Back in Crow’s hut I tried to explain to Ivy and Sam. It was difficult because Crow kept barging in. David had obviously had a go at him and he was worried.
‘Their dad, Mr Tregarthur, had been studying this lot. There’s a whole journal in a plastic box near to a place David says is my mum’s grave.’
‘You don’t sound as though you believe him,’ said Ivy.
‘I don’t believe anything he says.’ I suddenly found it hard to breathe, thinking about Mum and that awful grave. I didn’t want to believe it was her. I felt Ivy put an arm round me but it took several more moments before I could go on. ‘It gets worse – those Tregarthurs get much worse. When they came back this last time things weren’t good. Crow had just taken over from the old chief, or probably Crow killed off the old chief – that’s what was written in the journal. That’s the way they decide on new chiefs apparently.’
‘Probably what they’re going to do with us,’ Sam said miserably.
‘No, I’m afraid it’s not.’
‘They want us for breeding, don’t they?’ Ivy had already worked this out. That seemed pretty clever to me. Ivy went on, ‘There aren’t any babies. It’s something genetic. This is evolution.’
Sam looked mystified. I’d read some of what she meant in the journal but I didn’t really follow it at the time.
‘For goodness ...’ Ivy gave an exasperated sigh. ‘Don’t you know anything? This tribe is dying out. They’re some dead end evolutionary branch on the verge of extinction. That’s what they need us for. Tregarthur’s plan. New genetic material to rejuvenate them – keep the tribe alive. They’ll want the others back at our cave as well.’
‘Why did Tregarthur want to do that?’ Sam asked.
I did know the answer to Sam’s question. ‘He saw this bringing him fame and money. He was going to go to the press and then run trips back here. He couldn’t do it if there weren’t any of Crow’s lot alive. And he saw this as some sort of experiment. He had crazy ideas about breeding.’
‘So what was Alice’s promise?’
‘She was just as bad as her father. This had been her dad’s life work. She worshipped him. In his journal he wrote that he was getting sick. Alice promised to keep his work going, a sort of monument to him if he died. She saw that as more important than anything – much more important than sending a load of kids into slavery.’
‘Worse than slavery.’ Ivy’s anger shone in her words. ‘They wanted us as some sort of baby factory. I really don’t like the way Crow’s friends have been looking at me – they know all about this plan. And anyway why did Alice and her dad run off then? That doesn’t make sense.’
‘They didn’t.’ I went on, ‘They were just going back for Alice to organise this trip. That was her promise, and she needed to get her dad home because of his illness. We knew that last bit already but David made up the rest.’
‘So David didn’t injure his leg trying to escape.’ Sam still looked as though his world had ended.
‘That must have happened before Alice left. You said her note promised to save David as well,’ Ivy said. ‘Maybe Alice couldn’t get him back with a broken leg. She had all that equipment on the bus. Perhaps that was to help him.’
‘I guess it’s impossible to make sense of this. David just lies. He was definitely being held captive here,’ I said rather slowly. ‘Maybe he tried to take over from Crow and failed. But I think it’s just too much of a coincidence that Mum died. Maybe she knew Alice would bring me here or even sent Alice to get me. Maybe she had a change of heart and ...’
Crow was back and jumping around. I thought he wanted us out of his hut but in a few minutes he was off again.
‘We’ve got to get out of here and soon,’ I muttered.
‘What do we do about Demelza?’ Sam looked towards where she sat outside another hut, still grinding away at a pile of grain.
‘We have to take her with us,’ Ivy said firmly.
‘But she’ll slow us up. She won’t come. We can’t ...’ Sam sounded desperate.
‘Ivy’s right,’ I said. ‘No choice. We take her.’
It was then I realised David had been standing near to our hut, listening. Now he stepped inside.
‘Bad plan. They will expect you to try and escape tonight,’ David said with a smirk on his face.
I tensed.
‘But did I hear right? You’ve got some more kids with you? Hand them over and we can all go home. They’ll let us all go. I’m sure we can do something about the tunnel.’
