Mercy Point Page 19

  ‘Emma!’ said Michael. ‘How does it open?’

  ‘You open it from the outside. You can’t open it from in here.’

  Emma forced herself to look up from her feet. Their faces were glowing in the phone lights, her words sinking in.

  ‘That can’t be right.’ Tessie’s eyes flickered between her and the door. ‘Why would it not have a handle? It must have a handle.’

  Her light moved along the edges of the door. All their eyes followed it. Even Emma’s. Just in case. But there was nothing.

  ‘It’s environmental,’ Emma whispered. ‘They had walkie talkies in those days and there were always so many people around. Anyway, no one would close it if they were in here. I remember my mum told me that they locked someone in a cave once as a joke, and he freaked out, and everyone felt really bad.’

  She forced herself to stop talking. She was rambling, she knew it, distracting herself from having to think. Once the echo of her voice had stopped, the cave turned silent. They were all just staring at the door, not moving. Not doing anything. Someone had to do something. There had to be a solution. There had to be something they hadn’t thought of. She looked at her phone again. No service.

  Without warning, Michael lunged forward, bashing into the door with his shoulder. It clanged but didn’t budge. All their lights focused on him as he bashed into it again with all his force. Nothing.

  ‘Ah, that hurt!’ he groaned, rubbing his shoulder.

  Emma shook her head at him. ‘Of course it did! Did you really think you could break through steel?’

  ‘I had to do something! I don’t want to die in here.’

  As though horrified by what just came out of his mouth, he looked away from her and stared fiercely at the ground. It wasn’t Michael who was freaking her out. It wasn’t Fabian either, with his ghostly sweaty skin, or Sam, who was gazing into the darkness like he still didn’t understand what had happened. It was Tessie. Emma was petrified by the look on Tessie’s face. She usually looked so strong and determined, but now her eyes were wide, her mouth open as if she was about to wail. She was terrified. If Tessie was scared, then things were bad. Then she heard Fabian, his breath in sharp puffs like someone was kneeling on his chest. He sat down hard on the ground.

  ‘No one knows we’re here,’ he said between breaths. ‘By the time they find us . . . we’ll just be bones.’

  Michael turned to him. ‘Don’t say that, man!’

  ‘It’s going to be fine!’ Emma could feel the panic rising up in her. It was in her voice too. Things weren’t going to be fine. They were anything but fine.

  She wanted to run, wanted to get away from the sound of Fabian’s breathing, but there was nowhere to go except deeper.

  ‘Yeah,’ Sam was still looking around, ‘there must be another exit if we keep walking.’

  ‘Oh my God, you’re right,’ Emma said, the image flickering in front of her. ‘I think I might know the way out.’

  ‘What?’ said Michael, jumping towards her. ‘You can get us out?’

  Hope trickled back into her. If she focused, she could see it: the labelled passageways and caverns, the Ombus entrance and, way over the other side, another unmarked exit. Maybe it would be okay. No, it would definitely be okay. She was going to make this okay. She was going to fix the stupid mistake they’d made. It really was going to be fine.

  ‘I have a map of this cave in my room,’ she said. ‘I can almost remember it.’

  Michael pulled her towards him and wrapped his arms around her. She could feel his heart beating fast against her chest and his warm breath on her neck.

  ‘Don’t freak, Fabian!’ he said. ‘Katy Perry is going to save us!’

  Emma pushed him away and Fabian started laughing, almost hysterically. Tessie put out a hand and pulled him to his feet.

  ‘Are you right to keep going?’ she asked. He nodded.

  ‘Let’s go!’ said Michael.

  ‘You lead,’ Tessie said to Emma, shooting Sam a look that Emma didn’t understand.

  ‘Okay,’ she said. She closed her eyes and imagined the map over her bed. If she was near the entrance, then there should be a left turn somewhere that would lead them into the Olympus cavern.

  ‘Follow me,’ she said and began walking. It felt different being up front. Her phone sliced through the blackness in front of her, and the dim lights of the others’ phones cast multiple shadows of each of them flickering on the walls. It was spooky, like there was a huge group of people coming for them.

