Chapter9. Meeting the Underground

The day dawned bright, still very cold but the sun was reflecting off of the snow with a vengeance. Seeing this Will went to tinker in the workroom, aided by Minnie and soon they had cobbled three pairs of dark goggles together. “This should stop us getting blinded by the glare”, Will said, “It can get pretty bad.”. On the way to the mess they hung the goggles with their outer gear, and then to breakfast. A simple meal of toasted bread and cheese, or jam and tea. They still had coffee but Will had gone off of it for some reason. Teas were usually hotter and gave you time to think while drinking. And he didn’t really like the heavy caffeine feeling after two or three cups. So tea it was.

“Are we all going to this meeting today?”, Naomi asked, “I’d like to see where they live too, sounds fun, living underground.” Minnie added. “I don’t see why not, they’re pretty friendly folk.” Will agreed. So it was settled, there were a few chores around the boat first though. The boiler had to be topped up, keeping it active around the clock always gave a steam loss, so a few gallons of purified water were poured in the reserve tank, which siphoned onto the main as needed. The coal bunkers in the engine room were filled from the hold, a few wheelbarrows and that was done. Will was always pleasantly surprised by how efficient the engine system was. Next was a couple of loads of laundry washed, run through the mangle and hung to dry in the warmest part of the boat.

With all this done it was time to get cracking on. Will had opened the main hold and lifted two barrels of their emergency supplies up and on deck. It wasn’t much but it would give a bit of a reserve in the lean times to come. They had more but not a huge supply. He liked to keep a few weeks on hand just in case. Dressed in their warmest clothes they donned their heavy and thick coveralls, hats and gloves, scarfs and now the goggles. After they finished laughing at each other and pretending to be monsters they loaded the supplies and were on their way.

Will had checked and rechecked the anchors but was still nervous with all three off the boat. Seeing her drop away from them as he stroked for shore gave him a odd feeling, like leaving home for the first time, all over again. “Me too dad.”, Minnie whispered to him, and Naomi nodded her agreement too. “It feels weird”, she said. Reaching the snow covered rocky beach only took a few minutes, and they unloaded the barrels and pulled the dory up and onto the snow, tipping her on the side. The barrels were heavy, fully laden with many supplies but not for the crew. Will lay a heavy net done, tied the barrel securely and tied it across his back. Minnie and Naomi did the same and easily carried an end each. They trundled through the snow to the cairn, set their loads down and waited to be met.

Within minutes two of the lads from last night showed, Tor and Cal walking along through the scrub trees and snow. “Afternoon.”, Minnie called out cheerfully. The boys jumped at the sound of her voice, it seemed they didn’t really expect them to show. It also might have been how they appeared, with the goggles. “Hello again, glad to see you.”, Cal called, shaking hands all around. Tor just smiled shyly and nodded a greeting. “Shall we get out of the cold?”, asked Will. “Yes, everyone’s waiting in the cave.”, said Cal, “Oh can we help.”, he went to help with one of the barrels or rations but was as unmoving as a stone. His eyes nearly bugged out, as did his brothers, when Will picked it up easily and Minnie and Naomi the other. Tor shook his head and started back the way they came.

As they walked into what was the village proper all there was to see was raised mounds of rock with tunnels or spiralling steps leading down. Tor led them to the furthest and largest mound, with a larger tunnel leading down. Torches sputtered on the side of the rock wall as they went down and down in a hand carved tunnel, not a steep angle but an easy walk. Reaching the bottom Will, Min and Naomi found the temperature had risen to a liveable degree so they removed hats and such, and set their burdens down beside them. There must have been 60 or so people sitting or standing, all looking at the three crew. There were six much older people, sitting in a circle in the middle of the cave, ringed by torches.

