Forbidden Passage Page 6

  The whole line came to a quick stop. Buzz had to put on the brakes to keep from running right into Vanessa.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Carter answered. “Jane, get on my shoulders. See if you can tell anything from here.”

  Jane jumped up on a rock, then stepped right onto Carter’s back. She was already the best climber in the family, and getting better at it all the time.

  “It looks like they’re turning around,” she said. Even as she spoke, Buzz could see several runners coming back the other way. Definitely a dead end.

  “GO, go, go!” Carter said, letting Jane down and waving at the others to backtrack.

  Buzz turned one-eighty and kept moving. Two seconds ago, they’d been the second-to-last team in the canyon. Now, with the whole line reversed, they were second from the front. Maybe it was a temporary advantage, but they’d take every little boost they could get.

  It wasn’t long before they were back at the same fork. To the left was the way out, and to the right, another unknown tributary.

  “Which way?” Buzz asked. “Back outside, or over here?” He pointed to the right, where the four Nukula who were now ahead of them had just gone.

  The question was, what would everyone else do? If they all started going different ways, it seemed best to stick with the majority.

  “Let’s let a few more people go first, and see what they do,” Vanessa said.

  “No way!” Carter called back. “Don’t slow down while we’re ahead!”

  As they stood there, three more Nukula scrambled past. They used the rocks and the side walls to vault themselves forward through the vertical space before Buzz or any of his siblings could stop them. Then they cut left and headed back out of the canyon.

  “Are you satisfied?” Carter said. “We’re already losing our lead. Now go!”

  Buzz turned and took the right fork. This was no time to fuss over decisions. It was a go-for-broke situation, not a video game you could put on pause. If the Nukula weren’t stopping to consider every move, then Buzz couldn’t afford to, either.

  Which only amped up the pressure.

  The crevice twisted immediately left, and then back again. Each turn was narrower than the one before. It was getting tighter by the second. And then he heard a familiar call up ahead.

  “FAH!” yelled whoever was at the front now. This time, Buzz could easily see where the rock walls came together. They were running toward another dead end.

  “We have to go back!” he said. He turned to go, but it was clear that the people pressing in behind Vanessa, Jane, and Carter didn’t want to turn around a second time. They tried to squeeze by, but there was no room here.

  Chizo and his two friends were shouting from behind now, waving for them to keep going.

  “We can’t!” Carter shouted back, and pointed for them to reverse direction, but it was no good. They pushed in, harder. Several people stumbled forward, squeezing the line into an even smaller space than before.

  The group piled in from both sides now. Buzz’s chest tightened, and his stomach dropped. It was getting harder to breathe, and there was nothing he could do as arms, bodies, and immovable rock walls pressed in around him.

  Carter kept one hand on the rock to steady himself. The other hand was clamped onto Jane’s shoulder.

  “Carter?” she said.

  “I’ve got you!” he said. He crouched over Jane just to keep her from being crushed. Every second, there was less room to move in the tiny space. Someone tried to push by, and he pushed back—only to get another, harder shove from some unseen hand or elbow.

  “I can’t breathe!” Jane called out.

  “Just hang on!” he said.

  Carter’s heart clenched. There was nothing more he could do to protect her. The ones at the front were trying to double back, and the ones at the back hadn’t gotten through their thick heads that there was no way to keep going in this direction. The jam couldn’t last forever, but so far nobody was giving any ground.

  “MOVE!” he yelled at the girl right behind him. But there was nowhere for her to go. He could hear Chizo yelling something from the other end as well. It was too crowded even to see anymore.

  Then something caught him at the back of the head with three quick jabs. It was the last straw. Carter looked around fast, ready to take a real swing at someone.

  “Car-tare!” a voice called from just above. He looked up, and Mima was there. She hung suspended at least five feet off the ground, her feet and hands pressed against either side of the crevice.

  “Car-tare! Jane!” she said, and jerked her chin to show which way she was headed—straight up. When Carter looked, he could see a line of blue sky, maybe thirty feet over their heads.

  As usual, there was no knowing about right and wrong decisions. There was only his gut, and now his gut was saying that they should follow Mima. He’d been right about her so far, anyway.

  “Buzz! Vanessa!” he yelled. Mima had already begun working her way higher. “Jane, come on! You first.”

  Jane scrambled onto his shoulders again. She pressed her hands against the rock, then stepped off with one foot and the other, wedging herself between the walls as Mima had done. A second later, she slid both feet up the rock a short distance, pushed herself higher with her arms, and continued that way, starting her own climb toward the top.

  “Buzz, can you do this?” Carter asked. His brother didn’t look too confident.

  “Do we have any choice?” Buzz asked.

  “Go ahead, then. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “You mean under me,” Buzz said grimly, as he started to climb.

  Most of the others had jumped onto the same idea by now. When Carter looked again, he saw two dozen bodies silhouetted against the light, like a mass of giant spiders working their way up the walls.

  “There’s some handholds, too!” Carter called. “Use whatever you can!” He reached up and guided Buzz’s foot toward a small ledge.

