By the time he had reached the rock pile, the others having a much easier journey along the ridge were showing some degree of excitement, and pointing down into the gully.
As he climbed over the last of the large rocks, he could see what all the fuss was about. A large pool of water stretched up the gully for some ten metres, and it looked quite deep.
Glyn bent to scoop some water into his hand, it seemed innocent enough with no plants growing in the water to hide any nasty surprises. It was sweet, no metallic aftertaste, and he looked up smiling, a thin trickle of water dribbling down his chin and staining his jacket with a dark wet patch.
‘Come on down, but carefully, the water’s fine so you can drink your fill.’ The others scrambled down the steep slope, some in an undignified manner as they neared the water’s edge and their feet met the first of the slippery stones.
When all had quenched their thirsts and replenished their water containers, it was a much more cheerful group which sat down at the water’s edge to rest a while.
‘If we can find a suitable place near here to make a permanent or semi-permanent camp, then it would be a good idea to wash our clothes, as well as take a much needed bath. Tomorrow, we could make a small dam up stream and use that to provide drinking water, and then this pool could be used for bathing and washing our clothes. Does anyone have any other ideas on the matter?’ asked Glyn.
He looked around, and everyone seemed to be in agreement with what had been proposed, nodding their affirmation.
Things were getting better by the day, he thought.
‘As we still have a good bit of daylight left, let’s move on a little and see if we can find some fruit in the bushes or trees on the next ridge, we can always return here to make camp for the night, unless we find somewhere better.’ Glyn had already begun to walk up the length of the pool to where it narrowed to a little stream so that he could cross over without getting his feet wet. The rest soon followed at the thought of finding something succulent to augment the emergency rations, which would be issued later.
Having reached the top of the next ridge, they found they were a little nearer to the trees than previously thought as the hollow below them was full of growth, which from a distance had appeared as another flat section of the landscape.
‘Careful as you go down,’ Glyn called out, ‘we don’t know what we’ll find here.’
As they descended the slope, the undergrowth grew thicker and taller making the descent difficult in the extreme. So far there had been no bushes with the deadly spines or anything else to cause problems, apart from the actual density of the growth itself.
Reaching the bottom of the gully, they were all relieved to see tall slender trees reaching up into the sky above, a pale dappled light filtering down to illuminate the forest floor which was just bare ground, the light level being insufficient to sustain plant life.
The ground at this point seemed level, and went on into the far distance until it was blotted out by the sheer number of tree trunks.
‘Not much to eat down here by the look of it.’ someone commented acidly, when Arki, who had come down last said ,‘Look up there, those look like apples, but much smaller than the ones we had back on the ship.’
Well out of their reach, several apple like fruits dangled from long thin branches, as if they had once been up amongst the tree tops, but the weight of the fruit as it grew had bent them down into the gloom below.
‘How the hell can we get them down from up there? The tree trunk is far too thick to shake, and I doubt if anyone could climb up and reach them.’ the same voice as before said gleefully.
‘I don’t think we’re beaten yet,’ said Glyn, eager to quash any doom mongers, ‘there’s a vine or creeper like thing spiralling up the trunk, if we can cut it off at the bottom and unwind it as it goes up until it reaches the thinner section, then we can shake the tree, maybe.’
Cutting the vine off at the point where it left the ground to begin its twisting climb to the light above seemed an impossible task, as no one had a blade or other means of cutting the tough looking growth.
‘Someone will have to go back to the stream and fetch several thin flat stones. We may be able to hack our way through the stem with a bit of luck,’ Glyn suggested, adding ‘take someone with you, we must never go anywhere alone, under any circumstances.’
‘I’ll go.’ Brendon volunteered, which surprised them all as it was a hard and difficult climb back up to the ridge top.
‘I’ll go with you.’ Arki quickly added, more to make sure that Brendon returned in one piece than out of brotherly love.
The rest of the group stood around, some leaning against the tree trunks, waiting for the stone gatherers to return.
