CHAPTER 12
Syd lay a short distance inside the cave, gasping for breath. He watched the burly figure, silhouetted against the cave mouth. The light was dim, but he could see the man was dressed in fur pelts, carried a bow and arrows, and a stone knife and axe in a belt around his waist.
“Who are you?”
The burly figure turned towards him. “My name is Robert McCullough. “
.“The Doctor’s brother?” Syd stared at him, incredulously. “We were told you died in an avalanche.”
“Almost died. I managed to grab on to the side of a ravine and was hidden by the overhang. They think I’m dead. But no talking now. We’ll be hunted soon.”
He grasped Syd by the arm and pulled him up, dragging him deeper into the cave. The light from the mouth of the cave petered out. In complete darkness, his lungs still heaving, Syd was helped along by Robert. A faint orangey glow lit up a crevice, and Robert steered them to it. He lifted a burning brand from the crevice, and held it aloft. “It’s single file from here. Hang onto my bow and follow me.”
Holding fast to the bow slung over Robert’s shoulder, Syd stumbled along, tripping occasionally on the rock strewn passage. The fire brand gave enough light to help them avoid the stalactites hanging down from the top of the cave. The passageway narrowed and the ceiling sloped down. They continued walking, crouched over, until Robert dropped to his hands and knees.
“We crawl now. In the next cave, we’ll be on a narrow ledge. Stay on the ledge. There’s a chasm on either side.”
It seemed to Syd they crawled for a long while until he felt the constraints of the narrow tunnel gone. Robert held the burning brand high. The cavern vaulted well above them, light glinting off the rock face. On either side of them was blackness.
“What’s your name?’
“Syd.”
“Syd, turn around. Beside the hole, you’ll see a pile of rocks and stones. Plug up the hole. I’ll hold the light as close as I can.”
Syd filled the hole as directed. A stone rolled away from him and fell off the ledge. There was a long pause before he heard it splash into a pool below.
They crawled along the ledge until they came to another cavern. Here they could stand and walk side by side. Syd noted the passage they were following had been cleared of rocks and was more like a path through the cave. It meandered around stalagmites protruding from the cavern floor. At the end of the path was a narrow tunnel through which they had to crawl. Again they could stand once through the tunnel.
The light cast by the fire brand glinted off a small lake of still, black water, blocking their path. Syd could just make out the far shore. Apart from the rocky outcrop they were standing on, the water filled to the cavern walls. There seemed to be no way to walk around the lake.
“Do we swim?”
Robert had kneeled down at the water’s edge and was busy lapping up water with his hands and drinking. Syd, suddenly very thirsty, did the same. The water was cool and pleasant tasting.
“No.” Robert pointed to a raft-like boat pulled up on the rocky shore which Syd had not noticed in the gloom. “This will hold both of us.”
They climbed onto the raft and pushed off. Using their hands as paddles, they propelled themselves across the lake to the further shore. The logs were very buoyant and allowed only a little water to seep onto the raft. At the shore, Robert pulled the raft partly out of the water.
The fire brand revealed a blank wall.
“Time for a little rock climbing. Lots of hand and foot holds. It’s not high.”
Syd followed him to one side of the landing. There was a crevice in the rock face. At the top of the crevice was a black hole, about ten feet up. Robert reached the opening and then held out the fire brand. Syd climbed easily and pushed into the hole as Robert retreated. The cavern they now entered was very large. Daylight filtered through at the far end.
“We’re almost through. They won’t search this side yet. The Winds of Dawn will kill them if they try to fly over from the other side. They have to go around if they think to search here. Gives us enough time to get to my perch higher up. It’s going to be cold and because of the Winds, blizzardy. So hang onto me.’
When they came to the mouth of the cave, Robert looked out.
“It’s clear. Let’s go.”
They stepped out into snow. The yellow sun was high and cast jewel like sparkles over the frost. It reminded Syd of bright winter days in a previous life. The cold penetrated his flaxen coveralls and jacket and chilled his feet in their rubber boots. As they climbed the mountain, pushing through the snow cover became more difficult and the thin air took its toll on his lungs. The lower edge of the Winds of Dawn whipped up the snow and flung it in their faces. Bending low into the wind, they continued their upward march. Syd could see nothing but a whirling fog of snow — a whiteout, he thought, and remembered a ski day in Vale where, unable to see, he had ploughed into a tree. His lungs heaving their maximum, his knees rubbery, he was about to tell Robert that he could go no further, when he found himself pulled through a narrow opening into a small cave. Syd fell to the ground, breathless and exhausted. He watched Robert in the semi-darkness, lean over a ledge in a near wall. There was a sudden orange glow as he lifted a burning fire brand.
