Underworld

by Cathy MacPhail

  Angie picked up one single stone daintily. ‘We’ll laugh about this later when we’re having our dinner back at the hostel.’ She said it breathlessly. ‘Won’t we, sir?’ Angie wasn’t looking for reassurance. She really believed it. Always look on the bright side of life, right enough, Fiona thought.

  Zesh stood straight. ‘What’s that!’

  Fiona heard it too. She strained her ears for calls from the other side of the rock wall. But there was nothing. Yet they all stopped, listened.

  Even Axel. ‘Don’t hear nothing,’ he said, but he didn’t continue clearing the rocks. He still listened, and Fiona thought it was the very silence that alerted them, an ominous stillness they could all sense.

  ‘Axel, get down from there now.’ There was so much quiet force in Mr Marks’s voice that Axel jumped to the ground beside him. ‘I want you all to make your way back down to the main chamber. Now.’

  Fiona followed his eyes. They were looking up at the roof of the cave. Hadn’t it been solid stone when they came in? Now, it seemed loose, hanging as if by slender threads of rock.

  ‘Get back to the chamber. Hold tight on to the railing.’ Mr Marks was pushing them roughly ahead of him, and Fiona could hear his breath, gasping. ‘Go now!’

  They began to run, just in time, as the whole cave seemed to explode again, but it was only rock, held together for eons, now breaking free from mother earth. Fiona screamed as the roof literally caved in, and boulders and rocks and stone cascaded down.

  Axel was in front bounding down the stairway with Liam and Zesh close behind him. Angie glanced back at Fiona, mouthed to her, ‘You all right?’ Fiona only pushed her on. She let out a shriek as stones struck her ankles but it didn’t slow her. Mr Marks was yelling behind them. ‘Run! Run! Run!’

  Suddenly, Mr Marks pushed Fiona so roughly she was pitched forwards. She fell against Angie and both of them tumbled forwards. They had to hold tight on to the railing to stop themselves from going over.

  But Mr Marks, trying to help them, wasn’t holding on at all. He pitched past them and with a wild cry he toppled headlong over the railing, hurtling down to the chamber below.

  This was a nightmare. Fiona’s thoughts were a scream inside her head as they raced down the stairs. The roar in the cave suddenly stopped and all was silence again. Except for a trickle of stones and rubble settling on the floor of the chamber. They all ran to Mr Marks as he lay, twisted and still. They stood around him in a circle looking down at him. Fiona looked at everybody, one by one.

  Liam, she could actually see his heart thumping through his clothes.

  Zesh looked pale and scared.

  Axel, even now, still managed to look angry.

  And Angie, with tears streaming down her chubby cheeks.

  Fiona was crying too, trying to hold them back, not managing it. She stared down at the teacher. ‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’

  Chapter 13

  Zesh bent over the limp body of the teacher. ‘He’s not dead,’ he said flatly. ‘Just unconscious.’

  ‘But he’s badly hurt, isn’t he? Must be the way he fell.’

  Zesh saw that Liam was shaking, his lips white with fear.

  ‘Do you think he’s broken anything?’ Fiona looked more sick than scared.

  ‘If not, I’ll gladly break something for him!’ Axel swung his foot out, ready to kick him.

  Zesh sprang to his feet. ‘Don’t be so stupid. Look, we’re in terrible trouble.’

  ‘Thanks to him,’ Axel spat at the teacher.

  ‘Somebody will come and get us soon.’ Angie looked at Zesh hopefully.

  Zesh didn’t think that was true, but should he tell her that? Fiona decided for him. ‘Don’t be daft. Nobody’ll get through that rock now. It’s blocked solid.’

  They all looked up. She was right. A wall of rock blocked the entrance now. It would take dynamite to clear it.

  ‘What are we going to do, Zesh?’ Angie was looking at him as if he should know. He wanted to know.

  ‘We’ll wait here till Mr Marks comes to. He’ll tell us what to do.’

  Axel was stamping his feet impatiently. ‘And what if he doesn’t? What are we going to do then?’

  ‘Look, Axel.’ Zesh was just as impatient. ‘Maybe it was you caused that second landslide. Throwing boulders all over the place. So just shut up and let me think!’

