Mayuree Nin and her team had just won a great soccer game in Hat Yai, Thailand. Her team was walking through a cave, which they went through a lot because it was a shortcut to the ice cream shop. They also had granola bars and celebratory treats.
Mayuree was laughing with her friends. The youngest kid on the team was 13. She was hugging everyone around her. The oldest kid on the team was 16, and she was jumping up and down. Mayuree was 14.
Then, the monsoon rain started. It flooded the caves.
“Coach!” shouted Mayuree. She ran over and hid behind a rock. All of the girls started to scream. Coach grabbed Mayuree’s arm. The team ran further into the cave. They stopped and waited. After a while, they went back out. Not every place was flooded. They went to try and find a way out of the cave. They looked around. The only ways out were small little tubes filled with water. Mayuree fell to the ground. They were trapped!
“Let’s try to ration out our food,” Coach said. First, they looked for water. They found water in a corner on the right side of the cave.
“This water tastes weird,” Mayuree’s friend said. The team was trying to wait for the water to drain. But it didn’t.
On the seventh day of being in the cave, the team ran out of food.
“What are we going to do!” a girl shouted. The coach sat down.
“I don’t know,” the coach sighed. They were trapped for four more days in the cave. On the fifth day, an explorer popped in all dressed in scuba gear. The kids looked up.
“Do you have any food?” the girls asked.
The explorer shook his head. The girls sighed. The explorer immediately dived back in the tunnel and left the girls behind. The explorer told other people about the team in the cave. The story became worldwide.
Mayuree was starving. Her whole team was starving. The rescuers brought the team food. The girls all ate very quickly. But now they were active enough to find some more water. The rescuers brought the team water bottles, snacks, and meals. Now they were finally active enough to talk about finding a way out. The rescuers told the team that the only ways out were the small passageways that were a mile long. It took six hours for the rescuers to get to the team. Mayuree liked to sit and wait for six hours for the rescuers to come. It really was the only thing to really do in the cave. But for two days, none of them came. They thought that the rescuers had forgotten about the team. They grew hungry again.
A rescuer came a few days later. He reported that a rescuer died in the passage. He was trying to put air packages in the passageway. But he ran out of air. That made the team cry. They knew they were never going to get out.
But the next day, rescuers came with extra gear. “Okay, kids. I will take four of you through the passage. One rescuer will be in front and in back of you.” As the rescuer said this, he handed scuba gear. They gave gear to Mayuree and her friend Malliyalara. Mayuree got scared.
A few hours later, Mayuree and the group of her friends were getting ready to go in. Mayuree used to be scared that she was not going to be good at soccer and lose the game. But this was so much scarier. Mayuree said goodbye to her friends and coach. Then, one by one, the girls went in the passages.
The girls had been swimming for three hours. The girls were very tired. Then, Mallivalara started to fall to the bottom of the passage. A rescuer came up behind her. He could not come next her. The passage was too small for that. “She ran out of air!” the rescuer shouted. Mayuree looked behind her. But it was hard. The tunnel was three feet tall and two feet wide. She had to turn back forward. How was this possible? she thought. The words went through her head a million times. Her friend had died. Her friend had died. Her friend had died. Her friend since diapers had died! But Mayuree had to focus. She went the rest of the trip focused and ready. When she got out of the cave, she could change out of her gear. She stared out of the cave. She took her mask off and took a deep breath. But she noticed none of the rescuers were holding Mallivalara’s body. Mayuree got filled with rage. She ran back to the tunnel. She dived in.
“Wait!!!” the rescuers cried. They grabbed Mayuree by the leg, then pulled her out.
“What do you think you’re doing?” the rescuers said to her.
“You left my friend’s body in the tunnel!!!” she shouted. Tears filled her eyes. She tried to pull back from the rescuer, but his grip was too strong. She gave up. She fell to the ground. The rescuers looked at each other. One pulled a mask out of his back pocket. He was about to put it on when Mayuree jumped up and grabbed it from him. Then, Mayuree jumped back into the tunnel. She started crawling towards her friend.
Three hours later, Mayuree came upon her friend. She was not moving, and Mayuree just wanted to cry. But she held herself together. She grabbed onto her arm and moved as fast as she could. She didn’t want to run out of air.
Four hours later, she was nearing the end of the tunnel. Then, she knew what was happening. She was running out of air. She tried to swim faster. She did exactly what she saw on shows. She had to take short breaths. She saw the exit. She started to swim faster and faster. Then, she totally ran out of air. She had a record of holding her breath for a minute, and she guessed that it was okay. She swam very fast and bursted through the top. She jumped out and grabbed her mask off. She took a deep breath and relaxed. She took Malmallikalara’s mask off. She sighed. At least she was okay, and her friend was not stuck in a tunnel. She took a deep breath. Then, she heard someone take an even deeper breath. It was Mallivalalara! She sat up. She looked around. Mayuree walked over and helped her up. Now this was a happy ending!!!
THE END