Underworld

by Cathy MacPhail

  Fiona, her teeth chattering.

  Angie, who couldn’t stop screaming.

  ‘Shut it! Shut it!’ Axel was yelling at her, but his voice was almost a scream too.

  Suddenly the beam flashed on Liam, so bright he covered his eyes. ‘Put your light on!’ Axel shouted.

  Liam fumbled for the switch while Axel’s light swung up to the roof. The rocks above them were straining. ‘I’m out of here!’

  Zesh shouted at him, ‘Help us with Mr Marks!’

  Axel swore at him. ‘Leave him!’

  Even in that panicked moment, his words stunned them all. Angie stopped screaming.

  ‘We’re not leaving him.’ It was Fiona who came forward. Her face, caught in Liam’s light, was as pale as a ghost. ‘Help us!’ she said.

  Liam ran to her automatically, hardly thinking. Expecting any second for a thunder of rock to come down on them.

  ‘Which tunnel?’ Axel shouted, but Liam felt he was talking to himself, not asking. His light flashing from one tunnel to another.

  ‘That one,’ Zesh said, and he pointed to one that sloped down. ‘Mr Marks said, we go down to get to the sea.’

  They half dragged, half carried the teacher. Axel unhitched the iron chain that barred their way to the tunnel and stood at the entrance. He made no move to help them. But he didn’t want to go on by himself. Was that why he waited? Bet it was, Liam thought. Not such a hard man now, eh Axel?

  The teacher was moaning now, trying even through his unconsciousness to help them. Groaning in agony with every move.

  Angie was gasping with fear, but she was helping too.

  ‘Come on. Quick!’ Liam saw in the gleam of his lamp Axel’s frightened eyes looking up. Liam followed his gaze and his beam too swung up to the roof.

  At that same second, like a dam bursting, the rocks exploded. The noise was like another explosion. Angie screamed again. This time so did Fiona.

  They lifted the teacher. Where did they get the strength? Fear gave them the strength, Liam was thinking. Was he thinking at all? All he knew was that he didn’t want to die.

  Zesh threw himself deep into the tunnel, hauling the teacher with him. Liam rolled in and fell against Fiona. She dragged a hysterical Angie behind her. The rocks rained down. It was as if the cave outside had come alive.

  ‘It’s never going to stop!’ Angie screamed the words out, clamping her hands over her ears.

  She was right. It was never going to stop.

  Axel was jumping about like a wild man. ‘It’s all his fault! He should never have taken us here!’

  Zesh was quiet, as if he couldn’t believe this was all really happening.

  As suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The last rocks hurtled on to the chamber floor, debris crashed and trickled, and then all was quiet. Liam waited for a moment, then he shone his light back into the chamber. But there was no chamber now. There was no path leading to the entrance. This fall had blocked everything. There was no chance of anyone breaking their way into them from there. They would need more than dynamite now.

  ‘We really are trapped,’ Liam said to Zesh.

  Zesh didn’t say anything for a while, a long while. No one did. Not even Axel. He was slumped in a corner, his head in his hands. Zesh’s voice was quiet when he did speak. ‘There is a way out. Mr Marks told us.’ He looked at Liam. His face was ghostly in the glow of his lamp. Blackness all around him. This is like a horror film, Liam was thinking, and now we’re all going to be picked off one by one.

  ‘These tunnels lead to the sea.’

  Axel jumped to his feet. ‘And do you know which one leads to the sea?’ He waved his hands around at the tunnels, one, two, three, four, that led from this one. ‘We’ll get lost.’

  Zesh shrugged that off. ‘We don’t have any choice now. We have to move on. We’ll follow the most used path. Right?’

  ‘We should leave markers in case we have to find our way back.’ This was Fiona. ‘Mr Marks told us we should do that. And I saw it in a film once on telly. Never thought I’d have to actually do it myself.’ She giggled. She actually giggled. ‘And they say television’s bad for you.’

  Axel stood above the teacher. ‘We’re not taking him.’

  Zesh was shaking his head. ‘We can’t just leave him here.’

  Fiona stood and faced Axel defiantly. ‘Look, I know it’s everybody’s dream, to get their own back on a teacher, but talk sense. He would die.’

  Axel lifted his shoulders in a shrug. ‘So?’

