George Adamson Lives with Apes

Ruby's Nightmare

There are huge birds circling them as they stand at the top of the highest mountain in the range. Below them are the many peaks of others disappearing a hundred miles into the distance. The sun beat's down upon the group and they are hot, but then the wind blows sideways into them and they are simultaneously cold. Ruby wrap's her grey hooded cloak closer to her body. The cloak keeps her warm despite the lightness of the fabric and the delicateness of the knit. She is not sure how they arrived here or why. Ruby can see George in the distance, he is Angry, his face is contorted in a way which makes him appear different to the boy she knows so well. The same features but in an entirely alien expression, as if she were looking at his identical twin. Ruby has never seen her friend so angry before. He is on his knees and he is holding a small lifeless body in his arms. The fallen figure and that of George are wrapped from head to foot in the same grey cloaks as Ruby, although George's hood has made its way back from his face a little now and she can make out the shape of his pointed ears. The others in their group are wrapped in grey cloaks too. They are trying to run towards George. Their progress is slow despite the effort they are putting in, flinging their desperate bodies forward against the driving wind and moving their desperate faces into unheard desperate screams. Ruby recognises the others, although she has not met them yet.

The warm sun instantaneously loses its battle with the wind. The cloak that Ruby wears, is wrapped as tightly as she can get it to her cold skin but it is no longer doing its job. She shivers uncontrollably and holds onto herself. Emptiness and hopelessness plunge into the core of the young girl and her eyes begin to fill with tears. The deepest sadness makes a painful lump inside her throat and she lets out a terrible cry.

The slow lazy circling of the huge birds above them turns into a scatter as they lose all of their gracefulness and disappear into the distance with a loud and panicked flapping of wings. Ruby senses the utter bleakness at the end of this terrible vision and yet she can not leave, nor can she remember what has happened before. The young girl watches as breath leaves her open mouth in thick clouds of steam inside the cold, cold, air.

The desperate figures she had witnessed at the beginning of this nightmarish vision are still stumbling fruitlessly along the stony mountain path, trying to reach George. Everything is unfolding so painfully slowly that Ruby feels frustration rise inside her. The faces of the others morph from one emotion to another as they strain their muscles with the greatest effort.

"NOOOO!"

Screams Ruby at them and the word draws itself into the air around her in frozen letter breaths. No one hears her, or if they do then they refuse to turn around.

"RUBY."

The letters which make up the young girl's name float past her in the breeze. Formed from the bitter cold steam of someone else's breath. She turns to look behind her now and sees another figure also dressed in the matching grey cloak. He is even paler than Ruby with jet black hair and brown doe eyes. The boy looks at her with great sadness and she suddenly feels the stab of emptiness return.

"YOU HAVE TO GO NOW RUBY."

Says the sad boy, she does not hear his words but sees them once again in the strange cold steam that floats out from his mouth into the air. Ruby shakes her head. She can not leave while George still needs her.

"SAVE YOURSELF FROM THIS AND LEAVE, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A WITNESS."

Ruby shakes her head from side to side, straining to make the movement in this bizarre dreamlike state, and as the final "S" in the sad boy's sentence floats past her face she sees her tortured George begin to cry. The others have reached him now and they are helping him to hold the limp figure he is cradling off the bare rocky ground. They move around with frantic energy as they shout between themselves and gesture with their hands, George and the person he holds to him remain still.