The rest were waking, stretching and groaning. They looked a mess – particularly the group from the junior school. They’d tried to look after each other. Scared of anyone from the senior school. I thought only four of them had made it through the tunnel, three girls and the boy who whined – Stevie. Two of the girls were called Sara and there didn’t seem much difference between them. Both were rather small and freckly. One was blond and the other a bit more ginger. Both looked miserable.
‘Nothing is going to happen, we’re all going to starve to death,’ said the gingery Sara. ‘And I want a wee, but everyone’s watching and I’m too scared to go down there.’ She pointed towards the trees, but stopped with her mouth open, noticing everyone listening to her. She pulled her jacket over her face.
In the dark, there were several large boulders to crouch behind. But in the light it wasn’t so easy. The cave had started to smell. Sara was right – everyone watched if anyone moved.
Jenna gave out an angry sigh, walked over to Sara, took her hand and led her out of the cave. The rest watched. Jenna stopped and turned, hands on her hips, and glared.
‘What?!’ she yelled and everyone looked away. The two of them headed for the nearest bushes.
I wondered if she would bring Sara back, the old Jenna probably wouldn’t, but here? I didn’t know. Getting away from home seemed to have changed her.
Sara’s words about starving sounded about right. I must have been muttering about getting food because Jack looked at me and said, ‘How?’
I stared back at him. I wasn’t going to make any more suggestions, not that I had any.
‘Suppose we’ll have to go and look,’ Jack went on. ‘Might be something we can eat down in the forest.’
‘Like what?’
Jack shrugged. ‘Do you think they’ll find us today?’ and he looked down at his leg.
‘Not sure who you mean.’ I was thinking that the noises might mean anything could find us and might be looking for food as well.
Jack didn’t seem to pick up what I meant. ‘Rescuers, police, someone on the moor. They have teams that rescue people.’ He tried to be cheerful.
I was out of cheerfulness. ‘We’re not on the moor. No idea where we are or who is around. There’s nothing out there.’
‘Won’t they break through the tunnel?’
‘Maybe.’ It didn’t seem likely to me so I moved away from Jack in case he asked more questions.
Today the sun burnt off the mist hanging over the forest and the sky cleared. Jenna did return with Sara. If Jenna could go wandering about then so could I. I left the cave and walked along the cliff; staring upwards I still couldn’t see the top. The slimy stone was far too steep to climb.
Cascades of water tumbled down the rock face and splashed onto the ground. One cascade poured into a hollow, creating a small pool. I bent down, scooped some of the water into my hand and tasted it with the tip of my tongue. It seemed alright, but what would poison water taste like? Thirst stopped me worrying for long. I just drank and drank. The rest had been watching and seeing that I didn’t drop dead they ran to the small pool.
‘Is it safe?’ Mary asked. I gave her the ‘no idea’ look. Mary drank.
It was a fight. There wasn’t enough room, everyone scrabbled to get to the pool, jostling for space, driven by a day of having little to drink other than what they had left in their water bottles from the walk. I stood back watching them. How long would we survive without help, without any equipment and no food? Watching the pushing and shoving to get to the water, I knew it would soon turn to punches; Zach wasn’t the only one who would cause trouble.
I moved off and walked along the bottom of the cliff as it curved away from the cave. The ground sloped upwards and after a while I could hear crashing water. Rounding a corner I saw a huge waterfall, with spray making rainbow colours in the sunlight. Thick plants and trees hid the bottom of the waterfall, but there was a river which looped around the forest below the cave. Several others had followed me.
‘I think we’re cut off by that river.’ Sam stretched his arm and pointed.
‘That might keep us safe from whatever made those noises,’ said Stevie the whining boy.
‘Unless they’re on this side.’ I couldn’t see why I should make things sound better than they were, but it just made Stevie add whimpering to his selection of noises.
Worse still, something slithered off into the bushes. Everyone jumped back. Wherever we were this place wasn’t safe.
