Cat silently and apprehensively watched as the ripples Kass had left behind slowly settled into a smooth sheen somehow making the dark watery unknown look even more terrifying.

Sometime after Kass had left the beach Amanda broke the silence. Looking sideways at Cat she asked, “So what happened, with the poachers?”

Cat glanced sideways back at her then turned to look at the tunnel. “They didn’t make it,” was all she said.

Amanda was quiet for one blessed second before she spoke again. “Is it a through and through?” she nodded at the bullet wound.

Cat gave her a sharp glance but Amanda didn’t flinch so Cat just shook her head.

“Is it bleeding?” Amanda pressed.

Cat moved the rope so it was held still under one boot. Then she lifted up the bottom of her singlet so Amanda could see the wound. While it hadn’t been bleeding much it had been bleeding on and off, enough that Cat’s clothing wasn’t staying dry. Most of that had been caused by her constant movement though. The upside of that meant it hadn’t stuck to her skin and she could peel it away quite easily.

Amanda peered closely at it. “I could cauterize it,” she offered with some hesitation.

Cat’s eyes widened for a second before she got control of herself. She hadn’t actually been serious when she’d told offhandedly told Kass that Amanda could cauterize her wound. “Doesn’t cauterization increase the risk of infection?” Baz had told her that. She was a little proud that she’d remembered.

Amanda nodded but countered, “You won’t be worried about risk of infection if you bleed to death.”

Cat tried not to think of what cauterization meant. She wondered if Amanda meant to do it with one of the rocks under the fire burning softly on the beach or if she meant to do it with her hands. Cat suspected the latter based on the movement Amanda’s fingers had performed when she’d offered. Most people wouldn’t let a firestarter sleep in their houses let alone allow one near their skin with their fire. To have the control to cauterize a wound was unthinkable but Cat didn’t doubt Amanda. She was still surprised though. That was even better skill than she would have expected.

“You can do that?” Cat asked, more curious and amazed than anything. But maybe also a little worried about the pain of cauterization.

Amanda nodded but stayed where she was.

Cat narrowed her eyes and covered her wound again. “If you’re hesitating I’m not sure I want you to try.”

Amanda shook her head. “It’s not that I can’t, it’s that you were right about increasing the risk of infection. Nothing a healer couldn’t fix later but...”

“Healers are expensive,” Cat replied reaching back down to take the rope out from under her boot. She couldn’t tell if Kass was still on the other end or not. The rope was heavy enough on it’s own.

Amanda nodded. “And it didn’t look like it was bleeding too badly... how long ago were you shot?”

Cat shrugged, worried that if she answered truthfully Amanda would insist on cauterization.

But Amanda seemed to glean that it had been awhile. She sighed. “It did look like it was starting to clot...” she trailed off still thinking. “I assume you’ve been moving about a bit...”

“Tell you what, if I pass out you can cauterize it, deal?” Cat said it confidently and with enough energy that she knew Amanda would take that into account.

Indeed, Amanda spent a moment studying Cat’s face, assessing the palor and alertness. She gave a decisive nod. It was good enough for her.

They sat in silence for a awhile. Eventually Amanda spoke again. “What time do you think it is?”

“You don’t have a watch?” Cat asked.

Amanda shook her head. “Left it with our bags, I always take my watch off for caving, hate stuff on my wrists in a cave. I’ve got one on a carabiner for time critical stuff but otherwise I don’t usually bother.”

Cat sighed, glanced at her own bare wrists and then back up where they’d abseiled down from. “I think Kass had a timepiece somewhere.”

“About what time was it when you got here?”

Cat shook her head “I dunno, late, early-evening.”

“It was dark out?”

Cat nodded, not quite sure where Amanda was going with this line of questioning.

“So everyone will be asleep.”

Cat tried not to groan out loud. Now she could guess where this was going.

“In Little Rock,” Amanda clarified when Cat didn’t immediately answer.

“Yes.” Cat narrowed her eyes.

Amanda was looking at her with a devious glint in her eye. She paused expectantly, giving Cat a moment to offer an opinion. She seemed to have picked up that Cat now knew what she was getting at.

Cat didn’t make it easy for her though. She didn’t fill in the blanks, she waited for Amanda to say it.

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“You think you could send a message?” Amanda asked.

Cat sighed. “You want me to dreamwalk all the way to Little Rock?”

Amanda nodded. “You think you could?”

“Do you know how far that is?”

Amanda’s face fell a little and Cat had to admit she did feel a bit bad for being difficult.

“What about Indi?” Amanda asked, more hesitantly.

Cat paused and tried not to think about how her stomach felt like it was falling. What if... what if she did and she found something not good? Cat sighed. There was no way. Indi would have to be asleep and not dead or awake. The chances of that were slim to none. But passed out was possible. She bit her upper lip in thought. Passed out wouldn’t be a good sign but at least she might be able to get an idea of Indi’s last memories. Did it really matter? They pretty much knew where she had gone.

Amanda leaned back against the wall, giving Cat some space to think.

“I could try,” Cat replied, “And I could try Little Rock. That might be too far though, given the time we have.”

Amanda nodded solemnly. “What about others nearby? Other hikers?”

Cat nodded. That was actually more reasonable.

“Or Indi?” Amanda suggested again.

Cat nodded. “I’ll give it a go.” She closed her eyes.

Cat felt herself drift. The world around her faded, replaced by another. She walked among a fog, sensing things out there that didn’t want to be sensed. She didn’t reach out too far. The dreamworld was a dangerous place if you didn’t know what you were doing. Cat much preferred the physical. Perhaps that was why, even though she knew she should practice dreamwalking more, she never did. Her experiences in the dreamworld had always been more happenstance then deliberate.

