Extreme Difference

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  ‘If we heat it, the lighter oils boil off and can be condensed into burnable oil, like our water cave condenses the steam from the vent in Mop’s old cooking cave.’

  ‘Can we make the necessary equipment to do this?’ asked Ben, always ready to try his hand at something new.

  ‘Don’t see why not,’ Sandy replied, ‘but we shall need some tubes to run the hot vapour through so that it will condense. Do we have any up in your store?’

  ‘Think so, but if we don’t, we could do a trade for some.’

  Two days later, a group of six led by Ben, set off for the crater. They would trade for cloth, if there was any available in the near groups, and locate as much metal tubing as they could find. New frames would be built to transport their goods, the frames themselves providing more raw material for future use in the new colony.

  Sandy was surprised to find he felt quite lonely with Ben not present, as they had shared so much in the past, and to some extent, thought along the same lines.

  The days rolled by, and after eight had passed with no sign of the team returning, Sandy began to worry. Greg thought they should send up a rescue team, and there were no shortage of volunteers for that, including some of the more robust women folk.

  Sandy chose five others to accompany him on a rescue mission, and was about to leave when Ben and his men returned with their laden drag frames.

  ‘What happened?’ asked Sandy, relief showing clearly on his face, ‘we thought we’d lost you lot, and were about to come up.’

  ‘Sorry about that, but it took a lot longer than we had anticipated. It took two days just to get up to the top, and then none of the near groups had anything we wanted, so we had to stop over with one lot for the day, and then go on next evening. God, what a journey.’ Ben looked as if he would collapse at any moment. ‘Anyway, we’ve got most of what you wanted, including the tubes and more cloth.’

  After a wash, which they’d been unable to do while up in the crater, and a hot meal, Ben and his team felt better, entertaining the rest of the group with unbelievable stories of what had happened to them.

  ‘If you thought we were weird, you should see some of the others. We got a very useful box of tools from one lot who thought such things were a blasphemous insult to their God, although they were hard put to tell us who or what their God was. Anyway, they almost gave them to us, but we had to go through a special ‘protective’ ceremony first, to guard us from the evil influence the tools would have on us if we opened the box.’

  Sandy noticed what a close knit group they had all become, the safe return of the team emphasizing the fact.

  The tool box proved to be more useful than any of them had ever dreamed of, containing a heat torch for welding metal, although they were unable to fathom out how it obtained its power. A good mix of cutting tools, files, and assorted drills made up the main contents, plus a few odd items which they were to puzzle over for months to come.

  With the new supply of metal pipes, oil distillation got under way, the stream providing the necessary cooling water for the condenser tubes. The oil they produced was a little thin compared to what they had obtained from the creature up in the crater, but it burnt cleanly, giving a better light, and the supply seemed limitless.

  The herb garden was extended to grow a root crop, which someone had discovered quite by accident.

  One of the women had pulled up a reed like plant just out of curiosity, and noticed the large bulbous root. It reminded her of something but she was unable to remember what, so she took it back to the group. Mop cleaned it, sliced it up, and cooked it. Small samples were eaten, and no detrimental effects were noticed by those brave enough to try it. The root soon became part of their staple diet, the plant growing prolifically in just about all soil conditions. It had a sweet nutty taste, being filling and nutritious into the bargain.

  Once a set routine had established itself, life for the group became a little too easy, there being plenty of food, comfortable shelter, and no return of the multi-fanged creature they had seen on their first visit to the valley.

  Such was Sandy’s nature, that he soon got itchy feet when there were no problems to overcome, and a survey of the land to the South was proposed. This meant going down the steep escarpments at the end of the valley, and into the unknown beyond.

  Two days later, and they were ready, the team comprising Sandy, Ben, Greg, and three others. The women complained bitterly at being excluded from the adventure, and were only partly mollified when a promise was made to include them next time.

  Armed with pointed rods, and the hidden laser which few knew about, they set off down the valley to the first steep drop to the cascade of escarpments which would take them to the plains below.

