Rose was the first to wake up. Having been carried most of
the way she was less fatigued than the rest, though still sore from her
exertions. She looked musingly at the tangle of bodies asleep on the rock.
Angelo had his arm around Righteous and was snoring contentedly on his chest.
Dutch and Sweet Mary were cuddled up together like two lost waifs. She felt a
surge of affection for them and had to restrain herself from reaching out and
touching them in case she woke them from their much needed sleep.
The first red rays of the giant sun were just touching
their elevated platform. As she looked towards it she could see that everywhere
the sunlight touched the ground the receding ice was being supplanted with lush
green growth. Soon they were completely surrounded by meadows and flowers and
trees again.
‘What a strange, sad planet this is,’ she thought.
Her eye for knickknacks was then drawn to the strange
white carving on the plinth. Funny how it stood all alone out here in the
middle of nowhere. It reminded her of the wayside shrines she’d seen along the
roads in some Mediterranean countries. The ivory was so translucent, one could
almost see into its depths. She got up and moved closer to get a better look
and was quite surprised to hear that it gave off a soft unearthly ringing
noise, a little tinkling tune like an ice cream vendor van very far away, that
made her remember happier times, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on
it. ‘Never mind,’ she thought. ‘It is very pretty.’
At first she had some trouble trying to make out the
design, which seemed to be composed of random loops and swirls. After a while
she gave up and let her mind wander as she gazed at it and suddenly an image
began to form and float out towards her in spectacular 3D. She gasped in
surprise. ‘How clever,’ she thought. ‘Like those pictures with hidden figures
in them.’
It was a representation of a sleeping dragon with its tail
curled around itself in a circle. The image was so lifelike that she could
swear it was breathing. Rose had to close her eyes and shake her head to make
sure. No, it was definitely moving, but probably just another one of this
planets strange illusions. She felt a little disappointed. What was real then
if nothing could be trusted? She looked around. ‘We are,’ she thought. ‘Even if
nothing else is real, at least we are.’ She rubbed her forearm with her hand to
make sure she was here. ‘Otherwise you don’t know what’s what.’
Then Rose got another jolt as she realized someone quite
sophisticated must have carved this thing, and quite recently according to her
reckoning, because the statue looked very clean and new. Surely if it had been
made by some ancient long-dead civilization it would have weathered somewhat in
all those millennia? She called to mind the many outdoor statues she had seen
and how the elements had eroded even the most durable of marbles.
A shudder of foreboding shook her ample frame and she
looked around nervously. ‘What if we aren’t alone?’ she thought. ‘And what do
they look like?’
Dutch saved her from going any further down that pointless
path.
“Good morning,” she smiled at Rose.
“Hello. You’re in a good mood this morning. Considering,” said
Rose.
“Considering my body feels like I’ve been through a
crusher, and the fact that we’ve lost our space-ship,” she said as she stood up
and stretched herself gingerly. “I see the garden of delightful illusions is
back.”
Angelo groaned in agony and rolled onto his side.
“My god, this rock is so hard. I’ll never be able to walk upright again. I’ll have to hobble
along on all fours.”
“Then I shall feed you peanuts and call you my pet,” said
Rose in a burst of bonhomie. The daylight really lifted everyone’s mood quite
magnificently; almost as much as the night time depressed everyone.
Angelo laughed and then cried aloud at the strain it
caused on some unseen mutilated muscle.
“I should be very happy with that,” he smiled at Rose.
She liked it when he smiled. It made him look like a little
boy again, not like some big-stuff-I’m-on-an-important-mission type of
policeman.
Everyone was now limping to their feet, trying to massage
some life into their stiff and swollen limbs. All except Righteous, who stood
serenely at ease.
“Righteous. How did you see this place last night?” asked
Dutch.
“I can see this,” he said, pointing unerringly at the
statue. “I see it clear as day.” Then a slight frown floated across his brow.
“But that’s all I see.”
“I’m thirsty,” said a puffy-eyed Sweet Mary. Already they
could feel the heat beginning to rise from the rock. A sanctuary by night, it would
turn into a death trap by day.
“We’re going to have to get off here and find some shade,”
said Dutch, automatically looking around for her hold-all. Then with a sinking
heart she realized she’d ditched it back at the pool when the ice had first
started to chase them. Her spirit seemed to sag like an old balloon as the full
import of their predicament struck home. Stranded; on a hostile, barren planet;
surrounded by food that wasn’t there and water that wouldn’t quench their
thirst.
“I hate to tell you this,” she said to Sweet Mary, “But I
don’t think that drinking the water on this planet is going to help much. You
can try but I think you’re still going to be thirsty.”