It was too much for me. I shoved him. His leg gave way and he fell to the ground hitting his head on another of Demelza’s pounding stones as he fell. I was ready for more if he got up.
‘Alvin wait.’ Ivy moved between us. ‘He deserves it. Both him and his sister. But we need to know more. Why do they expect us to try and escape tonight?’
David rubbed his head and sneered, ‘Well, you know about the plan for the Stinkers. You’re not enough on your own, not enough children to keep them happy. But Ivy was right, they reckon you are near enough women so they’re planning a big drunken party tonight in your honour and then ... well I’m sure you can imagine. They’ll expect you to run when you think they’re all drunk.’
‘And us? Alvin and me?’ asked Sam.
‘You get killed when you try and escape. Simple really.’
‘And how do you know all this?’ I was ready to lash out again.
‘They told me,’ David said. ‘I said we were all friends.’
‘Or you told them. There’s so much more you’re not saying.’
Before I could get David to say any more, Crow and two Stinkers appeared. They picked him up and carried him away.
As he left David called out: ‘Do what I told you, hand them over. I’ll give you until tonight before I tell the tribe about the other kids with you.’ He sounded as though he’d won.
The three of us watched him go.
‘Why do you think David is going to wait before he tells Crow about the rest of our group?’ Ivy said.
‘He’s probably already told them. He just lies and lies. I can’t see what Mum would have seen in him.’ I paced around the hut starting to really wind myself up. ‘Actually I’ve no idea about Mum. What sort of person leaves her son and disappears? I’m going after David and I don’t care what happens.’
‘Wait Alvin.’ Ivy held me. ‘We’ve got to do something. It doesn’t matter what David says.’
The hopeless feeling I’d had at the grave came back to me, draining the fight away. I tried to think.
‘Do what?’ Sam puffed. ‘They’ll kill us anyway. I wish I’d never saved that Crow.’
‘Maybe not.’ An idea was forming in my mind. ‘They expect us to try and escape tonight. So we have to leave now. They won’t expect that.’
‘But they’ll just see us.’ Ivy sounded defeated. ‘And what about Demelza?’
‘We need to distract them.’ I had an idea.
‘Yeah, that’ll be easy,’ Sam muttered.
‘It will,’ I said leaning forward. ‘You’ve still got Ryan’s lighter?’
Sam fished it out. ‘Here,’ he said trying to hand it over.
‘No. Sam I need you to start a fire. We can’t do it here in Crow’s hut because it’s too far away from the others to matter much. But that big hut over by the women, near Demelza, that’s where they store their food and it’s near the other huts. If we set light to that one it’ll cause much more of a problem.’
‘Can’t you do it?’ Sam was shaking.
‘Not unless you think you can carry Demelza.’ I looked at Sam who shook his head so I went on: ‘When the fire gets going I grab Demelza and we all run to the bridge. When we’ve got over, we cut the ropes and that should give us enough time to get away.’
/> Both Ivy and Sam looked doubtful and scared.
‘Ivy, it’s the only idea I have. Unless you want to spend your life as Mrs Stinker mated up with Crow’s best friend?’
Ivy shivered. ‘But what about David? He won’t fall for the diversion. He’ll guess that it’s us and he’ll warn the rest.’
‘I’ll go and sort him.’ I stood. ‘We do it now, right now. Ivy, get over to Demelza. Sam you make sure you get the hut blazing. Ivy, try and tell Demelza what’s going to happen. She might not understand but it could help. Take the backpacks – see if you can grab some food.’
Sam and Ivy didn’t move.
‘I’ll join you as soon as I’ve made sure David isn’t going to warn anybody.’ I grabbed the other two, hauled them to their feet and pushed them out before striding off towards David’s hut carrying one of Crow’s clubs.
