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"I’ to need to--"

"Kill it!"

"I’ it off his shoulders with a grunt "I can get it off Just hang on I need so"

He quickly unstraps the bear canister fro out some of the contents until he spots a tiny plastic bottle of blue liquid It isn’t until he’s got the cap unscrewed that I recognize the bottle’s contents Mouthwash

Angling the bottle against , Lennon pours a small amount in the side of the snake’s mouth The sharp scent ofto freshen its breath? What the hell is going on?

He pours another few drops out And suddenly, I feel the snake’s mouth release me Its black-and-white stripes shift, and it stiffly uncoils from around my ankle as Lennon holds it behind its head and forcibly helps to unwind it

I gasp and start breathing faster A lot faster It sounds like I’ive birth, but I don’t even care I’m just so relieved The second Lennon lifts it away from me, a terrible animal-like sound coot it"

I s downto pass out

"You’re not," Lennon says

Did I say that aloud?

"You’re just hyperventilating," he says "Sit down and slow your breathing I need to take this somewhere and put it down, or I can’t help you"

Take it far, far away Better yet, take ain

I close my eyes for a s feel like they’re about to burst Then, after a few unsteady inhalations, I get myself under control

"Okay?" he says

I nod

"What happened to your headlamp?" he asks

"I don’t know It went out"

"Try to turn it off and back on again," he says

My fingers fumble for the switch "It doesn’t work," I tell him

"It’s fine You have a backup"

"It’s in my pack," I say But I really don’t care about that I just want the snake he’s holding to stop et back" He adjusts his arone just a second Right where that first tunnel veers off to the left See it?"

I do But as ht, I really don’t want Lennon to leave again A fresh wave of panic rushes over me as darkness envelops my section of the tunnel I can’t think about it Or wonder if that snake was a maoing to swarm in the dark So I just slowly slide down the wall until ainst ht of his headlaht disappears

Total darkness

Thoughts stutter insideup in a dark house and not knohere I was For several seconds, I was panicked, trying to figure out where the door was and how I’d gotten there But orse was the moment I did remember My birth mother had died two days before, and my father had shipped ers And I didn’t knohen et me, or if he ever would, and in that moment, I’d never felt more alone