After a restless night, Andy awoke first. He lifted his head slightly and gazed around the small room. It looked very different in daylight. The storm had thankfully passed and was replaced with calm and quiet, only interrupted by the occasional early morning call of the Song Thrush. Dave was facing the other way and had his back to him. The paraffin lamp was still flickering where he had hung it up last night. The signal levers stood like stiff metal soldiers all in a neat row. His chest felt heavy and he looked down to see Kaz’s hand resting there, with her arm passing back behind the right of his head. He looked at her delicate long fingers. On the middle finger was a gold ring with intricate markings meeting in the centre, where a lone turquoise gem refracted the light. His eyes focused on her narrow wrist, and travelled up her arm to the elbow where the sleeves of her black blouse ended in neat row of stitching. The smell of her perfume was faintly noticeable. He could turn his head no further without disturbing her and felt a little uncomfortable. He found his shyness most awkward and quite a barrier to him, even though he found himself rather keen on Kaz. Suddenly Titch coughed and moved his body. He glanced over to him, and in that brief moment, Kaz had taken her arm away. Andy felt both relieved and disheartened. Andy turned onto his back, stretched both his arms into the air and then noticed Dave was wide awake. “Good morning Dave.”
“Same to you,” replied Dave in a rather lethargic tone.
From behind them came an audible discharge of wind that resonated loudly on the wooden flooring, closely followed by a very pungent odour. “That’s it, I’m out of here,” said Andy, as he got up and made a beeline for the door. Dave seemed a little confused by Andy’s sudden decision to leave. He stared at Andy as Andy momentarily stopped to look back. Titch had now sat up and was sporting a huge grin. Andy pulled a disgusted face as the smell once again found its way up his nostrils. He made a slight grunt to indicate his utmost displeasure and after pushing the stiff door open he left the cabin. Dave quickly, but carefully, followed Andy down the damp and slippery steps. The cool morning air quickly got to Andy so he dashed around the back of the building to relieve himself against the wall.
“Mind those nettles don’t bite,” laughed Kaz, peering down from the top of the steps.
As Andy returned to the front of the building he checked his watch and was a little perplexed as it still displayed the same time of ‘ten past four’. He wandered across to the far side of the yard and wandered up the side of the old railway loading ramp, where he turned to face the signal box opposite. He looked up and down the yard trying to imagine how it must have once looked. Dave ambled over and stood next to Andy. Andy took his phone out of his pocket and started fiddling with it.
Andy commented, “It must have been fairly busy here at one time looking at the size of this yard. It would be at least 500 metres long.”
“It seems unusual to have a signal box though. I would have thought it was not really necessary for such an isolated spot,” said Dave, making conversation.
“Yes, I agree - but they probably did it for security seeing it was wartime. It would be safer to operate the railway points from a central point, than wander around on foot changing the points day and night. That bunker further up may have something to do with it.”
“Yes I’m sure it does,” agreed Dave.
They watched as Titch appeared from the signal box and made his way down the stairs. He disappeared out of view behind the building. “There’s goes that little obnoxious brat,” said Andy with a feeling of distain.
“He’s not that bad,” defended Dave, “He probably feels a bit intimidated being the youngest.”
“As long as he keeps far enough away from me as I would not trust that little blighter further than I could throw him,” said Andy, as he started to walk back to the signal box. Dave followed close behind. As they entered the cabin once more, Kaz had already folded up the blankets and placed all their backpacks in a neat row by the door. She had also placed an assortment of biscuits on the table.
Rushed footsteps came up the stairway and Titch suddenly burst through the door. “For a minute then I fought you’d all gone without me,” he panted.
“Wishful thinking,” Andy whispered to Dave.
“No, we wouldn’t leave you behind,” said Kaz, as she handed him one of the shortbread biscuits from her hand. Dave looked at Andy and immediately got the impression that Andy would leave him behind given half the chance. Andy was about to take a biscuit from the table, but was cut off by Titch who quickly grabbed the last chocolate one, picked up his bag and then skedaddled back down the steps.
Kaz watched patiently, then said, “Make the most of them because I’m not sure when we will eat again.” Andy was so impressed with her enchanting attitude, he offered Kaz the last two remaining shortbread.
“Thanks Andy, that’s really sweet of you,” she said, with a smile that could have blown Andy over at ten paces. “Okay, let’s get moving while the sun’s still shining,” instructed Kaz, “We have to find the quickest way out of here and get back to Pembroke.” They gathered their backpacks and moved off quickly down the steps. Andy pulled the door behind him. As they headed up the yard, Dave turned and looked back at the signal box. There was still a telegraph wire connected from the building’s roof gable to a post in the trees nearby, and this was still connected to another post further along. They followed the main track-path in a south-westerly direction according to the sun’s position. As they left the main yard they were soon hedged in again with thick gorse bushes which had narrowed the path to less than a metre wide. The path started to curve gently to the left in a more southerly direction. A few seagulls flew overhead, squawking their presence.
