‘Noah! Wake up.’
I turn. ‘Err… what?’
‘Noah!’ Rebekah whispers as loud as she dares. ‘You were talking in your sleep, you must have been dreaming.’
I wake fully. ‘I don’t remember anything. What did I say?’
‘Doesn’t matter, it didn’t make much sense anyway.’ I roll back onto my side but she shakes my arm. ‘Come outside.’
‘Now?’
‘Yes, now. There’s not even a breeze and I’d like to take a look around.’
‘But what if…?’ Rebekah’s eyebrow raises - I know I cannot say no. I nod. ‘Okay, but better not go too far in case another storm comes.’
She gets to her feet and holds out her hand. I smile, take it and let her pull me up. We step over our sleeping colleagues but I stop and look down at Jared’s exposed face. Rebekah turns and reads my thoughts. She shakes her head. ‘Tempting, I know, but now is not the time.’ She stops. ‘Where’s Spoons? He was by the door earlier.’
I grin. ‘Perhaps he’s checking for… you know what.’ Rebekah rolls her eyes, then lifts the latch.
Outside, nothing stirs. The air is still for the first time since we arrived. Silence. Even night time in the ship was never this quiet. There was always a low hum, or vibration, whereas out here under the clear sky, not a sound can be heard. Rebekah breaks the silence as her feet crunch the snow. We walk until we’re out of earshot of the shelter, but still say nothing. The land seems to go on forever, lit by the small moon now almost directly above our heads. I turn on the spot looking in all directions until my head spins. I stagger forward, feeling suddenly exposed and vulnerable without the protection of the dome.
Rebekah takes my arm. ‘Steady.’ Her voice sounds loud in the emptiness. I glance back to the shelter – it looks too small to provide even a semblance of safety. Rebekah laughs. ‘Don’t worry, they won’t hear us out here. We’re—’ She clutches my arm. Someone laughs from behind a low ridge to our left.
I drop to my knees. Clutching at Rebekah’s wrist. ‘Who’s there?’
But Rebekah stays on her feet and tilts her head. She calls out. ‘Ha!’
‘What are you doing? You’ll…’ I hear her voice come back. I stand, feeling foolish. ‘Ah, it’s an echo.’
Rebekah takes my hand. ‘Funny, you wouldn’t think that could happen under an open sky.’ She peers towards the low line of hills. ‘Perhaps it bounces back from those, or the snow? But you would have thought it would… mountains!’ I jump. ‘Over there, see?’
Her joy returns, echoing louder. I check the shelter. ‘If you’re going to shout, we’ll need to get further away.’ I take her hand. We continue in a straight line for another minute.
She tugs at my hand. ‘I thought you didn’t want to go too far.’
I stop. ‘I’m fine. Now I’m out here I want to see more, besides, we can follow our footsteps back. We’ll soon see if a storm approaches, we’ll have plenty of time to make it.’ I follow Rebekah’s gaze to the faint, jagged line rearing up behind the hills we’d first seen. ‘They look huge. If we leave,’ Rebekah tuts, ‘sorry, when we leave, it will be hard work crossing those peaks.’ I point to the flat horizon behind the shelter. ‘So, I guess we should go that way. It would be a lot easier than—’
‘But take much longer to reach the warmer part of the planet.’
‘What? How do you know?’
She folds her arms. ‘The explorers of old…’ she stops, ‘why are you smiling?’
I can’t prevent the smirk spreading across my face. ‘It’s that look on your face.’ She frowns. I try to explain. ‘When you start talking like that you look like Moth—, like you’re…’ I close my mouth. Now she looks more like Mother as she glares, but I decide not to mention it. ‘I’m sorry, what were you going to say?’ She clamps her mouth shut. I step close and stroke her face. ‘Please, we’d be lost without you. I didn’t mean you actually look like… her, but you are the leader, and…’
She sighs and turns away. ‘I was saying, the explorers used the stars to navigate. Of course, Mother takes all the praise in my book, which we know is a lie, but they could tell which direction to go from the sky.’
‘How?’
