Underworld Read online

  Liam pulled again at Mr Marks, hoping he would find a strength he never knew he had. People did that. He’d read about mothers lifting cars from their children, of people showing superhuman strength when they most needed it. He gripped the teacher’s shoulders, and he prayed. Sweat broke from him, ran down his face. He tried with everything he had left to pull the teacher through, knowing that Zesh and Fiona were doing the same on the other side of the hole.

  ‘Can’t do it,’ he said, almost to himself.

  ‘It’s no use,’ Zesh called through the rock.

  He knew it was useless. Skinny Liam, how could he hope to have the strength to haul at the teacher, pull him to safety?

  In that one moment of despair, he was pulled by the legs right out of the hole. ‘I’ll get him.’ It was Axel. He knocked Liam out of the way. He didn’t even look at him. His eyes focused on the teacher, nothing else. As if he was trying to shut out where he was, with the walls closing in on him.

  Liam shouted with excitement. ‘Axel’s here!’

  ‘Axel!’ He heard the shock in Fiona’s voice.

  Liam touched Axel’s shoulder. ‘What made you –’

  ‘– change my mind?’ Axel finished for him. Still he didn’t look at him. ‘Couldn’t let even him be stuck here for ever. Not here.’

  He slid himself down back into that tiny space. It was then that Liam saw just how strong Axel really was, as he pulled the teacher through the narrow opening, inch by inch. Concentrating hard, Liam was sure, because he needed to forget where he was.

  ‘We’re doing it!’ Liam yelled back to Zesh and Fiona. And when they heard him they started yelling. ‘Hurry up!’

  Lifting him up the U-bend was the hardest part. Liam could never have done that alone. Axel was needed for that. He backed out of the hole, hauling Mr Marks by the shoulders. And behind the teacher Fiona scrabbled through. Zesh followed her, twisting himself through, looking unkempt and sweaty. Together they hauled the teacher up on to the high ground in the chamber and laid him flat.

  Only then did Axel fall back, drained. Liam was shaking. Fiona was trying to stop the tears. Zesh lay flat, took out his inhaler and breathed in again. Deep in the other chamber they could hear the rush of water filling it up. As if it was flooding already. They had made it just in time.

  ‘We’ve probably killed him, dragging him through there.’ Fiona was moaning again, feeling for a pulse. She threw the teacher’s limp hand from her. ‘What am I doing? I’m no zonking Florence Nightingale. I don’t even know where a pulse is.’

  They had slept after their ordeal, for how long, none of them knew. But now, they were all wondering why Mr Marks had hardly stirred. Was he dying? He looked as if he was. ‘Maybe we broke something. I mean, how does he no’ wake up?’

  ‘You said it was concussion. Remember? You were going to be a doctor earlier,’ Zesh reminded Fiona.

  ‘Trust you to remember that!’ she snapped at him.

  ‘We’ve taken him this far, we might as well take him the rest.’ It was Liam who said it and no one argued. Not even Axel. ‘We must be close. The caves lead out to the Doon,’ he said.

  Fiona looked at him in surprise. ‘You really did listen to him, didn’t you?’

  ‘Course I did,’ Liam said. ‘The chamber’s bigger here. We follow this and it has to lead us out to the sea.’

  They didn’t say that Mr Marks had also said not all the caves led out to the sea: under the island there was a warren of caves, some of them leading nowhere.

  Fiona grinned at him. ‘Quite a wee bossy boots when you put your mind to it, eh Liam?’

  Liam wanted to smile back, but he didn’t dare. What if Zesh laughed at him, or Axel?

  Fiona turned to Axel. ‘That was great by the way, Axel. We really needed you there.’

  Axel stared at her, as if he was expecting one of her smart remarks. She wanted to reassure him that she meant every word. ‘I’m serious. Not that you shouldn’t have helped us anyway. We needed a big strong boy, and that’s you.’

  Zesh added softly, almost as if he was forcing the words out. ‘Yes, thanks, Axel.’

  That really got up Fiona’s nose. ‘What are you thanking him for? He took your inhaler. That was one crap thing to do.’

  ‘He made up for it,’ Zesh said.

