WOOF!
“Where have you come from? What’s your name? Ouch!” Toby tried to move but the cold seemed to have frozen the blood in his legs. The cave was bathed in a strange blue light as a torch outside filtered through the hard-packed ice that now blocked the entrance.
“Tash! Wake up! Someone’s here!” Toby cried, shaking the still form lying next to him. On the other side of her lay Snowy, guardedly watching with his hackles raised and his blue eyes staring at the intruder. The collie stood on Toby to reach over and sniff the large shaggy wolf, his tail wagging enthusiastically.
What did Jamie once say about dogs’ wagging tails? If they wag fast and horizontally then it’s a good sign, and if they wag slow and upright, it’s not?
Toby anxiously watched Snowy’s reaction as the wolf sniffed back at the collie. Snowy’s tail started to wag slowly, brushing the dirt on the floor of the cave. Suddenly he stood up, his huge body filling the tiny space.
“It’s ok, Snowy,” whispered Tash. “He won’t hurt us. He’s one of the good dogs.”
Reassured by the sound of Tash’s voice, Snowy’s tail started to wag faster and faster, and he stretched out his neck to lick the collie’s ears.
Phew! That could have been nasty! Snowy’s obviously used to pet dogs. Thank goodness Tash is awake.
“HELLO?” A man’s voice called from outside the cave. “HELLO?”
WOOF! barked the dog again, nudging Toby’s hand as if saying he should answer the man, who was now peering in through a small hole in the snow.
“Hello, who are you?” called Toby.
“That’s Casper you’ve got with you. He’s a rescue dog. He’s the one that found you. Now sit tight and we’ll have you dug out in a jiffy!” said the voice.
Who is that? And did he say “we”?
Tash opened one eye and mumbled,
“Raiders? Is it the raiders?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t know, but he sounds ok…”
“What did he say?”
“They’re digging us out. Maybe it’s going to be all right.” Toby laughed as Casper shook himself and they were splattered with wet globules of ice and snow. “Oh, Casper! Am I glad to see you!” The collie wagged his tail and licked Toby’s nose again with his big sloppy tongue.
“Yuk!” Toby patted the dog hard. “You silly boy!”
There was digging and burrowing in the snow at the cave entrance and within a few minutes, a face and then a head and then shoulders, followed by a body, appeared. The man wriggled in, pushing a torch in front of him.
“Hi, my name’s Tom, and who are you?”
“I’m Toby and that’s Tash, but she’s poorly. I don’t know what’s the matter with her but I’m sure it’s not red fever. She did have a rash, but…” Toby babbled on, telling Tom about how they had got there, the trouble with the raiders and how they had lost the spooked ponies. Tash lay curled in a tight sleepy ball, with Snowy standing guard over her.
“Ok, Toby, calm down and don’t worry. You’re safe now. It’s going to be ok. Let’s get you both out of here first.”
“How did you know we were here?”
“We knew that someone was out here after some ponies with bridles came down off the moor yesterday, so we came looking. Lucky for you, Casper here picked up your scent.” The collie bounded up to the man and started licking his face.
“Crikes! What’s that?” said Tom, looking at Snowy.
“That’s Snowy,” replied Toby. “We rescued him at Kingshouse, and then he came and saved our lives. We can’t leave him here: the dogs might get him. Can we take him with us?”
“Dogs? We haven’t seen any dogs,” said Tom. “There are wolves in these mountains but they’re completely wild. That’s why I’m surprised to see one sitting here! Don’t think we can take a wolf with us.”
“I’m not going without Snowy!” whispered Tash hoarsely. “And he’s not a real wolf – he’s a wolf hybrid and he was a pet once. He saved our lives. We can’t leave him.”
“Ok, ok. He can run alongside the skidoos. He’ll have to keep up though,” said Tom.
Just then another face appeared at the hole, and then another and another. There seemed to be a crowd outside waiting for them to appear. Toby could hear the sound of spades hitting the icy snow and grunts from the men as they dug fast and furiously. Soon the hole was big enough for them to carry Tash out of the cave, wrapped in a shiny foil blanket. Snowy stood nervously beside her as four men lifted her carefully onto the waiting stretcher, strapping her in tightly.
