The Spiral Road, page 69
part #1 of The Spiral Roads Series
To that end, he would secure this city, help them establish a firm and safe base of operations. Most of the military families were here now, along with the majority of the quarry refugees. He would soon move the remaining soldiers from the temple complex at the cliff, leaving a small garrison to help the scientists who would remain there to work. His hope was that sometime in the future, Markley and James would find a way to access the spiral tunnel, and get them all home. Until he heard from the President again, this would be his mission: support and preserve the civilians, retain their military effectiveness for security, and press the scientific effort to find them some answers, find a way back to Earth. Noting the useful nature of the large, empty stone structure he was being shown, he allowed his bustling aides and unit commanders to lead him on to the next place they would visit, the massive pyramid itself. He hoped they stood on the shady side for a while.
It turned out there wasn’t one.
Lucy’s birthday had been wonderful, after the big party in the village where Gil was elected Representative. These days he was a lot busier, it seemed, but he claimed he didn’t work as hard, so it worked out alright. The guitar player had showed up to play for her, while they had a big party at their home, with gifts of larger clothes, a cake, and a new story book. The cake had tasted funny, not very sweet, but the fruit and nuts were delicious, and there was smoked fish strips and berry juice punch. She had felt very grown up, and had cried over the new book Gil had given her. It had few pictures, but a lot more words, and was about the most wonderful boy, named Mowgli, and how he lived in a jungle with his animal friends. Lucy really related, especially after Gil started reading a bit of it to her each night. She loved it when he made each animal have a different voice.
A week or so after the whole village saw the rocket go up, there was a big gathering up at the pyramid place, and she had gone with the family. But for some reason afterwards, all the people were very sad. Dee had slept in the big room with Jen and Gil for a few nights, before returning to her apartment under Lucy’s room. She spent most nights there, unless it was a special occasion, or they all stayed up past Lucy’s bedtime. Lucy didn’t mind either way, since she always had Robble with her.
She had grown fond of roaming the forest edge, along the main road, or climbing the heights along the valley rim with Robble, leaping from rock to crag to cliff. She’d quickly worn her clothing to rags, which Jen and Dee tried to patch or remake, but her outfit most days consisted of the same as the rest of the village children not yet into their teens: whatever you could get them to wear, which usually wasn’t much. Her favorite was a long, tatty old green T-shirt with holes all through, that hung off of one shoulder, and the cloth breechclout Jen taught her to wear, a simple strip of sheet cloth twisted and tied into a thong. Her bare feet were toughened on their soles, growing tougher, but her skin glowed with health, the sun having toasted her to a nut brown. Her long blond hair had lightened considerably, almost white.
Robble was filling out, having reached his full length and height, but would be years gaining the stocky weight characteristic of the mountain lynx. Even so, his size was impressive, as was his unswerving loyalty and obedience to Lucy. While he still got into trouble, he generally remained close by, no matter where she was or what she was doing, keeping watch on his favorite person in any world. Today, he was shadowing her as she made her way to their special place.
She had returned to the hidden grove of butterflies many times, and watched as the flowers on the trees eventually died out, leaving tough leaves. The butterflies had diminished as well to a few stragglers, although the season seemed to have altered little, otherwise. The water that trickled through the rocky cut was always the same, cool and refreshing, and she often bathed in it to wash the grime and sweat away. Her hair and shirt soaking wet, she lay on the warm, tan and orange rocks, while Robble finally approached and joined her, bathing in his own manner, languidly. She relaxed there for a while, not paying much attention to her surroundings, as she had never encountered anything more frightening than the large boars that made their home in the forest. Most of the predators seemed to stay far from the river valley. While the adults had gotten out of the habit of carrying firearms, most carried a knife for utility, if nothing else. Lucy had her own, a small fish knife in a leather holster, on a string around her neck, just like Mowgli. Gil had given it to her, with solemn instructions on how to use it, and when not to. Should she ever need it for self-defense, it would already be too late, he had told her, and that her first response was always to run, or call for help.
