Red Raiders

by KH Gordon

  Chapter Eight

  By the middle of the next morning, Torus was restless and frustrated and bored. He and his father were in the middle of the room on either side of a pile of cardboard scraps and pieces of stiff wire. His father was building some kind of contraption and Torus was trying to help, but he couldn’t stop thinking about getting out of the den and going to the gathering.

  “Hey you!” his father said. “Hello?”

  “Sorry…what?”

  “Hold your end up a little higher so I can stick this piece on.” His father was holding onto one end of the construction and was trying to secure a triangular piece of cardboard to the underside by looping a piece of thick, gray tape over a stiff wire that ran under the thing from front to back. Torus held up his end and watched his father struggle with it for a moment.

  “Why don’t we turn it over so you don’t have to work underneath it like that?”

  His father glared at him but he was holding the tape between his teeth and didn’t say anything. He finally got the piece stuck on and they set the object down gently and stepped back to look at it. It looked like a strange sort of shoe with a kind of handle on one end. Torus thought it might be the back end but it was hard to tell.

  “What is it we’re building here?”

  His father was silent for a moment. “I think we should turn it upside down to get the other pieces on the bottom.” Torus rolled his eyes. “That way we won’t have to hold it up in the air, see?” and he poked Torus in the ribs with a piece of wire.

  “Stop it!” said Torus. “What is this thing? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Oh, you’ll see once I get the straps on later. Here, help me turn it over.”

  They struggled to get the thing onto its top and finally succeeded with only one or two of the taped joints coming undone.

  “Don’t worry about those,” said his father. “We can get those later. Here hold this while I tape this other thing on.”

  Torus stood bored again holding pieces of cardboard and wire while his father puttered with the tape. The contraption was taking shape, but Torus still couldn’t tell what shape it was supposed to be. It looked lopsided and like it would fall apart if someone looked at it the wrong way.

  “Okay,” said his father finally, “let’s flip it back over. They did, and he quickly repaired the broken joints, as well as one other that had separated as they turned it upright.

  “There!” his father exclaimed proudly. “I admit I’m not much of a builder, but put some straps on the front of that and it’s the best little food sledge anywhere.”

  “A food what?”

  “A sledge. A food sledge. You fill it up with food and then you can drag it home without having to carry it all on your back in a bundle.”

  Torus thought he knew why his father was suddenly interested in bringing lots of food home, but he didn’t want to let him know he knew, so he paused a moment and then said casually, “I thought food was scarce. Is there enough food to fill up a sledge this big?”

  His father was equally casual.

  “Oh, well, the food supply goes up and down all the time. I just want to be ready the next time there’s a lot to be had. With just me foraging there’s no way for me to take advantage of a really good night.”

  “Huh. I guess that’s good, then…” Torus said. “Of course, I’m coming of age soon, and then I can forage too, right? That ought to help, I guess…” He trailed off, suddenly self-conscious at his boldness.

  His father looked at him amusedly.

  “We’ll see. It depends on a lot of things.” He looked back at his creation and stepped over to press a loose piece of tape back down. “It’s not exactly beautiful, is it? Well, like I said, I’m not much of a builder, but this way if some human finds it then it won’t think it’s anything but a wad of trash that got stuck together.”

  “Do humans ever find our stuff?”

  “Oh, sure, sometimes, but the way humans are, they never find anything they’re not looking for.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means they don’t think we can build anything or do anything meaningful, so when they find something we made they only see garbage and get rid of it. They think they’re the only ones here, so they don’t notice anything else. Rats and dogs and cats and bugs and birds – we’re all the same to them.”

  Torus thought about that for a minute. He had hardly ever seen a human, other than Sandwich Man. Normally he just caught a fleeting glimpse of a foot or heard one of them howling before he bolted for the nearest hole.

  “Well, I need to go find some straps,” said his father. “Wait here until I get back.”

  “What if the gathering starts? What if Chello or Nevi comes to get me.”

  His father stopped and considered.

  “If they come before I get back, wait until after the pups have eaten lunch, then you can go.” With that he turned and disappeared up the tunnel.

  Torus watched him until his tail was out of sight and then muttered to himself.

  “Fine. Great. ‘Feed the pups. Wait ‘til I get back. Don’t do anything exciting or normal and whatever you do don’t come of age and help out around here.’ Cheese!” In frustration he threw a piece of cardboard at the strange shoe-sledge his father had built. It wasn’t a very big piece of cardboard, but it was enough to knock one of the sides loose and undo one of the taped joints that held it up. With a side panel hanging loose the whole thing looked dangerously close to collapsing.

