Kholvaria (The Color of Water and Sky Book 2)

by Andrew Gates

  “Hello?” someone said before them. It was another human voice.

  Iris felt her heart beat faster. Who could that be?

  “Daddy, what’s that light?” This was Misha’s voice.

  How could Misha be here? She stayed back at the entrance with her parents and sister.

  “Hello?” Dan shouted back to the voice.

  “Dan, is that you?” This time Iris recognized the voice as Greyson’s.

  Dan sped up, forcing Iris and the others to speed up too. Within a few seconds, Greyson, Selena and the girls returned in the light.

  “A circle. This building is a giant circle!” Dan said upon realizing what had happened. He patted his brother on the back, glad to see him again.

  “It wasn’t a circle. There were corners. Most of the hallway was straight,” Margery challenged.

  “Well, you know what I mean. We wound up in the same place,” Dan said.

  Corners. How many times did we turn? Iris could not remember.

  “Wait,” Iris said all of a sudden, “let me see that torch!”

  She hastily grabbed it from Dan. She brought it over to the nearest wall and held it close. The dusty surface was decorated with old rusty army medals from ages past. She continued following along the wall with torch. Next to the medals was some sort of nearly-faded timeline drawn in black ink. It was hard to make out, but she did her best to read the dwindling words.

  History of the Pentagon, it said.

  “No way!” she exclaimed aloud. Iris could not help herself.

  “What? What is it?” Dan asked, sensing her shock. Iris was too far from the group now to see them, but she could hear him running over.

  “The Pentagon!” she shouted. “We’re in the Pentagon!”

  Dan finally came into sight. His face was expressionless. Clearly he did not understand the significance of this building.

  “What does that mean? The building is shaped like a pentagon?” he asked. Dan grabbed the torch from her and pressed on her back, navigating them both back to the group.

  “Not just a pentagon shape, the Pentagon,” Iris tried to explain as she returned to the others. When they came into view, they all showed the same expression. It seemed none of them knew what she was talking about.

  “What’s the Pentagon?” Jallah eventually asked.

  Iris took a deep breath. She could tell she was excited. Part of her was worried she was talking too quickly.

  “The Pentagon was an ancient military fortress in the United States. At the time it was built, this megastructure was the largest building on the planet. It was… impregnable.”

  “Like a castle?” Jallah asked.

  “In a way.”

  “Was it ever attacked?” Margery wondered.

  “Many times, especially during the later parts of the war, but there was only one attack where they were able to breach the walls,” Iris explained.

  “How did they do it?” Jallah questioned.

  “With a kamikaze-style attack,” Iris answered, though she quickly realized that they probably didn’t know what kamikaze meant. “Someone crashed a plane into it,” she clarified, “full of passengers and everything.”

  “This was during the war?” Dan asked, just as intrigued as the kids.

  “No,” Iris replied, shaking her head. “That was long before the war.”

  “So what you’re saying,” Greyson said, butting in, “is that this megastructure is one of the safest places on the planet?”

  Iris nodded.

  “Yes, or at least, it was. Obviously the nine of us got in pretty easily.”

  “If this building is as significant as you say, there’s got to be some sort of backup power generator here. We might be able to get the lights on,” Greyson suggested.

  Iris had not considered that point.

  “It’s pretty old,” Dan said, challenging him. “Even if there is a generator, the odds of it working are slim.”

  “Well we should at least try and look. If we are able to get the power online, think what we’d be able to do!” Greyson proposed with an excited expression.

  “We could see!” Jallah said.

  “We could look at maps,” Margery declared.

  “We could contact the FCP again,” Ophelia added.

  Greyson nodded his head.

  “All good points,” he said. “And we could stay here. We could make this our home and leave through the cave just to hunt and gather food.”

  “So that’s what you’re after,” Dan realized. “You know how I feel about this area. Just outside, right now, mantises are looking for us!”