But Lucy understood the woods, better than Gil did. Nothing would hurt her, here. It wasn’t like back home; she somehow knew this in her bones. She could climb to avoid the big dumb slow animals, and she smelled like Robble, so the predators wouldn’t be interested in her anyway. It was just obvious. Next to her, Robble was peering intently at a group of bushes near the edge of the rocks, a dense thicket. All of her former confidence fading suddenly, as the hackles on her neck rose, and she felt eyes upon her. She suddenly knew she was being watched. Rising to her knees, she turned to look at the knot of bushes a few feet away, shifting around to face them fully. Robble didn’t act overly concerned, but it was clear he was aware of something in the bushes. His stubby tail twitched back and forth, and he tensed slightly, his head lowered. She almost grabbed her knife, but let it swing from her neck after all, afraid the sudden motion would startle whatever it was into attacking her!
Slowly, a knot of vegetation moved aside, revealing a large, inquisitive face peering back at her. A giant hand was easing the leaves away, so the creature could view her better. It met her eyes, and she gasped as the long, hairy face split into a wide grin, similar to the ones she had seen orangutans wear on television, and in school. The teeth were large, but flat, like hers. No fangs were visible, just little canines. And the hair on the face wasn’t fur, it was long, red and silky, arranged in a fringe around the forehead and chin, along the jaw, leaving the nose, eyes and mouth free of obstruction. And what eyes! They captivated her, large and luminously golden-brown. The face was mobile, like an ape or gorilla, but the snout was wrong, much more like a flat human nose, with big, expressive lips around a large, oversized jawline. The skull climbed high, domed for the massive jaw muscles to attach and provide leverage, also like a gorilla. The body was hidden by the bushes. Lucy smiled back, instinctively, without thinking. This excited the creature, which bobbed its large head up and down, smiling wider.
Robble flowed onto his feet, slipping quickly up to the knot of bushes, extending his nose, sniffing the air near the partially concealed primate. Golden eyes widened, and it froze for a moment. Reaching out a tentative hand, it allowed Robble to sniff the back, whereupon he decided the creature was no threat, and stropped the hand in clear approval. This sent the creature into an ecstasy of pleasure, so much that Lucy thought it would bob its head right off. She laughed out loud, causing the creature to flinch. She quietened, waiting to see what it would do next. Robble returned to her, loving up against her side before wandering away. The large primate gazed at her curiously, intelligent eyes taking in her clothing, her knife, her hair. It seemed fascinated by the color.
“Here, you can touch it if you want.” she told it, her high piping voice breaking the peaceful silence of the glade. The creature flinched again, and looked intently at her. It brought both hands up to huge ears, and covered them with open palms. Then it took them off, and covered its mouth with one hand. It held her gaze.
“Hey, monkey see, monkey do! I know this one.” she said, causing the creature to flinch. Once again, it clapped both hands to the side of the large head, then one over its mouth. She copied the motions, and just as she did so she understood; it didn’t like her talking!
“Oh, I get it…” she said out loud, then clamped her hand over her mouth again, realizing she had spoken. The creature grinned widely, bobbing its head, and placed a hand over its mouth also. She found it funny as well, and giggled softly, which didn’t seem to bother the thing. Still, she would try to be quiet around it, for now. She wanted to see what it looked like, so she beckoned to it, with one hand, motioning for it to come out of the hiding place. The creature shrank back slightly, looking out at the silent glade. Drawing back, it came out from around the bushes, climbing slowly up onto the rock even further away from her position.
Lucy was startled by how tall it was, nearly as tall as Gil! Lucy had no idea that this was in fact, another preadolescent, barely older than herself in relative terms. It didn’t walk like a monkey, it walked like people did! It had the same russet hair all over the body, draping like silken tresses. And the long, straight legs ended in massive feet, twice the size of anyone she had ever seen! It folded those long legs under it, sitting on the rock with her, it’s huge feet supporting it in a crouch. She caught a glimpse of tiny male genitalia among the hair. So this was a boy ape; she had seen boys in the village, she knew what the parts looked like by now. The fringe of belly hair draped demurely over them, hiding them from view as it sunk onto wide heels.
