The sun warms my skin, drying the ice-cold water spraying me with each crashing wave. Salt and sand sticks to my hair and face.

"Come on, Shawn!" my sister calls from deeper in the water.

I rub my eyes, laughing as a wave rushes past me. "Lucy, wait up!" I call to her.

She flips her long, dark hair over her shoulder and dives under a swell, kicking and splashing me as the wave roars in.

I cover my eyes, the force nearly knocking me off my feet. As the water pulls back out to sea, the sand beneath me slips between my toes.

After taking a deep breath, I plug my noise and dive into the icy water. I open my eyes once I'm down under, blinking through the salt as the ocean stirs around me. The world transforms into a swirling rainbow of colors.

I kick, propelling myself forward until my lungs burn and I need to come up for air. I burst through the surface and push my bangs out of my eyes, laughing as I gasp for air.

"I'm the Queen of the Sea!" Lucy shouts. She pulls a wad of bright green seaweed from the surface and drapes it over her head like a crown. She looks like a beautiful mermaid, the salty water glistening off her sun-kissed cheeks like glitter.

"What about me?" I spit out a mouthful of saltwater through the gap where I lost a baby tooth as I paddle up to her.

"You can be my dolphin advisor." She takes another fistful of seaweed and plants it on my head. "You can have a crown, too, even though you aren't royalty."

"How generous of you, your majesty." I giggle as I pretend to primp my hair beneath the crown of slimy seaweed.

Suddenly, something rumbles in the distance. The water churns around us. Then, out of nowhere, a massive swell crashes over the two of us, knocking me under. I'm flipped upside down, and the top of my head grazes the sandy bottom. I try to grab my crown, but the seaweed slips through my fingers, rushing away into the depths of the sea.

My lungs burn for air. I tumble in the surf until finding my footing and kicking off the bottom. When my head breaks through the surface, I gasp for breath.

"Lucy, I lost my crown." I cough as I search for her amid the cresting, undulating sea.

"Girls!" the voice of my mother calls from the shore. "Don't swim out too far!"

I turn back, but I can't find my mom. I can't even see the shore. The ocean stretches on for as far as I can see. Our bungalow on the beach is gone, and the dunes that protect it have been swallowed up by the rising tide.

"Mom!" I shout. "Where are you?"

My tiny legs struggle to tread water. Seaweed brushes against my ankles, wrapping around me like wispy hands and pulling me down.

"Lucy!" I call frantically, searching the white-caped ocean for my sister.

Another wave crashes over me, sending me tumbling and rolling. I finally manage to right myself. "Help!" I shout when my head breaks through the surface. "Lucy! Where are you?"

"I'm over here," a voice whispers from somewhere behind me.

I struggle to turn myself in the water as the seaweed crawls up my legs. It pulls on mu like two anchors, trying to pull me down under.

I wipe the salty spray from my eyes as I search the ocean, but I can't find Lucy anywhere. Above me, the sun burns hot and red, baking the earth. The sky melts like a pallet of watercolors into the raging sea.

"Lucy!" I shout.

"I'm right here," the haunting voice sings. The water in front of me bubbles and churns, and then a head draped in black hair and a crown of seaweed rises from within the whirlpool. The eyes emerge next, glowing red as they reflect back the sickly light of the swollen sun. Finally, her mouth appears. Her lips are taught in a calm smile.

"Don't worry, Shawn," she whispers, but her mouth doesn't move.

My heart races in my chest. "Stop doing that, Lucy! Stop, please!"

"I'm not Lucy anymore." Her mouth curls into a smile. "I'm the queen of the sea." Her lips part in a grimace, revealing her teeth. The sharp, pointed incisors fill her mouth like the jaws of a shark. Blood drips from them, and tiny parasites worm their way around, squirming and squealing.

"Lucy!" I scream. I kick and paddle as hard as I can to get away, but for every stroke I take, the current drags me back another yard. The seaweed wrapped around my legs tightens, pulling me toward the monster impersonating my sister.

"Help!"

I glance over my shoulder. Slowly, the creature rises out of the water. Its torso is that of a young girl, but from the waist down, it transforms into a serpent. Its tail whips back and forth, forming a ripping whirlpool around the two of us.

I try to pry the seaweed from my legs, but that only makes it squeeze tighter.

Suddenly, I'm lifted into the air, the seaweed revealing itself as two massive tentacles extending out of the body of the monster. They connect into her shoulders where her arms should be. I scream, struggling to pry the tentacles from my legs. My skin feels like it's frying in the heat of the swelling sun.

"Stay with me here forever, Shawn," the monster hums. "The sun is dying. The Earth is dying. But you can join me here, beneath the ground. Beneath the sea. In the darkness down under, we can live together. Forever, we'll be free."

