Extreme Difference

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  ‘Why did they do that to us? We’ve never attacked anyone before, and we don’t have much worth stealing, so why the murderous attack?’

  ‘Don’t know.’ Nan was now looking concerned. ‘I’ve never heard of that sort of thing before. We occasionally get the odd skirmish where a few things are stolen, but no one gets really hurt, and certainly not killed. You’d better rest up here for the night, and we’ll take you back in the morning to see what can be done.’ Nan sat back, bolt upright.

  Karry and Bell got up as one to take the unfortunate man by the arms, and lead him out of the cavern. Mop sat down again, looking disappointed at being beaten in her effort to render assistance to the newcomer.

  ‘We shall have to be extra vigilant in future.’ Nan stated. ‘At no time, except the dead of night or during the high heat of day, must the entrance be left unguarded, and we must come up with better weapons too, by the look of it.’

  Nan turned to Sandy, both waiting for the other to speak.

  ‘Can you think of anything more effective than pointed rods and the two gas guns, which is all we have to defend ourselves with?’ Nan asked at last.

  ‘Not off hand, but I’ll give it some thought,’ Sandy replied. ‘I’m sure Ben and I can come up with something to deter invaders, after all, they might try to take Mop, and then where would we be?’ His attempt at a jovial riposte to lighten the atmosphere fell flat, they were all too worried at this new turn of events which threatened their very existence.

  One by one, the group shuffled off to their sleeping quarters, leaving Nan, Ben, and Sandy alone in the main cavern.

  ‘I will make some enquiries tomorrow.’ said Nan. ‘We’ve got to identify this new threat, find out where they come from, and if they’ve done this before. Do you really think you can make us some new type of weapons?’ he added, turning to Sandy.

  ‘I’m sure we can.’ he replied, being careful to include Ben with the use of the plural, ‘I’ve had one or two ideas already,’ he lied, hoping to restore a little confidence and thereby a good night’s sleep for all.

  Sandy awoke in the early hours of the morning, something had bumped up against him in his pile of rags.

  ‘I’m frightened,’ said Mop, with a well controlled tremble in her voice, ‘if I could just snuggle up to you for the night, I’m sure I’ll feel much better in the morning.’

  ‘Oh no!’ Sandy exclaimed, before he could stop himself.

  ‘Why don’t you like me?’ asked a hurt sounding Mop.

  ‘It’s not that, it’s just that I’m very tired, and you woke me from a deep sleep. I do like you, you’re a very nice person, and very kind. I would have reacted the same way no matter who woke me up.’ he hopefully lied.

  Mop gave a deep sigh and snuggled up even closer, while Sandy, under the pretence of making room for her, repositioned himself such that he was now lying on those parts he thought the audacious Mop might make a grope for in a moment of affection.

  Only breathing deeply enough to just sustain life, Sandy tried to get back to sleep, but this was difficult due to the almost continuous wriggling of Mop as she tried to get some response from her unwilling partner of the night.

  In the end she gave up her amorous advances, and settled for just having someone to snuggle up to for the rest of the dark hours, a deep and contented snore announcing her withdrawal from active service.

  Eventually, Sandy drifted into sleep of sorts, punctured by nightmares of a totally naked Mop nearly twice his size, trapping him in a cave with no exit in sight.

  Dawn was a relief, when it came. Ben greeted the still entwined pair with an astonished look of disbelief and a poorly suppressed giggle, waving away with his hands the mumbled explanation Sandy tried to give justifying the compromising position he had been found in.

  Luckily, Mop hurried away to her kitchen cave to produce something edible for the now awakening group, giving Sandy a little time to explain what had happened. He was far from convinced that Ben believed his side of the story, and just hoped that Ben did not approach Mop on the subject at some later date to hear her side of events.

  During the first meal of the day, a worried Nan once more broached the subject of new armament, and Sandy had to think fast in order to cover up the fact that he had no fresh ideas in mind, nor did he expect to come up with any in the near future.

