The Moa Cave (10 page)

For the second morning in a row, Tyler was woken by a raucous noise echoing around the cavern. Again it took some time to realise where he was. He turned on the torch and reached for the clock. But it was not the alarm. It was the penguins. They were screeching like he’d never heard before.

He swung the torch to the nest. Both birds were standing with their heads in the air, shrieking. The cause was a brown and white animal creeping towards the nest. It paused to look at the torch for a moment before returning to the hunt. As it got closer to the penguins it flattened its body to hug the ground as if it had no legs. That illusion was soon shattered when, without warning, it darted in and grabbed one of the chicks by the neck. Hopi flew at it with his beak, but the animal was too quick: in a flash it was beyond reach and a moment later it was gone, leaving behind two distraught parents and one lonely chick.

‘What was that?’ asked Hine.

‘I think it was a stoat.’ He scanned the cave with the torch. The animal had disappeared. ‘It must’ve climbed down the rocks in the cove.’

‘The smell of the penguins must be very strong for it to find them in here.’ The penguins were now back on the nest
making small twittering noises. ‘I hope it doesn’t come back for the other chick.’

‘That’s more than one meal,’ Tyler said bitterly. ‘It won’t be back until it’s hungry again.’ He settled into bed. ‘We’ll have a look in the morning.’

Tyler lay thinking about the stoat. Mandy’s poster showed stoats attacking penguin chicks. She had also shown dolphins trapped in a net. He thought about what Hine had said: maybe Mandy’s nastiness was because she couldn’t show her feelings. Yet her poster showed she cared. Maybe he and Mandy weren’t so different after all. They just didn’t know how to talk to each other. Then he chuckled quietly to himself; if he kept thinking like that he’d end up liking her, and that wouldn’t be right at all.

‘Are you awake?’ asked Hine.

‘Yeah.’

‘I don’t think the stoat came from the cove at all. It didn’t head back in that direction.’

‘You think there could be another way out?’

‘Could be.’

‘Let’s take a look.’

They started the search near the nest. It was impossible to find any prints, or any sign of the stoat. Hine moved in the direction she thought it had followed.

‘Look here,’ she called. ‘Is that blood?’

He held the torch close. It was red and—after testing with his finger—sticky.

The next drop was a metre away. Again Hine spotted it. He gave her the torch and let her lead the way.

The trail led into a fissure of rock that soon narrowed into a dead end. Hine searched around with the torch. ‘Try looking up,’ suggested Tyler. She did, and found a spot at about head height. From there the opening sloped upwards. Even though
it was easily wide enough, the rocks were smooth making it difficult to get either a handhold or a foothold.

By pushing and pulling they made it up the first bit onto a narrow shelf. From there the path was easier until it shrunk to a hole that required crawling.

Hine was the first to break through. ‘Wow!’ she exclaimed. ‘Have a look at this.’

After a moment Tyler scrambled through to join her. Then he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was like he had climbed into one of his games.

They were in a cave much like the penguin one, though this was not all rock—one side was a wall of earth. Plainly it had once opened to the outside, until some ancient landslide had covered it.

Scattered all over the dusty floor were moa remains, at least four birds judging by the four large skulls. Two of the skeletons seemed to overlap each other. But the object that grabbed their attention most was resting inside the bones of one skeleton. It was a huge egg, white and complete, as if it had just been laid.

Neither of them spoke for some time. It was enough to simply look.

Hine was first to break the spell. ‘It looks like she was sitting on it when she died.’

‘Or it hadn’t yet been laid.’

She nodded.

‘I don’t think they all died at the same time,’ said Tyler. ‘See this one?’ He carefully stepped over some bones to get to the middle of the cave. ‘There’s more dust on it than the others.’

‘Look at this one over here,’ said Hine. ‘It’s still got some skin on its legs.’

Tyler moved over. The whole foot had been mummified. The claws were long curved spikes. They could have easily
killed a human. Even now the foot would be a dangerous weapon.

‘Here’s the penguin chick,’ called Hine from near the earth wall. ‘You were right, it was too much for one meal.’

The body was surrounded by fluff ripped from the chick to reveal the flesh beneath. About half had been chewed. It was a sickening picture of how native wildlife could so easily be destroyed. The chick had been hatched for less than a day.

Alongside was a round hollow in the dust, a sleeping place. Tyler touched it with the back of his hand—it was still warm. The stoat had only gone because they’d arrived. But how did it get out?

The route took only a moment to find. A well-worn track led from the hollow to the edge of the earth-fall. There was a hole, too big to be dug by a stoat. Some rabbit had burrowed too far and ended up in the cave.

Hine held the torch while Tyler lay on the ground peering into the hole. He could see as far as a bend, about two metres into the earth. It was far enough to know that there would be no escaping by tunnelling. Yet it did give hope. The hole must lead to the area at the top of the cliffs where he and Bill had searched for Mandy. He filed it away in his mind just as he did when he discovered something in a game. More often than not the discovery would prove useful.

Before leaving, he had to make sure the stoat couldn’t get back in. He had to block the hole. He looked around—the only things were bones.

‘Hand me a thigh bone, please, Hine,’ he said with a smile.

