Extreme Difference (20 page)

‘What do we do today?’ asked Ben, when the hail of missiles had stopped.

Sandy thought for a moment, ‘I think we should collect one of each fruit and berry we can find, and see if Bell can identify any of them as being safe to eat. We’ll also have to find somewhere we can make into a safe place to sleep at night, a cave or rock fissure we can barricade to prevent access by anything dangerous. We could use the water trap, but it’s bloody hard in there, and I don’t think carrying our bed rags down is a viable proposition, because of their bulk.

‘Anyway, we’ll have enough to transport, and I don't suppose anyone will want to make several journeys up and down, having done it once.’

‘How about if we go along the edge of the cliffs? There could be some smaller caves there, I would think. And if we find some, we could make beds of dried grass, or even some of the softer bushes,’ suggested Greg. ‘I think it’s the size of the water trap cave that makes it so cold.’ he added.

By midday, they had a considerable collection of fruits and berries, found a small cave complex, the entrance of which could be closed off without too much trouble, and had begun to clear it out. A collection of leaves, small branches which something had dragged in, and a couple of small furry four legged creatures which shot out so fast they were unable to recall exactly what they had seen, were the only occupants, as far as they knew.

A water supply, which trickled down from a small hole in one of the caves, was diverted, so that by the time they returned, the cave floor would be dry.

As the team continued to explore their new land, roaming from glade to glade, the grey herbivore joined them after a while, suddenly appearing out of the bushes and giving them the fright they needed to remind them to be vigilant at all times in this strange land.

As the day drew to its close, it was decided to spend the night in the water trap cave, as it guaranteed some degree of safety, and begin the journey back up to the crater complex after the morning meal.

The water containers were topped up from the little stream, and the oil lamps checked to make sure they were full. One lone lamp lighted the huge cavern as the team settled down for the night, all agreeing that the smelly pile of rags they normally slept on was far preferable to the cold hard stone of the water cave.

One by one, they drifted off into fitful sleep, not really feeling very refreshed when they awoke next day. A clear patch of sky allowed the sun to blaze down in its full glory for once, the water in the trough transmitting the light into the cave, lighting it up with a weird green glow.

A hurried morning meal was consumed without much interest as the team were eager to get started on the journey, despite the long haul up to the crater. A quick look around to make sure they had left nothing behind, and they began, with Ben in the lead emitting a tuneless whistle.

As they approached the ledge which looked out over their new land, it was suggested by Kel that they take one more look at the amazing sight of so much greenery, before committing themselves to the sterile drabness of the tunnels.

‘I still find it hard to believe that all this could exist, and we knew nothing about it.’ said Greg, gazing out over the tree tops.  ‘And we wouldn’t have, if it hadn’t been for Sandy, so let’s not forget that.’ Ben added.

They turned as one, and began the long pull up the first really steep incline of many yet to come, torn between staying in their green and pleasant land, and rejoining those they had left behind in the crater far above them.

Passing back through the metal tunnel over the molten lava pit had lost some of its terrors, and the team were a little more nonchalant in their approach to the transparent section which gave a good view of the fiery turmoil below.

They still marvelled at the fact that the tube remained cool despite the tremendous heat below from the liquid rock, the only really disconcerting thing being the huge span of the tube across the pit, with no visible means of support.

The continuous upward pull, especially on the longer steep sections, took its toll, and frequent breaks were called for.

Sandy had hoped to complete the journey in what he thought was one day, as they had done on the way down, but it soon became obvious that they would have to spend the night in the tunnels, if only to rest their aching muscles.

At what they estimated to be the halfway point, although no one was sure, they stopped for a meal and sleep. Even the dried meat strips tasted good, and the water, although it had been sloshed around for hours and acquired a little warmth from their bodies, was pure nectar. There were the usual grumbles about the hard rock, but these soon faded as tired bodies, pushed almost beyond their limits, went into sleep mode. The only sound in the otherwise silent tunnels was the deep snoring of Kel, who was frequently turned over in unsuccessful attempts to abate the nerve rasping noises he emitted due to a defective soft palate.

