The B Girls

Are We Dead Yet?





"Triple shit. I hope I didn't kill her," Jane said as she rolled off of Mae and promptly passed out.

Lucy looked from one to the other wondering which one to tend to first.

Think! You have to get it together Now is not the time to turn into a crying wimp.

Mae moaned and stirred a little.

Jane was still. Lucy scooted over to her and put her hand over Jane's mouth. She was breathing thank God. Lucy looked her over and saw her right forearm was bent where it shouldn't be.

The sight made Lucy lightheaded and she saw stars.

Mae moaned again and moved a little more.

Lucy prayed she was coming around so they could deal with Jane together. That arm really didn't look good.

She crawled over to Mae and looked down at her. "Mae! Can you hear me?"

Mae moaned a little more and blinked.

"Mae!" Lucy added a shoulder shake to her urgent calls.

Mae moved her head from side to side before squinting up at Lucy. "Lucy? Did you die too?"

"You're not dead. I wasn't sure there for a minute but you're not dead."

"Then why are you calling me into the light?" Mae said.

"Mae!" Lucy shook her again. "I need you to make sense. We have to help Jane."

"Jane? What's wrong with Jane? Won't she come into the light?"

"Dammit Mae, you're not dead. None of us are dead. A rock fell and hit you on the head and then Jane fell on top of you."

Mae squinted against the glare of Lucy's light. "You're blinding me."

"Oh," Lucy said as she turned her head to the side just a little. "Glad to see you're back in the real world.

Mae sat up wincing at the increased throbbing in her head. "What's wrong with Jane?"

"Thank God you're making sense," Lucy said. "I think she broke her arm."

"Why isn't she saying anything?"

"I don't know. She was coherent when she rolled off of you but then she just passed out."

Mae turned her head in Jane's direction and realized her light wasn't on. "Why is my light out?"

"I think it just fell off," Lucy said. She searched around on the floor with her light and found Mae's headset within a few seconds. "Here," she said, pushing the button to turn it back on and handing it over. "Jane's over there." She swept her light a few feet to the right.

They both crawled over.

Jane looked like she was taking a little nap. Except for one small problem--her right forearm wasn't straight.

The thought of having to move Jane's arm in order to splint it made Lucy's stomach roll and she fought the urge to throw up.

"I'd say she passed out from pain, or fear, or both," Lucy said.

"Well I suppose that's a good thing," Mae said.

"We're going to have to make a splint or something. And then we're going to have to figure out how to get her out of here. Do we have a first aid kit?"

"No," Mae said. "I can't believe we didn't think to bring one. Jane would be reminding us what idiots we are if she was awake."

"Let's see what we've got to work with," Lucy said.

Mae started to dig through their packs. "We can use a rope coil for a splint and tie it on with the bandanas," Mae said.

The rope coil wasn't as stiff as a book or a board, but since they didn't have either of those, the rope would do. "I've got a knife," Lucy said. "We'll use part of one of the space blankets for a sling and to pad the rope."

They knelt next to Jane and took a closer look at her arm. No doubt it was badly broken. The only bright spot was that it wasn't a compound fracture.

"Should we try to straighten it out before we splint it?"

"Don't they make Girl Scout leaders take first aid courses?" Lucy asked.

"My co-leader was the first aid person."

"Of course she was." Lucy started rummaging through her pack for the knife. "The answer is no. All we can do is immobilize her arm and get her to the hospital."

"We'll never be able to get her out of here," Mae said.

"No, we won't. One of us is going to have to go for help." Lucy found the knife and sat back down next to Jane.

Mae sat on the other side and shuddered a little as she looked at Jane's arm.

They spent a few minutes experimenting with the best way to arrange the rope for maximum support and minimum lumps. In the end, they decided they couldn't improve on the basic wind and wrap configuration of a brand new clothesline.

Lucy cut a piece off one of the space blankets and folded it into a pad hoping to cushion Jane's arm from the rope at least a little.

Jane stirred and moaned when they lifted her arm to slide the splint in place. When they tightened the first of the bandanas around the clumsy contraption, Jane's eyes snapped open and she let out a thin scream.

