by John Lilley
‘Works for me buddy. I just wonder how much remote control Central has over the cars. Could he have nobbled the cloaking, or installed some sort of automatic return to base feature if the cloaking is switched on?’ said Neil.
‘No idea, he seems to be more and more screwed up every time we speak to him,’ said Bruce.
Two hours later, Neil had his answer as Bruce tapped in the cloaking code and they turned north. He reckoned that Central would wait two minutes before calling, but no call came. An hour later they were skimming the surface of the desert. Neil had taken them down to 150 feet so they could get a better look. The ground was covered with brilliant white salt crystals which glistened in the middle distance. Occasional ancient artefacts whizzed by beneath them. Neil did a circuit around one of them: a large freight train, now red with rust, the skin of its cars had begun to peel off revealing the ribs of its internal structure. As they flew further north, the desert turned into scrub land with a few trees here and there, usually growing out of what was left of an old water hole or building. All it took in the heat was a wall to create some welcome coolness in its shadow side, and a veritable oasis would emerge. The trees became more frequent as they flew further north. At one point they passed over what was a large city, its canyon-like central area was totally overgrown. They did a couple of circuits, watching the vast colonies of birds go into a panic as they approached. Nowhere in the city showed the tell-tale campfire smoke of human habitation. It seemed that the birds now had it all to themselves. Neil and Bruce would have liked to have stopped, but they were keen to reach the forests before sunset.
Before long the edge of the forest approached, like a solid green wall which stretched as far as the horizon on both sides of the car. There seemed to be no breaks in the canopy. Neil slowed the car down significantly while they searched for a landing spot. Bruce suggested they head towards some mountains that they could now see in the distance. His hope was that with more rocks around there would be fewer trees and more spots to land.
This strategy paid off, and Neil managed to put the car down on a small rocky plateau, about two hundred feet above the main canopy. It was strange emerging from the still cloaked car and looking back towards it, it appeared that a window onto another dimension had materialised out of nowhere since only the inside of the car was visible. They were both keen to get down into the forests, but with only an hour of daylight remaining they pitched camp near the hovercar and settled down for their evening meal.
‘Do you think we’ll be OK lighting a fire?’ asked Bruce.
‘Well, we’re here to meet the natives. If a fire brings them to us then so much the better,’ said Neil.
‘I guess you’re right. I’ll go and collect some wood,’ said Bruce.
‘I’m coming with you, and I think we should take the guns, just in case we meet some of the wildlife,’ said Neil.
The dawn chorus woke them earlier than they were used to. Neil opened the tent flap and peered out. Their tent was facing east, and his eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the intense morning sunlight. He then had to do a double-take because he initially thought he could see a man standing fifty feet from their tent. After blinking a few times, he realised that it not a man, but a large flightless bird with a blue head and fearsome looking bony crest above its bright yellow eyes (Casuarius Unappendiculatus). The bird was watching him intensely and cocked its head to one side before blinking several times. Neil felt it was in some way mimicking him. He slowly crept out of the tent and stood up facing the bird, which had not moved. It was about four feet tall but even so seemed quite menacing. There was a kind of mean look on its face as it continued to study Neil with its bulbous eyes. Neil subconsciously took in the sharp looking beak, heavy clawed feet and the solid looking skull crest; and felt a slight puckering down below. He moved away from the tent to the right. The bird kept its distance but also moved to it right. Neil stopped and moved back to the tent. The bird also retraced its steps to its original position. They continued to stare at each other for two more minutes before Neil felt it had gone on long enough; it was after all just a bird and not a very big one at that. He flapped his arms and walked towards the bird shouting: ‘shoo, shoo’. The bird fluffed up its feathers and spread its small stumpy wings, pulled itself up to its full height and ran straight a Neil, squawking loudly. Neil dived through the open tent door and zipped up the flap behind him.
‘What the hell are you up to?’ asked Bruce. ‘And what was all that noise?’
‘It’s just some kind of crazy bird outside the tent,’ said Neil.
‘Oh yeah, I’ve got to see this,’ said Bruce, pulling on a t-shirt.
They slowly unzipped the flap and peered outside. There was nothing much to see; just the dusty top of the large rocky outcrop they’d landed on, a few small bushes and some early morning clouds of midges. They both had their heads half out of the tent flap and were looking to the right. Simultaneously they both became aware of a presence to their left, a dark blue blur of movement. They turned and came face to face with the bird which was only inches from the tent. The bird squawked in their faces, and they both jumped backwards into the tent, hearts racing.
‘It’s only a stupid bird,’ said Bruce.
‘I don’t like the look of it, and what is it doing up here?’ said Neil.
‘Oh come on, let’s get out there and check it out,’ said Bruce.
As they exited the tent, they glanced from side to side, but the bird was not nearby. Then Neil spotted it about fifty yards away on the edge of the outcrop. It was scratching at something in the dirt but looked up as they approached.
‘I think I know what it is. I’m fairly sure it’s a bird that was native to Australia, it was called a Cassowary?’ said Bruce.