“Greetings,I hear you are the captain of the Rose.”, asked one of the oldest, a man of about sixty, “It has been many years since a visit, we thought to be forgotten.”. The other elders nodded, nearly as one, Minnie quickly stifled a giggle. “We are the Eld, we chart the course of this village, we go or stay as the stars tell us.”, spoke another. The nodding happened again. Minnie nudged Naomi this time. “I’m glad to meet you all, I am captain Harris of the Rose, my daughters and crew, first mate Minnie and second mate Naomi.”, Will stated, “There was some trouble with previous captains, accidents. Contact was lost with many peoples, we are trying though.”. The six nodded again, this time Minnie joined in, hands clasped in front of her, like the Eld did. The old man continued “The Obb family made contact with you, and tell us you are willing to help, how?”. Will gestured at the rocks, “May we sit.”, a hand waved assent and the three of them sat on the flat carved limestone. “To be blunt, we hear your village is in trouble, and we can help. You need to relocate, and I think very soon.”. When he finished there was much talk with the watching villagers. The Eld were muttering, heads together, waving hands. Shouts came from the others, “Why weren’t we told, when did this happen, what are we going to do.”. The oldest Eld held up her hands for silence, she got it mostly but there was mutterings. “We have known this for months now, but what can we do”, she said “There is no where else to go, our scouts haven’t been able to get through the land cracks to the south.”. The others nodded in assent.

Will said “We can help, it might not be easy on you, but we can do it.”. When he said this an uproar of sound came from the villagers, it took a few minutes but the Eld got silence. “How can you help us, why would you help us.”, the oldest asked. Minnie answered that one “Because it’s what we do, we help people, our boat is the best on the lake, and we go everywhere and see everything, Dad will drink tea and figure things out, don’t worry.”. There was laughter and many people were talking, it seemed there was much for these people to discuss. Will saw Therd and Katya in the crowd, he beckoned them over. “In these barrels are what we call emergency rations, there should be enough to feed everyone for a couple of days at least.”, he looked at the nodding Eld, “Let’s hope they make a decision then.”. They stood and redressed in their outer gear, hats and so on, “We’ll be at the cairn at noon for the next two days, but then we will have to go before the weather locks us here.”. He thought for a moment then “If the Eld decides against moving, you and your family can come with us. We can drop you off at one of the other towns, to be safe.”. Katya nodded as any mother would, the opportunity to save her children trumped anything

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As the crew walked up and out of the cavern the see the barrels were being opened and marvelled over, foodstuffs that had never been seen. Packets of twice baked biscuits, jams and fruit preserves, beef jerky, salt pork and smoked fish. All well wrapped and well kept, it was being shared out to the family representatives by need, some more, some less. This would supplement the meagre meals they had been on for some time, but it wouldn’t last long. A decision had to be made and soon.

Therd had noticed Will talking with Katya before they left and when he asked her, didn’t know how he felt. To save his family or abide by what the Eld said, if they were to stay that is. He realized Katya would leave with the girls, the boys might stay if he did, not sure though. ‘I hope the Eld decides soon, and the right way.’, he thought, ‘Can I go against their will, where would we end up?’. The questions were endless and pointless, sighing he sat beside Katya and the twins. They were munching on a biscuit dipped in jam, they had never had the like. Seeing his girls made the decision that much harder, their safety was always priority but, ahh he had to stop. Wait and see, then act if needed.

They hadn’t been below very long, but the weather had turned, and turned bad. Will had given the Eld a window of two days to decide if they wanted help to relocate, and it seemed that wash pushing it. The skies were grey and white, snow was falling fast and hard, laying with a vengeance. The wind had died down, which was a blessing, and the temperature had actually gone up a few degrees. This was thanks to the snow of course, didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon. The cairn was reached and dory pushed into the water, jumping in they settled to row back to the Rose. “Do you think they’ll move, it’s so much for them to do that.”, asked Naomi. Will shrugged “I hope so, this isn’t liveable for them anymore without the herds. Their way of life is dependent on the reindeer, without the they’re done.”. “Can we get a reindeer dad, can you get milk from them, been so long I forgot what it tastes like, maybe we could bring one on without it going nuts, call it William the reindeer and get it a hat.”, mused Minnie. Laughing Will had to say “Would have to call it Wilhelmina if you want milk, but it wouldn’t make it, remember the goat and the chickens?”. Minnie sighed “Yeah, dumb old chickens.”.