My plan started well. Arriving at David’s hut, there were no Stinker guards. I thought they’d left to help the rest with the preparations for whatever was going to happen that night. My plan was to knock David unconscious to prevent him from doing anything while we tried to escape. I didn’t care if I hit him too hard either.
But when I got to the hut David was fast asleep lying on an animal skin, snoring. I couldn’t do it, not smash a club down on a sleeping man.
So I dropped the club and left. As I came out wisps of smoke were rising from the hut nearest to Demelza. I walked faster as I saw flames.
Then the wind picked up and the fire flared, sparks and burning leaves from the roof spreading to the other huts. The Stinkers started screaming and shouting, trying to move things from the nearby huts, some trying to beat out anything burning. Bashing at the flames with branches.
I ran to Demelza.
‘She doesn’t understand anything,’ Ivy said. ‘It’s hopeless.’
I picked Demelza up, threw her over my shoulder and strode off towards the bridge. She started screaming and beating her fists against my back but the sound was hidden by the Stinkers’ noise. Sam came out of another hut holding the lighter. We ran leaving the uproar. We hadn’t been spotted.
Until David woke up.
Ivy and Sam had made it across the bridge and were waiting. Demelza’s struggling had forced me to stop. But I was nearly there. Now I looked back. Thick smoke almost hid the camp. I could just see the Stinkers in the hazy gloom. They seemed to have given up, overtaken by the force of the flames, they stood and watched.
Until David appeared.
‘They’ve escaped, they’ve escaped,’ David screamed. ‘Over there.’ He pointed. ‘Make for the bridge.’
The Stinkers might not have understood his words but his meaning was clear. Grabbing their clubs the Stinkers were after us. I saw David hobbling as fast as he could, slowed by his injured leg.
‘Alvin,’ Sam shouted from the other side of the bridge. But neither of them came back to help.
I looked down at Demelza. She was still howling and trying to crawl away. This time I didn’t pause. I thumped my fist down on her head as hard as I could. She slumped. I grabbed her and picked my way across the swaying structure.
‘Cut the creepers,’ I called to Sam as I collapsed on the ground and saw the Stinkers coming out of the trees only a few yards from the start of David’s bridge.
‘What with?’ Sam replied.
I realised the mistake. No knife. The creepers were too thick for us to break. There was no chance of escape. The Stinkers were coming with their clubs.
Apart from occasional grunts the Stinkers were silent, in hunting mode. David hadn’t been able to keep up but I now heard his voice as he came into view. Other Stinkers passing him.
‘Stop stop, no more than two on the bridge. Two at a time.’ David was waving his arms and shouting again using some of the Stinker language.’
They took no notice and ran on. David yelled again. The Stinkers ran onto the bridge, moving much faster than we had. Hopping from each strand to another as they crossed the ravine. Too many, too heavy. They reached mid-point when the first creepers started to break. The bridge swung wildly. The Stinkers screamed again, trying to claw their way back. Then the whole structure fell. The screams died slowly as the bodies plummeted down to the river below.
‘NO,’ Ivy cried looking down at the awful mayhem. ‘That wasn’t meant to happen. They weren’t meant to die.’
‘We’ve got to leave,’ I said trying not to look down at the pile of bodies. ‘This only gives us a head start. The rest can still make it down to the river and up the other side. Come on.’ I picked Demelza up again. But the other two hadn’t moved. They were still looking back at the remaining Stinkers. Crow hadn’t crossed the bridge. He’d probably understood David’s calls. But now the Stinkers turned on David. He was still shouting away, saying that they should have listened to him. Some words in their language some of his own, a mixture. It all seemed to make it worse. I saw the first club strike David, then more.
‘Come on,’ I said urgently as I took off and now the other two followed.
Soon we came out of the trees and on to the plain where the hunt had taken place; where Sam had saved Crow from the sabre-tooth tiger. That hadn’t seemed to help us, I thought, as I shifted Demelza’s weight on my shoulder.
Demelza soon regained consciousness and it wasn’t long before she started struggling again. We had to stop. Ivy tried to get Demelza to walk but she just sat on the ground.
