At first Kayleb and Rowan thought that the man staring down at them might be a waster but immediately Cornwall reassured them both and introduced them to Indigo. When Indigo entered the cave, he explained that he had been sheltering in the cave above theirs and had overheard their conversations, which had led him to believe that they might be taskers trying to get to London. At first, he had had wondered why Cornwall was with them but soon realised that she was helping them.
Indigo asked if he could join them as he too wanted to get back to London so he could find his university and a museum. When he had first arrived at the wasters’ village he had been distraught, as he had thought that he had travelled back in time and was stranded. Much to his relief, after talking to the stud pen taskers, he realised that he had been wrong and that he was indeed in the future and that there was hope of going back in time, if he could get into a city and find the time travel department in a museum. The stud pen taskers had initially laughed at Indigo and told him that several people through history had tried to time-travel but they were just eccentrics.
Any ideas of travelling quietly or inconspicuously were now out of the question. Indigo Moselly was larger than life and his attire was, it had to be said, flamboyant. His hair was a mass of yellow ringlets, which were swept back off his face and came down to his shoulders. Over a purple shirt, he wore a waistcoat completely covered with silver sequins. If the sunlight caught the shiny discs, then they would light up and rainbows danced this way and that. Indigo’s trousers were created out of patch- work and apparently came from a market in Calais. He was surprised that nobody had been to a French market and made a great deal of effort to describe a market to them all – the colours, the smells and the extraordinary bustling atmosphere. His efforts were wasted, as he received not even a flicker of recognition. Kayleb, Rowan and Cornwall looked awkwardly at each other.
Rowan and Kayleb couldn’t help but like Indigo; he was so full of life and entertaining. This made the miles they were walking bearable. Between them, they had worked out that they were somewhere north of Paris. North was a difficult direction to travel, the ground undulated and at times they had to climb steep banks or slip down almost vertical drops. Their journey was hard-going and extremely tiring. Indigo couldn’t understand where the roads had gone. He did find some tarmac but it had crumbled and was overgrown with weeds and he was amazed to discover that only the authorities were allowed to drive vehicles in London.
Rupert and Willow were difficult to manoeuvre and Cornwall had her work cut out trying to help the pigs. They were inclined to go off and hunt for truffles or they would flatly refuse to go the same way as everybody else. The pigs did not like Indigo and would charge at him if he got too close to Cornwall. Despite all this, they were actually brilliant at detecting the approach of wasters or beasts and would stop dead and would make a high-pitched squeal when they heard anything dangerous approach, giving everybody plenty of time to hide until the hazard had passed. It was agreed that travelling by daylight was safe enough with Rupert and Willow as lookouts.
Indigo was always fascinated when an ex-lab beast wandered across their path. Fortunately, most were harmless as they were farm animals and had been bred for maximum meat. The animals that couldn’t be used for London consumption, due to stringent regulations, were cast out into the wilderness as an act of kindness, in the hope that they would be hunted by the wasters. Kayleb, though, decided that this was probably a way of keeping the waster population down by entering genetically damaged food into their food chain.
Most of the beasts had either two heads or were half one animal and half another. Indigo’s favourite animals were the cows crossed with elephants. They had the heads of elephants and the bodies of cows and came in a variety of colours. The ‘cowphants’, as he dubbed them, were especially docile and Indigo thought that they might be able to ride them so that they could travel more quickly. Indigo tried to get on a cowphant’s back but it did not cooperate and Indigo ended up falling off. The cowphant charged off and disturbed a flock of grazing gulls. The gulls spiralled upwards crying out in distress.
Rupert and Willow squealed, troubled by the gulls’ cries. Everyone took cover just in case the pigs were distressed by something other than the birds. Just in time, they managed to hide in a wooded area and avoided being found by a gang of wasters who had come out of their camp to find out what was causing all the noise. Seeing the cowphant, they gave chase, hoping to catch it for a meal. Indigo was then banned from going anywhere near a cowphant and was told most sternly that he should turn his waist- coat inside out and try and blend in a bit more with the surroundings. Travelling by daylight was treacherous enough without Indigo causing such a disturbance.
Kayleb, Rowan, Cornwall and Indigo walked many miles that day and as the sun was beginning to set, they made a decision to stop and rest for the night. A river ran nearby and the water flowed at quite a pace. The sound of the water rushing by broke the silence. The grass by the river was very long and if they all kept down low, they were almost undetectable.
