Sand Glass Read online

  ‘Yeah, sure! Do we ever? I mean at least people do enjoy your cooking.’

  ‘I do get the occasional compliment, it’s true.’

  We continued with some daft banter for a few minutes. Superficial as it seemed we were both concentrating hard. It didn’t seem much longer before we reached the last end of rope. We secured it and got out the small mini-dome from Marcia’s pack. We climbed in after tethering that to the rope and spike as well. We had some hot drink from the flasks, glad of the break, and the chance to speak not through the intercom. But we kept it live throughout. Marcia checked the time.

  ‘Nine thirty in the morning already.’

  ‘Two and a half hours that took us to set.’ I was a little nervous how time was being eaten up so swiftly.

  ‘It’s quicker to go back.’ Marcia remarked, ‘After all we’ll not be taking them up now we’ve done this.’

  ‘Did Heelio agree?’

  ‘He said that it would make no difference.’

  ‘I wonder what he meant by that?’

  Marcia shrugged. ‘We’re just visiting remember. Let’s keep to the matter in hand, and save the speculation for when we’re safely back at home getting totalled on cheap plonk.’

  ‘Sounds good. I hold you to that.’

  ‘You betcha! Time to go investigate Milnes. But remember you’re standing the first round for all the guys!’

  ‘Alright. Now give me a hand with this mask. The catch keeps slipping.’

  Marcia got me into the mask properly. I fastened the pack on my back again. We both climbed out of the little dome. Marcia would watch until I set the next beacon and then she would send a radio signal back to Janey. That hopefully would be acknowledged and would give us an idea on what time it was back there. We had no way of knowing how the time distortion could stretch in this place. No one had ever done this. We were truly pioneers. As I set out in the mild sunlight I felt rather positive and adventurous. I kept my eye on the view of Marcia and the beacon in the little camera image projected inside my mask. That way I didn’t have to keep turning around. I did though every so often. After about fifty minutes I could still see the beacon but the spike was not visible. I set the new spike as Marcia had shown me.

  As well as that I used my knife to mark an arrow in the ground that pointed back towards the spike. Just doing that made me feel better. No sooner had I done it than the thought occurred that I could do this again if I needed to. So I carried on, stepping carefully, and breathing evenly and keeping a fair pace out into the wilderness. At last an hour was up and although I could still see the little light I thought that it was best to set the next one now.

  This was it. The first step into an unknown land that didn’t have any reference to guide me except the undulating rolls that just went on and on. I decided to go as far as I had from the second spike, so that this third one was the same size in the viewer and then make my mark in the ground.

  I stepped forward. I kept watch on the image as it receded into the background. I realised that the sun was almost behind me, and seemed quite low in the sky. It wasn’t yet obscuring my rear view towards the last spike, but it would soon do so, if I didn’t stop shortly.

  Just as the sun began to blind me from behind I marked the ground with a clear arrow pointing back the way I had come. I decided that to stop would not be good as the temperature was falling. Suddenly out of nowhere flakes of snow began to fall. Without any warning the sunlight vanished and the visibility reduced right down. The general daylight level was dropping too. How much this was down to the weather conditions I didn’t know. But clearly I would need to take shelter very soon.

  I got to the dip of one of the rolls and found the gap was wider here. I took the precaution of marking an arrow pointing back up the curve of the roll side I stood on before I lowered myself carefully down into the gap.

  It was only about five feet down. But by now a blizzard had stirred up it anger against this land, and I was grateful to find that the gap under cut this space into the next hill. There was quite a sizable earthy cave. A few pancake sized flakes dropped down from above, but mostly the howling wind blew them across the top of this crack in the land.

  I checked the time. I sat down suddenly feeling weak. It couldn’t be! It wasn’t possible…. I hadn’t walked for that long surely. Maybe an hour and a quarter at the most, then I set the second spike, then another hour and a bit; I set the third. I had walked for another hour and twenty minutes. Certainly no more than Five hours in total since leaving Marcia at her mini-dome.

