Last Resort Page 8

  She crawled forward again, drawing closer to the water, feeling a fine spray as drops hit the pool. It sounded like a whirlpool, and the spray felt good against her skin. She inched closer as the clay turned to slick mud, and the ground grew steeper. She trapped a handful of water and drew it to her face. The icy coldness chased away some of the nausea. She scooped another handful and splashed it on her neck, letting it run down her arms and chest.

  The next handful she carefully sprinkled over her head, near the wound, and the next she put on the wound.

  That was a mistake. It stung. Badly. A cry sprang from her throat. Sickness gripped her stomach. She clenched her eyes against the darkness lit with flickering bits of flame.

  She lost her balance and slid forward. As the darkness whirled around her, she grasped at the soft mud beneath her. Her hands slipped forward and plunged into the water. With a scream that echoed against all the walls of the cavern, she slid, headfirst, into the freezing whirlpool.

  When the trail widened again, Nathan drew abreast of Noelle and watched her. Various expressions flitted across her face in a fascinating jumble—anticipation to fear to anger—as she peered into the depths and shadows of the lush green overgrowth of the forest that surrounded the mouth of Bobcat Cave.

  Suddenly, with no warning, her mouth flew open and she gasped. Her eyes widened in shock.

  “You’re doing it again.” Nathan reached out and grasped her shoulder.

  She didn’t respond to his touch.

  “Noelle?”

  Into the silence, somebody screamed—a young girl’s cry, barely audible.

  Noelle’s eyes met Nathan’s in horror. The cry seemed to come from the hillside to their left.

  Another scream pierced the air.

  “Carissa!” Noelle cried. She grabbed Nathan’s arm. “The cave. Come on!”

  Chapter Nine

  Nathan rushed past Noelle and plunged through a stand of saplings, tripping through undergrowth, scratching his face and clothes on blackberry brambles that seemed positioned to slow them down.

  They reached the cave mouth to find it still boarded up. In frustration, Noelle kicked the weathered gray board at the bottom. All of the sturdy two-by-fours had been nailed to a wooden frame that was fastened with concrete nails into a buttress that had been poured around the mouth of the cave to seal it shut. Noelle’s grandfather had hired a contractor from Branson to affix the seal two days after the cavern collapse that had taken his daughter-in-law’s life and nearly killed Noelle.

  Noelle reached for the top board, wiggled the tips of her fingers into the crack between board and concrete, and pulled at it with an angry grunt. “It won’t budge. Nathan, help me!”

  “Carissa obviously didn’t come this way,” Nathan said.

  “She’s in the cave, Nathan. I know it, okay? I can feel it, almost as if I’m experiencing snatches of her thoughts and sensations.” Again, Noelle yanked on the top board.

  Nathan caught her gently by the shoulders. “Forget it, superhero. If you can’t get inside, it’s a sure bet Carissa didn’t, at least not this way. Even though she’s in a cave somewhere, she got in some other way, and maybe it isn’t Bobcat.”

  Noelle whirled to face him, her eyes full of alarm. “The sinkhole. Nathan, what if she’s fallen into the sinkhole?”

  The sinkhole she referred to was an opening at the top of one of the large chambers in Bobcat Cave, where the ground had collapsed decades ago. Nathan had seen it several times when they were in the cave, but he didn’t know how to find it from the surface.

  “I don’t know how to reach it from out here. You took Cecil on those forays, remember?”

  Noelle yanked her backpack from her shoulders and unzipped the bottom pocket. She pulled out two flashlights and a coil of thick yellow nylon cord. She handed one flashlight to Nathan. “Conserve the battery power, because these are all I brought.”

  He shoved the flashlight into his pocket.

  “The sinkhole isn’t far from the waterfall that feeds into Willow Creek on the other side of this hill,” she said, shoving the backpack at him. “Cecil and I never told our parents about it because we didn’t want them to seal it up, too. Your turn to carry.”

  He took the backpack from her and slung it over his shoulders as he followed her, glad she was finally allowing him to help. Sometimes she carried her independence too far.

  She led the way around the right side of the sealed cave mouth, then plunged through another thicket that grabbed at their clothing and impeded their progress up the steep hillside.

