A World Below Read online

  “Deal. Ah, we’re here.”

  She pulled into the school parking lot, where a yellow school bus was already parked and waiting. Mr. Baker was standing at the open door, looking absolutely and expectedly ridiculous in an explorer’s cap and matching leather satchel over one shoulder, along with some beige cargo pants hiked way up with suspenders and knee-high black rubber boots. He looked he was setting out to look for King Kong in the new world. Eric sighed deeply.

  “So that’s Mr. Baker,” his mom said. “He looks fun.”

  “That’s one word for him,” Eric said.

  Soon Eric was sitting on the bus, curled up against the window watching one student after another get dropped off. They glanced at him as they got on and kept walking, finding seats near the back, which was apparently cool despite Eric’s longstanding belief that convenience was cooler. Tom was the last one to arrive—his dad looking like a retired quarterback—and when he sat down, Eric’s mom and Mr. Baker climbed onboard.

  Eric’s mom plopped down next to Eric, and he thought he heard snickers behind him.

  This is going to be lots of fun, Eric thought miserably.

  Mr. Baker stood at the front of the bus and saluted. “Greetings, explorers of the deep!”

  A couple of people replied with, “Morning.” More looked like they were still asleep.

  “I bet you have noticed by now that there is no bus driver . . . surprise! I got my license.” He held the card up, grinning. “This is going to be great. Hopefully, you have all packed according to my instructions. Just a snack, of course. We will be stopping at a fast food place on the way home. I hope you brought lots of water. Now, attendance!”

  He began scrolling down the list, receiving half-hearted responses and sighs.

  “Eric Johnson?”

  “He’s here!” his mother volunteered.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Johnson,” Mr. Baker said, smiling and writing the name down.

  “Just a Ms. now,” she replied, and there were more snickers.

  Eric sank lower into his seat as the attendance continued.

  “Silvia Rodrigues?” he called.

  “Here,” someone groaned at the back.

  Eric’s mom went to turn around, and he quickly grabbed her arm. “Remember . . .”

  “Right,” she said, winking. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  Eric tried to find a way to slink down even lower, but his legs were pinned. She was never going to make it through an entire day without blowing his cover.

  When he was finished, Mr. Baker put the sheet down, clapped his hands, and climbed into the driver’s seat. “All aboard! We are off to one of the world’s natural wonders. Just three hours to go! It will fly by. I have some songs, of course, but perhaps we can start with a little summary of what we want to see! Who wants to go first?”

  Silence.

  “I’ll start,” he said, unabashed. “I have heard wonderful things about the Mystery—”

  “Wake me when we get there,” Eric muttered. “Or better yet, after the trip is over.”

  The bus rumbled out of the parking lot, first jerking to a start and then jumping right over the curb onto the street. Eric’s head smacked into the window with a pronounced thud.

  “Ha!” Mr. Baker shouted. “My apologies, class. Never fear, though! One little bump, but I am sure the rest of this trip will be smooth sailing! Carlsbad Caverns, here we come! Mush!”

  Eric rubbed his head, scowling.

  Two Hours Before

  * * *

  SILVIA STEPPED OFF THE BUS and was greeted by a blast of dry desert wind. It seemed to be carting half the sand in the area with it, and she groaned as she turned away and tried to cover her eyes.

  Silvia was already miserable.

  They’d hit at least ten curbs on the three-hour bus ride. Every time, Mr. Baker shouted, “Last one!” and then laughed uproariously like a maniacal pirate captain. To make matters worse, her best friend, Ashley, had decided to talk the entire way, mostly about boys, so Silvia hadn’t gotten even a minute of sleep. She was exhausted.

  She didn’t sleep much as it was, even on a normal night, so waking up at four-thirty was definitely not helping. She could feel the fatigue sitting in her bones and at the fringes of her mind, like little bursts of static electricity that flared without warning. Silvia was always more vulnerable when she was tired. She would have to stay focused and calm until she got home.

