Chae-young dropped the rope she’d wound to a coil by her feet. She’d been doing search and rescue training for months now, but the spelunking was beyond the normal training. She’d been out practicing on her own ever since she’d realized she needed more experience with all the tourist business increasing. The accidents were increasing too. Not a good scenario. More trained personnel were needed. 

She searched the gloomy circle of light produced by her headlight. One of the biggest lessons everyone needed to learn was that no one went into the caves alone. Including her. She had both the Jo Twins, with her. And a couple of other search and rescue volunteers all wanting to improve their skills. There was nothing worse than coming up against a lack of training when lives were in jeopardy. 

“How is that arm of yours doing, Rosé?” Youngmin asked. 

She gave the arm in question a good shake. “It’s holding up well.” In fact, she was really pleased with it. It had been a good six months since she’d injured it during a bad climb. Months of recovery and therapy and she was back outside as normal. Even so, the arm was a shade weaker than she’d like. Strength was mandatory. During an emergency, weakness was a detriment. 

She had to regain the full muscle mass. 

“Make sure you don’t overdo it, today,” Kwangmin warned from behind his brother. “It’s easy to do.” 

“I know.” She shook out both arms then grinned. “They feel good.” 

“Then let’s go. This system has some interesting caves further up. Let’s get at it.” 

“I’ll lead.” She dropped to her knees and crawled through the tunnel, pulling the rope behind her. The others would follow. They’d been down here for a couple of hours already. Time wise they had about another hour then they’d have to turn back. This was the furthest she’d come so it was a success as far as she was concerned. 

The return journey should be faster. Good thing. She didn’t really enjoy this hobby. And forced herself in here on the premise of work a related skill set. In truth she was a little creeped out being down here in the dark with several tons of dirt ready to come down on her at any moment. 

Another reason for being here now. To face that fear. 

She’d rather be home to help her friend Yoo-ra with the chores. The chores were too much for her on her own. And in truth, Chae-young enjoyed being around the horses and other animals. She’d been living in the trailer on Yoo-ra’s property for three months now. A setup that suited both women. Yoo-ra needed the cash, and Chae-young was looking for a place close by but not in her father’s house. They only had each other left in family outside of distant or estranged relatives and they were close, but she needed her own space. 

A clod of dirt fell down in front of her nose, raising a plume of dust to float up her nostrils. She coughed several times then cleared several more times. She struggled to pull her water bottle forward so she could take a drink. Only it wasn’t possible given the confines of the small tunnel. There was nothing else to do but carry on. She crawled forward, still coughing slightly. When she made it through to another cavern, she shifted off to the side, yanked on her rope a couple of times and pulled her water bottle clear. After a long drink, she settled back down against the dirt wall and waited for the others to come along. She’d never been in this section before and knew a lot of this area was full of unchartered caves. 

It didn’t take long for Kwangmin to poke his head through the hole. He skimmed forward on his stomach. She laughed. “If you gain any more weight, you’re going to have trouble getting through to the next cave.” 

He gave a rustic laugh as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his shirt and pants. “I’m a while off of that fate.” 

She grinned. “I can just imagine,” she said in a mocking voice. “Help 911. There’s a rotund man stuck underground. He’s caught in the tunnels between the caves. You’ll need a large back hoe to rescue him.” 

“Hey, it’s not that bad.” And in truth it wasn’t, but she loved to . It was almost expected. He’d known her since she was in diapers. He’d been teasing her for just as long. 

Youngmin popped his head through next. “Hey. Are we carrying on again, or is this as far as we’re going?” 

Kwangmin took a look at his watch. “Time is short. We’re going to need to return soon.” He pulled out his map and checked the cave chart system. “We have options. There is another exit close to here, but we’d have to walk up hill to the vehicles. There’s a lot more territory we’d enjoy covering given the time, maybe that’s an idea for next trip. We could enter close by and pick up from here.” 

“I’m good to do that, but for today, this is probably as far as we can go.” She took another long drink of water and surveyed the huge cavern they were in. This was one of the major destinations in the system. It was fascinating if a little scary to be this deep underground. 

As the last person made his way through the tunnel, she stood up, checked that everyone was okay and in good health. Then she took a short walk around the cave. Interesting place. There were other tunnels in the system. All headed off in various directions. Fascinating. She could spend days down here and still not explore them all. It would be dead easy to get lost. And that was something she had no intention doing. 

There were available maps of the caves that had been charted, but the GPS points were listed with the realization anything electronic was not dependable underground. Although many enthusiasts were trying to shift wholly to digital cave surveying, it was hit or miss at best. And in the dark, shadows lying long in the cavern, she knew how easy it was to get turned around. 

And that was often what brought her down here. People who’d lost their way and needed help to get back to the surface. So far, they’