The Cavern

by Alister Hodge

  New prey was at hand.

  Jim stalled as the creature transferred its focus to him, saliva drying in his mouth as his balls clenched upward. The creature cut through the water, head and neck held clear of the surface, green eyes locked onto his. The thick tail swept back and forth in an arc, powering it forward with immense strength. Jim held the knife in front, his hand shaking.

  As it drew near, he slashed downward, aiming for the neck. It slipped to the side of his clumsy attack and buried a mouthful of teeth into his wrist, severing the flexor tendons. Jim screamed in pain and terror as the knife dropped into the water, released by slack, useless fingers. He tried to pull away, escape back to the shore, but it had already coiled its tail about his legs like a band of steel. The mouth detached from his wrist, leaving his radial artery to rhythmically spatter blood onto the surface of the water.

  The lights on shore illuminated the creature as it rose in front of Jim’s face, neck tissue flared out again as it began a mesmerizing sway. It struck with blinding speed, needle-like teeth plucking out his right eye in one deft move. He screamed as his eyeball was shredded and consumed, the pain a white-hot barb driven straight to his brain. Bony hands grasped either side of his face, using the newly created cavity as gripping point as it began to feed in earnest. A claw-tipped thumb drove deeper into his empty socket as Jim thrashed in agony, punching through the thin bone at the rear of the cavity, and into his brain.

  Chapter Two

  Ellie leant over the screen of the boat’s sonar, salt-kissed hair hanging free about her shoulders as she studied the rendition of the reef structure deep below. “Okay, I think we’re in the right spot. Let her go!”

  Sam dumped a heavy four-pronged steel anchor over the bow of the boat. It punched through an ocean swell with a splash, then disappeared, leaving a trail of bubbles as it descended. A few moments later the chain pulled taught as the anchor caught hold, drawing the bow around in the water. His job done, Sam eased his way past the small cabin of their boat and dropped into the back area that was framed by a thin bench-seat running along each side. Their equipment sat in a pile in the middle.

  Now that the boat was stable with a fixed position, Ellie left the controls and sat in the back to get her gear ready. She wore a full-length black wetsuit, the edge of a lime-green bikini disappearing from view as she zipped up the front. Dark, chocolate-black hair hung in loose curls about her shoulders. She gathered it behind her head with practiced efficiency, taming the mass into a single tight plait ready for the dive as she gave him a searching look.

  “You okay? You seem a little more quiet than usual.”

  “Sorry, not a great shift at work this morning,” said Sam, a little surprised she’d read him so easily.

  Ellie stopped what she was doing and gave her full attention. “What happened? Did you lose someone?”

  Sam nodded. “Yeah. A kid.”

  As a paramedic in the NSW Ambulance Service, his crew had been first on scene. If he closed his eyes, he could still the child’s tiny, dead body on the open expanse of hospital bed. Little stick arms, pale and inconsequential. Eyes dull and sightless, the corneas already drying.

  “It was a drowning. Poor little bastard was only five years old.”

  Ellie lifted a hand to her mouth in horror.

  “He was found by his teenage brother, face down in the family pool. The kid did his best, pulled him out and started CPR straight away, but it wasn’t enough.”

  “Oh my god, that’s horrible,” said Ellie. She leant over, and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “How are you holding up?”

  Sam took a deep breath and sighed. “I’ll be all right.”

  He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Enough about that, you’re not here for me to unload on.” He forced a smile. “I promised I’d come diving, so let’s crack on.”

  “You sure?”

  At her concern, this time his smile was genuine. “Yeah.”

  “Okay.” She grabbed a set of fins off the floor and passed them over. “If there’s ever a dive spot that will finally make you a convert, this is it. The reef below us is one of the best around Sydney. Heaps of fish, and if we get lucky, maybe even a few Grey Nurse sharks.” Her eyes were bright, an excited smile lighting her face.

  “Awesome.” He tried to inject some enthusiasm into his voice.

