Lost on Mars

by Paul Magrs

  The others were quiet, taking small, frightened steps towards this churchy room. Mr Adams led the way. He felt slightly braver because he had been there before, and he knew what to expect.

  It sure was impressive. I looked up to see the thousands of lizard birds roosting in the rafters. They looked like stalactites made out of leathery reptile hide, and the folded wings moved, very gently, in time with the creatures’ breathing.

  And there was the nest, just as Vernon Adams had described it, with the biggest lizard bird you ever saw. She sat there so proudly, golden and bright. Her eyes blazed the same scarlet as the globe that spun on an invisible axis beside her. I heard a few gasps from my fellow humans as they stared at that globe. It was like a livid ball of flame, lighting up the whole room.

  I just knew that morning that everything was about to change for us. We were standing there together for perhaps the last time. The refugees from Our Town. We had come so far to be there. We had been blown along on the desert winds and survived one thing after the next. We still didn’t know what was going to become of us, but none of us had imagined anything like this. And I had a feeling we were going to be split up.

  Al stayed at the far side of our group. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him creeping closer to the globe, his phone in his hand.

  ‘Here you all are, then,’ the lizard bird said. ‘What a motley bunch you make.’ She tossed her head dismissively. Then her eyes fixed on Toaster. ‘What do you think you are?’

  ‘I am a Servo-Furnishing,’ Toaster said stiffly. ‘I was built to serve human beings and help them during the settlement of Mars.’

  ‘Not real, then?’ flashed the lizard bird.

  Toaster looked annoyed. ‘Not quite.’

  ‘I see,’ sighed the lizard. ‘I suppose you’ll make an interesting toy for the people of the City Inside. They might not have seen your like before.’

  I stepped forward, determined to be polite and calm. ‘What is the City Inside? Who are these people you’re talking about?’

  The lizard ruffled up her golden feathers and stared down her long beak at me. ‘You are Lora. You are the one who led everyone here?’ She nodded at Vernon Adams. ‘The oldest male specimen explained how you were the leader and not he. Well done, my dear.’

  I wasn’t about to give in to flattery from a lizard bird.

  In the pause I heard an electric clicking noise, coming from by the globe. I realised it was Al taking pictures, far too loudly.

  ‘What do you want from us?’ I demanded, my voice going a bit shaky in all the echoes.

  The lizard bird stood up and stretched lazily. She flung out her massive wings and then shot off into the air above our heads. She flew three times around us, spinning through the heights of the room. Her voice floated down imperiously:

  ‘I am giving some of you in tribute to our enemies in the City Inside. I explained that much to your eldest male yesterday. The people of the City Inside need to be appeased and so, every now and then, we send them tribute. Things to study and look at. Things that might interest them. Now, you must decide which of you will go. Which three specimens should I send?’

  The lizard bird seemed to laugh and it wasn’t a nice sound, worse still when the ones hanging upside down joined in.

  She alighted delicately on top of the blazing globe. I saw her direct a piercing stare at Al. She caught him in the act of snapping another picture.

  ‘What about you? Will you volunteer to be brave?’ she asked.

  The rest of us were looking at each other. Ma hugged Hannah to her skirts. The Adamses were clutching each other, with Annabel pressed between them. Madame Lucille and Aunt Ruby stood separate and alone, with no one to cling to.

  ‘I’ll volunteer,’ said Madame Lucille bravely, stepping forth. ‘Why don’t these enemies of yours take a good look at me? I’ll give them something to learn from!’ Her face gleamed with that mixture of defiance and brazenness that I’d come to admire in the bearded seamstress.

  ‘Not you,’ said the lizard queen. ‘Someone younger, I think. They would think a younger human a better prize.’

  Ma shrieked. ‘Not my children. I will not allow you to take my children. Not one of them…’

  ‘But you have three,’ said the lizard. ‘Surely three is greedy. Can’t you do without at least one?’

  Ma pushed Hannah behind her. ‘No! Leave us alone … please!’

  The lizard queen sighed. ‘I hate it when they get hysterical.’

