The Last Wilderness Read online

  ‘They don’t seem to take any notice of us at all,’ Kallik remarked when a particularly big one had passed by.

  ‘That’s a good thing,’ Toklo agreed. He had stayed on his paws, gazing up at the flare with a disgusted expression on his face. ‘This is hopeless,’ he added. ‘This isn’t the right place for bears to be, and it gets worse with every pawstep.’

  ‘Maybe we should go back,’ Kallik suggested in a small voice, ‘and let Ujurak come to find us.’

  ‘That’s bee-brained,’ Lusa retorted, though she touched Kallik’s shoulder affectionately with her snout to soften the harshness of her words. ‘We don’t know that Ujurak can come and find us. He might still be ill, or the flat-faces might be keeping him prisoner. Even if he can get away, he won’t know where to look for us.’

  ‘We don’t know where to look for him,’ Toklo pointed out.

  ‘Yes, we do,’ Lusa argued. ‘Or at least, we’ve got a good idea where to start. And we’re almost there.’

  By now they were padding past the first of the dens where flat-faces seemed to live. Lights were coming on inside; Lusa could hear the faint sounds of voices. Her pelt prickled when she spotted firebeasts crouching outside most of the dens.

  ‘Quiet,’ she whispered, pointing to one of them with her snout. ‘I think it’s asleep, but you never know.’

  Peering through the darkness, Lusa realised that the metal birds’ nest couldn’t be far away. There weren’t as many dens here as she expected; they were much further apart than in the denning places she had seen before. Some of them were raised up on stumpy little legs; she let out a faint huff as she imagined them scurrying off with their flat-faces inside.

  ‘Sorry,’ she muttered as Toklo and Kallik stared at her as if she was mad. ‘Come on, let’s keep going.’

  Together they crept through the dens until they reached an open stretch of ground covered with the same hard stuff as the BlackPaths.

  ‘Look!’ Lusa exclaimed. Ahead of them, crouching in the darkness, was a metal bird. ‘We made it!’

  ‘I think it’s asleep,’ Kallik whispered.

  ‘Let’s go and check it out,’ Lusa whispered back. ‘If Ujurak is here, we might be able to scent him.’

  In spite of her optimistic words, she felt terribly exposed as they left the shelter of the dens and set out into the open. She couldn’t see any flat-faces, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any lurking around, ready to leap out and drive them away with firesticks. And at any moment the metal bird might wake into clattering, snarling life.

  But everything was quiet as they approached the bird. Snouts to the ground, they explored the area around it. Lusa’s senses were alert for the least trace of Ujurak’s scent, the tiniest indication that he had been here. But there was nothing. The heavy rain would have washed away the scent, she realised, and even if anything remained it was drowned by the stronger smell of firebeasts.

  ‘This isn’t working,’ Toklo growled. ‘We should go and look somewhere else.’

  ‘Like where?’ Lusa challenged. ‘We followed the metal bird. Ujurak must be here somewhere. We’ve got to keep searching.’

  ‘If we stay here too long then the flat-faces will find us,’ Toklo argued. ‘We have to leave now, Lusa.’

  ‘No, wait!’ Kallik’s voice was suddenly excited.

  Lusa glanced across to where the white bear was nosing something on the ground a few bearlengths away, where a BlackPath led into the metal bird nesting place. Bounding over to join her, she yelped, ‘What is it?’

  Kallik pointed with her snout. Lying on the ground was a tiny white bear, made out of wood. Lusa bent to sniff it and picked up a faint trace of Ujurak’s scent.

  ‘It’s a sign!’ she exclaimed. ‘Ujurak knew we would come for him. Now which way do we go?’ she wondered aloud.

  Kallik raised her snout, gazing at the dens that surrounded the metal birds’ nest. ‘He left the sign here, so he must have gone this way.’ She set off along the edge of the BlackPath where the bear had been lying, between two of the dens.

  We’ll soon be with you, Ujurak, Lusa thought as she and Toklo followed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:

  Ujurak

  Ujurak opened his eyes in the peaceful white room. He wasn’t sure how long he had been lying there in bed, but he could feel his strength returning. He sat up, pleased that the movement didn’t make his head spin. His throat was still sore, but his body felt cool and comfortable.

  These flat-faces are good healers.