  “Sam, you don’t have to do this today. And with the caving trip tomorrow, we should probably be doing a last check over the gear we’re taking.”

  He looked up sharply to see her studying him, concern creasing the corners of her eyes.

  “Hey, I never said I didn’t want to.”

  Ellie gave a wry smile. “It’s written all over your face. I know you’ve had a tough day, but whenever you come diving with me, it’s pretty clear you hate being underwater.”

  Sam grimaced. “Is it that obvious?”

  Ellie bit her bottom lip as she gave a slight nod.

  “All right, I’ll admit it. I feel claustrophobic as all shit when I’m down there,” he sighed. “However, I also know it’s completely irrational, so I’ll keep facing that stupid fear head on until it no longer exists.”

  “Why bother if it’s no fun? You’ve got nothing to prove to me, especially after seeing you rock climb.” Ellie checked her tank and harness as she talked. “For god’s sake, last weekend you were hanging in clear space ninety metres in the air with only a two-finger grip. Ropes or not, there’s no way in hell I’d try that.”

  It had been through rock climbing the two had met four months earlier. Ellie had joined his group on a lead-climbing trip in the Blue Mountains. Sam had found himself drawn to her infectious smile and they’d hit it off, spending much of their free time together since. He soon discovered Ellie’s keen sense of adventure didn’t stop at rock climbing. She also had a passion for crawling through the bowels of the earth exploring caves. Ellie and her brother were two of the state’s best cave divers.

  “It’s not just the claustrophobia thing. I know you love diving more than anything else. I want to be able to understand that side of you and share in some of those experiences.”

  Ellie grinned. “Come here then, you big dope.” She leant forward and kissed him. “Just try to relax and enjoy it. Forget the water and focus on the beauty all around. It’s a world most people never see.”

  “Okay, you have my word.”

  The pair turned to readying themselves for the dive, pulling on the various pieces of scuba equipment until they sat on the edge of the boat with tanks on back and fins on feet. Sam took a steadying breath with the regulator clamped loosely between his teeth. Ellie gave an ‘okay’ sign, and when he matched it, she tumbled backwards into the water. With only a moment’s hesitation, Sam followed.

  The shock of the cool water through his wetsuit caught his breath for a moment as he oriented himself, treading water at the surface. Ellie bobbed next to him, waiting. A low swell lifted them, bumping Sam’s back against their boat before dropping down again.

  “You good?”

  Sam nodded. Ellie flashed him one last grin before putting the regulator in her mouth and duck diving, disappearing beneath the surface in a swirl of water. Sam took one last deep breath, then followed.

  He trailed a short way behind as she swam toward the bottom. Visibility wasn’t great, reduced to around ten metres. In every direction, all Sam could see was an empty, dark blue. He focused back on Ellie who had gained some distance on him as she made straight for the reef that was now starting to appear from the haze directly below.

  Sam concentrated on smooth beats of his fins and slow breaths to conserve air supply. The current was stronger than he had expected, forcing him to kick harder to maintain a straight line.

  Something smashed into his back, a hard impact against his tank that drove him forward with the force of a battering ram. He lost his regulator out of his mouth.

  What the hell was that?

  His heart raced as adrenaline surged. Had he
just been nudged by a shark? He stopped swimming and floated in space, trying to look in every direction at once. Water had seeped into his face mask with the impact, liquid now filling the bottom third. He couldn’t see Ellie or the reef segment, and realised the current had already swept him a distance.

  He searched behind, then to the sides again. Nothing but…

  A flash of movement, something large and black.

  Shit.

  Sam tried to follow it, but lost the shape in the blue murk. His chest burned with the need to breathe. He grabbed hold of the tubing to the regulator and pulled it back to his face. Biting around it, he took a rushed breath and accidently inhaled a small amount of water, causing him to cough violently.

  An image of his dead patient’s face flashed to the front of his mind. White skin. Limp muscles, dull lifeless eyes. Drowned. Anxiety buzzed in his chest as his breath rate surged. He needed to get to the surface. Now.

