Desperate Rescue - Janet Feldman Series

It was bad enough to find out that Greg was behind all of this, but then to sneeze! Sleeping people don’t sneeze, do they? Well, even if they did, the point is she is ahead of Greg and his friend, not behind them. If they heard the sneeze, they’d be coming to see who it was.

  Janet wasn’t sure how far away they were, but she was determined to get to the cabin before they could get to her! She bolted from the room, with flashlight in hand; staying crouched down as much as possible to avoid smacking her head on something. Even so, she kept bumping into the passage walls and scraped up the back of her hand a couple of times, wincing at the pain. She could hear hurried footsteps behind her but didn’t slow down.

  “I’m sure I heard something,” the other voice was saying.

  “Yeah, but who?” Greg wondered. Their voices carried in the passageway.

  Janet became aware that their footsteps became muffled for a moment. She decided they had checked the room she had been in moments before, which must have been the case because their footsteps resumed more loudly within a moment or two.

  “Janet?” she heard Greg call out.

  “We don’t know it’s her,” the other voice said, and their running steps stopped. Janet became aware of the silence and instinctively stopped as well.

  “Let’s go check the other room first,” the other voice suggested. Greg agreed, and they could be heard retracing their steps in the other direction.

  Janet felt such a relief for the moment that she was actually able to calm down and start breathing more easily. Now, she could continue to the small cabin and get out before they realized she was gone…at least she hoped so. As she remembered, it didn’t seem to take all that long to reach the first room the day Greg first brought her here. She headed on up the passageway using her flashlight, taking it slower, but not too slow. A few steps farther and she was faced with another choice.

  A second passageway led off from this one. She didn’t remember seeing it before, but then she was so distracted by everything that it would have been easy to miss, she surmised. Using her tried-and-true investigative technique, Janet bent down to examine the ground for footsteps or other clues. One definitely seemed to show signs of more frequent usage than the other, plus she could feel a stronger draft in the one. Standing up, she chose that tunnel and continued at a quickened pace. Where was that colorful cavern she had seen? she wondered. Still moving quickly, the passage made a sharp turn, and Janet ran smack into the wall, letting out a moan that seemed to echo throughout the cave. At the same time, she dropped her flashlight, and it went out.

  “No,” Janet cried out softly. Kneeling down, she groped around trying to find it without much luck. And worse, she could hear voices again back in the cave. Panic-stricken, she got up and began making her way along the tunnel wall. The going was slow, but she had no other choice. It seemed to go on forever. The darkness was so intense that her eyes hurt from straining to see even one little speck of light somewhere. She had totally lost her bearings. For all she knew, she could actually be going the wrong way.

  “This is insane,” she heard herself saying and began to cry. “Somebody help me.” Tears began running down her face. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” It was almost a desperate whimper.

  With both hands out in front of her, she felt and groped her way along, listening for the voices behind and hoping for something helpful ahead. She had just gone a few steps farther when in the darkness, she ran straight into someone. Immediately, two strong hands grabbed her and held her tight. Janet let out an ear-piercing scream that penetrated the entire mountain; then she collapsed.

  Chapter 16