  As the rest of the class filed out of the bus, Mr. Baker hurried to the front, looking ridiculous with his cap and man purse. It had been a month now since he first announced the trip, and he had been talking about it every day since like it was the greatest thing to ever happen to any of them. They had covered the entire geological make-up of the caverns, the subterranean flora and fauna that lived there, and the map of the known sections about a hundred times. Silvia had even had to draw her own version of the map, with labels and dates of discovery. Mr. Baker said he was going to save the history of who had discovered the caves for their visit . . . thrilling. Silvia was already sick of the caverns.

  Two weeks ago, Mr. Baker sent every student home with a list that had been stained a blotchy yellow with tea, like they were early treasure hunters.

  We are soon embarking on a trip into Carlsbad Caverns . . . the doorway to the center of the Earth! Who knows what we will find down there in the darkness? At the very least, one of the most fascinating geological spots in the entire state. Maybe the country.

  Wow!

  Now, to prepare for this adventure, you will need to bring the following:

  Two bottles of water. We will be doing lots of walking!

  Breakfast for the bus and a light snack! We will have lunch there and stop for fast food on the way home.

  A flashlight! A true explorer always brings a flashlight.

  Comfortable shoes for walking!

  An intrepid spirit and a thirst to explore the unknown and wonderful!

  If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. It’s going to be AWESOME.

  Even her mom had laughed at the note. But Silvia had brought what he said, other than the intrepid spirit maybe. Her dad had been as excited about the trip as Mr. Baker, though, and had even added a Swiss Army knife to her backpack. When she asked what exactly she was supposed to do with a Swiss Army knife in the caves, he had replied, “You never know! That’s why they have so many tools on there, Silvia. Better safe than sorry.” She had just groaned and walked away.

  To be fair, she was interested in the science of the place. Silvia was particularly fascinated with biology, and it would be cool if she could find some troglodytic creatures down there that she could examine. The problem was that she didn’t love the idea of walking around with a thousand feet of solid rock over her head. She wasn’t technically claustrophobic . . . but close.

  “Welcome!” Mr. Baker said happily. “Not a bad drive at all, right?”

  There was no comment from the group. Someone grumbled. He didn’t seem to notice.

  “Now, we are all prepaid and signed up, so we can go right in. They offered us a guide, but naturally I think I can handle that. I have read three books on the caverns in the last month.”

  “You need a girlfriend, Mr. Baker,” Tom remarked.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Piddle posh,” he said. “Time spent reading is never wasted.”

  He turned and gestured to the visitor center—a squat, sandstone building where a few people were snapping pictures and posing. There were two entrances to Carlsbad Caverns: the natural entrance—a broad, shadowy opening that was surrounded by a manmade amphitheater and connected to the Bat Cave—and the elevator shaft that plunged directly downward from the visitor center. Mr. Baker had loudly and endlessly debated, but decided the elevator shaft was a better bet for their limited time, as it would take them right to the center of the caves. From there they were going to explore the Big Room and then make their way down to the Queen’s Chamber. They had five hours to
make it through.

  Silvia saw that Jordan had brought an old fold-out map of the caverns and was looking at it eagerly.

  “We are off to explore a world long forgotten by the sun,” Mr. Baker began. “We will see wonders of geology that you will never forget, dating back millions of years into the deep, dark past, and if we’re lucky, some underground creatures as well. Remember what I said: At last count, there are some four hundred thousand bats living in the caverns. Can you even imagine that many bats?”

  Ashley groaned. “This just keeps getting better.”

  “I agree,” Mr. Baker said cheerfully. “Follow me!”

  He turned and hurried off, and Silvia exchanged a resigned look with Ashley. Ashley had been her best friend since kindergarten, and they were rarely apart for long. She looked about as different from Silvia as possible—curly blond hair, tons of freckles, and a big, crooked grin—and their personalities were just as opposite. Ashley was bubbly, outgoing, and loved to gossip, whereas Silvia was a bit more withdrawn and quiet. There were some good reasons for that, of course, but she didn’t share those with anyone but her parents. Mostly just her mom, actually.

