Transplant

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  As he finally emerged, black and slimy, a long grey tentacle was still wrapped around his legs, and was doing its best to pull him back down.

  The sheer pulling power as more of the group joined in saved him, the grey tentacle finally losing its grip. It remained waving about in the air, trying to find its meal for a few moments, and then it slithered back into its hole in the boggy ground.

  ‘Looks like we have a little more wildlife around here than we expected.’ Arki remarked, as they all regained the safety of dry ground.

  There was little they could do for the man who almost became a meal for something very unpleasant, except scrape off as much of the mud as possible, and try and console him with a drink of water.

  ‘Whatever that thing was, it must have a large hole under the bog’s surface and will grab anything which moves nearby.’ Glyn stated the obvious as he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  ‘Perhaps if we compromise, and cross any suspected area as close to large plants as possible instead of going for the clear patches.’ Arki made it almost sound like a question.

  ‘Well, it’s certainly worth a try, but let’s be extra careful.’ replied Glyn.

  They skirted the soggy area of the bog, keeping as close as possible to the plant life which grew around its edges and made it safely to the other side.

  At the top of the next slope an area of what looked like grass spread out into the far distance, but not grass as they knew it. It was very short, dark grey green in colour and somewhat like a close cropped curly crew-cut, each little blade twisting around its neighbour, thus forming a close knit mat so that no sign of the underlying earth was seen.

  ‘It’s very pleasant to walk on, but what is it hiding underneath it?’ someone asked of no one in particular.

  Up until then, everyone had been enjoying the soft yielding springiness of the new terrain, but now a look of apprehension had overcome the group.

  ‘Walk in the footsteps of those in front, I doubt you’ll come to much harm.’ said Glyn, striding out confidently.

  ‘But what about you?’ said Brendon solicitously, ‘you’re taking the first steps.’

  ‘Goes with the job.’ Glyn replied over his shoulder.

  Arki smiled at Brendon’s propitiatory attitude.

  They marched on, and as nothing untoward had happened, Glyn increased the pace as he was anxious to reach the cover of the distant band of greenery. Being so exposed out in the open was beginning to make him feel a little uneasy, and he wanted to reach the cover of the trees before nightfall.

  Travelling over terrain which all looks the same can be deceiving to the eye, as distances are difficult to judge accurately. And so it was for Glyn and his band of followers, the promised line of trees seemed to dance temptingly in the shimmering haze of the afternoon, but seemed no nearer, despite the forced pace of the march.

  Glyn called a halt for a rest and a drink, carefully stamping on a circle of ground to make sure there were no surprises lurking underneath, and they all sat down, hot, weary and somewhat dispirited at their apparent lack of progress.

  ‘What do you think we’ll find when we get to the trees?’ asked Brendon, anxious to keep in Glyn’s good books after the praise he received from his suggestion earlier at the bog.

  ‘I don’t know really. I very much doubt if we’ll find much that is the same as the plants we used to grow on the Ship, as I suspect they were genetically modified to best suit our needs. More than likely, the radiation released here has also modified all life forms but in an uncontrolled manner, and probably destroyed many species in the process. The greatest threat could come from predatory creatures, like the giant worm thing in the bog. I think we should devise some form of weaponry for our protection, although I don’t know what we can make it from.’ Arki looked worried at his own thoughts on the matter.

  Just then Mia, who was sitting next to Glyn, gave a little cry. ‘I felt it kick, do you think it’s trying to get out?’ she asked in a frightened voice.

  ‘No, not yet,’ said Glyn, ‘I expect its shifting around trying to get comfortable, it must be very constricting in there.’

  Mia rubbed her stomach thoughtfully, her partner was usually right about things, but a second movement of the baby caused some doubt in her mind as to whether he knew much about things maternal.

  Arki was first on his feet, the others quickly following and the march was underway again, with Glyn in the lead as usual.

  The first sign of the coming evening was a cool breeze which limped across the open plain in a half hearted fashion as if it wasn’t sure which direction to take.

  With the agreement of the others, Glyn increased the pace of their march, intending to reach the green belt of treelike growths before the light failed.

  The short springy grass beneath their feet took on a different character as they progressed, the first change being the length of each blade and the lack of curl, more like the type of grass they were used to back in the ship.

  Before long, the grass was almost up to their knees and impeding their progress. As well as the fact that it was beginning to take quite a fair amount of sheer physical effort just to push through it, Glyn was also being a little more careful about what might be hidden amongst it.

  A few paces further on and the first flowers appeared. At this point they all stopped to admire the delicate blooms, the first show of real colour, apart from the dull green of what few plants they had seen and the equally uninspiring browns and greys of the arid landscape.

  ‘No sign of any berries yet,’ commented Arki wistfully, ‘I could surely do with a good helping of something fruity.’

  They looked around, but only unfamiliar seed pods could been seen dotted among the flowers, and no one was going to risk eating them.

  ‘It looks as if there are some taller bush-like growths up ahead,’ said Glyn, ‘so we may be in luck after all.’

  The first of the larger bushes they came to had no flowers or berries, just thin curled up leaves as if it was trying to conserve moisture by exposing as little of itself as possible.

