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her!” I whooped. “Pull, Zeke, pull!”
    Blood swam to my head. My brain started to go all fuzzy and my left hand began to tingle. Something in the way Zeke was holding my legs and Joy was holding my arms…too tightly.
    “Got us?” I choked in a nasally voice.
    He didn’t answer. I heard the sound of rubber against earth.
    “Zeke?” I persisted. My hand was losing sensation. I felt like I was dreaming, drugged. He started to pull us upward. “Go, go, go!”
    “Hold on! Give me a second!” he yelled as an answer. Then he swore. I heard more scrapes against the ground.
    “I’ve got this,” he shouted to Joy and me. “I’ve got it—”
    “Then get it!” Joy screamed.
    “I’m trying, damn it!”
    We were good for about three seconds. And then Zeke lost it, the three of us plummeted back into the pit, and the earth devoured us like some kind of biblical plague. A low growl rumbled in the background, the sound of something collapsing.
    “Ow!” I said.
    “Gah!” Zeke said. “What the—”
    Joy wailed out, “Oh, God! We’re going to die, we’re going to die!”
    “Stop it!” I told her. “We’re not going to die.”
    But we were going to die. That much I knew.
    “You’re sitting on me, Kaida,” Zeke said dryly.
    “Sorry,” I muttered.
    “No problem.”
    “That’s a good one.” I laughed. “No problem. Au contraire, mon ami . The problem is monumental.”
    “I’m sorry.” Zeke sounded on the brink of tears.
    “It’s not your fault, Zeke. It’s not anyone’s fault. It’s just…” My voice trailed off. “Can anyone see, or am I stunned from the fall?” I asked, feeling around.
    “No, it’s pitch-black,” Zeke replied. “I took off my backpack to pull you guys up. Now we don’t even have a flashlight!”
    “My messenger bag!” I shouted. “ My flashlight’s in my bag and my bag is down here somewhere!”
    We all started groping around. We literally couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces. It was the most enveloping, evil darkness I had ever experienced, and I had to constantly talk out loud to myself to keep from panicking.
    “You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay…”
    “Found it!” Zeke shrieked. With a flick of a switch we had illumination. I looked at Zeke’s face and saw the curve of his mouth set downward, his turquoise eyes half closed in misery.
    “What now?” he asked.
    “Shine the flashlight above us,” I suggested. “Maybe we can climb back up.”
    He did. Several rocks had fallen on top of our entrance, blocking our escape path. I felt the surrounding walls. They were wet and steep.
    No way out.
    “Don’t panic,” I said out loud. “Panic doesn’t do any good.”
    No one spoke. Finally Zeke asked, “What now?” I took the flashlight from him and moved it around. Joy was rocking in a fetal position. She was beyond panic.
    “I really screwed up,” Zeke choked out.
    “It’s not your fault, Zeke,” I told him. “This was just a bad situation that kept turning worse. If the van hadn’t crashed, we wouldn’t have been in the rain. The rain led to the cave,the cave to Joy’s fall. Joy’s fall to…” I trailed off. “What’s the use? Let’s think up another plan. At least it’ll keep our brains occupied!”
    “You okay?” Zeke was crouching by Joy. She looked like a cornered animal.
    “My arm,” was all she said in response. “I hurt it in the fall and then it got yanked.”
    I squatted down beside her and stroked her hair. It felt like silk. That’s the most basic way to comfort a girl, by touching her gently. I had experienced this sort of aid a million times before.
    “Joy,” I asked softly, “are you bleeding?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Can I pick up your arm?”
    “No.”
    “Okay. It’s okay,” I tried to soothe her.
    “It really hurts.”
    “I know,” I crooned, “I can’t even imagine.” But I could. I broke my arm in sixth grade playing basketball. That had been the end of my