  The Hideaway peninsula—thousands of acres of land encompassed on three sides by Table Rock Lake—held a multitude of caves within its boundaries, some of which had filled with water when the lake had been built. One section of those subterranean passageways near downtown Hideaway had gone undetected for many years until this past summer, when the heavy weight of a condominium project had collapsed several acres of land after a mild earthquake hit just over the state border in Arkansas. The collapse had endangered lives and destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of resort investments. Bobcat Cave was part of that same system, but since it was on private land, it hadn’t been explored completely.

  By the time Nathan and Noelle reached the top of the ridge that overlooked Willow Creek, with Cooper farmland beyond, they were both panting from the exertion. Nathan wished they’d left the backpack at the cave mouth. He was glad Noelle had given it to him, however, when they slid down loose shale and his feet slipped from beneath him. The heavy pack cushioned his fall.

  Droplets of rain splashed their faces as they descended the ridge, and by the time they arrived at the gaping mouth of the sinkhole, halfway down, the water had drenched them. Thunder echoed over the hollow, and lightning flashed in the distance. Nathan shielded his eyes and gazed at the sky. If the weather forecast he’d heard on the way to Springfield was correct, they could be stranded in this hollow on the wrong side of Willow Creek, especially since the low-water bridge was already underwater.

  “Carissa?” Noelle shouted into the hole. “Honey, can you hear me? Are you in there?”

  A scream, high-pitched and frantic, answered.

  Noelle tied the rope to a tree nearby and turned to stare at the hole with obvious trepidation.

  “I’ll go first,” Nathan said.

  She exhaled with relief. “Heights still get to me.”

  “You’ll be okay. I’ll be there to catch you.” Nathan lowered himself through the eight-foot-wide entrance, scrambling to remain balanced as his toeholds gave way, and mud and loose rock spilled from the rim of the sinkhole. He reached the cave floor at least fifteen feet below the opening, and then anchored the rope for Noelle.

  “It’s okay,” he said gently. “You can come down.”

  She came, and her movements on the rope brought a fresh cascade of loose dirt and rocks down on his head and shoulders.

  Noelle reached him, stumbled against him. When he caught her to steady her, he could feel her trembling.

  “Carissa?” she called, pivoting to shout through the darkness as she brushed dirt from her head and clothing. “It’s Noelle and Nathan. Where are you?”

  No answer.

  Nathan cupped his hands around his mouth. “Carissa!” His loud voice ricocheted back at them from the unyielding boulders. “We’re coming for you. Help us! Talk to us!”

  There was the sound of splashing water, then, “Help me! Help me, it’s cold, and I’m slipping back!”

  “Nathan, the whirlpool!” Noelle switched on her flashlight and led the way through an old breakdown cavern, following a precipitous pathway between fallen rocks. She hesitated and looked back at Nathan, checking to make sure he was behind her.

  Even in the dimly lit shadows of her flashlight glow, he could see the mounting distress in her eyes. “It’s okay, Noelle, I’m here.” This was the cave where her mother had died.

  Noelle raced up a steep, rocky incline to their left. At the t
op she ducked to avoid the treacherous ceiling of broken soda straw formations. She obviously knew this cave much better than he did, but that didn’t surprise him. Even after their parents had forbidden them to come to Bobcat Cave without adult supervision, Noelle had always been a rebel. Though in their childhood she’d lured him into these mysterious depths a couple of times after the ban, he’d usually obeyed his parents. Time also had a way of softening the edges of memory, and he had forgotten the size of this place.

  The stalactites seemed to engulf them, like the gnashing teeth of the monsters that had once inhabited Nathan’s childhood dreams about this place after Noelle’s mother’s death.

  “Carissa, keep talking!” he shouted.

  “I…can’t hold on.” Carissa’s panicky voice echoed through the chamber, followed by the sound of a splash and another cry. “The water’s pulling me!”

  Nathan and Noelle reached a sharp drop on the limestone path. Noelle’s feet slid out from under her, and she scrambled on her backside down the embankment of loose rock. Nathan kept his footing and beat her to the bottom. With the bright glow from her flashlight, he raced ahead, leaped up a shallow limestone ledge and darted around the curve of a tunnel.

