Article: Trapped in mall - send help

The caving rescue squad was one digit away from a callout. I had groped my way along a cavernous passageway in an Auckland shopping mall, towards what appeared to be a shaft of natural light, when it came to an abrupt end in the garish sparkle of a discount jewellery store.

I was exhausted, bruised, claustrophobic and more than a little frightened by an eerie noise welling up behind me. A sound as though the very earth had wrenched an arthritic joint. A sound that rasped through eardrums like jagged glass. A sound no mortal should hear unsedated.

Then I recognise it as the screech of violins being tortured by young buskers playing Christmas carols.

That's when I pulled out the cellphone ...

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