Underworld (19 page)

They needed Axel. Axel was strong.

‘Axel!!!!!' He screamed out his name. This time he had to come.

It wasn't a dream. Axel realised that now. It was Liam's voice calling him. He sat up, shone his light around the cave, and couldn't see him.

‘Where are you?' He knew the answer almost as soon as he asked the question. He was … in there. In that tight, dark tunnel.

‘You have to come and help us.' Liam's voice gasped with exhaustion.

Axel jumped to his feet, and stepped back, almost as if some unseen fist had reached out to grab him. He was shaking his head. Back, in there? No chance.

‘Are you stuck?'

‘Not me, Axel.' His voice had that eerie echoing quality. Ghostly. Was this really Liam? he thought. Or was it his ghost, luring him back into his worst nightmare? Like … like … he tried to remember the name of the women who used their ghostly voices to
lure sailors on to rocks.

Sirens. They were called sirens.

‘Axel!' Liam shouted. ‘It's Mr Marks. I can't pull him through by myself. You've got to help.'

Without a second's hesitation Axel shouted back, ‘Leave him.'

‘I can't leave him, Axel. And anyway, Zesh and Fiona are on the other side They've got to get through as well.'

Zesh and Fiona. What did he care about them? ‘Leave him,' he said again. ‘He's caused us nothing but trouble.'

‘Axel …' Liam called again.

I wish I could see him, Axel thought. It's scary knowing he's there, calling out to me and I can't see him.

‘Please, Axel, hurry, the water's rising on the other side.'

Why should he help anybody? None of them liked him, and as for Marks, why should he do anything to help
him
? This was all his fault.

‘Axel! Are you there?'

Axel could hear him, but he couldn't answer him. He even switched off his lamp. If Liam thought he wasn't there, that he'd moved on ahead, he would stop calling to him. Maybe.

No one could expect him to go back into that tunnel. The death dream picture of that rock wall suffocating him made him catch his breath, as if he was still there. Still trapped. No. Nothing would make him go back down into that hole that only worms should inhabit.

‘Don't ask me to go back,' he heard himself say. ‘Cannae do it.'

‘Please,' Liam called to him.

Was that a scream he could hear in the distance? A yell that could only come from Fiona. Screaming at him to come. No use. He wasn't going. The terror of that memory hung about him, whispering in his ear that if he went back down there, it would never let him out this time. He would be trapped down there for ever, merging into rock, becoming stone. He felt once again the stone wrapping itself around him. Felt it touching his face, so he couldn't move his head in any direction. Not ever again.

Marks was in there now. Trapped like him. Axel's bones turned to ice.

No. No one could expect him to go back there.

Liam waited for an age. Finally, he gave up. There was no point wasting energy by shouting again. Axel wasn't
coming. ‘We'll just have to keep trying to get him out by ourselves.'

Fiona screamed. ‘That's what we've been trying to do, stupid. Axel was right. We should have left him.'

Liam thought that even Mr Marks would have said the same thing. They should have left him behind.

‘Now me and Zesh are stuck back here … and the water's coming in here fast.'

Fiona's voice trembled. She'd never admit to being frightened, but she sounded scared.

Liam pulled again at Mr Marks, hoping he would find a strength he never knew he had. People did that. He'd read about mothers lifting cars from their children, of people showing superhuman strength when they most needed it. He gripped the teacher's shoulders, and he prayed. Sweat broke from him, ran down his face. He tried with everything he had left to pull the teacher through, knowing that Zesh and Fiona were doing the same on the other side of the hole.

‘Can't do it,' he said, almost to himself.

‘It's no use,' Zesh called through the rock.

He knew it was useless. Skinny Liam, how could he hope to have the strength to haul at the teacher, pull him to safety?

In that one moment of despair, he was pulled by the legs right out of the hole. ‘I'll get him.' It was Axel. He knocked Liam out of the way. He didn't even look at him. His eyes focused on the teacher, nothing else. As if he was trying to shut out where he was, with the walls closing in on him.

Liam shouted with excitement. ‘Axel's here!'

‘Axel!' He heard the shock in Fiona's voice.