  Their view of the lands beyond the valley was obscured to some extent by the steep valley walls, only giving a narrow view of the lower plain straight ahead.

  The climb down the first drop proved more arduous than expected, ropes having to be used several times as they were confronted by sheer rock faces with no means of getting a foothold. By the time they had reached the edge of the plain below, they were exhausted from their efforts, and took a break for food and rest.

  Looking back, they could see the massive body of the volcano reaching up into the cloud base, and then the clouds parted for a moment to show the true size of the monster volcanic cone.

  It seemed to reach up into the very sky itself, the top appearing indistinct because of its height and the faint haze shrouding the uppermost jagged pinnacles of the black rim.

  ‘To think we used to live up there,’ Sandy mused, ‘and the other poor sods still do. God, what a place to spend your life in.’ The others solemnly nodded.

  ‘Where to now?’ Ben asked, looking out over the vast expanse of the rock strewn plain. ‘There’s not much of interest out there, it’s just sand, rock, and a few scrubby bushes for as far as you can see.’

  ‘We’ll swing around to the left,’ Sandy said, ‘and follow the base of the escarpment, that way we’ll be in easy reach of something to climb up if we have to retreat from anything, and there’s more chance of a diversity in the landscape.’

  Ben glanced at Greg, who just shrugged his shoulders in non comprehension, smiled, and fell in behind the others.

  ‘I’ve been thinking,’ said Ben, as they strode along, ‘bearing in mind the difficulty we had in getting down to this level, how the hell did the grey creature with the long snout get up to our level?’

  Sandy stopped, Greg bumped into Ben, and the others gathered around, not quite knowing why.

  ‘That’s a point,’ Sandy said, ‘the area isn’t big enough to sustain a large herd of ’em, and we only saw two anyway, so they must have found a way up. We’d better look into that when we get back. If we can block it off, and get rid of the long toothed thing, we should be safe from predators.’

  They resumed their march along the volcano base, marvelling at some of the more grotesque rock formations which had been caused by molten lava reacting with some of the softer native rocks.

  Many caves or tunnels ran back into the hillside, most of which were old lava tubes where the liquid rock had chilled and hardened on the outside as it flowed, leaving a hollow tube behind when the flow ceased.

  ‘Don’t fancy poking about in there.’ Greg said, giving a particularly dark opening a wide berth. ‘God knows what might be lurking within.’

  ‘I doubt if anything’s in there now.’ Sandy observed. ‘Look at the ground and the edges of the hole, they’re smooth, and look as if they’ve been coated with something shiny. That’s probably a vent which gushes steam every now and again.’

  ‘You mean like the steam vent in Mop’s old kitchen?’ Ben suggested. A deep rumbling could be felt rather than heard, and the group split, racing for either side of the cavernous hole. Seconds later, the hole coughed, and a blast of steam, interspersed with streaks of scalding water, spewed out from the tunnel, drenching the ground ahead for many metres and sendin
g a curling white funnel of water vapour spiralling skywards.

  ‘God, you could do some cooking on that.’ someone said.

  ‘That’s if you could find the cooking pot afterwards.’ came back the rejoinder.

  They treated dark holes with a little more caution after that, and then the landscape changed as they rounded a promontory.

  A deep gorge ran back into the towering cliffs which formed the foot of the volcano, and was filled with a dense forest of enormous trees, some of which had spread out onto the plain. The air was filled with shrieks and calls from the wildlife within the forest, and Sandy suggested that they go in a little way, as the sounds were calls, not cries of pain.

  No one looked very convinced at Sandy’s explanation for the raucous sounds, but neither could they summon up the courage to say so.

  As they entered the forested area, the air became full of the sounds of humming insects. Some crawled, some flew, others hopped, while a few hitched a ride on the backs of larger ones, all adding to the overall cacophony of sound produced by the larger life forms, as twigs broke under a foot and branches rustled.

  ‘Noisy place isn’t it?’ Greg felt a little uneasy with so much random sound, mainly produced by things he could not see, let alone avoid, should he need to.