  I shut my eyes, while my heart hammered its tune. The latest it could possibly be was half past three in the early afternoon. That was allowing for the maximum time including setting the spikes….which only took ten minutes at the outside. I was quicker than that. Yet there it was clear as anything: ten pm. The darkness was really darkness. It was night already. Thought of Alex then, gave myself a massive mental slap, and went into practical mode. I measured the space. The micro dome would just fit. I put it up from the inside. I worked quickly with the panic fuelling my movement. I tried to focus, and found myself talking out the instructions under my breath; remembering the sequence of tasks to complete my shelter effectively.

  When another ten minutes had passed I was able to remove my mask and breathe in the still but chilly air. I set the small heater to raise the temperature just a little so I could unzip the top of my outer ice suit. I had a warm drink and ate an energy bar.

  There was a reason time had passed so quickly. I did a quick sum in my head. twelve hours appeared to be roughly equal to five that I experienced. So that would mean that in another two hours it would be effectively round about three in the morning. And another three hours after that it would be ten in the morning again. That was always assuming that the time shift was uniform throughout these lands. It could be cumulative. I reason that the best option was to assume that time was actually moving slightly faster than that, and wait about another three hours to see if the storm had died down and/or morning had arrived.( It would be seven am or later by then.) I relaxed a little at that point. After all, it was part of the science that was quite fascinating. I faced it soberly, while still admitting that I would prefer to judge such things from the comfort of a warm lecture theatre.

  I made myself rest for two hours thirty minutes, setting the bleeper to wake me should I actually nod off.

  I opened my eyes. For a moment I didn’t remember. Then I sat up. A thin streak of sunlight glowed through the wall of the shelter. I wasted no time. Ten minutes later I was climbing out of the gap onto a plain wiped clean of any reference points. The sun shone in a clear, pale sky. And next to my gap entrance to the cave, no mark could be found. Fortunately, because of the position of the underground cave out of which I had just emerged, I knew which way I was facing. The curve of the hills didn’t seem as severe. It wasn’t until I had walked for half an hour that I realised that these hills were quite different to the ones I had been walking on what I took to be last night.

  The land curved gently undulating. And from a distance I could see an object. It was squarish, blocky and dark coloured, with a capping of ice. As I neared this thing it was larger than it had first appeared. It was a wooden hut, with a door and shuttered windows and a roof pitched at an angle; unmistakably an Artificial something on the landscape! My joy at this discovery was short lived however, as from some corner of memory rose the pictures from Adam’s sketchbook. I wondered what to do. I walked all the way round it. I found a door which had a heavy wooden latch, but it wasn’t locked. I could gain entrance. I decided to investigate the nearby gap between the curves of the land. They were barely a foot deep and only a few inches wide. I looked at my watch. The sun was already dipping into the western sky. The temperature was a slightly less unpleasant minus two. But as I saw boiling swirls of cloudlike masses approaching from the eastern side of the sky, I reasoned that I would not be in very good shape if I was caught out in the storm. There was nothing for it, I
had to risk the hut. I hoped that the occupants were not going to object. I guessed that the need for shelter was an overriding principal that would overcome anyone’s social scruples in a tight spot; and anyway, I really needed to rest.

  I careful shut the door behind me. It was surprisingly quiet, and a lot warmer than I expected. I swung back the mask. There was a table on which stood an unlit candle inside a glass flame guard, set into a metal body. I stood my small camping lantern on the table and turned it on, so I could examine the room more clearly. It was sparsely furnished. The few pieces of furniture were wooden and fairly roughly made. A bed that was made of a frame from which woven cords made a basic hammock stood in the corner of the room. It was covered with a pile of blankets. At the sight of the bed I suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to lie down upon it and sleep. But instead I sat on a framed chair by the table and drank a little from my flask. I turned the lantern down to nightlight setting. The chair was in fact very comfortable indeed. In spite of my resolve only to stay until the storm had passed, and not to fall too far into sleep; the warmth and the stillness eventually overcame me and I slept.

