The Dark Ground

by Gillian Cross

  But there was no smug smile. When Robert found him, Zak was standing at the edge of the long grass, in a patch of clear moonlight, and his face was grave and slightly sad.

  "Well? "he said gently.

  All Robert’s anger drained away. "It’s frightening out there," he said.

  Zak nodded approvingly. "That’s the first lesson to learn. Fear’s not an enemy. It’s essential for survival. We’re nice little rnouthfuls of protein and fat, and wherever we go there’ll be hungry eyes watching out for creatures like us."

  Robert made a face. "I’d rather be at the top of the food chain."

  Zak grinned ruefully. "You think you’ll get back there by trekking across the park?"

  "I have to find my family. I need to know what’s happened to them. And they might—"

  "Be able to help?" Zak said mockingly. "Is that what you’re thinking?"

  "No!" Robert said. Too fast to be convincing.

  Zak laughed softly in the darkness. "Give it up. There’s nothing they can do. Small is an alien planet, and that’s where you live now. Why don’t you change your mind and stay?"

  Suddenly it seemed shockingly easy to say yes. Easy and safe. It took all the determination Robert had to meet Zak’s eyes and give the difficult answer. But he made himself do it.

  "I’m going back. I’ve decided."

  Zak gave him a long, steady look and then shrugged and set off back to the cavern. There was no smile. No sign of agreement.

  But Robert had a sudden, odd sense of having gotten it right.

  III

  16

  THE NEXT MORNING, WHILE EVERYONE WAS STILL IN THEcavern, Robert stood up and announced what he meant to do. He wanted them all to understand that he hadn’t changed his mind.

  "I’m going to find my family." He pitched his voice loudly enough to carry to the farthest corners and looked straight down the cavern toward Nate. "Anyone who wants to come along is welcome, but I’m not waiting around for company. I’m going to start collecting food today. As soon as I’ve gotten enough, I’ll begin the journey."

  There was an immediate rush of whispering. Some people turned away, and others looked uneasily at Robert.

  Lorn was appalled. Robert saw her face change as he spoke, and when he finished she came straight across the cavern to argue with him.

  "You’re crazy. You’ll die. Remember what it was like before—when you were by yourself? You’d have died then, if I hadn’t helped you."

  "So help me again," Robert said. "Come with me."

  Lorn shuddered and went away.

  But she didn’t give up. When he went out to begin his hunt for food, she scrambled down the tunnel after him. As he set off through the trees, she followed him, pulling at his arm and trying to drag him back.

  "You haven’t got a clue what you’re doing! There are beaks out there . . . and boots . . . and soccer balls. Everywhere you go there’ll be something dangerous. And you’ll be too small to defend yourself. Don’t you understand? We’re weak."

  She bent down and grabbed at the biggest stone she could hold, straining to heave it out of the ground. When it was free, she pushed it down the slope, putting all her energy into the effort.

  The stone slithered slowly for a few feet and then stopped, lodging against the first plant it met.

  "You see?" Lorn said bitterly. "I can’t even throw it hard enough to bend a piece of grass."

  Robert stood and waited. The stone was balanced precariously. After a few seconds, it slipped around the grass stalk and began to slide down the slope again, gathering momentum as it went. When it reached the foot of the slope, it skittered over the edge of the ravine and went on falling, tumbling through the plants to the very bottom. There was a faint splash as it hit the water in the bottom of the ravine.

  "I don’t need to bend the grass," Robert said. "All I need to do is set out. It may take a long time, but I’ll get there in the end."

  "No you won’t. You’ll get eaten." Lorn looked wretched. "Why won’t you listen? We know what it’s like, out there in the grassland."

  Robert had spent the whole night thinking about that. "I’m not going across the grassland. I’m going to stay in the trees, all along the edge of the park. It’ll take a bit longer, but it ought to be safe."

  "Safe?" Lorn was trembling now. "You think you can be safe somewhere else? The cavern is the only good place."

  "It’s just a hole in the ground," Robert said. "Wouldn’t you rather be home?"

