by Martin Dukes
Chapter Two
With a curious sensation of rising to a distant surface, Alex awoke, gasping. It was not unlike swimming up from the bottom of the deep end of the pool at the leisure centre, lungs aching for breath. It remained dark, but not the seamless profundity of that which had engulfed him only moments ago. This was an entirely natural darkness, shrouding a world that his senses could begin to interpret. He was laid face down on a cold, yielding surface that quickly revealed itself to be sand. A chill wind whipped stinging granules against his cheek, and his one sudden inhalation had sucked in a disagreeably large amount. Rolling over, he sat up, spitting and cursing, brushing more sand from his face and hair. His eyes began to adjust to the gloom. Peering about he could make out the distinction between land and sky but little else, unless one counted a vaguely lighter area that might signal approaching dawn and must therefore represent east. The soft sand between his fingers pretty much ruled out his being in the park, but the soft soughing of the wind brought with it no rumour of the sea, so it was unlikely he was on a beach. Alex was in the process of concluding that he had pitched up in a desert when there was a low moan from next to him.
“Kelly?”
“Yeah. Oh my God. Where are we now, for God’s sake?”
A darker shape reared up at his side and he felt her hand suddenly on his cheek. He held it in his own and for a moment they were content to find comfort in each other’s presence.
“No idea,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s Cardenbridge and I don’t think it’s ‘Sticia either.”
“It’s like the Sahara, or something,” said Henry’s voice from a little way away. “I’ve got half of it down my pants.” There was a tremulous quality to this statement, which suggested he was struggling to hold things together. “I thought I was all on my own for a minute. Good to hear you guys.” A distinctly nervous laugh ensued.
There was the sound of Henry standing up and shaking his jeans. Then he was close to them, staggering as his foot came into violent contact with Alex’s knee.
“Hey! Steady on!” Alex said.
“Sorry. It’s just sooo dark. I never knew it so dark.”
“Hang on a mo’,” said Kelly, and immediately her face was eerily uplit by the bluish glow of her phone, which she shone around at Henry and Alex, who quickly brought out their own.
“That’s better,” said Henry, shining his on the ground around him. “Hmm, sand. Loads of it. Why’s it so lousy dark round here?”
“Can’t be any cities near, I guess,” said Alex. “You usually get a glow on the underside of the clouds, don’t you?”
“Oh, er, this is Kelly,” continued Alex, feeling he was letting the side down with regard to etiquette. “Kelly… Henry.”
The pair, thus named, reached across Alex with their free hands and shook.
There was silence for a while, broken only by the soft sigh of the wind. Alex’s mind continued to adjust itself to new circumstances. It was an uphill task.
“So this is a dream, right?” asked Henry’s voice speculatively, but without much genuine optimism.
“I wish,” answered Kelly.
It was tough on Henry. Kelly and Alex, having spent time in ‘Sticia, were already accustomed to weirdness on a grand scale, so finding themselves suddenly in the middle of a benighted desert was a little easier for them to come to terms with.
“So what was all that about, then?” asked Kelly, referring to recent events in the park. “Looks like those guys were out to get you.”
“Search me,” said Alex with a shrug. “I don’t think I’ve ever crossed the St John’s Ambulance brigade.”
“That’s not who they were,” said Kelly. “You know that. It’s got something to do with what Malcolm was saying to you, hasn’t it?”
“I guess,” conceded Alex.
“They did some sort of paralysing thing to you,” said Henry. “I was watching and I saw him do it. Like some sort of poison dart it must have been.”
“And that’s another thing,” said Kelly reproachfully. “You told me you were coming alone.”
“Yeah, well. I forgot that bit.”
“Huh!” said Kelly sniffily. “Am I supposed to believe that? A deal’s a deal, isn’t it?”
“Sorry,” grunted Alex.
“What’s special about you anyway?” asked Henry, moving things on. “You’ve been keeping that a bit quiet, haven’t you? And what’s all this ‘Sticia malarkey? Is it something to do with that stopping time thing you were on about last week?”