She points to something behind me. ‘Over there, just above the mountains. See that cluster of stars that look like a chair from the side.’ She turns my head. ‘See?’ I nod. ‘When we were outside earlier, it was higher in the sky and over there.’ She spins me back to face the flatter land.
I shrug. ‘So that means…?’
‘We have to head in the direction of the mountains.’
‘I still don’t get it.’
She sighs as if it should be obvious. ‘New Dawn spins like Earth, that’s why there’s night and day. But right now, we’re facing away from the suns, that’s why it’s always night, and why it’s so cold here. That star up there, the really bright one close to the moon, has barely moved, from our viewpoint, so that’s roughly above the axis. So that means… you’re making that face again.’
I close my mouth. ‘I’m sorry. But I’m in awe of you, I really am.’
She frowns. ‘You’re not making fun of me?’
‘No! Honest.’
‘Promise?’
I nod. ‘I promise. We really would be lost without you. Please, go on. So how do you know we have to go that way?’
‘Because the position of the chair stars, and that bright one shows we’re tilted that way,’ she holds out her arm at an angle, ‘and that means it’s a shorter distance to the warmer lands that way over the mountains. But…’ she turns to the flat ground. ‘But then… while it’s further that way, it might be quicker going over flat ground than up and down mountains.’
‘But at least we have more rations now Spoons has… wait, we’ve not seen Spoons.’ I turn. ‘The shuttle is still there, so he can’t have gone back to… wait a minute.’
Rebekah steps up to my side. ‘What is it?’
‘The sledge has gone, and look at the amount of snow stacked up against the side of our shelter, and then the landing craft.’
She shrugs and I can tell her attention is still on the mountains. ‘So? What about it?’
‘It’s the same level. If Spoons had gone back to the ship for rations, he would have landed after the storm had slowed, so why is the height of the snow the same?’
Now I have her attention. ‘So where did he go?’
‘Perhaps there’s a store down here somewhere. Could Mother have been stocking up ready for our arrival?’
Rebekah shakes her head. ‘That doesn’t sound like the action of someone who didn’t want us to leave, until that is, we’d learned the truth.’
‘But she did let us go. The shuttle is quite small, there was barely enough room for us and the rations we did bring.’ I stand on my toes to search the horizon.
Rebekah isn’t convinced. ‘But if she did get her spiders to build a store, why didn’t she land us next to it?’
‘So, we’re not tempted to brave the storm and reach it, or… or so we don’t eat more than the daily ration. Yes! That’s it, she instructs Spoons to collect only what we need for the next week, so perhaps—’
‘What about the overalls?’ She shakes her head. ‘You do realize you’re defending her again. Why let three of us die from the cold and lack of food? Or why don’t we have water and have to suck snow? And why no toilet?’ She shudders. ‘She lets us suffer and live like this before she instructs Spoons to bring more rations?’
‘Because it’s a—?’
‘Don’t say test! Please don’t suggest all this is some sort of trial or game to make us stronger. Or that,’ she makes a face, ‘she works in mysterious ways.’ Rebekah turns her back and whispers to the mountains. ‘Remember, I’ve seen what she’s capable of in the privacy of her lab.’ I take her hand. She looks in to my face. ‘No. She left us here to die so she can start again with the next generation.’
I pull her close. ‘But why didn’t she let us die in that awful waiting room? Or crash the shuttle on the slopes of those mountains? That would have done the job.’ I let go. ‘Perhaps she can’t, she told me she was instructed to look after us, so maybe she can’t break that promise to the builders of the ship. It makes—’
‘No.’ She shakes her head. ‘There's something dark inside, some part of her that hates us, wants us dead. You haven’t seen,’ her mouth drops open, ‘those machines… they did some horrible things to those poor…’ She shuts her eyes.
I swallow. ‘But did they die from the experiments?’
She shakes her head, then buries her face in my shoulder. ‘No, but it would have been better if they had.’ Rebekah sniffs and looks up. ‘I don’t want to think about that any more. Maybe you’re right. Perhaps she can’t be directly responsible for our deaths. But obviously she thinks giving us minimal rations is enough to meet her obligation.’
I look over her shoulder to the horizon. ‘So… if she can’t let us die, there might be a store down here somewhere.’
