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CORRY SCRAMBLED AROUND and dove across the slippery rock surface, reaching out to grab Emma's left wrist with both his hands, just as she disappeared from view.
Donna-Lou screamed in panic as she saw her son's upper body sliding over the edge. In another second, he would be falling to the pool below.
Chet spun around and threw himself across the wet rock surface, grabbing Corry's right ankle and stopping his forward momentum.
Rory scrambled back down quickly and grabbed Chet's shirt to keep him anchored, "Have you got him?"
Chet nodded his head slightly and grunted, "Yeah...."
Emma was nowhere in sight and Rory feared the worst, "Corry? Do you have hold of Emma?"
Corry was near tears, "Y-yeah...but...I... I can't...hold on...please help me."
Rory looked at Donna-Lou, "I want you to hold onto Chet."
But Donna-Lou was in a panic and she looked from Rory to Corry.
"Donna-Lou? You need to hold Chet."
Corry whimpered under the strain.
Rory spoke calmly, "Just a few more seconds, Corry. Hold on to her." He looked back at his mother, whispering, "Just trust me."
Donna-Lou nodded faintly. She was shaking but she slid across the rock and sat down on Chet's legs. She reached forward and grabbed onto the waistband of his pants to hold him in place as well.
Rory carefully slid past Chet and then past Corry's body. Sliding between two shards of rock, he spotted Emma's jeans. He looked for a way to move lower to try and get underneath her. The rock was very treacherous here. Rory clutched at the rock surface, looking for a solid hold on the wet, slippery rocks as he moved downward.
Corry saw him from the corner of his eye and he whispered frantically."Please hurry."
Rory had no time to move any lower. He held onto a slippery rock with his right hand and shuffled left, extending his left arm towards the young girl.
"I can't–" Corry said in a strained voice.
Emma screamed as Corry's hands slipped from her wrist.
Rory leaned down urgently and grabbed
Emma fell - and stopped suddenly!
Rory's fingers had gone into the waistband of her jeans at the back.
Emma screamed as she looked at the long drop below her.
Rory strained to pull the young girl closer to him, "I've got her. Pull Corry up."
Corry's body slipped upward.
Rory slowly pulled himself back, bringing her closer to safety. "Grab hold of something, Emma," he yelled in a strained voice.
The young girl frantically grasped for the rocks, desperately looking for something she could wrap her hands around. After a few attempts, she grabbed onto a pointed rock for a brief moment. Then her hand slipped off and her body swung away from the edge
Rory nearly lost her.
Emma screamed.
Rory pulled hard, pulling her body back towards him.
Emma frantically grabbed at the rocks
Corry was peered over the edge, "C'mon Emma. Grab something."
Donna-Lou was yelling frantically, "Corry! Corry, get back."
Emma finally grabbed a pointed rock with her right hand and pulled hard.
Rory groaned as he pulled the young girl's dead weight upward.
Emma swung across the face of the rock and landed hard across Rory's knees. She immediately scrambled around and threw her arms around his neck, sobbing heavily.
"It's okay," Rory whispered. "You're safe now." He kept his left arm around her as he climbed back up to where Donna-Lou, Chet, and Corry were sitting in a group hug. Rory sat down heavily beside them, still holding onto the young girl. He was breathing heavy from the exertion.
Corry looked across at his friend, "You okay, Emma?"
Emma looked at him and nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her left hand. But she wasn't letting go of Rory's neck with her right.
"We're right at the top," Rory said to Emma. "Are you okay to climb a bit more again?"
Emma nodded but didn't look too happy about it.
"It'll be okay, I saw something up there," Rory said encouragingly.
"What did you see?" Donna-Lou asked.
"Let's all go take a look," Rory said. "You stay in front of me and I won't let you fall," he said to Emma as he turned and set her down on the rocks.
Emma nodded and began moving upwards on the angled rock surface on her hands and knees. Rory stayed close behind her as they climbed while Corry followed closely behind him. Chet and Donna-Lou stayed close behind Corry, watching his every move.
"Hey!" Emma said with excitement. She scrambled up through the falling water and over the top edge of the rocks. She splashed her way into a five-foot-wide, ten-foot-high tunnel carved into the limestone over centuries by the water.
