Holidays; The Tunnel Trip

‘What’s that?’ I nudged Sana, pointing towards the bag she was carrying on her back.
‘My backpack’, she replied
‘I know that! But why have you brought it? It looks heavy’ I explained impatiently.
Sana shook her head and gave me her look which said that I was being extremely foolish and slow.
‘What?’ I asked and tripped over a rock ‘Ouch’ I quickly scrambled to my feet.
‘Be careful’ Blue turned to look at me. Fat sniggered.
‘I’ve to bring few essential things’ Sana explained when I was once again on my feet.
‘Like what?’
“Like maybe a torch, water bottle, cookies, match-sticks...’ Sana trailed off.
‘Oh no’ I slapped my forehead, ‘I forgot to bring my flash light and water bottle’
‘It’s ok, you can share with me’ Sana offered.
‘Can I share too?’ Somia asked, appearing behind us
‘You didn’t bring your torch too?’ Sana asked, giving her a surprised look. I’ve to admit I was also surprised, Somia was such a neat and responsible person; I’d have thought she’d brought everything for everyone.
‘No’ she admitted sheepishly.
‘Well!’ Sana let out a short laugh ‘just hope we don’t need any of this stuff. I brought it just in case, you know’
‘Just in case? What do you mean?’
‘In case we get stuck or something…..’ Sana said lightly. Suddenly I’d butterflies in my stomach. I was excited and afraid at the same time, the feeling when you’re doing something wrong. I saw Blue and Fat talking in low voices ahead, they were moving really fast, occasionally turning around to see us as if they were afraid we were eavesdropping on their conversation. To tell you the truth, I’d have loved to know what they were talking about.
Blue and Fat stopped in the middle of their tracks, they were looking angry. We walked towards them.
‘Hey, you two okay?’ Somia asked, lifting her eyebrows.
They both turned to look at us.
‘Don’t go’ Fat said shortly, crossing her arms.
‘Huh?’
‘I’m telling you, it’s completely safe down there!’ Blue sounded tired.
‘How come then Farhan told me that there are wild boars looming around?’ she said coldly.
‘Mr. Sajid told that just to scare us, Farhan took it seriously,’ Blue winked at her and smiled. Trying to charm her, I gave Sana a knowing look.
But Fat wasn’t like us, she didn’t get charmed so easily.
‘Blue, tell us the truth. Don’t try to be a hero, if it’s not really safe, just tell us,’ Fat argued. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about. And weird enough, I felt she was right. I looked into Blue’s eyes, which were black as coal. He didn’t meet my eyes; he blinked rapidly and glanced away. It was then I was sure Fat was completely right.
‘Come on’ Blue waved his hands ‘you guys coming or not?’
‘Sure we’re,’ Somia smiled at him sweetly. Sana nodded.
Their heads turned to me. I was speechless. Part of me was saying that Fat was right; it was forbidding me to go. But the other part, the bigger one, was shouting ‘Go! Have fun, you silly girl!’
‘Yup, I’m coming’ I gave in and laughed nervously.
‘I’ll come too, then’ Fat said calmly
‘Why?’ Blue asked ungraciously.
‘Just because! Maybe to save our hero’ she laughed which sounded like a bark. Blue grudgingly smiled and started to walk. He was taking long strides; while we were trying our best not to get tangled in the creepers hanging from the trees.
‘That’s the place,’ Blue rubbed his hands, there was a wild gleam in his eyes which I didn’t like. The moon shone above us and dark trees surrounded us.
I looked down on the ground and saw a metal trapdoor. Blue heaved with all his might on the trapdoor. It squeaked but didn’t move an inch.
‘Come on,’ said Blue. We all pulled on the trapdoor. It hinges cracked loudly and slowly it stood open.
‘Wow, that was really heavy’ I panted. My hands were greasy. Sana took out her flashlight proudly and shone it downwards. Blue gave her an approving nod. All I could see was the top of the ladder and then all darkness.
Blue climbed down, motioning us to follow him. Somia went down next, then Sana trying to hold her torch steadily. I glanced at Fat who was tying her hairs in a pony tail and then also climbed down. I put my foot at the wrong place and the next second I was hanging on the rungs of the ladder.
‘Jump down’ Somia yelled at me. I did what she told me, I let go of the ladder and landed on the ground with a bump. It didn’t hurt but my heart beat was so fast that I was afraid I’d have a heart attack. I slowly stood up, dusting off my clothes. It was a small room, its ceiling really low, the room was opening to four tunnels. The room was filled with damp odour. Sana handed me a flashlight.
