The Moa Cave

by Des Hunt

  ‘Do you know what it means?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘It’s the name given to the reflection of a person in water or a mirror. I think that’s why you chose it. You and Ata are reflections of each other—reflections across time.’

  ‘How could that be? I didn’t know what it meant.’

  ‘No. But he did.’

  ‘Hine, that’s scary.’

  ‘I know.’

  However when Tyler thought about it, he liked the idea. Two people with the same interests separated by four hundred years—reflections of each other. Would they be true reflections? Would right become left? He pictured the boy lying on the ledge and realised the gizzard stones were in Ata’s left hand; yet he was right handed. He smiled to himself. It must be a coincidence, yet if it wasn’t…

  Half an hour later Tyler felt strong enough to sit up and eat something. There were still some cookies left, two packs of chippies and a large bar of chocolate. They weren’t going to starve to death; which made him think of the penguins—they didn’t have a supply of food. How long could they last? He turned the torch towards the nest. Mopsie was snuggled down, but Hopi had gone.

  ‘Where’s Hopi?’ he asked.

  Hine seemed surprised. ‘I don’t know.’

  With growing hope he scanned the cave. There was no sign of the bird.

  ‘There must be another way out!’ Quickly he got to his feet. That was a mistake. He almost keeled over. After sitting on a rock for a moment he tried again. He still felt woozy but managed to stay standing until it passed.

  He went to the nest. Mopsie squeezed down tighter, eyeing the boy suspiciously: she was not going to move for anyone. Though he searched closely, Tyler could find no signs of tracks on the bare rock. If Hopi had escaped, he had done so without leaving a trace.

  ‘Can you find anything?’ asked Hine anxiously.

  ‘No. We’ll have to wait until he comes back.’

  Hine didn’t want to spend any longer in the cave. ‘We must be able to find it.’

  ‘I’ve looked. There’s so many bits, it’ll take ages.’

  ‘What else have we got to do?’

  It didn’t take long to find. Hopi had left a sign for them after all. He’d squirted the contents of his bowels onto the rocks before moving deep into one of the clefts. The white deposit was like an arrow saying ‘This way’.

  The passageway was high and narrow at first, scarcely wide enough to allow a human to pass. Later it broadened and steepened into a climb that ended in a small chamber with a dusty bottom. Hopi’s prints could be seen heading across the floor towards a dim glow on the other side: it was daylight.

  The last part was the hardest. It sloped down at an awkward angle and was so low that Tyler could only move forward by crawling on his elbows. At one stage he thought he would never get to see what lay beyond. But a few pushes from Hine helped and finally his head was out. He pulled himself free before turning to help Hine.

  They were on a small ledge partway up a rocky bluff. Below them was a tiny cove. Flax bushes tried to grow where the tide never reached. The walls were high, steep and slippery with dripping water. There would be no escaping by climbing round these. They could try and work their way down to the cove but even then the only exit would be via the sea, and that looked impossible. The water was a surging mass of foam and kelp. At first glance it seemed there was no entrance. Then Tyler saw a wave rush through an opening in the opposite wall just like at the Jacks Bay blowhole. The cove was joined to the sea by a tunnel. Whether it was totally submerged or not was unclear. What was clear, however, was that they were still a long way from being free.

  There was also something else to worry about. The air was filled with the stench of dead animals coming from the beach below. Carcasses of dolphins lay everywhere. There must have been ten or more. Each had been butchered and filleted just like a fish. The remains had been left for the birds and the sea. Gulls fought over the choicest bits and crabs scuttled around picking up the scraps. Some of the remains were little more than skeletons.

  Neither of the youngsters had seen such carnage before. It was worse than anything on TV. Hine turned away to vomit over the edge. Tyler just stared, his face white with horror. He could never have imagined that anyone could do such a thing. But they had, and he knew without doubt who they were. The question was, would they return? And if so, what would they do? Would they offer to rescue them? Tyler thought not. They were more likely to make sure their secret was never revealed.

