The Hole.

This week's Prompt: A group going Camping, A Hole in the Ground.

Maddy shouted, “See, yeah, I’m going”

“Wait, wait,” Maddie's Mum came running down the stairs, took her in her arms, giving her a big squeeze.

“Mum, I’m only going for the weekend, two nights” Maddy pushed her away.

“Yes, I know, but… It’s your first time away from me,…, in forever” A knock on the door made them both turn towards it.

“This will be Alex” Alex was Maddie's best friend; they hit it off when the teacher sat her next to Alex on her first day. The first day was traumatic enough, due to her Mum packing up their lives in Canada and moving to a small town called Snake Ridge in the middle of God knows where. The reason being that when her day died, he owed a lot of people a lot of money.

Maddy grabbed her rucksack and walked towards the door, opening it.

“Hi Maddy, Hi Mrs Richards,” Alex stood with his rucksack strapped to his back, her baseball cap on the wrong way.

“Hi Alex, are you looking forward to the weekend?” Maddie's mum asked.

“Yes, Mrs Richards, my mum says it's all I've talked about for the last six weeks”

Turning to Maddie, “Now you have your phone, it's fully charged, you have the extra charger pack and won't forget to plug it in at night?”

“Jeeze, Mum, Yes, yeah and yes, now can we go?”

                                                ----------

Maddy and Alex met up with two other girls at the corner of the street. After greeting everyone, they walked down to the woods. One hour later, they arrived at a sign that said it was the start of the ‘SNAKEBACK TRAIL.’

“This is it, girls,” Alex said, “no turning back.” All four girls walked in a line with Jen at the front. Jen was the tallest and also an adventure scout, so she knew things. As the woods began to encroach on the path, Jen took out a machete and hacked away at the foliage. Three hours into the walk, Jen shouted, “Let's stop here”

Sue, the youngest of the group, asked, “Are we stopping here? I wanted to camp near the river”

“No,” Jen replied it's just a break for a drink and if anyone needs the loo”?

“Good thinking,” Sue said, dropping her rucksack and walking off to find a good spot to pee.

“You OK? You look a bit lost Jen said to Maddy.

“Yeah, I’m ok, it’s the first time I've stayed out. You know, away from mum,” Maddy sat on a log and was fiddling with her fingers.

“Hey, look around you, all your friends, you should join the Scouts, we do things like this every other weekend.”

Alex passed Maddy a bottle of water. She took it and smiled. Sitting down beside her best mate, Alex asked, “You OK”?

Smiling back at her, Maddy let out a long breath, “Yes,” she stood up, “I am ready for this. We are camping in the woods, we are having a fire and going to cook…” She looked around at the girls quizzically, “What are we eating?”  

They all laughed. Sue came running back, swishing water over her hands, “What, what have I missed?”

“Maddy is ready to lead us to our campsite for the next two nights. Are we ready, girls?”  Jen said with her arm in the air. Rucksacks were pulled on, and there were lots of giggles as they set off on the SNAKE BACK TRAIL. After another two hours of walking, they came to the river. As Maddy was in front, she picked a spot big enough for three two-man tents.

“Right, Girls,” Jen took over, “The three tents face this way so the heat from the fire will go inside, keeping you warm… if it should get cold, you two ok sharing?”  

“For Sure, we don’t mind” Sue had already started to unroll her tent and was pushing a pole through the holes. “I’ll get some wood to start a fire,” Maddy said as she had never been in a tent. Never mind, I tried to put one up.

Within an hour, the three tents were up facing the correct way, Jen had got the fire going, with a pot of water on the boil. The four girls were sitting watching the fire, chatting, and laughing, when a screech came from the woods, and all four looked towards where the noise came from. “What was that?” Maddy asked.

