The Thirteenth (17 page)

“You ready?” Val asked as Delta pushed past her in her eagerness to leave.

“Time to have a little fun. I texted Jason. He’s going to meet us at that really nice pub in the village,” said Delta.

“The Albion?” Val asked.

“Yes. I like it in there, they always give you peanuts with your drink.” Delta pulled her car keys out and the lights on the mini flashed as it opened.

“Do I look OK?” Val asked looking herself up and down.

“Yes Val, you look a picture of elegance.” Delta opened her door and got in, not even looking in Val’s direction.

“So, when are you going to ask him?” enquired Delta, pulling out onto the main road.

“Ask who what?”

“Jason-on-a-date.” Delta spat the syllables.

“Are you joking? He isn’t interested in me.” Val’s voice was now so high it was almost squeaking like a choirboy’s.

“Well I don’t agree. However, you won’t know until you ask.”

“Then what? If he doesn’t it will get awkward and then we lose two of the most important friends we have. That would be a disaster,” she replied, trying to hide how much it hurt talking about it. Val placed her head against the car window and closed her eyes. Hoping this would stop Delta asking any more questions.

“OK, here.” Delta spun the mini into the car park coming to a halt next to a really smart Harley-Davidson. The rider was in black leather with a black helmet and mirrored visor.

“Now look at that Delta. Looks good, black, dark and sexy, but I bet when he takes off his helmet a long mane of grey hair will fall out and a sixty-year-old man will shoe horn himself out of the leathers.” Val and Delta sat for a moment watching the rider turn off his bike and dismount. Then the dark stranger started to walk towards them. When he got to the side of the car, he flipped up his visor.

“Hello girls.”

“Hi Jason. Val was just commenting on how you were a sixty-year-old hippie biker,” said Delta.

Val sank into her seat. Could this get any worse? Her heart was pounding, he was now not only her dream guy, he had a fantastic bike and he looked gorgeous in leather.

“Well you should never judge a book by its cover,” replied Jason opening her car door and offering her his hand.

If Val’s head had been any lower, it would have disappeared into her shoulders. She had no choice but to take Jason’s hand. As their skin touched, Val felt a shock flash up her arm. She could hear her heart pounding but this was more than what she felt for Jason. A flickering torch light, reflected in the visor of Jason’s helmet caught her attention. As she inspected it more closely, she felt her grip on Jason’s hand loosening.

“Jason, put the helmet down.”

Jason lowered the helmet to the ground, unsure of what exactly was the problem, but knowing better than to argue with that tone of voice.

“Val what’s wrong?” he asked.

“They are trapped underground. I can hear them calling out, and I need to help them.” Val stepped forward, then looked back at Delta who was running around the back end of the car.

“Don’t wait up.” Val touched the visor on the ground and she was gone.

Val blinked then blinked again, she felt confused. Were her eyes open yet? All she could distinguish was intense darkness. She rubbed her lids vigorously, but that didn’t seem to help the situation. As she started to adjust to the dark she could hear distant voices calling. After several moments, she spotted a flash of light around twenty feet away, moving around like a lighthouse beam through the mist. Lifting herself to her feet to investigate, she crept carefully towards what she thought was a wall, for guidance.

Outstretching her hand hesitantly, Val felt how cold and wet the wall was. When she pulled her hand back, she realised that it had come with her in the form of dirt. “Nice,” Val whispered.

She felt apprehensive. Her idea of mud was the stuff under your feet on a rainy day, not on the walls and over your head. As she slowly edged her way towards the voices, she felt something strike her foot. Leaning down she was surprised to see a large pile of hard hats and jackets.

Val grabbed a thick padded jacket, and put what appeared to be a miner’s helmet on her head. She reached up and after a few moments fumbling managed to switch on a small torch that was on the helmet’s peak. “That’s better, now I can see how dark it is,” she said, realising the irony and shaking her head.

