by Jenn Vakey
As expected, her jaw dropped. She wasn't the only one. Both Jaythan and Joury looked to me, as if expecting to be told that I was just messing with her. But I wasn't. It was one of the things I had learned in my first year outside of Eden.
“They're taking meat into the city?” Leeya gaped. “How can they manage it without people knowing?”
I shrugged. “The same way they get in and out to come after us without anyone knowing. It's one of the reasons no one is allowed on the top of the wall. The meat they bring in is cut in with what the Growers harvest. No one in Eden has eaten pure meat in centuries. It's at least half whatever they catch in the woods.”
She snapped her jaw shut and stared ahead, completely baffled. I'd felt the same when I first learned the truth. The lies that ran the city were incredible. Ones even I hadn't known. The prince.
I smirked and turned back ahead. Almost there. When my feet hit the ground in front of me, though, there was a strange sound and the feel of the world shifting. I'd felt something similar once before. I'd been a child and the whole world shook. People had called it an earthquake.
I shot my hands out to balance myself, while at the same time wanting to reach for Leeya. She was several feet away. When I turned to face her, though, everything just disappeared. Darkness surrounded me and I felt another sensation I knew all too well.
Falling.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
LEEYA
He was just gone.
“Rhydian!” I yelled, staring down in shock at the hole in the ground that now occupied where he’d just been. The group had stopped, everyone looking around like they were trying to figure out what had just happened. I couldn’t focus on them. “Rhydian!” I cried again, then dropped to my knees.
I fumbled to pull my light from the pocket of my bag and angled it down. I expected to see him a few feet down. Instead, there was nothing. Just darkness.
My chest ached, head swimming as I tried to process this. Looking up from the hole, I moved my gaze between the others. Someone would have an idea, would know what to do. But they didn’t. They all just stood there around the pit in the ground, looking as stunned as I felt. Then there was the look on Joury’s face. Sorrow. Like she had just accepted that he was gone.
No. No, I wasn’t going to believe that. I couldn’t.
“We have to get down there,” I said desperately. I’d seen falls before. There was no telling how badly he was injured.
Zaydan exchanged a look with Stassa’s people, then met me with a regretful gaze. “It’s almost dark, Leeya,” he said. His tone was sad, but it also came off as an attempt to calm me. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. “We can’t be out after dark. Not here. We’ll come back at first light and go after him.”
I gaped. “You want to just leave him down there? Injured and by himself? All night?”
He gave me an incredulous look. “Of course I don’t want to,” he snapped. “But we have protocols for situations like this. If we try to get him now, there's a very good chance none of us will make it back to Alkwin. These are rules Rhydian helped to make.”
I looked between the others, hoping they would find the idea as crazy as I did. But they all just stared back at me. Even Joury. I couldn’t believe it.
Shaking my head, I pushed up to my feet and crossed my arms. My eyes threatened to cloud, the loss I had felt over the past weeks nothing compared to this. The hopelessness all consuming. I wanted to scream, to cry. I needed to do something. Anything. “Then I guess I’ll see you in the morning, because I’m not going anywhere without him.”
Both Jaythan and Verity turned their backs to me. I could tell they didn’t agree, but this wasn’t their fight. Joury had a helpless look, almost lost. Zaydan actually appeared to be considering dragging me out of there by force. I’d like to see him try.
“You’re going to get yourself killed, Leeya,” he said, exasperated. “Rhydian knows we’ll be back. Hell, if roles were reversed and it was you down there, he’d be making the same call.”
Would he? Maybe if it was someone else in the group. Even with things as strained as they were, though, I didn’t really think he would. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but I had a feeling he would make the same decision I had. To stay.
“Then he can lecture me after I find him and get him patched up,” I declared, knowing I couldn’t actually tell them any of that. That there was no way I was leaving without making sure the man I was in love with was safe. Alive.
Zaydan took a step toward me, and I moved my hands to my bastons. I didn’t pull them out, but I met him with a look of challenge. Daring him to even attempt it. We both knew I wasn’t leaving here without one hell of a fight. One he had to know he wouldn’t win. I could see the moment that realization hit him. Reluctantly, he sighed and nodded.
“The animals here aren’t like Kip,” he told me, motioning toward the dog. “They’re mostly predators. They won’t hesitate to go after you. You can’t stay on the streets.”
I nodded myself and looked around. “I don’t intend to. Take Kip back with you. I can’t take him down with me. I’ll try to get us back out another way. If I can’t–” I pointed to the hole, “–you know where to find us.”
“We’ll be back first thing in the morning,” he said. There was so much sadness in his eyes. Like he didn’t expect to find either of us alive when they came back. Like this was goodbye.
One by one, they turned and started walking back down the road. I let myself stand there and absorb things for a couple of minutes, then I took a breath and pulled out my bastons. I had to find something to actually get me down there. Nothing on the streets would work, so I was going to have to go into the buildings.
Something Rhydian had made sure I knew I wasn’t supposed to do. I didn’t have a choice.