  “Oh, scat!” he said in a tense whisper. He watched frozen for a moment but nothing else happened, so he breathed a sigh and went over to inspect the damage. As he looked at it, it seemed to him that the thing was not so much damaged as poorly built to begin with. He started putting the side panel back in place, but he noticed if he flexed it a certain way it stayed in place better. And it was just a little too long for its space, so he nibbled it judiciously to get a better fit. Once he was done with that, he noticed a loose joint at the back near the bottom that he also adjusted. He moved from there to re-setting the sliders on the bottom and then to some careful adjustments to some of the wires that supported the structure. It took a few tries to learn to bite off the right size of tape without getting it gummed up in his teeth, but after he managed that he moved gradually around the sledge tightening up and adjusting almost every connection. He was so engrossed with his project he didn’t notice for quite a while that Moki and the girls had come out of the back room and were standing around watching him and whining about their empty tummies.

  Moki finally shouted at the top of his lungs, “Hey TORUS!”

  Torus looked around at him, startled.

  “What is it?”

  “What did you do to Dad’s thing? We’re hungry!”

  “I didn’t do anything to it, why? What time is it?”

  “It’s lunchtime, can’t you tell?”

  “Uh, yeah, I guess so…” Torus had no idea what time it was, but his stomach suddenly felt like it could use something to eat as well. He pulled a piece of tape from his paw and stepped back to look at the sledge. It was the same sledge, of course, but it seemed to look a lot more purposeful and less haphazard than before.

  “Seriously,” said Moki. “What did you do to it?”

  “I don’t know, nothing, really. I just put a little more tape on a few spots…”

  “It looks good,” said Nosha, and Shona nodded in agreement.

  “It looks like it might even work,” said Moki.

  Torus laughed.

  “Maybe, but remember, it’s still basically Dad’s work. Let’s see what there is to eat okay?” he said, and they raced to the food nook to fight over lunch.

  They had almost finished eating when a voice came down the short tunnel. “Torus? Are you there?”

  “Yeah, we’re here, Nevi, come on down.”

  Shona and Nosha rushed over to her
and started chattering at her.

  “Come and do something with us!”

  “Come in and see our toys!”

  “Will you stay and play with us?”

  She laughed and said, “Maybe later. I came to get Torus to go to a gathering. Besides, you should finish eating before you start playing.”

  “Come in and join us,” said Torus.

  “No, thanks, I’m not hungry.”

  “But we’ve got orange peels! Look, here’s a whole half an orange with most of the pulp still on it.”

  “No, I…”

  “Oh, come on, you love oranges,” he said, waving the fruit at her. “Eat the orange. Eeeaaat the oooorannnge,” he said hypnotically.

  She rolled her eyes.

  “It’s your last piece. I’m not going to take the last piece of orange when you have all these little ones to keep happy.”

  “Pff. They’re stuffed. They’ve lost interest. Come on and share this orange. There’s going to be plenty of food from now on, you know. It’s new golden age.”

  “Be careful,” she said, suddenly nervous. “Don’t be so glib until things are clearer. What if your dad hears you?”

  “He won’t hear me, he went out for straps,” said Torus.

  “Won’t hear what?” said his father coming into the room with an armload of string.

  “Straps?” said Nevi. “What does he need straps for?”

  “For this,” said Torus hastily, gesturing at the sledge.

  “Wow,” said Nevi. “That’s impressive. What is it?”

  “It’s a food sledge,” said Torus. “We built it.”

  “Won’t hear what?” said his father, looking from one to the other.

  “I put some extra tape on some of the joints,” he told his father. “I think it’ll be stronger now.”

  “Really? Huh,” said his father looking at the sledge. “Yes, it looks pretty sturdy now.” He gave Torus a long, penetrating glance. “Did you use up all the tape?”

  “What? No, there’s plenty left. Here,” said Torus picking up the roll and handing it to him.

  “So, this is for pulling loads of food?” asked Nevi.

  “Yes,” said Nolki, still looking at Torus. Then he turned and put the string and the roll of tape down inside the sledge. “Yes, it’s for pulling enormous loads of delicious food from the park here to our little home. I’m starving. Did you save me any orange peel?”

  Torus and Nevi shared a quick glance.

  “Absolutely,” said Torus, retrieving the orange. “We saved you the best one!”

  “Well!” said his father. “That’s a pleasant surprise. Let me eat quickly and then we can get to work on the straps.”

  “Actually, I came to get Torus for the gathering,” said Nevi. “Is it okay if he goes?”

  “Oh, is it that late already? Um, yes, sure, he can go. That’s fine. Go ahead and I’ll work on the straps.” He looked down at the orange and scratched his head. “Yes, that’s fine…go to your gathering and…we can talk when you get back.” He looked back up at Torus and seemed slightly cofused. “Okay?”

  “Yeah, that’s great, thanks,” said Torus. “We’ll come right back after and help finish up.” Then he and Nevi turned and walked out into the main tunnel.

  Once they were out of earshot of Torus’s house Nevi spoke.

  “Why are parents so weird? It’s like your dad doesn’t want you to go to this, but my mom couldn’t wait to get me out of the house. She kept saying ‘You don’t want to be late,’ and ‘Why don’t you go over and make sure you get a good spot.’ She even sent me over to Chello’s to make sure he knew about it even though she reminded him about it herself when she saw him yesterday.”