‘Snakes,’ muttered Matt, who didn’t seem to mind. Jenna gave him a look and held a finger to her lips. I didn’t think it was worth pretending. If we were going to stay alive we all needed to know about the danger.
‘What are we going to eat?’ Jenna said and I thought she was trying to keep off the subject of snakes. ‘We’ve nothing left and it doesn’t look like anyone is coming to rescue us.’
‘Maybe we can find something in the woods – berries or fruit,’ suggested Mary.
‘Poisonous,’ said Ivy.
You’ve got to love Ivy. She’s so consistent.
‘We have to find something,’ I said, even though I knew Ivy was right and it would be difficult to know whether anything was safe to eat.
‘The noises in the night must mean that there are animals nearby. We’ll have to eat them if nothing else happens,’ Sam suggested.
‘You’re joking.’ Jenna poked Sam in the chest. He turned red and didn’t say more.
‘I think I’d rather starve to death than go looking for the thing that roared in the night,’ came another whine.
‘Of course you aren’t going to starve.’ Zach was the last to leave the water pool having driven everyone else away. ‘I’m going to eat you!’ he stepped towards Stevie who screwed his fists into his eyes and bawled.
Zach was really getting to me. At school I just let him get on with bullying and making things awful for anyone weaker than him, although he still kept his two followers just in case. I’d had other things on my mind. I didn’t care what he did so long as he stayed away from me – which he did because he’d once met my older brother, who had talked about ripping off his legs. Now he was right here in my face. Yesterday he’d almost poked me. Perhaps fighting him would take my mind off feeling hungry. If it came to it I didn’t really care if I lost. Jenna might have been able to do the superwoman bit and change into some caring person but that wasn’t me, I’m not a bully but I’m not very nice either. My muscles tightened and I eased through the group who were wandering back to the cave.
Then Jenna was at me, ‘Alvin ... please.’
I shrugged her off but she grabbed my arm and stopped me. The rest were moving away.
‘What now?’ I said as we stood alone beneath the cliff.
Jenna looked up at me and I saw fear in her face – I could feel my eyes burning, my breath came fast, and every part of me felt ready to fight.
‘If you take on Zach you’re going to scare everyone,’ she said.
‘And?’ It sounded to me like she meant, if you take on Zach and lose.
‘You won’t know when to stop. Or his friends will join in. Someone’s got to hold this together.’
‘And you think it should be me?’
‘There’s no one else. Look at them. You’re the only one who’s any good at organising ...’
‘Yeah, but only if there’s something in it for me. That’s how our family works. You know that. Something in it or someone gets damaged.’ I was pulling away from her.
‘I thought you were different.’ Jenna looked hurt.
‘No chance, no chance to be different.’
‘But you weren’t like that in the earthquake, not then. If you hadn’t done something we’d have all been crushed by rocks.’
I looked at her. Was she right? It h
adn’t come easy. Should I tell her all the things the teacher said? I thought that would bring me more trouble. Then even Jenna would blame me, saying it was all because of me, something to do with me and that teacher. Was it all because of me anyway, something to do with home? The fighting idea drained away.
Looking at Jenna I felt a grin slowly starting on my face. ‘Are you always going to save Zach?’
‘Maybe, but why don’t you go and try to find something to eat – take Zach with you.’
‘You don’t ask much. Do I have to bring him back?’
Jenna didn’t answer that question. I could read her thoughts. If something happened at least it would be away from the others. I splashed my face with water from the pool and returned to the cave. Zach was still taunting Stevie.
So I tried to do what Jenna wanted. ‘Zach, instead of getting at Stevie, why don’t we go and see if we can find something else to eat?’
‘Eh?’ said Zach as though he couldn’t believe what he heard.
‘That’s if you’re up to it?’
Zach looked around him. Everyone watched.
‘Yeah, we’ll go.’ Zach tried to sound as though he was up to it but turned to his two followers looking for support. ‘You two can come.’
