Kyle slipped his hand under the front of her sweater and cupped her breast through the layers of blouse and brassiere.
'Le's just hug, okay?' she said.
He rubbed her breast.
'C'mon, don't.' Her protest was feeble, lazy. 'Le's just snuggle.'
He'd had her blouse open before the elevators fell. Now she didn't even want him touching her through the clothes. The booze was supposed to loosen her inhibitions, maybe even make her horny, but here she was acting as if she didn't want to mess around at all.
Maybe she had too much,
Kyle thought.
Maybe she's going to zonk out.
Yeah.
'If that's what you want,' he whispered. He let go. Sitting up, he drew the top of the sleeping bag over Paula. Then he lay down beside her and covered himself. Paula squirmed closer, pressing herself gently against him.
'Cozy,' she whispered.
'Yeah.'
Kyle didn't move again until, from the deep slow sounds of Paula's breathing, he was pretty sure that she was asleep.
She moaned slightly but didn't wake up when his fingers curled over her breast.
He found the top button of her blouse. He was about to unfasten it, but changed his mind. If she woke up and her blouse was unbuttoned, she would know what he'd been up to. He moved his hand down. Her blouse was untucked. He reached beneath it. Her blouse was roomy inside. He fondled both breasts, listening for changes in her breathing.
She's totally out of it,
he thought.
Fantastic.
Carefully, he slid a bra strap off her shoulder. His hand fitted easily under the loosened cup. He held ho bare breast. The skin was so warm, so smooth. Hr fingered her nipple. She squirmed a little, but didn't wake up.
***
'I don't like this,' Katie whispered. 'Not one little bit.'
'There's nothing to be afraid of, honey,' Jean told her.
'Darkness isn't my favourite thing.'
From where Wayne Phillips sat with his family, he could see into both elevators. The flames in the elevator to his left had died out a while ago. Those in the other elevator had burned longer, but the last of them had just fluttered out. Now, there were only red, glowing embers.
Darkness isn't my favourite thing, either,
Wayne thought.
The embers gave off some light, but not much. Only enough to see vague shapes.
Pretty soon,
he thought,
even that will be gone. It'll be black as a pit.
'Look on the bright side,' he said, as much to still his own uneasiness as to comfort Katie. 'I'll make a book out of this and we'll get a lot of money. Then we'll go to Disney World.'
'Oh, sure.'
'Honest. Have I ever lied to you?'
'When you said there was a bone-cruncher living under my bed that was gonna chew off my foot. When you said about the troll under the house. When you said there was Madman Murray sneaking to our front door every night and trying to come in. When…'
'Those weren't lies.'
'Don't start, Wayne.'
'They were just stories.'
'A story is a lie,' Katie told him.
'Not exactly.'
'It is, too.'
Wayne sighed. 'Anyway, I'm not lying about Disney World. I'll write a really scary book about all this, and we'll get piles of money and go to Disney World. It's a promise.'
'We'll hold you to it,' Jean said.
'Make sure you take them to the Epcot Center.'
The woman's soft voice didn't startle Wayne, but he was surprised by the discovery that someone was sitting so close to them. Close enough to hear every word. 'Yeah,' he said. 'We'll go there, too.'
'It's not to be missed.'
'I've heard it's very good,' he said.
Right behind me. Christ. I'd better watch my language.
'Does anyone object if I smoke?' she asked.
Several nearby voices urged her to light up at the same time Wayne said, 'No, go ahead.'
He heard quiet sounds, probably the woman searching inside her handbag. Then came a crinkle of cellophane. He looked over his shoulder in time to see a tiny spray of sparks as the match snicked across the striking surface. The matchhead flared. The sudden brightness stabbed Wayne's eyes. He squinted. Around the brilliant flame was a tremulous, yellow-orange aura that illuminated not only the woman with the cigarette in her lips but a few other people seated nearby.
The woman, well over fifty years old and probably tipping the scales at three hundred pounds, wore her grey hair in a Buster Brown cut and glasses as round as her face. She was wrapped in a cable-knit shawl. Her faded dress reached only to her knees. Her calves, the size of hams, were encased in 'knee-high' hose, the tops of which sank into her flesh and were overhung by tyres of blubber.
A real looker,
Wayne thought.
Her handbag rested on the tilted platform of the dress stretched taut across her thighs. She dropped the match-book inside. With a flick of her wrist, she shook out the flame and vanished.
All that remained was the glowing tip of her cigarette.
Wayne thought of the Cheshire Cat. This woman's cigarette was like the cat's smile, staying behind after the rest was gone.
I'll have to use that in my book,
he thought.
The Cheshire Cat bit.
She would make a good character. A minor character, but sufficiently grotesque to make the readers uneasy. Cook up a nasty ending for her.
Wayne turned away from her and gazed at the embers inside the elevator cars.
What kind of nasty ending?
he wondered.
You're lumping the gun. Haven't even figured out what's nailing the people. They're trapped in the cave. Something or someone starts ripping them off.
What if that gal has evil powers? She's a sorceress, warps the minds of the people trapped down here, turns them against each other? I can use the bit with Calvin flaring into that asshole. God, I could pretty much use of it whole scene just the way it happened.
But that's just the start. Really bad shit starts to happen.
Maybe the fat gal's doing it with her magic, or maybe its the evil in all these people coming to the surface because they're tired and frightened. Is it black magic or human nature causing the mayhem? Really play that up, and you'll give the thing some depth, it'll look like more than just a cheap horror novel.
Throw in some scapegoat stuff. They blame the fat gal, call her a witch, burn her at the stake - burn her in one of the elevators.
Shit, this is really shaping up.
Wayne grinned.
'How's it going, Katie?' he asked.
