Tregarthur's Promise

by Alex Mellanby

  We waited. Sometimes we could hear rocks falling. There was still no sign of rescue. Night came. I don’t know what I expected to happen – sirens and the sounds of emergency teams perhaps – but there was nothing; mostly just a deep silence, but occasionally the noise of something moving outside. Someone would shout: ‘Who’s there?’ but no one answered. And no one was going out to look around.

  Finally I stretched out on the cave floor. A dim moon gave the only light; a darkness blacker than I’d ever known. I pulled my jacket over my head, trying to keep out the sobbing, moaning, and constant unanswerable questions. It didn’t work.

  ‘What happens if the roof falls in?’ whined one of the younger children. I soon came to recognise that whine.

  ‘You get buried alive.’

  And I did recognise that voice – Zach. Everyone recognised Zach’s voice.

  During the long night on the stony cave floor Zach continued to make fake animal noises, shouting, ‘What was that?’

  Then a far louder howl seemed to answer Zach’s pathetic call, and screeching wails echoed round the cave. Someone started screaming and others joined in. I wanted them to shut up in case whatever was howling heard the noise. I wanted to tell them to shut up, but I couldn’t find my voice. Mary, treading with care in the dark, moved over to those whimpering the loudest and tried to comfort them. The sounds outside the cave fell quiet again in the deep night.

  Nothing made sense. Had we been abandoned? I’d led us out of the earthquake, or whatever had happened. It wouldn’t be long before they blamed me if no one came to rescue us.

  The night passed slowly.

  The Cave

  -2-

  I gave up trying to sleep. Rocks on the cave floor jabbed my every move. Restless bodies sprawled around me, more restless in the first signs of light in a strange grey dawn. I looked out. Sounds had started up – squawking birds mixed with grunts and more scuffling. Nothing sounded like the noises we’d heard yesterday on the moor, nothing sounded friendly.

  And it didn’t look like the place we had left. Even in daylight I couldn’t make sense of it. The tunnel had ended in another large cave with a roof stretching up above me. The floor was a mess of sand and fallen stone, mostly dry, but gloomy and dark. I moved outside and sat on a rock.

  ‘Where are we?’ Jenna squashed down beside me. She wasn’t a small girl and it was good to have the warmth of someone next to me.

  ‘No idea.’ I worried that she expected me to know.

  ‘No way up there.’ She pointed at the cliff behind us. It seemed endless in all directions. ‘And I don’t like the look of anything down there either.’

  Below our cave it looked as though a rock fall might have cleared the slope down to the forest. The ground was strewn with broken trees and bushes.

  ‘Do you know anything about that teacher?’ I asked. I didn’t want to talk about the scenery. The forest was just trees going on forever and I didn’t like it.

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘Have you ever seen her before this trip?’

  Jenna gave me a growl. ‘No, she joined the Junior school last term. Don’t know anything else about her, don’t want to know anything about her. What do you mean?’

  ‘Nothing. I think she got crushed in the earthquake.’ Why had she been shouting at me? Her twisted face stuck in my thoughts. How did she know my name? What had she meant by keeping her promise?

  ‘Did you hear her shouting?’ I said.

  ‘Shouting? No. I heard a lot of screaming. I think it was Jack saying we should go back for her.’

  ‘Jack?’

  ‘The one who hurt his leg. He’s in our year isn’t he?’ Jenna gave me one of her looks. We shared quite a lot, but I’d not spent much time in school recently.

  ‘Lucky what’s his name was there, otherwise Jack would still be stuck under that stone.’

  ‘Big Matt you mean, nice guy, bit slow.’

  Jenna stood and took a step back towards the cave, watching the others. I didn’t want her to go.

  ‘So you didn’t hear that teacher going on about some promise?’ I blurted out.

  ‘What? No. What do you mean?’ Jenna turned and gave me a very suspicious look.

  I tried to laugh. ‘Nothing, I just thought I heard her say something.’

  ‘What?’ Jenna had on her fierce face.

