by A M Russell
Jared nodded firmly twice, then in a whisper: ‘If all goes to hell make it to the transport and go.’
Marcia jerked slightly at this and stared very hard at me. Oliver removed his hand.
‘Does everyone agree?’ Jared looked from one face to the other checking our reactions; ‘if we don’t get time to discuss options later that’s the plan.’
I nodded. Then so did Oliver. Lastly Marcia in a small voice said: ‘The rest of us can walk if we have to… it has been done before.’ Jared put his hand gently on her sleeve. She smiled then. Momentary relief. We checked our bags as quietly as we could and sticking to the line of the rocks slid out of sight of those people. I didn’t dare look. I had barely seen. Tribes’ people? Or prisoners? I was, objectively speaking, quite surprised by my own lack of curiosity. It had been like that moment after I thought I would die; Right on that first day, when Marcia had so demolished my higher ambitions of the noble adventurer. The illusion was intact somewhere inside me. If I didn’t see, I didn’t know. The lie wasn’t strong enough to make me really believe I walked this path innocently. But it did serve to blunt the sheer terror of being found. Of being dragged off by some bloodthirsty hunter.
We continued stealthily along this seam of bulging rocks. Abruptly they ended. It was like running out of string. There was a sandy gap, about ten yards wide, that we must cross, entirely exposed to any watching eyes. With my eyes I followed the line of a wobbling ridge of rocks opposite us. There was a lower part through a gap, levelling out into huge ochre slabs. The distance made it seem a little misty. It was hard to judge how far it was, as there seemed to be no shadows in this place. It was a promontory; it turned out, to another body of water. The walls dipped down then opened up into another high ceilinged cave. We could just see the soft sparkle of wavelets through contorted arches that seemed to be blown through by the force of some deep convulsion of the earth.
We sat down. Presently Jared took out his hunting knife. I didn’t realise then what he was doing until he took off his shirt and stuffed it in his pack (we had removed our inner suits and sweaters quite some time since) and started prodding the earth loose in front of him with the long blade. Oliver’s eyes gleamed, and he started to scrape together some of the dirt with his trowel. He pressed his knife against the rock and some pieces crumbled. This bit was more like sand stone and easily pulverised. He took one of the sample canisters and emptied half of the pool water into the little bowl shaped depression he had made. With a little more of the mineral water he had made something that looked like wet cement. Oliver indicated I could sit near to him. I already understood then what we needed to do. I shut my eyes as he muddied my face. We did our arms too. Jared helped to dirty our clothes. We took draw string sacks out of the packs we carried and after they were well daubed with dirt, we each dropped our pack inside and pulled the tape in a tight closure.
Oliver put the “Ellis” tag around his neck, so it rested next to his own. He squinted again into the air above us. I wondered what he was looking for.
‘I can’t hear them.’ it was the first time anyone had spoken for more than twenty minutes.
Jared lifted a hand to say “wait” to Marcia and slowly rose to his feet. He crouched down again. He beckoned us close. Then said in a faint husking breath: ‘they are only just over there. About ten of them. I count. We go?’ We all nodded.
I didn’t get the count on the fingers down to fist of zero. They all ran, and I hesitated. I saw Marcia and Jared leap over a small fencelike ridge of uneven rocks and disappear behind it. Oliver scrambled after not quite as elegantly but just as quickly. I pressed myself back against the rock. I could hear something getting closer. Something like metal being dragged over stones. I couldn’t see the others. This was not a good time to start talking to myself. So I swore mentally and pressed myself against the rock. I tried not to breathe too loudly.
“They are nearly ready to send out now…” said a voice.
I held my breath for a moment hoping against hope that they wouldn’t catch me. That is until I realised that they were not walking towards me, but were stood round the other side of the same rock I was hugging so dramatically.
