Transplant
Page 7
THE RAFT.
The dawn was cooler than any they had experienced so far, and the sun was obscured by a dark ribbon of cloud which grew darker and thicker as they watched.
A sense of unease was felt by the group as they ate the rest of the fruit left over from the night before, and they looked to Glyn and Arki for reassurance. Deciding that doing something would probably settle everyone down again, Glyn suggested that they create a small pool up stream from the large pool, and use it for drinking purposes only.
Two volunteers were called for to go further up stream, walking on the ridge to see where the forest ended, as Glyn still wanted to go south and the forest looked too dense and dark to travel in easily.
By the time the upper drinking water pool had been constructed and filled with clear water, the two explorers had returned in great excitement.
‘We’ve found another of those things you called a building, only this one seems to be nearly intact. It is divided into sections like our cabins, only much larger, and there is plenty of space for all of us to shelter in at night.’ The bringer of the good news was a little out of breath as the pair had run all the way back from their find.
‘Fill up all water containers,’ Glyn called out, ‘and we’ll see what they’ve found.’
At last the building came into view, a creeper covered concrete block set into the bank of the gully, only its symmetry making it stand out from the surrounding lush greenery. It took longer to clamber down the steep and slippery bank and then cross the marshy area at the bottom of the gully, whilst watching out for any hidden perils which might lurk beneath the surface of the squishy ground.
The access to the building was set a few metres up the opposite bank, and the two discoverers proudly went ahead to show off their find.
A roughly oblong hole, only a metre high although it was a good deal wider in the wall of the concrete structure seemed to be the only visible way in from the bank, and Glyn and Arki followed the other two into the dark chamber within the block, finding that they could stand up, and even with outstretched arms couldn’t reach the ceiling above.
‘Looks like we have found a new home.’ said Arki, his voice sounding strange as it echoed back and forth from the solid concrete walls.
‘Certainly looks that way,’ rejoined Glyn, ‘but remember it is only for a short time, as we must press on southwards, according to our instructions.’
They returned to the bright light of the outside world, shielding their eyes from the glare, although the sun wasn’t visible as the cloud bank had thickened and spread half-way across the sky.
‘I think the entrance has got silted up,’ said Arki, ‘how about digging it clear so that we can get in a little easier, and it will allow a bit more light in as well.’
Willing hands soon found flat sheets of slate from the opposite bank, and the clearing of the entrance began. It soon became apparent that the room behind the opening was also filled with debris, as what they assumed to be the doorway was now just over two metres high.
It was hard work, but with the group working in teams of two, one each side of the opening, cutting and passing the loosened debris from one pair to the next, they made surprising inroads into the room, whilst the debris formed an access ramp to the building on the outside.
By midday, although it was difficult to tell if it really was because the sun was now totally obscured by the cloud bank, they had cleared enough space in the first of the interconnecting rooms for the entire group to shelter come nightfall, and they still had the afternoon to go.
Arki suggested they should go looking for ferns or something soft to sleep on, as the concrete floor of the room was even harder than the ground of the previous night.
Two men and their partners came forward when they heard the suggestion, and were sent off to get bedding for the rest of the diggers who would surely need it come sleep time.
As the light began to fade, heralding the coming night, the room had been cleared of the accumulations of the passing years and some ingenious soul had made a crude broom of fine twigs to sweep it really clean.
It still had the dank smell of rotting leaves, but they would at least be sheltered from the cold winds of the night, and no one was going to quarrel with that.
At no one’s bidding, the apple fruit and black berries had been replenished with enough for another feast at the early morning meal, and a pile of fire wood was growing at the entrance to their new home.
Once the fire had been started, Brendon came forward with a long bunch of fine twigs bound tightly together into a bundle, with a thick stick protruding from one end.
‘What have you got there?’ asked Arki, thinking it was another broom.
‘If I light the end, it should burn for quite a time, and I can see the inside of the room which I haven’t seen yet as I was on the outside clearing the stuff the others were throwing out,’ he rushed it all out in one continuous stream, only pausing for breath to add, ‘please.’