  ‘We’re taking him,’ Zesh said.

  ‘Well he’s no’ holding me back. It’s his fault we’re here.’

  ‘Shut up, Axel,’ Fiona said. She threw herself on the ground. She looked just about ready to cry. Her lip quivered, but she held it in. Angie was crying softly, clutching Mr Marks’s hand. Zesh just looked sick.

  I’ve never seen any of them like this, Liam thought, ready to scream. We’re in terrible trouble. How are we going to get out of here?

  Fiona didn’t know for how long they were sitting there. Too long. She was shaking inside, scared of the dark, of the dark corners. Scared of what might happen. Refused to think that far ahead.

  She could hear Zesh drawing in long breaths, Angie sobbing softly. She fumbled for the switch on her lamp. Its beam flashed on Liam, standing at the far side of the tunnel, hugging himself. He was useless, she thought. He could do nothing, always waiting around for someone to tell him what to do. Axel was looking for an easy escape. She hated to admit it, but she could only rely on Zesh. Zesh! Arrogant zonking Zesh. But arrogant or not, he was at least trustworthy, which was more than she could say for Liam or Axel. Sir zonking Lancelot. She tried to think where they could go. Down. Mr Marks’s words echoed in her brain. Down to the sea. The sea cave. They had to find it. Had to!

  They were all so quiet, all thinking their own thoughts.

  Move. Fiona realised she was breathing as hard as Zesh. She wanted to ask him what to do, but she’d never ask anyone that. She knew as much as he did. She would ask no one.

  ‘We can’t stay here,’ she heard herself say. ‘We have to find this sea cave.’

  Axel spat out the words. ‘Right, then, lead on MacDuff.’

  ‘If we come up against a wall, we come back, go down the next tunnel. That’s why we leave the markers. Isn’t it, Zesh?’ Angie looked at Zesh, appealing.

  But Angie had figured all that out by herself. Fiona watched her. She looked like a bloated frightened fish with tears streaming down her cheeks.

  ‘I say we dump the teacher!’ Axel snarled.

  Fiona sighed. Why did he always have to act like a punk. Even now.

  ‘I’m no’ carrying him.’ She noticed that his hands were balled tightly into fists. Axel was afraid, she thought. But then, weren’t they all?

  ‘I wonder if we could make some kind of stretcher out of the frame of his rucksack?’ Zesh began taking it off the teacher. ‘We might be able to carry him better.’

  Fiona watched him as he took the frame apart and worked at it. When it was finished, it wasn’t much of a stretcher, more like a pull-along sled, but it did make lifting him easier for them.

  Fiona wondered why Zesh was so quiet. Was he scared? He’d never admit to that, but he had every right to be. They all had. Liam stood beside Axel. What a wimp! Even here, in this place, he was still afraid to go against him.

  She turned to Angie and spoke to her sharply. She couldn’t help herself. The fat girl was stupid and annoying. Why did she have to keep on sobbing? That wasn’t helping anybody.

  ‘Here, give us a hand. If we’ve got to pull him, we will.’

  Zesh looked around the tunnels, trying to decide which one to choose. It was Axel who spoke. ‘That one,’ he said. He pointed. ‘The sea’s in that direction.’

  ‘How do you know that?’ Zesh asked him.

  Axel shrugged. He pointed above. ‘When we came in the entrance, the Doon was away ahead, and to the left of us.’ Then he said again with a
ssurance, ‘The sea’s in that direction.’ He stepped inside the tunnel first. ‘Right, come on then.’ His voice was shaking. Behind the bold words and the anger, he was scared.

  They were all scared, Fiona thought. Will we ever get out of here? And inside, she began to shake.

  Chapter 16

  Here he was, trailing behind Axel again. Nothing ever changed, did it? Even down here, trapped and scared, Liam was doing what everyone expected. Following. He was mad at himself, but too afraid to do anything to change things.

  Axel had refused to help with Mr Marks, making it a real struggle for them to half drag, half carry his limp body in the makeshift stretcher through the caves. Instead, he was striding ahead, his beam of light forging a path for them through the darkness. It might have looked as if he was the leader, but deep down he knew, perhaps they all knew, that Zesh was in charge.

  Were they going the right way? Liam didn’t even want to think about that. Because the wrong way might lead them to …!