“Sort of,” said Alex.
He and Kelly explained about their adventures in Intersticia. Henry sat in thoughtful silence whilst angels, snarks and Cactus Jack were described to him. It was cold. Each of them thrust their hands deep into their pockets. Alex and Kelly pulled up the hoods of their hoodies.
“But then we dropped back into reality our memories got wiped,” said Alex at last.
“Not exactly,” objected Kelly. “I knew there was something funny going on. Everyone said it was like I’d seen a ghost or something. I wasn’t the same person.”
“Same with me,” agreed Alex.
“And it was like there was a big chunk of something missing from in here.”
Alex could just about see her tapping her forehead. It was starting to get light.
“Me too. I felt really peculiar. And I couldn’t stop thinking about your name and your number, even though it didn’t mean a lot to me.”
“Yeah. I hadn’t even got a name to go on,” said Kelly. “But when you called I knew at once who it was. That was the odd thing. I knew nothing about you at all, not even your name, but things kind of started to fall into place.”
“Sweet,” said Henry with a sniff. “It’s, like, written in the stars, obviously for you guys. Hey, I think it’s getting light.”
It was. A rosy glow was spreading across the eastern horizon. Before long, the sun edged above the horizon and rose, a crimson disk, that rapidly became white hot, searingly intense, glaring from the parched desert sands.
“I suppose we’d better make a move,” proposed Alex, well before the rim of the sun had cleared the distant eastern mountains.
The others looked at him doubtfully.
“Like, where to? I’m not sure we should be going far,” said Henry, who had now composed himself to some extent. “That guy might be coming back for us.”
“His name is Malcolm, and I don’t think he is coming back,” said Alex. “Not for a while anyway. I don’t suppose he’ll have any trouble tracking us down, though.”
“He’s an angel,” added Kelly, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. “Super powers and all that. Seriously.”
Henry seemed to consider this notion. For a moment he raised a questioning finger but then appeared to reconsider whatever enquiry it had signalled.
“What?” asked Alex, pausing in his study of the surrounding landscape.
“Nothing. Everything makes perfect sense. So where are we going then?”
Henry seemed content to let Alex handle navigation. It was already hot. Kelly had her hoodie tied around her waist by its arms by now. Henry and Alex soon did likewise with theirs. No one had a signal on their phones – not even a single bar – so they were clearly some way from civilisation. Privately, Alex wondered if they were even on Earth at all. There was no signal in Intersticia either, and for all he knew Malcolm had dumped them on some distant desert planet, like in Star Wars. It didn’t bear thinking about. He thought about practical matters instead. Malcolm had presumably dropped them in a place of safety. There must be an oasis nearby where they could find food and water; perhaps a decent hotel. They might be a short way inland from a beach resort of some sort.
“I’m thinking we’ll head north,” said Alex, stroking his chin. “If we keep the sun to our right, that should do it.”
“Why north?” asked Kelly, glancing around. “Why not south or east or west, for that matter?”
“I don’t know,
” shrugged Alex. “It just looks… better… over there. And there’s a bit of cloud up there, too. Anyway, have you got a better idea?”
Henry and Kelly looked at each other. “Well, he is the Special One,” said Henry. “Maybe he’s got internal satnav.”
“We’d better come across an oasis pretty soon,” said Kelly, rubbing the back of her hand across dry lips. “We’re not going to last long out here unless we get something to drink.”
“Thanks for that thought,” said Henry ruefully, before setting off after Alex. “I wish I’d thought to pack my shades. Never mind, I’m going to wake up any minute and this’ll all have been a bad dream.”
“Wouldn’t count on it,” muttered Kelly, her feet sinking deep into the soft, shifting sand of the dune they were descending. “Pinch yourself all you like, pal. This is real, alright.”
