Josh and the Mine by John Welford

Author:John Welford [Welford, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781984500762
Publisher: Xlibris AU
Published: 2018-09-13T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Josh Finds John and Matt

As I got over that awful pile of rocks and opened my eyes, my head torch lit up the tunnel. Wow! Had it changed or what? There were rocks everywhere on the floor; not much of the flat part was left. In fact, there seemed to be only one flat part before the rocks built up again in the direction of the entrance. Of course, it wasn’t there now. But instead, on the only flat part of the floor, I found Matt. He had a blanket wrapped round him, and there was another blanket on the floor in a bundle. His face was streaked and very dirty, and his head torch was smashed. There was dried blood smeared round his lips, and his hands were black with it. He’d been in the dark, just like I had a long, long time ago. It looked as though he’d been crying too. At least I wasn’t the only one.

I rushed over to him over the rocks and hugged him as he stood up. And I whispered, because I hadn’t forgotten what a shout could do here. ‘Hey, Matt, we’ve come to get you and John!’

‘Huh?’

Matt’s always quick when he’s just been woken up. Not. And I’d just woken him up—as I found out when he went, ‘Wha’ … what time is it?’ He always says that when he’s woken up.

‘Duh! It’s time to rescue you and John. Where is John?’

Matt grabbed my arm and whispered, ‘He’s on the floor under the blanket. He’s trapped by somethin’ in the rocks, an’ I can’t get him out. The rocks are too big. He keeps passing out. I had to give him mouth-to-mouth lots of times. I think he’s going to die.’ I could tell Matt was trying not to cry.

Now I was really, really worried, so worried I wanted to throw up.

Matt bent down and moved the other blanket. All at once I could see John’s head and shoulders. His helmet was still on, but there was no head torch on it. There was blood and a sort of clear liquid coming out of his ear. His forehead was bandaged over the helmet and all, and blood had dried on his face. There was a trickle of blood and that clear stuff coming out of his nose, and there were smears of blood on his lips that looked like those on Matt’s face. His head was resting on part of the blanket. The rest of his body from his waist down was covered in rocks, and there was a big chunk of timber sticking out of the rocks near where his hips would have been if I could see them. He was still breathing, but it sounded funny. His breath was coming in quick puffs, and there was a sort of moaning, snoring sound with each puff. There was a lot of dried blood on the floor and the blanket by his head.

I leaned down and felt for the pulse under his ear like we’ve been taught in health ed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.