Below by David Hill

Author:David Hill [Hill, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781776956708
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-THREE

They slumped against the cabin walls. Liam felt shaky, his legs and arms kept trembling. The rushing outside, the shouting and listening and hoping had worn him out. His body was running low on fuel, like an engine getting slower and slower and finally faltering to a stop. Imogen sat silent opposite, and he knew without looking that she was as exhausted as him.

He’d hoped for so much when they heard the first drill. He’d imagined the messages from outside where the sun shone and trees grew, his mum and dad finding out he was OK. He’d imagined food being sent down to them: bars of chocolate, even a hamburger, somehow. They’d get another torch: heaps of torches, so they wouldn’t need to worry about the cabin lights running out. Rescuers would know exactly where to start on a bigger shaft to get them out, and they’d soon be up in the beautiful bright air again. None of these things had happened.

There were no more drill sounds. They must be trying miles away, Liam thought. After a couple of hours (his watch read 3.49pm; they’d been in here now for nearly eighty hours), the mutter of a distant rockfall came instead, somewhere back towards the tunnel entrance. They’ll never reach us that way, Liam thought. They’ll never reach us any way. All the amazing machines, all the skills that had gone into building Lucia and other tunnelling inventions were useless now. Just a few hours ago, he’d felt so full of hope, so confident. It had all vanished for ever.

‘They’ve given up, haven’t they?’ Imogen’s voice sounded thick and flat. Her lips were cracked, Liam saw. They needed to drink more water. ‘First their precious tunnel fell down; now they’ve given up.’

‘Look — I keep telling you!’ Liam still had enough energy to feel angry at her. ‘Miners and tunnellers don’t give up. They’ll be working out the best way to get to us.’

‘How can they tell, if they ever do find us?’

‘They …’ Liam tried to picture it. ‘If the drill just keeps grinding, they’ll know they’re still in solid rock. If it goes down faster suddenly, and stops grinding, they’ll have found an empty space.’ He waved at the cavern outside. ‘Like this. That’s where they’ll hope to find anyone alive.’

The girl didn’t reply. ‘It’s weird,’ she said, after a few more seconds. ‘I was trying to decide the first things I’d ask for when they reached us. Soap and shampoo. A towel, even. A new phone.’

I was deciding stuff like that, too, Liam thought again. And mine were just as hopeless.

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