  “Carissa?” The water dripped loudly into a wide, deep whirlpool. Twenty-nine years ago, this had been the only pool Nathan and Noelle had known about in Bobcat Cave.

  Carissa didn’t answer.

  Nathan pulled his own light from his pocket just as Noelle reached his side, and together they scanned the black pool with its ominous ripples, evidence of the current within.

  Noelle aimed her beam toward a section of mud that had collapsed into the pool. There was a clear handprint. Carissa’s handprint?

  Nathan kicked off his shoes. “Hold the light, I’m going in.”

  Noelle grabbed his arm. “It’s a whirlpool, Nathan. It could suck you under.”

  “Then it might already be sucking Carissa under.” He unhooked Noelle’s backpack and shrugged it from his shoulders as he kicked off his shoes.

  He jumped into the pool, catching his breath at the icy chill of the water. His feet touched the rocky bottom. The water reached his chest, and he could feel with his foot that the ledge dropped away. The glow of Noelle’s light reflected off the surface of the water, making it difficult to see. There was no sign of Carissa.

  “She’s below me,” Noelle said. “Check beneath this ledge, Nathan.”

  He didn’t question her.

  Fighting the numbness brought on by the icy water, he dove into the murky darkness beneath the cave floor, where the light did not penetrate. Sharp, jutting ledges of rock bruised his hands as he groped through the blackness, exploring every niche along the whirlpool’s bed for Carissa. His lungs begged for air. Reluctantly, he returned to the surface, gasping for breath.

  “She’s down there, Nathan. I know she is,” Noelle said. “Can’t you find her?”

  “I will.” He dove again, allowing the current of the whirlpool to pull him deeper into the icy water, stroke by stroke, as if he were taking a summer swim in Table Rock Lake. This swim, however, sucked all sensation from his limbs, from his whole body. He struggled to identify what passed beneath his chilled and stiffened hands as he groped along the crevices of rock. He entered the blackness beneath a rocky ledge, but amazingly, as he swam farther, the darkness lifted slightly. The farther he allowed the current to carry him, the lighter it became.

  And then he saw her. She was caught beneath a ledge, where the current must have dragged her, her silhouette in sharp relief against the glow of daylight from an opening that spilled the contents of the pool from its lip like a giant teacup. Carissa wasn’t moving.

  He allowed that same current to carry him to her, fighting his ever-increasing lethargy as he placed his arms around her waist. Battling the pull of the current, he pushed the girl’s limp body back toward the glow of Noelle’s flashlight, thrusting his feet against outcroppings of rock to gain advantage against the flow. Just as his lungs were about to implode, he thrust Carissa up to the surface, into Noelle’s outstretched arms, and came up after her, bursting out of the water with desperate gasps as water poured from his ears.

  Noelle heaved Carissa onto her stomach, allowing the water to drain out of her mouth and nose. Nathan pulled himself onto the ledge with difficulty, his limbs almost too chilled to move. He gulped in air, filling his lungs, as he listened for some sound that would tell him Carissa was alive.

  “Come on, honey, breathe!” Noelle cried. “Carissa, come on! Nathan, I’m starting CPR.” She pulled Carissa on to her back and drew her jaw forward.

  He pulled himself toward them and positioned himself over Carissa’s chest, but before he could touch her, he heard the sweet sound of her choking, gasping breath.

  “Thank you, Lord,” he murmured as he knelt over the child.

  Noelle slumped against him in relief.

  “It’s okay, Carissa,” he said. “You’re safe now. We’re going back home.”

  He felt the young body stiffen. “No. No, I’m not safe there.” Carissa coughed harshly, choking and gasping once more. “Don’t take me there!”

  Noelle gasped at her cousin’s words, and at the meaning she accepted with frightening certainty. Carissa was afraid of someone close. “It’s okay, Cis. I know. I won’t let them get to you.”

  Carissa’s eyes widened, her face pinched and white. She shivered from the chill of the water. “But you d-don’t understand, it’s s-someone—”

  “It’s someone you know.”

