Rebekka Franck Box Set

by Willow Rose

  Among the rescued was the school’s librarian, a guy named Lars who also lived on the street at number thirteen, but had been pulled into the ground just after arriving at work at the school. There was a Mr. Bjerrehus, Afrim’s neighbor, he told us. There was a girl who was badly bruised. She told us her name was Malene, but other than that didn’t have strength enough to speak and tell us where she was from, since no one in here seemed to recognize her. We had also saved a guy named Michael West, who told us he was simply walking down the street when the ground caved underneath him. He didn’t know any of the others in the cave either, he said. I wondered what he was doing in the neighborhood at eight o’clock in the morning if he didn’t know anyone. But I didn’t ask. I was too exhausted. Besides Michael West, there was Benjamin, a young teenager and his mother Irene, a Kurt Hansen and his wife Annette and, finally, some guy who told us he was an engineer and that he had tried to tell the authorities for years about the possibility that the neighborhood could sink into the ground due to the erosion of the limestone underneath it. But no one would listen. He had been in the neighborhood this morning to drill samples up from the ground to determine the extent of the erosion when the collapse happened. His name was Kenneth Borges. He was a nice guy with chubby cheeks.

  David sat next to me and leaned his head backwards. We stared at the dirt wall in front of us, from where we had pulled out so many bodies. I wondered how many more were still buried further in there.

  Big parts of the wall had collapsed and the dirt took up a lot of space in the small cave. I stared into the deep hole that we had dug and wondered how long the big lump hanging free above it would stay in its place. If it came down on us, it would most likely bury most of us. I suddenly wondered if it had all been all in vain…digging out all these people just to get them crushed. Most of them were too weak to be able to move or dig themselves out again.

  I closed my eyes and tried to picture myself with my family again. How badly I missed them now. How badly I regretted having gone away for the weekend. What if I never saw them again?

  “So, what do we do now?” David asked. He was getting weary too. We had used all of our strength digging these people out, and now we were running out of air. I looked into the tunnel and wondered where Brian and Thomas had disappeared to. David and I had come in that way, and I knew it was a dead-end. Why hadn’t they come back? Could they have found another way? A way leading out, maybe? They were, after all, mine tunnels. They were connected to something, right? Maybe we had missed something on our way? No, it was impossible. Were they just hiding in the other cave? The one David and I had been in? Just to stay away from us?

  “I don’t know,” I sighed.

  There was a lot of coughing and moaning among the rescued people. I had no idea how they were supposed to survive, how I should keep them alive. Or even how I was supposed to stay alive down here.

  “I guess we wait and pray that they’ll start digging for us soon,” I said with a deep exhale. I felt an urging craving thirst sucking me dry from inside. At this point, I would have done anything for a sip of water.

  David leaned back his head and closed his eyes. He went silent. I knew why. We didn’t have to speak to know what the other was thinking.

  There was no way they would make it in time.

  23

  They had brought in all the heavy machinery, but hadn’t started using any of it yet. Instead, engineers were discussing how to approach it. Martin Busck stood behind the police blockage, shoulder to shoulder with his wife and all the other spectators and nervous relatives waiting to hear about their loved ones. He felt so frustrated watching them simply debate and not do anything.

  “When will they begin to dig?” he asked his wife. “Why aren’t they digging? Can you tell me why?”

  “They’re probably just being careful. They’re afraid that more of the ground will collapse,” she said.

  “People are down there, for Christ sake. Seconds count right now,” he said. “Don’t they realize that?”

  “I’m sure they do, honey.” The baby was fussing in her arms, and she started rocking from side to side.

  “I heard they were talking about drilling a hole and sending a robotic camera underground,” Ole Sigumfeldt, who was standing on the other side of Martin, said. He lived further down the street from Martin, yet they didn’t know each other very well. Ole was a salesman for some electronic company and traveled a lot. Often for weeks at a time, leaving his wife alone with the three boys. Martin often felt sorry for the poor woman, who almost constantly had to struggle with those kids. On top of that, she worked full time for some law firm.

  “The site is too unstable right now to use the heavy machinery,” Ole continued. “They say the sinkhole keeps growing, so they are waiting. They’re taking pictures of the soil using radio waves. They’re testing the soil’s stability.”

  “That’s just wrong,” Martin snarled. “That’s going to take forever. They should be digging.”

  “They will. I just heard them say they’ll start drilling holes soon.” The man standing next to Ole Sigumfeldt said. Martin knew who he was, but had never really talked to the guy. He knew the family was Muslim, but they had lived in Denmark for many years. Martin had often seen the kid riding his bike around the neighborhood with his Golden Retriever tagging along.

  “I’m Sali Berisha, by the way,” he said, and reached out his hand. “We live…” Sali paused, then corrected with a thick voice, “We lived right next to the school in number four. My wife was in the house when…” Sali paused. “I don’t know where my son is. He never made it to school, they told me. The house is completely gone.”

  “That sucks, man,” Martin said. “I’m sorry. I’m waiting for news about my brother. He was sucked down from inside his bedroom.”