‘What do you think, Glyn?’ asked Arki, being careful to give their natural leader the right of veto.
‘Don’t see why not. Good idea of yours.’ Glyn replied, placing a hand on Brendon’s shoulder and giving him a pat.
He grew at least three centimetres in height as he unbent from lighting his firebrand, and beamed at the leader and his aide.
The three of them trooped into the gloom of the concrete chamber, Brendon proudly leading the way. Once inside, they were all surprised at the space the flickering firebrand illuminated, and as the others crowded in, shadowy shapes began to dance weirdly around the walls, much to the delight of the younger ones.
Brendon had gone over to the far corner of the room and it was Arki who first noticed that the smoke from the firebrand was going somewhere other than up to the ceiling, as only a small amount of it hung there.
‘What’s that above your head?’ Arki asked, and Brendon raised his burning bundle of twigs as high as he could to reveal a small dark opening in the ceiling. The smoke was being drawn upwards and out of sight.
‘Where’s it going?’ asked Glyn, a puzzled look on his face, ‘there’s only the concrete roof and a covering of creepers above us.’
One of the men nearest the entrance went outside and down the new ramp they had constructed to see where the mysteriously disappearing smoke was coming out of the building.
‘No sign of it outside, at least none that I can see.’
‘Well, it’s got to go somewhere, perhaps we can trace it better tomorrow in daylight. At least it’s cleared the air of that damp mouldy smell.’ Arki added hurriedly, keen to get the evening meal underway.
Feeling he was on a roll, Brendon turned to Glyn saying,
‘Perhaps we could have the fire in here, so we can get all the warmth from it, as the smoke seems quite happy to go up there.’ pointing to the hole in the ceiling.
‘You really are in good form today.’ Glyn answered with a wide grin, and giving him another pat on the shoulder gave instruction for the firewood to be brought in, and a new fire to be lit in the corner of the underground room.
Someone had the sense to build a low stone wall around the burning sticks, so containing the fire and preventing the nearby bedding from joining the wood in its merry blaze.
The gathering clouds had completed their job of blotting out the lowering sun, and complete darkness soon followed, except for the concrete room and its occupants, bathed in the warm glow from the fire in the corner.
There was just enough light to enable the group around the fire to add the correct amount of water to their food concentrates, and the meal was finished with the most welcome fruit and berries gathered earlier.
Despite the hard work done during the day, no one seemed too keen to go to sleep, except the younger members, and the conversation went on long into the night, debating the reasons for their presence there and the possible outcome of moving on towards the equator, as the instructions had indicated they should do.
It was only when
the main supply of wood had run low, and a small token fire kept going to keep the chill of night at bay, that everyone finally lay down to sleep.
In the early hours of the morning, a crackling explosion and a blinding flash of light woke everyone up. The moving storm which had been long brewing, finally found a suitable section of the landscape to vent its fury on, and did so.
The fire keeper immediately added a few small sticks to the glowing embers of the fire and blew on them, the tiny flames soon growing in size so that the walls were adorned by the ghostly dancing shadows of those moving around, trying to get their turn at the doorway to see the brilliant lightning display outside.
The rain must have been falling for some considerable time as the gentle trickle of water in the gully was now a raging torrent, tearing away at the banks, and it had already removed half the ramp which had been built yesterday from the debris of the sleeping chamber.
‘Don’t go onto the ramp,’ Glyn yelled out over the thunderous cacophony of the storm, ‘it won’t take a lot to set the rest of it moving.’ And with that the rest of the ramp gently slid down the slope to be swallowed up by the dirty crested thrashing waters which now nearly filled the gully, and if the rain kept up, would soon reach the doorway of their shelter.
The totally black sky was continuously riven by the snaking blue, white, and pink ribbons of lightning, streaking from cloud to cloud and from cloud to ground, one nearby strike throwing up a huge column of mud as it dissipated its energy into the earth in one furious millisecond.
