Underworld (15 page)

She tied the rope around her waist and stood at the edge of the hole, shining her lamp down. Zesh wanted to ask why she was doing it. This wasn't like Fiona. This was a different Fiona. But they were all different down here, except maybe Axel.

‘I'll keep whistling. You keep whistling back. That's all I'm asking.'

‘You're crazy, Fiona,' Liam shouted at her.

‘I'm still going.' She sounded frightened. She looked down again. Her beam only lit so far, and then it plunged into blackness.

‘Nobody's coming after you if you don't come back,' Axel said angrily, his face threateningly close to hers. He's angry because she won't do what he says, Zesh thought.

Fiona pushed Axel from her. ‘Nobody's asking you. Just hold on to the other end of this rope and haul me up when I give three blasts on the whistle, right.'

She looked over at Zesh and he lifted a hand to wave. He wanted to say something, to assure her he would make them wait for her, make them pull her up, but it was taking all of his strength now, just to breathe.

She took a step over the edge, looked at Axel. ‘See if you don't wait for me, I'll tell your mammy, Axel … and her new boyfriend.'

Zesh wanted to laugh, but all he managed was a smile. Typical Fiona, still spouting off even at a time like this.

Her eyes found him, just for a second, and then she disappeared into the chasm.

‘Angie!' Fiona yelled into the impenetrable gloom. ‘Angie!' But even she could hear the hopelessness in her voice. She never would find her. As she lowered herself from one black cavern into another, she realised that Angie could have slipped through any one of them. She blew hard on her whistle and the sound screeched through the tunnels, echoed, and Fiona stopped, grabbing at ledges, searching for footholds and waited
for some answer, a faint cry, an answering whistle, anything.

‘Angie!' she screamed again, fighting back sobs. Thinking of her sliding down this long black tunnel, falling, perhaps lying somewhere, terrified. Was she close by, trying to call back, but, like Zesh, too weak?

Was she unconscious?

Was she …? No!

She couldn't be. Girls like Angie didn't die. No one was meant to die. It was a school trip for zonks sake. An afternoon adventure, Mr Marks had called it, going down into his beloved caves, sharing the excitement of them. Adventure? Disaster!

They were supposed to be back at the hostel now, having that disco, or was it morning already, or days later? She didn't know, couldn't tell. What had happened to time down here? That frightened her too. How long had they been down here? Were there search parties out looking for them? Was her mother worried about her? Had they contacted her in Benidorm?

And what about Angie's family? Waiting for her, not knowing that she would never be coming back. No! She would not think this way. She would come back. She had to. Because if she didn't, Fiona could never forgive
herself. After all she'd said to her. She had to find her. She wasn't even afraid down here, in the dark, the way she thought she would be. She didn't think of the terrors that might lurk in these deep dark tunnels that wound their way under the island.

All she could think of was Angie.

She wasn't thinking that only Axel and Liam were up there to pull her back, and she trusted neither of them.

Or that the rope might break.

That she might be trapped down here for ever.

She wasn't even thinking of the Worm.

All she could think of was Angie.

Fiona was shaking when she was pulled back up. Her face smudged with dirt and tears. She'd been crying, Axel thought. And she wasn't even trying to hide it. Crying for Angie? Why was she taking it so hard? Axel couldn't understand it.

‘Told you you'd never find her,' was the first thing he said to her.

She snapped back at him. ‘Shut up!'

She dragged herself on to the rim of the hole and untied the rope around her waist with trembling fingers. ‘There's too many tunnels down there. They go everywhere. She could have slipped down any one of them.' She looked up at Axel, her voice dry with sobs. ‘Where did she go?'

He pictured Angie sliding down, unstoppable, like someone on a funfair ride. Funny, if it wasn't so terrifying. He pushed the thought of it away.

‘She's gone. There's nothing we can do about it. We'll move on.' He looked around at them all. At Fiona, and Liam and Zesh. ‘We have to keep moving.'

Fiona didn't answer. She crawled to a far side of the chamber, curled up and began to cry again. This wasn't like Fiona. Fiona didn't do the crying thing. What was happening?