When they awoke they had no idea what part of the day it was, or even if it was still night. Ben had been the first to arise, and had refilled the lamps, polished the reflecting plates, and adjusted their wicks. They were all a bit grumpy as they set off, dolefully still chewing the remains of their dried meat strips, and looking forward to one of Mop’s sumptuous stews.

Two more stops for refreshment were needed before they came to the junction which led out to the first ledge high up on the rim, where they had looked down on the clouds.

‘We’re nearly home now,’ said Sandy, relief sounding in his voice, ‘so how about we take one more look at the cloud layer? It will also give us some idea of what part of the day it is.’ They turned into the tunnel leading to the ledge, too tired to argue, and caring little, as the long journey was now nearly over.

As they walked out onto the ledge, a chill wind greeted them, indicating that it was either early morning or very late evening. Ben pointed out that it must be evening, as the sunlight was well down below the crater rim behind them, and the clouds were tinged with pink, an evening colour.

They were just about to turn and enter the tunnel for the last stage of their journey, when a flash of light far out over the cloud field caught their attention.

‘There it is again.' Ben pointed towards a faint flash of silver which seemed to ascend from the distant haze and then glide along just above cloud level.

‘It’s not coming in our direction,’ Sandy said, disappointedly, ‘I’ll bet it’s one of those bloody vehicles which drop us down here.’

The others exchanged uneasy glances, Ben afraid Sandy might want to take the craft on in a show of force, and the other two afraid he was going the way of Nan, to the land of the confused.

The speck of silver flickered out of existence, and they returned to the more mundane task of tramping the tunnels until they reached their old home caves, and a decent meal.

An undignified scramble down the last incline brought them into Ben’s storeroom, and home.

T
hey could hear voices as they went up the passage towards the main cave, and despite the tiredness, broke into a trot for the last few metres, and burst into the cavern.

Mop was the first to react, her ample proportions wobbling as she ran up to Sandy and threw her arms around him, sobbing.

‘Thought you’d never come back,’ she sobbed out at last, ‘thought some awful creature down there had got you.’

The others were greeted like long lost heroes, with much back slapping and hugging, and a few not ashamed to show their tears of joy at the safe return of their comrades.

‘How about some food then?’ asked Sandy, when he had untangled himself from the overjoyed Mop. ‘We’re bloody starving.’

Mop left the cavern to fetch the cooking pot she had already prepared, glancing back twice to make sure Sandy was really there, and it was not one of her frightening dreams.

The stew, when it came, was acclaimed the best ever by the team, who received a few sideways looks from the others who had received copious amounts of it over the last few days, while Mop waited for her chosen one to return.

The team took it in turns to recount their adventure in great detail, answering questions wherever possible, but finding it difficult to describe some of what they had seen as some of the others had no recall of the past, and therefore no reference points from which to begin.

Mop disappeared for a while, and then returned with a pot of some steaming green liquid, which she poured out into their drinking bowls. After the first tentative sip, it was downed with great enthusiasm, the sweet aromatic smell of the new herbs lingering long afterwards in their meal cavern.

When they eventually went to bed, everyone fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the rags, with the exception of Sandy.

Mop was so pleased that he had returned safe and sound, that she found it difficult to express her relief, and showed it in the only way she knew how. An exhausted Sandy was totally shattered when he was finally allowed to close his eyes, and began to wonder if a celibate life was preferable after all. But then again, her cooking was very good.

The sun was high in the sky when the first members of the group at last managed to drag themselves up to the main cavern, and to their surprise were greeted by a deputation from one of the other clans from nearby.

‘Our apologies for intruding into your system, but no one was about, and we wondered if any harm had befallen you.’

Greg rubbed his sore eyes, and tried to get them into focus.