"Please just pass out again," Lucy said.

"Just shoot me now," Jane said as they tied the next bandana.

"No way. Take a deep breath. We have to put on one more bandana."

"No, you really don't," Jane said.

Mae sniffed back tears. "Yes, we do."

Jane squeezed her eyes shut tears leaked from under her closed lids and streamed down her face. "Fine. Get it over with."

Lucy worked fast with the last bandana and added the sling Mae had fashioned from more of the tarp and a couple of straps she cut off one of the packs. "Better?"

Jane winced. "Yes. Of course better is a relative term."

"Good. Lucy, you stay here and take care of her. I'm going to give Ranger Rick an opportunity to gloat and say 'I told you so'."



###



"No hell you're not," Jane said. "You two are going the rest of the way and getting that piece of history we came after."

"Don't be ridiculous. We need to get you to a hospital," Lucy said.

"And you will. But first go find the Declaration."

Lucy was shaking her head. "You're nuts. We're all nuts thinking we could pull this off without help. Belle needs professionals on her side not crazy suburban amateurs."

"No. You two are crazy if you think I'm letting you give up now. We've come this far. You keep pointing out we don't have time to go back and start again."

"Hello? Severely broken arm?"

"No one ever died of a broken arm."

"But people do die of shock," Mae said.

"Do I sound like I'm in shock?"

Lucy cocked her head and gave her the eye. "As a matter of fact you do sound a little delirious. Otherwise why would you be suggesting we go treasure hunting instead of getting you rescued?"

"Logic," she said. "We're here. I think my body has started producing natural painkillers. And most important, if we walk out of here without finding that document, Belle is the one who'll pay the price for our failure."

"We can negotiate--come back another time," Mae said.

"Do you really think Ranger Rick is going to let us get within a mile of here after this?" Jane shook her head. "He'll probably post a guard or something until he can build a locked gate over the entrance. And once word gets out why we risked out lives in this f*cking hole in the ground Cohutta will probably start to look more like Woodstock. And let's not forget we still don't know for sure that Ranger Rick isn't the kidnapper."

Lucy knew Jane was right about that but they couldn't just leave her here alone. And neither Mae nor Lucy could go on alone and take the chance of making things worse by getting hurt or lost without any backup. No they had to be sensible and go for help.

She'd find a way to make a deal with the kidnapper.

"Stop thinking like a girl," Jane said.

"Excuse me?" Lucy said.

"We wouldn't be having this argument if we were men. Don't you watch all those macho adventure movies? I can put up with a couple of extra hours of pain and swelling. We need to finish this."

Mae was shaking her head.

Lucy was starting to think maybe Jane was right. She knew she should be offended that Jane was using "thinking like a girl" as an insult. It wasn't about gender it was about compassion and caring. But dammit, Lucy would never forgive herself if something happened to Belle.

"Are you sure?" Lucy asked.

Jane nodded. "We can debate sexism in survival situations later."

Lucy frowned.

Jane quirked a brow at her.

Lucy laughed. "You're quoting Jurassic Park? Really?"

Jane managed a little chuckle. "It seemed appropriate."

"Let's do it," Lucy said.

"You can't be serious?" Mae said.

"I think I am. I can't take the chance that Belle's going to get hurt," Lucy said.

Mae frowned.

"What do you say?" Jane asked.

Mae looked from Jane to Lucy and back again. "I must be losing my mind. Okay. If we're going, let's get moving."

They spent the next ten minutes repacking all the important gear. They tucked one space blanket around Jane and folded up another to pad the pack they put under her head as a pillow.

"We'll move as fast as we can," Lucy said. She gave the pack a final pat and made sure Jane had a water bottle in easy reach. "Are you sure about this?"

She smiled, weak and painful though it was. "Just be careful. I'm going to lay here and take a little nap."

Lucy nodded and turned back to Mae. "I'll go up first. You stay away from the opening in case another rock falls."

"Are you sure you're feeling steady enough for this?" Mae asked.

