Reflected Echo

by Teresa Grabs

  “Anyone finding their way here can remember me too.”

  Back upstairs, she threw her backpack on, tucked the knife in her pants, and grasped her spear. She was ready for what may be her last adventure. With one last look behind her, she faced her fate and began walking the twenty blocks to Hope City Hall.

  It was early spring now, and the greeners were out in small herds looking for young plant shoots. The small, furry animals that Charlie liked to chase were there too. Echo laughed as one scurried by and she remembered his confused, but excited face when they first arrived. It had been a long time since she thought of Charlie. It was different this time though. She missed him, but it didn’t hurt. There were no tears to be shed, and no holes to fill. He was there in her memory, but not her heart.

  This part of the city had more animals this spring than it did in the fall. Perhaps the anghenbeast had taken over other parts of the city and forced them all here. She didn’t care though; it was just nice to see so much life again. Winter had been a cold, lonely time with just her and the books. Some days she was unable to move more than a few feet away from the fireplace before the cold sent her back.

  Greener traffic jams made the trip slower than she had expected. Rather than being able to walk straight down the open street, she had to take the longer route over rubble and cracked sidewalks. The tall skyscrapers quickly gave way to smaller, weathered stone buildings. After a few hours, she stopped, slung off her backpack, and sat on a large, stone block that, according to its inscription, belonged to Harry’s Hamburger Hut. As she ate the last few bits of her cooked winter meat, she looked at the inscription and stone building in front of her. She imagined what it looked like before the ravages of time and smiled. She pictured a bright white building with splashes of color reflecting in its windows.

  “I wonder what hamburger is,” she said, reading the name again.

  A young greener walked by and sniffed her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was nice to be in the sun again surrounded by things that were not trying to kill her. She could spend the rest of the day here.

  A growl echoed through the city and destroyed her peace. Everything was on alert. Nothing moved as they looked, listened, and waited. She slowly, and quietly, picked up her spear and stood up. Her breathing slowed as her ears focused on every sound. Time slowed, and everything halted. The air electrified. The hunter, or hunters, were near. She looked back toward her library, her home, too far to run back. She looked in the direction of the city hall. Ten blocks to go. Dare she run? What if they were in front of her? What if they were behind her? A herd of greeners surrounded her. Safety in numbers. The greeners were no longer something nice to look at and occasionally eat. They were the buffer between her and certain death. She slowly crept closer to the center of the herd.

  A small pack of anghenbeast was out enjoying the spring day as well teaching their young how to hunt. What better place to start than a herd of greeners. With expert precision, the pack attacked her and the herd, thrusting the street into chaos. She took one down with her spear but was knocked to the ground when an anghenbeast lunged at a greener near her. Eyes wide and panicked, she retreated to Harry’s. She ran up the stairs and watched the carnage from the second-floor window.

  There were so many greeners for the pack to choose from that by the time it was over, none were hungry enough to come looking for her. She leaned against the wall. Her heart beat faster than it had in months. It was exciting. It was terrifying. She felt alive again. It was now getting late, and so, when it was safe, she returned to the street for her bag and spears, then back upstairs for the night.

  Sounds from the street below startled her awake. Quickly, she clutched her spear half expecting an anghenbeast to burst through the doorway but instead was surprised by rustling outside. She looked down into the street. Greeners filled the intersection and road once again. Not as many as the day before, and some were wounded, but there they were. Eating as if nothing horrible had happened there just hours earlier. As she sat watching them eat, the old man’s words rang in her ears. The greeners could go to her city, away from the Anghenbeast. People in her city would feed them and protect them, but they would have sacrificed their freedom to live and die on their own terms, just like Tobias and Kyle were forced to do when their mother moved to Hope.

  Things seemed so much clearer that morning than they ever had before. Life and death depend on each other, but they are just two points in life. It is what one chooses to do between those two points that matter. The greeners knew this. They accepted it. Life continued long after another’s death. Her life continued after Charlie, and other’s lives will continue after her death. More determined now to uncover what happened in those in-between moments for the people of Hope, Echo collected her things and set out for the last ten blocks to Hope City Hall.

  The large plaque, partially covered by new vines, announced she had reached her destination. Hope City Hall must have been impressive when people were still around to maintain it. The six-floor, stone building was surrounded by trees, stone benches, and what Echo assumed was a city park like in Bakerton. Even in its dilapidated state, the building was beautiful with light-green vines winding in and out of the holes where window panes once allowed people to see the sun and watch the community in action. Greeners gathered here and there around the front, and a young caver played behind the Hope City Hall in the morning sun. She smiled and felt calm. Charlie would have loved it there. It was more open then she liked, but with the right traps and other defenses, she could make it her new home.

  As Echo entered the former Hope City Hall, the red lights on her bracelet turned green and started flashing, but she did not notice. She was too busy gaping at the intricate stone and metalwork that greeted her on the first floor. Wind had weathered the walls, and vines had taken refuge from the winter cold, but she could still tell what it once looked like. Large stone tables filled the first floor and in the center of the room was a majestic fireplace that she could crawl through to the other side. They had built this building to last, and she wondered if it held secrets like the library.

