‘That’s true,’ Zach said just loud enough for everyone to hear.
I wouldn’t take much more of this no matter what Jenna said.
‘Shut it Zach,’ Jenna spat. The anger in her voice made Zach take a step backwards and he sat down next to his two followers.
‘But we have to do something.’ I poked the ground with my foot, this wasn’t easy. I was doing what I’d said I wouldn’t – making suggestions. ‘Sam’s told me why the chuckerns made us ill. And I don’t like it but we’ve got to eat, so we’ll have to eat chuckerns again.’
‘No way,’ Ivy cried out.
I had to go on now. ‘Ivy we all feel like that. There may be something else. I’ve been over to the waterfall and there are trees with some sort of fruit. I guess you’ll say they’ll be poisonous.’ I looked at her, she blushed and turned away. ‘Anyway we should check them out somehow.’ Now they were all listening. I saw Jenna nod; it made me feel more confident. ‘Even so, we need to get more of the birds.’
‘We should clean them out in the river,’ Sam said. ‘It’ll be safer.’ His voice faltered, everyone looked at him. ‘I ... I ... I didn’t know,’ he pleaded and sunk lower on the ground.
‘It’s not Sam’s fault,’ Mary said, her face reddening. ‘We all should have realised the danger. We were too tired and hungry. You can’t just blame Sam.’
I knew we all did.
‘At least if we clean them by the river we won’t have more disgusting bits lying around here.’ Jenna pointed to the stinking remains which added to the smell from the small piles of puke.
I wanted to find a way to persuade Zach to go hunting chuckerns again. I wanted him out of the way. I was sure everyone else wanted the same to happen.
‘We’ll do some hunting again – eh, Zach? Nothing like smashing a few bird brains?’ Ryan said and surprised them all.
‘Too right,’ replied Zach, jumping to his feet, club in hand. ‘Come on Sam, cleaning to do!’ and Zach led the four of them off.
‘I’m coming too,’ Demelza said with a small smile while Zach’s eyes grew wider. ‘And you two.’ She waggled her finger at the only two who seemed to stick with her.
Zach tried more swaggering as I watched him lead the strange group down the hill. After a few steps Demelza looked back over her shoulder and gave me a small smirk. They disappeared into the trees. I turned to Jenna expecting trouble.
‘I’ll tell you about it,’ she said. ‘I watched you run off ...’
‘I didn’t run ...’
‘Whatever you did, you left me to explain.’
‘Sorry.’
‘First you need to know who they are, the three left from our Junior school – now we’ve just one Sara. Then Stevie –.’
‘Who wines, moans, and snivels?’
‘You forgot sobbing, whimpering and other annoying stuff. Then your girl of the moment and she’s called Emma.’
‘My girl?’
‘Yeah the one who keeps staring at you, like you’re some superhero.’
‘I thought she was called Lisa.’
‘No. Idiot. Lisa’s in our year although she did only join last term.’
‘I’ve not been around much this year.’ I looked down at the ground thinking about home.
‘You can’t miss Lisa because Matt follows her around and she keeps trying to get away.’ Jenna pointed over to where Lisa was sitting and there was Matt shuffling towards her. ‘But back to the younger lot – your hero-worshipping one is Emma.’
I’d mostly given up trying to work this out.
‘After you’d run off, the three of them came out of the cave together and asked where Other-Sara had gone. I tried my best but I didn’t know how to say words like ‘dead’ or ‘buried’ without sounding like it was some horror movie. They started howling, screaming, and running into the cave, shouting at the back wall as if the louder they shouted the more hope of rescue coming from the other side. I guess you kept away from that.’
‘Didn’t hear, I was ...’
‘Oh yeah? Anyway that really set Zach off. He said things like at least you don’t have to remember that stupid name – now there’s only one of them – and that wound everyone up.’
‘But not enough to do anything?’ Since no one had ever bothered to do anything about Zach before I didn’t think they’d start now.
