Eleven, Twelve ... Dig and delve (Rebekka Franck Book 6) (20 page)

“Who’s there?” she said, her voice shaking in fear.

What if it’s Thomas? What if he survived somehow and escaped?

But it wasn’t Thomas. The voice answering was one she knew, one she knew she could trust.

62

T
HE CAMERA WAS
removed after we had been waving for about an hour, and soon something else was lowered into the hole through the pipe. A plastic bottle fell to the ground.

“It’s a letter!” Annette yelled. “There’s a letter inside of it.”

I picked it up and opened the bottle. My hands were shaking when I unfolded the paper and read it out. It simply said:

We know you’re down there. Hold on tight and we’ll get you help.

I looked at David and smiled. Everyone around us was cheering loudly. Even Brian Jansen.

“We’re getting out,” I said, my voice cracking with joy.

Can this really be? Are we really being rescued after all this time?

“You’ll see your babies,” he said.

I hugged him again. He held me tightly in his arms.

“I can’t believe it,” I said, almost crying with joy.

“Me either,” David said.

It was the strangest feeling of euphoria that spread among us. Everyone was hugging each other, many were crying, and some laughing, but it didn’t last very long. Our happiness was suddenly broken when we heard a loud scream coming from one of the tunnels. The screaming continued. It sounded like it was distant, but it was always hard to tell in those mines.

My heart stopped.

“What is that?” David asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m afraid someone is in trouble.”

“Should we do something?” he asked. “Form a patrol and go see what it is?”

I stared at him. Part of me wanted to say no, for the simple reason that I couldn’t bear any more misery. Not in this hour of happiness. I wanted to celebrate, not go into the tunnels and find more dead, half-eaten bodies.

Irene suddenly pulled my shoulder. “Have you seen Benjamin? Have you seen my son?”

I turned to look around in the cave. “No. I remember seeing him earlier. He was just here.”

“He
was
here right before when the letter came through the pipe. He kissed me on the cheek and hugged me after you read it out loud. I spoke to Annette, and a few minutes later I turned to look for him, and he was gone. Did you see where he went?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m sorry. But I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.” But I had suddenly started to worry. Everyone else who had left suddenly had never come back. Michael West, we had found; Mrs. Sigumfeldt, I found. Mr. Bjerrehus and Malene were never found, but I had a feeling they had both been killed inside those tunnels, just like Michael West and Mrs. Sigumfeldt, and I had a feeling I knew who had done it.

I threw a glance at Brian, who was hugging Kurt’s wife Annette in happiness. Could he have kidnapped Benjamin? Forced him to go somewhere with him just to kill him? As far as I knew, Brian, had been here all the time. It didn’t seem possible. I was puzzled. The screams stopped just as suddenly as they had started. David and I looked at each other again. I had no idea what to do. There was no way we could not react to this. There was no way I could ever live with myself. Especially not now that we knew we had a chance of actually surviving.

A thud made me turn and look. Something was shooting through the hole in the ceiling and landing on the ground.

“It’s water,” Kurt yelled. “Bottles of fresh water.”

The bottles kept falling down through the pipe. I ran to grab one myself and drank greedily. David did the same. Never had water tasted this good.

“More is coming.” Annette yelled. “It’s food!”

Packs of crackers fell through the pipe and landed in a pile on the ground. I counted at least ten packages. We threw ourselves at them and ate. I hadn’t forgotten about the screams, but at that point, I had to think about my own survival.

More food came through the hole, this time it was a loaf of bread, then another and another. Up to maybe twenty loaves of bread, then some fresh fruit…bananas, enough for everyone and deliciously juicy apples.

“Remember to eat small portions,” David told everyone, drawing on his own experience from coming back from Syria. “Your body needs to get used to being fed again. Slowly increase the portions over the coming days.”

I drank mostly water and ate some crackers, then topped it off with a banana, and then I was full. I looked at David.

“Now that we have some strength, do you think we should go check who was screaming?”

He nodded. “We’d better.”