  As the others drifted away to go about their duties, Ben came to the rescue concerning the weapons problem by asking Sandy what he intended to do with the cylinder and attached pump unit he had obtained in the swap for the growing boxes.

  The idea suddenly came to him that a flame thrower could be made from the cylinder, if they could obtain a suitable combustible fluid, and then he remembered the apparently inexhaustible supply of gas for the lamps.

  ‘I don’t see why we couldn’t fill the cylinder with gas, using the pump to obtain enough pressure to make a long reaching flame when it is released.’

  ‘Sounds a good idea to me.’ said Ben, brightening up at the prospect of doing something other than the normal routine.

  ‘There is one problem though, how do we get all the air out of the cylinder before we put the gas in? If we don’t, it could explode if the flame got back inside the cylinder.’ Sandy could see the new weapon fading away as the dangers became obvious.

  ‘What if we filled the cylinder with water first, and then let the gas push the water out? We’ve plenty of water now, and it could be used to water Bell’s plants afterwards anyway.’

  Ben looked pleased with himself at having come up with something useful towards the project.

  ‘That’s a damn good idea, Ben, well done.’ Sandy heaved a sigh of relief as the possibility of a gas weapon was reinstated, and wondered why he had not thought of it.

  ‘We could use the flexible piece of pipe you use to load the gas guns. Do you have any more of it?

  ‘Yes, I think there’s a little more somewhere, why do you want it?’ asked a puzzled Ben, ‘the piece I use is long enough to do the job.’

  ‘We’ll have to keep a living flame at the nozzle end of the contraption for when we turn the gas on, there won’t be time to fiddle about getting a light from the nearest gas lamp if we get invaded.’ Sandy could see the flame thrower design building up in his mind’s eye, as they went in search of Nan to inform him of what they were about to do.

  After explaining the basics, Nan gave his wholehearted approval to the project, and the pair hurried away to collect the necessary parts for the first trial of the new weapon.

  The water cave was producing more water than they needed for their everyday life, and someone had already suggested that they use it for trading. Filling the cylinder with water was easy, using the pump and a length of flexible tube found in Ben’s material store. Ben pumped away with great enthusiasm, until the water squirted out from the tube on the other end of the cylinder in a spray which soaked Sandy from head to foot.

  ‘Right, now let’s see if we can get the gas in as easily,’ said a now dripping Sandy.

  As the last of the water was expelled from the cylinder, the smell of gas began to drift up the tunnel, and that brought Nan and Karry running to see what had gone wrong.

  Explaining that all was under control, Sandy began to pump more gas into the cylinder until he could no longer overcome the internal pressure within, and then shut off the valve and disconnected the supply pipe.

  ‘OK, now we can try it out,' he said with a little more confidence than he really felt. ‘Let's get it out into the open.'

  Minutes later they had the cylinder at the entrance to the cave complex, and a length of flexible hose attached to the nearest gas lamp, the transferred flame bobbing about like a living thing in the gentle breeze from the hot sand crater.

  ‘We’ll have to put a permanent small ignition flame on the end of this thing.’ Sandy said, as he heaved the contraption the last few metres out into the sun light, his eyes almost screwed shut from the glare. After making sure the pilot light on
the end of the flexible tubing was still showing, which was difficult out in the crater, he was ready.

  ‘OK, I’m going to fire it up now.’ he called, a slight tremor in his voice. There was a faint squeak as he turned the metal control valve and a steady hiss grew in volume as the stored gas escaped into the open air. For one dreadful moment Sandy thought, as did the others, that the whole experiment had been a miserable failure, and then their fears were blown away by a mighty whoosh and a flash of searing fire as the gas cloud ignited at last.

  All those who could see the fire ball and feel the back pressure of the exploding gas cloud were convinced beyond doubt that nothing much could have survived the roaring inferno the new defence weapon had produced, which was not the same thing as agreeing it should actually be used to defend their enclave.

