Page 48 of Stealing Mercury
“If he’s hurt, I’ll need the supplies,” she explained.
He released it with a nod. “Push it in front of you.”
His hands returned to her waist. She pushed the pack into the darkness, then reached in and gripped the cool rock. The rough surface scratched her palms as she pulled herself forward. Strong hands slipped from her hips down her legs as she worked her way forward.
Her shoulders fit easily into the crevasse, but it was hard to maneuver. She had to wiggle like a worm until the passage turned sharply down. She froze and listened as her pack clattered downward. It sounded like it was at least a few meters, but it did hit bottom fairly quickly. She reached down and spread her hands out. It seemed wide enough, but the drop continued past where she could reach. She considered backing out and turning to drop feet first, but she’d already wasted too much time and she had no idea what would be ahead after the drop.
“You’ll have to let go now.”
Lo had one hand around her ankle. The weight of it lifted away and then the slack in the rope at her waist disappeared. She moved forward slowly, the rope keeping her from dropping too fast. The space opened out and she couldn’t reach anything, but she was able to get one hand wrapped around the rope. As her feet left the confines of the passage, she twisted but the rope kept her steady. Her feet ended up beneath her and she lowered several meters before they touched what she hoped was the ground.
As the rope went slack leaving her weight on her feet, something crunched beneath her boots. She cringed, visions of an army of insects crawling through her head. Squatting down, she carefully spread her hands, searching for the pack. She sighed with relief when the cloth materialized out of the darkness beneath her fingers. She pulled the light out and switched it on, casting a narrow beam against a rock wall a meter away.
Dirt swirled in the narrow beam like nightmoths drawn to the light, but she didn’t see or hear the crawling critters she’d feared. She pulled the bottom of her shirt up to her mouth as a makeshift mask. Whatever had kept the earth above from collapsing the cavern had allowed enough of the dirt in to make the air thick with the stuff. She shifted her weight to stand and froze at the unsettling shifting underfoot. Slowly, she aimed the light down on the floor. It bounced back at her, revealing the dirty white of bone.
Everywhere.
The bones of a hand lay crushed beneath her boot.
Her pack sat in the yawning gap at the center of a crumbling ribcage.
“Breathe, little female.” Lo’s voice drifted down from above, seeming much too far away, but she took his advice and forced air through her reluctant lungs.
Muffled voices and scrambling movements above gave her the moment she needed to recover her wits. She carefully shifted away bone fragments until her boots were steady on the solid floor, then slung the pack over her shoulder and stood.
“Samantha? Talk to me,courra.” The rough growl couldn’t hide the worry in Mercury’s voice.
“I’m okay.” She answered softly, knowing Lo would hear, and feeling less brave than when she’d volunteered to dive head first into a dark pit.
She swept the light across the cavern, turning in a slow circle and hoping whatever was responsible for the bones had long since departed.
“Can you see Carn?” Mercury paused. “Your dark clouds are overhead now.”
Samantha understood the gentle reminder of the need to hurry, but the dark was disorienting, so all she could do was to make a methodical sweep. “Not yet.”
Where she stood, the cavern spanned three meters across. Bone dotted the floor—some recognizable as having belonged to a single skeleton, but others had been scattered making it hard to tell the number of dead.
The cavern ceiling formed a dome directly overhead, but the moment she started exploring, it crowded down to only a few centimeters between her and what looked more like rotting debris than rock. She didn’t immediately see Carn, but there was a bend in the cavern, which was looking more and more like a crevice or ravine that had been covered over in a land slide. She headed for the bend, picking her way around the bony remains.
As she cleared the corner, the space between floor and earthy ceiling closed down to about two meters. A freshly fallen layer of mulch-like material covered the bones and the debris overhead bulged downward like a tarp straining under too great a weight. Directly under the lowest point, a pile of debris and dirt created a mound. A mound with twisted legs.
Carn.
Samantha dropped to her knees and scrambled around the mound. She found his arms shielding his face. Luckily, he’d landed on, or gotten to, his side. His arms not only shielded his face but kept a path clear for air to reach him. He was breathing, but unconscious.
“Found him,” she said aloud.
The bulging ceiling above shook loose another layer of debris. Samantha coughed and covered her face in her shirt again. When things settled overhead, she dusted herself off and started scooping debris away from Carn’s arms and shoulders. “This ceiling is shaky.”
She couldn’t hear a response, but there was no more movement above. She had him mostly uncovered when a voice drifted around the bend in the crevice. Reluctantly, she left him to get back to the tunnel she’d come down.
“I’m here.” She shouted up. “Carn lost consciousness.”
“Can you move him?” Mercury’s voice settled the sense of doom that had been growing inside her.
She looked over her shoulder, despite not being able to see him around the corner. She didn’t need to see him to know he was big. And heavy. Still, if she needed to move him, she would. And she hadn’t tried the med kit. A stimulant might bring him around. “Yes, but there’s no way he’ll fit through the gap up there.”
“Agreed,” he shouted. “But the roof here must be more solid. Safer.” A gust of wind chased his voice through the opening. The heart of the storm had to be over them now.