Kayleb wandered down to the river with the bucket to get some water for everybody. Rupert and Willow found a place to drink and gulped greedily at the water’s edge. Kayleb waited for them to finish and then, after dipping in a tester strip, decided it was safe to drink. He kneeled down on the bank. It was a good job all his emergency kit was in sealed plastic bags; otherwise it would have all been ruined when he had jumped into the lake. That episode seemed like a long time ago and he shuddered as he remembered almost drowning. He filled the bucket and, looking down-river, he wondered where the river might take them if they built a boat. He had always wanted to build one but the rivers in London were tiny. Even the Thames, the largest of them all, was only ankle-deep. The sea was probably the place to have a boat but you had to own a share in seawater to be able to use it for leisure and Kayleb’s mentors were not in that league. Only the pop stars and actors had boats but they needed armed guards to protect them when they were at sea, as there, they were outside London’s anti-terrorist shield.
Kayleb filled the bucket, removed his sandals and dipped his feet into the swirling water. His feet were sore from walking, the current was strong and the power of the water hitting his feet was remarkable.
The sun was sliding down behind the hill. It was as red as blood and Kayleb could almost see it moving. Transfixed, Kayleb watched it until there was only a small slither left. It was beautiful and he felt sad. He wished his mentor Helen could see this. He wondered if she was still alive. He sat quietly for a while and did not hear Cornwall approach.
‘I was worried. I was wondering where you were. The others are eating mushrooms. Do you want one?’ She handed him a hot mushroom and then sat down next to him.
‘I was just thinking,’ Kayleb said at length. ‘Why do I always feel different to everybody else? Look at Rowan. He knows what he’s doing. He’s got the perfect set of mentors at home. He’s good at everything and he’ll probably be brilliant at whatever job he gets, get the perfect companion, be given a boat and own a huge great chunk of the sea. Why do I know I’ll end up doing a mindless job and never quite finding the right path? I’m surprised I’ve made it this far. I recently came that close to becoming a dried- up prune at the bottom of a well!’
Cornwall looked at Kayleb. His forehead had furrows running across it and his eyes looked distressed. She wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about but she guessed he was displeased with himself. It was difficult to tell someone not to whine.
‘I guess you will always be a prune then,’ she said, her green eyes catching the last rays of the sunlight.
Kayleb couldn’t help smiling. He had sounded like a spoilt child.
‘I know! I’m just finding it hard-going at the moment. I really want to get back home and see Helen. I just hope it’s not too late. We’ve walked miles and I guess we’ve got miles to go. I will be so thankful when we reach the sea. That surely has to be the finishing post. They can’t expect us to try and get across the Channel.’
Cornwall looked thoughtfully at Kayleb. He was so physically weak and vulnerable. Without her there, she wasn’t sure whether he would get through his task. If he got back to London, she was sure that he would be welcomed back with open arms. For her, however, it might be a different story. Cornwall leant over and touched Kayleb’s hand.
‘Come on,’ she whispered. ‘The others will worry if we don’t go back.’
Kayleb stood up and wondered whether he had been wrong about her. Why had she been so mischievous when he first met her? His hand still tingled where she had touched it. He found that odd.
Kayleb and Cornwall took the water back to the others and finished off the mushrooms and they all discussed who would take turns to stand watch while everyone slept. It was decided that Rowan would watch first as he felt less tired than the others and everyone else found a place to sleep.
The only visitors in the night were a frog and mosquitoes, which seemed to be in abundance because of the river and the warm night.
The morning came and nearly everyone had been severely bitten. Indigo had fared by far the worst and counted one hundred and two mosquito bites. Cornwall only had one bite and she was surprised as she claimed she had never been bitten before. Cornwall knew what weeds to pick and encouraged everyone to rub the leaves into the welts to ease the itching and discomfort but she could do nothing for Indigo’s appearance. His face was badly swollen and his armpits were painful. He looked quite comical, almost ape-like, and it was difficult to keep a straight face. Indigo tried to be brave as Cornwall applied the green goo, only occasionally moaning if she rubbed it in too hard. She had ground up the weeds on a rock with another stone and he was quite surprised that the concoction did actually take away the itchiness and sting.