‘No. No one is up for that fight.’ Jenna looked up. ‘Maybe except you?’
‘You keep stopping me.’
‘It got worse because with most of us shell-shocked Zach started going through everyone’s packs in the hope of finding something to eat. Sara tried to stop him taking her pack but he just slapped her hard in the face.’
‘Sorry,’ I mumbled.
‘What for? For wandering off?’ she replied. ‘What are you meant to do? I want to blame you, but what for? Why should it be up to you to tell them someone’s died?’
‘Why do you think Demelza wanted to go with Zach?’ I couldn’t think of anything better to say. ‘Almost like she fancies him.’
‘He certainly fancies her – his tongue was hanging out when she said she would go with him. I guess she’ll use him to get what she wants. Demelza saw Sara getting slapped. She’d rather be the one doing the slapping than getting hit herself.’
‘Probably she doesn’t think we’ll do anything,’ I said.
‘Now Zach’s gone we need to do something with that lot.’ Jenna pointed at the huddle at the back of the cave and with a brisk voice that sounded nothing like her usual self she called, ‘Sara, Stevie, Emma – follow me.’ She marched them out of the cave.
I watched her go and then looked at the others. Jack, still in pain, could only shuffle around the cave on his bottom.
‘Sorry, but I think the only thing I can do is to keep the fire going.’ He looked at the small heap of embers which he’d been trying to keep alight by poking them. ‘But I can’t collect any wood,’ he said moving his leg slightly and flinching with pain to make his point.
‘I can get wood,’ replied Matt and started to set off towards the forest.
I held up my arm to stop him. ‘Good idea, but first why don’t you go with Ivy and ... um ... Lisa to look at the fruit on the trees. Then you could bring some wood back with you.’
Matt seemed to like the idea. I didn’t want to tell them about the noise I’d heard by the river, but thought it a good idea if all three stayed together.
‘And me?’ Mary asked, hearing that I was handing out jobs. It was as though once I’d started doing it I couldn’t stop.
‘As far as I could see there’s no way out of here on the waterfall side, I’m going to have a look the other way.’
Jenna’s words about this being my dream were on my mind. There must be something I hadn’t found yet. I didn’t want to feel like this but was there a choice? It wasn’t just Zach. If we had any chance then we needed to find a way out of here. There was no one else around to make any decisions. Mine might be wrong and useless but someone had to do it. If this place wasn’t going to kill us off then Zach would probably do it on his own.
I looked at Mary, probably I should have checked this out with Jenna but I said, ‘Do you want to come?’
‘Ok,’ Mary said sounding rather nervous.
‘I won’t eat you,’ I grinned.
‘I wouldn’t be so sure.’ Jack butted in from his place on the ground.
‘Of course I’ll go,’ Mary said with greater confidence.
‘No screaming,’ I said in a firm tone.
Mary blushed. ‘Sure, no screaming,’ and she turned to Jack. ‘You’ll be alright?’
‘No problem,’ said Jack, a bit slow with his reply.
‘Jenna will be around if you need help,’ I suggested, but thinking perhaps it wasn’t Jenna that Jack
wanted.
Mary decided any exploring needed us to carry at least one backpack, with a couple of water bottles. Her pack had contained a waterproof jacket, which she took; mine had a pair of waterproof trousers several sizes too small. I left them behind.
‘Come on,’ I said in the end while muttering about ‘fussing’.
Mary turned to Jack and gave him a wave. We set off. As we left I called out to Jenna. She was clustered with the younger ones. The look on her face made me think that I really should have checked this out with her before I wandered off. Mary seemed to be whistling. I thought she should stop.
The Note
-5-
I wanted to have a look at other caves I thought I’d seen in the cliff. They happened to be in the opposite direction to everyone else, and particularly Zach.
The ground on the waterfall side of our cave may have been cleared by a rock fall, but the opposite direction was completely overgrown. Trying to stay next to the cliff meant we were soon fighting through tall bushes. It was slow but I wanted to make it easier to get back the same way. Mary’s long hair caught in the thorns and she stopped to tie it back.