Val edged forward. The noise began to get louder and Val could make out a solid beam of light ahead. Following it around a small bend to the right, she came face to face with utter chaos. There were men and women shouting and lifting rocks frantically. Val could see that there had been some sort of landslide and these poor people were trapped.

Hopefully not for long if Val could help. Plus, on a selfish note, she wanted to get back to the pub, to Delta and Jason.

“Who are you? Another one of those useless guides come to panic?” A tall thickset man wearing a ski coat and helmet similar to Val’s grabbed her by the arm.

“I’m sorry you must…” but before Val could finish her sentence he was talking again.

“Doesn’t matter,” the man said dismissively. “Have they got any further forward?” He was now looking over Val’s shoulder. “I’ve been back up to the top but the rescue services won’t be here for another fifteen minutes.”

It dawned on Val that if he had been out and the people she could see were trying to move the rocks, then someone was trapped on the other side.

“So how many people are trapped?” she asked, trying to look as if she was one of those useless yet confident guides.

“Well, we were twenty-five to start with and there are twenty of us now so you do the maths.” The man was really not warming to Val and she didn’t want to stay in his presence any longer.

“I’m sure someone will be here soon.” She smiled weakly, about to move away.

“Yes, shame no one is able to get through the emergency tunnel, it would have made it so much easier for everyone,” the man said.

“What emergency tunnel?” Val asked.

“Well, all of these mine walks have a backup passage. They were originally built by the miners, but now they are meant for emergencies only. Although the top one is open, no one has the key to the bottom door. We think the people who are stuck are directly on the other side of it.”

This was exactly what Val needed. “This exit, where exactly is it?” Val enquired.

“Over there.” The man pointed to a heavy metal door that was ajar. It had a sign on the outside that said ‘Staff Only’ in bold red letters.

Val now had a plan of action. She would simply go down the shaft and open the door, releasing the trapped people before the emergency services arrived.

“Thanks.” Val patted the man on the shoulder as she passed, pushing the heavy door open.

“You can’t go down there. The door is locked so what’s the point?” The man seemed agitated by Val blatantly ignoring his words. She really didn’t have time for explanations, so she just smiled at him and made her way through the gap.

On the other side of the door, the darkness was even more intense than before, if that was possible. Just when she was thinking about going back and finding another light, the door slammed shut behind her.

“No! I’m in here,” Val shouted swinging around and kicking the heavy metal door. After another several minutes of disjointed escape attempts, Val gave in to the idea that she had once again been proven herself a gullible idiot! How could this be happening to her?

“Don’t fight it chosen one, you wouldn’t want the shaft to collapse in on you,” the man’s voice called from the other side of the door.

“Who sent you? Was it the coward who hides behind my dreams, not man enough to come out, so he sends his little lackeys?” Val shouted.

“You think I’m going to tell you anything? You will have to kill me to get anything out of me, Val,” the man laughed.

“I hope you rot in hell!” Val shouted in anger.

“Thank you. I hear the weather is lovely at this time of year,” the man replied sarcastically.

God, where was Delta when you needed a sharp one-liner? Val thought, reaching into her back pocket pulling out her phone. “Oh no!” –There was no signal. Val shoved it back into her pocket. “So once again, you fool, you’re trapped not only underground, but inside a tunnel underground,” Val muttered to herself turning towards the tunnel to flash her headlight into its murky darkness. “Oh, and smelly too. Well, this just gets better.” Val pinched her nose and started to head cautiously down the slimy steps. Within a few moments she could see that the rubble was beginning to pile up. She realised that the reason they hadn’t been trying this exit wasn’t because there was no key, but because there had obviously been a cave-in here as well. So how long would it be before anyone even bothered to open the exit door again if they all knew that this was a no-go area?

As Val reached the worst bit of the fall, she could just hear the cries of the people who were really trapped coming through the air towards her. She also observed that the nasty smell had not abated. If anything, it seemed to be getting worse. Val slumped onto a large rock for a quick moment of self-pity and to contemplate what Jason and Delta would be doing in her absence.

