Arthur Elios

The year was 125AH (After the Horror). None of the survivors of this planet knew what a horror was apart from the fact that there had once been a race of ancients that had ruled over everything and everyone on Earth but now there were only small isolated groups living and surviving in what had once been mighty cities, open farm lands and fruitful lakes and rivers.

It had all started in the year 2012 of the old calendar, oil shortages were only the beginning of the wars that were to follow, at first it was small skirmishes in the Middle East, governments overthrown by the people that had had enough of the self serving beaurocracy and politicians. Next were the larger groups of insurgents from all over the Islamic world that infiltrated the people's governments and then began the raising of fuel prices.

The so called, Christian countries could not tolerate this situation once the price of fuel had reached a staggering $150.00 per barrel, their sense of Christian might and right was put to the test and so the invasions of the oil rich nations began. The UAE, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, all were subjected to invasion, friends became enemies overnight, the need for the wealthy western nations to control all the fuel supplies became an all out war.

In Asia, the Chinese Republic could see what was going to happen once the middle east had been subjugated, they and their allies would be next and so, with their usual patience and attention to detail, they set about strengthening their position in southeast Asia, while this was taking place Asia Minor and the Indian continent were trying to stay in the middle and attempt to benefit from both sides, while they had almost unlimited populations, they did not have the required technology and so worked to make profit instead of war.

For India, this lasted only until its surrounding Islamic neighbours saw what it was trying to do and then India was under attack from three sides as well as internal religious upheaval between the Hindu and Sikh followers, India began its descent into almost oblivion.

America and the European Community combined to save their way of life and to take full control of all oil supplies around the world by proclaiming that they were the worlds police force and they would protect all the countries that sided with them against terrorism, the UN backed the plan after the usual agreements had been met and bank accounts had been topped up, the buying power and technological advantages of the west almost guaranteed success.

Not wishing to be left out in the cold, Russia joined Europe, England and America making a very powerful core that could overrun any opposition but, they had over looked one detail and it was not until they moved in on their friends in South East Asia and its oil fields that they remembered about the sleeping Dragon but by then it was too late.

It started with China supplying North Korea with nuclear weapons and arranging to back them with more men and arms after they invaded South Korea, this of course brought the alliances of Japan and America into the fray and it was not long before Seoul was hit with the first of three nuclear missiles, this escalated into a retaliatory attack by it's allies on Pyongyang which totally destroyed North Korea's infrastructure and forced China to take sides with the North.

The weaponry did not stop at nuclear devices though, the West seeing its advantage disappear at the invasion by the might of China, began to use forbidden biological weapons. In the Middle East, Iran also took up the challenge and started to use its own nuclear missiles against Israel this lead to all out war in the Middle East. Ancient cities disappeared off the face of the earth as the rain of missiles turned to rubble what had taken mankind centuries to build.

Chinese submarines off the coast of America then began to lay siege to the United States and its ally Canada, in six short months, there was little left of the world as they had known it, mighty cities were now piles of rubble, ports and roads were now just mangled heaps of detritus, farmlands, the life blood of the people, were either irradiated or poisoned. In those six months, four and a half billion people died, in the following eighteen months another one billion died from starvation and disease until five years after the horror, there were only a little over four hundred million people left on earth.

On the African continent the war was more personal, tribal members tried to eradicate each other and genocide reined with a viciousness that had never been seen before, the cities of the early settlers were destroyed and left in ruin as the tribes rampaged back and forth over the continent until finally the winds from the North carried the radiation and biological residue of the Northern war down to the Southerly regions and again millions died, Africa, although not part of the oil wars, still suffered the same fate as those further to the North.

Of those left to inhabit the planet, radiation and biological disease altered there bodies and DNA in many subtle ways, it was then that mother nature decided she had had enough, the planet tilted 2 degrees on its axis and for the next twenty years the planet was racked with storms and blizzards which altered the continents and the people left living on them, next followed long years of drought which caused the ice caps to melt and most of the coastal areas were inundated with the sea until only counties with land above 200 feet [60 m] of the old sea level, were habitable.

Once fertile food producing farmland now lay under salt water, pure fresh water lakes and rivers became polluted with salt and many edible species died out, domestic animals stood very little chance to survive but were soon replaced by their feral cousins but man was long past being able to tame them and he also fell into despair as his food source disappeared, infighting and gangs began to rule and the collection of the one commodity that meant survival began and that commodity was women.

The weapons used in the past Horror had changed the DNA structure to such an extent that now, out of every ten babies born, nine of them were male, this lead to the forming of breeding cells which were run by older men that could fight and hold their small realms, when a female was born, as soon as she was weaned, she was taken away from the general population and kept in special quarters until she was of breeding age, she then joined those females that were already held.

The male children were kept and fed until they showed the first signs of hair on their scrotums and then they were sent out of the breeding caves to find their own way in the world or perish trying, which ever happened. Time scales had changed as well as the language; schooling was unheard of and most spoke the language phonetically.

Time was not an issue, everyone worked according to the sun rise and sun set, only very brave people moved about at night, a dei (day) was from sun rise to the following sun rise, a mune (month) was 28 dei's, a yarn (year) was 10 mune's. Meals were taken at sunrise and the next at sunset; no midday meals were taken as this would interfere with hunting or trading. The young boys, once old enough to move and run around with confidence, were set the tasks of hunting for food for the community as well as keeping an eye open for any of the ancients artifacts that could be used to better the position of the leader and his four or five minions.

While food was always a concern, it was not that hard for the young boys to kill rats and the odd dog that strayed into their area, the most valuable of items though were things that could no longer be made, items that the ancients had once had much of, like wud (wood), gles (glass), and any form of weapon, although these were very difficult to find as most had been destroyed in the Horror, there was an abundance of metal but they knew very little about working with it and would only take metal that had already been made for a specific use such as knives.

The females lot was not an easy one, they were continually kept breeding from their puberty age of 13 yarn, until they had sometimes produced 15 or 16 children for the caves, at the age of about 30 yarn they were worn out and barren, they were then sent down to the lower caves to take care of the growing children until they died, most at the ripe old age of 35 or 36 yarn, the men were more hardy and lived until they were sometimes as old as 50 yarn although that was a very old man indeed and was accorded a special place in the teaching of the youngsters coming of age.

The breeding caves were reputed to have been built by the ancients although this like many other stories of the ancients, was probably a myth or legend as the caves were of solid stone and stood in mighty cliffs so high that you could see for many long distances from the top most of them, they were strange caves in that they were very square and the light holes were covered in some cases by the ancients gles plates that let the light of the sun come through but not the wet of rains or the cold of night.

Each level was marked by an ancient symbol and these were ruled by the Pap and his four or five helpers, it was their job to keep the females with child and also make sure the boys supplied the food and artifacts that gave them their wealth when trading with other levels. Not all the openings had gles some were covered with a strange film that the ancients had made in long rolls and was soft and flexible so it was easy to fit it over the openings of the caves, it was not as warm as the gles but it did keep out the rain and wind and still gave enough light inside.

Once a child was weaned from his mother, he never saw her again, the only other adults they knew were the men and their Pap, the boys were never allowed to go into the female children's caves, these were always guarded by one of the helpers and locked when not guarded but the boys didn't worry about that, they had each other and that was enough for them. They ran naked until they came of age and then received their first clothing as a parting gift from their level.

When a boy reached his age of hair, this was at about 13 yarn, he was given his first clothes, a small breach clout of tanned animal skin, a pair of ankle length moccasins, a small bled (blade) and wud spia (wooden spear) also a small quantity of food, he was then sent out into the world to make his own way, Pap and his helpers did not want any competition when the boys grew old enough to challenge them for leadership of the breeding caves.

All the boys were kept in the group they were born with, each named by the symbol of their level, eg: Elios was named because he came from level E, his two friends, Elam and Elvan were also from his level so they stayed together both in play, searching, sleeping or playing boy games at night.

For those boys that wanted to make breeding caves, they had to search for new cave systems, if found they would then have to start to find females or make a raid on another cave system to steal some, this was not easy as the men that ruled the caves were older, bigger and more fearsome than the young boys roaming around the wilds and there were other dangers to the young ones, the Renegs, these were wild men who raped and killed any who they came across unless they wanted to increase their numbers and then the captured boy would be enslaved until he had proven himself to the leaders.

Next were the Landers, these men were more at peace and found plots of land to make food from the soil which they traded to the cave systems for useful artifacts that would make their life easier, next were the Salors, these were special men who had kept the traditions of the ancients and had stayed on the water of the huge Oshuns (oceans) and leks (lakes), but when it came to fighting they were almost as evil as the Renegs, lastly there were the Rovers, these were single boys or small groups of boys that had banded together for safety, they roamed over the land looking for food or a place to start a breeding cave as well as searching for any of the ancients old cave systems that still held artifacts that could be traded to improve their existence.

This was the world that Elios and his friends had been born into, it was a hard and uncompromising world of the strongest and fittest, of the fastest and smartest, it was a world of sun bleached bones and legends of better times, arid deserts and deep salty lakes, of pest infested swamps and small solitary oasis tucked away in miniature valleys mostly unseen by others, this was the world of Elios, a boy just showing the first hair and dripping the first small clear drops of manhood, and this is the story of his search for a place to call his own.

The three boys lay together on their mutual sleeping mat, they had shared the same mat since they were sent down here to the level for boys, it was marked in the ancient's symbol of B3, the boys could not read but they guessed it meant it was level 3 for boys. These levels went all the way down to B15 but the lowest three levels could no longer be used as there was a continual seepage of water that was slowly filling the levels at about two hands (approximately 12" / 30 cm) each yarn.

The boy in the middle was smaller than the other two; his body was slim and wiry and when standing he was about 10 hands tall, the other two boys could almost have been brothers as both were the same height, eleven and a half hands, the same strong build and like most boys born into the world of 125AH looked very much alike. All three boys had the same light sandy hair colour, the same grey eyes with faint green flecks and the same tawny tan bodies.

At times it was discussed by older people that the sameness came from the breeding habits of the caves but all knew it was just the way things were. The boy in the middle liked to be pressed tightly between his two friends, it gave him a feeling of belonging and it felt even better when one of his friends entered him with his hard boyhood, this was the really good times, when both boys would make the game they called 'pushing' and the smaller boy would groan in pleasure as the other two took turns to make him feel good.

The boy in the middle was named Elios, after the level he had been born on just the same as his two friends, Elam and Elvan, when they left the nursery they had all come to this boy level together on the same day and so the old crones of the boy levels placed them on the same mat and they had stayed that way for the last eight yarn. It was tradition that, as soon as a boy showed signs of man hair, he would be sent from the breeding cliffs to make his own way in the world, but Elios and his friends had been deceiving the old crones that looked after the boys.

As Elios was smaller and therefore seemed to grow slower than Elam and Elvan, each night they would let him inspect their boyhood for the faint man hairs, when he found some, they would put aside the stinging pain as he pulled them free of their bodies so they could stay together until Elios had some of his own, it had taken nearly a full yarn before Elios started to show some and now the crones had seen them, tonight was the last night for the three boys to stay in the breeding cliffs, tomorrow they would be sent out into the world to make their own way.

As they had vowed to each other many yarn ago, when they were sent out to be Rovers they would stay together as this was the best way to stay safe and also gave them a better chance to find whatever it was that they were going to look for, besides, being a Rover could not only be dangerous but it was also very lonely and the three boys didn't want to be parted from each other, especially Elios for he enjoyed his two friends boy game too much and trusted them with his life as they did with him.

In the years of searching for food and artifacts, they had been a force to be reacconed with when battling with other boys for food or artifacts that had been found, Elam and Elvan had been the muscle, Elios had been the speed and brains, it was not often, even against older boys, that the trio lost a find, they lived almost as one entity whether eating, sleeping, fighting or playing boy games they worked as one.

It was difficult for the three to fall asleep, even after a long time of playing the boy game, each filling Elios small tight hole and bouncing on his slim narrow butt three times each, Elios had groaned and moaned in pleasure each time as he too spent his small quantity of boy juice on the mat below him but, still they could not sleep deeply, each thinking of the new morning when, for the first time in their lives they would be given their parting gifts and sent out into the world.

The thought of the small tanned skin clothes had excited Elios, he and his two friends had never had their bodies covered before and it excited him to think of his boyhood pressed tightly to his slim body instead of projecting straight out like it seemed to do all the time which made it difficult to run fast as their boyhoods would flop about and break their rhythm which caused all sorts of comments by others watching them.

No one knew who made the gifts for the boys but many suspected it was their own mothers as they had very little else to do while waiting for the next cycle of breeding or birthing, the spia were the most prized as wud was very rare and had to be searched or bartered for and this was only done by Pap or one of his helpers, it was seen as his personal gift to one of his many, many sons.

Finally the first rays of morning began to make themselves seen at the entrance to B3, the crones went around waking the younger boys to get them fed and ready for their day of searching, Elios, Elam and Elvan sat up and looked around the large open level for what would be their last day in the breeding cliffs, it was a very large flat surface made from the hard grey stone of the ancients, the roof was held up by thick grey stone towers in between each tower there were faint white lines evenly spaced, there were ten lines to each section of towers, the boys were allotted one marked space each or in the case of Elios and his friends, they used one space for the three of them just as some other boys joined together would use one space, some had one boy others would have up to four in the one space, it depended on how many came down from the breeding level at the same time.

Boys from one level would never be mixed with boys from another level, even if they were brought down on the same day, it was tradition that boys of the same level stayed together when they were born under the same symbol of the ancients. It was easily noticeable which were the first time children, a breeder who was birthing for the first time would usually have a smaller baby than one who had given birth a number of times before, such as Elios, his smaller size told everyone his mother was a first birther where as Elam and Elvan were obviously from a breeder that had had many more babies and so produced bigger and stronger children, this didn't bother a boy like Elios, all he knew was his two friends were as good as brothers and that was all he needed to know.

In the new world the idea of Mother, Father, Brother, Sister was not a concern, nor was the ancient idea of marriage, there was no longer any type of religion or god hood, all these arcane ideas had been destroyed by the Horror, besides, who could believe in something that just sat invisible from man, they or it didn't provide food for the dei, nor did it or they fight the battles of men therefore it or they did not exist, life was much simpler, albeit harder.

The three boys rose and went to the far corner where the crones had placed the day's water, taking a small amount of water in their hands, they rubbed the sleep from the eyes vigorously and wiped their slim stomachs with the remainder, they then made their way to the entrance where three crones waited for them, this was the time of leaving, they all knew that Pap would not be seen by them today because he had to leave them from his mind on this their last day in the breeding cliffs.

Each crone held out a small grey cloth sak, in each of these saks were the small breach-clout a pair of ankle length moccasins a small bled a small metal cup and four rounds of dry bred (bread), the crones each held the boy's wud spia in their free hand.

The three friends held out their hand for the sak and their free hand for their spia, around each boy's neck was their own hand made sling, it was a natural part of every boy and they could be a deadly weapon when used by these boys. Taking their sak's and spia, the boys gave a slight nod to the crones who had looked after them for all of their short lives and, without further acknowledgement, left the breeding cliffs for the last time.

Once outside, the boys quickly opened their sak and pulled out their new treasures, first it was the soft tanned skin of the breach-clout, putting these on for the first time elicited a lot of laughs and whistles from the three friends as well as the younger boys just now leaving for their days searching, the fit was tight the main flap was shaped so that at both the front and back there was a wider flap, in the middle, where it went down between their legs and covered their boyhood was a small pouch that was cut thinner where it passed between their butt cheeks and then flared out again to a wide flap to cover their rear.

All three boys were instantly hard as the feeling of the soft tanned skin touch and caressed their skin, the looks given to them by other emerging boys said a lot about how they looked with their front and rear covered but their flanks bare and contrasting the colour of their tawny skin with the bleached whiteness of the tanned skin. Next came the moccasins for their feet, all three boys tried these for fit but soon replaced them in their sak as they felt better with their feet bare, the moccasins would be good for any cold times or when the ground was to rough to walk or run on in comfort.

The boys took one bred from the sak and, as they began their life journey, chewed slowly on it, they were well aware of the dangers that lay out there in the wilds, first they would have to make their way clear of the four breeding cliffs and out over the rubble and detritus that had been their hunting grounds for the last eight yarn, this in itself was not really all that dangerous as they were now clothed and armed and most of the boys roaming and searching would give them a wide berth but they were not the only boys leaving the breeding cliffs on this day and any chance to increase their goods would be taken by others if given the chance.

The three boys stopped along the way at their special hidden place, it had been found a long time ago by Elvan as he rummaged in a pile of broken stones, it was a large square metal box, at first no one of the boys could work out what it was or how they could make use of it until, Elios looked at the rear of the half buried box and saw some small shiny spots that stood out from the rest of the dull red colour that the rain caused on most metals.

The boys had sat and discussed what use the box could be if they could find a way to open it, it took most of the first half of the dei and the sun was high before the quiet Elios jumped to his feet and began to search the ground.

"What you looking for Elios?" asked Elam.

"Some small metal to fit into the holes in the shiny parts," replied the smaller boy, Elios.

The other two didn't argue with Elios, if he needed some old metal for something then it was their duty to help him and so the search began. The sun had gone past half way to night by the time the boys had found an old piece of metal that would do what Elios wanted and so Elam and Elvan sat and watched their smaller friend squat behind the metal box and begin to play with the small shiny parts.

