Lakota Dreaming by Constance Gillam

Author:Constance Gillam [Gillam, Connie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Constance Gillam
Published: 2018-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

**

With her ankle throbbing and her throat sore, Zora took a break from shouting for Sarah. The girl either wasn’t in the cave or had decided not to come to her rescue. She’d pulled herself up until her back was braced against the cool stone wall. From somewhere close by, she could hear the drip of water. In fact, all her senses, with the exception of sight, were heightened. Small sharp stones bit into her fingers and legs. A wet, pungent odor, probably from the soil, permeated the cave. Rustling and the sound of wings told her—oh God—bats. She flattened herself against the wall. Didn’t they carry disease? How long would it take before someone thought to come looking for her? Surely Joseph had contacted John. She knew not to expect help from Emma, but John should come for her. She held that hope close to her heart. In fact, it became her mantra.

John. John.

She closed her eyes and conjured up his face, an easy task since his rugged features seemed constantly in her mind’s eye.

A frightening thought occurred to her. What if they never found this cave? It had only been by sheer luck she’d found it. In twenty years, some spelunker would find her bones. Tears stung her eyes.

“Stop. Stop it!” Her words echoed off the chamber walls. Now she was talking to herself. She willed the tears to stop and took deep breaths. She needed to judge how far she had to travel to the surface. Maybe if she tossed up a few pebbles…

She scooted around the area, collecting small stones until her fingers encountered something long and hard. Picking the object up, she felt its surface. Her hands followed the smooth contours until she came to the end which was knobby and concaved like the surface of a tooth or a—she dropped it. Recoiling, she backpedaled like a crab. Pressed against the wall of the cavern, she took deep breaths, attempting to conquer the panic and revulsion that robbed her of thought. She’d found a bone. She was sure of it. Calm down. It could be an animal bone. Yeah, her mind said, but unless it was an orangutan, that bone was too long to belong to something other than a human.

She couldn’t wait for Sarah or John to rescue her. She needed to act now.

Ignoring the pain shooting up her ankle, she slowly pushed to her feet. Once the nausea passed, she hobbled around slowly until she faced the wall. Balanced precariously on her good leg, she searched the dirt wall for protrusions. She’d never been a gymnast and doubted she had the upper body strength to make it out, but she didn’t want to die down here. Not like that poor soul whose bone she’d found. Planting her left leg on an indentation in the wall, she started her slow climb toward the top. Every other step was excruciating. She didn’t dare stop; if she did, she’d give up. She searched for each protrusion, dug her fingers into it, and searched for another.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.