The Lost Valley, page 9
Jess got in one good punch, feeling bones break in the nose of the one she hit, and then they were on her. A weight pressed on her chest, something sitting on her. She struggled for breath, felt darkness creep up inside her. Her struggles grew feeble, the darkness swelled, and she fell away, deep into the black.
She came out of it slowly. At first, she thought she’d woken from a bad dream, and that she was back, safe, in the mineshaft. But when her eyes focused, she saw that the wall facing her was a natural rock face, green with moss. She had been sat upright with her back to a wall and when she tried to move her hands, she found that they were tied behind her. Looking down at her legs, she saw that her ankles were similarly bound together by thin, pleated leather cords. At least they’d left her fully clothed, although there was no sign of their rucksacks, or of Danny’s rifle.
Danny was at her left, alive but unconscious, his left eye bruised, spilt in a gash above the eyebrow, swollen and closed to a slit. They had been dropped just inside a wide cave mouth that looked out across the valley. Judging by the shadows, they were somewhere north and west from where they’d been captured, high up on the opposite side of the valley. From the same shadows, she realized that the sun was already getting low in the west.
How long was I out?
She heard noises to her right and turned her head. She was looking into a wide expanse of cave, a natural hollow in the cliff face. A dozen pairs of eyes reflected the cave mouth opening back at her. The cave was the home of the Neanderthal tribe, scores of them occupying the cramped space.
Four of them held a totally naked Noble upright in the center of the cave. Even in the gloom, Jess saw that he was too pale, almost ivory, his neck and shoulders a wash of crusting blood. His eyes fluttered wildly beneath closed lids. It was probably for the best that he wouldn’t see what was coming for him. A hefty individual carrying one of the stone-tipped wooden spears stood in front of the stricken Noble. He raised the weapon, showing it to the assembled Neanderthals, who moaned as if in anticipation. Jess wanted to shout out, to stop what she knew must be coming, but no sounds would come, as if a tight ball had lodged itself in her throat. She squeezed out tears as the spear came up and was thrust forward.
It went in through Noble’s mouth, shattering teeth with a grinding crack that echoed around the chamber, and emerged, a bloody shard coated in brain and bone, at the back of his head where the previous wound had been.
The four Neanderthals let the body drop and the one who had dealt the killing blow stepped forward, scooped a handful of brains from the broken skull, and chewed noisily.
Jess went away for several seconds, overcome by the darkness that had taken her earlier. She came back to hear moist, wet sounds. It took several seconds again for her to focus, and she soon wished she had not made the effort.
Noble’s body, strangely deflated, lay face up on the cavern floor, opened from throat to groin, rib cage splayed wide. The one with the spear was using it to part chunks of meat from the legs while the other Neanderthals picked and chose which sweet and moist parts they wanted to eat next from Noble’s innards.
She felt a scream rise in her
“Don’t say anything. And don’t look them in the eye,” Danny said to her left in little more than a whisper. “If they’re busy over there, they’re not over here.”
She bit back a retort. What they were ‘busy’ with was eating Noble. She knew immediately that Danny was right; any chance they might have of escape depended on them keeping their heads. She turned so that she was looking at him rather than at the horror inside the cave. What she couldn’t ignore was the moist, tearing sounds as another piece of meat was chosen, or the soft vocalizations, not words exactly, but definitely indications of pleasure.
“Are you okay?” Danny whispered.
“Better than you by the look of things.”
“I’ll live,” he said and she saw the fear that danced in his one open eye as he looked past her into the cave.
“How many are there?” she said.
“A couple of dozen that I can see…and smell. A mix of adults and young ones. Were you awake when we were brought in?”
“No, woke up just seconds before you. I think we’re up high across the valley from where we were though.”
“Yep, I’d guessed as much. There’s only one thing in our favor.”
“I don’t see it.”
“My hunting knife…it’s still there, in a sheath at my back. I can nearly reach it. If we’re given time, I might be able to get at it and get us out of these ties.”
“That’s a big if,” she replied. He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Both of them knew exactly how much trouble they were in.
“Don’t react,” Danny said in a whisper. “There’s one of them right at your back. A kid, I think.”
Jess turned her head very slowly, so as not to alarm whoever was there. Danny had been right, it was a child, aged somewhere between eight and twelve if Jess had to make a guess. She was naked and filthy. When she moved, she clacked and clattered, and it was only when she came closer that Jess saw the tiny bones woven into her hair for decoration. She had a thin bone in her mouth, and at first Jess was dismayed to think it might have come from Noble, but this was old, polished, and obviously well handled. The girl blew into it, producing a soft, modulating whistle.
“Can I try?” Jess sad calmly, exactly as she might have spoken to one of her brothers’ kids back home. The girl’s eyes went wide at the words. She blew into the whistle again, louder this time.
Do they not have language?
