The Cavern Page 3

  “Yep.” Ellie pulled out her mobile phone to show a picture of a hand-held laser, battery pack, and laptop computer. “Let me introduce the Zebedee mobile mapping system. This baby’s going to save us so much time.”

  Max studied the picture before looking up, a slightly confused expression on his face. “Where’s the rest of it, I thought those things were massive?”

  “They used to be. But this one’s small enough to carry and will map the cave as we walk.”

  Aaron whistled. “Geez, that’s got to be worth a pretty penny?”

  “And then some,” said Ellie with a grimace. “Cost me every favour I had owing, so if we lose or break it, I don’t plan on going back to work. It’ll be worth it though. Once we’re finished, the Zebedee will provide a 3D rendered image and measurements of the caves we explore.”

  Sam caught Frida’s eye. “I’ve got first aid supplies for traumatic injuries, but realised I forgot about treating envenomation. You said you’re a biologist, yeah? Anything down there I should be worried about?”

  Frida’s eyes immediately lit up as she started talking about her field of interest. “Cave ecosystems vary wildly, but commonly we’ll come across spiders, snakes and various insect populations. As this is an undisturbed environment, who knows, maybe we’ll find a new species.”

  “Really?” asked Sam, unconvinced. “I thought pretty much every animal had been discovered.”

  “It was only a few years ago that researchers discovered over thirty new species in a Croatian cave system. Granted, they were insects, but still – that’s pretty cool.”

  “They didn’t happen to bite, did they?” asked Sam.

  “I don’t know, to be honest.”

  “Okay. I’ll make sure I’ve got a few compression bandages, antihistamines and adrenaline – that should cover our bases. With any luck we won’t need it.”

  Sam leant back in his chair and took a slow sip of beer. Things were moving fast. Ellie had only told him of the proposed trip the week before, and he’d been lucky to get leave approved to tag along. To ensure they didn’t get outbid by others for access to the system through the farmer, he knew Ellie and Aaron had done their best to keep it all fairly quiet amongst the caving community. He was learning that cavers could be a competitive bunch, but he was still curious as to how they’d found out about it in the first place.

  “Hey, Aaron, how did you hear about the cave’s discovery?”

  Aaron winced. “Probably not my most honourable moment. It was reported down the usual government channels. Usually there’s a line-up of cavers, waiting to get through red tape for access, etc. But I bent the rules a little, and offered the farmer a price he couldn’t refuse.”

  “We’re just lucky Aaron grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, and had the money lying around,” teased Max.

  “Hey, I don’t see you guys complaining. Either way, we’re going, and I for one can’t bloody wait.” Aaron looked at his watch. “Shit. We should probably make tracks if we’re going to be on the road at 5 AM.”

  Sam took another swig of his beer, then decided to leave the rest. If he was up that early in the morning, he didn’t want to be driving with a hangover. After discussing where they would meet to begin their trip in convoy, the group split up for the night to get some sleep.

  Chapter Three

  Sam woke up with a start, disorientated and neck stiff. Bleary eyed, he glanced to the right to find Ellie’s hand on his shoulder.

  “Time to wake sleeping beauty, we’re nearly there,” she said.

  Sam had taken the first shift behind the wheel as they left Sydney in the early hours of morning, in a convoy of three cars; Ellie and Sam in his Subaru station wagon, Aaron and Frida in a Toyota sedan, while Max had elected to drive alone in his ute with the majority of their equipment in its tray. Sam managed the first four hours before relinquishing his position as his eyelids started to droop. After that, he and Ellie had swapped every hour or so. Unless he’d slept longer than intended.

  “How long have I been out?” he asked through a yawn.

  “Two hours. You looked knackered and I felt fine, so I left you to it.”

  Sam straightened up from where he’d slumped with one foot up on the dashboard, head resting on the passenger door. His neck muscles screamed at the movement, and he winced as he gently stretched them each way. He had a foul taste in his mouth, tongue dry like he’d been sleeping with his mouth open. Ellie pulled on to the verge and eased on the brakes, bringing the car to a stop.