  I awoke. I wasn’t immediately certain but I thought I heard a sound of a seabird. My eyes were then fully open. Because my body was relaxed and stiff I didn’t move straight away.

  After making use of the available earth toilet to relieve a very full bladder; I tried to work out how much time had actually passed. The time was 8 am. But I had no idea on which day. A made myself a breakfast and then set upon my journey. The land seemed flatter than it had before and the curves were gradually becoming less and less distinct as I walked into the distance away from the hut. The light seemed very bright. And at last I came to little place where there was a pile of stones. I looked around, and finding another loose stone added it to the pile. I recalled once being in the mist coming down off a mountain. This was what you did. You kept the cairn stones piled up to help others find their way. I had not gone twenty feet before a mist came down on me. There was no need for the mask, and I had loosened my suit and the neck before I slept and had not tightened it again. I stopped and didn’t move. The mist came upon me thicker and wetter, and more troublesome than I had encountered before. There was no point to indulging fear, which in this instance could rationally be overcome. There was something about the mist; something familiar. It was a country fog, not the sort you would ever get in a town. This was fuelled my woods and stream or by the sea. Suddenly unbidden, some wild hope rose in me. From somewhere deep down inside. I yelled out ‘Jared!’ my voice sounded strange to me. I feel the need to shout it out. ‘Jared!’ I waited and listened, then called again. I had stepped forward a few times and then the fog began to thin out. I took a few steps forward again. I could see more of the surroundings. I could hear a sound. What was it? I knew that sound. Familiar. Maybe even comforting. Certainly restful. A distant sound of water moving and flowing. Was it a waterfall or the sea? I walked forward some more, and I was on a rocky plain. The temperature had warmed sufficiently for me not to need my ice suit outer, but I didn’t dare remove it just in case. As the breeze ruffled my hair the sun was setting again. I carried on walking.

  I came to a cliff. Right there in front of me. It sprung out of the ground, and rose vertically by some hundred feet or so. Dark and forbidding; and yet darker and more forbidding as the light swiftly vanished again. Having reached the face of the rock, I could go no further forward so I took a left turn, and walked along the base of this monolith looking for a way through. It was completely dark again, and getting even colder. I put the hood up. The temperature dipped, and remained frigid and terrible, I carried on walking. This was it. Perhaps this last walk now. I could not go back. And it was still getting colder. The thermometer in my ice suit sleeve marked a small rise, it was climbing again. I found a gap. It was only a few feet wide, and about fifty yards long; and there ahead was a clear flat land that glowed with the moonlight on its earth. The land seemingly smooth and toned in grey in this monochromatic stillness. There was something familiar about the way the ground rose and had a slight swelling to the distant banking. I began to quicken my pace, and expectantly searched for landmarks or anything I might recognise as a familiar land mark, as I hurried to the end of this tunnel. I emerged and was overwhelmed with the stark beauty of this land at night. I sniffed and could smell something; sweet, acrid, and pungent, and a distant cool smell as a background to this; a taste and there was a sound…. I knew it so well! I ran forward into this new world choked with wonder; aiming for the rise, wanting to see over it. And ready for the shot of light like arrows across the landscape on this untrod smooth skin of earth, as the herald of dawn began to hint in the eastern sky.

  I was clambering up the small hill. Wading into the earth that rolled and collapsed under my feet….. I was just about to see what was beyond….But then… as quick as thought I was set upon!

  I think I tried to cry out, but a hand clamped over my mouth. I was powerless. And a short time later tied up with ropes. The knots didn’t look easy to do, or having any way of wriggling out of them.

