Page 33 of Surge of Fire

My body smashes into a tree, and I can’t breathe for a long minute before I’m falling again. My hands are being torn to shreds as I try to find something to grab onto. Something to slow my fall.

Sam. Granger. They’re in that shaft. What the hell will happen to them down there?I have to get to them. I have to stop falling. I have to…

My head strikes somethinghard, and the world goes dark.

TWELVE

Samantha

I keep pressingmy hands harder against my ears, trying to stop the ringing, but it continues. The air is filled with dust so thick it’s hard to see. Hard to breathe. The ground seems to be swaying under me, but it’s different from before. Strange.

I feel disoriented. Trapped. Confused.

What the hell do I do now?

Time passes. I keep my tight hold on Granger, hoping he’ll move. Hoping he’ll do anything. But he doesn’t. The only way I know he’s still alive is because I can feel the rise and fall of his breathing.

He’s alive, but he’s not okay.

Unwrapping myself from Granger’s unconscious form, I see that the world has finally stopped shaking and the dust is clearing. Coughing, I brush the dirt and dust from my hair, slowly coming to a stand on legs that shake.

Something trickles into my eye, and I rub it away. Wincing, I realize it’s blood.I must have been hurt during the earthquake, but I don’t have time to worry about that now.My headlampmoves over the cave, but I can’t see much around the debris that’s fallen.

"Dr. Duncan?" I call. "Will? Fred?"

Instead of their answer, there's a terrible cracking sound and the ground shifts beneath my feet. The cracking continues, growing louder and louder, and adrenaline pumps through my body. Images move through my mind of this volcano erupting and us all being cooked alive.

I kneel down and pull Granger's arm around my shoulder. "We have to get out of here. Now."

My teeth clash together as I desperately try to lift his weight, but I barely manage to drag him an inch. Breathing hard, thinking about the dangerous, winding path out of here, I realize that there's no way I can carry Granger out. Even if I could safely drag him to the path, we'd be over the edge the second I lost my strength, because there would be no way to safely set him down.

The ground shifts again and a horrible cracking noise fills the air, the sound echoing all around us like the ringing in my ears.Seriously, what the fuck is that cracking sound?Everything I picture is illogical… and really bad.

I start shoving and pulling at Granger, a sob building in the back of my throat. "Wake up! You have to wake up!" The panic in my voice deepens my fear.

Suddenly, the glow from the crystals brightens, or maybe the air just becomes clear enough to see them. And then, dots of yellow-orange light, like stars, appear all around me.

Glow worms?They can't be. The yellow-orange ones, typically found around hot areas, have been extinct for almost thirty million years. I specifically remember learning about them in a class.

As I study them, crawling on all the surfaces, there's suddenly no doubt. They're glow worms of the extinct variety.The shifting ground must have released them from a deeper cavern below.

At any other time, this would be a massive scientific discovery. But, right now, they just mean trouble.

I look at the ground. It's cracked open enough to release extinct glow worms.What happens if the whole ground crumbles?

It's time to get out of here. As bad as it sounds, my only priority is getting Granger out. Aydan should be safe on the surface. It pains me to leave the others, but Granger is my family. He comes first.

My mind starts to work faster. That path has room for one person. Or, perhaps, one person dragging another person.I can do this. I just need to make sure the path is clear first.

Rising to my feet, I take a deep breath, feeling like a human exploring a dangerous alien planet. Between the glow of the crystals and the light from the glow worms, the space is illuminated, but my headlamp is the only light bright enough to really reveal the space.

"I'll be right back," I tell Granger, my voice trembling as I kiss his cheek. "I promise."

No matter what happens, I'll fulfill that promise.

Inching away from Granger, I climb over the fallen rocks and crystals, cringing every time the ground cracks or shifts. For the first time, I realize how much hotter it is, and once I'm aware of it, it's overwhelming. It has to be hot, like Arizona in the summer, one hundred and twenty degrees hot.

Fuck. What's below this cavern?It has to be lava.

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