GALSYR

Nobody Came

     The ground-floor apartment doorway of the two-story building was taped-off to stop any unwanted viewers entering the crime scene.

     Fred approached with his magnifying glass in hand.

     The police crew took one look at him, and they thought he was from the theatre up the road – what, with his eccentric getup. They refused him access, until he showed them his ID, then they just ignored him, completely, as he went around investigating the site. The detective bunch, in their minds, were all a weird lot, but this one took the prize.

     Having just realised he'd left his phone with the latest Investigation App back at the station, he tried to ask one of the nearby Police crew for details.

     "Excuse me...?" Anyone's attention would do, but they all appeared to neither see, nor hear him.

     "Hello Ma'am? Could I just ask...?" the person in question just walked straight past him and out the door.

     People seem to do this a lot, ever since he could remember. Including his teachers.

     The vision came to mind, of himself away at camp, when he was seven. The group leader had been coerced into taking twelve, excited children, armed with torches, early in the morning, into a huge, deep, resonating cave, set back from the ocean's edge, not realising there was a rising tide. The water started flowing rapidly into the cave.

     Before they knew it, the water was halfway up their legs.

     Fred remembered the children screaming, as they waded their way back towards the opening, panicking as the water started reaching their hips. Crying for the teacher to do something, when they saw the mouth of the cave was almost completely under water.

     All of the children, except two, were able to get out in time, having to swim underwater part of the way to get to safety. But Fiona and Fred couldn't swim...

     The adult hadn't even noticed they'd been left behind.

     Helping each other, they managed to climb the rocks forming a ledge along the cave wall, as high as they could, but the water was still lapping at their waist, and rising. Their voices hoarse from calling out, Fred tried hard to be brave, for both of them. "They'll come back for us. Just you wait and see."

     He started talking about anything he could think of, trying to make light of their situation. His favourite detective TV Show, GET SMART, proved to be a winner, so he talked about each of the episodes that he could remember. He pretended he was Agent 86 and she was 99. Fiona at first joined in, but towards the end she remained silent. Her teeth rattling uncontrollably as she shivered from the cold water.

     "The rescue party will be here soon. Just hold on. Just a little more." Eventually, even he accepted that nobody was coming.

     To make matters worse, the light from their torches was getting dimmer.

     Looking up, Fred noticed a hint of light streaming from a cracked inlet, high in the rock to their right. By this time the water was chest height, if they could just reach it, then maybe they could climb into the narrow opening, using the sides as support to hold them above the water. The problem was, Fiona's body was so cold. She said she could hardly feel her legs or arms, so Fred, whose body was also starting to feel the effect of hypothermia, slowly and painfully pulled them both across the ledge, slipping and sliding until they reached the opening.

     Unfortunately, Fiona dropped her torch, the water claiming it for its own, as her stiff fingers couldn't hold onto its rubber surface, anymore.