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The waterfall itself is not nearly as tall as it had felt while plue spray that moistens thick layers ofrocks Although there is no sign of the boat, a few of our bags are afloat and pressed up against the side of the plunge pool

"Check those out!" Ben says, pointing up

Stalactites cone down froed teeth, sunlight glazing thee Interspersed between the stalactites, vines dangle down like stringy food caught between teeth Huge towers of calcite lift off the cave floor at leaning angles, and ferns and palms rope theantuan size of the cave that bedazzles us theto be heard above the din of the waterfall "Skyscrapers twenty, thirty stories tall Whole city blocks a " Nobody responds; nobody hears me I move away from the waterfall where it’s quieter

The others follow and we gather in a large coluht bleaches our skin, loith a nuclear effervescence

"Nohat?" Epap asks All heads turn to Sissy

"We explore," she says

"Is this it?" Ben asks "Is this the Land of Milk and Honey, Fruit and Sunshine?"

"I hope not," Epap says, shaking his head "This place is the dumps I’d take the Dome over this, actually I haven’t seen any milk, honey, or fruit There’s sunshine, drips of it, anyway, but we had more back at the Dome"

"This is e’ll do," Sissy says "We break up into two groups We look for a clue, a sign, anything The Scientist " She looks around, then hikes into the depths of the cave, Ben and Jacob in tow

"All right, you two," Epap says to David and uys" We head off perpendicular to Sissy’s direction, along the bank, following the river

Hours later, there’s nothing to show for our efforts The terrain ned to sprain our ankles scattered everywhere David, Epap, and I proceed slowly, not wanting to , but we spend most of the tiround, negotiating around stones and slipperytoe hope is the cave’s exit, after two hours, there’s still literally no light at the end of the tunnel If there even is an end The river plunges down into a succession of large bowls at three different tiers, the descent steep and treacherous Several tiet around huge boulders We slip often onat towers cloaked with flowstone and at tall rocks with scalloped surfaces Eventually, our path is completely iae-skinned, ten stories high The river snakes through a relatively narrow opening and into another tiered series of waterfalls We head back, bodies hunched over with fatigue, starvation, and discourageht near the waterfall e return Judging from their drooped shoulders and dour faces, they haven’t fared much better They hand us our share of lunch: a few berries they’d found that we scarf up eagerly

"So much for the Land of Milk and Honey, Fruit and Sunshine," Epap says "No food, no milk, no honey Not even any wood to burn"

"We should head outside," Jacob says "Follow the river out"

"We just did that," I reply "Tried to, anyway It’s farther and more difficult than you think"

"It’s our onlyat the waterfall "We can’t backtrack--we’d have to climb up the sides of this waterfall, and they’re way too steep and slippery But we can’t just stay here, either We need food We should leave now"

"No" Sissy says this without looking at us "We stay here"

"Sissy--" Jacob begins to say

"Look! I’"

Jacob cla into his eyes "I onlywith you, with any of you! There’re only two things we need to do, okay? Find son left by the Scientist, and keep Gene alive Is that sih for you to understand? This is our life distilled down to its rawest eles, people"

We sit stunned by her outburst She walks away, her chest heaving, disappearing behind a large boulder

I follow her She’s staring into the waterfall, arently as I can I step through a short narrow pathway between two boulders

She doesn’t reply, only bites her lower lip, just half of it; the other half loops out in a fat curl Her eyelids shut halfway, and a tear spills out that trails down over her cheekbone She doesn’t turn away as I thought she ht Her hand rises--to wipe the tear away, I think--but stops in front of her lips She half-cups herNow she turns away frootten to her The burden of all their lives carried squarely on her shoulders alone

I place ht, but leans intoperfectly into the cup of my hand Her flesh is soft, but there is a fierceness in it, too, in the thin coat of hardshoulder bone She turns and looks at me with a fierce intensity It is the kind of attention ht me to always avoid Eye contact et out of it, fade out of it, move away

But I cannot look away I never realized how aquiline and beautiful her eyes are