  Sam gave his eyes one last rub with balled fists, then took a swig of water from an open bottle in his cup holder. Looking out of the car, he raised an eyebrow in question.

  “Where are we? Isn’t Pintalba supposed to have at least a few people left in it?”

  They were parked on the side of a single lane dirt road, surrounded by parched land. He supposed at one stage the paddocks might have been green, but two decades of intermittent drought had changed that. Now there was nothing but red dust between clumps of shrivelled, yellow grass that had been nibbled almost to the roots by sheep. A few stands of ancient eucalypts dotted the horizon, huddled together like depressed sentinels forced to watch the slow death of the land.

  “We drove through Pintalba fifteen minutes ago. Since there was still some light left in the day, Aaron sent a text asking if we minded continuing out to the cave site straight away for a quick look.” Ellie unclipped her seatbelt and swung open her door. “Come on, the others are already over at the sink hole.”

  Sam climbed out, pausing to stamp his foot to ease prickling pins and needles in the limb, before following. They headed toward a series of star pickets driven into the dirt in a rough circle fifty metres off the road, a length of pink tape strung between them as a flimsy barrier. The tape fluttered lightly in the breeze as Sam joined the others, dust already coating his boots and the bottom third of his jeans in a thin film of red from the short walk. Aaron and Max were deep in conversation, troubleshooting how they would set up an anchor point for the descent.

  Less than a metre behind the barrier, the ground disappeared in a vertical fall to darkness. Sam leaned out, trying to see to the bottom. With the late afternoon sun close to the horizon, most of the shaft was blanketed in darkness.

  “How deep is it?” asked Sam.

  “The farmer estimated around thirty metres. Enough that you don’t want to take a tumble without a harness and rope attached,” said Aaron.

  Sam unconsciously moved back half a step from the barrier. Compared to the surrounding land, the hole exuded a coolness like he was standing near an open fridge. An involuntary shiver worked up his spine, raising hairs on the back of his neck.

  “Is that cool air coming up the shaft?” asked Sam.

  “Yeah, down there will be a little colder than up here,” said Ellie. “Underground temps vary across the country, and can be anywhere from twelve degrees Celsius in Hobart to around eighteen in some parts of Queensland. Probably on the warmer end here, but we’ll still need thermals when we’re down there.”

  Frida shivered and moved back from the edge, rubbing her arms. “Well, if that couple are down there, at least the decomposition should have been stalled a little by the temperature.”

  “That’s a big ‘if’, remember,” said Aaron.

  “Did any of you know them?” asked Sam.

  “Not well,” said Ellie hesitantly. “They had a bit of a rep as being cowboys. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and joined them on one trip up in the Blue Mountains, but that chick, Beth, she was too much for even me. Kept going on about wanting to ‘live on the edge’, and I got stuck arguing about neglected safety measures. Killed it for me, so I avoided them afterwards.” Ellie shrugged. “I suppose if they did go missing while down there, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise. If you do stupid shit often enough...”

  “Might have been a roof collapse,” suggested Max. “Can’t plan for that sort of shit.”

  “Jesus! Will you guys la
y off? You sound like a bunch of kids telling scary stories at a sleepover,” muttered Aaron. “If they were down there, equipment would have been left behind, and the police report said there weren’t even any ropes to suggest they’d abseiled in. It’s an empty cave, okay?”

  Ellie turned and squinted into the light, the sunset casting her face in shades of pink. “It’s getting late. Why don’t we head into town and get our accommodation sorted? I don’t want to get lost on these back lanes in the dark.”

  Chapter Four

  Brooke leant against the shopfront as she waited for her takeaway pizza, idly watching the tourists carry their gear into the hotel. Along the side of the road, street lights began to blink into life as the day faded, casting pools of anaemic white on the paths below. The only other light came from windows of the Pintalba Hotel, the pizza joint behind her, and a café further along the street. All the other shops were either closed, or boarded up permanently.

