The Swimmer

by David Haynes

  By now his feet were both soaking and freezing from splashing through pools of water, but he barely noticed the sensation. It was just another part of his body which was arguing with his brain. As he pushed on, the tunnel became perceptibly narrower and lower causing him to bend his back. He was already weary and the bent posture caused his breathing to become laboured and uncomfortable. In the darkness, he felt a growing sense of panic building quickly in his stomach. He tried to move quicker, he wanted to run if he could, but the uneven floor and his awkward position made it impossible. The crowbar made movement more difficult and he discarded it with a dull echo. He felt like shouting, but he knew that would only add to his stress, and the echo would come straight back at him like a ghostly scream from the past.

  It was inevitable, but it still surprised him. His legs gave way and he tumbled to the rocky floor. Instinctively he put his hands out in front to protect his face but the torch connected with the ground first. He heard the ‘tinkle’ of breaking glass a split second before the light went out. His mouth tasted the ice-cold and metallic water on the tunnel floor. “Fuck!” He screamed into the darkness.

  Joe shouted out again, as loud as he could but at that moment his voice couldn’t compete against the horrendous cacophony which echoed throughout the tunnel. He flicked his eyes open, expecting to see nothing but an oppressive blackness. However a faint glow lit the rocks in front. He raised himself upright and stared down the tunnel. About one hundred metres away was a definite light, only dim, but it was a light and it was something to aim for. He set off immediately, keeping his eye fixed on the beacon. The source of the light was also the origin of the torturous mechanical noise. He’d never been in a foundry but the noise made him think about the screeching and pounding noises he imagined rang in the ears of foundry workers. Even when they weren’t at work.

  He reached the light source and quickly realised his imaginings hadn’t been too far away from the truth. He was standing in a vast chamber cut into the rock like any of the other chambers he’d been in, but this one had a crucial difference. In the centre of the cave was something akin to a pair of pistons working up and down beside each other. Attached to each gleaming metallic piston was a platform, and as the pistons rocked up and down the platforms met to form one long stage before falling away again. It was a nothing more than an elaborate stepladder really.

  Although he was no engineer it looked to be beautifully made. The platforms seemed to glide against each other, briefly kissing shoulders before moving on; then back again in a monotonous ritual. Joe searched the room for a power source for the machine but the chamber was empty, except for the few lights hung haphazardly on the walls. He looked upwards and could see nothing but the platforms conducting their relentless shuffle against each other. He took a deep breath and stepped quickly forward and onto the first platform.

  He counted how many seconds it waited before moving again; it was five. He waited for it to come back then walked onto its pitted metallic surface. Surprisingly the structure felt incredibly strong and barely moved when he stepped on, which reinforced his opinion of its superior and modern engineering. As the first and second platform came together creating an almost seamless junction between them, Joe stepped swiftly across. Five seconds or not, he didn’t want to risk missing his next step.

  After the first three changeovers it felt like an easy way of ascending; albeit not the fastest. Each stroke of the shaft lifted the platform by five metres and each time he stepped over onto the next platform, he couldn’t help but think about, ‘Chuckie Egg’, a computer game he’d spent hours playing as a child.

  As each stroke returned him closer to the surface, Joe watched the pinhole of light above him grow larger until the glow was the size of a football. The shaft was well illuminated with frequent lights attached to the rock face to coincide with the changeovers. Apart from watching his feet at the changeover points he kept his vision locked on the light above.

  He estimated he would have to swap platforms another five times before he reached whatever was at the top but as he stepped onto the next level he nearly lost his footing. He must have stepped onto something but managed to steady himself and step away before the platform descended again. His heart raced at the thought of slipping between the two levels. Although engineering of this quality would have a fail-safe, if he managed to get wedged in somehow, there wasn’t likely to be anyone coming to rescue him.

  The machine lifted him again and as the two platforms met he was able to see what had nearly tripped him. He knew straightaway what he’d found without picking it up. It was Reverend Hooper’s diary. There was no way on this earth that May would’ve brought it to the mine, and there was no way in hell that she would’ve dropped it down the deepest hole in the world. Not after they’d dug it up less than twenty-four hours before. He picked it up and clutched it to his chest.

  Joe felt sick again. The adrenaline which had driven him down the tunnel had a new enemy now. Apart from his failing, tired, wreck of a body there was something he recognised as fear, or close to it. He froze to the spot and missed the next two opportunities to go up. All sorts of scenarios raced through his mind until he couldn’t tolerate them any longer. Whether or not he’d find May’s crumpled, smashed body on the next platform up or the one after that, it didn’t matter. There was no option, he had to go up.