  ‘Can you blame us?’ shouted Mr Adams. ‘You’re demanding … sacrifice! You’re trying to break us up. We’ve stayed together and worked together and come through so much… We don’t want to be split up…’

  ‘Enough!’ squawked the lizard, flapping her wings. ‘I won’t have excuses and whining. I need to choose three of you to send to the City Inside. No more quibbling. You!’ She directed her gaze at Toaster. ‘You are my first choice.’

  ‘Very well.’ Toaster stepped heavily forward. I tried to stop him. ‘No, Lora. It’s best if I go.’

  ‘And one of the youngsters,’ said the queen.

  Ma cried out, as if pieces were being cut out of her. The jelly creatures advanced from the shadows in the corners of the room. They surrounded us, glistening with menace. We had no choice but to obey.

  ‘Which is it to be?’ shouted the lizard bird.

  Ma looked wildly from Al to me and back to Al again. ‘Take her! Take Lora! She’s the oldest … she can look after herself…!’

  I gasped, but I knew she was doing the only thing she could. Ma looked at me, her eyes filled with pleading.

  ‘Good,’ said the lizard queen. ‘And one more. The youngest child. Hand it over.’

  ‘Noooo!’ Ma screamed.

  ‘No way,’ I heard Al shouting. ‘You can take me instead. Leave Hannah with our mother!’

  By then the lizard creatures were descending from the ceiling and the air was blurry with wings. There was a terrible noise as they flew about us. Our little party huddled together in the centre of the room, trying to block the creatures out. But we didn’t stand a chance.

  I felt someone seizing me by both arms and I thought it was Toaster. Then I looked into a hideous lizard’s face and it grinned at me. I heard Ma screaming and Al calling out for her. I heard all the other humans shouting after us.

  It all became too noisy and hot very quickly and I guess I passed out for a few moments. There’s only so much a body can take.

  When I next came to my senses my body was moving of its own accord. I was running down a dark corridor of rock, and I was part of a small crowd. Our bodies were jostling along together in the confusion and noise. It was hard to tell who I was with and where we were going because the walls had lost their luminous glow.

  I don’t know how far we had run before I realised I was with Al and Toaster.

  ‘W – where are the others?’ I asked, when I could think straight again.

  ‘They were taken off somewhere,’ Al said. ‘And we were pushed this way.’

  ‘By the lizard birds?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ said Toaster. His voice was marvellously calm and reassuring. ‘By her.’

  I was about to ask who he meant when he pointed his palm at the creature leading us down the dark tunnel. A beam of yellow light shot out of his hand and suddenly we could see the long, patterned cloak our rescuer was wearing. She stopped and turned to face us.

  It was Sook!

  At first I could hardly believe it. ‘How did you get here?!’

  ‘Aren’t you pleased to see me?’ she smiled. It was the first time I had heard her speak aloud, and not just inside my head.

  I was pleased, but I was amazed. I just stared at her.

  Al was scowling. ‘This is your friend?’

  Sook gave a small bow. ‘We should hurry. This tunnel leads to the outside…’

  ‘But the others,’ said Al. ‘What are we supposed to do about them?’

  ‘You must take us back, Sook.’ I n
odded.

  ‘They will be fine,’ Sook said. ‘The birds have made their offering to the City Inside. They will not harm your friends and your family members. They will set them free again, and your people can continue their journey.’

  Toaster looked alarmed. ‘They will not survive in the wilderness alone. I will return at once.’

  Sook reached out for his hydraulic arm. ‘You can’t, Toaster. You have been promised. You and Lora and Al. You must come with me. You must trust that your people will be able to look after themselves.’

  I was staring at Toaster, then at Al and then at Sook. ‘We are the tribute to these City people? You’re saying that if we don’t go, then no one will survive to go free?’

  ‘That’s right,’ Sook nodded.

  ‘How are you tied up in this, Sook?’ I asked.

  My friend wouldn’t answer. She led us wordlessly as the tunnel started to rise and the walls became lighter, pulsing with that strange veiny luminescence again.

  I struggled to walk alongside Sook.