  Really, though, they had probably never been more alone.

  After about ten minutes, the left passageway appeared. It was much smaller than the one they had just emerged from. Emma had to duck to enter it.

  ‘This way,’ she called back confidently. They were so lucky she was with them. If she wasn’t around, they probably would have all died down here.

  ‘Everyone okay back there?’ she yelled, feeling like a tour guide. She wondered how many times her mum had been through this passageway many years ago, a group of tourists squeezing after her.

  ‘Fine,’ she heard each of them call.

  Just as her neck started to ache from stooping, the passageway ended. Stepping out of the way of the others, she stretched her arms above her head. Then she shone her phone around the cavern. With the light from the other phones coming out of the passageway one by one, she began to be able to see.

  ‘Wow,’ Fabian murmured.

  ‘It’s so beautiful,’ Michael said.

  The cavern was filled with huge crystals coming from the ceiling and floor: stalactites and stalagmites, huge knobbly ones that looked like mushrooms and thin see-through ones like glittering ribbons. Tessie touched her hand to the cavern wall, which was also sparkling with growing crystals.

  ‘It’s wet,’ she said.

  ‘They come from water, something to do with built-up sulfate or something,’ said Emma. Her mum used to talk about this stuff all the time, and some of it must have sunk in.

  ‘Look,’ said Michael, pointing his phone upwards, ‘they’re all damaged.’

  He was right. Some of the crystals had hard jagged edges, as though their tips had been blown off. Maybe it was some sort of effect from the cave-in, although she’d seen no other signs of it. Then she remembered that the cave-in was a lie. But still, people had died down here. The man she’d always thought was her father had died down here. Something must have happened to kill them all. Emma felt a prickling on her neck. A shiver went down her spine. She had to be strong now, she couldn’t let herself panic. The others needed her. She was in charge. But then she felt the prickle again. It wasn’t just a feeling. There was something on her. She tried to tell herself it was just a loose strand of hair, but she knew it wasn’t. Reaching up, she swatted at her neck and a large white insect fell onto the cave floor. Emma yelped and stumbled backwards.

  ‘Oh yuck, what is that?’ she breathed. It looked ghostly.

  ‘Wow, it’s pretty amazing,’ said Tessie, who actually took a step towards it. The insect was white with pincers at the tips of its front legs. Emma had never seen anything like it.

  ‘It’s not amazing, it was on me!’

  She heard the scuffle of feet behind her. Michael had jumped away from her and was rubbing his hands down his arms and body, feeling for any insects. She snorted at him; it was just a bug. He stopped immediately when he caught her eye and took a step forward, shining his phone towards the insect.

  ‘It’s a troglobite,’ he said.

  ‘Did you just make up that word?’ she asked.

  ‘I thought you were meant to be a nerd,’ he said. ‘We learned about them last year in science, remember? They call animals and insects that evolve in caves troglobites.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said Tessie, moving even closer to the insect. ‘That’s why it’s white. Come have a look, Fabian.’

  ‘I think I’m fine over here,’ Fabian said, trying not to look at it.

  Sam was leaning against the
wall next to him, looking disinterested. It surprised Emma; he was usually so curious about everything. Maybe this was just the way he dealt with being freaked out, she didn’t really know. After all, they’d only really known each other a few weeks.

  ‘Well, I know one way to get rid of it.’ Michael lifted up his foot to stamp on it.

  ‘Hey!’ Tessie yelled. ‘Don’t squash it!’

  ‘Yeah,’ Emma added, ‘it’s probably endangered. You can’t just squish whatever annoying thing gets in your way, Michael.’

  ‘Whatever,’ he said, rolling his eyes but lowering his foot. ‘Can we get out of here before it calls its friends over?’

  Emma noticed him shiver involuntarily. She looked around the cave, expecting to see even more creepy white bugs.

  ‘Which way? It isn’t another narrow one, is it?’ asked Fabian quietly, and she could see that his face was glistening with sweat. He was barely keeping it together.