  “I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” Buzz said. Even here, he didn’t seem to want Carter telling him what to do. But they had to get out of this canyon, whatever it took. Carter made sure to follow Buzz’s path from below, just in case he needed a save.

  His own hand throbbed as he worked. The cut had begun to heal, but the pressure of the climb was not helping. As he pushed himself another foot higher on the rock, his palm left behind a red smear of blood.

  “You guys okay?” Jane called down.

  “Fine. Keep going!” Carter yelled to her. “Just try to get to the—

  “Ekka-ko!” a shout came from above, and then the familiar sound of Chizo’s obnoxious laugh. Carter looked just in time to see him kicking something off a ledge near the top. It barely registered, until the shower of rock and gravel started down.

  “Jane, look out!” he said.

  Carter’s eyes filled with dust. Several small stones bounced painfully off his back and shoulders. And then, even worse, he heard Jane’s scream.

  “I can’t hold on!” she said.

  “Vanessa, help her!” Carter shouted back. His vision was blurred, and his grip was shaky. He could still hear Chizo and the others laughing, too.

  “I’m coming!” Vanessa called out, but then almost right away—“Jane! NO!”

  Carter swiped at his eyes with the back of his arm. Before he could see anything, he heard a gasp, and felt another shower of gravel.

  “Thank you!” Jane’s voice came then, just as his vision started to clear. He could see Mima and Jane now, ten or twelve feet over his head. Mima’s feet were pressed against the side walls, with both hands free. She had Jane’s arm hooked into her own, and held her there, swinging in midair. For a crazy moment, it reminded Carter of the barrel of monkeys he had played with when he was a little kid.

  “Are y
ou okay?” Carter choked out. His eyes stung, and everyone was coughing from the dust.

  “I’ve got it,” Jane said as she found her footing. “Let’s keep going.” Her voice was set with determination. She wasn’t going to let herself be the baby anymore—that much was clear. But she was still his little sister.

  As he started up again, Carter couldn’t stop thinking about Chizo. Ani had warned them that the others would try to slow them down—whatever it took. Well, that was a two-way street, wasn’t it?

  If there was any doubt before, it was gone now. Chizo was enemy number one. And he was going to pay for what he’d done.

  As Jane reached the top of the canyon walls, it was a relief just to feel the sun on her face again. It told her she’d made it.

  She gripped the top edge of the crevice on one side, swung her leg up, and rolled onto flat ground—all without anyone’s help. Mima stood there, just watching, as though she already knew Jane could finish it on her own.

  “Thank you for saving me down there!” Jane gasped out, still catching her breath. “I wish I knew how to say that in Nukula.”

  It seemed maybe the gift of bananas had meant something. While the other runners started off again, Mima stayed put. She wasn’t leaving without them. Not so far, anyway.

  As Jane looked around, she saw that the plateau where they now stood was crisscrossed with cracks in the ground. Each one was another crevice, like a maze that cut through this mountain of rock. It was clear now that they never would have found their way through. Up and out was the only solution.

  As Vanessa, Buzz, and Carter reached the top, Jane knelt down to help them.

  “Where is he?” Carter asked, the moment he was up.

  “Who?” Vanessa asked

  “Chizo! He tried to knock us off that wall on purpose! You know he did!”

  “Chizo,” Mima repeated, and pointed to the other runners in the distance. Jane could see Chizo and his friends at the front of the pack. “Ekka-ko,” Mima added.

  Ani had said that ka was for friends, and ko was for enemies. It seemed as though Mima didn’t like Chizo any more than Carter did.

  “This is Vanessa, and this is Buzz,” Jane said slowly, pointing to each of them for Mima’s benefit.

  “Buzz, Ba-nessa, Car-tare, Jane,” Mima said quickly, and then tilted her head toward the horizon. There was no time for talking. They had to keep moving.

  When Jane took one last look into the crevice, it was empty. She thought about the runners who had taken the other fork down below. Would she see them again? Or had their own odds of succeeding at Raku Nau just gotten a little bit better?

  “This way?” Carter asked, pointing after the runners.

  “Mayamaka,” Mima said. She pointed into the distance as they set out. There, across an open valley that stretched for miles ahead, stood a high, jagged ridge. Its top edge was barely visible through a shroud of fog and mist.

  “I guess that’s where we’re going,” Vanessa said. “Cloud Ridge.”

  “Yeah,” Carter said. “Maya . . .”

  “Mayamaka,” the girl repeated without slowing down.

  Jane jogged behind, trying not to think about how far they still had to go. Looking across the valley to where the ridge loomed in the distance, it was hard to imagine finishing Raku Nau at all. Much less ahead of half the group.

  “How are we going to do this?” she blurted out. “I just don’t see how—”

  “We don’t have a choice, Jane,” Vanessa cut her off. “All we can do is keep moving and try to stay positive.”

  “We didn’t give up before,” Carter said. “And we aren’t going to now.”

  “I know,” Jane said, but the lump in her throat made it hard to talk. There was no way to feel good about this. Their only choices were stopping and continuing on.

  And when she thought about it that way, she realized there was no real choice at all.