It took a while but eventually Elios worked out how to turn the shiny parts a certain way and they began to come free, soon they were all sitting on the ground beside Elios as he reached up with his small hands and pulled the back off the box, inside there was no hint of why the ancients had put the box there, there were some metal plates and thin steel ropes covered with strange coloured stuff, four shiny gles towers lead up to the top of the box but had been broken on the outside, the rest of the box was empty, the boys had no idea what it was for but Elios suggested that they use it for their secret place to hide the things they may need when they had to leave the breeding caves, both Elam and Elvan agreed, after all, Elios was the real smart one and always had good ideas.

Over the next one yarn and five mune, the boys collected small things they could carry with them that might be useful on their roving, Elvan had secretly taken a fire stone from one of the old crones as she slept, Elios had found a small opening one day and had wriggled his small body inside to find a huge underground cave, the inside was once very large and on the floor were lots of broken pieces of coloured gles, most to small to be of any use but Elios had also found, hidden under a wud box, a large block of the soft wud that the ancients seemed to have had a lot of.

This one was large and heavy, the outside was like all wud, hard and rigid but the inside was full of the thin soft wud covered in the ancients mysterious symbols that no one knew what they meant, this was indeed a great prize and Elios had taken it outside to the other boys, they had pulled a handful of the soft wud pieces out and rolled them up so they could carry them to the secret place for later, the rest they took back to their cave for the crones to use as fire starters, it never crossed Elios mind what the large symbols on the front were, after all, what did HOLY BIBLE. ST JAMES VERSION mean to three boys of the new world.

Elios also found in the same place a new metal they had not seen before, his quick mind soon saw the possibilities for this new metal, it was in long thin ropes and had been used to keep the coloured gles in place, it was soft and much to Elios surprise, quite heavy for its size, it didn't take him long to realise that if he heated it in a fire, it would become really soft and could be used to make small hard pellets for their slings, much better than the uneven stones that were normally used as the metal could all be made the same size and weight which increased its accuracy and hitting power.

It was Elam that found the strangest item, they had been out all day and found nothing, just as they were about return to their home cave, Elam slipped in a small hole and, after a rumbling sound below him, discovered another of the ancient's hidden caves that had been covered by time. The three boys had carefully climbed into the opening and found themselves in a square box like cave, it was like many others that were occasionally found and just the same this one had been cleared out many yarn ago, but this didn't stop the curious boys from looking in every corner and in every old box, it was Elam that found the soft wud box at the back of the cave, it had been tucked under another hard wud shelf but somehow water had got in and melted the soft wud until what was inside had fallen onto the floor of the cave.

At first the boys could only stare at the strange objects, they were two coloured oblong blocks of stone, one side was red stone and the other opposite side was grey stone, Elam ran his fingers over the strange stones but could not see any use for them, they were rough, not shiny and smooth like so many of the ancient's items, slowly Elam looked around the cave until he saw an old piece of metal laying on the floor, just out of idle curiosity, he took one of the stones over to the metal and began to rub it vigorously with an edge of the stone.

It took only moments for the old metal to lose its red dusty covering and become bright and shiny, Elam could plainly see the scratches on the metal from the stone, he turned the stone over to the finer red side and continued rubbing, again it took very little time for the old metal to now become shiny and now also smooth from the stone, Elam looked at his two friends and smiled, they would keep one of the stones and take the other five back for Pap.

Elios and Elvan continued the search as Elam played with his new stone on the old metal, in a dark corner, Elios spotted and strange pile of old torn cloth, picking it up he felt it was smooth and shiny but was all in tatters, what really interested Elios was the strange metal contraption that had held the cloth in place, it was made of a very light metal, each side was about three hands long and holding it together were three shorter lengths about two hands long, small pieces of the cloth still hung around the metal pipes, for they were hollow and still after all this time, quite shiny in that they had none of the red dust that the usual metal had.

It took Elios quite a while to work out how to pull the five pieces apart so that he ended up with three short pieces and two long ones, the three short ones would make good water drinkers when they went on their roving, the two long ones he didn't know what to do with but decided not to leave them for some other boy to find, as he turned back to his friends his foot went down on something hard that had been lying under the strange item.

Elios looked down and saw another unusual piece of stone or metal, he wasn't quite sure what it was made of, picking it up he found it looked like stone but felt like metal, it had three sides and at one end tapered to a blunt point, running his fingers over the rough surface, Elios discovered it had lots of small teeth like ridges in it, he lightly ran it over his thumb nail and was surprised to see a deep groove in the nail, quickly he went to the old metal that Elam had used and pushed the strange rod over the surface, again a deep groove was cut into the metal, Elios eyes brightened, now this could be really useful he thought to himself, no one had ever found one of these before.

The three boys left the newly discovered cave in high spirits, it was almost the best haul of artifacts they had ever found and there was enough for them to hide some in their secret place for their roving. On the day of their leaving the breeding cliffs, the boys had stopped off and collected all their treasures and put them in their new sak's, evenly distributing them between the three of them.

It took, what in the ancient's time would be called three hours, but in this time it was not acknowledged the same way, before the boys were clear of the area and, as they looked out onto the bareness of their future home, they tightened the string of their sak and shrugged it more comfortably onto their shoulders. All three at the same time took their first step out into the new world.

Each took up their searching position just as they had back at the breeding cliffs, Elam in front followed by Elios and coming behind as the rear guard, Elvan, each boy had his own strengths, Elam had the eyes of a preying bird, Elios the speed and flexibility of the giant cats that sometimes came looking for food in the breeding areas, Elvan had the solid strength and fighting ability that had saved them many times from being ambushed by other boys.

These three new Rovers made a formidable trio as they took their first steps into manhood, there were many trials ahead of them before they could or would find there eventual haven although each had a different idea of what that would be, Elam wanted to find his own breeding cave, Elvan wanted to find new places and hopefully new worlds, although they weren't sure if such things existed and, Elios wanted to find a place where he could grow food and be safe from the trials of survival, while each had his own dream, for the moment they were together for better or worse.

As the trio made progress towards their destinies they caught occassional sight of other boys in the distance, each going his or their own way, the boys had decided to head in the direction of the dying sun, this they knew would lead to a nearby Oshun that was only two dei's walk away, it would be a place where they might find some of the rare food that came from those places and was now and again traded to the Pap of the breeding caves.

As they moved, Elios again went into silent thinking mode, he had to think of a way to move faster but still be safe, every boy knew that Renegs waited for boys to leave the breeding cliffs and that they always went in different directions, but the pace in which a boy could move sometimes made it easy for the Renegs to work out where the boys would stop for the night, Elios did not want himself or his friends to be anywhere near those areas and so had begun to think things out as he was inclined to do about everything.

Slowly a plan came to him, it would make them move further faster but at the same time keep them safe, he called a halt and the three boys sat in a small circle as Elios explained his idea, Elam, with the best eyesight, would take the lead and search out in front, Elios would stay in the middle and search to each side, Elvan would keep watch on their rear, this was to be done as they walked for three plus ten paces, on the last pace, the three boys would start to trot at double walking pace for another three plus ten paces then again back to walking pace to search and save their breathes for the next set of three plus ten and so on until they stopped for the high sun stop.

During the time of the highest and hottest sun, the boys found a small cave in a shallow cliff face, there they settled down to rest until the sun lost a little of its raging heat and the red sands would begin to cool a little making their trek a little easier, water was always a concern and although their bodies were used to minimal amounts of it, they still could not take chances in the heat of the middle of the dei.

Over the period of their young lives, the boys had learnt many tricks to survive, one of the most important was finding water where none seemed to be or to find food where only innocuous weeds seemed to grow, these and many more lessons were what made the boys of the new world very adept and independent, there was no place in this world for the weak or unprepared.

As they lay resting, Elvan saw again the sight that had excited him the full time they had been walking, Elios small butt had intrigued him like never before, the rhythmic movement of his small hips and the unseen pleasure that was now hidden from his view by the new breach-clout had caused Elvan to stay rock hard the whole time, oh he was well aware of what delights were under the tanned skin, he had seen and felt it many times before, but, now, for some unknown reason it was hidden and therefore more delectable now that it was covered from his view.

All three boys had the same trouble and that was a small amount of chaffing from the skins on their tender flesh, it was not used to being covered and the sweat had caused the chaffing, with relief, all three seemed to remove the breach-clout at the same time to give their skin some relief, it took only one brief glance from Elvan to see the smooth wetness between Elios cheeks to bring him to full mast again, without further thought he reached over and began to rub softly over Elios butt, it was their unsaid signal that it was time to play a boy game.

Elios grinned broadly as he felt the hand rub him softly, quickly he turned so he was facing Elam's rising boyhood and, with practiced ease he rose onto his hands and knees so his own boyhood was at Elam's mouth and his mouth was on Elam's boyhood, Elvan knew the position and quickly kneeled behind Elios and pushed slowly forward until he was starting to enter Elios, the moisture of Elios sweat made the entry a little easier than normal and he slid slowly deeper until he was fully inside the warm welcoming hole.

In complete unison the three boys began to take their pleasure in the boy game, moaning and groaning in pure delight as each fulfilled the desire of the other, time meant nothing to the trio as they tried harder and harder to make their friend feel good until, finally all three could hold them selves no longer and released their pleasure into each other, with great sighs of relief and satisfaction they all collapsed back onto the sand of the small cave and wrapped an arm about each other in contentment, there first day of manhood was beginning with a real bang.

Some time later the three boys donned their now dry breach-clouts and prepared to leave on the next part of their walk, before they went, Elios walked around the cave looking for signs of ground water, it took a little time but eventually he recognised the signs right at the back of the cave, he first cleared all the loose sand from the floor and then, with his spia, began to dig deeper into the hard surface, finally after a short time he had a small bore hole dug and in the bottom could be seen the first dribbles of moisture, the three boys sat and waited for a short time as the hole filled with water and then, taking out a small thin metal rod each, they sucked up the water until the hole was empty again, it was enough for their needs for now, Elios filled in the hole again and then the boys left the cave to continue their walk to the Oshun.

By the time the sun was beginning to disappear they had covered more than half the distance to the Oshun because of Elios walking plan and could have made it all the way had they decided to continue but, for this first night they decided to find a place to sleep and start fresh at sun rise. Although their eyes were quite capable of seeing in the dark when the stars were shining bright as they did most nights, they decided safety was a better option as there were things out at night that could be very dangerous and that was not only the animals.

As the sun dipped further, the boys quickly searched out another cave to sleep in, their meal tonight would be another of the hard dry bred, it wasn't much but it was better than nothing, besides, the boys were still too excited by their new freedom to worry about good hot food. This new freedom had been planned by Elios and the boys for more than a mune, they had collected all their treasures, Elios had invented a way for them to move quickly but not get tired and they had each other.

It was agreed that they would not light a fire this first night, it was too easy to been seen from a long distance and would attract unwanted attention from anyone searching for new boys as was proved by Elvan spotting two separate fires far behind them, obviously of some new boys settling down for the night, the boys knew that this was just what the Renegs would be looking for so they left their cave in darkness as they settled down together for the night after eating their bred, there would be no boys games tonight as they wanted to get a very early start at sun rise and try to be at the Oshun before high sun.

Sometime during the night, Elios was woken by loud yells and screams echoing over the sand below them, as he moved the other boys sat up as well, they quickly recognised that all was not right out in the sands. Slowly and very quietly they made their way to the entrance on their stomachs, in the distance behind them, they could see a large fire, their sharp eyes soon picked out moving forms around the fire as People moved in front of the flames.

While it was difficult to pick out individuals the general indication was of Renegs, there wild animals that they rode could be heard stamping in the still night air, these animals were fast and dangerous, it was said that even some of the Renegs died trying to tame them to ride. They were big animals with four large legs and strange flat round feet, it was said that the ancients called them a haws and had once had many of them tamed for their work and pleasure, the boys could not imagine why anyone would want one of the wild dangerous beasts for pleasure, they were ok to eat but that was all the boys knew of them.

The screams went on for a long time until finally there was silence and the sound of the Renegs on their haws moving away into the night, no doubt looking for more boys to play with, Elios and the others moved back inside their cave, they would have to wait for sun rise to check out what had happened before moving away from the safety of their cave, if Renegs were around they would be better to stay in here safe until it was clear to move on, the boys lay down again and tried to sleep but it wouldn't come, the sound of the screams were still fresh in their ears, eventually they sat up and started to discuss how they should move on from here.

All agreed that they should keep up the same way of walking but now go over the cliff behind them and stay on the high ground so that they were not caught out in the open sands by any roaming Renegs. Three new young boys would not be able to do much against fast running beasts and dangerous, heavily armed Renegs. The boys continued to make plans until the first signs of sun rise made its appearance at the entrance of their cave, they ate a little more bred and dug for cave water at the rear, sipping the water through the metal pipes Elios had found for them. Checking that they had replaced everything back in their sak's, the three boys went to the entrance and studied very carefully the outside sands.

In the distance they saw the last remains of the large fire of the night in the form of a faint wisp of smoke rising in the windless dawn air, they had no desire to go and see what mayhem the Renegs had caused during the night, they had heard all the stories as young boys and knew there would be nothing there for them to do or get, it was better to ignore what had happened and continue on their own journey to the Oshun.

Once outside the cave they looked up at the cliff, it was no more than two plus ten lengths, and while it would not be easy to climb, it was possible for the three fit boys so they began their ascent carefully, they did not want to slip and fall at the beginning of their new life, an injury could be the means of their quick death.

***

Explanation of measurements

The people of the new world counted on their hands and fingers, when bartering they would start with their right hand and close the small finger as the sign for 1, then the next and so on, when the thumb was also closed forming a fist, this was 5, then the left hand was used in the same manner and would bring the total to 10, knocking the two fists together would indicate 20 and so on so that two plus ten equalled 20, for odd numbers they would open one or more fingers to indicate smaller numbers by those that were still folded. Distance was in hands, 1 hand was approx 6 inches [15 cm], a length was approx 5 feet [1.50 m], and a leag was approx 100 feet [30 m] they used no other measurements for greater distances as they used land marks to go from one point to the next and further than that was only spoken of in the number of dei's to walk there.

***

After a few moments of scrapes and scratches the trio finally made it to the top of the cliff face, once there they looked out at where they had travelled from the previous dei, for as far as they could see there was nothing, no signs of life, no signs of movement, the Renegs had disappeared into the far reaching sands and any of the boys from the previous day had now either been taken by the Reneges or had found their way to a safe hiding place until it was clear to move on.

The first rays of the rising sun lit up the immense sands with highlights and deep shadows. The boy's eyes adjusted quickly to the first rays and they took the time to turn right around and see where they should head to, as they stared out, Elios though he caught a faint glimpse of something shiny in the distance just across the narrow valley below them as the sun hit something for a moment. Quickly marking it in his mind before it disappeared, he nudged Elvan and pointed in which direction of the opposite ridge and told the others they should start their day in that direction, the shiny something had piqued his imagination and he wanted to investigate.

Although the ridge top was rough and a little uneven, the boys continued to use Elios way of walking and they speedily covered the ground while still being able to keep a sharp look out for trouble, when Elios thought they were approximately opposite where he had seen the glimmer of light, he signalled that they should start to descend the ridge into the valley below, a few more bruises and scrapes and they were on the floor of the small narrow valley but still heading in the general direction of the Oshun.

Elios stood still for a long moment as he tried to work out where he had seen the glimmer from, finally, just a little further along the valley he spotted something that looked out of place on the barren sandy valley. It was the edge of something square and looked as though it had once been made from the metal of the ancients but most of it was still buried in the sand, there must have been some wind lately that had uncovered the item and a small piece of broken gles had reflected the early morning sun.

The three boys moved cautiously towards the object until they were standing only a few short lengths from it, as usual Elios was the first to move forward and, using his small hands, began to push away some of the sand so that he could see more of the large metal box, The other two boys jumped in quickly to help their friend. A short time later and the three boys could see a faint outline of two bodies inside the large box, Elios removed his small breach-clout and used it to clean away some of the grime and sand covering the gles. Inside they saw two white skeletons sitting upright, one was holding some type of tool while the other was sitting in front of a large wheel, vestiges of ancient cloth of a green colour hung on the whitened bones.

Looking closer through the still grimy gles, Elios could also see some type of belt around what would have been the waist of the once live men. The belt was made from a strange material that the boys had never seen before; it had a metal fastening and two rows of holes around the centre. On one side there was what looked like a small box made from the same odd material, it had a flap covering whatever was inside, the boys couldn't wait to see what they had discovered and went back to hurriedly clearing away more sand so they could open what was obviously a metal door.

Finally the metal door was clear, the boys took a short rest and then Elios began to try to open the door. It was strange at first because it was not like the doors of the breeding caves but after trying various ways, Elios finally heard a heavy 'click' and began to firstly push and then finally pull at the metal, with a loud groan of tortured metal, the door began to slowly open and reveal the inside of the metal box.

Elios looked over the white bones of the two bodies, the box was a about ten hands wide and six hand deep, one skeleton sat against what looked like another of the metal doors on the other side holding a before unseen artefact, it was black and about seven hands long, at the base it was flat and wide, at the other end it was just a small round pipe held on to another thicker pipe below. There was another strange box sticking out about half way along, this was indeed a great find, something that had never been seen by any of the boys before and none of them had even heard of such an item.