  For a moment he stroked the soft pelts the flat-faces had made him wear. They were clean and comfortable, but they didn’t feel right. He wanted the thick brown fur that he wore when he was a bear.

  Feeling hungry and thirsty, Ujurak spotted a cup on the table by his bed. The stuff it was made of was transparent, so he could see the water inside, but he wasn’t sure how to get at it. He tried to stick his face inside it and lap up the water, but the glass skidded on the smooth surface of the table and tipped over. Water spilled over the tabletop and began dripping on to the floor; Ujurak bent his head and licked it up.

  Beside the glass on the table was the last of his carved wooden bears, the brown one. Ujurak picked it up and closed his fingers around it. A sharp pang of loss pierced him as he thought of Toklo and his other friends.

  He remembered dropping two wooden bears on his way here, but he couldn’t be certain that his friends would find them and come to rescue him. They’ll be looking, he told himself. I know that for sure.

  Suddenly the clean white walls and soft pelts and blankets seemed like a prison. He needed to be with his friends again, and he needed to be a bear.

  ‘It’s time to leave,’ he murmured.

  Clambering out of bed, he crossed the room and opened the door a crack to look out, freezing when it let out a sharp squeaking noise. The passage outside was empty, but as Ujurak slid out of the door and closed it behind him, a woman in a white pelt turned the corner and headed towards him.

  Ujurak recognised the nurse who had been looking after him. She had hair the colour of red-gold maple leaves and kind brown eyes, like a bear’s. She had told him her name was Janet.

  When she spotted him she halted briefly with a surprised look on her face, then hurried up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Hey, Ujurak, where do you think you’re going?’ She was smiling and her voice was kind, but Ujurak sensed the firmness beneath. ‘You’re not strong enough to be wandering around yet.’

  Ujurak wanted to resist, but an inner voice told him, Wait. There’ll be another chance later.

  Janet guided him into his room and settled him back in bed, tucking the blankets neatly around him. ‘There. Now you get some rest,’ she said.

  ‘Where am I?’ Ujurak asked, his voice still hoarse from his throat injury.

  ‘Blackhorse,’ the nurse replied. ‘Don’t worry; you’re safe here.’

  ‘What’s Blackhorse?’

  ‘The name of this town,’ the nurse told him. ‘It’s an oil town. It’s part of the Propkin oil field.’

  Ujurak felt relieved. For a moment he’d thought the flat-faces must bring horses here to kill them. But he was still puzzled. ‘Oil?’ He had heard the Senator and the villagers talking about oil in the meeting in the big hut, back in Arctic Village. He had known that it must be important, but he still didn’t know what it was.

  ‘Yeah, oil.’ For a moment Janet looked at him as if he’d said something weird. ‘You know, oil. The stuff you use to make engines run smoothly.’ She looked even more surprised. ‘Just where did you grow up?’ she asked.

  ‘Er . . . out on the plains,’ Ujurak replied; panic brushed him like a spray of leaves as he tried to think what to say. ‘We didn’t have any engines.’

  ‘Wow, none at all?’ There was a trace of respect in Janet’s eyes. ‘I didn’t know there were still villages like that. What’s it like, not having electricity or cars or TV?’

  Ujurak gazed up at her blankly. What are th
ose?

  Janet bent down to give Ujurak a hug. She had a nice scent, like flowers, but it made Ujurak’s nose tickle, and he tried not to sneeze.

  ‘Oh, honey, don’t be scared,’ she said. ‘Everything will be fine, you’ll see. Now you lie right there and get some rest, and I’ll be back soon with your supper.’

  As soon as the nurse had closed the door behind her, Ujurak started to get out of bed. Then he stopped and lay back down.

  She said she’d be back soon and there’ll be trouble if she catches me again. I’d better wait until later.

  Besides, he had to admit that his brief exercise had tired him; he lay dozing until he heard the door squeak as it was opened again.

  ‘Here we are!’ came Janet’s cheerful voice. ‘And I’ve brought you a little friend to cheer you up.’

  Ujurak sat bolt upright, looking past the nurse to see if Lusa or Toklo or Kallik was following her. But only Janet came into the room. She was carrying a tray, which she set down on the table beside Ujurak’s bed.

  ‘There! Say hi, Ujurak.’