Liam touched Axel's shoulder. ‘What made you –'

‘– change my mind?' Axel finished for him. Still he didn't look at him. ‘Couldn't let even him be stuck here for ever. Not here.'

He slid himself down back into that tiny space. It was then that Liam saw just how strong Axel really was, as he pulled the teacher through the narrow opening, inch by inch. Concentrating hard, Liam was sure, because he needed to forget where he was.

‘We're doing it!' Liam yelled back to Zesh and Fiona. And when they heard him they started yelling. ‘Hurry up!'

Lifting him up the U-bend was the hardest part. Liam could never have done that alone. Axel was needed for that. He backed out of the hole, hauling Mr Marks by the shoulders. And behind the teacher Fiona
scrabbled through. Zesh followed her, twisting himself through, looking unkempt and sweaty. Together they hauled the teacher up on to the high ground in the chamber and laid him flat.

Only then did Axel fall back, drained. Liam was shaking. Fiona was trying to stop the tears. Zesh lay flat, took out his inhaler and breathed in again. Deep in the other chamber they could hear the rush of water filling it up. As if it was flooding already. They had made it just in time.

‘We've probably killed him, dragging him through there.' Fiona was moaning again, feeling for a pulse. She threw the teacher's limp hand from her. ‘What am I doing? I'm no zonking Florence Nightingale. I don't even know where a pulse is.'

They had slept after their ordeal, for how long, none of them knew. But now, they were all wondering why Mr Marks had hardly stirred. Was he dying? He looked as if he was. ‘Maybe we broke something. I mean, how does he no' wake up?'

‘You said it was concussion. Remember? You were going to be a doctor earlier,' Zesh reminded Fiona.

‘Trust you to remember that!' she snapped at him.

‘We've taken him this far, we might as well take him the rest.' It was Liam who said it and no one argued. Not even Axel. ‘We must be close. The caves lead out to the Doon,' he said.

Fiona looked at him in surprise. ‘You really did listen to him, didn't you?'

‘Course I did,' Liam said. ‘The chamber's bigger here. We follow this and it has to lead us out to the sea.'

They didn't say that Mr Marks had also said not all the caves led out to the sea: under the island there was a warren of caves, some of them leading nowhere.

Fiona grinned at him. ‘Quite a wee bossy boots when you put your mind to it, eh Liam?'

Liam wanted to smile back, but he didn't dare. What if Zesh laughed at him, or Axel?

Fiona turned to Axel. ‘That was great by the way, Axel. We really needed you there.'

Axel stared at her, as if he was expecting one of her smart remarks. She wanted to reassure him that she meant every word. ‘I'm serious. Not that you shouldn't have helped us anyway. We needed a big strong boy, and that's you.'

Zesh added softly, almost as if he was forcing the words out. ‘Yes, thanks, Axel.'

That really got up Fiona's nose. ‘What are you thanking him for? He took your inhaler. That was one crap thing to do.'

‘He made up for it,' Zesh said.

That only made her worse. ‘Made up for it! He didn't even come back to get you. Liam probably only got it because it fell out of Axel's pocket and he never noticed. He wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire. So less of the
Friends
patter. You'll be wanting a group hug next. One good deed does not make a hero!'

‘Shut up, Fiona!' they all shouted.

They didn't know, Axel was thinking. Liam hadn't told them that Axel had handed the inhaler back meekly. Why? He couldn't bear to look at Liam, because he didn't know how he felt about that. Why hadn't he told them? Was it because he wanted to wait until Axel was with them, and then humiliate him? And yet, here he was, and Liam still hadn't said a word. He wanted to ask him why. In fact, he wanted to grab Liam, push him up against a wall, make him tell just what his game was.

But that kind of behaviour seemed an age away. He could never treat Liam like that again. Maybe he'd never be able to treat anyone like that again.

Axel glanced at Zesh, lying back against the wall. He held tightly on to that inhaler of his. He'd never let it out of his hand again. And would Axel do what he had done before? Attack him, run at him, take it from him?

No. That was in another life, another world. The world up there. Down here, they had all changed.

