Chapter 11
Everything seemed to change that afternoon. The tense excitement of the explosion, the delight of finding out there were people still alive in the tunnel, and then hearing about the loss of Nancy left everyone feeling drained. Not much was said amongst the small group as they continued to work with hand tools and wheel barrows, until the telephone rang out with its deceptively cheerful bells. Making the most of the opportunity for a short break, they all downed tools as Eric walked over to the handset.
"Hello... oh yes ... ...yes of course... uh not exactly... we did... but you see... well at first we thought you were all dead... ... we were going to let them go... Yes we were going to leave as well but... ... ... if you could just... ... listen, it was the girl, Abigail... ... yes that's what I'm trying to tell you... ... ... No they offered to stay and help so... ... ... oh come on, you can't be serious... ... ... yes... yes... okay... if you say so" Eric sighed and hung up.
"Well that sounded like a fun conversation" Calla smirked.
"It was Gran" Eric looked down "and she's not happy."
"What else is new?" Calla shrugged
"Yeah well, spending days trapped underground can make a person quite grumpy" Abigail noted.
The thought of holding some kind of power over this overbearing woman was certainly appealing to both the girls, but hope for any appreciation soon took a nose dive.
"She's upset we let the boy get away and wants to make sure neither of the other two, manages to do the same" Eric continued.
"Look, I may not like good ol' grumpy Gran, but I'm not gonna leave everyone else stuck under..."
"She wants you chained up!"
"...what?" Calla gave Eric a look that could make milk turn sour.
"She can't be serious; how can we help dig them out if were chained up?" Abigail noted.
"Each night, when you go to bed, we've been ordered to shackle your ankles to the bed" Eric admitted.
"But we're not going to, are we?" Oliver asked sternly.
"What? You intend to disobey an order from Gran" Stanley growled.
"She doesn't know what it's been like out here. These girls have been helping us; you can't start treating them like animals" Oliver insisted.
"I must admit, I don't feel comfortable about this either" Eric nodded.
"I suppose there's no point in taking a vote about it then" Stanley said in a huff.
A pall of silence fell over the group until Abigail picked up a spade and started once more to load up one of the wheelbarrows. One by one, the rest joined her and they toiled on without speaking a word to each other. Later that evening as they sat down to dinner, little was said apart from the odd pleasantry when food was passed from hand to hand. Eventually, Calla decided to say what was on her mind.
"Things don't look good for us" she blurted out.
"What are you talking about?" Stanley sneered.
"You know exactly what she means" Oliver admitted "When the tunnel entrance is cleared and Gran gets out, Calla and Abigail really are going to become our prisoners. Any pretence of giving them a free life here is dead."
"You don't know that!" Eric objected "Given time..."
"That's a load of crap and you do know it" Oliver snapped "Gran will never trust them again and she won't let them go either. Put that together and it all adds up to prisoners... like it or not."
"Well I for one don't like it" Abigail admitted "Maybe we should have made a run for it when we had the chance."
"And could you have lived with yourself, knowing you had left all those people to die?" Calla noted.
"Of course not... that's why we didn't go" Abigail sighed.
"You know... you could let us go now" Calla said to Eric "You were going to before and..."
"WE ARE NOT LETTING YOU GO!" Stanley barked.
"No... I suppose you are too scared of Gran" Calla shrugged.
"THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT" Stanley growled and threw his empty tin dinner plate on the ground.
"Alright, alright; no need to go nuts" Oliver protested.
"I still believe in this place; and if we are going to survive here, we can't just sink down into anarchy!" Stanley continued "If we're going to create something viable, we can't let everyone make up their own rules."
"You can't let it turn into a dictatorship either" Calla interjected.
"Order does not equal a dictatorship!" Stanley argued.
"It does when your so called rules allow you to kidnap people and hold them against their will" Calla hissed.
"Are you going back to that old argument? Look, you're just children; we saved you from a dangerous situation and brought you somewhere safer."