  Still holding the book tightly Joe leapt across onto the next platform without taking his vision from the opening above; he did the same for the other levels. As he reached the fourth platform, May’s face appeared over the edge of the hole. It looked puffy and swollen and even in the half-light Joe could see what looked like dried blood covering most of the lower portion of her face. A single drop of blood fell from the tip of her nose and landed in the centre of Joe’s face. Her eyes widened as recognition and pain flashed across her face in an instant. Joe opened his mouth to call out, but something deep down told him to hold that call, just for one more moment. Someone was holding her head over the pit, someone with very sizeable hands.

  As David walked slowly toward her, she raked her hands across the wall behind her back. She knew it was futile but somewhere, deep in her primitive brain all other options had been exhausted and only one remained; fight. Her hands sank into one of the old miner’s alcoves, but there was nothing in it except for a few chunks of loose rock which she closed her fists around. Instinctively she wanted to hurl, what was nothing more than pebbles, at David’s face but she held tight. Her aim wasn’t good enough to guarantee a direct hit from three metres.

  David didn’t speak as he approached and the expression on his face was completely blank, as if he were an automaton, acting on instructions from an unseen hand. She saw his mouth open several times but whether or not he spoke was impossible to say. The awful noise completely drowned out all other sound.

  She lowered her hands to her side. She didn’t want to give him any more warning than she had to, and as he reached a metre away, she hurled whatever was in her right hand at his face. She saw the jumble of shapes fly from her grasp towards David and pepper his face on impact. At the instant he closed his eyes and raised his hands, May jumped to his side and threw her left handful at his right temple. Her left hand was only used for typing and, although from that distance, it was impossible to miss, the force with which the stones connected was ineffective.

  She kept moving to her side as David wheeled round and flung out his arm to grab her. His upper lip was pulled tightly above his teeth in an animal-like expression. She wished she’d saved the second handful until she was facing him again. She could see where one of the larger stones had opened a small but deep cut above his left eyebrow from her first volley. With dismay, she knew at that moment, that whatever she’d thrown at him wouldn’t have been enough. Not unless she’d thrown a hammer.

  David’s obvious advantage in size and reach enabled him to catch May’s jacket with his first attempt. He didn’t grasp it fully but his partial grab was sufficient t
o slow her movement down for a split second. This allowed him to take another swing and grab a handful of the bottom edge of the jacket. May screamed and tried to wriggle free but his enormous hand pulled her backward and off balance until she felt her weight toppling over. She closed her eyes and waited for the impact with the floor but it didn’t come. David grabbed her shoulders with both hands and pushed her upright. She faced away from him, his enormous frame pressed tightly against hers and his hands wrapped tightly around both her shoulders. She felt his breath on her ear. “Got you, you little bitch.”

  May felt her feet almost lift off the floor as he marched her towards the hole and the pounding pistons of the man engine. With a growing panic, the reality of what she’d known since waking up, began to sink in. David intended to throw her down into the pit where she’d be ground into dust like all the other souls down there. She felt her body grow smaller and smaller with each step David forced on her, until she felt like a little girl. He kicked the guard away and held her directly over the hole. May stiffened her body and resisted his considerable weight but his strength was immense. She felt her body bending at the waist until she was almost at a right angle over the hole.

  She looked down and saw the vast mechanical beast pumping and shifting, pumping and shifting in a grotesque dance. It was almost hypnotic the way its uninterrupted rhythm pounded incessantly like it did. The tempo was perfectly in synchronisation with the pulse of her blood, which seemed to be flowing directly to her broken nose. She blinked twice, waiting for her feet to be lifted off the ground and to be hurtled head first down into the abyss.

  Then she saw him. He bounced from side to side on the dancing platforms getting closer and closer. At first she thought she was seeing the ghost of Alec Prideaux coming up to snatch her from David’s grip to take her down. As her eyes focused she had to restrain a gigantic impulse to shriek; Joe was coming. With a renewed effort she forced her head backward and kicked her legs frantically. She felt at least two of her kicks connect with his shins but he held her fast; he was strong but her intention wasn’t to get free, although that would’ve been a bonus. It was to distract him and to give herself and Joe the element of surprise.

  Joe sank onto his haunches and waited for the last platform to take him onto ground level. He wanted to give himself as much time as possible before David saw him so he retained the element of surprise. He watched as he saw May’s legs through the fine mesh on the metal cage and then her torso. He knew her position would only hide him for so long, now was the time to act. Suddenly he stood up and leapt forward. He wanted to take May backward as well, to get her away from the edge, but mostly he wanted to hit David with as much force as he could.

