UNDER THE OCEAN (Original)

Chapter Twelve: The threatening caller

The three cave dwellers’ eyes became heavier and their throats coarse from too much talk. The clam-shells made marvelous beds for them to sleep. They could even close the lid on top of themselves – which they did, to muffle the horrible noises. A pitiful attempt at trying to block out the violence they heard outside. It was a good thing they did too, because in the dead of the night, when the depraved voices were finally dying down, a great crash happened right at the very entrance of their safe abode. Their quarters suddenly became dangerously threatened!

Sam was the first to lift his lid for a peek. It was too dark to see anything much, but there was definitely something moving within the entrance. Joe had also heard the crash and he made a dash for Sam’s clam-shell, hoping to share some protection. Sam decided not to switch on the torch for fear of giving himself away. He was already having trouble holding his heart inside his chest as it pounded like a rock concert. His eyes began to focus. He noticed Jasmine’s lid pop up ever so slightly too. She was just as alarmed. Within the entrance the movement continued, slowly but surely. The children saw what looked like a slender arm extending up from the floor of the entrance trying to find something to grip. Another arm reached to the side and repositioned, elevating from the floor a tall, slim body! It was one of the damned! What was it doing here?

The tall, slim body turned and looked around into the dark. Not much could be seen but it did see something. Jasmines clam-shell! The damned – looked like a young male. Tall and lanky, with mussed up hair. He began to stagger towards her clam-shell. Sam could see Jasmine shuddering! What could she do? What could this youth do to her? Jasmine held tight as she could to her lid as the youth fell on it and began prying the lid open. Her knuckles were white. No way was she going to let this person – creature, whatever it was, open her shell without a fight. Her fingers grabbed at the underside of the lid, she pulled with all of her might. However, she could not hold the lid down. The youth was stronger than her. Not only that, but her fingers felt as if they were being sheared right off.

The lid was pried open more than Jasmine cared to allow it. She let out an earth-shattering scream! It was so loud that it vibrated all around the inside of that small cave. During that deafening moment, Sam jumped out of his shell with a loud shout . . . “Don’t touch my sister!” He jumped on the youths back and grabbed him around his scrawny neck with a headlock. Joe swam up to his face, and because he was only a tiny fish he could not do much. He begin slapping the youth in the face with his strong tail (strong for such a small fish). The youth was horrified and let out a terrifying scream himself and tried to run out of the cave. In his state, he tripped over the other clam-shell and banged his head against a protruding stalagmite, which rose up from the floor of the cave. He crumpled into a motionless heap on the sandy bottom. Soon, after the children had settled down, they realised that this youth was not moving.

“I think we’ve killed him.” Sam was freaking. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know! We can’t tell anyone, we’d get locked up! Who could we tell anyway? Jasmine was just as worried.

“Stuffed if I know.” I don’t want to be responsible for someone’s death!” Really, they had no one they could tell anyway. Appalled at this prickly predicament they became exasperated. How had they got into this mess? The youth made a small grunt as if a mouse had kicked him. If only it were an elephant to stand on him. He stirred a little.

“Oh no! He is alive!” Sam had to think quickly. “The rope, get the rope!” Jasmine ran over to the clam-shell that Sam had been in, she flipped the lid up to reveal the duffel bag. She pulled apart the drawstring and grabbed the rope out.

“I suppose it’s OK that he’s not dead. But now what? What if he drags us off to all those others again. The damned! What if he feeds us to the gulpers!” Sam was not keen on that and so they got busy with the rope tying him up, but he was recovering too quickly for their liking.