Slowly the storm abated, or maybe it just moved away, but the rain continued to cascade down, filling the gully almost up to the entrance level of their shelter, and Glyn was beginning to get worried.
Should he move everyone out to higher ground and risk getting their supplies wet and ruined, or just sit the storm out and stand the chance of being washed away if the torrent in the gully suddenly surged and entered their chamber? Arki was just as undecided as he was, and so they stayed.
At last the rain eased to a gentle drizzle, and the noise of the storm seemed strangely distant and divorced from their surrounding, almost as if it were happening somewhere else and they were watching a visual recording of it.
Glyn and Arki, along with several others, were in the doorway of their shelter, when on the horizon a thin pale blue streamer of light leapt up from the ground and into the overhead clouds. Instantaneously, a massive purple tongue of lightning streaked downwards towards the ground, lighting up the surrounding land as if the sun had suddenly come out.
As the lightning strike died out, it was replaced by the biggest flash of light they had yet seen as a colossal yellow and red fireball headed skywards, the vivid fires within it twisting and churning as if they were alive.
‘Quick, inside and lie down.’ Glyn yelled out with an edge of panic in his voice.
As they threw themselves down onto the bedding, and the others followed suit, the pressure wave hit making their eardrums pop.
The blast of sound which followed left several of them who had been in direct line with it through the doorway, slightly deaf for a couple of days.
The ground heaved up and down several times, and the sound of the tormented earth trying to adjust to the massive pressures put upon it added a new sound and element of fear to that which had already overwhelmed them.
As the distant rumble of rock torn from the earth returning to its place of origin died away, the fire maker scraped together the glowing coals of his fire, added a few more sticks, blew on them nervously, and the chamber with its traumatized occupants was lit once more in a gentle glow.
‘What do you think that was?’ asked Glyn, not really expecting a sensible answer from anyone.
‘Well, I think it was an atomic explosion, the fireball and the concussion wave certainly fitted the description I once read about in one of the books, and I can’t think of anything else which would release that much energy in one go.’ Arki quietly said to Glyn.
‘But atomics haven’t been used here for hundreds or maybe thousands of years, if we are to believe what we read when we opened the survival packs.’ Glyn retorted, not at all convinced.
‘Maybe so, but if there was an underground atomic power station, or a secret dump of atomic missiles buried deep within the earth, that lightning strike could have been just powerful enough to have started a chain reaction, and bruumph, up she went.’ Arki spoke with such conviction that Glyn had little choice other than to believe him, especially as he couldn’t think of a better answer.
‘What about the radiation, do you think we got hit by that as well?’ asked Glyn, bearing in mind the damage it could do to the project.
‘I expect we got some, but the walls of this place are quite thick, and that must have stopped most of it.’
‘Well there’s nothing we can do about it now, but in future we must try and keep any exposure to radiation to the lowest amount possible, otherwise our genes, which control how the future generations turn out, will be damaged, and the whole project will have been a huge waste of time and effort. I don’t quite understand how it works,’ Glyn added, ‘but that is the gist of it according to what I’ve read.’
Next morning the clouds rolled away, as a grey cold dawn broke it seemed as if the earth itself was feeling miserable.
When it was light enough, Glyn went outside to survey the damage the storm had done. The gully was now nearly a metre deeper, and the rock dam they had so carefully built together with the larger natural one downstream, had been swept away. The stream still ran, chuckling and gurgling over a new obstacle course of rocks uncovered by last night’s torrent, but not really fit for drinking as it still bore a considerable amount of silt.
‘I would think by midday the water will have cleared enough for us to use it, so you can all drink your fill from the water containers and we’ll refill them later.’ Glyn announced hopefully.
They had a little fruit left over from the night before, and this was shared out as evenly as possible, the children being given the major portions.
‘Do you think we should head south again?’ asked Arki, as they trooped outside into the rather thin sunshine which was still trying to break through the few remaining clouds.