“It’s just going to answer machine.” Delta flipped her phone shut, shoving it back into a small Gucci bag.

“Plain or cheese?” Jason asked.

“Plain, please,” Delta answered. “I do love your Walkers crisps; they don’t do anything as good back home.” Jason threw a red packet of plain crisps through the air and Delta caught them at an obtuse angle, obviously to avoid any nail chipping and such.

“So how did you meet Val?” Jason asked as he perched on his bike seat facing Delta who was sitting in the open door of her mini. They had decided that it would be best to position themselves around Jason’s helmet.

“Her dad built my house and that’s about it.” Delta lifted a crisp to her lips. “I think I should text Val’s mum and tell her she is staying at mine tonight, just in case she takes longer than usual. What do you think?” Delta asked.

Jason nodded in agreement. “I’ll text my dad too,” he said lifting his can of coke to take a drink.

Val wondered what exactly she was supposed to do to help these people. Standing up, she started to pace the space available. Picking up a small rock, she tossed it into the air, whilst she considered how warm it was in this jacket. Northern Rock it said on the label. Val continued walking, tossing the stone and listening to the consistent cries coming from behind the door. Why was it, she wondered, that people who were trapped always seemed to scream so much? Did they think their voices would break them free? In a very inappropriate moment, Val laughed out loud.

Then she realised something, the rock she had been tossing in her hand had become substantially lighter. Val looked at the stone for a moment and then threw it to the ground. Grabbing another rock, she tossed it through the air. As it landed in her palm, it diminished in size, releasing a powdery cloud. But how? She wasn’t sure what was happening, but she repeated the exercise three times and the result was the same. By the time she had finished, another rock had turned to dust.

If she could keep dissolving the rocks, maybe she could get to the door. She definitely wasn’t going to get out any other way. Val took a rock in each hand and started to throw them, then another and another. This was going to take forever, she looked like a circus act and there were far too many for her to work two rocks at a time. To make things worse, the strange smell was seriously appalling and she was starting to feel the effects of being underground.

How could she speed this up? In a flash she got an image of her dad. “What would the builder do?” she asked herself. “Dynamite.” Just the right amount of explosive in the correct place could knock down a tower building without touching the surroundings. Could she focus the energy that was breaking up the rocks into one point that was powerful enough crumble the larger rocks? Val started to think it through. She wanted to call through the door and tell the others to shut up; she had never worked well with distractions.

She knew the energy was in her hands, but how could she focus it? Val jumped to her feet. She could hit it as if she was boxing, like she did with Jason. “OK but how hard?”

All of a sudden, Val stopped dead as the reality of the smell dawned on her. It was gas. She remembered the tinny odour from years ago when they had had a leak at home. But where was gas coming from down here? Val flashed her torch around and then she spotted it: a large blue canister resting in the corner. Val walked over to it and grabbed the tap to close it. She was too late. The bottle was already empty and the tap was broken. A little note around it read “boom”.

“Very entertaining,” Val hissed. The gas bottle’s contents were floating in the air around her, no wonder she felt light headed.

So things had changed. She needed to hit the target while not causing a spark on the old metal door or she would be part of the problem rather than the solution. Also, now she knew it was gas, she had to move quickly. There could be more bottles anywhere and she would put nothing past these people.

Val moved in closer and, looking at the rocks, started to focus all her energy as Jason had taught her. She saw herself being pushed around, becoming more enraged as she saw the smug face of today’s prat. The pain started like a knot in her stomach and as the energy rose, so did the anger. She could feel herself welling up and then in the blink of an eye, she aimed at the rocks and released a punch directly into the centre of the fall. Her fist penetrated the stone and an invisible shock wave rippled through the air.

As the rocks dissolved, a mass of red smoke rose around Val. She stood completely still, waiting for the air to clear. As the mist began to settle she saw that the door in front of her was almost clear. “Well done you.” Val gave herself a victory pat on the back and realized in her moment of adulation that her hand felt as if it was on fire.