The Cavern Read online

  Sam now risked holding the fin with one hand, and stabbed his blade into the serpent’s body, punching hole after hole in its side. Suddenly a thick squirt of blood splashed over Max’s face as he severed a major vessel and after another two weak contractions, the serpent went limp.

  Max jerked his hands away from the creature like he’d been burnt. Sam didn’t know whether to yell in victory, or spew. He jammed his knife blade into the jaw and levered at the teeth until they pulled out of the rubber fin, allowing it to drop away. He panted open mouthed as he watched the monster slowly sink until it faded from sight, lost within its own blood haze.

  “Max, Sam, are you two alright?” Ellie slipped back into the water with them. “Are either of you bitten?” Her hands searching over first her brother’s face and wet suit, then Sam’s, checking for injury or holes.

  “No, I think I’m okay,” said Sam. He passed Ellie her fin back again. “But I wouldn’t have been without this.”

  Finally accepting that he was uninjured, she drew him into a rough hug. “Don’t scare me like that again.”

  Sam gave a rueful half-smile. “You promise not to send any water monsters at me, and I’ll promise not to get eaten. How’s that sound?”

  “Do you reckon there’s any more of those things around?” asked Max as he cupped water over his face, washing the green blood out of his eyes.

  “Can’t say I want to wait to find out. Let’s get the fuck out of here,” said Sam. Although he had no desire to swim down into the home of the creature they’d just met, there was no other way back.

  “Agreed, but we should do a quick equipment check before...”

  Her words were cut off as a muted blast echoed through the rock and concussive waves through the water that left Sam gasping for breath. Rocks shaken free of the roof of the chamber crashed into the water about them like bombs, throwing gouts of water high into the air. The trio huddled together, Sam expecting a boulder to smash into him at any moment. Gradually the bombardment eased until there was only the occasional plop of small pebbles. They were lucky that the chamber roof hadn’t caved in entirely.

  “Bloody hell, was that an earthquake?” asked Sam.

  Ellie stared warily up at the roof of the chamber. “I don’t think so, sounded more like an explosion of some sort. Maybe there’s still an active opal claim nearby?”

  Another muted rumble sounded, vibration travelling through the water, and then the spool on Ellie’s waist spun violently, twenty metres of cord ripping off it in an instant.

  Max stared at the dive spool, his eyes wide in horror. “Fuck, no. It can’t be.” Without another word, he pulled down his mask, clamped his teeth around his regulator and dived, swimming down the length of cord toward the tunnel home.

  Sam and Ellie treaded water in silence, fingers of one hand entwined as they waited, neither willing to voice their fears. Sam felt a lead weight in his gut. There was no other reason for the line to rip out of the spool other than something falling on it, or maybe Frida pulling it in for some reason at the far end. But with the second noise of a rockfall, that option seemed a fool’s hope.

  “Here he comes,” said Ellie, her voice grim.

  Sam tracked her brother’s rise until his head breached the surface.

  “Please tell me the tunnel’s clear,” said Ellie.

  Max’s face was pale as he shook his head. “It’s totally blocked. The ceiling collapsed about five metres in. Massive slabs of rock, nothing that we have a hope of moving. We’re bloody trapped.”

  Sam felt like he’d been punched in the guts. His mind raced for options, refusing to believe this room of stale air would be his tomb. Remembering the punched out holes further up the wall, he shone his torch upwards in hope, then swore as he accepted they weren’t an option. He might have a slight hope of scaling the wall with his rock climbing experience, but the other two wouldn’t stand a chance.

  He transferred his gaze down to where Max had found the other underwater passage that would lead them onwards. “If we can’t go back, we continue on and hope to find another way to the surface.”

  Sam ground his teeth together, anxiety ballooning in his chest at the thought. It would have to be down and through another squeeze. This time underwater.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Max’s fins disappeared into the narrow opening like he’d been sucked into some sort of crude mouth. Sam held on to the entrance to the tunnel with one hand and willed his breathing to remain slow and steady. Anxiety gnawed at his stomach like a bleeding ulcer and distracted his thoughts with worst case scenarios. His turn to enter the squeeze was next, and any confidence he’d garnered in the previous part of the dive had slipped away like sand through fingers.