Elios, being the more adventurous of the three, reached over to the side of the skeleton behind the large wheel and tried to lift the small lid of the box on the bodies belt, it was very stiff and a small button was holding it tight, with a strong tug at the lid, Elios pulled it open, his eyes grew wider as he looked at another unknown artefact, with trembling fingers he grasped the item and pulled it free of the box.

Elios was surprised at how heavy the small metal item was, it also was black and one part was at right angles to the other and seemed to be held together with a funny looking half circle with a piece of metal coming out where the two pieces met. Elios turned it over and over in his hands, to his racing mind he felt it had to be important for a man to wear it so close to his body, he continued to turn it over and over and noticed there were small buttons and levers fitted onto the sides, on the top at one end was a small thick bled and at the other was another piece of metal that was fixed crosswise and had a small grove in the centre.

Suddenly Elios concentration was broken by the call from Elvan and Elam, while he had been hunting inside the box; the other two had been trying to uncover more of the big box and had discovered that the box with the skeletons was only a small part of the strange artefact. By clearing more sand they found that the box had another larger part behind it but this part was covered by rotting and decayed material and held up by steel ribs that went from their side and further under the sand.

Elios joined his friends and the three looked up at the sun, it was almost high sun, time for them to find some shelter until after the main heat had gone, Elios suggested that they should clear the bones away and use the smaller box to hide out of the sun. It would be a tight fit but it was better than sitting out in the full heat of high sun, the others agreed and left their new find to help throw out the bones, the two artefacts Elios had found were put on the floor of the box until they could investigate further.

Once all three were comfortably sitting inside the box, they began to discuss what they should do. After a while it was agreed that the finding of the box was too important to leave without trying to see everything it held. There was no real hurry to get to the Oshun as they still had enough food for two days more even though it was only dry bred. They were used to living on less if they had too but the box was just to tempting to resist, once they agreed, all three hugged close and tried to doze off for the main heat of the dei.

The sticky heat of high sun finally woke Elios and his friends as the sweat on their bodies began to become uncomfortable in the confines of the small metal box. Elios pushed down on the lever that opened the door, a soft breeze of cooler air rushed into the box. As Elios stretched his cramped joints, his eye caught a small pocket he had not seen earlier as it was below the round wheel; inside he found two small soft wud blocks, the same type that they usually used to light their fires with.

Elios pulled out the two blocks and looked at the two sides, one was blank but the other had the ancients strange symbols on it, although Elios could not read he still wondered what was a

USMC
DRIVERS MANUAL

Maybe it was the name of the ancient that was now a pile of bleached bones on the floor of the box.

Shrugging his slim shoulders he started to open the block, to his surprise and for the first time that he could remember, Elios saw that there were not only the strange ancient symbols on the thin wud but also the ancients had somehow made pictures of artefacts and people appear on the thin blocks. As he looked at the miracle of the pictures, something seemed familiar but he couldn't recognise it.

Elam and Elvan slid past him to stand outside as he sat and looked at the marvel he held in his hands, how could the ancients put these very detailed pictures onto thin wud blocks. Again something tugged at his mind but still evaded recognition. In the mean time the other two boys had begun to play with the decayed cloth behind the smaller box and, after some testing, Elam took out his small bled and tried to stab into the heavy cloth. To his surprise the small bled pierced the cloth with ease, Elam continued to pull the bled downward as it sliced through, soon there was a slit about eight hands long, Elam pulled open the sides and pushed his head through the opening.

Elvan watched his friends back as his head disappeared through the long slit, suddenly he became worried as he saw the back muscles of Elam stiffen and suddenly Elvan was standing back from the slit with a look of awe on his young face. Speechless he turned to Elvan and could only point at where he had been, Elvan took his place and, with a little trepidation, pushed his head through, soon he too pulled back with the same awed look on his face, both boys looked at each other and turned to call for Elios both at the same time.

Elios heard his named called by his two friends and, as he lifted his eyes from the picture he saw what it was that had been evading him, there, before his eyes was the same view he had seen on the thin block. What had confused him was that the picture had shown only half of the round wheel but now he could clearly see the round parts with symbols inside a gles cover. Each one was exactly the same as in the picture and had the same small symbols as the ones shown.

OIL PRESSURE, TACHOMETER, SPEEDOMETER, AIR PRESSURE, FUEL, WATER TEMP

All of them were the same, he had no idea what they meant but it was clear that this particular thin wud block was used for information on this strange metal box.

Hearing his name called again, he placed the thin block on the hot slippery seat and left the smaller box to see what his friends wanted. Once outside all his friends could do was point to a long slit they had made in the cloth of the larger box. With a slight stammer of excitement, Elam told Elios to look through the slit to the inside of the box, always inquisitive, Elios did as he was asked, it took him only seconds to see what had caught their attention.

The larger box was huge, maybe two lengths wide and about five or six lengths long, it was also about ten hands high, inside it was almost full of boxes. Some were made of hard wud, others of the softer wud that melted when water was poured on them and further to the back in the dim light coming from the slit, were lots of metal boxes, some small and other large, some quite long and thin. Others square on all sides, this was a treasure trove of artefacts, the boys had made their fortunes on only the second day of their freedom but, what were they going to do with it all? Elios pulled his head out of the slit with the same awed look on his face as his friends had.

Elam was the first to speak.

"What are we going to do with it all, Elios, there's way too much for us to carry and some of those boxes look really heavy?"

The two boys watched as Elios got that funny faraway look on his face as he thought about Elam's words; finally he looked up at his friends.

"We have to find a place to hide it all, this must have been here hidden under the sand since the age of the ancients and some wind must have come along lately and uncovered the glass that I saw from the ridge."

The other two boys nodded in agreement, after all, Elios was the real smart one among them and had always had good ideas that seemed to work well for them all, Elvan was the next too speak.

"So what do we do Elios?"

"I think you two should go along the cliffs here and look for a cave we can hide all this in, so it needs to be a deep one and quite large. Elam, you go up that way but keep a look out on the other side of the valley as well, there may be a cave over on that side if nothing is on this one. Elvan you go down that way, we need to find something not too far away or it will be too hard to carry all the boxes, it's going to take a lot of our time as it is."

The two boys nodded in agreement then Elam asked Elios.

"What are you going to do Elios?"

"I'm going to try to wriggle in there and find out what's in some of the boxes if I can get them open, this is going to take us a long time to move, there's so much in here."

"How long do you think, Elios?" asked Elvan.

"I don't know, it will depend on how far away the cave is but we're going to need to find food and water while we're here or we will have to go to the Oshun and back each time we run out of stuff to eat and drink and there's the chance someone else will come and take all this away while we are gone."

Elam closed his eyes for a minute and then answered Elios.

"Ok, what if we work today and move what we can after we find a cave, then, tomorrow one of us goes to the Oshun and find water and food and brings it back for the others, that way two of us can go on moving everything, we're only half a dei away so one person moving quickly can be there and back in one dei."

Elios and Elvan looked at Elam and nodded their heads in agreement, it was a good plan and two of the boys could stay and guard their new found wealth.

"Good, that's settled then," said Elios, "You two go and find us a cave while I try to see what we have, with so many boxes in here there has to be lots of artefacts of value, we might even have enough to get our own breeder cliff."

Elam and Elvan smiled broadly now that they all had a plan of action, so, without further words the two boys went their opposite ways to find a cave for their treasure, Elios returned to the slit in the heavy cloth and, with a little squirming and scrabbling he emerged inside the huge box. He was right up on top of all the boxes and there was not much room between him and the top but he didn't worry, at times like this it was an advantage to be as slim and small as he was.

Confronted by so many choices, at first he didn't know where to start, the first thing he noticed was that the hard wud and soft wud boxes on which he was sitting, were placed in a certain order, there were ten boxes making a square then a small gap and then the ten boxes he was sitting on. Looking down into the dimness, he saw that the whole large box was set up in the same way, two rows of boxes stretching right to the far end, only the type of box was different. It appeared as though all the soft wud boxes were up close to him, then came the hard wud boxes and after that the rows of metal boxes. This was going to be hard work for three young boys but the treasure was too big and valuable to leave for others.

As far as Elios could see in the dim light, all the boxes were marked with the same ancient symbol as he had seen on the thin wud block with the pictures. All were marked with some sort of heavy black paint that said USMC. Elios thought that whoever was USMC he must have been a very wealthy man to have owned all these boxes. His mind roamed for a moment as he thought of what might be hidden inside the boxes, maybe some of them would be full of clear gles, or maybe special metals and tools, his imagination ran wild as he thought of what all that wealth would mean for the three friends.

Elios looked down at the top of one of the boxes he was sitting on, it had two sides folded together and was fastened by a lot of strange thin bits of metal going from one side of the gap to the other and was obviously meant to keep the two sides together. Elios tried pulling the sides apart but the slim metal pieces gave him no space to get his thin fingers inside deep enough to get a good grip, Elios sat back and thought for a little and then drew out his small bled.

Carefully he pushed the small thin bled under one of the metal pieces and slowly pulled upwards, with surprising ease, the metal piece popped out of the soft wud and Elios saw that it had been bent under the wud to hold it, now that he knew what to do he quickly went down the line of metal pieces and popped them all open, with shaking fingers he levered open the folded sides to look at what the box held.

Once open, Elios looked inside the box, there, neatly lined up were row on row of round metal cylinders, each tightly packed next to the other. Elios tapped the top of one with the handle of his bled, it was very thin metal, he wondered how long they were so set to work to remove one of them, they were so tightly packed he had a small problem just pulling one out but when he had finally got it slightly above the rest it was easy to grab it by the top and pull. To his surprise it was not very long at all, maybe less than a hand, around it's middle was more ancient pictures and symbols.

Elios looked at the beautiful picture, he had never seen anything like it before, it showed a strange round item that was almost the colour of the sun, above it were the ancient symbols that he could not read.

USMC
PEACHES

He shook the cylinder and to his surprise he was sure he could hear some sort of liquid inside the cylinder, he shook it again, yes he was right, there was liquid inside but also something else, something that was more solid. In the silence of the box, Elios usual inquisitiveness took over, he shook it again, when it would not open he tried twisting it back and forth, still it would not open. Elios tried knocking it on top of the other cylinders in the box all he came up with was some small marks and dents in the cylinder.

Elios looked around for something more to hit the cylinder with, how could something so small be so tough, he tapped it with his bled, it rang with a dull 'tonk' sound, as hard as he tried to think, Elios could not come up with a way to open the cylinder. Finally, in total frustration, he stabbed it hard with his bled, his hand was immediately covered with an oily type of wetness as it spurted up from the small slit in the top, surprised at the result of his frustration. Elios absently licked his fingers without thinking it may be deadly to him.

Elios gasped as a sweet almost sickly tang hit his tongue, he immediately sucked another finger, he had never tasted anything like it. If it was poison too bad, it was too nice to be bad he was sure, he sucked another finger clean and then tried tipping the cylinder up to his mouth so he could suck some more of the great liquid out. It filled his mouth and he swallowed slowly to savour the exquisite taste, Elios body shivered with delight as the liquid ran down his throat, this would be something special for his friends when they returned.

When the cylinder was empty, Elios shook it again, there was still something inside but it sounded more solid but how to get the cylinder open, Elios sat for a while and let his mind work unhindered, eventually it occurred to him. He stabbed his small bled in again and again until he had made a larger hole in the top and then he bent all the cut pieces back and there, sitting in the cylinder was something that looked close to the picture on the front.

Elios pushed his finger carefully into the opening, the thing inside was soft and moist, Elios took his bled and pushed in into the thing, it sliced through without effort, he turned the cylinder upside down and shook it, suddenly, Elios lap was full of the small soft things that had rushed out of the opening, he looked down at the mess in his lap.

Elios could only smile at the sight before himself; he picked up one of the slippery things and brought it close to his mouth, carefully, almost daintily, he placed it on his lips. Again he very carefully took a small bight, flavour of things unknown exploded in his mouth and without further thought, he rammed the rest of the soft food into his mouth and chewed with an enthusiasm that he had never had for food before. It didn't take long before he had eaten every one of the slippery things, his fingers were sticky along with his slender legs and crotch. The mess was everywhere, deep inside his body began a deep childish chuckle as he realised that he had found a source of food and drink so they would not have to go to the Oshun while they moved their treasure. Elios hugged his sticky body with glee as he waited for his friends to come back.

Elios looked down at the box he was sitting on and began to count the rows of cylinders, where he had removed the first one he could see that underneath there were more rows of the same cylinders, on the top row there were two plus ten cylinders less the one he had opened, so that meant there were another two plus ten on the next row below. That was a lot of food and drink for three boys, they would have plenty for their time here to move the treasure.

Elios heard a faint bird call from outside and knew that at least one of his friends was returning. Reaching down he grasped two more of the cylinders for his friends to try and wriggled out of the box. Fine grains of sand had soon stuck to his sticky legs and hands but he didn't worry about it, his mouth was still tasting of the sweet juices he had discovered.

Jumping to the soft sand, he waited patiently as he saw Elvan coming towards him waving his arms, it was obvious he had found a cave for them but how far way would decide if they used it or not. Elios waited for his friend to arrive next to him, the look on Elvan's face told its own story as he saw the condition that Elios was in, covered from waist to knees in sand that seemed to be stuck on his skin and the huge smile on the smaller boys face told Elvan that something good had happened.

Elvan also noticed that Elios was holding two shiny cylinders in his hands and wondered what the boy had found that was so interesting, Elios was the first to speak.

"Did you find a good cave?"

"Yes, it looks like it might have been made by the ancients but it's a long way down the valley, what have you got there?"

"Ok, we'll wait for Elam and see if he found anything, these? Well these are a special surprise for you and Elam, but you have to wait till he gets here so you can both try them together."

Elvan looked again at the condition that Elios was in.

"So you tried one already by the look of you."

"Yes, I had to see if it was safe for us, but trust me, you're going to love the surprise."

Of course Elvan trusted Elios, he always knew what was right, he smiled at the smaller boy and sat down in the sand to wait for Elam as he looked again at the strange cylinders that Elios held in each hand. Not a lot of time passed before Elam's birdcall was heard coming from the other side of the valley, as the two boys looked up they saw Elam running towards them, he had a big smile on his lips as he neared them.

Elam collapsed on the sand beside his friends, still panting a little from his short run.

"What did you find?" asked Elios.

"An ancients cave just over on the other side of the valley, I saw it when the sun got low enough to break the shadows."

"How do you know it's one of the ancient's ones?" asked Elvan.

"Easy, it's perfectly round and has a thick grey ancient stone hanging over it; you can still see the red spots of the round steel they used in the stone."

"It seems closer than the one Elvan found, I think we should use it, did you go inside to see how much space there was?" replied Elios.

"No, it's got a lot of stones and things blocking it, but we can clear them away and take a look to see if it's big enough."

"Ok, well I've got a surprise for you."

Elios put the two cylinders on the ground and watched the expression on Elam's face as he took his small bled out ready to open them for his friends.

"What are they?" enquired Elam with a little scepticism in his young voice.

"Wait and see," replied Elios as he stabbed the first of the cylinders, twisting the bled to make the hole bigger, handing the first one to Elvan, he then opened the second one for Elam.

"Put the hole to your mouth and suck hard, see what I've found, it's good, I promise."

Elios watched the expression on the two boys faces as they followed his instructions, the look of awe and bliss on their young faces as the first of the liquid ran down their throats gave Elios a warm feeling of accomplishment at his find.

Elios waited until the two boys had sucked all the liquid out of the cylinders and were about to throw away the rest, even though they could feel that there was still something inside.

"Wait," called Elios as he reached over and took the two cylinders back, quickly he began to puncture them again until he could fully open them for his friends, telling them to hold out their hands, he tipped the strange yellow things out so they could see them.

"Eat them," he said with a little amusement in his voice as he knew what their expressions would be. The two boys trusted Elios not to play with them so followed his suggestion and began to put one of the pieces into their mouths, it took only a short time before all of the pieces were in their mouths and being chewed with such delight that they almost choked in trying to hurry.

After the two were finished and had licked their fingers clean, Elam asked Elios.

"That was amazing, I've never tasted anything like it, is there any more of them?"

"Yes plenty, I counted at least four plus ten in the box and there were a lot of boxes that look the same in there."

"That's good, we can eat those and not have to go to the Oshun all the time for food and water, we can stay here and move all this treasure into the cave instead, I think we can also work during the dark as well, it's not far to the ancient cave from here," said Elam.

The other two boys nodded in agreement, the sooner they could move the treasure the better and safer it would be for them and their find. As the boys sat there after their great food surprise, Elios had been thinking about the cave Elam had found, if it was a big one they would need some light to look inside and to work with during the dark time.

Searching in his sak, he pulled out the thin wud roll and asked Elam about the fire stone; soon the boys had collected what they wanted and, leaving the sak's behind, trotted over to the other side of the narrow valley until they came to the dark hole in the shadow of the cliff that Elam had found.

