Chapter 15

We headed north-west with me in the lead. Why? Well, I had a feeling. I don't know if our 'benefactors' were giving me a hint or it was just a feeling, but that is the direction we went.

We drove west for about half an hour first, slowly skirting our way past the worksite. Those who were already there waved to us as we went by. I did a radio check in reply. Emma was able to hear all three of us, loud and clear. I gave her my love and drove on, promising to be back the next night for supper. Naturally, she promised me pie for dessert.

As with all my previous trips, things were uneventful for a while. Once more we were heading towards the impenetrable tree line. It took about an hour for us to reach it. When we got there we parked and I climbed up onto the cargo deck of my vehicle. I had a pair of binoculars with me. Carefully, I scanned the tree line. As far as I tell it was still impenetrable. I couldn't see anything that was different. With a sigh, I climbed down. We headed further north.

That should have been my first hint that things were going to be different this time. Before when I had driven out to the tree line on my previous excursions, I had parked my vehicle and I and whoever had been with me would just wander about a bit trying to find a way through the dense woods. Not once did the desire to keep on driving ever rear its head. This time it had and I'd failed to notice it. It was only later, back at the settlement that our actions came to light.

We drove on, with me on the point, Bethany directly behind me, and Beth out on our right wing. An hour of driving over small ridges and slight inclines eventually brought us to the path. We were on it well before we even noticed it.

The path led to the west. It was a trail cutting into the woods at a right angle to the direction that we were travelling in. Small trees and scant underbrush obscured its start from the distance. We were surprised to find it. We stopped and took a moment to look around. Then I radioed back to our settlement. Tilly answered my call.

"Hello sweetheart," I said cheekily when I heard her respond to our initial, more formal hail, "Do you miss me?"

"What's up?" Tilly came back, her tone letting me know that she was still worried.

"There's nothing up Tilly," I informed her, trying to sound reassuring. "I just thought that a radio check was in order."

"Oh!" Tilly responded, sounding a little disappointed. "Are you certain everything is okay?"

"Yes, we're fine," I answered truthfully. "I also wanted to let you know that we've found a trail heading west. We're going to follow it for a while. I want to see where it goes. I'm sending our GPS location and our most recent map to you. Sarah can print it off for you guys to have a look and see what were up to. We'll check in again in an hour."

"Alright," Tilly answered hesitantly, "I'll let everyone know."

I sighed when I disconnected. It was obvious that Tilly wasn't thrilled with me being out here, regardless of how much I and others had tried to reassure her. Rodney's death had been painful for her, but what had followed must have been hell. I'd have to deal with that when I got back; for now the urge to go down that trail was making me restless. Somehow I knew that I was about to find something new.

We drove on. The trail was narrow and only one vehicle could go down the track at a time. I took the lead. Bethany followed me and Beth brought up the rear. The track dropped downhill once we got past the brush. It helped in obscuring its existence from the casual observer. It didn't matter to us. We'd seen it and now we were following it.

After a mile or so, the trail turned sharply behind a tree covered knoll and it started to climb again. It went on climbing slowly; winding back and forth amongst the trees. The trees hemmed us in and kept us from seeing where we were going. It took another hour of driving before we finally broke out into a clearing. It took us all by surprise.

The clearing was massive. In many ways it encompassed an area equal to or slightly greater than where our settlement stood. The field was covered in wild grass. It wasn't as high as it had been in our area. There was a reason for that. A herd of grazers were meandering across it, nibbling at the grass as they went. I say grazers because I had never seen a creature like these. It was larger than a horse and about as bulky as an oxen. It looked in many ways like a small elephant or a large rhinoceros. Its head certainly looked like that of a rhino's. It was long and wedge like in appearance, although instead of a couple of horns on its nose, it had several large knobbly protrusions scattered about its head and snout. What it was I had no idea. All any of us knew was that it was different.

"So what are you going to call these critters Adam?" Bethany said to me, as we stood and watched them move off across the expanse of plains. They showed no interest in us and I had decided to do my best at not annoying them. I didn't know if our 'benefactors' were still protecting us or not, but I had no intentions of trying to find out. It was enough just to see something different.

"I think 'Knob Heads' will do." I said in response, my gaze still on the creatures.

"It's a pity we didn't bring the tablet with us." Bethany pointed out in an obvious manner. "We could have looked them up on it."

I sighed and turned my gaze upon the woman. She was smirking.

"You're looking to get a spanking aren't you?" I asked in a stern voice.

"No..." Bethany said in a little girl voice, half teasingly and half surprised that I would think to punish her. A moment later, colour touched her cheeks. Embarrassed, Bethany looked away as I continued to stare at her. I sighed again and then glanced over at Beth. The girl was watching our interaction with interest. I gave her a smile and she returned it. Silently I promised myself that I would treat her special tonight.

"We could easily have one." I stated turning my attention back to Bethany. "Our 'benefactors' would give us one for my vehicle if I asked for it."

"If you say so ... Adam." Bethany muttered in reply, before biting her words off suddenly. Her face coloured as she realized that she'd gone too far. My face turned cold in response to what she had openly implied.

"I do." I shot back at her and then walked over to my vehicle. I paused for a second and then reached in towards the passenger side of the vehicle. When I turned back to Bethany and Beth, I was holding a tablet similar to the one we had back at our settlement. I didn't even need to say 'see'. Bethany immediately turned her head away; looking nervous about what she knew was coming. I let her wait. Now wasn't the time to punish her. Later would do.

We mounted up once more and prepared to continue our trek. Before leaving, I had Bethany do a radio check with the settlement. This time Betty answered. Bethany told her mother what we were up to and transmitted our latest GPS information back to her. Then she signed off. The conversation was short and sweet and it hadn't held any of the worry that we'd gotten from speaking to Tilly. I was grateful for that.

We drove west for another hour before we were forced to stop once again. The sprawling grass covered plain had risen towards a small ridge that ran north to south. When we crested it we came to an immediate halt. The other side of the ridge was a stone and rock strewn shelf that was about five hundred yards wide. Beyond that was a great big hole.

We parked and walked to the edge of the shelf. My first thought was 'wow'. It's what Beth and Bethany gasped aloud upon seeing it. Then I thought of the Grand Canyon. It wasn't as deep but it certainly reminded me of it. Then a memory jumped into my head and I remembered something that I'd seen once. It had been a National Geographic program on the television. The Great Rift Valley came to mind and I knew it right then and there that what we were looking at was the same sort of thing. It was certainly impressive.

I dug out my binoculars and had a look about. While I did that both Beth and Bethany got out of their vehicles and came over and stood by me. They stood silent in awe of what was before us, waiting patiently to learn what I had to tell them.

The valley ran north to south, parallel to the great plain that we'd crossed and the thick forest that we had driven through. Where we stood, the valley floor looked to be about half a mile down. The actual floor was obscured by a dense canopy. Thick clusters of green leafed trees grew along both sides of the valley. In fact there were many large clusters on the far side of the rift. As I panned my binoculars along, I noted that several even looked like they reached up the naked stone of the valley walls, until they reached the top of the barrier and then merged into the forest that lay beyond.

The valley appeared to be about two miles across at the point where we were standing. A glance north gave me the impression that the valley was narrower in that direction. A glance south suggested that it was wider. We'd have to do a little exploring to confirm that. What was important at that moment was that I couldn't see any way down into the valley. At least there was no way down in a vehicle. I could probably find a spot to climb down, but I wasn't in a hurry to look for that spot. I knew that both Bethany and Beth would raise a stink about me risking my life and that I'd be hearing about it when we got back to the settlement. For now I contented myself with just looking and seeing.