  She watched as one of the tourists emerged from the pub to spread a blanket in the rear of his station wagon, hiding a number of dive tanks and what looked like climbing ropes from view. Her curiosity was mildly piqued by what they could possibly be doing in her dust-bowl hometown with equipment like that.

  “Pizza’s ready, darl.” Sharon, the shop owner stood in the doorway to her left.

  Tourists and climbing gear were immediately forgotten as Brooke accepted the cardboard box and handed over a twenty dollar note in payment.

  Sharon tucked the cash into the pocket of her apron, the corners of her eyes crinkling in a smile. “Must be date-night for you and Tim, eh?” The older woman took Brooke’s left hand, examining her bare ring finger with exaggerated interest. “Tell him to hurry up and pop the question, there should have been a diamond on this finger months ago.”

  Brooke rolled her eyes, a half-smile softening her expression. “Oh god, not you too.” She needed to move out of this small town where everyone knew each other’s business. “I’ve already got my mum hassling me, I don’t need you on my case as well.”

  Sharon chuckled good naturedly as she turned to walk back inside. “You kids are good together, sometimes people just need a push.”

  Brooke rested the pizza box on the passenger seat of her old Holden Commodore as she drove the couple of blocks home. Tim’s ute was already parked in her driveway when she arrived and she could see the lights on in the living room, a comforting glow cast on the yellowed grass of her front yard. She pulled up next to the ute, then walked down the side of the house with box in hand to use the back door that she always left unlocked. The rear of the house was cloaked in shadow, muted tones of grey merging with black. She glanced at an empty trampoline bed her kelpie, Gus, normally lounged on, guessing that the mutt was already inside.

  With one hand on the door knob, she paused, hair prickling across the nape of her neck. Brooke turned around and peered into the dark.

  “Gus? Is that you?”

  Her house occupied a large block, being one of the original town plots that had once served as a small opal claim as well as residence. A few parched eucalypts dotted the right fence line, grizzled branches casting shadows like knotted bones on the bare earth. With no water to waste on something as trivial as a lawn, there hadn’t been anything more than red dust coating her backyard in the two years she’d lived there.

  Brooke descended from the back porch and took a few steps into the dark. “Gus? Come here boy.”

  A whimper came from near the back fence, the sound of a dog in pain. She’d seen a King Brown snake the week before, and prayed that Gus hadn’t found it again. She dumped the pizza box on the concrete step and walked quickly into the yard, calling for her dog. Gus’ whimper seemed to be coming from the left rear corner of the yard where the old opal mine had been capped. Beyond the fence was a large conical mound of tailings that appeared bone white in the moonlight.

  “You better not have got yourself bitten, I can’t afford the vet bill, mate,” she whispered under her breath.

  Dust plumed around her feet as she paced forward. Pitch black along the back fence gave way to grey as her eyes adjusted. “Gus? Where are you, boy?”

  The opal mine’s entrance was a rough square cut into the ground, now capped by a lid of pine floorboards. Two of the planks were missing, the rotted wood creating an appearance of a heavy lidded eye, staring as she approached. Brooke shivered despite the balmy evening. She glanced over her shoulder at the house, thinking she should get Tim’s help first, when she heard the dog whimper again. This time she was sure it was coming from the mine.

  Concern for her dog forced her feet onwards as she jogged the last few metres and knelt down. The shaft below the gap in the lid was pitch black, darkness like a physical entity filling the space. She leant down close, trying to make out anything below. “Gus?”

  Four green eyes blinked open, glowing in the dark with the elliptical pupils of a death adder. Brooke yelped with surprise, her gut clenching. A black hand darted out of the hole, bony fingers tipped with needle-sharp talons grabbed her throat before she could jerk out of reach. She moaned, terror freezing her mind as nails punctured her skin, hooking in under the bone of her chin. Rope-like muscles bunched as it drew her down. Brooke resisted, feet scrabbling in the dirt for purchase. Her eyes bulged wider as blood flowed over her lips, one of the beast’s talons puncturing through the floor of her mouth to skewer her tongue. A garbled scream spattered blood over the beast as it dragged her into the mine, skin tearing on the splintered ends of pine board, limbs thrashing until she disappeared from sight.