"And I suppose that justification helps you live with yourself" Abigail sneered.
"YES IT DOES! Eh what would you know, you're just a kid" Stanley sneered back "Come on guys, back me up here."
"Oh you're on your own buddy" Eric stated "I believe in this place too but I'm not about to start making enemies."
"You are pathetic" Stanley shook his head "I've had enough of this; so if you two have finished eating, it's time to chain you up for the night."
Oliver slowly rose to his feet and stared menacingly at his friend.
"You are NOT going to chain them to their beds" he stated.
"Are you gonna try and stop me?"
"I have nailed the window shutters, and there is a lock on the door. You are NOT going to put shackles on them!" Oliver stated.
Stanley just stared back for a moment, taking careful note of the determined look on Oliver's face.
"Eh do what you want" he waved off "Gran's the one you have to answer to, not me. And don't think you'll be able to stand up to her when all the others are behind her. You're gonna regret this."
"I doubt that very much" Oliver snorted as he motioned for the girls to get going.
As they walked over to the infirmary, Abigail started to feel a little nervous.
"I um... that is to say... thanks for sticking up for us but..."
"But it doesn't change the way you feel; I know" Oliver said clearly "Don't worry about it."
"Okay... good."
Calla could not help but stare at her friend, but felt she should not say anything yet. However when they were shut in and the door was locked behind them, Abigail revealed everything about her earlier conversation with Oliver.
Meanwhile, far away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, a much anticipated meeting was about to take place
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Slowly and silently, the blue 12 meter long cruising yacht approached the eastern side of Keriri Island and dropped anchor some 300 meters from the beach. At the stern of the vessel, two crew members carefully lowered an inflatable tender into the water.
"Okay Emerson, you know what to do if things go pear shaped" Maynard Linwood reminded his son.
"Keep low, hit the red button and get the hell out of here; but hopefully it won't come to that" the young man replied.
"Keep your fingers crossed" Maynard nodded.
"I'll tell Peter you're ready" Emerson offered prematurely.
"No need, we're here" Harriet 'Doom' Ingerson called up from below deck.
Soon Maynard and Peter Moke were seated in the small tender and on their way to shore.
"I don't like this Doom" Emerson admitted as he slipped his hand into hers.
"I can understand why, but I think it'll be okay" she smiled warmly.
The long abandoned town of Port Kennedy drew nearer as the small electric motor propelled the boat towards the shore.
"I'm not sure if Doctor Spencer's plan to help Sage get to Mars is such a good idea" Maynard admitted "Are you sure she's not planning something else?"
"If she is, she hasn't told me about it" Peter replied.
"I guess after all she's done for me and my family since we arrive, I'd better give her the benefit of the doubt."
High up on the beach two men stood waiting for the vessel and those onboard, but they did not move an inch when it finally hit the beach. After pulling their boat high on the sand, the newcomers both took a deep breath and walked well and truly into the lion's den.
"Where's Doctor Spencer?" one of the men barked.
"She couldn't come because a close friend of hers has just had a baby; but I speak for her and the rest of the team" Peter said.
"And this guy?" the man asked.
"Captain Maynard Linwood" Peter introduced his friend "His fourteen year old daughter was one of the people on the shuttle you tried to shoot down."
"Oh... terribly sorry about that" the man said sarcastically "But when you have to prove a point, well... collateral damage and all that jazz. When you say I tried to shoot them down, I assume that means they made it back safely?"
"As far as we know" Peter admitted "We haven't managed to make proper contact with them yet."
"Well then, I guess I should introduce myself and my colleague. As you may have guessed, I am the one and only Neville Sage; and this angry looking human wall is Lex Morrison."
As they talked, Morrison raised a pair of binoculars to his face and stared out to sea.
"Yes I have heard many things about you Mister Sage" Peter continued.
"None of them good, I must assume" Sage grinned.
"No... none of them" Peter admitted the truth.
"Well I suppose we should get down to business" Sage already looked very self satisfied "You wish to give me the terms of your surrender?"
