We are Tam Page 6

  "Ask her how she lost the cylinder," said Steven.

  Tameron told how she'd tripped and how the cylinder had slipped into a deep, gravelly pit, which she had just managed to save herself from falling into by hanging onto a pipe.

  "It is gone, and Darwei's life-colour is almost gone too."

  "Dillbrain. Why can't she get a rope and go down after it?" demanded Steven.

  Tam hesitated to suggest such a dangerous idea to Tameron, especially when she didn't like climbing ropes herself. Still ... ."

  "Can you get a rope and climb down?"

  "I do not know where it fell. I ran all over Oldcit, trying to escape the lights and sirens."

  "Can't she remember anything?" hissed Steven, when Tam repeated this to him. But Tam was listening again to the voice in her head.

  "All I remember is the obelisk, a large one, fallen on its side. It was close to the Garden of Learned Thoughts."

  Tam's mind flew to the city. She knew where there was a large obelisk, beside the Park, not far from the Town Hall.

  She sent this knowledge into the future. Then there was silence in her head. Steven fidgeted with the rug and tugged at her foot.

  "What's happening?"

  "I think she's gone." Tam shook him off.

  "Wish it were my mirror-image. A boy wouldn't be scared. I bet he'd go down the hole."

  "Shut up Steven."

  "Could you go and stand by the obelisk?" Tameron's voice seemed to ring through the room. Tam was sure that this time Steven must have heard it.

  "Of course, and Steven too."

  "Then I must return to Oldcit, but not during night-lighting. Next mid-sunning I will meet you at the obelisk. Tameron's voice hesitated. "But I am afraid of the black hole."

  "I promise we'll be there," Tam replied firmly. "And remember, the dark, the black, can't hurt you."

  "What've you promised now?" demanded Steven.

  "That we'd meet her beside the obelisk in the city, the one near the Park. That's where the hole is, the one she's going to climb down.

  "When?"

  "Next mid-sunning. I think that means tomorrow mid-day."

  "That's when I have football practice," moaned Steven. "Anyway, don't they have names for their sunnings, the way we do?"

  "I don't know. There's so much I'd like to ask her, but there's never enough time," Tam replied thoughtfully.

  'Okay. As you've promised away my footy practice, you can ask Mum this time," said Steven.

  "I hope nothing dangerous happens. Tameron doesn't like the dark," said Tam.

  "Sunday is a lovely day for picnics. We used to have picnics all the time when I was a kid," Pat said as she packed their lunches. "It's nice of you to go with Tam, Steven. I thought nothing could get you away from footy."

  "What are you going to do, Mum?" Tam asked changing the subject so that Steven wouldn't be reminded about missing his Sunday practice.

  "I'm going to make a rockery at the end of the wall and your father is probably going to watch me," she chuckled. She handed them each a plastic bag. "If you catch the train, it will take you straight to the Park."

  The train sped along the rail line so fast that the houses and trees ran together.

  "I love trains," Tam exclaimed as she pressed her nose to the window. "I like it best when the train goes under the hill." As if answering a wish, the train shot into a tunnel.

  "Don't be childish, Tam," Steven chided, imitating their mother's voice.

  Tam made a face at him. "You should talk."

  When the train stopped, they got off and took the escalator to ground level, then walked along the Park wall towards the obelisk.

  "Hard to imagine that these won't be here," said Steven waving his arm at the office buildings.

  "Don't think about it," shuddered Tam.

  They reached the obelisk and circled it. It was made of blue granite with four sphinxes, one at each corner and a date in the front. Then they sat on the Park wall and looked at it.

  "Eighteen fifty-six," Steven read. "Pretty old, isn't it? I reckon the trains go right under it."

  He dug into his bag for a sandwich and ate the crust first, saving the jam and cheese middle for last. Then his face changed as an idea struck him. "I bet that's the hole the cylinder fell into."

  "What hole? There's no hole here. What are you talking about?" asked Tam.

  "The underground railway. I bet it caved in," Steven continued to chew thoughtfully. "That means it could be pretty deep."

  "Oh Steven," Tam was worried. "It's going to be too dangerous. I must warn her."

