The Elephant Tree (28 page)

‘Give me the phone,’ Scott said putting as much authority into his words as he could, trying to make them sound like a command rather than a request.

‘Why’s that then, are you hungry? Are you phoning for a pizza? Make mine a pepperoni, extra cheese,’ McBlane joked, but there was no humour on Dominic’s face. He had inched closer and had his gaze fixed firmly on the gun in Jeff’s hand.

Scott saw the distraction offered up by McBlane was deliberate to allow Dominic to gain the upper hand on Jeff. He took a step backwards. Dominic inched forward again, unblinking.

‘Toss the phone now Paul or one of you is gonna get shot,’ Scott said again. Jeff turned and lined up the barrel of the gun directly at Dominic’s face. He flinched back instinctively, as if only now aware of the potential threat.

McBlane didn’t speak but reached slowly into the bulging inside pocket of his suit jacket and withdrew the phone. He tossed it casually towards Scott and it landed roughly half way between them, pieces of the black plastic housing scattering across the stone floor as it impacted on the ground.

‘Whoops,’ McBlane said.

Dominic stood poised, like a coiled snake about to strike. Jeff swung the gun between one and the other, as if unsure where the most immediate threat lay.

‘Kick it towards me,’ Scott said to Dominic, pointing at the shattered phone.

Dominic stepped forwards a few paces and crouched by the phone. Jeff had the gun trained on him but his hand was still shaking. Dominic looked up and quickly threw the phone as hard as he could at Jeff. As Jeff stumbled back to avoid it colliding with his head, Dominic was up and charging straight at him. Jeff swung the gun back around as Dominic collided with him. Both of them fell to the floor and a muffled shot rang out, echoing back and forward off the walls of the cave. Scott ran to help Jeff. He planted a kick into Dominic’s ribcage and was delighted with the resulting grunt of pain. Jeff scrambled back out from under his much larger adversary, bracing himself against the wall and clutching his ribs, as he struggled to his feet.

Dominic rolled onto his back, revealing a large bloody stain on his left thigh that was blooming rapidly. Before they had time to gain control of the situation again another shot rang out, a ricochet whined off the wall behind Jeff. Scott spun around to see McBlane crouched with a small pistol in his hand. One leg of his suit pants was ruffled up, revealing an empty ankle holster. McBlane took aim and fired again.

‘Jeff, get out,’ Scott shouted, and he too started to run for the door of the cave.

Jeff began to run as best he could, stumbled, but regained his footing and continued. Another shot cracked, this time followed by a succession of zinging ricochets as the bullet bounced along the narrower exit passage.

McBlane was shouting something behind them but Scott didn’t wait to hear what. He and Jeff got through the doorway and he began to close it after them as another bullet impacted onto the steel plate just beside Scott’s head.

‘Jesus,’ he cried, and pulled the door shut.

Jeff was already at the ladder pulling himself up. Once he had climbed off, Scott followed, taking the rungs two at a time.

‘I’m sorry Scott. I don’t know what came over me. Just the thought of them coming in here and taking everything like that, imprisoning us to work for McBlane. I lost my head.’ Jeff said with an anguished expression.

‘It’s OK Jeff but we have to make this work to our advantage. We can’t go back now.’

‘Right, you have to get to the exit hatch and try to secure it,’ Jeff said. ‘I’ll cut the power into the cave. It’ll slow them down, but they’ll still find the hatch before long.’

Scott nodded and took off in a run. Through the woods, pine branches snapped back and whipped at his face as he zigzagged between the trees. Blood began to well up in the cuts and trickle down his cheek. There was no way to check his bearings, the trees and everything else looked the same no matter which way he turned. He rounded the curve in the mountainside he had remembered but then was at a loss as to which direction to take. Starting down the slope, Scott looked from left to right but still no sign of the hatch. He continued along and now began to gain altitude before seeing the familiar few boulders and the gaping exit hole just above.

He dropped to his knees beside the hatch and tentatively looked over the edge. By the light that penetrated the shaft he could make out no figure climbing the ladder. He went to the hatch lid with the boulder fused to it, checking for any method of sealing it tight from the outside but there was nothing. Scott looked around at the other boulders scattered nearby and considered the possibility of piling them all around and on top of the hatch, but dismissed the idea. With the very real threat of being buried alive underground one of them would surely find the strength to push them off, if not McBlane then once Shugg awoke then he certainly would.

