by Jim Eldridge
Another dead person. This was becoming an even worse nightmare. I hoped that Julia hadn’t seen her.
“Hang on tightly!” I shouted.
I pulled Julia to me.
“Put your arms around my neck!” I yelled.
One of Julia’s arms grabbed me round my neck. She clung on tightly to my wrist with her other hand.
“Use both arms!” I shouted at her.
“I’m scared of letting go of your hand!” she shouted back, terrified. She was shaking with fear.
“I need both my hands to climb back up!” I said urgently. “Come on, Julia! Do this and we’ll be alright, I promise!”
Julia hesitated, then she let go of my wrist and made a lunge for my neck, and then she was clinging to me.
Despite what I’d told her about us being alright, I was terrified that our weight would be too much for the rope and it would tear. If that happened, there would be nothing to stop us falling.
Very slowly, and sick with fear, I hauled us up the rope, hand over hand, bracing my feet against the earth wall. As we neared the top, I shouted, “Fabius! Come and grab your sister!”
Fabius reached down and took hold of Julia by her dress, taking her weight off me a bit, while I climbed right to the top of the hole.
I clambered out, with Julia still clinging to me, and we both collapsed on the ground.
I crawled towards the olive grove, dragging Julia after me. I wanted to get us away from the edge of the hole as fast as we could. Only when I was sure that we were safe in the cover of the trees did I let her go. There may be wolves here, but I’d rather risk a wolf than go near that dreadful hole again.
I lay on the ground, gasping for my breath, my heart pounding.
“It’s too dangerous for us to keep walking in the dark,” I told the twins. “There might be other holes we could fall into. We’ll stay here until it gets light. Then we’ll be able to see where we’re going.”
“I’m hungry,” said Fabius.
I nodded. So was I. It was now night-time, and I hadn’t eaten anything since early that morning.
I pointed at the olive trees.
“Take some olives. They’ll be hard chewing, but they’ll help ease your appetite. And there’s oil in them.”
As Fabius went to the nearest olive tree and began searching among the leaves for fruits, Julia said: “I’m too scared to eat.” She let out a whimper of pain. “And my ankle hurts.”
“We’ll rest,” I told her. “Hopefully, it might feel better in the morning.”
But I knew it wouldn’t. Once, when I’d twisted my ankle, it had swollen so badly I couldn’t walk. Tomorrow, when daylight came, Julia would have to be carried.
CHAPTER
9
As the night wore on, I sat with my back against the trunk of one of the olive trees and watched Julia and Fabius as they slept. I held a broken piece of branch in my hands in case any wild animals should come sniffing around. It wouldn’t be much of a weapon, but my hope was that it might keep them at bay. I’d also gathered a few rocks by my side, ready to throw at any animals that came close.
But so far there had been no sight or sound of anything or anyone. No wolves howling. No wild dogs barking. I wondered if my father had been right about animals sensing when something bad was about to happen, like an earthquake.
Vesuvius had actually settled down now. There was still the odd rumble and a slight shake of the ground, but nothing as bad as there had been before. The flakes and rocks had also stopped raining down. I wondered if the danger was passed. Was Vulcan happier now? It struck me that maybe my father had been killed, and that was why Vulcan wasn’t feeling as angry. Tears sprang to my eyes at the thought.
Please, Vulcan don’t let him be dead! I prayed. I didn’t want my last words to my father to be that I hated him. I didn’t hate him. I had just been so angry and scared.
I wished I could see him again, to tell him that I missed him. I wanted us to be back together.
In the distance I could see red, flickering glows from Vesuvius, lighting up the night sky.
In the morning, I’d take Fabius and Julia to Herculaneum. We’d find a boat and get to safety by sea until the earthquake and the volcano stopped. And then I’d try and find my father.
*
It was the rumbling and shaking that woke me up. I must have fallen asleep, even though I’d tried to stay awake to keep guard. The events of the day had exhausted me.
The noise was coming from Vesuvius. I stood up so I could get a better view of the mountain. The red glow that had been coming from it before was now much brighter. It looked as if the top of the mountain was actually bubbling red. Then, as I watched, the top of the mountain seemed to collapse – red burst out of it and began to run down the side of the mountain like a river of fire. Not a narrow stream, but a wide, fast-flowing river, travelling as quickly as any river made of water. I’d never seen anything like it before. I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing, but I knew something was terribly wrong.
In the distance, I could see the lights of Herculaneum glowing softly, and it looked as if the river of fire was heading straight towards the city.
Even in the darkness, I could see thick smoke surging upwards as the river of fire raced down the mountain, burning everything in its path, all the time getting nearer and nearer to the lights of Herculaneum. With horror I thought of the hundreds of people we’d seen heading towards the city and how we would have been there too, if Julia hadn’t fallen down the hole. All of those people were trapped in the city. Even if they tried to run, the river of fire was moving at such a speed they would never get out in time.
I wanted to close my eyes, to shut out the horror, but I couldn’t. I was held spellbound by the sight of that enormous, heaving mass of burning liquid as it got nearer and nearer to the city.