She realized that she hadn’t heard any conversation from the group deeper in the cave. The girl’s whistle was the only thing breaking the silence. Instead of asking another question, Jess put her lips together and whistled, trying to imitate the sounds the girl made. That got her another startled, astonished, gaze. Jess smiled and whistled a tune, “I’m Popeye the sailor man.” The girl smiled back at that.
But any attempt at communication was short lived. A stocky figure came out of the back of the cave, grabbed the girl by the hair, and dragged her unceremoniously away into the darkness.
Silence fell.
The shadows gathered fast around them and the cave entrance took on a red glow as the sun set beyond the western edge of the valley. Soft shuffling sounds came from deeper in the cave.
They’re bedding down.
Her guess was confirmed a few minutes later when the unmistakable sound of loud snoring echoed around them. Danny gave them ten minutes to ensure everything was as quiet and still as it seemed before he spoke.
“I can’t quite reach the knife,” he said. “But if we shuffle around back to back, you might get to it.”
They each moved painfully slowly, aware that the least scrape might alert the Neanderthals to their movement. Finally, after what seemed to be an age, they had their backs to each other. Her fingers touched his and were given a gentle squeeze before he let go.
“To the right…no, my right,” he said. “And down a bit. The sheath’s attached to my belt. I got the popper open but couldn’t grab the handle.”
It took a few frustrating minutes but finally Jess’ fingers found the smooth wooden handle of the knife and slid it from its sheath.
“I can’t get it into position to cut my cords,” she said after a few tries. “But I could do yours if we guide the blade right?”
“Just don’t cut anything I can’t afford to lose,” Danny said grimly.
Between them, they managed to get the blade, sharp side down, between his wrists and onto the cords. Then it was just a matter of sawing away at it. Jess’ arms ached, sweat ran down her forehead into her eyes, and at every second, she expected one or other of the Neanderthals to wake…and realize they were still hungry.
Finally, just as she was on the verge of admitting defeat, Danny spoke.
“It’s loosening. We’re nearly there.”
She put all the weight she could into it. The cords parted and Danny was able, after getting the blood back into his fingers, to quickly free his own legs, then cut Jess’ cords.
He put a finger to her lips before she said anything and whispered in her ear.
“We crawl. Hand and knees to the entrance, you first. Slowly now, but if they wake up, run. Don’t wait for me; I’ll be right behind you.”
Jess felt her hands tingle as the blood rushed back to her fingers. She carefully rolled onto the knees then put her weight on her hands. After one last check to make sure the Neanderthals were still asleep, she made slowly for the entrance which was little more than a slightly lighter patch of darkness in the black night.
- Danny -
Danny’s head throbbed. The cut above his eye felt cold when he didn’t touch it and too wet, too warm when he did. The blow to the head he’d taken still rang in his ears and his depth of vision was screwed due to having just the one good eye in use.
I’m still better off than Noble.
He sheathed the knife at his back and waited until Jess was in the entranceway of the cave before rolling onto his hands and knees and following her. A breath of fresher air from the entrance did much to clear his head. When he reached the entrance, she was outside on a high ledge waiting for him.
He took a few seconds to look around, hoping they might find their rucksacks, or even the rifle, discarded in the area, but he had no luck. While he was doing that, Jess was at the far edge of the ledge, looking south and east over the valley. There was no moon, but the night was clear enough to show that they were where they thought, high up on the west edge, and a long way from the only way they knew of escape.
Jess pointed to her feet. Danny went over to see that a narrow trail, hardly a foot wide, led off across the cliff, tending slightly downward, heading toward a darker patch of shadow a hundred yards away that might be the tree line. Danny motioned that she should go first. He took out the knife, the feel of a weapon in his hand providing only a modicum of comfort, and watched the cave mouth until he was sure they were not being followed before turning to follow Jess along the cliff track.
He felt exposed for every inch they sidled; there were too many things in this valley looking to kill them and too many dark shadows in which they might be hiding. Jess was moving very slowly but Danny didn’t say anything—he didn’t blame her, for the track was almost as iced over and slippery as the stream had been on their ascent up the opposite slope. Both of them almost lost their footing several times, and once Danny set off a small avalanche that he was sure must alert the Neanderthals to their escape. But their luck held and the night stayed quiet.
The trip across the open cliff face to the tree line seemed interminable, taking more than twenty minutes, but Danny finally allowed himself to relax slightly when they were able to scurry into the darkness under the canopy.
The sound of Jess’ heavy breathing was the only thing breaking the silence. It was too dark for him to see her face properly, but she sounded pained when she spoke.
“I need five minutes,” she said.
“You okay?”
He got a bitter laugh in reply.
“Just been banged up a few too many times in the past few days,” she said. “What’s the plan?”
“We head for the far side and out of here,” Danny replied. “But we’ll need to find some water and something to eat if possible. We’re both running on fumes here.”
He didn’t say what he was really thinking; she was probably thinking the same. They were in unknown terrain, on the run from a foe with superior numbers and superior local knowledge. The ground they had to cover was populated with predators of unknown numbers and their only weapon was Danny’s hunting knife.
