We Were Only Strawberry Picking (6 page)

‘Cooper, don’t be like that – you know what I mean: you need to exercise more, that’s why you’re so moody and hunched, it’s not good. Anyway, I needed to speak to you away from prying eyes, it’s important.’
What could possibly be so important,
he wondered.

‘They know about the diamonds.’ For the first time Cooper raised his head and was no longer hunched over. He was now staring at Nora taking in what she had just said.

‘What do you mean, they know about the diamonds? How…When…Who…?

‘Don’t even try to think, at this stage I don’t know how they know, in fact, I’m not a hundred percent convinced they know.’

‘I’m confused, Nora, either they do or don’t know about the diamonds, so which is it?’

‘BOTH, one of the creatures mentioned the word diamonds but I am not sure in what context, as the one that said it, seemed to be speculating whether there could be diamonds and was not absolutely certain, if that makes sense. He sounded a little bit of a dreamer, but once we have captured the little mites, all will be revealed!’

* * *

Ten minutes later further along the track, Nora thought she had heard something a little way away but her echolocation was definitely picking something up, this she was certain of.

‘Can you be quiet for a second, Cooper, I think I heard something.’

‘Help … help … Nora … help … Alfonso … Cooper… Jasper… help…’

Enoch’s voice was becoming more audible, Nora could hear more clearly now, she thought it sounded like Enoch.
What on earth was he doing on this side of the mine?
‘The bumbling idiot,’
she called him once more.

‘What is it?’ Cooper asked.

‘More like, who is it! It’s that stupid mole, Enoch, and he sounds distressed, I think he’s calling for help but he’s coming our way so we’ll pick him up. He can’t be in that much danger as he’s still talking and running, sounds like something has scared the living daylights out of him though, we’ll soon find out what,’ said Nora.

Enoch had stopped bawling for the moment as he could hear the wheels of the old tram in the distance. He was hoping and praying that it was Nora, Alfonso or Jasper.

‘Hello! Hello!’ he shouted, waving his arms in the air. ‘Nora, is that you?’

‘Yes, Enoch,’ she snapped. ‘Stay where you are, we’re almost there, I don’t want to run you over with the tram,’ although she was tempted to.
The waste of space,
she thought to herself
.
She grabbed the handle controlling the tram as she started to slow it down, until finally it came to a crunching halt as the wheels screeched on the rusty tracks – they could certainly do with some oiling,
A lovely job for Enoch after his blunders today!
decided Nora.

‘Oh, Nora, I’m so glad you are here, I lost my way back to camp, I must have gone down the wrong tunnel and did not realise for ages. I decided to retrace my steps but then I heard something in the tunnel. I proceeded to ask who was there, when suddenly I heard them. I know what these creatures are,’ declared Enoch and then he took a long pause.

‘Well, don’t keep us guessing,’ groaned Cooper. ‘Tell us then. What are they?’

‘Bears!’ he said in a shaky voice.

‘Bears … bears …’ repeated Nora.

‘Yes, bears.’ Nora now had Enoch by the scruff of his neck and was pulling on his tie, as it tightened around his neck.

‘You’re choking me, Batty,’ he wheezed, as she let go of her grip.

‘Don’t be so ridiculous, you buffoon, they cannot be bears; these creatures are small, not large.’

‘Then they must be baby bears!’ retorted Enoch.

‘Now you’re really being ridiculous.’

‘I’m telling you they’re bears, one of them growled at me. I’ve never been so scared in my life; I scooted out of that tunnel before you could say “bear” and I nearly knocked myself out in the process because I was that scared.’ Something had definitely frightened Enoch, that was evident, but Nora was adamant they were not bears, far too small and gentle for bears.

‘Oh, get in, Enoch! We’re going back to camp to work things out. Now, be quiet – you’re just not making sense. I want you to think carefully about what happened in that tunnel as we have to let the others know our next course of action, so we are relying on you for accurate information and “no” storytelling.’

For the moment all Enoch could think about was that growling bear and he was not going back in any tunnels
. He did not sign up for this,
he thought to himself,
to be eaten alive by bears …

* * *

The meerkats were now becoming restless and frustrated; they all felt like they were going around in circles.

‘Let’s take a short break and have some of the strawberries that we collected but we must ration these to make them last, after all we have no way of knowing how long we are going to be down here,’ as Henratty gave everyone an equal portion of strawberries. Jack looked down grumpily at the amount of strawberries he had been given. Henratty saw his reaction but she did not give him a chance to speak.

‘Oh, please don’t start. If you had used your brain in the first place we would probably have been rescued by now.’

‘I see, like that is it, Henratty. Well, if you had not ignored that trespassing sign in the first place we would not even be down here, so there would be no need to blame me for a foiled rescue.’

‘Will you two stop arguing for once,’ pleaded Oscar. ‘We have more important things to talk about. I say that we have no choice but to go back to the tunnel where we heard that inhabitant. He obviously knew the way out and had decided to turn back after Jack had scared him and I think he knew where he was going, having realised where he had gone wrong, if that makes sense. I don’t think we have a choice anymore.’

‘Yes, I agree with Oscar,’ said Lyndi Lou, ‘I just want to get out of here. He did sound pretty harmless – I think he was more frightened of us than we were of him, so how scary could the others be?’

‘That’s debatable but all right, I think we need to take a vote: I say we should carry on along this tunnel rather than walking into enemy hands. All those in favour of staying on this path, stick their hand up.’ Only one hand was up in the air and that was Henratty’s. She rolled her eyes in dismay but knew she had to go with their decision, albeit reluctantly.