She reached out, to the places between the things that did not want to be found, and she searched for signs of life, life like hers. Direction remained the same in the dreamworld, for the most part. The way Cat travelled it did. Only a better dreamwalker could have made it not so. Cat sensed nothing beneath her or further into the caves. A part of her felt relief at that, another part fear.

She reached up instead, then sideways, looking out on the surface. At first there was nothing so she went further. She tried to reach out to Little Rock. She could sense something out there and she knew if she walked for long enough she would eventually reach it, but she wasn’t sure she had that kind of time. She pulled back, and as she did she felt someone else, someone nearer, maybe more than one. People she knew were easier although she had a hard time getting a fix on these. She could tell there were three but she could see no more than that. One was easier to sense than the rest. She reached out to that one, tried to send a message, struggled through the fog for what felt like eternity. They were far away though, hours of walking. That much she knew. She focused on sending images in the form of a dream. It would pass through the fog much easier than words. She thought she felt a response but she couldn’t be sure. They were too far and Cat knew she needed to get back. Spend too long in the dreamworld and you’d risk drawing things out of the darkness, things better left unseen.

When she awakened she noticed Amanda seemed to blink herself into consciousness too, reflecting how Cat felt. As if she too had just spent hours walking in a haze. It told Cat that she’d been gone even longer than she’d thought. Amanda looked like she’d almost fallen asleep.

“Back already?” Amanda asked with a hint of lighthearted teasing that further confirmed that Cat had been gone awhile.

“How long was I gone?”

Amanda shrugged and held out her blank wrists. “Half an hour?” she guessed.

Cat frowned, she had actually thought it had been longer. Either way, “Kass has been gone awhile.”

Amanda nodded. “Not much we can do about it. Unless you’re prepared for a swim?”

Cat stayed silent. Amanda knew she wasn’t. Hell, she doubted Amanda would have asked the question if she thought that Cat might be up for. There was no way either of them going through that tunnel was the next best option. If Kass didn’t turn up again soon the next option would be sending one of them back out for help, and given Amanda’s leg the only one it could be was Cat.

She gave the the rope a slight tug, trying to assess if there was anything on the other end. “You think we should pull it back through?”

Amanda shook her head. “Not yet.”

“What if...”

“Not yet.”

Cat eyed Amanda. The woman had a focused look on her face. The sort of look that said she’d made a decision, and wrongly or rightly she was sticking to it.

“There wouldn’t be any harm in just pulling it through to check. If she’s stuck on the end it’s been long enough that it makes no difference.”

“And if she’s through, which she probably is, and we pull it out we might not be able to get the rope back through for her to come back out.”

Cat frowned. “The current will just take it.”

Amanda shook her head. “It’s not necessarily a straight tunnel. When she’s on it she can take the turns. If she’s not it could get stuck. There is no option where we pull that rope back up, you understand?”

Cat felt like she wanted to run or punch something, anything, but she sat still at the edge of the dark watery tunnel. She understood what Amanda was saying, she saw the issue once it had been explained but she was still frustrated.

She felt Amanda watching her. She knew she should relax. Amanda had this horrible habit of picking up on all the smallest of emotions and Cat hated anyone to see her as not in control.

“I know you hate waiting,” Amanda said, “but if Kass is taking a while it means she hasn’t hit a dead end. She‘s careful enough not to...”

“You don’t know where that river flows,” Cat interrupted.

“I don’t. But Kass popped back through the first time. If she was taking another risk she’d come back and let us know first. Sure she could have fallen but it’s much more likely she’s found Indi and she’s trying to figure a way to get her back or the tunnel just goes on for awhile. I’d bet money on the latter.”

“How much money?”

Amanda shrugged. “A case of beers.”

“I don’t drink beer.”

Amanda threw her hands up. “A case of whatever drink you want then.”

Cat finally smirked. “Be careful, it might be something very expensive.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “A case of whatever you want for a reasonable price.”

Cat gave a scoff. “Deal.”

Suddenly she felt a tug on the rope.

She sat up and grabbed a tighter hold.

Next thing she knew she was being dragged face first into the water.

Unfortunately Cat’s instinct upon hitting the water was to grip the rope tighter. She froze for far too long. Then she felt something hard scrape her back, maybe a rock. She didn’t know which way was up. She was afraid if she let go now she might find herself stranded in an underwater tunnel with no indication of which way to go.

She imagined never finding the surface again, disappearing down here, never to be seen again. To be eaten by the fish, to never read another book, or drive along a twisty country road, to never breathe the air, to never breathe at all.

And she wanted to kick and scream and fight. But she couldn’t do any of it. You couldn’t punch water, you couldn’t even scratch it. She imagined ending up like her mother. The grey, rotting corpse, with fingernails still intact, trying to claw their way up but never finding purchase on anything.

She held on to the only thing she could. The only thing that didn’t crush out all her drive completely was that she felt like she was still moving. The pressure at her head was greater than at her feet. She held on and she hoped that soon she would break free of some surface up ahead. It didn’t matter than she didn’t know if ahead was up or down or sideways, that was where she was going and so that was where she imagined the surface to be. Where it had to be. To her, ahead was up.

So it was somewhat disorientating when she did finally break free into open air to find herself looking down on the stars. So many tiny blue lights. For a moment she was convinced she was dead and she was surprised at how easy it had been to go from one state to the other. And then she felt herself start to fall.