Alexander doesn’t need friends. All people are idiots. He decides to go on a school hike in the mountains – not because he wants to, but because he has to get away from his home. He ignores the others until they have to hide from a heavy thunderstorm in a cave and discover a stash of guns.
Extract from So what?
“’A cave,” Barkly said smugly, as if he had built it himself.
We shuffled deeper and deeper into the cave. Dancing shadows flickered on the walls of the cave. The cave was quite big, about as wide as a garage. How deep it went into the mountain, I did not know.
The backpacks fell to the ground in a series of dull thuds as everyone got them off their backs. I sat down on the sandy floor of the cave. I watched Louise as she sifted the sand through her fingers. She looked at me and smiled.
Barkly dug into his backpack. He took out a gas lamp and within minutes we were listening to the soft murmur of the lamp.
“What about some coffee?” Barkly’s wife asked. Her short blonde curls clustered around her round face. Now she wanted to play house-house, I thought with growing irritation.
Everyone started laughing and talking. Nothing to laugh about as far as I could see. My feet hurt dreadfully. My sneakers looked like mud boots. I looked at my watch. It was three o’clock in the morning. And there I was sitting like a damp chicken in mud boots with a lot of idiots somewhere in a cave in the mountains. I should be certified.
