The Survivors Page 2

  The doctor listened with a deep frown. "I'll tell you what," she said. "First we need to get both of you screened for radioactive contamination. Then you must give me the piece of lab coat. You have to. That's the law too, you know. Is it at home?"

  The boys glanced at each other and nodded in unison.

  "Safe, I hope?"

  "In lead," Andrew offered but when David shook his head he knew better than to say anything about toy soldiers.

  "Excellent. You're smart boys. I'll tell you what. After your screening, I'll run you home and collect the evidence. I'll bring a portable containment vault. It looks like a metal lunch box except it's much heavier, because it's lead-lined. We can talk more about your monster sighting on the way."

  Chapter 6

  The boys' contamination screenings were clear, much to their joy — and Dr Forbes' intense relief. "Well," she sighed as she drove them home, "that's one hurdle over. The next thing to do is get this pocket into containment and then check out those caves to find its source. We'll take it from here."

  "What do you mean by that?" David asked, giving Andrew a nudge.

  "I'll put together a team to go up and check the cave you were in."

  "But you don't know where the cave's entrance is. It's hard to find . . ."

  The doctor sensed some tension and turned to look at the boys.

  "But you're going to tell me, aren't you?"

  David took the plunge. "Not unless we're allowed to go."

  "That's ridiculous," she answered, although she knew from experience that he was serious. "We can't take children down there."

  Andy giggled. "Dr Forbes, we've already been down there, remember?"

  "In fact," David added, "you wouldn't know anything about it only for us. And when you see the creature that's down there, there's no way Andy and I are going to let someone else get credit for discovering that!"

  The doctor shook her head adamantly. "There's no way . . ."

  "Well bro," David cut in, "looks like we'll have to phone the media. Should be quite a story, 'Children Discover Nuclear Waste Dump.' What do you say?"

  "All right then!" Dr Forbes thumped the steering wheel. "You really are the pushiest boys I have ever met. But I'll have to tell your parents."

  It was the boys' turn to be worried — but only for a second. "Not if you arrange the inspection for a Saturday," Andrew piped up. "We can always get to Old Rusty's for a weekend. Could you have your team ready by next Saturday morning?"

  "The sooner the better," the doctor conceded. "Now, you had better tell me where you live. Until that pocket is in my care, we're all in violation of the law."

  Chapter 7

  The following Saturday morning the boys met Dr Forbes at the bus stop around the corner from their home. They had told their parents that they were going to Rusty's — and Rusty too, of course — but they had not said why.

  "Mum and Dad would never let us go," David insisted, as they waited. "And you know how Rusty feels about new technology. If we give him time to think about it, he would probably try to stop Dr Forbes and her team from invading his farm."

  "Yeah, well, he's going to see them sooner or later."

  "I think that a bit of a white lie is in order. I mean what we're doing is too important to have it stopped by Rusty's old-fashioned attitudes. Besides, the team will have to go in, with or without his permission. It's against the law to have nuclear waste turning up on his property. We could tell him that these people have come to inspect the damage to the cave. You know, like that broken column we saw in there last time. Would he accept that?"

  "I guess so," Andy muttered though he was not too keen on lying to Rusty — white lie or not!

  When Dr Forbes' van arrived, she had two other scientists from the power station with her; one was a woman, Jan Byrne; the other a man, Alan Mortimer. The van was loaded with boxes of equipment.

  "Since you insist on coming with us into the cave — which is entirely against the rules," Wendy informed the boys as they drove out to Rusty's, "you are going to have to wear full protective gear. You do realise that?"

  The boys nudged each other with excitement. Once they had safely passed Rusty and all his questions, they could look forward to the adventure — monstrous cockroaches included.

  As things turned out, Rusty was in high spirits and welcomed the team. "I've been worried about that cave for a while," he said. "I'm keen to hear your report. I'd like to see any photos too, since I'm too old and lame to go in there myself."

  The boys led the team to the cave's entrance and there they changed into the protective gear that Dr Forbes provided.

  "You look like a spaceman," Andy laughed when he saw his brother's outfit.