  My head was hurting. I guess someone had hit me. But I didn’t remember. I tried to concentrate on whether I could do the 12 times table or not, then did a few sums in my head. Having been thus satisfied that I wasn’t in fact concussed to the best of my non-medical knowledge, I set about trying to untie myself. After a few futile attempts I gave up. There was point on wasting energy. I was in another cabin to judge from the size and shape of the room in the dim light that the chink from the shutters admitted to the inside. This wasn’t the same one as all those hours ago. It might have been a week even. This one was bigger, and it was arranged differently. And this one had no bed. I was tied to a chair.

  You may ask, was I scared? Well yes. Of course. But on another level there was the certain knowledge that I could be the first explorer to see the people who roamed these boundary lands on this extreme edge of sane existence.

  I must have passed out and slept then; perhaps I was concussed after all. After that there was lamp light and several figures in the room. They seemed like giants. They certainly cast massive shadows on the far wall.

  ‘Who are you?’ I shouted. All it earned me was a massive crack right across the face.

  ‘You ask us? You are weak, pathetic, and easily caught.’ A huge craggy face moved into view, ‘Oh… One of the little people…’ the voice dripped with such contempt that it made me wasn’t to physically vomit. I felt that constriction in my throat. I tried to breathe and force myself to stay as calm as possible. My head was still ringing, and I didn’t think I had been out, but I might. I looked up again. The giant was still there.

  ‘Who are you?’ I said again; reasoning that the crack had just been a result of some girlfriend-related annoyance quickly put from one’s mind (I really must have been concussed; that was NOT making sense).

  He came closer. The other figures ignored me completely. The proximity was unpleasant and I began to wonder if they had some set formula for dealing with people they didn’t like.

  ‘Little Man… You are not in a position to make demands.’ And with one huge hand he lifted me from the floor by the front of my suit. I was still tied to the chair, the weight of which dragged horribly on my limbs. Suddenly he slammed me back down. My head cracked backwards and all my bones jarred. I gagged but nothing came up. I must have passed out again, because I woke what must have been hours later in the pitch black warmth of the hut. My eyes had already adjusted, so I could just pick out the outline of the door. My whole body hurt, and more ominously I had a dull ache in my left ankle. I tried to move. Spikes of pain shot upwards through the leg. It was either broken, or very badly sprained. Tears sprang unasked from the corners of my eyes and ran down. I tasted salt. There was no doubt now. I wasn’t going anywhere. I just wanted to be outside, to see the sky again.

  I called Jared’s name as loudly as I could. But nothing happened. All this? Did I end up back at Base with no me
mory? Had I ever got this far but just didn’t remember? Or maybe I just disappeared from a south coast cliff path and was never seen or heard from again.

  Now the fear sucked me down. Black oily, swirling dark…. I really believed I could die and disappear and no one would ever know what had happened.

  As the dreadful realisation of my predicament finally took hold, the large giant of a man entered the hut. I was unbound from the chair and dragged outside.

  ‘Is this what you came to see, Little Man?’

  He set me roughly on my feet, and somehow I managed to stay upright.

  I was standing on a shore, where not far from me the sea rolled in with a tumbling roar. It was beautiful and chaotic and seemed somehow larger than I remembered. As if I was a little sea creature and the huge curls of water would wash me away at any moment.

  I couldn’t speak to answer the giant, partly from terror, and because my ankle was giving me hell. The man really was a giant, but dressed in dark cloth and what looked like leather armour. His hair and beard were dark and straggly, and he carried a knife in one hand I saw (and heard) other giants thudding down towards me along the shore line. The chill and the freshness revived only the terror afresh. I started to shake. There was no escape. I had gambled on the illusion of choice and finally been beaten by it. And even if this was an illusion, and in the end I found myself back at home, I had failed in my quest.

  They loomed larger and larger and more terrible. And the sea was closer and ravenous, as if the very waves were animated with a thousand blue green hands, and hundreds of crashing rushing voices.

  ‘Let us make an end of this!’ boomed one of the giants. They all laughed; a noise that deafened me. I stared out towards the sea. There was its salty horizon. Was this the end?