By now they had moved up on a higher plateau within the crater, and the dust had thinned so that solid rock could be felt underfoot. But not far beyond lay the wilderness of rock they had seen earlier at a distance. How huge and forbidding the region looked!
Garry stopped walking and plopped down in his tracks, heaving a sigh. Patch sat down beside him.
Garry took tubes of liquid food and a couple of water bottles from the pack he carried. He offered Patch his share and took some for himself.
Each boy unscrewed a plate that covered the mouth of his helmet. Behind this was a rubber disk with a self-sealing opening in the middle of it. All the boys had to do was thrust the tubes of food and water through these openings and take them between their lips. By squeezing the tubes, they forced the contents into their mouths.
“Got a napkin?” Patch joked, when they were through. “I’d like to wipe my mouth.”
“Sorry,” Garry answered, “but they haven’t figured out a way to do that yet.”
Patch climbed to his feet, screwing his outer mouthplate back on. “Well, that wasn’t exactly like carving into a steak, but I guess it’ll do until we can get something better,” he said.
They started out again, and soon approached the forbidding rocky region they had dreaded. The ground was rough and uneven. Garry looked ahead, and it was like staring into the mouth of a vast cavern.
“We’ve got to be careful, Patch,” Garry warned, as he slowed down and held back his friend. “There may be bad crevasses across our path, and they could be the end of us if we should fall in.”
Garry took the responsibility of going first. Patch was right behind, holding on to a strap on Garry’s suit.