  She crossed her legs and concentrated.

  CHAPTER 13. TRAPPED UNDERGROUND

  Tameron stood beside the tall pine tree, trying to look casual. At her feet lay a small bag containing a rope and emergency night-light. She could feel the presence of her mirror-image on the other side of the grass border.

  It was a hot sunning, and a few people were sauntering through the Garden of Learned Thoughts. They did not notice the thin girl in the pale pink suit. She watched them from the corner of her eye as they passed. There were no Citguards. No one showed any interest in Oldcit. People avoided looking at it. Soon it would be completely levelled and covered by beautiful gardens and no one would know it ever existed.

  At last she was alone. Grabbing the bag, she sprinted across the grass and scrambled over some rocks, guided by Tam's voice.

  Running around a boulder, she froze. A large grey animal stood blocking her path, its sleek body hidden by creepers. Tameron stared at it, paralysed with fear. Flashes of Tam's animal spitting and clawing at her ran through her mind. This animal did not move, but stared back at her. What horrified her most was that it had a face of a person and the body of- she tried to remember the word Tam had used . A cat. That was it. A large cat.

  "It's a sphinx, a statue made of stone. it can't hurt you." Tam had recognised the image Tameron had flashed to her in fright. "There are four of them at the base of the obelisk.

  Reassured, Tameron edged past the stone animal. Another lay on its side behind the rubble. Before her was the broken obelisk, and beside it the gravelly pit. She felt her throat tighten. The hole looked deep and forbidding.

  "Are you sure the black cannot hurt me," she whispered.

  Tam warned her that the hole might be an old train tunnel, but Tameron didn't know what an old train tunnel was. She tied the rope around the base of the obelisk and threw the bulk of it down the hole Tam repeated Steven's instructions to her.

  "You must let yourself down gradually. Don't forget the bag. You'll need it to put the cylinder in. Then you can climb up and pull the bag up afterwards.

  With the bag tied around her waist, Tameron grasped the rope and let herself slideslowly, hand over hand, down the gravelly slope. What a very long rope it seemed! As she slid, small stones kept hitting her face from minor landslides she triggered off. her body-suit scraped against crumbling earth. Suddenly, nothing ... There was nothing beneath her.

  Tameron's lurch of fear as her feet swung in the air stabbed back to the 20th century.

  "Hang on tight. Twist your legs around the rope. Remember the black can't hurt you." Tam told her.

  Tameron's arms ached. She wrapped her legs around the swinging rope and slid, bit by bit, into the pit. Above, the light of sunning shrank to the size of an emergency night-light beam. Below, the black was total. Down, down, she went. Her wrists aching from squeezing so tightly. Then it was gone! Her hands slipped, and she plunged into the dark.

  There was no time to cry out. With a hard bump she landed on sharp stones. A jarring pain shot through her body. The bag had broken her fall, but her arm was twisted beneath her.

  Everything was black. She felt it closing in on her. For the first time in her living she was completely covered by black. She fumbled in her bag for the emergency night-light, but it was shattered. her left arm ached, her plait had come undone, and her dusty hair fell over her shoulders.

  She was alon
e in the dark, and no one knew that she was there. Fear and pain almost caused her to comarise, but the greater fear of lying asleep in the black stopped her. The air was stale and unpleasant. She sniffed, trying to make out the faint sour smell. Her breathing sounded loud and unnatural in the uncanny silence.

  She felt the sound rather than heard it. Then something soft slid along her leg. She recoiled in horror. What was it? Something else rubbed against her back. She trembled. She wanted to scream but daren't. What was there out there in the dark? What kept touching her. A vision of the stone sphinx crossed her mind. What if there were real animals like that. No these weren't as large as the sphinx. These were smaller, softer. Her stomach tightened in terror. She couldn't bear to think of what was touching her. She covered her face. They must not touch her face.

  "What is it? What's wrong?" Tam's voice filled the dark pushing it back.

  "Things, animal things, touching me! Help me, Tam. I cannot move."

  Steven and Tam stood at the base of the obelisk, staring at each other.

