The Dangers of Pomegranate Salad

Chapter 30

Chapter 30. Escape

I still feel dizzy, so I sit in the rock for a while. After I feel ok, I get up and walk to the exit of the cave. I ask Lily to lead me out. She nods. We wander through the cave labyrinth for quite a while. It’s pretty amazing. There are glowing mushrooms and crystals throughout the tunnels. In one of them was an underwater river. I decided to stay away from that. Lily keeps leading me. The tunnel is getting lower and lower. At this point the ceiling gets really low, and I smack my head. I cry out in pain. I touch my head, and feel something wet. I look at my hand and see red. Blood. I start crawling through the small tunnel. The sharp points of the rocks cut into my arms and legs. I ignore it mostly. Lily is waving me forward, trying to get me to keep going. Her wings occasionally flutter, and she looks at the ceiling, like she’s afraid it might collapse on her. I’m not particularly happy either. It’s getting tighter and tighter, harder to move properly. I’m starting to panic. Lily is now pulling on my hair. It’s not helping.  What if I’m trapped down here forever? What If I never get out?! What if I’m trapped down here forever?! I start to hyperventilate; I’m most definitely panicking now. I need to calm down. I try to calm my breathing. It works a little bit, and I start to squirm out of the tunnel. I’m still breathing irregularly. After what feels like eternity of slowly inching my way out, I finally escape. The tunnel widens and I’m free. It’s still rather small but I’m still free-ish. I keep following Lily. The Tunnels turn into a maze. For every tunnel there are at least five coming off of it.  She leads me through the twisting turning labinynth. Lily is sure of what she is doing, and leads me down tunnel after tunnel. Eventually she leads me into a dead end. I look at her and she looks at me. I touch the wall. Maybe there’s a secret exit? I keep searching. Lily flies in front of me, waving her hands in my face. I look at her, and she flies to the top of the cave. Her green glow lights up the top of the cave. I see there’s a hole in the caves ceiling about two feet above my head Great. I look at Lily who is hanging upside down from a rock on the ceiling.  “How am I supposed to get up there?” I ask her. She shrugs. “Helpful” I tell her. She gives me a thumbs up (which are actually thumbs down because she’s upside down) I roll my eyes. I sigh. I’m going to have to climb all the way up there. It’s a good thing that the wall is pretty close to the hole. I start to climb up the wall, or try to. I’m not athletic. I’m not muscular, and when I see athletes it makes me feel wimpy. But I never actually do anything. I make a silent promise to God that if he gets me out of this I swear I’ll take up sports.  It’s difficult, but I keep trying. I find small crevices to put my feet and hands in, so it’s not terrible. Just hard. Then I slip, and get a cut on my hand. It stings, but I’m ok. I keep climbing, and eventually get to the hole. I start climbing up it. With lily in front of me, attempting to be motivational. It’s not very helpful. The upward tunnel isn’t very big. My foot slips and the stupid shoes I’m wearing tear. I kick it off and keep going with one shoe. After a few minutes of climbing the other one tears two, I kick it off, and I keep climbing. This isn’t much fun. Without the shoes my feet hurt from climbing rocks. My hands hurt from all the cuts. I reach up and my foot slips. I almost fall, but I catch myself. My heart is pounding hard. I look up and I can see light at the top of the tunnel. I’m almost there. I keep going. I’m almost there; the light is getting closer and brighter. And finally I break through the exit.  I am free. Mostly.