  Closing her eyes again, she tried to imagine the map in her head. It was harder now; this was the bit that was more complicated. There were heaps of little passageways coming off this cavern and she found it difficult to link them up to the other exit. She could imagine the whole map in her head, but when she tried to focus on specific details, it was as if it all disappeared.

  It must be on the opposite side of the cavern to this, but looking around she could see three different passages. She could also see four sets of eyes staring at her. The others all looked apprehensive. They must not trust her navigation skills as much as she’d thought they did.

  ‘It’s this one,’ she said, pointing to the largest walkway. She marched around the insect and towards the opening and went straight inside, not wanting the others to see her hesitate. It made the most sense that it would be this one; the others were too tight to have ever brought groups of tourists through.

  After ten minutes, she was sure she would have reached the second cavern, but they were probably just slow walkers. There were another few forks, but Emma was pretty sure she was still going the right way if she kept left.

  ‘Should we sing a song?’ Michael’s voice echoed towards her. ‘“Kumbaya”?’

  ‘This isn’t school camp,’ Tessie replied.

  ‘Still.’

  They kept walking, the shuffling of their footsteps the only sound. Emma was starting to get tired, her eyelids feeling heavy.

  Michael began whistling. The sound bounced around the tunnel and echoed back at them tenfold.

  ‘Shut up!’ she yelled over her shoulder.

  ‘Sorry. The silence is creeping me out. We almost there?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  After twenty minutes, she started to get worried. Not just worried, scared. Really scared. The passageways were getting smaller and smaller. It was all getting muddled in her head.

  ‘We’re going to have to crawl,’ she called back, getting onto all fours. The dampness crept into the denim of her jeans. She held her phone between her teeth.

  ‘Are you sure this is right?’ asked Michael, his voice echoing up the cavern.

  ‘Of course!’ she tried to say, though her teeth were still clamped down on her mobile. She was sure. After everything, they were still always doubting her. Michael especially was always saying that she didn’t know what she was talking about. She crawled forward as quickly as she could, not being able to wait until she could finally prove him wrong once and for all.

  The passageway widened slightly, and the roof got a little higher. They must have almost reached the second cavern! She must have been clenching her whole body, because she suddenly felt it relax.

  ‘Almost there, guys!’ she said, able to hold her phone in her hand now. ‘This cavern is even more beautiful than the other one.’

  ‘Hope there’re no bugs!’ Michael called back.

  The tunnel widened further. She shone her phone around, expecting to see the lip of the passage and the huge cavern in front of them. But she didn’t. She saw a hollow, just a few metres wide, and three more passageways. She stepped to the side, staring at the passageways. This couldn’t be right. This wasn’t on the map.

  ‘Which one?’ asked Michael, crouching next to her.

  She could just pick one, she might get it right. Then again, she might lead them further away.

  ‘Which one, Emma?’ asked Tessie, her voice shrill again.

  She couldn’t look at them. She was so sure she had it right.

  ‘You don’t know, do you?’ accused Michael.

  ‘Shut up!’ Emma yelled. ‘Just shut up!’

  She stared defiantly up at him. He always had to make her feel bad, always. In that moment, she hated him again like she had when he was just the bully jerk from across the classroom. She hated that he got to see her fail so badly, hated that he was right and she was wrong and she’d screwed it all up.

  ‘If you’ve got us lost, you have to tell us!’ he yelled back.

  ‘She has,’ said Sam, and she shone her phone onto him. He looked different in the blue light — there was no warmth in his face.

  She glared at him. Emma knew Michael would be like this, but not Sam.

  ‘You’ve been going round in almost a full circle, but downwards,’ he said. ‘We’re pretty deep now.’

  ‘How do you know?’ she spat.

  ‘Well, he obviously knows more than you, Emma,’ said Michael. ‘It’s okay if you got us lost, just own up to it. You think you know everything!’

  ‘Shut up!’

  ‘We’re probably all going to die from your mistake. The least you can do is admit it.’

  ‘Oh yes, blame it all on me, again.’ She was furious now.

