A Life Beyond by Mark Church (ebook reader web TXT) 📕

'Shhhh...I can't hear anything now...I don't know which way to go Daniel' Lillie stood at the entrance to the tunnels in complete silence hoping for a sign of some kind but not a thing.

Only the faint dripping of water could be heard coming from ahead of them.

All of a sudden what sounded like loud voices in the first tunnel drifted up to Lillie and Daniel followed by the sound of a high pitched scream,

'Yaaaaaa. Leave. Help...' Lillie couldn't make out what was being said but it sounded like trouble.

'Come on let's g…….' Lillie went to move, what followed was a loud ‘BOOM’ as a flash of light and a rush of wind tore through the tunnel towards them, then it all went black.

Chapter Twelve

A Detour To Safety

Staggering to his feet slowly Daniel felt uneasy as he searched for something to help him get to his feet, as he did his vision was slightly blurry and his hearing was fuzzy.

He sat against a pile of boulders that had come down from the tunnel wondering what had just happened then he remembered Lillie was there with him, she was lying face down on the floor of the tunnel not moving so he sat down beside her and turned her over.

'Lillie...wake up, please' he begged as he lifted his sister's head up onto his legs, looking down at Lillie’s face which had a few scratches all over it but no signs of anything worse than that,

'Please sis...I need you, don't be hurt too bad' almost in tears now as he held her tight in his arms,

'Mmmbbhhhhh…' came the sound from under his arms as Daniel looked down at Lillie, he took his arms off her head in surprise as she opened her eyes,

'I said...get off my face you lump….' Lillie sat up, gasping for air as Daniel had nearly suffocated her with his arms covering her head,

'Are you ok?' he asked looking for any other signs of injury,

'No I think I'm ok, what about you?' Lillie spun her brother round so she could check he was ok also,

'Apart from a pain in my arm I think I'm ok sis, I'm more worried about Harvey being ok...OH NO...he was on the other side of that blast!!!, we need to get to him' Daniel was panicking now as his best friend was somewhere on the other side of the wall of rock in front of him with who knows what.

He started scrabbling at the rocks, trying to move them but there were far too many for him alone, Lillie on the other hand had found what seemed like some sort of escape route caused by the blast, a beam of light shone into the tunnel lighting it up as if showing them the way,

'Daniel...come over here quick, I think there's a way out of here' she shouted to him as further rumblings could be heard all around them now,

'Where does it go sis?, does it lead out?' Daniel's eyes slowly adapted to the light as he could see that the escape route seemed to lead them up to the surface but it was quite a climb,

'I don't know where it actually goes but it's better than being down here, plus Harvey is up here somewhere and we need to find him' Lillie had already started the long climb up the mountain of rocks that seemed to be acting like a ladder for her as she shouted down to Daniel to hurry up,

'Come on Daniel...we need to go now, it’s safe I promise you'

Daniel stood there for a minute or so looking around to see if he could spot any other way out apart from climbing up what looked like to him the biggest mountain he'd ever seen,

'Err I'll be up in a minute sis…' He nervously called up to his sister who was making good ground on the climb up,

Lillie stopped to look back down at her brother who seemed to scared to move,

'Daniel come on. Please, before this whole place collapses' just as she said that the ground around Daniel started to shake and rumble,

Daniel leapt up onto the rocks like a rock climber, climbing as fast as he had ever done, he caught up with his sister who was waiting on a small ledge for him,

'Told you to hurry up' she laughed as she could see the sheer look of terror on his face now,

'Shut up you!!' he replied, shaking slightly from what had just happened,

'We should be out soon Daniel, just follow me, do exactly as I do and we will be out of here in no time' Lillie slowly started to climb again, slowly this time so that she could see how close her brother was,

'I'm right behind you, not the best view so keep going please' Daniel said, looking for the same place to put his hands and feet that his sister had just done,

'We’re almost there Daniel...Just a little further now' Lillie climbed up the last few feet and out into the brilliant sunlight which was beaming down on them, she turned round to look for her brother who was almost at the top, when one of the rocks he was standing on gave way and he lost his footing causing him to start slipping downwards into the darkness below,

'WOOOAAAHHH' he cried but quick as a flash a hand reached down to stop him from falling.

'Got you bro...' Lillie smiled as she had reached in to grab hold of her brother's arm just as he slipped, she pulled him up and out of the hole and they fell back onto the safety of the grassy field they had now found themselves in.

