Chapter 5
Food and Drink
They shed their packs and approached one of the dark gaps at the base of the pile. Glyn entered first, cautiously, just in case there were holes in the ground which he couldn’t see.
‘Be careful not to disturb anything,’ he called back to Arki.
‘Anything likely to move would probably have done so by now, it has been like this for such a long time,’ Arki replied, as they both worked their way deeper into the jumbled mass.
‘I think we should wait here a while to let our eyes get accustomed to the low light level,’ Glyn suggested, and they sat down in the gloom, wondering what they had got themselves into and if it was wise to proceed any further.
A little light filtered down from above, glancing off some of the smoother surfaces, and after a short time they could both see quite well enough to proceed safely.
‘I think there’s a faint breeze blowing through here, I can feel it on my face,’ Arki observed, ‘and that would explain why these gaps between the blocks haven’t been filled with sand, it just blows straight through. Therefore, we should be able to get through.’ He felt pleased with his reasoning..
‘I think you’re right, come on, let’s give it a try.’
It was some time later when they broke out into daylight, and had to shield their eyes against the glare.
‘Well done Arki, that was a shrewd observation on your part, so we should be able to get the others through.’
Backtracking through the rubble of the old ruin wasn’t quite so easy, and they lost their way twice. Finally they made it back to the others, and broke the good news.
Some members of the group were none too happy about going into the remains of the old ruin, but as there wasn’t an alternative, they gave in to Arki’s cajoling and began the long struggle through.
Just before they had reached the other side of the ruin, Glyn and Arki inadvertently went downwards, having missed the original route they taken earlier. As they realized their mistake, someone called out that he had felt a wet rock, and that must mean there was water somewhere nearby.
Despite the almost dark conditions, the search for a possible water supply went ahead and almost ended in tragedy.
A startled yell echoed between the gaps in the broken concrete, followed by a loud splash. Someone had found the water the hard way.
Glyn wriggled his way through the others in the confined space between the blocks, and would have fallen in himself if it hadn’t been for a restraining hand which grabbed his arm as he lost his balance at the edge of the drop to the pool in the old lift shaft.
Somewhere in the darkness below a frantic splashing and spluttered words could be heard.
‘Don’t panic,’ Glyn called out, ‘just tread water, help’s on its way.’ Instructing the man who had saved him from a similar fate to hold firmly onto his ankles, Glyn unhitched his pack in the confined space and lowered himself over the edge of the hole to reach down to the man struggling desperately in the water below.
Cold wet fingers clamped around his outstretched his hand in a vice like grip, and a voice gurgled ‘Thanks, that was a close one.’
‘See if you can climb up my body, use it as a rope,’ Glyn grunted, as he struggled to breath in such an unnatural position.
The man climbed up Glyn’s body, Glyn was hauled up from the lip of the shaft and all three of them crouched there in the near darkness, panting for breath.
‘Did you swallow any of the water?’ asked Glyn when he got his breath back.
‘I’ll say I did, must have been several litres. Come to think of it, it tasted quite good, but very cold.’ he said, his teeth chattering as he spoke.
‘Right,’ said Glyn, ‘let’s get you up to the surface and dry you out. If you feel no ill effects from your enforced drink, we’ll all have one and top up our supplies.’
It was some while later before everyone had crawled through the tumbled blocks and reached the outside of the ruined building, and having got out, no one was very keen to re-enter it to get water.
‘The light will begin to fade soon, so we’ll camp here for the night. We can shelter in the rock pile, as it should be a little warmer than out in the open.’ Glyn was feeling his old self once more.
There was no fire that night as they sat around eating another emergency ration from the dwindling supplies, and Glyn told everyone to drink as much water a they liked, for tomorrow they would refill their containers.
‘Well, at least one of us doesn’t reek to high heaven any more, but I very much doubt if you’ll get anyone else to take a bath down there.’ Arki said with a grin. Glyn nodded his agreement, and then a vagrant twist of air wafted up from under his arm, and he nearly changed his mind.