  Twenty metres further on and they were smiled upon by the Gods, a large bush of the black berry type they had raided a few days ago bore a large crop of juicy ripe fruits, and it wasn’t long before the bush was stripped bare of its efforts to procreate by the hungry band of travellers.

  ‘I would suggest no more than five or six berries each, remembering what happened last time.’ suggested Glyn, but no one was listening to good advice at the moment.

  With their lips and fingers stained purple and satisfied smiles on their faces, the group lined up behind Glyn without a word being spoken, and the trek continued southwards, everyone looking out for more of the delicious berries as they forced their way through the ever increasing height of the tall grass-like plants.

  As the first of the small trees or large bushes appeared, but it was hard to tell which they were from this distance, the general topic of conversation was naturally on food. If the wooded area had berries and fruit, then one of their most urgent problems would be solved.

  How many might succumb to poisons contained in the unfamiliar offerings didn’t bear thinking about, so nobody did. If it hadn’t been for Glyn’s insistence that everything was checked out thoroughly, not many would have survived the first few days in their new home.

  The undulations in the terrain grew steadily as the edge of the forested area approached, the final hump in the landscape revealed a deep gully with a ribbon of water trickling along it. If the water was drinkable, then that was another problem solved, and Glyn felt very pleased at the find.

  ‘I’ll go down first to check it out, the rest of you follow when I give the signal.’

  He almost fell down the last few metres of the slope as it was covered in thin slate like debris on which a slippery mould had grown.

  The water, when he reached it, was a smaller trickle than it had looked from above, and very shallow.

  Looking up the g
ully, a series of large boulders lined the waterway, the meagre stream having cut its own path deep into the terrain in earlier times when rainfall had been much heavier.

  ‘I’m going to work my way up to those rocks, you go along the top of the ridge and I’ll call you down if there’s a good crossing over point.’

  By the time he had reached the rock pile, the others having a much easier journey along the ridge were showing some degree of excitement, and pointing down into the gully.

  As he climbed over the last of the large rocks, he could see what all the fuss was about. A large pool of water stretched up the gully for some ten metres, and it looked quite deep.

  Glyn bent to scoop some water into his hand, it seemed innocent enough with no plants growing in the water to hide any nasty surprises. It was sweet, no metallic aftertaste, and he looked up smiling, a thin trickle of water dribbling down his chin and staining his jacket with a dark wet patch.

  ‘Come on down, but carefully, the water’s fine so you can drink your fill.’ The others scrambled down the steep slope, some in an undignified manner as they neared the water’s edge and their feet met the first of the slippery stones.

  When all had quenched their thirsts and replenished their water containers, it was a much more cheerful group which sat down at the water’s edge to rest a while.

  ‘If we can find a suitable place near here to make a permanent or semi-permanent camp, then it would be a good idea to wash our clothes, as well as take a much needed bath. Tomorrow, we could make a small dam up stream and use that to provide drinking water, and then this pool could be used for bathing and washing our clothes. Does anyone have any other ideas on the matter?’ asked Glyn.

  He looked around, and everyone seemed to be in agreement with what had been proposed, nodding their affirmation.

  Things were getting better by the day, he thought.

  ‘As we still have a good bit of daylight left, let’s move on a little and see if we can find some fruit in the bushes or trees on the next ridge, we can always return here to make camp for the night, unless we find somewhere better.’ Glyn had already begun to walk up the length of the pool to where it narrowed to a little stream so that he could cross over without getting his feet wet. The rest soon followed at the thought of finding something succulent to augment the emergency rations, which would be issued later.

  Having reached the top of the next ridge, they found they were a little nearer to the trees than previously thought as the hollow below them was full of growth, which from a distance had appeared as another flat section of the landscape.

  ‘Careful as you go down,’ Glyn called out, ‘we don’t know what we’ll find here.’

  As they descended the slope, the undergrowth grew thicker and taller making the descent difficult in the extreme. So far there had been no bushes with the deadly spines or anything else to cause problems, apart from the actual density of the growth itself.

  Reaching the bottom of the gully, they were all relieved to see tall slender trees reaching up into the sky above, a pale dappled light filtering down to illuminate the forest floor which was just bare ground, the light level being insufficient to sustain plant life.

  The ground at this point seemed level, and went on into the far distance until it was blotted out by the sheer number of tree trunks.

  ‘Not much to eat down here by the look of it.’ someone commented acidly, when Arki, who had come down last said ,‘Look up there, those look like apples, but much smaller than the ones we had back on the ship.’

  Well out of their reach, several apple like fruits dangled from long thin branches, as if they had once been up amongst the tree tops, but the weight of the fruit as it grew had bent them down into the gloom below.

  ‘How the hell can we get them down from up there? The tree trunk is far too thick to shake, and I doubt if anyone could climb up and reach them.’ the same voice as before said gleefully.

  ‘I don’t think we’re beaten yet,’ said Glyn, eager to quash any doom mongers, ‘there’s a vine or creeper like thing spiralling up the trunk, if we can cut it off at the bottom and unwind it as it goes up until it reaches the thinner section, then we can shake the tree, maybe.’

