The Moa Cave (7 page)

Everyone was late up in the morning. Tyler felt much better from the extra sleep, though he missed the early morning visit to the cave. However, what he had planned for tonight would definitely make up for it.

Alice was still sick and stayed in bed. Even though Mandy said her leg was much better, Molly cancelled the morning trip to help it fully recover. Mandy went back to bed. Hine settled at the table to write in an exercise book while Tyler sat by the fire with his Game Boy.

After a time Bill came in. ‘Come on, Ty. Get your nose out of there and come with me to Owaka. We need some supplies.’

Tyler jumped to his feet. ‘So do I,’ he said. Bill gave a questioning look but the boy didn’t say any more.

Their first stop was to fill the back of the ute with stock food. Afterwards, while Bill was chatting to an elderly local, Tyler went into the dairy. Five minutes later he emerged with his arms full of nibbles, chocolate and drink.

As he loaded them into the ute Bill asked, ‘You planning a party or something?’

Tyler grinned. ‘Yeah, something.’

Bill chuckled. ‘Okay, so you’re having a party on the last night. Don’t worry about me. I won’t tell Alice.’

‘She wouldn’t care anyway. She doesn’t do anything to look after us.’

‘That’s a bit harsh, Tyler. She’s not well, you know.’ He paused, thinking. ‘Plus things aren’t quite right in her private life at the moment.’

‘Why? What’s the problem?’

‘Well, this is just between you and me, but she wants to get married and have a baby. I gather the partner agreed at first but is having second thoughts. And now he’s gone away and she doesn’t know where. So, you can see why her mind’s on other things. You need to be patient and a little more caring.’

Tyler kept quiet—he’d worked most of that out anyway. While he didn’t want Alice to be unhappy, he liked the way she let them have free time. It meant he could do more of the things he wanted.

Their last visit was the police station to report the ute and the activities of Shifty, Grunty and Blondy. Jonno, the policeman, was sitting at a desk reading a newspaper. ‘Hi, Bill. What brings you in here?’ Bill explained about the slaughtered beast, the black ute and Tyler seeing the gun behind the seat.

Jonno pulled a keyboard over. ‘Mmm, sounds like it may be the same lot that were seen leaving the pub just after the alarm was triggered the other night. Got away with a thousand bucks’ worth, they did. Alf was really annoyed. He’d only just put in that new supersensitive alarm system.’ He punched a few keys. ‘Do you have any details about that ute?’

Tyler told of their investigations. He handed over a piece of paper with the number plate and the boat serial number.

‘Good work,’ said Jonno, clearly impressed. ‘The boat will
take a while to check but we can look at that registration number now.’ He tapped the keyboard for a while. ‘Mmm. I got a match. But not with a black Falcon ute. Up until a couple of months ago those plates were on a very expensive Mercedes convertible. It was stolen from Christchurch and hasn’t been seen since. I bet we’ll find that boat is stolen too.’

He typed for a minute or so, mumbling to himself. ‘Okay. Can you give me some descriptions?’ Tyler did so. Jonno typed it all into the computer. ‘Those are excellent descriptions, Tyler. I wish all our witnesses were as observant as you.’ He paused and looked at the boy. ‘You wouldn’t happen to have caught any names, I suppose?’

Tyler smiled. ‘One of them called himself Terminator Two, but he was just being smart.’

Jonno raised his eyebrows. ‘Maybe. Maybe not. It could be a gang name. I’ll put it in anyway. Somebody up the line might recognise it.’ Again he typed. Tyler chuckled to himself: just as well Mandy wasn’t here or she would want to claim back the life she lost.

‘You got anything else?’ Jonno asked.

Tyler told of the sacks of red meat.

‘Mmm, that sounds a bit odd. I would have expected something like paua. We get a lot of paua poaching around here. But red meat? I’ve never heard of that before.’

‘We thought they might have killed a dolphin,’ said Tyler.