  A plume of silt laden water, disturbed by Max’s passage, sifted slowly from the entrance of the tunnel. Not only would he be entering a space no wider than his chest one hundred metres underground while deep underwater, he’d be doing it virtually blind. Ellie gave him an okay sign and pointed at the entrance of the tunnel. He nodded and returned the gesture, it was time to go.

  Sam undid the harness for his tank and shrugged it off his shoulders, then shoved the tank bottom first into the entrance of the tunnel. He looked over his shoulder at Ellie, worried at leaving her alone after their encounter with the serpent. There was nothing for it, she was the most skilled amongst them underwater, hence her position last in line. He’d just have to hope that there were no more of those creatures near.

  Sam wedged his elbow against the rock at his side and levered his way into the cave entrance, then jostled the tank forward a little more. He inched his way in, fins kicking behind, fingers clawing grips to either side as he drew his entire body into the crevice. He felt his fins catch hold of rock beneath, telling him that he was now entirely inside.

  Rock scraped at his back and belly. He was forced to stare downwards, unable to move his head up in the small space with the added bulk of his helmet and torches. Light brown sediment swirled through the water, creating a dirty soup and reducing visibility to virtually zero. Sam had to hold his hand within inches of his mask to see it through the murk.

  It wasn’t as tight as the squeeze they negotiated to reach the lake, but it wasn’t far off. Sam concentrated on each separate movement to keep his anxiety under control, forcing awareness of how the rock felt under his fingers, how each small movement brought him closer to the other side. Occupying his thoughts with minutiae to keep his fears at bay.

  He’d settled into a rhythm now. Push the tank ahead to make room, then draw his body up behind and repeat. Sam knew he’d been going for a while and must be surely nearing the far side, but with the poor visibility it was impossible to tell how far there was to go. He drew a knee to the side, scraped himself forward another few hand spans, then shoved his tank ahead once again. This time it was easier to push them for some reason, and while his hand was still on the end of one cylinder, he felt them tip downwards into a gap in the tunnel floor.

  And slide away.

  Sam clawed at the end in panic, but his fingers slid off the aluminium tank helplessly. The tube connecting his regulator to the air cylinders drew taut and ripped it from his mouth.

  Sam shoved himself forward, uncaring of ripping his suit, dislodging his mask or smashing a knee-cap. Terror and adrenaline powering every movement. With no other air source at hand, if he didn’t regain his regulator and air-tank, he was a dead man.

  ***

  The Miner’s Mother sprinted on all fours, the severed forearm from the female human clenched in her jaws, tail whipping behind. She navigated the labyrinthine complex with ease in the pitch black, using echolocation from clicks of her talons and ultrasonic calls to map her surrounding structures, creating a clear mental picture of her environment. She was angry at the destruction of the shaft, furious at having two easy meals buried under tonnes of rock. Such a waste of fresh meat that could have filled the bellies of her young. She only needed to eat occasionally, a meal such
as the one she’d just consumed usually enough to last her months. But the physical demands of pregnancy had spiked a ravenous hunger. Also, once her children entered the world, she needed a stock of food at hand to satisfy their hunger. It had been many decades since her last clutch, and the hormones that governed hunger, aggression and territorialism were surging.

  The stink of humans was thick as she entered the large chamber where the water began. Without hesitation, she took a deep breath and dived into the lake. Muscular sweeps of her tail drove her onwards, providing a crocodilian power and dexterity underwater. She pulled up short of the tunnel, sonar generated picture telling her that there was now a blockage to her preferred route. With an irritated swirl of her tail she about faced, and within moments was climbing the cavern wall to a different route, a crevice that with her full stomach, she even found tight to pass.