  ‘Hey, how about a song!’ he shouted. His voice sounded shaky and frightened. But anything was better than thinking. He had a feeling they all felt the same, for they immediately agreed.

  ‘Good idea, Liam.’ He might have known fat Angie would sound enthusiastic. If she mentioned once more she was a Girl Guide, he would scream.

  ‘What’ll we sing?’ Zesh asked. His voice sounded breathless, and again Liam remembered the inhaler.

  ‘Away and zonk yourself. I’m not singing camp fire songs.’

  ‘You canny sing anyway.’ Axel turned and burst into the conversation. ‘I’ve heard you. Remember, Fiona? Karaoke at the school disco?’

  Liam suddenly laughed. So did Zesh. They all remembered now. Fiona giving her all at the microphone, belting out a Spice Girls’ song, then being pelted with sandwiches and cakes when she finished.

  She remembered too. ‘That wasn’t my fault. The equipment was out of tune.’

  That sent them all off laughing again. All except Angie. She wouldn’t remember. She’d only come to the school recently. She was a bit of a mystery, was Angie. She hadn’t made any friends – unless she genuinely believed Fiona was her friend. No one really knew anything about her. Liam swung his light on her face, and she blinked and held her hand in front of the light

  ‘You want me to start?’ she said, and before anyone could stop her she began to sing.

  They had been treated, or tortured, depending on your thinking, by Angie’s singing once before. On that hill walk just a few days ago. Just a few days ago? It seemed a lifetime away now. But when she began to sing Liam still couldn’t believe it. Angie sang like an opera singer. In a high soprano voice. Very posh. She belted out, ‘When you walk through a storm …’

  Liam caught Fiona in his light. Her mouth was wide open. She stuck out her tongue and pretended to cut her throat.

  Axel screeched out. ‘Is that supposed to cheer us up! That’s awful. Who do you think you are, Pavarotti? Just because you’re built like him.’

  That suddenly sent them all into fits of laughter.

  Angie was cut off just as she was urging them not to be afraid of the dark. Liam was amazed, not so much by Angie’s singing, as by the fact that Axel actually knew who Pavarotti was.

  ‘What are you all laughing at?’ Angie asked innocently.

  Zesh laid down Mr Marks. He was laughing so much, not just at Axel’s joke but at Angie’s singing, and it was making him even more breathless. He was covering up his weakness with that laughter. Didn’t want anybody to know. Especially didn’t want Axel to know.

  ‘You’re priceless, Angie,’ Zesh said. And Angie beamed with pleasure, almost lighting up the dark cave with her bright face. It’s really hard to insult her, Liam thought. She forgets insults so easily. Not like him. Liam never forgot.

  Angie flopped down beside Zesh, still beaming. ‘Are we going to rest now, Zesh?’

  Fiona yelled across to her, ‘What are you asking him for?’ But she sat down too. ‘If I want to rest, I rest. I don’t ask anybody.’

  ‘I think we need a leader. And Zesh is naturally the leader.’ Angie had decided. Zesh could tell by her tone.

  Zesh didn’t say anything to that. Couldn’t. He was trying too hard to get his breath back. Anyway, he knew someone who would have something to say. Axel. He came towards them. ‘What makes him so special? How am I not the leader?’

  Fiona guffawed. ‘Oh aye, Axel. You. The boy who’s in training to be a serial killer. Oh yes, everybody’ll follow you.’

  Zesh took a long breath. ‘I’ll tell you what, Axel. It’s a democracy. We’ll take a vote on it … and then I’ll decide, OK?’

  He had meant it to be funny, but he could see that Axel didn’t see the joke. He was nodding. ‘As long as we get a vote,’ he said.

  They ate another sandwich, rationing them out, not knowing how long they could be trapped down here. Zesh longed to have the nerve to pull out his inhaler and use it. It shouldn’t matter now that anyone knew. Yet here, in this dire situation, he felt it was more important than ever to keep his secret. Leaders should never show their weakness, his father had told him. And it seemed to Zesh that leadership had been thrust upon him.

  Fiona spat something on to the ground. ‘What’s in these sandwiches? They’re zonking awful.’

  ‘I think it’s the pesto sauce,’ Angie’s voice came from the shadows.

  Fiona shone her light on her open sandwich. ‘It’s green,’ she said in disgust.