“Ahh! That’s always the way of things. Just as we get somewhere it all goes wrong…”
This was a second person talking. And detached from any visible figure they sounded curiously like someone I had met. One of the clients at work grumbling about their proofs. I tried to calm myself and listen hard. There was more: something about fulfilling an order; and a point about the duplicate being unreliable. There was also the faint pop of a match being lit. They were SMOKING! I was so appalled at this total disrespect for the pristine cleanliness of these cave systems; that I almost stood up ready to reprimand whoever it was. I nearly laughed at myself. I felt my system flood with relief. I wasn’t quite so out of touch with the scientific community as I had first supposed. The voices carried on talking; about whose turn it was to clean out the latrine facilities this week. I wasn’t much interested and the precariousness of my predicament returned to me with sober force. I looked across the short gap, to where the others had disappeared. Naturally there was no sign. I couldn’t wait here for long. Someone would eventually come past this side. My opportunity came a moment later when the owners of the two voices began to move. I saw them as they walked away to the right, with their backs to me. I didn’t need further encouragement. When they were a reasonable distance from my position, I sprinted across the space like a rabbit with a twelve bore pointing at its bum. I dove head first and then tucked my head in. I somersaulted right over, landed in a crouching position, and sat back heavily. Fortunately it was into more fine sand. I sat for a moment stunned by what I had just done. My mother’s insistence that I join the gymnastic display team when I was ten years old had been useful after all. I sat a quick prayer of thanks for a Mum who was probably the most insightful person I would ever meet; and half slid, half wiggled down and to the right, where the others were having an impromptu lunch. We were hidden on all sides by boulders.
‘There is a way through.’ said Oliver, as I looked about us.
‘What took you so long?’ asked Jared while chewing on the end of some weird dehydrated green stuff that I thought was compressed seaweed.
I told them what I had heard and then stopped speaking completely, my mouth open in shock. I was so busy running away that I had missed the most important piece of information. I saw them from the back. I saw them clearly. I saw their clothes. Sand coloured, big boots, caps, webbing belts. The others that we had seen before disguised ourselves, were only one lot of strangers who roamed the cave systems. And those two were definitely not natives.
‘I’m sorry Jared,’ I said, ‘but I think we’re completely screwed.’
Jared had taken what I said quite calmly. I reasoned that his extreme thoughtfulness was due to some brilliant plan being hatched to find the others, and get us out without being seen. It turned out much later that Jared had suspected that there was some collusion on the part of the University itself. And the military style dress and the obvious organisation of a group under someone’s command inverted our position in the whole situation. There would be no allies, no rescue mission from base, no chance that we weren’t already entangled; howbeit unwittingly in a convoluted plan to save the British Economy, or Mankind, or the life of the Common Man, or whatever else they could dream up from that deep well of twisted morality, to justify the evils they had to do to us and others like us. That a few should be sacrificed, so that such an end could be brought about only served to increase its sense of nobility and grandeur for the sake of said cause. God! I hated Idealists! Jared was more accepting. I wondered why.
‘Because,’ he said, ‘we are all part of a greater plan. They are, and we are. And that purpose is as deeply hidden from them; as theirs used to be from us.’
I really didn’t understand this. But somehow it comforted me. Oliver hummed softly: a Welsh song. Marcia laid her head in
Jared’s lap and fell asleep for a short while. We all sat after our brief snack and were caught away in some secret place of our own thoughts. The silence, apart from the distant fountain was complete. For a few precious minutes I forgot my worries. My heart was no longer divided. We knew that the fault lines ran in all directions, right from the beginning until now. I wondered if anyone else had ever found this out, and where they were now. I realised it was bliss to be in place that was tepid and still, where no raging storm could reach. I thought that we must be under the icebound lake by now; deep, deep beneath. The pack gauges had stopped working at minus 30 in the big tunnel and couldn’t be recalibrated until we reached the camp again. When…. I didn’t dare think ‘If.’
Before we had really finished enjoying our rest break, Jared tumbled Marcia off his knee into the soft sand and quickly put our remaining small pouches away.