‘Not just yet. We must replenish our water supplies first, and then it would be a good idea to see if we can find any more edible fruits in the forest so that we can recognize them more easily in the future. Also it’s about time we found out what else we have in our survival packs, there was some mention of tools, I think.’ Glyn was looking for a flat dry piece of ground on which to assemble his band of followers so that they could undo their backpacks, but the ground was still sodden after the night’s torrential downpour.
While the sun was left to evaporate the last of the rain, it was decided to check out the nearby forest for more fruits, and after much searching in the soggy woods behind the ridge where the apples had been found the previous day, they were able to add a nut to their meagre food supplies.
It was like no other nut which Glyn or Arki had ever seen before, either in the ship or the books they had read, but Arki had a gut feeling that it was edible, and after the usual tasting trial, pronounced it fit to eat.
It was nearly as big as the apples they had found yesterday, and once the outer husk had been removed, proved to be a good source of protein, although a little indigestible if eaten in large quantities, as they found out later.
By the afternoon, the ground had dried out, and Glyn called everyone out into the open to search through their survival packs for anything useful, other than the food concentrates.
Soon they discovered that they had two light making devices, which when the button was pressed on one end, a beam of light emerged from the other. A warning message stated that the light should only be used in an emergency, as the power source was of limited ability.
A series of knife blades, which folded into their handles for safety, were greeted with the kind of enthusiasm reserved for chefs
’ special efforts, when it got it right, that is.
A pack of water purifying tablets, a flame provider for initiating fire, and a range of pills for various illnesses which none of them had ever heard of, let alone able to diagnose, made up the main itinerary of things which would help them stay alive in their new environment, or so thought the providers of the items.
One of the group found a large pack of something he couldn’t open, so tightly was it wrapped, and gave it to Glyn for his appraisal.
Using one of the new found knives, he managed to carefully remove the multi layered waterproof wrappers, revealing a small handgun and several ammunition packs, also individually wrapped against the atmosphere.
Glyn held up the instruction sheet which came with the pack, and read aloud to the assembled group.
‘This device is used to propel a metallic projectile at high velocity, the object being to kill or severely wound the target at which the device is pointed. You will not have had any knowledge of such a device before, so it is deemed expedient that the following directions be fully understood before the device is used,’ Glyn read on, mouthing the words to himself as he saw little point in reciting the whole thing to the others, who would probably have forgotten most of it long before the device was needed.
Several other little items of interest were found, a ball of very tough twine, a small pack of plastic sheets and a pen like device with which to write on them, and a ball of what looked like clear glass.
This last item brought forth many ribald comments from those who had perfected that art long ago on board the Ship at the Chefs expense, not that the Chef had cared one jot.
A stock of apples, several large handfuls of the black berries and copious amounts of the new nuts had been retrieved from the forest by nightfall, and the usual shared pack of concentrates were now split among three people, the native foods being used to fill up the otherwise nearly empty stomachs.
The firewood stocks had been doubled so that a good fire could be kept burning all night if need be, and the stream was beginning to clear as they all retired to the concrete chamber in the side of the ridge for the night.
The night was quiet and uneventful as far as the people in the shelter were concerned, and a good night’s sleep saw them fresh and eager to get on with the new day when it eventually dawned, bright and clear.
After their breakfast of fruit and nuts, Glyn suggested that they all washed their clothes and took a good bath in a pool formed by the storm.
Some stripped off without a care and ran down to the water’s edge, much to the embarrassment of those of a more delicate nature, who, after a time, were cajoled by Arki to join the others as they didn’t have anything to show which was different to those already in the water. Eventually, everyone had partaken of the waters, and clothes lay strewn about on sticks, rocks and anything else which would support them from the now dusty ground.
When everyone was dressed again, and the blushes had disappeared, Glyn suggested that they raid the forest once more for food stocks, as on the morrow they would be heading south again, as directed by the instruction sheet.
