Extreme Difference

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  After a few minutes, he shook his head a couple of times, put a steadying hand on the wall, and stood up, shakily.

  ‘The silly old sod’s been taking drugs,’ he exclaimed, ‘that’s one powerful hallucinogenic, no wonder he died.’

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Ben, always eager to add to his knowledge.

  ‘It’s a compound which makes you see things which aren’t really there, a bit like a dream. Trouble is, most of ’em are poisonous in the long term, and this one certainly was. Anyone know where he got it?’ No one did.

  ‘What do we normally do with a body?’ Sandy asked.

  ‘It’s been a long time since anyone’s died, I think we put them out on the sands in the early morning, but I’m not too sure.' Henree was visibly shaking, so Sandy put an arm around his shoulder, ‘as I said, it’s not your fault.’

  When they had all gathered for the midday meal, Sandy made the official announcement, although word had gone around long before that, so no one looked too surprised.

  ‘I believe it’s the custom to leave the body out on the sands, unless anyone has a better idea?’ The total silence indicated that no one had. ‘Tomorrow morning we will take our old friend out to the sands, ’till then, he will remain in his cave so that anyone who wishes to see him may do so.

  ‘I know he was a cantankerous old so and so towards the end, but he has led you well in his time, so let’s remember him as he was, not as he is now. He was kind and helpful to me when I needed it most, and that’s something I can’t repay, except by trying to do as good a job as he did.’

  By the time several others had stood to say their pieces, Mop was quietly sobbing away at the end of the table, Bell shed a few tears, but Karry held hers back. This made her nose run, and that was an even worse sight.

  After they had all quietly dispersed, Sandy and Ben returned to the storeroom to continue their sorting of those things they would soon take down to the new land.

  ‘You really think the Great Lights will come?’ asked Ben.

  ‘Probably, at sometime. I think it was that bloody powder he took rather than some ability to foresee the future.’

  ‘But he knew when you were coming, he told us the night before, and next morning in you came.’ Sandy just gave him a look, and carried on with the sorting.

  Mop did her very best for the evening meal, but everyone was still in a sombre mood, which left her wondering where she had gone wrong.

  With the meal over, everyone would normally have retired to their own caves after a while, but this night no one made a move to leave the cavern.

  Sandy quietly asked what was going on, and Ben passed the query on down the table. After a bit of subdued muttering, Greg stood up, noisily cleared his throat twice, and said,

  ‘I’ve been doing a survey, and all us men would like a partner to take with us when we go to our new home, and we are five women short. I know it’s a bit soon after Nan’s death, but we all feel we would like to make a new start.’

  ‘That’s fine by me.’ Sandy replied. ‘Ben and I will try to do an exchange tomorrow. I’ll need two volunteers to help move the flame-thrower over to the other group, so sort it out among yourselves, we leave at first light.’

  That ended the evening, and all retired to their sleeping quarters to think their own thoughts on the day’s happenings.

  Mop was still quietly crying when Sandy entered their cave, and he did his best to comfort her, later realizing her tears had soon stopped once they were snuggled up close.

  Mop was also one not to pass up a good opportunity when it was offered.

  Next morning, over their uniforms, the team of four put on the best of the now cleaned rags which had been their clothing before the uniforms had been made. Extra wrappings were bound on their feet to insulate them from the still frozen sands, and they set off, two pulling the flame-thrower on ropes, frequently changing with others to keep up a pace. They reached the group who had visited them about the exchange, just as the first signs of the coming dawn lit up the sky in bands of pale pink and orange.

  The chief was called, and despite his bleary eyed appearance, it was obvious from the start that a bit of hard bargaining was about to take place, so Sandy asked for seven women in exchange for the flame-thrower.

  The chief raised his hands in horror at the exorbitant price asked, but finally agreed, with great reluctance to five, which was what Sandy wanted in the first place.

  The women were quite keen about the exchange, partly prompted by the smart appearance of Sandy’s men in their uniforms, but mainly because that was the way nature intended things to be. The chief tried his luck again about material to make new clothes for themselves, but gave up when it was apparent there was none left, due to fluent lying on behalf of the team. The women looked more disappointed than the chief, and for a moment Sandy thought the deal might fall through, but hormones proved stronger than fashion, and they all left at top speed to beat the rising sun, and the possibility that the chief might change his mind.

  They got back to base just as the first streamers of blazing sunlight cut across the high rim, and vaporized the last of the frost from the now warming sands.

  There was no sign of Nan’s body, just a few marks in the sand where it had been carried far out, and a disturbance where something had retrieved it. Sandy hoped the something now had crippling indigestion.

  The morning meal had been held back for the returning travellers, and apart from a dirty look from Mop, they were given a great welcome as the meal was served.

  Sandy grinned at the look of surprise on the new female faces when they saw what was on offer, food wise, that is, and considered they had made a good impression on the new additions to their group.

  Ben was asked to briefly explain what was about to happen in the next few days, regarding the new home they would all go to, and that shortly after arrival there, they could partner up, should they wish to.