  He swam with hard kicks, allowing fear to power his escape. Moments later, his head breached the surface with a spray of water. He spat out the regulator and took a deep breath, before a hacking cough took over. Sam trod water, eyes darting about until he finally spotted their boat forty metres to the right. He began a steady swim to the craft, forcing smooth movements despite his agitation to be free of the water. With every stroke, he waited for razor sharp teeth to penetrate his thigh, tear through flesh and drag him below the surface.

  It didn’t happen.

  On reaching the back of the boat, he removed his fins and threw them over the edge, then climbed the steps. He shrugged off his tanks, dumping them onto the floor of the boat before slumping onto a bench seat, chest heaving as he regained his breath and waited for his heart rate to settle. Out the corner of his eye, movement off the stern caught his attention.

  A swirl in the water.

  He stood up and searched the surface, fear for Ellie’s safety now at the forefront of his mind. As he stared, a seal’s head poked above the water, liquid black eyes regarding him with what he could have sworn was a mischievous expression.

  “You cheeky, fucking bastard,” muttered Sam, realising that it had probably been the seal who’d hit him from behind while playing around underwater.

  A loud exhalation through a regulator mouthpiece announced Ellie’s arrival back at the surface. She dropped the breathing apparatus from her mouth and lifted her mask to her forehead, eyeing Sam with a confused expression.

  “Are you okay?”

  Sam felt heat rise at his cheeks, knowing that he’d panicked over nothing. “Yeah, I managed to inhale water down there. Felt like I was going to cough my guts up.”

  Ellie climbed into the back of the boat and began taking her gear off. “Today’s obviously not the day for this. How about we head back, and go for a couple of quiet beers before the others get there?”

  ***

  Leaning against the bar on one elbow, Sam tipped back his head and drained the last of his pint. He rolled the beer around his mouth for a moment before swallowing and dumping the empty glass back down on its coaster. Ellie had just got a text that the people they’d come to meet had arrived, and she’d left him at the bar to find them.

  “You want another round?” asked the barman.

  Sam thought of the few pints he’d already worked through since getting to the pub. The drinks were going down a little faster than usual.

  “Yeah, why not.”

  Sam handed over his bank card to pay as another two Pacific Ales was placed before him.

  A light hand fell on his shoulder. “They’ve got a table over in the corner. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the gang,” said Ellie.

  She waited for him to slide off his bar stool, then took the lead, weaving through the press of people to a stall on the far side of the pub. Two blokes and another woman sat on either side of the table. One of the men had a similar dark skin tone and facial shape to Ellie, and Sam realised it was likely her brother.

  “This is my boyfriend, Sam,” said Ellie.

  Sam started slightly at the title, it being the first time she’d used it. He looked sideways at her, one eyebrow slightly raised in question, a half-smile kinking his mouth. Ellie grinned back at him and shrugged. She looked back at the people around the table. “Sam’s a paramedic, and as this is an uncharted cave we’ll be exploring, I figured it would be good to have some medical backup.” She went around the table, starting with a red-haired man who had so many freckles across his cheeks they almost turned into a single solid mass. “This is Aaron, he taught me pretty much everything I know.”

  Aaron nodded. “Yep, she owes me big time.”

  Ellie rolled her eyes. “At the risk of inflating his already outsized ego, Aaron brings an enormous amount of experience to our trip. There are few people in Australia who have explored as many of our local caves or could top his skill in cave diving.

  “Next is my brother, Max.”

  Sam leant forward to shake the offered hand and had to prevent himself wincing at the strength of the grip. Max held his gaze without expression, before sitting back into his chair again.

  “Max seems to think he has the right to vet my relationships, but seeing as he’s actually my ‘little’ brother, he’ll be keeping his opinions to himself,” said Ellie, giving her brother a mock stern look.

  Sam eyed Max while the bloke was looking at his sister. He didn’t look so little to him. Built like a rugby forward, the guy was huge across his shoulders, and Sam wouldn’t be surprised to find him well over six foot when standing.

