Read Online Running Scared by Gloria Skurzynski - Free Book Online Page A

Jack really felt. “Hey, where’s your lantern?”
    â€œThere,” Sammy answered, pointing to a spot a few feet away.
    Picking up their own lantern and holding it above her head, Ashley peered into the darkness. “Where?"” she asked. “I don’t see it.”
    â€œIn the h-h-hole.”
    â€œWhat hole?” She took a few steps down the trail, swinging the light from side to side. “Oh my gosh! Look!” she shrieked. “Jack, come here!” In an instant Jack was on his feet and next to his sister. Close enough behind her that one misstep could have spelled tragedy, Jack saw a drop-off, a black pit that yawned so deeply there was no way to see the bottom.
    â€œIn there?” he asked Sam. “You dropped your lantern down there?”
    â€œI didn’t m-m-mean to. I f-f-fell.”
    Jack pictured it in his mind: Sam running away across this rough cave floor, barely able to see in the wavering light of a single candle, then tripping. The lantern would have flown out of his hand into that chasm that seemed to have no end. What if not only the lantern but also Sammy had fallen into that pit! Maybe he really would have died. Jack shuddered, and not just from the 56-degree coolness of the cave.
    â€œIt’s all right, Sam,” Ashley told him, her voice soothing him the way Olivia would have done. “You’re OK. That’s what’s important. Stand up and hold my hand. It’s time to get out of here.”
    â€œJ-J-Jack’s hand,” Sam insisted.
    â€œFine,” she sighed. “Jack’s hand. This time, I’ll lead the way. I think I can remember which way we came.
    We should have been dropping breadcrumbs or something so we could find our way out.”
    â€œI th-th-thought you c-c-couldn’t leave things in a c-c-cave.”
    â€œI know. I was joking, Sam, about something in the tale of Hansel and Gretel. But even without crumbs I can do this. I think I know exactly where we are.” She smiled a half-smile, but Jack wasn’t fooled at all. How could she know anything after all the wrong turns they’d made? Were other chasms waiting to catch them, to trap them as they stumbled through the darkness? How lost could they get in this maze of tunnels? The truth was, neither one of them knew which path would lead them out, and that meant they could be walking deeper into the bowels of the cave instead of toward the main path. He could already feel his stomach rumble, a reminder that he should have eaten more for lunch, especially since there was nothing back here to chew on but dust. Dust and the few cave crickets he might be lucky enough to catch. Don’t be stupid, he chided himself. They’d be out of Left Hand Tunnel and into the cafeteria in a matter of minutes. An hour, tops. Let Ashley lead the way. She couldn’t do any worse than he had.
    They trudged silently, Ashley’s lantern bobbing with each step and Sam’s sweaty hand firmly grasping Jack’s. Sam was one step behind, following Jack as though he were a dog and Jack’s arm the leash. The hand-holding made Jack feel slightly off balance, so after a while he tried to pry Sam free, but Sam clung even tighter until his nails bit into Jack’s skin like tiny teeth.
    â€œHey, not so tight, Bud,” Jack told him. “Wait a second, Ashley.”
    His sister stopped and turned.
    â€œYou can walk alone, can’t you?” Jack asked Sam.
    Sam shook his head. “I d-d-don’t want to f-f-f-” He took a breath, and tried again, his face twisting as he struggled to get out the word. “F-f-f-f-”
    â€œFall?”
    Sam nodded.
    â€œFollow right where I walk, and you’ll be fine. Just don’t run. That’s how you lost your lantern.”
    â€œWhy did you take off and run like that in the first place, Sam?” Ashley asked. “Is it because we didn’t believe you about