Ark Of Hope: Beyond The Dark Horizon

by Roger David Francis

  “You’re right, we can’t take the risk, we’ll go back,” Brett agreed and led the way. As they turned the corner Brett stopped abruptly. Standing in front of them blocking the passageway was Gary Wurner, swaying and holding the knife in his hand.

  “Did you think your big fat lady bodyguard would stop me?” He snarled.

  Cassie felt her whole body trembling with fear. Her voice wobbling she said, “You don’t need to kill us, Gary, we couldn’t get back to the ship on time to spoil your plans now could we?”

  “Shut up,” Gary waved the knife at her. “Why should I trust you? You don’t know anything. This Island appears and disappears at will. In the next second you could find yourselves thrashing about in the ocean and then what would you do? I’ll tell you, shall I? Climb up onto the Princess May to save yourselves. You’ve done it once you could do it again.” His mouth twisted into a savage grin, “You’re finished. You’ve nowhere left to go. You choose; backwards to certain death in the black lake or forward into the blade of my knife. Who’s first?” His eyes glittered as he held the knife up and laughed. “Scared, are you?” He taunted.

  A rush of cold wind swept through the passageway and all at once Gary Wurner began beating his hands in the air. Surrounding him was millions of tiny buzzing insects, bright red with tiny bulging black eyes, their bodies quivered as they covered him completely in a thick coating. He struggled, thrashing around but there were too many of them and his muffled screams echoed round the stone walls.

  Jade watched in horror as the red insects began to ooze a dark crimson liquid that dripped on to the floor. It took her a few moments to realise the liquid was blood; Gary Wurner’s blood. The noise was deafening, the buzzing had reached fever pitch and then a strange whistling noise, similar to the one they’d heard on the ship, blew through the passageway. And the insects disappeared.

  “Dear God,” Robbie breathed.

  Gary Wurner; or what was left of him lay in bits on the concrete floor, the bones of his skeleton still quivering.

  “He’s alive,” Cassie squeaked. “Look, he’s still moving, putting himself back together. He died sixty five years ago but he won’t stay dead.” She began giggling hysterically and Brett turned and shook her gently. “Not now, Cas,” he said, “try and keep it together.” She gave a small sob and hiccupped, holding onto Jade’s arm.

  They stood huddled together hardly able to believe what was happening. The dismembered skeleton of Gary Wurner lay squirming in front of them, it’s arms waving, jiggling its fingernails in the air. The ghostly waiter managed to lift his head up and his eyeless sockets glared at them. The knife lay beside his ruined body. Not even a tuft of hair, a piece of clothing remained, just a skeleton, the skull picked clean, gleaming white, the mouth open in its last scream. But still it continued to clatter its bones on the concrete floor.

  “This way,” a little voice said.

  “Hope?” Jade peered forward, “Is that you?”

  “Yes, He won’t stay like that for long; he’ll come back for you. Spirit can take on any form, don’t let him fool you. Now you have to hurry because the Choolies are lying in wait for you, Dink went on ahead to warn them you were coming.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “They’re all afraid you’ll find the Challis of Truth and bring the Island down. You can’t trust any of them, except maybe the goblins.” Hope smiled, “they’re okay.”

  “The Choolies?” Brett thought he hadn’t heard right.

  Hope stepped out in front of them. “They’re bad,” she told Brett solemnly. “I think they’re feeding the Queen up for a massive feast in a few weeks time. Toffin and Dink are spies; they’re there to make sure she eats enough. Cucumber is their brain food.”

  “How many Choolies are there?” Brett asked.

  Hope looked unsure. “Thousands, I think. They’re from a planet called Oogaloo. The Oogaloo’s bought them here to guard the Queen. They live underground. I don’t like them.” She added.

  “I can’t say I’m too taken with them myself,” Robbie muttered. “So what do they want us for?”

  “Pudding.”

  “Great,” Jade shook her head in disbelief. “Cannibalistic aliens, just what we needed.”