“C’mon, into the next cave. We can get warm and there’s food.”
Syd staggered to his feet and dutifully followed. The entrance to the next cavern was a narrow hole which they crawled through on all fours. Robert rolled a boulder into the opening.
“I don’t believe the mushrooms will find the outer cave, but blocking the entrance to this one will keep light and heat in.”
Robert moved around the inner cave, using his burning fire brand to light fire brands inserted in notches in the wall. The cavern was large. In a grotto in a far wall, Syd saw a pile of boughs. Next to the grotto, he could make out furry animals hanging from wooden pegs. In the middle of the cavern, was a pit filled with firewood, which Robert now proceeded to light with the firebrand. A welcoming blaze lit up the cave and cast an immediate pall of warmth. Syd removed his boots and, sitting on the ground, stretched out his frozen feet to the fire.
“The smoke,” he asked, “won’t it give us away?’
Robert sat down on the opposite side of the fire and took off his upper garment. “No, it rises to the top of the cave and finds a natural chimney where it mixes with the snow thrown up by the Winds of Dawn. They’ve never detected it.”
“What happens when the fire burns up?”
“Not to worry. I’ve enough wood in here to keep us for a long time. There’s water in the next cave. There’s enough food for a little while, although I wasn’t expecting company.”
Syd pulled his feet back from the singeing fire. “You saved my life. Had Joshua caught me, he would have killed me or brought me down to be killed. Was it just my luck that you happened to be there?”
“Partly. I make a daily visit to the cave to see what’s going on, and if I have to move. I can just see the clearing by the river, and I saw the rocket ship arrive with the yellow fellow. I was going to leave after the rocket ship flew off, when I saw you running and chased by Joshua and a couple of mushrooms. There wasn’t much I could do for you until you came towards the cave. For a moment I thought of hightailing it. But then you arrived, and Joshua was almost on top of you. I shot an arrow at his shoulder. I didn’t think that would stop him, and I was going to kill him. For some reason, he turned around and went back down. Why was he chasing you?”
“We had a fight and I managed to hit him in the balls. That stopped him long enough, and I took off. I had no plan — I knew he was going to kill me.”
“What did you fight over?”
“His daughter. I love Rebecca. Rebecca loves me. We wanted to couple. He promised her to” — he paused; he found it difficult to mention that his rival was Robert’s brother — “another man. The camp commander had agreed and refused to reconsider. I told Joshua what I think of the camp commander.”
“Well, you’re either very brave or very stupid. Maybe both. You’ve made life difficult for your friends and definitely for me. And you don’t have the girl.”
Syd nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, I’ve certainly screwed things up. The mushrooms will suspect that Monty, Ernie and Jeff were involved. Nobody knows you exist — it depends what Joshua tells them.”
“Well,” Robert said, “what’s done is done. Let’s eat and then figure out what we can do. We’ll be stuck here for days until the search dies down.”
He pulled one of the furry animals down from its peg on the cave wall and laid it on a stone shelf. “Watch how I do this. From now on, you’re a Stone Age man. I’ve made cutting stones by splitting rock into sharp slivers. I hope you like Planet Dawn barbequed squirrel.”
“How did you catch these animals?”
Robert picked up a sliver of sharp rock from the stone shelf. “These squirrels are pretty tame. They have no predators. All I do is grab them by the neck and hit their heads with a rock.”
With deft cuts, he sliced open the belly of the animal and quickly slit away the pelt. He pulled out the animal’s innards and set them aside. “Throw nothing away. Stretch out the intestines and you have cord for tying things. The stomach can be stuffed with wild grain or grain that I’ve grown and when cooked can be carried on long trips. Now, take the meat, push a long stick through it, and hold it over the fire.”
The smell from the broiling meat revived Syd’s appetite. He was ravenously hungry. “Wow, I could eat this all by myself.”
“Sorry, all you’ll get is a quarter. Have to conserve food until we can hunt.” Robert stuffed the squirrel stomach with grain from a sack.
“How did you manage to make a sack?”
“It’s my flax overalls. I just tied up the legs.”
Syd examined him with a mixture of awe and admiration. He guessed Robert had been on his own about two years. He was completely dressed in fur, including a cap and moccasins. His body, stripped to the waist, was tanned and muscular. He showed no signs of malnutrition; in fact, quite the opposite, he presented a picture of health and vitality. Bearded and with long flowing hair, he looked exactly like the voyageurs Syd had seen pictures of in his high school history book. Robert, as a Wisconsin backwoodsman, had unknowingly trained for a solitary life on Planet Dawn.
