Ren changed into a man. ‘Tigers can swim. I can hold my breath longer as a tiger than as a man.’
The water was now up to our waists, and he quickly pulled me past the surging pipe and over to the door in front of us. By the time we reached it, I was floating. Ren dove under looking for a way out.
When his head popped back up, he shouted, ‘There’s another Seal mark on the door. Try to insert the Seal and twist it like you did before!’
I nodded and took a deep breath. Diving under the water, I felt along the door for the mark. I finally found it, but I was running out of air. Struggling to the surface, I kicked hard, weighed down by the heavy backpack and the Seal around my neck. Ren reached down under the water, grabbed my bag, and yanked me to the surface.
We were floating near the ceiling now. We would drown any minute. I took a few deep breaths.
‘You can do this, Kells. Try again.’
I took another breath and yanked the Seal from around my neck. He let go of my bag, and I dove again, pulling myself down to the bottom of the door. I pressed the Seal into the groove and twisted it one way and the other, but it wouldn’t budge.
Ren had changed back into a tiger and was now swimming down to me. His paws tore at the water, and the motion swept the fur back from his face, making him look scary, like a white striped sea monster. The grimace of pointed teeth didn’t help. I was running out of air again, but I knew the chamber had filled and there were no more options.
I panicked and started to think the worst. This was where I would die. I would never be found. No one would hold a funeral for me. What would it feel like to drown? It would be fast. It only takes a minute or two. My dead corpse would be bloated and swollen, floating next to Ren’s tiger body forever. Would those awful bugs get in and nibble on me? That seemed worse than the dying, somehow. Ren could hold his breath longer. He’d watch me die. I wonder how he’d feel about that. Would he regret it? Would he feel guilty? Would he pound against the door himself?
I fought against the desperation to swim to the top. There was no more top. There was no more air. Frustrated and terrified, I beat my fist against the Seal and felt a slight movement. I beat on it again, harder, and I felt a whoosh. The door finally began to rise, and the Seal fell out. I reached down desperately, just able to grab the ribbon between two fingers as the water spilled out of the door, taking us along with it.
The water dumped us into the next corridor and then slid down through drain holes, leaving the floor sopping and muddy. I gasped and coughed, sucking in deep breaths. I looked at Ren, laughed, and then coughed again. Even gagging, I still laughed.
‘Ren,’ giggle-cough, ‘you look like a,’ cough-cough-giggle, ‘drowned cat!’
He must not have seen the humor in it. Ren huffed, walked right up next to me, and shook himself like a dog, spraying water and mud all over. His fur stood up everywhere in wet spikes.
I sputtered, ‘Hey! Thanks a lot! Well, I don’t care. It’s still funny.’
I tried to squeeze all the water out of my clothes, slipped the Seal around my neck, and decided to check the cameras to make sure no water had seeped into the bags. I dumped the soggy contents of the bag onto the floor. The items fell into a muddy puddle that splashed my soaked clothes. Except for the soggy food, everything else looked well contained. Thanks to Mr. Kadam’s foresight, all the cameras looked intact. ‘Well, we can’t eat, but other than that, we’re good.’
I reluctantly got up again. Uncomfortable and soaked, I grumbled for at least the next ten minutes. My boots made squishing noises, and my wet clothes chaffed. ‘The bright side is that we washed off the bugs and the oil,’ I murmured.
When the light from the glow tube faded, I pulled a flashlight out of the backpack and shook it. It sloshed wetly inside, but it still worked. We took a few left turns and a right and came upon a long corridor, longer than any of the others had been. Ren and I started making our way through. About half-way along it, Ren stopped, jumped in front of me, and started forcing me to move backward – fast.
‘Great! What is it now? Scorpions?’
At that moment, a great rumbling noise shook the tunnel. The sandy ground I had just been standing on collapsed. I scrambled backward as more of the floor crumbled and plunged down into a deep chasm. The quaking stopped suddenly, so I crawled to the edge to look down. Hold-ing my flashlight over the edge didn’t help much because I still couldn’t see how deep the hole was.
Frustrated, I shrieked out to the hole, ‘Wonderful! Who do you think I am? Indiana Jones? Well, I think you should know that there ain’t no whip in this bag!’ I groaned and turned to Ren. Indicating the path across the chasm, I said, ‘And I suppose this direction is where we need to go, right?’
Ren bent his head down and peered into the rift. Then he walked back and forth along the edge, examining the walls and looking at the path that continued on the other side. I plopped down with my back to the wall, pulled out a water bottle from the bag, took a long drink, and shut my eyes.
I felt a warm hand touch mine.
‘Are you okay?’
‘If you mean am I injured, then the answer is no. If you mean am I “okay” as in am-I-confident-I’m-still-sane, the answer is still no.’
Ren frowned. ‘We have to find a way to get across the chasm.’
‘You’re certainly welcome to give it a try.’ I waved him off and went back to drinking my water.
He moved to the edge and peered across, looking speculatively at the distance. Changing back to a tiger, he trotted a few paces back in the direction we had come from, turned, and ran at full speed toward the hole.
‘Ren, no!’ I screamed.
He leapt, clearing the hole easily, and landed lightly on his front paws. Then he trotted a short distance away and did the same thing to come back. He landed at my feet and changed back to human form.
‘Kells, I have an idea.’
‘Oh, this I’ve got to hear. I just hope you don’t plan on including me in this scheme of yours. Ah. Let me guess. I know. You want to tie a rope to your tail, leap across, tie it off, and then have me pull my body across the rope, right?’
He cocked his head as if considering it, and then shook his head. ‘No, you don’t have the strength to do something like that. Plus, we have no rope and nothing to tie a rope to.’
‘Right. So what’s the plan?’
He held my hands and explained. ‘What I’m proposing will be much easier. Do you trust me?’
I was going to be sick. ‘I trust you. It’s just—’ I looked into his concerned blue eyes and sighed. ‘Okay, what do I have to do?’
‘You saw that I was able to clear the gap pretty well as a tiger, right? So what I need you to do is to stand right at the edge and wait for me. I’ll run to the end of the tunnel, build up speed, and leap as a tiger. At the same time, I want you to jump up and grab me around my neck. I’ll change to a man in midair so that I can hold onto you, and we’ll fall together to the other side.’
I snorted noisily and laughed. ‘You’re kidding, right?’
He ignored my skepticism. ‘We’ll have to time it precisely, and you’ll have to jump too, in the same direction, because if you don’t, I’ll just hit you full power and drive us both over the edge.’
‘You’re serious? You seriously want me to do this?’
‘Yes, I’m serious. Now stand here while I make a few prac-tice runs.’
‘Can’t we just find another corridor or something?’
‘There aren’t any. This is the right way.’
Reluctantly, I stood near the edge and watched him leap back and forth a few times. Observing the rhythm of his running and jumping, I began to grasp the idea of what he wanted me to do. All too quickly Ren was back in front of me again.
‘I can’t believe you’ve talked me into doing this. Are you sure?’ I asked.
‘Yes, I’m sure. Are you ready?’
‘No! Give me a minute to mentally write a last will and testament.’