  ‘I’m not sure. She was really frantic. I just caught her eyes. Like she was looking for me. She seemed to be shouting something about keeping her promise and saving someone.’

  ‘What are you on about? Sounds weird. Have you been taking something?’

  ‘No, you know I don’t. I may live with it but I’m not stupid. You didn’t have to ask.’ I was angry that she’d asked about drugs even though she was right that I had sounded weird.

  ‘Sorry. Anyway it’s too late to find out now what she meant.’ Jenna looked as though she wanted to get away from me.

  I glanced up at her face. She often tried to frown, but it didn’t always work. Jenna caught me staring and looked back with a, ‘What?’ I turned away, just catching the hint of one of her rare smiles.

  I changed direction: ‘Home just as bad?’

  Jenna’s head fell forward. She took a while before saying anything. ‘I just can’t get through to Mum. She’s got it into her head that it’s Ok to keep changing boyfriends – or step-dads as she wants me to call them.’

  ‘Nice.’ It was the wrong thing to say.

  ‘NICE? Not nice at all. When they’ve had enough of Mum they seem to think I’m the next best thing.’

  This time I didn’t say anything, just waited. I thought she was going to give me the full on Jenna glare but there was no anger in her look now. She seemed near to breakdown.

  ‘She even stopped me putting a lock on my bedroom door.’

  And with that she walked away. I could understand why she was always angry back at school. But in the earthquake she’d seemed a different person – helping.

  I sat still, watching the rest, thinking about Jenna. Zach tried to swagger out of the cave, as always with his two creepy followers, and then Demelza with her own hangers-on. Rescue better come quick or there would be murder in the air.

  As the light grew stronger some of the others moved on to the patchy grass near to the cave. I didn’t know how many had come through the tunnel. Looking back at the group I made it fourteen including me, but they kept moving around, maybe it was more.

  ‘This place doesn’t smell right either,’ said one of the younger girls who I think had been listening to my conversation with Jenna.

  A stale rotten stench came up from the forest of trees, blown on a wind carrying gusts of drizzle along with the smell. Damp and a summer cool.

  ‘Where is everyone? How long is it going to be before they come and get us? What do we do now?’ Demelza was practically stamping her feet.

  I could think of several things she could do, all painful, although she was saying what I guess we all thought. To me this place looked like real trouble, maybe even worse than the trouble I had at home.

  ‘What are those? They don’t look real.’ One of Demelza’s followers pointed to the gigantic plants that became clearer, trees with enormous branches reaching out in twisted shapes, covered with long trailing creepers. New noises started.

  ‘Sounds like the zoo,’ said one of the two girls still staying near to Jenna. ‘One of those big cages full of birds.’

  Then a wild roar echoed against the cliff followed by grunts and howls. Squeals and cries came from our group. The two girls clung round Jenna’s neck. Roars and grunts grew louder and louder, ending with a screaming wail. I thought something was coming towards us. A dark shape moved in the bushes but nothing appeared. Jenna pushed the girls away.

  Demelza stood over
me. ‘Where are we? Why hasn’t anyone come to help?’

  I ignored her and turned away.

  ‘Well? You got us here.’ And she poked me.

  ‘How should I know?’ I really didn’t want a conversation with Demelza and I didn’t want poking either, so I prodded her back rather hard. She slipped and sprawled on the ground, looked up with her mouth open and hate on her face.

  ‘When are we going to go home?’ the whining boy whined.

  ‘Shut up Stevie,’ hushed one of the others from the junior school.

  If that boy didn’t shut up himself then I thought someone would do it for him.

  ‘I’m hungry.’ Stevie could moan as well as whine.

  The girl who had told him to keep quiet gave him a piece of chocolate she’d saved. No one had much left from the lunch we’d been given on the walk. We were all hungry.

  ‘What you got then?’ Zach stood over one of the younger girls. She froze.

  ‘Back off Zach,’ Jenna snarled at him.