Robert scraped small stones and burning embers from the fire into a hollow in the floor. He placed the stuffed stomach on top and covered it with a large pile of rocks and stones. “This is my oven. The stones will stay hot for a long time and cook our meal for tomorrow.”
“How do those burning branches work?”
“My firebrands? A resin comes off the trees. I coat the end of a branch with the resin until it forms a little ball. They burn very nicely and for a long time.”
“How do you light them? And this fire?”
“Here are some matches.” He handed Syd a few black stones and a chunk of golden coloured rock. “Flint and pyrite. Strike the pyrite against the flint and it gives off sparks. Put dry tinder close to the spark, a fire will start. Your training starts after we’ve eaten and rested.”
He took the cooked squirrel, cut off a chunk into halves and gave one to Syd. The meat was a bit gamey but very edible. “Here’s water to wash it down.” He handed Syd a hollowed out wooden bowl, filled with water. “In the next cave, there’s a drip from melting snow and ice. For a toilet, go past the water, and you’ll see a hole in the cavern floor. Take a firebrand with you. Don’t fall in the hole. Now, for sleeping. We’ll take turns keeping watch. You turn in first. I’ll leave everything burning so you’ll have light and heat. I’ve a matt that I wove from plants that will cover the entrance so no light will shine into the outer cave.”
Robert pulled back on his parka and fur cap. Syd didn’t protest and lay down on the mattress of boughs. Robert rolled the boulder aside and crawled through. Pale light glinted on the opening for a brief moment and then was gone.
It seemed only a second had passed when he felt himself shaken awake.
“Get up and get ready to move. We don’t have much time.”
Syd leapt up, pulled on his boots and flax jacket. He watched as Robert filled a bag made of pelts with the cooked and uncooked meat, kicked the rocks away from the oven and added the stuffed stomach to the bag. “Here, you carry this, slip the strap over your shoulder.” Robert slung his bow and a quiver of arrows and took some unlit firebrands as well as two lit ones. “Here, take one of the burning firebrands.”
“What’s going on?” Syd asked.
“ I’m not sure. I could make out lots of ships and explosions around where we came out. They’ve probably found the cave system we came through. Let’s not take a chance — let’s go further along the mountain.”
“Won’t they see us as we leave the cave?”
“Syd, a good rabbit always has another exit.”
He followed Robert into the adjoining cave. At the far side beyond the dripping water, the firebrand lit up a ladder about two yards long, made of thick branches, lashed together with flaxen strips. They climbed to the top of the ladder and struggled through a hole into a large cavern. Robert pulled the ladder up, and filled the opening with loose rock and stones.
“It’s easy going for now. Follow the scratch marks on the rock. We’ll be moving along the mountain away from where they’re searching.”
They walked single file, holding the fire brands high. Occasionally they had to crouch as they left one cave and entered another. There were caves and passageways going off in all directions. They continued through an endless chain of caverns, following passageways around the occasional pool of black water. At one pool, Robert called a halt.
“Take a rest. We’ll eat what’s left of the cooked squirrel, and there’s water here.”
They munched away on the cold squirrel. The cavern was not quiet. Syd could hear the constant howling of the wind as it raced across the mountain tops. Here and there, snow sifted down through fissures and crevices. They had moved so quickly through the cave system, that, despite his thin clothing, Syd had been warm, even perspiring. Now he felt the chill descending through him, turning his skin clammy and causing him to shiver.
“We’re pretty high up, that’s why you can hear the Winds of Dawn. At my usual haunt, there’s an extra set of fur. That’ll keep you warmer than the gear you’ve got on.”
Soon after they left their resting place, they came to a dividing point where the scratch marks went off in two directions.
“The left fork leads back to the river which flows past your camp but several miles downstream. We’ll take the right fork. It’ll keep us in the other valley but quite some miles from where we first came out.”
They did not have far to go and had to crawl the last ten yards through a narrow tunnel into a large cave. Here they could stand. Their fire brands revealed a large woven matt obscuring the cave opening. The persistent shriek of the Winds was very loud.
“Change your clothing. I’m going to check if the searchers are close.”
Syd pulled on Robert’s extra suit of furs. They were stiff and stank. He kneaded the leg pieces with his hands, trying to soften the pelts. The upper garment was heavy and impeded his movement. He found it so uncomfortable that he was about to return to his old clothing, when he felt the chill in his body evaporating and replaced by a comfortable warmth. This is not so bad, after all, he thought, and encased his feet in a pair of moccasins.