Hell, I wouldn’t bet on us.
But the alternative was to suffer Noble’s fate, and Danny had seen enough of that to know that if it came down to it, he’d choose his own way out rather than give the cavemen the satisfaction.
“I need to trust your eyesight,” he said. “Mine isn’t too hot right now. Does the path keep going through the trees?”
“Yes, down and south by the look of it. But it’s very dark.”
“That can’t be helped. I’ve still got my lighter, but we should only use it if we really need to. Can you see enough to start down?”
“I think so. But I warn you, it’s going to be slow going.”
“It can be as slow as you like as long as they stay sleeping in the cave.”
“Have you thought that they stay in the cave in the dark for a reason?”
“I’ve thought about it, but it didn’t do me any good. Concentrate on getting down off this hill. That’s the first priority. We stay together, and we stay alive.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” she said.
Danny followed Jess down into the dark.
As Jess had thought, it was slow going. But at least the ground was less slippery underfoot here and there was less chance of them tumbling away to their death. They moved in silence save for their breathing and the crackle of footsteps on pine needles. Danny’s head continued to throb with every step. The wound itself, above his eye, was now crusted and had stopped seeping but he still couldn’t see out that side and felt constantly on the verge of overbalancing. If anything came at them out of the dark, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle it. All he could do was follow Jess and hope their luck had changed for the better.
Jess brought them to a halt after ten minutes of descent.
“I hear running water,” she said. “Should I head for it?”
“Keep going down,” Danny replied. “That’s the way the water’s going anyway. If we don’t find it here, we’ll find it at the base of the cliff.”
They came to a small stream of icy run-off five minutes later and took turns in bending to scoop up handfuls that chilled the fingers but tasted as sweet as any liquor. Danny took the opportunity to wash around his wound and, with the help of a handkerchief, managed to prise open the damaged eye. His vision was still blurred, but his balance was already greatly improved. While he was taking another handful of water, something heavy crashed through the trees to the south of them, the sound receding into the distance.
“Deer?” Jess asked.
“Probably,” Danny replied, but knew that was just a guess, and possibly a bad one. “Time to move on.”
He let Jess continue to lead and kept the knife in his hand, waiting for any noise under the branches. Apart from a squirrel noisily announcing their passage, they heard no other sound.
They reached the valley floor half an hour later.
He had Jess stop inside the tree line out of sight of any prying eyes.
“It’s decision time,” he said. “We can head directly across the valley from here or we can track down this side until we hit the mine and take the same route as yesterday.”
“Yeah, because that worked out so well,” Jess said. “Do I get a vote?”
“Yep. You’ve trusted my instincts so far and that hasn’t worked out too well. What do yours tell you?”
“They say to head straight across the valley now. But they also say that might be a stupid idea in the dark when we don’t know the ground and with who knows what out there. I don’t want to get caught in the open by a pack of wolves.”
“Me neither. My vote goes to heading along this way as close to the tree line as we can…that way we’ve got cover if we need it…and the mine itself if things get really desperate.”
“How far to the mine do you think?”
“As far as I can guess, it’s three, no more than four miles. We’ve got hours of darkness yet. We can reach the mine then cut across on ground we know before daylight, and hopefully be most of the way up and out of here before our friends in the cave there wake up.”
“We’re going to need some luck,” Jess replied.
“I’d say we’re due some, wouldn’t you?”
- Jess -
Danny took the lead heading east along the south side of the valley, following a deer trail that ran inside the tree line. At some points, it threatened to take then back up the slope, but Danny always seemed to find a new trail to keep them from ascending too high.
The night seemed endless, and Jess was acutely aware both of her lack of sleep of the night before and of their lack of food since leaving the mine what must have been twenty hours ago now. She almost cried with relief when Danny stopped, plucked something from a bush, and handed her a small clump of berries.
“Hard to tell in the dark if they’re fully ripe or not but they don’t feel too firm. They might be tart. But food is food…just don’t blame me if we both get the runs.”
Jess popped one of the berries in her mouth and tentatively bit down on it. Sweetness covered her tongue and she wolfed the small bunch down in seconds. Danny found several more bunches and they ate their fill and even collected some to fill their pockets.
“That’s going to leave a stain that nothing will shift,” he said ruefully, “but that’s the least of our worries. Listen.”
She heard it as soon as he spoke, the high mournful wail of a wolf piercing the night, soon joined by a chorus of others, the echoes running around the valley walls.
“All we can do is hope they don’t pick up our trail,” Danny said. “Come on. Standing still is creeping me out.”
He led off again, still forging a path to the north and east.
The wolves’ howling continued to echo around the valley, a strangely choral sound, like a choir in a vast cathedral. In other circumstances, she might think it beautiful, but here and now it sent a shiver of fear up her spine and she upped her pace to ensure she was never more than a foot from Danny’s back.