Rory moved up beside her, stepping into the water rushing along the bottom of the tunnel. "Move ahead a bit and wait," he said to Emma. Then he turned and helped the others up over the edge and into the tunnel.
"Do you think this goes above ground somewhere?" Donna-Lou asked as she crouched in the cold water, her hands on Corry's shoulders.
Corry was shivering.
"I bet this is how the bats got out," Chet said as he splashed into the tunnel. "And it's a good thing you thought about it, Rory. Thanks."
Rory nodded and he turned back to Emma. Her teeth were chattering. "The water's cold, isn't it?"
Emma nodded, too cold to answer.
Rory rubbed the outside of her arms, "Just hang in there. You're doing great."
Emma nodded as she hunched her shoulders up against the cold.
"Let's go see if we can find the warm sun," Rory said as he took her by the hand and made his way forward through the cold water.
Corry, Donna-Lou, and Chet splashed through the cold water behind him as they all made their way forward.
Rory saw a sliver of light in the ceiling of the tunnel about one hundred feet ahead. "I see light up ahead," he yelled back to the others. He began pushing his way as fast as he could through the cold water with Emma. Corry, Donna-Lou, and Chet all moved faster now, splashing through the cold water behind Rory and Emma as well, eager to get to safety.
Within minutes, Rory reached the light and found an angled exit to the surface above. The opening was filled with thick tree roots crisscrossing over each other. "Let me go up first just in case," he said to Emma.
She nodded and wrapped her arms around her shivering body.
The others caught up, their bodies shivering as they waited in the cold stream flowing along the bottom of the tunnel.
The fit was tight but Rory used the roots as pull bars to lift himself upwards. He slowly worked his way up a small incline to the side of the stream of cold water that now tumbled past on his left. He saw the surface! Slowly pushing his way up he found himself at the bottom of a gully that was surrounded by trees. The small stream stretched out ahead of him, disappearing into the trees.
Everything was quiet. There was no evidence of anyone around.
Rory moved back down, using the roots as stairs until he reached the opening in the tunnel ceiling, "Okay, give me your hand, Emma." She reached up and Rory pulled her upwards. "Use the roots to help you climb," he told her and Emma began climbing.
Corry came up next, followed closely by Donna-Lou and then Chet, all of them passing Rory and headed for the light above.
Rory followed Chet back to the surface where he soon joined everyone on the dry bank of the stream, under a long canopy of trees. He sat down heavily, breathing in the clean air of the Blue Ridge Mountains. After giving them a few moments to rest, Rory saw how cold everyone was, "How about we get right into the sunshine and warm up?"
Donna Lou nodded as she got to her feet, her teeth chattering, "That's a good idea. Do you think any of the Knights of the Golden Circle are around here though?"
"I have no idea. Maybe back at the Range Rover."
Chet shook his head, "And we don't have our guns anymore."
"We can't worry about that, now," Rory told him. "We can go that way and see if anyone is there. I doubt Old Tuck left any men outside to guard the Range Rover and I doubt they'd still be there after the explosion no doubt buried that entrance. But if we have to, we'll just head over to the highway and hitch-hike. Let's go." He led the way up the side of the gully and through the trees. It wasn't long before they found a clearing and stepped into the warmth of the sun. Smiles lit up everyone's face.
It was Corry who spoke up after several minutes, "What do we do about the treasure?"
Donna-Lou looked at her son, shaking her head, "We almost died and you're still worried about the treasure?"
Chet looked at Corry, "Don't worry. We know where it is and I can come back with climbing gear and masks–"
"But what if other people come and find it before we get back?" Corry protested. "We're going to need a new house, mom."
Rory had his face up to the sun and he said, "If people haven't found this upper entrance to the treasure cave after all these years, Corry, I doubt they'd find it now."
"And the Knights of the Golden Circle didn't know anything about it until they tracked us here," Chet added. "Now those members are dead and buried below us so the secret should be safe."
"Okay," Corry said, finally convinced. "But we need to be able to find it." He began searching the area around them.
"What are you looking for?" Donna-Lou asked him.
"This," Corry said triumphantly. He had a sharp-edged rock. Walking back over to a tree at the edge of the clearing, he began carving into the bark, "I'll make treasure signs so we can find our way back."
"Good idea," Chet said as he looked for a rock of his own.
"Boys and their treasures," Donna-Lou said as she shook her head again. But this time she smiled.