“Well, it seems we all have some connection to this place, then. Jay, how about you lead the way in and we’ll see if we can find some of these… what did you call them?” Adam paused.
“Coblynau,” Jay filled in the gap. “And believe me, sir, you wouldn’t want to find them. Unless you’re a miner.”
Matt interrupted, “You still haven’t told us what they are, fella.”
Jay stared hard at Matt. “Evil, mate. They’re pure evil.”
THE WALK THROUGH the tunnels to the next point of interest kept the group busy for ten minutes. The oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere of the tunnel pressed in on them. The air was so thick and humid that you could almost chew it. Even Ewan, a man who’d spent six months rooting out Taliban insurgents in the caves and tunnels of the Tora Bora mountains, started to feel uncomfortable.
The old timbers creaked as they passed under them. The constant drip-drip-drip of water became a torture that burrowed into the group’s consciousness and made the hairs on the backs of their necks stand on end. The darkness was dense. Impenetrable. It was…
Shit. The darkness was moving. Straight towards them. Shit. SHIT!
“Um, Jay?” David’s voice wavered. “Jay? Is there another group in here? Because—”
His words were cut off mid-sentence as the cloud of bats whooshed and swooped around the group. Matt let out a yell and Louise screamed as the fluttering forms streamed past them. The swarm circled and started chittering. Initially, the sound was barely within the range of human hearing. But then it got louder. Louder. Louder. Everyone covered their ears, trying to block out the sound. They tried to take shelter as the swarm, acting as one, bombarded them. Louise’s screams echoed through the tunnel as she was hit time and time again.
Blood flowed down her cheeks as she flailed against her tiny attackers. She fell to the tunnel floor and curled into the fetal position, trying to defend herself against the bats, who poured down and covered her body.
The shriek of an airhorn sent the swarm back into the air and chittering off into the darkness. Ifan stood with the canister in his hand, ready to give the horn a second blast if needed.
“Where’d you find that?” Alex stared at the young Welsh lad.
“Carry one in my pack, see?” Ifan grinned. “Always do. Bloody bats are a nuisance when they start all that. If they can’t find an escape route they just circle and circle and circ—”
“Lou!” Matt dropped down next to his wife. She was still fetal.
“Christ… ” Ewan turned to Ifan. “Got a medi kit in that pack of yours, fella?”
“Boyo, I’m a potholer. We never go anywhere without a medi kit.” Ifan opened his pack and pulled out a green pouch.
“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Louise unfurled and sat up. Her face was covered in scratches, none of which were particularly deep, but there were enough to make her look like she’d gone face-first through a car windscreen.
“We need to get you out of here, babes.” Matt fussed and started trying to clean the blood off her face and hands with a wipe from Ifan’s medi pouch.
“No.” Louise shook her head. “There’s no way. This place is amazing. I can feel them, Matt. I can feel them!”
“What’s she on about?” Ewan frowned and handed Matt another antiseptic wipe.
“Lou’s psychic,” Matt responded, giving Ewan a little smile. “Seriously. She’s better than an EMF detector.”
Ewan sighed and glanced briefly at Jay. “Oh, great. Now there’s two of you giving it the ghoulies and ghosties bullshit.”
“It’s not fucking bullshit, you hired thug!” Louise flared and balled her fists. “I can hear them calling out for help. Just because you can’t, doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
Ewan opened his mouth to give the woman a sharp retort when Adam laid a hand on his arm and hissed in his ear. “Let’s not upset the paying guests, shall we, Ewan? I insist.”
Ewan moved away from the “distraught, bloodied psychic and her doting husband” tableau. He felt vulnerable. Exposed. This mine was giving him the creeps. For the umpteenth time since his demob from the army six months earlier, he found his hand going to where his sidearm should’ve been. His fingers patted empty thigh and he balled a fist in frustration. He muttered quietly to himself. “Can’t hear a fucking thing.”
But he could. They all could. You didn’t need to be a psychic to hear the bone-chilling wail that floated down the tunnel.
“The fuck was that?” David snapped on his torch and shone it up the tunnel. “Jay, you sure there aren’t any other parties in here?”
“No. We’re the only ones.” Jay’s torch beam joined David’s and the light punched deep into the darkness.
“You did hear that, right?”
“Of course I did.” Jay’s fingers tightened around his torch and he edged forward. “Hello? Anyone out there? Hello?”
The group followed Jay’s slow and steady path along the old tracks. Up ahead they could see that the tunnel opened out into a larger space. The tunnel roof timbers creaked as they passed underneath, and little falls of dirt and dust rained down on them.
“I don’t like this.” Ewan scowled and turned to Adam. “Sir, this tunnel isn’t safe. I suggest we go back to the entrance.”
“You’re letting your imagination run away with you, Ewan. We wouldn’t have opened the mine up to parties if we didn’t think it was safe.”
A thunderous crack echoed down the tunnel and the rumble of large amounts of earth shifting roared through the mine. The shockwave nearly knocked the group off their feet.
Alex snapped his head around and saw a dust cloud billowing towards them. It moved with terrifying speed. Rocks bounced and rolled in front of the cloud, spinning in the air and crashing back down, sending shards of jagged shale through the air like black daggers.
“Cave in! RUN!” Ewan shoved Alex in the back. Matt, Louise, Jay and Adam were already sprinting towards the open area in front. Screw the bats; they’d rather face a bunch of black flapping mammals than tons of crushing rocks. The group dived into the open space as the last of the collapsed ceiling smashed into the floor where they’d been standing seconds earlier. The rumbling subsided until the only sound they could hear was the occasional pebble clattering down the rockfall.
The fine dust made them all cough and splutter, but, eventually, it subsided. The cavern fell quiet as the last pebble clunked and clinked its way down the wall of boulders and came to rest at Adam’s feet. In the heart of the pebble was a glint of metal.
His eyes widened. Gold.
Welsh gold.
He scooped up the stone and stuffed it in his pocket. Once they made it out of this hole in the ground then screw the ghost tours, they’d be firing up the mine again looking for more gold. Gold. His heart skipped a beat.
Fucking GOLD!
He barely heard Ewan speak, so focused was he on that hard lump of shale in his pocket. He refocused back as he heard Ewan say, “Where’s the other two?”
“What other two?”
Ewan pointed at Jay. “Your mates, fella. The potholer with the medi pack and the other guy.”
Jay felt panic rise in his throat. “David and Ifan. Shit. SHIT. They’re on the other side of that.” He pointed at the rock-fall. “DAVID! IFAN! Can you hear me? David, Ifan!” Jay scrambled up the rock-fall. There was a tiny gap at the very top. He slipped and slid back down again. “DAVID! IFAN!”
From the other side of the rock-fall came David’s voice, “We’re okay. You guys alright in there? Is anyone hurt?”
Jay looked around. Apart from being covered from head to foot in dust, the party seemed relatively intact. He returned his focus to the rock-fall. “Yeah, we’re okay. Can you get out?”