by Gary Weston
'Step aside,' said Richie.
Morgan obliged and Richie hammered the small door with the scoop of the dozer. The flaking, rusting paint showered down. 'Try that now.'
Both Morgan and Ramshorn grabbed the lever and pulled. Something gave and the lever moved down. It took all their combined strength, but rasping like a freshly excavated sarcophagus, the small door swung open. It was pitch black inside, and they turned on their helmet lights that did little to penetrate the depressing gloom.
'After you,' said Rocky.
'Gee, thanks, partner.'
Morgan stepped inside.
Chapter 51
'Wait,' said John Mantle. He cracked a flare and hurled it inside. Guided by that, they entered the vast, cavernous mountain. 'Stick together.'
Morgan asked. 'What's the radiation reading in here, Rocky?'
Ramshorn took the reading. 'Slightly lower than outside. Not a place to hang around in.'
They couldn't see the top of the inside of the volcano, such was its height and the shadows, seemingly with lives of their own, were chased by the light from the spluttering flare. At the time of building, consideration had been given to elevators, dismissed because of dwindling resources and a power supply so unpredictable it was deemed pointless. Steel stairs seemed to wrap a spiders web around the interior, and then upwards to an incomprehensible spider, hidden in places no man was supposed to tread.
'Shit,' said Morgan. 'I hope we don't have to go up there.'
Rocky said, 'John. Where's your best guess for a couple of pumps?'
'The basement. I'm guessing this thing has such a thing.'
'Most of the city was underground,' said Morgan, 'Or so I heard. They had thousands in here and kept going down.'
'Only the top people lived up there,' said Rocky. 'Is that a ramp?'
Another flare illuminated the wide, gently sloping ramp. Parked, more like abandoned, were about fifty electrically powered vehicles.
Richie said, 'This is how they travelled about in here.' They were of the simplest controls, on, off, forwards, backwards, and a steering wheel. Ever the optimist, Richie tried the on switch. 'Dead.'
Morgan said, 'This one's still hooked up to a charging unit.' He turned the buggy on and lights came on. 'Yeah. Now this is what I'm talking about.' Jumping in the drivers seat, he stamped on the accelerator, only to have the buggy slam into the nearest wall.
Rocky gave him a round of applause. 'Maybe you should walk. Safer for all of us.'
'I got this.' Morgan eased into reverse and missed Mantle by inches. 'Sorry.'
'Hey. And they got you flying Big Bird?'
Morgan got off the buggy. 'Maybe I'll walk after all.'
'Good idea,' said Rocky, his face lit up in a spectral grin by the flares.
Mantle said, 'This buggy might come in handy for getting the pumps to the exit.'
'In that case, be my guest,' said Morgan with a wave at the vehicle.
Mantle, took the wheel, Richie and Rocky got in the spare seats. Driving like he'd been using the buggy all his life, Mantle steered the vehicle to the top of the ramp and at a walking pace for the others to keep up, entered the city where the less privileged hung on to their miserable existences. From the ramp, countless levels of steel floors crossed from one side to the other, grey steel walls with grey steel doors, opened into living accommodation, no better than prison cells.
Morgan opened one. It made his home on Mars seem like the ultimate luxury pad. A basic cot, a couple of chairs. Signs of scant personal possessions. He looked into several others, seeing next to nothing to distinguish one from the other.
'They fought wars to live like this?' Morgan said aloud. Then something occurred to him. Where were the people? If they died, where were their remains? He was sure the others all wondered the same thing. On they went, looking briefly in a few of the rooms. It was the same story everywhere. Minimal signs of habitation completely without embellishment. But not a dead body to be found. They were brought to a halt by Mantle hitting the brake on the buggy.
'Medical centre.'
It was in there they found the first dead body.