  CHAPTER 10

  Vanessa knew Jane was right. The odds of getting to Cloud Ridge in time to win four of the sixteen seccu were somewhere around zero. But she couldn’t admit that to Carter, Buzz, and Jane.

  She thought about Nowhere Island again. Nothing had been harder than that. A hundred times out there, she’d thought there was no way they were going to make it. But looking back, she realized, she’d gotten through by taking it one thing at a time. Slowing her breath down when it spiked. Focusing on the task at hand. Using her time and energy as efficiently as she could.

  And right now, the best thing she could do was stop worrying and concentrate on memorizing as much of the landscape as possible.

  Behind them, she could see the jungle they’d just come through. Straight ahead, across the valley, was the mountain Ani had told them about, Cloud Ridge. Its top looked like a giant crown, with several thin peaks that rose up into the mist.

  It was clear they wouldn’t be staying on this high ground for long. They were going to have to climb back down at some point. Then across the valley and back up again, to the top of Cloud Ridge before they’d even have a chance of getting to the far shore, and away.

  The few bananas and roots they’d eaten weren’t going to be enough, either. There was food to worry about, and water, along with sleep, and whatever dangers this landscape was still hiding from them.

  One thing at a time, Diaz, she thought. That was all she could ever do. That, and make absolutely sure nobody got lost or left behind.

  “Does this go on all day and night?” Buzz asked as they jogged along.

  “I wish I knew,” Vanessa said. “We have to sleep sometime.”

  “Yeah, just not right now,” Carter said. Since the canyon, he’d been watching the runners ahead with that familiar squint of his. Vanessa could tell what he was thinking with one glance.

  “Carter, we have to stay focused. Don’t do anything stupid about Chizo, okay?” she said.

  “Why not?” he said. “He deserves something stupid to happen to him.”

  “Why not? Because you’re not the only one in this family!” she said. “How many times do you need me to say it?”

  “And how many times do I have to tell you, you’re not in charge!” Carter shot back.

  Mima looked over at them, shook her head, and kept on running. If she ever decided to pull away, they were going to have to pick up their pace. But right now, it was all they could do to go at a jog. The climb had left all four of them flagging.

  Vanessa took a deep breath. “I’m serious,” she said. “Getting back at Chizo isn’t going to help us get any farther. And it’s not going to impress Mima, either, by the way.”

  Carter glared at her. “Who said anything about impressing Mima?” he asked.

  It was obvious he had a crush on this girl. He’d run after her from the moment she showed up on the beach.

  “She’s probably, like, two years older than you,” Vanessa told him.

  “I bet she’s not,” Carter said.

  “So you are trying to impress her?” Vanessa asked.

  “Shut up, Vanessa,” Carter said, and surged ahead as they all moved toward the edge of the plateau.

  “I’ll take that as a yes!” Vanessa called out. But Carter didn’t even look back.

  Buzz could see the end of the plateau’s high ground coming up fast.

  All of the other runners had already stopped along the edge. They were clustered in one spot, between two gnarled evergreens that seemed to grow right out of the rock. Everyone was looking down at something as Buzz, Vanessa, Carter, Jane, and Mima caught up to the group.

  “What is it?” Buzz asked, tapping Mima on the shoulder. He knew they didn’t speak the same language, but sometimes it was easier just to say what he was thinking, whether or not Mima understood.

  When she pointed, her answer was clear enough. Halfway down the cliff, water gushed out from
one of the crevices and splashed into a perfectly round, deep green pool below. The pounding sound of the falls was a low roar from where Buzz stood. They’d been traveling uphill since getting out of the canyon, and the drop from here looked to be about fifty feet.

  “We’re going to have to look for somewhere to climb down,” Jane said.

  “Actually . . .” Buzz said. He could sense something from the way everyone was eyeing the drop-off. “I don’t think it’s going to be a climb.”

  “You mean, jump?” Carter asked. “How do we even know it’s deep enough down there?”

  Vanessa pointed at their feet. On the ground, three red lines, three white lines, and three black lines were painted onto the rock. It was like Nukula graffiti.

  “Buzz is right,” she said. “I think this is the way to go. I just wish it wasn’t.”

  Buzz took a deep breath. The idea of jumping sent a shiver right through him.

  Chizo called over then and said something that made several of the others laugh. When Buzz looked up, they were all staring right at him.

  His face went hot. Was it obvious that he was the weak link? Was his fear showing right on his face? He tried to ignore Chizo and his friends, but it was impossible. This wasn’t the first time he’d been made fun of. Usually it happened in gym, or at recess. Now, it was as if he’d traveled six thousand miles from home, just to get the same kind of treatment.

  Whatever it was Chizo had said, Mima shouted something right back. Carter lunged their way, but Vanessa grabbed him by the arm.

  “Carter—don’t!” she said. “I’m serious.”

  Before anyone could make another move, Mima called out again. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her. She backed up then, took a deep breath, and, without any further warning, reversed direction. In three fast running strides, she took a leap that sent her hurtling out over the edge.

  Buzz felt his heart jump right along with her.

  “Mima!” Jane called. All four of them looked over the side of the plateau. She fell with arms spinning and toes pointed until she hit the white water at the base of the falls and disappeared.