White Cave Escape by Jennifer McGrath Kent Page A

for your life!”
    They did.
    There didn’t waste breath on talking. They climbed as fast as they dared, grabbing at rocks and roots, ignoring scraped knuckles and knees, hugging the white wall of the cliff. Small rivers of dirt and gravel, knocked loose by their scrabbling feet, showered down into the valley below.
    â€œAlmost there,” grunted Shawn.
    The top of the cliff jutted out in a pouting lip. It was a hairy lip, too—shaggy with fine, spidery tree roots and lichen that dangled beneath the earthy outcropping like a crazy moustache. Shawn pulled himself up beneath the overhang. To reach the top, he would have to swing himself out, away from the cliff, then up and over the underside of the ledge.
    Craig eyed Shawn’s chosen route nervously.
    â€œHow are you going to get up there, Shawn?”
    â€œI’ll manage. You wait there until I can help you up.”
    â€œShawn,” called Petra worriedly, “I think we should try to get up someplace else.”
    â€œWe don’t have time,” Shawn said. “Once I’m up, I’ll be able to pull you guys over the top.”
    â€œBe careful, kid,” said Colin.
    â€œGood luck, pal,” gulped Tony. “Try to think like Spider-Man!”
    Shawn reached up and grabbed two fistfuls of the tree roots hanging down around his ears from the roof of the overhang. Wrapping them once tightly around his hands, he yanked hard. The roots held firm. Gripping the roots, Shawn pulled his knees in to his chest and kicked his feet up hard, so that they were braced on the underside of the ledge.
    â€œJust like the rings in gymnastics,” he grunted.
    â€œWay to go, Spidey!” cheered Tony from somewhere below.
    Shawn inched forward. He felt like a beetle crawling along the ceiling. At the edge of the overhang, he threw his right arm up and over the top ledge, his fingers scrambling to find something, anything, that would bear his weight. He knocked a rock loose. It fell past his head and went bouncing down the cliff.
    Shawn felt around blindly. Aha! An old tree root, thick and gnarly, met his exploring fingers. The root was pressed tight into the earth. Shawn scraped at the dirt with his fingernails until he could worm his whole hand underneath the root. It pinched his hand against the ground, but at least he would be unlikely to lose his grip.
    Under the overhang, Shawn was now forced to let go of the tree-root moustache with his left hand. He flung his left arm out and up as fast as he could, trying to get two hands on the gnarled root above him before gravity kicked in.
    An impossible move.
    With no way to brace his feet, Shawn fell, dangling by one arm as his body went swinging out over the valley like a pendulum.
    Dimly, Shawn heard the cries and shouts of his friends, but the sound seemed to come from a great distance. Pain shot up his arm. His hand was pinned under the tree root like a vice, while his body hung from it, twisting helplessly in space. He could feel his shoulder starting to part from its socket.
    His brain clouded over with pain and terror. It was hopeless from the beginning , he now realized. Nobody could survive this. We’re all going to—
    â€œSHAWN!” Colin’s voice roared, cutting through his panicked thoughts. “Are you going to hang around like a Christmas ornament all day or do you want me to come up there and hold your hand? GET UP ON THAT LEDGE RIGHT NOW !”
    Anger jolted through Shawn like an electric shock. He kicked his legs furiously and managed to touch the cliff wall with the tips of his sneakers. It was all he needed. Pushing off with his toes, Shawn launched himself upward. His fingernails caught the edge of the ledge. Every muscle in his body was screaming as he hauled himself up, inch by painful inch, and then suddenly—he was over the top! He lay still for a moment, trying to breathe through the red-hot pain in his shoulder and hand.
    â€œShawn?” Petra