‘Oh, we had a bit of a bash last night, and retired rather late. We’re all right, just a bit shattered, that’s all. Why have you come to see us?’

‘Word is about that you have developed a super weapon, something which annihilated the raiders who have been plaguing the area for some time. We would like one, we have many things to trade with, so there should be something you would like to have.'

Greg thought for a moment, Sandy was the new leader, so it was up to him to make decisions of this nature.

‘There are two things I would say,’ he began, ‘one is that we have destroyed the raiders, and so far we haven’t heard of any more, and the other is that we only have the one weapon, and no means to make another one.’ He then wondered if he had said too much, and exposed them to an attack in order to retrieve the weapon for themselves. He decided he had better fetch Sandy, and let him sort it out.

Leaving the visitors in the main cavern, Greg hurried down to Sandy’s cave and awoke him, shaking him roughly by what he thought was his shoulder.

‘Oh, for God’s sake, Mop, let me sleep,’ the buried head under the rags mumbled, ‘it can’t be day already. Oh, it’s you.’ The bleary eyed Sandy raised himself on one elbow, shook his head a couple of times to clear it, and enquired,

‘What’s the problem?’ knowing that no one would wake him up unless there was an impending catastrophe.

Briefly, Greg explained what had happened, and what he had said in response to the visitor’s request.

‘No great harm done. I don’t suppose they would risk trying to take it from us by force, and I doubt very much they have anything we really need now. I’ll go see ’em, keep ’em entertained for a while, and I’ll be up.’

With that the head retired beneath the rags again, and Mop’s happy smiling face emerged.

‘Sod off, there’s a dear,’ she said sweetly, ‘we’ll be up shortly.’ Apart from feeling a little embarrassed, Greg was annoyed that the situation should be taken so lightly, especially when he could foresee the possible dangers.

Some little while later, Sandy staggered into the main cavern, smiled around at those present, and plumped down heavily on the one remaining unoccupied section of bench.

‘Greg here, has explained your mission, and my answer is much the same as his. I don’t think you need to worry about any more attacks. If you’re still really worried, what you could do is spread the rumour that you have acquired a similar weapon to ours, and that should deter anyone with covetous intentions on your cave system and its contents.’

‘It’s the women we’re worried about,’ the leader of the visitors said, ’we have a lot of them, and the others don’t.’

Sandy and Greg found difficulty in hiding their surprise at the unexpected statement, women were few and far between in most groups, and here was one with a surplus.

‘Tell you what,’ Sandy said, thinking quickly, ‘tell us where you are situated in the crater rim, and in the near future we may be able to do a deal. If you have more women than you feel is comfortable for the size of your group, we could do an exchange for some, that’s if they would like to join us.  You could sound them out on the proposal, and let us know how they feel about it.’

This satisfied the visitors, and they left feeling they had achieved something, but were not too sure what it was.

‘What have you got in mind?’ asked Greg, as they sat down again, waiting for the morning meal.

‘Well, we don’t have enough women to go around, that’s if every man wants a partner when we go down to our new land, and I think most will once we get organized and life becomes a little easier. We won’t need the gas weapon, and we couldn’t get it down those tunnels anyway, so they may as well have it. If we can get partners for our men in exchange, I reckon that’s a good deal.’

‘How about telling the other groups about our new land, or do you think we should keep it to ourselves?’

‘I’d thought about that. They're a mixed bunch, and some are darn right dangerous. The trouble is, most of ’em have developed strange religious beliefs which aren’t based on facts or reason, and that could spell trouble. No, for the time being, I think we’ll keep our discovery to ourselves, after all, our survival comes first.’

Ben nodded his acceptance of Sandy’s judgement on the situation, he was usually proved right, and that was a comfort in itself.

Any further discussion of the matter was halted, as other members of the group came in for their first meal of a day which would change their lives for ever.

When all were assembled, and had had their fill of Mop’s new gruel and crushed grain buns, Sandy rose to his feet.