  That only made her worse. ‘Made up for it! He didn’t even come back to get you. Liam probably only got it because it fell out of Axel’s pocket and he never noticed. He wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire. So less of the Friends patter. You’ll be wanting a group hug next. One good deed does not make a hero!’

  ‘Shut up, Fiona!’ they all shouted.

  They didn’t know, Axel was thinking. Liam hadn’t told them that Axel had handed the inhaler back meekly. Why? He couldn’t bear to look at Liam, because he didn’t know how he felt about that. Why hadn’t he told them? Was it because he wanted to wait until Axel was with them, and then humiliate him? And yet, here he was, and Liam still hadn’t said a word. He wanted to ask him why. In fact, he wanted to grab Liam, push him up against a wall, make him tell just what his game was.

  But that kind of behaviour seemed an age away. He could never treat Liam like that again. Maybe he’d never be able to treat anyone like that again.

  Axel glanced at Zesh, lying back against the wall. He held tightly on to that inhaler of his. He’d never let it out of his hand again. And would Axel do what he had done before? Attack him, run at him, take it from him?

  No. That was in another life, another world. The world up there. Down here, they had all changed.

  Liam stood up. ‘Time we were moving,’ he said.

  And they all stood up and followed him.

  Chapter 29

  There was a spring in their step as they moved forwards now. Zesh supposed the rest of them felt as he did – they were on their way out. They had to be. They had all faced the worst and come through it.

  All except Angie. His heart sank when he thought of poor Angie and her fate. He glanced at Fiona, on the other side of Mr Marks. Had she forgotten already? Somehow he didn’t think she had.

  She caught him watching her. ‘What are you looking at!’ she demanded. She didn’t expect an answer. ‘I don’t even think he’s as heavy as he was.’ She meant Mr Marks. ‘Do you think he’s lost weight?’

  But of course, Axel was now taking a lot of the teacher’s weight. Axel was strong. Zesh had been so sure he would have objected to taking the teacher on with them, but no. When Liam had told him to lift him, he had lifted him. Maybe now that Axel had actually saved Mr Marks’s life, he felt responsible for him. Whatever the reason, it was a big change. Axel had changed. So had Liam. Had he, Zesh, changed? All he knew was that he was happy to move along behind Liam, finding his breathing easier with every passing moment.

  ‘If Angie was here she would have us singing.’ He regretted mentioning Angie right away.

  Fiona let out a cry. ‘Don’t talk about Angie. I left her. Maybe she came back.’

  But they all knew now, that even if she had come back, she would be doomed. Drowned in the black water that filled the caves behind them. Fiona stopped suddenly. ‘I was so nasty to her, and she never even noticed. She was always telling stories and I never believed her. She never took offence, no matter how nasty you were to her.’

  ‘You were nicer to her than the rest of us,’ Zesh said.

  ‘Aye, I suppose I was.’ A moment later she was off again. ‘She was a really nice person. See Angie, what you saw was what you got. No secrets. She was just Angie.’

  Zesh had to agree with that. Angie had been a nice girl when they’d come on the trip, and with the last thing she’d done, trying to help Zesh, she was still a nice girl. ‘It’s funny though,’ he said. ‘We never really knew anything about her. Where she came from, or anything. We’ll never know now. Now that she’s …’

  Axel burst into the conversation. ‘I suppose that’s my fault.’ He’d hardly spoken before this, and his voice seemed to b
oom out through the caves. ‘Suppose it was. But I didn’t push her. You can all swear to that. I never touched her.’

  Did he think they were going to blame him?

  ‘Time enough to talk about Angie when we get out,’ Liam said. ‘Let’s get on.’

  There was a feeling, Zesh was sure they all felt it, that there was a need for speed. No stopping, maybe a final rush to the outside world. They moved on silently, but each thinking they were close. They had to be. The caves were massive here, big enough for giants to pass through. They had to lead out.

  ‘No! This can’t be!’ Fiona screamed out her frustration. They all stopped, tiredness aching through them. ‘What’s happening?’

  They had reached a wall of stone. Liam ran up to it, and beat his fists against it. ‘This can’t be!’

  Axel ran too, feeling around the stone as if he might find a lever, and the wall might fly open like Aladdin’s cave.