My throat burns like it is going to explode as I try to scream, but I can't get any sound out. It's like trying to scream beneath the ocean. Water fills my mouth and my lungs. The queen of the sea pulls me in with her massive tentacles. Worms scamper over them before reaching my legs. They crawl across my body like a thousand spiders.

The monster stretches her jaw, and her parasite-infested teeth spread wide, snapping as they draw in closer and closer to my neck.

"Lucy!" The pressure building in my throat finally, breaks, and I scream as loud as I can. "Help!"

"Shawn!" a man's voice calls out.

A hand grips my arm, shaking me. "Shawn, wake up," another man says.

My heart races as I blink, and cold sweat slicks the back of my neck. A bright white light blinds me. "What?" I manage to gasp, snapping my eyes closed against the burning light. It fades to a deep glowing red behind my eyelids—red like the sun.

"What's going on?" My voice comes out hoarse, like I've been screaming for a year.

The glowing red behind my eyelids dims, and I open them again.

"You're okay," a man says. The beam on his headlamp shines off to the side now. He hits a button on my helmet, turning on my own light.

"Elias?" I say, finally recognizing the wrinkled face and wispy white hair of my crew mate.

The tunnel around me glows a dark, haunting red. America sits next to me, his hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. Star sits on his other side, glancing at me out of the corners of her eyes. We're still in the caves.

"It's okay, Shawn," Elias says.

"You were just having a nightmare," America adds.

I blink a few more times.

"I'm pretty sure she woke up in a nightmare, too," Star says under her breath, but she flashes me a half smile.

I chuckle despite the brutal truth in the joke. "Fair point," I say. "Sorry I woke you all up screaming."

America shrugs. "I wasn't able to sleep, anyway."

"Speak for yourself, I was out like a light," Star responds. "Best sleep of my life. You owe me one, girlfriend." She leans over and punches me lightly in the arm.

A small smile sneaks across my face as I push myself to a seated position. I glance down the tunnel. The enormous body of the worm rests as still as death, blocking our only way ahead. "Wish I could have woken up Rip Van Winkle, too." I gesture to the worm with my head. I turn to Elias. "How long have we been sleeping?"

He shrugs. "Just a couple hours. No movement from our friend Mr. Van Winkle yet, unfortunately."

I nod, licking the back of my teeth. The vision from my nightmare—the monster my sister became—won't leave my mind. It's burned in like the red sun—a sickness swelling behind her as it consumed the world. Before she transformed into that monster, the Lucy in my dream was exactly as I remember her—happy, vibrant, and beautiful.

A warm, salty tear leaks from my eye and slides down my cheek. The disease that eventually took her life stole all of that from her. It took everything but her courage. Through it all, she never stopped being brave.

Before I realize it, more tears are streaming from my eyes.

The others don't look at me as I cry. Elias stares off to the side, and Star draws shapes into the sand. America puts his arm around me. I let myself lean into him. I've never liked human contact, but for some reason, right now, it's comforting. I don't feel so alone.

"Was Lucy your sister?" Elias finally asks once I manage to stifle the tears.

"Huh?" I ask. How did he—

"You were shouting her name right before you woke up," Star says in a low voice.

I nod, sniffling once because I can't wipe my nose with my helmet on. "Lucy was my older sister. She died of cancer when I was twelve."

Everyone is silent for a moment. "I'm sorry," Elias finally says. "That's a horrible way to lose someone."

When no one says anything in response, I continue, for some reason feeling the need to fill the silence. "She was my hero. When we were kids, our family used to go to this bungalow by the ocean every summer for vacation. It was our favorite place. Lucy and I played this game together, where she was the queen of the sea, and I was a dolphin. It sounds stupid when I say it, but I miss that. I miss her." I pause. "That's my favorite memory in the world. My favorite memory of Earth."

No one says anything for a moment. The silence and darkness in the tunnel makes me aware of every breath I take. It's the only thing I can hear.

"My mom was my hero," Star finally breaks the silence. "After Dad died, she took care of me and my brother, Ray, by herself and worked a full-time job." She continues to draw shapes in the sand, repeating the image of a five-pointed star, like the one tattooed on her neck. "She started dating this man when I was eighteen . . . He didn't treat her right, and it killed me to see the damage he did to her. Emotional. Physical. One night, I just couldn't stand to see it anymore—"

I hold my breath, biting down on my cheeks as I wait for her to continue.

"I guess I should have waited," she says. "Done it at a time I could have claimed self-defense or something . . . But thinking about it now, I don't regret it. If I would have waited, maybe I would have waited too long."

She closes her eyes for a second, but she doesn't let out any tears. "My favorite memory," she continues, "was every Christmas, Mom, Ray and I would cut out these paper ornaments to hang on the big pine tree in our backyard. I was the baby, so I got to put the star on the top every year. Mom called me her Little Star, and my brother was her Ray of Sunshine."