  “You have no choice now but to make your way across the ledge. It’s slippery so you must be careful.” She paused and frowned. “The lake is very deep, you wouldn’t survive more than a few minutes if you fell in. There are creatures living at the bottom, I call them Lippies because their mouths are so huge, their lips stretch like two elastic bands over hundreds of sharp teeth; you don’t want one of them to get you.”

  Jade shuddered. What sort of terrible place was this Sandy Island; was there no one normal living on it? The thought of crossing the ledge was terrifying. She said to Hope, “Why can’t we just go back to the house and wait there until morning?”

  Hope shook her head. “Gary Wurner will be waiting for you, next time you might not be so lucky. He doesn’t have much time left. He thinks you wouldn’t dare cross over the lake and if you did then you probably wouldn’t make it, but it’s your only chance to escape.” She sighed. “I have to go now, I’m tired.” She shimmered for a moment and disappeared.

  “What do you think?” Brett asked Robbie, staring into the black lake below.

  “Do we have a choice?”

  “I don’t think so. I’ll go first, then Cas, Jade, and you, Robbie, bringing up the rear, are we agreed?” He didn’t wait for a reply. “I think it might be best if we crawled along, there looks like just enough room. We can’t just walk along, there’s nothing to hold onto, the cave wall is covered in slime, what do you think?”

  “Crawl along the ledge?” Cassie’s voice was faint with terror.

  Brett spoke softly. “I know, Cas, it’s frightening, but it seems we have no choice.” He turned to the others. “We go slowly, very slowly, it doesn’t matter how long it takes, we can do this.”

  Jade stared at the waterfall mesmerised. It was so beautiful yet so deadly; the reflection from the tiny overhead lights twinkling on the surface. What about the Lippies? Jade wanted to ask Brett, but of course she didn’t. If they fell off the ledge into the black lake it was certain death anyway.

  Brett got on his hands and knees and shuffled to the edge of the ledge. “Don’t look down and don’t look behind,” he said, “Just concentrate.”

  One slow movement at a time, Brett thought as he stretched his arm out. His hand flattened on the ledge and slipped sideways. He froze, his heart hammering, a hot sick feeling in his stomach. He slid his knee forward and then repeated the movements with his other arm and leg. Because the waterfall was masking the sounds around him he couldn’t hear the others behind him, he just hoped they were being as careful as he was. He was well aware that if one of them slipped they would all go down. He wished he was religious, if ever there was a time for prayer it was now.

  Sweat dripped from his face but apart from blinking it from his eyes he didn’t dare lift his hand up off the ledge to wipe it away. At least there was light, if the cave had been in darkness then he knew they wouldn’t have dared attempt it. Even facing Gary Wurner would have been preferable to that.

  Jade couldn’t even hear her own breathing above the sound of the waterfall. The noise was getting louder with every painful move they made. They’d trusted Hope; put their faith in a little ghost girl and Jade could only hope she hadn’t mislead them. She thought her hands and knees must be bleeding by now, she wasn’t lifting them up off the concrete ledge, just sliding them along, one agonising movement after the other. It would have been terrifying to look down at the black lake below and Jade couldn’t understand why her eyes kept flicking sideways, it was almost as if she wanted to tempt fate. Every now and then her hand would reach out and touch the heel of Brett’s trainers and that was heart stopping. One wrong move could send them all tumbling down.

  It’s just a game, Cassie thought. Like the ones we used to play when we were
kids when we followed each other around the room on our hands and knees, pretending to be dogs and cats, first one to reach the door had the biggest ice cream. There’d been lots of fun and laughter.

  Of course no one was laughing right now, there was a bit more at stake than bagging the biggest ice cream. Like her life. It had come down to this moment in time when one wrong move could end it forever. All she’d wanted was a nice holiday, time out with her boyfriend, a pleasant day out sunbathing on the deck of a boat, but that all seemed a long time ago now.

  This was cruel but she didn’t cry, she couldn’t hamper her vision with tears, she needed all her wits about her. She wanted to blow a stray length of hair out of her eyes but she didn’t dare. At least I won’t die alone, Cassie thought, I’ll have my friends with me. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she could see something rising out of the lake. It was huge, its mouth open, its head swaying as if it was tracking them, waiting for one of them to slip and fall, its jaws trembling with anticipation.