“It’s ok, Snowy,” soothed Toby. “They aren’t hurting her.”
“I don’t feel so good,” murmured Tash, as the men loaded the stretcher onto the back of a skidoo. Toby squeezed her cold blue hand.
“You’re going to be all right now,” he reassured her. “These guys have got some serious equipment. We’ve been saved. Everything’s going to be fine.”
And maybe these guys can help me on my journey to Stirling? I need to get there, and quick!
21. The Bunker
Toby stood shivering in the dark and cold while the men bustled busily around outside the cave. As their flashing torchlight swept over him, he searched for signs of the battle that had raged between the dogs and the wolves. There was nothing to see but the outlines of the black craggy mountains with the sun starting to rise over them.
“Get on!” yelled Tom, pointing to the back of a skidoo. Toby clambered tiredly on behind one of the men driving, and hung on to his thick waist. Casper jumped up in front of another man, who tucked him into his jacket. The skidoos set off down the steep snowy mountain, with Snowy running alongside the one that carried Tash.
Help! I might have enjoyed this on a nice sunny day, but now I just want to be safe and warm.
The skidoos moved fast along the snow, bouncing and rocketing down the precipitous gully, their headlights sweeping the white ice to the front. Sometimes they skidded sideways to avoid large boulders in the way, sending Toby’s stomach lurching. He couldn’t see where they were going in the dark, and the freezing wind chilled his face, setting it into a frozen mask. He began to think he would never be able to smile again.
Eventually the skidoos pulled up outside a pair of tall metal gates at the entrance of what looked to Toby like a country park. A large notice was attached to the gates and, in the beams of the headlights, Toby could make out the words:
KEEP OUT – DANGER!
PROPERTY OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE.
The gates swung open and the skidoos stormed through into an area that had once been mown parkland. They sped across the snow-covered grass and stopped in a large yard. Toby couldn’t see any buildings as he peered into the darkness.
Where are we now? What is this?
The men got off the vehicles and undid Tash’s stretcher. Toby and Snowy were following behind when suddenly the men in front disappeared.
Where have they gone to?
“Down here!” a gruff voice shouted. Toby made out a large concrete ramp descending to an enormous pair of metal doors set in the snowy ground. One of the men spoke into an entry phone and the doors slid slowly back to reveal a stairway going down into the bowels of the earth. The men carefully manoeuvred the stretcher round the bends and corners as the stairs wound deeper and deeper. Toby kept up beside them, leaning heavily on the hand railing. His tired legs still ached and his foot was sore. Snowy trotted quietly along in his shadow, never letting Tash out of his sight.
At the bottom of the stairs was a corridor. They seemed to be in a giant underground bunker.
Is the army hiding down here? Is the government running this place? I wonder how big it is? How many people are down here?
At the end of the corridor, one of the men typed a series of numbers into an entry lock, and a heavy metal door clicked open. They stepped into a large room full of equipment. Toby stared around; it was stashed with hand guns and rifles, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, magazines of ammunition, box
es of shells, alongside helmets, stab vests and camouflage suits in grey, white and mottled green. He could now see that the men were wearing winter camouflage: white suits with white boots, helmets, gloves, goggles and rucksacks.
These are no ordinary mountain rescuers. This looks like the SAS or something.
Tash was whisked away. Tom, seeing Toby looking worried as the stretcher disappeared, said,
“Don’t worry, Toby, we have a doctor and he’ll know what’s wrong with her. We have medicine and anything else she might need. And Snowy can go along, too.”
“This place is fantastic!” exclaimed Toby, relaxing a little and staring around him. “You’ve even got electricity down here!”
“Yes, part of the bunker is based inside a hydroelectric dam so we’ve our own electricity supply. We’d better get you warmed up. Go with Simon here and he’ll sort you out.”