  The tunnel emerged high above a cavern with water at its base. Her nasals slits flared as she sampled the air. Human stench adulterated by the smell of Sneirthyn, an evolutionary offshoot of her own species. The smell of its blood enraged her further, saliva pouring from her mouth as hunger spiked again. Since the miners had ceased tunnelling and indiscriminately damaging her world, there had been little need to guard her territory. And yet this group of humans, bumping around like blind infants in the dark had not only wormed their way deeper into her lair than any before, now they were swimming in the direction of her birthing chamber.

  The last humans to invade her world forty years earlier had killed her mate, and all of her children bar one male. Males of her species took decades to reach sexual maturity, and the wait for her son to be able to procreate had been painfully long. But now she had a new clutch, and with that, a future chance to expand her hunting territory.

  Her lips retracted in a snarl, exposing needle sharp fangs, a guttural sound of rage tearing through the silence with murderous intent. This new human invasion would not be tolerated. She launched from the tunnel mouth into the air, her body puncturing the water’s surface far below with barely a ripple to tell of her passing.

  ***

  Ignoring a savage pain in his shoulder as it ripped past a jagged spine of rock, Sam stamped backward to drive himself through the last of the squeeze. Emerging like a champagne cork into free water, he immediately dived down into the murk, following the direction of the tank. His chest was tight, screaming for another breath. When the regulator had torn free of his lips, he’d only just exhaled, leaving his lungs starved of air.

  Pale clouds of silt filled his panicked vision, then his head smashed into rock. Stars bloomed before his eyes at the impact, and he almost sucked in a mouthful of water. Something grabbed his shoulder, dragging him upright, then rubber was being pushed into his mouth. His dazed brain finally registered that it was a regulator, and he opened his mouth to accept it, greedily sucking a lungful of air.

  After a few shuddering breaths, Sam calmed enough to take in a few more details. On this side of the squeeze, there was minimal silt on the floor, leading to much improved visibility. Max stood before him, fins planted on the base of the tunnel, his head mere inches below the ceiling. The regulator in his mouth was Max’s second emergency regulator. Sam looked over his shoulder and realised that the squeeze had dropped into this section of tunnel at ceiling height, and when he tracked down, he saw his tank lying on the floor below. He took another breath, then passed Max’s second regulator back to him and swam back to regain his own equipment.

  Tank now securely on his back again, Sam’s worry now turned to Ellie. He turned to the mouth of the squeeze, and saw a moving torch beam within the silt cloud tell of her approach. Not wanting the same thing to happen to her, he waited at the entrance, ready to catch her tank as she came over the edge.

  Within a few minutes, all three were safely through the obstruction. Ellie grabbed her brother’s shoulder for his attention, then made a hand signal for air leak, then low air. Sam moved behind her, and noticed for the first time small bubbles escaping in a stream from one of her hoses. She must have snagged the line against a sharp outcrop of rock while navigating the squeeze. Ellie showed him and Max her air gauge and Sam felt his heart drop as he saw that her tank was already dangerously low.

  Ellie pointed ahead and Max immediately took point again, swimming forward. There was no time to waste. They had to treat every breath as precious, having no idea how far they would have to swim to reach air. If there was any air to reach.

  Grey limestone walls graced the margins of the tunnel, undulating and smooth. Sam concentrated on smooth powerful kicks of his fins to keep pace with Max. A glance behind showed Ellie was easily matching her brother’s speed. The passage continued at a roughly level heading for a few minutes before reaching a branch. The left tunnel descended sharply after a few metres, whereas the right started to rise, providing an easy decision.

  Max didn’t even look back for confirmation, swimming straight up the right passage. As Sam went to follow again, he felt Ellie tug on his ankle. She was wide eyed behind her mask, drawing her hand across her throat to indicate her air had run out. Sure enough, when Sam glanced behind her, the small stream of bubbles leaking from her tank had disappeared. He unclipped his spare regulator and passed it across, linking an arm with hers to ensure they stayed close enough for the hose to reach. From here on, they would be sharing the same air supply, effectively halving the time he could remain underwater.

