY!” snapped Petra.

  “What?”

  “We get the picture.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  There was a pause. The only sound was the drip-drip-drip of water in the cold, clammy darkness.

  “M-m-maybe we should stick together…” suggested Craig in a small voice.

  “Yeah. Sure. Good idea,” the others agreed hurriedly.

  “So which tunnel do we take?” asked Petra.

  The kids had hollered Shawn’s name into both openings but received no answer in return. Neither opening was appealing. Both were small, inky-black holes. The tunnel Craig had found, near the roof, was a cramped, shoulder-width hole, less than three feet high. Petra had stuck her arm in as far as she could and found that the passage followed a tight curve into the black unknown.

  Colin’s tunnel was worse.

  “It doesn’t even qualify as a tunnel!” Tony protested. He was right. It was more of a crack than a hole—a narrow gap between the floor of the cave and a huge slab of rock that had shifted when the earth was shrugging off the last of the ice-age glaciers thousands of years ago.

  “At least we know where the water is going,” Craig commented, pointing to the shallow, icy stream that bisected the cave floor. It vanished into the crack beneath the wall, disappearing into the subterranean darkness. Taking the low hole would mean a tight, freezing-wet belly crawl, sandwiched between a thousand-ton slab of rock and the glacial stream.