The Shifting Light

by Alice Campion

  ‘I know, Nina. Here, sit by me.’ Hilary pushed down her own fear and horror, keeping her voice measured and firm, just as she did with a jittery horse. She patted the rock beside her.

  ‘I can’t,’ said Nina, crying now as she started to pace again. ‘No-one knows where we are. We’re buried. We’re not going to get out of here, are we?’

  Hilary struggled to find something comforting to say.

  Then they heard it. A strange whirring that grew in intensity above them.

  ‘Christ. Bats!’ screamed Hilary, as she jumped up and clung to Nina. ‘Oh god!’ A sob rose in her throat, as a multitude of tiny bats in the cavern above took flight. Weren’t things bad enough? Just the thought of these airborne rats flying above them filled her with disgust.

  The pair stood speechless. What was left of the grey light flickered through the hole above as the squeaking colony surrendered to the ancient impulse that drew them from the cave at this ordained hour.

  Then, at last, they were gone.

  Hilary sat, put her head in her hands and sobbed.

  ‘Hey, it’s alright,’ Nina soothed, joining her mother on the boulder and putting her arm around her. ‘They’re not flying down to us – they’re heading out. Probably gone hunting for the night.’

  Hilary groaned as they heard a couple of stragglers escape into the night sky.

  ‘Gone,’ whispered Nina.

  ‘Lucky little shits,’ sniffed Hilary. She felt embarrassed at her hysteria. But oddly, her weakness seemed to have made her daughter stronger.

  Silence.

  ‘I heard something up there earlier,’ said Nina. ‘But I didn’t want to freak you out.’

  ‘Perfect,’ Hilary quipped, through her sniffs. ‘After all, there’s precious little else to be freaked out by.’

  ‘They’re probably little pied bats,’ said Nina. ‘Ben’s into them. He told me they’re dying out. Something about clearing for cotton.’

  ‘Well, I’ve done my bit, then.’

  They chuckled. Hilary wiped her face with her sleeve as Nina stood and resumed her pacing. Back, forth. Back, forth.

  ‘Nina!’ said Hilary finally. ‘Must you? It’s getting on my nerves. Seriously.’

  ‘If I keep it up, I might get warm.’

  Hilary immediately recalled Nina’s bare legs, those skimpy shorts. ‘You must be freezing! No sense in getting sick on top of everything else. Here,’ she patted the rough rock surface next to her. ‘Come on, sit. We need to use each other’s body warmth.’

  But Nina kept moving.

  ‘HELP! HELP US!’ Nina’s cries echoed through the cavern once again.

  ‘Enough!’ said Hilary. ‘If there was anyone out there – and there isn’t – they would have heard us by now. Your voice is going. We’ve been screaming enough to wake the dead.’

  ‘I hope not,’ muttered Nina. ‘Sorry, that wasn’t funny.’

  They both instinctively turned from the lump they knew lay sprawled in the darkness a couple of metres away.

  ‘Ouch,’ Nina said, finally sitting next to her mother.

  Hilary wrapped her in her arms. A rustling sound coming from god knows where. ‘What was that?’ she cried.

  ‘Bush rats?’ offered Nina.

  ‘Ugh.’

  Nina clapped loudly and the skittering stopped, for now. ‘I’m so thirsty.’ Her voice was hoarse.

  ‘Here.’ Hilary dug into her bag. ‘I’ve got nearly half a bottle of water.’

  ‘What! Where did you get this?’ cried Nina. ‘I should have known that the Louis Vuitton would be holding something useful.’

  She grabbed the bottle but Hilary held her arm.

  ‘Just a few sips,’ she cautioned. ‘I wanted to save it. It’s all we have. We need to be careful.’

  ‘Sure,’ said Nina. Hilary heard her take a brief sip then felt Nina’s hands grasp her own to pass the bottle back.

  ‘Your phone!’ said Nina.

  ‘We’ve already tried that. Over and over,’ snapped Hilary.

  ‘No, I mean for light. Pass it here.’

  Hilary felt in her bag for the phone and gave it to Nina.

  ‘We shouldn’t keep it on for long, but I’m just a bit creeped out. Maybe a few minutes?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ said Hilary. Nina’s tentative voice made her immediately regret her sharp tone. ‘Good idea.’

  A beam of light shone from the phone, making the shadows deeper and the space larger somehow. The effect was disorienting.