We wove a path through the boulders in a deeper part where the wavelets of this new lake lapped against the shore. This lake was so long I couldn’t see the end of it. And the rocky ceiling disappeared into the mistiness of softly mixing lights. It was a least 500 feet above our heads were the contorted branches of rock reached out and interlocked. Then we saw a distant haze. It was all hazy. But this was a different kind caused by the dampness of spray in miniscule droplets that diffused from the foaming sides of another waterfall. As we got nearer we could hear its magnificence: a roar of the gods. This was not smooth and serene like the one we had left behind almost two hours ago. It was a joyful torrent that spilled with passion into a crimson pool. As we approached we saw that there were rocks that rose out of the lake like miniature islands that were slick and deep blood red. Oliver used binoculars. And seemed surprised to announce that he thought there was steam coming off the red rocks. Jared took them and focused carefully.
‘Well… we’ll see what fortune brings us. It could be to our advantage.’ Jared handed them back to Oliver and continued more enthusiastically.
Advantage? What advantage? I felt irritated that I wasn’t being let in on the secret of Jared’s sudden good mood. Marcia was wrinkling up her nose as we edged towards the waterfall, carefully picking our way along rougher grittier edges, avoiding dips and round deep rock pools. I sensed it too. An odd smell. Slightly acrid, blended with the smell of water; except that it was sweet too. I couldn’t place that smell. It was like something I had smelled before in a different place. I immediately thought of Alex. I mumbled something about the daft bugger interrupting even in this place when I really was trying to concentrate. It was getting warmer and damper by the minute. There it was again. Alex saying something really rude in my mind’s eye. A subconscious imp of a particularly stubborn kind. The Alex inside my heard was pointing at something. Look you idiot! Listen to Uncle Alex. I always know better that you in the wet… Ahhh!!! We rounded the next small curve and out onto a flatter sandier shore away from boulders that could obstruct our view. What shall I say? Yes Alex! I see it…
There were streamers and tendrils of red and slippery vegetation. It was unmistakably organic and fed by the waterfall’s constant dousing. And there was indeed a heavy mist rolling just above the surface of the water. It was steam. It swirled and was pushed into rolling clouds towards us by the spray of the waterfall. The effect of the proximity of such a phenomenon was just like being in a launderette from the point of view of the warmth and the damp. But the smell and that curious mixture of sweet and bitter made me think of the sea.
We were transfixed by a sight so alien to our experience that we stood on the shore of this weird inner sea, quite agog with wonder, to the point where I’m sure that at least one of us forgot momentarily what we were doing here. It was Marcia who reminded us that, nice as it was for her hair to curl into ringlets, she really would like to get on with the business of the day. Find Our Friends!
We carried on around the deep pool into which the foaming waterfall poured. All of us made a gasp of surprize then as from nowhere people stood all around. Some crouched on rocks some almost in the edge of the waterfall. All perfectly still, all blending because of the strange skins and paint with which they were attired. They wore body paint of ochre and reds and dun coloured marks, as if they were rocks themselves. Oliver took a defensive posture. Jared stood perfectly still and slowly showed both hands; palms turned outwards. Marcia and I did likewise. Oliver moved from one foot to the other and kept turning this way and that. But no one else made a move.
'Oliver....’ said Jared calmly, 'Show your hands. We must not be threatening in any way.'
Oliver did as Jared commanded but glared with anger at being ambushed. I saw the muscles in his forearms bulge with suppressed power.
'What now?' hissed Marcia to Jared. She was blinking rather fast and I got the feeling that her eyes were watering from anger and anxiety; rather than fear. Her hands stiff and tense, she appeared to be calculating the distance between herself and the nearest figure. I wasn't sure I would like Marcia in attack mode. Her expression scared me, even if it wasn't having much effect on these cave people. I don't know how long the standing and being watched lasted. Certainly not less than 5 minutes. I tried to count with my eyes how many there were. It was hard to see. Some were so completely coloured as the rocks and held positions that moulded to the shape of rocks themselves that I wasn't sure if I was looking at a person or not. A lot, I concluded.... at least fifty, maybe more than that. Actually a lot more.... But that was definitely a rock with some red weed; not hair. But then I saw eyes that blinked once. The sound of the waterfall was like the shushing crash of waves on a sea shore. The spray was splitting the soft light in to subtle rainbows of softest iridescence above our heads. Marcia's eyes were ranging upwards too. I tried to follow her gaze. There! High above us a figure stood half hidden by the flexing foam spray. This person was dressed in white.... Well it seemed so compared to the earthy coloured garb of these people. The figure raised a hand and made an unmistakable gesture of beckoning to us. But how were we to reach that place? They were on a high jutting spur of rock that protruded outwards from the waterfall itself. I looked back down again. We were not alone on this banking. Four of the people stood a little way from us. They were so relaxed they seemed to be almost asleep. Their eyes half lidded, and only the slightest movement of their chests indicated they were breathing. I had not heard a thing.
