The abandoned hut
“It’s not much,” Thierry said, “and it’ll be cold at night, but at least we’re out of the wind and we won’t get wet if it rains or snows.”
“Let’s make a fire,” Edward said. “There’s plenty of wood around.”
Thierry shook his head. “If we make a fire we’d be visible for miles around and someone might smell the smoke. We must keep a low profile.”
They made the interior of the hut as comfortable as possible and after a meal of canned food they settled down for the night.
10
When they woke up the next morning they looked out of the windows and saw that the fog had lifted. It was very cold and over night snow had fallen. Below the hut there was a glacier which stretched into the valley where it gave way to a brown lake. In the distance snow clad mountains represented the icy glory and beauty of Kerguelen. The sky was cloudy and only in a few places did the sun manage to pierce through, yet where it did the snow and ice sparkled and gleamed brightly.
The glacier and lake below the hut
“Wow,” Edward said when he looked out of the window.
“Yes,” Thierry said, “Kerguelen is quite a sight. “All around us is wild, untamed nature. It’s not a hospitable land, but it has its own rugged charm.”
“Are we staying here?” Anthony asked.
“Ah well, now,” Thierry said, “that’s the question.”
They sat down to a breakfast of icy water, canned tuna fish and Kerguelen cabbage and talked about what to do.
“Aren’t there any other towns in Kerguelen?” Edward asked.
Thierry smiled and shook his head. “No, Port-aux-Francais is the only one. There are some abandoned farm houses and one or two empty huts like this one, but that’s all. All attempts at colonizing the land in the past failed. The climate’s too rough. Even an attempt at sheep farming was a miserable failure.”
“So when we run out of supplies we have to go back to Port-aux-Francais and try to get more?” Edward asked.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Thierry said. “It’s too dangerous. I think we’ll have to get farther away and try to hunt penguins.”
“I didn’t know you could cook penguin meat,” Anthony said.
“It’s worse than that,” Thierry said. “I told you we shouldn’t light a fire. If we kill a penguin we’ll have to eat the meat raw.”
“Yuck!” the boys said.
“It’s either that or stay hungry, and in this climate you’ll die quickly of cold when you don’t eat.”
The prospect of living off Kerguelen cabbage and raw penguin meat was disgusting, but the alternative of getting caught was even worse. They were caught between a hard place and a rock.
“If that’s the choice,” Anthony sighed, “then we’d better go hunting.”
Three hours later they reached a place where there were plenty of penguins.
Hundreds of penguins were gathered in a shallow stream. A narrow wooden bridge led to the other side where a road was visible.
“Where does the road go to?” Edward whispered.
“To Port-aux-Francais,” Thierry said. “That’s where all roads go to in Kerguelen. Anyway, the two of you stay here and be quiet. I’ll get us a nice juicy penguin for lunch.”
The boys sat down on the ground with a feeling of apprehension while Thierry approached the penguins very slowly and quietly. He had made a crude spear by fastening a knife at one end of a stick and with this he hoped to kill a penguin. The penguins had no natural predators in Kerguelen and as humans never hunted them they were not afraid of Thierry. He was able to get very close to a group of penguins. When he was just one arm’s length away from a big penguin, he took careful aim. His hands gripped the spear tightly, then he thrust it at the penguin with all his force. The blade plunged deep into the bird’s body. The dying penguin made a loud shriek. It struggled a little and then life faded from it. Thierry quickly took it. All around him penguins were waddling away in terror.
Five minutes later Thierry was sitting with the boys. He cut up the penguin and gave them chunks of penguin meat. They looked at it in disgust.
“Survivors eat,” Thierry said. “Just close your eyes and imagine you’re eating some chicken. They’re both birds, it’s more or less the same anyway.”
“But not uncooked,” Edward said. He was holding the piece of raw meat gingerly between two fingers and sniffed at it. “Yuck,” he said, “this is just gross.”
Thierry looked angry. “Now you listen to me. If you don’t eat you’ll die. Put the meat in your mouth and stop whining.”
Anthony licked the meat, then he started chewing some from the edge. Bit by bit more of the meat vanished into his mouth until it was all gone. Thierry gave him another piece while Edward watched with a sense of horrified interest.
“How can you eat that stuff?” he whispered to Anthony when Thierry was looking around.
“Just swallow it and you’ll feel better,” Anthony said.
After a few unsuccessful attempts Edward finally managed to swallow the meat. He nearly threw up but he forced himself to keep the meat down.
“There, have some more,” Thierry said and held out an even bigger chunk of meat.
Edward turned away. “Later,” he said feeling weak.
11
After the meal of raw penguin meat washed down with some water from the river the three began their way back up the mountain to spend another night in the hut. Half of the penguin was still left and Thierry carried it in an empty rucksack he had brought along for this purpose. The remainder of their other supplies, the canned food and Kerguelen cabbage, they had left behind in the hut as they saw no point in carrying down the mountain and then back up again. They said nothing on the way back. Anthony and Edward were silent as their mouths were busy trying to get over the taste of raw penguin meat and their stomachs were feeling queasy. For Thierry this wasn’t a problem. As a soldier he had been in survival situations before where he had had to eat much more disgusting things such as beetles and worms. Yet as a soldier he also knew it was important to conserve his strength and to keep a low profile, so he was happy that the children were quiet and he didn’t want to talk himself.
