Kirsten leaned against Hunter and he draped his arm around her to help her keep warm. To Kirsten his arm felt so right but it wasn’t just the heat he radiated, it was the fact that Hunter always made her feel more alive somehow. After today’s terror it was good to feel alive and even better to have Hunter’s arm around her. It seemed crazy to put up barriers after what they’d come through and she found it easy, too easy, to slip into their old ways. In the past he’d listened as if he hadn’t been able to hear enough of her adventures, and her stories had always been more fun when she’d told them to Hunter.
‘The cave and the rain makes me remember the time I had to camp out for a week during my survival course.’ She grimaced. ‘I hated not washing more than anything. Eating strange things didn’t bother me but not being able to change my clothes was unpleasant.’ She shook her head at the memory.
‘Did anyone complain about the smell?’ Hunter said, and Kirsten lost her train of thought and stared. Then she saw he was teasing her and she punched him in the arm.
‘You rat.’
Hunter chuckled and hugged her briefly against him. Despite the cold, the discomfort and worry about Keith, he was happier than he’d been for several months. Happy to be here with Kirsten tucked under his arm. If it hadn’t been for Keith, he’d almost be happy to stay here until they worked out all their differences.
Fancifully he imagined being back in a relationship with Kirsten—no celibacy this time because it hadn’t saved him from disaster last time. He’d make sure she was so damn satisfied she’d never leave him. He shifted uncomfortably as his dreaming became more graphic, and he tried to steer the direction of his thoughts into less arousing channels.
‘So is this adventurous enough for you, Kirsten?’
She snuggled into him and his heart cracked a little more. ‘Maybe too much excitement,’ she said, and he could hear the yawn in her voice. ‘Especially the leeches…’ She softened even more against him as her voice trailed off.
The next morning Hunter woke about an hour after he’d finally gone to sleep. The first rays of sun hit the eastern side of the mountain and burrowed through the scrub to shine directly into his face. He felt as if he’d been rolled down a hill in a barrel of rocks. Everything ached and his head throbbed. His stomach rumbled with emptiness. Keith was snoring healthily and Hunter twisted his neck to see how Kirsten was faring, but her spot by the fire was empty.
He reassured himself that she would be back shortly but his instinct wouldn’t allow him to leave anything to chance. He stuffed one of the flares in his pocket and grabbed some kindling and a piece of burning wood. At least if they had a small fire outside as well, they could make smoke constantly to help the searchers.
When he went outside, the forest floor was silent except for the steady drip of water that seemed to be a permanent state of affairs in the forest.
‘Kirsten?’ His voice disturbed a black and red feathered scrub turkey that had been scratching under a nearby bush and Hunter watched it dart away under the bushes. ‘You’re lucky I haven’t got a bow and arrow, mister. I could go a little barbecued chicken at the moment.’ His stomach rumbled again and he kicked a piece of bark out of his way. The bark rolled over and a colourful collection of grubs stared up at him. His stomach heaved and he shuddered.
They’d all assumed the search parties would find them today. If a rescue didn’t take place, food could become a crucial issue. They’d emptied Kirsten’s flight bag last night and, apart from the soup, they’d shared the two muesli bars and a packet of nuts between the three of them.
He needed to think about some type of trap. Hopefully the survival lady knew which berries they could eat and which they couldn’t. He didn’t fancy any of the mushrooms, he decided as he cleared a space to build his signal fire. Soon a wisp of smoke was spiralling upwards through the canopy and Hunter began to gather as much drier wood as he could find from under the base of larger trees.
A twig snapped behind him and he turned to see Kirsten bearing another two of the empty IV flasks. One was filled with small yellow fruit and the other with some form of wrinkled red berry.
‘Breakfast is served,’ she quipped, and Hunter felt that surge of relief again that she was fine. He frowned at her. ‘I thought I said we did things together.’
She did that thing with her lowered chin and under-brow glare. ‘And I said a bush walk isn’t going to kill me. Besides, you were sleeping.’
He looked dubiously at the berries. ‘How do you know we can eat those?’