'You can come now.'
I peered hard, trying to see which one of these had spoken. The older one perhaps? A man lean and wiry, of indeterminate age. The others had smoother flesh on their arms, ruddy and gleaming in the damp mist and weedy reflections of this place. They wore leather hides tanned and supple around the loins. They appeared to have some sort of tight fitting foot coverings and some sort of lacing round their arms and neck and in their hair. I tried to take it all in. The nearest one carried a long shaft that I momentarily took for a spear... That is until I realised that it had no point. I looked at the man who had spoken. He had his head slightly on one side as if listening for something beyond the sound of the waterfall. Jared took a step forward. I could see Marcia shift onto her right foot as if to move.
I touched her lightly on the shoulder. She glanced at me and relaxed slightly. Jared still held his hands in an open gesture. He walked towards them.
'I am Jared. These are my friends. We mean no harm'
'No harm.' said the man, as if the words were unfamiliar. 'Only people who travel so carelessly could really be so harmless. As you say... No Harm. We know by your journey. Your purpose is not with us. We watch them. The others that you hide from in this valley. We saw you first at the spring.'
'You did?' Jared sounded genuinely surprized.
Marcia stepped forwards, 'We are looking for people who belong in our group. Others took them.' she spoke softly but firmly.
'You look for your own?' asked the man, 'Or the not your own?'
Marcia was about to respond: 'Well of course...' when Jared interrupted; 'Tell us of these two things. "Your Own" and "Not
Your Own". We want to understand.'
The man put his head to one side. He appeared to consider the question carefully. Eventually he held out his hand to Jared: 'There must be a trust between us. Then I will take you to Angel above.'
Jared glanced at us. Marcia was shaking her head, 'No. Jared please! This sounds like a really short cut to a sticky end.'
At this Jared looked disappointed. I sensed something pass between them in a fraction of a moment with their eyes. Marcia turned to me. 'It's ok.' she said as if to reassure the young recruit.
I just nodded. Oliver was staring upwards. 'Angel?'
'Yes. She is Angel.' the old tribesman said, 'She answers questions. Has good memory. Does not forget.' he took Jared's hand and looked into his eyes. Jared appeared to relax a little. We waited as the man stared at Jared's face for nearly a minute all the time gripping his hand. I allowed my mind to wander a little. I found this slow careful way of taking things begin to ease my mind. Something that Jared said to me a while ago began to drift in. About remembering all of it. About seeing yourself. "Angel" was this distant woman's name. It was about that moment I realised it could be a title too. Since an angel was a messenger. Therefore someone with knowledge... Someone who didn't forget.
We were on the move again. Jared was already moving forward. The old man called us with one word "Come!" and we set off at a brisk pace through broken channels of rock that were slick with spray. We were still skirting the edge of this great pool. Jared dropped back. By now the roar of sound was so great that we couldn't hear each other except by shouting.
'I know what has happened!' Jared yelled as we moved along.
'What?!' I roared trying to make an imprint on this tumult of noise.
'The nearer to the source! The faster it repeats!' Jared seemed happy. He said something else that I couldn't make out. I failed to catch his eye. But we rounded another corner and scrambled up a banking. The whole cave suddenly opened out in all directions at once. The sound of even greater elemental forces at work filled out ears and our minds. I must have stopped dead, because Oliver nearly cannoned into me. The sheer terror of what I saw was overwhelming. I couldn't speak even if I was able to make myself heard.