Indigo was shocked. He loved London, but was always worried by the threat of terrorism and had given up going on the Tube. He hadn’t ever thought of Jesus as an alien. ‘What did the space aliens do? Did they try and help you all again?’
‘Well, you should know,’ said Kayleb. ‘The government turned them all out into the wilderness, thought they were crackpots and now we don’t know if they have gone or still live here,’ said Kayleb. ‘Terrorism has been sorted out, nobody leaves the city and nobody from another city is allowed in. Anybody who appears to be a threat is thrown out here. The shield over London and the computer programmers stop any missile hitting the cities. We all live very controlled but stable lives now.’
‘Don’t you miss your freedom?’ inquired Indigo. ‘I love to go abroad and see different cultures. Don’t you like to see how others live?’
‘We can see films on the internet and, as for freedom, I think I’ve had enough freedom out here to last me a lifetime,’ replied Rowan.
Cornwall had stopped crying. She looked admiringly at Kayleb; he knew so much.
Rowan gritted his teeth and wondered why Cornwall had smiled when she looked at Kayleb. As for Indigo, he thought, he was clearly deranged. Getting home was taking longer than he expected.
A low-pitched rumble stopped Rowan’s train of thought. Willow was squealing and tugging on her rope ‘What is it?’ whispered Kayleb urgently, turning this way and that. He scanned the horizon, looking for danger. The noise sounded much louder, more like a roar.
‘It’s a plane,’ shouted Indigo excitedly, jumping up onto the ridge.
The plane appeared on the horizon and sped towards them.
‘I’ve seen one before,’ said Cornwall, ‘I thought it was a bird. It won’t stop. It will fly over us that fast you will barely be able to see it.’
‘At last, civilisation!’ shouted Indigo. ‘Quick, flag it down! The people flying it might be able to help us.’ He started waving his arms and hands furiously. The jet was flying low. Instinctively Indigo ducked as it passed over their heads, the wind sweeping through his hair. It was heading towards the battlefield.
The others looked at Indigo incredulously. Did he think that he could stop a plane flying that fast.
‘Well, I tried! It was worth a try,’ Indigo said, looking a little sad. ‘Oh God, I’ve got to get out of this terrible place. This is too awful.’ He was now tearful. ‘I ... can’t.’
Indigo didn’t finish the next sentence, his knees buckled and he crashed down to the floor and lay there, out cold.
Kayleb looked at Indigo. Was he going to get up? He was getting used to his emotional outbursts now but why would he pretend to faint? Kayleb looked at the crumpled body on the ridge. Cornwall had gone to help him. A thin yellow mist seemed to be covering them and now she too had keeled over and lay lifelessly beside Indigo. Something was very wrong.
Rowan had disappeared with Willow; he had been here a second ago. Kayleb felt so alone and wasn’t sure whether to run or to help Indigo and Cornwall. The yellow mist seemed to reach out its icy fingers and suddenly he felt unable to move. The smoke caught his lungs and the smell reminded him of the cave they had sheltered in. Everything was becoming blurred and an incredible tiredness swept over him. As his eyes closed the last thing he remembered seeing was a man approach him wearing a gasmask and a white suit. Through the fog he could see a gold band around the man’s forehead. It caught the sun and sparkled in Kayleb’s eyes. His ears rang and then all went black as Kayleb hit the ground.
9
Kayleb became aware of an intense feeling of heat on his forehead. It was quite a comforting feeling. His whole body felt relaxed and as light as a feather. Kayleb opened his eyes and there leaning over him with his hand on Kayleb’s head was the man he had seen before he passed out. The man was smiling and had pearly white teeth and pale-blue eyes. Even his eyes smiled. The man took his hand away from Kayleb’s head. Kayleb hadn’t been wrong. There across the man’s forehead was the band of gold glimmering gently in the daylight.
A wave of nausea swept over Kayleb. He coughed. The fumes from the gas had gone but he could still feel them in his chest. He wondered what had happened to him and couldn’t quite remember why he was lying on his back looking at the sky.
