"Hang on, Jason!" Blakely said, as the boat was dragged toward the racing waters.
Jason swallowed hard, winding one hand into a rope handle. The boat plunged into the trough, accelerating rapidly. The prow's light bobbed across the churning waters. The sight ahead caused Jason to wrap a second hand into the rope.
The tunnel curved around a tight bend. The river swung in an arc up the side of the wall as it coursed around the turn, tilted at an impossible angle.
"Shit!" Blakely blurted, quickly wiping spray off of his glasses with the cuff of his shirt, then frantically grabbing his handle.
The boat shot into the curve, climbing high on the wall as they made the turn. Like riding some water slide down a sewer drain, Jason thought. He watched as Blakely's side of the boat tilted up over his head. The doctor struggled to maintain his seat, legs scrambling on the slick rubber floor. Jason cringed, praying the boat wouldn't flip.
Then the boat slammed back down as the corner straightened out, throwing Jason to the floor.
"Another turn!" Blakely yelled.
Jason braced for it. This time his side of the boat was thrown high. He saw the bald spot that crowned the doctor's head. Then the boat leveled again. "How do we stop?"
Blakely squinted at the tunnel ahead as the boat raced past the walls. "I don't know. Just hope that eventually it levels out so we can slow down… Hang on! Here comes another turn!"
After five more turns, Jason's stomach began to get queasy. The dry rations he had eaten for breakfast felt like a gnarled lump in his stomach. "I'm going to be sick," he mumbled.
"Shhh!" Blakely said. "Listen." The boat had slowed somewhat, the river leveling out, but the current was still strong.
Restraining a groan, he cocked an ear. Now what? Then he heard it too. It sounded like someone gargling. It swelled louder and louder until it was thunderous.
Blakely said the next word as if it hurt his mouth. "Waterfall." He grabbed the rudder. "We've got to turn around and get the motor going!"
Jason looked at the rocky tube tight around them. No room to turn, even ignoring the torrent of water. Then he remembered something his mother had taught him. "Spin in the next curve!" he yelled above the thunder.
"What?" Blakely looked at him as if he might be insane.
"As we turn, the force of the water can help spin us."
"That's too dangerous."
Jason pointed ahead. "Yeah, but what about that?"
"Good point. How do we spin?"
Jason pantomimed frantically while trying to explain, "Lean the rudder in the opposite direction of the next turn. Force the prow up the wall. The current will whip the stern around. Spinning us backward. My mom and I tried it once."
"Did it work?"
"Well, no. We flipped the boat."
"Great."
"It's supposed to work. We just did it wrong."
"Well, we have only one chance to do this right. There's the next corner!" Blakely had to holler to be heard above the roar.
Jason scooted back beside Blakely, ready to add his weight to the rudder. "Push when I say!" he shouted.
The doctor nodded.
Jason waited until the tip of the boat entered the curve. "Now!"
Blakely shoved the rudder, leaning hard on it. Jason pushed too. The prow shot up the wall, tilting the boat vertical.
"Don't let up!" Jason yelled, sensing that the doctor was beginning to ease up on the rudder. "Not till we're around!"
The boat shuddered for a heartbeat, then the stern of the boat flipped around, the light pointing back the way they had come.
"My god!" Blakely said, wide-eyed. "We did it."
Jason swung around to check where the current was still dragging them. A hundred yards farther, the river emptied into a large cavern. He squinted his eyes at the approaching hole. That's weird, he thought. He rubbed his eyes, glancing at the tunnel walls around him. It didn't go away. "Look, there's some sort of light coming from the walls here."
Blakely craned his neck to see. "Some sort of glowing mold." He pulled on the motor's starter cord. The engine click-clacked but died.
"Uh-oh!" Jason said. "Look!"
Blakely had already seen it and yanked frantically on the cord.
Downcurrent, the glow revealed a whitewater turmoil. The roar now pressed on the eardrums, rattling inside his skull. The river disappeared beyond the churning water. Over a cliff!
Jason turned to the doctor as the boat raced toward the plummet. "Hurry!"
With a fierce pull, the engine sputtered-then caught! Blakely twisted the throttle wide open. The motor fought the current. At first, there was no effect. The current still pushed the boat toward the waterfall. But finally, only yards from the whitewater, the engine started winning. The boat now sat still in the river, engine struggling with the current.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon…" Jason willed the boat forward.
As if the boat heard him, it inched forward, at first slowly, then faster and faster.
Jason whooped. Blakely wore a fierce smile.