“You know, we can’t be too far from the coast,” said Andy. “We must have walked quite a few kilometres since we left the train.”
“Surely they’ve found the empty train by now?” questioned Kaz. “I bet they’ve got the police searching for us right now. My mum will be worried sick.
“You can’t be sure of anything,” replied Dave dryly.
Andy was leading the way, when he came to a stop. “Blast!” he said, “There is a barricade blocking the way.” They quickly caught up to Andy, and sure enough there was an iron gate covered in barbed wire and overgrown with sharp spiked hawthorns.
“We’ll never get through or over that. We will have to backtrack,” said Dave unusually irritated.
“Look for a break in the hedge,” shouted Andy, now at the rear of the pack and retracing their steps.
They had only gone back about fifteen metres when Kaz indicated, “Look, here’s a gap!” Sure enough, Kaz had found a narrow gap in the hedge, only now noticeable as it was angled to be visible only in their current direction. They squeezed through the three-metre thick bushes until they stood in a small open field on the other side.
“Okay I still want to check out this bunker seeing we have come all this way. Let’s follow the hedge on this side, agreed?” asked Dave. They all nodded affirmatively as there was no other real option. The gradient of the land slowly started to incline up and they soon found themselves commanding a good view of the surrounding countryside. There was the small open field they had just left, but in most other directions the view was hampered by thickly-massed copses of trees and bushes. To the south could be seen some rocky outcrops which confirmed they were near the coast.
“There’s no sign of any buildings or farms,” said Kaz disappointedly. “We have to start our way home soon. I don’t want to spend another night out here,” she added.
“Here look!” shouted Andy. They were now above where the track once ran and could clearly see that it entered the hill somewhere underneath them. In the near distance was the barbed wire gate that had thwarted their progress. “This must be the bunker entrance,” Andy continued, with more than a little excitement in his voice.
“Let’s go and check it out,” said Titch, almost running down the embankment. They clambered down the hill on the other side and stood silently staring at a bricked-up entrance.
“Oh no, I don’t believe it,” said Kaz. “This is just bullshit!” she exclaimed. They all stared in amazement at Kaz, not quite believing what she had just said. Even Titch was taken back, as he had never heard her hint at a swear word before. Dave noticed the wire from the signal box went through a small hole at the top of the brickwork.
Andy took control, “Right, let’s head back up the hill and head over the other side of the bunker, there may be another way in. Now I’m here, I’m really excited about what’s in the bunker, what do you think?”
“Macca’s would be nice,” answered Titch, feeling a bit peckish. They all laughed. Trudged back up the hill, each displayed their own odd mannerisms in the way they struggled with the steepest part. As soon as they were over the crest a round brick structure came into view, about a twenty metres or so ahead. Titch spotted it first.
“A wishing well,” said Titch hopefully, as he ran towards it.
Within minutes they were all huddled around the mysterious construction. Again, Andy took to it upon himself to thrust his general knowledge upon the weary party, “It’s probably a tunnel vent to let out the excessive smoke from steam locomotives using the bunker below here and …”
Kaz interrupted as she noticed something unusual nearby, “It looks as if the metal cover has been torn off in last night’s storm,” she said, pointed to a circular lid lying buckled and bent, roughly five metres away.
The smoke vent was just less than a metre above the ground. They all peered inside but it was too dark to see anything down below. Metal rungs led down the inside until they disappeared into the darkness. Andy took off his pack and searched for his matches. “A torch would have been handy,” he said. Titch produced a small torch from his backpack. The others stared at Titch in disbelief.
“You could have said you had a torch … we could have used that last night,” retorted Andy, slightly peeved.
“You never asked,” said Titch, looking up at Andy seriously and with wide innocent eyes.
Andy took the torch and shone it down. “It’s not that far to the bottom. The vent is on a side wall so that the steps lead all the way down to ground level. I think it might be fun to explore.” He volunteered to go first, stepping over the wall and placing one foot on the second rung as he held onto the wall. Andy’s experience in rock climbing came into force as he made his descent look effortless. Dave had one leg over the wall and was feeling with his foot for the first rung. He slipped slightly but held his footing.
“Be careful Dave,” said Kaz, as Dave got two feet on the rungs. Dave gave a reassuring smile and then concentrated on his descent.