  Zesh looked around, flashing his light around the cave. ‘There were no other caves leading out, were there?’ Had they missed something? Would they have to go back? No! ‘There has to be another tunnel here!’

  ‘Well, there’s no’!’ Fiona screamed. ‘No zonking way out.’

  She threw herself on the ground, buried her face in her hands. ‘They’re never going to find us. We’ll be here for ever. We’ll turn into a bunch of cannibals.’

  Axel was folding his fists open and shut angrily. ‘I’m no’ staying here. If there’s a way out I’m gonny find it.’

  He was beginning to panic, terrified that the only other way out might be yet another tiny cramped space. And he wouldn’t go there again. So, he’d never get out.

  ‘We’ll go back. We must have missed something.’

  ‘We can’t go back. It’s flooded back there.’ Liam leaned against the stone. He’d been sure too, expecting at every turning to see light, stretching way ahead of them. He had almost been able to smell the sea. Had they taken a wrong turning? Had they missed another entrance, the right cave? Or was the way out behind them, flooded for another age, and they were indeed trapped in here for ever?

  Liam made a sudden mad rush at the prone body of the teacher, flung himself down beside him, grabbed him by the collar. ‘Where’s the way out!’ he shook him. ‘How do we find it!’

  No one stopped him. Everyone was too tired. Too scared.

  Mr Marks stirred once again. His eyelids flickered for a moment, as they had so many times before, but there was no other response.

  ‘So, what do we do now?’ Fiona asked. No one answered her. No one knew. ‘We’re done for this time, ain’t we?’ She could have cried, but what was the point? ‘Done for,’ she said again.

  ‘What was that noise?’ Fiona was alert. ‘I heard a noise there.’

  Axel barked at her. ‘That’s all we do in this place, hear noises.’

  But they were all silent, listening.

  Then they all heard it, somewhere winding through the caves, reaching them eerily. No mistaking.

  ‘Was that a whistle?’ Fiona jumped to her feet, peering into the darkness. ‘That was a whistle,’ she decided.

  They were all on their feet. ‘They’ve found us!’ They cried out. ‘We’re here! Help us!’

  ‘Where’s it coming from?’

  But it was hard to tell here in the underground.

  ‘Whistle back!’ Zesh said, and with that he blew his whistle as loudly as his breath allowed.

  The whistle came back in answer, faintly, but moving towards them. Then they all blew, frantically, blowing and shouting and yelling, ‘We’re here!’

  They were jumping and hugging each other, and laughing. ‘We’re saved!’

  One minute, despair, all hope gone. The next, joy. They were saved.

  ‘I knew search parties would be out looking for us,’ Zesh said, his confidence returning. ‘We probably weren’t in any real danger of never being found.’

  ‘Your brain’s missing, pal, if you think that.’ Fiona sounded angry. ‘Angie was certainly in danger, wasn’t she?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Zesh said at once, realising what a stupid thing he had just said.

  Fiona laughed then, a relieved laugh, because she was saved. ‘Are you listening to this, boys!’ she called to Axel and Liam. ‘Zesh actually apologised to me, and it’s not for the first time.’

  She took a deep breath and blew her whistle again.

  Louder now, the answering whistle came. ‘There!’ Liam said, pointing to the wall of rock. ‘It’s coming from there.’

  They all moved closer to the sound. Axel shone his light up and down, he felt all around it. A wall of rock.

  ‘I can still hear that whistle,’ Fiona called out. ‘Here!’

  Suddenly, illuminated by the light from their lamps, a face appeared through the rock. White, ghostly, unreal. And this time when Fiona screamed, it was in terror.

  The face was Angie’s.

  Chapter 30

  Angie? It couldn’t be. Axel stepped back, almost as frightened as he’d been when he’d been stuck fast in the tunnel. Angie was dead. She even looked dead, her face as white as a ghost, her eyes just black pinpoints caught in their lamplights. For a shocked moment no one said a word. Angie looked around them from one to the other.

  ‘Why are you all looking at me like that? It’s Angie. Don’t you recognise me?’

  She began clambering out of the rock. Why hadn’t they seen this opening before? That bothered Axel too. They’d searched all around here and found nothing, and suddenly Angie appears, from solid rock, from a cave that hadn’t been there before.