  ‘Oh, Hilary. Your face! Is it sore?’

  Hilary put her hand up to her jaw and winced. ‘Does it look bad?’

  ‘You’ve got a nice shiner, and your cheek – it’s swollen and blackie-blue,’ said Nina.

  ‘Well, we can’t do anything about it now. Unless you’ve got a bag of ice. Ow – mustn’t smile.’

  ‘So, besides a G & T, what else is in your bag?’ asked Nina. Hilary could hear her daughter’s teeth chattering.

  ‘Don’t get too excited. I had a quick look earlier.’ Hilary rummaged through the contents. ‘There’s a tin of sour cherry drops and a muffin that I bought in town this morning. We should hold on to them for now. But I’m sure I have a plastic bag in here somewhere which might help you get warm. We could rip it up and pack it under your singlet.’ Hilary’s hands felt her sunglasses, perfume, purse, compact. Frustrated, she put the bag on the floor of the cave and started taking things out one by one. ‘Just hold the light over here,’ she said, ‘I could have sworn that muffin came in a plastic bag and …’ She stopped abruptly.

  ‘What? What?’ cried Nina, as her eyes followed the beam on the cave floor at their feet, just as Hilary’s had done.

  It was Lachlan’s face – bloody, contorted. His jaw sagged open, his glassy eyes stared.

  They both jumped to their feet and Nina dropped the phone.

  ‘Hideous!’ cried Hilary as she and Nina held each other. ‘I’m sorry, Nina. It’s silly. We both knew he was there. It’s just seeing him.’

  ‘It’s cool. I’m totally fine,’ said Nina, her voice wavering. ‘Totally.’ She bent down and with a business-like flourish picked up the phone from where it lay on Lachlan’s chest.

  ‘Here.’ She handed it to her mother.

  ‘Ugh,’ said Hilary. ‘It’s all sticky, it’s …’ She felt herself start to panic again when Nina’s voice cut through the air.

  ‘We should move him. Push him away,’ she said. ‘He’s too close to the middle of the cave and who knows how long we’ll be here.’

  Hilary nodded. She started to shake.

  ‘Hey,’ Nina continued. ‘His phone! We should, I don’t know, look through his pockets? Or his jacket?’

  Hilary felt herself nod but she couldn’t bring herself to speak. She recognised that jacket. She tried to quell the wild panic that was again bubbling inside her.

  ‘Hilary! Listen to me,’ said Nina.

  Hilary turned the torch light onto her daughter’s face, which looked sinister, shrouded in macabre shadows.

  ‘Let’s rest the phone on top of your bag so we can see what we’re doing and push him against the wall,’ said Nina.

  ‘Where though?’ said Hilary. ‘Not where Jim’s …’

  ‘Of course not!’ Now it was Nina’s turn to snap. ‘As if I’d want him anywhere near there – we’ll move him over to the other side. Now!’

  Hilary shook herself and helped Nina drag Lachlan’s heavy form to the edge of the cave. Once there, they rolled him over to face the wall.

  ‘Dear god, dear god,’ cried Hilary as she staggered back to the centre of the cave. But Nina didn’t follow her. Instead she remained hunched over the prone form.

  ‘What are you doing now?’

  ‘Pockets,’ grunted Nina. ‘Ah ha!’ She held up Lachlan’s phone with a cry of victory and started punching the keys. ‘Great, it’s unlocked.’

  ‘Amateur.’

  ‘No coverage of course. But shit! Check out his screensaver. Two boys,�
� said Nina, turning, a new tone to her voice. ‘Do you think he had kids? Look!’

  ‘No,’ said Hilary.

  ‘I’d better turn it off. Save the battery. We can keep it as a spare torch,’ she muttered.

  ‘Nina, darling. Please! That’s enough. Leave him. Get back here,’ said Hilary. Her voice sounded pleading, pathetic, even to her own ears.

  ‘Hold on. What else is here?’ Nina said, rifling through his clothing. ‘Some ammo, that form he made us sign, keys. Pity he wasn’t in the habit of carrying a hip flask.’

  Yes, he was, thought Hilary, remembering the night of the ball. He’d traded her a drink for a rollie.

  ‘Hilary …’

  ‘Yes,’ whispered Hilary. Now what?