  Cutting the vine off at the point where it left the ground to begin its twisting climb to the light above seemed an impossible task, as no one had a blade or other means of cutting the tough looking growth.

  ‘Someone will have to go back to the stream and fetch several thin flat stones. We may be able to hack our way through the stem with a bit of luck,’ Glyn suggested, adding ‘take someone with you, we must never go anywhere alone, under any circumstances.’

  ‘I’ll go.’ Brendon volunteered, which surprised them all as it was a hard and difficult climb back up to the ridge top.

  ‘I’ll go with you.’ Arki quickly added, more to make sure that Brendon returned in one piece than out of brotherly love.

  The rest of the group stood around, some leaning against the tree trunks, waiting for the stone gatherers to return.

  ‘Remember,’ said Glyn loudly, ‘no one is to try eating the fruit until we know for sure that it won’t harm us, we have no means of coping with any poisonings, so be warned.’

  A stony silence greeted his orders, as most had already built up images of biting into what looked like the sweet succulent fruits they were used to in the past.

  A sudden crashing in the bushes at the edge of the trees announced the return of Brendon and Arki, carrying a selection of flat stones.

  Selecting the sharpest edged stone, Glyn began energetically hacking away at the base of the vine, and soon a small pile of damp acid smelling white flakes littered the ground around the base of the tree.

  As the remaining strand of the vine was severed and the vine pulled free from its base, Glyn noticed that his fingers were stinging and turning an ugly red colour.

  ‘No one do anything until I’m back, I’m going to wash this juice from my hands, I think it’s corrosive, so don’t get any on yourselves.’

  Having given his warning, he ran through the trees and up the bank to disappear into the mass of bushes which surrounded the forest, surprisingly followed by Brendon.

  One of the group had moved forward and approached the severed end of the vine.

  ‘Leave it, remember what Glyn said. Wait for him to return.’ There was no doubt that Arki was accepted as second in command, as the man stopped dead in his tracks and said,

  ‘I was only going to look at it. Just look at all that liquid running out of the end, how are we going to be able to keep that stuff off us if we have to handle the vine?’

  ‘Let it drain away, it should all be gone by the time Glyn returns.’ Arki replied.

  It was a very sick looking Glyn who staggered back through the bushes to the waiting fruit gatherers, and Arki rushed forward to help him before he fell to the ground.

  ‘Remember, no one eats until we have tested the fruit.’ Glyn called out as the small apple like fruits were eagerly gathered up by the rest of the group. Two men had taken their jackets off, and used them as carriers for the pile of fruit which was quickly growing at Glyn’s feet.

  ‘Who would like to act as fruit tester?’ Glyn asked, thinking it unfair that Arki should do all the testing.

  ‘I will,’ a tall blond man stepped forward, ‘it’s about time I did something constructive.’

  Taking one of the fruits, Glyn used one of the sharp edged stones to cut a small portion out.

  ‘I’ll squeeze a couple of drops of the juice under your tongue, if you feel dizzy or anything else untoward, let me know at once, and then spit out the remaining juice, OK?’

  The man nodded, not looking so confident now that the test was about to take place.

  ‘We’ll go back to the water pool for the night, I think it’ll be safer there. Gather up any dead branches or small pieces of wood on your way, we’ll have a fire to cheer us up.’ Glyn was already heading back towards the steep bank and the light of th
e open ground.

  On the way back, someone discovered a small bush of black berries, and shortly after they had arrived back at the pool, the apple like fruit was declared safe to eat, the berries shared out and the fire maker had a good blaze going.

  ‘One food pack between two,’ Glyn called out, ‘and don’t eat too much fruit or the nutrient in the food pack will be long gone before you can extract the goodness from it.’

  After the meal, they huddled around the blazing fire to keep the chill of the night air at bay, talking about what had happened in so short a time and speculating on what else they might find in the coming days.

  The Raft

  The dawn was cooler than any they had experienced so far, and the sun was obscured by a dark ribbon of cloud which grew darker and thicker as they watched.

  A sense of unease was felt by the group as they ate the rest of the fruit left over from the night before, and they looked to Glyn and Arki for reassurance. Deciding that doing something would probably settle everyone down again, Glyn suggested that they create a small pool up stream from the large pool, and use it for drinking purposes only.

  Two volunteers were called for to go further up stream, walking on the ridge to see where the forest ended, as Glyn still wanted to go south and the forest looked too dense and dark to travel in easily.

  By the time the upper drinking water pool had been constructed and filled with clear water, the two explorers had returned in great excitement.

  ‘We’ve found another of those things you called a building, only this one seems to be nearly intact. It is divided into sections like our cabins, only much larger, and there is plenty of space for all of us to shelter in at night.’ The bringer of the good news was a little out of breath as the pair had run all the way back from their find.

  ‘Fill up all water containers,’ Glyn called out, ‘and we’ll see what they’ve found.’

  At last the building came into view, a creeper covered concrete block set into the bank of the gully, only its symmetry making it stand out from the surrounding lush greenery. It took longer to clamber down the steep and slippery bank and then cross the marshy area at the bottom of the gully, whilst watching out for any hidden perils which might lurk beneath the surface of the squishy ground.