  Seventeen

  There were sets of wide stone staircases going up and down on both sides of the floor. She picked the closest one and looked to the upper floors, then to the lower floors. Which way first? No noises could be heard from either direction.

  “Might as well start at the top and work down.”

  Spear in hand, and ready for anything, Echo climbed the stairs to the sixth floor. Whatever had been there was now gone. Lost to countless years of wind, rain, and birds. There was no roof left, except a few stony notches here and there. Large, red and blue birds pecked around the greening vines and paid her no notice. She could stay up there all day, but there was work to be done, so she returned to the fifth floor where there might be more protection from the elements.

  Water damage from the sixth floor erased all identification for the floor. Small offices contained broken furniture and dust. Little could be learned which lowered her spirits slightly; however, she found a narrow, interior staircase that had walls painted light blue with a painted flower garden along the bottom. Just as she hoped, the most interior of the building was spared. She sat at the bottom of the stairs on the fourth floor and smiled. Even though it was spring and soon the city would be alive again with flowers, she found it relaxing to just sit and look at the walls. Outside the staircase, the walls were damaged slightly, but she could tell they had once been painted light blue as well. The tiled floor was cracked, dirty, and vines crept around every corner, but everything raised her hopes that something would be found. Something that would tell her what happened to the people.

  Those hopes were dashed as she searched through the fourth floor and found nothing but offices. The third floor held offices, as did the second. The offices became smaller the closer she was to the main floor.

  “There’s got to be something here.” She looked down the stairs into the dark lower levels.
“Bet it’s down there.”

  She paused at the top of the narrow staircase and pulled the lantern from her bag. It didn’t light up the floor as well as natural sunlight did, but after searching the library’s basements, she was used to navigating in limited light. There was only one lower level to the city hall as the staircase abruptly stopped in front of a wooden door that was still on its hinges. The dark was foreboding. Scraping and creaking of the door as she pulled it open sent shivers up her spine.

  Everything at her end of the basement looked in pristine condition. There were stacks of papers still on desks in offices waiting for their occupant to arrive at work. A large room was lined with shelves filled with boxes of files. Some of the boxes were labeled “Board Minutes” or “City Ordinances,” but those words had no meaning to her. Pictures of Hope as it once looked lined the hallways and a few offices. Pictures of family members sat on desks or hung on the wall behind their chair. Tears dripped from cheeks as she wandered from room to room. Everyone who worked there had a family. A family that only wanted to live in peace. Nothing said what happened to the people of Hope.

  Echo grew frustrated and slammed her hand against the wall in the main hallway. Breaking glass echoed through the hall. She sighed.

  “Sure, every down here lasts until you come along. Real nice, Echo, real nice.”

  The lantern’s light glistened off the broken glass, and a large map of Hope hung precariously in its frame. She gently took the map from the frame and laid it on the floor. Wow! It was the first time she had been able to really understand the size that Hope once was. Hope City Hall sat in the middle of the city and was surrounded by smaller buildings. Presumably, the city grew outward from there. There was a small circle surrounding the city hall and its close neighbors, then another circle further out labeled Stage Two, a third circle even further out labeled Stage Three, then a double circle labeled City Wall that encircled the entire city. She placed the lantern on the city hall, then traced her way back to Harry’s Hamburger Hut in Stage One, the Hope City Library in Stage Two, and the workshop in Stage Three. She measured the general distance with her arm, then looked at the map’s legend.

  “Forty miles? It’s forty miles between the wall and here? How?”

  Echo sat on the floor and stared at the map. If she had gone forty miles just in Hope, how far had she gone in the plains? How far was she from Bakerton? Impossible. The spears attached to her backpack clanged on the stone wall as she stood and echoed through the hall. The longer she was in the dark basement, the more uneasy she became. One last look at the map was all she wanted. With her lantern held high in her left hand and spear at the ready in the right, she continued looking around the basement as fast as possible. The sooner she left, the better she would feel.

  “There’s nothing here.”

  The main staircase sat in the middle of the basement. She quickly ran up the steps. Suddenly she was blinded by the midday sun and crashed into something – or someone. The lantern clanged and chimed as it broke apart falling down the stairs into the dark basement, her spear pinged as it slid down each step behind the lantern, and her backpack landed with a thud. In an instant, four hands were helping her up by the arms. She held a hand over her eyes and squinted. Her heart pounded in her chest as she glanced outside and discovered the sun was reflecting off a Bakerton official helicopter. Quick. Think. Run. There was nothing she could do and nowhere she could go. They had her surrounded.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Monat,” a man said as he walked in. “May we speak?”

  Echo stood in front of the official and his agents in disbelief. It had been nearly a year since she saw another living person. His uniform looked so bright in contrast to the stone and light green around him. Echo blinked and swallowed hard looking at his clean hair and body. She had forgotten what it was like to be clean. Suddenly, acutely aware of how she must appear to the official, she dusted off her clothes and tried running her hand through her thick shoulder length hair but was unable to shift it.