Chapter 52
It was a singularly sobering moment. All eight of them gathered around the body. It was strangely fresh looking, and yet logic dictated the man had died several years before. He was dressed only in a patients medical gown, otherwise naked. The exposed flesh was disfigured by contusions and lesions. Large boils, most having ruptured, covered his face and neck, and they assumed they covered most parts of his body. Nobody ventured to find out.
The way he lay was telling. The expression on his face was one of agony and terror. He was half sitting on the floor, propped up by the wall, his hands reaching out to someone unable or unwilling to help him. Had it not been for the need for anything medical, equipment, medicines, they would not have lingered one second longer. They had to close their minds to the horror, and gather all they could.'
Rocky said, 'If it's ok with you guys, Max and I will gather everything we can find worth taking and pile it outside the door. Perhaps you can carry on down and see if you can locate a couple of pumps.'
'Rather you then me in here,' said Mantle. 'Come on people. Time's running out.'
Stepping around the body, Morgan and Ramshorn raided every cupboard, locker and cabinet. They found just two bedsheets in the place and used those to pile everything into. The sheets were so full, they could hardly carry them. Whatever had killed the poor soul on the floor, none of the medicines had been effective on him. With the gathering completed, Rocky stared at the body.
'This isn't right, Max. Give me a hand to get him on the bed.'
Morgan shuddered. He wasn't good around death. 'Touch him?'
Ramshorn picked up a half full container of disinfectant. 'We can wipe down with this. We all can. Come on.'
Morgan still hesitated.
'Max. He was still a human being. He deserves some respect.'
Morgan nodded, he grabbed the legs of the rigor motised body and Ramshorn had under the arms. He was light, food being scarce at the time he had been alive. They placed him carefully on the bed, and he retained the shape they had found him. They had a final look around for anything remotely useful, dragged it all clear of the door and closed it behind them. They would probably be the last ones to see the dead man. As they wiped each other down with the disinfectant, Richie was racing up the ramp towards them.
Max said, 'Richie. Found a pump?'
Richie nodded, getting his breath back. 'Yes,' he gasped. 'Taking them apart right now. Something...' He pointed back the way he had ran. 'You should see this. But I warn you. It isn't nice.'
Chapter 53
It was another four levels down, passing suspiciously empty rooms. Richie gave nothing away, finding the walk up and down the ramp hard work with the gravity far greater than he was used to. The other five were dismantling flanges that a massive blue painted pump sat between. One pump already filled the rear seats of the buggy. John Mantle broke away from the others.
Rocky said, 'Richie says there's something we should see.'
'Well, we all have, so no reason why you shouldn't. Come on, follow me.'
They didn't have to go much further, just to the next and final level. It wasn't something Mantle had to point out, being impossible to miss. There is one golden rule when wearing a suit. Never vomit when wearing one. It was as much as Rocky and Max could do to obey that golden rule.
There was a tunnel, at the very base of the city. Rough hewn, crudely bored. Its original purpose could only be guessed at. What it had become was a mass grave. Being something of around ten feet in diameter, it was full, completely, with dead bodies.
From the bottom to the top, with no finesse or consideration, they had been piled up on top of one another, some naked, others in the same blue gowns as worn by the one left behind in the medical centre. They all had the same festering wounds. One by one they had been crammed into the tunnel. There was one excepti
on. A man, in what looked like a doctor's tunic, wasn't in the tunnel like the others.
He was lying half in and half out of the edge of the tunnel, he was also covered in boils, his expression, one that would be forever etched in the minds of these last humans to see him, was a combination of a human dying of a broken heart and exhaustion. His left hand still grasped the last of his patients that had died so horribly.
Fighting the bile rising in his throat, Rocky said, 'Now we know what happened to the people.'
Mantle slapped him on the shoulder. 'I'm sorry, Rocky.'
'You were right. I...we had to see this. We owe it to their memory.'
'Come on,' said Morgan. 'I need to get out of this place so badly.'
Mantle said, 'That buggy will never make it back up the slope with those pumps under its own steam. We gotta push it to the top.'