The strange disappearance of the smoke from their fire in the corner of the concrete chamber still held a fascination for Arki, who didn’t like insolvable mysteries. He had checked outside to see where the smoke was coming out, and it wasn’t. The top of the building was, as far as they could tell, just a solid block of concrete and there were no holes in it.
Not only that, it was covered in a thick layer of earth and a mat of creepers which over the years had interwoven to form an impenetrable barrier to smoke and man.
Arki reasoned there must be a draft which sucked the smoke to some outlet which they couldn’t find and had to leave it at that, much to his disappointment.
Early next morning the group set off along the top of the ridge, following the stream towards its possible source, thus maintaining a supply of drinking water while trying to locate the edge of the forest so that they could turn south again.
It was two tiring days later, after leaving the ridge and travelling over a smooth rising plain of gravel which ended in a rocky ridge, that they were confronted by a view which brought a gasp from one and all, and they saw the next barrier in their progress south.
Ahead of them a vast expanse of water slowly drifted by. For as far as they could see, they were surrounded by forests on all sides except the one they had come from, and with the river dividing the land in two in a east west direction.
‘We can’t go back now.’ Arki quietly said in an aside to Glyn, who was looking as shattered at the prospect of returning as Arki sounded.
‘I know, but what can we do? There’s no way around the forest, you can see it covering the hills right into the far distance on either side of this plain, and even if we could swim the river, which I very much doubt, we would only have more forest on the other side. It comes right down to the water’s edge over there as it does here.’
They went down the gravel slope to the water’s edge and made camp, although there was plenty of daylight left, they had nowhere else to go.
‘We’ve got to do something, so let’s make up a small team and go see what the forest has to offer, it may not be as thick as it looks, and in that case we could go along almost at the water’s edge perhaps.’ Arki wasn’t one for standing still. ‘Good idea,’ said Glyn, ‘we’ll stock up on fruit and berries at the same time, there can’t be much left to eat except the concentrates.’
Six volunteers jauntily set off south, heading for the forest’s edge in a business like manner, mainly to show those remaining that all was under control and partly to convince themselves that it was so.
The first few low bushes were a welcome sight, for many bore the black berries they had all enjoyed earlier, but it was obvious there was no possibility of travelling through the forest for any great distance, as the density of the undergrowth increased as they went further in.
‘How come we have all this undergrowth here, when there wasn’t any in the other forest where we got the apples?’ Glyn asked Arki as they struggled to break through the mat of vines which hung down from the trees.
‘Different conditions, I would think.’ he replied, hoping that Glyn wouldn’t ask him to expand on the matter as he couldn’t see what the different conditions were.
‘Well at least we have food here, and there are some new varieties to try by the look of it.’ Glyn was looking up at a large plum like fruit, tantalizingly just out of his reach.
They turned left, hoping to reach the water’s edge to see if progress would be any easier there, when the first of the dead trees came into sight. It seemed dead, as there were no green leaves on it, and the wood had a hollow ring to it when struck.
‘If we had enough of these we could make a floating platform and drift south, as that’s the direction the river is going in.’ Arki observed. ‘How could we hold them together?’ asked Glyn, a faint ray of hope beginning to dawn.
‘Use these creepers, they seem tough enough.’ replied Arki, bending the thin end of one in his hands.
They tramped on, or to be more accurate, forced their way through the least thick undergrowth they could find in the direction they wanted to go.
Before they reached the water’s edge, they came across several more fallen trees, and some dead but still standing.
Arki had begun to count them up as they went along.
Finally they broke out of the forest and nearly fell into the slow moving river, as there was hardly a dividing line between the two.
‘Right,’ said Glyn, having made his mind up as to what should happen next, ‘let’s collect as much fruit as we can and return to the others, then send another party out to collect some more.’
