In The Dark (6 page)

EJ sat down in the tunnel and took out her tub of face concealer. She put her torch on the ground, opened the tub and smeared the black cream on her face, then did a quick check in the mirror under the lid of the tub. She could hardly see herself. It was perfect.

As she got up she accidentally kicked the torch and sent it crashing into the tunnel's rock wall. There was a cracking noise and EJ was in complete darkness—she had broken her torch. She sat on the ground, trying to think her way out of feeling really, really scared.

Okay, so it is a little dark, okay very dark, but so what?
EJ told herself.
What's so bad about that?

‘Oh, I can tell you,' she answered her own question, her heart starting to pound again. ‘How about spiders, snakes, tunnels caving in, crazy
SHADOW
agents creeping up on you...'

‘Stop it,' said EJ out loud. ‘You're doing it again. Remember what A1 said. Don't let your imagination run away with you. “Shine a light on your fears.” I need to see to do that, so let's just get something else from the light bag on the ground next to me. Here? No, here? No.' EJ groped around frantically trying to find the black backpack in the darkness. She could feel the dirt, some rock, but no bag. She stretched her hands out and touched a strap. EJ pulled the bag towards her and felt around inside. She knew what she was searching for and when her hand touched a narrow case, she pulled it out. Opening the case, EJ took out the night-vision glasses. She put them on and flicked the switch on the side of the glasses. Immediately she could see about ten metres around her, all through the green glare of the night-vision glasses.

I may have lost my torch,
thought EJ looking on the bright side,
but these leave my hands free and I can see better with them.
EJ felt a little proud of herself and she was sure her mum would be very proud.

With her glasses on, EJ immediately found her torch, or what was left of it. She leant down and hit the Eco-Deco button on the base of the handle. Eco-Deco was another
SHINE
invention that got rid of mission equipment once it was broken or finished with. All
SHINE
gear was made from materials that could decompose. The agent simply pushed a button and the piece of equipment would break down. No one would ever know that the agent had been there and it was good for the environment. There was one downside however. The process was quite noisy in a farty, burpy kind of way and, as you would expect from those noises, quite smelly as well. With some of the larger equipment it could be explosive. Even with something the size of a torch, EJ knew better than to hang around. She picked up
her backpack and walked off down the tunnel. Even a long dark tunnel would be better than the smell that was about to come.

Now that she could see better, EJ was half-wishing she couldn't. The first thing she saw was cobwebs and cobwebs meant spiders. The only spiders EJ liked were the ones you made with lemonade and ice-cream. She really, really didn't like the ones that were hairy and crawly. She was scared of them the way some people were scared of snakes or mice. Even the ones that she knew weren't dangerous, like daddy-long-legs, scared her. She always imagined them crawling on her. Yuk!

EJ ran her hands along the rock walls of the tunnel as she walked and they felt hard and cold. Down in the tunnel the air smelled musty and with no wind it was completely still. It was so different from walking in the dark outside in the bush. EJ almost missed the bird and animal noises. The complete silence made her feel really alone. But she wasn't alone because somewhere in the mine was Adriana or Alexandra hard at work on turning
SHINE's
lights out. Hardly a comforting thought.

The tunnel suddenly split into two paths.
Which one to take?
EJ wondered. She took the path to the right and had walked some way when she found it blocked by a large slab of fallen rock.
Not too large though,
thought EJ, as she pushed on the rock, feeling it give a bit under her weight. Another push and she felt it lift a little. With a third really big push, EJ rolled the rock over and off the track. As the rock lifted, spiders rushed out, scattering. It seemed like there were hundreds of them scuttling towards EJ. She jumped back with a scream.

EJ stood there, frozen, staring at the stream of spiders. There was no way she could get past them. She fiddled with her charm bracelet, as she often did when she was nervous, or thinking. Now, because she was both, she was fiddling a lot, which was when she noticed one of the new charms, the little ladybug.
What does that one do?
she wondered.
Might it help?
She took out her phone and was about to check her animal app when she noticed a new app on her phone screen.

That's a good idea, thought EJ, as she scrolled down the charms. It takes some of the guesswork out of using them. All of the hundreds of
SHINE
charms were listed with little pictures and explanations of what they could do. There was a dolphin, a guitar, an ice-cream, and, hmmm, a cupcake ... She wondered if you could order them for future use. Then she came to the one she needed right now.

Perfect! Well nearly. The instructions said you had to use the charm close to the spiders. EJ took a deep breath and, making sure she was leaning over the centre of the swarm, twisted the charm.

