Joel burst out of the water and gasped for breath. He had been washed along the underground river for about ten minutes before it went truly into the unknown. Before he entered the small tunnel he had spied that he would be underwater for a little while. There had been no option but to hold his breath and hope that it was enough to get him to the surface. Anxiously, he looked around him and after a few tense seconds Gaz reached the surface, and shouted out from the adrenaline rush.

Joel spied a black sand beach in the distance and pointed at it. Gaz gave him a thumbs up and waited whilst Joel swam across to it.

“Thank God we’re out of there,” said Joel. “I never thought that tunnel was going to end. So where are we?”

“Dunno,” replied Gaz.

“You don’t know?” Joel stared at his brother dumbfounded. “You pushed me into an underground river and you don’t even know where it goes? Did you even know it came back up to the surface?”

Gaz grinned and shook his head.

“We could have died! How has this helped anything? You can’t do your tours from here, we might as well have just joined the army conscription.”

Gaz was quiet, he hadn’t really thought the plan through, he had just wanted to escape. A muttering of “well I told you to stay,” was the best he could come up with.

“Let’s just get to the beach and then we can decide what to do.” Joel was livid. He’d risked his life and thrown away his dream of joining the army on his brother’s stupid whim.