The group stood at the mouth of the tunnel.

"We are going in, but she will go first," said Mac. He pushed Jay roughly down to the ground and she started crawling through the tunnel with Mac right behind her. The rest made it through the tunnel with no problems and were now in a very narrow space.

"We have to go toward that big flat rock on the right up there. Then we have to go up," said Jay, pointing to a large smooth grey rock way above them to their left.

And up they went. Joe thought they would never reach the top. Every muscle in his body was screaming and he could tell the others too were having problems with the climb. Slowly the group edged its way up the side of the tunnel toward the rock, each one finding footholds on the rocky edges.

Suddenly Josh, the smallest member of the group, slipped at a particularly dangerous place about thirty feet up and before he knew it, was hanging on to the side of the tunnel wall by his hands.

"Help!" he screamed, trying to regain his footing but failing.

Mac kept the gun on Joe and Jay while Drake and Harry helped Josh. By the time they got Josh up to the landing they were gasping for air.

"We will rest here for a while," said Mac. Everyone was extremely happy about his decision.

Joe turned to Jay and asked, "Exactly how long does this route take?"

"It took me a little over two days to find my way out last time," said Jay.

"Two days?!" yelled Drake. "Mac, we don' t have that much time."

"Look, it won' t take us that long this time, I know my way better. It will probably take another 6-8 hours. The Nest will take the longest to get through," Jay paused for a moment.

"How did you make it through last time without getting bitten? asked Joe.

"I didn't" Jay replied, looking Joe in the eyes. "Something bit me and I barely made it to the hospital on time." She smiled at his obviously shocked reaction. "I was ok in the end though, so no real harm done."

The rest of the trip through the different tunnels and caves was uneventful, if you call squeezing through tunnels, climbing over huge boulders, walking side by side on ridges and crossing pools of some kind of dark, bubbly acid uneventful.

Joe felt like he had just been through basic training for the army or some kind of crazy advanced survival course. He looked again at Jay and couldn't believe she had done all of this by herself. He also prayed again that Frank had realized that something was wrong and was looking for them at that moment.

Eventually they came to the 'Nest' The Nest was definitely a good name for it. The passage way narrowed even more, and there was some king of thorny vine growing along the walls. Joe could also see a lot of spider' s webs, and what looked like rat droppings. He could hear the hiss of snakes in the distance. This was not somewhere that anyone wanted to walk.

However, Jay pulled out something from her backpack and threw it at Drake. Drake was staring at a roll of duct tape.

"What I am supposed to do with this?" asked Drake.

"Wrap it around your ankles, sleeves, and where ever you think a snake or spider might find a way to crawl in," said Jay.

"Why don't you burn them out of it, like you did earlier on" Mac asked, pointing his gun straight at Jay, "Are you trying to get us killed so you and blondie here can escape, is that it?"

Jay looked at him. "Unfortunately, no" she replied. "I can' t use the flares here, that aren't strong enough, and anyhow, they would just set the vines on fire and then no one could walk through the tunnel and we would be trapped."

Joe looked at Mac's face to see whether or not he would accept Jay' s explanation, but it seemed that he did, for he bent down and began tying the duct tape around his ankles.

After they had finish duct taping themselves, they moved toward the Nest. Jay turned to them and said, "Step where I step. Watch where you put your hands and feet. You don' t know when they are going to strike. No unnecessary talking either."

Everyone nodded and moved to step in the Nest. Jay used her backpack and a stick to help move snakes and other animals. Some of them didn't react, but others struck at the backpack or the stick. Their movements through the nest were very slow and careful. When they finally emerged and dusted each other off for unsuspecting riders, they slumped down on the ground.

"I cannot believe you did that by yourself," said Joe, out loud this time.