Doctor Who_ Rip Tide - Louise Cooper [51]
From the pitch darkness ahead came an echoing crash, and Ruth cried out in fear.
'Ruth!' Alarm made Nina forget caution. 'Are you all right?'
'Y-yes ... But –'
If she said more, Nina did not hear, for a second throat-clearing grumble from the rock drowned her words – then swelled into a noise like rolling thunder. The shattering of ancient wooden props was completely lost in the din, but as they gave way a Niagara of rubble cascaded from overhead, and the entire roof of the tunnel started to sag.
'Run, Nina, Run! Get clear!' Through the roaring in the tunnel and in her ears Nina heard Ruth's scream. It pierced and snapped the paralysis of blind terror that had taken hold of her, and with a survival-driven instinct she started to scramble back the way she had come. Her feet slipped and slithered on a litter of stones, and the rock around her was shaking. Once she felt it squeeze her, crushing in, it seemed from both sides, and uttering a scream of fear and defiance and desperation combined, she struggled, pushing, thrusting, forcing her body to fit into the narrowing gap. For two hideous seconds she thought she wasn't going to make it, but suddenly she was through, and running, running for sanctuary as the tunnel caved in behind her.
SOS
'Ruth!' Nina pressed her hands against the rock barrier in front of her, as though she could somehow find the strength to push it down. 'Ruth, can you hear me? Are you there?'
She waited, listening, trying to ignore the dust that clogged her lungs and throat. There was no answer; rationally, how could there be, when countless tons of stone and rubble now separated her from the alien girl? She couldn't even hear the humming sound now. All she knew for certain was that Ruth was somewhere in the tunnel, on the other side of the roof fall. Just hope and pray she was fast enough to get clear in time!
Nina was overtaken by a violent fit of coughing then as the dust in her throat became intolerable, and for half a minute she was doubled over, hawking and spitting to clear it. The effort left her breathless and sorechested, and she realised that she needed to get out of there. The Doctor was the only one who could help now – she had to find him!
But which way was out? When she shone the torch around, all she could see was a cloud of dust flung up by the disturbance and now swirling restlessly through the cave. Hours would pass before it settled. She didn't have hours. She'd just have to grope her way back, and hope to God that she headed in the right direction.
Slowly and carefully, Nina began to feel her way around the cave wall. Her terror was subsiding and allowing room for some clarity, and now she had time to realise how lucky she was to have made it out of the tunnel before the entire roof came down. Lucky, too, that the fall hadn't revealed a bigger rock flaw and collapsed the cave as well. Or at least, not yet. It could still happen. Goaded, she made herself move faster, horribly alert for a renewed rumbling, dreading to hear it, expecting to hear it. Please God, let me find the tunnel I came in by, and let it still be in one piece ...
Her teeth were clenched so hard that her jaw was aching, but she was unaware of the pain until, with a shock, her groping hand found empty space, and a breath of colder, cleaner air whirled dust into her eyes. She had found the tunnel! Now, all she had to do was follow it to the outside world. Hope rising, she directed her torch beam at the clearer air ahead and began to run.
She emerged from the mine a few minutes later, and ran gasping and blinking into the buffeting assault of a fierce Atlantic blow. She staggered, then sagged to her knees, gratefully gulping down huge breaths of air that forced the foul, dusty air from her throat and replaced it with a heady salt tang. Her heart was pounding under her ribs, and she knew that she had been incredibly lucky to make it back to the outside world. Fool that she was, she had forgotten all about the shaft,