  Axel took a step back. ‘Let you think! Do you think I’m going to listen to you?’ He looked up at the blocked entrance. ‘If there’s another one of them explosions that rock’ll be coming down here. I’m not just waiting around for it to happen.’

  ‘But where else can we go?’ Liam asked him.

  Axel’s eyes roamed the tunnels leading from this chamber. ‘In there, they must lead somewhere.’

  Liam was shaking his head. ‘I’m not going in there.’

  Axel grinned. ‘Thinking about the Worm, are ye?’ He paled as soon as he had finished speaking. Sorry he had brought it up. Zesh felt it was a memory they had all pushed down deep into their subconscious, away from all their thoughts, till Axel had brought it bubbling to the surface.

  Fiona jumped at him. ‘That’s just a stupid story. Don’t even talk about it.’

  Axel looked at her as if he wanted to thump her. ‘Well, I’m still not staying here. Worm or not.’

  Liam tried to persuade him. ‘We’ve got to, Axel. They’ll come for us. They will. And we’ve got Mr Marks to think about as well.’

  ‘I don’t care about him.’

  Zesh was trying not to get angry. ‘If we stay here, at least there’s light. They will come for us. Through there …’ He pointed up. ‘So we stay here.’ He said it with confidence, expecting to be obeyed. He was a school prefect after all. He should be in charge now.

  Axel took a step away from him. ‘You do what you like, pal. I’m going.’

  ‘Going where?’ Zesh pointed to each of the tunnels in turn that led from the chamber. Axel’s eyes darted from one to the other, finally settled on the widest. ‘That one.’ He looked around at each of the group. ‘Who’s coming?’

  Zesh looked around too. ‘It would be stupid to split up. We stick together. Here.’ He sounded so sure of himself.

  Axel spat at him. ‘Who do you think you are? Who’s going to listen to you?’

  ‘Who’s gonny listen to you?’ Fiona snapped.

  Axel pulled at Liam. ‘C’mon!’

  Zesh watched as Axel stepped towards the tunnel. Liam didn’t follow him. He looked indecisive. No change there, Zesh thought with disgust. Never knowing which way to jump. Always going with who was stronger. Usually Axel. But Liam had never been in a situation like this before. None of them had.

  Axel swung round. ‘I said, c’mon.’

  Liam stuttered. ‘We should think about this, Axel.’ He paused, didn’t want to admit his fear. ‘It’s dark in there.’

  More than dark, Zesh thought, black. At least here, in the main chamber, the ribbon of lights leading down the stairwell still worked.

  ‘You’ve got a light on your helmet,’ Axel reminded him.

  ‘Thanks to Mr Marks,’ Zesh said.

  ‘Thanks to him we’re in this situation. Thank him for nothing.’

  Angie jumped up then, clutched at Axel’s jacket. ‘Oh, Axel, don’t leave. We should all stick together.’

  He yanked himself away from her. ‘Shut your face, fattie.’

  Angie stepped back, and glanced at Zesh. Was she expecting him to say something to Axel then? But what could he say? How was he to stop him? And anyway, things would be easier if Axel wasn’t here. The rest of them would listen to him.

  ‘Go then, you seem to think you know best. Good riddance.’ Zesh turned away from him.

  Axel took one last look at Liam. But Liam didn’t meet his gaze. Finally, Axel aimed a spit at him, and stepped into the blackness.

  Fiona watched as Axel was swallowed up by the darkness, heard his footsteps echo. She felt almost relieved he was gone. He was trouble, an
d they had trouble enough.

  ‘Get me out of here, God! I promise I’ll stop smoking.’ She looked at Zesh. ‘Who do you pray to?’

  He was kneeling beside Mr Marks and he looked up at her. ‘I pray to God too.’

  ‘I thought it was Allah you prayed to.’

  ‘Allah is God,’ Zesh said, remembering now that it had been a long time since he had prayed to him.

  ‘Well, I’m not taking any chances. I’m praying to both of them.’ She closed her eyes. ‘God, Allah, please get us out of here.’

  She felt Angie touch her hand. ‘Maybe we should all kneel in prayer?’

  Why did she always have to talk so much rubbish? Fiona pulled her hand away. ‘What do you think this is? One of them revival meetings?’ She was shouting, her voice echoing through the chamber.

  Liam looked around as if he was following the path of her voice. ‘Maybe Axel will find a way out. He’s got a great sense of direction,’ he said, ‘and then come back and get us.’