Pushing through the bushes I headed for the first cave and stopped, waiting for Mary to catch up.
‘Do we want to go in?’ Mary said peering at the long wet creepers hanging from the rock which half covered the entrance.
‘I’ll go,’ I said ducking into the cave, disturbing a solitary chuckern which flew past my head towards Mary.
Mary jumped and gave a loud gasp, stifling a scream. I looked round with a half grin and she went red. I went into the cave but it only stretched a few yards into the cliff, damp and dark and empty.
‘Nothing here.’ I backed out.
Further along the cliff we found more caves and after the first one Mary went in with me. Every cave had the same musty smell and nothing other than a few more chuckerns. One was a bit larger.
‘Big enough to move into if we had to get away,’ said Mary.
‘Away?’ I didn’t understand.
‘Away from Zach.’
The way she said it made me feel that she was hoping I’d do something about Zach. I certainly didn’t see why we should move out. If anyone was going to move it would have to be him. Although being so tired and hungry made me wonder if I could make that happen unless everyone backed me up. Would they?
We pushed on. The bushes became thicker and we couldn’t keep next to the cliff. Anyway the cliff seemed to end a little further away. I thought we might as well turn back, but we could hear running water, so we pushed on. It seemed as though the way was a little easier. Had someone else been here before? I wasn’t watching where I was going. Mary stopped and I crashed into her.
‘Help!’ Mary yelped.
We’d fallen together into bushes at the edge of a sheer drop. I’d only just heard Mary’s cry above the roar of water below.
‘Was that a scream?’ I shouted and gave another small grin as I got up and pulled her up. She smiled and didn’t answer. We moved back a little and I moved back a little further away from Mary.
‘Is this the same river that makes the waterfall?’ I said looking at the crashing water below us.
‘I guess so. I think it must run past the chuckerns and then curve round and back to the cliff.’
‘That means we are stuck here. Cut off by the river and the cliff. There’s just the cave and the forest. I can’t see what she meant about ...’
‘What?’ Mary looked puzzled.
I’d stopped as I realised Mary knew nothing about the words Miss Tregarthur had shouted at me. ‘Nothing, something Jen said. Anyway there’s no way across the river here either.’
‘Trapped.’ Mary gave a sob.
‘Looks like it.’ I threw a rotten branch into the foaming water and watched as it smashed against a rock before disappearing into a gorge carved in the steep black rock.
‘Let’s go back,’ I said beckoning Mary and wondering what she would say to Jenna. Falling together had been a bit too complicated. I turned to the path we’d made.
Mary stopped again and I saw her looking around as though searching for something.
‘Anything?’ I called.
‘No, but there’s something wrong here.’
‘Difficult to find one thing more wrong than everything else. Like what?’ I asked.
‘Dunno really, but something made me shiver. As though something awful has happened here.’ Mary clasped her arms around herself.
I poked about in the bushes for a few moments. ‘Nothing I can see. I guess we might as well go back to our cave.’ We hadn’t found anything but I felt Mary was right; there was something strange about this place. Strange but not helpful.
Suddenly Mary stopped once more. ‘Wait! Look – is that another cave?’ She pointed.
A shift in the sun had exposed the entrance – a large dark gap in the rock face.
‘Come on.’ I was sure this had to be something important.
We fought our way back to the cliff. I forced the way through, even thicker thorny bushes tearing at my skin. I was in a hurry. Battered and grazed, we finally stood outside a vast gash in the stone reaching high into the cliff. In front of us another cave stretched back into darkness.
‘What’s that smell?’ asked Mary.
‘Smells like Ryan,’ I sniffed.
‘Worse than that,’ replied Mary.
‘Impossible!’ We both laughed, forgetting where we were for a moment. But the sound of our laughter echoed back from the depths of the cave and in silence we walked in.