  "We're the only ones who know where she is, and it's our fault she went down there," cried Tam. "She says there are animals down there."

  Steven frowned and chewed his lip. "Probably rats."

  "We have to help her, Steven."

  "How? It's five hundred years in the future!" he retorted sharply, feeling guilty for having suggested Tameron climb down in the first place.

  His sister's face puckered. "We can't leave her there to die."

  "Well, we can't go down the hole and get her out, can we?" Steven hated it when Tam cried, and she looked close to it now.

  "Why can't we? You said it was part of the underground railway. We can go down there."

  "That won't help."

  "I'd be closer to her. I'm going anyway." She ran along the path to the railways station.

  "All right, wait for me," Steven raced after her. "Look. If she's fallen into a tunnel, we can't go down there. We'd be run over by a train."

  Tam ignored him, thrusting her ticket at the collector she ran down the escalator. on the platform Steven caught up with her and grabbed her by the arm.

  "Can you still hear her."

  "I can feel her." Tam pointed down the train tunnel. "She's down there."

  "You're not going down there." Steven held onto her arm, his face grim. Dragging her to a bench, he tried to make her see sense. "It wouldn't do any good," he insisted.

  Tam wasn't listening to him. Her mind was racing, searching for a way to help her mirror-image. She forced her thoughts through the wall of Tameron's fear.

  "How can I help you? Answer me."

  Tameron crouched in the black, afraid to move, her body rigid, her eyes wide open trying to pierce the black. There was not a glimmer of light, only a faint sound of dripping water and a soft rustle as things touched her. Tam's distant voice penetrated her frozen panic.

  "How can I help you? Answer me."

  "I don't know," Tameron sobbed.

  "Why don't you mirror-image back to the 20th century," urged Tam.

  "I cannot, not without Older-parent. Anyway, my body would remain here unguarded," Tameron gulped. "And I would still have to return."

  "Then can you follow my voice?"

  The very thought of moving was impossible to Tameron. How could she move? How could she step into the black. She might step on one of those animal things. She couldn't even wipe the hair from her damp face.

  "I would comarise automatically. I cannot, I cannot," she cried.

  Steven grimaced when Tam passed on Tameron's words.

  "She can't stay there forever. She has to do something."

  "I could go and lead her out. We could follow the train rails," Tam watched his face for his reaction.

  "No way! You're not leaving this platform," said Steven.

  Tam concentrated again.

  "What about my image then? Could I send you my image?"

  "I do not know. I do not think so. You know nothing about mirror-imaging." Tameron's voice sounded remote and hopeless.

  "We've done yoga at school, and the three of us can concentrate together. it's worth a try," Tam argued. She turned to Steven. "Come on Steven. Let's try." She pulled him onto the bench. "Sit cross-legged and think."

  "It won't work, Tam. It's silly," said Steven, glancing along the empty platform. "Anyway, it may be dangerous."

  "No, it isn't. It's only my image that will go. My body will remain here." She took his hands and closed her eyes.

  The three children concentrated together, repeating Tam's name over and over. "Tam, Tam, Tam."

  CHAPTER 14. THE ENEMY

  Tam felt something dragging her into the tunnel. A chill wind whipped at her hair and stung her eyes. She travelled at great speed, but without effort. her body remained on the bench, her hands clenched tightly in Steven's.

  In the black, Tameron could feel her coming towards her. She relaxed, letting her fear dissolve. She moved her cramped legs just a little. He foot touched something which rolled with a metallic, clinking sound. The cylinder. She reached out slowly into the black, her mouth dry.

  Something clasped her hand! She pulled back so fast she almost fell over backwards.

  "It's me. Don't be scared." It was Tam.

  "I cannot see you," cried Tameron.

  "I can't see you either. It's too dark," Tam answered calmly.

  Tameron stretched out her hand and felt Tam's face. "Oh I am so pleased that you are here. There are things in the black. Can you feel them?"

  Tam thought of rats and shuddered.

  "Don't think about them. We have to get out fast." She sounded strong and reassuring. "We must follow the train lines.

  "What are train lines?" asked Tameron.