“Just an animal, nothing to worry about.” To change the subject and ease the others, Jen said, “So who fancies Donny Jones?” The three others laughed out loud, and Alex pretended to be sick, which made the girls laugh even longer. After a lengthy discussion about who fancied whom, they moved on to talk about what they would do after school. Jen was going into the family business; her parents owned most of the land around Snake Ridge, with over four thousand acres and the largest cattle ranches in the area. Sue was also entering the family business; her dad owned the local hardware store. Maddy held back, prompting Alex to mention that she was also going into the family business, which caused laughter from the others. Her brother was a police officer, and her father was the chief of police. Alex had decided from an early age that she wanted to be a police officer and become the first woman detective in the town of Snake Ridge. A few hours later, they went to bed. The fire had a log on it and plenty of rocks they had gathered from the river, creating a safe barrier around it.

                                                ----------

“Oh, hi, yes, this is Katie,” Maddie's Mum answered the phone. “Erm, well, yes, why not, …, OK about six, yes, that would be nice, thank you,” Katie said, putting down the phone. Then she looked at herself in the mirror. “God, why did I say yes?” Then the phone rang again. “Hi,” she answered, hoping it was Chief Jameson saying he had changed his mind, but it wasn’t. “Oh, hi sis, is it that day already?”

“Yes, were you expecting someone else?”

“No, no, well, yes, Maddy has gone off for the weekend with some girlfriends camping, and one of the girls’ fathers has just asked me over for something to eat and a few drinks in the garden”

“About time you got yourself out there, sis, what’s he like,”?

“Well,” Katie smiled, “He is the chief of Police here in Snake Ridge, a single parent. I heard his wife was killed fifteen years ago. A home invasion went wrong, I heard from one of the Mums at school.” An hour later, Katie had forgotten about her dinner date with Chief Jameson. She was having such a giggle with Helen.

Walking towards the Chief’s house, Katie focused, “It's just a meal, nothing else,” she said to herself as she knocked on the door.

“Hi, come in,” he said. She took her coat off and placed it over a chair, then followed him towards the outside patio. “Thought we would sit out if it gets too cool, I have blankets”

“Sounds good,” looking around at the décor, it was very modern, unlike the rented home they lived in. “I like your taste,” Katie said, taking a glass of wine from the Chief.

“This is all, Alex. I'd love her to go to design college, but she's having none of it. She is fixed on joining the Police.” Turning towards the Pizza oven, he asked, “Pizza OK, do you like spicy”?

“Oh yes, Spicier, the better, but no anchovies, not so keen on them.” Katie enjoyed the evening with the Chief. In which she found out his name was Buddy, well, he was christened Robert, which was shortened to Bobby. Then, when he joined the Police Academy, there was already a Bobby, so it changed to Buddy, and it has stuck ever since. At ten O’clock, a Taxi came to take Katie home. She thanked Buddy for a pleasant evening and asked if he would like to go for a walk one day. He replied, “Yes.”

                                                ----------

Maddy was in her sleeping bag with her Rucksack being used as a pillow, “Shall I zip up the front or leave it open?, Oh, and have you plugged your phone into the charger pack?” Alex pushed out her tongue as she was squeezing through the triangular opening.

“Open if that’s ok, and yeeessss, I plugged my phone into the charger pack”

Alex slid into her sleeping bag and turned to her right, facing Maddy, “This has been good today, do you fancy joining the scouts”?

“Well, I haven’t done anything, I’m a bit useless. I didn’t even know how to put the tent up; you did it... and look, I have a second-hand sleeping bag, and I brought my mum's old yoga mat…,” Another screech came from the woods. “What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know Mads, it sounds like something in pain” Alex lay on her back.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Maybe we should go and look for it, maybe” Maddy sat up, “It's calling out to us to go and help him, it, whatever it is”

“Mads, it’s dark, it’s gone midnight, and…” the noise echoed in the woods again.

“See,” Maddy unzipped her sleeping bag and reached for her boots, “I’m going to look for it and if I can help it, I will.”