Just as we got up to get going, someone entered the cave.

“Hey, can I get a little help here?”

It was Benjamin. In his arms, he was carrying Malene.

63

“
I
HEARD HER
scream and ran through the tunnels towards the sound,” Benjamin said, and put Malene on the ground with David’s help.

“I met her in one of the tunnels. She was so scared. I spoke to her gently and told her it was just me. Then, she fainted, and I had to carry her back.”

“I wonder where she’s been all these days?” I asked, and examined her. She was in a very bad state. Her face was bruised and swollen; her leg looked like it was broken.

“Someone beat her badly,” David said. “She needs medical attention.”

“But how?” I asked.

He sighed. “I don’t know, but we have to somehow tell them on the surface. We have several who need to see a doctor soon.”

Benjamin’s mother Irene brought him water and food. He ate greedily while looking at Malene.

“You did a good thing saving her, son,” Irene said.

Benjamin looked worried. “Will she be alright?”

“Not if she doesn’t get to a hospital soon,” David said.

He walked to the pipe and tried to yell into it. “We need help! Someone is badly hurt!”

I looked at Afrim. Kenneth had made sure to bring him water and food. But he wasn’t doing well either. He was mushroom-pale and shaking. He tried to smile while clinging onto his dog.

It suddenly occurred to me that maybe we did have contact with the outside world, but we weren’t in the clear yet. We were still buried deep underground.

Something was lowered through the pipe. We went to take a look at it.

“It’s a telephone receiver,” Kenneth said. He grabbed the earpiece and listened.

“We need help,” he said. “Medical help. Someone is badly hurt.”

He listened. We all crept closer, like we thought we would be able to listen in as well. My heart was pounding in my throat. Kenneth didn’t look happy.

“But…but we need help now. People are hurt!” he said angrily. “We can’t wait that long. How…”

He stopped to listen again, then removed the earpiece, and looked at all of us. It didn’t look good.

Uh-oh!

“I’m sorry, my friends,” he said. His voice was breaking. “It’s going to take a while for them to dig us out.”

“How long?” asked Lars. The tone in his voice was angry.

“Maybe a month.”

A month????

The news made Annette start to scream. Brian was yelling. Someone was crying; others were grumbling angrily. I stared at David, then at Afrim, Frederic, and Malene.

There is no way they will survive that long down here.

“What are we going to do?” I asked David. I held back my tears, but it was hard. This was brutal. It was more than I could take. I couldn’t even find it in me to be happy that I might see my kids again. Not when I knew Afrim wouldn’t ever get to come with us. Neither would Frederic or Malene. Or Buster, for that matter. How was I ever going to live with myself?

“Why can’t they do it faster?” I heard Brian Jansen ask Kenneth, almost attacking him like it was his fault.

Kenneth took a couple of steps backwards. Brian was acting aggressively towards him. I pulled David’s shoulder, so he could be prepared to step in if it was necessary.

“I…the ground is too unstable…they’re afraid it’ll crash in on us,” Kenneth tried to explain. “They have to be careful.”

“So, they expect us to just stay put down here for a month, huh? Being fed like animals at the zoo?” Brian asked.

“Let’s not…Let’s try and stay calm, shall we?” Kenneth said, but Brian had him pinned up against a wall now. David interfered.

“Stop it, Brian,” he said. “We’re all in the same boat here. Let go of Kenneth.”

Brian looked angrily at Kenneth, then let him go. He grunted as he passed David and me, pointing his finger at us. “I’ve about had it with you two. You better sleep with one eye open from now on.”

64

T
HEY HAD REACHED
the part of the mines where they ran out of tracks, and soon there was no more light either. Martin and Sune had prepared for that and brought flashlights and plenty of batteries. Sune reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. There was no signal, they were now completely out of reach. They had spent the entire day yesterday preparing for going into the mines on their own. They had researched everything there was to know about the mines and the underground, then gone to a shop and bought the right equipment to be able to survive for days. They had brought lots of water and food. They had warm sleeping bags, rope, knives, and pickaxes. They were wearing hiking boots and, most importantly of all, they had brought paper and a pen to map the mines so they wouldn’t get lost. There were two underground lakes in the mines, but no one had ever gone deeper than that, so there was no map, and no one knew what was waiting for them down there. For all they knew, they might run into a dead end, and that would be it.

