Simon Clark - Humpty's bones

‘No, I’m not saying you’re a coward. But if there are danger signs… ’

‘He’s right,’ Adam said, ‘if you ignore warnings you’re asking for trouble.’

Pitt snarled, ‘I don’t care about any stupid sign. I’m going in.’

With that he left without us. We watched him through the hole in the fence as he strolled in bright sunshine to the military bunker. The size of a house, it was built out of concrete that had been painted in camouflage greens. There were no windows. Only a big steel door. For the first time in our lives we saw the door was open. Wide open. Yawning so big it looked like a monster’s mouth. Beyond the door lay a dark tunnel. Like I said, Pitt’s crazy. But I didn’t want him to go into the bunker. I’d got a bad feeling about that place.

Let me explain something before I go any further. Okay, even though Pitt acts crazy we’ve been friends for years. He’s done things like put wings on his bike, rigged a motor to his skateboard (that got him a week off school with a twisted knee). When he talks about building a rocket we say he’s crazy. Then, deep down, we respect his amazing plans.

Yesterday had been a bad day for Pitt. We’d been walking across the playing field into town. Who should turn up but Adam’s fourteen year old brother, Brian, and his buddies. They’d been riding these illegal dirt bikes, revving the engines like lunatics. They’d ridden them close enough to make us dodge out of the way. Brian had made fun of Pitt for jumping ‘like a frightened little kid’. Then Brian had ridden the bike across the grass like a bullet. He’d swung a sports bag into Pitt’s face. It smacked him hard enough to cut his lip.

Adam had told his big brother to stop being a jerk. Brian laughed it off, saying Pitt shouldn’t act so soft.

So today Pitt had turned up with this bashed mouth. The wound resembled a little red flower on his bottom lip. When he touched the cut with his finger it still oozed blood. It looked really sore. Every so often he flinched as if it stung like it was on fire.

There were four of us — Pitt, Jenny, Adam, and me, Naz. All twelve year olds. We tried to cheer up Pitt as we walked through the woods but you could tell the attack by Brian still bugged him. He’d got real anger in his eye.

When we saw what had happened to the bunker it made us forget everything else.

Pitt had stared in wonder. ‘After all these years. That’s the first time I’ve seen the door open.’

When he realised there was nobody about, that’s when he announced he was going inside. So through the hole in the fence he went — ignoring the danger sign.

And that brings us to now — this very moment when Pitt wanted to prove to us that he was no coward. One second he stood in the open doorway then he vanished inside.

‘His funeral,’ Adam grunted.

‘We can’t just leave him,’ Jenny protested. ‘What happens if he gets hurt?’

I agreed. ‘If he calls for help nobody will hear. It’s a mile to the nearest house.’

Adam gazed at the sign — DANGER OF DEATH — like it would grow claws and rip off his head. ‘They put that up for a reason. My uncle used to deliver propane here twenty years ago. He said they had nuclear weapons in underground tunnels.’

Jenny pointed at the bunker. ‘Kids have covered the walls with graffiti. The army wouldn’t have allowed that if it had still been in use.’

‘Oh no. I know what you’re going to do,’ Adam was horror-struck. ‘You’re going in there, aren’t you?’

This stopped me dead because I’d planned to wait here by the fence until Pitt returned. And surely he’ll come back soon. There’s nothing in the bunker that could hurt him, was there? Even so, that yawning doorway looked so darkly forbidding. Even the concrete bunker reminded me of a big dinosaur skull. From that grim building came a yell. Or was it a cry of pain?

‘Jenny,’ Adam caught hold of her arm. ‘Wouldn’t it be best to wait here?’

‘Didn’t you hear it? That shout came from Pitt. We’ve got to see if he’s alright.’ She gave us a hard stare. ‘Well, I’m going in if you’re not.’

I groaned. I’d no choice. I couldn’t let her go in there alone. Quickly, I followed her to the bunker. That huge metal door, fully six inches thick, made me have worrying thoughts about the entrance to ancient tombs. A darkly forbidden place.

Jenny regarded it with awe. ‘This door’s huge.’

‘It’s bomb proof!’

‘How could anyone have broken in here?’

Adam checked the entrance more closely. ‘See these gouge marks on the inside of the door? The way it’s scratched all over?’ He gulped. ‘Nobody’s broken in here. They’ve broken out.’

This is frightening. We entered the bunker. There was no light at all. You know when you reach out of bed in the middle of the night to switch on the lamp? Even though you’re alone, isn’t there always that moment when you search for the switch that you fear you’re going to touch some living body; something with cold skin; or with manky hair? Just imagine the shock. Your fingers suddenly feel a face with bulging eyes, and — ‘Get it off me! It’s biting!’ From the darkness came a yell of terror. ‘There’s something alive in here!’

‘Adam — ’

‘Help me!’

‘Shush, it’s me.’ Jenny shouted. ‘I pushed your head down so you didn’t bang it. There are chains hanging from the ceiling with hooks on them.’

‘Hooks? What kind of hooks?’ Adam still sounded frightened. ‘I want out of here. It’s too dark. There’s something wrong about this place… ’

Even though the dark made me nervous I couldn’t stop myself saying, ‘And make sure you don’t step on the snakes. They’re everywhere. Sssss… ’

‘Naz.’ Jenny sounded annoyed. ‘That’s not helping. Adam, there are no snakes.’

‘It’s the vampires you have to watch out for.’

‘Naz.’ Jenny’s eyes must have adapted to the gloom enough to target me. I felt her fist thump my arm. ‘Stop scaring Adam.’

‘Didn’t you hear me earlier?’ Adam’s voice wavered. ‘There were no marks on the outside of the bunker door. It had been gouged on the inside. Nobody broke in here. Something broke out. And it must be huge. ’

What he said made us fall silent. I pictured a big animal prowling down this passageway to bump aside the chains hanging from the ceiling before attacking the door — snarling, gouging, then battering it in total fury. A shiver ran down my spine.

I whispered. ‘Maybe we should wait for Pitt outside?

Only it was too late for that. Far too late.

We were in the middle of that darkness. It seemed to drown us in deep, deep black. Then… a scraping noise. We flinched. Adam moaned in fear. ‘Oh, man… it knows we’re here… ’

Slowly, a door creaked open, a strange door that worried the life out of me. Weird! It was as narrow as the lid of a coffin. A light shone through it as a ghostly figure stepped through the gap. Its face was a cold blue. It beckoned to us with these chilling words. ‘You can’t go back. You must come with me.’

For what seemed like an age we froze. We stared at the figure. Stared as a blue light burned with a strange, phantom intensity. Stared as the weird apparition loomed through the doorway.

Adam pointed. ‘Look, there’s something wrong with its mouth.’

For some reason I found my eyes yanked to those monster-size fishhooks that hung from chains above our heads and wondered if -

‘Come on,’ boomed the figure. ‘You’ve got to look at this! I’ve been calling you for ages. Didn’t you hear? Naz, what’s wrong? You look as if you’ve stood on a ghost.’