'I'm not having a very good day.'
'Nobody is, honey,' Jean told her.
'Oh, I'm starting to have a pretty good day,' Wayne said. 'I think this little cloud has a silver lining that's going to make us all very happy.'
'Bug squat,' Katie muttered.
***
'I'm feeling a chill, Calvin.'
'So's everyone else, I suspect. Do you want to move closer to the elevators? They've got good beds of coal built up, probably giving off considerable heat if we hauled ourselves near enough to feel it.'
'Oh, I don't know. It's so dark. We'd trip over people.'
Calvin wondered why she had even bothered to complain about the chill if she wasn't willing to put herself out some to get warm. Just for the sake of hearing herself talk, more than likely. 'Want me to lay on you?' he asked.
'Shhhh. People will hear you.'
'I reckon I could warm you up right quick.'
'Calvin.'
Grinning, he patted her thigh. 'Don't you worry, hon, I won't do nothing to embarrass you.'
'A little bit late for that.'
'Shitfire, here we go again.'
'You like to've killed that man.'
'I'd like to've killed that man, truth be known.'
'You don't mean that. Calvin, you'd burn in Hell for eternity.'
'Mavis, darling, any God that'd send a man to burn in Hell for eternity 'cause he rid the world of a misbegotten son of a whore like Slick over there - well, I reckon he can just take his Pearly Gates and…'
'Don't you dare say such a thing! Lord, you'll get yourself in Dutch for sure.'
'Afraid he'll send down a bolt of lightning to… CHRIST!' Calvin blurted as a blast roared in his ears and he thought,
Holy jumping Jesus, I'm a dead man!
But others were yelling, too, over the deafening noise. Calvin felt a cold mist on his face. Drops of water pelted him.
The roar seemed to come from the elevator car several yards in front of him. The red glow in its centre was blotted out. Around the blackness, sparks and embers exploded upward and died. In seconds, every trace of light from inside the elevator had been obliterated.
The noise faded, then came again.
A fire hose, Calvin thought. They must've shot a gusher straight down the shaft. Now the fire in the other elevator was being doused.
A few moments later, the roar diminished, then ceased altogether.
'Yuh, I'm drenched!' someone complained.
Another voice muttered, 'All over me.'
The darkness seemed heavy with char-smelling steam. Here and there, people clapped and cheered.
'All right'.'
'Won't be long, now.'
'Took 'em long enough.'
'Apparently,' someone said, 'there wasn't any Third World War up there.'
'Never thought there was, jerk-off.' That was Slick's voice. Calvin shook his head. The fella'd taken a whooping and got his hair burnt off, but it hadn't straightened out his disposition.
'Can't wait to sink my teeth into a thick, juicy sirloin.'
'I wanta wrap my lips around a bottle of Molsons.'
'I'm gonna reacquaint myself with my old pal Jack Daniels.'
'All I want's a long, hot bath.' That was a woman, of course.
'If I never see another cave, it won't be a moment too soon.'
'Oh, don't be such a downer, Brian. It's been a marvellous adventure.'
'HELLO, THE CAVERN.' The voice boomed through the darkness, silencing everyone.
A bullhorn,
Calvin thought.
'This is Chief Richmond of the Pleasant Valley Fire Department. Is anyone there?'
In the quiet following the announcement, Calvin heard footfalls. Then crunching, soggy sounds. Someone, he figured, was stepping into one of the elevators. 'Hello up there!' Sounded like Tom.
The tinny, amplified voice said, 'The fire has been extinguished, and we're making preparations to evacuate you people. Will anyone require medical assistance?'
'We're all okay,' Tom called.
'My ass,' Slick said. 'I been…'
'Shut up,' someone told him.
'Who said that?'
'How many are trapped down there with you?' Chief Richmond asked.
'About thirty,' Tom replied. 'How long'll it take to get us out?'
'We'll have you out as soon as possible. Heavy construction equipment has been requested. We need a bulldozer to clear the area up here. Then we'll execute the evacuation by means of a crane. In the meantime, I want you all to adopt a sit-tight policy and stay clear of the elevator shafts. Any questions?'
'How come I don't see any light up there?' Tom called.
'The elevator housing is still intact. It's burnt out, but… I've just been informed the equipment is arriving. Again, stay clear of the shafts and wait for further instructions.'
'Ask him to lower us a few flashlights!' someone said.
'Yeah!'
'Chief?' Tom yelled. 'Chief Richmond?'
No answer.
'Shit.'
'No big deal,' Tom said. 'We'll be out of here before long.'
Calvin felt Mavis squeeze his hand. 'Well,' he said, 'I reckon the fun's about over.'
***
Kyle, squirming and gasping and wanting to roll Paula over and stick it in her (so what if she wakes up), jerked his hand out of her panties when the silence was smashed. Her fingers, curled loosely around his erection where he had put them, wiggled a little. He quickly took her hand away and held it.
Paula sighed and moaned.
The noise faded. So did the voices and shouts of alarm.
Maybe she won't wake up, after all.
Then the roar swelled again.
Paula said, 'Huh?'
'It's all right,' Kyle whispered.
The noise stopped. People spoke, but their words were indistinct.
'What's going on?' she asked.
Did she mean the sounds? Or was she aware of what Kyle had done to her?
She can't know,
he told himself.
He'd slipped the bra strap back onto her shoulder before pushing his knee between her legs and lifting the front of her skirt and sliding his hand inside her panties. Nothing had been unfastened or removed.
But maybe she could tell that her clothes had been fooled with.
Could she feel where he had touched her?
Did she know, somehow, that Kyle's hand wasn't what she'd been holding a few seconds ago?
'I don't know what's happening,' he said. 'Some kind of commotion over by the elevators.'