  ‘Mmm, lovely, isn’t it?’ Angie munched as if she had never tasted anything better.

  ‘Who made them?’ But Fiona already knew the answer to that.

  ‘Mrs Soames,’ Liam said. ‘She probably put poison in them after what –’ he almost said, ‘I’, ‘after what somebody did to her.’

  And there in the dark, Zesh remembered the legend she had told them. He remembered the Worm. He knew from the silence that fell around him that they were all remembering the Worm. And the cook’s ominous words. ‘When you’re deep down in those dark caves, you’ll remember about the Legend of the Great Worm, and you’ll be afraid then all right.’ Almost as if she was prophesying that this would happen.

  ‘It’s just a stupid story,’ Liam said, as if they had all been talking about it. ‘It’s rubbish.’

  ‘Course it is,’ Fiona agreed.

  ‘There’s more natural things to be frightened of down here. Like caves collapsing, and shafts filling with water, and rats.’

  ‘Thanks for those cheery words, Zesh,’ Fiona snapped at him.

  He had meant it to cheer them up. Surely they were less terrifying than what they had been thinking.

  ‘I read a book once –’ Axel began, taking them all by surprise.

  Fiona interrupted. ‘You? A book? One of those papery things with words written on it? I am gobsmacked!’

  Zesh was surprised too.

  Axel glared at her, but he went on. ‘It was about miners that had been trapped down a mine. They never found their way out. They became like animals, like cavemen.’

  ‘So, how did they survive? There’s nothing to eat down here. Did they bring sandwiches as well?’ Fiona laughed again.

  ‘They began to eat each other,’ Axel said flatly.

  Angie began to gag. ‘I could never do that.’

  Axel laughed now. ‘We could survive on you alone, Angie, for years.’

  Fiona jumped to her defence. ‘We’re not going to start eating Angie and that’s final!’ She went to her and sat beside her. ‘Don’t worry, Angie, I won’t let anybody eat you.’

  Zesh almost laughed too. It was Fiona’s fault, she was so funny at times.

  ‘What time is it, anyway?’ Fiona trained her light on her watch. ‘This thing’s broke.’

  Zesh looked at his watch. The face was cracked and the hands still. Broken during one of the landslides, he supposed. Angie didn’t have one on, and he was sure Axel still couldn’t tell the time.

  ‘Mine too,’ Liam said.


  And that chilled Zesh more than anything else. More than being trapped down here. More than the dark, more perhaps, than the legend of the Worm.

  None of their watches was working.

  * * *

  ‘I attended school on this island. In a private school for the very elite, before the war.’ The Captain offers me this information before I have asked for it.

  We have stopped to rest and have water, water which runs down the rock, caught in our cupped hands.

  ‘You have friends here, sir?’

  Stupid question, for who would be friends with a man of such cruelty? Once I saw him throw a dog over the side of the ship and watch it drown, taking bets on how long it would last in the sea. Why did I not have the courage to jump in and save the poor struggling animal? But I didn’t. And neither did anyone else.

  This man does not make friends.

  ‘Stupid people!’ is all he says. ‘I will now tell you a secret, Lothar. Our mission in coming here was to discover what is in these caves. The Reich believes that this is a top secret location, and here they are building a new kind of weapon. Our mission was to destroy these caves.’

  ‘Here? But surely, sir, a top secret location for weapons would have soldiers guarding it. Here, there is nothing.’

  Stupid people maybe, but surely not that stupid.

  ‘They are a gullible people. They protect it with stories, legends to keep people from the caves.’

  I began to shiver. Is it cold, or fear? ‘What legend, sir?’

  And then he tells me the Legend of the Great Worm which had its lair in these caves. An enormous creature, with ravenous jaws that swallowed up anyone who intruded into its underground world.

  ‘Do not look so afraid, boy. It’s a story, a made-up story. Do you want your Führer to be ashamed of you?’

  I do not care if he is ashamed of me or not. He is not the one deep in this dark cave, with an ancient legend cloaked around his shoulders.

  The Captain stands up. ‘We move on. We may find something interesting in here.’

  I am afraid now we may find something terrifying.

  * * *

  They all slept. Axel by the mouth of the cave, Liam close beside him. Angie close beside Zesh, and too close for his liking. As soon as she was sleeping he moved away from her.