Did I care if there were three of them? Back at school they wouldn’t have touched me. Not unless they wanted to end up in hospital. But here there was only me. I turned and raised my eyebrows at Jen. She mouthed ‘no problem’ at me.
‘Should we start a fire?’ Jack asked before I left. ‘You know, in case there’s someone around. They might see the smoke.’
‘And how do we do that?’ Jenna frowned.
‘You rub sticks together or bash bits of stone,’ suggested Sam.
‘Zach! Any of you lot got a lighter?’ I called down to Zach and the other two who had already started slowly down the slope.
‘Yep,’ shouted one of them and he turned back rather more quickly. ‘Can I help light the fire?’ he said holding up the lighter.
‘Ryan, get back down here,’ Zach demanded.
I went down with Ryan. Sam followed, I thought I should have stopped him but he just tagged along. We caught up with Zach at the edge of the forest where he had stopped in front of a tangled mass of dripping green.
‘What about snakes?’ asked Sam.
‘Go find out.’ Zach grabbed him and shoved. Sam toppled into the vegetation and yelped. The plants weren’t soft and squidgy; they were tough and spiny. Sam stood up digging thorns out of his arm.
‘No snakes then,’ sneered Zach as he pushed Sam out of the way.
So, whether I cared or not I suppose Zach had done something useful. If there were snakes then sacrificing Sam might not be a bad idea. Next time maybe I’d push Zach. That thought cheered me up quite a lot.
We could only move slowly. It didn’t look as though anything had passed this way recently – if ever. We tore branches from the trees and smashed a way through. Zach managed to get me into the lead. The slope flattened out. Tough thorny bushes tore at our clothes. The sound of running water grew louder and a narrow track appeared. I stopped.
‘Wonder what made this track?’ Sam said as he peered ahead.
‘Hope it wasn’t that thing that roared in the night.’ Ryan had made sure he stayed in the middle of the group.
‘Scared are you Alvin?’ Zach said – but from behind.
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I’ll let you go first.’
We went more slowly after that. Sam kept looking over his shoulder at the shadows. Then we were out of the trees, onto a river bank.
‘What are those?’ Zach stopped and pointed.
In front of us a huge flock of weird birds was spread out by the river. They looked like a cross between a chicken and a duck – ugly scrawny things with a smell worse than the school loo. There were hundreds of them, possibly thousands. The river bank had been trampled to bare earth.
The birds stayed almost silent, no squawking or birdsong, only the occasional rustling of their feathers. Even when we walked into the flock, the birds didn’t appear very interested. Zach still had his branch in his hand. With a jump and a yell he smashed the branch down on the first small bird, killing it and breaking the branch. That got them moving. With a loud rushing sound they took to the air. Zach held up the dead bird as though expecting praise.
‘Brilliant Zach. You’ve scared them off,’ I said.
Zach looked at me and took a step forward. So did I. Zach’s face reddened and his eyes narrowed. I didn’t move and I saw Zach’s shoulders slump. He was probably remembering my brother’s leg-ripping threat.
‘At least I’ve got some food, better than you’ve done.’ Zach tried to reassert himself, but his voice quivered. ‘Anyway, they’ve all come down again.’ He pointed ahead, finding something to take the attention away from himself.
Zach was right. The birds had flown around in an arc and just landed further along the river bank. It didn’t take much to catch them. They’d struggle when you’d caught them but Sam seemed to know what to do. I thought it was pretty gruesome but he picked up the birds and twisted their necks until they were dead. I let him get on with it. Zach was still smashing away with a new branch – more club-like, and I thought he was imagining smashing me.
‘I think we’ve got enough.’ I looked at the mangled pile of dead birds. ‘Let’s take them back to the cave.’
‘What are they?’ asked Zach’s other follower, who had stayed very quiet. ‘If they aren’t chickens or ducks, then what are they?’
‘Chuckerns?’ Ryan suggested and that name stuck. ‘Do you think we can eat them?’