  Chapter 15

  It was eleven before Mandy told the adults about Hine and Tyler. Up until then she had covered by saying they had gone for a walk. But as the morning progressed her thoughts changed from revenge to concern.

  ‘I went looking for them at the beach but all I found was Tyler’s magnifying glass. There were no footprints or anything.’

  ‘And you say they planned to spend the night in a cave?’ asked Molly. Mandy nodded. ‘But there aren’t any caves, are there, Bill?’

  Bill shook his head. ‘They’d have to go a long way to find a cave. But you know kids. They can turn anything into a cave. It could be a cave in flax, or one of the old buildings.’ He nodded to himself. ‘I bet that’s where we’ll find them; in one of the old huts. They’ll have gone in to get out of the storm. They’re probably still asleep after being up so late.’

  But Molly insisted that he call Jonno at the police station. Jonno’s advice was to organise the neighbours into searching the buildings on their properties. In the meantime he’d let Search and Rescue know. If they weren’t found by two o’clock then a full search would be organised.

  After making the phone calls Bill left to check the sheds on his farm. Molly began preparing food for the searchers she hoped would never be needed. Alice had the job of ringing the parents to tell them their child wouldn’t be home this afternoon as planned.

  Mandy watched and listened as Alice first rang her boss at the magazine. While the illness had gone she was now a nervous wreck. Her hands were shaking and her voice wavered as she spoke about the missing pair. Her boss must have been sympathetic for she was calmer when it was finished.

  Her second call was to Tyler’s home. This quickly turned ugly. Mandy gathered it was Tyler’s mum on the other end and Alice was being blamed for not looking after her son. The shaking was back when she hung up after promising to keep them informed.

  The third call was to Hine’s home. Mandy heard a loud ‘Hello’ as the phone was answered.

  ‘Is that Mrs Smith, Hine’s auntie?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Hello, Mrs Smith. It’s Alice Brownley here from Nature South. I’m looking after Hine for the week.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ said the friendly voice at the other end.

  ‘I’m afraid Hine and another child have gone missing.’ She went on to explain the situation in detail.

  When she had finished there was a long pause before Auntie replied.

  ‘Oh dear. That doesn’t sound too good. But Hine’s a sensible girl; I trust her to do the right thing. There’ll be a good reason why she hasn’t come back. You just try and be calm. Worrying never fixes anything. We can’t change what went wrong, but we can do the right thing now.’

  ‘We will, Mrs Smith.’

  ‘And if she’s not found by night then Jack and I will come down and give a hand. You give us a ring when it gets dark.’ After brief farewells they hung up.

  Then it was Mandy’s turn to call home. She rang the shop. Her mother answered. ‘Make it quick, Mandy, we’ve got customers.’

  Mandy had hoped to talk about things. Instead she made it quick: the other two kids in the group were missing and she wouldn’t be home until they were found.

  Her mother seemed relieved by the news. ‘I’m pleased you had enough sense to stay out of trouble. Let us know when you’re coming back. I must go now. Love you.’ And then, before her daughter had a chance to reply, the phone clicked.

  Mandy held on to the
phone. She felt so scared and alone. The way she’d described things was cold and unfriendly, as if she hardly knew ‘the other two kids’. Yet they were her friends. They had done crazy things together like swimming with dolphins and walking with beasts in the black of night. Now they were lost, perhaps hurt, or even worse…

  She tried to picture them but the images wouldn’t form, and that frightened her even more. She searched her memory for any clue that might help find them, yet there was nothing. Eventually a buzzing from the phone broke her thoughts. She replaced the hand-piece and moved through to the kitchen to see if she could be any help there.

  Tyler and Hine clambered down to the sand, their arms laden with things from the cave. Their bedding was left behind: if they had to spend another night, they would do so in the cave.

  Hine marched past the carcasses with her eyes fixed to the front. Tyler followed, glancing at the animals as he passed. They were in various states of decay as if they’d been killed at different times, maybe even weeks apart.