By mid-morning it was quite clear that they were in trouble. The landscape was an unforgiving wilderness of arid dunes and pebble screes, enlivened by the occasional thicket of dry thorn bushes or rocky outcrops and dotted with wizened cactuses. Of human life there was no sign. Above them the merciless eye of the sun ascended the aching blue of the firmament, beating on their shoulders as they trudged northwards. As the shadows shortened it became more difficult to judge their direction.
“Where did your friend say he was sending us?” muttered Henry when they paused for a brief break. “Place of safety was it? Is that what he said? Hmm? Place of bloody safety! Jesus, I am sooo thirsty.” He breathed a deep sigh. “Did I already say that?”
“You might have mentioned it,” said Kelly scornfully, checking her phone for the hundredth time. “Just once or twice. No, maybe a couple of thousand times, actually. Like a bloody broken record, actually. I think you’ll find we’re all thirsty.”
“Still no signal?” asked Alex without much hope. He felt that his tongue was swelling inside a mouth from which all the saliva had fled.
“What do you think?”
“We’re going to die out here, aren’t we?” said Henry with an air of resignation. “It’s not even midday yet.” He looked at Kelly’s bare shoulders, revealed by her strappy top. “We’ll all roast to death. Look how red you are already.”
It was true. Alex’s face already felt tight and sore. It appeared they had a choice between roasting to death in their hoodies or burning to death without.
“Do you think maybe we should rest up a bit in some shade and carry on when the sun’s going down?” suggested Kelly, lifting a strap to reveal the difference in skin colour.
“Yes, we could hunker down in that fine stand of mature elms,” said Henry caustically, looking out across the bleak, sun-scorched wilderness that stretched away on all sides.
There was higher ground further north. Alex shaded his eyes and scrutinised the rock-strewn slope ahead. Above, large black birds of some sort were circling ominously. It was hard not to feel that they were waiting for the three struggling figures below to keel over, hard not to envisage his own bleached skeleton picked bare by those dusty black scavengers.
“Hmm. Vultures, nice touch,” said Henry, noticing this phenomenon. “We’ll have to stop a moment whilst I empty the sand out of my trainers.”
“Not again,” sighed Kelly.
“Yes, again!” snapped, Henry. “It’s not my fault, is it? I didn’t ask for this bloody route march across the Sahara, did I?”
“Yeah, well I didn’t invite you along, did I?” retorted Kelly. “You shouldn’t even be here, so far as I’m concerned.”
“Oyyy! Give it a rest, both of you,” Alex scolded them from further up the slope. “It’s not helping, is it? We’re all hot, knackered and thirsty, that’s all... Hang on….”
“What?” asked Henry and Kelly in unison.
Alex broke into a gasping, lumbering run and then stopped.
“Wahay!” he cried jubilantly. “Check this out.”
His companions hurried to join him. The slope they stood on was the rim of a wide valley, reaching away northwards. Down below them were trees – palm trees, lots of them – and a silver thread of what might be water amongst them.
“It’s an oasis,” breathed Kelly at his side.
“Could be a mirage,” said Henry, sounding a note of caution.
“Oh, shut up you idiot!” Kelly told him. It seemed that she and Henry weren’t exactly hitting it off.
“It’s legit,” said Alex, shading his eyes. “I’m sure it is. I can’t see any villages or anything, though. We’d better get down there and take a look.”
Twenty minutes later and they were amongst trees, the scattered outliers of a fair sized wood. They might have been date palms. Certainly there were good sized clusters of some kind of fruit borne high up amongst the spiky leaves that cast such delightful shadows all around. There was scrubby grass underfoot that became greener, lusher as they pressed on towards the glitter of silver ahead.
“There must have been people living here at some point,” said Henry, pointing out crumbling walls of mud brick here and there amongst the palms. They soon came upon a path, threading its way westwards, shaded by huge shaggy palm trees of a different type to those they had seen before. Beyond was a great pool, a perfect burnished mirror for the sky and for the lush vegetation that surrounded it on all sides. Flocks of small colourful birds darted in and out of tall, thorny thickets. Insects buzzed and hummed amongst a carpet of flowers. They might have found it charming had they not been so desperately thirsty. For now, their one fixed focus was on making their way to water. Shouldering aside dry reeds they found themselves on the verge of the pool, feet squelching in mud.