When they got back, the next team of gatherers were sent out while the new blue plum fruit was tested for safety. As luck would have it, it passed with flying colours, being sweet and filling, and so providing plenty of energy and the feeling of a full stomach, whi
ch would be welcomed by everyone. A smaller yellow version of the plum fruit was also tried, but spat out by the tester as being disgusting, poisonous or not. Later that evening around the camp fire, Arki explained his theory of making a floating platform to take them south.
Once the question of binding the logs together was explained, and the fact that one log would support two people in his estimation, there was little argument against the proposal, at least none which would hold up to close scrutiny.
Next day the log hauling began. It wasn’t as difficult as they had first thought, as there were sixteen strong men and women in the group who applied themselves willingly to the task, and by nightfall, they had enough logs at the water’s edge to build a raft big enough to carry them all, and room to spare for their provisions.
Early next morning the first log was rolled into the river, with a long vine attached to each end, the vines firmly attached to a stake driven into the shore.
As more logs were added and lashed to the preceding ones, the anchor vines were paid out, so allowing the raft to grow and still remain under control.
Arki realized that some form of protection from the sun would be a good idea, as a lot of light would be reflected off the water and sunburn could be a problem. Four uprights were driven into the raft and a simple framework constructed overhead so that it could be covered with broad leaves from the forest. Someone else suggested a side panel which could be moved to whichever side needed to be covered, completing the sun screening.
That evening, as the sun was sinking in the West, the raft was finished off, a good stock of fruit and nuts collected, and everyone felt very pleased with themselves. One enterprising fellow had made a quantity of long pointed staves, ‘To fend off anything in the water which might take a fancy to us.’ Glyn praised his ingenuity and thoughtfulness, and the staves were safely lashed to one of the centre logs.
Six long poles were cut for manoeuvring the raft in what they hoped would be shallow water, their intention being to drift along close to the edge of the river bank whenever possible, so that land could be reached in an emergency.
Brendon had the bright idea of putting some flat slates on one end of the raft so that they could have a small fire if need be. Glyn couldn’t see why they would need a fire on the raft, but agreed to it as he didn’t want to dampen any other good ideas which might be forthcoming.
That night they all ate and drank their fill around the biggest fire they had yet made, a few songs were sung, jokes were told by those of the company who usually kept their wit for berating the mechanical Chef, and a good time was had by all.
Not everyone slept too well that night, whether it was the excitement of the journey planned for next day or an over indulgence in the new plum fruit, was anyone’s guess. Suffice it to say, there were a few bleary eyes next morning.
A quick meal in the grey chill air of early dawn saw everyone ready for the great adventure, this was something totally new in their experience, and one or two had doubts about the safety of the whole idea at the last moment.
But it was too late for doubts, Glyn was determined to go south, and the river was the only route available.
Everything was loaded onto the raft and lashed down with thin vines, the food stocks being piled up under the covered section along with the survival packs.
Glyn gave the word and they all clambered aboard, the raft dipping a little as the weight of the group concentrated on the front end.
‘Spread yourselves around a bit,’ he called out, ‘we don’t want to tip the whole thing up.’ He needn’t have worried, the raft would have taken twice their number and still floated, Arki had got his calculations wrong, luckily in their favour.
The tethering vines were released from the staves they had driven into the river bank, but the raft refused to move. They tried pushing with the poles, but to no avail, until someone realized the extra weight of the passengers had driven the rear end of the raft into the soft sand.
‘OK, everyone up to the front end.’ called Arki. Someone mumbled ‘That’s where we were in the first place,’ and the raft floated free, turning down river as the strong current caught the front end.
‘Use the poles to try and keep the raft just a few metres from the bank,’ Glyn called out as they gathered speed, ‘we don’t know how deep it is further out, and we may lose control.’
By full sun up they had drifted a considerable distance down stream, the river banks ever changing their contours, with small inlets where other streams joined the mighty flow.
The forest came right down to the water’s edge in most places, and Glyn then knew that the river really was the only way open to them for southerly travel.