  “I don’t know,” Torus replied. “My dad’s okay, I guess, but every time I mention coming of age he gets all weird and anxious and can’t wait to change the subject.”

  “Yeah, it’s crazy. And who even knows about Chello’s parents. They’re so busy fighting I don’t think they pay him any attention at all.”

  “Did you see him this morning?”

  “Yeah, for a minute, until his brother came out and started acting like an idiot.”

  “Did you talk to him about…the thing last night?”

  “What? Oh, no, it…it didn’t come up. We can talk about it more after the gathering. Hopefully he’s calmed down by now.”

  “Where’s he meeting us?”

  “I don’t know, we didn’t talk about it. I guess we’ll just meet him along the way or meet him there or something.”

  “Well what did you talk about then, if you didn’t talk about the gathering and you didn’t talk about the pigeons?”

  “Nothing! We didn’t talk about anything! I just said ‘Hey’ and he said ‘Hey’ and then that jerk brother of his came out and I left. Cheese, Torus, you’re like my grandma.”

  Torus had no response for this, and they walked the rest of the way in silence. As they got closer to the gathering place, more rats joined their path one or two or three at a time. Torus saw many rats he knew, and many more he did not know, all about his age. But there was no sign of Chello.

  The crowd was unusually quiet. Instead of a steady murmur of greetings and gossip, there was only the low rustle of claws and tails on the hard floor, and the faint hiss of a few whispered conversations.

  Once inside the gathering place, Torus saw Chello already far inside. He nudged Nevi and gestured with a nod toward their friend. Chello was standing near the raised platform in the middle of the room, apart from the other young rats, talking with Patrol Commander Dumash, or rather, listening and nodding while Dumash spoke. Even as quiet as it was, they couldn’t make out a single word he said.

  Nevi whispered to Torus, “Dumash wants him in the Patrol. He’s probably bugging him about that again.”

  “That’s okay, though, isn’t it? He’d be pretty good in the Patrol, I guess.”

  “Shh!” she hissed, and nodded back toward the center of the room. Chello had seen them and was coming over to join them and Advisor Nogolo was climbing onto the platform, talking with Dumash and one of the Scout officers.

  Chello shuffled up with a curious mixed expression on his face and whispered to his friends.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  “Shh.”

  “What’s up?”

  “I’ve got to – ”

  “Shh!”

  “Where’s Dinnick?”

  “I dunno…”

  “SHH!”

  Advisor Nogolo was facing the crowd and the quiet rustling grew still and the whispers became silence.

  Nogolo paused for a moment and smiled warmly.

  “My young friends,” he said, “I have the opportunity to participate in and preside over many gatherings. Some are dark and some are light, and they are all rewarding in their own ways. But these Young Gatherings are my favorites, and this particular gathering is my favorite among favorites. That’s why I’ve asked Dinnick to let me take his place today. Do you know why?” He paused again, still smiling at the stony silence that met him.

  “Well, I’m sure some of you at least have some idea, even if it is not entirely clear in your minds. Friends, this is your last Young Gathering. At the next moon you will all come of age. You will cease to be pups and children and begin to take your full places in the Clan. This gathering is to prepare you for that change.”

  He stopped, still smiling, and a low murmur grew out of the silence. He clearly expected his audience to be excited, and perhaps a little nervous. He had not yet sensed the tension that Torus and his friends had felt ever since entering the room, indeed ever since the events of two nights ago. Suddenly a voice called out from near the back of the room. It was a rat Torus didn’t know, a big, dark-furred rat with a steady gaze and a splash of white on his chest.

  “We heard about something else,” he said, bluntly. “Something a
bout the birds. Are you going to tell us about that?”

  The tension broke in the room and a clamor of voices rose up. Clearly word about the agreement with the pigeons had gotten around and everyone’s thoughts were preoccupied with that. Torus was stunned. He couldn’t imagine having the courage to speak out in that way. He looked back at the Advisor and the smile was gone. In its place was a look of shock. He stood for a moment with his mouth slightly open but without a word to say. Then, he regained his composure and raised his arms, motioning the crowd to quiet. The muttering died away slowly, but he waited patiently. He gazed slowly around the room, catching the eye of one rat after another until the room settled down to silence. Then, at last, he spoke.

  “Yes,” he said. “Yes, there is another change. Most remarkable, most amazing you have learned of it. You are without doubt a most exceptional group of young rats. I am pleased, and humbled, to be with you at this time. Yes, a great change is coming, is indeed already upon us. And since you now know of it, you will have a part in it, whether you will or no. In some ways your fate was handed to you, but in other ways, you have shaped your own fates with this knowledge. I will help you, I will do what I can to help you be ready for this. But you must take the greatest part of that burden yourselves. And I think you are ready. A few moments ago, I doubted you were ready. Before I stepped up here, even when I began speaking, I doubted you were ready. But you have surprised me. You brought this to me and demanded to know, and so I think you are now ready. I look in your eyes and I know you are. I am pleased, and hopeful. And a little frightened. We should begin.”

  * * *