  But Lorn was too upset to go on talking. When he tried to explain, she put her hands over her ears and went off, leaving him on his own.

  PERDEW WAITED UNTIL LATER ON TO HAVE HIS SAY.

  His chance came in the afternoon, when Robert and Bando were stoking the brazier. Bando was restless and unhappy, turning his head away and sulking whenever Robert spoke to him. Suddenly Perdew appeared beside the woodpile.

  "I’ll do that," he said.

  Bando muttered gruffly and lumbered away, and Perdew stepped into his place. He didn’t speak immediately. He went up and down the ramp half a dozen times, moving the wood with brisk efficiency.

  When there was plenty of fuel on the fire, he took a step back from the woodpile and stared up at Robert. "I don’t get it," he said. "What’s the point of this journey of yours? You think something’s going to happen? Just because you trek across the park?"

  "I want to see my family." Robert pushed at a log that was sticking over the side of the brazier. "Why does everyone think that’s weird?" He looked down sharply. "Don’t you want to go back and see yours?"

  Perdew’s expression went blank, shutting him out. "That’s another life. Things are like this now, and that’s how they’re going to stay. You’d better get used to it."

  The fire flared briefly, sending their shadows shooting up the opposite wall. "You think this is a life?" Robert said. Perdew turned his head away. "It beats starving to death."

  "Oh, come on!" Robert said impatiently. "Think what your life was like before you were small. The food. The houses. And television and music and all the machines to make things easy. And just not having to work all the time. Don’t you remember?"

  Perdew glared, his face twisting as though Robert had said something obscene. "You want to learn the hard way, don’t you?" he muttered.

  He walked off abruptly, nodding at Bando to tell him to take over the woodpile again. Watching him go, Robert saw Nate in the shadows, gazing at him. What about you? he thought. Are you different from the others? Or will you try to persuade me to stay here, too?

  When Cam finally signaled that he could come down, Nate was waiting at the bottom of the ramp.

  "I’ve got to cut up some fruit," he said. "For drying into strips. You can give me a hand if you like."

  Robert was longing to crawl into his corner and lie down, but he followed Nate across to the fruit supply. All week Tina and Annet had been bringing in big, crimson fruits like the one Lorn had left outside his burrow when he was on his own. There were dozens of them stacked against the far wall of the cavern.

  Nate picked up a couple of blades from beside the stack. "These knives are pretty clumsy," he said. "But they’re OK for cutting the fruit off the stone."

  They were hardly knives. Just pieces of metal broken off a can and beaten thin. Robert picked one up and weighed it in his hands.

  "Show me what I have to do," he said.

  Nate chose one of the fruits and rolled it into a space. With a knife in his hand, he began to move around the fruit, scoring it from top to bottom, to mark it into neat sections. He was on the far side, half hidden, when he spoke suddenly, not looking at Robert.

  "I’ll come."

  "What?" For a moment, Robert was too startled to take it in.

  "I’ll come with you. To the other side of the grassland." Nate’s hand moved, cutting another section. "If you still want me to."

  "I—" Robert had to catch his breath before he could speak. The relief of it took him by surprise. "
You’re certain?"

  "We’ll go together," Nate said.

  He crouched down suddenly and scratched with his knife on the ground. Robert thought it was part of the job they were doing, and he walked around the fruit to get a better view. Nate scratched again. His hand was shaking slightly as he made the marks.

  S-T-E-V-E-N

  Still not understanding, Robert crouched down, beginning to read the word out loud. "St—"

  "No." Nate shook his head quickly. "Don’t say it." His voice was tense and unhappy.

  Robert realized what he was looking at. "Your real name," he said softly.

  Nate bent over, scrubbing the letters out with the palm of his hand. Then he looked up and grinned. "Better get this fruit finished. So we can start collecting supplies for the journey."

  THEY DIDN’T MAKE ANY KIND OF FUSS ABOUT IT. BUT THEY began to spend two or three hours outside every day, gathering extra food. Hardly anyone else realized that the two of them were working together.

  But Cam noticed.