Robert pushed back through the matt. “We can’t stay here. There are lots of ships close by. Too close for comfort. We’ll take what we can and get back into the system.”
Robert stuffed more arrows into his quiver, and put cutting stones and a hand axe into the food bag that Syd carried. They each took more firebrands. The crawl back through the tunnel was tortuous. Syd, bulked up because of the fur, pushed the firebrands ahead of him and dragged the food bag behind. Claustrophobia closed in on him, and he had to clamp his jaw tight to keep from screaming. Finally he was through, sweating profusely. Robert emerged a moment later.
“C’mon. Let’s move.”
They raced back to the dividing point and started down the left fork. A muffled explosion shook the passageway, followed by a flash of light. Robert and Syd flattened against the wall. Another muffled explosion reverberated through the cavern, shaking loose rocks from the walls and ceiling of the passageway.
They waited a long moment but there were no further explosions. “Wait here,” Robert whispered. He disappeared around the dividing point. “We got out just in time,” he said, when he returned, “They blasted the cave. The tunnel has collapsed. Even if they land searchers, they’ll think that’s all there is.”
“How do we know the end of this fork is ok?”
“We don’t and we’d better find out.”
The scratch marks led through more passageways and caverns. Often they had to crouch, occasionally crawl. Syd found the fur suit made him awkward and clumsy, but he gradually became accustomed to it and relished its warmth. Now and then he could hear the Winds of Dawn and realized they were still high up in the mountain. He hurt from the constant need to crouch or to crawl, his neck straining, his head turned up, towards the light given off by the firebrands. Robert seemed unaffected and moved on at a hurried pace, frequently urging Syd to walk faster. Then they were descending, stepping from boulder to boulder, down a collapsed rock wall. “Keep the light low so you can see where to step,” came the cautious warning.
At the bottom of the rock face, a low passageway meandered through dripping caverns. Robert halted, whispering, “The opening is just around a couple of corners. Douse the lights. Just hang on to my bow. The opening is in a gulley, well below the snow line. Trees grow all around and over the cave opening so it’s hard to detect. We’ll soon know if it’s safe.”
They inched forward, using the wall as a guide, and carefully felt their way over the uneven floor. Soon they could see dim light filtering into the cave ahead. Robert pressed a restraining arm against Syd, and they stopped. For many minutes they stared at the opening, a tracery of delicate foliage framed by narrow stone walls. Nothing disturbed the serenity of the scene.
“I’m going to scout out the gulley,” Robert whispered. “Hide in that grotto there. I’ll be awhile so don’t come looking for me.”
Robert crawled away. Syd saw him silhouetted against the opening, and then he was gone. The grotto wasn’t very large, but Syd, curled up was out of sight. He pulled the hand axe from the food bag as a defensive gesture. The axe was composed of a large flat stone sharpened at both ends and a wood handle carved from a thick, solid branch. The stone head fitted into a notch in the handle and was securely lashed with strips of flax.
Despite the tenseness of the situation, he was overcome by exhaustion and tried to fight the drowsiness that besieged his eyelids. He must have dozed off, because he suddenly awoke, aware that he was not alone. Its back to him, so close he could touch it, stood a Guardian. In front of the Guardian, Robert sat on the stone floor, surrounded by six Warriors, all carrying lights and truncheons. One of the Warriors held a microphone to the Guardian. The monotone voice, spoke dispassionately, belying the intensity of the moment.
“We know you are not the escaped slave. You are dressed differently. We will soon apprehend the other human. We do not tolerate rebellion. You both will be severely punished.”
“I am alone,” Robert responded. “I know of no other human.”
They were doomed, Syd thought, and for a split second, he was frozen in fear, prickly sweat broke out on his forehead and coursed down his face. He controlled the urge to run, and slowly stood up. If he were to die, he would go down fighting. He had a fleeting regret that Robert was involved, but pushed aside the thought and totally focussed on their predicament. Despite their hand held lights, the mushrooms had not spotted the grotto.
“Warriors, search deeper into the cave. The human cannot be far away.”
Five of the Warriors ran off. Syd waited until he could no longer hear their footfalls. Then he struck, slashing the hand axe hard against the Guardian’s head. He felt the axe tear into soft flesh. The Guardian fell back onto him, and thick liquid slopped over his hands and face. Robert saw the movement, and threw himself against the Warrior that had remained, knocking him over. Syd pushed the Guardian aside, sprang to the Warrior and slashed his head with the axe. The Warrior collapsed and a soft gooey mass seeped out of the wound. Robert pulled the crown off the Guardian’s head and stripped off the belt holding the firing box. They could hear the Warriors running back. As they came into sight, Robert held the crown out and pushed the firing pin. There was an enormous flash and a ray of fire hit the advancing Warriors. Dense smoke and dust filled the cavern. “C’mon. Let’s get the hell out of here.” Syd grabbed the food bag and raced after Robert. They ran out of the cave, down the gulley, and into a thicket of trees. “We’ve got to go downriver a good mile. Run like hell and stay close.”