Good humour restored, she grinned and held up the berries. ‘These are native raspberries and grow in clearings—they’re perfectly safe.’ She popped one in her mouth and chewed it. He could tell she was trying not to screw up her face and he suppressed his own smile.
‘I was looking for elderberries but couldn’t find any.’ She held up the other bag which bulged with the small apple-sized fruit. ‘These are cluster figs. They taste similar to strangler figs and have a rich, sweet pulp.’
Hunter shook his head at her enthusiasm and gave up trying not to smile. ‘OK, Miss Swiss Family Robinson, you win. All I’ve done is eye off the scrub turkey.’
‘Never mind.’ She looked approvingly at his fire and the pile of wood beside it. ‘You collect great wood.’ On that note she slipped in front of him and disappeared into the cavern. Hunter grimaced and decided against going back inside.
To tell the truth, he’d hated any sort of cave since he’d been trapped in one as a kid. An adventurous ten-year-old, he and a friend had crawled along a tunnel with Hunter in front, and they’d squeezed through the final bend when his friend had become wedged. Unable to move backwards or forwards, they’d been trapped for eight panic-filled hours until Hunter’s father had found them.
The memories still brought a sweat to his forehead and sitting close to the entrance had been the only way Hunter had been able to enter the cave last night.
Hopefully, their emergency beacon in the wreck had been pinpointed by satellite by now, and their position marked on some searcher’s map.
The storm had disappeared this morning and he wanted to be ready to let off the flares as soon as they heard an aircraft.
‘Are you coming in to eat or do you want me to bring you some out there?’ Kirsten’s voice preceded her eerily out of the cavern and then she reappeared beside him. He thought distastefully of the cramped space.
‘I think one of us should stay out here while the cloud cover is clear, in case of searching aircraft.’ He glanced towards the cave. ‘We probably don’t have to stay with Keith all the time as long as we check on him every ten minutes or so.’
Just then the faint drone of a plane drifted to them and they looked up. The plane was very high.
‘Should we light the flare?’ Neither of them moved and Kirsten looked at Hunter.
Hunter squinted and then shook his head. ‘It’s a passenger airliner, they wouldn’t see it anyway.’
‘That’s what I thought, too. There should be some local air traffic out hunting for us soon.’
She shook the bag of fruit. ‘I’ll take the rest of these back to Keith if you don’t want them.’ She didn’t say it but she was thinking of the cavern at the back of the overhang that she’d wanted to have a quick look in. It sounded like a water source was back there and now that the rain had stopped the rivulets down the walls were harder to milk to keep up their supply. Although any water would be freezing, she wondered if there would be a chance to have a decent wash as well. She’d be able to soak a cloth and give Keith a chance to wash his face at least.
Kirsten didn’t intend to go far into the cave but after she’d given Keith a drink, she mentioned her plans to him in case Hunter needed her while she was gone. She had a feeling Hunter would veto the idea if she ran it past him and she just wanted to have a look.
‘Are you sure you need to go in there?’ Keith shook his head carefully. ‘How about you tell Hunter yourself?’
Kirsten
didn’t quite meet Keith’s eyes. ‘I won’t worry him. I’ll be back in a minute.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
KIRSTEN’S tiny penlight was still quite bright and she advanced into the opening of the tunnel with the light ready in her hand. The narrow beam shone around the walls and occasional sparkly crystals embedded in the rock glinted back at her.
It was damp and silent and very dark. Kirsten stretched her hands out and touched both walls and noted that at least the tunnel wasn’t narrow. The rock was rough under her fingers and very cold. The roof sloped and the further she went in the more she had to stoop to avoid bumping her head.
The floor was sandy and, like the roof, it sloped too. Kirsten damped down the excitement she always enjoyed on her caving expeditions. This was no fun day out and she had a good reason for breaking a lot of caving rules. A close water source would be a huge advantage.