Simon showed Toby into a small warm room lined with lockers, and handed him a pile of dry clothes and a towel. He pointed to a cubicle at the back,
“Get yourself cleaned up, son. There’s a shower over there. Come back through when you’re ready.”
Toby slumped onto a bench and peeled off his cold wet clothes. His head throbbed, his feet throbbed and he had a large angry bruise on his knee where Daisy had kicked him.
I look and feel a right mess and I don’t smell too good! And I’m starving. Seems ages since I last ate. Wonder what they’ve got to eat here? But I still need to keep my wits about me and think about how to get to Dad and Sylvie in Stirling.
He stood in the shower for ages, letting the hot water pummel his aching body until he was warmed through. He’d to scrub hard with the soap to get rid of the layers of grime that stuck to his skin, and was surprised to see how pink he was under all the muck. Then he dressed in the man-sized clean clothes, which hung limply from his scrawny frame.
Back in the main room, Toby found Tom staring at a large map of central Scotland pinned to a desk.
“That’s better, Toby. Now, you must be starving – go and help yourself to something hot over there.” He pointed to a canteen area at the back of the huge room. There were tables and chairs set out. Simon came with him to show him what there was.
“Good grub…” said Toby, his mouth stuffed full of hot creamy porridge. There was chunky vegetable soup, drop scones, oatcakes, scrambled eggs, bowls of jam, and tinned peaches.
“Take it steady,” said Simon. “Don’t go overdoing it. Don’t want to make yourself sick.”
Toby nodded, biting into a warm, jammy scone.
Later, warm and full, Toby wandered over to the map table where several of the men, including Tom and Simon, stood chatting.
“So Toby,” said Tom, “it was good thinking on your part to stick that walking pole out of your snow hole. You might have suffocated if you hadn’t. And it was the pole that Casper smelt out, so well done you.”
“My dad told me that,” smiled Toby.
Would Dad be proud of me remembering that? I saved us! Well – Casper helped too.
“You said before, Toby,” said Simon, “that you were heading towards Stirling. Why’s that then?”
“That’s where New Caledonia is.”
I’m surprised they haven’t heard about it. It can’t be far from here, surely?
“So, Toby, what do you know about this New Caledonia?” asked another of the men. This man had a dark unsmiling face, and he stared with cold unflinching eyes, as if he didn’t believe what Toby was telling them.
I don’t like him. He looks as bad as the raiders.
“I don’t know anything, honest. I just want to get my dad and my little sister, Sylvie, back from the raiders. I… I just…” Toby almost burst into tears. It was bad enough to deal alone with cold, soreness, terrible worry and disappointment, to then be disbelieved and mistrusted by people he’d thought were the good guys was simply too much.
“It’s ok, Toby,” said Tom kindly, “You’ll have to forgive Bill, he’s used to interrogating terrorists and the like. Give the boy a break, Bill. He’s been through some serious stuff and come out of it very well by all accounts.”
“I do know that the place is run by someone called the General,” said Toby, wondering if telling them more might help his dad and Sylvie. “I met his Captain, who was scary enough, but all the raiders were seriously terrified of this General bloke. And I know he’s kidnapping people but I’ve no idea why. I mean, what would he want with my dad and Sylvie?”
“He’s a nasty piece of work,” said Simon. “You wouldn’t want to cross him.”
“Yeah,” said Bill. “He’s got no scruples when it comes to torturing people to find out what he needs to know.”
“Torturing people? To find out what?” cried Toby. Was the General torturing his dad right now? “What do you mean?”
“He’s set up his own state,” continued Bill. “He’s collecting up survivors to do the dirty work for him so that he and his private army can live in luxury while he starves the…”
“I think Toby’s heard enough, eh, Toby?” interrupted Tom, scowling at Bill. “We don’t want to frighten him, do we, Bill?”
Bit late for that! As if I’m not already worried about Dad and Sylvie –now I find out that the General is probably torturing and starving them.
“Just tell me one thing,” pleaded Toby, fighting hard to hold back his tears. “What sort of information would the General be trying to get out of my dad?”
