As they approached the ledge which looked out over their new land, it was suggested by Kel that they take one more look at the amazing sight of so much greenery, before committing themselves to the sterile drabness of the tunnels.
‘I still find it hard to believe that all this could exist, and we knew nothing about it.’ said Greg, gazing out over the tree tops. ‘And we wouldn’t have, if it hadn’t been for Sandy, so let’s not forget that.’ Ben added.
They turned as one, and began the long pull up the first really steep incline of many yet to come, torn between staying in their green and pleasant land, and rejoining those they had left behind in the crater far above them.
Passing back through the metal tunnel over the molten lava pit had lost some of its terrors, and the team were a little more nonchalant in their approach to the transparent section which gave a good view of the fiery turmoil below.
They still marvelled at the fact that the tube remained cool despite the tremendous heat below from the liquid rock, the only really disconcerting thing being the huge span of the tube across the pit, with no visible means of support.
The continuous upward pull, especially on the longer steep sections, took its toll, and frequent breaks were called for.
Sandy had hoped to complete the journey in what he thought was one day, as they had done on the way down, but it soon became obvious that they would have to spend the night in the tunnels, if only to rest their aching muscles.
At what they estimated to be the halfway point, although no one was sure, they stopped for a meal and sleep. Even the dried meat strips tasted good, and the water, although it had been sloshed around for hours and acquired a little warmth from their bodies, was pure nectar. There were the usual grumbles about the hard rock, but these soon faded as tired bodies, pushed almost beyond their limits, went into sleep mode. The only sound in the otherwise silent tunnels was the deep snoring of Kel, who was frequently turned over in unsuccessful attempts to abate the nerve rasping noises he emitted due to a defective soft palate.
When they awoke they had no idea what part of the day it was, or even if it was still night. Ben had been the first to arise, and had refilled the lamps, polished the reflecting plates, and adjusted their wicks. They were all a bit grumpy as they set off, dolefully still chewing the remains of their dried meat strips, and looking forward to one of Mop’s sumptuous stews.
Two more stops for refreshment were needed before they came to the junction which led out to the first ledge high up on the rim, where they had looked down on the clouds.
‘We’re nearly home now,’ said Sandy, relief sounding in his voice, ‘so how about we take one more look at the cloud layer? It will also give us some idea of what part of the day it is.’ They turned into the tunnel leading to the ledge, too tired to argue, and caring little, as the long journey was now nearly over.
As they walked out onto the ledge, a chill wind greeted them, indicating that it was either early morning or very late evening. Ben pointed out that it must be evening, as the sunlight was well down below the crater rim behind them, and the clouds were tinged with pink, an evening colour.
They were just about to turn and enter the tunnel for the last stage of their journey, when a flash of light far out over the cloud field caught their attention.
‘There it is again.' Ben pointed towards a faint flash of silver which seemed to ascend from the distant haze and then glide along just above cloud level.
‘It’s not coming in our direction,’ Sandy said, disappointedly, ‘I’ll bet it’s one of those bloody vehicles which drop us down here.’
The others exchanged uneasy glances, Ben afraid Sandy might want to take the craft on in a show of force, and the other two afraid he was going the way of Nan, to the land of the confused.
The speck of silver flickered out of existence, and they returned to the more mundane task of tramping the tunnels until they reached their old home caves, and a decent meal.
An undignified scramble down the last incline brought them into Ben’s storeroom, and home.
The Last Exchange
They could hear voices as they went up the passage towards the main cave, and despite the tiredness, broke into a trot for the last few metres, and burst into the cavern.
Mop was the first to react, her ample proportions wobbling as she ran up to Sandy and threw her arms around him, sobbing.
‘Thought you’d never come back,’ she sobbed out at last, ‘thought some awful creature down there had got you.’
The others were greeted like long lost heroes, with much back slapping and hugging, and a few not ashamed to show their tears of joy at the safe return of their comrades.
‘How about some food then?’ asked Sandy, when he had untangled himself from the overjoyed Mop. ‘We’re bloody starving.’
Mop left the cavern to fetch the cooking pot she had already prepared, glancing back twice to make sure Sandy was really there, and it was not one of her frightening dreams.
The stew, when it came, was acclaimed the best ever by the team, who received a few sideways looks from the others who had received copious amounts of it over the last few days, while Mop waited for her chosen one to return.
The team took it in turns to recount their adventure in great detail, answering questions wherever possible, but finding it difficult to describe some of what they had seen as some of the others had no recall of the past, and therefore no reference points from which to begin.
Mop disappeared for a while, and then returned with a pot of some steaming green liquid, which she poured out into their drinking bowls. After the first tentative sip, it was downed with great enthusiasm, the sweet aromatic smell of the new herbs lingering long afterwards in their meal cavern.
When they eventually went to bed, everyone fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the rags, with the exception of Sandy.
Mop was so pleased that he had returned safe and sound, that she found it difficult to express her relief, and showed it in the only way she knew how. An exhausted Sandy was totally shattered when he was finally allowed to close his eyes, and began to wonder if a celibate life was preferable after all. But then again, her cooking was very good.