  Nina sighed. ‘I know this sounds sort of gross but I think we need to undress him. We could do with his jacket, at least, and his boots. Maybe I could try and climb the walls again tomorrow if I have those on.’

  Hilary didn’t answer.

  Nina continued. ‘And a belt. Yes! He’s got a belt that might help us,’ she said, feeling with her hands. ‘Maybe we can use it for something. I’m going to need you to help me.’

  Hilary sat frozen, not daring to speak.

  ‘For god’s sake. Come on. We don’t have a choice.’

  ‘I can’t, Nina. I just can’t.’

  ‘Yes you can. I need you.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Come on! Lachlan is dead. He’s my relative, not yours. It’s not as if you knew him well.’

  ‘Stop it, Nina! Just stop it!’ Hilary started to sob.

  ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I know this is a mess but we have to try and …’

  ‘Oh, Nina,’ sighed Hilary, raising her head to the cave entrance then turning again to her daughter. ‘You might as well know. What does it matter now? Lachlan and I were lovers. It ended a few weeks ago. But we were together for months.’

  Nina said nothing, then, ‘You? You and Lachlan? But Izzy …’

  ‘Yes, I know. Not my finest hour, I admit, but he was good company, a bit of fun. Or so I thought,’ said Hilary. ‘And then I realised he was someone much darker. If only I’d said something to you sooner. I should’ve warned you.’ She sighed. ‘He was a shit and I’m not sorry he’s gone. I’m glad after what he tried to do to us.’

  ‘It’s alright,’ said Nina, moving to her mother. She took the phone, turned it off and put her arms around her. ‘I could say the same thing. I believed in him from the start. Totally sucked in. And I know he had it in for Izzy as well. None of us are to blame. He caused all of this, not us.’ Nina sighed. ‘If only I’d never come across Maggie’s sketch. Do you think this has all happened because he looked so much like Dad? You know, I think I just fell in love with this image of Jim – I saw what I wanted to see. Pathetic, isn’t it?’

  ‘I’m not the right person to ask,’ offered Hilary. ‘I took him into my bed. Ridiculous. Sure, it didn’t take me as long to suss him out, but I fell for him just the same. He tried to kill us, Nina.’

  ‘But you saved us. You threw the rock. We’d be the ones lying here, otherwise.’

  ‘Oh, but I regret it. Look at us. Stuck here.’

  They held each other until Hilary felt Nina’s hands. Ice cold. Snap out of it. Her daughter needed her. ‘Okay,’ she said as she stood. She winced and brushed down her skirt. ‘As Moira would say, this isn’t going to get the baby bathed. Let’s do this. Put the light on.’

  Nina placed the glowing phone on the ground. The two of them made their way over to Lachlan again and gingerly pulled his arms out of the jacket. Nina fumbled with his belt as Hilary undid his shoes and prised them off.

  They staggered back to the boulder.

  ‘Done!’ Hilary said finally. ‘Just put the jacket around your shoulders. Now, let’s have another sip of water. We deserve it.’

  She turned the phone off. They sat in silence enveloped in a darkness so profound it was as though they were blind.

  ‘I can’t believe we just did that,’ said Nina. She sounded exhausted.

  Hilary tapped her daughter’s shoulder with the water bottle but she pushed it away gently.

  ‘No. We need to save it.’

  Hilary said nothing. The thought of the next few hours, or days – the rest of their short lives down here – was too hard to contemplate. She took a deep breath.

  Just then, Syd took up his whining again from the foot of the rock chimney. They had called back to him in the first few hours, but now it seemed too cruel.

  ‘Who knows, Nina. Maybe we can come up with a way to get out of here tomorrow,’ Hilary said, forcing herself to sound more confident than she felt. ‘We might be able to make use of the belt or the shoes. They’ll be searching for us soon. Heath might think of the waterhole. And then Syd will bring them here for sure. We should try to sleep.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Nina, her voice subdued. ‘It’s sort of hopeless though, isn’t it?’

  ‘Now where did that come from?’ said Hilary.

  ‘Well, I guess we have to face it. We have little water, no food …’

  ‘A muffin!’ said Hilary.

  ‘Okay, a muffin. And no-one knows where we are. We’re trapped here.’

  ‘Nina,’ said Hilary. ‘Don’t.’

  ‘And there’s one more thing.’

  ‘What?’ whispered Hilary.

  ‘I’m pregnant.’