The policeman turned sharply around in his chair. ‘You think so?’ He thought for a while. ‘Could be. It would fit. They’d take anything they could turn into cash.’

‘Who would buy it?’ asked Bill.

‘You’d be surprised,’ replied Jonno. ‘In some countries, eating whale and dolphin is not only lawful, it is considered a luxury and costs a lot of money. There are people who would buy it, and these criminals would know how to contact
them.’ He turned back to the computer and entered the new information.

‘Is that the lot?’ he asked when finished. Tyler nodded. ‘Okay. You kids have been very helpful, but a word of warning: keep clear of them from now on. You’ve got away with snooping so far but if they see you too often they’ll get suspicious. And then, who knows what they’ll do. We know they’re armed, and the way they’re behaving I think they’re dangerous. So keep away from them, you hear?’

‘Yes,’ replied Tyler.

Bill said, ‘I’ll make sure of that. I’m looking after them this afternoon, and they go home tomorrow. So it’s unlikely we’ll see that ute again. But I’ll let you know if we do.’

The afternoon trip was almost cancelled because of the weather. It wasn’t raining yet but lots was forecast and already the sky was grey with rapidly moving clouds. Molly made the decision for them to go, saying they all needed to get some fresh air.

Tyler convinced Bill to take them to a moa site that was listed in the guide book. There was also a cave nearby.

The track took them through dense coastal forest. Everything was wet with most of the trees growing in water. Again there were signs warning of cyanide poison. Tyler tried not to see them and thankfully Mandy had the sense to keep quiet.

The forest ended at the sea and they soon got the fresh air that Molly had prescribed; and lots of it too, along with sand and spray whipped up by an icy blast coming off the Southern Ocean. Bill said there was nothing between the beach and Antarctica; to Tyler it certainly felt like it.

Bill led them to a sheltered grassed area near the entrance
to an estuary. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘It might not be obvious, but you’re now standing on one of the most important moa hunter sites in the world. Beneath here, archaeologists found evidence of 103 different birds from ten different species of moa, along with lots of tools for cutting them up. It’s thought the moa were killed further inland and floated down here on rafts where they were butchered.’

‘How long ago?’ asked Tyler.

‘The oldest is over a thousand years ago, with the most recent just under four hundred, which is the most recent date anywhere.’ He paused, staring up the estuary, thinking. ‘It could be that the last of the great moa was killed up this valley and eaten right here.’

Tyler looked around. Yes, he thought, he could see Ata living here. It would be a wonderful place for a boy to live. The estuary for playing and canoeing; the forest for hunting; and the sea for swimming and fishing. This would be the base for their hunting. At times they would make camps closer to other food sources like seals. That would be why they were around in Woolshed Bay. They were after seals, and perhaps penguins, or even eggs. The moa was just a lucky find. Lucky for Ata, he thought, and also lucky for me…

‘Tyler,’ called Hine. ‘Are you coming with us? We’re off to the cave now.’

Reluctantly Tyler pulled his thoughts back to the present and joined the others walking down the beach.

The approach to the cave was up a small gully cut into the cliffs at the end of the beach. The entrance was almost hidden behind flax and mingimingi. Small plants, lichens and mosses grew around the opening.

Before going in, Bill called them over to look at a large patch of moss in the cliff beside the entrance. ‘Can you see anything there?’ he asked.

Tyler could see a faint circle about the size of a five cent piece, but nothing other than the felt-like surface of the moss.

‘No?’ said Bill. ‘Then look at this.’ He had the car keys in his hand. Carefully he inserted a key at the edge of the faint circle and lifted the moss. Behind was a tunnel. ‘Watch!’ Soon a pair of striped legs poked out of the opening. Then another pair. Finally they could see that it was a spider, peering at them with its many eyes.