  The ground between the mighty trees was covered by a short tough grass, the shorn ends of the grass blades indicating that it was heavily cropped by something with sharp chisel shaped teeth. There was little sign of the copious amounts of fruit they were used to, except very high up in the branches and well out of their reach. But something was reaching it, as evidenced by the skins and fruit stones scattered about under the trees.

  A series of small grassy glades formed a linked pathway through what would otherwise have been an impenetrably dense mass of vegetation, the gaps between the larger trees being taken up by smaller ones of different types, and clumps of bushes.

  The further they went, the taller the trees became, until they came to the actual cliff face where the huge trunks were ten metres or so in diameter.

  ‘I had no idea trees could grow so big,’ commented Sandy, gazing up at the forest giants, ‘it must be due to something in the soil. I know volcanic ash is very rich in nutrients, but this is amazing.’ As all six stood gazing up at the massive trunk which disappeared into a huge umbrella of green leaves, a slight movement high above was noticed by Greg.

  ‘There’s something moving up there,’ he observed, ‘and I get the feeling it’s looking at us.’

  Before anyone could comment on Greg’s remark, a round shape came crashing down through the lower branches to land at their feet with a thud. The impact split the huge nut open, exposing a glistening creamy white flesh inside the two halves of the dark brown shell.

  As Ben stepped forward to pick up a piece of the broken nut, another came whistling down, just missing him by a few centimetres as it tried to bury itself in the ground.

  They instinctively stepped back a few paces as a third missile came whistling down and thumped into the ground, narrowly missing Sandy. ‘Whatever they are, they aren't falling because they’re ripe,’ he yelled, ‘something up there’s having a go at us. Let’s get back a little further, and then I’ll move in again to see if it tries again.’

  ‘If one of those nuts hits you, you’ll have more than a head ache,’ Ben commented wryly, ‘so I wouldn’t.’

  Sandy just grinned and edged forward slowly, his eyes never off the green canopy above. A faint rustling indicated that something was moving its position, or another nut was on its way. Sandy sharply stepped a metre to one side, and a second later a nut hit the ground where he had been standing, and split open.

  ‘Use your gun,’ urged Ben, fearful his friend would receive a direct hit if he taunted the creature above any more.

  ‘No need to,’ Sandy replied calmly, ‘anyway, it wouldn’t be fair, it’s only defending its territory.’

  ‘It’s a bloody good shot, so watch it.’ Greg was unhappy at the situation, but did not have the courage to order his senior out of the area. There was an almost audible sigh of relief as Sandy slowly backed out from the area under bombardment.

  ‘Got a feeling about those nuts,’ Sandy said, picking a piece up and tasting it, ‘I think it’s edible, I almost recognize that taste, it’s ...’ Just then an ear splitting scream rent the air from up high, accompanied by the vigorous rustling of the greenery, and then silence. They looked at each other, wondering what had happened. ‘I think something took a dislike, or maybe an extreme liking to our missile thrower, so it doesn’t look as if we’ll get any more nuts for a while. Let’s collect these up.’

  ‘You know, there’s something odd about a wild creature throwing missiles at us,’ mused Greg, a thought at the back of his mind refusing to fully form, ‘it reminds me of something ...’

  ‘It certainly smacks of a level of intelligence above what you’d expect from an animal, if that’s what you mean,’ Sandy replied, ‘it had a bloody good eye too.’

  They gathered up the unbroken nuts, looked around the grassy clearing to make sure nothing else posed a threat, and headed back the way they had come.

  Apart from the continual buzz of very active insect life, and the gentle rustle of the giant trees, there was no other sound, except the occasional snap of a twig as someone trod on it.

  Lulled into a sense of false security by the idyllic surroundings, the group went from glade to linking glade, blissfully unaware of several sets of eyes watching their every move.

  ‘What’s that smell?’ asked Greg, who had stopped a few steps ahead of the others and was sniffing the air. ‘If we could bottle that, we’d make a fortune.’

