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the bats were out feeding. Then it came to me like alightbulb turning on. “There has to be an opening for the bats to fly in and out!” I shrieked.
    He picked me up and swung me around. Then he clapped his hands together. “All we need to do is search. There is an opening somewhere!”
    “What if the opening to the cave was what we fell through?” I asked him.
    “Not big enough for bats to go in and out of. There has got to be a ton of bats, judging from the amount of guano. There should be another entrance. All we have to do is find it.”
    “Happy.” Joy yawned. “Very happy.”
    “How can you be tired?” Zeke squealed.
    I blushed in solidarity. “I don’t know, Zeke. Maybe she’s tired because it’s God-only-knows how late.” Something illuminated from Zeke’s wrist—his wristwatch. “What time is it?”
    “Two in the morning.”
    “We’re more likely to find the opening when the bats fly into it at dawn. Why don’t we just rest and conserve our energy for a while?”
    “But we’re so close!”
    “It’ll be easier to follow the bats…and the sun will come out and…” My eyelids fell steadily. I felt dreamy and groggy.
    “I agree.” Joy sat down, leaned against the walls, and closed her eyes.
    Zeke yawned. Our exhaustion was contagious. “Okay.We’ll take a nap.” He sat down between us. “Just a nap ,” he enunciated. “I’m going to set my watch. We’ve got to get up in a few hours, all right?”
    I agreed. Nothing better to do.
    He turned off the flashlight, and with that out went consciousness.
     
    I heard: Hi, hi, hi, in a wispy voice.
    Then someone shook me awake. Zeke’s voice. “We’ve got to get going. It’s five in the morning. We’ve got to find the bats.”
    “Why don’t we just let the bats find us?” I croaked, rubbing my eyes.
    Zeke turned on the flashlight and shined it in my eyes. Then he woke up Joy. It took several minutes to leap back to consciousness, and when I did, a heavy despair smothered me like a wet towel. We were in the same nightmare as before the nap. If I had been alone, I probably would have sunk back down into sleep and died. But other people were depending on me and I was depending on other people. No one could let the next person down.
    “Let’s go searching!” Zeke clapped several times. He had that kind of instant adrenalized energy—quick to come and quick to wear off. Joy’s enormous eyes moistened and I gazed at her. She caught my stare and shook it off.
    We managed to stand and began to walk forward.
    “Bucky’s gonna get sued for this.” Zeke was calling our illustrious school by its popular endearment.
    “Buchanan was the president who never did anything,” I quipped.
    “You know who’s probably worrying about me right now?” Zeke asked as I looked at our surroundings. More and more endless cave, dark and unpromising.
    “Your parents?” Joy offered.
    “Leslie,” he answered.
    An image of Leslie splashed into my mind. But she wasn’t smiling openmouthed as she usually did. Instead she was glaring, her face and body wretched. This is what happens when you’re afraid. You see and remember things as being distorted…terribly frightening. Pictures flutter through your mind and your breath catches. If people are around you, they look at you strangely.
    Joy touched my back and I jumped.
    “Whoa,” she said.
    “Sorry,” I mumbled, “just freaking myself out.”
    “You looked like you were having a seizure, only the kind where you don’t roll around and stuff.”
    I nodded.
    “I’m doing that, too, Kaida,” Joy offered sympathetically. “Freaking myself out.”
    “You guys are weird.” Zeke snorted.
    I felt my face go hot. “You never do that? You never thinkabout something scary and get freaked out? You’re not scared right now? I don’t think so!”
    “Calm down—”
    “You’re not freaked?”
    “Of course I’m freaked!” he shouted. “But there’s nothing I can do about it, so shut up, okay?