"Oh yeah," Lucy said. And it was true. Maybe she had a mild concussion, or maybe it was seeing Jane acting so brave, but the fear was gone at least temporarily. She was just determined to see this through and get Jane out of here with nothing worse than a broken arm.

Lucy started climbing, slow and steady, testing every hand and foothold before trusting her weight to them. It was an easy climb. Jane must have been unlucky enough to grab the one loose rock in the shaft.

Three minutes and she was at the top. She found a sturdy formation to tie off the rope and tossed it down to Mae with a warning it was on its way.

With the security of the rope to back her up, it only took Mae two minutes to reach the top.

She unclipped her harness and gave Lucy a look. "Are you sure about this?"

"As sure as I'm going to be. Keep an eye on the time. If we get much past an hour, hour and a half and we're still not near the end we'll turn back."

Mae nodded. "Let's move as fast as we can."



###



The passage they'd climbed into was the easiest one they'd encountered since the first rappel. Almost wide enough for outstretched arms and with ceilings well above their heads, even a big man would be able to maneuver without trouble.

Still, Lucy moved with careful deliberation. According to the map there was some sort of shaft or hole in the floor ahead that she didn't want to step into.

They found the hole about twenty yards down the passage. It was filled with water that dripped from a stalactite with a slow, steady, plop.

The hole was about four feet across and looked deep. It wasn't much more than a giant step, just a little jump and they'd be across. But the consequences of not making it or of falling back when landing made the gulf seem larger.

Lucy looked around for someplace to tie off a safety rope. Of course, the walls in this area were smooth because nothing about this could actually be easy. There was a narrow ledge between the right hand wall and the pool, maybe four inches of damp rock that looked slippery.

What to do? Jump? Or edge around the right side?

"What do you think?" Lucy asked Mae.

She pointed to a lip of rock, like a ripple a few feet back from the edge of the hole. "If I sit and brace my feet on that, I can belay you while you tiptoe around the edge. You can find a spot to do the same for me on the other side."

"Do you really think you can hold me if I fall?"

She shrugged. "It's not like you're going off a cliff. The water will give you some buoyancy."

Lucy looked at the hole again. Mae was right, the water would be cold an uncomfortable but Lucy probably wouldn't get hurt and Mae would only have to help haul her out if she couldn't find a hold to pull herself out. "Good thinking."

They set up the rig and Lucy eased out onto the ledge with her face to the wall. Good thing neither of them had more than a C cup.

Lucy edged around the hole to the other side without getting wet and breathed a sigh of relief.

Mae waited while Lucy found a spot to brace her feet and followed her across.

Lucy's heart was pounding a little from the stress and it looked to her like Mae was breathing a little fast but they didn't rest. Knowing Jane was waiting and in pain was good incentive to keep moving.

Lucy checked the map. "That hole seems to be about the halfway point. At least according to this, but who knows?"

The floor sloped slightly down on this side of the hole and it looked like water sometimes flowed along the passage.

"I always thought caves were supposed to be pretty," Mae said. "You know with fool's gold sparkles and colored rocks."

Lucy had been thinking the same thing. Everything in the cave seemed to be variations of muddy brown, Georgia clay red or a dull baby-shit yellow. "I thought so too but I seem to recall having similar thoughts on the Ruby Falls tour. Some of the formations were amazing and of course the falls were beautiful but most of the place was dull brown rock."

"I guess nature is sparing with the amazing parts so we can appreciate them more."

Lucy gave her the eye at that even though Mae couldn't see her. "Aren't you just a little philosopher. Still, I'd love to see a real magical cave."

Mae chuckled. "This from the woman who vowed never to go underground again if we get out alive."

Another thirty yards or so brought them to a climb down.

They didn't waste time talking about it. Lucy rigged a rope, clipped in and started to climb down. This was another one of the twisty climbs. "Come on after me as soon as I make the first turn. Just try not to kick any loose rocks on my head."

"I'll yell if something gets loose," Mae said.

Lucy nodded and kept moving down.

They were making really good time. According to the map, at the bottom of this climb they'd find one more passage then a large room with some big stalagmites and stalactites. The X--hopefully--marking the Declaration's hiding spot was on the far side of the lowest hanging stalactite in that room.

