The Narrow Shaft

Zanele's headlamp had been dimming for the last ten minutes, and the passage around her had narrowed to the point where turning around was no longer physically an option.

扎内莱的头灯在过去十分钟里一直在变暗，而她身边的通道已经窄到再也无法掉头了。

She and Corin had pushed further into the cave system than either of them had planned, chasing a side passage that had looked, from the entrance chamber, wide enough for the both of them. It wasn't, not this far in, and Corin had wisely stopped at the last wide point rather than follow her into a gap that narrowed with every meter.

她和科林比原计划深入洞穴系统得多，一路追着一条旁道进来。从入口的洞厅看，那条旁道宽得足够两个人通过。可是进到这么深的地方就不是了，科林明智地停在了最后一处宽敞的地方，没有跟着她钻进那道每深入一米就更窄一分的缝隙。

"Talk to me," Corin called back, voice flattened by rock and distance. "How's it looking?"

“跟我说说话，”科林向后喊道，声音被岩石和距离压得闷闷的，“情况怎么样？”

"Tight." Zanele kept her own voice level, mostly for his benefit. "I can still move. Just slowly."

“很窄。”扎内莱努力让自己的声音保持平稳，大半是为了让他安心。“我还能动，就是很慢。”

What frightened her, more than the narrowing rock itself, was the dimming light and a particular kind of panic. It came from feeling her own breathing speed up in a space too small to expand her chest fully. She made herself count breaths instead of counting the meters still ahead of her, a trick an instructor had taught her for exactly this situation, though she'd never actually needed it until now.

比岩壁本身越来越窄更让她害怕的，是越来越暗的光线，以及一种特别的恐慌。在这么小的空间里，胸腔根本无法完全扩张，她能感觉到自己的呼吸越来越急，恐慌就是从这里来的。她强迫自己数呼吸，而不是去数前面还剩多少米。这是一位教练专门为这种情况教过她的办法，不过直到现在她才真正用上。

Ten breaths. She had moved, by her own estimate, maybe half a body length. Twenty breaths, and the passage widened, almost imperceptibly at first, then enough that she could feel it in her shoulders before she could see it in the dimming beam ahead.

十次呼吸。按她自己的估计，她挪动了大概半个身长。二十次呼吸，通道变宽了，起初几乎察觉不到，后来宽到她的肩膀先感觉到了，眼睛才在渐渐变暗的光束里看见。

Had she panicked at minute three instead of counting breaths, she suspected her own thrashing might have wedged her more tightly rather than less, the exact opposite of what the situation required. Calm, in a passage this narrow, was not a feeling so much as a discipline she had to keep actively choosing.

如果她在第三分钟就慌了神，而不是数呼吸，她猜想自己的挣扎说不定会把自己卡得更紧，而不是更松，这正好与眼下的需要背道而驰。在这么窄的通道里，冷静与其说是一种感觉，不如说是一种她必须不断主动选择的自律。

The passage opened fully at breath thirty-four, into a low chamber wide enough to turn around in. Zanele sat there for a full minute before calling back to Corin, letting her breathing return to something ordinary before she trusted her own voice again.

通道在第三十四次呼吸时完全打开了，通向一个低矮的洞室，宽得足以转身。扎内莱在那里坐了整整一分钟，才向科林喊话，先让呼吸恢复平常，再相信自己的声音。

"I'm through," she called. "There's a chamber here. Coming back the way I came, though, not forward."

“我过来了，”她喊道，“这里有个洞室。不过我要原路退回去，不往前走了。”

Corin's relief carried clearly down the passage even before he said a word. Working her way back toward the sound of it, Zanele found she was smiling despite the ache still settling into her shoulders.

科林的如释重负顺着通道清清楚楚地传了过来，连话都还没说出口。扎内莱朝着那声音的方向往回挪，发现自己虽然肩膀还隐隐作痛，却已经笑了起来。