‘No idea,’ I replied. ‘I’ve no idea what we should do with them.’
Zach sneered at my answer, but he didn’t have any ideas either.
‘Pluck them and draw them,’ Sam said quietly.
‘Oh, so you’re an expert eh?’ Zach poked him with his stick. ‘Like you ever know anything.’
‘My dad was a butcher. He showed me what you do with chickens. You pull all their feathers off. Then you cut out their guts. ‘Drawing’ is the bit when you cut out the guts.’ Sam sounded convincing.
‘Great Sam,’ I said. ‘You’re in charge of plucking and drawing.’
Zach sneered again.
I went down to the river, splashed water on my face and took a drink. I was trying to stay calm. Sam stuck close.
‘How do we know if the water is safe to drink?’ Sam said.
‘We don’t,’ I snapped, getting fed up with stupid questions. But we needed Sam if these birds were going to be of any use so I tried to be friendlier. ‘But I guess no one has died yet and we’ve all drunk it.’
We headed back. Coming out of the forest I looked up and saw smoke billowing from the cave and the others wiping their streaming eyes. I shouted something and that seemed to set them off screaming and running back under cover.
Then I understood. We were carrying a pile of dead birds, blood and feathers stuck to us. Sticky, thorny; bits of bush, tree and creeper had torn our clothes from the forest. Zach, bloodied from head to foot, hair matted with pieces of massacred bird, waved his killing club in the air.
In some other place this might have been a joke. But no one was laughing here. Zach made it worse by letting out a yell and making a mock charge, club swinging. When the rest calmed down they tried to make excuses for their panic.
‘It was the smoke in our eyes,’ Jack said. ‘We didn’t recognise you. You were all covered in stuff.’
‘We thought we were going to be attacked by savages,’ Stevie added.
We hadn’t fooled Jenna who just pointed at the blood stained mass of feathers and said, ‘We’re not eating those.’
‘What are they?’ several voices asked.
‘Chuckerns,’ replied Ryan.
‘Yuck,’ said Stevie.
‘It’s them or nothing,’ I said. ‘Sam knows what to do.’
Everyone turned to Sam and he froze. Sam really didn’t look like he knew anything. That was the person I remembered at school. Sam would make out he knew stuff, but it was made-up, fantasy. I’d believed him this time, thinking he wouldn’t make up things about his dad who had just died. Another one of my great thoughts.
‘You’ve no idea ... pathetic ... useless pile of ...’ And Zach hurled one of the birds at Sam. It caught him in the face and he fell to the ground.
‘I do know,’ Sam said, looking up. ‘Dad was a butcher, it’s just ...’
‘Just what?’ Zach threw another bird. ‘Just that he’s as useless as you?’
‘No he isn’t ... wasn’t.’ Sam started to get up and I could see he was about to do something stupid and fly at Zach. Bad idea even if Zach wasn’t holding a club. I was tired and hungry. Zach did have a point – Sam seemed to have no idea.
‘Sam do you really know what to do?’ Jenna stood in his way.
Sam stopped, turned to her and nodded.
‘Well get on with it.’
Sam still looked confused and it was Matt who walked over to Sam and took Jenna’s place in front of him, using his body to shield Sam from the taunts.
‘What do you need to do first?’ Matt asked in his slow voice.
‘You need to c ... c ... c ... cut their heads off,’ Sam stammered. ‘But I haven’t got a knife.’
‘Could you use this?’ Jack asked as he slid himself across the cave. He held a piece of stone which could have broken off during the earthquake. It looked like flint. ‘I know it’s very sharp because I sat on it,’ Jack said.
Matt took the stone and showed it to Sam, who just shrugged. Matt knelt on the ground, picked up one of the birds and holding it with one hand hacked off the head with the sharp stone. It took him several attempts. Someone puked.
‘Go for it, Matt,’ Zach cheered, although he looked a little green.
Tregarthur's Promise Page 3