‘That’s a trapdoor spider,’ Bill proclaimed proudly as if he had created the thing himself. ‘And what do you think it feeds on?’ No one had an answer. ‘Weta! Cave weta to be exact. See how the moss has been eaten here? At night the weta come out to feed on the plants. Then if they get too close, a trapdoor opens and they get invited in for supper. Supper for the spider, that is.’

‘Are there weta in the cave?’ asked Mandy softly.

‘Yeah! Thousands of them. They live on the roof. But don’t worry. They’re harmless. They only scratch a little if they fall on you. Just brush them aside and you’ll be fine.’

Mandy had gone white. Hine saw it and smiled. ‘It’s my turn for a dare, I believe.’

Bill looked at her sternly. ‘Nothing dangerous now.’

‘No, it’s not dangerous. My dare is to go into the cave.’

‘Oh, that’s all right then.’

But it wasn’t all right for Mandy. The fear in her eyes was obvious to all. There was no way she would go into that cave.

Bill tried to jolly her. ‘Come on, Mandy. I’ll go in front of you and remove any that could be a problem.’

‘It’ll be one life each if you don’t come,’ added Hine.

But no, Mandy wouldn’t budge.

‘Okay, you can stay out here,’ said Bill. ‘But don’t go away. Perhaps you should sit down and rest your ankle for a while.’

The cave led steeply downwards from the entrance. Bill showed the way with a torch. The weta were there, though probably not thousands of them. They seemed firmly attached to the roof and created no problems.

To Tyler the cave was a great disappointment. It was just a sloping shaft down to a sandy chamber. There were no obvious fossils or bones. In fact the objects were all human ones: previous visitors had covered the bottom with bottles and cans.

Bill explained that the cave had been formed by the sea during the last ice age when the sea level was lower. In the thousands of years since, the bottom had filled with sand eventually blocking out the sea.

‘Has any one dug here for moa remains?’ asked Tyler.

‘Yeah. In the nineteen forties a team excavated here. There were some finds, but nothing as good as where we were earlier.’

‘What about in other caves?’ asked Hine.

‘The sea comes into all the others. Around here, caves are not good places for moa remains.’ Tyler smiled as he imagined Bill’s reaction when he learned there was a cave on his own beach. The man must have walked past it hundreds of times without seeing it. He would sure get a surprise. Unfortunately, that would have to be tomorrow morning, just before they left. Still, there were many hours before then, and Tyler intended to use them well.

When they got out Mandy was crouched in the lee of a rocky outcrop, looking lost and forgotten. Tyler felt it was
time to put his plan into action. ‘It wasn’t too bad in there,’ he said. ‘The weta stayed on the roof. They didn’t climb over you or anything. Bill just said that to scare us. And there weren’t any skeletons or anything like that.’

Mandy looked thankful for the attention. ‘The weta were only part of it. I don’t like caves. They give me the creeps.’

Hine joined them. ‘That cave was so boring. You lost a life for nothing, Mandy. It’s just a big rubbish dump.’

‘What sort of cave do you want?’ asked Tyler.

‘Oh, I dunno. Something with hidden passages and chambers. With bones and stuff.’

‘You should play The Bones of Kilimanjaro. It’s like that.’

‘But that’s just a game. It’s not the real thing.’

‘Yeah, but you heard Bill. He says there are no caves around here like that.’

‘That’s a pity.’

‘Wouldn’t that be a great dare?’ said Tyler, grinning. ‘Spending a night in a cave with skeletons and things.’

‘Argh,’ went Mandy. ‘No thank you.’

Hine said nothing. She turned and took the path leading to the beach. The others followed in single file with Tyler at the rear. His feet were hardly touching the ground, he felt so good. He had done it. He had issued the dare and neither of them had noticed a thing. He had the game won. Plus he was going to spend the night with Ata, and that would be better than winning any game.

He left it till after ten, hoping all the others were asleep. As he passed the girls’ dorm he paused to listen: there was nothing other than the sounds of people sleeping.