The climb was long and narrow but not too dangerous since the shaft twisted often enough to make any fall a short one. It was, however, slow going. About twenty-five minutes of finger, elbow and knee scraping later, Lucy stepped to the floor of what, she hoped, was a short passage leading into the final chamber.

Lucy moved out of the way so Mae wouldn't have to navigate around her and took her first look at the final lap.





No, Really, The Crack Of Doom





Lucy's breath caught in her throat and she decided maybe she should learn to pray.

The light disappeared into a three foot high, two foot wide crack.

It was her worst nightmare.

"That can't be right. There must be another passage. No way we're supposed to go in there,"

Mae swept her light over the walls. No other openings were visible.

"The right opening must be hidden," Lucy said. Please let there be another opening. A bigger opening.

"No. This is it," Mae said.

Lucy shuddered. "What makes you so sure?"

"The map. If there was more than one small passage I'd think it would have been pointed out on the map," Mae said.

Lucy realized Mae was right. If the choice was between a small crack and a large tunnel maybe there wouldn't be any reference on the map but if there was a choice to be made between one or more, small, scary cracks surely Paul Morris would have noted which small, scary crack was the right one.

The real crack of doom mocked her from three feet away.

"We're going to have to go in," Mae said.

The crack exhaled a dank breath filled with a ripe moist smell onto Lucy's face. Irrational as it was, it seemed to her the smell you'd expect coming up from a grave after a storm. She couldn't get past the idea that she'd be buried alive if she went in there.

She didn't fear a cave-in as much as she feared somehow just getting stuck, unable to move forward or back--uninjured, fully awake and aware and able to anticipate with every breath her long, slow death in the dark.

"Lucy? Are you okay?"

Mae's voice penetrated Lucy's morbid daydream.

Lucy shivered, took Mae's hand and stood up.

"Lucy?" Mae said again.

"I think I'm about to lose it," Lucy said.

"Lose it? You have to get it together. If I managed to rappel down that hole, you can manage to navigate a little tunnel."

A slightly hysterical giggle bubbled up out of Lucy's mouth. "Little is right."

Mae propped her hands on her hips and cocked her head. "Now look here, your Aunt Belle is counting on us to get to that Declaration."

Yes, Belle was counting on her, but fear this big tended to overwhelm everything in its path. "Two words--cave in."

"Two more--kid-napper." Mae punctuated the last with a clap for each syllable.

"That's one word," Lucy pointed out.

Mae sighed in exasperation. "Fine, if we're not going forward let's go back. We have to get Jane out of here too."

"I didn't say I wasn't going," Lucy said. "I just need a little time to work up the nerve."

"Good. That's good," Mae said.

Lucy thought she sounded like she was talking to one of her teenagers after they'd told her they planned to save sex for the wedding night. She wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet. Jane had broken an arm and refused to let them quit. The only thing stopping Lucy was fear and that wouldn't change in the next few minutes or even the next few hours.

She pictured Gary telling her she'd become a boring drudge. That did it.

"I can't quit. We have to get the Declaration today. Let's see if we can make it through," Lucy said.

"I'm not sure we'll be able to get through wearing our packs," Mae said as she made a test foray into the opening. Sure enough, her pack snagged on the top of the opening even when she flopped on her belly.

"We can't leave them behind," Lucy said. "We don't know what equipment we might need. Not to mention the water and batteries."

"Why don't we use some carabineers and attach them to a piece of rope. We can pull them behind us," Mae said.

"Sounds like a plan." Maybe not the best plan but at least Mae was still capable of logic. "You can pull them and I'll be able to push if necessary," Lucy said.

Mae cut a piece of rope from one of the bundles dangling from her climbing harness and started to rig her pack to it. Lucy shrugged out of hers so Mae could rig them together.

"I hope this mess doesn't get caught on anything. I'm probably not going to have a lot of room to maneuver in there," Mae said as she locked the final carabineer onto Mae's pack.