  Robbie had seen it too and his stomach twisted in fear. For one terrible second he was convinced he was going to throw up. He took a deep breath. They were moving along the ledge at an agonisingly slow pace. He wanted to tell Jade how much he loved her again, it seemed important, but of course he couldn’t, she wouldn’t have heard him anyway over the roar of the waterfall. He’d never felt murderous towards another human being before but Robbie thought if he could get his hands on Gary Wurner he’d surely strangle him. The fact he was dead already was irrelevant. If I get out of this alive, he told himself, I’m never going on holiday every again. I’ll stay home and watch footie on television while Jade makes me something nice to eat, anything but cucumber sandwiches. He was incredibly proud of her, she wasn’t whining and complaining, just getting on with it and he thought if this was his last few moments with her then there were worse ways to die.

  Brett stopped. The ledge was getting lumpy, he could feel the round smooth stones sticking out under his hands. He felt confused, was this going to make things easier for them or harder? He ran the palm of his hand over the stones and felt his fingers slip, unable to grip the surface. He was aware the others had stopped behind him and knew they’d be wondering what was going on. Because he couldn’t even shout to them he just hoped they’d understand that something had changed. Very slowly he began edging forward, the stones causing his knees to flare with pain.

  After what seemed like hours but was probably only a few more minutes Brett’s hand touched a different surface, hard packed dirt. Hardly able to believe it he felt around and realised he’d climbed off the ledge. He turned slowly and gripped Jade’s arms pulling her towards him. Together they helped Cassie off the ledge and then finally Robbie. They’d done it, reached the other side of the waterfall. None of them spoke, just huddled together in disbelief.

  Cassie burst into tears and Brett put his arms around her.

  “My trousers are ruined,” she sobbed.

  Brett glanced down and groaned. There were two big jagged holes in her trousers and her knees were bleeding. His eyes filled with tears of sympathy and relief. “We made it, we’re safe,” he told her.

  “Not yet,” Hope appeared in front of them. She pointed to a doorway, “If you go through there,” She told them, “you’ll be outside. You have to be really quiet and follow the path to the sea shore and wait there until morning. I can’t control what might happen but you must find your way back there as soon as possible. Don’t worry, you’ll be all right, the Oogaloo’s never go on the beach, the giant Spickler lives there, sometimes he’s invisible.” Hope put her head on one side, adding, “He’s the sand monster.”

  Jade thought of the huge footsteps in the sand and shivered. “He might get us,” she said.

  “No, he’s part of the Island, all he can do is make shapes in the sand.” Hope smiled, adding, “I have to go now,” And she disappeared.

  Chapter 14

  “I wouldn’t say no to a cucumber sandwich,” Robbie said, trying to lighten the mood, as Brett pushed the door open.

  The terrifying crawl along the ledge had left them deflated and scared and all four of them were limping from their cut and bruised hands and knees. Robbie suspected the nightmare wasn’t over yet. He was glad to be alive except for his stomach pains, they were making him jittery, sharp little stabbing pains that poked around his insides. He felt as if he wanted to be sick, throw up whatever it was inside him that was making him feel so bad. Strangely he kept smiling, feeling his lips peeling back, he knew he was doing it but couldn’t seem to stop.

  “Don’t Robbie,” Jade spoke sharply. There was nothing funny about the situation they were in; there was still a small part of her that believed she was dreaming because surely this craziness couldn’t be real. Ghosts, Aliens, Giant Spicklers, Oogaloo’s, Choolies, Really? She imagined for a moment she was still on Professor Bunting’s boat. The gentle waves from the ocean had lulled her to sleep and all this was a silly dream going on in her brain as her body swayed gently along with the motion of the boat. Just the thought of it made her feel better. She stumbled against Robbie. He put his arm around her.

  “It’ll be okay, you know, I’ll look after you, make sure the bogey man doesn’t get you.”