  Iris could tell where this conversation was going. She quickly raised her hands and jumped in before the debate could even start.

  “I agree with Greyson!” she said. Dan turned to look at her. No one said a word. “There’s probably some sort of backup power source here. We should try to find it and turn it on.”

  “What about food?” asked Dan.

  Iris felt her stomach rumble again. In all the excitement, she had nearly forgotten how hungry she was.

  “Let’s try to get the power on first. Then we can deal with food,” she proposed.

  “But I’m scared to go back!” Kaitlyn complained.

  “And my wife can’t move,” added Greyson.

  “We won’t all go out for food, just some of us,” Dan said. “The others can stay here.”

  “In the dark? You need that torch to get out of here. You can’t see in the cave without it. If you leave, that means we’re stuck here blind,” Greyson challenged. “We might be fine waiting here for 15 minutes while you stroll around, but any longer than that and you’re putting our safety at risk.”

  “And what if something happens to you?” Selena said. Iris did not realize she was still awake. “If the mantises attack you and you don’t come back, we’re left here alone without light or food.”

  “Okay, okay,” Dan said. “I can see some of you don’t want to leave the megastructure just yet. Why don’t we put it to a vote?”

  Iris nodded. Others around her seemed to agree.

  “All those who want to find food now, raise your hand. Keep in mind, this takes time. If we push it off for too long, we could be going for hours without anything to eat or drink,” Dan said.

  Dan raised his hand, along with Jallah, Margery and Ophelia. He looked over to Iris. His eyes were wide in surprise, as if he expected her to raise her hand as well.

  “All those who want to get the power online first, raise your hand,” Greyson said.

  Greyson, Selena, Kaitlyn, Misha and Iris all raised their hands. Dan shook his head and looked to the floor, disappointed.

  “Very well,” he eventually said as he raised his head again. His eyes met Iris’s. He glared at her. Iris had never seen him look at her like this before. “Stay here it is.”

  The group awkwardly stared at one another for a few seconds. Nobody said a word. Then Iris nodded her head and took a step forward.

  “We should split up. Selena can’t move very far and the girls could get lost,” Iris suggested.

  “I agree. I’ll stay behind again,” added Greyson. “But I don’t want to stay in the dark for too long.”

  “He has a point, Iris,” Dan said.

  Iris shook her head.

  “We can burn something temporarily to provide light while the other group looks around,” she proposed.

  “Like what?” Dan asked.

  “Like those desks we passed on the way in.”

  Dan seemed confused by this response.

  “A desk? You can’t burn a desk!” he said.

  “This is the surface. Desks were built out of wood in those days,” she replied with a grin.

  “Wood? You mean the same stuff from trees?” Jallah wondered.

  “Yes.”

  “They made desks out of trees?” he asked in surprise.

  “They did. It was common on the surface,” Iris explained.

  Dan tilted
his head to the side and nodded, as if he had no more argument to make.

  “Hmm… if that’s true, then that could work,” he eventually said. “We’ll start just a little fire in the middle of the hall. We don’t want anything else to catch aflame in here. There’s a lot of dust along the walls.”

  “Dust is flammable?” Greyson asked.

  “It is,” Dan replied. “We could risk a dust explosion.”

  “Start small it is, then,” Greyson said. “We’ll burn a tiny piece of the desk and put it in the middle of the hallway, just like you said.”

  “I’m glad we’re finally in agreement about something,” Dan replied with an unneeded aggressiveness to his voice.

  Dan nodded his head and silently pushed past the group, back into the room from where they had entered. Greyson glared at Iris as if she were responsible for Dan’s stubborn behavior. Iris simply shrugged back to him, as if to say she had nothing to add. Only a moment later, they were enveloped by darkness as Dan’s torch passed out of range.

  “We should probably help him,” Iris eventually suggested.

  Greyson did not say anything back, but Iris could hear him walk away. He followed his brother into the next room. Iris followed as well.