‘Remember,’ said Glyn loudly, ‘no one is to try eating the fruit until we know for sure that it won’t harm us, we have no means of coping with any poisonings, so be warned.’
A stony silence greeted his orders, as most had already built up images of biting into what looked like the sweet succulent fruits they were used to in the past.
A sudden crashing in the bushes at the edge of the trees announced the return of Brendon and Arki, carrying a selection of flat stones.
Selecting the sharpest edged stone, Glyn began energetically hacking away at the base of the vine, and soon a small pile of damp acid smelling white flakes littered the ground around the base of the tree.
As the remaining strand of the vine was severed and the vine pulled free from its base, Glyn noticed that his fingers were stinging and turning an ugly red colour.
‘No one do anything until I’m back, I’m going to wash this juice from my hands, I think it’s corrosive, so don’t get any on yourselves.’
Having given his warning, he ran through the trees and up the bank to disappear into the mass of bushes which surrounded the forest, surprisingly followed by Brendon.
One of the group had moved forward and approached the severed end of the vine.
‘Leave it, remember what Glyn said. Wait for him to return.’ There was no doubt that Arki was accepted as second in command, as the man stopped dead in his tracks and said,
‘I was only going to look at it. Just look at all that liquid running out of the end, how are we going to be able to keep that stuff off us if we have to handle the vine?’
‘Let it drain away, it should all be gone by the time Glyn returns.’ Arki replied.
It was a very sick looking Glyn who staggered back through the bushes to the waiting fruit gatherers, and Arki rushed forward to help him before he fell to the ground.
‘Remember, no one eats until we have tested the fruit.’ Glyn called out as the small apple like fruits were eagerly gathered up by the rest of the group. Two men had taken their jackets off, and used them as carriers for the pile of fruit which was quickly growing at Glyn’s feet.
‘Who would like to act as fruit tester?’ Glyn asked, thinking it unfair that Arki should do all the testing.
‘I will,’ a tall blond man stepped forward, ‘it’s about time I did something constructive.’
Taking one of the fruits, Glyn used one of the sharp edged stones to cut a small portion out.
‘I’ll squeeze a couple of drops of the juice under your tongue, if you feel dizzy or anything else untoward, let me know at once, and then spit out the remaining juice, OK?’
The man nodded, not looking so confident now that the test was about to take place.
‘We’ll go back to the water pool for the night, I think it’ll be safer there. Gather up any dead branches or small pieces of wood on your way, we’ll have a fire to cheer us up.’ Glyn was already heading back towards the steep bank and the light of the open ground.
On the way back, someone discovered a small bush of black berries, and shortly after they had arrived back at the pool, the apple like fruit was declared safe to eat, the berries shared out and the fire maker had a good blaze going.
‘One food pack between two,’ Glyn called out, ‘and don’t eat too much fruit or the nutrient in the food pack will be long gone before you can extract the goodness from it.’
After the meal, they huddled around the blazing fire to keep the chill of the night air at bay, talking about what had happened in so short a time and speculating on what else they might find in the coming days.
T
he dawn was cooler than any they had experienced so far, and the sun was obscured by a dark ribbon of cloud which grew darker and thicker as they watched.
A sense of unease was felt by the group as they ate the rest of the fruit left over from the night before, and they looked to Glyn and Arki for reassurance. Deciding that doing something would probably settle everyone down again, Glyn suggested that they create a small pool up stream from the large pool, and use it for drinking purposes only.
Two volunteers were called for to go further up stream, walking on the ridge to see where the forest ended, as Glyn still wanted to go south and the forest looked too dense and dark to travel in easily.
By the time the upper drinking water pool had been constructed and filled with clear water, the two explorers had returned in great excitement.
‘We’ve found another of those things you called a building, only this one seems to be nearly intact. It is divided into sections like our cabins, only much larger, and there is plenty of space for all of us to shelter in at night.’ The bringer of the good news was a little out of breath as the pair had run all the way back from their find.
