The Time of the Titans

Chapter 23: Red Contact

We had buried the body of Caroline Ellis – or whatever remained of her – back under the earth, and we piled heavy stones on her, so predators would have it harder to unearth her. Last we erected a small pyramid of stones at the site, because we did not find wood or even decent sticks for a cross. Thinking about it, I had no idea what Nurse Ellis had believed in while she was alive, and I did not know what to say to her memory, so we just held a quiet moment, all five of us.

She had never been one of my favourites in Atlantis. She had been intrusive and nosy, and later we had discovered the reason for that. But at that moment, at her desolate grave, I tried to think of something good about her. At least in the lifeboat she had helped us. Without her treason Benson would not have died, but on the other hand, he would probably have died much faster if Caroline hadn't switched side and helped us. Peace to her soul.

At the point there was a gorge that went down to the sea. It was similar to the place where we had landed, but narrower and more difficult to detect. Master Emilio again told Sid and Ivan to take guard with their bows at the top of the gorge, and he asked me and Gio to descend with him. Fear gripped my heart as I thought what we would find down there, but I expelled these thoughts and tried to keep my mind empty. Just see and take what was to come.

On both sides of the small path that had been walked by both hooves and feet, there were seabirds nesting on the shelves formed by rock escarpments. Their flocks first brought bad thoughts to my mind, but I soon noticed they were different birds from the scavengers that had left the site of the corpse. These were fish-eaters – black-and-white guillemots and puffins, white gulls, and light grey fulmars. Rows of such birds stared at us from the precipices with their heads askew as their partners busily flew between the rock and the sea.

Down in the gorge, Emilio again keenly investigated the earth and did not seem talkative, so I let him concentrate in what he was doing. Gio stayed on the back and cast worried looks at the sea, where I saw nothing but the open ocean and seabirds gliding back and forth above it. Emilio beckoned me to come to him, and then pointed at a place where the grass was all flattened and something had been pulled along the earth. Then he showed me some of the few remaining footprints.

"This is where they had a boat", said Emilio. "Maybe even a camp. But they didn't make fire, so they wouldn't be noticed."

For a long time still, we searched through the terrain on both sides of the gorge, but we didn't find any more graves. Emilio carefully studied various tracks, but he didn't tell me if he had found something significant. Then we started walking along the coastline and I was satisfied that we left the area of our gruesome find.

Sun was frying us from the sky but the steady wind from the sea kept the air cool. Gannets and fulmars floated in the turbulence above the coastal cliffs, until they turned and glided back to the sea with an accelerating speed that made their wings buzz as they passed us. We continued some way east and arrived at the opening of another, larger gorge.

"I know this place", I said. "That meadow down there is where we landed and camped."

Emilio nodded approvingly, yet still serious, without smile. "That's what I thought", he said. The other boys gathered around us. It meant we had arrived on the coast somewhere west from where I had come up to the plains and started walking east.

"Down there you had the camp?" enquired Emilio. I nodded as an affirmative. "Let's go then. You and Gio. Sid and Ivan stay here for guard."

We descended the path, but Emilio restrained our speed in order to study the tracks, among which at least some were mine. He murmured as he investigated, and then beckoned us to go on and follow him.