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Their camp looked almost the same as when they left; only a small cave-in, which landed on a pile of their diamonds, changed the look of the site. Derek found his backpack and nothing was damaged, and they were both glad to have their flashlights back.
Realizing that they didn't have much time, they gathered as many diamonds as they could that weren't buried in the cave-in, loaded their backpacks as full as they could, and started for the mouth of the passageway that was set to the rear of their camp and led to the surface; but before they got to the passageway, another tremor struck (fortunately they weren't close enough yet) and caved in the mouth of the passage, which was their only way out.
"Now how are we going to get out?" Lana asked.
Derek looked up and said, "I see only one way to go."
They both looked down into the abyss, and then back up the chimney, and then at each other.
Lana started to laugh; and Derek said, "Are you ready?"
Lana took her flashlight and pointed it up the chimney and couldn't see the end.
"Get your rope; we have to get out," Derek said soberly.
They tied themselves together and walked to the left, facing the rear wall, and found a place where there were some good holds that seemed to continue up the chimney. They had to use the method of tying the rope off on protruding rocks instead of using pitons, which would be of no use with this type of rock. They didn't believe that the pitons would hold.
Derek led; and before Lana could follow, Derek realized that he was trying to carry too many diamonds, so he climbed back down. Both he and Lana removed some of the diamonds from their backpacks because they weighed too much to carry up the chimney, with the fiery abyss as the consequence.
The climb was long and dangerous, and all the time they were hoping that
there would not be any more tremors, which could throw them into the fiery
abyss. There were no tremors, and they finally reached the top and looked
over the crest into the forest below.