It had been one thing going into the apartment building. Care had been taken to keep animals out, and our people had been staying there for years when needed. It was structurally sound and safe.
When I tugged open the door on the first building lining the street, I knew this was a very different situation. In all likelihood, it had probably been centuries since a human had last stepped foot in there. I had to move with care, careful to watch for any sound of an animal waiting to attack. My nerves were shot, terror making me tremble. Rhydian needed me, though, so I wasn’t going to stop.
I didn’t spend time searching the first several places. They looked more like office buildings. There was furniture that showed the wear of time, but nothing that suggested the place would have what I needed. With dark growing nearer, I didn’t have time to waste searching them. To my relief, the fifth door I opened was to a store. It was hard to tell what a lot of the items still lining the shelves had been. It would actually be exciting to be able to look through it when I had more time. For now, I ran up and down the aisles until I found one that was promising.
There were several different kinds of rope and chains. I wanted to jump for joy, but I honestly didn’t know if any of this was even safe to use. Well, there was only one way to find out.
I grabbed several different kinds, mostly the ones that looked to be made of plastic. I vaguely remembered something in a history lesson about how the pre-war people abused the planet and filled it with trash. Plastic, if I was remembering correctly, could take a thousand years to decompose. If I used several different types together, hopefully it would hold enough to keep me from plummeting to my death.
The sun was already starting to sink by the time I made it back out to the street. I could hear the sounds of animals in the distance. I was out of time. If this didn’t work, I didn’t know what I was going to do.
I uncoiled the ropes quickly and tied one end of each around a lamp post not far from the hole. I knew this was stupid. I’d done my share of reckless things, but this might actually be the craziest. There was a very good chance that these aged strands would snap and send me careening down just like he had. It was only my fear for Rhydian that made
me ignore my inner alarms and pushed me toward the hole.
Wrapping my hands in bandages from my bag, I gripped the ropes as tightly as I could and leaned back over the hole.
There was an eerie creaking sound at my weight, but both the rope and the pole were good. So far. So I held on tightly and leaned back further. Planting my feet on both sides of the opening, I started inching my way down. The hole was only about two and a half feet wide. It wasn’t a comfortable trek, but the walls of it were jagged enough to let me keep some footing without needing to put all of my weight on the rope.
My flashlight, which was fastened to my bag and pointing down, soon became my only source of light.
My heart pounded in my chest. I had no idea what I was moving toward. The tightness and darkness made my fear spike, though. Sweat started to prickle at my skin, my breathing becoming almost unbearably fast. My heartbeat started to pound in my ears, and it felt like the walls were closing in around me. Like I was suffocating. The voice in the back of my mind screaming that I needed to get out of there.
Stop! Gripping the rope and ensuring I had solid footing, I took in a breath and held it. Willing my mind to calm. To think about what was important. Closing my eyes, I pictured Rhydian’s face. The way he had looked at me when we were lying in my bed. The excitement in his eyes every time we sparred. His smile.
I could do this.
Making myself move again, I tried to focus just on what I could hear, hoping it would ease things. It didn’t. It was just… silent. No calls for help. Nothing but the sounds I was making.
It was hard to gauge just how far I went down. Close to fifty feet before I saw the first signs of it ending, if I had to guess. That came in the form of light.
Not a narrow stream like mine produced. Instead, there was a dull, room filling glow coming from beneath me.
I braced myself against the walls and looked down. I could see where it ended. A pile of debris lay at the bottom, which was another ten feet from me. Along with it, I saw something that made my heart almost stop. Buried under chunks of rock and what looked to be broken boards was a still form.
“Rhydian!” I yelled, my voice filled with tears as it echoed around me.
He didn’t move. Nothing to show me that he was still alive.
I almost lost my grip in an attempt to quicken my descent. I probably would have just let go and fallen the remaining distance if I wasn’t worried about landing on him. Though it only took me a few minutes to reach the opening and lower myself onto the pile beneath me, it felt like entirely too long.
As soon as I had my footing, I dropped down and started throwing things off of him. His head was under a thin, narrow board that actually looked to have protected it from some of the sharp, smaller pieces that would have hit him. I tossed it aside, relieved that there wasn’t much visible damage to it, then reached down with trembling fingers.
Bump, bump, bump.
My gasp sliced through the world around us as I felt the sweet beat of his pulse under my fingers. He was alive.
“I swear you have it in your head to try to worry me to death,” I said, gently brushing his dust filled hair out of his face. I closed my eyes, a breath shuddering out of me. I wasn’t too late. I hadn’t lost him.
I tugged my bag to my side and pulled out the scanner.
I knew I needed to get him off of this mound, but I couldn’t do that before assessing his injuries.
Starting with his head, I ran the scanner over his entire body. There were some things I could tell even without waiting for the results. His right leg was broken, and more than likely also his left. Since he hadn’t so much as stirred, there was also a good chance of internal injury.
Sure enough, Rhydian had several broken bones. His legs, a wrist, and a few fractured ribs. In addition to that, he’d suffered a pretty nasty blow to the head. Between that and the bleeding he had from a cut on his thigh, I was glad I hadn’t listened. There was a chance he might not have made it until the morning. A good one.