  ‘We thought you were dead,’ Fiona stuttered the words out. ‘I tried to find you. Honest.’

  Angie beamed a smile. ‘I know you did. I heard you. I tried to let you know where I was, but I had no breath to use my whistle.’

  Fiona took her by the shoulders and shook her. ‘So why didn’t you shout? I was screaming. You could at least have yelled back.’

  ‘I tried, Fiona. You couldn’t hear me. I was so scared.’

  ‘We waited for you. I kept listening.’ Fiona sounded angry. Anger verging on tears. Relieved Angie was back, just not sure she was actually alive.

  ‘I was trying to come back, but the water started rising. I couldn’t find the right way. I had to move on.’

  ‘But where did you go?’ Zesh asked her.

  Angie smiled at him. ‘You got your inhaler back.’ She turned to Axel. ‘I knew you’d give it to him.’

  Axel waited for someone – Liam – to tell her different. But no one did.

  ‘I didn’t know where I was going. I was so afraid. But,’ she touched Fiona’s arm, ‘then I remembered what you told me. Remember?’

  I told her she was an ugly fat bird, was all Fiona could remember … that helped her?

  ‘You said, no use moaning, you play the cards you’re dealt with. So I thought, right, I’m on my own. That’s the cards I’ve been dealt with, so get on with it. You helped me so much.’

  Fiona looked at her in disbelief.

  ‘Anyway, I’ve found the way out. And we have to go now!’

  ‘You!’ Liam was shocked. So was Axel. Fat Angie, the one who screamed her way out of the bat cave, the first one to die … (But of course, she hadn’t died, had she?) She was the one who was going to lead them to safety?

  ‘I found signs. Someone must have marked the way a long time ago. One of those legends we heard about, must have been true, I suppose.’

  ‘But how did you find us?’

  ‘Sounds carry in these caves. Have you noticed that? You can actually imagine them winding their way through all the chambers looking for someone to hear them.’

  ‘Angie’s back right enough,’ Fiona said. ‘Doing her zonking creative writing.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Angie said softly.

  ‘So you’ll be able to find the way back?’

  ‘Sure I will.’ No hesitation. ‘I’ve laid signs too. Maybe in years to come, decades, someone will
find my signs too.’

  Fiona turned to them. ‘We forgot, she’s a Girl Guide. She’s probably got a badge for “Finding your way out of caves”.’

  Angie smiled. ‘I have now,’ she said. Then she sighed. ‘I missed you guys.’

  Axel winced. She missed us guys! That girl would never change.

  ‘Well, are you ready to go? I really think we should hurry.’

  ‘Why?’ Fiona asked her.

  Angie didn’t answer for a moment. She looked around the cave, thinking of an answer, Fiona was sure of it. ‘Just believe me. We have to hurry.’

  Liam whispered to Axel. ‘We’re following a dead girl out of a cave. Or is she leading us to our death as well?’

  Axel tugged at his sleeve. ‘You don’t really think she’s dead, do you?’ He looked at Angie, white-faced, smiling, and he wasn’t sure.

  * * *

  We will die of hunger in here. Have other people died of hunger in these black holes? Nothing to eat, nothing can grow. Life needs light. No wonder Hell is in the underworld. And this is Hell.

  Yet, it seems different now. There is a heat here. It saps my strength, feels even more claustrophobic. This cave oozes with moisture, and there is so little air that my breath is coming in gasps.

  ‘Surely we must have come the wrong way, sir? Surely we should have found something by now?’

  The Captain is looking all around as if he is puzzled too. I see the hesitation in his eyes.

  Oh, please, God, let him want to go back. Give him some common sense. I have a feeling of doom in this black hole of Hell.

  ‘Maybe … we have taken a wrong turning.’ He turns to me. ‘We will go back.’

  I promise myself that when I see my first sign I will run, leave him if I have to. I will go no further. I am almost crying with relief as he stumbles towards me, making me throw my hands against the wall to stop myself from falling too.

  And the wall is wet.

  And the wall is soft.

  I hold out my hands as the sticky liquid clings to it.

  The wall is soft.

  But rock is not soft.