  She was holding out something soft, coloured a bright purple, made out of some kind of pelt-stuff. Ujurak blinked at it. The thing looked back at him with bright, glassy eyes. Four stumpy limbs stuck out from its fat body; its nose and mouth were made out of pelt-stuff too.

  ‘It’s a bear, honey,’ Janet said, looking a bit surprised. ‘Your very own bear to keep you company.’ After a pause, she added, ‘I saw the wooden bear you brought with you, so I thought you liked them.’

  That’s not a bear! It’s purple!

  But Ujurak could see that Janet was trying to be kind. ‘Uh . . . I do,’ he replied. ‘Thanks.’ He reached out and folded his hand around the bear, feeling how soft and fuzzy it was.

  ‘Are you going to give him a name?’ the nurse asked.

  ‘Er . . . yeah.’ Frantically Ujurak wondered what flat-faces called their bears. He had no idea. ‘I’ll call him Toklo,’ he said at last.

  ‘That’s a great name, honey,’ Janet said.

  Yes, it is. I just hope the real Toklo never finds out.

  Gently Janet took purple-Toklo away from Ujurak and set him down on the bedside table. ‘There, now he can watch you.’ She plumped up Ujurak’s pillows so that he could sit up, and set down the tray on his lap.

  There was a covered bowl on the tray with a spoon beside it; Janet took the cover off and warm, meaty scents drifted up to Ujurak’s nostrils. He’d had this before: the flat-faces called it ‘soup,’ and it tasted good, even though Ujurak longed for something to get his teeth into. But the soup slid down easily without hurting his throat. He wished he could lap it sensibly, though, without having to use this clumsy spoon that spilled everywhere.

  While he ate, Janet moved quietly around the room, clearing up the water Ujurak had spilled earlier, and checking something on a flat board at the end of his bed. When he had finished she took the tray away and wiped up his spills.

  She hadn’t quite finished when there was a tap on the door and a male flat-face in a blue pelt came in. The door squeaked again as he pushed it open. He carried a square metal box in one hand.

  ‘Hi, Janet,’ he said. ‘I’ve come to fix the door.’

  Janet turned towards him. ‘That’s great, Ed. That squeak has been driving me crazy.’

  Ujurak watched curiously as Ed opened the square thing and took out a container about the size of a fir cone. A long spike stuck out of the top. Ed stuck the spike into the space between the door and the wall, and when he swung the door a moment later, the squeak was gone.

  ‘Thanks, Ed,’ Janet said. ‘I –’ She broke off, glancing at Ujurak, and then went on, ‘Ed, just give me that can for a minute, please.’

  Looking puzzled, Ed handed the container over. Janet held the spike above Ujurak’s empty soup bowl, and a few drops of a sticky black substance dripped out of it.

  ‘Thanks, Ed,’ Janet said, handing the container back.

  Ed still looked confused. ‘See you around, Janet,’ he said, and went out.

  ‘Now then, honey, look at this.’ Janet held the bowl out to Ujurak.

  Ujurak took a deep sniff of the black liquid and reared back, staring up, stunned, at Janet. That stuff smells like a BlackPath!

  ‘That’s oil,’ Janet told him.

  Ujurak bent over the bowl again. So that’s what all the fuss was about, back in Arctic Village! Tentatively he reached out and stuck the end of one finger into the oil, then touched his finger to his lips to taste it.

  ‘No!’ Janet exclaimed. She pulled his hand away and wiped his fingers and his mouth with soft paper. ‘It’s not good to eat,’ she explained, taking the bowl away. ‘It’s poisonous.’

  Horrified, Ujurak stared at her.

  ‘Then why don’t they leave it in the ground?’

  The nurse shook her head slightly, as if she couldn’t believe he’d asked that. ‘It’s too useful, honey,’ she explained. ‘We couldn’t go anywhere in trains or boats or planes, or have heat and light in our houses, if we didn’t have oil.’ She smiled. ‘And it’s great for getting rid of the squeaks in doors.’

  ‘But there must be something you could use that isn’t poisonous,’ Ujurak protested.

  ‘No, it’s too late,’ Janet replied. ‘Whole towns are built on this stuff, and on the business of getting it out of the ground. Come here and look,’ she invited.

  She helped Ujurak out of bed and led him over to the window, pulling back one of the pelts that hung there so that he could look out.