As the sun went down and the heavens lit up with their usual sprinkle of star dust, discussions as to what the building might have been began.
Arki thought the building had been very wide and high because of the huge amount of rubble in the gully, and the water hole had probably been a lift shaft servicing the many levels below ground.
Speculation as to how far down the building had gone was anyone’s guess, but the fact that the shaft hadn’t filled up with sand over the many years since the disaster, suggested it went down a lot further than they liked to think about.
Next morning, when the sun had risen sufficiently for the light to filter down through the jumble of concrete blocks, they transferred the emergency water supplies from one container to another so that most were filled again, and the empty ones were taken down to the water shaft, the tallest member of the group reluctantly being held by the ankles over the lip of the hole to refill the empties.
The sun had now risen enough to warm everyone up, and it was a relatively cheerful band of travellers which set off along the gully, still looking for a way to go south again.
The soft sands which they were unable to climb earlier, suddenly took on a different appearance. It was now darker in colour and the grain size had increased to some extent.
‘Let’s try again,’ said Glyn, turning right and up the slope. This time he didn’t sink into the surface, and the others followed suit as soon as it was obvious that the sand would take their weight.
About half way up the slope, the radiation counter began to chirp away, warning of an increase in deadly rays well above the normal background level.
Glyn uttered a string of expletives which made Arki look up in wonder, and the pair of them came back down the slope as fast as they could, the others having already turned back towards the gully.
‘If it’s not one damn thing, it’s another.’ commented Glyn, the frustration of not being able to follow his chosen course south beginning to show for the first time.
‘This gully is bound to end sometime.’ said Arki, hopefully.
Just before they broke for the midday rest, the sand on their right levelled out and then disappeared to be replaced with small stones and gravel, and as the height of the mound was decreasing rapidly, but they stayed on the gully floor as the walking was easier.
What caused more excitement than the disappearing sands, were the thin scattering of dead plant stems, which grew in frequency as they plodded along.
‘At this rate we should hit green plants soon.’ someone called out, and a little cheer went up to join the noise of the snapping twigs as they rounded a bend in the gully.
Before them a flat plain stretched out towards the green hills in the distance, the plain itself being dotted about with the odd grey green plant, the colour deepening into the distance indicating an increase of vegetation.
They all stopped to look at the first real greenery since leaving the ship and its hydroponics gardens.
‘Don’t expect to see familiar plants like those we had in the gardens, I think most of them were specially bred for our benefit.’ said Glyn, not really sure if they were or not, but it was the easiest way to convince the others that they mustn’t take anything for granted.
; ‘Remember, don’t eat anything without first checking it with me or Arki, it could make you very ill or even kill you.’
A murmur of acceptance rippled around the assembled group, but after the black berries, they were eager to try anything to supplement the emergency rations.
Looking up at the sun, Glyn made a few mental calculations and indicated what he thought was south, and they then headed off across the plain towards what they assumed to be some kind of forest, as something green was sticking up well above the other growth which carpeted the hills.
The further they went, the more numerous were the plants, although not all were alive and flourishing. Dotted among those still thriving were small groups of dead material, as if something had poisoned little areas of the plain, and the plants had succumbed to what ever it was after their initial growth.
So far, there were no signs of berries or other fruiting bodies, and this lack of an alternative food source was disappointing to everyone, especially Glyn and Arki, who wanted above all else to preserve some of the emergency rations in case of future problems.
What had at first appeared to be a flat featureless plain, turned out to be a series of gently undulating folds in the landscape, the plant growth being more populous in the shallow valleys, thus indicating that adequate water was only present at these lower levels.
At one point the plants were so close together that they had to force their way through them. All was going well until a scream rent the other wise still air. Brendon was clutching his leg and complaining bitterly about the thorn which had entered his calf muscle as he wriggled his way through a particularly dense bush.
‘Why don’t you walk in line like all the others?’ queried Arki, ‘then this sort of thing wouldn’t happen to you.’
Glyn came over to see what all the fuss was about, and gave Brendon the standard hard look which he was so good at doing.