  ‘I think it might be coming from those.’ Ben replied, pointing to several large white trumpet shaped flowers adorning the strands of rope like vine hanging from one of the trees. ‘I didn’t notice it before.’

  Greg went over to the plant, cradling one of the delicate blooms in his hands, and taking a deep draft of the heady perfume. Within seconds, his eyes glazed over, and he staggered about like a drunk, giggling childishly.

  He would have fallen to the ground in a stupor if the others had not grabbed him and dragged him away from the flower’s hypnotic influence. Sandy slapped his face hard, twice, but he just continued to giggle.

  ‘There’s nothing we can do except let that stuff work its way out of his system,’ Sandy said, deeply concerned, ‘I think we got him away just in time.’

  Ben had gone over to the cluster of vines bearing the deadly flowers, taking a deep breath and holding it as he drew near.

  ‘There are some little white sticks around the base of this tree,’ he exclaimed, poking about in the grass with his foot, ‘and some feathery things. Hey, these aren't sticks, they’re bones! Good God, there’s hundreds of ’em.’

  Leaving Greg, Sandy went over to see what Ben had found.

  ‘Now that’s interesting,’ he remarked, ‘some of those bones have begun to break down, see how soft and crumbly they are. That means something in the ground or perhaps exuded from the tree, is doing that. Bones don’t normally go soft, unless something attacks their structure.’

  ‘That implies the vine is trapping creatures to use as food, but you said the ground here is very rich from volcanic ash, so why would the plant need to do that?’ asked Ben.

  ‘The ash is rich in minerals, but plants also need nitrogen, some more than others, and they can get it from breaking down flesh, or almost anything else which grows.’

  Sandy walked around the huge tree trunk, keeping well away from the enticing white flowers as he did so.

  ‘I think there’s a symbiotic relationship between the vine and this tree,’ he began, ‘there’s no sign of the vine roots reaching the ground, so it must have tapped into the tree somewhere. The vine catches nitrogen bearing creatures by stupefying them with its perfume, and they quickly die near the tree base. The tree releases some sort of enzyme which breaks the bodies down, the ro
ots absorb it, and as it gets transported around the tree, the vine takes its share. Don’t like it, but it’s bloody neat.’ he concluded.

  ‘I think we’d better get away from that plant, me legs are getting a bit wobbly.’ Sandy’s words were slightly slurred, showing how powerful the perfume could be.

  Greg was now sitting upright, and looking very foolish.

  ‘That's one of the most weird experiences I've ever had,' he exclaimed, as the others gathered around. ‘It was like dreaming, but only of pleasant things. I felt great but sleepy, and my body felt like lead, but I didn’t seem to mind.’

  They continued on towards the open plain, the eyes still watching them, fascinated by the strange little bipeds and wondering if they would make a good meal.

  ‘Must say, I feel a bit safer out here,’ Ben said, as they left the last of the trees behind, ‘at least you can see what’s around you.’ The others nodded, but still kept a good lookout for anything which did not seem to fit in naturally with the landscape, but then, what was natural?

  The ground changed from being a hard crust with shattered pieces of rock protruding from its surface, to one of sand, and this slowed them down considerably. The high cliffs of the volcano's base still towered above them on their left, while on their right, the endless plain of sand and gravel banks seemed to go on to the horizon, finally disappearing in the distant blue haze.

  The sand eventually gave way to firmer ground again, and they stopped for a meal break, their legs aching from the struggle of tramping through the soft sand.

  ‘We’ll go on ’till evening, and then make camp. Tomorrow we’ll have to head back home as our water will run out if we don’t find any, and the others will get worried if we stay away too long.’ Sandy announced.

  They walked on, with less of a spring in their footsteps than they had earlier.

  The Fires Speak

  Rounding a spur of frozen lava which jutted out from the main mass of the cliffs, they stopped. Ahead, an enormous ledge of rock hung out from the cliffs above like a huge shelf, throwing a dark shadow beneath it.