Unforgettable journey to other planets. Venera Harrison

hum left behind and there was silence.

      “Good day, I want to say,” the stranger said in English.

      Everyone began to respond to him with repetitive nods without words. Dr Capri rehabilitated the stranger and said:

      “This is Bhrigu. He is a hermit. He says there is a cave to take shelter in.”

      Jean-Pierre felt that his hands were stiff, and he could hardly feel them. He looked at the strange-looking man, at the doctor, at the bewildered Yulia.

      “Where are the soldiers?”

      “I lost them out of sight,” the exhausted doctor shook his head.

      David said quietly:

      “Debby is hushed, what’s happened to her?”

      Dr Capri walked over to the stretcher and leaned over it.

      “She lost consciousness; her breathing is even.”

      The hermit looked behind Jean-Pierre’s back and glanced at the girl.

      “For me follow,” said Bhrigu and walked leisurely toward the mountain.

      “We must go,” said Dr Capri. “She needs water and warmth. She is very weak. We can’t find the helicopter now.”

      Jean-Pierre was hesitant to go, he turned to the doctor:

      “If we turn back now, we won’t be able to find the military today.”

      “I ran as fast as I could,” the doctor excused himself, “but they just disappeared in that dust. I screamed.”

      The doctor shifted his gaze from the hesitant Jean-Pierre to the hermit in front, who was standing half-turned ten meters away, waiting for them to move.

      “It’s a calm for a few minutes,” the doctor looked around.

      “You think they’ve gone far?” David asked.

      Yulia answered:

      “In this storm we won’t even see them within fifty meters.”

      To prove Yulia’s words, the light went down even more.

      “Okay,” agreed Jean-Pierre.

      Everyone began to walk forward, getting over the slight incline. The wind howled again somewhere in the distance. After a few hundred meters, they came to a large rock. The top of the cliff was covered with fog. But somewhere at the top was a dark cave. The travelers looked around the steep stone wall. A hermit was climbing the steps carved in the stone. He turned and beckoned again, pointing to the beginning of the stairs.

      “A little more,” Yulia whispered in Debby’s ear, “don’t be afraid, everything will be fine soon.”

      David lifted the stretcher above his head to keep Debby from rolling down. They slowly began to climb the narrow, winding stairs. David’s hands began to shake from fatigue, and he set the door on his head. The wind died down, and the scalding snow stopped falling. They climbed the last step, and David collapsed to the ground with fatigue.

      “We need to walk a few more meters,” said Dr Capri, “let me do it.”

      David nodded and relented. Sweat ran down his face.

      He wiped his sleeve and looked at the stairs they had just climbed. The makeshift steps were of varying heights and stooped from time. In some places, snow covered the stairs. David tried to see the valley they had come from, but the weather was still bad and nothing was visible. The wind rustled and drove a wad of fog in front of David’s eyes. He looked around, and a peak flashed between the clouds. Majestic and calm. It seemed unaffected by the storm. It was illuminated by the sun, and only the fuzzy top showed that the strong wind had blown thousands of tons of snow off the ridge of the giant.

      “David,” Dr Capri’s voice was heard, “you will freeze there. Please go deeper into the cave. You have a lighter, don’t you?”

      “Yes,” David answered, still breathing heavily, and wiped his face again with his sleeve.

      He rose with great effort, stepped into the gloom of the cave, and saw Jean-Pierre trying to wake Debby up. Dr Capri watched him and looked intently at Debby. Yulia was sitting on the cold floor, breathing tiredly. Out of the darkness came the hermit.

      “Cold here, but warm in other place. Deeper to go we need. Please,” he looked at the oblivious Debby and then nodded to himself, “Water there. For her we need it.”

      “The important thing now is to make a fire and keep her warm. Let’s go a bit more,” Jean-Pierre said, looking at Debby, and took hold of one edge of the door.

      The cave was quite wide. Jean-Pierre, David, and Dr Capri took the stretcher and followed the hermit. He walked ahead with Yulia and talked with her nonchalantly about something.

      Part 2 – Chapter 24

      The second hall of the cave was slightly larger than the first and quite spacious. There were several stalactites on the wall opposite the narrow entrance. In the center was a place to keep the fire going, which smoldered slightly. To the left of the entrance were semblances of shelves on which lay books and some dried flowers and plants. On the right was a pile of twigs and a few dry scraps of dung. Near the entrance hung a lamp with several lights burning. The temperature in the cave was very comfortable. First Yulia and then everyone else felt their bodies go limp and relax from the warmth.

      The men placed the stretcher next to the smoldering fire.

      “Water,” the hermit said, pointing to the iron pot, “good to drink.”

      Dr Capri took a small steel pot that stood on a stone near the fire. He poured water on his hand and wiped Debby’s face, touched her tangled hair, and tried to pour some water into her mouth. Debby coughed. That cough made everyone smile and relax even more. Debby began to greedily gulp down the water with her mouth. She drank as if she had taken her last sip of water at her home in Stamford. The water quickly ran out.

      David stepped back tiredly and sat down, leaning against the wall near the entrance to the cave. He was tired, his legs and arms disobeying him. Yulia sat beside the stretcher, while the doctor and the Frenchman attended to Debby. They began to examine her leg again. Debby was whispering something incomprehensible and would not open her eyes. The hermit tossed some dry pieces into the fire and listened to Debby’s inarticulate words.

      He looked at the girl and the doctor and Jean-Pierre, who were fiddling around her.

      “Better will be,” he nodded, “rest and water needed. Tomorrow we can see.”

      “Tomorrow?” Jean-Pierre was indignant. “We need to get her out of here as quickly as possible.”

      “Storm just begun,” Bhrigu said, pointing to the exit.

      Jean-Pierre looked at the doctor and Yulia. They looked back tiredly. Jean-Pierre got up and walked toward the exit. He needed to see for himself what was going on outside.

      Now he had a backup in the form of this cave, but he needed to assess the situation for a full plan.

      “Cure I will make,” said Bhrigu. “Rest you must.”

      The hermit went to the semblance of a rack near one of the walls and began to look there for something. He sang softly and seemed completely convinced that Debby had a cold rather than a closed leg fracture and painful shock. He pinched off parts of some dried plants and put them on the wooden plate. Occasionally he looked at Debby and nodded, continuing to purr something.

      Jean-Pierre walked to the exit of the cave. The wind increased, and the snow flew parallel to the ground. Jean-Pierre felt how difficult it was for him to walk to the stairway. Fatigue and pain throughout his body made him stop. He walked to the top of the stairs and looked up at the sky. A blizzard was howling and beating desperately against the rocks. It seemed as if the weather was only getting worse. Jean-Pierre looked at his hands, which were shaking with exhaustion and exertion. The cold wind was blowing his breath away.

      In his mind, options of what might happen swirled. He realized that with every hour of delay, Debby would lose her