He gripped her arm, then pointed. Pillow lava was dripping over the front of the cave. They had to get out. She started for the cave opening, but the water got hotter, and the lava was dripping so quickly there was no room to get by without being burned. Bane pulled her back. It was too late. They were trapped. His eyes held a terrible awareness that they were going to die. He pulled her into his arms, and she listened to the sound of his regulator. It would soon stop. He would run out of air before she did because he was a big guy and pulled a lot of air.
Leia didn’t want to die yet. There was so much she wanted to experience, and she realized she wanted that life to include Bane. While she looked forward to heaven someday, she’d never thought that day could come so soon. Her gaze locked with Bane’s. She tried to tell him with her eyes how much she loved him and how sorry she was for everything. Bane opened his arms, and she moved into them.
Eva didn’t like this place. The corners held spiderwebs with dead bugs hanging in them. Hotshot had promised they’d go for diving, but she didn’t see gear around. They were just in this dumpy cabin that took forever to walk to. Hotshot had brought her here and told her he’d be back later. When he left, she’d tried the door, but it was locked.
Eva had tried to open a window and crawl through, but they were stuck shut. It was hot in here too. She wanted to go home and watch Home Alone again. She watched it every day. Sometimes she felt like Kevin in the film—invisible enough that she could be for-gotten by her family. At the same time, the film gave her hope that she could be a hero too.
She was tired of sitting on the cot. She wished she had a book to read—maybe Black Beauty. She stood and walked around the room. On the old table she carved her name, then something scraped at the front door. She sprang to her feet and faced the door. Maybe Hotshot was back with his diving gear. She rushed to the door as Hotshot entered the cabin. His hands were empty. “No diving gear?”
“Not yet.” His smile widened as he took a lock of her blonde hair and twisted it around his finger. “You’ve sure got pretty hair, Eva.”
There was something about his smile that she wasn’t sure about. It made her feel funny, excited, and icky all at once. She backed away. “I think I should go home now.”
“Not yet,” he said, kicking the door shut behind him. “We have lots to do yet.”
They floated heart to heart for a few seconds, then Leia realized the dolphin was trying to drive them apart.
Nani swam in circles around them. She bumped against their legs, and Nani rolled over then zipped to a rock that stuck out into the cave. She disappeared behind it. Leia hadn’t realized there was enough space back there to hold the dolphin’s body. Gesturing to Bane, she led the way to see what Nani had discovered. Leia’s light caught a small opening near the floor. Nani must have swum into it. Could there be another way out?
Bane pushed her toward the opening. She swam into it. Nani must have brushed the sides, because it was nearly too tight for Leia to negotiate. Phosphorescent plankton glowed along the way, swirling in the current. Wait, there was actually a current? She watched and realized it was true. This water was flowing somewhere. Nani hadn’t come back either. Her light picked up starfish and translucent shrimp clinging to the walls. It almost looked like stars.
Stars. Eva had said something about stars. In her dream, she said Bane followed the stars out of the cave. Hope resurrected, and she looked back to smile at Bane. He looked puzzled, but he smiled back, though she could see the resignation in his eyes. She paused and swept her hand through the plankton. Her motion made him frown, then he watched the plankton flow at a fast clip away from them. He took her arm in an excited grip. Nodding forward, he gave her a gentle push. She kicked off with her fins, moving faster now. Her light played along the ceiling with the glow of starfish. The corridor turned vertical, and she looked up into a tunnel that seemingly had no end.
She turned to glance back at Bane. Right behind him came a column of pillow lava. She pointed. He turned and saw it, then grabbed her arm and shoved her upward. She shot up through the tunnel, moving as fast as she dared. They might need to find a hyperbaric chamber when they got out of here. If they got out. Bane was right on her heels, but thankfully, the pillow lava didn’t seem to be billowing after them. She paused to decompress a bit. Bane enveloped her in his arms again, and they floated like that for several minutes.