  Outside it was night. Ujurak stared across a wide stretch of land covered with flat-face buildings, with BlackPaths running between them. Beyond them was a river, and beyond that stood a huge tower, metal tubes extending away from it into the distance, toward the mountains. A billowing flame burned at the top of the tower, shedding sharp yellow light into the dark blue sky.

  ‘What happened here?’ Ujurak whispered in dismay.

  ‘This is the Propkin oil field,’ the nurse explained. ‘It’s how we get oil from the ground.’ Smiling, she ruffled Ujurak’s head-fur.

  ‘But . . . but where are the plains?’ Ujurak stammered. ‘Where are the mountains?’

  ‘Don’t worry, they’re still there,’ Janet assured him. ‘If you look out the other way, you’ll see nothing but mountains.’ When Ujurak didn’t respond, she added, ‘I come from Chicago, and that’s a much bigger place than this. Everywhere around here is really unspoiled, except for the oil field. And the oil has done so much good: it’s brought schools and hospitals and better jobs for everyone.’

  Ujurak looked down at his fingers; there was still a smear of the black sticky stuff with the foul smell. Are there really whole denning places built just to dig oil out of the ground?

  He remembered the words of Tiinchuu the healer, back in Arctic Village. Those who would rip the heart out of the earth for their own profit . . . The hairs rose on the back of Ujurak’s neck, and he felt sick.

  ‘Look, there’s the oil-pumping tower.’ Janet pointed out of the window. ‘And there are the pipelines carrying the oil away to where it can be used.’

  Ujurak stared. ‘What’s that flame?’ he asked. ‘Is the tower on fire?’

  The nurse laughed. ‘No, it’s meant to do that. It’s burning off the gases that we don’t want.’

  ‘And where does the oil go?’ Ujurak said. Those pipes were huge, and there were so many of them. There must be a lot of oil to fill them.

  ‘Oh . . . some to factories, some to ports to be loaded on to ships. But that’s enough of that,’ the nurse added, pulling the pelt closed again and guiding Ujurak back to bed. ‘It’s time you got some rest.’

  ‘Who are the men who brought me here?’ Ujurak whispered as she tucked the blankets in.

  ‘Important men,’ Janet replied. ‘They work for the government and the oil company.’

  ‘They want to take oil from the land belonging to the caribou people.’

  Janet nodded, frowning s
lightly as she looked down at him. ‘These are bad times,’ she said at last. ‘Poor mother nature is going to suffer. But we do need oil from somewhere.’

  She raised a hand to silence Ujurak as he opened his mouth to ask another question. ‘Look, I’ll show you something. We’ll use your bed as a map.’

  ‘What’s a map?’

  ‘Just look.’ Janet folded back the blue blanket that lay on top of Ujurak’s bed, revealing the sheet below. ‘Imagine this is the ocean,’ she said, patting the blanket. ‘And we’ll ruffle up the sheet just here, to make the mountains.’ Picking up purple-Toklo, she plopped him down at the edge of the blanket. ‘And here’s the oil field!’

  Ujurak put his head on one side, imagining he was a bird, flying above the land and the sea. ‘I get it!’

  ‘There are oil fields out on the ice too,’ Janet added, pointing to a spot on the ocean-blanket.

  ‘On the ice?’ Ujurak’s heart started to beat faster. Kallik never told us about that.

  ‘Yes, they sure are clever, aren’t they?’ Janet said. ‘Now, can you show me where you come from, honey?’

  Ujurak didn’t want to answer her gently probing question. He didn’t know where he came from, except that he was sure it wouldn’t be on her map.

  ‘Can you see the ocean from your home?’ Janet prompted when Ujurak didn’t reply.

  ‘No . . .’ Ujurak began uncertainly, thinking of Arctic Village and trying to work out where the ocean would be. ‘It’s in a narrow valley,’ he added, guessing where on the map the village might be and pointing to a gap between two of the sheet-mountains. ‘It’s where the caribou go.’

  ‘My, I’m surprised your people are so primitive when they’re so close to the oil field,’ Janet said.

  ‘There’s a lake here,’ Ujurak went on, beginning to be interested in the map. ‘And here’s a place where the geese feed. And this is the forest.’

  ‘You know your land so well!’ Janet exclaimed, her voice filled with amazement.