The fire was still burning, giving the community room a golden glow. Flickering flames formed black ghosts of shadows dancing in the corners of the room. He stood by it for a while to store some of its heat for the cold night ahead.

He was tingling with anticipation. All his plans had fallen into place. In a few minutes he would be in the cave with Ata. It was going to be a great night: first he would fill himself with junk food and then he would go to sleep alongside the boy from the past. Who knows what dreams they would share together. And later, in the morning, he would return to the woolshed as the winner of the game. Oh, how he would gloat. The best part would be seeing Mandy’s reaction when she…

‘So where’s this skeleton we’re going to sleep with?’

He spun round. It was a girl’s voice, coming from the corner by the bookcase. ‘Who is it?’

‘Me, Hine.’ She moved out of the shadows. ‘I’m here for the night in the cave you promised.’

Without a word he picked up his pack and marched off, heading back to bed.

‘Tyler,’ she called softly.

‘What?’ he answered much too loudly.

‘Don’t run.’

He stopped and pushed his hand into his pocket searching for the pendant. It wasn’t there! For a moment his anger turned to panic until he sensed a weight in another pocket. He grasped at it through the clothing of his trousers and soon felt the pendant’s calming strength.

‘Please, Tyler. It’ll be fun. I’ve got all the gear.’ Then she chuckled. ‘And I’ve got a tin of Auntie’s famous chocolate cookies.’

He stood staring and thinking. He wanted so much to be in the cave spending the night with Ata. Yet he didn’t want to share his friend with anyone, certainly not with a girl. She wouldn’t understand. She would only ruin it.

‘I’ll be really quiet,’ pleaded Hine. ‘You’ll hardly notice I’m there.’ The way she said it made him smile. Perhaps it would be all right with Hine. She was a bit different to other girls.

‘Okay,’ he conceded, moving towards the door. ‘But I hope you’ve got plenty of clothes and things, because you’re not sharing anything of mine.’

It seemed like the promised rain was starting. Large drops were falling as they reached the beach. The sea was roaring, with waves spilling up the creek and almost surrounding the rock that guarded the entrance to the cave.

Tyler crawled in first, shining the torch backwards to show Hine the way. He was now looking forward to showing off his cave. He shone the torch around. ‘Here it is, madam,’ he said, speaking like a posh hotel manager. ‘Your room for the night. Not quite all the comforts of home, but the sand is soft and at least it’s dry.’

Hine sniffed the air. ‘What’s that smell?’

Tyler chuckled. ‘Ah! That comes from my other guests.’ He swung the torch towards the nest. ‘May I introduce Hopi and Mopsie.’

Hine was delighted. ‘Oh, they’re so cute. How many eggs have they got?’

‘Two. But they might have hatched by now.’

‘I can see why you call her Mopsie. Was Hopi the one that got run over by the ute?’ Tyler nodded. ‘Did you know about this place then?’

‘Yes. I found it that morning. Hopi showed me. I saw him heading down to the sea and followed his tracks back here.’

‘And you never told us.’

‘I wanted it to be my secret,’ he said quietly.

Hine looked around the cave. ‘Where’s the other guest you promised? The skeleton?’

Without speaking he moved to the ledge. Hine followed. When he shone the torch over the skeleton she gasped, taking a step backwards. After a while Tyler said, ‘That’s Ata. I think he’s about four hundred years old. He was a moa hunter. See…’ He pointed to the mound of stones. ‘He had a bag of gizzard stones and this big moa bone. That coating of dust is the remains of his clothes, probably a seal skin.’ He was surprised to find how much he enjoyed talking to Hine about Ata.

‘You haven’t touched the bones, have you?’

Tyler looked at her. Her eyes were wide with fear. ‘No. I know not to disturb things. That’s for the experts.’

‘Nobody should do it. Not until he’s ready.’ She leaned forward a little and pointed to the clear spot by the neck. ‘What was in there?’