A couple of loose rocks bounced away under her foot and she could hear the clear sound of water dripping into a pool. She shone her torch around but couldn’t see anything that looked like a water source. She crouched down on her hands and knees to be more balanced should the floor suddenly decide to turn into a shaft, and continued more slowly. It was becoming borderline dangerous and she thought briefly about turning back.
Loose pebbles dug into her knees through her thin trousers and the cold began to eat into her hands. If she didn’t get to the pool soon, she would turn back. It wasn’t any use if the pool was too far away.
‘Kirsten!’ Hunter’s voice echoed strangely down the shaft and, despite the distance the sound had travelled, she could hear the bite of authority in his voice. She flinched and dropped her torch. The little light rolled to the side of the tunnel and went out.
‘Blast.’ She glared behind her but Hunter wasn’t there to blame so she stifled her annoyance and leaned over quickly to find her torch. Unexpectedly there wasn’t a side to the wall of the tunnel any more, and the torch hadn’t gone out—it had slid over the edge down a rocky slope. Unable to regain her balance, Kirsten’s uneven body weight sent her over the edge to follow her torch down the incline. Unable to grab anything to stop her rolling, she skidded and rolled with some speed during her rocky descent.
The sound of pebbles and larger rocks shifting in front of her warned of the depth of the slope. When the sound of the mini-avalanche in front changed into the plop and splash of stones in water she tried desperately to stop herself from falling any further, ripping her nails and fingers as she frantically grabbed for purchase before she too ended up in the pool—but she couldn’t stop. At least the sound gave Kirsten a chance to prepare herself as she bumped over the edge of the pool and into the cold water.
Nothing could have prepared her enough. To say the water was cold was an understatement. The inky water closed over her head like an ice blanket in the dark and the air whooshed from her lungs as she shrieked in shock. For a moment pure panic engulfed her, along with the icy water, and her eyes stung as she widened them as if to allow her to see what was happening.
She thrashed ineffectually for a few moments before she stilled and then it wasn’t so cold any more. In fact, it was strangely peaceful if she gave into the sensation of falling slowly into blackness. It was strange to think that Hunter was above her somewhere, standing, oblivious to the fact that she was dying. She almost smiled at the silly thought that Hunter was going to kill her if she died down here.
His face in her mind seemed incredibly sad, and her heart ached fiercely because she knew she’d never be able to tell him she still loved him—and just as she started to sigh out to take a breath she realised she was drowning. Sanity burst into her consciousness and she clamped her mouth shut and fought against the painful urge to breathe underwater. She kicked leadenly upwards until finally she broke the surface. The freezing air was raw in her throat and her gasps seemed thunderous as she tried to fill her lungs with air and tread water at the same time. Maybe the pool wasn’t as wide as she’d feared and with the last of her energy she swam heavily to the edge. If she didn’t move fast, she’d be too cold and weak to get out.
Kirsten dragged herself over the uneven edge of the bank with her elbows and then painfully pulled the rest of her body up and over the ledge to lie shuddering with great wheezing gasps on the cold stone floor. It was pitch black, freezing, and even Hunter didn’t know exactly where she was. Except for her gasping breath, only the sound of trickling water disturbed the silence.
Shivering uncontrollably, Kirsten knew she had to move. She had to find a way up the slope she’d slid down, get back to the surface and get warm—but it wasn’t going to be easy.
The main problem was the dark. The cavern was as black as a moonless night in the forest and she was totally disorientated by her submersion. She had no clue which way the slope faced and all she could do was hope the exit slope was on the side of the pool she’d climbed out on because she wasn’t going back in that water.
‘Kirsten?’ Hunter’s voice seemed much fainter than the last time she’d heard it but she had never been so glad to hear his voice in her life. She opened her mouth to call back but her teeth were chattering so much all she made was a clicking noise. She cleared her throat and tried again but Hunter’s name would barely have reached the top of the slope let alone up the tunnel to the cavern.
Hunter didn’t hear. He’d heard the earlier shriek and was white-faced and grim as he leaned on the entrance to the tunnel. Already he was having palpitations from being this far inside the cavern and his breathing was rapid and shallow.