  Zach moved away with a stupid grin pretending to make it a joke. His face twisted and he spat some words that I didn’t hear. I looked at Jen, there was something strange about her. Almost as though coming through that tunnel had made her different, or was that just normal? Zach wasn’t going to have it all his own way.

  Checking my own pack I found I’d not really eaten much the day before so I handed a sandwich to Jen.

  ‘Thanks, maybe I should give it ...’ she looked around at the younger kids, but thought again and bit into it. ‘Thanks,’ she mumbled again.

  Jack had been keeping quiet, but as he moved to get at his pack he groaned and held his leg.

  ‘Let me look.’ Mary knelt down beside him.

  Mary was doing her best to keep up the nursing. I watched, everybody watched, as she gently untied the jacket she had used to bandage the injury. The blood soaked cloth stuck to the wound and Jack flinched, tears in his eyes. As she pulled the jacket away, the bleeding started again.

  ‘We need some sort of dressing,’ Mary said to Jenna in a hushed voice.

  ‘I’ve got a spare T-shirt,’ someone offered.

  Mary tore the shirt and wrapped the cloth around the wound using strips of the material to tie it in place.

  ‘I should have cleaned it,’ Mary said looking at Jack’s leg. ‘But ... someone will come soon and rescue us ... they’ll bring a medical team ... at least the T-shirt won’t stick to the wound ... like the wool did from my jacket ...’ Mary shut up as she saw everyone looking at her, listening to her anxious chatter.

  ‘Thanks,’ Jack mumbled.

  A strange looking girl came slowly out from the back of the cave. I’d missed her in my count. She had always been a loner; I can’t remember ever talking to her at school. Her tall, thin body was usually dressed in homemade black clothes, odd, and so miserable. ‘There’s no one here to save us.’ Her slow, sad, hopeless cry echoed against the dripping stones. ‘We’re all going to die – eaten by that roaring thing.’

  Her words started the sobbing off again.

  ‘That’s rubbish. Ivy, you always say miserable things. Someone will find us soon ... won’t they?’ I heard so much uncertainty in Mary’s voice.

  ‘It’s like the Lost World ... you know ... like that old film, isn’t it?’ Another boy pointed towards the forest and the mountains that now became visible in the far distance.

  ‘Sam! Where did you come from?’ He’d appeared behind Mary and startled her.

  I hadn’t seen Sam before either. ‘Are there any more in there?’ I pointed into the darkness of the cave.

  ‘No. It was just me and Ivy,’ said Sam.

  I knew Sam. He was a small fat boy with a round face which made him look younger than the rest of us in our year. Sam always seemed to be trying not to get noticed and somehow always failed. He needed to keep out of Zach’s way.

  Yesterday I overheard a conversation between the hair-problem mothers on the bus talking about Sam. It had almost made me forget my own problems. One of them had said something about Sam’s dad dying in a car crash and, ‘Yes and no mother either,’ the other had replied. I hadn’t heard the rest.

  ‘Lost world – that means real monsters.’ Zach moved up close to Sam, roared in his ear and smacked him hard on the head.

  ‘Shut it Zach,’ said Jenna.

  ‘You again, what’s up with you?’ Zach sounded genuinely surprised.

  ‘I’m tired and fed up with you going on.’ Her words met silence.

  ‘You want to try and shut me up then?’ Zach squared up to Jenna.

  Jenna stood her ground and stared back at him. Jen might be a big girl, but with Zach and the other two she didn’t have much of a chance. Somehow I found myself standing next to her. It was enough. Zach turned away, confused, but with something much worse in his eyes. Everyone else must have been holding their breath and now it seemed that they all breathed out at the same time.

  ‘I wonder what happened to the rest of them on the walk,’ Jack said. ‘There were a lot more of us when we started out.’

  ‘At least they’re not stuck in this stinking cave.’ Zach looked at me.

  ‘Probably all dead,’ muttered Ivy.

  ‘’Bout time Alvin came up with a plan.’ Zach pointed at me. ‘You got us stuck here. Now do something about it.’

