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Devil's Spring (excerpt) Zammo clung onto the ceiling straps either side as he was shaken around like a chimpanzee in a cage. “Holy shit.” Laughing. Carice had an intense frown on her face as she drove; nosing the car through dense woodland, sticking to the remains of the track. Josh pointed at something, “There! Shit, Zammo you were right, man. There’s a house.” Carice kept the speed low and managed to bring the jeep through the trees into a small clearing that must have once been a garden. The building was two stories of cut stone; dull architecture created the impression of a drab cube. Light woods to the East led to a steep-rising ridge; the rest of the property was an unmanaged tangle of weeds and wild grass. The door and every window were boarded up. There were heavy duty yellow warning signs nailed to most of these. Josh popped open the door on his side and climbed out into the clearing; wrinkling his nose as he sniffed the air, his senses strangely alert. The sky was indigo banded with deep turquoise; the sun had already slipped behind some Westerly prominence bringing an immediate chill to the afternoon. There was a feeling about this place, he began to realise, becoming aware of the solid silence clamping down them. Any further contemplation ended as Carice opened her door and Zammo followed her out; both of them making the noises friends make when being playful with each other. Josh became involved in the banter; they trudged across the broken ground to examine the house. “I can’t believe how depressing this place is.” Carice said, peering through a gap in the boards over a window, her perfectly glossed lips curling up at the view. Josh was reading one of the signs, all of them identical: ACCESS PROHIBITED, PENALTY FINE & IMPRISONMENT – FEDERAL MANDATE 27000187/J “These signs look pretty new.” Zammo pointed out. “I know.” Josh agreed; bothered by this. Zammo stepped away from the building, “What do you suggest?” He glanced around then looked right at Carice. Josh tugged at the boards covering one of the windows; it was one-inch timber nailed tight into the stonework; “Fucking hell,” he muttered, “Somebody sure doesn’t want anybody getting inside this place.” Carice said, “We can bring the gear off the jeep; two of us can sleep inside, one person on the roof.” Zammo’s brow creased up as he let out a derisive sound, pure London; “You’re having a laugh! I’m not gonna lie twisted up like Quazimodo in a bucket seat.” “Well what do you suggest, sweetie.” her anger flaring. Josh was in no mood to listen to one of Carice’s temper tantrums; he turned to them and said, “There’s are tools in the jeep. If I can get through these boards we’ll use the house as camp.” He walked over to the dug up road behind the jeep, studied the ground; “There’s no tyre tracks so I reckon they don’t patrol this place. Should be safe, as long as we don’t make too much noise.” Carice let her hands flop: resigned agreement. Zammo grinned, strode over to the jeep, saying, “I reckon our magic cliff is beyond that ridge over there.” Josh paused to push his gaze into the woods, slowly lifting his eyes to the steep ridge. He made a guess it was about three hundred metres from the house. Shadows were rolling in fast. “Yeah… maybe.” That wary feeling came back again. He felt confident they would get inside the house; he was uneasy about the idea of somebody spending the night out on the jeep roof. The tip of the joint flared bright orange; Zammo took in a quick hit, held it, then slowly let the smoke slip out through his wide lips. He paused for a while, contemplative, then reached over and passed it to Josh. Settling back, he said, “I always recommend at least a hundred sky dives before a person even steps into a base rig.” “Yeah.” Josh nodded sagely, squinting as smoke curled up into his eyes. “I’ve done about fifty… yeah, fifty. I’ll watch for sure, I’m looking forward to watching but no way are you going to get me into a jump rig this trip.” Zammo grinned, stoned; “I’m really glad you came along, mate. Nice to see some of our Mother Hen’s crew coming out to play.” He threw a quick glance at Carice, cooking. Josh slowly rolled over onto his side, smiling; “The smell of that food is driving me crazeeeee.” They both chuckled. Zammo continued the conversation from some indeterminate point, “You’ve got to be familiar with your gear, you’ve got to have good canopy skills and plenty of awareness in freefall. Getting scared is a normal part of a BASE jump, just like skydiving, but the fear can be a lot more intense. If you freeze in reaction to fear, this sport is a quick ticket to a messy ending. You need to function in the presence of extreme adrenaline. And you need to be in good physical condition. Getting to an exit point, you’ve got to climb all sorts of mad places, hiking steep trails, going up stairs or ladders.” Josh nodded, “Yeah. Yeah, totally.” Zammo flopped back and lay gazing up at the ceiling, barely visible in the low light of the gas-lamp. In the periphery of his vision he saw Josh looking over at Carice; he didn’t have to move to know she would be looking back at Josh. He had always known she would fall for the man. He first met Josh at one of the late-night get-together’s run by the recruitment company. Josh had started talking about sky diving and about his passion for scuba diving and Zammo had just sensed it: Carice was going to be wild about this guy. That had been eight months ago. Josh had become a regular player within the group of clubbers and sporty-types that Carice had built up around herself. Zammo was not sure if anything had actually happened between them yet; he was not so sure he wanted to know, either. Carice was an excellent friend but he had other feelings for her. He felt a twinge of emotion, a negative feeling that he knew would put him into a foul mood if he didn’t get rid of it. He didn’t want to piss-off Carice by being Mr Sourface. “Hey Carice,” he called across to her, “How long before you’re dishing up dinner because I want to go out for a walk?” “You cheeky bastard.” she snapped. “Hey I’m just asking!” he said, laughing. “Well you can jump off a cliff.” “Got it in one, Sherlock. This should be ready in about five minutes, you going to be out longer than that?” “Hmmmm- not sure, I was going to take a wander out by that ridge. I’ll wait for food first.” Carice made a little snippy sound, “Would master care for me to fetch his slippers when he returns from his stroll?” Zammo rubbed his eyes, tried to latch onto the happy vibe but felt himself sliding into a dark space; he did his best to sound cheerful, “Place them by the fire that will be fine.” He went silent and could imagine Josh and Carice grinning at each other. Jerkily pulling himself up into a sitting position he looked round to find Josh crashed out; he looked over at Carice, she glanced up from the pan of frying sausage and smiled broadly. The bad feelings went away.
End of Excerpt: Apologies for any frustration caused but due to Copyright I am unable to publish the entire tale here. If you would like a copy of the full story then send an E-mail to: clovenfeet (at) h0tmail (d0t) c0m State which story you are requesting. There is no charge and your E-mail address will not be used for any other purpose but to supply you with the tale you are interested in.
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