At most they could last a few days without water. What to
do? It was still her responsibility. It was her decisions that got them into
this mess. They would be looking to her to get them out; and standing around in
this heat wasn’t helping much. She scanned her surroundings and her eyes
quickly picked up a shady grove of trees not far away.
“Come on – then we can talk about what to do next,” she
said climbing down from the outcrop and extending a hand to Sweet Mary.
By midday they still had no idea what to do. Every avenue
they explored seemed pretty hopeless.
“Space can be a funny place,” said Dutch. She knew that
despair could kill you faster than hunger or thirst, so she had to pretend to
be optimistic. “Strange things can happen there, and even though the situation
seems dire, something will come up.” She tried to keep her misgivings out of
her voice. As long as they were still alive there was a chance. She had to
think positive. No-one was injured so that was a blessing and Righteous seemed
alright again and stronger than before. What they needed now was a plan;
something to keep them occupied.
Then Dutch noticed that Righteous had been standing
silently seemingly surveying the distant red mountains with his blind eyes. Dutch
went to stand next to him and gazed at the faraway peaks. The mountains were
probably their only hope although they seemed impossibly far away.
“You see anything,
Righteous?” she asked just for the sake of asking. There was a long pause
before he answered.
“I don’t know. I thought I saw something but I can’t be
sure. It’s too far to tell.”
“Well that’s going to have to be good enough.”
At that moment Officer Angelo decided to join them.
“We’re going to walk there?” said Angelo, pointing in
disbelief.
“I don’t know,” said Dutch. “It’s preferable to staying
here and waiting to die. We got to do something. I’m presuming the ice is a
regular thing so we’ve only got one day to do it in. Maybe there’s another
rocky outcrop further along. Maybe these things were set up like traveller’s
way-stations, a high ground refuge from the ice for people to go from one to
the other during daylight and resting safely at night. Otherwise, why else would
it be here? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I agree with Dutch,” said Rose, quite astounding herself
that she could sound so confident on a subject she knew nothing about. “It
sounds right,” she finished lamely.
“And if it isn’t? If there’s nothing there?” said Angelo.
“Then it’s over,” said Dutch. “But it’s going to be over
if we stay here and do nothing.”
Angelo groaned at the logic of it all. “God, I don’t feel
like walking.”
“I think we should rest up for the rest of the day,
conserve our energy and set off early tomorrow morning.”
Angelo’s face was a picture of pure misery. Dutch would’ve
laughed if it wasn’t so serious.
“Righteous?” asked Dutch.
“I’m agree,” he replied.
The next morning found them striding along the meadows at
a brisk pace, full of confidence and good cheer. By midday however they had only
travelled a few miles and could go no further. Because there were only a few
trees here and there; and none that offered any substantial shade, the sun had
sapped their energy and left them sweating out what little moisture their poor
bodies had left.
“Can you see anything yet, Righteous?” asked Dutch for the
umpteenth time.
“Not yet,” he said phlegmatically, and stood waiting.
Sweet Mary was in tears from the exertion and Angelo just didn’t want to be
there anymore. Righteous had even offered to carry him for a spell, as he did
with the ladies, but Angelo’s pride had to draw the line somewhere. It was
killing him though. Rose was baring as much flesh as she dared in an attempt to
cool down, but even that wasn’t doing anything to revive poor Angelo’s spirits.
“Okay. We better rest for a while,” Dutch’s dispirited
voice said it all. ‘At least we died trying,’ she thought, and reached out an
arm to Sweet Mary. They sat down together in the shade of a tree and curled
into a ball.
Dutch shot up into a standing position before she was even
awake. The thunder clapped again and if there had been any moisture left in her
bladder she’d have peed herself, the noise was stupendous. Waves of supersonic
sound slammed into her, almost causing her to fall to her knees. Angelo had
also woken up and sat there looking sleepy and alarmed, but Sweet Mary and Rose
slept the sleep of innocents, blissfully unaware of the approaching storm, too
tired to be woken even by this enormous noise. Thick dirty red clouds scudded
across the sky like demonic horses being driven into the fray. Blood red
lighting stabbed repeatedly all around them in a fury and soon the sun was
blotted out. It seemed that the battle for the end of the world had begun.
Dutch and Angelo could only stand and watch in trepidation as the wild wind
whipped the world into a frenzy of tortured elements, threatening to tear the
very sky from its resting place. They’d never experienced a storm like this
before. It grew darker and darker underneath on the dead deserted plains; the
shrubbery and sward long since gone with the sunshine.
Only Righteous stood quite calmly unconcerned, his face
forever turned toward the mountains.
