Mercy Point

by Anna Snoekstra

  ‘No worries,’ he said. Emma looked different; she had her hair pulled back and no makeup on. For some reason, he felt his cheeks start to grow warm.

  ‘Come on!’ she said. ‘Let’s go do this thing!’

  He turned the headlights back on and they were off. No one spoke now, but the air in the car seemed to pulse with excitement. They had no reason to think they would find any answers at the caves, but Michael was sure they would. They were going back to the beginning. They were going into the dark, and deep down, Michael wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to come back.

  After a few kilometres, there were no more streetlights. The road got thinner, with more and more windy curves. They could only see a few metres ahead of them, even with the headlights on high beam. As they turned one particularly sharp bend, there was a collective gasp in the car. There was nothing on the left side of the road, no safety railing, no nothing. Just a sheer drop. Michael kept the car as close to the cliff face on the right as possible. If he got it wrong, even by a few centimetres, the car would go over the edge. Michael’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel, his leg ached from constantly changing from braking to accelerating, his head pounded behind his eyes. He had never concentrated this hard in his life. With every bend, he prayed that they would have arrived, but it was always more of the same.

  CHAPTER 25

  EMMA

  Emma couldn’t bear to look out the window anymore, so she closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see the sharp turns the car was making; just feeling them was enough. She stared down at her knees, trying to pretend she was somewhere else. Already, this felt like the stupidest of stupid ideas.

  ‘Have any of you guys seen Thelma and Louise?’ Fabian whispered.

  No one answered. Emma hadn’t seen it, but she knew what he was getting at. She’d seen the image of their car flying into the Grand Canyon. She swallowed. Even though Michael was driving slowly, it could still easily happen. A faster car might appear on the other side of one of these bends at any moment and slam into them, sending them flying off the side of the cliff. She wondered if she’d see the headlights through her eyelids before she felt the impact, before she felt the weightlessness of the car falling.

  As though he could feel her anxiety, Sam’s warm fingers weaved between hers. She opened her eyes and looked over, surprised, and he smiled at her. A week ago, she would have loved this. Now, she wasn’t so sure. She cared about Sam, a lot. She wanted to be there for him, look out for him, make him smile. But she felt the sting of betrayal, as well as annoyance, from his hiding that video from her. It wasn’t just that he hadn’t told her, it was the fact that he’d thought she wasn’t ready for it. Like he knew what she was and wasn’t capable of. It was patronising. He squeezed her fingers, as though he knew what she was thinking, and for some reason her mind went to Michael and the way it had felt when he’d held her hand in the bathroom. It had felt pretty different from this.

  The headlights lit up a sign in front of them: WELCOME TO THE STERLING CAVES. Her stomach fluttered. They were here. They’d actually made it without anything horrible happening. It seemed incredible. Although it was only the beginning of their stupid plan and there were more dangerous things to come. The car turned the last bend, their headlights lighting up a tall metal gate, fused to the side of the cliff. A large sign attached to it read: DANGER — NO ENTRY. On top of the gate were lines of barbed wire. A mix of disappointment and relief washed over Emma. Again, she wished like hell that they’d never decided to do this. Maybe now they could just go home.

  ‘Damn it!’ yelled Michael, banging his palm on the steering wheel.

  Sam let go of her hand and got out of the car. The headlights lit up the back of his jacket as he approached the gate.

  ‘What’s he doing? I have a sneaking suspicion it might be locked,’ Michael said sarcastically.

  ‘He’s just going to investigate, I guess,’ she told him. ‘We were stupid to think it would just be open for anyone to go in. If whatever killed all those people really happened here, they’d want to block it off.’

  ‘And if it didn’t,’ Michael said slowly, ‘they’d want to hide it.’

  They watched Sam in silence for a moment, the warm yellow circles of the headlights imprinting on his jacket and glinting off the sign. Emma leaned forward, trying to see what he was doing. It looked as if he was reaching through, trying to grab the padlock.

  ‘We could always ram it with the car?’ suggested Tessie.

  Fabian nodded, but not very convincingly. ‘Could work.’