Hine looked shocked. ‘Do you think we should?’

‘No. But we’ve got to block this hole somehow. Anyway, I don’t think the scientists will be too upset. They won’t know about this place until we tell them. Then they’ll be so excited they’ll excuse anything.’

Hine lifted one of the huge thigh bones, weighing it in her hand. ‘It’s heavy. I wouldn’t want anyone to hit me with this.’

Tyler took the bone. She was right; it would make a great weapon—another fact to file away in his mind.

With the bone firmly stuck in the hole, they took a last look around before returning to the penguin cave and the warmth of their sleeping bags.

No sooner had they settled than Hine said, ‘Where’s Teddy? Did you take Teddy?’

‘No! I haven’t been near your bed.’

‘He’s gone.’

‘He must have fallen out when you got up.’ He turned on the torch and got out of bed. Yet though he searched all around her area, there was no Teddy. ‘You sure he’s not down the bottom of your sleeping bag?’

‘He is not in my sleeping bag. He has gone.’

‘Well, he could hardly walk out of here, could he?’

Hine was not amused. ‘Someone’s stolen him.’

‘Hine, there’s only us. Us and the…’

Slowly, he turned the torch to the penguin nest. Hopi and Mopsie were snuggled into each other. They were over the trauma of the stoat attack, and it was easy to see why. Two glass eyes, a lopsided nose and two well-chewed ears poked from under Mopsie’s wing. She had gone looking for her chick and—when that had failed—she had taken Teddy as a replacement.

‘Do you want me to get him back?’ Tyler asked.

‘No,’ replied Hine, smiling. ‘He looks so cute.’ Then after a pause, ‘Anyway I’m getting too old to need a Teddy. Auntie always said that sooner or later I’d find someone to give him to. And I have, though she’ll be surprised I gave him to a penguin.’

First thing in the morning Tyler went back to the moa cave, using the excuse that he wanted to see if the stoat had returned.

Once again he felt the thrill of discovery as he crawled into the chamber. It was a fantastic find, almost too good to be real. Scientists from all over the country would scramble to see this when it became known.

And now he was going to destroy it before they ever got to see it.

He didn’t want to, but he needed to borrow some of the thigh bones. If he was in a game he wouldn’t leave weapons like that behind. He would always add them to his inventory—they were items and you never knew when they would become useful. If you didn’t pick them up, some other character might, and use them against you. His golden rule was to collect all the items you could.

The problem was, this was no electronic game. These things were real and impossible to carry around all the time. The thing to do was place them in strategic positions so they would be at hand if needed.

He started by taking photos of each bird. Then, one by one he removed the thigh bones keeping well clear of the one with the egg—that was too good to disturb. On each
bone he wrote its original location using his invisible ink pen—this was what it was designed for. Breathing on the ink to make it visible was only a temporary feature to check what you’d written. It was normally viewed under ultraviolet light where the ink glowed bright yellow.

He hid one of the bones on a ledge near the entrance. Another three were stockpiled ready to be taken through to the other chamber.

Before leaving he checked the dead chick. It hadn’t been disturbed and there were no signs that the stoat had somehow returned. He pulled the bone out of the rabbit hole and peered down it. There was daylight glowing at the bend. It was bright enough to suggest that the opening was not far away. He added the rabbit hole to his inventory.

Hine was surprised to see him carrying the bones when he returned. She was even more surprised when he hid two of them near the passage to the cove. He put the last one by his gear.

‘What are they for?’

‘They’re items. Some games call them assets. Things we might need.’ He went on to explain about items and inventories.

When he’d finished Hine said, ‘This is not a game, Tyler.’

‘I know that. But if we think the right way, we’ll get out. In a way it’s no different to a game.’

Hine thought about that for a while. ‘You think Shifty and Grunty will come back, don’t you?’

‘Maybe. They could be one of the bosses.’

Hine rolled her eyes. ‘And what would bosses be?’

Tyler grinned. ‘Bosses are characters or things you have to
beat. You can’t avoid them if you want to win. But they’re not just ordinary things you can shoot down. Usually you have to attack them in a special way. It’s very easy to be beaten by a boss.’ He thought for a moment. ‘We’ve already met two bosses. The cave-in was one and you beat that because you knew what to do. The other was the dolphins in the cove. Something like that could easily have made us give up.’

‘It did with me for a while,’ said Hine quietly, ‘but you knew how to beat it. You helped me talk about them and it worked. We make a good team, we do.’

Tyler said nothing.

‘So you think we’ll have to beat Shifty and Grunty to get out?’

Tyler shrugged. ‘I don’t know. There could be other bosses. I don’t think we’re going to get out if we just wait to be rescued. Even getting rescued could be a boss. We might have to do something to make it happen.’

‘So what other things do we have in our inventory?’

‘Well, there’s all my things.’

‘Gadgets,’ put in Hine.

‘Yeah, and there’s the rabbit hole. I don’t know what else. What have you got in your bag?’

Hine opened her bag and started unloading things. ‘Lots of clothes, some lip gel, my useless phone, a box of tissues, some scent, and…ah…some girl things you don’t want to know about.’