Never in my life had I been so glad to have overpacked.
It was a good thing Rhydian was out, because even a pain patch wouldn’t have completely taken away the pain when I had to manually reset his bones. After closing up the cut on his leg, I got to work. It wasn’t easy on the unsteady pile, but something I wanted to get done before I attempted to move him. When I was done, I closed up the last of his wounds and gave him the pills he needed for both the bones and the internal injuries. Then I just sat back and let myself breathe.
He was alive. Barring any unforeseen complications, he should be fine.
It wasn’t until after I let myself really feel it that I took the time to look around us. What I saw was the last thing I had expected.
We weren’t in some cave. No, this was a room. Complete with brick walls, lights that actually worked, and some office furniture.
“What the hell?” I muttered to myself, then carefully climbed down to the floor below. The room was large, with a faded map of some kind on the wall.
“Subway?” I read off of it. I knew that word, but I had to strain to remember. Then it clicked. Subways were underground trains that carried people across the city. By the time the war started, nearly every major city had them.
Excitement flooded through me as I looked to the door at the opposite side of the room. Was that where we were? It made sense. Why else would this room be here?
Pulling my bastons out, I carefully walked to the metal door and tried to pull it open. It was locked. Thankfully, being inside the room, all I had to do was twist the lever on the lock and I was able to open it without any further trouble.
Like this room, there were lights planted in the ceiling that were actually working. I knew for a fact that there was no power in the city. They had to be hooked up to a solar grid that charged during the day. Still, the fact that they were working after all this time was amazing.
I looked out cautiously, making certain that there were no animals skulking about, then walked out. Into a tunnel. Well, I could tell that there was a tunnel to the left side of the room, but there was a train that was stopped, so long that it blocked both ends.
“Awesome,” I breathed out. I was looking at a part of history that I was certain no other living person had ever seen. I wanted so badly to inspect the train, but there were more pressing concerns. Like making sure Rhydian and I were actually going to be safe down here until he could be moved.
At the far end of the empty room I was in was another doorway. This one was much larger, with stairs on the other side instead of an actual door. It made me nervous. Part of me knew I needed to wait for backup before venturing any further. I had very little experience with animals. My curiosity was too great to wait, though.
Carefully, I made my way as silently as possible up the stone stairs. It was both a relief and a disappointment to find the top of the flight completely closed off by a metal, gate like wall. It was latched, but not locked.
While it did mean there shouldn’t be a risk of animals getting us, I also knew that my exploring was over. It was time to get back.
Rhydian was still exactly as I had left him when I walked back into the room and shut the door. Carefully, I made my way back to his side and started moving him down to the ground. It wasn’t an easy feat. Not only did he outweigh me, but it was entirely dead weight. I was also concerned with hurting him by dragging him over the debris. After finding a thin board that had been knocked off of the ceiling to put him on, things moved a little smoother.
I was covered in sweat by the time I got him down and across the room. The cushions from the sofa were degraded, but they still provided some padding. I positioned them near the wall opposite the door and stretched one of our two blankets over them. Then I pulled both of our jackets off. It was cool down here, and would likely only get more so, but I decided they would act better as a cover than anything else. Heaving with effort, I finally pulled Rhydian onto the pallet I’d made, holding his still unconsciou
s body in my arms as I leaned back against the wall.
The past few hours had been exhausting. I was both mentally and physically worn out, but there was no way I was going to be able to sleep before Rhydian was awake. I could claim that it was just the need to stand guard, one of the weapons the Makers had given us at my side, but that wouldn’t have been the truth. Honestly, I wasn’t going to be able to sleep until I knew he was really okay.
Another hour passed, possibly two. My watch was in my pack, and I had no desire to move Rhydian. This was the closest I’d felt to him in weeks. Besides, feeling him just breathing, his head resting back against my chest with my arms snuggly around him, was more comforting than just about anything else.
Well, that is until he finally started to rouse. I didn’t push him. I just kept holding him, waiting as patiently as I could for him to come to. After several minutes, his surroundings started to register, as did the fact that he was being held.
Rhydian pulled in a breath, panic sinking in as he started to fight to move.
“Shhh,” I said softly, tightening my hold on him even more. He still wasn’t healed enough to be moving like that. “You’re okay.”
My words made him still, his hands closing in on my arms. I could still feel his worry, his confusion, but he wasn’t at risk of hurting himself. “Leeya?”
“You need to stay still for a couple more hours,” I responded, hoping my calmness would extend to him. “You broke your legs.” I moved my hand and gently ran my fingers along his wrist. Enough time had passed that it could be used, but only gently. “And your wrist. Among other things.”
Rhydian started to nod, then stopped abruptly and moved his head to look around the room. “A couple hours?” I knew what was coming next. Everyone knew the time it took for bones to heal. To only have a couple hours left on a leg meant that he had been given the pill several hours before. “What the hell are you doing here? It’s not safe to be out after dark!”