  After trying several spots Hine chose a rock well clear of the dolphins and where the wind would carry the smell away. She tried her phone. After staring at the screen for a while, she turned it off and placed it on the rock.

  ‘Nothing?’ asked Tyler. She nodded her head. ‘Mind if I try a few other spots?’ In answer she handed it to him.

  For half an hour Tyler climbed rocks, walked in the sea and paced the beach. At each spot he held the phone at various angles, hoping there would be a signal. There was nothing.

  Walking back to the rock, he studied Hine with her head in her hands and her back to the beach. He was worried about her. She had hardly said a word since seeing the dolphins. All the spark had gone, as if she was now resigned to whatever would happen to them.

  He had to stop her thinking about it. During his testing he had noticed lots of stones piled at the bottom of the cliff behind the bay. They were covered in white lichen making them ideal for messages on the wet sand. If Hine collected them, he would form the message and she’d avoid being near the dead animals. Hine agreed, and began picking up stones like a robot.

  Tyler planned his message carefully. ‘HELP’ was the simplest to build and easiest to understand. Part of it would have to be in amongst the carcasses. That could be a problem, because the light parts of the remaining skin might make the message unreadable. He had to shift them.

  After scratching out the message, it looked like only two would have to be moved. The first had been dead a long time. Parts of the tail fell off in his hands as he tried to haul it out of the way. The other hardly smelled at all. It was a fresh kill, possibly from when they saw Shifty and Grunty come ashore.

  He had dumped it when something about its head made him look a bit closer. There was a scar above the eye. It was the dolphin they had each held three days before. It had been so friendly, probably too friendly and too easy to catch. Once again anger welled in his head and he quickly reached for the pendant. This time the anger didn’t lessen, but changed into a determination that somehow he would make sure they paid for what they had done.

  The sun had gone by the time the message was finished. Tyler was pleased with the job. He looked to the top of the cliffs. It would be clearly visible from up there, if anybody ever pushed through the thorn bushes to look. But more importantly it would be visible from the air, which was the most likely source of rescue. He ruled out the sea as you’d have to be mad to bring a boat through that until the waves were smaller.

  They spent the last few minutes sitting on the rock, with Tyler trying out the radio. There was nothing in the FM band except hissing and crackling. A couple of places in the AM had voices, but too weak to be understood.

  ‘Come on, Hine,’ he said. ‘I think we should go inside now.’

  Hine didn’t even look up. She picked up her bag and walked slowly to the other end of the beach. Tyler followed, worrying about what he could do to help.

  Chapter 16

  Friday evening at the Woolshed Backpackers was a sombre affair. Normally the place would be buzzing with weekend visitors escaping from the city. Bill and Molly had cancelled all bookings knowing it wouldn’t be fun to be caught up in a search that could quickly turn to tragedy.

  Jonno was standing in front of a map marking the places they’d searched. Sitting round the table were experienced searchers from the nearby towns. They were a rugged mix of male and female, old and young, big and small. What they had in common was a love of the outdoors and a strong desire to help anyone in trouble.

  Mandy sat amongst them. She was now deeply worried about the safety of her friends. Earlier she had been questioned at length by Jonno. She had told him everything she could remember. He barely raised an eyebrow when she told of their adventures, including the fake twisted ankle. He was more interested in the black ute and its occupants; several times he returned to their encounter at Jacks Bay.

  Alice had been there to support Mandy though she hardly listened. Now, she sat at the table looking haggard with worry: a totally different person from the friendly, confident woman Mandy had met only five days before. It was frightening how quickly everything had gone so horribly wrong.

  Jonno tapped the table to get attention. ‘Okay, let’s make a start. I want to welcome all those who have just arrived. Thanks for giving up your time. I hope it will not be in vain.