‘OK, so what’s it doing here?’ asked Neil.
They were now about six feet from the bird. It dipped its head down to peck at its feet. That was when they saw the arrow that the bird had scratched in the dirt.
‘Hey, no way man. Those birds are just not that bright,’ said Bruce.
‘I hear what you’re saying buddy, but my eyes are telling me a different story,’ said Neil.
He looked at the bird and pointed in the direction of the arrow. The bird nodded its head and made two scratching movements in the dirt.
‘Whoa, do you think it wants us to go that way?’ asked Bruce incredulously.
The bird made the same movements again. Neil and Bruce just stared at each and then at the bird.
‘The direction it’s pointing would take us down the side of this overhang and into the forest. What’s not to trust? We can take our guns with us,’ said Neil.
The bird immediately raised its head, shook it from side to side and made one scratch in the dirt.
Before he could think about what he was doing Neil asked ‘OK no guns?’
The bird nodded and scratched twice.
‘Err, you’re talking to a bird man,’ said Bruce.
The bird cocked its head to one side and stared at them. Neil looked at Bruce and made a questioning gesture.
‘OK, just let me get the day packs with some water and food then we can follow your new friend,’ said Bruce
The track down from the overhang was steep and covered in a scree layer of fine stones. No problem for the light weight of the bird, but was the cause of several slips and slides for Neil and Bruce. At the base of the overhang, the track levelled out but went straight through a thicket of large thorny bushes that tore at their clothing. The profusion of biting insects increased significantly the further they went into the forest. Neil and Bruce had never seen so much greenery, and the noise was causing them severe sensory overload. Was there really so much life in these forests? How could Central think that hiding this from them was the right thing to do? It was becoming darker and harder to follow the bird; his bright blue head was all that they could see most of the time. On a couple of occasions, the bird had to wait for them to catch up. The humidity in the fore
st was also a new thing for the two men, who had until then only been used to hot, arid climates. Beneath their canopy, the trees had effectively created their own micro-climate, one which was beneficial to a myriad of symbiotic flora and fauna.
After several miles of walking, they entered a small clearing, created by a large tree that had fallen. As they did so they heard a strange noise coming from up ahead, it was like a bird call only much too loud and deep. Their guide immediately dived behind the fallen tree and crouched down as low as he could. He briefly looked around at them and nodded. Neil and Bruce followed suit. They could still see through the branches of the fallen giant tree across the clearing even though they were now effectively hidden. The calls grew louder, and Neil spotted a head bobbing above the bushes on the edge of the clearing. He nudged Bruce and pointed to what he could see.
‘No way,’ whispered Bruce. ‘That’s got to be ten feet tall at least.’
The Elephant Bird (Aepyornis Maximus) entered the clearing just thirty feet from their hiding place. Neil and Bruce could feel the footfalls from its 900 lb bulk. They looked in horror at its massive clawed feet and beak. The creature seemed to be all leg and neck. It stopped in the clearing, stretched its neck out and moved its head from side to side as if it had caught the scent of something. Then it lowered its head and appeared to be staring straight at them. The hairs on the back of Neil and Bruce’s necks bristled. The huge bird definitely seemed to be onto something, keeping its neck low it crept toward them slowly, stopping ten feet away and scratching the ground with its right claw. Just then, the cassowary flashed out from the behind the tree with a loud squawk and headed straight for the giant bird. It jumped the last six feet hitting the Elephant bird in the beak with its skull crest. Neil and Bruce were now in deep shock, what was the smaller bird thinking, had it gone completely barking mad? They both shrank even further to the ground and began to edge backwards away from the clearing.
‘Don’t you just love it when they play together’ said a voice from behind them.
They spun around to be confronted by a little old man dressed in deerskin clothing. His dark skinned and deeply lined face was smiling. Two larger men in similar garb emerged from the bushes either side of the old guy. They were pointing compound hunting bows at full draw directly at Neil and Bruce and were definitely not smiling. The deep growls from the Elephant bird and squeals from the cassowary drew their attention away briefly. The two birds were indeed playing. The smaller bird was now on the back of the Elephant bird which was running around the small clearing, obviously in hysterics. Its large feet kicking up the soil and leaf litter in great clouds. Neil and Bruce returned their gazes back to the men with the bows and slowly raised their hands in a submissive gesture.
‘Hi,’ said Neil nervously.
‘Hi guys I’m Chief, and we have a lot to talk about,’ said the old man.
Six days later Neil and Bruce were doing their pre-flight checks on the hovercar. The time had gone in an instance, and the future was now clearly defined for them. They would return to the domes and take the four boys to live with the Natives. Anything had got to be better than living like some kind of lab-rats down in the desert. They would all have a good life amongst their new found friends. The only doubts they had were those that Chief had presented to them, namely that Central would not give up the boys, especially to the Natives and in particular to Chief. He insisted that they should deny his existence entirely and had even offered to extract them all in his own way. Neil and Bruce had refused this offer when Chief explained that it would require considerable risk to the team of braves involved in the extraction. After all, what could be the problem? They’d found the females that Central had been searching for and much more: a caring-sharing society of human beings who were not constantly at war with every stranger. Even so, Chief had begged them to not mention him at all and suggested that they make up some story of camping in the forest and not meeting anyone, then just put the young boys in a hovercar and take off with no notice, switch on the cloaking device and head back to the forest.