  Jade pulled away. “What’s wrong with you Robbie?” she asked searching his face. He looked serene as if none of what was happening was touching him. The faraway look in his eyes made her nervous. “Have you taken some more drugs?” She frowned. She’d thought he was recovering from whatever that awful waiter had put in his food but he seemed to be reverting back to a drugged up state.

  He gave a short bark of a laugh. “You know I’d never do that,” he said. “Not on purpose.”

  “You’ve done it before.”

  “Oh, that was a long time ago, a bit of fun at college. Come on Jade, lighten up, we’re having an adventure.” He suddenly raised his voice and shouted, “Aren’t we Brett?”

  Brett looked over his shoulder surprised. “Why are you yelling?”

  “Am I?” Robbie laughed. “This is okay, isn’t it?” he said looking around.

  They were standing in a garden, the lights from the house illuminating the rose bushes that edged the two sides of it. In the middle was a well kept lawn. A sweet earthy smell wafted around.

  “It must be the back garden of the house,” Cassie said.

  Jade frowned. “Don’t you think it’s a bit too....perfect? I mean, we’ve just come out of a cave with a massive rock pool and waterfall and now we’re standing in an Ideal Homes garden. I think it’s weird.”

  “Jesus,” Brett breathed. “Someone’s standing at the bottom of the garden.”

  “It’s not that mad waiter again, is it?” Cassie looked frightened.

  “We should hide,” Jade said.

  Robbie stepped forward. “Nah, it’s just one of those funny little servants.”

  “Robbie! Come back,” Brett made a grab for him but Robbie was too quick, almost running down the path in the middle of the garden. Suddenly he stopped and threw up his arms. He appeared to be praying; his head was thrown back and he began making an odd keening noise. There was a scuffling sound behind them and as Brett turned his stomach twisted in fear. They were surrounded by dozens of the strange little alien creatures and they appeared to be carrying some sort of weapons. Long thin sticks sharpened to vicious points.

  “Oh God,” Cassie moaned in fear. Her eyes were wide with fright as she watched Robbie begin to dance in short jerky movements, his arms still raised in the air. She stared at him in terror as his feet stamped mindlessly on the grass and his torso swayed back and forth. The strange keening noise he’d been making changed pitch, deepened into almost a growl and he began to gabble nonsense, words spewing out of his mouth that made no sense.

  Horrified, Brett ran across to him and grabbed him by the shoulder. At first Robbie didn’t respond, he still kept dancing around, spouting the strange words and then gradually he slowed down, almost stagger
ing as he tried to keep his balance. He looked around the garden, his eyes unfocused.

  “I’m so tired,” he said and slid down onto the grass.

  Jade and Cassie ran over to him.

  “I think he’s okay,” Brett said. His mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool. “It’s them over there, those weird little creatures with the green hair, they made him do it.” He pointed to the group of small people who were now lined up in two rows, their wooden spears held high.

  “I can’t see anyone,” Cassie said puzzled.

  “In the corner of the garden; they were standing behind us.”

  “Brett,” Jade spoke quietly, “There’s no one there.”

  Brett blinked hard but he could still see them. They appeared to be laughing, their little shoulders were shaking. “I swear to you I can see them.” His voice was grim, “They’re getting ready to attack us. We need to get out of here. Help me get Robbie up.”

  Jade caught Cassie’s eye and shook her head. She was worried about Robbie and Brett, something was affecting their minds, making them do and see things that weren’t there.

  Between them they managed to haul Robbie to his feet. His eyes were closed and Jade almost envied him, he could at least dream for a little while that everything was normal.

  Brett saw the group of little aliens beginning to move towards them. Their movements were stealthy and it suddenly crossed his mind that even they didn’t realise he could see them. That had to give him an advantage.

  “Run as fast as you can,” he ordered.

  “I’m not going without you!” Cassie stopped and turned terrified eyes on Brett.

  “Yes, you are. I’ll be right behind you, I promise.”

  “Cas!” Jade yelled, “You have to help me with Robbie.”

  With a sob Cassie took Robbie’s other arm and they half ran and half walked supporting Robbie who held his head down and dragged his feet across the wet grass. Brett turned and faced the horde.