anybody there, he wasn’t answering. In the end we settled for the best we could get; a sheer wall of rock which loomed out of nowhere and stretched into the nothingness above our heads.
It wasn’t snow-proof, but it was wind-proof. I let Darling out of my pocket while Tina and I cleared a space in the drifts big enough for us all to camp down. For all her sarcasm and attitude problems, Tina was brilliant in a crisis. We worked together as if we were telepathic, and no one had to be the boss and tell anyone else what to do. I realised that I liked her, despite her annoying manner, and I wondered how long it was since I hadn’t. I couldn’t remember changing my mind. I wished she would like me.
By the time we had finished digging, I was feeling OK, but Danny was in a bad way. He was talking nonsense and wanted to keep walking, so we had to drag him off his feet and lower him down into our little bivouac. With freezing fingers I unpacked the space-blanket again, and Tina helped me to wrap Danny up in it like a Christmas turkey. Then we settled down, one on each side of him, and pulled the two blankets over us all.
It was only then that I remembered Darling. I called out to her in the darkness, but she didn’t answer and she didn’t come. Frantic, I got up and searched with numb hands across the rocks and snow. I couldn’t bear to lose her; I just couldn’t bear it. But I couldn’t find her, either, and eventually, snuffling with hot tears, I returned to my icy bed.
8
I DON’T KNOW whether I slept and dreamt, or whether Death kept me awake while it showed me its works. I don’t remember half that I saw, but the visions were clearer than day and vast as the sky.
I lay on a battlefield watching my blood drain away, and I sank down through fathoms of ocean to where the
Titanic
was resting, her lights still blazing, her dead gazing out of her portholes. I scaled an ice mountain and met a black crow, who showed me the nest of white knuckle-bones where her seven rotten eggs were lying; never to hatch. I followed tunnels with no exits, climbed ladders to the dusty stars, experienced the terror of infinity beyond them. And I sat alone in a great wilderness, where the red eyes of wolves waited in a circle for the last, dim embers of my little campfire to die. The last thing I remember was hearing Tina’s voice out there in the infinite darkness, crying out like a drowning sailor.
It shocked me, and I propped myself up on hands that had lost all feeling. The black crow’s wings were beating around my head. Then one of the wolves shot out of the darkness and knocked me flat. There was no struggle left in me . I remember giving up; that extraordinary sense of abandonment, and the lack of fear as I waited for the beast’s teeth to take that final, deadly grip on my throat.
But it didn’t come. Instead a warm, wet tongue licked the frozen drips off my nose, and a voice that sounded like a panting breath said, ‘Christie, Christie, Christie, Christie, Christie.’
It wasn’t a wolf. It was Oggy.
PART SIX
1
‘HOW ON EARTH did you find us?’ I said.
‘Picked up your scent in the snow,’ said Oggy. ‘Been tracking you for hours.’
I hugged him tight. ‘Fair play to you, Oggy. Fair play to you.’
He licked my face again, then squirmed out of my grasp. ‘Darling has found a shed,’ he said. ‘Got to get the others up.’
He was already working on Danny, who sat up, saying, ‘What? What?’
‘Are you OK, Danny?’ I said.
‘Fine,’ said Danny. ‘’Lo, Oggy.’
The space-blanket had served him well, and he seemed in better fettle than I was.
‘Up you get,’ I said. ‘We’re on the road again.’ I got up, all my limbs numb, and started to help him to his feet. But then I saw something which sent a hot shock through my cold blood. Oggy was snuffling and scratching and whining around Tina’s face, but he wasn’t getting any response. She was showing no signs of life at all.
I couldn’t
It wasn’t snow-proof, but it was wind-proof. I let Darling out of my pocket while Tina and I cleared a space in the drifts big enough for us all to camp down. For all her sarcasm and attitude problems, Tina was brilliant in a crisis. We worked together as if we were telepathic, and no one had to be the boss and tell anyone else what to do. I realised that I liked her, despite her annoying manner, and I wondered how long it was since I hadn’t. I couldn’t remember changing my mind. I wished she would like me.
By the time we had finished digging, I was feeling OK, but Danny was in a bad way. He was talking nonsense and wanted to keep walking, so we had to drag him off his feet and lower him down into our little bivouac. With freezing fingers I unpacked the space-blanket again, and Tina helped me to wrap Danny up in it like a Christmas turkey. Then we settled down, one on each side of him, and pulled the two blankets over us all.
It was only then that I remembered Darling. I called out to her in the darkness, but she didn’t answer and she didn’t come. Frantic, I got up and searched with numb hands across the rocks and snow. I couldn’t bear to lose her; I just couldn’t bear it. But I couldn’t find her, either, and eventually, snuffling with hot tears, I returned to my icy bed.
8
I DON’T KNOW whether I slept and dreamt, or whether Death kept me awake while it showed me its works. I don’t remember half that I saw, but the visions were clearer than day and vast as the sky.
I lay on a battlefield watching my blood drain away, and I sank down through fathoms of ocean to where the
Titanic
was resting, her lights still blazing, her dead gazing out of her portholes. I scaled an ice mountain and met a black crow, who showed me the nest of white knuckle-bones where her seven rotten eggs were lying; never to hatch. I followed tunnels with no exits, climbed ladders to the dusty stars, experienced the terror of infinity beyond them. And I sat alone in a great wilderness, where the red eyes of wolves waited in a circle for the last, dim embers of my little campfire to die. The last thing I remember was hearing Tina’s voice out there in the infinite darkness, crying out like a drowning sailor.
It shocked me, and I propped myself up on hands that had lost all feeling. The black crow’s wings were beating around my head. Then one of the wolves shot out of the darkness and knocked me flat. There was no struggle left in me . I remember giving up; that extraordinary sense of abandonment, and the lack of fear as I waited for the beast’s teeth to take that final, deadly grip on my throat.
But it didn’t come. Instead a warm, wet tongue licked the frozen drips off my nose, and a voice that sounded like a panting breath said, ‘Christie, Christie, Christie, Christie, Christie.’
It wasn’t a wolf. It was Oggy.
PART SIX
1
‘HOW ON EARTH did you find us?’ I said.
‘Picked up your scent in the snow,’ said Oggy. ‘Been tracking you for hours.’
I hugged him tight. ‘Fair play to you, Oggy. Fair play to you.’
He licked my face again, then squirmed out of my grasp. ‘Darling has found a shed,’ he said. ‘Got to get the others up.’
He was already working on Danny, who sat up, saying, ‘What? What?’
‘Are you OK, Danny?’ I said.
‘Fine,’ said Danny. ‘’Lo, Oggy.’
The space-blanket had served him well, and he seemed in better fettle than I was.
‘Up you get,’ I said. ‘We’re on the road again.’ I got up, all my limbs numb, and started to help him to his feet. But then I saw something which sent a hot shock through my cold blood. Oggy was snuffling and scratching and whining around Tina’s face, but he wasn’t getting any response. She was showing no signs of life at all.
I couldn’t
Similar Books