“Hang on,” said Kelly as the others stooped to scoop up water in their hands. “What if it’s poisoned or something?”
Henry paused, cool, beautiful water dribbling through his fingers. He glared at her.
“Whattt?!”
“It could be. It’s funny there’s no-one around. You’d think there’d be loads of people in an oasis like this. I bet there’s no other water for miles around.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Kelly. You’re such a bloody pessimist!” Nevertheless, Henry’s hands fell away from his mouth. He seemed unsure what to do.
“Smells okay,” said Alex, sniffing his fingers cautiously.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” cautioned Kelly.
Out across the pool a bird alighted with a splash and lumbered skyward again, a large fish thrashing in its jaws. The travellers regarded this with interest, shading their eyes against the sun, which was now somewhat past its zenith.
“There’s fish,” said Henry confidently. “That means it’s okay.”
With whoops of delight they splashed into the shallows, throwing themselves headlong into the sweet cool water, drinking, laughing, splashing and chasing each other until they were breathless and exhausted. At length, refreshed, happy and fully hydrated, they broke a path through the brittle reed bed to a shady bank beneath a massive palm. Even in the shade, the heat quickly dried their soggy clothes. They lay side by side, gazing up at bunches of distant fruit and beyond these the mesh of spiky swaying branches, dark against the azure heavens.
“Do you think there’re snakes?” asked Kelly after a while.
The euphoria of drinking and cooling off ebbed gradually from their consciousness, and a number of practical considerations began to rise to the surface of their thoughts.
“Bound to be,” said Henry, detecting vulnerability. “Big nasty ones, with poisonous bites. Snakes, huh! It’s the insects I’m worried about. The little suckers are eating me alive.” He slapped at his neck for emphasis, inspecting a squashed bug critically between thumb and forefinger. “Bloody great black brutes.”
“How did you know to head north?” asked Kelly, turning on her side and regarding Alex seriously with her big brown eyes. She was gorgeous, Alex reminded himself, even with damp matted hair and an irregular sunburn.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Just a hunch, I think.�
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“It’s because he’s the special one, like that Malcolm guy said,” came Henry’s voice from the other side of Kelly. “If you’re that bloody special why don’t you teleport us back to Cardenbridge? I’m supposed to be going out tonight for Alice’s birthday. My mum’s going to throw a wobbly if I’m not back for tea. What time do you reckon it really is? My phone still says it’s 3:16.”
“Don’t you think I would if I could?” said Alex patiently, absently plaiting together a few strands of dried grass. “I’ve got no idea what Malcolm was on about. Special! Ha! That’s not what it says on my last report.”
“Special Needs, maybe,” said Henry with a wry chuckle, giving Alex a companionable punch on the shoulder.
“This is your friend?” asked Kelly, casting her eyes upwards.
“Yeah, I guess,” conceded Alex. He checked his own phone and found that, like Henry’s, it continued to assure him it was 3:16. Unsurprisingly, there were no texts, emails or any indication of a signal. On an impulse he tried ringing 999, but without any great sense of optimism.
“Already tried that,” Kelly told him. “No dice. What would you say to them anyway, even if they did pick up? Which one are we needing – fire, police or ambulance? What exactly is our postcode anyway? ‘Where am I, operator?’” she said in a highly affected voice. “‘I’m on the corner of Oasis Boulevard; that’s right, by the filling station.” She laughed, throwing her head back and showing her even white teeth.
“I almost think you’re enjoying this,” he said.
“Are you insane?” she asked, laughing some more, but ironically now. “I’m not sure this is exactly what I signed up for when I said I’d see you.” She gestured around them. “You certainly know how to show a girl a good time, that’s for sure. Quite a first date, don’t you think? Speaking of dates, I’m absolutely starving.” She looked meaningfully up at the shaggy high bunches swaying high in the trees. “What are you like at climbing?”