  ‘It has to be this way, Lora,’ she told me. ‘You’ll see in the end that this is the best way.’

  ‘But we were doing all right,’ I said. ‘I was leading them through the wilderness…’

  ‘You did an incredible job,’ she told me. She turned her face to me. I saw how smooth and fresh her skin looked now, as opposed to when I first met her. ‘You should be proud. But your wanderings in the wilderness are over, for now.’

  There was so much I wanted to know. I was sure she had the answers.

  ‘It’s just time, that’s all,’ she said. It was all she would tell me. ‘It is time that you went to the City Inside.’

  All of a sudden Al was walking level with us. His voice was hard and accusatory. ‘You’re Disappearing us, aren’t you?’

  ‘What?’ I gasped.

  ‘Your brother is naturally bewildered and upset,’ Sook said.

  ‘It’s true, isn’t it?’ he snapped. ‘This is how you Disappear people. You turn up all quiet-like and take them away like this…’

  Sook didn’t deny it. She went tight-lipped and increased her pace. We hurried alongside her, with Toaster bringing up the rear. The hiss and clank of his joints was grating on my nerves.

  ‘You’re not going to eat us?’ I asked. ‘Are you, Sook?’

  ‘No!’ she cried, appalled that I could even think such a thing. ‘You trust me, don’t you, Lora? Look, we want to help you. That’s all we want. No, we won’t eat you. See – here we’ve got Toaster with you. We couldn’t very well eat him, could we? With all his metal and glass parts. Don’t you fear. This isn’t about eating anyone. We simply want to help you.’

  Daylight was filtering into the gloom. We were striding purposefully towards it.

  ‘Really Lora, your mother and Hannah and the others will be fine. The lizard birds know they cannot harm human beings. They will be set free. You must trust me.’

  ‘She can trust you if she likes,’ sneered Al. ‘But I don’t.’

  ‘I didn’t think you would,’ said Sook, and I knew she was smiling.

  ‘You and Lora are old, old friends, aren’t you?’ he said, with that mocking note in his voice again.

  Sook didn’t rise to his bait. She said, ‘These friendships are so important. Friendships between humans and Martians. It’s all about learning to trust. And you, too, must learn to trust us, Al.’

  ‘Never,’ he said. ‘You killed our Da. Our Grandma. You are responsible for…’

  ‘Hush now,’ said Sook, reaching out to touch his arm. He flinched away. ‘This is the only way forward. Mutual trust, forgiveness and friendship. Now, look. The tunnel continues for only a hundred more yards. Then it is open to the sky. Breathe that air.’

  The air was different. It was cooler, less stagnant.

  ‘Now,’ Sook commanded. ‘You must take my hands. Toaster, hold Lora’s other hand. We must all be linked.’

  ‘But…’ said Al. ‘Where are you taking us?’

  ‘The others!’ said Toaster.

  ‘You will see them again. They will be safe.’ Sook started running and we had no choice but to be drawn along with her. ‘You must come with me,’ she cried.

  We ran to the end of the tunnel and then…

  Then we flew like I remembered we used to when it was just Sook and me. But this was the first time I’d flown by daylight.

  Time passed and I realised after a while that we weren’t flying through the Martian skies anymore. I opened my eyes a crack and I felt cool air on my face. Soft, refreshing air. And I was lying on damp soil. I was outside. No longer suffocating underground. Relief flooded through me.

  I sat up and saw that I was in a field. At first I thought of the cornrows on the prairie that I’d worked in with Da. But of course this wasn’t like those. This was a field of flowers. Orange-red flowers, swaying in the breeze. Endless flowers. Their petals like little rags at the top of tall, supple stalks.

  Beside me lay Al. He woke with a yell. He sat up and looked straight at me. Neither of us said anything.

  Sook was nowhere to be seen. She’d dropped us here in the field of scarlet flowers and she had taken off again. We had slept here, I don’t know how long for.

  Toaster sat up in the field of flowers and stared at both of us. His robot face seemed to shiver and flinch at the sight of us. He was relieved that we were all right. Then he put on his usual, implacable expression. When we asked him where he thought we were, he didn’t have any answers.

