PENANCE — Chapter XIII
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Copyright © 2020 J C Pereira
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Chapter XIII
The cold soaked into their very bones and leeched the warmth out. It was so frigid that their skulls felt frozen and their thoughts suspended in a fog of lethargy. Feelings were things of the past. Now, they knew only numbness. Fighting the desire to lie down in the softness of the blanketing whiteness and drift into blessed sleep, they forced themselves to put one foot in front of the other, step by step — a mantra to stay alive. They no longer spoke to each other, for their words emerged slurred and incomprehensible. Clenching their jaws to still the trembling wracking their bodies, they kept moving. A continuous movement was everything; movement was life.
They had not prepared for this. When they set out, it had been so hot that layers had been the last thing on their minds. They had taken blankets only as an afterthought. By the calendar, it was still summer, after all. Who could have imagined this?
Drake had been searching for shelter since the first fluffy flakes started falling. He was anxious for Emerald. If this hardship continued, she might well abort — nature’s natural reaction to preserve life. However, nature seemed distracted at the moment, so who could tell? The child would do his best to ensure its survival. It was the way of things. It would continue to draw from his exhausted and malnourished mother until she fell or until she expelled it to save herself. He did not want either of those alternatives. They needed a place to hold up and find warmth. The snow was falling heavily, and visibility was poor. He had marked a rocky hillock, and he was hoping that he was still steering them towards it. They all trusted in him. He would get them there.
An hour or so later, it was hard to tell; they came across the wreckage of the kite plane half-buried in the snow. There was no sign of its pilot, so they assumed he had survived. There was no way to trace where he had wandered off. He may even have passed them, treading on opposite paths. For in this weather, who could know for sure?
‘Well, at least we’re not alone in this godforsaken wilderness,’ slurred Ash.
No one could be bothered to comment, and they continued on their way, heads down, trying to keep the flurry of snowfall out of their eyes — deceptively beautiful in its deadliness.
As the evening began to draw in, and the weight of the growing gloom threatened to crush what remained of their spirits, they slogged, bone-weary, to the looming rocky escarpment. They stood there wearily at its base, swaying on their feet, trying to gather themselves to clamber up its steep flanks. Their world was now white, dense and sullenly silent.
‘Is that smoke?’ rasped Sally. ‘I smell wood smoke.’
‘Me too,’ croaked Drake. ‘I think we may have found our intrepid pilot.’
‘Hope he’s got food to spare,’ groaned Ash.
‘Hot tea,’ muttered Emerald. ‘Just a sip or two.’
‘Let’s stop hallucinating and get on with it,’ snapped Sally.
Drake nodded and began to climb, pulling himself through the snowdrifts. The others trailed tiredly after, with renewed hope in their hearts.
Just below a ledge that stuck out at an odd angle, they saw the open mouth of a small cave that glowed invitingly and from which brown-grey smoke billowed out into the dead, still atmosphere. They stopped in their tracks and stared at it stupidly until Drake startled them out of their stupor by shouting:
‘Yow, the cave.’
A large, hulking shadow appeared. It stood back from the entrance and regarded them silently — not a word of greeting or even enquiry. The only thing clearly visible in the dying light was the gleaming metal of the barrel of a gun.
‘Shit,’ muttered Ash.
‘We mean you no harm,’ shouted Drake. ‘We have a pregnant woman with us and need shelter for the night.’
‘Go and find your own hole to hide in. This one is mine,‘ sailed down a rough, muffled voice. ‘Wait! Got anything to offer as payment?’
‘We’ve got coffee,’ Drake quickly replied before Sally could. He had a fair idea of what she would have said.
‘Fair enough. Come on up. The pregnant woman first.’
Sally immediately took the lead.
The narrow path to the ledge was not easy. They had to go up on all fours, slipping and sliding precariously. All the while, the rifle’s muzzle followed them.
When they got to the entrance, they stood before a bearded man with a battered snow cap pulled down on his head. He smelt of smoke and stale bacon. He studied Sally with a deep frown, then muttered in disbelief:
‘She pregnant!’
Without answering, Drake pushed past him and ducked into the cave. Warmth was their first objective.
Inside was a cosy fit with all of them, and the temperature change brought heat flushing to their faces. It was delicious, causing Emerald to fight a wave of dizziness. They immediately sat down around the burning fire.
The bearded man followed them in last, eying them with a suspicious and hostile glare. He reminded Emerald of the infamous and notorious Mr. Hyde. She giggled, and he fixed her with an even more unfriendly stare.
‘We thank you for your kind hospitality,’ said Drake.
‘Got that coffee?’ responded the man rudely.
Drake pulled his small rucksack around and dug into it until he produced a tin holding the last of their coffee. The man’s narrow eyes took in everything and seemed to be trying to work out what else was in the sack.
‘Here. Give it over,’ he said.
Drake held it back and met his eyes squarely.
‘We wouldn’t mind a small bite to eat. I noticed you have a bit of bacon back there.’
‘Did you now? Don’t get somethun for nothun, mate.’
‘We have money, but I don’t know what use…’
‘I’ll take what you’ve got.’
‘Drake dug once again in his bag and produced a tight roll of notes. The man pushed his open hand towards him.
‘A slice of bacon, perhaps?’ said Drake, handing him the tin of coffee.
The brute studied him for a few tense moments, then snatched the coffee. Getting to his feet, he picked up a small pan, reached outside, filled it with snow, and then propped it up on a few stones at the fire’s edge. He seemed to know what he was doing. The heat soon had the water boiling, to which he added a few spoonfuls of coffee. Then he sliced off some bacon and stuck them in a greasy frying pan. As the mixed aroma filled the small cave, they relaxed a bit.