‘I’ll just have to hit her again.’ I looked around for something to use. My fist was still sore from the first blow.
Demelza cowered, she seemed to understand the threat.
‘No. Let me try.’ Sam took Demelza’s hand and slowly pulled her up. They set off again with Sam dragging and Demelza reluctantly following. It was slow. Too slow. It wasn’t long before I looked back and saw some of the Stinkers in the distance. We were not even half way across the plain, half way to the path up to the hill. Taking the path was my plan.
‘They’ve made it over the ravine,’ I called. ‘We have to move faster.’ But now I knew we couldn’t escape. The Stinkers would see which way we’d gone. It was an obvious route.
‘We’re not going to make it.’ Sam stopped.
Demelza gave a frightened look. Now she started pulling Sam.
But it still wasn’t fast enough. The Stinkers were catching us. Demelza collapsed to the ground, not moving.
‘She’s fainted. I think,’ said Ivy. ‘We’ve got no hope now. They’ll kill us all. Look.’ She pointed back at the pursuing group of Stinkers. They were closing on us.
I could see Crow and about six or seven others. Crow was still wearing his hideous cloak with the animal’s head flopping from side to side as he ran. This group must be the fastest, but probably more would follow. I wasn’t sure how many had survived.
‘The tree,’ Sam gasped.
We ran towards the solitary tree with me carrying Demelza again.
The huge trunk soon looming up at us.
The first branches were just out of reach. ‘Up!’ I shouted, leaning back against the trunk letting Sam and Ivy use my clasped hands as a step.
Demelza started to wake up. I wondered how I was going to get her into the tree. The screams of the chasing Stinkers seemed to bring her round. Before I could work out what to do she had scrambled over me and shot up into the higher branches. I needed to follow quickly, the screams were getting nearer.
I took a run and jumped for the lowest branch. I missed and fell to the ground. The Stinkers were only yards away.
I ran again jumping as high as I could – feeling the arms of the Stinkers reaching for me. Sam grasped my hand while I grabbed a branch. We scrambled higher.
The Stinkers gathered together, howling at the base of the tree. Howling and waving.
‘What are they goin
g to do?’ Sam whispered during a pause in the howling.
The Stinkers, being much shorter than us, were going to have difficulty climbing. But I started to break off a branch just in case we needed to fight them off, even though I knew it would be hopeless in the end. There were too many of them.
‘Looks like they want us to come back with them.’ And Ivy seemed right, the Stinkers didn’t look as though they were going to attack us, they just waved and the howling started again. ‘They still want us for their tribe,’ Ivy spat her words out.
‘We can’t stay up here for ever,’ Sam said a few minutes later as he peered over a branch at the Stinkers. ‘I think they’re getting fed up.’
His words were followed by the whiz of a rock thrown at us. I caught it and prepared to throw it back when I saw Crow knock the rock thrower over with his club.
‘Crow seems to be stopping them from attacking us,’ I said to the others. ‘Perhaps Sam saving him is helping.’
‘It’s not working!’ screamed Ivy as another stone hit her on the leg.
We saw Crow rushing about poking the other Stinkers with his club, but they weren’t taking much notice. There seemed to be an argument. The Stinkers stopped throwing stones and gathered around Crow who was hopping up and down, grunting loudly. Then one of them came up behind him. I thought he might be the one who had worried Ivy – Crow’s friend. That friendship wasn’t going to last.
‘Look out,’ I shouted but it was too late. The caveman crashed his club down on to Crow’s head. Crow fell to the ground and didn’t move again.
The attacker grabbed the cloak from Crow and placed it over his own shoulders. Then waving his club he howled what sounded like a challenge and glowered at the other Stinkers. None of them moved and they all bowed their heads.
They’d found a new chief, I thought. Now we’re in trouble. I was right. The stone throwing started again with much greater effort. Demelza yelped with pain as she was hit.
Tregarthur's Promise Page 14