When the sun had reached its zenith, he calculated they were still heading south, the waterway holding a straight line through the landscape. But it was getting wider, and that could mean that it was also getting shallow, and the raft might get stuck on a ridge in the river bed.
‘Two volunteers please, one each side of the front end. Mark a pole by scratching the bark off at about two metres from the end, and check the depth as we go along. If it is less than your mark, pole the raft out into the middle until you get the two metre level again.’ Glyn was taking no chances of floundering on some vagrant mud bank, as the chances of getting it off again didn’t bear thinking about.
Towards late afternoon, Arki noticed that raft travel was beginning to lose some of its novelty for those with nothing to do, as volunteers for the depth gauging at the front end were getting ever more persistent that it was their turn to take the poles.
A quiet word with Glyn, and it was decided to pull in at the next suitable place on the river bank for the night. They would need to replenish their food supplies and find fresh water from a stream, as the river water was a little murky and would only be used as a last resort. A deep inlet with a shingle bank caught Arki’s eye, and the raft was turned in towards it using the poles.
The weight of the floating platform drove it some way up the gently sloping shingle bank, the clatter and rattle of the stones adding a welcome noise to the silence they had experienced all day, apart from their own voices and the constant lapping of the wavelets as they caressed the raft.
The mooring vines were made fast, holding the raft safely in place on the stony beach, and everyone enjoyed the freedom of stretching their legs, the younger ones racing up and down the shingle bank and shouting with joy.
The group split up, some gathering wood for the evening fire, others going into the nearby forest for fruit, while two men went up the little stream which had threaded its way through the stone mounds to join the river.
The sun dipped towards the far horizon, lighting up the forest in a pink glow and the fire was crackling away merrily, adding its warmth to the sudden chill air which had swept up the river and into the inlet.
All had returned from their foraging and were waiting for the evening meal, except for two who had gone up the stream, and Glyn was beginning to get a little worried at their absence.
‘Better go see what’s happened to them.’ He said to no one in particular, when they came racing over the shingle bank amid a clatter of stones and in great excitement.
‘Look what we’ve found.’ said one, holding up a piece of shiny metal. It was about half a metre long, fifteen centimetres wide and two thick, and the reddening sunlight sparkled from it as he waved it about.
Everyone crowded around to see the artefact from a long bygone age, speculating as to what it might have been, and wanting to hold it as if doing so would connect them to those who had gone before.
‘It would make a great cutting tool if we could only thin one edge down a bit, and sharpen it.’ Arki said, visualizing a powerful hacking blade.
‘I seem to remember,’ he added, ‘something about heating metal to reform it, read it in one of the old books.’
‘What’s a book?’ someone asked, but no one bothered to enlighten him.
‘We have fire, but I don’
t know if it would be hot enough to soften the metal, it must be very strong not to have corroded away after all this time,’ Glyn said, ‘but we could try, we’ve nothing to lose except a little time, and we’ve plenty of that.’
It was jointly decided that next day they would make a big fire and try to reform the strip of metal into a cutting tool, grinding the edge sharp on a stone.
No new fruits had been discovered by the foraging party in the forest, but a plentiful supply of those they had eaten before were collected. Glyn was keen to see if their digestive systems would tolerate a fruit and nut diet without the emergency rations, as these were going down at an alarming rate, so he suggested that they try it for one meal.
By next morning only two people complained of an emergency visit to the bushes during the night, but couldn’t be sure that the fruit diet was totally responsible.
Brendon suggested a chimney be constructed to increase the draw on the fire, but when asked how that would work he didn’t know, and looked sufficiently crestfallen at the query for Glyn to give the go ahead and build one.
It was only a metre and a half high, and constructed of rock brought from behind the pebble bank, but it certainly made a difference to the roar of the flames as they raced up the hollow space to belch forth in a fountain of smoke and sparks at the top.
It took a moment for Arki to realize that the embers at the bottom of the fire were the hottest part, and the stainless steel strip, not that they knew it as such, was then pushed into the glowing mass and soon began to glow bright red.