‘Fill up all water containers,’ Glyn called out, ‘and we’ll see what they’ve found.’
At last the building came into view, a creeper covered concrete block set into the bank of the gully, only its symmetry making it stand out from the surrounding lush greenery. It took longer to clamber down the steep and slippery bank and then cross the marshy area at the bottom of the gully, whilst watching out for any hidden perils which might lurk beneath the surface of the squishy ground.
The access to the building was set a few metres up the opposite bank, and the two discoverers proudly went ahead to show off their find.
A roughly oblong hole, only a metre high although it was a good deal wider, in the wall of the concrete structure seemed to be the only visible way in from the bank, and Glyn and Arki followed the other two into the dark chamber within the block, finding that they could stand up, and even with outstretched arms couldn’t reach the ceiling above.
‘Looks like we have found a new home.’ said Arki, his voice sounding strange as it echoed back and forth from the solid concrete walls.
‘Certainly looks that way,’ rejoined Glyn, ‘but remember it is only for a short time, as we must press on southwards, according to our instructions.’
They returned to the bright light of the outside world, shielding their eyes from the glare, although the sun wasn’t visible as the cloud bank had thickened and spread half-way across the sky.
‘I think the entrance has got silted up,’ said Arki, ‘how about digging it clear so that we can get in a little easier, and it will allow a bit more light in as well.’
Willing hands soon found flat sheets of slate from the opposite bank, and the clearing of the entrance began. It soon became apparent that the room behind the opening was also filled with debris, as what they assumed to be the doorway was now just over two metres high.
It was hard work, but with the group working in teams of two, one each side of the opening, cutting and passing the loosened debris from one pair to the next, they made surprising inroads into the room, whilst the debris formed an access ramp to the building on the outside.
By midday, although it was difficult to tell if it really was because the sun was now totally obscured by the cloud bank, they had cleared enough space in the first of the interconnecting rooms for all of the group to shelter come nightfall, and they still had the afternoon to go.
Arki suggested they should go looking for ferns or something soft to sleep on, as the concrete floor of the room was even harder than the ground of the previous night.
Two men and their partners came forward when they heard the suggestion, and were sent off to get bedding for the rest of the diggers who would surely need it come sleep time.
As the light began to fade, heralding the coming night, the room had been cleared of the accumulations of the passing years and some ingenious soul had made a crude broom of fine twigs to sweep it really clean.
It still had the dank smell of rotting leaves, but they would at least be sheltered from the cold winds of the night, and no one was going to quarrel with that.
At no one’s bidding, the apple fruit and black berries had been replenished with enough for another feast at the early morning meal, and a pile of fire wood was growing at the entrance to their new home.
Once the fire had been started, Brendon came forward with a long bunch of fine twigs bound tightly together into a bundle, with a thick stick protruding from one end.
‘What have you got there?’ asked Arki, thinking it was another broom.
‘If I light the end, it should burn for quite a time, and I can see the inside of the room which I haven’t seen yet as I was on the outside clearing the stuff the others were throwing out,’ he rushed it all out in one continuous stream, only pausing for breath to add, ‘please.’
‘What do you think, Glyn?’ asked Arki, being careful to give their natural leader the right of veto.
‘Don’t see why not. Good idea of yours.’ Glyn replied, placing a hand on Brendon’s shoulder and giving him a pat.
He grew at least three centimetres in height as he unbent from lighting his firebrand, and beamed at the leader and his aide.
The three of them trooped into the gloom of the concrete chamber, Brendon proudly leading the way. Once inside, they were all surprised at the space the flickering firebrand illuminated, and as the others crowded in, shadowy shapes began to dance weirdly around the walls, much to the delight of the younger ones.
Brendon had gone over to the far corner of the room and it was Arki who first noticed that the smoke from the firebrand was going somewhere other than up to the ceiling, as only a small amount of it hung there.