‘I thought it might be you.’ he said, looking at the thorn.
‘Why do you always pick on me?’ wailed Brendon.
‘I’m not picking on you, but you’re always getting into trouble, usually through doing something stupid.’ The area around the thorn had gone a nasty deep purple colour.
‘We’d better get it out,’ said Glyn, ‘before his leg drops off.’ the look of horror on Brendon’s face almost made Glyn feel sorry for him, but not quite.
A gentle pull, and then a twist and pull achieved little other than to make Brendon scream even louder than before.
‘Oh do shut up,’ exclaimed an irritated Glyn, ‘don’t be such a damned coward.’
‘It’s not your leg,’ retorted Brendon indignantly, ‘so how would know how much it hurts?’
‘Arki, could you get me another thorn like this one?’
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Brendon, his eyes opening even wider.
‘Stick one in the other leg, and then you’ll have a matching pair.’ retorted Glyn, and then he relented,
‘I’m going to check the other thorn to see why this one doesn’t want to come out, OK?’
‘I suppose so.’ replied Brendon, resignedly.
Arki returned with an identical thorn, handing it to Glyn.
‘Be careful how you handle it, it’s got the nastiest set of claws on it you could imagine.’
‘Now that’s clever,’ said Glyn, ‘they’re very small, but set back at an angle, so any movement will pull the main thorn in still further. This implies that there must be something mobile around here to be attacked, apart from fatty here, as things like this don’t develop in nature without a purpose.’
‘That’s a nasty thought.’ said Arki, looking over his shoulder instinctively. ‘Anyway, back to the thorn. I don’t see how we can pull it out without taking half the leg muscle with it, so how about flexing the muscle over to one side and then pushing it straight through.’
Glyn pushed the calf muscle over to one side and looked at it for some moments.
‘Yes, I think you’re right, it’s the only way we can do it.’
Turning to Brendon he said, ‘Now this is going to hurt a bit, in fact quite a bit, but it is the only way we can get it out. If we leave it in you may lose your leg altogether as there seems to be some sort of poison involved here, so we are going to push it right through.’
Realizing they needed something to push the thorn with, Arki looked around for a small piece of stick about the same size as the thorn, and having found one, gave it to Glyn saying, ‘You’ll have to push it through to start with, and I’ll grab it when it comes out the other side.’
They both looked at Brendon to see how he was taking it, and were relieved to see he had fainted clean away.
‘Quick,’ said Arki, ‘now’s your chance.’ Glyn pulled the muscle over to one side, positioned the small stick on the end of the thorn and pushed.
It went in so easily that they were both surprised, but Arki failed to grab the sharp end as it emerged from Brendon’s leg. He then shed his jacket, and folding the arm in two so increasing the material thickness, frantically clutched at the protruding thorn, and pulled it clear.
Glyn quickly took a mouthful of water from his container, applied his mouth to the wound and blew with all his might.
At first just a small trickle of water came out, and then a great gush along with some grey slimy substance. After several more applications of the water blowing, just blood and water came through, and then they pinched the wounds closed.
‘It should clot fairly soon, and then it will take care of itself.’ said Arki, hoping he was right, and that all the grey stuff was out. Brendon opened his eyes and looked down at his leg.
‘It’s all over now, no more pain, just a little soreness for a while.’ Arki felt sorry for the wounded man, after all, he was one of nature’s sad accidents, walking around just waiting for something to happen, and usually it did.
‘Let that be an object lesson to all of you.’ Glyn said to the others as they grouped around the still suffering Brendon. ‘We don’t know what we’ll find here, so be on your guard all the time. Right, let’s get on with the journey.’
In single file, they walked at a brisk pace with Glyn and Arki taking it in turns to lead, always on the lookout for the unexpected.
Each time they went up a gentle rise and down the other side, the plants grew in ever increasing profusion, some of them sporting flowers, until Glyn called a halt as it was now getting very difficult to push through some of the bushes, also the possibility of more thorn plants couldn’t be ruled out, although none had been encountered so far.