Scott carried the boulder lid back up to the hatch, placed it beside the hole and looked in again. He still could see no-one but thought he heard a noise from below, they must be close to discovering the hatch now, he was running out of time. His hand was braced near the top of the ladder when his fingers brushed against the rivets that fixed the ladder to the wall. That’s right, he thought, the ladder was in three sections and when he had climbed up last time he’d noticed the top rivets had been less than secure. Scott began to twist one and after a moment it began to reluctantly turn. He mustered as much strength into his fingers as he could, ignoring the pain that shot up his forearms from the effort. Switching hands he kept turning, finally the rivet was out and Scott’s numb fingers dropped it down the shaft. A loud clank issued from the darkness as the bolt collided with one of the steel rungs as it fell. He heard a muttering of voices from below. They’d heard it fall, and they were close.

Scott’s fingers began on the last rivet, more noises from below and then a voice.

‘There’s light up here, Paul, over here.’ It sounded like Shugg. He had regained consciousness and was able to help in their escape.

The remaining rivet still refused to turn. Scott reached out and picked up the biggest stone he could hold in one hand and swung it down onto the remaining rivet. Stone crumbled from around the side of its head. Urgent shouts and sounds of movement below and what sounded like someone starting to climb. Scott scrambled with the rivet and now it began to turn. He risked peeking over the edge and immediately wished he hadn’t as a bullet whizzed past his head. Scott ducked back, his arm still draped over the side of the hatch, working to loosen the last rivet. Another bullet crack and then a whine as it collided with the stone, inches from his hand. The sound of heavy feet ascending the ladder below but the rivet was turning more freely. The feet had stopped and there was silence. Scott’s heart was beating like a jackhammer as he furiously twisted at the rivet. Then another shot. He didn’t remember hearing this one, only becoming aware of it by the searing hot flash and the resulting spray of blood that rained out from his hand.

Scott cried out and fell onto his back, clutching the bloody hand to his chest. A raucous whoop came from the hatch, this time sounding much closer. Scott rolled over and reached his good arm into the hole but the rivet wouldn’t turn.

‘Shoot him again.’ McBlane’s voice rang out, but from further away. It must be Shugg climbing the ladder with the gun.

‘I’m nearly out,’ he said, in defiance. His voice dangerously close now, he must be on the final section of ladder.

In a state of panic, Scott reached out and grabbed at the rock he’d used earlier. Swinging his arm he brought it down against the rivet as hard as he could. Manic laughter from Shugg as he climbed the remaining few steps. Scott brought down the rock in another swing. It cracked against the head of the rivet and the surrounding rock crumbled again. The ladder lurched lazily to the left then stopped. Shugg had adjusted his grip to avoid falling, but the two descending clangs of metal on metal indicated that he had probably dropped the gun. He swung again and more stone crumbled. Shugg’s hand reached out and took hold of the edge of the hatch. A slow screech of metal as the ladder again tilted but this time it didn’t stop. The remaining rivet gave up the last of its purchase and with a cacophony of clangs and bangs the ladder fell into the darkness. Scott heard a startled yell from below as McBlane and possibly Dominic no doubt threw themselves out of its path. A last screech and a bang like a hammer being thrown against a dustbin, before quiet returned.

Scott turned back to the hatch and saw that Shugg still determinedly clung to the edge, trying to gain purchase with his feet and scramble out. He might have dropped the gun but Scott wasn’t about to take any chances. He picked up a stone and brought it down onto the fingers of his right hand. Scott thought he could almost hear the splintering of bone, but the man through his guttural cries of pain, still clung on. Scott moved closer and swung the rock again. Shugg took the full impact onto the knuckles of his left hand and the fingers immediately went limp. Scott saw the brief look of panic before Shugg fell back into the shaft, his head cracked against the stone and nodded forward, limp like the head of a child’s well worn toy. Sunlight briefly winked off his earring before he fell into the darkness below. His shoulder caught against a jagged outcrop of rock and his whole body pitched sideways out of Scott’s line of sight. A second later he heard a muffled thud as presumably the body came to rest.