The second pump was across the front seats of the buggy. To prove a point, Mantle sat in the driving seat, started the electric motor, and pressed the accelerator with his foot. The buggy groaned bravely but hardly moved, and that was on the flat floor. He disengaged the motor and between them, getting their hands on the buggy where they could, Mantle steering and pushing at the same time, they headed for the ramp. The effort of pushing the buggy up the slope, with the heavy pumps and gravity combining to try to defeat them every step of the way, pushed them to the edge of human endurance, only thoughts of how precious it would be to the people of Mars keeping them going.
As they pushed the buggy and themselves to the very limit, they reached the halfway point of the medical centre, with hardly room to get past it, there came the sobering thought that they would have to return for the medicines. And they wouldn't have time to let their screaming muscles rest. Every moment they spent on Earth, they were being subjected to the radiation.
One more precious hour gone and the end of the ramp was in sight. How they pushed that buggy onto the flat floor, was something to ponder about for years to come. They collapsed in a heap on the hard stone floor, unsure if strength could be dragged up from their boots to get onto their feet again.
They took ten minutes, and it was Rocky who managed to move at all, using the buggy to haul his body to his feet. Had he let go too soon, he would have inevitably fallen right back down again. One by one, they pulled themselves and each other upright. They all looked at the buggy, then back down the slope that they all now hated with a vengeance, the ramp with the tunnel of death at the bottom. Images of bodies in the tunnel filled their minds, as if souls were escaping the very bowels of hell, and failing at the last hurdle.
'We can do this,' said Rocky.
He started weaving his way unsteadily back down the ramp. Reluctantly, the others trudged behind him. They reached the two sheets of medical equipment and drugs. Nobody spoke. Four took a corner of one sheet, four the corners of the other. Another half hour and they had dragged their burdens until it was by the side of the buggy. They didn't stop. They dared not stop, because moving again if they had, would be impossible. At least they were on level ground, now.
Mantle set off one more flare, and hurled it towards the exit. It was there they encountered yet another problem. They realised the buggy would not go through the smaller door. The two sheets of drugs they got through eventually, leaving the buggy until last. Outside it was almost dark, and Morgan could swear someone, or something was rustling in the shrubs. He wondered if anyone else heard it, but decided not to ask.
When they reached the ship, he had to force his brain to think at all. He jabbed the code of the hatch and it opened. Up the ramp they went, their haul with them. Now all they had to do was to get the heavy pumps. Light was fading fast as they trudged back to the steel doors.
With a throat like dry sandpaper, Mantle said, 'We can use the dozer to get the pumps to the ship.'
From the toolbox built into the back of the dozer, Richie got a long length of rope. Inside the volcano again, they pushed the buggy as close to the exit as possible. It had been enough of a problem opening the small door, and none had the strength to even attempt to move the main door.
Richie looped the rope around one pump and six men managed to get hold of it. They lifted the pump out of the buggy, almost dropped it, didn't, got it somehow out through the small door, and into the dozer bucket. Then, they returned to get the second pump and with strength dragged up from their space boots got that second dead weight in the bucket. Richie tried to pull himself onto the seat, couldn't manage it, then several hands pushed him up.
He started the dozer and put the lights on, and with a head that was full of cotton wool, drove to the ship, the others following. Somehow, Richie drove expertly up the ramp, the others climbed inside the ship. Max Morgan was the last one in and as he pressed the control to close the ramp, he looked out into the pitch black of the Earth's night. In the distance, he wasn't sure, but he thought he could see a pair of eyes staring at him. He stared back, and before the ramp closed completely, the eyes had gone.
Already, Rocky was at the ships controls, and the second everything had been made secure and they were all buckled up, the great ship took off, heading for home.
Chapter 54
An exclusion zone of five miles had been put round “Mucky Waters” as the sanitation crater was colloquially referred to. The pumps had packed up completely and no waste was trickling into it. Even the stalwart of muck spreading, Ivor Potful, didn't go near it, and consequently, his rash healed up naturally, to the extent people would sit next to him in the dining area and his wife let him back into their bedroom.