  Ashley also liked to pretend she was dumb, even though she worked hard and aced every test. This was a source of constant frustration for Silvia, who told her she should be proud of her grades, but Ashley said she didn’t want to be labeled a nerd. Her older sister, Tabitha, was very popular and very vain, and Ashley idolized her.

  “This is going to be a long day,” Ashley muttered, looking around the desert. A few cacti stared back, sticking out among the sun-weathered boulders. They were just about the only break from the endless sand and stone. “Maybe there will be some cute boys down there.”

  “In a cave?” Silvia said, rolling her eyes.

  “You never know.”

  “You have issues,” Silvia said, and Ashley just laughed.

  They followed the rest of the class into the visitor center. Eric and his mom were right behind them, Eric’s eyes locked firmly on his shuffling feet. Silvia had never seen anyone more reclusive in her entire life. He never seemed interested in talking to anybody. She knew he was brilliant—she had snuck a few peeks at his test grades—but she always wondered why he seemed so reluctant to make friends or participate in the class. Sometimes he looked just plain miserable.

  He looked even more forlorn today, probably because his mom was with him. She had sat down right next to Eric on the bus, eliciting some laughs from Derek and Leonard, and a none-too-quiet quip of “mama’s boy” that Eric must have heard. They were both jerks, really.

  “Derek looks cute today, don’t you think?” Ashley said, eyeing the boys in front of them.

  Tom, Derek, and Leonard were laughing among themselves, walking just ahead. All three were wearing beige shorts, sneakers, and different colored golf shirts: red, blue, and yellow. Even their haircuts were similar: short and gelled to look like it was naturally spiky.

  “He looks the same as yesterday. And every other day. They must call each other to plan their outfits ahead, honestly.”

  “He has a new shirt today. I haven’t seen him in yellow.”

  Silvia sighed. “Why don’t you just tell him you like him?”

  Ashley looked at her, horrified. “Because he would laugh at me.”

  “Who says?”

  “I do. Don’t mention it again or I’ll throw you down a hole.”

  “You’ll have plenty of options,” Silvia muttered.

  Mr. Baker ushered the students into the elevator, saluting as they passed as if they were going into battle. She saw Jordan stop and snap a picture of the elevator doors on his cell phone—he seemed excited for the caves, at least. He was a big, burly kid with a mop of bright red hair and a lot of freckles. He usually just hung out with his best friend, Greg, a mousy kid with a mushroom cut and glasses who was a big-time history buff. Jordan checked his picture and then scurried into the elevator. Silvia looked out the nearest window one last time, suddenly hesitant to get into the elevator. The desert sky was clear, apart from a few lazy clouds drifting past overhead like cotton balls. It was a beautiful day.

  “Goodbye, sky,” she said sarcastically.

  Ashley laughed, and then they followed the others into the elevator. The doors slid shut and Silvia looked around uneasily. It was a little bit tight in there. Someone pressed the button.

  “Next stop . . . a boring field trip,” Tom muttered.

  Then the elevator plunged into the Earth.

  * * *

  “The Big Room,” Mr. Baker said dramatically, leading them into the massive chamber.

  They had been studying the geological formations in the Big Room for three weeks now, but seeing it in person was staggering. The vaulted cavern ceiling stretched far overhead, covered with limestone formations and stalactites that loomed over them like the teeth of some monolithic beast. Lights had been strategically placed throughout the Big Room to illuminate the chamber, casting a stark white glare on certain sections while creating fluid shadows that seemed to shift with every step.

  They passed the towering Rock of Ages and the Temple of the Sun, famous rock columns that dwarfed the others, rising up like Aztec pyramids. The class seemed to grow smaller and smaller as they walked into the middle of the Big Room along the weaving pathway, which was marked with steel railings and signs. Their voices echoed around them, growing softer and softer and then vanishing. Even Ashley fell silent as she stared up at a beautiful white column.

  “Okay, this is decent,” she finally whispered.

