The Demon Conspiracy (7 page)

We passed through a dark tunnel to arrive at
a broad underground lake. A natural walkway, like a ledge, curved
off to the left, skirting the edge of the lake until it disappeared
under the water.

“Have a seat, everyone,” said Anton, as he
shined his headlamp at some amazing rock formations on the wall
just below us. Some of the rocks were as thin and delicate as
toothpicks.

“Cool,” said Travis. “Those look like
flowers!”

“They’re amazing!” said Chris.

“They’re beautiful,” I added. “How’d they
get there?”

Anton pointed. “See that water dripping on
the flowers? There’s a trace amount of limestone in every drop, and
when it splashes, some limestone settles on the rock. After
thousands of years, the limestone builds up and takes on its own
unique shape. The design is made by the splash or drip pattern. Now
I want everybody to scoot over next to the column on the right and
kill your lights. I’m going to show you one of the most amazing
natural rock formations you’ll ever see.”

Anton removed some Frisbee-sized spotlights
from his pack while our group moved to the edge of a shallow dip in
the rock that was between us and the lake. We switched off the
lights and waited. Anton scurried around setting up the spotlights
and then got close to everyone and turned off his headlamp.

“Are you ready?” he asked. “Ladies and
gentlemen, I give you the Cathedral room!” He flipped a switch.
Four blinding spotlights flashed on. I gasped. I’d never seen
anything like it.

The Cathedral room was much larger than it
had looked in the dimmer light of the headlamps. Before us rose a
series of shiny golden columns that went from floor to ceiling,
like the pipes of a church organ. Incredibly, the pipes were longer
on the left side, but became progressively shorter to the right.
Travis counted nineteen of them, some at least ten meters tall.
Anton pointed at the base of the natural “pipes”.

“Take a look down there,” he said. He aimed
one of the spotlights at the foot of the pipes under the water,
where a flat-topped, limestone formation rested. It had a white
stripe across one edge.

“That kinda looks like organ keys!” said
Travis.

“Incredible!” said Chris. He looked up and
pointed. Again, we were amazed.

In addition to the organ, multicolored
spiral columns rose in clusters all through the room. Mixed among
the columns was a virtual forest of stalactites and stalagmites all
around the lake, their images mirrored in the glassy water. It was
nearly impossible to tell which ones were real and which were
reflections.

“Wow!”

“It’s beautiful!”

Anton Edwards leaned back on his elbows and
crossed his long legs in front of him. I knew exactly how he felt.
Anton loved teaching and it didn’t always have to be English.

“Dr. Vu from my department would love this
place,” said Parrish. “He’s a geologist, you know.”

“Incredible,” Chris said again. “I’m so glad
I came.”

“Me, too,” said Travis. “Thanks, Dad.”
Travis spoke without thinking and it came from his heart. At the
same time, he hugged Chris. Chris absolutely beamed.

I knew the dad thing
wouldn’t go over well with Jon and sure enough Jon gave Travis a
discreet little poke in the arm. He mouthed the words,
He’s not our father
!
Travis glared at our brother. He had just broken Jon’s cardinal
rule:
Never call foster parents mom or
dad.

Well, tough. Let’s face it, we all wanted
parents and in Travis’ mind Chris and Angie were perfect. He socked
Jon in the leg and moved closer to Chris. Jon was shocked. His
frustration skyrocketed. It was obvious Travis felt it, but he
didn’t care.

You hurt Jon’s
feelings
, I thought to Travis.
He doesn’t want us to forget mom and
dad
.

I can’t help it. I don’t even know what they
looked like.

You’ve seen them. You’ve got the picture
hanging on your wall.

They don’t seem real to me.

I studied him thoughtfully, then scooted
closer to Jon. As Travis looked on I kept my voice low.

“Travis didn’t know mom and dad as long as
we did. He doesn’t have all the great memories we do.”

Jon looked at me, his eyes moist. “I’ve told
him everything about them I can remember. What else can I do?”

“Telling isn’t the same as being there. He
needs a dad.”

Jon scowled. He got up and went into the
tunnel alone. Dr. Parrish must have noticed, because he followed
Jon. A moment later, Anton rose and went after them both.

“I’ll talk to him,” said Anton, touching me
on the shoulder.