  Sam turned back to them and smiled, holding up the open padlock in his hand.

  ‘Holy crap, he did it!’ said Michael.

  Emma felt a surge of unease as Sam pushed the squeaky gate open for them and got back in the car next to her. She had almost wanted them to fail.

  ‘How’d you do that?’ demanded Michael, turning to look at him.

  ‘It wasn’t locked,’ Sam replied.

  ‘What?’ Emma said, looking at him. ‘But that makes no sense. Why have the sign, the fence, all that barbed wire and not even lock it?’

  Sam shrugged, like he didn’t think it was weird at all.

  Michael stared incredulously at him, then turned back to the road, driving slowly through the opening. Emma looked up at the barbed wire glinting in the moonlight. It seemed like overkill; why would anyone want to get over the gate so badly? And if they were that worried, why did they leave it unlocked? They drove around the final curve under a low-hanging rock. Emma couldn’t help but grit her teeth, preparing herself for what was to come. Whatever had happened here, it was the reason her father had died. The place they were going was where he’d taken his final breaths. Whatever it was that had caused it — if not a cave-in she didn’t know what — must have been bad. Really bad.

  As they approached the clearing, Emma couldn’t believe her eyes. She had prepared herself for devastation, but there was none. There were no fallen boulders or tipped-over trees. No broken glass, no old ambulance equipment, no broken-down cars or debris. There were no giant cracks in the earth. There was nothing.

  The moon lit up the centre square. The gift shop stood untouched, a dusty display of bats still in its window. There was not one crack in the window of the large red brick cafe. The tables and chairs were still out, although some of them were overturned. They shone white. Emma realised they were covered in bird poo.

  ‘Wow,’ said Fabian. ‘My dad said it was all destroyed.’

  Michael pulled in near the cafe, where you could still see the white lines of parking spaces, and turned off the car. Emma shuffled out quickly, her legs feeling wobbly as she put weight on them. Still, she couldn’t have been happier to get out of the car and stand on solid ground. Fabian went to stand next to Tessie, and they looked out together at the strange place. It was like a ghost town. Like one day, everyone had just walked away and never come back. It didn’t seem like anything violent had happened here. Next to her, Michael leaned against the car with both arms. He was shaking slightly.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yep.’ He scrunched up his eyes. ‘I really don’t want to have to drive that again on the way back.’

  She reached out and touched his back, noticing how the heat radiated through his hoodie. It was weird that he wasn’t wearing a jacket — it was a freezing cold night.

  ‘Don’t think about it.’ She tried to sound soothing, but the truth was, she felt the same. She never wanted to get in that car again.

  Tessie turned to face them. ‘She’s right. There are much bigger things to be scared of right now.’

  ‘Thanks, Tess. Forever the optimist,’ Michael said sarcastically, but he smiled.

  Emma took out her phone. Unsurprisingly, there was no mobile service. But maybe it didn’t matter, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, after all. It didn’t look dangerous around here, not at all. If it wasn’t dangerous, if nothing bad happened, it wasn’t like she’d be in the position where she’d have to
call for help.

  ‘So now that we’re here, what’s the plan?’ asked Fabian, looking around.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘It’s creepy here, isn’t it? Like a ghost town.’

  ‘I think we should see if we can get down into the caves,’ said Sam.

  ‘What?’ asked Tessie. ‘Inside them?’

  ‘That’s why we came, isn’t it?’ Sam replied.

  ‘I thought we were just going to have a look around . . .’ Emma hated how small her voice sounded.

  Tessie looked between Fabian and Sam. ‘I actually distinctly remember you saying we didn’t have to go inside them. That we were just looking around out here.’

  ‘He’s right.’ Fabian was looking at the ground, his voice low but firm. ‘They said that they found us inside the caves. There’s nothing to see out here. We’re not going to find anything that’ll help us figure this out. We came to get answers, and I think the only way to do that is to go in the caves.’

  ‘But what will we even find in there?’ Michael asked. ‘I mean, they’re caves! They’re essentially just dark, creepy holes in the ground. It’s not like someone would have left a manifesto there titled, here’s why I left five babies in the weirdest place possible.’