They came past a lake on the way and the stunning countryside slowly took all of their minds off the terrible events of the previous days. After a strenuous yet delightful walk up the mountain they were almost back at the hut. They were nearing the last bend around a hill after which their hut would come in sight.
“I hope we can have the tuna for lunch,” Edward said. The thought of the raw penguin meat in Thierry’s rucksack filled him with dismay. The tuna by contrast seemed like a food from paradise.
Thierry smiled, but he said nothing. It was better to tell the children later that the fresh meat had to be eaten first while the canned food would keep.
They came round the last bend and saw their hut.
They stopped aghast.
A thick column of smoke rose up in the air. The hut was on fire!
“The hut’s on fire!” Anthony cried.
“Our tuna is burning!” Edward cried.
“Be quiet!” Thierry whispered urgently.
Too late! Several figures around the hut had spotted them and came running towards them.
“Run!” Thierry cried.
They turned and ran down the mountain as fast as they could. The way down was over rough ground and they fell several times. Their hands were scratched and bleeding but fortunately their thick clothes gave some protection to arms and legs.
When Thierry glanced back from time to time he realized that their pursuers were slowly gaining on them.
Finally they reached the seashore. Edward and Anthony stumbled along the beach in utter exhaustion. How could two children outrun adults? Thierry realized that the end was near unless he managed to think of something quickly. There were at least ten men following them so a fight would be futile. They struggled on for a few more minutes. Then
several people came onto the beach ahead of them. They looked around in desperation. Farther inland more figures could be seen. They were surrounded. All ways of retreat were cut off, there was nowhere to go and entering the freezing water would mean certain death.
“Quick, let’s go in there!” Edward said and pointed to a nearby wreck.
They crawled through a hole in the hull of the ship. The interior was full of water and they stood ankle deep in the icy sea water. Thierry waited behind the hole with his spear.
A man appeared and he stabbed him. To Thierry’s surprise the man didn’t seem hurt. He grabbed the spear and pulled it out of Thierry’s hands.
Several more men appeared at the hole. Thierry punched and kicked them as best as he could, but the fight lasted less than a minute. The men outside grabbed his arms and legs and pulled him out. Then they came in and pulled the boys out of the wreck.
There were more than forty people outside. Thierry and the boys gave up struggling. There was no point. They tried talking to the people who a few day before had been friends and colleagues, but there was no reaction. A man lifted Edward and put him over his shoulder. The same happened to Anthony and Thierry. Then they set off towards the mountains. Several hours later they arrived at their destination. It was the very cave where Edward and Anthony had discovered the dead man. What awaited them in this place of dread?
The cave of dread
The French rescue fleet was still six days away.
12
Thierry and the boys were lowered to the ground and immediately pushed into the cave. The deeper they went in the darker it got. It was cold. Their hearts were pounding and they breathed rapidly. They pushed yet deeper into the cave, farther than they had been before. All around them were dark rock and ice shimmering in hues of blue. When it was almost totally dark there was a sudden change. The rough, rocky floor and walls became strangely smooth and completely round, as though they were in a man made tunnel. Their heavy breathing echoed in the narrow space. They came around a bend. Light appeared. Not the kind of light humans are used to. It was a scintillating light that came in waves ranging from bright green to purple.
Then they entered a room. It was a perfect sphere that glowed in the peculiar unearthly light. And in the very middle of this sphere was the strange man, that man who had been dead and frozen a few days before, that man who had brought terror and misery to Kerguelen, that man was floating in the air. His eyes reflected the light around him.
The men holding Thierry let go of him and he suddenly floated through the air towards the strange man. When Thierry reached him he desperately tried to push himself away but to no avail. The strange man grabbed him by the wrists and pulled him close until their noses touched and Thierry’s eyes were locked into those of the strange man.
After a minute Thierry was released and he floated back to the other people who had been captured before. There was the same vacant look in his eyes that all the others had.
Next Edward floated through the air and a minute later he had been transformed in the same way.
Anthony was the last free human in Kerguelen, but already his mind was affected by the power of the strange man. When his feet lifted off the ground and he floated towards HIM his heart pumped like it had never done before. Adrenalin rushed through his body and Anthony became angry. He reacted to the strange power like no one else. The man grabbed him by the wrists and pulled him close. Anthony didn’t struggle to get away, he was much too angry. He was the first not to try to break free.
His nose met that of the man. Their eyes interlocked and through their eyes their minds became one.
The man was able to enter Anthony’s mind while at the same time Anthony was able to see into that of the man. There it was, the terrifying truth to the mystery that had haunted Kerguelen.