  Robert was aware of her all the time, watching them from the shadows. She never spoke to him, or to Nate, except to give them work to do, but Robert felt her eyes on them, taking in everything they did.

  She knew just how much (how little) food they had managed to stockpile so far. She noticed the state of his leg as he limped around the cavern. She listened when he and Nate talked about their route. Every time she looked at him, Robert expected her to ask when they were leaving.

  But she never said a word.

  IT WAS THE RAIN THAT BROUGHT EVERYTHING TO A HEAD. IT came down out of a cold gray sky, driving hard and steady into the trees. Even from inside the cavern, they could hear it battering at the leaves outside. On and on and on, hour after hour.

  Usually, rain was welcome. While it was falling, they hid underground, to avoid being drenched and overwhelmed by the heavy raindrops. But the moment it was over, Cam sent everyone scurrying outside. Robert had seen it happen two or three times when he was too weak to join in. The water shells were scoured out and filled to the brim, and the cavern hummed with activity.

  But that day was different. There was a strong wind driving the rain straight at the mouth of the cave. Dess went out early and got caught in it, and he came back soaked and shaken. Rainwater trickled down the tunnel and made muddy pools on the floor of the cavern. Cam snapped at Annet because she stepped in one and slid into the blanket pile.

  The whole cave was steamy and close, full of impatient people with nothing to do.

  After a while, they started to look at Zak, but he pretended to ignore them. He squatted by the nut supply, bent over his drum, with his back to the others. He turned the drum in his hands, beating soft snatches of rhythm that broke off halfway through, unresolved.

  The stopping and starting increased the restlessness. Petty arguments began to simmer. Annet shouted at Bando for stirring up the fire. Lorn complained about the smell of Dess’s drying tunic. Perdew and Tina began a stupid argument about coiling ropes. There was no peace anywhere.

  All at once, Zak rippled his fingers hard across the drum skin, swiveling around as he sat, so that he was facing into the cavern. There was a sudden hush, and people began to sink down, settling into a circle. Waiting for the story to begin.

  But there was no story. Instead, in the silence, Zak held out the drum to Cam.

  "Now," he said.

  Cam took the drum and held it on her lap as she began to speak.

  "The frost is almost here. If there’s a journey to be made, it has to start immediately. Or not at all." She turned to look at Robert, and everyone in the cavern turned with her. "Are you ready to go?" she said.

  "Yes, I am." Robert said it defiantly. It was the only possible answer. "I’m leaving as soon as it stops raining."

  "We’re leaving," Nate said, from the other side of the circle.

  Almost everyone was taken by surprise. Robert saw the shock of it, going around the circle. Only Cam didn’t look startled.

  "You’re both going?" she said. One of her eyebrows went up mockingly. "That miserable heap of food you’ve scraped together is meant for two of you?" She slapped her hand against the drum skin, making a flat, ugly sound. "Don’t be stupid. You need a lot more than that. You need nut meal and fruit strips and roasted grain. And you need more than two people."

  "We do?" Robert let his eyes travel around the cave, fixing on one face after another. Lorn and Perdew and Dess. Tina. Annet. Bando. On and on around the circle, while people shifted awkwardly, looking away. At last his eyes came back to Cam. "So who else is coming then?" he said sarcastically.

  Cam didn’t hesitate. She met his gaze full on.

  "Z,ak’s coming."

  This time the shock was audible. Everyone gasped together, and even Robert felt it. Zak can’t go. What will we do if he’s not here? No one said the words out loud, but he could hear people muttering them. Nate glanced across at him, looking stunned.

  Cam sat calmly, waiting for the protests to die down. Then she said, "If you’re set on going, we might as well do it properly and learn what we can. You need a strong group to go with you." Her voice was firm and practical, not leaving any room for argument or discussion. "Nate will do fine, but you need Zak, too. To make sense of what you find out. And one more person. To coordinate the group."

  I can do that, Robert thought.

  But Cam didn’t give him a chance to speak. She looked briskly around at everyone else and then she said, "I’m coming, too."

