With each one in place along the length of the rope, beginning with Thorn and ending with Elli, Thorn slid the door shut, enveloping the children once again in that darkness that had become all too familiar a traveling companion since they had first descended the library’s basement stairs a few days earlier.
The tunnel that, at the beginning, was little higher than eight feet, would never reach that height again during the course of their journey underground. At times, they would find it considerably smaller. Thorn, who was himself nearly eight feet tall, would have to travel most of the way bent forward at the waist as much as ninety degrees, looking as if he were the feeblest of old men. Beatríz thought the tunnel, in general, had the odor of dry black dirt. There were times, however, as they passed by unseen passageways off of the main tunnel, when the odor reminded Alex of those times when he would dig in the moist nocturnal grass for large worms that would surface only when the sun had set. The ground descended gradually with firm, packed earth, as if it had—as, indeed it had—been traveled for hundreds of years by thousands and thousands of creature feet.
Like a slow-rolling and soundless train, the four “cars” that were the children and the “engine” that was Thorn with two eyes for “headlamps” that appeared to be low on their batteries, moved steadily through the tunnel. Every once in a while Thorn would slow to a stop, examining with a wagging glow a fork in the tunnel or something amounting to a T intersection to determine down which tunnel the main track was running. It was not at all clear to the children how deep underground they had traveled, or were going to travel, but they had been descending silently for hours, and each was becoming short of breath. Thorn heard their rapid and shallow breathing and halted the train.
“Let’s rest for a few minutes and then continue; there will be a multiple passageway intersection not far up ahead that will give us a sufficient area on which to stretch out and sleep for a few hours. It’s another hour ahead, and it will be time to stop for the night anyway. By then we should have logged a good eight hours—plenty for our first day, I’d say. You’ll need to sleep double that time in this thin air to recoup your stamina, but I will keep watch. Unlike you human persons, I need very little sleep.”
They sat and ate some fruit. While eating and drinking, Alex’s breathing was getting faster and louder. He was beginning to wheeze and then starting to cry. Elli told him to relax and keep quiet—that his fast breathing and crying would only make it harder to breath. But Alex only breathed faster and cried louder.
“I can’t bweeth! I can’t bweeth!” Alex tried to shout in a panicked voice.
“Try your best to relax, Alex,” Thorn said while laying a reassuring hand on Alex’s knee. “You’re panicking and hyperventilating and, as Elli said, only making it more difficult for yourself. And,” he added, “if there is anything else in this tunnel within half a mile, it will now know that we are here.”
Alex suddenly stood up, hitting his head against the roof of the tunnel, and began to jump in place, yelling as loudly as he was able under the circumstances, “I can’t bweeth! I can’t bweeth! I have to go back! I have to get out of hew! I do! I do!”
“Alex!” Jamie yelled. “You have to stop! Sit down! You’re making things worse for everyone!”
But Alex only continued to yell the more, in a harsh, tight and aspirating voice, “I have to get out of hew!” Then, all of a sudden, he started to run back into the tunnel from which they’d come.
“Alex, stop!” yelled Thorn.
Elli wasted no time to think. She jumped to her feet and ran as fast as her (rather fast) legs would carry her while bent at the waist. “I’ll get him!” yelled Elli.
“Don’t go, Elli!” Thorn shouted. “You’ll both get lost!”
But Elli caught up to Alex quickly and tackled him at the legs, bringing him down with a thud and holding tightly onto his ankles. “Stop, Alex!” Elli screamed at him.
“Ewi,” Alex cried weakly, with no air behind the voice, “pweez wet me go!”
“Thorn!” Elli yelled, in a composed voice, “I have him, but I need help to bring him back!”
Alex had no energy remaining either to run or to resist. Thorn and Jamie helped carry Alex back to where Beatríz had remained alone. They laid him on a skin, gave him some tea that Thorn had packed in a bottle, and let him in his utter exhaustion drift from semi-consciousness into a deep sleep.
“We’ll simply try to rest here,” said Thorn, quietly, “until Alex awakens on his own. If he is still intent on going back, we will acquiesce. At least, that’s what we will tell him. If I must, I will tell him we are returning, but we will nevertheless continue our journey out of the forest. If lying is the most loving thing I can do, then lie I will. I don’t know if anyone or anything has heard us, but the sooner we can continue the better.”
All but Thorn fell asleep. Unbeknownst to them, they slept more than a dozen hours, each of them awakening at roughly the same time, feeling rested and eager to be on their way, including Alex. No one said anything to Alex about what had happened a half day earlier, and Alex himself said nothing, behaving as if he didn’t recall the incident at all. They resumed their journey in the darkness, only Thorn able to see just an arm’s length or so in front of them. Within what seemed only minutes, the five had arrived at the open space created by the intersection of several passageways. Thorn stopped to ascertain which way was for certain the correct one. He bore into the sides of the various tunnels with a single finger, feeling for what he believed to be the side of the main root. He was able to feel a root alongside two of the tunnels, but his sense was that neither was the main one. “We’ll go off to the far right; it’s the passage that has the hardest-packed earth. Ready?” All answered in the affirmative.
They continued their shallow descent, and within a short time found the tunnel widening and increasing in height. Thorn stopped abruptly, closed his eyes, and said to the others in the lightest of whispers, “No noise from anyone.”
Elli reached around and gently touched Alex’s lips. “Shhh.” They stood still for several minutes, Thorn listening intently and the children awaiting further instructions. Thorn could feel a slight vibration in the earth beneath his feet.
Beatríz tapped Thorn on the shoulder and whispered, her lips touching the side of his head, “I hear a light clicking noise in the distance, Thorn, and it’s getting closer.”
As if he immediately understood the implications of what Beatríz had told him, Thorn whispered to the others, “Go back, Elli, and take the first passage to the left that you come to. It’s probably going to be pretty small, so you’ll likely have to crawl to get into it. Go in as far as you can until I tell you to stop—but back in! Remember to back in! I’ll be right behind you! Let’s go, quickly!”
Suddenly, all of them could hear the rapid clicking, as of a hundred drumsticks drumming lightly on a board, and getting rapidly louder. “Quickly, everyone! Quickly!” yelled Thorn, realizing they had already been discovered by what was fast approaching from up ahead. Elli, holding firmly to the rope, challenged the others with her speed and agility. She found the low passageway within a matter of seconds and crawled in backwards on all fours, all the while pulling on the rope to assist the others until she heard Thorn yell, “I’m in! You can stop! We’re okay for the time being.”
After they had all caught their breath, Jamie asked Thorn, “What is it?”
“From that awful drumming sound, I can tell that it’s a Mortejos. We call it simply, a ‘Death Eyes.’ It is a giant millipede that has hundreds of bony legs and crawls low to the ground, almost on its stomach,” explained Thorn. “When standing, it is more than four feet high, as well as being about ten feet long, but even on its stomach it’s nearly three feet high, so it won’t be able to follow us into this passageway—which is important, because it’s almost here!” Thorn paused, and caught his breath. “On the other hand . . . ”
Thorn was interrupted, first by the rushing sound of the millipede’s