by Philip Roy
They must have all died at the same time; otherwise, the ones who were living would have buried the ones who were dead. Skeletons are a lot scarier in movies than in real life. In real life they look more interesting than scary. It’s probably because in the movies they make skeletons look as if they’re alive, and that’s frightening. In real life they’re just dead. When something’s dead, it’s just dead, and it’s not that scary if you look at it closely.
“It’s okay, Hollie. But don’t touch them.”
He sniffed at the pant legs of two of them, sneezed, and we moved past. I wondered what they had died of. There were little tin cans on the table that looked burnt. Maybe they had been candles. Or had they, maybe, contained poison? Had the soldiers killed themselves? Had this been a planned suicide? From what I had read, it was more honourable for the Japanese to commit suicide than it was to surrender or get caught. I saw melted wax on the floor. There were kerosene lanterns too. I picked one up and shook it. Empty. I supposed they had run out, though it could have evaporated. What a dark and gloomy place this would have been to die. I sure was glad there were no signs of cannibalism.
Behind the rock was a passageway. You couldn’t stand up in it unless you were really short. I shone the flashlight inside. The passage went straight a little bit then turned up. Hmmm. I looked at Hollie. He was sniffing it. He was curious. I looked behind us and saw Seaweed floating in the water. He looked content. I supposed we could investigate a little. I told myself: don’t go farther than you know the way back. Don’t get carried away with exploring and get lost.
Where the passageway went up there were edges of rock to hold on to, but I couldn’t carry Hollie at the same time, so I went back to the sub and grabbed the tool bag. I took another flashlight too, just in case, and put it in a pocket in the side of the bag. Stepping past the skeletons each time was a little tricky. I tried very hard not to touch them but the tool bag slipped on my back, I lost my balance and gently bumped one. His skull rolled off his body and hit the rock with a sound like a hollow block of wood. “Sorry!” I said. I wondered if maybe I should put the skeletons into the water. That would be a kind of burial at sea. That’s what I would have wanted. I would think about it first.
Where the passageway turned up I could use my hands and feet and go as slowly as I liked, which made it easier and I didn’t have to use my sore arm as much. Holding the flashlight was tricky though. Once we made the first turn it became just as black behind us as in front of us. It was hot too. My hands started to sweat and that made them slippery.
The passage went up about ten feet and levelled out again. Now I had to crawl. It was only a couple of feet high. I didn’t like that. But I was so curious I couldn’t stop. I shone the light all around to make certain this was the only tunnel back to the cavern we came from. If we ever came to a section with two directions I would go back and do it all over again and make a map. I was not going to get lost.
It was stuffy because it was so hot. The slightest bit of work made you sweat. Hollie was panting in the bag. We crawled along for about twenty feet and went up again. It wasn’t too hard because I moved slowly. You wouldn’t want to come through here in a hurry. This time we went up farther, maybe twenty-five feet or so, and we had to climb around a rock in the centre. It was a tight squeeze. I felt shivers go up my spine. I would rather be under water than rock. I was more comfortable in water.
The passageway straightened once again and widened, which was a relief. It went about twenty feet then opened up into a cavern. Now I could stand up. I pointed the flashlight around the room. This was a cache. There were rifles, pistols, boxes, bottles, rolls of wire and leather bags. Happily, there were no skeletons. I took a good look around, although it was hard because the darkness ate up the light of the flashlight. You could only see where the light was pointing; the rest of the room was black. I sat down and rested. Climbing through caves was hard work, especially because it was so hot and stuffy. I decided to go back to the sub, get something to drink, clean up a bit, start a map and come back. I wanted to do everything in a calm, orderly way. It would keep me from getting too nervous.
I never got used to seeing the skeletons. Every time we entered the cavern they startled me. They didn’t frighten me, they just startled me. I kept expecting to get used to them but never did. Seeing them made me feel that life was short. One minute you were alive, the next you weren’t. That made me think of Mr. Chee. He said try to live a life less dangerous. How? Seeing the skeletons made me feel that living was dangerous enough just by itself.
Chapter 23
THE SECOND TRIP through the tunnels was easier because it was familiar to me now. I started a map and added to it as we went along. I also carried water. It took twenty-three minutes to reach the cache, though we could have done it in less time if we had to. The passage beyond the cache grew smaller again and I had to crawl on my hands and knees. I didn’t like that very much. The soldiers had probably used these tunnels a lot. There was just one thing I was wondering about: what if they had booby-trapped the tunnels? What if there were tripwires attached to explosives? After all, they were at war when they were here. I started looking for tripwires.
The passage went up and around a few turns. There was only enough room for one person to pass. It was so hot. I was sweating a lot and Hollie was panting. This section was longer than the other ones. I was guessing it was fifty or sixty feet long. If we didn’t reach an opening soon I was going to turn back. But we did.