  ‘If Axel finds a way out, he’ll leave. Nelson Mandela he ain’t.’ Fiona looked at Liam as if she was seeing him for the first time. Was he really so stupid? Axel looked after Axel. Always had and always would.

  ‘It was just that Mr Marks told us that some of these tunnels lead to a sea cave on the coast. There’s got to be a way out.’

  ‘And some of them don’t,’ Zesh reminded him, coldly.

  ‘And we’re not experts. It would be just our luck to pick the wrong tunnel,’ Fiona said. Liam looked towards the tunnel that Axel had gone through. ‘Follow him if you want,’ she dared him. ‘But I know I’m staying here.’

  Angie moved beside her, almost defiantly. ‘Yes, me and Fiona are staying here with Zesh.’

  Fiona turned on Angie, taking her so much by surprise her eyes flashed. ‘Look, Angie hen. I’m staying here because I want to stay – and not because Zesh, or anybody else suggested it. Right! I don’t ever do anything to please other people. Right!’

  Angie didn’t say anything. It was Zesh who answered her. ‘You can say that again.’

  Chapter 14

  Axel had never known anything could be so black. It was like being surrounded by night. He fumbled for the switch on his helmet and a beam of light illuminated the tunnel. Somehow, that was even worse than the total blackness. What horrors lurked on the edges of that light, just out of his vision? Creeping alongside the walls of the tunnel, ready to spring out at any moment. He stood still, listening. He could hear Fiona shouting – he couldn’t make out what. He just wished that she would keep on shouting. So he would know that they were nearby.

  He let out a yell as something scuttled across his foot. Had he kicked a loose stone? Was it a mouse? A rat? A giant rat? He swung round, sure that at any moment he would see eyes, bright and red and evil, watching him.

  Or … could it be the Worm? He took a step back, imagining it sliding closer to him. Did worms have eyes? This Worm could have anything. No one had seen it. His imagination could turn it into anything. It could be dressed in a frilly frock. He tried to laugh at the picture that conjured up. Trying to stop himself being so afraid.

  Shut up! He yelled it silently to himself. It was only a story. A legend, it wasn’t true. And why should he be so afraid anyway? He’d been thumped by a succession of his mother’s boyfriends and he’d never let any of them see he was afraid. He’d been locked up in the dark so many times and he’d refused to cry. He wouldn’t be afraid now.

  But before, he’d always been locked up in a room, in a house, with traffic noises outside, and people passing his windows. Here there was nothing.

  Blackness.

  Something scuttling into the shadows.

  An ancient legend.

  He heard a voice again. Were they calling him? He wouldn’t go back if they were. No, not with Zesh bossing everyone about. He swivelled his light around.

  There was nothing in this tunnel. It led nowhere, except into tiny, inaccessible, coffin-like spaces. And a memory of another tiny space he had once been confined in, a memory he had kept in some deep dark place, scratched in his subconscious, trying to get out.

  And Axel began to sweat.

  Mr Marks was opening his eyes, blinking, trying to focus. His gaze settled on Zesh.

  ‘Mr Marks? Are you OK? What are we going to do? We’re trapped down here.’

  Mr Marks tried to sit up, but every movement seemed like agony. He turned his head to look up at the entrance. Even the top of the stairway was covered in boulders. The railing twisted and broken. He turned back to Zesh, swallowed and looked as if even thinking of the words to say was too much effort for him. ‘You have to move into one of the other caves. Away from here. Dangerous. Help me.’

  He was trying to stand up, but he let out a yell of agony as his foot bent over. Fiona ran to him. ‘Where do we go, sir?’

  ‘Into another cave. Wait,’ he murmured.

  Fiona almost cried out with relief. They were going to be OK. Mr Marks knew what to do. ‘Hope I’m back in time for The Simpsons, sir,’ she joked.

  ‘Wait for what, sir? Help?’ Angie asked.

  Mr Marks was too weak even to answer. He only nodded, and Zesh could feel him struggling for every breath. Zesh knew that feeling.

  ‘You don’t think we should start heading for the sea, sir?’ he asked.

  He took too long to answer. Zesh could almost see his brain trying to figure out a way to tell them. The sea was too far. Miles and miles and miles of twisting tunnels and caves.