Fat jumped gracefully, landing beside me.
‘Now what?’ she said to Blue. She was challenging him.
Blue walked towards one of the tunnels and got on his knees and hands
‘We’ve to crawl?’ Somia groaned.
‘Yeah’ Blue didn’t look happy himself, he signaled us to follow him. We all got down on our knees and hands and crawled. The light was dim, I’d trouble seeing things. The tunnel seemed to go on and on. Blue, Sana and Somia disappeared completely. At one place the ceiling was so low I’d to duck down, completely, my face pressed against the ground.
‘Sana, what was that.’ I stopped suddenly. I heard somebody whispering ‘Sana?’ I called out loudly.
‘I think she can’t hear you,’ Fat bumped into me ‘Move on. We don’t want to be left alone here’ I started to move, all ears. I heard it again.
‘Did you hear that?’ my voice wavered slightly ‘Somebody was whispering’
‘Sidrah, it was just the wind blowing through the cracks’ Fat said gently. Yup! Of course, it was just the wind, I was relieved. Whoosh whoosh, just the wind. The tunnel abruptly opened into a place where I could stand.
‘Where are the others?’ I asked Fat, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. Fat got up and looked around; the room branched into many directions.
‘I don’t know,’ Fat said helplessly. I shone the torch into one of the tunnels and saw nothing. It looked like big hole. Then I shone it to the other one.
‘Sana?’ I yelled, my voice echoed loudly. I jumped at my own sound. ‘Somia?’
‘Blueeeeeee...’ Fat also started to yell. Somehow, her yelling didn’t comfort me. I wanted her to remain quiet like always. Then I’d know everything is okay. But it’s not; I said to myself, we’re trapped in an infinite tunnel.
‘Claudia, what are we gonna do now?’ I had almost called her Fat but I caught myself in time, I didn’t want her to be mad at me. Certainly not then. She exhaled sharply and looked at me as if she were trying to figure out something.
‘Let’s sit down and think for a moment,’ I obeyed her sat down, leaning against the wall ‘don’t panic’ I was trying my best not to cry, ‘Switch off the flashlight, we’ll need it later’ I turned it off wordlessly. Darkness closed in around us. It was pitching black; I can swear I never saw such darkness before. And for the first I was fearful, really fearful for my life.
‘Now let’s talk’ I could hear the water dripping somewhere. Fat began to tell me about her hometown. I listened vaguely but my mind was somewhere else. I felt hopeless, we’d come so far that I was sure we’ll never find our way out of the tunnel.
‘It’s useless! We can’t talk about how cute Zac Efron is when we’re stuck here,’ Fat exclaimed after a while. I giggled at this. I giggled a little more and suddenly my giggles converted into laughter. The situation seemed awfully funny, an hour ago I’d have never thought I’d be here sitting in some tunnel with total darkness surrounding me and funniest of all talking with Fat in such a friendly way!
‘Oh Sidrah,’ Fat said worryingly ‘don’t get hysterical’ that made me laugh more. I laughed so hard that my stomach began to get hurt.
‘Sidrah!’ Fat was laughing too. We laughed and laughed until I heard a loud scream followed by a roar.
‘What was that?’ my hands groped in the dark for the flashlight ‘Where’s the flashlight?”
‘I’m looking for it,’ we were dead serious now. The scream sounded like Somia’s. I fumbled for the flashlight some more and found it, I switched it on and shone towards the source of scream.
‘Come on,’ Fat said, running towards the tunnel. I ran after her. We came to an opening and found Sana and Somia huddled into a corner. I open my mouth to scream but Fat put her hand on my mouth.
‘Don’t scream!’ She whispered into my ear furiously. I saw a black animal advancing towards them. Its body was covered in bristles. It roared loudly. I winced. My knees were trembling and my teeth were chattering. I missed sitting in the darkness of the tunnel, it seemed so peaceful now. I looked at them and saw Sana pointing towards her bag which was lying nearby on the ground. Fat saw her pointing too and moved quickly and got the bag.
‘Come here,’ she pulled me back in the tunnel and emptied the bag.
‘Does she have a match-stick?’ she asked looking through the objects.