‘We'll rest for a bit, then move on.' Axel wasn't asking them for an opinion. He was telling them. Liam didn't argue. He was shaking so hard Axel could almost hear his bones jangling. He was staring at the hole that had sucked Angie away from them.

‘There's something in these caves, Axel. Something that's got Angie.' He turned and looked at Axel, his mouth quivering as if he was frightened to put his fear into words. ‘There's something in these caves.'

* * *

‘
I am not going any further, sir.'

At last I find the courage to stand up to him. I believe he is crazy. He mutters to himself as he walks ahead of me. I believe too that he is as afraid as I am but will never admit it. He does not want to be taken prisoner, he says. A good German would rather die.

Ha! I am a good German, and I would rather live.

He turns on me. His eyes are wild with anger. ‘You dare to disobey an order!'

I will not even answer that. Down here, in this strange, black underworld, I am no longer under his command. ‘I am going back.'

His mouth curls into an ugly grin. ‘You are lost. You will never find your way.'

But I will, though he does not know it. I have made sure I will find the way out. I turn my back on him.

His voice booms behind me. ‘Take one more step and I will kill you.'

I hear the click of his gun, turn my head slowly. He stands in the shadow, I cannot see his face. All I see is the gun, pointing at me.

But he would not shoot me, surely?

For us, the war is over, for now at least. Down here there is another enemy. I am afraid to think what it is.

‘I do not believe you will hurt me, sir,' I say, trying to convince him as much as myself. ‘You have a son my age, you once told me. You would not shoot your own son.'

And I turn from him again.

The bullet whistles by my ear. I feel a stinging pain and throw myself on the ground. The explosion roars through the caves and I can imagine the sound going from chamber to
chamber, waking bats and rats and, maybe, somewhere deep in its lair, a Great Worm.

I am shaking with fear as the Captain comes and stands above me, the gun still pointing at my head.

‘I would not think twice about killing my son if he disobeyed an order.'

He says it and I believe him. This time, he would kill me.

I am about to die.

* * *

Axel shook Fiona awake and she pulled herself free of him. ‘Leave me be!' She sniffed back a tear.

‘Come on, Fiona, have something to eat before we move.' He was trying to hand her a packet of crisps.

Zesh rasped to him. ‘Give me the inhaler, Axel.' Every word seemed to struggle out of him.

‘No way!' Axel said at once. ‘Eat something and then we're going on … without him!'

Him, of course, was Mr Marks, lying still and cold.

Zesh looked at the motionless body, then back to Axel. ‘We can't.'

Axel sneered. ‘Leave him here, and the next time we stop, I'll give you your inhaler. How about that?'

Zesh would have sold his soul at that moment for his inhaler. He thought about it constantly, imagined it in
his hand. He imagined that one magic puff of air blowing into his mouth, travelling down into his lungs, chamber by chamber. When he thought about it like that he could almost feel its magic working, his lungs opening up, until finally, he could breathe again.

But just leave Mr Marks here. Could he do that?

It was as if Axel was reading his mind. ‘You've got a choice here, pal. Leave the teacher and breathe or stay here without your inhaler.'

‘You're a pig!' Zesh stammered.

How could he be so cruel? How could he give him such a choice? What was he going to do?

It was time to move. Axel pulled Liam to his feet, felt him tremble under his hand.

‘I'm scared, Axel.'

Axel was just as afraid, but he wouldn't show it. He was in charge. They were going to do what he wanted and he wanted to move on quickly. This was a bad place. This was where they had lost Angie. It was wet here, and getting wetter. He panned his light around the cavern, catching shadows, watching for what? For anything. Any nightmare to leap out at them.

Yes, he wanted out of here, now.

‘Come on, Zesh. On your feet.' His look dared Zesh to argue, but Zesh didn't. He had no breath left. Axel held out the inhaler to him, tantalisingly. ‘Thought about it, Zesh, eh? No contest. Next time we stop, you get this. For being a good boy, doing what you're told.' Zesh wasn't so bold now, with no breath in him. He could see the defeat in his face. He wanted this inhaler so badly he would sell his mother to get it.