“We think he’s probably running out of fuel,” said Tom, putting his hand on Toby’s arm. “He’ll be looking at different ways to make electricity – like putting up wind turbines or solar panels. It’s unlikely that he’s got anyone there who knows anything about those sorts of things. What he needs is an engineer.”
“Oh! My dad’s an engineer!” blurted out Toby.
“In that case, he’ll be very useful to the General. If your dad chooses to cooperate with him, he should be fine,” said Tom reassuringly.
“And what if he doesn’t want to cooperate?” asked Toby, feeling his face redden. The men looked away: Toby could see that wasn’t something they wanted to discuss.
Great! I can’t imagine Dad going along with the plans of some mad man!
Toby didn’t want to hear any more.
“Can I go and see Tash now?” He rubbed his hot face on the nice new jumper they had given him.
Simon showed him to the emergency room, where Tash was lying, propped up on a pile of clean pillows. She had a pink glow to her like she had been scrubbed clean. Beside the bed was a drip-stand with a line going into a pad on her arm. Snowy was lying nearby on the floor, tucking into a large bowl of porridge.
“Look Tobes!” she called, on seeing him pop his head round the door. “I’ve got medicine going straight into my arm! I’m feeling much better already.”
Toby smiled. She did look so much better. He sat for a while and chatted, but he could soon see that she needed to sleep. As he left, the doctor came over to speak to him.
“What was wrong with her?” asked Toby.
“Your friend has been very lucky. She had an impacted tooth that had been festering away for some time. It became infected and naturally made her really poorly. She was very sick when she came in. I extracted the tooth immediately, so she’ll feel much better now. Also, we’ve got her on some intravenous antibiotics, which will kill any infection. She’ll be right as rain in a few days time.”
Thank goodness for that! Poor Tash – there was I calling her moody and all the time she had serious toothache. How awful. Why didn’t she tell me?
But Toby knew why – Tash was trying to prove that she was as brave as Toby could be. She wouldn’t have wanted to moan in case he’d thought she was a sissy.
Silly Tash. I would never have thought that.
Toby sat down suddenly as his legs buckled under him.
Now he had been relieved of some of his worries, he was overwhelmed with exhaustion.
“Come on, young man,
looks like you need some care and attention, too,” said the doctor, helping him to a nearby bed. Toby smiled weakly and then passed out.
22. Red-Hot Anger
“So, young man,” a voice boomed in Toby’s ear. “How are you feeling today?”
Toby opened his eyes and wriggled up in his pillows to see Tom standing next to his bed, gazing at him.
“Eh? Fine, I think,” Toby rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Where is this?”
“You’re in the medical bay,” replied Tom.
“No, I mean, what is this place? Where is it? And who are you and all these men? Have you been here all the time since the red fever?”
“What a lot of questions! I tell you what, I’ll give you a guided tour and explain as we go along,” said Tom. “Get dressed and I’ll come back for you.”
Good – I need to see what they’ve got here. Then I can work out how to get to Stirling, and whether they might even help me.
Ten minutes later Tom escorted Toby around the underground bunker, showing him all the facilities. Toby was amazed to see that not only was there a kitchen, sleeping quarters, offices, a canteen and a medical bay, but there was also a gym, a games room, a library and a huge garage for maintaining a fleet of vehicles. There was even a laboratory where two young women in white protective suits were peering down microscopes.
“That’s our experimental unit,” Tom told him. “We’re trying to work out why some people were immune to red fever, and others weren’t.”
As they walked round the vast compound, Toby told Tom the story of his dad and Sylvie being kidnapped by the raiders, following them to Fort George, meeting Tash, and then how he and Tash had fled just as the dogs attacked.
“There were hundreds of dogs. Some had been following me along the coast, and they must have told the others about Fort George…” But Toby could see Tom didn’t believe him.
“Really? Sounds strange. I’m amazed the dogs got into Fort George. I used to be stationed there years ago, so I know what a strong fortress it is,” said Tom thoughtfully.
Black Tide Page 14