“You should see this!” remarked Andy as he reached the bottom. His voice sounded muffled and echoed.
Although halfway down the shaft, Dave could only see darkness. He shouted down to Andy, “Shine the torch up here, I can’t see the rungs.” Within seconds a beam of light lit up the remaining rungs. Dave safely touched ground level and felt his shoes fill with water.
“Oh sorry, forget to mention it’s a bit flooded; must have been all that rain last night … but look at this ...” Andy swung the torch around and shone the light into the darkness, “... there’s a train in here!”
“So there is,” said Dave with little emotion.
“There’s a what?” echoed a female voice from up above.
“A train … with wagons,” shouted Andy up the vent. He could see Kaz and Titch peering over at the top. “Stay there and we will check it out.”
“Okay, but be very careful,” Kaz echoed back.
“Wot did he say?” asked Titch.
“Something about a drain with dragons,” replied Kaz, somewhat puzzled.
Andy and Dave carefully started to make their way along the tunnel following the narrow beam of torchlight. Within only a few metres they had reached the front of a small steam tank locomotive which had been painted black, probably during the war years. They slowly made their way through the narrow gap between the towering engine and the wall, stopping at the steps leading up to the locomotive’s footplate. The boys gazed up into the cabin and marvelled at all the dials, pipes and levers. Moving along, Andy shone the light ahead of him, being careful not to trip over any hidden obstacles. They passed by an empty flat wagon, followed by a small black tank wagon labelled ‘Distillate’. At this point the tunnel widened into a larger cavern with the floor now fully concreted. Andy flashed the torch here and there, taking in as much area as he could and envisaged the cavern was at least twenty metres across at its widest point. Two closed-in wooden rail vans were at the rear of the train, with the last van gently butting up to a buffer-stop made of old rails. Large, oversize padlocks locked the rust-coated sliding doors of both rail vans.
“Looks like this has been here a while,” commented Dave.
“I reckon it must have been here since the last war. Remember that Kaz said the last train to arrive was in March 1945, and there was no mention of a departure.”
“You’re probably right … so why is it still here?” asked Dave.
“No idea,” replied Andy shaking his head, “… but looking at the size of this place, it’s definitely a secret bunker for the military. So I’m pretty certain it is connected with Castlemartin.”
“Yes, maybe,” said Dave undecidedly.
“Castlemartin was a military training camp during the Second World War,” said Andy, “I bet we are not that far away from where it used to be located. In fact, there’s still a range in operation that’s currently used for tank and helicopter training, among other things.”
“Tanks,” Dave replied, “… that may explain those loud bangs we have been hearing.”
Andy once again shone the torch around. “Let’s have a look in here,” he said, stepping up onto a raised concrete platform recessed into the rear stone wall. Dave followed closely behind and stumbled over the step. “Mind the step Dave.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
An archway led deeper into the cavity which was lined with some shelving. On the shelves were stacks of antiquated equipment and other military looking objects covered in years of dust and cobwebs. Andy moved the torch light slowly along the shelves as he marvelled at the archaic technology. As Andy turned, the light passed something on the wall that caught Andy’s eye. He shone the light back and illuminated two huge mechanical switches which reminded him of the switches you see in those old Frankenstein horror movies. Scrawled on the wall under them was the word VORSICHT in large red faded letters, which looked like it had been daubed on by a very poorly-skilled graffiti artist. Dave had followed the light and turned to Andy, “They must be the power switches for the bunker.” Dave reached out his hand stating, “I’ll turn them on.”
Andy grabbed Dave’s arm. “Wait! We don’t know what this says,” said Andy pointing to the scribbled word.
“It’s probably German for ‘light-switch’ or something like that. Obviously someone was having a lark. These lights probably don’t work anyway”
“Yes, I suppose it does look rather childish. Go on then, try one,” Andy said reluctantly. Dave was already reaching out again to grab the handle of the closest switch as Andy spoke. Without hesitating Dave pulled it downwards. The spring mechanism took over and sprung the switch to the down position with a firm clunk. Large ceiling light fittings with enormous globes started to quickly warm up and illuminate the bunker. Andy instinctively covered his eyes and then slowly lowered his hands as he became accustomed to the light. Oddly, he noticed that Dave didn’t seem affected by the bright lights. Andy stood back in awe at the full height and width of the bunker, with the train filling up most of it. He turned off his torch and was just about to place it in his bag when Dave pulled the remaining switch. At that instant an intense humming noise emanated from the rear van of the train, and before Andy could speak, he accidently dropped the torch from his grip.