We entered another cache. There were rifles, bottles and things, and this time there were barrels. How did they get barrels in here? They must have taken them apart and put them back together. That seemed like a heck of a lot of work, but there was no other way. There was something else in here. The walls were shiny and wet. Water was running in from somewhere. Maybe we were near the surface. I wished I knew. I sat down to think. A voice inside told me to go back now. This was far enough for one day. But what if we were almost at the surface? It would be a shame to stop now. I turned around to look at the hole we had just crawled out . . . and got a fright. There were six of them!
Don’t panic, I told myself. There is no need to panic. Panicking never helps. It will be easy enough to find out which one is the right one. I shone the light on the floor to look for my footprints but didn’t find anything. I went to the wall. The holes were all the same size. My gut feeling told me it was the one on the right, but how could I know for sure?
It occurred to me that I would recognize which was the right one if I backed into each one, then came out again. So, I tried it, but it didn’t work. None of them felt familiar. Now I was really sweating. I tried it again. I backed into each hole about ten feet, then crawled into the cache, stood up and waited for a feeling of familiarity, but nothing came. I sat down on the floor of the cavern and felt an icy shiver run through my body. The feeling of being lost kept rising in me and I had to force it down. “I am not lost. Even if I have to crawl through all six passageways I will eventually find the right one, so, see, there is no need to panic.” Even so, I had to fight down the feeling.
I tried to take a deep breath, but you can’t really do that in caves. The air is too heavy and sluggish. It won’t fill up your lungs. There isn’t enough oxygen in it. I was about to start crawling through the first hole when an idea jumped into my head. I pulled the tool bag off my shoulder, put it down and opened it. “Hollie. Go find Seaweed! Go find Seaweed!”
I shined the flashlight on his face, then pointed it towards the wall. He gave a little bark, took off and disappeared into the second hole from the right. I got up and followed him. I could hear him inside the tunnel even though he sounded very far away. I knew he wasn’t. A few minutes later, I found him. He had stopped where the tunnel went down. “Good dog, Hollie.” I picked him up and put him back in the bag, then continued through the passage. Twenty minutes later we were back at the sub.
I fed Hollie and gave him some fresh water. Then I made a pot of tea, s
at on the floor by the observation window and ate a can of peaches. My grandfather’s words were echoing through my head. “You think nothing bad’s going to happen to you,” he said. That bugged me. I didn’t want to believe him. I thought of Mr. Chee and wondered if I should try to meditate before going into the tunnels again. Instead, I ate my peaches slowly and thoughtfully, and that was surprisingly soothing.
An hour later we were back in the cavern with the six holes. On the opposite wall was just one hole, and we went into it. I didn’t know if it was my imagination or not but I thought I smelled a little fresh air. It was certainly damp. Maybe it was just the dampness I smelled. But Hollie smelled it too. His nose was twitching. I never really got a good look at his face in the tunnels because I didn’t want to shine the light directly into his eyes. He was so tough. He never complained.
We crawled through the next tunnel. Then I was glad we did because it opened up more. I could almost stand. It looked as though the tunnel was dug by someone about half a foot shorter than me. This section was level too, which was a lot easier. I was getting the feeling we were close to the entrance. I wondered where it would be. Where would we come out? Would it be inside an old well, inside an old house, in the basement of a church or temple? Or would it come out in the middle of the jungle or on the side of a cliff? Wherever it was, I knew it would be well hidden. I was more curious about that than anything else.
And then, we hit a dead end. I couldn’t believe it. There was a solid wall of rock right in front of us. There was nowhere to go but back. I was disappointed. Probably one of the other six tunnels was the right one out. But it was hard to believe that anyone would go to all this trouble just to create a diversion. I looked closely at the edges of the wall in front of us. Maybe it was only meant to look solid. Maybe there was a way through it.
On the top right corner there was a loose rock. I pulled on it, twisted it back and forth, pushed on it, pulled on it and it came out. Then I loosened the one beneath it, and the next one. Five rocks came out. The rest was solid. But now there was a hole. I stuck the flashlight through. The tunnel went up at a sharp angle but was very small. I didn’t like it at all. I wouldn’t even be able to crawl on my hands and knees; I would have to lie flat on my stomach and wiggle like a snake. That was too tight for me. Nobody could squeeze through there. It was too steep too. We’d have to go back. Rats.
I lowered the flashlight. Then I noticed something. There was a faint light at the top of the passage. I shut off the flashlight and shut my eyes for a second. It was so quiet. All I could hear was Hollie’s panting. I opened my eyes and looked up. Yes, there was definitely a light at the top. I turned the flashlight on again.
“Hmmm. Hollie. Do you think we should try this?” He sneezed a little. He had cave dust in his nose. I decided to try it. We could just slide back down if we had to. I would talk to Hollie the whole way to keep us both calm. Then I realized that I had been talking to him the whole time already. I pushed him into the opening and climbed up after him. I forced him ahead a little at a time. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be; it was just really small. It was hard on the knees and elbows though. Because I was on my stomach I could only push with my toes and twist my body back and forth. It was really hot too, but the farther we went, the fresher the air became. That was really encouraging. Then we heard a strange noise, like a deep humming. The closer we came to the light, the louder the noise was. What the heck was that?