Just as he had said the overhang of the ancient's stone kept the hole hidden from normal view but it was filled with sand and stones, the three boys looked at each other and then set to work. Luckily it was not packed tightly and they were soon crawling deeper and deeper into the round cave hole. As they got deeper, Elios took the lead as he was smaller, he continued to push the stones and sand behind him for Elam and Elvan to take to the outside and throw away,

Finally, just as the darkness was about to start, Elios hand pushed through the last of the sand, there was a gust of moist cold air that ran across his hand and hit him refreshingly in the face. It smelt a little stale but the cold moistness felt good on his hot skin, all three boys were now tired and dirty, their small bodies covered in sand and grit as they felt the refreshing cold air. Elios pushed back more of the loose sand until he could worm his way through, all he saw was more round hole and darkness, where ever this went it was not short.

"It looks as though it goes deeper, let's go back and have another of those foods and sleep in the box again. In the morning we can come back and see where it goes," said Elios to the other boys.

Both were in agreement so they backed up out of the pipe and set off for their little camp in the small box, although feeling tired from the exertions, they were happy how their second dei of adventure had turned out. They had a good dark time cave to sleep in and a pile of treasure to start their lives with as well as a new food that was so good to eat.

There were no boy games that night, they were too exhausted by their work and the excitement of their adventure, they just curled up in each other's arms and fell into a deep sleep until the first rays of the rising sun woke them for their next dei. Elios was closest to the door so he rose first and went out to get three more cylinders of the food. Sitting on the sand he was about to stab into the first one again when he stopped and took another look at the cylinder, his agile mind went into overdrive as he tried to work out a better way to open them.

Slowly it came to him and he rested the point of his bled at the very edge of the cylinder and gave the handle a hard hit with his other hand, next he began to work the bled back and forth around the edge of the cylinder. This he found, was a lot easier and tidier, in no time at all he had the three cylinders open and ready for his friends who, on hearing Elios at work, were quick to jump out of the box and join him for their feast.

While they ate their food, the boys discussed how they were going to search the new cave until finally, they came up with the idea of using some of the thin wud they had collected at the breeding cliffs to make a light so they could see into the dark of the pipe hole. Elios got three pieces of the thin wud and rolled them very tightly into three thin sticks, Elvan got the fire stone and along with his bled, got enough spark to light one of the wud sticks. The light wasn't a lot but it would do for the small pipe they would be in. Elios quickly put out the light by pushing it into the soft sand and they began their walk back to the new cave.

Once at the mouth of the pipe cave and as the rising sun began to warm up the small valley, the boys could still feel the moist cold air coming out of the hole. There had to be something good deeper inside for the air to still be cool like it was. Maybe even it had a lot of water inside; that would explain why it was so moist and cold. Elios didn't think the air was as stale as the previous day and hoped for something good when they got to the end of the pipe.

The three boys wriggled their way deeper into the pipe, when Elios got to the last sand barrier he had cleared he looked ahead. The rising sun had lightened the inside of the pipe and Elios could see that in front of him, about three lengths away, the pipe was blocked by a sheet of what looked like coarse cloth. Elios moved forward until he was close in front of the barrier, reaching forward tentively he pushed gently at the cloth, to his surprise it felt like fine metal and flexed with the pressure of his hand, he had never seen metal so fine, the ancients were a very smart race.

Pausing, Elios thought for a bit and then pulled out his trusty bled, it was now a little worse for wear as he had now opened nine cylinders and there were small nicks in each side. He would soon have to find a hard stone to make it sharp again, suddenly, as if a light had come on, Elios saw the strange two coloured stone that Elam had found so long ago and his face lit up with a huge smile, at last, another question answered. That was what the strange stone was for, he looked over his shoulder at Elam and gave the boy a huge smile but said nothing about what he had just thought, instead he turned back to the metal cloth in front of him and stabbed his over used bled though it.

To his surprise, the bled slid through easily and Elios began to saw it back and forth cutting through the metal cloth with ease. When he had cut all around he pushed it through the hole and tried to see into the dark depths in front of him. He heard the cloth hit something hard below him but it was too dark to see anything, he called for Elvan to light one of his homemade sticks. When that was done and Elvan had passed it forward, Elios leaned closer to the edge and tried to see inside, below him he could just make out a large stone floor, in the dim light he also saw what looked like tables and seats but they were indistinct in the dim light. The drop to the floor was only about one length so Elios wriggled about until he had turned himself around and he was able to ease his young legs through the newly made hole and drop lightly onto the stone floor.

He was quickly followed by the other two and in the dim light from the fire stick and their natural ability to see in very dim light, the boys looked around. The cave was huge, they could see the tables and seats but not the other three sides so both Elam and Elvan lit the other two sticks Elios had made and spread out.

The cave was bigger than the boys thought, it seemed to stretch to the ends of the earth. Each boy picked a direction to go and kept in touch by calling back and forth until they came to the side wall they had been seeking, turning they could see the dim light of each other. The cave would be big enough for all their treasure and have a lot of space left over, the only difficulty would be bringing all the treasure through the small pipe and putting it down on the floor without damage. The three boys started back to where they could just make out the dim light of the pipe.

Elios sharp mind did not take long to find an answer to getting in and out of the pipe. The tables had the seats attached by some strange means but Elios was not about to worry about small things like that, he had the other two each pull a table over beside the one he had got to. Putting their two tables beside each other with the ends against the wall, Elios pushed his in front making a large platform to stand on and easily reach the pipe to go in and out on. This would make it easier to unload their treasure, they agreed that they had seen enough and it was time to start moving their find to the new cave.

On returning to their treasure box they sat down and began to work out how they were going to move all the boxes inside. It was obvious it was going to take a long time and the need for light in the new cave was something they had to fix. After a lot of thought they came up with the idea of firstly taking as many of the hard wud boxes first and then using them to light a fire in the cave to give them enough light to work with. Even though the hard wud boxes were further back in the large box it would be better in the end they thought.

Elios was the first to wriggle his way into the treasure box and, as he moved he tried to work out how best to get the boxes they needed out to the hole they were working through. It took a while to work out how to do it but first he had to be able to get rid of some strange metal belts that were around all the piles of boxes. There were two straps running from front to back and two more from side to side, the metal straps were about a finger wide and black but very thin and strong. Finally Elios knew what to do with the strange cutting tool he had found so long ago.

Calling Elvan he asked him to find the small metal three cornered tool and bring it to him. Once he had it in hand he set to work on the belts, as he had guessed they were cut through easily and soon the four belts were pushed aside and Elios could start to take out the boxes. He noticed the same symbols on the box but some extra ones as well that meant as much as the others, nothing, they read.

USMC
BLANKETS

This meant nothing to him as he continued to push and pull the box free until it was clear of the others he then pushed it towards the opening. It was heavier than he had first thought but kept moving it until it was outside. He then went back for the next one and the next one until they had more than four plus ten outside on the sand.

The three boys tried lifting a box each but they were too heavy so then they had to set about working out a way to move them all to the new cave. It was Elam that came up with an idea, why not open one of the boxes and see what was inside, maybe there would be something they could use. It didn't take long for the others to agree and begin the struggle to open one of the hard wud boxes. It was not easy but they soon found that if they pushed their bleds into a thin crack at the top, they could lever upward and pull out the long bits of steel holding the top on. Soon they had the first one open and too their surprise it was full of folded material like they had never seen. Touching the material, all three were overwhelmed by the softness and warmth coming from the surfaces, Elvan was the first to pull one free, it seemed light in his hands but so soft, he tried to pull it apart but it was too strong, Elam came up with the idea first.

"Why not use one of these on the ground and put a full box on top, then we can hold the loose end and pull it over the sand, that way we can move three boxes at a time."

Too the others it seemed a good idea so they set about pulling more of the cloths out and laying three of them on the sand then the three boys lifted a box between them and placed it on each of the cloths. Moving to the front they each picked up the two corners and began to pull them towards the new cave, it was easier than they thought it would be as the loaded cloths slipped across the soft sand with ease and they were soon at the opening of their new cave.

Once at the pipe they pushed the first box in and Elios began to push it forward to the opening into the cave. Elam and Elvan followed close behind with theirs and quickly Elios was pushing his box through the opening and heard it hit hard on the tables below with a crash and loud thud. Elios then climbed through and moved it out of the way as the next one came falling through, he was just in time to get out of the way as it crashed to the hard floor and one corner splintered to show the cloths inside then Elam dropped down and moved out of the way for Elvan and his box.

Once inside the three boys began the work of breaking open the boxes for fire wud and stacked the cloths on another table away from the opening. Once they had the first box open it didn't take long to break them down to smaller pieces and, as the tables were made of metal, they built a small fire in the centre of one and lit it. When it was fully alight they could see more of the huge room, they built the fire a little bigger so it would last until they came back and then jumped up and went for the next boxes.

The boys were so happy at solving all the problems that, with the help of some extra cylinders of the special food, worked right through the high sun time until all the boxes they had taken out and put on the sand, were now in the new cave. It was time to start on the soft wud boxes with their food in them, the boys walked jauntily back to start on the next exercise.

Elios used the same tool to free the food boxes and while they were heavy, they were nowhere near as heavy as the hard wud ones and when they had all the boxes outside, they found they could carry one each easily to the new cave but they had to make more trips as there were far more of the food boxes than the cloth ones. It was nearing dark time when they had finished, that and having to break hard wud boxes for their fire took them a little longer and even though they were tired, they felt a great deal of satisfaction in their dei's work.

After resting for a short time, the boys decided to eat some more food from the cylinders mixed with some bred and then keep carrying more of the boxes from their treasure box. The boys continued until it was almost high dark, by then they were tired and every muscle ached like never before but they had managed to clear all four piles of the soft wud boxes and a small number of the hard wud ones as well. On their last trip for the dark, the two bigger boys had taken one large box between them and Elios had found a small one that was by itself on the floor, immediately he recognised some of the symbols as those of the picture block had had on the outside.

USMC
TRAINING MANUALS

The second set of symbols he had not seen before but the first ones were the same and he hoped they would have more of the great pictures in them as well, it would give his inquisitive mind something to do when they were finished. On their return to the cave, they built up the fire with the last of the hard wud they had ready and sat around to rest, their young chests heaving as they tried to gasp in a little more air from their exertions before they went to sleep, there would be plenty of time in the morning to look over what they had so far.

The three boys set out a number of the thick cloths on the floor to make a soft bed, discarded their sweat soaked breach-clouts and used one of the cloths to wipe most of the dirt and sand from their bodies as the fire flickered and sent strange shadows around the new cave. Elios settled down as he always did with his back to Elvan's front while Elam lay next to him with his front facing Elios. Elios liked being in the middle of his two friends, it made play time so much better but for now they were all to exhausted by their long dei and heavy work, if something happened to the rest of their treasure while they slept, at least they had a lot of it in the cave.

During the dark and before the new sun rise marked another dei, Elios felt cold and without thought wriggled from between his friends and got another of the cloths to cover them all, he was almost immediately warm, these cloths were a real find and so soft on his young skin. Elios began to get hard from the feel but then sleep overtook him again and he wriggled down close to his friends and fell asleep.

The new sun was well up in the sky before the tired boys woke again. The faint greyness from the pipe and their own excellent vision made it a little easier for the boys to see around them. There seemed to be boxes lying everywhere, after a small discussion, Elam said it would be better of Elios stayed in the cave to put the boxes in some sort of order while he and Elvan continued to move more of them over. It would be slower but then at least they would have some sort of way of finding out what they all were, if Elios started to open them and look inside.

They all agreed and after a small meal, the boys set about their tasks, it was going to be another long day but with luck they might be able to get most of the boxes in today, even if they again worked through the dark again. They had only one more pile of heavy wud boxes to go and then there would be the four piles of metal boxes. Those might be quicker as a lot of them were quite small and had a handle on them for carrying as did some of the larger ones although those looked as though the boys would again have to carry them one at a time between the two boys.

Once the others had left on their first trip, the silence descended on the new cave. At first Elios felt a little intimidated by the silence but then he heard a familiar sound, somewhere in the far reaches of the large cave was water. He could hear a steady, drip, drip ,drip, of water hitting something metallic, he looked around but could see no sign close to him of the water, somehow they had to get more light into the cave. Elios turned back to his job of sorting the boxes.

Firstly he decided to place all the boxes with the same symbols in one place and stack them up around the nearest wall. It was a slow job as there were now so many boxes and he had to strain his eyes to make out the symbols and check that each one was the same before he could put them in their right place. As he was doing this, the other two boys were still pushing new boxes through the pipe so Elios had little time to think about anything else.

Time had passed and it was now just on high sun so the other boys joined Elios in the cave for a rest, they had finished all the hard wud boxes and were ready to start on the metal ones but decided to rest during the heat of the dei. It had been hard work the previous dei working through high sun and they felt it would be better to wait now, after all there were only four piles of metal boxes left and they were sure that they could have them all moved some time in the dark time.

The boys rested during the high sun and then set to work again once it had cooled, some of the larger metal boxes took both Elam and Elvan to move over. The smaller ones were easier although there were many more of them but with the aid of the small handles the boys were able to tuck one under each arm and one in each hand and carry four at a time. They were a little heavier than at first thought but not as heavy as one of the boxes, it was about one length long and eight hands high and wide with a handle at each end. It was awkward to move with them but they soon worked out a way of walking side by side with the box between them and made good time back to the cave.

Elios was being swamped by the new boxes but again went back to his system of matching the strange symbols on each box and placing them against the near wall. They were now stretching down into the darkness of the cave as he sorted them out, the sweat running down his naked body as he moved one after another into place.

Finally the other two boys returned with the last metal box, it had grown dark and Elios had broken down one of the hard boxes to make their fire. With all the running around sorting the boxes, Elios had not had time to open even one of them so he got a surprise when he broke down the box marked.

USMC
TRENCHING TOOLS

The unusual looking items had almost no relationship to anything Elios had seen before just like all the other treasures so he left them in a pile beside the other two unopened boxes and lit the fire. His two friends struggled with the last long metal box and then collapsed on their sleeping pad, throwing their breach-clouts to the side and wiping their sweating bodies with the cloth they had used the previous dei.

Elios decided to open one of the other soft wud boxes to see what food or drink was inside, they had now had two dei's of the same food and while it was still something special he wanted a change. While the others rested on the sleeping mat he went in search of something new and finally settled on a box marked.

USMC
SPAM

On finally opening the box after the same struggle with the small metal pins, he saw more metal squares inside. They were made from the same metal as the cylinders but this time they were square but smaller at the top than the bottom, looking at the bottom of the square cylinder he saw a strange piece of metal attached, it looked like a thin rope. At one end was a small loop and the other had a thin slit in it.

Elios played with the piece of metal until it began to move away from the base and finally it dropped into his hand, scratching his head in wonder he began to look more closely at the cylinder, at last he saw, right at the bottom, a small piece of the cylinder was laying out from the rest. Using his finger nail he pulled at the tab until it was sticking out from the body, he then looked at the thin wire and the tab, shortly it clicked into place, he pushed the slot in the wire over the tab.

After a little trial he worked out that if he rolled the wire backwards he could wrap the tab around the wire like a belt. A minute later and he could smell this strange meat smell coming from the cylinder. Finishing with the tab he pulled it off along with the bottom of the cylinder, inside was a pinkish mass, it was firm to the touch but smelt like some type of meat. Elios put his finger to his lips to taste, it was different from any meat he had eaten before but was still nice.

Elios pulled out his bled and cut into the soft mass, taking a piece he put it in his mouth and chewed slowly, it tasted good but somewhat oily. Elios turned the cylinder upside down and shook it until the mass dropped into his hand, he cut it into three pieces and took it over to his friends.

Handing the mass to the other boys, Elios got out the last of their bred and along with the meat mass ate it all up, the others following his example. It took no urging by the others to send him over for more, at the end of three cylinders they were full to bursting, the only thing they needed now was water but it was too dark to go searching until the new sun rise. The boys settled down for the rest of the dark time and drifted off to sleep, their young bodies still stiff and sore from all the work they had done over the last two dei's.

The boys awoke in the dim light of a new dei; they could hear the faint whisper of wind on the outside as it moved past the entrance pipe. It seemed to all of them that the first winds were going to aid them in hiding their new cave as they had made quite a large trail from the original place to the cave when they had carried and pulled each box from their treasure cave.

After a light meal they sat down to think what they would do. They knew that at this time of the rising sunlight, the winds would get stronger and last longer as the time increased and the heat of the new day grew hotter. It was always the way. After some discussion, they decided that Elam and Elvan would make some light sticks from the thick soft wud boxes with a small fire starter from the pieces they had from before. Elios did not want to use the MANUAL blocks until he had had the chance to look them over more thoroughly, he was somehow sure that they held the secret of the ancients.

The boys set to work making the rolled fire sticks for light until the two that were going searching had eight each. Elios found the box that had the symbols of the MANUALS on it and proceeded to open it fully while the other two began their hunt into the darker recesses of the cave, Elios could follow their progress by the two small flames as they receded from him.

Elios finally opened the box and saw inside many, many of the blocks. All were packed in on their sides so he could only see the folded part, he decided to take them all out and put them on a free table so he could spread them out. Once he had them where he wanted them he looked them over. He again began to feel frustrated for not being able to make sense of the symbols but something deep in his mind was trying to get out.

Finally he decided that the only way to tell what each was; was to open them and look at the pictures. It was going to take him a long time but he was sure he had plenty as the wind outside was picking up and was now almost to a roar as it passed the mouth of the pipe. Elios also noticed that some of the sand was being blown into their new cave by the wind. He looked around for something to close the pipe with, it took a little time but finally his eyes settled on a strange shelf above the pipe hole, there was a linked metal rope holding the shelf in place. Elios thought that it was a strange place to have a shelf, also it was rather small for anything, he moved to the hole to have a closer look.