  Sandy feared there might be those who would not approve of the use of such a weapon upon other human beings, and the massive gout of fire the machine produced convinced him he may well have a struggle on his hands getting the dreadful device into actual operation against a foe.

  After everyone had got over the shock of what the flame producer was capable of, it was dragged back into the tunnel.

  It wasn't long before the first voice was raised in protest against the use of such a barbaric device upon other people, and those present promptly split into two groups, those who could see the necessity for such a thing, and those who could not see the danger of not using it.

  Sandy could see the whole project being watered down, or even discarded, if he was unable to convince the others of the necessity to deploy the weapon in its most horrific form.

  ‘Look, I don’t like the idea of frying our neighbours any more than you do, but it’s them or us. Look at what happened to the other poor sods, they killed them with no compunction, and unnecessarily, if stealing their goods was their only intent. I think they enjoyed doing it.’ Sandy added.

  ‘It’s no good just frightening them off, they’ll only come back, if only to steal our new weapon, and God knows what they’ll do to us.’ He looked around the group to see if they had changed their minds. Most reluctantly nodded their heads, but with little enthusiasm.

  ‘If we injure them, they’ll be back with a vengeance, if we only frighten them off, they’ll certainly be back for the gas weapon, if only to use against other groups in the crater.’

  Sandy looked around to see if any more had been swayed by his argument, and as there were no longer any vocal dissenters, decided to ram the point home. He had to get their undivided consent to use the weapon as he intended it to be used, for if anyone faltered during an attack, it could spell disaster for them all.

  ‘We have two choices, either we carry on as we have in the past, and accept whatever fate befalls us, and bear in mind what happened to the others, or we use this new weapon at full potential, causing the maximum damage possible to those who would kill us. What do you say?’

  ‘He’s right,’ Nan spoke up at last, ‘we can’t be half-hearted about this, I say we do as Sandy suggests.’ He looked around the group for their approval, and was relieved to see everyone nodding their heads, with only Ben giving vocal agreement.

  ‘Right, let’s get it into position.’ said Sandy, eager to set up the flame-thrower while all were in agreement. ‘We’ll hang up some material to disguise it, or they’ll never come down the passage far enough for it to be fully effective.’

  The cylinder was dragged down well into the entrance tunnel, and held in position with lumps of rock. Someone found some old rags which were hung across the passageway, with a small hole allowing the business end of the weapon to poke through.

  ‘What we need is some means of keeping ’em in the passage when we fire up,’ Ben said quietly to Sandy, ‘or some of ’em might escape when they see what’s happened to those in the lead.’

  ‘Good thinking,’ Sandy replied, ‘I hadn’t thought of that. Some form of net, or something we can drop down over the entrance should do the job. What have we got?’

  ‘Don’t think we’ve got anything, but I noticed during our trade with our neighbours that they had a big hank of thin rope, perhaps we could trade ’em something for it? And then we could make a net.’

  With Nan’s agreement, it was decided to venture forth next morning to set up a possible trade with their neighbours, water being the main commodity on offer as the group now had a surplus from the water cave.

  During the evening meal, the subject of the fire weapon came up again, as some members of the group were still not happy with the envisaged effects the new defence device would have on anyone trying to raid them. After an even more graphic description of what might befall the group if they failed to wipe out the invaders, the dissenters reluctantly saw reason, and gave in to Sandy’s demands for total destruction, should they be raided.

  Light for All

  They all slept better that night secure in the knowledge that they could, if need be, repel all boarders. Nan decreed that only the more aggressive members of the group should man the new fire weapon, as he still doubted the ability of some to turn the weapon on fully if they should be invaded.

  Next morning, after a quick meal, Sandy and Ben set off for their neighbours, staggering under the weight of the water container they hoped to exchange for the much needed rope.

  The deal was struck, exchanging the water plus two more refills for the rope and four pieces of shiny metal Ben had spotted in a corner of their store. They had no use for the metal fragments and enquired what Ben wanted them for.

  ‘Nothing in particular,’ he lied, ‘just thought they were pretty.’