As my eyes grew accustomed to the dark I could see several smaller caverns linking together at the entrance; a huge slice of stone hung over the opening to one of them.
‘Like a guillotine blade,’ said Mary touching the rock.
‘I can see something.’ I ducked under the stone. In the shadows there was a pile of bones.
‘They look very old,’ Mary said but she didn’t follow me.
‘Good thing.’ I held up one massive bone, handing it to her as I came back out.
‘It’s like something from a museum,’ Mary said looking at what seemed to be a large jaw bone which still held several sharp pointed teeth, and a broken, curved, tusk. Something crawled out of one of the tooth sockets and Mary threw the bone away with a small gasp.
There was nothing else in the other caverns but at the back of the cave a narrow entrance seemed to lead to a passage going into the cliff. I had to crawl to get in and it stretched round a bend into complete darkness. A tunnel had led us here – maybe another one would lead us out.
I called to Mary: ‘Stay there, while I look a bit further.’
I soon came back to tell her: ‘It goes on and on and it goes upwards. I can see a faint light, so it must go somewhere.’
‘Do you think we should go and get the others?’ Mary said slowly.
‘Probably, but I’m going to see. It may be the only way out of here.’ I turned back to the tunnel and said over my shoulder, ‘You can go back if you like,’ thinking it might be better if she did go back.
‘I’m coming,’ she said in a rather small voice.
After the first bend, the tunnel climbed steeply and a faint glint of light appeared in the distance. We had to crawl again at one point. As we went on the light grew stronger.
Again we heard the sound of water. Another bend and then the tunnel ended. We stumbled out into daylight.
‘Look. Look!’ Mary shouted while I just stared around me.
We stood on a short rock ledge. Below, the river churned and crashed amongst the rocks. On the other side the cliff towered above us. Its sides green with moss and long creepers. Several rock falls looked to have worn away the steep sides. It was an amazing sight but that wasn
’t what made Mary shout.
‘Steps,’ Mary shouted again, moving to get a better view.
There at the end of the ledge a few rough steps led upwards to an overgrown path zigzagging up the cliff sides. It looked steep, slippery with rain water, and unsafe.
‘No one’s been up there for years,’ Mary said. The path was covered with creepers and plants.
‘Someone must have made it once. Maybe it’s the way out.’
‘Come on then.’ Mary made for the path.
‘Eh?’ Now I was surprised and stood back and let her pass. I followed behind.
Up and up we went, slipping and dislodging rocks on the steep slope. Higher and higher. After a while the path became a narrow ledge almost carved into the cliff side. Rounding one bend a large jagged rock had slipped, blocking the way.
Mary stopped. ‘No way around this,’ she said, turning to me.
‘Let me try.’ I brushed past.
Hanging on to the fallen rock I inched my feet along the ledge. Small stones fell and I had to kick them away. The stones tumbled into the air, seeming to fall forever before crashing on to the ground below. Stretching up I grabbed at a sharp edge and heaved myself towards the path. A crack echoed in the dark. A huge chunk of stone came away in my hand and I started to slide, frantically grabbing at any hold. The rock piece smacked my shoulder as it fell past, crashing all the way down and hitting the bottom with an echoing boom.
‘Alvin!’ Mary screamed.
I had scraped down the rock losing grip until my fingers clung to the ledge. My feet flailed in the air, scrabbling, as I fought to find a foothold.
‘Alvin!’ Mary screamed again.
Forcing against the burning pain in my shoulder I moved one hand further along the ledge, then the other, inch by inch. More stones fell. I looked down, that was a mistake and my head swam, my arms weakened. Too far to get to the safety of the path in front and no way back. I grabbed for one of the slimy creepers. It felt too thin to hold. I pulled and it broke. I grabbed for another, it felt stronger. It was my last chance. I held on, let go of the edge and kicked away, trying to swing sideways, grabbing for the ledge. My fingers missed, my shoulder smashed into the cliff, the pain shot through my whole body and I bounced back out over the void.
Tregarthur's Promise Page 5