Dangerously risking a glance over the side of the hatch Scott looked down, needing to see the conclusion of his actions. The ladder had fallen almost the full length of the shaft before becoming wedged between either wall, and hung there suspended above the ground. Shugg’s body had taken impact damage from the coarse stone during the fall but the unnatural angle that it now dangled over the suspended ladder told Scott that abrasions and broken fingers were the least of the man’s worries. One leg hung down limply from his perch on the ladder, one arm trapped underneath him, but his back was bent at such an unnatural angle that he couldn’t have still been alive. Transfixed with what he was seeing, Scott didn’t at first realise McBlane had climbed up to the wedged ladder and now reached around with the gun pointing at him again. He pulled back just as the shot was fired and felt pain erupt from his shoulder.

Cursing his stupidity Scott rolled onto his side and looked at the wound. Pulling back his shirt revealed that the bullet had merely grazed the flesh and done no significant damage. McBlane, still refusing to admit defeat, laughed triumphantly from within the shaft.

Scott steeled himself with new determination and hoisted the hatch lid onto its side and walked it into position before dropping it with a resounding clang to seal up the hatch. He could hear nothing more from inside but was convinced that McBlane must now be screaming every obscenity that came to mind as once again he was engulfed by complete darkness. Scott gathered up every rock he could find in the immediate vicinity and piled them as best he could with his one good hand on top of the hatch, then collapsed back onto the ground breathing heavily from the exertion.

His shirt clung damply against his skin, soaked through with a mixture of sweat and blood. He felt light headed from the pain in his hand and was still reluctant to look too closely at the damage that had been caused by the bullet.

Scott gathered himself and, grimacing, got unsteadily to his feet. He had to get back to Jeff and make sure there was no way they could get back out through the main door from the cave. He staggered in a half run back through the woods, no longer feeling pain from the branches that clawed at him as he brushed them aside.

Scott quickened his pace as the house came into view, and saw Jeff disappearing back into the workshop pushing what looked to be a wheelbarrow. As he approached the door, Scott heard Jeff issue a loud grunt followed by the noise of stone falling heavily to the floor.

Walking into the workshop Scott saw Jeff flipping a large rock from out of the wheelbarrow and into the pit below where it landed with a solid thud. He hadn’t noticed Scott approach and was at first startled at his sudden presence.

‘The hatch?’ Jeff asked.

‘It’s sealed and the top ladder segment is gone too. They’re stuck in there.’

Jeff breathed an audible sigh of relief.

‘I’ve been piling rocks into the pit in case they find a way to force the door open.’

Scott looked below and saw Jeff had indeed been busy in his absence. A layer of various sized rocks had begun to gather already almost covering the floor of the pit.

‘I’m gonna keep going with this, you get back to the city and make sure Angela is OK.’

‘You sure you’ll be alright out here?’

‘I’ll be OK as long as I can keep those bastards sealed up down there, go on, get going. And here,’ he said as an afterthought, and shook out some painkillers into his palm and gave them to Scott, ‘for that.’ He nodded toward Scott’s bloody hand.

Scott went back to the main house, opened the cupboard that Jeff kept the first aid box in and took it down. He looked at the wound on his hand clearly now, and gritting his teeth ran cold water over it from the tap at the kitchen sink. The flesh between his forefinger and thumb had been obliterated and he couldn’t bend either of them, but the bullet appeared to have passed right through without hitting any bone. His hands shaking, Scott took the cap from a bottle of antiseptic and poured it generously over the wound. He suppressed a cry as the liquid bit cruelly into the ragged flesh on his hand. Pulling out a roll of bandages Scott wound them as tightly as he could around his hand, finally pinning it in place. It was far from a perfect job, but hopefully it would suffice until he could get it looked at professionally. He cleaned the flesh wound on his shoulder then fetched a shirt from Jeff’s wardrobe to put on in place of his own bloodstained and torn one.

Scott took a cold beer from Jeff’s fridge and drank it while sitting at the kitchen table to calm his nerves and chewed up a few of the painkillers he’d been given by Jeff. Once his head had fogged over and a cool almost novocaine numbness had washed through him, he set off in the car back to the city.