  ‘Anyway, they’ll all be blocked off,’ Emma said, glad her voice had come back.

  ‘Only one way to find out.’ Sam turned and walked away from them.

  Michael raised both his hands in question, looking seriously irritated. However, they had no choice but to follow. Sam was walking up a dirt path, past a large sign. Emma peered at it, but it was too weathered to be legible.

  Emma pulled her jacket tighter. It really was creepy here. So silent and still. She shivered. She couldn’t help but think of all the lives that had been lost here. What if they found a body? It would just be a skeleton now, but still. That would be horrible.

  A loud bang sliced through the silence. They all jumped, looking around as if they were about to be attacked.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?’ yelled Michael.

  He was looking at Sam, who had hit the metal door that was covering a cave entrance with a rock.

  ‘We need to get in there,’ Sam muttered in reply, trying to prise the metal door off with his hands.

  They gaped at him.

  ‘He’s crazy!’ Michael shook his head in disbelief.

  ‘Sam.’ Tessie spoke like she was talking to a kid. ‘That cave is blocked off for a reason. It’s too dangerous to go in there.’

  He turned to them, a weird expression in his eyes. Then he smiled and he looked like himself again. ‘Okay.’ He turned his back to them and kept walking.

  They followed behind him for a while, peering around, hoping desperately to find something, anything, that would make it all fall into place. To make some sense of what they’d overheard. But there was nothing. Up ahead, Emma saw Sam standing still, staring at a cliff face. Something about it felt strange. It was as if he was a robot who had been turned off, just standing there, looking at nothing.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she asked when she reached him.

  He turned and grinned at her again. As she took a step closer, she saw that he wasn’t staring at nothing. He was staring into an empty black doorway. It was a cave entrance. He turned on the torch application on his phone and shone the light above the entrance. The Ombus Cave was carved into the rock. She remembered the name from the maps she had on her ceiling. She felt bad then, for thinking he was being creepy. He just wanted to find answers too, even if he was going about it in a very different way from the rest of them.

  ‘Are we really going to do this?’ Michael asked, looking at them.

  ‘We won’t go far in. We’ll just have a quick look,’ said Tessie, although Emma noticed that she was trying too hard to keep her voice steady. It was far too black in there. There was no way she was going inside, but she didn’t want to be the one to say it. Her heart started pounding. She didn’t want to do this. Sam was her friend. They’d had hot chocolate together, she’d told him her secrets. He wouldn’t force her to do something she didn’t want to do. Then she remembered what he’d told her to do if she ever felt too overwhelmed. Catching Sam’s glance, she rubbed the top of her head and crossed her eyes, their secret signal. He stared at her for a few long seconds, and then turned back to the black emptiness.

  ‘Let’s do this.’ Without even hesitating, he walked straight inside.

  Emma’s heart sank. The four of them looked at each other.

  ‘Five minutes, okay?’ Tessie asked. The rest of them nodded.

  Tessie took a breath, then followed Sam. Looking at his feet, Fabian went in after her. Instantly, they disappeared in the dark. It was as if they’d stopped existing. Like the blackness had swallowed them whole. Michael looked at her, and she read the fear and the doubt in his eyes too. But there was no way she would admit to him that she was afraid.

  ‘I can wait out here with you,’ he whispered, ‘if you don’t want to go in.’

  ‘Don’t pretend that it’s me that’s chicken and that you have to be my knight in shining armour and protect me! If you’re scared, you can admit it.’

  He groaned. ‘Fine, I’m bloody terrified. Let’s just get it over with.’

  She gave him a smile. ‘I’m bloody terrified too.’

  Like Tessie had, she took in a long tremulous breath, trying to force her heart to slow down a bit. She pulled together all the strength she could muster and took a step into the darkness.