But he had to go in. His gut feeling told him that Kirsten was in trouble. Heaven only knew why she was in there and he’d probably kill her when they got back to the top. He told himself he’d only have to go a little way, and then he’d come across her on her way back and could give her a piece of his mind as soon as they made it outside again.
Anything else he couldn’t think about. In the three minutes since she’d given that cry he’d gathered two candles and two boxes of matches from the survival kit, and had one in his pocket and one in his hand. One of the millions of long strangler fig vines that had hung down outside the cavern was tied to his foot with a piece of fabric in case he needed rope. But he still didn’t really want to go in there.
He had to, however, and in the event they didn’t return, he’d shifted Keith to the entrance of the overhang and given him the flare. The outside signal fire had good coals and a heap of green leaves on it to make smoke. He couldn’t think of anything else he could do and he didn’t want to think about the worst-case scenario.
He cleared his throat. ‘I’m going now, Keith.’
Keith’s voice was weak. ‘I’ll be here, waiting.’
The first step was the hardest, although the second wasn’t much better. The walls and roof seemed to be closing in on him and it was as if the air was being sucked out of his lungs. When he turned that first corner and the light from the entrance was gone, he had to stop and press himself against the wall for a minute and regroup. It was as if he were ten again.
Every time a rock shifted from beneath his feet his heart rate picked up another two beats and he wondered if he’d hit atrial fibrillation before he found her.
‘Kirsten?’ His voice seemed to be eaten by the darkness. She didn’t answer and the fear of her lying somewhere trapped or injured was far greater than his claustrophobia. He pushed himself off the wall and went on. At about the same place that Kirsten had, he changed to hands and knees which made it hard with the candle. ‘Kirsten?’ He didn’t even notice the hot wax dripping on his hand.
Suddenly he heard the sound of something scraping rock and the rattle of pebbles to his left, and he called again. ‘Kirsten?’
‘Hunter?’ Still from his left, her voice was very faint, considering he could hear her teeth chattering. She must be close and his initial reaction was to crawl to her as fast as he could, but he stopped himself from moving. He held up the candle and tried to see ahead and to the side
. That was when he realised there wasn’t a side wall to the tunnel he was in.
‘Where are you?’
‘D-d-d-down here. I fell d-d-down a slope.’
‘Can I get down to you?’ He felt with his hands and discovered the fall-away at the edge.
‘Down’s easy. Up is harder.’
The last thing they needed was both of them at the bottom of a slide and no way to get back up again. ‘Why are you so cold?’
‘Wet.’ Her voice was getting fainter and he realised that the effects of hypothermia were setting in. Fear hit him like a fist.
‘You need to come out of the cave now, Kirsten. Can you hang onto a vine?’
‘My hands are frozen.’
‘You have to hang on.’
‘I know,’ her voice sounded sleepy and Hunter clamped down on the dread that lodged in his throat. ‘Think,’ he muttered to himself as he weighed up the most sensible action.
Finally he said, ‘The vine is coming down now. We’ll try that first.’ The problem was he couldn’t see her and the only estimates of direction he had were the sounds of her voice and movement. ‘Clap your hands, Kirsten.’
The slow muffled sound didn’t augur well for her strength but he wanted to keep her moving until the vine arrived. He untied the vegetation from his foot and wiped some wax from his finger onto the cloth and tied it to the end of the vine.
‘I’m going to light a little piece of rag tied to the end of the vine so I can see you. It shouldn’t burn the vine but if it does start to, you have to put the fire out. Do you understand, Kirsten? We need the vine to get you out.’
‘OK.’ Her voice sounded a little stronger, as if she were determined to use her last strength.
He lit the rag and tossed the vine end over the edge. It didn’t slide and just sat, flickering on the edge of the slope.
‘Give me a break,’ he muttered. He pulled it back quickly and tossed it again before the little fire went out. This time it sailed over the edge and landed beside the pool. He had a brief flash of the picture of the cavern below—water, and at the edge Kirsten, swaying as she knelt on the cavern floor.
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