‘Yes, yes she said she brought it,’ I also started to search. The light was getting dimmer and dimmer. I saw a candle in the pile and put it in my pocket.
‘There it is,’ Fat stood up and took out one match stick from the box.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked her when I saw her going back to that creature.
‘Boars are afraid of fire,’ she smiled thinly ‘take a rock or something and throw it at the boar’
‘Are you mad, it’ll eat us alive’, I was crying now ‘I think we should get help’
‘How?’ she was right. How? I nodded and took a box from the pile and threw it at the boar. It roared loudly and turned towards us. It has red beady eyes and sharp tusks which can rip you apart.
Fat was trembling and trying to light the match-stick. It fell from her hand. The boar was really close now; I could hear its rasp breath. Suddenly Fat stood straight, took a deep breath and then really calmly lighted the match. I was holding my breath. She took a step towards the boar, the match in her hand. The boar took a step backwards. Sana and Somia then very quietly circled around the room and came towards the tunnel. Fat holding the match took another step towards the animal. Unfortunately at the same time, the match-stick burned out. My heart stopped beating. The flashlight was almost dead. In a second we’d be in the total darkness with a wild animal. The candle, you silly girl, the voice said in my head which sounded like Camper’s. My heart started to beat again. I took it out and handed it to Fat. She sighed relieved and lit it again. Then she did the bravest thing of all, she ran towards the boar at full speed. It oinked and ran away. I began to breathe calmly. For a while we didn’t say anything to each other. Then Sana broke the silence by coughing loudly. For a moment we thought the animal was back again and then began to laugh as we realized it was Sana. We went back to the same place where Fat and I were sitting before and blocked the tunnel by putting some rocks against it.
‘Where’s Blue?’ Fat asked, taking a big gulp from the water bottle.
‘He went to check on you. When you guys didn’t come, we were quite worried,’ Sana said checking her backpack ‘Where’s that blue box?’ she muttered
‘Oh, I threw it at the boar. What was in it?’ I told her.
‘It was the cookie box,’ we all groaned and realized we were terribly hungry.
'How did you know boars are afraid of fire?' i asked Sana and Fat.
"Weren't you listening to Ms. Orla the other day' I shook my head 'she told us stuff, useful stuff!' Fat smirked, the type i hated, but I wasn't hating her right then.
‘So where did Blue go,’ I wondered aloud.
‘He tricked us,’ Fat ruefully smiled.
‘But why would he do that?’ Somia looked sad, I knew she liked him ‘We didn’t do anything to him’
‘Oh Somia! He’s just like that. Farhan said he often play cruel pranks on people and thinks its funny,’ Fat gestured impatiently.
‘He told me that he was going to be a Tarzan of Changa Manga,’ I blurted out foolishly.
‘What?’ they giggled.
‘Yeah,’ I rolled my eyes, blushing furiously ‘and he said he might find his Jane here’ I added, looking meaningfully at Somia.
At this point Somia blushed. I laughed at her; she stuck out her tongue at me.
‘What should we do now,’ Sana said, breaking the awkward silence that followed ‘Blue won’t leave us here forever, will he’ she said doubtfully. We had no answer. I began to wonder. We’d be stuck here forever. Eating dirt and mud, sipping drops of water that was dripping from the walls, and later we’d be friends with that boar. The thought was awful. After resting a while, Fat suggested that we should try to find our way out. We agreed with her. With the candle in Sana’s hand we walked the tunnel.
‘Hey, wait a minute,’ Fat stopped and faced us, her face shining.
‘What?’
‘We’re walking! Didn’t you notice?’ she pointed to our feet.
‘Yes? So?’ Fat is losing her mind, I thought.
‘Oh Guys!’ she was already going back to the room ‘the tunnel we came from was really low. We’d to crawl, remember?’
Now that made sense. We ran back to the room and checked all the tunnels, luckily only one has low ceiling. We’d to crawl in total darkness. I closed my eyes as cobwebs brushed against my face. And then we were there. Sana lit the candle again, which was now kind of broken. Fat climbed the ladder and pushed the trapdoor. It didn’t budge.
‘Guys, we’re still stuck!’ she jumped down. We all sat quietly waiting for someone to help us.
‘Sk knows,’ Sana mumbled ‘and Farhan knows too’
‘Don’t forget Blue,’ Somia added.
So there we were sitting in an underground tunnel, with wild boars and one broken candle. Waiting for someone to help us….with no food and water!