Tyler tried to think of a suitable lie, yet something about Hine’s fear made him put his hand in his pocket. ‘This,’ he said, presenting the pendant in his open hand.

Hine peered at it but wouldn’t touch it. ‘You shouldn’t have taken it. It belongs to him.’

‘But he gave it to me.’ He then told how the pendant had been revealed. ‘He wanted me to have it.’

Hine was not so sure. ‘We’ll find out soon enough. He’ll let us know if you should keep it or not.’

‘These are yummy,’ said Tyler. ‘Can I have another?’

Hine handed over another chocolate cookie. ‘Auntie always says, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.’

‘Your Auntie sounds like a nice person.’

‘Yes, she is.’

‘Does she let you do things you want to do?’

‘Mostly. She can be very strict at times.’

‘What would she think about what we’re doing now?’

‘I think she would be very concerned if she knew. What about your parents?’

‘I dunno. They probably wouldn’t like it. But I don’t think they’d get upset.’

‘They would, you know,’ said Hine. ‘What we’re doing is a big no-no with adults. If anybody finds out about this, we’ll be in big trouble. Boys and girls are not meant to sleep together. They might do things.’

Tyler felt his face go red. ‘We’re not doing anything.’

‘No, we’re not.’ Then she saw his red face. ‘And you just make sure it stays that way, Tyler Matthews,’ she teased. ‘Your bed is going way over there.’

‘That’s where it smells most,’ he complained.

‘I know,’ she grinned. ‘That’ll keep your passions under control.’ Tyler couldn’t help but smile—having Hine there wasn’t so bad after all.

They prepared for bed. Tyler smoothed a place in the sand for his sleeping bag, then set out the things he might need during the night: Game Boy, camera, alarm clock, invisible ink pen, chippies, drink, spare batteries, small radio, Swiss army knife.

Hine looked over at his corner and asked, ‘You sure you’ve got everything you need there, Tyler?’

‘Yeah, I like to be prepared. Anyway, what’s that you’ve got?’

‘My cellphone.’

‘You won’t get a signal in here.’

She turned it on and looked at the screen. ‘No, you’re right. But I can still text messages and send them later.’ She pointed at his radio. ‘Can you get anything on that?’

Tyler turned it on. Even though he scanned both FM and AM there was nothing except hisses.

For a while Tyler played a game and Hine pushed buttons on her phone. When he looked at his clock it was after midnight.

‘What time do you think we should get up?’ he asked.

‘We have to get back before anyone wakes or we’ll be in trouble.’

‘I’ll set it for six. Nobody’s been up at that time.’

After setting his alarm, he fitted the camera into the Game Boy and pointed it at Hine.

‘Hey! Why are you taking photos of me in bed?’

‘Evidence,’ he said smugly. ‘Mandy won’t believe us unless I’ve got a photo. You can take one of me in the morning.’ He snuggled down in his bed. ‘I’m going to turn the torch off now.’

‘Good night, Tyler,’ said Hine, and then added, ‘And Teddy says good night too.’ She held up a small, ear-chewed, fur teddy bear. ‘He hopes you have a good night’s sleep.’

‘Good night, Hine. Good night, Teddy,’ he chuckled. As he turned off the light, he added in a whisper, ‘And good night, Ata. Look after us both, won’t you?’

Tyler woke several times during the night. He was surprised by the absolute darkness: it was just as dark with his eyes open as shut. At first there were plenty of sounds from the storm raging outside. Then later it was silent except for the gentle sound of Hine breathing; there was nothing from the penguins.

The raucous alarm woke him from a deep dream that was slow to fade. It took some time to find the clock and return the cave to peaceful silence.

‘That was enough to wake the dead,’ said Hine rolling towards him.

Tyler shone the torch up onto Ata’s ledge. ‘No,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t seem to have.’

She giggled. ‘What about the penguins?’