'That was close!!, thanks sis, I owe you one' smiled Daniel as looked at Lillie who was puffing away,

'You owe me more than one Daniel trust me. She laughed as they both tried to catch their breath for a moment, then it dawned on them that there was no sign of Harvey,

'Sis, get up!!!, where's Harv??, did you see him up here when you climbed out??' Daniel was panicking at the thought of losing his friend,

'I was too busy saving you to worry about him, he can't be far, I am a bit worried about the noises I heard from the tunnel though, I hope it wasn't him shouting' replied Lillie who was now scouring the woods around them for a sign of Harvey.

'Look Lillie, over there' pointed Daniel who had seen something dangling off of a branch at the entrance to the woods,

'It looks like his jacket to me!!' Daniel pulled off the piece of clothing that was attached to the tree branch and read the label,

'Harvey Jones, aged twelve years.. This is his alright sis!!, where is he? This is all we need!!'.

'Come on Daniel we have to find him, I have a bad feeling about this…' Lillie grabbed her brother's arm as them slowly made their way into the woods on the hunt for Harvey,

'HARVEYYYY….HARV, ANSWER ME' shouted Daniel as they searched the path in front of them for any more clues on what had happened to him,

'NUMBSKULL….WHERE ARE YOU HIDING NOW??' Lillie shouted then told Daniel to shush so she could listen for any noises that might sound like Harvey's voice, but no sound came back.

Daniel spotted something just up ahead and raced off to pick it up,

'It's his shoe!!' exclaimed Daniel as he held it up,

'How do you know it's his shoe Daniel?' asked Lillie,

'Because it blooming stinks, he has a strange smell about him!!',

Lillie laughed at Daniel's response, as she did she then saw that the path ahead had been disturbed recently,

'I think he's gone this way...but what has got him?, come on Daniel let's go find him' Lillie felt that this was the way forward but caution was needed in case anything was going to take them too, and off they went, following the path of broken branches in front of them, hoping that it would lead to Harvey.

Harvey felt rather odd as his eyes slowly opened, he felt his head spinning and his face felt puffy, he could hear voices in front of him but could only make out blurred faces, they were speaking to one another about him, muffled sentences as Harvey was still feeling groggy,

'Is this him?' one of the voices asked,

'Not the one we want but a good replacement, boss will be pleased!' said the other voice, then footsteps were heard coming towards Harvey, he could hear a tapping sound and someone breathing heavily, he could just about make out the outline of a hooded figure standing what seemed close to his face, his breath smelling foul like a thousand year old sandwich, Harvey kept falling in and out of consciousness, waking every so often to the sound of more voices all around him,

'Have you done it to this little one?' a voice excitedly asked, a deeper voiced replied sounding rather content now,

'Yes it is done, the spells have been added…remember that we have to stick to the plan', Harvey felt even more strange as he tried to fight off whatever it was that had been done to him,

'Now...Let's clear his mind, so he can't remember this...' the deeper voice cackled, then just as Harvey was about to blackout he heard some sort of spell being cast and at that point it all went dark.

He woke a while later, opened his eyes again, rubbed them but this time he could see clearly, he was stuck in some sort of cage in the middle of some woods, looking around he could hear some sort of animal noise, a barking sound which he hadn't heard before,

'Where the heck am I? How did I get here?' He muttered to himself as he sat there trying to figure out what was going on and where he actually was. In front of him was the embers of a fire, surrounding that were logs that had been placed as if made for seating, Harvey tried tugging at the cage door, hoping it might swing open and he would be free but it wouldn't budge.

He swung around when from somewhere in the distance he could hear the same voices talking to each other that he had heard earlier but he couldn't make out what they were saying this time, he could hear a lot of laughing coming from their direction,

'I need to get out of here…' He began panicking slightly at the thought of whoever it was coming back to do something terrible to him,

He was trying everything he could to get the door open but it still wouldn't budge, then he noticed something shining from just outside the cage on the floor in front of him, it was slightly hidden by some leaves.

Harvey reached his arm out of the cage, stretching every part of him to make his arms as long as they could go then he managed to grab it,

'It's a key!!..' He breathed a huge sigh of relief as he held it out in front of him, glistening in the light shining through the trees onto his prison,

'This has got to open the door!!' Harvey excitedly said as he slid his arm out of the cage and onto the lock that was holding the door shut, he fumbled with the key as he tried to slide it into the keyhole, dropping it every few seconds,

'Oh come on!!!... just get in there will you!' starting to panic slightly as he could still hear the voices talking some way off in the distance, worrying all the time that they might come back to find him escaping.

Harvey was still trying to release himself from the cage but unbeknown to him he was being carefully watched, In the bushes far behind the cage a figure could be seen buried deep in the middle, a pair of eyes could be seen, yellow in colour, almost as dark as the setting sun.

They didn't move their line of sight from what Harvey was