Until the engine died.
NINETEEN
ANOTHER PIERCING SCREAM. IT HAD ALMOST REACHED the cavern.
Ashley searched for any other exit from the nesting area. Even a small crevice in which to hide would do. A hurried scan with her hand lantern revealed only rock.
"Back down!" Ben said, pointing his lantern back to the cliff.
Michaelson already had his sawed-off shotgun in his hand. "No, we stay and kill it."
Ashley shook her head. "Might be others. Gunfire could draw a whole flock of those damned creatures. We only shoot if cornered."
Ben glanced back at the cliff. "I'd say we're cornered."
"We just need somewhere to hide," she said. "If Big Mama finds the cavern empty, hopefully she'll lose interest and go away again."
"But where could we hide?" Michaelson asked. He checked his rifle to make sure the clip was secure.
Ben tugged on the coil of rope over his shoulder. "We could hang over the cliff edge. Wait for it to leave. If it finds us, we can rappel farther down the cliff face."
Ashley's arms still felt like limp noodles, but what choice did they have? "Good idea. Let's go."
Ashley slid down the ridge, following Ben to the cliff's edge. From the ridge, Michaelson guarded their backs, watching the tunnel for Mama's appearance.
"Loop your rope over that stalagmite," Ben instructed. "Like this."
She followed his example, pulling on her knot even more strongly than him. She gave it a third yank.
"That's plenty tight, Ash."
"Just making sure." She watched Ben set up the major's rope on a third outcropping. He threw the coiled rope over the edge, letting it drape down the cliff face.
A bellow of anger thundered through the chamber. She glanced toward the nest.
Michaelson scrambled down the slope toward Ashley, clutching his shotgun in one hand. "Here she comes!"
"Ash! Get going. I'll make sure Michaelson gets hooked up."
She nodded, clipping the rope through the carabiner. "Don't take any chances."
"Who, me?" He winked at her, herding her toward the edge. Another bellow erupted. "Hurry!"
Grasping the rope, she leaned over the edge and hopped down a few yards, then braked to a stop. The cliff's edge blocked her view of Ben as she descended. Damn, she couldn't see what was happening up top, but she could hear.
"Don't wait, Ben! Get your ass over the edge!" Michaelson's voice was near-hysterical. "She's right behind me!"
"Just get your butt over here, mate."
A scattering of loose shale rained over the edge as the major skidded to a halt. "She sees us! Here she comes!"
The sound of claws ripping at rock sent a cataract of tremors up Ashley's back. A deafening scream blasted from above, sounding as if it were coming right from the cliff's edge.
Michaelson suddenly leaped over the precipice, rope zinging through his carabiner. His boots hit the rock yards to her left. His face was beet-red in the glow of her helmet lamp.
"Ben?" she asked, searching the cliff's edge.
Between gasps for air, Michaelson shook his head. "He… he… had turned off his lamp… then bolted behind a boulder fall. I don't think it saw him. Instead it fixed on my light."
She prayed he was safe, eyeing the empty dangling rope to her left. She could hear something snorting just overhead. More shale tumbled down, pelting Michaelson.
A reptilian head shot over the edge of the cliff, searching with one black eye, then the other. It was right above the major. Its scanning halted, one eye pointing toward Michaelson. Opening its jaws, it screamed at him.
Michaelson leaped another yard down, now well beyond the reach of even its long crested neck. The predator hissed at its escaping prey, then cocked its head a final time before snaking back over the edge. Ashley blew suppressed air from her chest as Michaelson gave her a thumbs-up. They were safe. But what about Ben? She searched again. A gasp from the right drew her attention back to Michaelson. He had lost his footing, slamming into the wall as his rope was yanked upward. She watched wide-eyed as his flailing figure was dragged another several feet up. He hit the wall hard with his shoulder.
"Jesus Christ! It's got my rope!" He was hauled farther up, now only two feet from the top.
Again the beast peeked over the edge, eye cocked toward Michaelson, the rope clamped in its jaws. It reared up, dragging Michaelson straight up into the air to dangle from the jaws of the creature.
Ashley tried to loosen her pistol with one hand while gripping the rope with the other. Her fingers struggled with the clasp over the gun. Damn it! She fought the holster, then froze when she heard Ben.
"Hey, there, Big Mama. Is that any way to treat a guest?" He followed his words with a loud whistle.
Ashley watched as the beast twitched in the direction of his voice, swinging Michaelson wildly. The creature opened its mouth to hiss at the new intruder, dropping the rope.