  ‘Stay here,’ the teacher said, and his voice was almost a whisper. ‘They will find us.’

  At that moment Axel burst out of the tunnel. His face was pale. ‘That tunnel doesn’t lead anywhere.’ He said it as if he’d been asked.

  Mr Marks was angry when he saw him. ‘What did I tell you? Stay together – always stay together.’

  ‘I’m not sitting about doing nothing. I’m getting out of here.’

  Angie jumped towards him. ‘Axel, Mr Marks says if we just wait here, they’ll know how to find us.’

  The idea of staying put didn’t appeal to Axel. Mr Marks drew in a long breath. ‘Down here, you’re a team. Please remember that.’

  His face was covered in sweat, cold, icy sweat. His eyes began to roll back in his head. He was losing consciousness again. Zesh shook him. ‘Mr Marks!’

  Angie screamed. ‘He’s dead this time. I know it.’

  ‘What is it with you, Angie. You keep wanting him to be dead!’

  Zesh noticed the tremor in Fiona’s voice. She was almost crying.

  ‘He’s blacked out, that’s all,’ Zesh said softly.

  Fiona broke the long silence. ‘Well, at least we know somebody’ll come for us … sometime.’

  Liam was quick to agree. ‘Yeah, we stay here and wait, eh Axel?’

  Axel didn’t want to stay, didn’t want Zesh to have been right. He turned his back on them all.

  ‘Maybe we should have something to eat while we’re waiting.’ Angie looked around hopefully.

  Axel suddenly roared with laughter. It was funny the way the sound carried through these caves, bouncing and rebounding and seeming to come back to them like a ghostly echo. ‘Ha! Even here all the fattie can think about is food.’

  ‘Shut up you!’ Fiona yelled and her voice echoed too. They all stopped for a moment to listen.

  ‘Angie’s right,’ Zesh said. ‘We should eat something. But not much. Maybe one sandwich, and some water. We don’t know how long it’ll take them to get here.’

  ‘I’ll eat how much I want,’ Axel said, refusing to take orders.

  Fiona refused to take orders too, but she handled it differently. ‘Actually, I was just about to suggest that myself. One sandwich. Right?’

  They ate quietly. Axel and Liam sat far from the rest of them, and for all his shouting, Axel did only eat one sandwich, Zesh noted.

  Angie sat beside Mr Marks, wiping his face, and wetting his lips with some of her water. She’s thoughtful,
Zesh thought, and she hadn’t panicked half as much as he expected. She looked up, caught him watching her, and she blushed.

  Oh no, please don’t let her think I fancy her. He looked away quickly, straight into the amused eyes of Fiona.

  She grinned. He knew exactly what she was thinking. All she said was, ‘Wish I had a fag.’

  Zesh was just about to give her another lecture on smoking when suddenly, there was that eerie silence again. He got to his feet. Looked up at the roof. Did the stones seem looser now? Were they beginning to move again? He felt dizzy looking up, but when he looked at the rest of them they had followed his eyes and were gazing up too.

  ‘It’s moving again,’ Liam said, taking a step back.

  It was. Little bits of debris tumbled down, followed by a few small stones.

  Then nothing, except that silence.

  ‘Somebody help me with Mr Marks,’ Zesh said. Only Fiona and Angie stepped forward. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ he said.

  Axel stood as if he was hypnotised. ‘Thought you said moving on was a bad idea. Thought you were always right.’

  For a moment Zesh ignored him. He was too busy trying to pull, haul, lift the dead weight of the teacher, struggling to move him into one of the tunnels. ‘I was right then,’ he muttered angily,’ ‘and I’m right now too. We can’t stay here.’

  Already the rumble was beginning, a distant rumble, like thunder many miles away. But it wasn’t thunder, it was an avalanche of rock hanging over them, ready to break free any second now.

  ‘Run for it!’ Zesh ordered them.

  But before they could move, the lights went out.

  Chapter 15

  Angie’s scream pierced Liam’s eardrums. At least it sounded like Angie. He couldn’t see anything. Total darkness. He wanted to scream himself. Only one beam of light ribboned the cave, like a searchlight in an air raid. Axel’s. The light on his helmet reflecting his panic as it swung around them all.

  Zesh’s face, his eyes wide, shouting, ‘Get out of here!’