Maddy was standing near the fire as Alex finished tying her boots. “Alright, I’ll come, but if anything happens, remember I can run faster than you”  

Maddy laughed and got hold of Alex’s arm. “Thanks, " picking up a torch each and trying not to wake Jen or Sue, they walked towards where they thought the noise was coming from.

“I should have brought the Machete,” Alex said, pushing down branches.

“Shush, listen,” rustling noises came from in front of them. “There, I can see something” Maddy pushed her way through the thick leaves. Alex grabbed her sweatshirt just as she was going to step onto nothing, a big hole. 

“That was close,” Alex said as she pulled Maddy back. “Did you not see that? There's a big hole,” Alex shone her torch down. “It goes on for miles.”

Maddy took a while to get her breath back, and she also looked over the edge “Where do you think it goes?”

“Down,” Alex looked perplexed “Well, it can’t go up or sideways, can it?”

“Let’s go back and get Jen and Sue. Did one of them have a rope?” Maddy looked more excited than Alex had ever seen her.

“What, you're not thinking of going down there, are you”? Alex asked as she tried to keep up with Maddy.

Reaching the campsite, Maddy was shouting for Jan. Her head popped out of her tent, “What’s all the fuss, why are you not in bed?” Jan stood with her hands on her hips.

“We found something, it’s a big hole, it goes down miles.”

“Slow down, Maddy, slow down your breathing.” Jan held Maddie’s hand,

“I found a hole in the ground that goes down, far, I think it was where the screaming came from” Maddy walked to where all the supplies were kept. “Did anyone bring a rope?”

“Maddy, stop, let's wait till it’s light and we'll all go and have a look at this hole” Jen looked at Alex and Sue for confirmation. They both nodded. Sitting by the fire, they all surmised on what it could be, and what could be down the hole.

Sue was the first to wake, stretching out her back and putting more wood on the fire. She started making breakfast by placing some bacon and eggs in a pan of oil, then boiling some water.

Alex and Maddy came out of their tent together. “Morning,” they said to Sue. “Morning, are you looking forward to seeing what’s down the hole?” Maddy asked.

“Yes, but we must be cautious,” Alex said, “I think I should ring my dad, he would know what to do”

“No, he would stop us going down” Maddy pulled her face.

“Ok, ok we can have a look, if we feel as a group it is to dangerous we wont go down, and then we'll ring your dad” Everyone agreed, after breakfast and all the pots had been washed and cleared away Jen took a rope and a harness from the bottom of her rucksack and a pack of light sticks, “Always prepared” she smiled.

Retracing their steps and finding the hole Jen tied one end of the rope to a tree, “Sorry I have only got one of these”, holding up the harness “and as I’m more experienced in this sort of thing, I will go down as far as I can” The other two could see the disappointment in Maddy eyes but they knew Jen was right. Turning her back to the hole and facing her three friends, Jen dropped down the other end of the twenty-meter, ten-millimetre-thick professional climbing rope, with her carabiners and ascending tool in place. She smiled, took a breath, then pushed herself over the edge.

About twenty feet down. A screech came from deep within the hole, “What's that?” Sue asked, cowering behind a tree. Her phone rang. “Yes “, she answered abruptly.

“It’s me down here” Jen had popped in an earbud and was using her phone to let them know what was happening.

“God, Jen, I nearly had a heart attack. What was that scream?”

“I don’t but it sounded near, now I'm about thirty feet down and I can feel warm air rising from the bottom, Oh wait a minute, I see something...” The phone went dead.

“Jen, Jen,” Sue shouted down the phone, then looked at the screen “, I’ve lost connection.” Pressing the screen, “Come on, come on, damn phone” She looked over the lip of the hole. “Jen, can you hear me?”

Alex and Maddy started to shout for Jen, then stopped to see if there was a reply; nothing came. Sue's phone rang again. Looking at it, she let out a sigh, “Jen, don't do that. What happened?”

“It's OK, I just pressed end when I was trying to take a picture”

“What is it? What have you found?” Sue put the phone on speaker so the others could hear.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Jen said.

The end.