It took quite a time for them to descend to the lower level of the silo, and in the last few metres they had to enter another doorway with its ubiquitous wheel.
The passageway wound downwards, eventually coming out into what they supposed was the control room, a vast array of blank screens and key pads sat on desks protruding from the walls.
‘It seems hideously strange that people sat here and decided which section of the opposing force’s country they would obliterate, and then pressed a button and sat back to watch a section of earth seared out of existence. How could things have got into such a terrible state?’ Arki asked.
‘The history of Earth I read in the books didn’t go right up to the point where it all went wrong, but I could read between the lines and see the trends forming which would lead to outright total war, if no one put the brakes on, and it seemed no one did.’
They wandered around the missile control room, marvelling at the equipment and trying to figure out how it worked, but were afraid to actually touch anything, in case it did.
The journey back up to the outside was long and arduous, and it was a very tired pair who eventually joined the others in the warm sunlight on the beach to recount their find, and try to explain how it figured in the general scheme of things.
After telling their tale, it seemed as if the sun had lost some of its warmth and the sands weren’t so soft and golden. Glyn called for the evening meal to be brought forward to cheer everyone up a little.
Early next morning they were on there way again, after a bit of a struggle getting the raft afloat. Glyn gave orders to try and get the raft over to the right-hand side of the river bank once they had got underway, so that fresh water could be found and the supplies of food replenished, but this proved to be a little more difficult than giving the orders.
The current caused the raft to twist and turn as the uneven river bed guided the water hither and thither, and those using the poles found that one moment they could get a good purchase and push the raft on course, and then there was deep water beneath them and the poles were useless.
This caused one unfortunate to fall overboard as his pole found nothing solid beneath it, and he toppled over the side amid much laughter. He was only saved by the quick reaction of Arki who threw him a length of creeper.
Once they had got clear of the strange island and its under watercurrents, the river returned to its old self and the raft drifted along in a more soberly fashion, being gradually guided by those with the poles across towards the bank, although they occasionally found an extra deep channel and had to let it drift where it chose.
The shallow water nearer the bank gave them much more control over the raft, and it was now just a matter of finding a suitable cove or inlet in which to beach the craft.
After an hour or so, the only inlet which looked at all promising had a solid wall of forest coming right down to the water’s edge and was inaccessible for landing.
‘Let’s try poling up the tributary a bit.’ Glyn called out encouragingly, and got a series of dirty looks from those with the job of poling the craft against the current.
Slowly the raft lumbered up the stream and around several bends, and there before them was a perfect landing place.
A gently sloping bank of sand swept down from a grassy lawn behind which could be seen clusters of the black berry bearing bushes.
‘Right, let’s go for that.’ called Glyn, swinging his arm out to indicate the beach.
The raft had doubled its speed by the time it reached the shore, and then ground to a halt catapulting several of its passengers prematurely onto the soft sand amid shrieks of laughter from those who saw what was about to happen and had braced themselves for the impact, remembering what had happened the last time.
The water in the tributary was fit to drink, and everyone had their fill before breaking up into little groups to gather food from the nearby forest, and firewood to keep the chill night air at bay.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the fire was blazing merrily, everyone had eaten as much of the bounteous gifts of the forest as was deemed sensible, and the emergency rations had been spared once more, much to Glyn’s relief.
As darkness crowded in around them like a silent black cloak, the fire was stoked up, sending twisting clouds of sparks spiralling up into the cold night air and casting dense elongated shadows of the sitters around the fire on the surrounding sands, like the spokes of a wheel.
Stories were told to entertain the younger ones, Mia got Glyn to feel the kicking bulge of the baby growing inside her, insisting it was trying to get out despite what he said, and everyone agreed it had been a very good day, except Brendon who had eaten too much fruit and spent most of the evening trotting back and forth to the bushes amid ribald comments from just about everyone.
They were just getting ready to sleep when a piercing scream rent the otherwise still night air, and all motion froze for a moment as no one was quite sure where the wail of death had come from.
‘That’s much too close for comfort,’ Glyn said quietly, his eyes straining into the impenetrable darkness of the night, ‘we’d better spend the night on the raft, mooring it a few metres out in the stream.’
‘How about some soft bedding to sleep on, those logs are damned hard.’ someone suggested.
‘It’s too dark to risk fumbling about looking for ferns,’ Arki replied, muttering to himself, ‘I don’t believe this.’
‘How about your lighting device?’ the same voice rejoined.
‘We’re not wasting that on a few ferns, you’re amply covered to withstand a night on the logs, just think about those who aren’t.’ Arki spat back, having identified the voice as the one who had recently returned from the bushes.
The firewood stock was quickly carried to the water’s edge, flaming brands from the old fire soon created a new one on a spit of sand which jutted out a little way into the river, and the raft was eased off the beach, the two mooring creepers being attached to staves driven into the sandbank.
‘OK, everyone onto the raft, Glyn softly called out, ‘I want two guards with sharpened staves, one facing the water and one facing the bank. Keep a sharp lookout, if anything moves, I want to know about it. As soon as you feel drowsy, wake someone else up to take your place, we can’t afford to make any mistakes. Oh, and someone should go ashore to stoke the fire up whenever it needs it, we need to be able to see if anything fancies us.’
With the raft moored several metres off shore, they felt a little safer, but it was difficult to get to sleep, and not just because of the hard logs.
What little sleep they did achieve was rudely broken twice during the long night, as something became a meal for something further up the food chain, and Glyn decided that food gatherers in the future would have to be accompanied by guards armed with pointed poles as there was no way of judging the physical size of the new threat to their existence.
Dawn broke none too soon for the sleep starved travellers, and all were a bit grumpy as they ate the remains of the fruit and nuts from the previous night. After the terrifying sounds emitted from the forest during the hours of darkness none were too keen to get more, despite their hunger.