A short time passed as he gazed up at it and then it was like a light coming on in his head. Elios jumped up on the table and reached for the rope, with a small push upward, the rope came free and the shelf dropped down with a loud 'clang' sound. The sound of the wind and the fine sand was immediately cut off, now he could only hear the faintest of murmurs from the pipe, he was intrigued by the symbols on the closed shelf that he now knew was a small door, they said.

EMERGENCY EXIT

Of course this meant nothing to Elios but it did seem strange that the ancients had to put symbols on everything. He became determined to find out the secret of the symbols, maybe it would give him new insights if he could understand them. Once again Elios looked at all the blocks spread out on the table, a strange feeling ran over him, something about them was familiar, but, what?

Elios pulled over the table they used for their fire and added some more wud, again he looked at the blocks, something was there. Time passed rapidly but unknown to Elios as he stood trying to work out what it was that was familiar, at last he gave up and with a bitter feeling deep inside he gave vent to a very loud scream of frustration and banged his hand on the table. Turning around he stormed about the cave using all the worst words he knew until, while he was still a little distance from the humiliating blocks he gave the two finger gesture of insult and challenge that all boys used when they wanted to fight another boy. As Elios spun around and gestured at the table of blocks, something clicked.

Looking at the two fingers so insolently pushed into the air at the blocks he saw something else. His fingers made the same symbol as that of one of the levels of the breeding caves and then, like a bolt of lightning it hit him. Elios rushed back to the table and looked again, pushing blocks aside as he looked at the wide range of symbols. Suddenly total silence settled over his cave as he saw it, even his breath was silent as he slowly turned about and looked for his friends lights but they were nowhere to be seen. In a whirlwind of action Elios jumped as high as he could and yelled out, this time in glee, he had it, he had the secrets of the ancient's symbols. Dancing with a new found joy he rushed back to the table and began to set about sorting out the blocks.

Looking around he saw what he needed, taking a piece of wud from the fire he shook it until the flames died and he had a blackened stick; next he carefully cleared an area on the floor that would give him the space he felt he would need. If there was one thing every boy did learn, it was the numbers; all boys knew how to make the shapes of the numbers, all the way up to ten. It was a necessary part of bargaining and so he began to mark down all the numbers up to two tens plus six with a small space between each number and a large space between the line on top and the line below. This is where he would put the ancient symbols that matched the symbols on the breeding levels that they got their names from. He knew a lot of boys from other levels so by saying the boys name he would be able to work out the sound of an ancient symbol and then make out the secret of the symbols.

Elios started with the first level, he knew a boy called Atro, from that level so it must be that the symbol 'A' sounded like 'arh' Elios looked at one of the blocks and saw a number of the same symbols. Next he moved to the number two level symbol it was a 'B' what boy did he know from there, again his eyes lit up. Elios didn't need to know a boy from there, he already knew the sound because they had lived in the boys level 'B3' and it sounded like 'buh' and so Elios worked away almost in a fever of excitement as the symbols he had at first thought were unreadable became clearer and clearer to his young eyes. At last, after what seemed like eternity, he had all the symbols out on the floor and now knew what each sounded like. Elios hoped he was right as he had been working on the problem so long that his stomach began to growl with hunger.

Elios straightened up from the table and stretched his sore limbs, his naked body shining in the dim light of the fire, looking around for his friends he saw that he was still alone, where had they gone? Were they lost in the darkness of this huge cave and its many mysteries? As he looked into the dark where his friends had disappeared, he heard far in the distance a loud clanging sound and the faint echo of a bad word, it sounded like Elvan's voice and then he saw the faintest of glimmers from one of their light sticks, they must be coming back. Elios felt better and decided to open a few food cylinders for their return.

As he sat opening the food cylinders he could see the light getting stronger as the boys got closer until he could call out and they answered. There was definite excitement in their voices as they finally appeared from the dark, both were on their last light stick and were very happy to be back with their friend, it had been quite an adventurous dei.

The boys sat down at a table to eat their food, with a small smile of pride, Elios lifted the square cylinder up and told the boys.

"This is called, spam."

The two boys looked at Elios as though he was a mad boy like some of the ones that were put out into the night from the breeding caves when they came out wrong from their breeders as sometimes happened. Elam asked what he was talking about and how did he know what the ancient's symbols were. Elios began to explain his long day to them, how he had discovered what the symbols were and how he had worked them out. Both boys leaned back with awe on their young faces at the inventiveness of their smaller friend. Elvan picked up another cylinder and gave it to Elios to read, this one was easy for Elios as it only had three symbols, slowly he spoke out the symbols.

"Huh-arh-mmm, harm."

Boys clapped their hands at the revelation from their friend, it was true, he had broken the ancient secret of the symbols. Next Elios asked them about their searching, they regaled him with stories of hidden caves within the big one and all the wonders that were hidden inside them. It looked as though it was going to take them a lifetime to see it all and work out what it all was for. Their main concern was the lack of light to see it all, sooner or later they would run out of fire sticks and then they would be back in the dark. Elios got a thoughtful look on his young face and then confided in his friends once he had it worked out.

"If the ancients were that smart they would have some way of getting good light when they wanted it. There has to be something or somewhere that has light for them to see all their symbols all the time or they wouldn't have put the symbols on everything they made. All we have to do is search for it, next sunrise I'll start to look at the symbol blocks and see what I can find."

The others nodded their heads sagely as they looked at their friend as though he was a special person. For the first time in his short life, Elios had a deep feeling of pride at his accomplishments of the dei. Finally the long hard dei caught up with them and they both stripped off their breach-clouts and joined Elios under the cloth cover of their sleeping mat. Elam was the first to move in close to Elios small butt and begin to prod softly for entrance into his tight hole. It had been a couple of dei's since they had, had the strength to want to play a boys game and Elios was willing to let them find his small hole to play in.

Elios opened his legs a little wider and let Elam start to push in deeper and Elvan wrapped his strong arms around the smaller boy and put his lips to Elios and begin the slow kiss they all liked. Elios pushed his butt back so Elam could go as deep as he could and Elios would feel all that strong hard muscle move inside him with pleasure as Elvan covered his lips in a long soft kiss as Elam began to move in and out faster.

Both Elam and Elvan had their own likes when they played the boys game with Elios. Elam, like now, preferred to have Elios on his side so he could lift Elios upper leg high and go all the way deep inside his friend. Elvan liked it when Elios was on his hands and knees and he could mount him from behind and at the same time hold the small slim hips with his hands until he was close to spurting his boy juice. He would then grasp Elios smaller boy tool and pump him as fast as he could so he could feel Elios spasm inside when his juice shot out at the same time. Both boys always made sure that Elios was pleasured as much as they were when it came to the games.

As the sound of Elam's soft grunts got louder, Elios pushed back as far as he could and his lips and tongue hungrily sort out Elvan's mouth for his oral pleasure. Elvan's hard boy hood pushed with insistence against Elios soft stomach as Elam pushed in hard and held himself there as Elios felt the pulsing of the hard muscle inside his small butt. Soon it would be Elvan's turn so Elios sighed in contentment that his two closest friends looked after him in such a way.

Elvan then moved behind Elios as the boy got up on his hands and knees for him. Elam and Elvan always thought it was better for Elam to go first as he was thinner although longer than Elvan who was quite thick but shorter. Elvan spread open the small slim butt cheeks and rubbed his hot aching glans against the small hole that now had a little of Elam's boy juice leaking from the reddened hole. Slowly Elvan used the white boy juice to make his thickness slippery then began the slow push into the waiting heat. Elios grunted as the large head pushed through his tight muscle and then sighed with pleasure as the rest began to stretch and fill him. He was now going into that place where he always felt so good as Elvan began to push and pull his slim hips over his thick boy hood.

Elam regained his feeling and slipped under Elios soft body then began to swallow the smaller boy to his pubic bone as Elvan began to speed up with his thrusts and soon he gave his final strong push as deep into Elios as he could reach and fire out his boy juice inside the heat of Elios small tight hole. When he felt the tightening and pulsing of Elios losing his own boy juice, both boys shuddered with the intense feelings that overtook them in that moment of climax.

Elvan collapsed onto Elios back as the smaller boy did the same. Elam had just enough time to swallow the sweet taste of Elios and move from under him before the other two boys collapsed onto the sleeping mat, both exhausted by their efforts. A little later and all three were wrapped in each other's arms as they drifted off to sleep after a fantastic day of discovery and boy fun.

As the boys slept the wind outside became a roaring sand storm, these types of storms could last for days and would often kill anyone caught outside. The boys were unaware of the turmoil going on outside and slept in peaceful bliss as it raged on around their new cave. Unknown to the boys, their entrance was quickly becoming full of the windblown sand, but it was also hiding them away from any prying eyes that might have made them open to an attack.

The next morning was a time for putting together all they had learned the previous dei. Elios to his learning blocks, as he now called them, and the others were put to work with burnt sticks to draw a picture of their travels on the hard stone floor. As the fires burnt lower it was necessary for the boys to open more of the hard wud boxes, the contents were piled neatly in their place as Elios had asked. They were finding that there was an incredible amount of items hidden in the many boxes but Elios was determined to find all the answers in his learning blocks before they began to inspect any of them.

The main thing that confused Elios about the ancient's symbols was their need to double up on so many symbols. He could see no reason behind their need to do this. Elios decided to ignore the use of double symbols and just pronounce the words as though they had only one symbol. It became obvious after a short time that this made it easier to understand them.

After a long time had passed, Elios gave a small yelp of excitement, the other boys ran over to him.

"I think I've found how they made light," Elios told them.

The boys looked down on the table at the open learning block; at the top of the thin sheet of wud were the symbols for FIELD ACCESSORIES. Elios tried to explain what he thought the symbols meant according to the pictures in the block. In the picture, a man was standing in a dark cave, in his hand was a strange black cylinder and from the front of it was a ray of light; it looked even brighter than the sun. Elios spelled out the symbols under the picture.

FF-LL-ARH-SS-HUH-LL-II-GUH-HUH-TE

Both boys gave Elios a funny look but the boy held up his hand for them to wait while he ran the symbols over and over in his mind until they fell together like he had taught himself until finally he had the word.

"Flashlight"

To Elios it wasn't so much the word but what it meant and the picture explained that to him with ease. Somewhere the ancients had a cylinder that could make light, he had to find it and now that he knew what symbols to look for. Elios set all three of them to search every box until they found the same symbols. It took longer than he thought it would but, as they neared the last of the boxes he saw it. A box of about four hands on each side and the same high. Elios asked the other two too carry it closer to their fire, just the same as all the others, this one had the symbols of the man's name and a description of what was inside, in this case.

USMC
FLASHLIGHTS
20 UNITS BATT
20 UNITS ERGONOMIC

Elios understood the two tens as being the number of items and so surmised that there were two tens of each but he couldn't work out what a batt or ergonomic was, still he would see what he had and then try to understand the new symbols later.

Once at the fire, Elios quickly worked on the top and had the box open in no time. He was becoming very good at opening the hard wud boxes by now. Inside were rows of smaller soft wud boxes, there were two sizes of boxes, one was more square and the other was longer and wider. He removed one of each and laid them on the table. They were both the same colour as everything the man owned, a strange dull green but the hand drawn picture on the box told him what was inside each one.

Taking the longer one first he carefully opened it and tipped out the contents. There was one long round pipe with one end being bigger than the other and had a round clear gles face with a small gles thing inside. He turned it over and over in his hands then put it down, next he looked at the ten plus two smaller cylinders. They were quite heavy for their size but he now had another picture to work with as, on the back of the container that the smaller cylinders were in was a set of drawings and the symbols of fig 1, fig 2, fig 3. He didn't know what a fig was but the numbers told him all he needed to know, it was a picture of how to use the flashlight.

Elios looked carefully at the fig 1 and took up the long pipe and, fastening his hand around the bottom he twisted in the direction of the small spia. Much to his delight it began to unscrew and soon he had it off, he put both parts on the table and then looked at fig 2. Taking his bled out he carefully slit the soft gles covering on the ten plus two cylinders and took out three of them. After checking the fig 3 he turned them over until he saw the difference at each end.

When he was sure he had it correct he slid each cylinder in one by one and made sure to keep them facing the same way as in the fig 3 picture. Once done he looked at fig 4 and began to screw that piece back on to the long pipe. After that was done he looked at his item, it was now heavier than before but there was still no light coming from it, had he made a mistake? Elios went back to the fig pictures and ran everything through his mind again, no he had done everything right so, why was there no light. Turning the flashlight around in his hands for a while he suddenly realised that there was a very small part of the pipe that had a raised area and felt a little softer than the rest of the pipe. Shrugging his slim shoulders he pressed down on the soft area with the his finger, all three boys yelped with surprise as a strong beam of light erupted from the round gles end.

Instantly all three boys oohed loudly as they saw the beam stretch all the way to the furtherest dark recess of the cave, lighting it up like sun light or even brighter than the sun. Instantly the boys began a happy dance, not only for the new light but for the smartness of Elios marvellous mind and his ability to work out the secret of the ancient symbols. They now had a real light source to search the cave but Elios wasn't finished yet, he wanted to see what the other sort of flashlight was and how to use it.

Elios took out the smaller box and began to open it. It was obvious right from the start that this one was different apart from begin smaller. Using his bled he opened the small soft gles covering and took out the strange item. It had the same gles end but this one was facing off the side and not at the end. On the main part of the cylinder was a strange piece of thin metal, Elios lay it on the Table and went to look at the pictures of the figs.

Again following the numbers, Elios copied what they said. It was not long before he was pumping the small metal handle furiously as the light shone out from the gles, he stopped pumping the handle and watched as the light stayed on but as time went by he saw that it was losing some of its power. Being inquisitive, he began pumping again and the light got stronger again, now he understood. One flashlight was stronger but had to have the batt things. One was smaller but would always go as long as you squeezed the handle enough to keep it alight. All the boys were ecstatic at their new finds, Elios especially as he now knew he had learned the symbols correctly. From now one it would be easier to work things out as long as he had the fig pictures to help.

The boys decided to assemble one more flashlight each and take one of the ergonomic ones as a spare; they could now begin their real search of their new cave home. For all of them had agreed that this cave was theirs and it would be their home to come back to after they went searching, it was somewhere to call their own and a good base to work out from. The valley was small and didn't seem to attract much attention from other searchers so while the winds were howling outside they would put all their efforts into looking at all of their cave and then settle down to work out all the new treasures they had found.

And so their real search began. Elios, never being one to take things for granted, told the others to follow while he used only one flashlight at a time. He would take the lead for a while using his flashlight and then one of the others would take over with their light and so on until they had seen all of their marvellous cave system. They had put some cylinders of food in their sak's to take with them and had rolled up three of the sleeping cloths as well. They planned to stay on their search until they had seen everything they could in their new home cave.

Finally leaving the big cave it was only a few steps when Elios came to the first door, it was marked like all things to do with the ancients.

USMC
GALLEY

After working out the sound of the symbols, Elios pushed on the door, nothing happened and he turned to look at his two friends. Elam stepped forward and showed Elios how to wrap his hand around the knob on the door and turn it and push. The door easily opened at Elam's touch and Elios flashed his light around the cave, what he saw made him suck his breath in with awe.

The cave was larger than he thought it would be, everything was made of white shiny stone or bright shiny metal. The other two boys turned on their lights to look at all of the cave. It soon became apparent to Elios that this was used only for cooking although he couldn't see where they had their cooking fires but it was obvious it had never been used.

He looked around the tables and there, sure enough was a MANUAL it was a lot thicker and bigger than the ones he had so far seen but as soon as he opened it and saw the first fig picture he knew what he had for sure. The only thing that confused him was why they had two smaller caves in the same place. One was marked FREEZER and the other was marked COOLER at this stage he didn't know what they were but was sure his new MANUAL would tell him all he would need to know. After a final look around they decided to keep on with their search.

The next door was just across from the first and was marked DRY GOODS Elios turned the handle and pushed on the door, again he was struck with awe. If they had thought that their treasure was a lot then this cave dispelled that idea very quickly. The whole cave was lined with the shiny white stones, inside every spare space was covered in metal shelves and down the middle was a long metal box with small round knobs on it. The first thing to strike Elios was the fragrant smell of the cave, he didn't know what it was but it made his mouth water.

All the shelves were full of white sak's, soft wud boxes and row upon row of the food cylinders. Everything had its place marked with the ancient symbols which Elios soon worked out was what the item was. In the long metal box in the middle of the cave they found small soft and hard gles cylinders, inside were so many different seeds he was unable to comprehend what they were but the smell they gave off when he opened one was mouth watering and at the same time intriguing.

The boys left this cave to explore more. They knew it would take a long time to work out what everything was for but at this stage they were pretty sure it was all for cooking food. A little further along and they came to a new door, opposite was one marked with the same symbols. BUNK ROOM Elios ran the sound of the symbols out loud until he had it sounding right then he opened the door and flashed his light around.