  “I believe my wife and three kids are down there as well,” Ole Sigumfeldt said. “The kids never made it to school, their teacher told me. And Karen never made it to work. I just called them…I’ve been away all weekend on a business trip to Germany. She asked me to stay…for once, to skip a trip and stay home with them. I told her it was a big bonus we would miss out on. She said she didn’t care about the money. She was angry with me and didn’t answer any of my calls all weekend. I…I never should have gone away.”

  The three of them went silent while staring down the hole. Martin wasn’t ready to lose hope yet. His brother was alive. He just had to be. He didn’t get released from ninety days of captivity in Syria just to die in some dirt hole in Denmark. It was simply not possible. It couldn’t be.

  “Look, they’re getting ready to lower someone down the hole,” Ole Sigumfeldt said hopefully.

  A firefighter wired to the fire truck was slowly going down. Martin watched him anxiously. He’d made it halfway down when the side started sliding. He yelled, and so did the people running the fire truck. As quickly as possible, they managed to pull him back up. The safety zone was then expanded and they all had to move, a policeman told them, while they moved the blockage.

  “Get back. Everybody get back; the soil is unstable and we don’t want to lose any more people, so please stand back.”

  “Any news about my brother?” Martin asked, as he was pushed back.

  “Any news about my wife and children?” Ole Sigumfeldt asked.

  “My wife Blerina and my son Afrim Mustafa are missing,” Sali Berisha interrupted them.

  The officer shrugged. “I…I honestly don’t know what to tell you guys. There is no news about anyone yet. Not that I know of.”

  “Are you going to try and dig them out?” Martin asked, feeling the anger and frustration surface.

  The officer looked at them with a sigh. “Look, guys. I know you’re anxious to hear news. I know you want us to move fast, but this situation is extremely dangerous. The hole is still evolving. The soil under this area is eroding, rendering the entire neighborhood unsafe. So, at this time, we're still trying to determine the exact nature of what's going on dow
n there. It could take some time. For this reason, we're being very deliberate, and I understand that being very deliberate is very painful for the relatives. You want us to go in fast. But the only thing that would be more tragic is to send people in and have more loss of life. So, that's the dilemma, and it's a very painful dilemma. We're doing everything we possibly can. Now, if you could start by giving me the names of the people you believe might have fallen into the hole, we’ll know who to contact when we have any ne…”

  There was a lot of yelling behind the officer, and he turned around to see. Pandemonium had broken out. The dirt sliding down when the firefighter had touched it had revealed something.

  “What is it?” Ole Sigumfeldt asked.

  “It looks like a car,” Sali said.

  They moved quickly. The rescuers had seen something. Soon, a crane was lowered down and grabbed the car, pulling it hard and getting it loose.

  “It’s my wife’s,” Ole Sigumfeldt exclaimed when it was freed. Big chunks of dirt fell off the Kia as it was carried towards safety.

  “It looks like there’s someone inside of it,” Martin said. Hands were hammering on the windows. He could hear screaming and see a small face.

  Ole Sigumfeldt whimpered. “Jacob? It’s my kid. I see my kid! It’s Jacob! There’s another one. I see Christian! Oh, my God, they’re alive.”

  24

  We were slowly running out of air. We had gathered all the cellphones from the dead ones and kept them in a pile to use for light, one at a time, until they ran out of battery. After about an hour of waiting, I started panicking. I had been listening for sounds and signs that someone was trying to get down to us, but it was silent as a grave. All I heard now and then was a thud here and there, the sounds of the earth moving. It wasn’t done collapsing.

  We were buried alive, and if we didn’t do anything, we would be dead within a few hours. I was already getting tired and very lightheaded from the lack of oxygen.

  “We need to do something,” I whispered to David. “We need to find a way out before it’s too late.”

  David nodded. He sat with his eyes closed and head leaned back. He opened them and looked at me. “You’re right. But what?”

  “Should we maybe go back through the tunnel we came from?” I asked. “I mean, Thomas and Brian left that way and never came back.”

  “It’s too difficult with all these people. Most of them can’t stand on their feet, let alone walk through a narrow tunnel where you can’t stand upright. It’s not realistic. Plus, I don’t think they found a way out that way. They would have been back here to tell us if they did. They might be selfish, but they’re not cruel. My guess is that they’re sitting in the cave you and I ended up in at first and are waiting just like we are.”

  “What do you suggest?” I asked.

  David shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Dig,” I said. “We could try and dig some more. We managed to break this wall down, maybe there’s another one of these walls that will lead to other tunnels in the mine?”

  David looked exhausted. I could tell he was having a hard time breathing properly. “I…I’m not sure have the strength to dig anymore,” he said. “I feel so tired. I think I broke a rib falling down. It hurts like crazy when I breathe.”

  I stared at all the hurt people lying on the ground, the boy Afrim and his mother holding on to each other like there was no tomorrow.

  Maybe there isn’t.

  “I’m not giving up,” I mumbled. “I’m not leaving this planet without seeing my kids again.”