Tyler went bright red. She was right; he didn’t want to know about them. To divert attention from himself he turned the torch towards the nest. Only Hopi was there. Mopsie had already gone. It was time for them to go too. Yet he wasn’t sure that Hine would agree.

‘You ready to go back out to the cove? I think we need to be there if we want to be rescued.’

Hine nodded. ‘You want any of these things?’

‘Yeah. Bring the tissues. Oh, and the phone. You never know, the reception might be better now.’

They emerged onto the ledge into the glare of bright sunlight. When their eyes adjusted to the light, they could see the beach had been rearranged by the tide during the night. Their help message was almost unreadable and several of the dolphins had floated into the middle of it.

The sea was a lot calmer. Tyler could see a gap above the water in the tunnel. With the right timing it would be possible to bring a boat through, though he wouldn’t want to be on it.

Hine rushed off to the far end of the beach for a toilet break while Tyler sorted the message out. Shifting the dead dolphins was no more pleasant than the previous day, except he no longer had to worry about Hine’s reaction. She was now as determined as he was to get out of the place…

‘Tyler! Come here.’ There was an urgency to her call that made him drop the dolphin and run.

She was standing with her back to the rocks, hands to her mouth, staring at the base of a flax bush. ‘What is it?’

Hine just continued to stare. All he could see was part of a yellow cylinder. She grabbed his arm and pulled him alongside. Then he could see it clearly. The cylinder was a diving tank, one of two. There were other bits of diving gear as well. But the thing that Hine was focused on was a net. It was obviously the one used to catch the dolphins. Bits of dried flesh were still stuck to knots in the thick nylon strands: an eye, several fins and a piece of a tail.

He reached out with his hand and squeezed her arm. She
was shaking. ‘Don’t worry, Hine, we’ll make them pay for this. Come away from it now.’

She grabbed his hand. ‘No! I want it destroyed. I want you to cut it up. I want it so they can never use it again.’

He gave her another reassuring squeeze before taking out his Swiss army knife and moving to the net. It was not a pleasant job, yet he had to stop Hine going into shock again. They both needed to be thinking straight if they were ever to get out of the place.

When he was finished there was no piece bigger than a dinner plate. He’d slashed and cut until he saw Hine starting to relax. Then he moved to the air tanks. For a moment he thought they might be an asset, but he didn’t know how to use them so it was best to make sure nobody else could. He emptied the air and then smashed the connectors against a rock until they were beyond repair.

Finally he stood in front of her and smiled. ‘Is that what you wanted?’

She moved forward and gave him a hug. ‘Thanks, Ty. I feel a whole lot better now.’

Tyler had been hugged by girls before and always been embarrassed by it. But this time it was different—it felt wonderful. His arms moved around her and for a moment their cheeks touched. Unfortunately it was over far too soon; Hine released him and moved towards the beach. He followed, hoping that maybe it would happen again sometime.

For half an hour or so Tyler tried to light a fire. It would have been easy with his magnifier, however he’d lost that somewhere. Instead he tried creating sparks by bashing stones together. He got sparks all right but none of them would set
fire to the small pile of tissues and dead flax. Rubbing sticks was out because all the driftwood was too wet.

He wanted to create smoke, thinking it was sure to attract rescuers. It would have been perfect in the still air—the smoke would have been seen for kilometres.

Hine was sitting on a rock plaiting a cord out of flax. He moved alongside her. ‘What’s that for?’

She looked up and smiled. ‘For you, Ty. For the pendant. So you can wear it around your neck where it belongs. It has to be close to your heart and head, not in your pocket by your bum and other things.’

He looked away, not wanting her to see his face. He was really starting to like this girl. She was so different to the others. After a while he put his hand in his pocket and said, ‘Do you want it now?’

She looked at him knowingly. ‘No. Best to keep it there until I’m finished. You never know, you might need it.’

He was saved from replying by the distant throb of an engine. It was a plane. They looked at each other hopefully, then rushed to the middle of the beach where they could see in the direction of the sound.

Gradually the noise got louder. It sounded like a small plane travelling close to the ground at slow speed, just as a search plane would. The good thing was that it seemed to be travelling directly towards them.

It took ages before it came into view. If it continued its present path it would travel right over the top of them. They had to make sure they were seen. He began running around the beach waving his arms frantically. Hine caught on and joined him.

Then, when it was almost over the top of them, the noise of the engine changed. They stopped and stared as it banked sharply into a turn.

‘They’ve seen us,’ shouted Hine. ‘They’ve seen us.’ She began dancing around again.

Tyler wasn’t so sure. He’d caught a glimpse of the pilot and he wasn’t looking in their direction.

The plane moved out of view and Hine stopped dancing. They stood searching the sky and listening as the sound moved further away. Then it changed pitch again, increasing in volume. It was coming back. For a moment it was visible, turning in a tight circle, but not around them. Tyler started waving his arms again, shouting. ‘Help! Help!’ he cried. Why couldn’t they see him? They had to see him, they had to.

But they didn’t.

Shortly afterwards the sound moved further away getting softer and softer until they could only hear it in their minds. Still they stood there, staring into the blue sky, hoping it would return, yet knowing it never would.