She shakes her head. ‘But what about Gideon, Abel and Grace?’
‘We’re the first. Maybe she didn’t know what we needed to survive in these conditions.’
Rebekah turns back to the line of mountains. ‘But eight days! Spoon was gone for eight days. How far is this store?’
‘Far enough to be in the warm zone?’
Rebekah turns. ‘So why didn’t she land us there? Why here at the frozen top of the world?’
‘We could have been blown off course by the storm, or…. maybe there’s something here we need to find… or do.’
‘But she gave us no instructions. No. She sent us here to get us out of the way and give us enough to keep us barely alive.’ She points. ‘There. It looks like there could be a valley.’
‘Valley?’
‘A gap between the mountains.’
I peer where she’s indicating. ‘I can’t see a gap.’
‘It’s at an angle. Look. You can just make out where one slope crosses in front of another meaning there has to be a way through.’ She holds up here arms. ‘Lift me up.’ She looks back over her shoulder. ‘Come on, lift me up so I can see a little more.’
I take hold of her waist and push her up, but slip and sprawl in the snow. I stand and brush myself down. ‘Spread your feet. I’ll get underneath and you can sit on my shoulders, and then stand.’
‘That sounds difficult.’
I grin. ‘How do you think I touched the sky from the factory roof?’
She laughs. ‘Ah yes. That’s the first time I heard your name. I knew then I wanted to meet you.’ She strokes my face, but before I can respond, she turns away. ‘Come on then. It’s my turn to touch the sky.’ I duck under her, push up and steady myself before holding out my hand so she can climb onto my shoulders. ‘Wow. I can see much further. Keep steady, I only need a minute.’ I hear her mutter before announcing, ‘Okay, once we get over that ridge, which should only take a day at most, I reckon the mountains are two… maybe three days away. But… I have no idea how wide the mountain range is. But at least we’ll be heading towards warmer air.’
I wobble. ‘Sorry, I can’t—’ I collapse, throwing Rebekah out in front to land face down in the snow.
She rolls onto her back laughing. ‘You did that on purpose.’
I hold up my hands. ‘I didn’t, honest.’ I kneel by her snow-caked body. ‘But now you’re down there, I—’
‘Shush.’ Her eyes widen. She hisses. ‘What’s that?’
I sit up. ‘It sounds like… something scratching.’ I pull Rebekah up and we stand back to back looking for the source of the sound. ‘It’s coming from all around.’
‘No, we’re hearing the echo. Look, it’s coming from over there.’ I turn to see what she’s spotted. ‘See. The top of the ridge. It looks like… smoke?’ The scratching grows louder.
I squint at the ridge. ‘It’s snow, blowing up in the air.’ We shrink back. I check the distance to the shelter. ‘It’s coming fast. We won’t get back in time.’
Rebekah grabs my sleeve. ‘It’s Spoons!’
‘Are you sure? He’s moving really fast.’
‘Yes! And he’s got more supplies.’
I release the air from my lungs. ‘You’re right.’ His legs become visible from the blur of activity as he slows his pace. The red light on top of his head shines bright against the snow. ‘I think he’s seen us.’ In seconds, Spoons halts a few feet away.
‘Another sledge!’ Rebekah jumps up. ‘With two more crates.’
I open the first. ‘More food!’
Rebekah moves to the second. ‘It’s settled then, we leave. Looks like we’ll have enough food for at least three weeks,’ she peers inside, ‘maybe four!’ She steps back, arms folded. ‘Let’s see Jared argue to stay now.’
Rebekah hugs Spoons. ‘I’ve seen these machines do some dreadful things, but I could get to like this one.’ She pats his head. ‘Good boy. Now, can you take this to the shelter?’ Spoons swivels its head to face Rebekah – it doesn’t move. Rebekah looks to me.
I shrug. ‘Perhaps you have to tell him. You asked a question.’
‘Okay. Spoons. Take… please take the supplies to the shelter.’ Immediately, it rises and scurries off along the line of our footprints.
I chuckle. ‘I wonder if he’d had done it if you hadn’t said, please.’
She looks to the shelter. ‘Perhaps that’s what I should have to say to Jared.’