‘Top up your water supplies and let’s get the food replenished. Remember, no one goes into the forest without armed guards in future until we know just what’s in there.’ Glyn was just as keen to move on as everyone else, the anguished shrieks of last night still echoed in his mind.
The foraging party returned from the trees with indecent haste and clambered on board the raft, the mooring ties were released, and the craft began its slow drift back to the main river, helped along by those with the guiding poles.
‘I’ve had a look at the lashings which hold the logs together to see if any have loosened,’ said Arki, ‘and they all seem secure. What is surprising is that some have sprouted new growth, and given time could be used to reinforce the existing bindings.’ Glyn went to have a look, and was surprised at the speed with which the new shoots had developed in so short a time.
‘The creepers must be getting nutrient as well as water from the river, pity the tree trunks weren’t alive as well, the raft might grow to become a ship!’ Glyn then had to explain what a ship was to one of the onlookers, but gave up after a while as no light of comprehension had dawned on him.
They joined the main river and the raft picked up speed again, but it wasn’t until small waves began to appear that Glyn became worried.
‘Looks like the river is getting a bit narrower.’ he said to Arki, who was standing at the front end looking out for submerged obstacles.
‘I think you’re right, it would certainly account for the increase in velocity.’ Arki liked technical terms.
Soon it became apparent that they were heading for a narrow gorge as the sides of the river closed in, and great cliffs towered above them as the raft picked up speed.
By now the guiding poles were useless as the river had deepened, and they were no longer able to reach the bottom.
‘If we hit the side we’re finished,’ Glyn called out, a touch of panic in his voice, ‘the raft will be ripped to shreds, and us along with it. If we get too close, push against the rocks, but be careful you don’t get the pole jammed in a crevice and lose your balance.’
The waves had grown in magnitude as the gorge narrowed still further, and were now causing the raft to ripple like a shaken rug as the timbers ran from side to side, and the lashing allowed a small amount of movement between them.
‘Two men with poles on each side,’ Arki shouted against the roar of the turbulent waters, taking one of the poles himself, ‘the rest lie down and hold onto the lashings. Those nearest the 'polers', hold onto their feet in case they lose their balance and get swept overboard.’
Now the raft bucked and kicked like a frightened mule as waves caused by the water hitting the sides of the gorge rebounded back across, and the shelter they had so carefully built in the middle of the raft swayed dangerously.
Glyn quickly checked to see if their backpacks were safely lashed down. Fortunately, someone had sensibly arranged the backpacks in the form of an enclosure, the fruit and other edibles being held in the centre.
The waters had now taken on a dirty grey colour due to the restricted amount of light reaching into the gorge, and ahead there loomed another obstacle to their progress south.
What looked like a solid wall of rock closed off the ever narrowing gorge, and as they bobbed and bounced along, they found themselves in the bottom of a narrow trough, the water on either side of them rising up well above their heads where it touched the walls of the gorge in a foaming line.
‘Why has the water risen up each side of us like that?’ asked Glyn of Arki, holding on to one of his legs with one hand and the lashing of the raft with the other.
‘Must be due to the shape of the river bed and the acceleration of the water in this narrowing section of the gorge, I would think,’ Arki shouted back against the roar of the waters, ‘must say it looks frightening whatever the reason might be.’ he concluded.
The raft sped along the bottom of the depression in the racing waters, thankfully the upsweep of the water on each side of it keeping it centred in the trough.
‘Where the hell’s all this water going?’ asked Glyn, his view lessened because of his lying down on the raft.
‘Can’t see very well, it would seem to go up to the end wall of the gorge and disappear somewhere. Maybe there’s a big hole in the river bed!’
Glyn’s string of expletives at Arki’s light-hearted comment were entirely lost to all in the overpowering roar of a lot of water trying to get into a space far too small for it.
The light seemed to fade even more as the towering cliffs on each side closed in overhead, and the raft raced on towards the approaching end wall of solid rock.
The white line of seething foam where the raised water met the edge of the cliffs had disappeared, and as the river widened slightly, the water returned to its more normal level on each side of the speeding raft.
They suddenly noticed the tumultuous roar of the convulsing river was gone, the waters were now black and perfectly smooth as they raced towards the rapidly advancing end of the gorge in an eerie silence.
‘This is it, whatever it is,’ Arki yelled out, ‘hold on tight.’ And the raft tipped over at a horribly precarious angle.
The light level was so low, it was almost like twilight as the raft and its occupants slid down the glassy smooth slope of dark water into the yawning maw of the cavern in the rock face.
Arki and the other three with the guiding poles instinctively dropped down to hold on to the lashings, not knowing how much head room there would be as the raft rushed headlong into the darkness.
Glyn wished he had retrieved his light device from the pack before they had entered the cavern. But it was too late now, in the darkness which surrounded them he was unable to tell which was his pack amongst the others.
‘Hold on tight everyone.’ he called out in what was almost total silence except for the faintest chuckling of the water between the logs.
The angle of the raft suddenly changed again, returning to its former level position in the water, and with it came the first natural sound they had heard since entering the darkness of the tunnel.
It was a deep almost subsonic sound, felt rather than heard, and imaginations ran riot trying to make out what could be causing it. The very air seemed to shimmer with the sound as it swept up the tunnel, and then it was gone, the eerie silence returning once more.
There was a sharp crack as the top of the shelter hit a low portion of the tunnel roof, breaking all four uprights in one blow and causing several yells of protest from those who were hit by the poles and the roof covering as it collapsed.
‘Hold onto the bits if you can,’ Arki called out, ‘we may need them later.’
A faint glimmer of light up ahead broke the inky blackness through which they had been travelling, and Glyn announced,