They reached the Rose after a few minutes rowing and climbed aboard, snow was accumulating fast, not drifts yet, but fluffy layers. A snowball fight ensued because of Minnie pushing snow down Naomi’s back who retaliated by washing Wills face with snow when he was tying off the boat. She thought he did it, Minnie helped her by pelting everyone with snowballs. When it was over the wet crew went below to warm up and dry out. Will was glad spirits were high, the people here needed help, but if they refused then it was their decision. This was the distancing he had been thinking about before. Life on the Rose was changing them, not bad or good but kind of detached from the lives of the shore dwellers. It was hard to put into words as he wrote about the days events later.

The rest of the day was spent in first warming up, then a few chores around the boat. The snow fall was heavy and it was developing into a full out blizzard again. “We can’t stay too long here dad, we might get frozen in.”, Minnie fretted, looking out the mess ports. Will looked up from his log, “You’re right, I don’t think we could survive a winter here, stuck in the ice.”. According to his internal calendar it was mid to late October now. Well within the time for winter to have a good hold. Some years had been mild but others, brrrr, not so mild. These people were used to it, when things were normal, but with a catastrophic change they were done. “We’ll give them the two days to decide, I hope they choose to move but it’s their life. I’m never going to force our ways on anyone.” he said.

All that afternoon the snow fell, all night and when morning came there was at least three feet of snow on the deck, higher in drifts. Again it was shovelling time, the three dressed for the weather and cleaned off the Rose. That took a while, the wetter snow had indeed turned to ice and had to be broken off in chunks. Then a quick bite and Will rowed off to the cairn. Alone this time. The water that splashed as he rowed was cold, nearly liquid ice, that’s what he was afraid of. If the lake started freezing they were out of here, no question about it.

Arriving at the shore it was very quiet, pulling the dory up to safety he walked the short distance to the cairn. No one, no sign anyone had been here, but tracks up covered fast. “Halloo, anyone near?”, he called, but no reply. It was very cold and he wasn’t hanging around here for too long so he stamped a circle out around the rocks, keeping warm by moving. The sun wasn’t very visible through the clouds but it was at it’s zenith. He kept his promise and stayed for ten minutes, them started back home.

He tromped down the stairs from the deck and was met by Minnie and Naomi. “Any news”, Min asked, Will shook his head. “No sign, and I don’t think anyone had been there earlier.”. They walked together to the mess so Will could warm his cold bones. “One more day, I hope the Obbs come with us, I know there’s lots of others but I feel a bit of attachment because we met them first .”. “Yeah, and the little mirror girls, they’re cute and nice and stuff but.”, said Minnie. “Why do you call them mirror girls?”, Naomi asked. Minnie shuddered a bit, “You know when you look in a mirror and you see you, there’s another world in there, if you look around corners you can see it, and the people there, and one of these two got out somehow, very creepy.”.

Well that would be creepy, Will thought, and it might be able to happen here so who am I to argue?

But seeing the kettle had boiled it was tea time, and something for lunch. Maybe some kind of soup today, he liked most soups and missed two kinds in particular. First was his wife’s vegetable with meatballs, and the other was corn chowder, both delicious. It would take too long though, to make it now, so today was a grilled cheese. Easy to make and oh so comforting. All that was missing was tomato soup, but he hadn’t quite figured that one out yet. Minnie loved the grilled cheese as did Naomi so it took a while to make enough to satisfy them all. Eventually bellies were full so it was back to a few chores that needed doing.

Getting ready if the exodus did happen, but if it wasn’t they were out of here. Tomorrow would tell.