  He smiled warmly. “No need for formalities, Miss Monat. May we talk?” he asked, waving his hand toward one of the stone tables.

  “Um, yes.” Her voice faltered. She wondered if she even remembered how to speak to another human.

  “Thank you.”

  The agents holding her up released their grasp and quickly retrieved a small computer from the helicopter and set it on a table then left the man and Echo alone.

  “Do you remember me?” The official motioned for her to take a seat.

  She studied his face as she sat. “You were at my test.”

  “Yes. Do you know who I am?”

  “Sorry.” Echo shook her head.

  He chuckled as he turned on the computer. “Unlike my predecessors, I do like to keep a low profile.”

  Echo looked confused.

  “I am Premier Steiner, and I’ve been very interested in you since your first year.”

  Her eyes grew. Premier Steiner? Here? Her test? Why? Wait, watching from first-year? The Premier reached across the table, tapped a few buttons, and removed her bracelet. Echo’s eyes followed his every movement. “I am sure you have many questions, Miss Monat, but if you don’t mind, I would like for you to hear what I have to say first, then I will answer any questions you may have? Alright?”

  Echo nodded without saying a word as she rubbed her wrist where the bracelet had been for all those months.

  Premier Steiner drew a deep breath, smiled, and leaned back in his chair. He motioned to one of his agents who quickly brought two drinks and a plate of food, then returned to his position just outside the doorway. Echo couldn’t resist the food and began eating.

  “I remember how hungry I was when Premier Port found me in this very building nearly thirty years ago,” Premier Steiner said as she ate. He cleared his throat and scratched his face. “Where to begin? This is the city of Hope, so called because it was the last remaining city in the world after a plague destroyed everything. The leaders wanted a city where people would be safe and able to live without worry or fear. They became, for all intents and purposes, parents to the citizens of their city.”

  He was very animated when he spoke, and his voice was warm but calculated. Echo not only listened but heard every word. Last remaining city? She thought back to the book in the library that said there were other cities like Hope across the world. Liar. What do you want? Premier Steiner took a drink from his metal bottle and then pushed buttons on the computer. A video appeared on the screen, and as he turned up the volume, he turned the screen so Echo could see it.

  She watched the screen intently as a young man sat behind a wood desk appeared holding a stack of papers and looked into the camera. “Good Evening, City of Hope.” He read the news of the day. Of sales at Alice’s Antiques and Donovan’s Bakery. Images of happy, laughing children flashed on the screen while he read news about the May Celebration at the local elementary. The video abruptly stopped.

  “That was the only known recording of life in Hope before the war,” Premier Steiner said as he selected another video. “This one shows how we found it.”

  Echo watched as people in Bakerton uniforms, police and engineers, walked through the city as it was smoking and crumbling. She watched as one police member fired his weapon killing a caver, then another, and another. There was a growing lump in her throat, but she was not going to let him see it. She had to keep emotionless. What did he want?

  “That video was taken nearly a hundred years ago.” Premier Steiner turned off the computer.

  Echo’s eyebrows furled in confusion as she leaned back in her chair and took a sip of her drink. “If that was …”

  Premier Steiner chuckled. “I had the same reaction when I saw the videos. If that was a hundred years ago, and we filmed it, then where did we come from?”

  Echo nodded cautiously. Her eyes flitted around the room. She was still not entirely comfortable with people being around her again.

  “When I saw the vide
os and asked that question, he told me a story of how, in the middle of the war, the leaders of Hope wanted to create another, safer, city for their children.” His eyes pierced Echo as he smiled. “So, they built Bakerton, and took all the children there.”

  His toothy smile reminded her of an anghenbeast on the prowl. The once mighty hunter had become the prey again. A shiver ran up her spine.

  “Oh, that was nice of them.” Echo shifted in her seat.

  “Most of the adults destroyed themselves and Hope, but a few were selected to lead them in the new city. That’s where we come in.” Premier Steiner waved his hand between him and Echo.

  “We?” Her heart pounded, and her throat became dry watching his face light up with excitement the longer he sat in the chair across from her. What do you want?

  “Yes, Miss Monat. We.” He grinned more and nodded his head. “I’ve watched you since your first year in school. You’re special. I was too.” He snuffed his nose with pride, stiffened in his seat, and took a drink. “You and I have a connection. Don’t you feel it?”

  Hah! No. I have more of a connection to an anghenbeast than you. She smiled and nodded politely. “Oh, sure.”

  He laughed and clapped his hands. Her insides contracted every time he laughed. It ran through her blood like the howl of the anghenbeast after it caught a scent.

  “We care. We care about ourselves and others. We want to protect them. Like they were our children.” He glanced toward the doorway where one of his agents was still standing guard.

  Children? Matthew was a child! You didn’t care much about him, did you? The weight of the knife in her pocket seemed to grow with each foul chuckle and false laugh. One swift lunge and he would be dead. Is that what I’ve become? A killer?

  “That’s why we were chosen.”

  His words played over in her head as she steadied her breathing. “Chosen?”

  He puffed out his chest with pride. “Yes, Miss Monat, chosen.”