She watched as it began to make motions with his hands again. He was trying to tell her something! It kept thumping it’s forehead with a closed fist, lightly, then making a set of motions. She thought he was trying to tell her his name. She thumped her head with a fist, then did what it had done, twiddling her fingers in front of her eyes with one hand, while moving the other in a wide arc across her body, extended away from her. The creature snorted, thumping the back of one hand with the other, which must mean ‘no’. It repeated the gesture without the thump on the forehead. She copied the motion, then he thumped his forehead. Lucy understood, the twiddle-wave was the name, the thump meant ‘me’. This was fun! Then the creature gestured at her, with the back of his hand, and grinned at her. She understood the question, she just didn’t know how to say ‘Lucy’ in monkey sign language!
She thought for a minute, then thumped her forehead like the ape had done, and simply shrugged, at a loss for what to use for her name. She reached up and tugged on a lock of hair, swirling it around though her fingers in frustration.
The creature smiled, gestured to her again and then shrugged, and swirled some imaginary hair through large fingers near its head. The imitation matched hers perfectly. She would be known now as Shrug-Twirl. She smiled back, suddenly satisfied with the result, even if unintentional. The creature relaxed back onto the stone, stretching out, like she had done earlier. It kept both eyes on her, but otherwise seemed content to simply hang out on the rock with her. She slowly relaxed herself, and finally lay back down on the rock, on her stomach this time, staring at the huge animal. She wasn’t sure if it WAS an animal. She didn’t think animals told you their names in sign language. They had tried to teach her class some American sign language in school, but this wasn’t the same, and she didn’t think he would know the few letters she remembered how to make. She tried to think of something else she could communicate.
Her snack! She always brought along a piece of fruit, or some smoked fish, in a small cloth pouch she had made herself, out of an old pair of shorts that had ripped apart. She could ask him if he was hungry! Everyone understood the sign for ‘eat’! She jumped upright again, causing the creature to tense and scramble back from her. She stilled herself, and made the motion with her hand, bringing an imaginary object to her mouth. The creature’s eyebrows rose in response, and she added the twiddle-wave. She did it again, reversing the order; Twiddle-Wave, eat? The creature bobbed his head, and copied her motion, moving hand to mouth. Then performed her sign, Shrug-Twirl, followed by ‘eat’. It stood, looking off into the middle distance, as though searching for something.
Lucy reached into the bag tied to her thong under her tee-shirt, and brought out one of the purple, tart fruits that grew from trees near the forest verge and along the river heights. They didn’t grow deep in the forest, as far as she had seen. She extended it towards the giant creature, rising and stepping forward a bit, looking up at it, only a few feet away. It looked back down at her, not moving off, and noticed the fruit in her hand. The lips drew into an amazed O, and it crouched back down, now at her own height. She moved closer, slowly, and held out the fruit. She could smell the thing now, a pungent odor, not unpleasant, but somehow familiar. Like men who had just worked hard in the fields or the village, but not sour or stinky, like some of them got.
Hesitantly, the large hominid extended its hand, the massive spread easily large enough to engulf her head. Moving it under hers, it uncurled its fingers, allowing Lucy to drop the fruit into the palm. It drew the fruit back, looking at it closely, smelling it with obvious pleasure. But it didn’t cram the thing into its mouth, or retreat with the prize. It just looked at Lucy, while she signed ‘eat, Twiddle-Wave, eat’. Finally, he bobbed his head a couple of times, then carefully nibbled on the fruit, even though it could have swallowed it in one bite. When he finished, he looked solemnly at Lucy, and signed ‘Shrug-Twirl eat’. She smiled back, and made the sign for ‘no’ smacking the back of one hand with the other. She rubbed her tummy, then made the ‘no’ sign again. ‘I’m not hungry’. The creature sighed, and made a different sign. She didn’t know what it meant, and it wasn’t repeated.
