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athletic career.
    Zeke started shining the flashlight over the walls. “Look. There are tunnels down here. Maybe we should wander around.”
    “Maybe we shouldn’t do anything right now,” I told him. “We’re all too frazzled and too tired to think properly.” I felt several pings on my head and looked up. The hole that we had slipped through was starting to cave in. “On second thought,maybe walking around is a better option than getting buried alive.”
    Joy let go with a wail. I said, “Can you walk, Joy? Is it just your arm or your legs, too?” I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
    “I can’t walk! I can’t move!”
    “I’ll carry you.” Zeke stretched out his arms.
    “No, no,” I insisted. Another bit of dirt crashed onto my skull. We had to get away from the spot and we had to do it now. The hole was beginning to leak pebbles and rocks. “Try to get up, Joy. I’ll help you—”
    “Don’t touch my right arm!”
    Zeke grabbed her waist and hoisted her to her feet. Slowly, he let go. “You can stand.”
    She nodded and took a step forward. “I’m okay. I can walk.”
    “Are you sure?” Zeke dusted off his pants.
    “Yeah.”
    “Then let’s get out of here…as in right now.”
    Zeke shined his flashlight around, and we walked into the tunnel. I could stand up inside, but Joy and Zeke had to bend over. A sharp odor plunged into my nostrils. The place felt diseased: chilly and clammy and without hope.
     
    “In a place with light deprivation are creatures deformed?” I asked, half joking.
    “What?” Joy asked, confused.
    Zeke ignored her. “There’s light here somewhere.”
    “Yeah, your flashlight,” I retorted.
    “It’s not pitch-black,” he insisted. “It can’t be.”
    “There are undiscovered parts of the earth,” I began, my voice not seeming to belong to me. “Not everything is safe.”
    I shivered at my own words.
    “You’re joking, but you’re not joking,” Zeke whispered.
    “Why are you whispering?” But I was speaking quietly, too. “I don’t know,” he answered. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
    We continued to trek through the tunnel. Mercifully, it widened and heightened until Zeke and Joy could walk upright. I thought about these kinds of scenes on TV. At the end, something was always waiting. It could be a hermit who’d kill us just because we were there. Or undiscovered animals…creatures of the underworld. Maybe we’d be attacked by our own mental insanity. But surely something was waiting for us.
    The pungent stench intensified all around us.
    “God, what is that?” Joy gasped.
    “Bat shit,” Zeke answered. “I think.”
    “It’s called guano,” I added.
    We walked on, the smell strangling us.
    “Wait.” Zeke suddenly gripped my hand.
    “What?” I squeezed his hand back. Even though we weren’tthe best of friends, his touch felt wonderful.
    “Guano,” he replied. “Guano! Lovely, lovely guano! Bat shit.”
    Joy regarded Zeke’s slaphappy grin. “Maybe you should sit down?”
    “You guys!” He was clearly frustrated. “Guano comes from bats!” He shook his head and turned directly to me. “Kaida, what have we been learning about the caves in science class?”
    “You mean the Carlsbad Caverns?”
    “Yes, exactly! What particular creature lurks inside these dark, dank caverns?”
    “Bats,” I said.
    “And how do bats eat?”
    “They fly out at dusk to feed and return in the morning to sleep,” I answered. “Zeke, I don’t see—”
    “There’s guano in this cave. That means there’re bats in this cave.”
    I thought of bats and heard Maria’s voice. Rabies. I kept my thoughts to myself. “We’re all on the same page with that one, Zeke. Bats do live in caves.”
    “And presumably, like all bats, our bats get hungry?”
    “One would assume.”
    “So…” He moved his hands, waiting for me to say something.
    Guano…bats…bats have to feed.
    It was the middle of the night. Meaning if our cave had bats,