The sun was high in the sky when the first members of the group at last managed to drag themselves up to the main cavern, and to their surprise were greeted by a deputation from one of the other clans from nearby.
‘Our apologies for intruding into your system, but no one was about, and we wondered if any harm had befallen you.’
Greg rubbed his sore eyes, and tried to get them into focus.
‘Oh, we had a bit of a bash last night, and retired rather late. We’re all right, just a bit shattered, that’s all. Why have you come to see us?’
‘Word is about that you have developed a super weapon, something which annihilated the raiders who have been plaguing the area for some time. We would like one, we have many things to trade with, so there should be something you would like to have.'
Greg thought for a moment, Sandy was the new leader, so it was up to him to make decisions of this nature.
‘There are two things I would say,’ he began, ‘one is that we have destroyed the raiders, and so far we haven’t heard of any more, and the other is that we only have the one weapon, and no means to make another one.’ He then wondered if he had said too much, and exposed them to an attack in order to retrieve the weapon for themselves. He decided he had better fetch Sandy, and let him sort it out.
Leaving the visitors in the main cavern, Greg hurried down to Sandy’s cave and awoke him, shaking him roughly by what he thought was his shoulder.
‘Oh, for God’s sake, Mop, let me sleep,’ the buried head under the rags mumbled, ‘it can’t be day already. Oh, it’s you.’ The bleary eyed Sandy raised himself on one elbow, shook his head a couple of times to clear it, and enquired,
‘What’s the problem?’ knowing that no one would wake him up unless there was an impending catastrophe.
B
riefly, Greg explained what had happened, and what he had said in response to the visitor’s request.
‘No great harm done. I don’t suppose they would risk trying to take it from us by force, and I doubt very much they have anything we really need now. I’ll go see ’em, keep ’em entertained for a while, and I’ll be up.’
With that the head retired beneath the rags again, and Mop’s happy smiling face emerged.
‘Sod off, there’s a dear,’ she said sweetly, ‘we’ll be up shortly.’ Apart from feeling a little embarrassed, Greg was annoyed that the situation should be taken so lightly, especially when he could foresee the possible dangers.
Some little while later, Sandy staggered into the main cavern, smiled around at those present, and plumped down heavily on the one remaining unoccupied section of bench.
‘Greg here, has explained your mission, and my answer is much the same as his. I don’t think you need to worry about any more attacks. If you’re still really worried, what you could do is spread the rumour that you have acquired a similar weapon to ours, and that should deter anyone with covetous intentions on your cave system and its contents.’
‘It’s the women we’re worried about,’ the leader of the visitors said, ’we have a lot of them, and the others don’t.’
Sandy and Greg found difficulty in hiding their surprise at the unexpected statement, women were few and far between in most groups, and here was one with a surplus.
‘Tell you what,’ Sandy said, thinking quickly, ‘tell us where you are situated in the crater rim, and in the near future we may be able to do a deal. If you have more women than you feel is comfortable for the size of your group, we could do an exchange for some, that’s if they would like to join us. You could sound them out on the proposal, and let us know how they feel about it.’
This satisfied the visitors, and they left feeling they had achieved something, but were not too sure what it was.
‘What have you got in mind?’ asked Greg, as they sat down again, waiting for the morning meal.
‘Well, we don’t have enough women to go around, that’s if every man wants a partner when we go down to our new land, and I think most will once we get organized and life becomes a little easier. We won’t need the gas weapon, and we couldn’t get it down those tunnels anyway, so they may as well have it. If we can get partners for our men in exchange, I reckon that’s a good deal.’
‘How about telling the other groups about our new land, or do you think we should keep it to ourselves?’
‘I’d thought about that. They're a mixed bunch, and some are darn right dangerous. The trouble is, most of ’em have developed strange religious beliefs which aren’t based on facts or reason, and that could spell trouble. No, for the time being, I think we’ll keep our discovery to ourselves, after all, our survival comes first.’
Ben nodded his acceptance of Sandy’s judgement on the situation, he was usually proved right, and that was a comfort in itself.
Any further discussion of the matter was halted, as other members of the group came in for their first meal of a day which would change their lives for ever.
When all were assembled, and had had their fill of Mop’s new gruel and crushed grain buns, Sandy rose to his feet.
‘We had a visit from one of the other groups this morning, and it would seem they have a surplus of women, and would like our flame-thrower. I think we may be able to do a deal with them, but it depends on whether you all want a partner in our new land or not. Think about it carefully, once we are down there, there’s no guarantee we will be able to return here to get more women should any of you not want a partner now, and later change your minds.’
Sandy waited for the general hubbub of voices expressing their own thoughts on the matter to die down, and continued,
‘You don’t have to make up your minds for a day or two, but I’ll need to know before we approach the other group. Now, is there anyone who doesn’t want to go down to the land we discovered? If any of you decide not to go, then you may have to join another group, just to survive. Let’s have a show of hands, who doesn’t want to go?’
No one physically moved, although a few pairs of eyes flickered from side to side to see if there were any dissenters.
‘OK, that’s settled then, we all go. I’m very glad, there are none of you whom I would wish to leave behind.’