A cloud of smelly smoke came out of the ladybug and EJ watched the spiders rush away, moving back into the rocks at the side of the path. After a few moments, with almost all of the spiders gone, EJ could continue. Now the path kept turning and EJ kept walking. As she did, she got the feeling that something wasn't quite right. Then she thought she could smell the ladybug smoke again. She could. EJ's heart sank when she saw the rock she had moved and a few last spiders scrambling into rock crevices. She had gone in a complete circle.

What a waste of time,
thought EJ.

She looked down at her sun charm, which had turned from a light orange to a deeper, redder colour. Adriana or Alexandra and Operation Lights Out
were somewhere in this mine but would she ever find it if she kept walking in circles?

EJ needed a plan, and quickly.

EJ needed something to mark her path so she would know if she was doubling back, but what would work in darkness? Could she leave a trail of rocks behind her? Even with night-vision glasses it would be hard to see them and one rock looked pretty much like another. That wouldn't work.
But what would?
wondered EJ. EJ looked down at her charm bracelet. Would one of the new charms be able to help her make some kind of marking? Then EJ remembered her mission briefing. She had been
given a charm that looked like a piece of string. That could be something. Again, she opened the charm app on her phone and flicked through the charm listings.

EJ twisted the charm and, as she did, string poked out from it. The string was thin but extremely tough and better still, it glowed. The more EJ pulled the glow string, the more it came out. EJ looked around and found a large rock, tied the string around it and then walked away, feeding the string out and leaving a thin but bright glowing trail behind her. She headed down the tunnel and this time, when she came to the fork in the path, she went to the left. As she turned, she checked the string. It was still feeding out. EJ felt better knowing that not only
would she not double back on herself but she would also be able to go back if she needed to. That was comforting as she travelled deeper into the mine.

Suddenly, as EJ turned another corner, she thought she could hear music. EJ checked her phone, thinking she may have accidentally turned on her music app but it was off. She continued walking and the tunnel began to turn again, and there it was again, the music, this time getting louder. If there was music, surely there was someone listening to it. Adriana? Alexandra? It had to be. And if EJ could hear it she must be getting close.

And then there was another noise.

EJ spun around.
What is that?
As she spun, she was still feeding the string out. She twisted it around herself and fell to the ground. Her glasses were knocked off and, except for the thin line that was her glow string, EJ could see nothing. Once again she groped around. She couldn't feel anything but
dirt. Slowly, feeling the tunnel wall, she stood up and took a step forward. As she did, she heard a cracking, crunching sound. The cracking, crunching sound of glass.

Please don't tell me I've stepped on my night-vision glasses,
thought EJ. She crouched down again and felt around on the ground. As soon as she touched the glasses she could tell they were ruined. She felt for the button on the side, flicked it, and Eco-Deco swung into smelly action. In just a few minutes there would be nothing left of the night-vision glasses.

At least there was still the mini torch in her light bag. EJ pulled the bag off her back, rifled around inside and found the slim torch. She shone it around the tunnel but she could barely see a step ahead of her. EJ moved slowly, one hand out in front of her and the other running along the tunnel wall, listening, trying to follow the music.

That wasn't music.

EJ gulped and stopped. What could that noise be? A ghost? EJ shuddered.
Ghosts aren't real,
she thought.
It's just your imagination. Stop thinking about it.

But she couldn't, and then there it was again.

‘It can't be something that doesn't exist, it can't be a ghost, it just can't,' said EJ out loud to herself, and then she heard the music again. For a moment she was distracted. She could hear the music clearly now and, unless EJ was mistaken, it was ‘Getting Dark', the latest song from one of the most popular bands, the Pink Shadows.

But there was that other noise again. The scary it-can't-be-a-ghost noise.

As EJ twisted around to face the direction of the sound, she stumbled and dropped her torch.
Her last torch. There was no light now except the thin glow of the string. She felt for the string but this time as she moved it, something pulled back. Something was pulling the string. Or someone.

Then, as EJ stood still, she saw them in the darkness.

A pair of eyes.

A pair of green, glowing eyes.

A pair of green, glowing eyes coming towards EJ. And as EJ pulled the string, whatever the eyes belonged to seemed to pull it back.

EJ's heart pounded so hard she was sure it was going to jump right out of her chest. And then there was that noise again, louder and coming from the direction of the green, glowing eyes.

EJ was frozen. ‘I don't believe in ghosts, I don't believe in ghosts,' she muttered to herself breathlessly and completely unconvincingly. As the green eyes came closer and the sound became even louder, EJ felt sick.