‘You people seem familiar. Have we met before?’ asked the man, his tone now a bit more conciliatory.
‘Not likely,’ muttered Sally under her breath.
‘Not that I can recall,’ said Drake calmly, although they all knew him for the unethical ruffian from the small town under curfew who had sold them petrol and supplies for an extortionate price. He flipped the rolled money, sailing over the fire as he said this. The man grabbed them expertly from the air. He was still the fool they had marked him to be initially, but a dangerous one.
Emerald gave out a small snore, and the man watched her over the fire.
‘I hope that she is the pregnant one,’ said the man, trying to appear funny.
No one smiled.
He shifted his bulk and stirred the bacon around in the pan so it wouldn’t burn, then pushed it around the fire towards Drake.
‘Help yourself,’ he said, then settled back and lit a cigarette.
Ash nudged his wife awake and offered her the first try at the bacon. She devoured it. How easily do the pretensions that guide our lives slip away? The others took a hot, dripping slice each and ate more cautiously. Sally did not once take her eyes off the scoundrel.
‘Don’t like me much, do you, old woman.’
Sally spat into the fire and didn’t answer.
The man chuckled with amusement.
‘I’ll take her as payment if you’re willing. She’s got spirit. I like breaking wild horses.’
Whether he was joking or not, no one bothered to ask.
Sally, however, smiled at him in such a way that the man quickly looked away. She, too, knew how to be dangerous.
‘My name is Drake. That young man is my son, Ash, and his wife, Emerald. The nice lady, who I beg you not to taunt, is Sally. May we know your name?’
‘Not that it is any concern of yours, mate, but my name is Paul,’ replied the man uneasily. His shifty demeanour was altogether unsettling and a bit sinister.
‘Pleased to meet you, Paul. Can I take it that you are the pilot of that kite plane?’
‘Take what you like, mate. My business is mine, okay? Don’t want to know nothing bout you, so let’s leave it at that.’
It was Drake’s turn to study the man, which he did calmly and unflinchingly.
‘What you say makes good sense. The past is the past, eh? However, I know my way through these mountains intimately. If you’re a mountain man yourself, then I beg your pardon. You will know that we’re still far from anywhere, and things are not as they should be. After the fire, there isn’t much left to eat, and the wolves living here will be ravenous. Even with bacon and a rifle, a man on his own will have a slim chance. Think about it.’
‘For all your big words, you don’t appear to have much to eat yourself, eh, mate?’
‘That’s very true, Paul. But we’ve walked to this point. You have recently flown in. What can you make from that?’
The man avoided eye contact and lay down to sleep, turning his back on them.
Ash looked at his father and raised a questioning eyebrow. Sally spat again into the fire, and Drake added a few more sticks from the pile on the side. From his guess, Paul was a seasoned smuggler of contraband who knew how to move through the mountains but not necessarily how to survive in them. He had obvious limitations and would think about them before the morning came.
The next morning, they woke with a weak, sickly light seeping into the cave. The man who named himself Paul still lay loudly snoring by the smoking embers. Everything else felt like a forgotten graveyard, deathly cold and silent. With determined self-control, Drake threw his blanket off, stoked the coals to glowing, added more wood and got the fire going. Then he strolled out into the icy exterior to carry out his toilet and collect snow to boil water and brew some bark tea. Their coffee was in the possession of their disagreeable companion, who, it appeared, was also a slugabed. Drake, not one to miss a golden opportunity, helped himself to more of the bacon. Soon, he had an aromatic breakfast frying for everyone.
They were halfway through consuming their breakfast when Paul awoke in mid-snore with a start. He seemed confused at first, but then he focussed his bleary eyes on the newcomers sipping tea and glared at them belligerently. Drake gestured at the pan with a generous portion of bacon in it.
‘Hot breakfast in return for your generosity,’ he said.
‘It’s my bloody bacon in the first place,’ muttered the fellow as he grabbed the pan and stuffed the dripping slices into his mouth, impervious to the heat.
‘Tea?’ asked Emerald.
‘Why not,’ replied Paul. He took a gulp and immediately spat it out, spraying everyone.
‘What the hell is that? Tastes like tree bark.’
‘It is,’ replied Drake calmly. ‘It will give you energy.’
‘I’ll stick to coffee, thanks,’ was the ungrateful reply. He then proceeded to make some for himself without offering any to the others.
‘What a nice man,’ mumbled Emerald.
Ash grinned, and Sally spat into the fire.
‘You will need to see a doctor for that, Sally,’ remarked Ash, frowning across at her.
Sally ignored him and continued sipping on her steaming tea.
‘Well, Paul, we’ll be taking our leave of your wonderful home,’ said Drake. ‘Have you made a decision? Will you be coming with us?’
‘Not much choice, eh?’ mumbled Paul around a mouthful of greasy bacon.
‘Aye. Then I encourage you to gather your things. We set out in about ten minutes.’
As he said this, Drake glanced at Emerald. She was made of very tough stuff, for already her face was rosy and her eyes bright after a night of sleep, food and warmth. He was proud of her. The same could not be said of Ash, who appeared drawn and haggard. On the other hand, Sally resembled a hard and unyielding rock. He smiled. She was a rare treasure.
A disgruntled individual, though he certainly was, Paul was no stranger to living in the wilderness. He was ready with plenty of time to spare, even though he jealously guarded whatever supplies he had hidden in his backpack. ‘That one has no intention of sharing,’ thought Drake. With some doubt in their minds about the recent addition to their company, they headed out in single file, with Paul choosing to bring up the rear. They all felt as if they needed eyes in the back of their heads, and with Paul, they certainly did.