Eons ago, long before the first humans walked the Earth, an alien being approached our world in a spaceship. The spaceship suffered from critical damage to its functions and crash landed on Kerguelen. The alien being was seriously injured and unable to either save itself or repair the spaceship. Yet it did have one power. It could move its own mind out of its dying body into that of any other living being. And so for more than two million years the alien clung to life by moving its mind from one animal to another, from crab to penguin, from penguin to sea lion and so on, until one day humans arrived. The alien being invaded the body of a sailor and took control over it. The alien realized that here, at last, was a species that might in time develop enough technology to enable the alien to repair its spaceship and fly back to its own world. To do this the alien had to gain control over as many humans as possible to create a workforce that would be able to do its bidding.
What the alien being didn’t know was that far away, on the other side of the planet a desperate struggle was being waged between Britain and France. The year was 1806, the height of the Napoleonic wars. The French emperor Napoleon was trying to subject the whole of Europe to his rule. Only Britain stood in his way. So when HMS Argent, a British destroyer, stopped at Kerguelen to take on water, it was manned by hard men, men used to the cruelty and brutality of war after fighting for more than ten years.
And when one curious and unfortunate sailor by the name of Tom came too close to a penguin he was infected by the alien being who entered his mind. The alien being decided to take control of the entire crew of HMS Argent. The hardened men and officers noticed quickly that something was wrong with Tom. The officers decided that Tom had become infected with a strange disease. It was war and they couldn’t take any risk with their ship so they sailed away and abandoned Tom in Kerguelen. Being in a human body the alien being understood it had to find shelter or it would die so it decided to head back to the site where its spaceship had crashed so long ago. On the way there a snowstorm broke out. The body of poor Tom struggled through the howling wind and finally reached the cave. Utterly exhausted he lay down, even the alien being could not make his body move any further. That night Tom froze to death. The alien being could only leave the body of one creature and move to another by looking directly into its eyes so it lay there until Edward and Anthony came by. The alien influenced and swayed their minds so they walked towards the cave.
Though not conscious of it, Anthony was horrified and when he saw what the alien was planning to do with the Earth, how it wanted to enslave all humans to create a vast workforce, he became like a boiling volcano, ready to erupt.
The alien being felt Anthony’s anger and didn’t understand it. For the first time in two million years it had encountered a being that would not yield to its will. The alien exerted its utmost power to break Anthony’s mind and will, yet like a mirror reflects light, Anthony’s mind turned the alien’s power into anger. In an incredible fury Anthony grabbed the man whose body contained the alien being by the ears and pulled hard. This was unexpected for the alien. Everyone had tried to push away, Anthony was the first to pull closer. By surprising the alien being Anthony was able to get his mouth to the nose of the man. He opened his mouth wide and then bit with all his might. Their eye contact was broken and the alien being could not take control over Anthony anymore. His jaws locked on Tom’s nose. Tom had been dead for over two hundred years, and yet, when Anthony bit his nose so hard the nerves sent signals of pain to Tom’s dead brain. Anthony twisted Tom’s ears in fury and kept biting. At last Tom’s brain began to react. The alien being realized that it was losing control over Tom. The only thing that kept Tom’s body functioning was the alien’s control over it. If Tom’s mind managed to struggle free then his body would be completely dead and with him the alien being would die. It was a desperate struggle between the alien and Anthony. The alien being had waited two million years for its chance. It had to keep control over Tom or enter someone else’s body, but it could only do that with direct eye contact. This was impossible while Anthony was biting Tom’s nose.
Anthony ground his teeth on Tom’s nose. Finally the pain became too much and for a brief moment
Tom regained consciousness. At that moment the alien was still in his mind, but not in control anymore. In an instant Tom understood everything. He didn’t want to die, yet he knew that to live meant doom for humanity.
“Thank you,” Tom said. He closed his eyes. His heart stopped beating and he died. With him the alien being died.
Tom’s body dropped to the bottom of the sphere. Anthony opened his mouth and spat out in disgust.
“Yuck,” he said and crawled up the side of the sphere to where the other people were. When the alien died their minds were set free again.
Edward reached down and gave Anthony his hand to pull him up.
Nobody said a word. They left the cave and walked back to Port-aux-Francais. On their way there stars began to whirl around Edward and Anthony. They were strangely pale stars. The boys were lifted off the ground but did not return to where they had come from. Instead they floated along with the survivors on their way to town. They saw everything, yet nobody could see them.
A few days later the rescue fleet arrived. Fighter jets thundered across Kerguelen looking for the enemy and thousands of soldiers came ashore. All they found were the dazed survivors who had a strange story to tell. Military officials investigated, they interviewed everyone, one by one and heard the whole story. But they never saw the two boys who had supposedly found a dead man. They never found the cave where an alien spaceship was supposed to be. They found no evidence pointing to an alien presence.
Their conclusion: mass hysteria
Cause: unknown
Edward and Anthony were still floating around Kerguelen. They saw and heard everything that happened, no matter where.
“Why aren’t we going home?” Anthony asked.
“I don’t know,” Edward said.
“Haven’t we fulfilled the dare?” Anthony asked.
Edward thought back to how it had started. “I think,” he said, “you have to tell me what you think of this adventure.”