  "You look like a Martian," David laughed back and then, armed with torches and equipment to check radiation levels, all five dropped to their knees and crawled into the cave.

  Once inside, they turned the torches on. The three adults gasped at the size and beauty of the place. Even the boys were impressed, only ever having seen the interior by candlelight. But as they headed towards the blackness at the rear, David held up his hand.

  "Listen," he whispered. "You hear that noise? Something is moving in here. I bet it's that monster roach. Or roaches for all we know."

  The adults laughed, ''A few lost rabbits," Dr Forbes said but suddenly stopped. At her feet, lit by the beam of her torch, was a piece of white fabric.

  Chapter 8

  Alan took a meter from a case on his shoulder and passed it over the material. Immediately they heard a clicking sound. "Whatever it is, it's active. Not high, but active," he advised. He turned and there were more bits of fabric, in tatters, scattered everywhere.

  Dr Byrne stopped and gathered some. One look was enough: there was the nuclear logo, some of the letters had once spelled ‘Anglesea’. It was material from a lab coat.

  “This cave was never listed as a waste dump. The nearest site, even an old one, is about three ks away. How did it get in here?”

  Then, out of the dark, came the sound of beating wings and the team dropped to the cave floor as one amid the clatter of cameras and equipment.

  “We warned you,” Andy piped up. No sooner were the words out of his mouth than directly before them, they saw one of the beasts.

  It was huge. It reared on its hind legs its gigantic, membranous wings outspread, its mandibles gnashing.

  The team froze. "It is a cockroach," Dr Forbes gasped "but how?"

  When they looked up, they saw three more behind it, all equally huge, equally horrible.

  "With the low-level waste in here, they're possibly mutations," Alan suggested. "Certain species of cockroach do inhabit caves. If they've been feeding on the waste ...”

  The creatures made no attempt to advance and Dr Byrne muttered, "But that would have killed them."

  Andy just had to speak. "Not necessarily. Cockroaches can take much more radiation than humans, you know."

  "That's true," Alan whispered as he cowered in terror, "and if they've been eating this fabric for a few years, that could have affected them genetically, especially the pituitary gland that induces hormonal change and growth."

  "You know the female often produces three egg sacks a year," Andy added. "So . . ."

  "So over several years there could be a whole new species evolving. A gigantic species. Amazing!"

  As Dr Forbes spoke she swung her torch beam from side to side, directing it towards the insects at the rear. On seeing them clearly, Dr Byrne raised herself slowly to her haunches and took a series of flash photos.

  The sudden glare was enough to spook the creatures and they shambled away, their glossy backs glinting, to vanish into fissures in the rock on either side of the main cave.

  "I'm sorry boys," Dr Forbes whispered. "I should have believed you but it all sounded so ridiculous."

  ''The main thing now is to find the source of their food. How this material got in here,"
Dr Byrne suggested, "is that this cave must be connected to those we thought were sealed up years ago. Are we game to go on?"

  "We have to," David urged. "Unless you want to go back and get weapons."

  "No!" Andy almost yelled. "You can't kill them. Think of what science might learn from them — and they're not harming us. Most creatures are more afraid of humans than we are of them."

  "The kid's right," Dr Forbes agreed, patting Andrew on the shoulder. "I don't want to go down in history as the scientist who exterminated a species. Let's get on, and keep a weather eye open. But if they attack, we will have to get out of here."

  The five moved on, more slowly now, shining their torches cautiously into every cranny until David cried, "Here. See?"

  Stepping over a fallen stalactite, the others saw a pile of clothing that had tumbled, or been dragged, from a narrow passage. "The break on the stalactite is fresh, in cave terms. And this collapsed wall," he pointed to a rock slide that was half covered in gnawed lab coats. "This fall is recent too. The clothing has been dragged through from the cave behind, I bet."

  "But we haven't recorded any earth tremors in the region," Dr Forbes said. "No seismic activity at all. That's why we chose these caves. They're stable."

  David and Andrew looked at each other. "The windmill!" they said as one.

