Luke lay across Bear’s body in total darkness. Numb. Drifting in and out of consciousness. The young tigers were safely sealed inside the hidden valley, and this knowledge brought with it a deep comfort. He stroked Bear’s head, praying for a miracle, a resurrection. No, his best friend was dead. Being alive himself came as a surprise, but it wouldn’t last. Soon the air would run out and he’d slip away to wherever Bear was. Perhaps meet his father? At this sweet prospect he let his eyelids fall. He was done with life. Summoning the memory of Belle’s beautiful face, he waited for the end.
Hours later, Luke woke and opened his eyes. He’d been wrong. This was no peaceful hereafter. He was buried alive. The numbness had fled, and each fibre of his body screamed with pain. His gashed legs burned like fire, and broken ribs made each breath a torture. The swag on his back, wedged between Bear and a fallen boulder, anchored him in place. He struggled to extract the pocketknife at his belt, hacking at the straps until they gave way.
Luke writhed sideways, dragging the pack free and seeking to relieve the agony of cramped and contorted limbs. In blind panic he scrabbled at the stones above him. Pebbles rained down. He stiffened, resisting the urge to tear at his smothering prison. The roof was a jumble of jagged, precariously balanced rocks, jammed together, miraculously supporting one another. Any one might be the keystone that could bring tons of rubble crashing down.
Luke forced himself to be calm. Air was reaching the cavity, so there must be an opening somewhere. He inched forward. Then slowly and methodically he began to dig away at the rocks in front, moving them to an empty space behind him. Impossible to judge time or direction in the featureless dark. Was it day or night? Was he digging towards the cave mouth or to the rear? Would he reach freedom or find himself trapped with the tigers in the hidden valley? Luke could think of worse outcomes.
Digging, digging, digging, passing out, pissing where he lay – and repeat. Memories filtered back. He’d been hurled into the air by the blast. Bear had cushioned his fall, protecting him even in death. The dog had wanted him to live, and he had a duty to honour that courage. A duty to survive, to escape this black hole. To somehow make his worthless life count. Luke pushed aside the hollow thought that without Bear and without Belle there was no point in living.
Time dragged by. So thirsty he couldn’t piss any more, yet still he dug. Relentless. Moving each stone with the care and precision of a surgeon. Burying Bear as he went. He licked moisture from the rocks, and rationed strips of dried rabbit and wild berries from his swag. The treasure he’d been so proud of, the pouches crammed with gold and cash, lay inside his swag, discarded in the dust. All the wealth in the world would not help him now.
Days must have passed. How many, it was impossible to tell in the cramped gloom. But at last his painstaking labour bore fruit. On moving yet another rock, a chink of light appeared ahead of him. Luke blinked, trying to focus. After living in inky blackness for so long, the faint glow hurt his eyes. A sudden energy pumped through his body, and he longed to scramble forward and heave the rocks aside. Instead, he took two steadying breaths and maintained his measured progress.
Inch by inch, stone by stone, he moved towards the light, dragging his swag after him. When Luke at last unearthed himself from his living grave and saw a bright sunset framed in the mouth of the cave, he gave thanks for the miracle of life. Never again would he wish it away.
It took a long time for Luke to recover his health. It took even longer to come to terms with how profoundly life had changed. He slept a lot, thought a lot, ate a lot. Wild food was abundant at Tiger Pass. At night, he lay pressed up to the rockfall, as close to Bear’s final resting place as he could get.
Gradually, reality sank in. Bear was gone. Belle was lost to him – at least for now. She would think him dead, Daniel too. Edward, the police – everyone. Nobody should have survived that cave collapse. Perhaps it was for the best. However painful it may be, Belle needed to marry Edward to protect her reputation and make the child legitimate. It would be easier for her to go through with the charade if she believed Luke was dead. Later on, after the baby was born . . .
One sparkling morning, Luke examined the money bags. He emptied out wads of notes and counted them. A fortune in cash, and there was the gold as well. Nobody would be looking for him now. He had a chance to start over, really start over this time. No longer hunted. No longer a fugitive. He would go away for a while, reinvent himself. Visit his mother and sister in Melbourne to share his newfound wealth. When enough time had passed, he’d return for Belle and his child. Return to reclaim his life.