The Narrow Passage

Anton counted the turns silently as they crawled deeper into the cave: left, left, right, then a narrow squeeze the guidebook called "tight but passable." He was fairly sure he had counted correctly, though the dark made everything feel less certain than it should have.

他们往洞穴深处爬去，安东默默数着转弯：左，左，右，然后是一段狭窄的挤缝，指南上称之为“很窄，但可以通过”。他很确定自己没有数错，不过黑暗让一切都变得没有应有的那么确定。

"My headlamp's flickering," Zara said from behind him, her voice tight with the effort of controlling her breathing. She had told him before the trip that tight spaces made her nervous. This passage was testing that more than either of them had expected.

“我的头灯在闪，”扎拉在他身后说，她的声音因为努力控制呼吸而绷得很紧。出发前她就告诉过他，狭窄的地方会让她紧张。这条通道对她的考验，超出了他们两个人的预料。

"Mine's steady. Use my light to see your footing, and we'll swap batteries once we're through," Anton said, trying to sound calmer than he felt.

“我的灯很稳。你借我的光看清脚下，穿过去之后我们换电池，”安东说，努力让自己听起来比实际更镇定。

The passage narrowed further, forcing them onto their stomachs, packs dragging against stone that pressed close on both sides. Anton's own light caught something wrong ahead — the tunnel split, and neither branch matched what the guidebook had described.

通道变得更窄，他们不得不趴下，背包拖在石头上，两侧的岩壁紧紧压着。安东自己的灯照到前方有些不对劲——隧道分成了两条岔路，哪一条都和指南上描述的不一样。

"This isn't right," he admitted. "I think we took a wrong turn back at the second junction."

“不对，”他承认道，“我想我们在第二个路口那里走错了。”

Zara's breathing sped up. "So we're lost. In here."

扎拉的呼吸急促起来。“所以我们迷路了。在这里面。”

"We're not lost, we just took the wrong branch," Anton said, though he understood why the distinction felt thin to her right now. "If we back up to the junction, we can find the correct one. I remember the shape of it — a low ledge on the left side."

“我们没有迷路，只是选错了岔路，”安东说，不过他明白，此刻在她听来，这个区别显得很单薄。“只要退回到路口，我们就能找到正确的那条。我记得它的样子——左侧有一块低矮的岩台。”

Backing up through a passage that tight took nearly as long as crawling forward had, and Zara's flickering headlamp chose that moment to die completely. Anton passed his own light back to her without hesitation and continued by feel alone.

在这么窄的通道里往后退，花的时间几乎和往前爬一样长，而扎拉的头灯偏偏在这时彻底熄了。安东毫不犹豫地把自己的灯递给她，自己只凭手感继续往前。

"Almost there," he said, more to keep her calm than because he was certain. Then his hand found the ledge he remembered, low and unmistakable along the left wall.

“快到了，”他说，与其说是因为确定，不如说是为了让她保持冷静。这时，他的手摸到了他记得的那块岩台，低低的，就在左侧岩壁上，错不了。

"Here. This is it."

“这里。就是这儿。”

They took the correct branch this time, and within twenty minutes the passage widened into a chamber lit faintly from an opening above. Zara sat down hard on the cave floor, laughing with relief before she had fully caught her breath.

这一次他们走对了岔路，不到二十分钟，通道就变宽了，进入一个洞室，上方的一个开口透进微弱的光。扎拉重重地坐在洞底，还没完全喘过气来，就先笑了起来，满是如释重负。