‘You will be all right now. You are quite safe. Your friends have woken up too,’ said the man gently, offering his hand to help Kayleb up.
Without hesitation, Kayleb took his hand and felt the warmth again that he had felt on his head, only not as intense this time. He struggled to his feet and looked around; Indigo and Cornwall were sitting on the ridge. Cornwall was holding Willow by the rope and Indigo was smiling from ear to ear.
‘It’s going to be OK. David is going to help us. 2010, here I come!’ shouted Indigo.
Kayleb wondered who this elderly man was. David was not very tall and was quite chubby with short grey hair. He had a round face with no wrinkles and it was hard to tell how old he was. Kayleb was relieved that it wasn’t a Long Man helping them; they had looked completely crazy and barbaric. He had the feeling that he had seen David somewhere before. He thought hard. Had he seen him in a news report? Was his face similar to a teacher that he once had or did David have the kind of face you saw everywhere you went? Kayleb was hesitant; he always had to look out for himself. He couldn’t work out whether he could trust David. He could be a waster. Most wasters were known to be treacherous and devious. Yet a moment ago he’d taken David’s hand to get up from the floor and had trusted him. Kayleb felt confused.
‘I’m not a waster, if that’s what you are thinking,’ David told Kayleb. ‘I promise I won’t harm you. We need to go into the shelter before the Long Men wake up. They don’t treat others kindly. You will be safe in our shelter ... for now anyway,’ said David as he started to walk up the ridge.
Kayleb sighed. How bad could things get? He started to follow and then realised that Rowan was nowhere to be seen. What had happened to him? Kayleb wondered whether the Long Men had got him. Kayleb mounted the crest of the ridge and looked across the plateau. The Long Men lay in crumpled heaps. As they approached the fort Kayleb noticed that some of the men were beginning to stir.
‘Hurry, they’re waking up,’ called David, pointing to the Long Men. ‘They will be fully awake in a minute. They’ll be angry. We must get inside now.’ Everyone ran towards the fort. Rowan was still nowhere to be seen.
Upon reaching the fort Kayleb couldn’t see the door. The patches on the walls of the fort were tightly interwoven, giving no hint of an opening. David stopped in front of the fort and shut his eyes. Kayleb looked anxiously at David. Was he all right? He looked pale and he looked as if he was concentrating on something. A circle of light appeared in front of them all and slowly the cloth within the circle faded away to reveal an opening. David stepped aside to allow everyone to go through. Cornwall looked around with a worried expression. She held Willow by the rope but was having trouble leading her.
Willow, sensing that something was up, wasn’t sure about entering the fort and started tugging on the rope, trying to return to the riverbank.
‘Where is Rowan? We need him to get Willow into the shelter,’ asked Cornwall. ‘He has a way with her. I hope he is all right. You don’t think he’s in trouble? Maybe we should look for him before the Long Men wake?’
‘Don’t worry! He’s quite safe. I found him running for his life along the river and brought him in earlier. He outran the memory-loss gas. He’s inside waiting for you. Look!’
Sheepishly, Rowan appeared in the doorway and signalled to Cornwall to give him Willow’s rope.
‘I’m fine, come in. There is nothing to worry about. It’s much better to be in here than out there.’ Rowan, looked embarrassed. David had let everyone know that he had run off like a frightened rabbit. He really didn’t want everyone to know that. He pulled on Willow’s rope and she trotted through the gap without a fuss.
Kayleb climbed through after Indigo, and Cornwall
then helped David through as he was quite large and had difficulty getting through the entrance he had made. The opening sealed behind them.
They entered a courtyard lined with fruit trees and wandered into a pretty garden with perfectly mowed lawns. White doves paraded around on the grass, their tails spread out like fans. The doves’ white bodies stood out against the emerald-coloured grass. The walls surrounding the courtyard were made of red brick and had different-coloured rose bushes climbing up them, across arches and columns set into the walls. This was a garden for pleasure, not like in London, where every scrap of land was used for food production. Kayleb looked around in amazement. They now all seemed so far away from the battlefield and the wilderness. This tranquil paradise was almost surreal. It was breathtaking, like the touch of cool satin on hot skin. David waited patiently as everyone looked around the gardens.