My nose burns as tears come to my eyes again. I blink, not caring that they are running down my face. I don't look away from the others, even though I'm the only one crying.

"I miss Earth," Star says. "I miss home."

"I miss it, too," I say.

A minute goes by where we are all silent. Finally, America breaks it.

"My favorite memory of Earth is my dad taking me and my little sister to the boardwalk," he says. "We used to go to this pier with all these old, crumbling rides. I remember this one roller coaster called the Great White. It was one of those huge, wooden ones, like they used to build a hundred years ago. I was so scared to go on it, but my dad tricked me into it, telling me we were standing in line for the smaller one next to it. As we went up the lift, I was terrified, but I ended up loving it.

"The boardwalk was falling apart and seedy as hell, but it's one of my favorite memories anyway. I think it's because it was my dad took us. His work was everything to him, but he still made the time for me and my sister regardless of how busy he was. He was the one that taught me I could do anything I wanted with my life if I put my mind to it."

America stretches his legs out in front of him, leaning his head back for a second before continuing. "You all know what I did to go to prison. I faked a crime because I wanted to go into space. I wanted this adventure. But, I bet you don't know the story of why my name is America."

"Why?" I ask when no one else says anything.

He flashes me a small smile. "Actually, it's a very short story. America is just a family name. Technically, I'm America the Third."

Star lets out a laugh. "Wow." She shakes her head. "The fact that there are three of you makes it even worse."

"Oh, but it gets even worse than that," he continues with a grin. "My little sister is named Germany. That one's not a family name, but my dad thought it would be funny, and my mom lost a bet."

The three of us all laugh. "Your poor, poor sister," Elias says. "And I thought your name was bad."

"What about you," America nods to Elias, kicking him lightly with his boot.

"I think my mom just liked the name Elias." He shrugs.

"No," America shakes his head. "What did you do? Favorite memory? Terrible crime you committed to get a life sentence? You give off this mad scientist vibe. Gotta be something interesting behind the wispy white hair."

Elias smiles at him. "The first one is an easy question. My favorite memory of Earth was the day my daughter, Dawn, was born." A pause. "You're right about your second guess. I was a scientist. When I was younger, my wife, Carolyn, and I were involved in medical research, working with experimental drugs."

"What happened?" Star asks.

"We were both arrested for illegal human testing," Elias says. He looks away from us, his headlight shining down the tunnel into darkness. "Illegal human testing on a child."

I swallow down a lump in my throat as a chill rushes through me.

"That's why Cathryn and I went to prison," he says. "I haven't seen her in years. And the funny thing is, when I accepted this mission, some part of me thought, hopelessly, maybe she would have been on it too. Silly, right?"

None of us say anything in response.

"Now," he finally continues, "I'm glad she isn't here. I wouldn't want what's happened to us here to happen to her. I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else. Ever."

"Why did you do it?" I finally ask. "The testing. On a child?"

"Carolyn and I knew the drug we were working with would work. We'd seen all the effects in simulations and animal testing. I trusted our research." He pauses. "The drug was approved for human testing six months after we were both incarcerated."

"Why didn't you just wait then?" I ask. "If it was so close to being approved, why risk that? Why risk going to prison over six months?"

"Some people didn't have six months to wait," he says. "Our daughter didn't." A long pause. "I imagine Dawn's about your age now, Shawn. Well, thirty-two years older than you, I suppose." He smiles at me faintly.

"She lived?" Star asks.

"Yes," Elias says. "She was cured. If we would have waited, maybe, we would have waited too long."

I feel America's hand grip mine, and I hold it back. I reach out to Elias, and he takes my hand as well. On the other side, the two of them hold Star's hands. I lean back, feeling the comfort of other people—something I always avoided growing up. Being trapped down here, the fact that I don't have to go through it alone comforts me.

"How much longer do you think we have to wait?" Star finally asks after a few minutes have gone by. "Hey! Rip Van Winkle!" she shouts at the worm. She bangs one foot on the ground. "Wake the fuck up!"

Suddenly, as if responding to all the shouting, the ground beneath us rumbles. I tighten my grip on America and Elias' hands.

Then, the worm's body shudders to life, like a dog shaking as it wakes up. After another minute of the four of us watching it in silence, it begins to move. Slowly at first, but it gradually picks up its pace. After another five minutes, the tail of the creature emerges from the tunnel. It's finally reached its end, but now, I don't feel so terrified of it. It's just a big, overgrown earthworm eating its dinner. A big, overgrown earthworm with tentacles and wings, that is.

"Guess we can finally get going again," America says.

Star nods as she pushes herself to her feet. "Let's move. Even if it isn't trying to eat us, those tentacles are a bitch. I don't want to stick around here and wait for its babies or something to come crawling out of that worm hole behind it."