With that, the meeting broke up, everyone going their own way to do whatever it was they had to do.
‘I suggest we go down to your store and begin to sort out those things we shall need to take with us.’ Sandy said to Ben, he was eager to return to the gentle warmth and greenery of the land below the volcano, he had had his fill of dark tunnels and extreme heat and cold.
Anything which could be made into a cutting tool, ropes and cords, containers of any size, and the remains of the roll of cloth, were all considered priority items.
Ben suggested that most things could be dragged along on frames, as this would amount to far more than anyone could carry as a load. Sandy liked the idea, as the frames themselves would then be another source of material.
Slowly the pile of goods selected for the new world grew, Ben being loath to leave behind some of his hard acquired treasures until Sandy suggested that they exchanged some of the unnecessary goods for items of use in their new life.
‘What about that gun thing which fires out the red light?’ Ben asked, curious why it had not been mentioned.
‘I’ve got it hidden away down here,’ Sandy replied, ‘it’s not the sort of thing you bandy about haphazardly, or others will become too reliant on its use, and thereby become weaker and less able to defend themselves.’
‘Not thought of it like that,’ said Ben pensively, ‘but you could give the Great Lights something to remember you by, that’s if they come again.’
‘Oh, they’ll come again, and I had initially thought along those lines, but now we have found a better life, I feel less inclined to seek vengeance. Don’t forget, they’re just like us, ridding their society of those who cause them problems, as we have done. At least they didn’t kill us, many would have.’
‘Are you sure about this ‘getting rid of undesirables’ idea? It seems a bit unreal to me.’ Ben still felt a little uneasy at some of Sandy’s ideas.
‘Without a doubt, nothing else makes sense.’
It was close to the midday break when one of the group came down to the storeroom, looking tense.
‘I think you’d better come up.’ he said, solemn faced.
Why? What’s the problem?’
‘Nan’s died.’ The man tried to look as one should when bereft of a great person, but failed miserably. ‘They are waiting for you in the main cavern.’
‘Why do you think that happened?’ Sandy enquired, as they left the store. ‘He seemed all right yesterday, he wasn’t quite with us, but he was walking around and eating.’
‘Don’t know, that’s why we want you up there.’
There were six people in the main cavern, including Bell and Karry, some looking sadder than others. Despite his strange ways, they had known him a long time, and in the early days he had led them well.
‘Tell me what happened.’ Sandy asked.
‘I was doing my plants,’ said Bell, wiping a tear from her cheek with a grubby finger, ‘when Henree, who had been looking after him, came and said he had died. So that’s when I collected the others on the way here, and sent for you.’
‘Where’s Henree now?’
‘Still with him, I think.’ Bell rubbed the other cheek, adding a balancing dark streak to the other side of her face.
‘Right, let’s go see him.’ The others stood respectfully aside as Sandy swept from the cavern, closely followed by Ben, the rest of them tagging along behind.
Nan’s cave was a surprise to Sandy, who had never had reason to visit it. The walls were adorned with strange but well crafted pictures, drawn and coloured on flattened pieces of metal and pegged to cracks in the rock. Wh
atever had inspired the artist, it was certainly not of this world, Sandy later confided to Ben, and in his opinion, it looked as if Nan had been heading for a breakdown for some time, if the pictures were anything to go by.
Nan was lying on a rag covered raised platform, a serene smile on his face, and both arms folded across his chest.
‘Tell me what happened from early this morning, Henree.’
‘I took him in for the morning meal, fed him as usual, and brought him back here. He said the Great Lights were coming soon, and I jollied him along a bit, but he got angry, so I just sat over there,’ and he pointed to a crude stool, ‘and waited to see what he would do next.
‘He just walked around the cave, looking at the pictures and mumbling as usual, and I must have dozed off. When I came to, he had opened that little box over there, and took a pinch of stuff from it, and then sniffed it up his nose. He seemed all right, so I went for a pee, and when I came back, he was lying on his bed, just like he is now,’ and he pointed to the recumbent Nan, ‘I thought he was asleep, ’cos he sleeps a lot now, and then I noticed he wasn’t breathing.
‘I lifted an eyelid, but he didn’t try to blink, so I shook him, hard, but he didn’t wake up, and that’s when I called for you lot. I’m sorry if it’s my fault, but I...’
‘No, it’s not your fault,’ said Sandy, trying to console the distraught man, ‘poor old Nan has been heading this way for some time, there’s nothing you could have done to save him. It’s called old age, probably helped along by that powder he took.’ Sandy went across to the box on the shelf, and picked it up carefully. Gently opening the lid, he looked inside. A fine grey powder flowed like dirty water as he rocked the box back and forth.
‘Anyone know what this is?’ There was no reply.
Taking a small amount on his finger, Sandy touched it to his lip, letting his tongue slide across the spot. For a few seconds nothing happened, then the room swam and his eyes went out of focus.
If someone had not caught him, he would have fallen to the ground in a helpless heap. They carried Sandy across to the stool and sat him down, Ben holding him by the shoulders to make sure he stayed upright.
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