  ''The windmill?" Alan asked. ''What's a windmill got to do with anything?"

  "The Energy Board constructed a windmill on Rusty's land. It was an alternative to fossil and nuclear power . . ."

  "He's right," Dr Forbes explained. ''After the protesters had their say on our waste disposal, the Energy Board did approve construction of a windmill out this way."

  "So?"

  "So they blasted a pad for its foundations out of solid rock. That must have disturbed the caves. It must have opened up new passages like this, to connect where you dumped your waste, to here. The roaches have dragged it through as they needed it."

  "And look in here," Andy called. He had climbed into the newly opened passage. "Attached to the walls here. These are cockroach egg cases. They've been deposited right next to the food supply."

  The cases looked like huge trilobite fossils. Andy was scratching at one with a sliver of rock.

  "That must be the answer," Dr Forbes agreed. "Nothing else makes sense. No we have to gather what we can and contain . . ."

  But as she spoke a pair of antennae the size of reinforcing rods suddenly appeared from the passage behind Andy.

  "Look out!" David yelled. As Andy stumbled clear, another set appeared, and another, and another and then came the sound of gnashing mandibles.

  The roaches were attacking. Dr Byrne's camera shot off flash after flash as the cavers scrambled away. Andrew paused a moment, seemingly adjusting his gear; then stumbled after them.

  "I've run out of battery," Dr Byrne shouted. ''There's nothing to stop them."

  "The entrance," Wendy ordered. "Run like hell. Boys are you all right?"

  "Yes," David yelled, but Andy's reply was longer in coming.

  "Jan? Alan? You too?"

  "I'm here," Dr Byrne shouted from the darkness, "and I've got the camera."

  "I'm here!" Alan screamed.

  The torch beams looked like searchlights in a night-time air raid as they raked the ceiling of the cave, lighting the crystals embedded there like a million stars. But who had time for beauty?

  "There's a fallen column ahead," David called, but too late.

  "Oooph," Dr Byrne cried as she fell, then seconds later, "The camera. I've dropped the camera."

  "Forget the damn camera," Dr Forbes hissed as she dragged her team-mate from the floor. "Get out. Now! They're right behind us."

  The sound of falling rocks and the menacing gnash of mandibles assured her of the creature's proximity. Once only she paused to shove Andy in front of her. Being a responsible leader she determined to be last and, as she was, more than once a roach's antennae brushed her cheek. A thousand jagged sensors tore her suit and penetrated her skin. Blood seeped into her eyes, her mouth.

  "Go," she screamed, wiping her visor. "Forget your gear. Just go!" Finally the dim natural light of the entrance appeared. One by one, Dr Byrne first, then Alan then the boys threw themselves to the ground and scrambled through, wriggling on their guts like commandos under barbed wire. Gone were all their scientific intentions. The same fears that had driven humans into these caves a million years before, now drove them out: that age-old human fear of the beast.

  Chapter 9

  Bleeding and coughing, Dr Wendy Forbes squeezed her way out onto the sunny hillside. Too stupefied to speak, the others turned to her.

  "Do you think they will follow?" she puffed.

  David shook his head, "They're too big," he said.

  ''And cockies don't like the sun," Andrew added.

  Wendy looked at the two scientists and shook her head. "Well the boys were right, but we've got nothing to prove it."

  "I chucked all my gear, my radiation readings," Alan muttered.

  "And I dropped my camera," Dr Byrne sighed. "That's terrible. What animals. What an opportunity. Gone . . ." and she raised her hands in a gesture of hopelessness.

  "You're right. We can't take anyone in there again. I'll order that the entrance be concreted up. It's safer, but as you say, it's a terrible loss to science. What a discovery . . . and not a shred of evidence."

  Young Andy lifted his head.

  "Who says so?" he asked innocently.

  "This looks like pretty good proof to me . . ." and pulling from beneath his head what the others had taken for a rock, he produced an egg sack.

  "But then," he added, grinning from ear to ear, "cockroaches always have been survivors, haven't they?"