Humpty's bones

Danger Signs
One

Pitt is twelve years old. Pitt is also crazy. Although it still shocked me when he told me what he planned to do.

‘You’re insane,’ I told him. ‘You don’t know what’s in there.’

‘Probably a psycho,’ said Jenny.

‘Or poisonous chemicals.’ Adam looked worried.

‘And missiles full of flesh-eating virus.’ I nodded at a sign on the fence. ‘That’s been put there for a reason.’

On the sign, this warning in big, shouting letters:

CAUTION!

RESTRICTED MILITARY ZONE

DO NOT PASS.

DANGER OF DEATH!

‘That clear enough for you, Pitt? You go in there you’re a dead man.’

He whirled round at me. ‘Hey, Naz. Are you saying I’m scared? Do you think I’m frightened of that?’ He punched the sign so hard it gave a heck of a clatter. Birds flew in panic from the trees. The notice was so old the painted side began to peel away from its wooden backing. The sign, itself, was a thin metal sheet. One still shiny enough to reflect the sunlight like hazard lights — as if to say: Warning. Peril ahead.

‘No, I’m not saying you’re a coward. But if there are danger signs… ’

‘He’s right,’ Adam said, ‘if you ignore warnings you’re asking for trouble.’

Pitt snarled, ‘I don’t care about any stupid sign. I’m going in.’

With that he left without us. We watched him through the hole in the fence as he strolled in bright sunshine to the military bunker. The size of a house, it was built out of concrete that had been painted in camouflage greens. There were no windows. Only a big steel door. For the first time in our lives we saw the door was open. Wide open. Yawning so big it looked like a monster’s mouth. Beyond the door lay a dark tunnel. Like I said, Pitt’s crazy. But I didn’t want him to go into the bunker. I’d got a bad feeling about that place.

Let me explain something before I go any further. Okay, even though Pitt acts crazy we’ve been friends for years. He’s done things like put wings on his bike, rigged a motor to his skateboard (that got him a week off school with a twisted knee). When he talks about building a rocket we say he’s crazy. Then, deep down, we respect his amazing plans.

Yesterday had been a bad day for Pitt. We’d been walking across the playing field into town. Who should turn up but Adam’s fourteen year old brother, Brian, and his buddies. They’d been riding these illegal dirt bikes, revving the engines like lunatics. They’d ridden them close enough to make us dodge out of the way. Brian had made fun of Pitt for jumping ‘like a frightened little kid’. Then Brian had ridden the bike across the grass like a bullet. He’d swung a sports bag into Pitt’s face. It smacked him hard enough to cut his lip.

Adam had told his big brother to stop being a jerk. Brian laughed it off, saying Pitt shouldn’t act so soft.

So today Pitt had turned up with this bashed mouth. The wound resembled a little red flower on his bottom lip. When he touched the cut with his finger it still oozed blood. It looked really sore. Every so often he flinched as if it stung like it was on fire.

There were four of us — Pitt, Jenny, Adam, and me, Naz. All twelve year olds. We tried to cheer up Pitt as we walked through the woods but you could tell the attack by Brian still bugged him. He’d got real anger in his eye.

When we saw what had happened to the bunker it made us forget everything else.

Pitt had stared in wonder. ‘After all these years. That’s the first time I’ve seen the door open.’

When he realised there was nobody about, that’s when he announced he was going inside. So through the hole in the fence he went — ignoring the danger sign.

And that brings us to now — this very moment when Pitt wanted to prove to us that he was no coward. One second he stood in the open doorway then he vanished inside.

‘His funeral,’ Adam grunted.

‘We can’t just leave him,’ Jenny protested. ‘What happens if he gets hurt?’

I agreed. ‘If he calls for help nobody will hear. It’s a mile to the nearest house.’

Adam gazed at the sign — DANGER OF DEATH — like it would grow claws and rip off his head. ‘They put that up for a reason. My uncle used to deliver propane here twenty years ago. He said they had nuclear weapons in underground tunnels.’

Jenny pointed at the bunker. ‘Kids have covered the walls with graffiti. The army wouldn’t have allowed that if it had still been in use.’

‘Oh no. I know what you’re going to do,’ Adam was horror-struck. ‘You’re going in there, aren’t you?’

This stopped me dead because I’d planned to wait here by the fence until Pitt returned. And surely he’ll come back soon. There’s nothing in the bunker that could hurt him, was there? Even so, that yawning doorway looked so darkly forbidding. Even the concrete bunker reminded me of a big dinosaur skull. From that grim building came a yell. Or was it a cry of pain?

‘Jenny,’ Adam caught hold of her arm. ‘Wouldn’t it be best to wait here?’

‘Didn’t you hear it? That shout came from Pitt. We’ve got to see if he’s alright.’ She gave us a hard stare. ‘Well, I’m going in if you’re not.’

I groaned. I’d no choice. I couldn’t let her go in there alone. Quickly, I followed her to the bunker. That huge metal door, fully six inches thick, made me have worrying thoughts about the entrance to ancient tombs. A darkly forbidden place.

Jenny regarded it with awe. ‘This door’s huge.’

‘It’s bomb proof!’

‘How could anyone have broken in here?’

Adam checked the entrance more closely. ‘See these gouge marks on the inside of the door? The way it’s scratched all over?’ He gulped. ‘Nobody’s broken in here. They’ve broken out.’