And then it struck. I thought I heard screams, even from this distance, but it could have been my imagination. The huge river of fire burst over Herculaneum, devouring the whole city and every living thing in it.
CHAPTER
10
I stood there in shock. I had just seen a whole city destroyed and everyone in it killed in the space of a few minutes. I was shaking, and I sat down heavily, my mind whirling. What should we do? Would we be next? Should we run? But where to?
Again, I wished someone older was here to guide us and tell us what to do. My father, or my uncle and aunt. But they weren’t here. No-one was here. It was just me, Fabius and Julia.
Think! I told myself. The river of fire had flowed down the side of the volcano to Herculaneum. We were on higher ground than the city, but we were still below the top of Vesuvius.
In the red glow from the volcano that lit up the sky, I scanned the land ahead. I was searching to see if there were any valleys, but there didn’t seem to be. So, if another river of fire poured out of the volcano and came in our direction, heading towards Pompeii, there were no valleys for it to run down; it would come straight for us.
We needed to get to higher ground and away from the mountain – and quickly!
I shook Fabius and Julia awake.
“What is it?” asked Fabius. “Is it day yet?”
“No,” I told him. “But we have to move.”
Julia began to get up, but then she screamed in pain and fell down.
“My ankle!” she cried.
“I’ll carry you,” I said.
“Why can’t we wait till daylight?” asked Fabius.
“Because the mountain has exploded and sent a river of fire down towards the sea. It’s already destroyed Herculaneum,” I told them, bluntly.
They stared at me, their mouths and eyes open in shock.
“Destroyed Herculaneum?” repeated Fabius, his voice a terrified whisper.
“The whole town,” I said, sadly. “I didn’t want to tell you, but I had to. You need to know the danger we’re in if we stay here.”
“If the volcano explodes again and the river of fi
re heads towards Pompeii, we’ll be right in the way. We have to get to higher ground.”
Fabius and Julia looked at one another in horror as the realization dawned on them.
“But you said walking in the dark was dangerous. The last time we walked in the dark, Julia fell down that hole. You said it was safer to wait until daylight,” Fabius said.
“Yes, but we don’t know when the mountain might blow up again.” I pointed at the olive trees. “We’ll go up through the olive grove, going from tree to tree. That way we should be safe.”
I knelt down beside Julia and let her climb on to my back. Then I stood up so that she was hanging on my back like a sack. Luckily she was fairly light.
“Right. Follow me and watch where you step,” I told Fabius.
We headed up the hill through the olive grove. Although it was still night-time the sky glowed red, which helped us see where we were going. A hot wind blew sparks from Herculaneum below and Vesuvius above, which fluttered down around us, now and then touching us and burning our bare skin.
“It hurts,” moaned Fabius.
I began to wish I’d kept our torn tunics to make some kind of cover for us to wear out of them, but I knew it wouldn’t have worked.
“Just grit your teeth and try and think of other things,” I said. “Think of cool, fresh rain.”
“That’s stupid,” said Fabius.
Fortunately the olive trees gave us some kind of cover from the falling sparks.
We carried on climbing up the hill. The further we went, the heavier Julia seemed to become. All the time I kept shooting looks towards Vesuvius, dreading another river of fire. The top of the volcano looked like it was bubbling red-hot. The river of fire, that had run down its side to Herculaneum, still glowed and a strong stench of burning was blown towards us on the warm wind.
We were nearing the far end of the olive grove, when suddenly, we heard what sounded like a howl.
“Wolves!” cried Fabius, frightened.
We stood stock still, peering into the darkness. Then we heard the sound again. But it wasn’t wolves.
It was a baby crying.
CHAPTER
11
I peered in the direction where the sound came from and saw a small wooden barn near the edge of the olive grove.
“It’s coming from over there,” I said. “Let’s go. Be careful where you walk.”
Fabius followed me as I carried Julia towards the barn. The nearer we got, the louder the baby’s cries.
When we got there, I put Julia down on the ground then cautiously opened the barn door.
“ Mummy, is that you?” I heard a young child ask.
“No,” I said. “My name’s Marcus. Who’s in there?”
I saw that there were three young children and a baby huddled together.
Just then, there was another explosion from the volcano – there was the same deep rumbling sound as before, then a violent shaking and the sky lit up with a tremendous light.
I turned to look at Vesuvius. I was hardly able to breathe for fear that this latest explosion would mean a river of fire was on its way towards us. But, although the top of the mountain bubbled with red like before, the fire seemed to be staying inside the volcano’s crater, for now.
“You have to leave,” I told the children. “It’s too dangerous to stay here.”
“We can’t,” said one. “We have to wait here for our parents. That’s what they told us.”
“Where are they?” I asked.
“Our father went to Herculaneum.” The speaker was a boy of about eight.
“Then our mother went to get him,” added a girl of about six. “She went in our cart. She told us to stay here, said we’d be safer in the barn than in our house.”
“How long ago did she go?” I asked.
There was an unhappy silence, then the girl replied: “I’m not sure. A long time ago. Before it got dark.”