Fear lent wings to their feet, and they sailed along through thickening forests and bush. Dawn squirrels scampered out of their way, or chirped angrily as they raced by. They came to a clearing abutting the river. Here the current ran fast, roiling over and around rocks. Robert headed towards the water, splashing up to his knees as he quickly plodded across, followed by Syd. They reached the trees on the other side and sprawled breathless on the ground. Chests heaving, they looked up and back, but there was no activity.
“There’s lots of tree cover now to the mountain. Let’s keep moving.”
They ran on. The trees were thicker, and they fell occasionally over branches. Robert had to stop a couple of times to get his bearings, to make sure they were still heading towards the mountain. On the second stop, they heard the roar of a rocket flying overhead.
“I don’t think they’ve seen us. They’re probably heading towards the cave we left because the Guardian hasn’t called in.”
When they reached a gulley that led deep into the shoulder of the mountain, they could see flashes of light glinting off the fuselages of many rocket ships converging on the cave they had escaped from.
“Well,” said Syd, “I guess they’ll add murder to the other charges.”
“Don’t talk. Keep moving. We’re not safe yet.”
They began to climb, grabbing tree trunks when their footing slipped, pulling themselves up on low leaning branches The ascent was long. Once again, Syd felt his lungs on fire, both from the exertion and the thinning mountain air. Every muscle in his legs and back ached, as he focussed his whole being on following Robert up the steep slope. They reached the crest of the shoulder, and Syd collapsed, breathing hard. Robert lay back against a tree, apparently unfazed by the strenuous climb. “Climb a tree and tell me what they’re doing.”
Syd slowly mounted up a many branched tree, keeping his body flattened against the trunk. Peering through the foliage, despite the fading twilight, he could see the wide panorama of the river, the cave they had escaped from, and in the far distance, the camp where his flight had begun. He gasped in astonishment.
“There are dozens of rocket craft and hundreds of Warriors and Guardians marching into the cave and searching the forest. They’re all carrying lights and you see bobbing lights all over the place.”
“Are they searching past the cave?”
“Yes, there are lights going well past where we crossed the river.”
“Watch awhile longer. See whether they show any interest in the spot we crossed.”
Syd looked out through a break in the trees at the terrain ahead. The shoulder sloped down through thick forests and ended at a vast plain of tall grassland.
He stayed in the tree while the twilight faded, the darkness relieved by the moon that now slipped above the mountain horizon. The lights of the searchers moved back and forth along the far shore, but never stopped very long at any one spot,
“C’mon down. We’ll keep moving. They’ll eventually remember we’re not afraid of water and will search the other side. I’ve explored some of the valley in front of us and hunted there, and never saw any rocket ship traffic. I’ve set up a couple of places where we can hide.”
Syd followed Robert down the hill. The path down was gently sloping, the going was easy, and there was enough light from the moon to avoid pitfalls.
“You did alright back there,” Robert said. “How did you know to go for the head?”
“I think scientists would call it the anthropomorphic principle. The head would have been a logical target for a human. How did they get you?”
“They were waiting for me. They must have heard or seen me coming and stayed hidden until I stumbled into them. They didn’t believe me when I said I’d been looking for game. They traced back the way I had come and found the cave. I was hoping you’d heard us and had escaped. I was as surprised as they were when you came out swinging. I never realized they were that easy to kill. And now we have an even more powerful weapon than a stone hand axe.”
“They won’t give up the hunt for us until they capture or kill us,” Syd said sadly. “That will be our existence from now on.”
“Don’t lose hope. We’ll become nomads to stay ahead of them. Our ancestors were nomads for thousands of years and survived. I’ll teach you how to survive in the wilderness.”
Syd regarded Robert in amazement. Nothing seemed to daunt this man, nor dent his equanimity. He went from crisis to crisis, always seeking an alternative. He was as at home on this strange planet as he had been in his native Wisconsin. In some ways, he was like Monty — an inner toughness, steady in a crisis, a determination to be free. But Robert was a loner and Monty a leader of people. A vision of Rebecca flashed into Syd’s mind but he regretfully pushed it aside. In all the excitement of his flight, he had barely thought of her. Given his situation, it was better to suppress her memory and to concentrate on escape and living.