It was a long cave, on the floor was a strange type of covering that was a brown colour, the sides were of the same dull green as the boxes had been and, in two long rows were some shelfs but these had their own legs to stand on. The boys moved close to the first one, it was square and made from a grey metal they had not seen before. In the middle it was covered in thin metal ropes that went from top to bottom and side to side, Elios pressed his hand down on the metal ropes and found that it bounced with the pressure. At the end closest to the Cave sides was a strange roll of something covered in the soft gles the ancients seemed to use a lot of, Elios also tried pushing on it, it too bounced under his hand.

Elios looked closer and sure enough there was a fig picture underneath the soft gles. Shining his flashlight on it he saw that it was all set out on how to open the gles and set out the items inside. Step by step Elios followed the fig picture, he also learnt that the gles was called PLASTIC after removing it he had unrolled the thick mat inside, after that he unfolded the white cloths then the two cloths that were the same as the ones they had for their sleeping mat. At the same time and after slowly sounding out each set of symbols, he learnt that each item had its own name.

The thick pad was called a MATTRESS the thin white ones were SHEETS and their sleeping cloths were called BLANKETS. Elios along with the help of his two friends set the items out on the BUNK just as the fig pictures showed him then, all three at the same time, jumped onto the sleeping platformcalled a BUNK.

They all loved the soft bouncy feel of the BUNK and then and there decided from now on they would sleep in here instead of on the harder floor although there would not be space for all three on one BUNK they were sure that they could come up with an idea to make that possible. There was no way they were going to sleep apart after spending their whole short lives together. After a little more playing on the BUNK they left the cave that Elios now called a ROM dropping the second O as he could see no need for it so from now on he would call all the smaller caves ROMS.

They left the BUNK ROM and continued their search until they came to the end of the passage where it then went both to their left and right. Elios asked his friends which way they searched last time. They told him they looked in both directions and there was as much interesting caves one way as the other. Elios decided to go left and the others followed along until they came to the first door. It was marked as being the USMC ADMINISTRATION. Elios opened the door and looked in. It was a very basic ROM there were two lines of tables each with one chair, on the table covered in PLASTIC were smaller boxes. One with a gles front and another with a number of metal ropes running from it. It seemed that these boxes were called IBM. He picked up one of the fig manuals and put it in his sak for later. There were also other items he couldn't put a fig to but was sure they had a special use. At the end of the ROM was a half wall behind which was another bigger table also with the same boxes and other things. Elios could not see what the ROM was for so closed the door and continued down the long passage until he came to a door marked GEN ROOM he opened the door and looked inside.

The three huge items meant nothing to Elios eyes but he quickly went in search of the MANUAL he just knew would be somewhere like in every other ROM. It took only a short time to locate what he wanted and so closing the door they went onward. Door after door they investigated until they came to what was obviously a very big metal door. In the centre was a large wheel with handles attached around the outside, the centre of the wheel had two large metal bars fitted on to it which ran across the width of the door and disappeared into the wall on either side, again the strange symbols of EXIT were on its surface.

By this time the boys had been searching for a long time and their stomachs were starting to grumble at the exercise and lack of food. As it seemed that this was the end of the passages in this direction, they all decided to stay here and eat then take a good long rest. They only knew by their stomachs that it must be late in the dei and so set about eating and laying out their sleeping mats.

Settling down to eat, Elios looked in his sak at all the new learning manuals he had collected. It was going to take him a long time to go through them all and find out what everything they had so far seen meant or could do for them, plus he still had all the other smaller ones back at the main cave to understand as well. Elios had also noticed that his flashlight was getting dimmer and so, while they ate, he added three new batts and put the others in his sak, no one in this dei and age wasted anything of value.

When the boys awoke, they still had no idea as to what time of day it was; they felt they had been searching for days but now it was time to head down the right hand passage and so they set out in that direction, but not before Elios had inspected the large strange door.

He noticed after a short time that there were two coloured buttons set on a small square box; one button was red and the other green; he pushed them in but nothing happened so he gave it away and they headed out for new discoveries.

Once they had made it to the junction of the passages, the boys rested for a little and then set off once again. The passage proved to be much like the other one with doors on both the right and left; each was investigated and its MANUALS put into Elio's sak which was now too heavy with all the other MANUALS he now carried and so they decided to put all their food in Elam's sak and Elvan took half of what Elios was carrying.

Finally they came once again to a large door but this one had different symbols to the other one; it was marked as being a

KEEP OUT RESERVOIR

This made no sense to Elios so he spun the centre wheel and pushed open the huge metal door then stepped fearlessly through into the dark beyond. Under his feet was a metal floor and the sound of his steps echoed around him; he felt the slight chill in the air and a dampness surrounded him; he lowered his flashlight and gasped in awe of the sight before him.

The two boys followed him inside and, as they also lowered their weakening lights; the same sense of awe took their breaths away. For as far as they could see in the dimming lights was water; even from the height that they stood above it, they could tell it was clear and clean. It was more water than they had ever seen in one place; from the side of the huge lake, for that's what they thought it was; large pipes ran down deep until they disappeared into the darkness below.

Elios wondered why the ancients would put such big pipes into the water unless they could take the water out somehow; he would have to investigate this mighty lake further.

Too the side of the metal floor that they stood on was the ladder of the same shining metal; it led straight down into the water. Handing his light to Elam; he asked them both to keep the light on the ladder while he went down to taste the water too make sure it was fresh enough to drink from; if it was they would have to find some way of carrying some back to the main cave.

Elios carefully made his way down the metal ladder until his feet touched the water. It was surprisingly cold; Elios carefully lowered his slim body further down the ladder until he had half his small body in the water; his skin tingled with the chill but it felt good as his blood cooled.

Hooking one arm around the ladder he leant forward and took a little water in his hand; bringing it to his lips he sipped. The chill and freshness of the water hit his throat and he sighed with pleasure; the water was pure and drinkable; they would never have to fear thirst again.

Now if they could find a way they could now wash themselves; they had all noticed that their bodies were now very dirty and had a bad smell about them.

Elios made his way back to the metal floor and then waited as first, Elam and then Elvan made the same trip down to the water. Afterwards the boys; now dripping wet, decided to make it back to the main cave and end their adventure; they all now carried so many MANUALS that it was going to take forever to find out the secrets of the ancients.

Elios resolved to teach his friends how to read them. It was the only way he could think of being able to get through them all.

They finally made it back to the main cave; they were tired and hungry but felt a sense of elation at what they had done so far. They had no idea how long they had been in their new home but that didn't worry them; here they had everything they needed and they were safe from any attacks.

After a good meal they went to the BUNKROOM and set about making two bunks into one by pushing them together and by unwrapping another sleeping pad and blankets and laying them crosswise over the two bunks. A short time later and all three were collapsed on the makeshift double bunk and fast asleep; too worn out to play any boy games.

When they finally awoke; all three boys still felt stiff and tired from their long search but, not being lazy boys they returned to the main cave and ate their morning meal; it was then Elios set about teaching the others to learning the MANUAL symbols.

It took a while but the other boys were also quick learners and so it was time to set out and find what the ancients had hidden for so long.

The largest manuals were from the rooms of the left passage so Elios lay them on a table and began to slowly read them. The ones from the right passage went on another table and Elvan began on them; the thin ones that Elios had found first were Elam's task as he was the slowest of the three at learning the symbols and the first manuals were smaller.

They knew the task would take a long time and had opened all the boxes with the BATT FLASHLIGHT inside them and taken out all the BATTS too use in the ones they already had.

Slowly as the time passed by the BATTS ran lower and lower until there was barely a glimmer from any of them; The boys had, had too change to the hand ones and the steady sound of the pump actions echoed around the room as they continued to learn.

Many times they had eaten and slept; Elam had found one room that was called a HEAD that they used for their body waste. It was a strange room in that it was covered in the white square blocks of stone from floor to roof and had strange metal seats with a large hole in it.

It was totally by accident that Elam had used it for his waste but he soon found it was a nice way to discharge when sitting over the hole; now all three boys used it although the smell did not go away when one hole filled they had to go to another even though there was a little water in each hole.

It was also by accident that Elam found out what the white rolls of what he now knew was called PAPER were used for when he ejected his first waste in the hole. He had been looking for something to wipe himself and had only grabbed the paper in frustration; when it unrolled neatly in his hand he could do nothing else but use it.

Afterwards he told the others about it and now they all did the same, the only thing puzzling them was why the ancients had not found a way of getting rid of the waste once the hole was full.

The closest the boys could get to numbering the dei's that passed was by how many times they had too sleep. Elios thought they had now been inside for about two plus ten dei's, the last ten plus five days they had spent every moment learning from the manuals.

It was as Elios opened another manual to start reading that something caught his eye; it was the one marked as coming from the GEN ROOM all the pictures showed a long strip of light coming from the roof; quickly Elios went to the best form of information in the manuals, the fig pictures.

Slowly he went through all the fig pictures; his excitement growing as he read what he now knew was called a page. One after another as he followed the fig pictures. Finally he could hold it in no longer; he jumped up and did his happy dance around the floor yelping in glee as it all began to make sense; at last, he knew how the ancients could see down here in the dark.

Elam and Elvan looked at him as though he was one of the mad boys from a bad breeder; both of them called out to him in unison.

"What, what, what are you doing?"

"It's my happy dance; I've found it; I've found out how the ancients made light and things; do you remember the rom we found called the FUEL ROOM?"

"Yes, what about it; there wasn't much there just those huge tall cylinders with that foul smelling stuff in them."

Elios mind went back to the room, when they had gone inside it appeared to be just a very small room with a thick stone wall and two more doors one at each end. They both had pictures of zigzag yellow things and another picture of a red fire on them but the symbols had said one was DIESEL and the other had said GASOLINE with big symbols that said DANGER. There had been nothing of interest in the two rooms and they didn't like the smell in either one; now Elios had the answer why the ancients would keep such foul smelling things in their normally neat and tidy cave.

"Well that stuff in there is to make something called a GENERATOR work and it makes something called POWER for all the roms and tools in here."

"So how do we make it all work?" asked the ever practical Elam.

"I think I've got it worked out as long as I follow the fig pictures; we have to go to the FUEL ROOM first and then to the GEN ROOM down the other passage; if we get it right then all sorts of things will work; it says here even the HEAD will work to clean itself in some sort of way."

The boys didn't hesitate to grab their lights and pump them up to full light. Leaving everything behind except for the special GEN MANUAL they hurried away to the FUEL ROOM. Once inside, Elios opened his manual and began to read again the instructions for opening the pipe for the diesel cylinders that lead to the GEN ROOM.

The diesel cylinders were huge, they measured well over four lengths high and many more lengths around; on the front of each of the two plus ten cylinders was a number that the boys could not comprehend. The first two numbers were familiar as they made the sign for ten but after that were three more 0's and none of the boys had ever seen that many 0's before; it was a huge amount, it read

10,000 GALS

Elios went to the last cylinder in the long line and, following the fig pictures; began to open the round VALVES between each of the cylinders that he now knew were called TANKS. When he opened the last one he then went to a square box near the door and opened a larger VALVE.

When all was ready he looked at the other two boys and they left to do the same in the GASOLINE ROOM next door. Now at least he knew that all the fuel supplies were ready for whatever they were need for and so the boys ran off towards the GEN ROOM.

The boys piled into the GEN ROOM and Elios took out the GEN MANUAL, starting at fig 1 he began what the ancients called; START UP PRE CHECK. Following the figs he checked the coolant and oil; next he read the fig pictures and after they had searched around the large room they found the shelf that had a lot of oblong black BATT on it.

There were over four plus ten of them, next he set up two of the BATT on the GEN marked as #1; it took him some time to work out how to put the short metal rope between the two BATT and then hook up the two long metal ropes that ran from the side of the GEN. He had to make sure that he followed the fig properly and got the red rope on the round knob that was marked with a + and the black rope on the one marked with a - ; next he went to what was called the FUEL PRIMER PUMP and after studying the fig closely he worked out how to make the fuel fill the pump.

Next came the start up from the SWITCH BOARD which was a large metal wall close to the GEN; again following the fig picture, he turned the first switch to MANUAL START then with shaking hands he turned a yellow metal key and shakily reached for the red START BUTTON. Instantly there came a deep rumbling from the GEN as it began to turn inside until; with a loud coughing sound; it roared into life which scared the boys so much that they ran out into the passage in case it exploded; but instead it settled down to a loud throbbing as it found its tempo.

Elios went back inside to look at the PANEL as he had seen in the figs; in the round gles fronted dial he watched as the REV stayed steady at 3500 with only a small waver as the GEN throbbed on; next he turned the first SWITCH back to AUTO as the fig showed.

Elios read the next fig as it told him to push the BREAKER SWITCH TO ON; he looked at the fig and then saw the first BREAKER SWITCH was marked as LIGHTING; above it was another smaller SWITCH with a red light showing next to a dull green one.

Elios pushed the BREAKER SWITCH down to the ON position as in the fig; next he reached up to the smaller one and with trembling fingers he turned it to the ON position. As soon as he did that, many things seemed to happen at the same time.

Firstly the red light died and the green one started to shine; the GEN seemed to lose a little of its throb then came back strong again but; the most amazing thing to happen was from the passage. It started as a soft buzzing and then there was a flickering and suddenly there was a great glare of bright white light from the passage although the GEN ROOM stayed almost dark apart from the strong light shining in from the passage.

The three boys ran outside and looked down the passage; in the roof were long gles strips that were now lit brightly; they could now see as far as they wanted too without using their flashlights. Elios looked back into the darker GEN ROOM and wondered why there was no light in there so he went to have a look as the others stood and marvelled at the magic of the ancients.

It was only by sheer luck that Elios put his hand out too lean against the wall as he pondered on the problem of the darkness of the room. Under his hand he felt something move and as it did the GEN ROOM flooded with the same bright white light.

Elios lifted his hand and looked at the wall; all he could see was a square plastic box with a thin flat surface. Elios reached out and pushed with his finger and almost jumped in surprise when the lights went out and he was again in darkness; pushing again and the light returned; so that was how they did it, he thought to himself; his face flushed with success he then went back to check everything again.

Returning to the BREAKER BOARD he followed the figs and; as he turned on breaker after breaker; each time making the GEN slow and then speed up again as each red light turned green; he felt a true sense of accomplishment as first the PUMPS then something called A/C VENT then LIFTS followed by such strange things as ADMIN, SECURITY SYS, REFRIG, and many more green lights came on until the entire BOARD was lit up with green lights.

By then, Elam and Elvan had joined him and they began to ready the other two GENS and set them on AUTO START as the fig said. Finally they were left with only the small GEN that sat behind the others; this one was marked as the EMERG GEN, AUTO START, LIGHT AND VENT ONLY.

Elios and the others set about readying that the same as the others although this one was smaller and required only one BATT. Then, with light hearts and huge smiles they ran back to their main room. Everywhere there was bright light; Elios showed the others how to make the lights come on and off in the smaller rooms.

When they reached the main room there was another surprise waiting for them; from the GALLEY the could hear the sound of water falling and so they rushed to the door and; after feeling around for the flat plate by the door; the lights came on to show the boys where the sound was coming from.

At one side of the GALLEY was a line of metal shelves that had had the middles pushed down in a square shape with a hole at the bottom. What was more interesting was the small pipe that ran from the wall. It had a small lever on top and from its mouth was pouring clean fresh water.

The boys ran to it and with their hands began to scoop up the first fresh water they had had since the finding of the KEEP OUT RESERVOIR; the boys drank their fill and then out of nothing more than curiosity; Elam reached for the lever and turned it; the water stopped immediately. Elam turned it the other way and the water ran strong and fresh again.

Elvan had been watching Elam's game with interest until something clicked inside his head and he ran off towards the room called HEADS. Going inside he looked at the places they had used to get rid of their wastes.

The smell had gone a little but was still strong even though he could feel a new brush of fresh air from somewhere in the room. Taking a step towards the first and oldest used seat he reached out for the lever that was marked as FLUSH; he pushed the lever down and although he was a little surprised at the result; it didn't surprise him as much as the starting of the GEN had.

From somewhere came a strong torrent of water which swirled around the seat and with a speed that made him smile; Elvan watched their built up old waste disappear through the hole on the bottom of the seat. Jumping up with joy he set about pushing the lever on each seat they had used until all of them were again nearly clean; there were only some old dark marks around the edges but already the smell was getting less as new air came into the room. Elvan ran back to tell the others what he had found out and to let them know how to keep the HEAD cleaner.

The boys sat around one of the tables and discussed their new found skills while they each ate from another cylinder of SPAM and decided what they would do next. Elvan wanted to find some way of getting hot food; he thought he would like to look into the GALLEY as he had been reading about what it was used for. Elam wanted to go to the GARAGE; something deep inside him had been moved by the fig pictures of the MANUALS he had read about something called VEHICLES. Elios decided he would look into the ADMIN OFFICE to see what it was used for. Each agreed to meet back here when they had found out enough of what interested them the most.

Elam had no idea what it was that was pulling him to the GARAGE but it was something deep inside him. Once there and with the new help of the white lights he could see the full extent of the GARAGE. It was huge and full of the VEHICLES he had been reading about since the first day. Everything was neatly lined up in its own place. Along one wall was a line of ten QUADS next to them was a line of six JEEPS and across the floor against the other wall was a line of eight HUMVEES but what really caught Elam's eyes was parked in the middle of the GARAGE. There stood in all their powerful glory were three APC.
[HUMVEE, actually HMMWV, High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle; APC = Armoured Personel Carrier].