  He hit May with more force than he’d intended but as she fell backward, David’s face was suddenly exposed. Before they all fell to the ground, Joe swung and felt the impact of his fist on soft flesh.

  As they landed, May heard the wind go out of David as she landed on his back. She flicked her head backward in a reverse head-butt and quickly rolled to her side. Joe was already scrambling to his feet, trying to get to David as quickly as he could. David blinked rapidly; he’d obviously not seen Joe until the very last moment, when it was too late for him to get out of the way. His size was of no advantage when he was on the ground.

  Joe knew he had to end this quickly. The lack of vision in his right eye had already cost him a well-timed and well-placed punch to David’s nose. The fleshy feel of the impact, he knew, meant it had only made contact with his cheek or eye at best. He saw May roll to her side and without getting to his feet scrambled towards David. It was then that he felt the sudden and shocking sensation of his breath disappearing as David’s foot sank into his stomach. He fell back.

  May screamed as she saw David kick Joe in the stomach. Sickeningly, Joe collapsed into the metal cage surrounding the hole. Belying his size, David almost sprang to his feet to stand over the crumpled figure of Joe below him. May ran at David and kicked the back of his right knee once before David’s gigantic hand swiped in a massive arc and knocked her off her feet.

  Joe felt himself being picked up like a rag doll. His lungs had emptied entirely, he knew he needed time, just a few more seconds then he’d be able to fight on. A second impact smashed into his solar plexus sending him reeling again and if David hadn’t held him upright he knew he’d be on the ground again. He saw David’s ugly snarl of a mouth move but the pounding noise behind him drowned out his voice. He didn’t even see the punch which ruptured the purple swelling around his right eye, but he felt the pain explode and he saw the fountain of crimson blood splash across David’s face and teeth. Over David’s shoulder he saw May running away down another tunnel. He spat more blood at David and smiled.

  May couldn’t watch what was happening to Joe any more. She turned and ran towards the tunnel David had brought her down on her first visit. As she ran, she plunged her hands into each and every alcove cut into the rock. She almost screamed when her fist clenched around a cylindrical wooden handle. In a fluid movement she pulled the object free and started running back towards Joe. Without looking down, she knew the object in her hand was reassuringly tool weighted.

  The sight of Joe’s head being turned from side to side as more and more unanswered blows struck his face fuelled her rage. She raised the tool high above her head and brought it down on David’s neck. She’d wanted to land it on top of his head but he was simply too tall.

  The end of the hand axe, although rusty and worn, sank down to the base of the blade into the back of his neck. May screamed again, as much with in shock as anger. David dropped Joe like a toy doll to the floor. He turned slowly like a grim version of Frankenstein’s monster with his arms frozen in the classic pose. His mouth twitched twice causing May to step back momentarily. She looked at Joe on the floor and screamed again before dipping her shoulder and hurling herself at David’s torso. She felt the impact on her shoulder as it connected with his flabby stomach. He wobbled briefly then took a step back onto Joe, who raised one weary hand, and grabbed David’s trouser leg around his ankle. Joe heaved as hard as he could and David fell back against the waist level safety barrier.

  In an almost comic motion, as if he were slipping on ice, David’s feet shuffled against Joe’s body. His size and weight kept the momentum going and heaved him up and over the barrier. May jumped forward, almost landing on Joe and watched as David’s massive frame collided with the first platform causing it to vibrate. He bounced off that one and onto another platform on its ascent. David’s head drooped over the edge of the platform, and as the neatly engineered platforms came together in their surreal ballet, his head was ripped untidily from his body. Both head and torso fell to join the forlorn bones of Prideaux and Newton. Sensing the unwanted friction, the machine instantly shut down.

  May sank to her knees next to Joe and gently cupped his swollen and bloody face. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

  Joe laughed, a thick globule of bright red blood shot down onto the floor. “Do you think I could get back to being a hermit again now?”

  Tears streamed down her face “Only if you’ll let me come with you?”

  Joe smiled, and then winced with the pain. “I’ll let you take me to the hospital now.”

  The End

  Author’s Note

  Although the place names in this novel are correct, the events described are a work of fiction.

  A disaster did occur at Levant mine where 31 miners perished. However the events leading up it and following it, as described in this work are fictional. This includes the role of the St Just parish church, which played no part in the death of any of the miners.

  With special thanks to Kath Middleton.

 

 

 
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