Read Online Running Scared by Gloria Skurzynski - Free Book Online Page B

Consuela?”
    Shrugging, Sam looked at the floor. He scuffed his sneaker into the soft earth until he made a small, moonlike crater.
    â€œBecause listen, whatever is wrong with Consuela, I don’t think it’s drugs.”
    More silence. Jack heard Ashley’s soft breathing and heard another drip hit an invisible puddle. Sam stubbornly pressed his lips together, refusing to answer even when Ashley continued to press him. It was pointless, Jack decided. Whatever Sam had seen, they’d have to unravel it later. Right now, they needed to find the main trail and get back to the surface. He wanted to feel the burning sun on his face and breathe the clean desert air. The cool, damp air of the cave was beginning to feel suffocating.
    â€œCome on, we’ll talk about all that when we’re out of here. It’s been an hour since we left the trail. We need to get back before people start to freak.” Ten minutes farther, they hit a fork in the trail. “Which way, Ashley?”
    Ashley pointed with her free hand. “That way, I think.”
    They turned a corner where the pale rock looked porous, with shallow cavities that pocked the cave walls like bone, and for a moment Jack felt as though he were inside a skull. He didn’t remember seeing this part of the cave before. How far back did the other passages go? Mentally he tried to picture the map he’d seen of Left Hand Tunnel, which was filled with small offshoots that looked like roots on a tree. One offshoot connected to another. It might be possible, he realized, to wander in this labyrinth for days! He was just about to say something when Ashley touched his back and told him, “Up ahead! It’s the green reflector. See, I told you we were going the right way.
    You know, I really was getting a little bit worried, but now that I see the reflector I think we’re going to be all right. I know exactly where we are!”
    But when they reached the metal stake, Jack quickly realized that they were back at the forks in the path, either of which could be the right one. Or both could be wrong. Now what? Ashley stood, her mouth slightly agape. Arm extended, she held the lantern to each opening, the light bouncing off the strange formations until it disappeared into the blackness beyond. Nothing ahead of them seemed right. She looked to Jack, her eyes asking for help, but Jack could only shake his head in reply. With a sinking feeling, he faced the truth he hadn’t wanted to let himself comprehend. They were lost.
    â€œJ-J-Jack,” Sam asked softly, “are we g-g-going to d-d-die?”
    â€œNo, we are not going to die. Don’t panic. The first thing we need to do is to get some kind of plan.” He rubbed his forehead, as if the friction might get some ideas sparking inside his brain. “Ashley, put the lantern in the center so I can see. Sam, let go of my hand and sit down. I’ve got to think.”
    The three of them dropped to the coolness of the floor. Rough stone pushed into his back as Jack leaned against the cave wall. Ashley and Sam pulled their legs beneath them and looked to him expectantly, as though any moment now he’d have the answer. Except he didn’t have a clue what to do next. They were lost in a cave with no food, no water, no map, and only one half-melted candle for light among the three of them. By now, park rangers must have mounted a search party, fanning out a team into the cave to find them and bring them home. But where were their rescuers? Since Jack had first checked his watch, another hour had passed, plenty of time to pull a team together to search for three lost kids. One thought nagged him, though: If the rangers were looking for them, why couldn’t Jack hear anything except an occasional drip of water? The cave itself seemed silent as a tomb.
    What had he learned in scouting? When you’re lost, you stay put and wait for help to come to you. But that was when