She spent another few minutes there, trying to sign with the creature, not understanding much of what passed between them. But she needed to get back to the village before the adults realized she was gone, or they would fuss at her again for going into the forest. Robble was pacing the dell below her, impatient to get back to the day’s catch of fish. He would begin to yowl at her soon, if she didn’t hurry. She stood and scrambled down from the rocks, her new friend watching from further up. As she turned to leave, she looked back to see it moving after her. She stopped, and tried to figure out how to say goodbye. Finally, she settled on just waving to it. She raised her hand and fluttered her wrist at it, her hand flashing back and forth, and it instantly copied the sign. The huge hand looked silly, flopping about like hers, so she waved more firmly, and turned to walk away. As she looked back again, it was standing still at the edge of the rocks. It raised a hand and waved again, as she waved back, and he turned and strode away, over the far wall of the dell, into the depths of the strange jungle. Lucy headed home, one of two children of the forest, well met.
When she awoke the next morning, while she and Robble stretched and lolled as usual before beginning her day, she noticed something in the entrance to her little cupola room. There, at the top of the ladder, was a large, round melon with wrinkled orange skin. She carried it down to show Dee and Jen.
“What have you got there, honey?” Jen asked as she and Dee prepared breakfast.
“I don’t know. A friend left it for me, I think.”
“Well, that was nice! Let’s cut it and see what it tastes like first. Gil, have you seen one of these before?” He looked over from brushing his teeth over a plastic basin. Spitting out the mixture of soda and minty herbs, he rinsed and came over to inspect it.
“Hey, that's a sugar-melon, or that’s what they called the last one I saw. One of the forest scavengers found a few, he said the plants only grow one, and they’re far between. They’re supposed to be good!”
“That was awfully nice then, Lucy, you should be sure to thank whoever it was. Remember your manners?” Dee always made sure to remind Lucy to be a lady, as well as a little girl. Lucy nodded.
“Yes, ma'am.” She wouldn’t mention trading a piece of purple fruit for it, this was a lot bigger. She would find something her new friend would like. They all ate pieces of the soft, white interior of the melon, which was indeed very sweet, almost grainy with sugar. The flesh wasn’t juicy, but not dry either, more like an apple than a cantaloupe, although the flavor was nothing like either. They all enjoyed it immensely. Gil saved the few large seeds, talking about trying to get some to grow in the terraces.
Just as they all finished breakfast, there was a commotion out by the road into the village. People were yelling, and the noise level rose sharply. Gil scrambled into the main house, returning with his rifle. He made Lucy stay with Dee and Jenny, and took off. Both of the women grabbed their emergency kits, and followed behind, with Lucy in tow. Robble followed them all at a trot. As they reached thoroughfare leading down to the village, people were running up from the river towards the main road in twos and threes, talking animatedly. Jen dragged them all left, following the stream of curious humanity. Not far ahead, they could see a knot of men lining up across the road, one of the village teens standing behind them pointing at whatever it was he had seen that caused the commotion. They all craned to see what might be coming. When they reached the gathering crowd, Jenny and Dee stopped, shocked at what appeared over the heads of the men ahead of them. Lucy and the other children breathed amazed, thrilled gasps.
Coming down the cobbled path to the main road, rising out of the hazy heat and looming closer, they could see the back of a great beast, easily the size of a minivan, with huge plates in a double row down its back. A heavy tail extended out behind it, swaying in time to the steady gait, half as long as the wide body. Sharp looking spikes extended out to either side, near the sinuous tip. The four legs worked in tandem, the longer rear legs with larger birdlike ankles. The feet had dull, digger’s claws. A long, wattle neck extended out in front of it, with smaller double plates along the vertebra, culminating in a narrow, triangular head, with black eyes widely set under bony brows, and an almost beakish snout. The skin was wrinkled and bumpy, like that of a lizard, with creases and folds in places. Overall it was a dun-brown color, with bright reddish orange streaks in horizontal waves across the plates along the back and tail. It’s pace was only slightly faster than that of a turtle, although each leg covered more ground per stride. But the most striking thing may not have been the beast itself, but the rider!