  The pair swam onward again, both struggling to adapt a new swimming style necessitated by close proximity. In the scant minutes of adjustment, Max had swum on, scouting the passage ahead. He now turned around, a large smile that even the regulator in his mouth couldn’t hide. Above him was a hole in the ceiling of the tunnel.

  Sam felt his heart leap. Ellie ditched his emergency line and kicked ahead, disappearing through the hole after her brother. Sam powered after her, barely daring to hope that they might have found a way out. Suddenly his head emerged into clear air, cool and clean on the skin of his face. He spat out the mouthpiece and sucked in a breath, his eyes already scanning the surrounding area.

  With a relief, he saw a shore of pebble strewn dirt. If they were still trapped, at least they wouldn’t have to tread water until their muscles gave out. The cavern was huge. Ellie was already emerging from the water, fins in one hand, mask on her forehead. Sam followed, a sharply rising bank causing him to stumble to his knees a few metres out from the edge.

  “Hey, someone else has been here,” said Ellie, her voice cracking with excitement.

  Sam pulled his fins off and waded out of the water, automatically searching the recesses of the cavern with his torch for new dangers after the attack by the water serpent. “How do you know?”

  Ellie passed him an old torch. “I found this on the shore.”

  Sam turned it over in his hands, a kernel of hope igniting. The torch was old, constructed of aluminium and dented badly, the glass and bulb smashed like someone had stamped on it. “If someone’s been down here...”

  “Then there’s got to be a way out,” said Ellie with the beginning of a hopeful smile.

  Sam cast his eyes about the area, looking for other evidence or signs of which way to go. “Bloody hell, is that a gun?” He walked a few paces then leant down and scooped an old pistol out of the dirt. “It looks like one of the service pistols Jack had on display in the pub.”

  “What did you find?”

  Sam looked over his shoulder to see Max still standing thigh deep in the water, slowly emerging with a weary expression. He was just about to answer when movement behind Max caught his eye, a flash of halogen green eyes disappearing under the water’s surface.

  “Shit, get out of the water!”

  Max spun on the spot trying to see what was behind, but his diving gear and fins made the movement clumsy and he stumbled to his knees, sending up a splash.

  It struck.

  Lightning fast, the beast’s head surged from the water with jaws wide, vicious teeth latching o
nto Max’s shoulder as it pinned his arms to his side, talons piercing his hands like cruel nails. Ellie screamed. With a snarl it tore a hole in the wet suit, spat the fabric into the water and bit again. This time it found flesh, teeth slicing like scalpels through the muscles of his shoulder. Its muscular, black tail coiled about Max’s thighs and tightened, snapping his femurs like two lengths of wood as he screamed. All the while, four green eyes remained fixed upon Sam as the closest person on shore, awaiting his reaction with feral intensity.

  Suddenly, the tail unwound from about Max’s legs and teeth disengaged from his shoulder as it stood to its full height. The creature clenched Max to its chest and roared a challenge. Blood spattered from between its teeth, and dribbled in obscene rivulets down its neck as it backed into the water.

  Behind him, Ellie cried out her brother’s name. The sound knocked Sam into action, forced him to accept it wasn’t a nightmare. He had the only set of tanks with air left, it was up to him. He fumbled at his waist for his dive knife and lurched forward. The beast didn’t wait for him to close the distance, but dove back into the water still holding its prize. A bow wave on top of the water showed it was making straight for the tunnel from which they’d emerged just minutes prior.

  Sam continued after it into the water, knowing Max had still been alive when it dragged him under the surface.

  “Wait!”

  He looked behind and saw Ellie holding his fins. “You’ll need these.” Her face was pale, lip trembling.

  Sam took the fins and shoved his feet into them. He had no idea what he’d do if he caught the beast, but he couldn’t stay there and give up on Ellie’s brother when there was still a glimmer of hope. He didn’t want to think, knew that if he allowed any rational thought to intervene, there’d be no chance of him entering the water. He shoved his regulator in his mouth, pulled the mask and head torch down, and dived into the water, his dive knife feeling of little more use than a nail file.