  On the way back with their bounty, Sandy patiently waited for Ben to offer an explanation for the shiny metal bits he had acquired, but as nothing was forthcoming, he asked.

  ‘I thought we could mount them on the outside of the entrance so that we could stay inside in the warm, and still see anyone approaching.’ he replied. Sandy smiled to himself, he had done well to choose Ben as his main aide.

  They arrived back just as the sun broke over the crater rim, bathing all in its fierce hard light. Small drops of condensed moisture were already boiling off from their hiding places high up in the surrounding rocks, looking like thin white wraiths, twisting and turning as the blazing heat of the naked sun found them, and boiled them out of existence.

  ‘The first thing we need to do is cut a channel in the roof just inside the entrance, so that we can roll up the net and keep it out of sight.’ Sandy said, as they sought the cool interior of the cave system.

  ‘Perhaps we can get some of the others to do that, while we make the net.’ Ben suggested.

  Soon, the sound of metal on stone echoed down through the tunnels as Sandy and Ben began to quietly construct the catch net. Although thin, the rope was a lot stronger than either of them had anticipated, and as the net neared completion, there was still plenty of the synthetic cord left over.

  ‘Keep the rest of it hidden away in your store,’ Sandy said to Ben, ‘I think it might come in useful for something else I have in mind.’ Ben nodded, knowing from past experience it was useless to enquire what it was, as Sandy would have told him if he wanted him to know at this point in time.

  The stone cutters finished their groove at about the same time as the net was brought up for fitting. Ben, having found several short metal rods which they hoped to hammer into cracks in the tunnel roof to hold the net in place, suggested that two extra pieces of metal be driven into the floor of the tunnel to run the hold down cords through, thus preventing anyone escaping from under the entrapping net.

  The two hold down cords were run back to a position next to the flame-thrower behind the rag curtain, the idea being that when all the marauding gang had entered and the gas jet lit, someone would release the net and pull the cords in, trapping all those who had been unfortunate enough to enter the tunnel.

  ‘I think we should try out the system,’ Sandy suggested, ‘just in case there are any unforeseen difficult
ies we’ve not thought of.’

  It took much persuading to get eight members of the group to pretend to be invaders, despite the repeated promise that the gas jet would not be lit, and the whole operation was perfectly safe.

  With the unwilling volunteers interspersed between the flame-thrower with its concealing curtain of rags and the entrance to the cave complex, Sandy gave the order ‘fire’.

  Some were knocked to the ground as they met others going in the opposite direction at high speed, while most headed for the exit, only to wind up in a tangled heap as the net dropped just in front of those in the lead.

  After much cursing and swearing as they untangled themselves, the exercise was pronounced a great success, and to some degree, the fear of an overwhelming attack from the raiders was diminished, but not totally dispelled.

  A rota was worked out for manning the flame-thrower in two shifts, one in the early morning and another in the relative cool of evening, as these were considered to be the only times when an attack could be mounted, due to the extreme heat of day and freezing cold of night.

  Nan came to survey the set up, but said little about it, Sandy reasoning the lack of enthusiasm for the project probably being due to the apparent and unintentional whittling away of his leadership as Sandy instigated his various projects.

  Some members of the group were actually looking forward to an attack, just to see the marauders given a dose of their own medicine, and these were incorporated into the guard roster as the most likely not to lose their nerve at the critical moment.

  As they had now acquired the necessary roll of material to make new clothes, Sandy went down to the kitchen cave to approach Mop on the subject, thinking she was the most likely to make a good job of the project. After giving it some thought, he decided a tunic and trousers would be the most practical garments for all, and put the idea to her.

  Mop, who was always willing to please Sandy at any opportunity, gave him her best smile and nodded enthusiastically.

  ‘You’ll need some help, perhaps one of the other women would like to lend a hand? Oh, and before the new clothes are worn, the person concerned must have a good wash and get their hair tidied up. We’ve plenty of water now, so there’s no excuse not to.’