I got worried that Chris might have heard
what we said, but when I tuned in to his thoughts, Chris was still
excited about the unusual beauty in the cave. He may not have
noticed Jon’s irritation.

I know how you feel,
Travis
, I thought to him.
It’s good to have family again, even if it isn’t
really our own.

They might be our
own
.
They really
love us, jus’ like we’re their own kids
.

I nodded and hugged
him.
You’re right
.

Travis relaxed. Things might finally work
out. And this cave was super cool!

But my pleasant thoughts changed abruptly
when the ground began to shake. Travis groped at the floor, but it
was flat. There was nothing to hold on to. Instead, he grabbed two
of the backpacks. The shaking got worse. I tried to stand up but
the ground moved too much. It knocked me to my knees.

“What…is…it?” said Travis, shouting over the
dull roar that filled the cavern. “Kelly…ghost fingers!” He dragged
the backpacks over to me and wrapped his arms around one of my
legs. Chris rolled over. He hugged us both hard.

“I think it’s an earthquake!” shouted
Chris.

“Whutta we do?” said Travis.

“Hold on! And pray!”

A moment later the floor dropped out from
under us. We fell fast. The spotlights went out. A heavy darkness
and a deafening roar closed in. I did the only thing I could,
considering the situation. I screamed.

JON

A terrible rumbling filled the air. The
floor of the cave shook violently. Jon struggled to hold the camera
steady but the view became blurry and dark. Something kept making
him go off frame. Gazing through the viewfinder he saw Kelly
stumble. A moment later the ledge broke. Kelly, Travis and Chris
all dropped out of sight.

Jon looked up from the camera. What? Oh,
hell! An earthquake! They were underground during an earthquake. He
turned off the camcorder and tucked it under his arm. What should
he do? He started after Kelly and Travis, but the ledge was
gone.

All at once part of the ceiling landed on
his hardhat and knocked him to the ground. Chunks of rock showered
over him like a thundering downpour. Jon rolled to his hands and
knees and curled up in a tight ball. He kept the camcorder safely
hidden under his body. Since the accident took away his parents,
Jon had secretly wanted to die in a blaze of glory, in the heat of
battle. But not like this. Not buried alive.

5

TRAPPED

KELLY

The thundering roar seemed endless. If I
screamed, I didn’t hear it. The hollow drop straight-down made my
stomach flip over. We were going to die; I knew it.

We hit bottom suddenly. The jolt knocked the
wind out of me. My head snapped back on impact, smacking into rock.
My flashlight went out. Water and pieces of limestone showered over
me like heavy sleet, pricking the skin on my face. I rolled quickly
to my belly and covered my head with both hands. I waited in terror
for the rest of the ceiling to come crushing down.

After what seemed like forever, the earth
stood still. Rivulets of water, rock fragments and loose powder
drifted down, but eventually tapered off. The cave was quiet again.
I lay flat on my face spotted with a dust-like residue. I wanted to
look around, but was afraid to move. What if my movement made the
rocks shift again? What if it caused another earthquake? Not far
away Travis moaned. That’s all it took.

I bolted upright. I found my flashlight in
the rubble, but when I turned it on nothing happened. Then I
realized I didn’t need it. The cave was dim, though it should have
total dead blackness. So how come I could still see? I noticed a
strange reddish glow that clearly had something to do with it.
Travis raised his head and coughed.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He sat up, dazed. “Uh…I guess…knocked the
wind out of me.” He pointed at a crumpled heap a few meters off.
“Is that Chris?”

I looked. Chris had been holding us when we
dropped. If that was Chris, how did he get so far away? I crawled
toward the heap and found another flashlight. The crystal was
cracked and the light flickered, but it still put out a dim, yellow
beam. I shined the light on the heap.

“Chris? Can you hear me? Chris?” Chris
didn’t move or make a sound.

I studied his head and didn’t see any blood,
though a large lump had formed on his forehead. I gently probed his
mind, but there weren’t any organized thoughts. As usual, an
unconscious person showed only white noise, like snow on an old TV
when the programming ended. He was out cold, but I sensed his head
injury was relatively minor. He looked unharmed and asleep—until I
saw the bend in his right leg just above the ankle.