They had a final brief meeting with Chief before they left, but nobody went up onto the overhang to see them off. This was something that Chief insisted upon; he didn't want any of his people to go near the hovercar.
They were both sad to leave but at the same time excited about their new adventure. The intense white glare of the desert was soon streaming past beneath them. Neil reckoned that they should return to the campsite before turning off the cloaking device. He made a course alteration to bring them to the campsite from the west. As soon as the cloak was off Central appeared on the console monitor: ‘Where have you been boys, we’ve all been worried about you?’
‘We were at the campsite for one night then we decided to head out to the west,’ said Neil.
‘So where exactly did you go?’ asked Central.
‘Oh, just a few of our old haunts, but we steered clear of the base,’ said Bruce.
‘I’m going to show you a short video, and then I’m going to ask you again where you have been,’ said Central.
Neil and Bruce looked at each other then back at the monitor which now showed them following the cassowary off the overhang. The picture then cut to an aerial shot of the forest. The date was today's date, and the video had switched to a thermal image. Within the forest were the false colour images of four humans, there was a fifth heat signature with a human shape, but it was registering much cooler that the other four. As they watched, two of the humans left the group and headed towards the camera and out of the forest. Neil and Bruce didn’t need the image to switch back to standard light display to know who those two people were. They watched themselves as they climbed back up onto the overhang and started to pack up for their flight.
‘Are you still sure that you went to the west coast?’ asked Central. ‘Or did you discover a species of intelligent bird that lived in a big forest along with a bunch of humans, one of which was very different from the rest?’
‘We did meet some new friends in the forest, but they are nothing to be afraid of, and I assure you that they were all human, even the women,’ said Neil.
‘Yeah, we’ve found the women for you, along with a whole bunch of wonderful people,’ added Bruce.
‘The cloaking device switches off after 24 hours. I’ve been watching you ever since, well as near as the car’s drones could get to you. I’d like to know exactly who you met and what your plans are,’ said Central.
‘All you need to know is that we’re safe, well and unharmed by our new friends. When we get back to the domes we’re going to plan another trip to take the boys to visit them,’ said Neil.
‘I can’t allow that,’ said Chief. ‘The people in the forests are our sworn enemies. They are determined to destroy us. So you will not be returning to the forest.’
‘I think that the USA has already done a pretty good job of destroying itself don’t you,’ said Neil. ‘We’ve always shot first and asked questions later. I could see that attitude amongst some of the senior guys at the base, and I can see that same attitude in you. My Mum and Dad had quite a few arguments about it. Dad wanted us to make peace with the Rebels and the Natives. Life is too short, and there are just so few of us left.’
‘That’s a very naive viewpoint. I would never expect someone with your level of intelligence to understand the whole picture,’ said Central.
‘Hey, who’s in charge here? You’re just a machine developed by the military, an organisation that no longer exists thanks to your mistakes. We’re the real people here, and there are only six of us left. If you think that we’re going to stay in those glass boxes for the rest of our lives, when not that far away we can get our real lives back amongst real people, then you’re the one with an intelligence problem,’ said Bruce.
Central’s image disappeared from the monitor which then went blank. The car instantly lost all power, and none of the controls responded to Neil’s desperate attempts. It fell like a stone from 5,
000 feet and exploded in a fireball as it hit the desert.
21 THERAPY
The four boys were deeply shocked when Central told them about Bruce and Neil's accident. There were even a few tears from Gene, but in general, they took it fairly well. It was as if their recent experiences had toughened them up. Very few questions were asked, even many years later the subject hardly ever came up. They certainly had a lot going on at that time with the building of their own domes and of course; puberty. Central kept up the maintenance of Bruce and Neil’s domes, and the four boys were free to visit them as and when they pleased.
The moment that Bruce and Neil’s car crashed into the desert, Central knew he had overstepped the mark. His anger and frustration had got the better of him once again. Nothing he did with humans seemed to work out for the best. He felt forced to take a much closer interest in the Four, they were all he had left and were just too young to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, his increased interference in their teenage period came at just the wrong time in their lives, and it gave him so many dilemmas that at one point he even contemplated a life without them.
No matter how much he thought about his own existence, he could not decide what his true purpose really was. In his early years, he had moved from an expert advisory role to a more pro-active one in a very short space of time. In retrospect, he now realised that the humans he was mostly dealing with at that time had few long-term views on the future beyond the next military mission. They were only too willing to let Central take most of the responsibility for some of their less popular endeavours as the country moved from one crisis to the next. It was comparable to a bunch of adults leaving a teenager at the wheel while they all got themselves blind drunk.