But at least they would have tried.

Martin felt optimistic, even though he knew the odds were against them; even though it was a long shot, and even though everyone was probably right that they were all dead. Maybe Martin was just refusing to admit that his brother had died. Maybe they were right about that. But he just couldn’t let the thought go…that
what if
. What if he was still alive underground in the mines somehow?

“We have to go to our right here,” Sune said, and looked at the only map they had managed to get ahold of. The top level of the mines was usually open to the public, but only in the summer. The rest of the year, it was closed to let the bats live and breed in peace. It was a certain rare type of bat that lived in the mines that had to be preserved. Other than that, the mines were only used for conserving cheese from one of the biggest cheese manufacturers in Denmark.
Riberhus oste
let their cheeses ripen inside the tunnels at one of the top levels for three weeks, because of the constant temperature and moisture in there. They were, apparently, perfect conditions.

“We’ll get to one of the lakes in a few minutes,” he continued. “After that follows the second one, and then we’re on our own.”

They went through a tunnel and ended in a big chamber where the lake was. It was cold and clammy in there. Sune put on a jacket. Martin did the same. They had still only reached the top layers of the mines. It was believed that they continued six layers down. That’s what they knew of, but Sune and Martin had spoken to a local engineer who had told him that it was only a guess. No one knew exactly how deep they went or how far the tunnels spread. In his opinion, they shouldn’t have been allowed to build houses so close to the mines in the first place. He had a colleague who had tried to warn the city about it for years, he told them.

“We believe he fell in the hole with the rest of the neighborhood,” he said. “He was out there taking samples when the crash happened. He had been keeping an eye on the area for a long time, never would give up. I guess he was finally right in the end. Guess being right is highly overrated after all.”

The lake was right in front of them now. It was stunning. The cave was as high as a cathedral, and the water reflected their flashlights. They continued on dry land past it and by the time they saw the second lake, they stopped to get a sip of water from their bottles.

“As soon as we enter that tunnel over there, we’re on our own,” Sune said. “No maps, no help to be had. Are you ready for that?”

Martin nodded. He was scared, but hopeful. This felt good. Finally, he felt like he was actually doing something instead of just watching from behind the police blockage. He was finally trying to really help his brother.

“I’m ready,” he said, and put his backpack back on.

Sune smiled and nodded. “Let’s go then. Let’s go find them.”

Day 15

October 20
^th
2014

T
HE ONLY WAY IS UP

65

T
HE MOOD IN
the cave was unbearable. No one spoke anymore. Most were simply sitting with their backs against the wall, waiting. We had been in this state for three days now. It was evening again, and yet another night was ahead of us in the cave. They had lowered a big lamp for us that was lighting up the entire cave. I hated when it was time to shut it off and go to sleep. The nights seemed endless in the darkness.

Was this what we were going to do for the next month? Simply sit here and wait? Wait while some of us might die?

I sat next to Afrim and put my arm around him. He was burning up. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he knew he wasn’t going to make it. They had lowered medicine for the fever, but it didn’t help. The infection was too bad. Buster was panting heavily. He was short of breath and his heart was beating fast. He had hardly touched the water I had given him. He too knew he was running out of time.

Brian Jansen was constantly eating. He refused to listen to David’s advice on taking it slow for the first few days. It looked like he was afraid he was never going to get fed again. Even though they kept throwing food down the pipe several times a day. It was the strangest thing. All of a sudden, getting water and food enough was no issue. It dawned on me how fast your circumstances could change. And you along with it. People in the cave had started to change. They were quarrelling and snapping at each other. I couldn’t blame them. The waiting was a drag.