Of all the VEHICLES in the GARAGE these were the biggest and most terrifying to look at. Unlike the others these had strange flat plates instead of the round wheels although they had a lot of small wheels inside the long flat plates. Mounted on the top was a round cylinder from which projected two thick pipes that pointed to the front. The total VEHICLE had only one door in the side and a larger one at the back. At the very front were small dark gles windows; this VEHICLE was the one most favoured by Elam when he had read the MANUALS.

It had power, space and it was said it could go anywhere if the DRIVER was well trained. Elam wanted to be that DRIVER he was sure the other VEHICLES would be just as much fun but this one was a giant; he just knew that nothing in their world would ever stop it. Elam set to work with his DRIVER MANUAL as he walked around his new beast. That was what he was going to call it, the 'Beast'.

While Elam was salivating over his 'Beast', Elvan had entered the GALLEY. At first everything was a confusion for him but he took out his favourite MANUAL and began to follow the fig picture just as Elios had taught him. From the two large metal doors he could hear a humming. He opened the first one and was met with a blast of such cold air it almost took his breath away.

His skin puckered up in goose bumps at the blast. Quickly he closed the door and went to the next one; it was also humming but on opening the door, while it was cold, it was not as cold as the one marked FREEZER. This would be a good place to stand when he got to hot but the MANUAL said it was for storing food that might spoil in the heat. This would come in handy if he could work out how to cook a lot of food he could keep it in here and not have to cook so often.

Elvan's next challenge was to turn on the OVENS; this he knew would take time and he had to follow the MANUAL carefully to make sure it all worked. First he found the room marked with yellow flashes and pictures of red fires. Once inside he saw the lines and lines of tall metal cylinders, these he knew from the figs were GAS CYLINDERS and were very dangerous if he made a mistake. Following the figs carefully, he set about connecting one to a small pipe that went through the wall to the GALLEY. Once it was connected he carefully turned the VALVE and listened for any hissing of escaping gas as the fig had showed; he returned the SPANNER to its place on the wall where he could find it again and went back to the inner GALLEY.

Going to the first OVEN Elvan went through the figs for starting it. It was only moments later that he tentatively began to push the fire button after turning on the gas button; he could hear and smell the gas coming from the small holes around the ELEMENT. With a trembling finger he began to push the start button; on the second push there was a soft WOOSH and the ELEMENT was alight with small round blue flames. The heat was extraordinary to Elvan, much more than an open fire like he was used to. Next he went in search of what the manual called a COOKERY BOOK; these he found on one of the shelves, in fact he was taken aback a little at the number of them.

Inside the COOKERY BOOK he saw so many food wonders he didn't know where to start or what to look at first. There was so much and so many words for everything; turning off the gas on the OVEN he picked up one of the COOKERY BOOKS and began to read all the words but; without seeing the items it was very difficult but it did lead him to begin to search all the cupboards and other rooms for something familiar. The room he liked the best was the one marked as LARDER; inside was so much food of all kinds, most of it not even seen before.

There were things like, SPICES, FLOUR, SUGAR, POWDERED EGGS, POWDERED MILK, SAUCES, MUSTARDS, TINNED CHEESE, TINNED BUTTER and so much more; all of which he had no idea what it was but he was determined that in time he would learn about it all. The one thing he did find six of in a drawer made him smile as he looked at his MANUAL to find out what they were.

Elvan put three of them close to the door so he would not forget them; they would be a special present for his friends. Elvan continued on his investigation of what he now considered his GALLEY.

Not far away Elios stood alone in the ADMIN OFFICE; the room seemed dead and still; only the new lighting made it look interesting. All the tables with their solitary chair looked forlorn as he looked around. He could feel the cool air on the bare skin of his ankles as the draft came through the small square holes at the bottom of the walls.

Elios decided that most things would come from the big room that was marked as O/C OFFICE. Going in there he saw so much more; behind the large wud table was a single large black chair and in front were two more slightly smaller ones of the same design.

Elios went to the one at the back and sat down only to quickly jump back on his feet as the chair began to move back and around as he touched it. He stood back up and played with the chair for a short time until he thought he understood what it did and finally carefully sat down again. The first thing he noticed was his legs were to short to touch the floor and, as he leaned back in the chair it tipped back with him until he was almost lying down in it.

Elios laughed at himself and carefully sat up again; it was then that he noticed the plastic covered item on the desk. The symbols read, SYS SETUP. Elios opened it and looked at all the words; it was headed in red symbols.

COMMAND BUNKER #42 SECURITY SYSTEMS SETUP, GEN HARPER, EYES ONLY

Elios read on as the rest of the symbols returned to the normal black.

Setup procedure: activate Sec. Sys. code 22987002

Activate Safe Sec. Sys. Code 13497

Activate Sec Card Code. O/C Gen. Harper 11356. Exec. Off. Col. Benson 11357. 3^rd Off. Maj. Adams 11358

Above codes active all areas.

Elios looked at the meaningless words but he knew deep down inside they were very important to their new home. Elios went back to the start and read again the first of the Sec Sys codes.

There had to be something here he was missing; he sat back in the comfortable chair and looked around the room slowly swivelling the marvellous chair as he went. Where he had come in there was a thick gles wall so he could see into the other room where all the small tables were. To his right was a blank wall that looked as though it was also made of gles but he couldn't see through it; maybe it was just a shiny wall like some of the other special rooms like the ABLUTION room he had seen. Directly behind him was a green painted stone wall and too his left was another plain wall with a grey box half way up the wall.

Elios began to spin around for another look and then stopped dead. Slowly he turned back to the grey box and looked closer. There were small words on it; he left the chair and walked to the box.

Elios read the two words and almost hugged himself with glee for it read SEC SYS and on the front of the box was a smaller one made from plastic by the look of it. On the surface was a small plastic pad with the ten numbers he knew so well.

Elios went back to the table and picked up the plastic FILE. Carefully he pushed in the numbers on the FILE; as he finished the last number there was a loud click and the door opened to reveal two rows of buttons with a red and green light above each one.

The red light was on all of them except for two marked in green as ACTIV all the red ones read INACTIV now he knew what the words meant. Active was the same as start and inactive was the same as stop.

Quickly he looked at the two rows of buttons and, pulling a low table over to the box to make it easier for his shorter height; Elios started to throw all the switches to ACTIV; as he threw the last one marked as Security Systems he nearly fell off the table as everywhere around him yellow lights flashed and a loud screaming sound erupted from the walls. Before he could react everything stopped as fast as it had started but the light bar at the bottom showed him in green ALL SYSTEMS ACTIVE, COMMAND CODES INTACT AND ACTIVE.

Elios returned to his big chair and looked around. He could see through the gles wall that all the small boxes on the tables were now lit up and lights on and in them were flashing as a strange picture went back and forth over the gles of the small box on the table. Elios spun the chair again and looked around his room while he read again the next words in the FILE.

What was a Safe Sec Sys? Elios kept looking until he saw behind him another square box with the same number box on it; was it really that easy for the ancients? Elios got up and turned around to the new box.

Again following the numbers he pushed them in and got the same result as before; there was a click and the small light turned green. With a light pull the door opened to reveal another plastic file; he took it out and laid it on the table and sat down again.

Once sitting he opened the new file; in it there were three small plastic cards with life like pictures of three different men. One was of a very old ancient looking man who must have been all of six plus ten yarn, he had never seen someone so old, had he been alive today he would have been a very important man for his age and the next one also. He must have been about five tens plus five, how they could live for so long was beyond Elios understanding. The third man was about as old as he had ever seen a man, about four tens plus five, Elios matched the names of the men with his first FILE.

It was as he was putting the three cards in line on the table that he noticed that the black square box on his table was now lit up with a funny picture; it was a circle with a large bird in the middle; around the base of the picture was the now familiar name of the ancient that owned all this stuff.

USMC

A thin white box with a flashing black line caught his eye and he tried to make sense of the new words.

ENTER PASSWORD

What was a PASSWORD; now Elios was getting really confused; the word ENTER he could now understand but the other one was new to him. Elios sat back and looked at the flashing thin line.

After thinking for some time and only as a means to stop his frustration at all the strange new words he kept finding. Elios stretched his finger out to the thin black box in front of the picture box; on it there were a great number of symbols and numbers as well as a lot of unknown marks. Slowly he pressed the small squares with the numbers on them and saw that only funny little stars came up in the box. He continued to make up the numbers he had for the C/O GEN HARPER from the FILE. As the last number was pushed into the small box he stopped and waited for something to happen like last time he had used all the numbers but nothing did.

The white strip continued to flash but this time it kept showing the words; PRESS ENTER below the white strip. Elios sat and looked at the words as they flashed on and off; at last he looked down at the thin black box in front of him and saw one of the squares had the same word ENTER on it. With one finger he pressed the square and to his amazement there was a strange whirring sound from a large box below the table and the gles window in front of him went blue for a short time and then a picture of a strange scene appeared.

The picture was so real he almost reached out to touch it. The ground was covered in a deep green the likes of which he had never seen; it covered the hill from top to bottom.

On top was a huge tree but it was a live tree with green leaves not like all the dead trees he had always seen; above was a deep blue sky. The picture stirred something deep in Elios mind as he looked at it; could this have been what it was like before the HORROR? Just then; from somewhere deep in the BUNKER #42 Elios heard something that sounded like two deep loud coughs and then a loud roaring sound; it was even louder than when they had started the GEN.

Elios jumped to his feet and began to run towards the harsh sound and nearly collided with Elvan as he appeared from the GALLEY heading in the same direction as Elios. Each boy gave the other a somewhat fearful look as they ran. Elam must be in trouble they both thought and kept on running towards the roaring sound; they could both feel a vibration under their bare feet as they ran.

By following the sound they soon found themselves standing in the doorway of the room marked as the GARAGE. In the middle of the room was a very large metal box with strange flat metal plates running over a lot of smaller wheels; from the back there was a small plume of smoke that made their eyes water. As they watched a flat metal door opened in the front and out popped the head of Elam; he had what Elios would describe as the biggest smile he had ever seen on the boy's face.

Elam waved at his two friends as his face tried to split into two parts at his lone victory. Elios tried to shout over the noise of the large box but Elam waved his hand and disappeared once again into the box only to appear a short time later as the noise of the box died. The following silence almost stunned the two boys as they watched a still smiling Elam jump down from the box and walk over to them.

The boys were not in the habit of using bad words but this was one of those times that Elios could not avoid it.

"What the frik is that?"

With a sense of pride in his voice, Elam told them.

"It's called an APC it's for carrying people and other things; the other ones are for the same thing but carry less. Those over there are called QUADS and those are JEEP and the other ones are called HUMVEE; I think the ancients used them for fighting. If we use them outside then no one can hurt us as long as we stay inside them."

Elvan suddenly yelped and rushed out of the GARAGE without a word; Elios looked at the large box in awe.

"How did you get it to start?" He asked the still smiling Elam.

"I did what you have been doing; I found the MANUAL and followed all the fig pictures; the only problem is how do we get it outside? There must be a way or the ancients could not have got it in here."

"It has to be the big door but I don't know how it opens yet; I think I might have found a way but it's going to take more work yet," replied Elios. "Did you try starting the other ones yet?"

"Not yet; I wanted to try this one first; the others should be easy after all the problems I had with this one. I think they all work much the same except for their fuel; this one works with the DIESEL but the other ones work with that other fuel GASOLINE."

"Did you carry the DIESEL all the way from down at the TANKS?"

"No you don't have too; you get it out of those pipes over there," said Elam pointing to an oblong box with four pipes attached to it; two were marked as DIESEL and the other two as GASOLINE.

Just as Elam was about to go into a long explanation of his dei's work; a loud yell came from way back down the passage; it was Elvan calling them to come and eat. At the mention of food both boy's stomachs rumbled in complaint at the lack of sustenance. Elios started to giggle at the duet in their stomachs and they both began to run towards the main room but; as they neared the GALLEY Elvan poked his head out of the door.

"In here."

For the first time the two boys noticed a really nice smell coming from the GALLEY as they walked in. Now it was Elvan's turn to smile broadly as the boys looked at a table which had metal plates and pots on it from which came the best food smell both boys had ever come across.

"What did you do?" asked Elam.

"It's food the ancients used to cook; it's all in the MANUALS; this one is called SPAGHETTI."

Elvan pointed to a pot full of what looked like white worms; it was covered in something a lot like blood and had wud dust over the top; to Elios eyes it didn't look all that good but the smell was like nothing he had ever smelt before; his mouth was watering just on the smell.

"This one is called a PIE."

The two boys looked at the flat metal plate; it had a white top that had been browned by a fire and mixed underneath was what looked like small pieces of spam with other vegetables from the CANS of food they had taken from their treasure. It looked a lot better than the SPAGHETTI and also smelt just as good.

What amazed the two boys the most were the three large gles containers sitting on the table. They were filled with fresh water but what amazed them the most was the small square pieces of gles floating on the top. Elios poked one of the squares with a finger; immediately he pulled his finger out; not only was the gles very cold but the water also was very, very cold; he looked at Elvan with askance.

"It's called ICE that box over there makes it from water."

Elam went to a tall white box on one wall and opened the door just as there was a rattling sound from inside. Elios and Elam went to the box and watched as a lot of small squares of the ICE dropped into a plastic box in the bottom; the box was nearly full. Elios picked one out and with fascination watched as it changed back into water from the heat of his hand even though his hand was colder than the night wind he couldn't let it go as he was struck by the magic of it all.

"Let's eat," called Elvan as he sat at the table and began to use a strange tool to pick up a big pile of the SPAGHETTI and put it on a metal plate. Next he used a large spoon to pile up some of the PIE on the same plate; with his fingers he picked up a hand full of the white worm looking stuff and pushed it in his mouth; slurping and sucking until it was all in then chewed and smiled in triumph; "Come one hurry up before it gets cold again"

Being to hungry to argue with Elvan, the two boys followed his example although they were a little more circumspect at putting it in their mouths; that is until they tasted it and then it became a study in gluttony as they began to try to push more and more into their mouths without swallowing. This truly was an amazing food and it was also the first hot food they had had since leaving the breeding caves.

When the meal was all over, the boys belched loudly and giggled, they were now all looking the same except for Elam who, along with the red sauce dribbling from his chin with splashes on his chest like the other two; had also some black smudges still on his fingers and face from his attempt at starting the APC.

Looking at his two friends; Elam suggested they go to the room marked as KEEP OUT RESERVOIR and wash up which brought a laughing admission from Elvan.

"No need for that; watch and I'll show you how we can get clean."

Elvan went over to the deep metal basin with the two levers and, with a grin at his friends; pushed the lever over; to their amazement water poured from the pipe in a torrent; as Elvan put his hands under the pipe he began to rub them together; the sauce washed quickly down the hole in the middle; the others watched in fascination at the ease of getting water and, just as they were about to go to the same pipe to wash; Elios got a smile on his face.

"I think I know a better way to wash; let's go to the ABLUTION place; it's got the same levers on the wall."

The boys left Elvan's GALLEY and went down the passage to the ABLUTION room; sure enough there were levers on the wall placed two to each large round plate hanging from the roof with holes in them.

With a certain glee; Elios shed his now grimy breach-clout and jumped under one of the round plates; next he pushed down the lever with a red dot on it and waited as the water began to shoot out at great speed; moments later he screeched and jumped back from the water jet, scaring the others as he did so.

"What's wrong?" asked Elam.

"It tried to cook me, look; the water is so hot its smoking."

The boys looked at the steaming hot water; Elvan put his hand very tentiveley under the spray and then pulled it back quickly when he felt the heat.

"The ancients could not have washed in water that hot; there has to be a way to make it colder," said Elvan.

The three boys looked at the lever and finally Elios carefully reached past the hot spray and pushed the other lever fully down; he waited a short time and then stretched his hand out to try again; this time the water was very close to cold; sucking in a deep breath, he stepped back under the water and then slowly began to experiment with the two levers; soon he had a nice temperature by altering both levers and; after telling the others he began to rub his naked body while the water washed over him; he was soon in a state of bliss as the hot water did its work on his dirty and tired body.

Even after all the sauce had disappeared the boys stayed under the wonderful hot water sprays; only Elam still had smudges of the black gunk on his face and hands; even the hot water would not remove them no matter how hard he rubbed his skin; at last they had had enough and turning off the levers went back to the main room to use another of the grey cloths to dry off with.

Elios thought it strange that the ancients had no way of removing the black smudges that were on Elam's skin but shrugged and forgot about it for the moment; all three boys felt full to bursting after the huge hot meal; their normally slender stomachs were now distended and all they could think about was going to their communal bunk and sleeping; even the thought of a boy game could not stop them from closing their eyes and falling into the deepest sleep they had had in a long time.

The next dei they all rose and went for a small meal and then worked out what was going to happen to each of them; Elvan was going back to his GALLEY to experiment more with all the new foods as well as start to pack the LARDER with what was still in the main room; Elios said he was going back to the ADMIN to try and work out how to open the large metal door so they could go outside; they had not seen the sun now for almost a full mune; Elam was going to work on the other TRANSPORTS as he had found out they were called, so they could all go together to explore their new place; the thought of the Oshun had been lost in the excitement of their treasure find and the new home they now had.