  Backing down had got to Zach; it wouldn’t be long before this came to more than words. I wasn’t that hard, I didn’t have to be – I relied on my family’s reputation. They weren’t here, but it wasn’t the thought of fighting Zach that worried me. I wondered why I had led the way yesterday. Had it really been my decision? It felt more like the falling rocks had chased us down the tunnel.

  ‘If Alvin hadn’t got us out of the earthquake we’d all be dead.’ Jenna seemed determined to antagonise Zach.

  ‘Might be best if we were,’ said Ivy.

  I needed to do something. Had that teacher’s screams only been aimed at me? Had she singled me out or was that my imagination? I needed to find out if anyone else had heard her. Not now though – now I needed a plan.

  ‘Has anyone looked at the tunnel?’ There was no reply so I walked into the dark at the back of the cave. Everyone else followed.

  Even in the dim daylight I could see the huge boulders piled up, closing off any hope of escape. I pushed at the stones and kicked them, nothing happened.

  ‘Is there anyone there?’ Mary shouted at the wall of rocks and everyone joined in: ‘Hello ...’ ‘Help ... can you hear me?’ ‘Get us out of here!’

  We stood back, listening. No sounds came from the other side of the rock pile, only echoes on ours. We tried again and again, hammering on the rocks with bits of stone.

  ‘Great idea Alvin,’ muttered Zach and jabbed his finger at me. I caught it, held on while our eyes met. Zach snatched his hand back and sneered at me. But my idea had been useless. I moved away. That was the last time I was going to make a suggestion.

  From time to time one or two went back and banged on the rocks blocking the tunnel and called out. No response.

  ‘Do you think we should go looking for help?’ Mary said.

  ‘What, down there?’ Jenna pointed at the forest as the sounds we’d heard in the night started again.

  ‘We have to stay here ... don’t we? Otherwise they won’t be able to find us.’ Jack sounded desperate.

  ‘Jack’s right,’ Mary said. ‘We should stay here.’

  Jack was stuck here and Mary seemed so keen on agreeing with him. I felt that Jen was right. There was nothing down in the forest that looked hopeful. Or safe.

  The day went on and on, just expecting someone to arrive, some sound of people. You don’t go for a walk and everyone vanishes. What had happened? What did we need to do?

  There w
ere lots of useless suggestions. Nobody did anything. Demelza kept going on, saying someone should go down into the forest – but not her. I could see they were looking to someone to lead. There wasn’t anyone. Even Zach was quiet and I wasn’t going to do anything. The teacher’s words and her face kept coming back to me. Surely what she said meant there had to be someone here? I thought we should wait. If we wandered off then nobody would find us. Since no one did anything and no one went anywhere, the day just passed away and the light started to fade again.

  None of us were going anywhere in the dark. Zach had been right – I didn’t have any idea what to do. It had been stupid to think I could do anything. I tried to sleep, an empty stomach made that difficult. I suppose we were all starting to think that there might be no rescue. Tomorrow we were going to have to do something for ourselves.

  Food

  -3-

  My sleep ended in another grey dawn. Jenna was already standing at the cave entrance.

  ‘Where are they?’ I heard her whisper. ‘Where are we?’

  I tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped. ‘Talking to yourself?’

  ‘No one else,’ Jenna replied.

  A sound from Jack made us turn. He sat rocking backwards and forwards, holding his injured leg. He looked up. ‘Anything? Any sign of anyone?’

  ‘Nothing,’ said Jenna.

  My thoughts couldn’t leave the teacher’s screaming words. What could they mean? We all needed saving but I couldn’t see anyone special in our group. Had anyone else heard her, made sense of her words?

  ‘Jack, you looked like you were waiting for that teacher. Did you see her?’ I asked.

  ‘Thought I saw her get hit by a rock or something.’ Jack winced as he spoke.

  ‘Did you hear her say anything?’

  ‘No. Like what?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Maybe it had been a hallucination, I’d dreamt up the words.