  ‘Be quiet,’ said Fabian.

  ‘I’m blaming it on you because it’s your fault! Just admit it, then we can try to fix it!’ Michael hollered.

  ‘Be quiet!’ said Fabian, his voice a hushed scream. They all turned to look at him. His face was white.

  ‘Listen,’ he said. They listened. For a moment, Emma was sure she’d heard something. But now, straining her ears, there was nothing.

  ‘What?’ she asked.

  ‘I thought I heard something. Voices.’

  ‘Oh great,’ Michael said. ‘Emma’s got us lost but won’t admit it, and now Fabian’s hearing voices.’

  ‘I swear I heard something.’

  Tessie nudged him. ‘It was probably the echoes of Emma and Michael’s stupid argument.’

  ‘It’s not stupid if she’s got us lost.’

  Tessie turned to Emma, the torchlights making her eyes look like two dark marbles. ‘Have you, Emma? Are we lost?’

  Emma couldn’t look at them. She folded her arms tightly in front of her and felt her stomach drop even deeper. Her throat tightened, but she wouldn’t cry. It would only make it worse if she cried.

  She forced out the word. ‘Yes.’

  CHAPTER 26

  FABIAN

  Fabian tried to convince himself that Tessie was right, that the voices were just echoes of Michael and Emma’s argument, but he was sure they weren’t. For the one moment when everyone had gone quiet, he had heard it clearly. It hadn’t sounded like Emma and Michael at all. It had sounded like something else entirely.

  But they thought he was crazy, and maybe they were right. He was barely hanging on. This was actually worse than a nightmare. The fear he felt was so pure. It was like a force, a bright, violent light. If he really let himself feel it, he knew he would get down on the ground and never get up.

  ‘Crap,’ Tessie was saying now, ‘this is really not good.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Emma whispered.

  Fabian felt bad for her. He’d never seen her look so dejected. It wasn’t her fault, really, they’d all been so happy when she said she knew the way, he guessed that she just didn’t want to let them down. He only wished she’d told them when she started feeling unsure, let them figure it out together. At least then the way back would have been clearer.

  Part of him wanted to reach over and put a
hand on her arm. Make it clear he wasn’t angry. But the fear was paralysing. They were lost. They were lost in these dark, endless tunnels. His breath began to come in pants. The alcove was too small and he could scarcely stand upright. His shoulders squeezed against the sides. He couldn’t see two feet down any passageways. Was this his nightmare? It had to be. He had to wake up. This couldn’t be real.

  ‘We need to think of a plan.’ Michael looked back the way they’d come. ‘What do you guys think? Should we try to get back to the airlock? Or does it make more sense to keep going? Try to find the other exit?’

  ‘You said we were going deeper,’ Tessie said, glaring at Sam. ‘How did you know that? And why didn’t you say anything?’

  She shone her torch onto him, and he blinked in the light. Tessie was right, that had been a weird thing to say. Not just that, the way he’d said it was weird. He didn’t seem afraid. It was almost like he was mocking Emma more than anything. He tried to focus on Sam’s face, listen to what he said.

  ‘I didn’t really know for sure, and Emma seemed so certain. I just noticed that we were on the slightest decline the whole way. Also, it smells different, don’t you think?’

  Fabian took a deep inhale of the air. They all did. Sam was right. Before it had smelled minerally, like wet rock. Now, the air smelled impossibly clean. And cold. Michael sniffed and ran his sleeve under his nose.

  ‘Bloody hell it’s cold.’

  Fabian shone his phone up onto the roof. How much rock was there above them now? One metre? Five? Probably more. He closed his eyes, dizziness flooding him again. He felt himself begin to sway a little. They were going to die in here.

  He felt a hand on his arm, and the dizziness subsided slightly. He didn’t have to open his eyes to know it was Tessie.

  ‘Okay, let’s decide,’ she said. ‘Forward or back?’

  ‘Back,’ Michael said. ‘Maybe someone will think to look here, then they’ll see the car.’

  ‘What if they don’t?’