  I grabbed the knife out of David’s hand and threw myself at the wall in front of us, where we had pulled all the bodies out. I started digging, pecking with fast and frantic movements till a big block of dirt fell to the ground next to me.

  “Be careful,” David said. “We don’t want the cave to collapse. We don’t know how much dirt is on top of us.”

  I didn’t listen. I kept at it. Something felt strange inside my hand. I looked at it. “I think I found something,” I said. I grabbed Mrs. Krogh’s cellphone and lit up what was in my hand.

  “What is it?” David asked.

  “Guano.”

  “What?”

  “Bat-droppings. Bat excrement. Cave-dwelling bats. Look. It’s like dark brown grains of rice.”

  “I see it,” David said.

  I smelled my fingers. “Yes, it’s definitely bat poop. Smells horrible.” I shone the light on the dirt that had fallen to the ground. There was a whole pile of it. I remember seeing it when I’d just moved into my dad’s house. He had bats in the attic that we had removed by professionals. The attic was filled with that stuff. Big piles of it. They told us we were lucky the ceiling didn’t cave in from the weight of it.

  “So, what do you make of it?” I asked.

  David shrugged.

  “I’m thinking, where there are bats, there’s space to fly, right?”

  “You’ve got a point,” David said.

  “I have a feeling they can’t be far. With this amount of feces, I’d say there’s a lot of them.”

  David rose to his feet. He grabbed one of the cellphones, even though we had agreed to only use one at a time in order to ration our light. He grabbed the knife from my hand and walked slowly around, shining the light on the walls, examining them.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  David stuck the knife into a wall. “Getting us out of here.” He’d pecked a few times in the dirt wall when the earth started rumbling again. David gasped and stepped back.

  “What’s going on now?” I asked, just as the entire wall in front of us came down with a loud crash.

  25

  Malene woke up with a gasp. The loud noise terrified her.

  Where am I? What was that sound? Oh, my God, the poet. Where is he? Is he still here?

  Malene blinked her eyes to better focus. What was this place? A cave of some sort? There were people on the ground lying next to her. She couldn’t see their faces in the sparse light.

  Oh, my God, he has brought you down here to kill you. This is where he kills his victims and buries them. Oh, my God, you gotta get out of here!

  Malene tried to get up, but it hurt. Her back hurt really badly. So did her head. And she was so thirsty. So incredibly thirsty.

  She looked in the direction of the light. Two people were standing with cellphones in their hands. They were looking through a big hole in the wall, then at each other. They seemed happy. Who were those people? Why were they happy?

  You gotta get out of here, now!

  Malene tried to get up once again. Her eyes met those of a small boy with his dog as she managed to pull herself up through the pain.

  Oh, my God. How many people is he keeping down here?

  Malene’s heart beat fast as she walked past all the people on the ground, carefully trying not to step on any of them. Most looked more dead than alive. Was he simply taking people into this strange place and letting them starve to death? Was that his cruel plan?

  Malene felt a chill. It was so cold in here. The boy with the dog looked at her. “Hi,” he said.

  Malene smiled, but didn’t answer. The boy was lying on top of a woman who seemed to be half-dead as well. This was a nightmare. She had to get away from this place and these people. The only ones that seemed to be truly alive were the man and woman with the cellphones in their hands. Malene walked closer to them. They disappeared through the hole.

  “Hey, wait for me,” she yelled, and dragged her painful body through the hole as well. On the other side, a huge cave opened up.

  Malene couldn’t believe it. The woman heard her and turned to look.

  “You’re awake,” she said, and approached Malene. Malene froze. Could she trust this woman?

  “Hi, I’m Rebekka and this is David,” she said.

  “Malene.”

  “Look what just opened up. Isn’t it wonderful?” Rebekka asked, and spread out her arms widely.

  Malene could
n’t quite see what was so wonderful about this place. It was dark and clammy. “Is this the way out?” she asked.

  “It just might be,” Rebekka answered. “How are you? Are you in pain?”

  Malene nodded carefully. “My back and neck hurt.”

  “You bruised your face as well,” Rebekka said.

  Malene touched her forehead and remembered hitting the stove and the granite counter in the kitchen. She didn’t know if she should tell this woman what happened. She decided to keep it to herself for now. The poet didn’t seem to be here.

  “A long story,” she said. “Where are we?”

  “We believe we are in the limestone mines of Monsted Kalkgruber,” David said. “We think this is one of the many caves underground that are connected by tunnels.”

  “The mines? But that’s so deep underground? How did we end up here?” Malene asked, but then she remembered. She remembered staring into the deep dark hole while sliding and trying to grab onto something. Then it all went dark.

  “The ground caved underneath the entire neighborhood,” Rebekka said. “We believe it was a sinkhole. Do you live on Blegevej?”

  She shook her head. “I was…visiting someone when it happened.”

  “Me too,” Rebekka said.

  She stared at the high ceilings above them. It looked almost like a cathedral when Rebekka shone her lights on it. Underneath the ceiling hung a flock of bats. Malene shuddered. She hated bats, but the air felt a lot fresher in here.