  Moving shakily, she tried not to stumble. She didn’t want Michael to see that. Turning on the torch application on her phone, she shone the bright light it emitted in front of her. It lit up the back of Fabian’s jacket as he walked ahead. Her other hand was outstretched, her fingers skimming the cold rock of the cave wall. God, why was she doing this? Even if there was some sort of clue, there was no way they would even see it in the dark. It was all so ridiculous. Behind her, she heard Michael stumble.

  ‘You okay?’ She turned back to him. The light from her phone lit up his face silver, made him like an alien. His hands were pushing against each of the wet cave walls; he’d caught his fall.

  ‘Yep,’ he said, shielding his eyes. ‘If you’re not planning on blinding me.’

  She stifled a groan and turned back around to keep walking. In front of her, Fabian had paused.

  ‘Why are we stopping?’ she whispered. ‘Are we going back?’

  His face was lit from beneath by the light from his phone as he looked over his shoulder at her. ‘Nah, I just stopped because Tess did.’

  There was a squeaking sound and then Fabian continued walking. Taking a few steps forward, Emma shone her phone around. There was a second man-made entrance here; the thick metal door was hanging open.

  ‘Did you open this?’ she called out to Sam, who was now a few metres ahead.

  ‘No,’ Sam called back.

  She wasn’t sure if she believed him. The squeak she’d heard had really sounded like a door opening. Fabian stopped in front of her again and turned back.

  ‘Everything okay?’ he whispered, looking at the door.

  ‘Yep,’ she said. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Not really,’ he said, swallowing. ‘Let’s just get this over with.’

  She tried to smile reassuringly at him, but she wasn’t sure he saw it in the dark. Ducking under the doorway, she continued walking, picking up her pace a little to catch up with Sam. Fabian was right. The quicker they had a look around the quicker they could leave. They just had to see enough to prove to themselves that there was nothing here to find.

  Now that they were a little further in, it smelled different. There was a crispness to the air, and underneath that was a slightly damp smell. It was so still in here. So silent. Their footsteps were the only sounds. Her phone light swung around in the dark, lighting up things only for an instant. In front of her, she could see the other three lights moving around too. It might have been five minutes now. Or close e
nough.

  ‘There’s nothing here,’ she called out; it echoed on the walls.

  ‘Agreed,’ Tessie’s voice bounced towards her, ‘let’s go back.’

  ‘Thank God,’ she heard Michael mutter behind her.

  Out of nowhere, there was a loud bang. It reverberated through the cave like a gunshot. Michael yelled. His voice echoed around her, joining the sound of the bang. Emma ducked down, her hands over her head.

  It was a cave-in. For real this time. She waited for the rocks to start falling on top of her. She waited to feel them cut into her hands, smack onto her head. But nothing fell. Slowly, she took her hands away and looked around. She saw the lights of the others’ phones shine around her, circles of light on the cave walls.

  ‘Everyone okay?’ asked Michael.

  ‘Yep,’ Fabian said quietly.

  ‘I’m fine,’ said Sam.

  ‘What was that?’ asked Tessie. ‘It was so loud.’

  Emma racked her brains. It couldn’t have been a gunshot. That made no sense. It sounded like something slamming.

  ‘Oh God.’

  ‘What?’ asked Fabian, looking back at her, panicked.

  ‘Oh no, oh no,’ she said, her voice shrill. She ran back the way they’d come, weaving around Michael. She had to be wrong; she had to be. She heard the footsteps of the others following her.

  ‘Emma?’ Michael called.

  Shining her phone in front of her, the light bounced from its smooth surface, a silver rectangle. She stumbled forward. Putting out her hands, she ran them over its cold, hard surface. There was no handle. Her fingers went over something bumpy. She shone the phone onto it. The letters were faded but were still just legible: Airlock.

  The others had reached her now. They stood in silence, taking in what she already knew.

  ‘Airlock,’ Tessie said. ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It’s to stop the outside air pollution ruining the caves,’ Emma said, her voice thick. ‘My mum mentioned it once.’

  ‘How does it open?’ asked Fabian so quietly they could barely hear him. Emma stared at her feet. She didn’t want to tell them. Once she said it out loud, it would be real. She wished she didn’t know the answer. She wished she was wrong.