Zesh hauled himself to his feet, clawing at the wall of rock around him. Axel would have no more trouble from him.

‘Funny how all your principles go when you want something bad enough, eh, Zesh? Everybody's got their price.' He laughed, enjoying the moment.

Zesh began to move after him.

‘We'll send somebody back for the teacher,' Axel said. And, he thought, if it was too late … too bad.

Zesh didn't look at him. As if his shame was stopping him from looking at him.

Axel turned to Fiona, still curled up on the ground. ‘Come on, Fiona. Let's get out of here.' He started moving out of the cavern. She'd soon come after them when she found she was alone in the dark.

It was her yell that stopped him in his tracks, hitting the walls like a torrent. ‘NO!'

Axel swung round. Fiona was on her feet. Her face, caught in the beam of his lamp, was the colour of dough.

‘I'm not moving,' she said. She looked like a wild child. Her purple hair was standing on end, her eyes rimmed with red. This was a different Fiona from anything he'd seen before.

‘What?' He couldn't understand what she meant.

‘I said, I'm not zonking coming. Are you deaf? I'm staying here. Angie might find her way back. And if we're not here she'll not know which way to go. She'll be lost. So I'm waiting for her.'

With every sentence she took a step closer, her voice becoming louder till it was almost a scream. She was on the verge of hysteria. That's what it was. Too much had happened. That stupid lassie disappearing the way she had (Axel could hardly think of it himself without breaking out in a sweat – her arms flailing, her mouth opening and closing like a fish). And Fiona had gone down after her. Why had she done that? Hysteria. It was the only answer. To add to his problems there was Zesh without a breath, and Liam shaking so much Axel
thought his bones would crack and crumble. And now Fiona.

He was not having it. She was coming and that was all about it.

‘You've got to come. We're all moving on. We're getting out of here.'

She swung at him. ‘Don't try and give me orders. You've not got my inhaler. I'm not a wimp.' She glared at Liam when she said that. ‘I'm staying here. She'll come back. I know she will.'

Axel felt like punching her. ‘No she won't. She's dead. She must be. Do you understand? DEAD!'

Fiona slapped her hands over her ears to shut out his words. ‘I don't believe it! I don't believe it!'

Liam grabbed his arm. ‘Axel, make her come!'

Axel didn't know how to do that. All he knew was they had to get out of here. Why couldn't he make her understand that waiting for Angie was useless?

Zesh stumbled against the wall. He wanted to crawl, anything to ease the pain in his back from trying to breathe. Fiona had surprised him. Amazed him. What did she care about Angie? She'd treated her like dirt. And now, this same Fiona was making him feel
ashamed. He'd always looked down his nose at her, and now here she was, doing the right thing. Maybe not the wise thing, but the honourable thing. Refusing to move on without Angie, and him, Zesh, who always thought of himself as superior, had been ready to leave Mr Marks behind because of the promise of a breath of life later.

And could he trust Axel to keep his word? Of course he couldn't. Axel would be more likely to hold the inhaler out to him, and just as he was about to grab for it, throw it into the depths, send it hurtling down a hole so that it tumbled down and down and down. Just like Angie. The thought made his skin tighten, made him catch his pained breath again. He was exhausted trying to breathe, wanted to stop, just for a minute. He slid to the ground again.

He kept his eyes on Axel. The idiot didn't know how to handle Fiona. It was almost funny watching him, listening to him blaming everyone for what was happening, too stupid to realise it was all his fault. Angie had fallen because she had tried to force him to give back the inhaler. She wouldn't have done that if he hadn't taken the inhaler in the first place. And Fiona wouldn't be losing the place if Angie was still here. She'd
probably be screaming at Angie instead. Axel couldn't see any of this. Zesh could tell by Axel's puzzled, annoyed expression that he thought everyone was losing it, except him.

Painfully, Zesh tried to speak. His words were only a rasp but he had to say them. ‘I'm staying here too.'