  Carissa blinked up at her. “How do you know that?”

  “I’m not sure. Do you have any idea who it is?”

  The girl shook her head. “I can’t remember everything that happened, but I know—”

  “It’s okay.” Noelle looked at Nathan and felt a deep sense of dread. “We’re not going to let anyone hurt you.”

  Had someone in the family really attacked Carissa? It couldn’t be! No, it was someone else Carissa knew. Or maybe she just thought she knew her adversary, some subtle familiarity of voice or fragrance or manner of speaking that might have made her think…

  Noelle didn’t try to analyze the particular fear she’d seen Carissa experience at the thought of home. All of her attention was focused on Carissa, while Nathan dug through the backpack and pulled out a thick quilted jacket. “Honey, what happened?” she asked.

  “Someone f-followed me,” Carissa said, teeth chattering. “It was d-dark, and I dropped my flashlight. When I ran back to the sawmill, whoever it was chased me, and I fell. My head hurts, and there’s a lump back there.”

  “What happened then?” Nathan wrapped the jacket around Carissa and pulled her close in an effort to instill some warmth into her.

  “I don’t know. I woke up in this cave.”

  Noelle aimed her flashlight on the back of Carissa’s head. “Do you think the bump on your head knocked you out?”

  “I guess it did.”

  “Do you remember if it happened when you fell, or did your pursuer strike you?” Nathan asked.

  “I think I fell, but I’m not sure.”

  Carissa’s dark, wet curls covered any wound. Noelle probed gently, and Carissa tensed.

  “It still hurts, doesn’t it?”

  Carissa nodded. “I’ve got a headache.”

  “Did you get any sense about who it was that chased you?” Nathan asked.

  “One of the family?” Noelle asked, and felt Nathan’s startled gaze on her.

  “Maybe,” Carissa said, her voice softening with surprise as she looked up at Noelle. “There was something familiar…but I can’t remember what it was.” She shivered again as she grasped Noelle’s arm. “Whoever it was will try again. They were looking for me here, and I hid. There were…whispers.”

  “Whispers,” Noelle repeated. “More than one person?”

  Carissa frowned. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

  “It’s okay,” Nathan released her and put o
n his shoes while Noelle ran a quick neurological test on Carissa.

  Considering what the child had been through, she was doing well. Though she’d experienced a loss of consciousness earlier, she was now alert and oriented times three.

  Nathan got to his feet and reached down for Carissa. “Come on, I’ll carry you and let Noelle get her backpack. I have a feeling you’re lighter than the pack.”

  “But where will we go?” Carissa asked.

  He lifted her into his arms. “We need to get you to the clinic, first of all.”

  “Since both doctors and Jill were at your house when we came through,” Noelle said, “we shouldn’t have any trouble getting you examined. Then we’ll take you on to a hospital if necessary.”

  “If the creek doesn’t rise,” Nathan drawled. “The CT truck is in town today, and if we can get there before it leaves, there’s a chance we won’t have to take you on to the hospital.”

  “CT?” Carissa asked.

  “It’s a huge machine that’s used to take pictures of your brain and make sure it isn’t wriggling out your ears,” Noelle said.

  Carissa sighed and gave Noelle a long-suffering look over Nathan’s shoulder. “You don’t have to talk to me like a kid anymore, Noelle. I know what a CAT scan is, I just wondered if I’d have to have one now, since I’m doing better.”

  “We don’t want to take any chances,” Nathan said.

  They scrambled up the steep incline as thunder rumbled aboveground.

  “Did you bring your cell phone in that backpack of yours?” Nathan asked Noelle.

  “Yes, but it won’t work down here.” She pulled it out to prove it. “See? Nothing. The sinkhole’s just ahead. All we need to do is—” She stopped and stared upward, where they had left the rope dangling from above. The rope was gone.

  “Nathan.”

  “I can see.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’ll give you one guess.”

  Carissa shivered again, and from her peripheral vision, Noelle saw Nathan lay his hand against the side of the child’s face.

  “We need to bundle her up,” Nathan said. “Her skin’s still icy.”