  “Max is the grade six teacher at our local primary school, but he knows enough to be a handy asset underground. And last of all is Frida. I work with her at Sydney Uni where she’s a respected biologist, specialising in cave ecosystems.”

  “Not half as respected as Ellie in geology,” said Frida with a wry smile. She took his hand in a warm grip, giving it a firm shake. “Good to have you on board, Sam.”

  “Yep, you never know what sort of shit’s going to happen when exploring a new cave system, and it’ll be reassuring having a trained paramedic at hand,” said Aaron. He then pulled a map out of a backpack at his feet, moved a couple of glasses aside then spread it on the table. “Now that introductions are out of the way, shall we get on with it?”

  Ellie and Sam pulled in chairs to the end of the table and sat. The map displayed land surrounding a town called Pintalba in the state’s west. With a red pen, Aaron marked a small cross on the paper, approximately fifteen kilometres southwest of the town centre.

  “This is where our cave is located, on a private sheep station owned by a bloke called Shane Anastas. It’s a pristine system, unexplored by…”

  “I thought another couple went into it last month?” asked Frida.

  Ellie, Max and Aaron all fixed her with a stern look.

  “We don’t know for sure what happened to those people. Officially, they’re classed as ‘missing persons’,” said Aaron. “Although Anastas confirms that he took payment for them to access his land and the cave, none of their equipment was found at the site. The local police report also said there was no evidence they’d entered it.”

  “What, so they go to Pintalba with the specific purpose of exploring the cave, then just disappear into thin air? Sounds suss to me,” said Frida.

  “Look, do you want to come with us or not?” muttered Aaron, clearly losing patience. “We have the opportunity to be the first recorded explorers of this new system. If we find any evidence down there to refute that, I’m happy to change the aim of our trip to that of a retrieval. Because god knows, after this amount of time, we wouldn’t be removing live bodies.” He sighed. “Can we get back on track?”

  Frida pursed her lips but nodded and sank back in her chair.

  Aaron ran a hand roughly over his eyes, then stared down at the map again, finger stabbing the red cross. “Our farmer discovered the new sink-hole when herding sheep. Apparently, the poor bastard nearly rode his trail bike straight into it,
and skidded to the right just in time after seeing one of his sheep drop from sight.”

  “Good thing for us he didn’t bite the dust, eh?” said Ellie with a grin.

  Aaron matched her smile. “Damn right. After seeing the depth of the sink hole and what he thought looked like a tunnel branching off it, he flew his son’s drone down to the bottom, and confirmed that the sink hole appeared to have broken through the roof of a previously undocumented cave system.” He looked back up at Ellie. “You’re the geology expert of the group, what type of system do you think it’ll be?”

  “That part of the country was submerged beneath an inland sea around 140 million years ago, accumulating sediments and layers of countless microscopic plants and animals over eons. So, there tends to be a mix of both sandstone and limestone areas, we might find either when we get underground. Pintalba also used to be known for opals, didn’t it, Aaron?”

  “Yeah, although from what I could find online, that industry dried up over forty years ago for some reason. Now it’s just a dying town surrounded by unprofitable farms. The main source of income comes from tourists passing through with their caravans. Bit sad really.

  “Anyway, from what Ellie says, it will most likely be dry, but there is a possibility we could come across water filled sections. With that in mind, we’ll be taking gear for cave-diving as well.” Aaron glanced over at Sam. “And since you’re new to this and won’t have your own, I’ve borrowed kit for you as well.”

  Sam felt a slight buzz of anxiety at the mention of him diving underground. That hadn’t been part of the deal. “Ah, okay, but I think I’m more likely to just be medical back up for those sections. If we come to them, I mean.”

  Aaron shrugged. “You can dive though?”

  Sam nodded.

  “Good, that’s the main thing. Look, no one will be forcing you, but better to be prepared for the need if it does arise.” Aaron turned his attention to Ellie. “Did you have any luck borrowing mapping equipment from the Uni?”