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Van Ea was furious. “How idiotic can you be, not to have realised that these caves still contain hazardous chemicals in the walls. Only someone, with half a brain, would be stupid enough, to ignore that.“ Ameryst was not going to allow Van Ea to take out her rage on Claria! Before she could say anything?
Seeing Claria in tears? Perhaps Van Ea regretted her outburst? Its funny, how the worst situations, can bring out the best in all of us? This was no exception, Van Ea apologized, comforted her, stepped back from them. Delise and the others surrounded Claria, some still in a state of shock, mostly from having heard Van Ea APOLOGIZE? Uhh? She ignored them.
“We’re NOT going to let this little hiccup beat us.“ There was silence, everyone looked at her. “We’ve little food, our equipment including our sleeping units and more are buried under those rocks. We can’t use the coms units and we could be stuck here, for a long long time. Alright, a BIG hiccup!“ She rolled her eyes looking at them, the realisation of what she had said earlier hitting home.
Let’s be POSTIVE not NEGATIVE, THINK everyone THINK.” “Orini, when we first arrived, did you notice a lot of caves the other side?” She nodded. “The breather stacks?” “Yes! I remember seeing at least two.“ “In which case mines? Miners?” Ameryst interrupted “Yes Van, we know there were miners. They’ll be long gone.”
Sajani interrupted their arguing. “What Van is trying to say is, mines mean tunnels, means.“ She looked at them. "The caves must have been linked! There was at least four I counted this side and what did Edram say Bjoi, about the cave he found? It had an entrance and an exit at the back! Odd thing about this cave. On its own, with all the others so close? They would not have trekked over the top to mine this cave during or after, even BEFORE, they did the other mining creating the other caves.“
Delise lit a torch and flashed it round the walls. to the back of the cave? There was a little difference in the contour of the wall? Claria had stopped crying. Orini had moved to the wall, beckoning Sajani over. She ran her Snaflight across it. "Notice anything strange.." There were whispers for some minutes as they walked along the back wall, Sajani had his hands feeling the surface. Suddenly they stopped turned back to them. “Every one. pick up a rock, bout this big." He picked one up to show them. Orini wasted no time in getting them into a line. In front of the wall.
“Directly in front of you, when I say tap, tap your rock, three times against the wall!“ She grinned. “I want every one of you, in turn, NOT all at once. to hit the wall, with your rock like this.“ She demonstrated. There was a thud, thud, thud. The sound that came back was quite dense. “Ok ready the rocks, one at a time when I tell you.” She looked at Claria. “They say Animorphiss have extremely sensitive hearing. Lets hope its true.“
One after another, they banged the wall. Thud, thud, thud, clink, clink, thud, thud. Claria standing behind each of them as they did this. Their task was halted as they stopped and listened. Above them the clink clink was far more distinct and louder? Fear in their eyes? Claria had reached Doona. He handed her his rock. She took hold and with the other Kets watching, clunked it against the wall. She moved slightly to the left to clunk the wall again? Back to where she had been! “This part, sounds hollow!“
Doona had stepped back. Eyes on Claria as she slammed her rock, hard against the wall. Suddenly, her rock went through the wall and took her hand and her arm with it! There was the distinct thud of the rock that she had displaced, tumbling to hit the floor the other side. She yelled. “Yeeow, that hurt.” Eyes peered through the hole. Some could swear there was a slight draught of cold air?
“We’ve got ourselves a tunnel. A possible way out! At least in getting us out of here, I know where I would sooner take my chances!” “Cmon everyone, we have to make the hole bigger so we can get through. Using bigger rocks to hammer against the rest of what must have originally been, an opening? Pulling and pushing, against the wall, they were soon able to clamber through. Orini was boasting on the merits of her brilliant idea.
"What I want to know, is WHY they blocked this off in the first place." Her voice tailed off. Van Ea pointed to the ceiling of the cave. They probably knew it was likely to cave in." "Depends as well." Bjoi moved close to them. "On what else they mined here. Back then it could have been dangerous to even be in here." "At least we are out of the danger, of being underneath it, should it collapse." His words had barely left his lips when there was the sound of rock moving.
The entire front section of rock in the ceiling shifted. A massive boulder, dropped from the ceiling followed by earth as we would know it and other smaller rocks. At least 2/3rds of the cave was filled with rubble. The dust cloud almost filled the cave. Within the rocks, small compression explosions occurring, flinging debris everywhere, mini projectiles of sharp jagged rock flung against the rear section where the Kets had escaped.
Delise was explaining to some of the other Kets, curious on how Claria could tell what part of the wall was hollow? “Different thicknesses in materials. Sound is hard, soft, can resonate. A variation of sound from solid to more of a hollow sound?" “Thankfully we had an Animorphis on our team!.” They carefully move their way forward, until they came into another chamber?
This one, had several passageways running off it. Two of them, were sealed off. “I think we should split up don’t you Van?“ She nodded. “Remember, whatever happens. DON’T get LOST.“ We’ll meet back here in ten minutes.“ They split into groups of three, headed down the passageways. It would be a good ten minutes, when they met up again. ONLY two ways they felt, offered a chance of a way out, so they split again and disappeared down the passageways. It was a bit like being in a labyrinth.
They marked the walls by scratching marks on the walls using colored soft stone they had found. Determined not to lose their way. The first team came to where they had started, a complete circle. “All this time. Nearly an hour and we’re back where we started.” Bjoi was feeling tired. He was not the only one yawning! Followed, in quick succession, by Dario and Sajani. “This, is hopeless.” “I think we should rest for a while.“ They slumped down against the wall and waited for the others to return. Perhaps the others, might succeed, where they had failed?
In the main control centre figures were gathering, to receive the news. Serenia had been talking to Corky. “They’re old mining tunnels within that ridge. If the Kets are in those tunnels they could easily get lost. This is going to be a true test of their courage and ingenuity.“ “We need a visit to the museum. some of the older equipment there, will be far more effective than the newer stuff. Also are there any maps of the tunnels.“
One of the teams within the tunnels, had entered a chamber, there was a scream, it echoed through the tunnels.
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