Martyn Vaughan - The Cave of Shadows

They passed a section of wall that contained a rectangle of what appeared to be black glass. As she passed Shana noticed it flickered with a dim glow for a second and she called Jon back.

‘Jon. Look at this. It might be important.’

Jon approached that part of the wall and as he got near, it flickered with a momentary flash of soft light. He stared at her but not with admiration.

‘And so? Can we eat this?’

As he said so he placed one hand on that part of the wall and in his exhaustion leaned against it. Immediately there was a brilliant display of whirling kaleidoscopic colours in intricate moiré patterns. They stabilised and an image appeared.

The image of a man. A thick, heavily set man whose black jaw and scalp indicated an extremely thorough shave.

‘State your requirement,’ the image said in tones that indicated that immediate obedience was necessary.

The starving pair looked at each other in bafflement but Shana recovered first.

‘Where are we?’ she asked.

The image of the man did not alter and Jon observed that the man did not appear to be blinking or moving his head, even in the slightest.

‘That is not a requirement,’ the image said, ‘state your requirement. Otherwise this station will shut down in five seconds.’

Jon knew what his requirement was: ‘Food,’ he roared, ‘we need food!’

The image disappeared and was replaced by a schematic that showed glowing lines which could only be representations of corridors. In one corner were two small blinking lights.

‘That must be us,’ Shana whispered, her breathing coming faster in her excited hope.

And Jon pointed to a large red square. ‘And that must be where we need to go. Come on!’

They hurried on, encountering another group of arachnoids, which this time was investigating a hole in the floor, and came to a red door occupying the space that the schematic had indicated. In trembling excitement they rushed in, almost before the door had finished opening.

There was no food to be seen.

Jon groaned but Shana said, ‘No, it’s alright. They wouldn’t have food permanently on display, now would they. There must be some way of getting it, of ordering it.’

Her questing gaze fell on another panel of the black glassy substance and she gave a cry of triumph.

‘Ah ha! This must be it!’

She placed her palm on the panel and it immediately sprang into life, going through the usual kaleidoscopic routine before stabilising on an image of a man.

The same man who had appeared on the earlier panel.

‘State your requirement,’ he said.

They did.

A few minutes passed as they sat in worried anticipation.

And on the gleaming white surface in front of them, circular lids opened and there was a sudden waft of many incredible aromas and, in front of eyes which were both amazed and delighted, plates covered with varicoloured items rose up. Smaller lids slid open, revealing knives, forks and spoons.

For a moment they were simply too stunned to move and just sat there, drinking in the wonderful smells of the food and watching the little wisps of steam drift upwards.

For a horrible few seconds they feared that this was all an illusion or some devilish act of sadism, in which food would be shown to them and then whisked away as they reached for it.

They reached for it and it was still there.

But not for long. For quite some time there were no noises except the sound of masticating, swallowing, drinking, more mastication, more swallowing.

And then when every scrap of food had been consumed, every drop of drink swallowed, Jon put his hand on the screen and did it all over again.

‘I remember,’ said Jon slowly, as the last crumb began its journey down his gullet, ‘there was a man. I think his name was Jarz.’

Shana nodded, putting down the flask of clear liquid she had been drinking from. It was her third refill.

‘Yes, there was. I knew him too. But there was so much else. Who did you meet on your way to the hill, Jon?’

Jon’s forehead became furrowed and his entire face twisted under the apparent huge strain of remembrance.

‘The – the – the Lords.’ He looked up suddenly. ‘The Lords of the Sands. I had to fight them, they wanted to kill me! I still bear the …’

He looked down at his chest and pulled the fabric of his tunic out, away from the flesh. There were no scars. He leaned back in his chair – there were other memories he knew that needed to be retrieved, important memories of events that were vitally important when they had occurred; matters of life and death.

His face twisted again and again as he strove to pull up the memories out of the clinging darkness that tried to hold on to them.

‘Yes Jarz was there. He told me he was my friend but in the end he was not. And there were other people, crowds of people. And light, a great pillar of light reaching up into the red sky, as far as the eye could follow.’

Shana nodded eagerly. ‘Yes, I remember the great pillar of light too. It was very important to us at the time. And I remember that there were awful creatures that wanted … Ahhh!’

Jon looked sharply at Shana. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Nothing, nothing. Just an odd feeling down – down below. As if I’m full of something.’

‘Is that all? Too much food, too quickly. Now go on – you were telling me what you recall.’

‘Yes, horrible creatures that kept asking me questions and wanting to harm me. And there’s another thing. Where we are now doesn’t look anything like where we were. We’re in some huge metal building. Did you see a huge metal building on your way to the hill?’

‘No.’

‘Neither did I. And we were on the top of a hill, remember. Any huge metal building should have been visible from that top. And there was noth … Ahhh!’

Jon looked at Shana with mounting concern. Her face was twisted as if in great anguish and she was squirming incessantly upon her chair.

‘Shana what is it?’

She looked desperately around and her squirming became manic.

‘I don’t know! Jon something’s trying to get out! I can’t stand it!’

And with that, she leapt up and after a few more moments of looking around she dashed out of sight around a corner of the room. Shortly afterwards Jon heard the sound of water splashing onto the floor and a deep ‘Ahhhhhhhhh!’ from Shana. He was halfway to where he had seen her disappear when she came back around the corner, tugging her tunic and looking much more relaxed. ‘That’s much better!’ she said, with a broad smile.

‘What is?’

She sat back down and looked at him with a half-amused expression.

‘Jon, I seem to recall that we had some strange doubts about the life we had before. How things didn’t seem right, didn’t make sense. I’m sure that on one occasion I said something to you about food and drink.’

‘What – that you like it?’

‘No. I’m sure I said that it was peculiar how we took things into our bodies but nothing came out.’

‘That sounds vaguely familiar. Someone must have said it to me. Probably you.’

‘Nothing comes out, I said. But now it does!’

‘It does? But that would mean …’

‘Yes. There is. There’s an opening in the lower part of my body that I didn’t have before. You must have one too.’

Jon thought: the new baggy thing that he had noticed earlier with the fleshy tube. That must be something to do with Shana’s discovery.

‘Don’t you feel something Jon, a feeling of pressure?’ she asked.

He thought. There was an odd sensation developing in the lower part of his torso, he must admit, but it was not too demanding – as yet.

‘What does this all mean?’ he asked finally, spreading his great hands.