The tunnel came out in the most confusing way. But it was very smart. At the top it went up and backwards, like the top of a candy cane. It opened behind an edge of rock, and that was in the very top of the entrance to a much larger cave, a big open one. So, in a way, the entrance wasn’t hidden at all, but at the same time you couldn’t possibly see it. It was right in front of you if you were standing on the ground inside the cave, but you couldn’t see it. From the ground the rock looked like one piece, but there was actually a tiny hole there that you could only see when you were almost in it. To get into it you had to raise yourself twelve feet off the ground. But there was nothing to hold on to, to climb up.
The humming noise was the wind. When we came to the end of the tunnel the wind was roaring like a jet engine. The typhoon had arrived.
Getting out was hard. I pushed Hollie through and held on to the tool bag strap. Then, I squeezed my body through, though the rock scraped my stomach and legs on the way out. It was a twelve-foot drop to the ground. I held on to Hollie and tried to climb partway down before dropping but it still knocked the wind out of me.
The cave was on the edge of a jungle. The wind was flattening the trees. The sky was black. I held Hollie against my stomach in the bag. The wind was grabbing at everything. There was shelter in the bigger cave but there was something I wanted to do. I wanted to find the ocean and identify where we were from the water.
I climbed the hill above the cave. It was hard to walk in the wind! It was so strong I knew it could pick us up and throw us, so I walked low and kept my hands close to plants to grab them and hold on if I had to. I had never seen wind like this before, not even at sea.
On the other side of the hill I saw the water. I stared at the hill’s features and tried to memorize them. Then I climbed back down to the cave, turned right and followed the edge of the jungle for a few hundred feet. A path went down the hill into another big open cave. I figured this was the one with the people in it, that I had seen from the sub. A wooden sign on the ground said, “Grotto.”
Getting back inside our cave was really difficult. I had to find a log to lean against the stone wall, climb up on it and pull myself up, which was really hard with my weak arm. If I hadn’t trained myself to do chin-ups I would never have been able to get up. There was almost nothing to hold on to. It looked as though the rock face didn’t go anywhere, but just above the top was a little shadow behind a ridge, and beneath that shadow was the tiny hole, barely big enough to squeeze into. As I pulled myself up I kicked the log down and saw it roll into the cave. No one would ever guess why it was there. Probably they’d think the wind had blown it there. As I disappeared into the secret tunnel, pulling Hollie in after me, I had to grin at how clever the Japanese soldiers had been.
Chapter 24
WE SPENT TWO DAYS in the cavern. I kept one floodlight on when we were outside of the sub and had to pump fresh air into the sub from the tanks. The air of the cavern was stale and it never felt as though we could get quite enough oxygen. For the same reason I couldn’t run the engine, so I pedalled the bike for a few hours each day to make up for the power we used. We slept, ate, exercised and relaxed. I read the entire Rime of the Ancient Mariner aloud to the crew. They were a good audience. Hollie kept his head on his paws the entire time and Seaweed kept one eye open, which meant he was either half asleep or half awake. I also practised diving.
It was seventy-five feet to the bottom. When I flicked on the underwater floodlights and looked down through the observation window I could see all the way, though the water was a little murky. The undercurrent was pulling water in and out of the tunnel that connected the cavern to the sea. The pull was not so strong as to affect the surface water inside the cavern but I’d have to be careful at the bottom not to get sucked into it.
Lighting up the cavern above and below the surface with floodlight, I slipped into the water, took several deep breaths and went down. The sides were smooth and perfectly round. The cavern must have been carved from millions of years of erosion. It was the perfect hiding place for a small submarine and a perfect place to practise free diving. For about two hours I went up and down, timing how long I was underwater. Two minutes and fifteen seconds was my longest, but I felt that after a few days here I could stretch that to two and a half minutes. It was the very best place to practise because there were no distractions, especially nothing to startle me. Well, almost nothing.
I was coming up very relaxed, had my eyes closed and was concentrating on Mr. Chee’s words. It occurred to me that
diving was probably similar to meditating because you sort of emptied your mind and had to relax, except that I wasn’t sitting still on a floor, I was swimming underwater and was about forty-five seconds away from drowning if I didn’t surface in time. Except for that, they were probably similar. Then, my fingers touched something and I opened my eyes. Right in front of me was one of the skeletons drifting down slowly. I was face to face with it. I knew which one it was too—the funny one.
Fright went through me like a bullet and my air was suddenly used up. I started swimming up as quickly as I could, trying to stay calm on the way. How did the skeleton get in the water? Did it just fall? I didn’t think so. Was there someone or something in the cave? Was I going to surface and find someone there?
I broke the surface and gasped for air. I turned and looked at the skeletons. Now there were just four. Standing on the card table, looking fed up with their company, was Seaweed. Suddenly he hopped onto the head of another of the soldiers and its head fell off, hit the ground and rolled into the water.
“Seaweed! Don’t! Don’t peck!”
Well, that settled that. I decided to give the soldiers a burial at sea. It wouldn’t take long and it wouldn’t be very ceremonial. I didn’t know what to say so I carried my book over and read a verse from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner that seemed fitting to me.