‘How about we go along the ridge, looking for a thinner patch of growth in the depression below, and then cross over?’ Brendon had forgotten about his injured leg, and impressed them all with his logic.
‘Now that’s a very good idea, well done.’ said Glyn, most surprised of all, and actually smiled at him.
The idea worked, although it did add a little extra length to the journey, but as they were getting nearer to their goal, they didn’t seem to care too much about the extra steps taken. It was while they were crossing one of the depressions where there was a large gap in the plant growth and a little boggier, that the next surprise came. Glyn and Arki had gone across the soggy ground safely and turned to see if all was well with the others, when one of them almost sank out of sight, arms waving and yelling his head off.
They rushed to his aid, grabbing his arms as he began to sink out of sight. It took four of them to pull the unfortunate man up from the soggy mess of the bog, but what no one could understand at first was that they hadn’t sunk, despite the fact that were so close to him when pulling him out.
As he finally emerged, black and slimy, a long grey tentacle was still wrapped around his legs, and was doing its best to pull him back down.
The sheer pulling power as more of the group joined in saved him, the grey tentacle finally losing its grip. It remained waving about in the air, trying to find its meal for a few moments, and then it slithered back into
its hole in the boggy ground.
‘Looks like we have a little more wild life around here than we expected.’ Arki remarked, as they all regained the safety of dry ground.
There was little they could do for the man who almost became a meal for something very unpleasant, except scrape off as much of the mud as possible, and try and console him with a drink of water.
‘What ever that thing was, it must have a large hole under the bog’s surface and will grab anything which moves nearby.’ Glyn stated the obvious as he couldn’t think of anything else to say.
‘Perhaps if we compromise, and cross any suspected area as close to large plants as possible instead of going for the clear patches.’ Arki made it almost sound like a question.
‘Well, it’s certainly worth a try, but let’s be extra careful.’ replied Glyn.
They skirted the soggy area of the bog, keeping as close as possible to the plant life which grew around its edges and made it safely to the other side.
At the top of the next slope an area of what looked like grass spread out into the far distance, but not grass as they knew it. It was very short, dark grey green in colour and somewhat like a close cropped curly crew-cut, each little blade twisting around its neighbour, thus forming a close knit mat so that no sign of the underlying earth was seen.
‘It’s very pleasant to walk on, but what is it hiding underneath it?’ someone asked of no one in particular.
Up until then, everyone had been enjoying the soft yielding springiness of the new terrain, but now a look of apprehension had overcome the group.
‘Walk in the footsteps of those in front, I doubt you’ll come to much harm.’ said Glyn, striding out confidently.
‘But what about you?’ said Brendon solicitously, ‘you’re taking the first steps.’
‘Goes with the job.’ Glyn replied over his shoulder.
Arki smiled at Brendon’s propitiatory attitude.
They marched on, and as nothing untoward had happened, Glyn increased the pace as he was anxious to reach the cover of the distant band of greenery. Being so exposed out in the open was beginning to make him feel a little uneasy, and he wanted to reach the cover of the trees before nightfall.
Travelling over terrain which all looks the same can be deceiving to the eye, as distances are difficult to judge accurately. And so it was for Glyn and his band of followers, the promised line of trees seemed to dance temptingly in the shimmering haze of the afternoon, but seemed no nearer, despite the forced pace of the march.
Glyn called a halt for a rest and a drink, carefully stamping on a circle of ground to make sure there were no surprises lurking underneath, and they all sat down, hot, weary and somewhat dispirited at their apparent lack of progress.
‘What do you think we’ll find when we get to the trees?’ asked Brendon, anxious to keep in Glyn’s good books after the praise he received from his suggestion earlier at the bog.
‘I don’t know really. I very much doubt if we’ll find much that is the same as the plants we used to grow on the Ship, as I suspect they were genetically modified to best suit our needs. More than likely, the radiation released here has also modified all life forms but in an uncontrolled manner, and probably destroyed many species in the process. The greatest threat could come from predatory creatures, like the giant worm thing in the bog. I think we should devise some form of weaponry for our protection, although I don’t know what we can make it from.’ Arki looked worried at his own thoughts on the matter.
