Her telephone beeped into life again. Ringing. Not a message.
A real person! But first she frantically sought settings to turn the volume down. The dust was still settling around them, and it seemed to her that any little sound might cause more rock to fall.
Malu was no longer aware. She’d given him more morphine and he’d fallen into an uneasy slumber. The ringtone hadn’t woken him.
‘H-hi.’ It felt eerie to be calmly answering the phone in such conditions. She had to stop and cough. ‘H-hold on.’
Let it be Josh.
Why did she think that? Josh was coming from Cairns. He couldn’t be here yet. The coughing eased and she managed to focus again.
‘Maddie?’ The voice at the end of the phone was growing frantic. Not Josh.
She recognised the voice—Keanu, one of the other two island doctors. Sam, the island’s chief permanent doctor, had decided to take leave before she had her baby, which meant she and Keanu were currently the only doctors on the island.
‘What’s happening?’ he demanded. ‘Are you okay?’
‘We seem to be trapped but we’re okay.’ She glanced down again at Malu. ‘You and me both, aren’t we, Malu?’
Malu didn’t respond but she didn’t expect him to. The wound on his thigh was ugly. Without morphine he’d be writhing. She released the pressure from his makeshift mask a little, trying to get a balance between stopping the grit and making it harder for him to breathe.
Oxygen would be good. Why hadn’t she lugged in an oxygen cylinder, as well?
She should have brought a wheelbarrow.
‘Maddie?’
She jerked herself back to focussing on the call. ‘Keanu? Malu has an impact injury, thigh.’ She suspected broken ribs, possible internal injuries as well, but it was no use saying that in Malu’s hearing. ‘I suspect he’ll need surgery when we get out of here, evac to Cairns, but I’ve stopped the bleeding and he’s stable. Two litres of saline, five milligrams of intravenous morph …’
‘You had that stuff down there?’ He sounded incredulous.
‘I was a girl scout,’ she said dryly. ‘I’m prepared.’
There was a moment’s silence. Then …
‘Are Macca and Reuben with you?’
‘They ran when the second collapse came. They’re not with us now.’
He must have her on speaker phone. She could hear sobbing in the background. He’d be in the operations room of the mine, she thought. The sobbing would be Macca’s and Reuben’s families.
Malu’s family would be there, too.
No one belonging to her.
But then … Josh was coming. He’d said he would.
Josh wasn’t her family, she reminded herself. In truth, he never had been.
‘That last rockfall …’ She was almost afraid to ask, but she had to. ‘Was anyone else hurt?’
‘Everyone’s clear but you four.’
‘Kalifa?
‘Maddie, worry about yourself.’
‘Should I worry?’
There was a moment’s silence.
‘It might take a while to reach you,’ Keanu said at last. ‘How’s the air down there?’
‘Dusty.’
‘But?’
‘But otherwise okay.’ She sniffed. ‘I can feel a bit of a draught. Do you reckon there might be some sort of escape hatch?’
‘It’s probably from a ventilation shaft. Thank God that’s still working.’ He hesitated. ‘Maddie, we need to bring experts and machinery from the mainland.’
‘The mainland … Cairns.’
‘Yep.’
‘Is that coming on the mercy flight?’
‘How do you know about the mercy flight?’
‘Josh told me.’
There was another silence. ‘Your Josh,’ he said at last.
‘He’s not my Josh.’ And then … ‘How do you know he’s my Josh?’
‘Hettie told me. She relayed the message from Cairns Air Sea Rescue. But … You’ve been talking to him yourself?’
‘Yes.’
‘Maddie?’
‘Mmm?’
‘You need to conserve your phone. It’s probably not the time for chats with your ex.’
‘He texted. I also have three battery backups in my bag. That’s enough for two days.’
‘That might not be enough.’
‘You have to be kidding.’
‘I hope I am,’ he said. ‘But for now … two days or not, conserve your phone.’
Two days or not, conserve your phone.
Maddie sat back on her heels and tried—really hard—not to panic.
Two days?
There’d been an incident, not so long ago, where miners had been trapped … where? Tasmania? The miners had been successfully brought to the surface after how many days? Fourteen? She couldn’t remember the details but she remembered watching the rescue unfold on television. She’d been mesmerised by the tragedy of the mine collapse but even more mesmerised by the courage shown by the miners trying to keep their sanity as the appalling endurance test had stretched on.
Neither of them had been badly injured.
Malu was suffering from shock and a deep laceration, she thought, but what else? She wanted X-rays. She wanted him in hospital. She wanted a sterile environment and the necessary surgery for his leg.
She couldn’t even see him.
Two days …
The darkness was absolute.
Her fingers were on Malu’s wrist. His pulse was settling. There was no need to turn on the torch.
She flicked the torch on anyway, just for a moment. Just to see.
Their chamber was about eight feet in diameter. The roof was still up there, and there were shoring timbers above them. Where their tiny enclosure ended, the shoring timbers had splintered like kindling.
The floor was rock-strewn. She needed to clear it a bit to get Malu more comfortable.
She could do it without the torch. She had to do it without the torch. She flicked it off again and the total darkness was like a physical slap.
Her phone gave a tiny ping and the screen lit momentarily. She took three deep breaths—because she had been close to panic—and she let herself look.
Landed. You nice and safe down there? Got a couple of good rocks you can use for pillows or are you thinking you might like to come on up? Josh.
She could have kissed him. Except she didn’t kiss Josh. Not any more. He’d always been uncomfortable with overt displays of affection. Even when they’d been married … Affection had been an effort, she thought, seizing on the excuse to get her mind off the dust. She’d never been in any doubt that he’d wanted her, but affection had been for behind closed doors. It was almost as if he’d been ashamed to admit he’d needed her.