“What do you mean, ‘whoops’?”
“Oh, I was pointing and you can’t see. It’s this way.” She pulled his arm, and tugged him along. The sound of the river grew as she led him through the forest.
“I am certain we should not be near a river,” he said.
“Um… is that what that is?” she asked.
“I know what a river sounds like.”
“I thought it sounded like a machine or something.”
He looked towards her. “Have you been leading us that way?”
“Well… I thought if there was a machine there, that would be where we would be going…”
“Unbelievable,” he said. “They showed you the whole route when we started!”
“Yeah, but when we went down that path I lost sight of it and I don’t know anything about the woods and—”
He shook his arm free of her. “I have had enough of this,” he said.
“Don’t you trust me?” she asked.
He ripped the blindfold off. “No I do not!” He turned to go and immediately put his foot on the edge of a sheer drop. They had been walking alongside a hole in the landscape where the earth had slid away, revealing roots and soil leading down to the bottom of the depression. He tottered on the edge but could not keep his balance and tumbled over, flailing back at the lip of the precipice to save himself, but it was his withered left arm that grasped for purchase and he missed wildly, falling into the hollow.
Liss grabbed his hand.
He looked up, and saw her reaching over the edge, clutching his arm, hardly even seeming to strain at the weight.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ve got you.”
He looked down. The drop was just enough to be dangerous.
“I’m pulling you up now. Watch out for the roots.”
She dragged him up before he could say anything, and lifted him over the lip to safety. “There you go! No harm done!”
He rested on the ground, heart still racing. “How did you… how can you be so strong…?”
“Oh, um…” she said with a smile and a shrug. “Everyone on my world is. But you’re okay. That’s the main thing!” He nodded, amazed. “Um… don’t tell anyone, though,” she said.
He looked up at her. “They are watching us. They already know.”
She looked dismayed. “Oh…”
He put up his hands to calm her. “It was my fault. I did not look where I was going. I’m sure they can see that.”
“Oh,” she said, less panicked but still worried. “Well, thanks.”
“No. Thank you,” he said, getting back to his feet. She twitched a little embarrassed smile back at him.
4. Group
“What about safety? And medical issues?” asked Kwame.
“That’s a good question,” I said.
“Yeh. What if I lose my medicine while we’re out there? And laughing boy here is still limping, how’s he going to manage it?” demanded Olivia.
“I’ll be fine by then,” said Iokan. “Anyway, I’ve gone hiking with worse injuries.”
“There will be a full medical team on site,” I said, “and if anyone gets into difficulties we can have them in a hospital within the hour. And we’ll have plenty of your medication, Olivia, so don’t worry about that. There are safety measures throughout the site, so you can’t do anything like fall off a cliff. Of course, we can’t eliminate every risk, but the chances of anything going wrong are minimal. So what do you think?”
Kwame sighed. “If you’re sure everyone will be safe,” he said.
“I’m sure,” I said. “Anyone else?”
“I’ll go,” said Pew.
“Me too. Absolutely,” said Iokan.
I looked at Katie. “Will you be joining us, Katie?”
“If you request my presence, I will join you.”
“I do request your presence.”
“Then I will join you.”
“Oh and can we sing songs round the campfire as well?” asked Liss.
Olivia groaned. “No. No chance. No way. Forget it. I’m staying here.”
“Is there a problem, Olivia?” I asked.
“It’s a stupid waste of time, that’s the problem! You think we’re all going to turn into best friends just because we go and sit in the woods for a few days? Rubbish.”
“You’ll be doing a bit more than that,” I said.
5. Problem-Solving
Later in the week, we took the group to one of the more challenging activities the woodland centre had to offer, and some of the most spectacular scenery. They stood on one side of a gorge with no bridge, and no route down to the churning river below. But somehow, they had to cross.
They quickly found ancient machinery housed in two stone buildings, one on either side of the path leading to the sheer drop, matched by two similar buildings on the far side of the gorge. Etched on the stone were strange markings their translation systems could not decipher. Inside, the machinery was found to be still functional, well oiled and ready to go — but none of the controls would work.
“It’s a game,” said Liss. “I’ve seen people do this kinda thing. It’s like you press buttons and solve puzzles and then it all starts working.”
“So how do we do this?” asked Iokan.
Liss shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t play those kinda games.” Everyone looked back at the gorge.
“Perhaps a bridge might extend,” said Kwame. “We have two buildings on this side and two on the other side, facing them…”
“But where’s the bridge hiding?” mused Iokan.
“Maybe it’s a rope bridge!” said Liss.
“If it is a rope bridge, then where are the ropes?” said Kwame.
“Maybe it isn’t a bridge at all,” said Pew. “Maybe there’s a glider or something.”
Olivia downed a pill with a swig of water from her canteen. “Does anybody have any idea what this thing is?” No one ventured an opinion. “Bloody typical,” she said. “Right. I’m hungry, so we’re getting this thing working. Who knows machines? What am I talking about… Katie!”
“Yes?”
“Figure out how this works and tell us how to get across.”
Katie took a look inside one of the stone buildings, then came back outside and peered down into the gorge. “It is a simple mechanism,” she said. “There are arbalests in each of the towers, connected to spools of high tensile cable. The arbalests shoot the cables across the ravine to the opposing towers, where they are hooked into pulleys and shot back to the towers here. The cables form a suspension system. Chains hang from the cables and are run out across the ravine. Electromagnets hang from the ends of the chains. The cables are slackened and the magnets are lowered so as to connect to the bridge. The cables are then drawn up to lift the bridge into place.”
“And where is this bridge?” asked Kwame.
“The other side of the ravine.”
“I do not see it,” he said.
“It is the other side of the ravine.”
“I do not understand.”
“I see it,” said Pew. “Look!” He pointed out metal plates ten metres down the opposite cliff face. And gradually the others saw the pattern of weathering and cracks on the cliff wall that concealed a slab which could be pulled up and out to create a bridge.
“Right, then,” said Olivia. “Let’s get this bloody thing working.”
They beat the average time by a considerable margin, due in no small part to their collective skills. Katie’s analysis was accurate, although the process was more complex than she initially described. The controls for the mechanism were all logic puzzles of one kind or another, which Pew and Iokan worked on together. Kwame’s electrical skills found a use in several mechanisms that deliberately required repairs. Liss lifted heavy gears into place, complaining about the grease that inevitably soiled her clothes. Finally, the last moment of raising the bridge required each of them to operate part of the mechanism in a carefully co-ordinated way, and Olivia made sure that happened with judicious shouting and swearing.