Stories from Room 113

Kicking hard, Karina worked to get Kiwi’s head above the water. Penny had jerked away from her the instant they hit the water. Kiwi clung to her, not kicking to help, and it took all of her strength to reach the surface. “Penny!” she shouted. “Penny!” “Here,” Penny called from behind her. As Karina joined Penny, three more splashes in close succession told her that Joe and the girls had joined her desperate attempt to survive. Kiwi gained confidence, pulled away, and floated next to her. Karina reached into her pocket and pulled out her last light-stick. She bent it until the inner chemical pack broke and then shook it with one hand. Soft, white light pushed back the darkness and softly illuminated the area. The light-stick that Karina had dropped into the water glowed beneath her. Its tiny glow indicated a deep pool of water. Joe called, “Swim this way.” Karina swam toward Joe’s voice and found that the water got shallower. She saw Heather and Jessica with Joe; Heather stood in chest-deep water. Three kicks later, Karina’s foot touched bottom. By the time she reached her friends, the water was shallow enough for everyone, except Kiwi, to stand. “There seems to be a slight current,” Karina said as she reached Joe. “The water is running back toward the pit. Do you think we should follow the current?” “I think we should head upstream,” Heather said. “If lava begins spilling in here, it will follow the path of least resistance and take the downstream course.” “That sound right to me,” Joe said, taking Kiwi from her and setting the little girl on his shoulders. “What do you think, volcano girl?” Karina admired the way Joe handled difficult situations. Almost without trying, he gave Kiwi comfort and made her feel important. A good frame of mind would go a long way toward improving the child’s condition. “Definitely upstream,” Kiwi said with great conviction. “How do you know upstream is the right way?” Penny asked. “I don’t; but I don’t want to go where the lava will flow. Let’s get moving. Hot lava will heat this water very quickly,” Kiwi said. “I don’t want to be broiled like a lobster.” “Me neither,” Jessica agreed. “I’ve got the light. I’ll lead,” Karina said. She worked her way around the group and assumed a leading position. “Penny, follow me. Joe, bring up the rear with Kiwi. Let us know if she gets too heavy.” “Yeah,” Heather said, “we can all take turns carrying the volcano lady.” Karina almost felt Kiwi beaming from all the attention. The girl began a steady chatter with Joe and Penny, spreading her knowledge about volcanoes to everyone in the group. For the first ten minutes, Karina walked through waist-deep water. Then the water level dropped to her thighs, to her knees, and finally to her ankles. At the same time the dark black lava walls narrowed. The passageway ended in a narrow chamber; water gushed from a large hole in the wall high above her. “This is a far as we go,” Karina said. Jessica stared at the gushing water. “Maybe we can climb out. I think I see a ledge off to the right of where the water is surging from the rock.” “Looks pretty high,” Penny said. Heather rubbed her hand against one wall. “Slick too—just our luck to have smooth lava when we need it rough for hand and foot holds.” Joe made several attempts to climb the steep walls. Each time he slipped and made no progress. “Sorry. It’s not too high, maybe fifteen or sixteen feet. But it’s too smooth to get started.” “What about building a human ladder?” Penny asked. “Heather can stand on Joe’s shoulder, and I can climb up.” “It’s worth a try,” Karina agreed. “Be careful and take a flashlight.” Karina guided Joe into place and steadied him while Jessica and Penny helped Heather climb onto Joe’s shoulders. Then Karina gave Penny a boost, but the weight proved too much for Joe’s injured knee, and they had to abort the attempt. After a long rest, Joe suggested he might be able to handle the weight if he lifted Jessica and Penny. He took a stance that placed his injured knee against the cave wall, and his leg didn’t give way. Jessica stood on his shoulders, and Penny climbed onto Jessica’s shoulders. “I can’t quite reach the ledge,” Penny said. “But I think I can see light. Karina, turn off your flashlight.” Karina shoved the light-stick into the back pocket of her jeans and turned off the flashlight she had used to spotlight Penny. “Can you see anything? It’s all dark down here.” “Yes. There’s light coming from somewhere,” Penny said. Her announcement thrilled the group. “It’s dim, but it’s definitely light.” For almost five minutes while Penny tried to climb onto the ledge, Joe held the combined weight, but she couldn’t make the transition. In the end, Karina and Heather helped Penny climb down. Fatigue and cold, ankle-deep water chilled everyone, so Karina passed out the last of the chocolate that Joe had saved. “Is there anything you can latch onto if we made a rope from our clothes?” Karina asked. Kiwi shivered in her arms. “Not that I could see,” Penny said. “But we could try.” “Maybe I can handle Heather’s weight long enough for Penny to climb,” Joe suggested, bending his leg to test his knee. “Do that again,” Karina said. Her stomach churned with fear. She hoped her imagination was playing tricks on her. “I think the water’s rising.” Everyone looked down, trying to judge any change in the water’s depth. Joe spoke first. “The water is higher, two or three inches higher.” “It must have just started rising,” Jessica said. “When I got down from Joe’s shoulders, the water was barely over my ankles. Now it’s at least three inches higher.” “Why is the water rising?” Penny whined. “Haven’t we got enough problems?” The distraught child sank against a smooth lava wall and cried. Karina handed Kiwi to Jessica and put her arms around the distraught preteen. She rubbed the child’s back to warm her. The rest of the group tried to determine how fast the water was rising and what might be causing the increased water level. “It’s not fair,” Penny cried. “Nothing is going right.” “We’re still alive,” Karina said. She thought about lying to Penny and telling her that everything would work out, that they’d find some solution, but she decided that Penny had a right to know the truth. “We’ve been very lucky so far. By all rights we should be dead. I won’t promise you that everything is going to turn out fine; it probably won’t. But don’t you dare quit on me. As long as we can, we are going to survive. Now stop the tears. They don’t help.” Penny took a couple of deep gulps of air and hugged Karina. “I love you.” She kissed Penny’s forehead. “I love you, too. Go keep Kiwi occupied while we try to find a plan to get us out of this place.” Over the next fifteen minutes, they devised numerous schemes—none of which had any real chance of success. During that time, the water rose above Karina’s knees. At that rate, she figured the water would be over Kiwi’s head in another hour and everyone else’s in less than two.