  Chapter Five

  The bedsprings squeaked as Sam dumped his rucksack onto the mattress in the gloom. He eased along the side of the bed, found a bedside lamp via touch and switched it on, casting the room in shades of purulent yellow. Aside from the double bed, there was little else; a single armchair, free standing cupboard and simple sink the only other features of note.

  The room Ellie and he were sharing was small, musty-smelling and over a hundred years old. There hadn’t been a whole lot of choice in accommodation. The Pintalba Arms Hotel was a classic outback pub, two storeys tall, both levels with a covered veranda skirting the outside, accessible from each room.

  “You’re game, putting your bag on the bed like that,” said Ellie from the doorway. “If the mattress has bed bugs, they’ll end up in your pack and you’ll take them home.”

  Sam shrugged, unconcerned. “I’d have to be unlucky, and besides, the floor hardly looks like a better option.” The carpet underfoot seemed almost as old as the room itself, with a thread-bare strip worn around the bed like an animal track in a paddock.

  Ellie finally came in, placing her duffle bag of clothes on top of the armchair. She tested the door handle to the veranda and found it opened with a squeal of unoiled hinges. A lone streetlamp’s feeble light did little to penetrate the gloom along the footpaths either side of the road. Ellie chocked the door open with a cushion from the chair, letting a warm evening breeze in to air the room out.

  “Hopefully it’ll stink less once we get back from dinner.”

  “You’re not worried about being robbed? Anyone walking along the veranda will be able to come into our room.”

  “And take what? Some old t-shirts? Don’t worry, anything of value’s locked up in the cars, it’ll be fine. Now, do you want to go get some food, because I’m bloody famished.”

  ***

  On the wall beside the staircase was a series of small paintings, each no larger than an A4 sheet of paper. They had identical titles, ‘THE MINER’S MOTHER’, written in neat capitals at the base of each one. Sam stopped to inspect a few while waiting for Ellie to catch up. Every picture had a black figure as the focus, buried in amongst a background of shadows with green eyes the only distinctive colour. It was vaguely humanoid in shape in a few representations, while in others it appeared to stalk on all four limbs like a predatory cat. A shiver ran up Sam’s spine. There was something tangibly evil about each of t
he paintings, as if the central figure was biding its time, waiting for him to turn away so it could attack.

  “What are you looking at?”

  Sam jumped slightly in surprise as Ellie leaned over his shoulder, then laughed at his own response. “Don’t know really. Just some creepy paintings.”

  She wrinkled her nose at them. “Bit of an odd choice for decoration.”

  Sam gave one last glance at the brooding figures then continued downstairs, Ellie close behind. A loose floorboard squealed as he trod on the last step. At the noise, the barman looked up, giving a brief nod of acknowledgement.

  “Everything okay with your room?” he asked as the pair walked over and took a seat on two high stools at the bar. “It’s been a while since anyone’s stayed in that particular one, but I made sure there was fresh linen on the beds this morning.”

  “It’ll do fine,” said Ellie.

  If Sam didn’t know her better, he might have almost believed her.

  “This place is certainly a classic,” she said, changing the topic. “How old’s the hotel?”

  The barman folded the tea-towel with which he’d been polishing a glass, then leaned back on the bench behind his waist. “She’s been here since the town was founded, making her nearly one hundred and twenty years old. There’s been other hotels over the years, but this old bird’s the only one to survive. Although with the way things are going, I might be forced to call it quits in the new year as well.”

  “Why’s that?” asked Sam, out of politeness.

  “Ah, just the same crap that’s happening in almost every outback town like ours,” he sighed. “No jobs, the drought, and nothing worth a tourist’s visit. But you didn’t come here to give me a counselling session. I forgot to introduce myself earlier.” He reached across the bar to shake each of their hands. “My name’s Jack Horwith.”