Liam stood up. ‘Time we were moving,' he said.

And they all stood up and followed him.

There was a spring in their step as they moved forwards now. Zesh supposed the rest of them felt as he did – they were on their way out. They had to be. They had all faced the worst and come through it.

All except Angie. His heart sank when he thought of poor Angie and her fate. He glanced at Fiona, on the other side of Mr Marks. Had she forgotten already? Somehow he didn't think she had.

She caught him watching her. ‘What are you looking at!' she demanded. She didn't expect an answer. ‘I don't even think he's as heavy as he was.' She meant Mr Marks. ‘Do you think he's lost weight?'

But of course, Axel was now taking a lot of the teacher's weight. Axel was strong. Zesh had been so sure he would have objected to taking the teacher on with them, but no. When Liam had told him to lift him, he had lifted him. Maybe now that Axel had actually saved
Mr Marks's life, he felt responsible for him. Whatever the reason, it was a big change. Axel had changed. So had Liam. Had he, Zesh, changed? All he knew was that he was happy to move along behind Liam, finding his breathing easier with every passing moment.

‘If Angie was here she would have us singing.' He regretted mentioning Angie right away.

Fiona let out a cry. ‘Don't talk about Angie. I left her. Maybe she came back.'

But they all knew now, that even if she had come back, she would be doomed. Drowned in the black water that filled the caves behind them. Fiona stopped suddenly. ‘I was so nasty to her, and she never even noticed. She was always telling stories and I never believed her. She never took offence, no matter how nasty you were to her.'

‘You were nicer to her than the rest of us,' Zesh said.

‘Aye, I suppose I was.' A moment later she was off again. ‘She was a really nice person. See Angie, what you saw was what you got. No secrets. She was just Angie.'

Zesh had to agree with that. Angie had been a nice girl when they'd come on the trip, and with the last thing she'd done, trying to help Zesh, she was still a
nice girl. ‘It's funny though,' he said. ‘We never really knew anything about her. Where she came from, or anything. We'll never know now. Now that she's …'

Axel burst into the conversation. ‘I suppose that's my fault.' He'd hardly spoken before this, and his voice seemed to boom out through the caves. ‘Suppose it was. But I didn't push her. You can all swear to that. I never touched her.'

Did he think they were going to blame him?

‘Time enough to talk about Angie when we get out,' Liam said. ‘Let's get on.'

There was a feeling, Zesh was sure they all felt it, that there was a need for speed. No stopping, maybe a final rush to the outside world. They moved on silently, but each thinking they were close. They had to be. The caves were massive here, big enough for giants to pass through. They had to lead out.

‘No! This can't be!' Fiona screamed out her frustration. They all stopped, tiredness aching through them. ‘What's happening?'

They had reached a wall of stone. Liam ran up to it, and beat his fists against it. ‘This can't be!'

Axel ran too, feeling around the stone as if he might
find a lever, and the wall might fly open like Aladdin's cave.

Zesh looked around, flashing his light around the cave. ‘There were no other caves leading out, were there?' Had they missed something? Would they have to go back? No! ‘There has to be another tunnel here!'

‘Well, there's no'!' Fiona screamed. ‘No zonking way out.'

She threw herself on the ground, buried her face in her hands. ‘They're never going to find us. We'll be here for ever. We'll turn into a bunch of cannibals.'

Axel was folding his fists open and shut angrily. ‘I'm no' staying here. If there's a way out I'm gonny find it.'

He was beginning to panic, terrified that the only other way out might be yet another tiny cramped space. And he wouldn't go there again. So, he'd never get out.

‘We'll go back. We must have missed something.'

‘We can't go back. It's flooded back there.' Liam leaned against the stone. He'd been sure too, expecting at every turning to see light, stretching way ahead of them. He had almost been able to smell the sea. Had they taken a wrong turning? Had they missed another entrance, the right cave? Or was the way out behind them, flooded for another age, and they were indeed
trapped in here for ever?

Liam made a sudden mad rush at the prone body of the teacher, flung himself down beside him, grabbed him by the collar. ‘Where's the way out!' he shook him. ‘How do we find it!'