Many toilets were blocked and a brown haze hovered above the sanitation plant, which now had a restricted access notice applied to it. So far, sickness hadn't broken out, but they all knew it was a matter of time. Extra vigilance was advised when it came to hygiene and many only went outside fully suited. The solution was on its way, Potts and Forbes assured everyone, so they just had to grin and bear it in the meantime.
Otherwise, preparations had gone well; all the freighters were armed and target practice had taken people's minds off the sanitation or lack of. The helium-3 supply was dwindling fast so was becoming tightly controlled and restrictions were soon to be imposed. The anticipated arrival of Big Bird was the main topic of conversation and the commanders gave regular announcements on its progress. So much depended on that ship and its payload, but it was still more than a week before its arrival.
With most of the modifications to the freighters done and the ground laser cannon in place and operational, engineering could put their energy into infrastructure issues, until all the spares had been almost completely exhausted. From that, their efforts were channelled into manufacturing what they could with what they had.
It was still a stressful time for everyone, with the sanitation problems, lack of spare parts and always at the back of their minds, the very real possibility of an alien race swooping down and wiping out the last of the human race.
The temperature had risen near the equator sufficiently for Andrew and David Foreman and their partners to chance planting out more trees. They had been allowed to grow to a reasonable size in pots inside Base Three. Several volunteers had offered to help and soon, nearly fifty trees of various species had been planted next to a narrow gurgling river.
'Looking good, Andy.'
'Oh, hi, Craggy. Just too late to help a hand.'
'Oh, well. Another time. Think they'll survive?'
'Hmm. Probably got a better chance than we do. These trees are quite hardy, so possibly.'
Cragg said, 'You look a little down.'
Andy scraped the dirt off his spade. 'I just hope this isn't all for nothing. Maybe when Big Bird gets back here with a few things to improve our quality of life I'll feel better.'
Cragg said, 'Hearing all about what happened in Westmont brought us all down a little. I know it was self inflicted, but all the same.'
'I guess that really is the end for Earth as far as we're concerned. What will really make
me happy will be to see the birds and the animals free to live outside as nature intended. I can die happy, then.'
'You'll outlive all of us,' said Cragg. 'And I'm not far behind you. In Earth years, I'm nudging ninety.'
'Not a bad age, once upon a time. Well, I feel it's time for a rest. See you later.'
Cragg watched Andy walk away towards Base Three. 'Hey, David.'
'Craggy?'
'Your father. Is he ok?'
David shook his head. 'Cancer. Nothing they can do. He did well to survive those wars on Earth, but it's catching up with him.'
'Sorry to hear that, David. He's a good man. And what he's achieved will live on for years. Not a bad legacy, I reckon.'
David nodded. 'I agree. I intend to carry on from him. His dreams are my dreams. I'd better go see Dad is ok.'
The planting had been done; another step on the long road to making the planet their own. Cragg looked up into the sky and prayed they would have the chance to do just that.
Chapter 55
Rocky Ramshorn had just finished a radio call from his wife Amethyst and the twins Poppy and Dusty, and his mood had been lifted considerably. Amethyst had told him a planet wide party was planned in celebration of their successful mission. Second only to getting the pump fitted in the sanitation plant. Extra beer was being processed for the occasion. It was something good to look forward to.
Aboard Big Bird, it took two full days just to get their spirits and their strength back from the tough couple of weeks, and the whole atmosphere was far more buoyant. Now Rocky had the flight deck to himself and Big Bird was being flown by the computer. He stared at the huge screen with the view from in front of them. It wouldn't be long before he would see Mars with the reddish brown sand, with the green encroaching on it as it grew imperceptibly from the north cap.
He relaxed, his shift being one of simple night-watchman, letting Big Bird do the boring bits. Then he suddenly realised, he wasn't alone. On the flight deck, yes. But before him out there in deepest space, no.
