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"We’ll be fine," he assures me "The book says the tricky part is that the tunnels are all connected It’s one big maze There are supposed to be a pair of ropes that lead up to a higher level of tunnels, and that’s e’re looking for"

"We’re cliain

"No"

"Oh, thank God," I mumble

"The ropes are just our visual landmark There are several exits, and the one we need to find is near the ropes It will take us out to the northern side, where there’s a big trail that leads to that valley I told you about" He slips on his hoodie "Youto be chilly inside And it should take us about an hour to h Then there’s an easy path down into the valley on the other side, where we can make camp by a creek and have dinner"

An hour I can do that Better than cli up that rocky path behind us And at least it’s out of the sun I should have brought a hat like ested I think the part in my hair is sunburned Pretty sure ot a vitaan’s headlamp as we step into the , round room Scattered rocks lay in heaps, as well as a couple of empty water bottles and what looks to be a pile of toilet paper So much for "leave no trace"

A fat tunnel at the back of the room leads farther into the ht wanes at our backs, and our headlamps become our new sun It’s much chillier here, and the air sht about rock having a strong scent It’s not an unpleasant one, though, and the cool air feels good in s Clean Uncoh for the two of us to walk side by side, and the ceiling is several feet over our heads Veins of color thread through the rock walls--h the floor is rock, it’s better than walking outside

"This isn’t so bad," I say, letting my headlamp bounce around the walls

"I told you"

We soon come to another tunnel Two, actually: one to our left, one to our right They’re both about the same width as the one in which alk

"What now?" I ask

"You don’t need to whisper, Zorie"

"Everything echoes in here"

"Echo, echo, echo," Lennon says in his deep voice, cupping his hand around his mouth "If an echo bounces off the walls of a deserted cave in the middle of the woods, does anyone hear it?"

"Are you finished?"

"For now" Lennon unhooks his black compass from the belt loop of his jeans and flips it open "We need to head south See you about"

"This isn’t going to be like the hedge , is it?" I ask

"God, I hope so I love that movie," Lennon says "Did you know that in the book, there’s an army of topiary animals that come to life?"

"Please don’t talk about that while we’re in the middle of a dark cavern in the middle of the wilderness where no one can cohost stories, for the love of Pete Did your survivalist teacher really tell you that story? Wait Never host stories for a living," he says "That was fun Until the bear Well, that was fun too Until the fight" The bright beaht shines in ht "Can you not do that?"

He turns his head away to beaht in front of us "Sorry"

"I’," I tell hih, for the record, you have terrible taste in guys," Lennon says, shining his light back to the co his compass hand with iven And absolved for all your sins So let’s focus and get through here, because I’ain "Okay, so as I was saying, all of these tunnels eventually lead into a huge cavern rooone too far west So I think we can just choose a tunnel and try to walk in a northern direction"

"We go to the right, then?" I say

"Wrong north Otherwise known as south Take a left"