  There was a terrible, shocked silence.

  17

  ROBERT EXPECTED THE SILENCE TO END IN AN ARGUMENT.

  He’d forgotten that nobody argued with Cam. They were used to doing what she said, and they did it now—looking sulky and scared but obeying her orders.

  She didn’t attempt to explain her reasons for going. She just started on the work.

  "Robert and Nate—go and choose our batpacks. We’ll need the biggest ones. With strong straps. And we’ll need to do something about water, too. Tina can look into that. And Ab."

  Annet was sent to the food supply, to take out enough to fill four batpacks. Bando went after her, to help carry the food, and Shang was dispatched to sort out the warmest furs. While everyone was scurrying around, Cam took Lorn and Perdew aside and talked to them for a long time.

  Before everyone went to sleep, the supplies had been gathered together and everything was arranged.

  It rained again in the night, but by dawn the sky was clear. Robert and Nate crawled out of the cavern together and stood watching the preparations. In the gray half-light, Annet laid out the four batpacks on a dry patch of ground in front of the tunnel entrance. The others stood around while she and Shang doled out enough food to fill the packs, making neat piles on the pieces of leather.

  There were strips of fruit and handfuls of nut meal. One or two squares of dried meat—tough and nourishing to chew. Some cracked, roasted grain. There was far more than Robert and Nate could ever have collected on their own, but when Robert looked down at the heaps he thought how pitifully small they seemed.

  Lorn and Bando came out of the tunnel, bringing three small shells, stoppered with twists of leather. Lorn had made rope nets for the shells so that they could be tied on top of the batpacks.

  "They’ll see you through for a day or so," she said. "If there’s a night without dewfall."

  Nate went to help her. The shells were already full, and they were heavy and awkward, but they didn’t hold a great deal of water. It was impossible to carry much. Cam was gambling on being able to collect dew as they went.

  The whole journey was a gamble. They would have to forage for extra food and find a new shelter each night. And, somehow, they would have to keep warm while they slept, even though they had no way to make a fire. The temperature was dropping all the time and, if the weather was bad, they might even be facing frost.

  Cam knelt down to make up her pack. She rolled the leather square neatly, tucking in the
ends so that nothing leaked out. Then she wrapped the whole thing in a blanket with the fur turned inside.

  "We need to get going," she said.

  Zak was already knotting the plaited strings around his bundle. He looked sideways at Robert. "Strip your mind," he muttered. "Forget what you think you know. Whatever you’re imagining, this will be different."

  Robert mumbled some kind of agreement and reached for one of his own pack strings. But he hadn’t made the roll well enough. As he tightened the string, one end fell open, spilling nut meal on the ground. Lorn shook her head at him and squatted down to demonstrate. As her small, deft hands made up the pack, she leaned sideways to whisper to him.

  "Why are you doing this? Why don’t you want to stay here in the cavern with the rest of us?"

  Zak turned around sharply. "Let him alone, Lorn. It’s decided. And he needs all the confidence you can give him." He frowned down at Robert’s pack. "Better if he ties that himself. He needs to know how."

  "I do know how," Robert said.

  He took over from Lorn, tying the first set of strings around the roll she had made. Nate held the bundle against his back while he slipped the second set of strings over his shoulders, bringing them back under his arms, and knotted all four ends together on his chest.

  When the whole thing was secure, Bando brought the shell of water, and Nate lashed it tightly on to the top of the bundle, settling it firmly into position and checking all the knots.

  "That’s fine," he said. "All you’ve got to do now is carry it." He made a face, adjusting the strings of his own pack.

  Cam and Zak were waiting to leave. Each of them was holding a long stick with a sharp piece of tin spliced into the top. Nate and Perdew had made them, grinding down the edges of the tin with hard, heavy stones and lashing the blades into place with plaited cords. The weapons looked awkward and top-heavy.

  "These won’t cut skin or bone," Perdew said, holding a spear out to Robert. "If you need to attack—go for the eyes."

  "And remember that birds notice movement," said Nate. "But mammals can smell you."