  "Metal rails on the ground. Feel around for them with your feet.

  Tameron remembered the metallic, clinking sound.

  "I think I felt the cylinder before."

  They both knelt and felt around in the darkness. Tam held tightly to Tameron's arm.

  "Yuk! I don't like the smell much."

  "I have found it.

  "Tameron's fingers closed around the cylinder. "It is smaller than I expected. Oh!" She jumped back. Something touched my foot."

  They stood motionless, trying to guess what it was.

  "Steven says it might be rats, so let's move. Follow the rails." Tam started forward, feeling the way with her foot. "Found them, only I don't know which is the right direction."

  "What are rats?" Tameron asked warily.

  "Horrible little animals that bite," answered Tam unthinkingly. "Let's go."

  They inched along the tunnel. Tam held her free hand out in front to protect her face. Sometimes they had to kneel and dig through the dirt and stones to find the buried rail. Tam had an eerie feeling that they were being followed, but she said nothing to Tameron. Whatever it was, creeping along behind them, it kept its distance. Far ahead she thought that she could see a glimmer of light filtering down from above. Drips of icy water fell onto their outstretched hands and soaked their clothes. Their feet were freezing.

  Holding hands, they hurried as well as they could towards the faint light. As they stumbled out of the pale grey shadows, Tameron stopped abruptly.

  "What's wrong? asked Tam.

  "I still cannot see you," Tameron said. "Can you see me?"

  "Yes, quite clearly now."

  "Perhaps the three of us are not strong enough to make a full mirror-image. I must ask Older-parent."

  "We have to get out of here first. Come on." Tam held her hand firmly.

  They walked along the dim tunnel and out into a large cavern. Stretched along one side was a crumbling platform, sunken in the middle and covered with dust. Above it, suspended by one enormous cable, hung a rusty escalator. The steps disappeared upwards into the pale light.

  Something rushed past them, brushing their legs and leapt onto the platform. Then another and another. Three black cats with slanting blank white eyes barred t
heir way.

  "Cats. It was cats all the time," Tam felt relief. She wasn't afraid of cats.

  But as she spoke, more and more black shapes detached themselves from the shadows beneath the platform, and stalked towards them in the ghostly light. Their mouths open their sharp white teeth showing.

  "How odd, they're exactly alike - jet black with strange eyes," shivered Tameron moving slowly towards the platform. Something about the cats bothered her.

  As the two girls approached the cats, they raised their heads and snarled. The girls were afraid and the cats knew it.

  "Do you think they can see you?" asked Tameron, never taking her frightened eyes from the three animals baring the way.

  "Even if they can't see me, they can sense I'm here. Napoleon knew you were there."

  Tam moved a step closer to the cats. Tameron could see her footprints on the platform.

  "Scat! Go away! Get out!" Tam shouted kicking up the grey dust at them.

  The animals waited, poised to attack, their slit eyes narrowed, their large, pointed ears laying flat against their sleek heads. Their long tails moved slowly back and forth, raising dust. Behind them hung the rusty escalator.

  "We're going to have to run for it," said Tam rubbing her left arm. It hurt although she didn't remember bumping it. "See those stairs? Aim for them. It's the only way out."

  Tameron had never seen stairs like these. They frightened her, but not as much as the strange animals waiting in front of them.

  "All right. I am ready."

  "Now!"

  Tam grabbed Tameron's arm and sprinted towards the cats, shouting at them. Tameron winced, it was the arm she had fallen on, and it hurt like crazy but she ran too. They hurdled the cats

  and Tam flung herself onto the stairs, pulling Tameron with

  her. They climbed as fast as they could.

  The escalator swayed drunkenly. Clouds of dust rose, making them cough and cover their mouths. Below, the platform was covered in growling, meowing cats. Hundreds of slanted eyes stared blankly up at them.

  Tam gasped with recognition.

  They can't see. They're blind," she said.

  Tameron felt Tam's hand on her arm, urging her to climb higher. The escalator swayed and creaked with their weight. Halfway up, a large crack separated the steps. Tam stretched her leg as far as she could, but she couldn't reach across the gap.