Ever since her breakdown while being chased by the "creeps," as Willard had come to call them, she had struggled to reel in and control her emotions. At first she felt back to her stable self—cool, collected and in control. But every few feet they climbed into the new cave system, the more her anticipation had increased. She wished Willard had never told her about the large creatures dwelling in these caves. Sometimes ignorance really was bliss. If she didn't know the danger existed, she wouldn't be starting to panic, and if they were attacked, she might be able to handle the stress. But now…now she was spiraling down that dark path again and her fears were getting the best of her.

Willard's description of the creatures he'd seen didn't help her anxious imagination either. He described them as large, bipeds, maybe quadrupeds and hard to see—like they blended in with the surrounding cave wall colors, which had varied from cave to cave. The bright walls were the only distraction Connelly found from her sense of impending doom. The tunnel they were moving through now was a deep violet, so rich it looked as though it might taste like blueberry pie.

Robert's steady pace broke at the end of the cave, where the tunnel opened up into a large, dark cavity.

"What is it?" Connelly asked.

Robert stood to the side. "The tunnel ends here. There's a path moving down the face of the cavern. I can't see the bottom."

Willard joined them at the mouth of the opening. "Switch on your headlamps," he said. They had shut them off to conserve battery life. The caves had been bright enough to see by so far. Since leaving the first tunnels, this open space was the first completely dark area.

Willard snapped on his light. Connelly and Robert followed suit. The three lights did little to trim away the darkness. "Boost the juice," Willard said. "Just for a minute."

All three turned their lights up, which glowed with three thousand watts. The enormous halo of light was enough to illuminate the bottom of the cave, which looked like a graveyard. Phallic stones, rising up from the cave floor cast deep shadows and created a maze with several exits to the other side of the cavern. The opposite wall glimmered lightly in the distance. A path of switch backs rose up the wall and into a tunnel on the opposite side. There was no other way to go.

Connelly couldn't help but notice the purposeful switchback trails. They resembled those leading to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. These trails had been created by living creatures, and from the width of the paths—six feet minimum—they were designed for creatures much larger than human beings. Connelly swallowed hard. They had to cross through the maze.