I remembered the broken cart we’d found in the hole, and the body of the woman I’d seen falling down into the chasm, and realized that it was quite likely their mother. She must have been driving the cart alongside the olive grove when the ground opened up and swallowed the cart, the horse and her.
“I’m really sorry but don’t think they’re coming back,” I told the children.
“But they said they would!” burst out the smallest child. “Mummy promised us!”
“Bad things are happening because of the mountain,” I said. I hesitated, then added: “I think they’re dead.” I had to tell them the truth if I was going to persuade them to leave.
“No!” the girl shouted at me.
“Yes,” I said, sadly. “Herculaneum has been destroyed by a river of fire that poured out of Vesuvius. I saw it happening.”
“It doesn’t mean that our father is dead!” insisted the girl. “He might have got away!”
“He might,” I nodded.
“And Mummy might come back.”
I shook my head.
“I think we found her and your cart in a hole near the olive grove. The ground opened up and swallowed them.”
The children looked at me in horror, and then the girl and the youngest child, a boy, began to cry. I saw the lips of the eldest tremble as he struggled to stop himself crying too.
“The important thing is we have to get you all to a safe place,” I said. “If your father is alive, he’ll find you later.”
But I knew that wouldn’t happen. If he’d been in Herculaneum then he was dead. No one could have survived that river of fire.
“Do you have any other animals?” I asked.
“We have a donkey,” said the boy.
“Good.” I pointed towards Fabius and Julia sitting outside, waiting. “My cousin has hurt her leg and can’t walk. She can ride on the donkey and hold the baby. What’s his name?”
“Minerva,” said the girl crossly. “She’s a girl, not a boy.”
“Sorry,” I apologized. Another thought struck me. “We also need some clothes. And food and water.”
“There’s some at the house,” said the oldest boy. Deciding that he was going to trust me, he introduced himself and the others: “I’m Leontes. That’s my sister Popilla and my brother Claudius. Minerva’s our baby sister. She’s only a year old.”
“My name’s Marcus,” I told him in return. “The two outside are my cousins, Fabius and Julia.” Then I added, hoping it might make them feel less alone, “Their parents, my uncle and aunt, died yesterday in Pompeii. Their house collapsed on them. My father has disappeared, too, Everywhere is dangerous. Your mother was right to make you stay in this barn.”
CHAPTER
12
I followed Leontes and Popilla to their house to get provisions as well as some clothes for myself and Fabius, while Fabius stayed to look after Julia, Claudius and the baby. I learned that Leontes was eight years old. Popilla was five and Claudius was four. As I was twelve and the oldest, I was in charge, although some of the scowling looks that Popilla threw at me told me that she didn’t trust me completely. I could understand that. If I’d been her, I wouldn’t have trusted some twelve-year-old who turned up and started giving orders, especially if they included ordering me out of my house. Luckily, Leontes seemed to accept me.
By the time we were ready to leave, it was getting light. Leontes had given Fabius and me some of his clothes to put on, and Popilla had filled leather bags with water from the animals’ drinking trough. The water in their own cistern tasted and smelt as foul as the water in Pompeii.
We put Julia on their donkey, which was called Acorn, and gave her the baby, Minerva, to hold. Leontes led the donkey by its rope halter, and the rest of us walked alongside.
“Where are we going?” asked Popilla suspiciously. “We should be heading down to Pompeii. That’s where people are. That’s where we’ll be safest.”
“Pompeii is below the mountain and there’s a valley from Vesuvius that runs right down to it. If another river of fire comes from
the volcano, it might run down the valley and cover the city. Just like what happened at Herculaneum.”
“But there are boats in Pompeii,” insisted Popilla. “We could get away over the sea.”
Suddenly, Leontes stopped.
“Look!” he said.
We looked to where he was pointing.
From where we stood, high on the hill, we could see the city of Pompeii below us. Even from this distance we could see that many of the buildings had collapsed and were just broken ruins, though most of the houses in the richer areas seemed to still be standing.
There was a lot of activity in the city. I expected it was people trying to clear up after the earthquake. But what Leontes was actually pointing to was the sea beyond Pompeii. The surface of the water was covered with floating rocks of all sizes. The way they bobbed about on the water showed they were made of pumice. But the horrifying thing was the wrecked boats trapped among them – smoke coming from many of them. It looked like the rain of hot pumice falling on the bay had set fire to many of the boats. I could only imagine how it must have felt for the people who’d managed to get on board a boat and cast off for safety, only for the boat to catch fire. There would have been no way back to the shore for them, so they would either have drowned or burnt to death. Surely some of the boats must have got away. I wondered how many of the people I’d seen at the port yesterday had managed to escape to safety.
“There’s no way we can catch a boat now,” said Leontes.
“We’ll carry on across country until we get to a road. If I’m right, that’ll be the road my father and I came in on yesterday. That road will take us out of here and back to my village. We’ll be safe there. There are deep valleys and gulleys between my village and the volcano. If the mountain explodes again and another river of fire pours out, they’ll stop it.”
“How far is it?” asked Popilla.
“It’s a long way,” said Fabius. “Remember, Marcus, when we came to visit you and your father, and it took us half a day? And that was travelling by horse and cart.”