Sorry this took so long, but I had to wait until the forum was back up because I didn't save the whole story. -.- Well, it's finally here, thank Ripred.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything here that was in TUC. Yeah...

I regretted jumping the second my feet left the ground.

I didn't expect it to be that deep. I thought it would just be a quick 10 foot drop, and that Zoey was just so dizzy that she couldn't see the bottom. But no - the thing was like a bottomless pit. Zoey's limp body was plummeting down about ten feet away from me.

At first I flailed around in terror and screamed, trying to regain balance. After about 20 seconds of screaming my head off, I got over the terror and stopped. After I thought about it, falling wasn't actually that bad. I did a few flips. It was actually kind of fun!

Then I remembered Zoey. The ground could show up at any moment, and she was just flopping around down there unprepared! I changed into a diving position, which managed to speed me up a bit. I reached out and almost grabbed hold of her shirt, but a strange current swept her to the side and out of my reach. I cursed, twisted to the side, and caught her wrist before she blew away again. Sighing with relief, I pulled her back in and held her close.

The light from the apartment had all since faded, but I could still see thanks to what I guessed was glow-in-the-dark fungus that coated the walls. They illuminated the tunnel in a silvery blue glow just bright enough to see by. The light bounced off the tiny pieces of mica blowing in the currents, making each bit act like a mini disco ball. In my arms, my best friend was sleeping more deeply than she ever had in her life. If you ignore the wind whistling in your ears, the gut wrenching, and the fact that you are most likely falling to your death, it was actually quite… peaceful.

Something bumped the top of my head, thankfully pulling me back into reality. I looked up (which actually isn't that much more comforting than looking down), and there was my suitcase. That roach must have pushed it off after I fell. I guess he wasn't all bad. I grabbed the suitcase. I looked down, and there was the ground. I nearly panicked, but my common sense stopped me.

This is no time for panicking, I thought. I have about 20 seconds before I hit the ground. I have to work fast.

I twisted around onto my back, cupped Zoey between my arms, reached out to my suitcase with both hands. I turned back around so the suitcase was pointing down. I held on tight, wished I had a parachute, and braced for impact.

WHAM! We slammed into the ground. Whatever held the suitcase together caved in. The only thing that kept the bag from completely flattening was the pile of clothes inside. Good thing that pile of clothes was still enough to keep us from dying.

Zoey jolted awake and sat up, knocking me off the travel case. But, before she could register anything, she melted back into oblivion and flopped down onto the ground next to the case. I recovered from the shock and nearly chuckled, but then I realized the searing pain in my left ring finger. I yelped and clutched it, which just made it hurt more. I cursed and shook my hand, and I heard something crack.

I tried to relax, knowing that if I didn't, everything would get worse. I scooted back over to the crumpled suitcase, reached into the side pocket, rooted around a bit, and pulled out my flashlight. The glass was cracked, but it still worked (after a little shake at least).

We were in a circular cavern at least 20 feet in diameter. The ceiling was crowded with hundreds of eerie stalactites of all sizes; one close to us would scrape my back even if I was doing the army crawl. If we had fallen any closer to the right, we would have been skewered on a sharp stalagmite next to us.

I looked over at Zoey. One of her cheeks had a bruise the size of a softball, but other than that she seemed okay. I thought about looking around her a little more, but something told me that this was not the time to strip my best friend down to her underwear. I looked at my hands and almost gagged.

Both my hands looked like they had been stuck in a blender. Several little cuts were scattered around my skin, steadily dripping blood. One especially long gash on my right middle finger had turned the whole finger crimson. For the first time I noticed that I had gotten blood all over my flashlight. But that wasn't the worst of it.

My left ring finger had swollen, making it twice as fat as usual. It bent at an odd angle, and a gash on the tip sent blood trickling down the bluish-purple skin. Whenever I tried to move it, my entire scarlet hand burned in pain.

I yelled something that I really shouldn't repeat. Sadly, nature repeated it for me by echoing it off of the walls, making me even angrier. Why did I follow that cockroach?

Using my right hand and teeth, I managed to tear open the crushed suitcase, grab my cleanest shirt, and wrap it around my left hand. I did the same for my right, but that time I only had my teeth and a balled up shirt on the end of an arm to work with.

I picked up the dusty gray shirt with my teeth, letting the clothing unfold on it's own. Something dropped out of the shirt and landed on my foot. Something hard. I yowled in pain, which only added to my anger and stress. It was just that old MP3 player I brought. I thought about listening to it just to calm my nerves, but I needed to save the battery for later. I tossed it aside (although it was more like a push) and continued to bandage myself up.

After that was done, all that was left to do was to wait. Maybe Ms. Harrison (I was too worried to even call her Goat Lady) called the police. But why would they ever check down an air vent? Besides, she was probably to scared of my roach escorts to do anything about me anyway. I groaned and leaned my head back. It was hopeless — I was going to be stuck down here forever, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Zoey was still fast asleep. The girl who couldn't get to sleep in a nice bed at night could sleep through a ten-minute fall in an air vent in the middle of the day, plus the impact. Strange. Well, when she wakes up, she sure isn't going to be happy.

Here, she is, here! something clicked. I scrambled to my feet.

Great, I thought. More cockroaches. Just what we need.

I shined my light in the direction the voice came in. "You can come out now!" I called. Insect or not, some company would be good right now. It stepped out from it's hiding place behind a stalagmite.

What I saw left me speechless.

I hoped you enjoyed it! Thanks Allie for the beta!