Lost by S. A. Bodeen Page A

don’t you think Fox would have mentioned the rhinocorn or the bird with a stinger on its tail? Or the Curator?”
    Marco said, “But how do you explain it?”
    â€œI don’t think any of this was here when Fox was marooned. I think all of this— happened —since he left.” She paused for a moment. “And in that time, at some point, Captain Norm came here and found that trunk.”
    Marco nodded. “But it still doesn’t explain how all this ended up here.”
    â€œI know,” said Sarah. “Which is why we need to find the answer.”
    Marco shook his head. “Oh, no way. We are out here to look for your dad and my brother. We’re not here to look for something we may not want to find.”
    Sarah swallowed. “But what if my dad isn’t okay? What if he got taken just like Cash did?”
    â€œSo you believe her story now?” he asked.
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. With everything we’ve seen, how can we not believe her?”
    Marco nodded. “I know. But your dad is okay. Ahab was with him. He wouldn’t have let anything happen to him.”
    Sarah said, “Marco. Nacho doesn’t have Ahab. He’s alone. Just like Cash was.”
    Marco felt his heartbeat speed up. What if Nacho was in trouble? And what if Cash had been telling the truth? And what if the same thing that happened to her was going to happen to his little brother?
    Sarah looked over at the rocks. “Do you think that’s the way to where Cash got taken?”
    Marco stared at the rocks. If there was any possibility that his brother had been taken, he was going to find him. Marco sighed. “I have no idea. But it’s worth a try.”

 
    13
    Sarah began to climb, avoiding the vines in order not to duplicate Marco’s mistake. But to keep her balance, she had to set her scraped hands on the boulders, which made them sting even more than they already did. She tried her best to ignore the discomfort as she kept climbing. When she reached the top of the stack of boulders, she stuck her face into a foot-wide crevice. Light came through from the other side, about fifty yards away. “There’s a passageway here!”
    â€œBut Cash didn’t say anything about that,” Marco called from below.
    Sarah leaned back and looked down at him. “But she didn’t know how she got to the Curator’s cave, remember? She went into the trees and the net fell on her, and the next thing she remembered, she was waking up in her cell. She doesn’t know how she got there. And neither do we.” For a moment she studied the crevice, thinking there was no way anyone could have hauled Cash through there. Sarah was not a fan of enclosed spaces, and this space looked far too tight for her.
    â€œI’m not even sure we can squeeze through here.” She turned sideways and reached out an arm into the crevice, then took a step. The walls were close, only inches away from her on either side. “Nope.” She stepped back out and called down to Marco, “It’s too skinny, I think.”
    Marco held up his hand. “Well, now what?”
    Just as Sarah started to climb back down, the ground rumbled beneath them. From her high vantage point, Sarah saw gray flashes through the trees as a creature ran by. She pointed. “The rhinocorn—it’s back! Hurry!”
    Marco scrambled up the boulders. “Go!” he yelled.
    Sarah’s heart pounded. “Into the crack?”
    â€œWe don’t have a choice!”
    Sarah turned sideways and slid into the crevice, hoping that the walls wouldn’t get any closer together. “Marco?”
    â€œMade it!” said Marco, breathing hard. “This is tight.”
    Sarah felt his hand brush her shoulder and sighed with relief. She tried to turn her head, but smacked it against the hard wall. There was no longer enough room to turn her head around to look at him.