“Oh my God, his leg is broken!” I gagged and
turned away. I put my other hand over my mouth in case I threw up.
“I can’t look. What are we going to do?”

“We need Mr. Edwards.” Travis stood up
cautiously. He picked up something shiny from the rock floor. “Dr.
Parrish’s glasses. They’re smashed. Ya think he’s dead? Where’s
Jon?” His voice became urgent. He couldn’t hide the fear he felt
for our brother.

I came over and put my arm around him. “Jon
and Dr. Parrish went back in the tunnel. So did Mr. Edwards. You
stay with Chris, I’ll go look for them.”

Travis caught my arm as I turned. “Kelly, I
can do a splint on his leg. I learned how at Cub Scouts with Mrs.
O’Brien.”

“I don’t know, Travis. It looks pretty bad.
Have you ever done it?”

“We practiced. I put a splint on Josh
O’Brien’s leg and he put one on mine. Mrs. O’Brien is a nurse. She
said my splint was the best.”

I shook my head. “You went to the cub scouts
for one month. Let’s find Mr. Edwards.” I scanned the rock wall
overhead and pointed straight up. “Look! The organ pipes! And
there’s the tunnel! That’s where we were before the quake. We must
have dropped a good fifty feet!”

“How’d we drop fifty feet?” asked Travis,
confused. “Wouldn’t that kill us? What about all the rock flowers?
And the lake? And the organ keyboard? Where’s everything?”

“Gone. The cave we’re in
now must have been
under
the cave we
used
to be in, only this cave is way bigger. It was
under the lake, too. Maybe Mr. Edwards knew about it. Maybe he was
going to show it to us, but we just hadn’t gotten there,
yet.”

Travis shook his head sadly. “All the
flowers are gone forever.”

I considered the loss, then looked to the
top of the wall. “I’m going up.”

“Better be careful. How’re we gonna get
Chris up there?”

“If I can find Mr. Edwards or Jon, or Dr.
Parrish, we’ll figure it out.”

I searched for hand and footholds in the dim
light, but the walls were dripping wet. They’d held lake water
until a few minutes ago. I started to climb, but the rock wall was
too slick. I lost my grip and had to jump down.

“This isn’t good. We have to get help for
Chris as soon as possible. But we’re trapped down here, too!” I sat
beside Chris and buried my face in my hands. What should we do?

“I’ll look for a splint,” said Travis. “At
Josh’s we used pieces of flat wood or magazines. But I don’t see
nothin’ like that here.”

While Travis scoured the ledge searching for
some kind of splint material, I fought the urge to cry. We were in
big trouble. What if the quake had closed off the entire cave? What
if nobody ever came after us?

A voice from above broke my troubled
silence. “Hey.”

I looked up. Jon peered down at us from the
tunnel where the edge of the lake used to be. At that distance his
eyes were black orbs in the reddish glow.

“Jon!” I cried. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. You guys?”

Travis nodded. “But Chris has a broken leg.
It’s bad. He got knocked out, too.”

“
Travis says he knows how
to put on a splint,” I reported.

“Yeah?” Jon sounded surprised. “Good, cuz I
don’t. Is Dr. Parrish down there? Or Mr. Edwards?”

“They’re not here. They followed you into
the tunnel. Didn’t you see them?”

“No. I was recording. My light got smashed;
it’s pitch dark in the tunnel. Good thing for that red light or
we’d be blind. I’ll see if I can find them.”

“Be careful!”

“The red light,” I said. “I wonder where
it’s coming from?” I noticed a drop-off, like a ledge, where the
light was strongest, so I crawled to the open side and peered over
the edge. When I saw what had happened to the cave and where we
were, I could hardly believe it.

We hadn’t fallen to the bottom of a deeper
cave like I’d thought. If we’d fallen all the way to the bottom,
we’d be dead. No, the entire ledge that we’d been standing on at
the time of the quake had slid down and gotten stuck on a rock
shelf that jutted out high above an enormous open cavern. The
cavern itself must have been at least five or six football-fields
long. Thousands of stalactites of varying lengths hung from the
ceiling. On the floor below, a wide, flat rock butted up against
one of the walls, almost like a stage. It even had a larger open
area in front of it where an audience could gather. But, of course,
it had no curtains or seats. The floor of the open area was soaking
wet.