The Cave by Bill Rogers

Author:Bill Rogers [Rogers, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Caton Books
Published: 2011-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Nobody spoke. Even Daniel who could always be counted on to say something was speechless. I think that we were all in shock. I know I was. Amina had joined the Academy in Year Seven, at the same time as the rest of us. From the start she had seemed so at ease, so together, so self-assured that it was difficult to believe that she had been through all of this.

She sat up and looked around the circle of faces. ‘My legs are cramped,’ she said. ‘I need to stretch them. I am sure that you do too.’

With that she stood, turned, and walked slowly towards the edge of our shelf. She stood there looking out across the water at the slowly shrinking vastness of the cavern. The light from the lamp, reflected back off the limestone walls and the surface of the water, threw her into silhouette. Where it touched the edges of her head and body it shimmered like the corona around a total eclipse.

‘Good idea,’ Daniel said at last. ‘And I don’t know about you lot but I don’t think I can take much more this morning. Shall we leave the questions until after Lunch?’

‘Lunch!’ Jag snorted.

He was becoming good at that, annoyingly so. Daniel was becoming equally good at ignoring his petulant outbursts.

‘You know what I mean,’ he said. ‘I hope you’re all managing to eke it out?’

Nobody responded. I knew that however hard I rationed them my meagre provisions would be gone within three days. I had a sneaking suspicion that Jag’s were already exhausted.

‘Daniel, I think you should see this,’ Amina said quietly.

He went across to join her. Curious, Naomi and I followed. Jag slunk back into his hole, Devon, still favouring his ankle, leant against the wall. Charlie remained seated, head down between his knees.

The reason she had called us over was obvious. The rock pile where our entrance tunnel had been was now completely submerged, and the water lapped our feet on the edge of the shelf.

‘Another day at the most, and we’ll have to leave this spot,’ Daniel observed, keeping his voice deliberately low. He turned to me. ‘We can move to that other cavern we found Grace. It’s higher up and far enough away.’

‘How will we get Devon over that rock wall?’ I said.

‘He’ll manage with his good leg. We can use one rope as a safety rope and another to lower him down. The same with Charlie if we have to.’

Neither of the others knew what we were talking about.

‘What rock wall...what cavern?’ Said Naomi.

‘Don’t worry, you’ll soon find out,’ Daniel told her.

‘But if we leave here how are they going to hear the whistle? How will we hear them when they break through?’

I could hear the panic in her voice. Daniel reached out and took her hand. ‘It’s alright Naomi. Sound travels miles in these caves. And I doubt that they’ll be breaking through over there.’ He nodded towards the expanse of water. ‘Not now. They’ll find some other way.

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