  When the new women were measured up for uniforms, they showed little surprise at the magical appearance of the necessary material, and Sandy wondered why they had been able to convince the chief so easily that there was no more cloth. But Sandy was a little short on understanding women.

  Two days later, the sledge frames for transporting all their worldly goods had been completed, and loaded. Ben wanted to take the pair of gas guns, but reluctantly left them behind when Sandy patiently explained that there would be no gas to load them.

  The rest of the fat had been rendered down, more oil lamps made, and the rest of the considerable quantity of dried meat strips carefully packed for the journey. All they needed now was a good omen, and they got it next morning.

  No one slept too well that night, as the anticipation level of what would happen next day being so high. In the early hours of the morning, Sandy was rudely awakened from his fitful slumbers by an over exuberant Ben.

  ‘Come quickly, I think the Great Lights are coming, there’s something up in the sky, and it’s too early for the sun.’

  They raced up to the entrance of the complex, regretting their imprudent haste when the bitter cold of the crater’s air hit them, and threatened to freeze their nostrils solid.

  ‘Look, up there.’ Ben pointed to a spot high up in the heavens. Sunlight glinted off something metallic, and it was moving. ‘See, I told you.’

  ‘Just shut up and watch.’ Sandy retorted, regretting his harshness almost immediately.

  The tiny speck of light slowly drifted downwards towards the crater, and then was no more.

  ‘Oh, it’s gone.’ said Ben, sounding disappointed.

  ‘No it hasn’t,’ Sandy replied, ‘look just below where you saw it last, the stars are being blanked out by something, and it’s still coming down.’

  The great ship lowered itself into the crater, and fifteen metres from the frozen sands it stopped, hovering, the huge black shape being hardly discernible from the dark rock.

  Twin beams of light lanced down to illuminate the sand beneath, and
something slowly drifted down from between them, tumbling over and over as it descended.

  ‘My God, that ship’s big.’ Sandy exclaimed, as the back wash of light off the sand lit up the outline of the vessel.

  ‘Some poor sod’s been dumped.’ he muttered, recalling his own experience of not so long ago. ‘I hope they get to him before he freezes solid.’

  ‘I expect they will if they have a Nan like we had.’ Ben said thoughtfully.

  Having deposited its cargo on the crater floor, the twin lights went out, and the great ship silently rose up, accelerating away sharply, soon just another moving star, and then it was gone.

  ‘How did you know it would come?’ asked Sandy, aware of his shivering for the first time.

  ‘I remembered what Nan said, and thought this would be the last chance to see it.’ Ben replied through chattering teeth. ‘I’m glad I did, now I know what you said was true.’ he added as an after thought.

  ‘I don’t think we’ll tell the others about this,’ Sandy suggested, ‘it’ll only start another argument, and we don’t want that this morning.’

  ‘I agree,’ Ben replied, ‘they’re not scientific like us.’ Sandy grinned to himself, yes, Ben was coming along just fine.

  They hurried down to Mop’s kitchen, the warmest place in the complex, and a chance for an extra portion of food.

  ‘What got you up so early?’ she asked, giving Ben a wink which only confused him.

  ‘Ah, things to do,’ Sandy answered cheerfully, ‘how about a little snack to keep us going?’ playfully giving her a sharp slap on her ample rear end.

  ‘You men are all the same, you only think of your stomachs, well, most of the time.’

  A generous bowl of Mop’s hot gruel and a couple of buns later, and they had almost forgotten the incident in the crater, but not quite.

  ‘Well, the great day has dawned,’ said Sandy, wiping his bowl with the remains of a bun, ‘and I think you’ll like your new home, there’s plenty of plants for you to cook, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of fruit and berries we’ve seen.’

  He didn’t mention the creature who had befriended Ben.

  The pair went up to the main cavern to await the morning meal, and put the finishing touches to the planned great exodus. On the way up, they were approached by Bell,

  ‘We’ve got enough material for the women's uniforms, in fact they’re finished, but there isn’t a lot left over and we’ll need more to replace our own clothes someday. Can you get any more from the other groups?’

  ‘If anyone’s got any, we could, but it will mean coming back up again, what do you think Ben?’

  ‘Don’t see why not. We’ve still got a lot of bits and pieces in the store we don’t need, we should be able to do an exchange with somebody.’

  They walked on to the main cavern, joining others as they too made their way up for the morning meal.

  When everyone had had their fill, Sandy outlined the plan.

  ‘We’ve put all the things we shall need for our new life on frames, which we can drag down the tunnels. It’s quite a long way, but we should be there by evening, or perhaps a little earlier. The route may look a bit scary in places, but it is quite safe, we’ve done it, with no trouble. Everyone should take their own bedding, because if we have to spend the night in the bottom cave for any reason, all you’ll have to lie on is rock. Any questions?’ There were none.

  The event had been talked about so much, that nearly all questions had been covered, one way or another, and now they just wanted to get on with the journey.

  The meeting broke up and everyone went to their respective caves, gathered their belongings, and then assembled in the main tunnel leading to the storeroom.

  As each person entered, they were allotted a loaded frame on which they were instructed to tie a limited amount of their bedding rags and any other possessions they had.