Kayleb watched Rowan stroking Willow and wondered why he had run and left everyone and then his attention turned back to David. Who was he and how did he know that the gas that had been dropped was memory-loss gas? He looked so peaceful standing by the fountain. Was this somebody he could trust? Kayleb looked at Rowan again. He felt cross with him. Do you run away when your friends need help? How could he trust anyone?
Willow was starting to be a nuisance and was eager to turn over the flower beds. The flowers looked extremely inviting to her and Willow was sure that there were hidden treasures beneath their roots. Rowan found himself, despite his desperate attempts to stop her, being dragged across the lawn.
‘Could somebody give me a hand please? This pig is about to wreck the place!’
‘You can leave her for a while with the others,’ said David.
‘Take her down that path.’ David pointed to a shingle path that ran along the side of the garden. ‘You’ll find a pen with other pigs in it. She’ll be quite safe there.’
Rowan and Cornwall made her way towards the path, dragging Willow behind them. Cornwall stopped and looked anxiously down the path. ‘Why do you keep pigs then? Do you eat them?’ she asked David. ‘I don’t want Willow to end up in your cooking pot!’
‘Don’t worry yourself,’ replied David. ‘They’re not suitable for human consumption. They have all been rescued from the wilderness, to save them from your cooking pots!’
‘I suppose so,’ she sighed, making her way up the path. Willow was different; she would have never let anyone harm her, especially now Rupert was dead. She had found the pigs caught in brambles and had rescued them. Rupert and Willow were her babies not just part of the food chain.
‘I won’t be long, wait for me.’ Cornwall disappeared from sight. Rowan and Cornwall had not been gone long and she looked much happier when she returned.
‘You have to come and see.’ Cornwall called to Kayleb and Indigo. ‘There is everything a pig could wish for – mud, a pond with an island in the middle and a shelter with straw to lie in. Willow deserves a bit of luxury and some new friends ... Poor Rupert!’ she added wistfully.
‘We’d better go in,’ said David. ‘It’s getting cooler now and you must all be very hungry.’
‘Starving’ was a more accurate description. Rowan had never felt this hungry in his life before. The mushrooms they’d eaten earlier seemed to be just a vague memory. He was an athlete; it wasn’t fair that he was being allowed to starve. What did London expect the taskers to live on while they completed their task? Rowan was disgusted with his treatment and intended to lodge a formal complaint when he returned home.
David led them out of the courtyard and they approached a glass dome sunk into the ground. The path sloped downwards and they eventually entered into the dome through clear glass sliding doors. They all filed into a great atrium, filled with palms, and exotic flowering plants, and on the ground there was a beautiful orange-and-yellow mosaic floor that glittered in the setting sun.
10
Kayleb was amazed to see so many people in the hall. They were all similarly dressed and wore white clothing. They did not seem at all alarmed by their arrival and it suddenly occurred to Kayleb that he looked extremely tatty and dirty compared to everyone around him. He felt embarrassed as he walked through the crowds. Kayleb had a thousand questions going through his head. He wondered where all these people had come from. They were certainly not wasters, yet these people were not from London either; they looked far too laid back to come from there. As he passed he listened into conversations and realised that they spoke several different languages. This was a strange place, yet he felt calm, maybe too calm.
David led them down a corridor to a room with a sign above the door, which stated that they were entering the visitors’ room.
Rowan was starting to cheer up. Perhaps this was the end of their task and his mentors would be in this room waiting to congratulate him. Rowan entered the visitors’ room eagerly. He was disappointed.
They were led into a large room furnished only with ornate cushions, lying in piles on the floor. Doors led off from this room into others which seemed to be sleeping quarters, as in front of each door was a pile of clean white clothes, bedding and a towel.
David turned to them all, smiled and began to speak.