  When we stood up and gazed around, we saw that the field of flowers came to an end right on the horizon. And there was a City there. A City of immense towers, all of green glass. They gleamed in the sun.

  ‘Is it the City Inside?’ I asked Toaster.

  ‘I suppose it must be,’ he said.

  Al came to stand closer to me. ‘We flew. I can’t believe that we flew…’ He looked around at the horizon. ‘How far has she brought us, though?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I told him.

  In the daylight we looked so filthy. Our clothes were just rags.

  Then there came a loud, frightening vibration through the ground.

  Al saw them first, approaching at great speed from far away. He gasped in amazement and pointed frantically.

  I could hardly believe what we were seeing.

  There were about a dozen men on horseback thundering toward us. They were riding out of the City Inside and it was obvious they were coming for us.

  28

  The people of the City Inside fell in love with Toaster. They revered him. To them he was an astonishing survivor. He was a bona fide piece of the past. I think the people of the City were more glad to see him than they were to see Al and me. We were just two dishevelled, half-starved, bewildered-looking kids.

  Toaster was fixed up by the City people. They dug out old manuals and they gave him a wonderful repair job. He received a complete makeover. They fitted him with reinforced glass plates and new bulbs. It turned out that no one actually made parts like his any more, so reinventing the sunbed was a unique challenge for the scientists of the City Inside. (Or, our hosts, our rescuers, our captors. Whatever we wanted to call them.) They were thrilled to recreate Toaster.

  He came to my door and knocked and waited. Standing proudly to attention, gleaming as he waited for me to answer. Of course I could hardly believe it. Over the years Toaster had taken such a battering. Now he looked like he did on those really old photos of Grandma’s that we’d left behind at the Homestead. He looked like he must have back in the days of the first settlements.

  Toaster was the brightest thing in the apartment. He looked at the rooms that Al and I were living in and he tried to seem enthusiastic. The truth was, they were a bit bare and shabby. I guess, in the few months since our arrival, I’d not been concentrating on making the place pretty and homelike. I’d been working.

  ‘What have you been writing?’ Toaster asked, glancing at the heaps of papers and stuff on the long tabl
e in the dining room. There were pencil shavings and torn scraps of paper everywhere.

  ‘About us,’ I shrugged. ‘About everything that we did, and where we came from.’

  When we first came to the City Inside I spent time thinking about the books I’d brought with me. There we were, fleeing across the plains of Mars with our friends and family and a few belongings. We carried scraps of food and plaggy bottles of water. And I had an electric book that contained a whole load of the world’s literature.

  By ‘world’ I meant Earth, of course. I didn’t know if anyone on Mars had written anything I’d like to read. Our Town was so small and isolated. I guess there might have been someone scribbling something down, somewhere on Mars. I guess Martian books were being written and I just didn’t know about them. Someone, somewhere, would always find the time to write it down. Their stories, their feelings. The secrets that they were hoarding.

  Our little town was so ignorant and lost upon the face of Mars. Maybe every town had its own disaster and all the people had fled. Maybe all their written books got left behind, just as we left behind Grandma’s photos and Aunt Ruby’s tapes.

  Now that we’d stopped running, and there was nowhere else to go, I’d decided to start writing. We were safe among human beings we didn’t know and we weren’t sure what they expected of us. All I could think to do was to start writing my book. So here I was. Writing down how it was, and what we had to do, and how we ended up.

  I tried explaining this to Toaster and he nodded. ‘I can help,’ he said, and sat thinking hard. ‘Though my memory cells are shaken up.’

  I smiled at him. I already knew this. He had told me when they rode us into the City Inside. He said he had new portions of his mind missing, after all the hectic times we had been through.

  We still didn’t fully understand what had happened. All we knew was that we had been placed within this City and that we had lost our Ma and Hannah and the others and there was no going back. We prayed that handing us over as a tribute had been enough; that they had survived and that the lizard birds had set them free. We knew we were on our own in the City Inside. And several uncertain months went by.