Explore "In Caverns Below" by Stanton A. Coblentz on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It was only three "wakes" later when catastrophe struck.
During the interval, I had been sheltering Clay the best I could, trying to keep him disguised and hidden, laying out a future course of action. Many were our hurried little talks in which we decided that the only safety for either of us lay in the Overworld; however, since premature flight would be worse than none at all, we were making our plans coolly and deliberately. Already I had withdrawn the military guard from the tubes; I had secreted a quantity of hooks, ropes, and other climbing tackle at the base of one of the flues, which, I knew, led upward to the Overworld; I had taken steps to secure quantities of concentrated food, medical supplies, and other necessities, to be strapped in knapsacks about our backs.