  When they entered, Dan was busily breaking the desk apart. He kicked it, hit it and yanked at it like a stubborn child upset about something. Iris could tell he was uneasy. But she had to admit, his aggressive method was working. Before long, Dan managed to remove one of the wooden legs from the desk and casted it aside.

  “You’re right, Iris. It’s wood. That’s amazing!” he said, trying to change the tone of his voice. Iris appreciated this gesture, though she could tell it was forced.

  Iris picked up the leg of the chair and brought it back out into the dark hallway. She had to use her hands to help guide her in the blackness. Once she was confident that she’d reached the middle of the hall, she set it down.

  All the while, she could hear Dan bashing on the desk in the next room. The sound echoed through the otherwise silent hall.

  Iris was ready to turn back and help again, but the light from Dan’s torch soon lit up the hallway. Dan and Greyson exited, carrying their own pieces of desk. They dropped the wood by Iris’s piece in the middle of the hall without saying a word.

  Greyson crouched down and organized the pieces into what looked like a pyramid shape.

  “Let’s clear this dust out of here,” Dan said as he continued to hold the torch.

  Iris crouched down and used her sleeve to remove some of the dust. It was amazing how much came up in one sweep. She coughed as some flew up into her face. Jallah, Margery and Ophelia soon joined in, each of them brushing away the dust. After a few minutes, a thick ring of clean floor surrounded the woodpile.

  “Is that clear?” Dan asked, inspecting the floor.

  “Looks good from here,” Iris replied.

  Dan nodded and lowered the torch to the wood. Everyone took a step back and watched as the desk pieces caught aflame. Smoke followed. Iris coughed, as did some of the others.

  “Good,” Greyson said, returning to his wife and kids. “This will do for now.”

  “This fire will not last forever,” Dan explained. “It will just give you a few minutes while we are out.”

  “I understand,” Greyson replied, nodding. He huddled around Selena and looked upon her face. “Hopefully that’s all we’ll need.”

  “Who’s coming with me?” Dan asked, getting right to it. It seemed he was not in the mood to waste any more time.

  “I’ll go with you,” Jallah replied with his hand held high. He looked eager to come along.

  “Me too,” added Margery.

  Dan nodded and turned to Iris. He glared at her silently as if his eyes were locked onto her. Iris was not sure how to respond. Dan almost made her feel uncomfortable. Is he waiting for me to volunteer?

  “Would you like to join us?” Dan eventually asked.

  “Dan, I’m tired,” she explained. “This has been a lot of excitement for me.”

  He shrugged.

  “You seem to know a lot about this place. I thought you’d want to see more of it. Maybe you could help us find the generator,” he said.

  Iris sighed. She did not know what to say. But then Greyson stepped in.

  “Let her be, Dan. She’s with your child! She needs more rest than any of us!” he debated.

  Dan threw his hands in the air, as if suggesting he were not at fault.

  “I was just giving her the option!” he retorted in a defensive tone.

  “Down,” Iris said, butting in. She did not like seeing them fight.

  Everyone was quiet for a moment. They stared blankly back at her.

  “Down? What do you mean?” Dan eventually asked.

  “I would start by going downstairs. If I were building this place in the 1900s, I’d probably put the backup generator in the basement, or one of the lower floors,” she said, addressing his earlier point.

  “Oh,” Dan replied. The rest of them were quiet. “That makes sense,” he eventually said. “Thanks.”

  “No problem,” Iris said. She nodded to them. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks,” Dan said back.

  Jallah and Margery both waved. The three of them turned away and walked off. The light of the torch lit their path for a moment, but they soon vanished from sight.

  Iris heard Greyson take a deep sigh. She turned to face him. The fire in the hall was not as powerful as Dan’s torch, but she could still make him out in the dim lighting. Iris had not noticed it before, but Selena, Kaitlyn and Misha were all asleep. She wondered when that had happened.