  ‘Tomorrow we move into a new phase. We started today looking for a couple of naughty kids who had snuck out for a party on their last night of holiday and were just a little late getting back. That’s no longer the case. We now have to assume that something has stopped them from returning. Thanks to Mandy,’ he paused and nodded at her, ‘we have some idea of what they intended to do, and that was to spend the night in a cave. Yet the nearest accessible cave is more than twenty kilometres away. It’s possible they may have been talking about a sand cave. Part of the search tomorrow will concentrate on looking for recent erosion or digging on the beach.

  ‘Another possibility is that they went around the rocks looking for a cave. A magnifying glass was found here. They may have gone further around and then got trapped by the huge seas that came with the storm. A fixed-wing aircraft will be searching the coastline tomorrow morning. The sea is still too rough to safely put out a boat.’

  Jonno paused to thank Molly for the cup of tea she had just placed in front of him. He stirred it while looking at his notes.

  ‘On a brighter note, there is the possibility that the children may come to us, or at least tell us where they are. Hine has her mobile phone. Unfortunately communication around here is hopeless. But TotalCom are coming in the morning to put up a temporary aerial that will fix that. By lunchtime tomorrow communications by cellphone should be almost as good as anywhere.

  ‘Then there is…’ He was interrupted by the outside door opening. A man entered. Everyone turned to look. He seemed to have come to the wrong place—his neat grey suit and groomed hair didn’t fit in at all. Then Alice leapt to her feet and grabbed him in a huge hug.

  When it seemed that the hug was going to last for ever, Jonno smiled, gave a little cough and said, ‘May I go on?’

  Alice finally released the man and turned to the others. ‘This is Richard, my fiancé.’ Then doubt swept her face. She turned to him with a pleading look. Richard smiled, nodding his head slowly.

  ‘Welcome, Richard,’ said Jonno. ‘Good to have your support. Pull up a chair and we’ll move on.’ Alice grabbed a chair and placed it very close to hers.

  Jonno continued. ‘I was about to discuss the possibilities that others may be involved. Before they went missing there had already been several incidents involving a group of three people and a vehicle.’ He went on to describe the black ute, its occupants and the boat they had used.

  ‘The most significant incident was around at Jacks Bay where the children decided to play amateur detectives. While they did get some information, they may have learnt a bit too much. In particular they discovered that sever
al bags of meat were being unloaded from the boat. From their description it seems likely that the meat was from dolphins.’

  It took a moment for this information to sink in. The reaction when it came was one of total outrage and disgust, quickly followed by anger.

  ‘We have no proof of this,’ added Jonno speaking above the noise. ‘But other events suggest that they are deeply into criminal activities.

  ‘My reason for telling you this is that we have to consider the possibility of foul play. Tomorrow morning a team of police will arrive from Dunedin. They will concentrate on searching cribs and trying to locate the ute and the suspects.

  ‘The families of Hine and Tyler have been told about this. They are understandably very upset. Hine’s auntie and brother are coming down, as are Tyler’s mum and dad. They will need to be met at the airport in the morning. Alice, would you be able to arrange that?’

  Alice looked up when she heard her name. Plainly her mind had been elsewhere. She turned to Richard pleading for help. He squeezed her arm before answering, ‘Yes, we can take care of that. Just give us the times and the flight numbers.’

  ‘Okay. Then that’s it until the morning. Get a good night’s sleep and let’s hope by this time tomorrow we’ll be sitting here enjoying a quiet celebration for a job well done.’ He looked at Mandy and smiled. ‘And young Mandy here will be with her friends again. I’m sure they’ll have heaps to talk about.’

  Mandy tried to smile but it just wouldn’t come. She was still thinking about the talk of ‘foul play’. It hadn’t occurred to her that Shifty and Grunty might be involved. The worst she’d thought of was some sort of terrible accident. Now she had to face the idea that someone might have done something to them. Horrible images flashed in and out of her mind. Oh, if only they could go back and change things. If only they hadn’t played that stupid game…If only, if only, if only…

  Chapter 17

  Hine seemed happier back in the cave; so was Tyler. Now that they had an exit, the cave had returned to being a good place. It also protected them from the ugly scene in the cove outside.