  “It was a boy who first documented this,” Mr. Baker said from the front. “Jim White. A cowboy if there ever was one, and a true adventurer. He came upon these caves while searching for lost cattle and said that he first spotted a great plume of black bats, which he thought might be a whirlwind or a volcano. Upon investigating, he found a great hole, and knew that there must be a massive place down there to house so many bats. He came back a few days later with nothing but a hatchet, some rope, and a lantern, and he began to explore. He found the Bat Cave, among other amazing caverns, and had a great fright when his lantern went out. Jim said, ‘It seemed as though a million tons of black wool descended upon me.’ You can imagine his terror.”

  Silvia thought about being stuck down here without a light, and shivered.

  “Luckily he had more kerosene, and he made it out again. He returned soon after with a fifteen-year-old Mexican boy whose name is now lost, though in his book Jim White called him the Kid or Muchacho. Jim White went on to tell his story in a booklet called Jim White’s Own Story and became somewhat famous, while no one really knows what happened to the Kid.”

  Mr. Baker suddenly smiled and pulled an old book out of his satchel, thin and yellowed.

  “And I’ve been reading it, as you can see! This rare copy of Jim White’s Own Story will go as a prize to whomever answers a trivia question on the way home . . . so try and take mental notes. I haven’t decided on the question just yet. But back to the Kid. Some say he disappeared from the face of the Earth, but in all likelihood, he just returned to his village, and he was never really included in the fanfare that followed the release of Jim White’s book. I wonder if the Kid ever knew how famous their story became. Do his ancestors even know it was him?”

  He gestured around the enormous cavern.

  “Astounding, really. Can you imagine being the first to walk these caves? To enter this alien world? What an adventure that must have been. Who knows? Maybe we’ll discover some new parts ourselves.”

  He skipped on ahead, and the class followed him, their heads swiveling to take in the spectacular scenery. Silvia stared up at the great stalactites looming over them, wondering if any had ever fallen before. Some looked to be at least ten feet long and were massive at their conical bases. They probably each weighed several tons. Feeling her skin prickle at the thought, she quickly started after the others, sticking close to Ashley. As they walked, she glanced back again at Er
ic, who followed the class about ten yards behind, moving as silently as a ghost. He was looking up at the cavern ceiling though, and even he seemed a little impressed.

  His mom was sticking right by his side, reading a brochure and pointing as they walked.

  “This is simply amazing,” she said. “Did you know that this is the largest—”

  “I literally know everything about these caves,” Eric said, cutting her off.

  She snorted. “Is that so?”

  “Trust me. I could write Eric Johnson’s Own Story on this after we leave.”

  “Frank said we just have to see the Queen’s Chamber.”

  “Frank the guy you met for, like, five minutes at the diner?”

  “I told him I was coming here. He’s really nice. He’s a commercial pilot—”

  “I thought we agreed never to talk about Frank.”

  She sighed. “Well, I thought you would change your mind. . . .”

  “I’m moving into the caves. That’s it.”

  “Don’t be a smarty-pants.”

  “Did you actually just say that?” Eric said. “Are you, like, ninety all of a sudden?”

  Silvia bit back a laugh. She had never heard Eric speak that much. Ever.

  “You know, Mr. Baker is cute . . . in a nerdy kind of way.”

  “Please stop.”

  “Think he’s single?”

  “I’m going to find a hole to jump into,” Eric said.

  “Maybe I should ask . . .”

  This time Silvia snorted with laughter, unable to hold it in, and Eric stopped talking immediately. He and his mom dropped back from the group a little more, and Ashley and Silvia just exchanged an amused look and kept walking.

  “Mr. Talkative all of a sudden,” Ashley whispered. “What a weirdo.”

  Silvia didn’t reply.

  As another few hours rolled by, Silvia began to yearn to leave the caves. They had already looped back and explored the Queen’s Chamber, which had been beautiful, with its pure limestone columns and natural arches. But still, she was starting to get sick of the stuffy underground air and the hard, unforgiving rock beneath her sneakers. The whole place made her wish for clear, open skies or her bedroom and a comfortable couch.