  “What is it?” she asked, addressing his exhale.

  “My brother is losing his mind more and more each day. Forgive him. He is getting stubborn,” Greyson replied.

  When you finally fell in love, the man you fell in love with became someone new. Iris had trouble seeing it before, but now she could finally see the signs. Have I really been that blind until now?

  “He just doesn’t like the idea of staying put,” Iris said, as if trying to defend him.

  “It makes sense though, right?” Ophelia asked. “I mean, when we tried to stay at the cave the first time, the mantises found us right away.”

  “They found us with a trap in a tree. We know better now,” Greyson argued. “We can avoid things like that.”

  “How about this time?” Ophelia debated. “We didn’t spring a trap. They just found us by flying around!”

  “So it’s not perfect. Nothing is. But moving around like this isn’t making things any easier,” Greyson retorted.

  Iris raised her right hand in the air, signaling for everyone to quiet down. She did not know what to make of Dan’s behavior, but she knew she did not want to start an argument. Greyson and Ophelia both quieted down right away.

  “Let’s not discuss this now. There are people trying to sleep,” Iris said, motioning to the others.

  Greyson calmly nodded. He could not argue with that.

  “Good point,” he replied in a hushed tone.

  Iris sat down on the cold floor and leaned against the firm dusty wall behind her. She stared at the flames as they danced before her eyes.

  The history teacher took a deep breath and let the bright orange flames distract her. This was the first time she had relaxed since waking up in the cave that morning. It felt good to finally sit and do nothing. She felt her stomach rumble again but ignored it.

  The Pentagon, she thought, trying to distract herself with something positive. I’m in the actual Pentagon. She imagined all the important history that had happened within the walls of this very building.

  Her mind conjured busy men and women moving through the halls in their suits or military uniforms. Some carried briefcases or folders, others were on their cellphones (the old word for personal pod), others hastily darted through the halls like their lives depended on it and others gathered off to the side, busily discussing work.


  Iris felt a smile form on her face. She closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the fire before her.

  The tired teacher felt someone press against her shoulder. Iris opened her eyes. Ophelia stood next to her, leaning down.

  “What is it?” Iris asked, trying to keep her voice down.

  “What happens now?” the girl wondered. She sat down against the wall next to Iris.

  “Now we wait.”

  Ophelia shook her head.

  “No, I mean, what happens to the group? What happens if they find a generator and get the power online?”

  “Then hopefully the lightbulbs work. Not only that, but some of the radios could be working too. We might be able to contact the FCP again or-”

  “Will we stay here or go?” Ophelia interrupted, finally getting to her question.

  Iris paused. She had no answer.

  “I… I’m not sure.” She glanced over to Greyson. He must’ve heard the conversation, but he did not look back. “Let’s not worry about this now.”

  “I think we should go. I don’t want to stay here,” the girl explained.

  “Well that’s a decision we’ll have to come up with together.”

  “The monsters are still out there, aren’t they?” Ophelia said, changing the subject. Iris could tell from her constant questioning that she was afraid.

  “Maybe. They might have left,” she replied. “Another ship could’ve come and picked them up.”

  Ophelia shook her head.

  “I doubt it. Dan said Ryan shot one and blew up the ship. So that means he killed one of them, maybe two if there was a pilot in the flying thing,” Ophelia explained. “If I were the mantises, I would want revenge. I wouldn’t stop until we were all dead.”

  Iris felt uneasy by those words. She had not considered that point until now. As much as she hated to admit it, Ophelia’s theory made sense.

  “Well, let’s hope not.”

  Ophelia leaned over and rested her head on Iris’s shoulders. It felt comforting. For a split-second, Iris almost forgot about the murderous creatures lurking on the surface above their heads.

  “Let’s talk about something different,” Iris suggested, hoping to calm the mood. “Let’s talk about something that makes us smile.”

  “Like what?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. What makes you smile?”