Scarlet started swimming for the tunnel ahead but was yanked under the water again by her wrist.
Tristan.
She pulled on the rope and followed its tension to find Tristan under the water, pinned beneath a rock from the collapsing cave by the river wall. He strained to push it off, but the boulder wouldn’t move.
Scarlet dove down and tucked herself between the river wall and the rock, her back against the wall and both feet on the rock.
Squeezing her eyes, she and Tristan pushed against the rock together.
Nothing.
Tristan would not die. He would not die.
They pushed again. Her stomach muscles burned. Her legs burned. And her lungs were on fire.
The rock budged. It was just an inch or so, but it was enough for Tristan to shove out from under it. With their wrists still connected, they swam for the surface of the water.
Gasping for breath, they paddled to the other side of the tunnel where the cave was still intact. The current picked up behind them, racing toward the waterfall, and Scarlet and Tristan reached for the ledge, clawing their way onto the Bluestone floor.
They pulled themselves up and watched the avalanche behind them drown in the depths of the rushing river.
“I think this cave is trying to kill us.” Scarlet tried to catch her breath.
Tristan nodded. “I think you’re right.”
Gabriel stared over the edge of the cave island they were stranded on and frowned at the infinite blackness below. At least twenty feet of cave floor was missing, so jumping to the other side wasn’t an option. And the tunnel they’d originally come through had caved in, effectively sealing them into the glowing blue cave.
Yeah.
This was a problem.
“Hmm,” Nate rubbed at his chin as he looked across the black canyon before them. “You know what this looks like?”
“A shortcut to Hell?” Gabriel offered, gently pulling back on Heather’s arm as she drifted toward the ledge.
“A chasm,” Nate said. “This looks like a deep chasm.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes.
Nate tapped his chin. “Now, what could we use to cross this chasm? Gabriel, do you have anything that could help us in your backpack? No? Perhaps I have something that could be of service.” He shrugged out of his backpack and riffled through it until he held up his whip in glee.
“Well, look at that!” Nate grinned. “A whip. How incredibly helpful and convenient. I’m so glad you brought a whip with you, Nate. Why, thank you, Gabriel. I always try to be prepared.”
“You really think that little whip is going to get all three of us across this gap?”
“Across this chasm? Why, yes. Yes, I do. All we have to do is find something to latch it on to…” Nate looked up at the cave ceiling and frowned. “Okay, this might be more complicated than I thought.”
“I don’t think I want to trust our lives to a fake whip you bought at Comic Con.” Gabriel clasped his hand around Heather’s wrist as she drifted near the edge again.
Good God. The girl was going to give him a heart attack.
“Why does everyone assume I buy all my things at Comic Con? This is a real whip.”
Gabriel said, “Where did you buy it?”
Nate paused. “Comic Con.” He hurriedly added, “But Comic Con sells real whips. Oh! There we go.” He smiled as he caught sight of a potential anchor.
Unwinding the whip, he flicked it toward the anchor.
It slapped his wrist.
“Aw, man.” Nate tried again and the whip snapped against his leg.
Gabriel stared at him. “Does Comic Con provide whip lessons? Because that would be money well spent.”
Nate tried again.
Heather plopped on the ground and laid on her side, her cheek pressed against the hard earth as she drew small circles on the ground with her finger.
“Give it up, dude.” Gabriel walked to the ledge and looked over again. Maybe there was a way they could climb down and across?
Heather sat up and bit her thumbnail.
Nate snapped the whip at the ceiling again and this time it wound itself around the anchor and held steady.
“Ha!” he cheered. He looked at Gabriel. “That’s thrice now that you’ve mocked a Comic Con purchase of mine that ended up saving our lives.”
“What?”
Nate listed things off on his fingers. “My Zelda sword that saved your ass against the Ashman in the cabin. My Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game that taught me how to slay zombies in the graveyard the other night. And the Indiana Jones whip that will most assuredly get us across this chasm to safety.” He looked across the canyon to the dark blue tunnel ahead. “Or death. I’m not really sure what’s waiting for us over there. But, either way, this whip will get us there.”
Gabriel nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Your toys are awesome.”
“So what should we do? Take turns?” Nate yanked on the whip to make sure it was secure.
“Sure.” Gabriel nodded. “You go first.”
“What? Why me?”
“Because Comic Con sells real whips…right?”
“Of course.” Nate shook out his arms and legs—weird—then leaned back with the whip with a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”
He kicked off the ledge and swung himself across the abyss, sailing through the air.
And then back.
“You have to jump off.” Gabriel watched his friend swing back and forth in terror.
“I know, dude.” He swung back. “It’s just so high and scary.”
“Jump. Off.”
Nate jumped off and fell ungracefully to the ground. “Whoo-hoo! I totally didn’t die just now. Score.”
Gabriel caught the whip as it swung back and looked at Heather, who was drawing circles on the ground again.
“Your turn, Heather.”
“This is the worst hike ever,” she said, now rocking back and forth on the ground. “Scary witches and thorny vines and nobody sees the dragonflies and Nate’s saying words like thrice—”
“Hey, what’s wrong with the word thrice?” Nate said.
Gabriel held out the whip. “Come on.”
“I don’t think I can.” She scratched her neck. “I think I just want to sit here.”
“Yeah, that’s not a good idea. So why don’t you stand up and we can swing to the other side of this very unstable tunnel and you can sit there. Okay?”
“I can’t.” Her eyes darted around the cave. “I’m kind of freaking out.”
“About the whip?”
“I don’t know!” She bit her nails. “I’m just freaking out.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“I trust you too,” he said. “And I know you can do this. You’re Tomb Raider, remember? You’re tough.”
“I’m not tough.” She shook her head and kept chewing on her nails.
“Yes you are. You stab Ashmen with scissors and you take blows to the face and you kick ass in your imaginary pink boots. You’re tough and you can do this.”
Gabriel was desperate to change the expression on her face. She looked so…lost.
“Come on,” he said. “We’ll swing over together and then you can freak out all you want when we’re not standing on an island of doom, sound good?”
She stopped biting her nails and stood up, nodding as she walked to the whip. “I can do this.”
“Damn straight, you can.”
They both grabbed the whip and held on as Gabriel kicked off the ground and swung them across the chasm.
There was a cracking sound above and Gabriel looked up to see the stalactite anchor starting to break. They were almost to the other side when pieces of the anchor began to crumble and fall into the abyss.