  ‘Are you facing the wall?’ Hilary’s voice came out of the darkness.

  ‘Yes,’ called Nina.

  ‘Face covered?’

  Nina pulled Lachlan’s jacket across her nose and mouth. ‘Yep!’

  ‘Fingers in ears?’

  ‘Yes. Hilary, just get on with it!’

  Even though she was expecting the gun’s thunderous roar, it still shook her to the core after the long silence of the night. The echoes reverberating from the cave’s hard surfaces were joined by the slithering of loosened rocks and dirt showering down on them.

  ‘Ow. Shit. Jesus,’ Hilary gasped in between coughing fits.

  ‘Are you okay?’ called Nina, her ears ringing.

  ‘A rock hit me on the shoulder,’ spluttered Hilary. ‘And I’ve swallowed about a kilo of dirt but apart from that I’m just dandy.’

  They waited for the whirl of startled bats in the upper chamber to settle.

  Nina felt her way over and helped Hilary brush away the debris. It had been her mother’s idea to fire the gun to see if they could attract attention. They had waited until the faint light showed again in the opening above them and then, with one or two quick checks of Hilary’s phone, counted off the three hours until it turned 10 am. It had seemed an eternity, but they had agreed that 10 was the earliest a search party might reach this area. In the meantime, they had tried calling Syd again but there was no reply.

  ‘I think we should only use the other bullets if we actually hear someone,’ said Nina. ‘We could bring the lot down on us if we keep this up.’

  ‘We can’t rely on that slobbering idiot Barry Kemp to find us on his own,’ sniffed Hilary. ‘Though Heath has enough brains and skill to work it out at a pinch.’

  ‘He’ll find me. I know he will,’ said Nina. At least, he’ll never stop trying.

  ‘Of course,’ said Hilary reassuringly. ‘Let’s sit on the sofa.’

  Hands outstretched in the darkness, they shuffled their way back to their smooth boulder under the entrance hole.

  ‘Ouch,’ said Hilary as she lowered herself.

  ‘Oooh, me too.’ The pain of Nina’s scratches and bruises had worsened overnight.

  The space that contained them was around the size of The Springs’ sitting room, they had established. During the night, they had pushed the loose rocks and debris away from one side, trying to find sand or smooth rock underneath that they could lie on. The bumpy cave floor had been a small improvement but not much. Neither had slept.

  ‘Time for two sips of water and a quarter of the muffin,’ said Hilary, reaching into h
er bag.

  ‘And the same for you,’ Nina added. Hilary had not eaten or drunk since they had been in the cave.

  ‘Nonsense. I need to lose at least five kilos before Christmas,’ Hilary snapped. ‘Besides, I just had that delicious dirt breakfast.’

  Nina laughed. She was starting to enjoy her mother’s mordant sense of humour. ‘At least have some water.’

  ‘Seriously, Nina, the main thing is the baby, isn’t it?’ she said more gently. ‘If you starve, it starves. So stop being noble.’

  She felt Hilary’s protective arm around her shoulders.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said softly.

  ‘After all, it’s my first all-white grandchild, so …’

  ‘Hilary!’ gasped Nina. ‘I know you’re only kidding, but …’

  ‘I knew you’d bite. Of course I love Deborah’s two girls. And I’ll love your baby just the same. Now only eat a crumb at a time. Make it last,’ Hilary added, putting the piece of muffin into Nina’s hand. ‘And then we’ll crack out the lip balm and hand cream. Christ knows we need it.’

  ‘I wonder if they’ll be able to track the phones.’

  ‘Doubt it. There’s zero coverage and we’ve only been turning mine on every now and then. But I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until they search around the waterhole. Process of elimination,’ said Hilary. ‘The dog’s still bound to be hanging around somewhere. He adores you. As soon as they show up he’ll bring them here. I don’t know whether I’d have as much faith in Dolce and Gabbana frankly.’

  Nina smiled. ‘So, are we going to try and climb out?’ she asked, looking at the opening at least three metres above them. She could vaguely see the outlines of crags and bumps at the very top, but none seemed big enough for a hand or foot hold.

  ‘Well, there’s the rest of Lachlan’s clothes. We could do some thing with them before he gets … bad.’

  ‘Like make a rope?’

  ‘Maybe. At least we can give it a try.’ Hilary took a deep breath. ‘You sit here. Just leave it to me.’