‘I guess the decision is unanimous then, we go back to the other tunnel and try to work out from there where the creature was heading. I reckon if Jack’s torch holds out, we should be able to see footprints left by the creature and follow those. So eat up and let’s get going,’ suggested Henratty.

Indeed, they found the tunnel where Enoch had gone. They could also see a speck of blood on the ground where he had perhaps injured himself when he panicked. They followed his footprints which were clearly visible. He was definitely a fairly big animal but not as big as they had initially imagined.

It felt like they had walked for miles when suddenly they saw a flicker of light in the distance.
This looks promising, but could it be a trap, they hoped not but it was a journey they would have to take and suffer the consequences,
they all thought.

Jack led the party towards the lights and as they turned the corner he realised that this tunnel had newer tracks on it.
What a lucky find,
so he thought.

‘Look guys,’ as he aimed the torch down on the tracks. These are working tracks – I bet if we follow these they will lead us to the shaft exit. The mine obviously had working trams at some point to take all the diamonds over ground.

‘For the last time, they weren’t mining for diamonds,’ reiterated Henratty.

‘It’s a matter of opinion, they’re not exactly going to broadcast to the whole of Meerville the fact that there were diamonds down here, so I’m not convinced you’re right, we’ll see,’ retorted Jack. Henratty then shook her head in disbelief at Jack’s notion and decided it was best she ignored anymore suggestions of diamonds from Jack and let him play out his fantasy by himself.

The discovery of the tracks had certainly restored the meerkats’ confidence somewhat, but little did they realise that these tracks would only lead them straight to the inhabitants’ base, exactly where they didn’t want to be. Jack thought it was a good time for everybody to have a sip of water as he passed around his water tank and on they marched.

The lights only seem to illuminate part of the way and as they got further up the tunnel they were in pitch darkness again and at this point he got his torch out.
Indeed, Nora’s plan was working, she had suggested that they turn the lights out along the tunnel in order to restrict their visitors’ visibility as far as possible so they could easily ambush them, as well as make it much harder for them to find a way out, not that there really was a way out, or was there?

*
* *

Nora, Cooper and a distraught Enoch had arrived back at base.

‘Look they’ve found Enoch,’ spouted Poppy. ‘Oh, Enoch, so glad you are safe. What have you done to your face?’

‘Oh, nothing, I gashed it on a sharp stone on the corner of the exit of the tunnel when I was running for my life.’

‘What actually happened?’ Enoch explained how he had lost his way and ended up in the tunnel system on the other side of the mineshaft and as he started to retrace his steps he heard a noise and the next thing he knew he was being chased by a bear.

‘A bear,’ they all said. ‘How on earth did a bear get down here?’

‘Now folks, don’t listen to Enoch, it was no bear. These creatures are very small, probably not much bigger than Jasper,’ uttered Nora.

‘Well, all I can say is that I heard a bear growl at me and I know what noise a bear makes, so believe me or don’t believe me, I don’t care anymore …’

‘Enoch, you poor thing!’ said Jasper. ‘How are we ever going to fight off four bears?’

‘We’re not,’ said Cooper. ‘Did you not hear Nora say they were not bears?’

‘But Enoch heard them with his own ears,’ reminded Jasper.

‘But did you actually see the creatures?’ Cooper enquired.

‘Not exactly …’ replied Enoch.

‘Well, Nora heard the creatures talking earlier and she has the best hearing out of all of us, so I believe her when she said they were not bears,’ stressed Cooper.

Surprisingly, Nora had remained quiet throughout their conversation as she was thinking carefully about the next course of action. Nancy had made everyone a cup of strawberry tea as they all sat around the table. They sipped on the delicious tea, apart from Escargot who was fast asleep as per usual. Nancy tapped on his shell to wake him up as she left a saucer of tea for him and out popped his head.

‘Have I missed anything? Um, strawberry tea – thank you, Nancy,’ as he inhaled the scent of the sickly sweet strawberries and siphoned some of the tea.

‘I suspect the little creatures are heading this way, as they obviously know they were not the only ones down here in this mine and were looking for a way out. They would have thought Enoch could lead them to the actual way out, which is why I suspect they were following him as they heard him talking to himself in the tunnel – you were talking to yourself again, I take it, Enoch?’ He looked a little embarrassed but confessed: ‘Yes I’m sorry, it’s the only way I remember things!’

‘Right I suggest that Alfonso, Enoch and Jasper come with me and bring that net with you. I should be able to hear the creatures when they are fairly close and as they come out of the tram tunnel into the camp tunnel, we will capture them with this net. I will act as bait and hang above the little creatures to distract them and then you can throw the net,’ suggested Nora.

‘What a brilliant idea,’ remarked Cooper.

‘We don’t have much time left, so come with me and the rest of you, please be vigilant, as they could be smarter than we think and come from the other side of the tunnel but that would mean they won’t get here until much later, judging by where Enoch said he had heard them. So, are we ready?’ asked Nora.

‘Yes, Nora,’ and off they went.

Back at the Mortimers’ house, Mama Mortimer was starting to get a little worried, as she looked at the clock. It was gone five and still no sign of Henratty and Lyndi Lou. She just had this sick feeling that something was wrong. She decided to wait a little longer as Papa Mortimer would be home shortly and then they could consider what they should do.