Just then Mia, who was sitting next to Glyn, gave a little cry. ‘I felt it kick, do you think it’s trying to get out?’ she asked in a frightened voice.
‘No, not yet,’ said Glyn, ‘I expect its shifting around trying to get comfortable, it must be very constricting in there.’
Mia rubbed her stomach thoughtfully, her partner was usually right about things, but a second movement of the baby caused some doubt in her mind as to whether he knew much about things maternal.
Arki was first on his feet, the others quickly following and the march was underway again, with Glyn in the lead as usual.
The first sign of the coming evening was a cool breeze which limped across the open plain in a half hearted fashion as if it wasn’t sure which direction to take.
With the agreement of the others, Glyn increased the pace of their march, intending to reach the green belt of tree like growths before the light failed.
The short springy grass beneath their feet took on a different character as they progressed, the first change being the length of each blade and the lack of curl, more like the type of grass they were used to back in the ship.
Before long, the grass was almost up to their knees and impeding their progress. As well as the fact that it was beginning to take quite a fair amount of sheer physical effort just to push through it, Glyn was also being a little more careful about what might be hidden amongst it.
A few paces further on and the first flowers appeared. At this point they all stopped to admire the delicate blooms, the first show of real colour, apart from the dull green of what few plants they had seen and the equally uninspiring browns and greys of the arid landscape.
‘No sign of any berries yet,’ commented Arki wistfully, ‘I could surely do with a good helping of something fruity.’
They looked around, but only unfamiliar seed pods could be seen dotted among the flowers, and no one was going to risk eating them.
‘It looks as if there are some taller bush like growths up ahead,’ said Glyn, ‘so we may be in luck after all.’
The first of the larger bushes they came to had no flower or berries, just thin curled up leaves as if it was trying to conserve moisture by exposing as little of itself as possible.
Twenty metres further on and they were smiled upon by the Gods, a large bush of the black berry type they had raided a few days ago bore a large crop of juicy ripe fruits, and it wasn’t long before the bush was stripped bare of its efforts to procreate by the hungry band of travellers.
‘I would suggest no more than five or six berries each, remembering what happened last time.’ suggested Glyn, but no one was listening to good advice at the moment.
With their lips and fingers stained purple and satisfied smiles on their faces, the group lined up behind Glyn without a word being spoken, and the trek continued southwards, everyone looking out for more of the delicious berries as they forced their way through the ever increasing height of the tall grass like plants.
As the first of the small trees or large bushes appeared, it was hard to tell which they were from this distance, the general topic of conversation was naturally on food. If the wooded area had berries and fruit, then one of their most urgent problems would be solved.
How many might succumb to poisons contained in the unfamiliar offerings didn’t bear thinking about, so nobody did. If it hadn’t been for Glyn’s insistence that everything was checked out thoroughly, not many would have survived the first few days in their new home.
The undulations in the terrain grew steadily as the edge of the forested area approached, the final hump in the landscape revealed a deep gully with a ribbon of water trickling along it. If the water was drinkable, then that was another problem solved, and Glyn felt very pleased at the find.
‘I’ll go down first to check it out, the rest of you follow when I give the signal.’
He almost fell down the last few metres of the slope as it was covered in thin slate like debris on which a slippery mould had grown.
The water, when he reached it, was a smaller trickle than it had looked from above, and very shallow.
Looking up the gully, a series of large boulders lined the waterway, the meagre stream having cut its own path deep into the terrain in earlier times when rainfall had been much heavier.
‘I’m going to work my way up to those rocks, you go along the top of the ridge and I’ll call you down if there’s a good crossing over point.’
By the time he had reached the rock pile, t
he 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 after taste, 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 three men energetically unwound the vine from the trunk and then jerked hard the make the tree shake. 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 pa
ck 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.