  Four of the stronger members of the group manhandled the frames through the now much enlarged hole leading into the beginning of the tunnel proper, and then the frame was passed on to the allotted ‘puller’, who took up his rope, and pulled.

  How they would manage when it came to the steep down slopes, Sandy had yet to reason out, but he felt sure they could make it, one way or another.

  Each frame had its own lamp attached, and this gave just enough light for them to see where they were going, once their eyes had got used to the feeble glow.

  Where the tunnel widened out, just before the first ledge, Sandy explained what they had seen there, and offered anyone interested, a quick view. About half the group took up the offer, filing past the others as they made their way up to the front of the column, where Ben lead them out to view the unbelievable vast expanse of cloud below.

  They got under way again, those who had viewed the unbelievable trying to tell the unbelieving about it in tunnels which amplified every sound, sending the echoes crashing back and forth, until they ended up as an unintelligible jumble of sound.

  Sandy called a halt when they reached the cave they used on their first journey down, although not everyone managed to squeeze in at once. The break was welcome, as few had experienced such steep slopes before, and holding a loaded frame back from crashing into the one in front was a totally new experience. Most difficult of all was judging when to rush around to the back of the frame to hold it back, when an extra steep section was encountered.

  So far, there had been no injuries, apart from a few bruised shins, and a wonderful new set of cuss words.

  The metal tube crossing the lava pool proved to be more of a problem than Sandy had anticipated. Some had to be gently coerced, others sworn at copiously and then shamed into making the crossing, while a few refused point blank, and had to be physically bundled across, which did little for harmony and good will, especially as someone else then had to go back and drag the protester’s loaded frame across.

  However, after the next steep downward slope, and a few more bruised shins, the tube was forgotten, as more pressing matters were at hand.

  Another break was called when Sandy estimated they were two-thirds the way to the bottom, and that rejuvenated flagging spirits. Getting them back on their feet again was another matter.

  At long last, tired, bruised, and a little short tempered, they arrived in the main cavern of the water trap.

  ‘Well done, everyone,’ Sandy shouted, his voice echoing around the vast cave and being amplified greatly, ‘we’ve arrived. Take a rest for a few minutes, and we’ll open the water trap, then it’s out into a land you won’t believe!’

  The last of the water was drunk, meat strips chewed, and cuts and bruises compared to see who had sustained the most damage, not that anyone really cared. They had made it.

  ‘Now listen up,’ it was Ben’s turn, at Sandy’s insistence, to issue instructions. ‘The water trap will be opened in a moment. When all the water has gone, we’ll have to manhandle the frames down the slope, and then up the other side. Please stay together when we reach the open, and wait until you are told before moving off. There is a large grey creature with a long nose down here, it is quite harmless and eats plants. It may not be here now, but just in case it is ...’ He smiled his widest smile to allay any fears, he hoped.

  Sandy nodded at Ben, and he went over to the stone lever, and raised it. They both enjoyed the look on the faces of the rest of the assembly as the water level fell, and was then gone, light flooding in from the green world outside.

  ‘Thank God it’s still light out there,’ Sandy quietly said to Ben, as the others filed past with their frames, ‘otherwise we’d have to stay the night in here, and I didn’t like it much last time.’

  Soon all had passed through the great trough, and were standing in a close knit group in the grassy glade, mouths open in wonderment at what they saw.

  ‘As we still have some light left, I suggest we carry on a short distance to a cave complex we’ve found, and make it our home for the night.’

  This time there w
ere no hesitations, and the cluster of small caves was reached without incident. The main cavern was kept aside for a general meeting and eating room, the second largest for stores, while the others were for up for grabs, Sandy and Ben having already secured theirs.

  After a short rest, they began to construct a crude wall of rocks to close off the main entrance, leaving a small opening which they could easily block with the now defunct frames, should the need arise.

  Strict instructions were given concerning the use of the oil lamps. Although there was a considerable quantity of oil left, Sandy knew it would run out one day, and a substitute would have to be found before then.

  Two lamps were left burning permanently day and night to act as ‘keepers of the flame’, the others being lit from them as and when needed.

  The light began to fade, and they all withdrew to the main cavern, securely blocking off the opening to the outside.

  Mop had produced a hot stew on a fire lit by Sandy, the concept of burning wood being something new to them all.

  Most had crowded around Mop’s cooking pot to watch it boiling merrily away, and for the first time getting smoke filled eyes into the bargain. Once the principle had sunk in, she had a plentiful supply of wood, the pile growing to a point of embarrassment.

  They had tried to make the new eating room as homely as possible, but somehow it lacked the ambience of the old one up in the crater rim. But the stew helped a bit.

  The new women who had joined the group caused a little friction, or to be more precise, the men seeking their attention caused those who already belonged, to view the newcomers as a potential threat to any budding relationships which had existed before the new arrivals arrived.

  According to Ben, there had been little interaction between the men and women before the new uniforms had been made, Mop’s attraction to Sandy being the first really observable and overt partnership. This seemed to act like a catalyst, the group members suddenly becoming aware of their sexuality in a way not previously experienced.