"If we can get through the packs can get through," Lucy said. She clipped the carabineer Mae had attached to the other end of the rope to a loop on her harness. "Let's get this over with."

"Ready?" Mae said.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm not ready. I'm about to present myself to that hideous hole like some kind of human sacrifice."

"Not too late to go back."

"Just go before I lose my nerve."

Mae dropped and crawled into the crack.

Lucy shuddered and held a last second debate with herself. In the end, she decided she couldn't live with wimping out now.

She dropped and followed Mae into the hole.



###



Lucy tried to conjure an image of a magical underground world as she crawled into the crack of doom behind Mae.

She tried to channel Lara Croft--brave, adventurous and more than capable of saving Belle from one scholarly kidnapper.

It didn't help. She still knew she was a soon to be divorced, (nearly) middle-aged woman with bad hair and no sense of style who on a good day could achieve a true meditative state for ten minutes max.

Her heart pounded, she was breathing way too fast, and she was seeing spots. She was on the verge of a full-blown panic attack. At least that's what she thought it would be called since she'd never had a panic attack before now.

"Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to die we go. We're idiots in over our heads. Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho."

Jane's singing brought Lucy up short. It was only in her head. A bubble of hysterical laughter popped out of her mouth. That is exactly what Jane would be doing, making some sick joke about this nightmare.

The imagined off-key version of the dwarves' song did the trick--a happy, animated vision of the cave popped into her head. Walls gleaming with polished gems, nice smooth passages and her fellow dwarves in fine voice.

Lucy shuffled on and held on to the vision. "Find your happy place," she said to herself. This was all about choosing how to feel. She could choose not to be afraid. She could choose to enjoy the adventure. She could choose to succeed in saving Belle.

She started humming "Hi Ho" under her breath.

"What's going on back there?" Mae called from some distance ahead.

"Coming," Lucy said. "How is it up there?"

"I don't see the end but it hasn't gotten any smaller."

After ten minutes more minutes of crawling, Lucy was pretty sure ninety-nine percent of the muscles in her body were either cramped or thinking about it. The going was slow.

"Uh oh," Mae said.

"Uh oh? No uh oh. I don't want to hear uh oh."

"Hold on," Mae said. "I think it might be a dead end."

For a few seconds Lucy's mind warred between relief that she wouldn't have to keep going in the narrow dark and disappointment at not finding the Declaration. "It can't be a dead end. The map shows some sort of formation in this passage could that be what you're seeing?"

"Maybe. Let me check something," Mae said.

Lucy caught up to Mae. She couldn't see much with Mae between her and the obstruction, but it did look like something was blocking the passage. Or maybe the tunnel took a turn.

"It's tight but we can get through," Mae said and her upper body disappeared.

"Get through where?" Somehow Lucy didn't think Mae's top half disappearing was a good thing.

"The top and bottom sort of overlap." Mae lifted her head and chest to look back at Lucy. "It looks like we're going to be crawling some more. I think the ceiling is a little lower on this side."

Lucy watched in horror as Mae pushed forward, and disappeared completely and tried to pull the packs after her.

"Hang on," Lucy called. "The packs are hung up."

Lucy moved up, pushed the packs over the hump and got her first look at the shrinking tunnel.

"Come on," Mae called back.

No. No. No. No. Lucy tried every trick she could think of to make herself move forward. Nothing worked. Her mind wasn't letting her body go. "Don't think I can. I seem to be um, stuck."

"Stuck?" Mae sounded confused.

"Well, not literally. I just . . . Nothing seems to be working."

"I can't turn around in here so you'll have to wait til I get to the end and come back."

Now this was a problem too. Waiting alone here? That wasn't going to work. Forward was the way out. "I'm coming."

Lucy crawled over the obstruction, and stared at the sliver of darkness that had swallowed Mae. The already low ceiling dropped another foot, leaving about two feet of space between the floor and the ceiling.

This wasn't going to be and hands and knees crawl. This was going to be a belly crawl.

Lucy shuddered from head to toe. Was Mae kidding?

Lucy knew without a doubt if she pushed into that black mouth, she would be in the dark forever.

