Rift (18 page)

But the children, all of them, had been the ones to
see.

Now the rock slept in the sun. People dwindled; antelope and zebra and giraffe became strokes of shadow, like charcoal on a sweeping yellow canvas.

Joe was thinking that in all the questions he would have to face, there were some things he couldn’t ever explain. We didn’t
follow
Silowa. We all walked separately into the caves. Separately. And together.

He was not stupid enough to try to say it. But it was true. In the caves he’d heard the murmur of water, bubbling through rock, just as Véronique said. But he’d heard other music too.

No way could he try to
tell
anyone!

Well, maybe Ella. She sat in front beside the pilot. He thought of his first sight of her, propped in the window of the hospital room. Pale and scared. Obstinate. He knew that look on her face now. Obstinacy. No, he wouldn’t get away without trying to explain it to Ella.

Resting her forehead against the window, a kaleidoscope of pictures was spinning through Ella’s mind. The caves, the camp, returning.
Joe.

And Pirian. The nurse’s kindness. I’ll go to the clinic again, and help her, Ella thought. When Charly’s resting.

Her notebook lay on her lap like a remnant of another time.
Charly
, she imagined writing,
we’re flying to you, as fast, as fast as we can. In an hour I’ll be there, where you are. I’ll see you, see you, SEE YOU!

She felt Joe’s gaze and looked round. She smiled. He smiled back. And Murothi, seeing the exchange, smiled at both of them, but they were too absorbed to notice.

Now they had reached the eastern end of Chomlaya. The pilot looped the helicopter round and began its return. They reached the camp, swung lower in a final farewell, and turned for Nanzakoto.

Murothi’s memory flashed to Likon.
Burukanda people will come to look at the caves
, the ranger had said.
And the newspapers
will come. And then the visitors. Chomlaya will get a headache!

Let me say this
, Tomis had answered,
Chomlaya is old and wise enough to give them the headache.

Murothi could almost hear the groan of the settling rock. In the wake of the helicopter, the eagle soared from the crags and vanished against the white brilliance of the sky.

To Ella and Joe, Murothi said, ‘It is told that the souls of men return in the form of birds and snakes. Perhaps we have been led in all things by the soul of Silowa’s father.’

He did not really mean it. And yet, at the same time, he did.

From our science correspondent

Four teenagers have discovered prehistoric paintings estimated to be nearly 30,000 years old in deep caves in Chomlaya Ridge. They have also found ancient hominid fossils taking us millions of years back into our prehistory.

The students and an English journalist have been the subject of an extensive ground and air search since they disappeared without trace from their camp almost a week ago. Two of the youngsters had reappeared, days apart, in different locations. In an extraordinary turn of events, the explanation for the disappearances materialised at the same time as the last two students and the journalist struggled to the surface. It appears they were led out by following the vibration of helicopter engines, which had been directed to the right location by the searchers inside the caves.

Remarkably, everyone is unhurt, except for shock and the ravages of hunger and dehydration.

‘This discovery must be laid entirely at the door of these young people,’ said palaeontologist, Dr Otaka Ngolik, one of the party who entered the caves in search of the missing students. ‘And its rediscovery to their schoolmates who detected the rift in the rock that led us to the caves.’

It is still not known what prompted the students and the journalist into the caves in the first place. The entrance is a climb of some thirty metres from the ground, and completely hidden by rock falls and foliage growth. Nor is it understood how they became separated inside. Memories remain patchy and confused. Doctors are blaming the scale and trauma of their ordeal.

The caves and long decorated galleries pass deep into the rocks. Hominid fossils from widely different periods have been found both inside and on the immediate approach outside.

Archaeologist Véronique Mézard, also one of the first into the caves, told us, ‘Preliminary investigation of the rock strata and sediments where fragments of three skulls have been found – as well as rib pieces, teeth, jaw bones, vertebrae and pelvis, which appear to come from six individuals – suggest they are each of widely different prehistoric periods.
One is very similar to a find made in Chad, dating from between six and seven million years ago. And one at least is possibly even older, taking us much closer than we have ever been to our common ancestry with chimpanzees – somewhere between seven and eight million years ago. It will be a long time before we understand the sequence of these finds, let alone how such layering of hominid history has become concentrated in this one place. Analysis of the paintings alone, which are much more recent, will keep everyone busy for many years to come. And who knows what else may be spread through the caves. But all this will undoubtably immeasurably enlarge our conception of the evolution of the human family tree, and this continent as the birthplace of all humankind.’

The caves are already yielding a tantalising horde: stone tools, lamps, hearths, painted pebbles, and much more recent artefacts, including bone flutes and other musical instruments, some in very remote nooks and crannies. Dr Peter Koinege, Director of the National Archaeology Foundation and an expert in prehistoric artefacts, said, ‘People walked, ran and danced in these caves. And perhaps they sang. There is an extraordinary resonance inside, as you find in the highly decorated deep-cave systems of Ice Age Europe.’

Dr Otaka Ngolik told us, ‘It is like a wonderful gift to us, such knowledge of our universal human heritage. We will speculate for many years as to how single individuals from widely differing times, have left their bones here. Perhaps, as the legends of Chomlaya say, our ancestors truly did come here when the time of their death-call came. Strangest of all, perhaps, is that in the floor of one cave are the footprints of four children, overlaid by those of an adult. They are very old prints, set hard in ancient sediments, but one cannot help but compare the events of these past few days, when four young people and an adult walked right through the heart of Chomlaya to emerge the other side.’

Silowa Asumoa, 14, leader of the group of students who discovered Chomlaya Caves, has been awarded an education bursary by The National Archaeology Foundation. It will cover six years, to allow him to continue his secondary education and subsequent training as a palaeontologist. The foundation has also announced that the other young people involved, Joe Wilson, Anna Benham and Matt Fisher, will be brought out from England later this year to take part in further exploration of the cave system they discovered. The invitation has also been extended to Ella Tanner, the younger sister of the English journalist, for playing such a significant part in the rescue.

The English journalist, Charlotte Tanner, who endured the five-day ordeal lost in the caves with Silowa, said, ‘From the beginning Silowa was fascinated by the myths around this rock – particularly the widespread legend of a god’s footprints on the rock. He has such a passion to know – he fired up all of us to share his search for answers.’