They were both still there, though Hopi was standing as if getting ready to leave.

‘Did you hear the storm?’ asked Tyler.

‘Yes. At one stage there was water lapping at the opening. I think the stream must have flooded.’

Tyler swung the torch to the opening, thinking that the water may have made the entrance bigger and maybe easier to get in and out. But there was no entrance. In its place was wet, brown sand with dampness spreading over the floor. There was a tide mark where the water must have peaked about half a metre from Hine’s feet.

A horrible feeling crept into Tyler’s gut. He moved for a closer look. The tunnel was completely blocked. The sand
seemed to be in layers as if it had been forced in. Now he knew why everything went so quiet during the night. The storm might still be out there; it was just that they could no longer hear it. Then he had a terrible thought: if the sound couldn’t come in, then neither could the air. They were trapped and sooner or later would run out of air.

He turned to the ledge where Ata was resting. Now he knew how the boy died: he’d run out of air and died of asphyxiation.

Hine must have read his thoughts. ‘Do you think he got trapped too?’ She looked calm but there was a hint of fear in her voice.

Tyler nodded. ‘This place isn’t all that hard to find but Bill doesn’t know about it. That’s because it’s mostly blocked. It probably got opened by a bad storm and now it’s back to normal. Maybe it hasn’t been open since Ata came in.’

They were silent for a while, each taking in the situation. It was bad, really bad. If they didn’t find a way out then…Tyler shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that.

He handed Hine the torch. ‘You hold this. I’m going to dig our way out.’

‘Be careful.’

Tyler looked at her sharply. For a moment she sounded just like his mum.

‘I’ve dug tunnels in sand before. It’s all right as long as you don’t get too much sand above you.’

He started at the top where the sand met the rock. His idea was to keep rock above him for as long as possible. The damp sand was easy to dig. The hardest part was shunting the sand back out of the way. He was soon deep enough to move his hands into the passage.

It was hard to remember how long the passageway was. When he thought he was halfway he took a rest. Hine
continued for a while shifting sand away from the tunnel so that it would be easier when he started again.

Breakfast was chocolate and Auntie’s cookies. Hopi came and looked at them for a moment before waddling into the tunnel looking for a way out. A moment later he reappeared and returned to Mopsie, talking to her in his funny way. Tyler looked at the clock: it was after seven, well past Hopi’s normal departure time.

‘Bill and Molly will be up by now,’ he said.

‘Yeah, but unless they go into the dorms they won’t know we’re missing. There’s still time.’

He stood. ‘There’s still a lot of sand to shift.’

They made quicker progress in the second half of the tunnel. Hine emptied the cookie tin and gave Tyler the lid. That made digging much easier. Hine used the base of the tin to carry the sand back into the cave. Soon he was out of the passage and there was only sand above him. Now all he had to do was go up and they would be free.

Even though he was tired, Tyler decided to finish the job. The sooner they got back the better. He began digging upwards. The sand was wet enough for droplets to form as he dug. Chunks of soaking sand kept falling on top of him.

Then came the awkward bit, where he had to turn over so that he could reach higher. He turned okay and was taking a small rest when suddenly water started pouring from above. He had to get out but was round the wrong way to move backwards easily. He could feel the water rising up his body as it filled the space where he sat. By squirming and twisting he got himself so that his lower body was back under the rock. He knew he had to get his head back or the sand would collapse onto his face. Yet he was too weak and everything took so much energy. With his last bit of strength he managed to turn sideways just as it all fell around him in one final rush.

He was trapped. The damp sand pushed with ever increasing force. It was impossible to breathe. His heart pumped so hard it felt like it would burst. He tried to move an arm down to his trousers. He wanted to hold the pendant. If only he could reach the pendant, things would be all right. He had to touch it one last time. But it was impossible. He was too weak. Too weak to do anything…too tired…oh so tired…Then came the blackness and it didn’t matter any more.