Kayleb became aware of an intense feeling of heat on his forehead. It was quite a comforting feeling. His whole body felt relaxed and as light as a feather. Kayleb opened his eyes and there leaning over him with his hand on Kayleb’s head was the man he had seen before he passed out. The man was smiling and had pearly white teeth and pale-blue eyes. Even his eyes smiled. The man took his hand away from Kayleb’s head. Kayleb hadn’t been wrong. There across the man’s forehead was the band of gold glimmering gently in the daylight.
A wave of nausea swept over Kayleb. He coughed. The fumes from the gas had gone but he could still feel them in his chest. He wondered what had happened to him and couldn’t quite remember why he was lying on his back looking at the sky.
‘You will be all right now. You are quite safe. Your friends have woken up too,’ said the man gently, offering his hand to help Kayleb up.
Without hesitation, Kayleb took his hand and felt the warmth again that he had felt on his head, only not as intense this time. He struggled to his feet and looked around; Indigo and Cornwall were sitting on the ridge. Cornwall was holding Willow by the rope and Indigo was smiling from ear to ear.
‘It’s going to be OK. David is going to help us. 2010, here I come!’ shouted Indigo.
Kayleb wondered who this elderly man was. David was not very tall and was quite chubby with short grey hair. He had a round face with no wrinkles and it was hard to tell how old he was. Kayleb was relieved that it wasn’t a Long Man helping them; they had looked completely crazy and barbaric. He had the feeling that he had seen David somewhere before. He thought hard. Had he seen him in a news report? Was his face similar to a teacher that he once had or did David have the kind of face you saw everywhere you went? Kayleb was hesitant; he always had to look out for himself. He couldn’t work out whether he could trust David. He could be a waster. Most wasters were known to be treacherous and devious. Yet a moment ago he’d taken David’s hand to get up from the floor and had trusted him. Kayleb felt confused.
‘I’m not a waster, if that’s what you are thinking,’ David told Kayleb. ‘I promise I won’t harm you. We need to go into the shelter before the Long Men wake up. They don’t treat others kindly. You will be safe in our shelter ... for now anyway,’ said David as he started to walk up the ridge.
Kayleb sighed. How bad could things get? He started to follow and then realised that Rowan was nowhere to be seen. What had happened to him? Kayleb wondered whether the Long Men had got him. Kayleb mounted the crest of the ridge and looked across the plateau. The Long Men lay in crumpled heaps. As they approached the fort Kayleb noticed that some of the men were beginning to stir.
‘Hurry, they’re waking up,’ called David, pointing to the Long Men. ‘They will be fully awake in a minute. They’ll be angry. We must get inside now.’ Everyone ran towards the fort. Rowan was still nowhere to be seen.
Upon reaching the fort Kayleb couldn’t see the door. The patches on the walls of the fort were tightly interwoven, giving no hint of an opening. David stopped in front of the fort and shut his eyes. Kayleb looked anxiously at David. Was he all right? He looked pale and he looked as if he was concentrating on some- thing. A circle of light appeared in front of them all and slowly the cloth within the circle faded away to reveal an opening. David stepped aside to allow everyone to go through. Cornwall looked around with a worried expression. She held Willow by the rope but was having trouble leading her.
Willow, sensing that something was up, wasn’t sure about entering the fort and started tugging on the rope, trying to return to the riverbank.
‘Where is Rowan? We need him to get Willow into the shelter,’ asked Cornwall. ‘He has a way with her. I hope he is all right. You don’t think he’s in trouble? Maybe we should look for him before the Long Men wake?’
‘Don’t worry! He’s quite safe. I found him running for his life along the river and brought him in earlier. He outran the memory- loss gas. He’s inside waiting for you. Look!’
Sheepishly, Rowan appeared in the doorway and signalled to Cornwall to give him Willow’s rope.
‘I’m fine, come in. There is nothing to worry about. It’s much better to be in here than out there.’ Rowan, looked embarrassed. David had let everyone know that he had run off like a frightened rabbit. He really didn’t want everyone to know that. He pulled on Willow’s rope and she trotted through the gap without a fuss.
Kayleb climbed through after Indigo, and Cornwall then helped David through as he was quite large and had difficulty getting through the entrance he had made. The opening sealed behind them.
They entered a courtyard lined with fruit trees and wandered into a pretty garden with perfectly mowed lawns. White doves paraded around on the grass, their tails spread out like fans. The doves’ white bodies stood out against the emerald-coloured grass. The walls surrounding the courtyard were made of red brick and had different-coloured rose bushes climbing up them, across arches and columns set into the walls. This was a garden for pleasure, not like in London, where every scrap of land was used for food production. Kayleb looked around in amazement. They now all seemed so far away from the battlefield and the wilderness. This tranquil paradise was almost surreal. It was breathtaking, like the touch of cool satin on hot skin. David waited patiently as everyone looked around the gardens.
Kayleb watched Rowan stroking Willow and wondered why he had run and left everyone and then his attention turned back to David. Who was he and how did he know that the gas that had been dropped was memory-loss gas? He looked so peaceful standing by the fountain. Was this somebody he could trust? Kayleb looked at Rowan again. He felt cross with him. Do you run away when your friends need help? How could he trust anyone?
Willow was starting to be a nuisance and was eager to turn over the flower beds. The flowers looked extremely inviting to her and Willow was sure that there were hidden treasures beneath their roots. Rowan found himself, despite his desperate attempts to stop her, being dragged across the lawn.
‘Could somebody give me a hand please? This pig is about to wreck the place!’
‘You can leave her for a while with the others,’ said David.
‘Take her down that path.’ David pointed to a shingle path that ran along the side of the garden. ‘You’ll find a pen with other pigs in it. She’ll be quite safe there.’
Rowan and Cornwall made her way towards the path, dragging Willow behind them. Cornwall stopped and looked anxiously down the path. ‘Why do you keep pigs then? Do you eat them?’ she asked David. ‘I don’t want Willow to end up in your cooking pot!’
‘Don’t worry yourself,’ replied David. ‘They’re not suitable for human consumption. They have all been rescued from the wilderness, to save them from your cooking pots!’
‘I suppose so,’ she sighed, making her way up the path. Willow was different; she would have never let anyone harm her, especially now Rupert was dead. She had found the pigs caught in brambles and had rescued them. Rupert and Willow were her babies not just part of the food chain.
‘I won’t be long, wait for me.’ Cornwall disappeared from sight. Rowan and Cornwall had not been gone long and she looked much happier when she returned.
‘You have to come and see.’ Cornwall called to Kayleb and Indigo. ‘There is everything a pig could wish for – mud, a pond with an island in the middle and a shelter with straw to lie in. Willow deserves a bit of luxury and some new friends ... Poor Rupert!’ she added wistfully.
‘We’d better go in,’ said David. ‘It’s getting cooler now and you must all be very hungry.’
‘Starving’ was a more accurate description. Rowan had never felt this hungry in his life before. The mushrooms they’d eaten earlier seemed to be just a vague memory. He was an athlete; it wasn’t fair that he was being allowed to starve. What did London expect the taskers to live on while they completed their task? Rowan was disgusted with his treatment and intended to lodge a formal complaint when he returned home.
David led them out of the courtyard and they approached a glass dome sunk into the ground. The path sloped downwards and they eventually entered into the dome through clear glass sliding doors. They all filed into a great atrium, filled with palms, and exotic flowering plants, and on the ground there was a beautiful orange-and-yellow mosaic floor that glittered in the setting sun.