All dei the boys worked at their chosen tasks; Elvan found out about new foods; sometimes working out things from the fig pictures and sometimes just stumbling upon new ideas and ways to make things. Elam used mostly the same principles on all the other TRANSPORTS as he had on the first one; although he had to change things according to which MANUAL he was reading; everything became easier as he got more and more used to reading the MANUALS; although he didn't understand all the words and what they meant but his innate interest in the TRANSPORT solved many of his problems.

Elios sat stiffly in the great chair and worked through MANUAL after MANUAL as he tried to understand the Sec. Sys. things; it was late in the dei and he had made a lot of advancement; even to the extent of finding out how to ACTIVATE the three code cards; he had a deep suspicion they would open the great door; he was about to leave as his stomach was again rumbling in complaint when he pushed another set of numbers into the gles window on the table; instantly he heard a humming to his right; turning around he watched in awe as most of the blank gles wall lit up showing a funny pattern in black outline with a brown colour background; inside the pattern were a large number of red lights and one green one; the green one was on the left side of the pattern very close to the edge; the red lights were spread all over; looking closer he smiled broadly at what he was looking at.

In small symbols above the green light was written #42; checking over the red lights he saw them all with the same symbol only with a different number; the rest of the wall was covered in a blue colour; it was a picture of the land they lived in and showed where they were now; looking at it, Elios began to get the feeling that their land was very big; much bigger than anyone had ever thought.

Elios sat down again and began to think; if they could work out how to stop at each of the other CONTROL BUNKERS; they would be able to look at all their land everywhere and not worry about having to find shelter or food; just as a matter of accident; Elios began to idly push a small black oval that had sat on the table close to the window; it took a while for it to penetrate his mind but eventually his idle movements caught his eye as he saw what looked like a spia point moving around the window.

Elios looked down at his idle hand in wonder; out of fascination he pushed and pulled the oval around the table and watched the spia point move in the same direction on the gles in front of him; going to the green light; he put the point on the light and pushed down on the loose bit of plastic on the oval; quickly the picture flashed and then began to change.

It was with awe that Elios soon was looking at a new picture; it wasn't until he walked up close to the wall that he understood what he was looking at. It was another picture of their home but there was much more to it than what they knew so far; at the top of the picture was a crooked blue line that showed the rooms they now knew so well; it also had a red line leading off the back of the GARAGE ROOM that they didn't know about; by the look of the picture it was underneath them and again there were so many rooms down there; he looked at the symbols on the new rooms.

REC ROOM
ARMOURY
RIFLE RANGE
SMALL ARMS RANGE
GYMNASIUM
POOL
SAUNA
MALL SHOPS

and another line which was black went below again to show a single room marked MAINFRAME; Elios looked at all the new rooms and really began to wonder just how big their new home was; there was enough here to keep them under the ground for many mune; Elios stomach rumbled again to tell him it was time to call it a dei and get some food; he turned from the gles wall and started walking back to the main room in deep concentration.

Once back in the GALLEY Elios looked at his two friends; both looked clean and fresh and they had a strange smell to them; it wasn't unpleasant but Elios had never smelled anything like it except for one flower he had found a long time ago when he was small; the two boys smiled at him; even Elam had lost all the black smudges from his skin, Elios looked enquiringly at them.

Elam spoke first.

"I found it in the ABLUTION there's a box on the wall full of these small yellow blocks; when I smelled them I thought they were something special; I put one under some water and it went all fluffy and felt good on my hands; I got under the hot water and rubbed myself with it and I got all clean and smelled good as well; what should we call it?"

Elios stood shaking his head at the discovery; both his friends looked so clean, he couldn't think of anything to say; Elvan had also been busy and there was a new type of food to eat as well as some strange tools to eat it with; all their lives they had eaten with their fingers so when Elvan explained what the tools were for it took him a little time to understand it all; the ancients certainly had some strange ways but most of them seemed good ideas so far.

Elam spoke up again.

"There's another box in there as well; it has all these cloths for drying you; they're all white with a blue line across them and really soft; there must be tens of tens of them; why don't you go and try it like we did, we can eat after you get washed."

Elios could only nod his head and walk away to the ABLUTION to wash; there was just so much going on each day and the longer they worked at the ancient mysteries the easier it got to understand a lot of it. Elios stood and washed himself with the new found yellow blocks; he had to admit that Elam had really found a most interesting item; the white cloths were even better; when he was dry he returned to the GALLEY and sat down with his friends as they all tried to use the new eating tools.

After the meal was finished the boys sat and talked about their dei; Elios gave each of his friends one of the plastic cards and tried to explain as best he could what they might be for; they both nodded and looked over the strange cards then put them in their sak before going to their sleeping bunk for the rest of what they thought would be dark time.

At what they thought was the next sunrise; the boys decided they would all go with Elam and try out the TRANSPORT things; Elam thought it would be best to try the QUADS first so they could get used to the strange items; it was also a chance to see if the cards they had would open the big metal door and give them a chance to see outside; they had tried to go back out the entry pipe but it was now full of sand from the high winds earlier.

Once in the GARAGE Elam went to three of the QUADS and checked them according to the MANUAL while Elios and Elvan went to the big door; Elvan looked to one side while Elios did the same on the other side; it was Elvan that found the small box with the numbers; calling Elios to show him how the card was used, he watched as the boy put the card in the slot on the side and pulled it down; Elios next pushed in the numbers for his card 11356 immediately there was deep seated rumbling sound and the boys stood back just as Elam looked up at the sound; the big door was slowly moving back into the wall and revealed a long large passage that disappeared around a corner.

The passage was huge; it was big enough for two of the APC to move side by side and high enough to almost dwarf the three boys; Elam took the other two boys over to the QUADS and began to explain how they could ride on them and what to do with all the buttons and levers; the hardest part was doing something called GEAR CHANGE that had to be done with the feet; it also hurt their bare feet when they tried; Elios told them to put on their moccasins from their sak and try it then; that turned out to be better and so they were ready to try.

The GARAGE echoed to the high pitched sound of the QUADS as the boys tentiveley lifted the GEAR LEVER with their moccasin covered toes; as would be expected, all three QUADS stalled at the first try; again they started them as Elam had shown them; this time they pushed a little harder on the lever with their thumbs that made the ENGINE run faster and released the GEAR the three QUADS jumped a little as they began to move slowly forward; a faint breeze forming as the boys headed towards the now open door.

Slowly the three QUADS moved along the passage and it wasn't long before they came to another large door; this one was square and like the first one had a small box at the right hand side; Elam pushed down on the GEAR until the green light came on above the steering bar; he then got off and went to the box, doing the same as Elios had he pushed the card through the slot and put in the number he had been told 11357.

The door began to rumble like the other one but this time it started to lift upwards and outwards; once it had stopped the boys looked out onto the hot shimmering yellow sands of the outside; it looked as though it was about high sun so the boys started their QUADS forward slowly; once outside they soon found that the QUADS had no trouble moving on the soft hot sand and; after a little time of moving slowly to get used to the strange form of movement; all three boys clicked the GEAR again and pushed harder on the thumb lever; the QUADS immediately began to speed up and a huge grin spread over the faces of the boys; never in their whole life had they moved so fast.

At one stage Elios QUAD had hit a small bump in the sand and the next thing he knew he was flying through the air; his arms and legs cart wheeling frantically; fortunately he knew what to do and as the sand rose up to meet him he tucked into a ball and bounced on the sand; he ending up with sand in his mouth and eyes as well as his butt; the QUAD had stopped running as soon as its wheels touched the sand and it had bounced a couple of times but was still upright.

The other two boys began to laugh out loud at Elios antics as he had tumbled with his arms and legs flying. Elios got back on his feet and laughing along with his friends went back to his ride; restarting it he rode a little more carefully as they turned back to where they could see the open door. It was Elvan that thought about how they could close the door when they were outside and so he stopped and looked to the side of the open door; sure enough, there was a small box like the one inside but it was so well camouflaged it was hard to see it among the colour of the cliff; Elvan swiped his card through and put his number in; immediately one green and one red light came on and flashed; the symbols said OPEN on the green one and CLOSE on the red one; Elvan pushed the red light and the huge door began to come out of the cliff and close off the opening; when it had stopped, Elvan repeated the process but pushed the green light and the door rumbled open once again.

The other two boys sat on their QUADS watching with interest; this was another question answered, how to keep anyone from stealing their home when they went away on their searching. The boys finally rode inside and closed the door once again; they then went down to the GARAGE where Elam showed them how to fill up the TANK with GASOLINE.

Elam told them he had got all of the TRANSPORT items ready and they could try out the JEEP the next dei; over the next few dei's they would try all the TRANSPORT so they could all use them if needed; the big APC was still Elam's favourite and he was excited to try it outside.

Elios decided to wait till the next dei to investigate the possible new door that went below; there was plenty of time to look it over and they still had all the metal boxes they had from their first treasure to open yet; everything else had been opened and put in one of the BUNK rooms until they could work out what some of them were for. All the food was now in Elvan's LARDER and they had a great new way to keep themselves clean; there was still so much to learn but they all felt the need to go out in the sun and get their skin back to the golden brown they used to be as they had got a little pale being inside the BUNKER for so long.

The next three dei's were spent learning the workings of the TRANSPORT; although the operation of the APC was Elam's favourite; the power and the deep growl of it's motor sent shivers of delight through his slender frame as it powered up and down the narrow valley outside. When not learning the TRANSPORT, Elios was trying to work out more of the Sec.Sys. Operations; he finally got the chance to investigate the new door he had found on the wall picture.

After opening the door he went downward until he came to another long passage with doors on either side; as he looked into each room his eyes grew wider and wider at each new discovery; most of which he had no idea what they were for but the one that did catch his attention was the one called ARMOURY; inside there was a strange smell; along each wall were lines and lines of the odd looking items he had first seen in what he now knew was called a TRANSPORT when they had found the first treasures.

The odd items were of all different sizes; some were very heavy and others quite small and light; there were also a lot of the small metal boxes stacked in neat rows along the back wall, each had different symbols such as,

7.62 NATO, 200 rnds.
5.56 CAL 200 rnds.
9mm parabellum 200 rnds.
20mm LMG. 200 rnds.
.50 CAL 100 rnds.

On opening one of the metal boxes he saw square boxes stacked closely inside; taking one out he opened it and saw that it was full of a yellow metal cylinders; flat on one end and pointed at the other; he turned it over in his hand and wondered what it was used for; he would have to look for the MANUAL that described them to find out. That would be his next search, or, maybe he could get Elvan away from his GALLEY long enough to do the search; his friend had now spent dei's working away on new foods and all the CHILLER was now full.

At the end of that dei the boys talked about what they had found and how to go about finding out more about everything; Elvan agreed to search the only boxes left in the main room and to go through the MANUALS left on the table in the hope of finding out what the strange items were that Elios had found.

Over the next mune, the boys unlocked more and more of the secrets; all of them now knew how to operate the various TRANSPORT and although none of them were top notch operators they were able to handle them with sufficient ease that they could handle most things that occurred with them.

Elvan had discovered the secret of the metal boxes and therefore the secret of the ARMOURY; when the boys thought of all the new weapons and what they could do with them if attacked they almost felt invincible; nowhere in their known lands was there anything even close to these weapons.

During his quest, Elvan had also found out about what the box labelled as COMBAT WEBBING was for and now each boy would go outside wearing the webbing; at their hip was a 9mm Beretta and a large vicious looking combat knife. The combat knife had enthralled the boys and when they compared it to the small badly made bled they had been given on their departure; these combat knives were true miracles; the cutting edge was so sharp they had to be careful handling it; on the back side it was serrated with many sharp teeth; where the hands fitted it had small metal rings to cover the fingers and a very short metal point at the base of the handle.

As well they found some long moccasins that were in another box; these were made from a material the same colour as the sand and had the same type of material as the wheels on the transport; it took them some time to find sizes small enough to fit but once they had they stomped around the main room with smiles on their faces; the BOOTS also made it a lot easier to ride the QUADS and touch the pedals of the other TRANSPORT except for Elios as being smaller he had a great difficulty in reaching the driving pedals of the HUMVEE and the APC.

The boxes of 20mm rnds were fitted together with some sort of metal belt and it wasn't until Elam fully searched the APC that they discovered what they were for; it took Elam a full dei to work out how the twin 20mm hmg's worked from inside the APC after his discovery; he sat for most of the latter part of the dei going around and around as he watched the small picture in front of him; he was fascinated by the magic of the ancients.

The boys had now been living in the BUNKER #42 for more than three mune and felt it was time to go out and see the Oshun and anything else that took their fancy; Elios had worked out what a map was and after long dei's of reading thought he had a very basic understanding as to how it worked; they all knew that there was still so much to discover in the BUNKER#42 but they also wanted to go out and find new things around them; as yet they had hardly left the environs of their first breeding caves.

The next morning the boys set about getting ready for their first adventure; they decided to go on the quads; each would have a spare JERRY CAN of gasoline on the back along with their newly found BACK PACK that would carry their food and cooking gear. They checked their packs and then got into their CAMO SHIRTS these the boys loved as they kept the sun off their skin even at high sun although the shirts were far to big for them and hung down almost to their knees they didn't mind; they had had to cut the long arm covers off them, but that only added to the fun; at least it made it better to wear their combat webbing and didn't let the webbing rub on their skin like it had before finding the shirts.

The packs and one each of the jerry cans and an M14 rifle were put on the wrack at the back of the quad; the boys had their Beretta and knife on their webbing along with two extra MAGS for both the Beretta and the M14 along with a container called a WATER BOTTLE. Elvan had filled one of the metal boxes that had carried the first weapons they had found, with the frozen water called ICE and had put extra cooked food inside; they would also be able to drink the water when the ice melted.

The last item to be put into the back pack was a newly discovered SLEEPING BAG; these had really intrigued the boys as they had never thought that you could have a sleeping mat that was so soft and yet so hot to sleep in as well as easy to roll up and put away.

Looking over everything the boys decided it was time at last to go and look for the Oshun and so; with a roar of quad motors they raced up to the entry door and swiped a card; after going outside Elam jumped off and closed the door before pulling in behind Elvan who was waiting behind Elios; as he said he could understand the map, they had elected him to lead the way; the boys set off with a light heart at a new adventure; the soft sand spurting up behind the spinning wheels of the quads.

Much to the boys' surprise they had gone only as far as they would have walked in a half dei when Elios smelt a strange saltiness in the air that they had not smelt before; Elios raised his hand to stop the others just at the bottom of a sand hill; once the motors had been shut down they could hear a faint broken rumbling sound from the other side of the hill.

Ever mindful of the dangers from Renegs out in the wastes, Elios told the others to check their newly acquired weapons; from now on they would take it slowly until they could see far enough to know they were safe from any attack. Once they had checked their weapons, the boys started the quads again and slowly; slipping and sliding they made their way to the top of the hill; the sight that met them brought a new look of awe on their young faces.

From the top of the hill they could see where the yellow sand ran into a line of white sand; from the edge of the white sand was nothing but blue water stretching as far as their eyes could see broken only by strange structures far out in the water; at the edge of the sand the water rolled into long white lines as it approached the shore line and rumbled softly with a hissing sound as it ran back to the blue water; the boys had found the Oshun and it was far more than they could ever have imagined.

Looking first to their left and then their right, all they could see along the shore was an emptiness like any other place in the land they had grown up in; nothing broke the starkness except the breaking Oshun on the shore; no sign of life or breeding cave broke the barrenness of the scene; the boys sighed as one as they looked over the magic before them.

The boys put their quads into gear and rolled slowly down onto the harder sand and then close up to where the water was breaking on the shore; the salty smell was now very strong in their nostrils as they rode slowly along the water line; a sense of peace settled over the boys as they gazed with a certain longing at the cool looking water; barely watching where the wheels of the quads were directed, only the occassional splash of water from the front wheels told them to turn away a little.

Elios lead the others up to a sand hill further down the shore; there they parked the quads and Elvan got the metal box with the food; it had been decided to eat here and watch the marvel of the Oshun. The boys sat on the hot sand and began to eat as they watched many black and white birds diving into the water further out; the water there seemed to boil as something under the surface moved back and forth as the birds dived deep.

The boys were suddenly startled as a giant beast rose up out of the water spraying water and what looked like small fish around it. It was a huge beast, jet black sleek body with a huge wing coming out of the back; along its side were a strange white pattern that made the beast look streamlined and also deadly; the three boys shivered to think that something as big as the beast could live in the Oshun and changed their minds about going into the water after eating.

After a short rest the boys went in search of wud for a fire later that dei when the dark began; they would heat up some of the food before settling down to sleep with the sound of the water in their ears and sleep in the bags; they had worked out how they could join two of them together and the three of them would fit inside; they hoped it would prove to be a successful way of using them.

Not wanting to be careless the boys set about topping up the gasoline in the quads and then set them in a half circle around where they would sleep during the dark; they then checked their weapons and determined that while they were sleeping they would be best to fit their webbing securely to their quads in case they had to make a quick escape during the dark.

They set out their joined rolls on the slope of the sand hill so their head was upwards and their feet were towards the Oshun and the quads ready and close by; next they set about collecting the wud for their fire and then returned to their camp and settled down to discuss the dei's events; they soon began to yawn widely as the fun and excitement of the dei caught up with them; it wasn't long before the soft sound of sleep could be heard from the enlarged sleeping roll.

NEXT PART