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them like a blanket. Jack could almost feel it draping over him. They stood in silence for a few moments until Rudy spoke up.
    â€œDo you guys see what I’m seeing?”
    As Jack’s eyes adjusted, he saw that the entire chamber glowed with a pale light that seemed to come from all around them. It had been nearly imperceptible in the glow of their flashlights.
    A sinewy network of glowing tendrils shrouded the cave floor and walls. Jack could even make out Rudy and Ben in the light.
    â€œWhoa,” Ben whispered.
    â€œGlow-in-the-dark slime?” Jack quipped.
    â€œBioluminescence,” Rudy said. “This stuff just keeps getting more impressive.”
    The light was nearly hypnotic as Jack found himself staring at the substance. For a moment he felt oddly detached, like he was far off somewhere, watching himself from the outside.
    Then he shook himself out of his trance. This discovery—as awesome as it was—didn’t change the fact that they were still lost. More than that, he had yet to find evidence of the N’watu. Despite their circumstances, he needed to find some answers. He wasn’t about to leave these caves empty-handed. “So which passage do we take?”
    Ben stood, hands on hips, surveying their surroundings. After a minute he pointed up ahead. “That looks like a way out.”
    The fibrous growth clung to the floor and crawled up the walls like a network of glowing veins and arteries. Ahead of them appeared to be a small opening, as if the luminous tendrils had grown around the mouth of another tunnel.
    They found a tunnel about five feet wide, though less than four feet high. The slime continued far down the passage but became less dense the farther they got from the springs.
    They found they could navigate the passage by the light of the microorganisms alone. It reminded Jack of a carnival fun house he’d been to once as a kid where the trail was marked by phosphorescent paint on the floors.
    â€œThis is a little psychedelic,” he said.
    Ben stopped abruptly and held up a hand. Jack and Rudy froze in their tracks.
    â€œWhat is it?” Rudy whispered.
    â€œSomething’s moving up ahead.”
    Jack drew up beside Ben, who was pointing down the passage. He saw an elongated black shape detach itself from the wall and glide across the ground maybe twenty feet away. It almost seemed like a hallucination—just a long shadow that flitted across the glowing veins on the cave floor.
    In the dim light, Jack saw Ben slowly remove his flashlight and point at the switch. “Watch your eyes,” Ben whispered.
    Jack winced as the light flicked on, and he felt Ben move away quickly. In the commotion, Jack found himself momentarily stunned, surprised by how bright it seemed. He shielded his eyes and spotted Ben ahead of him, shining the flashlight around the passage. Then Jack felt Rudy brush past him and heard their voices elevated in excitement.
    â€œDid you see it? Did you see that thing?” Ben was saying.
    â€œI—I didn’t get a good look.”
    â€œIt was huge!”
    â€œWhat was it?” Jack stumbled up to where they were standing.
    Ben climbed onto a jagged rock formation along the side of the tunnel and shone his light into the cracks behind it. “I don’t know. It was . . . like a centipede or something. But I mean, the thing was huge !”
    â€œA centipede?”
    Rudy shook his head. “I don’t see anything.”
    â€œIt crawled back behind this rock,” Ben said.
    Jack crouched beside the rock to inspect the opening. It was far too narrow to crawl through—not that he would’ve gone into it even if it were big enough.
    â€œShut your lamps off,” he said. “Whatever it is, it’s obviously trying to avoid the light. Let’s wait a minute and see if it comes back.”
    Ben switched off the light again, and in several seconds Jack’s eyes readjusted to