"Surrender?" Peter half gasped "No; the reason we wanted to talk with you, was to find out what you actually wanted from us."
"What I want is for Doctor Spencer and all her little friends to do whatever I tell them to do" Sage demanded.
"That's a little bit vague" Peter smirked "I mean... I assume you're not going to tell us to put on live production of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore."
"Don't be trite" Sage sneered "I want you to..."
"SIR!" Lex Morrison interrupted.
"Oh what is it?" Sage did not like being put off in this way.
"Their ship sir."
"What about it?" Sage queried.
"It's not the Brigantine they had before sir" Morrison handed over the binoculars.
Sage's face grimaced when he saw the dark blue cruising yacht bobbing in the water beyond the shallows.
"What the hell..."
Dropping the binoculars on the sand, Sage reached back and pulled a side arm from his belt. Without hesitation, Lex Morrison did likewise and as if that wasn't enough, Peter and Maynard could clearly hear the sound of weapons being readied from the low forest behind the beach. With hands half raised, both men hoped for the best, but expected the worst.
"Where's the ship with the big guns?" Sage growled.
"The One and All? It's err... it's not here" Peter replied.
"I can see it's not here but that's not what I asked; I said WHERE IS IT?"
Peter shot Maynard a nervous glance before answering.
"I... I don't know where it is. It left Sumatra weeks ago headed west."
Sage did not lower his weapon as he considered Peter Moke's response.
"Call it in" Sage growled without blinking.
Lex Morrison lowered his pistol and placed it back in his belt before pulling a small two-way radio from his back pocket. Taking a few steps up the beach, he spoke softly into the mic and awaited the reply.
"Negative sir" he eventually reported "The ship hasn't been sighted by the fleet, or by the forward scout ships."
"Tell them all to keep a close eye out and to be on guard" Sage ordered "I don't want to lose any more ships to those guns."
Sage signalled to the hidden men who one by one came out of hiding with their weapons still trained on Peter and Maynard. When he was satisfied they knew the gravity of the situation, he lowered his own side arm and approached them.
"You... you agreed to come unarmed" Peter noted "and there would only be two of you."
"I am sorry but... well actually... I'm not sorry" Sage grinned "Whenever I start negotiations, I much prefer to be in a position of superiority."
"You still haven't told us precisely what it is you want from us" Peter noted.
"What I want is to get of this planet long before it's destroyed" Sage stated bluntly "I don't want to hang around here and die with the rest of you. Not only that, but there are some people on Mars who are hoping never to see me again, and it would give me great pleasure to disappoint them."
Peter tried to swallow but it was quite hard to do with such a dry mouth.
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It had been a long and tiring day for the small dragon. After being forced to leave the volcanic island before it had finished eating, it was now flying across a section of ocean it had not yet explored. It had passed by a small outcrop of rocks almost an hour ago and if no land appeared soon, the dragon decided it would turn back and stay there for the night. As the sun set ahead of the creature, the fading orange light illuminated a tall peak on the horizon, giving the dragon a much better destination.
Another half hour of flying and the new island came into view. It was a fairly good size with a tall central mountain, bare rocky cliffs on the southeast side, and thick forest on the rest. As the dragon came into land, it found some very interesting features it had never seen before; underneath a rocky overhang, it found a circular pit that looked very inviting. The wide mouth pit had some very old trees growing near the edges offering welcome shelter for a weary dragon, but when it dropped down inside, it found something even better.
The wall of the pit was not a natural formation and instead consisted of cut stone; something the dragon had never seen before. Around the edge were several perfectly square caves with arched openings made from the same stone and it was inside one of these caves, the dragon gathered a pile of fallen branches before setting them alight.
It was not as warm as the volcano, but it was out of the wind and weather and seemed like the perfect place to spend the night.
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Spring has finally arrived down under so I've been enjoying bit of sunshine while coping with a violent cat running around the house and ambushing me when I walk by. Oh well, at least she doesn't draw too much blood ;)