‘This will be where you will be staying for now. There is a bedroom and shower in each of these rooms and here are clean clothes and towels,’ he said, pointing. ‘Please get cleaned up if you have to. I have to go back to the main hall and speak to everyone. When you have changed, please come back to the main hall and listen to what I have to say. It will help you to understand better who we are. After the speech, I will show you where you can eat and then you can choose if you want to stay or not. I hope you will be all right. I really have to go now,’ he said, looking more anxious now.
With that, David left the room, leaving the four looking at each other with puzzled expressions. Cornwall looked completely overwhelmed. Kayleb realised that she had never been inside a proper house before. There was a surprising lack of furniture in the dome, yet from the look on Cornwall’s face there was more than enough to see.
‘I’ll show you how the shower works,’ Kayleb said to Cornwall.
‘You’ll really like having a shower; it’s like standing in a hot waterfall,’ he continued, walking towards the nearest bedroom. Cornwall hesitated for a moment and then followed Kayleb.
Rowan did not look happy. He wanted to help Cornwall, but Kayleb had jumped in there; his classmate was really starting to get on his nerves now. He looked at Indigo who was looking a bit hesitant about the clothes he had collected from his pile.
‘Not my colour – white. Hopefully, there’s a dry-cleaner’s here, where I can get my clothes cleaned overnight. Well, I suppose they’ll do for now,’ he said, patting them and then headed off towards one of the rooms.
Rowan stood there stunned. Dry-cleaners were a thing of the past. Did Indigo really think everyone was going to fall for his charade? There was no way Indigo was a space alien or a time traveller. He wasn’t sure about Indigo at all; he was a misfit and would probably hold them back when they tried to get into London. Indigo was a hindrance to them all and would have to go.
Kayleb turned the shower on and a strong jet of water shot out from the showerhead. Cornwall screamed and started to back away. It had taken Kayleb some time before he got her to put her hand into the spray. Showing Cornwall how to use a shower was going to be harder than he thought. Slowly Cornwall relaxed and Kayleb felt it was time to go one step further.
‘Right, now you’re used to it,’ he said confidently, ‘you have to get undressed and let the shower wet you all over.’ He pushed the button on the soap dispenser so that it squirted into his hand. He held his hand out to show Cornwall. ‘Rub this all over you and in your hair until the dirt comes off and then shower off all the soap. Turn off the shower and then dry yourself with the towel. Do you understand?’ He tried not to sound patronising.
Cornwall nodded reluctantly and then started to untie her skirt.
‘No wait,’ said Kayle
b, going red. ‘Wait until I’m gone. I’ll be outside when you’ve finished. You’ll be fine.’
‘Please wait with me. I’m frightened. I don’t mind if you see me. Please stay,’ Cornwall said pleadingly.
Kayleb sighed. ‘OK, but I won’t look, it’s not right. I’ll stand with my back to you.’
‘Please yourself,’ said Cornwall, undressing.
Kayleb flipped around so he couldn’t see Cornwall; he felt hot and uncomfortable as he waited.
Cornwall giggled as the hot water tickled her body. Kayleb relaxed; she seemed to be enjoying this experience.
Anxiety swept over him again. In London, women were not permitted to appear naked in front of men; apparently they were disgusting to look at. Mentors were only companions. They did not ever sleep together; it was forbidden. Curiosity was beginning to take hold of him. He really wanted to see what a woman looked like. Slowly he found himself turning little by little towards Cornwall, who was totally engrossed with the task of washing.
Kayleb stood there mesmerised; he couldn’t help himself. Cornwall was beautiful. Her slim body was curved and her breasts full. He had experienced an ICE in London with a woman who had been wearing only nightclothes but had switched off when the virtual woman spoke to him. Just seeing her in a dressing gown was too much for him. He wasn’t ready to find a companion then and had found the experience unnerving. Companions were to be treated as friends and any feelings of lust were frowned upon and punished. Watching Cornwall was intriguing and he felt as if he had been misled about women. He was cross with London for leading men to believe woman were repulsive under their clothes.
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