Lucy added shivering to her list of physical signs of stress and fear. Of course the cold wasn't helping either. Her coveralls were wet from her skid through the puddle.

"Hello? Anybody back there?" Mae called from inside the black hole.

"I'm here," Lucy said.

"Well how about getting up here," Mae said.

Lucy could see a little glimmer of light deep in the passage. "Is it bigger again?" she asked.

"Not yet," Mae said. "Are you okay?"

Lucy wasn't okay at all, but she nodded her head yes, forgetting that Mae couldn't see her. "I just need a few more seconds. I'm okay." Since she was probably going to die down here anyway she might as well die going forward. Forward is the way out, Lucy repeated the words to herself.

Mae's light flashed across Lucy's face. "Then why are you crying?"

Was she? Lucy reached up to touch her face. Yep, those were tears leaking out of her eyes and trailing down her cheeks. "Guess I'm more afraid than I thought." That was a lie. She knew exactly how afraid she was.

"This cave has probably been here since before the first people set foot on the continent," Mae said. "It's not going to suddenly collapse now."

Lucy's body felt like a block of wood. All sensation deadened and movement impossible. "I don't think I can do this." She couldn't wrap her mind around even the possibility of slithering into that shallow crack. Every time she danced close to the thought her body locked up.

"Sure you can. Just like me. Close your eyes and don't think about it."

Clearly Mae didn't have claustrophobia she was crazy. "What about the packs? What if they get caught on something and I get stuck in there?"

"If you can fit the packs can fit. This is the last bit before we get to the hiding place. Remember?"

No. Lucy couldn't remember her own name at the moment.

In the end this was her quest. She couldn't give up and leave Belle's fate in someone else's hands. Besides she didn't want to think about trying to crawl backwards and she didn't think she had room to turn around. Forward is the way out.

She dropped down on her belly, slithered into the crack and closed her eyes against the fear. It didn't help. Her breath wheezed like a patient with advanced emphysema and she became absolutely certain her heart was going to stop.

She could hear Mae's voice but couldn't make sense of the words.

Lucy's entire world shrank to a space two feet by two feet and she shut out everything except the need to propel herself forward. The floor under her was smooth, which meant no scrapes or scratches. But it also meant finding ways to push and pull herself along was hard.

The ceiling was mere inches above her head and she kept bumping it in a vain attempt to catch her breath, like a drowning victim trying to break the surface for air. Each time she bumped her head, each time she failed to surface, her breath got shorter and she got more lightheaded. But she kept moving forward, trying to outrun the panic.

Lucy had no idea how long she'd been crawling when the panic caught up. She needed to stand, or sit, or at least lift herself to her hands and knees. For the umpteenth time, she tried to rise up, to lift her head free, to get a big breath of fresh air.

For the umpteenth time she cracked her head on the ceiling and saw stars. A cold clammy sweat broke out over her body.

A scream built in her throat and she knew if she let it loose, she'd go insane and hurt herself or worse, Mae. The sound she allowed out was a keening wail in the back of her throat.

She started to flail and thrash in a vain attempt to get free of the tons of rock encasing her. She was no longer a thinking human but a trapped animal incapable of rational thought.



###



Lucy didn't know how long she was in the grip of the madness.

What brought her back was the sharp, queasy pain of striking her funny bone on a knob of rock protruding from the wall of the crack. She collapsed, sobbing and became aware of her surroundings again.

"Wah wah wah, wah wah."

Mae's voice penetrated the black fog of Lucy's mind but the voice sounded like an adult in a Peanuts cartoon. "What?"

"Are you okay?"

"No."

"You have to keep moving," Mae said.

Lucy did her best to ignore the fact that she still couldn't lift her head or catch her breath. If she thought about it she would start screaming and would probably still be screaming when she went into shock and died. "I can't."

"You have to."

Mae was right, forward is the way out.

Lucy started belly crawling again. The next panic attack would have to wait until she got some energy back.

"I can stand up again," Mae's voice came back down the passage. "Oh my God!" Mae said. "This is amazing. Lucy, I promise it's worth the trip."