Free Seeds of Time by K. C. Dyer

out of bedthis morning. So, get moving!” the voice barked, and the sounds of large objects being slid along the surface of the beach began again.
    Darrell reached for her camera, and then closed her eyes in despair. The cave floor was completely dry, but her fall had sprung the back of the camera open. The film, exposed, lay curled inside the camera like a dead snake.
    Anger flooded through Darrell, and her face grew red as she thought of the opportunity she had lost. She struggled to stand and pressed her face around the corner again. One glimpse had her quickly diving for cover. The men were less than ten metres from her hiding place in the cave. The pile of plastic containers had shrunk, with most of them stacked in the boat.
    Darrell could feel her panic rising. If the smugglers searched the rocks for a spot to hide more containers, they would surely find her cave. It was difficult to find, but a thorough search would doubtless bring it to light as an ideal hiding place. Darrell picked up the camera and quietly whispered
Come
to Delaney. He got up, tail swaying gently, and padded over to her side. She grabbed the tree branch and hastily tried to obliterate as many footprints on the floor of the cave as she could see in the dim light.
    Walking backwards, Darrell moved past the point at the back of the cave where the walls narrowed and the ceiling dropped down. She tried to stop and catch herbreath, but sheer panic drove her further back and down as she sought out a place where Conrad and his father would not immediately find her. She patted the small flashlight in her pocket and then tucked her backpack behind a small rock on the sand.
    Peering into the darkness, she turned around and tried to make out any detail of her surroundings. The cave was pitch black and smelled of salt and seaweed. In spite of her fear of something lurking in its musty recesses Darrell did not want to risk turning on the flashlight. She dropped the branch near the pack and, running her hands along the wall, continued to creep her way back into the cave.
    The floor began to level out. Although she was moving slowly, after about five minutes, she began to feel safer. The men would want to leave quickly with their boat before anyone noticed them on the shore. Darrell stopped for a moment to reach down. Delaney was right at her side, his warm breath reassuring on her hand.
    After a short rest, she continued to move deeper into the cave, using her hands to feel her way along the walls. “Another ten metres,” she whispered, “and we’ll turn the light on, okay Delaney?”
    Her fingers felt raw from rubbing the uneven rock along the cave wall. Still, she hadn’t bumped her head or fallen over again, and that was something. She continuedwith her slow crab-walk, sideways and downward. Darrell had just decided to turn on her flashlight when Delaney began to whine.
    She stopped, keeping one hand on the wall for balance, and put her other hand down onto his head, trying to reassure him with her touch. “Shhh, Delaney,” she whispered, “it’s okay ...” Suddenly, a searing pain shot through her hand and down her arm. It felt like she was receiving an electric shock from the cave wall, but she was unable to move her hand. She instinctively clutched Delaney’s collar, and the cave began to whirl about her, making her head spin.
    The pain was sickening, and Darrell closed her eyes and moaned.
    She found herself curled up in a ball on the sand and rolled on the ground, writhing with nausea. She felt like she had just been punched in the stomach, and she fought for breath. Moving made her feel worse so she lay very still, feeling the nausea ebb away like the pull of the tide. Her head ached, and it was several minutes before she felt able to sit up. She opened her eyes to a dull glow that illuminated the area around her. Looking up, she could see a symbol on the wall of the cave above where she lay curled on the