Page 21 (2/2)

Duck noticed the sound of his own sobbing, and was dis He tried to stop It wasn’t easy He wanted to cry He wanted to cry for his rand brother and the whole, whole, whole world that was gone and had abandoned hirave

“Help! Help!” he cried, and again there was no answer

Before hi to his left The dark tunnel extending to his right He felt a slight, almost imperceptible whisper of breeze on his face It seemed to come from his left

Toward air Not away

Carefully, Duck made his way down the tunnel, hands outstretched like a blind person, down the tunnel

It was so dark, he could not see his hand in front of his face No light None

He soon found that it was easier if he kept one hand on the wall It was rock, pitted and rough, but with buround below him was uneven but not wildly so

“Cave has to lead somewhere,” Duck told hi It was real It was familiar

“I wish it was a tunnel People don’t build a tunnel for no reason” Then, after a while, “At least a tunnel has to go somewhere”

He tried tonorth, south, east, west? Well, hopefully not too far west, because that would lead him to the ocean

He walked and occasionally started crying and walked so he’d been down there He had no idea what tiht be But he soon realized that the place where he’d fallen in was seeht back there, but at least there had been some And here there was none

“I don’t want to die down here,” he said He was instantly sorry that he had voiced that thought Saying it made it real

At thatthat shouldn’t have been there, banged it hard

Duck cursed angrily and put his hand to his forehead, feeling for blood, and realized his feet were sinking into the ground “No!” he yelped

The sinking stopped He’d gone up to his knees But then he had stopped He had stopped sinking Carefully, cautiously, he pulled his legs up out of the hard-packed dirt