by J. N. Chaney
“Your observation skills are unparalleled, Lucia, Daughter of Cyril,” he said wryly.
I sighed heavily. This creature was frustratingly hard to talk to. “Do you want my help or not?”
“Yes,” he said after a long pause. “Call me Othello, the name my father gave me to speak with your kind.”
“Who is your father?” I asked.
“Tiberius is his name,” he replied.
“Okay, Othello. I’m going to help you. Let’s get one thing clear, though. While I have no desire to hurt you, I will protect myself. You know the power of my weapon. You felt it firsthand in the caves.” He didn’t have to know that the staff was currently a glorified flashlight.
This time he stayed so quiet I thought he had passed out. His breaths came slow before he finally answered. “You have my word.”
I still didn’t trust him and kept an eye on his claws as I drew closer, then I stopped short. Othello lay in a shallow pool of water. I’d bet my rations it had come from the contaminated source Mark told me about.
“Othello, besides the obvious, do you feel alright?”
“No,” he admitted. “This water is poison. I can smell the death it carries.”
I stepped back again in case my next words set the big guy off. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to pull you out myself,” I told him. “But I can bring back help.”
Othello clicked in a way I quickly realized was a laugh. “It is as I suspected.”
“No, you’re wrong,” I insisted. “I will come back. Then you’ll see that we aren’t what you think.”
I started a search of the pit. It was possible that no natural passage existed, but there might be an artificial one, perhaps built by the Eternals themselves.
For the first time since I was old enough to attend Janus’ lessons, I regretted not paying more attention to them. I was careful not to touch the water as Mark had warned but worried it wouldn’t matter. Was it possible that the whole cavern was contaminated, and my very presence here already meant a future illness? Would my children, if I ever got around to having any, come out of me with misshaped faces and a shortage of fingers and toes?
I decided it was best not to dwell on it. With Othello practically taking a bath in the irradiated water, he was going to need help, and fast.
As I’d suspected, a passage leading out of the cave looked Eternal made. It had precision-cut stairs and a darkened monitor on the wall. If someone had been down here long ago, there was a path out.
“I’ll be back,” I called out over my shoulder.
Othello made a noncommittal grunt but said nothing else.
I climbed the stairs, careful not to touch anything, and came out onto a platform of sorts. There was a door that looked like it belonged to an elevator shaft, so I ignored it and continued up.
The next level had a manual door like the one the others had gone through, so I tried to open it. It turned out to be locked, so I trudged up another flight.
This time the door opened easily, and I poked my head out to take a peek. It was hard to tell without the map, but I figured it had to be the same building we’d been headed for when the floor decided to collapse.
The door shut behind me with a snap and I cringed a little, even though the danger had passed with Othello injured below.
Something clanged in a different area of the building. It had to be Mark and the others. I set off, looking for a way out. This part of the facility didn’t appear to be in the untouched condition of the office space we’d previously gone through.
Whereas the offices had clearly been for more mundane work, with tiny cubicles and drab décor, this place looked sleek and upscale. Except for the destruction.
All the furniture and equipment were in disarray, knocked over or broken into pieces when the people working here had fled. At first the debris looked chaotic, as if everyone in the vicinity had run in all directions at once. Then I looked closer, noticing there seemed to be a pattern to the mayhem.
I could almost imagine the scene unfolding in this area. Stampeding people, all pushing and shoving, knocking things over in their efforts to flee. The abandoned belongings and equipment highlighted the Eternals’ path out of the building. If I remembered Mark’s map correctly, it was the last stop before the caves.
The trail thinned out as there wasn’t as much debris to follow in less occupied areas. Every so often I would spot a lone shoe or bag that someone had dropped and continue that way. So far, I hadn’t seen any bodies, for which I was grateful.
At a split in the corridor, noises came from the left, like people running. Unless I’d been wrong, these came from a different direction than before. Frowning, I stopped, unsure which way to go. Something told me not to call out and reveal my position, so I stayed silent and turned left, winging it.
Some of the doors were still open, like the elevator that had been half open, and I peeked inside one of them. It was a lab, still wrecked, but not quite in as much disarray as the rest. When my light fell on a neat stack of fusion cores, it occurred to me that there was a treasure trove of untapped resources here.
I stepped inside and went to the table, intending to liberate them from their forever prison, but I stopped when I realized they wouldn’t be easy to transport. Deciding that now wasn’t the time to scavenge, I let them be, making a mental note to come back later.
“I’m telling you, I heard someone down here,” a voice whispered from out in the hall.
Unsure if it was friend or foe, I cut the staff’s power and looked around for somewhere to hide. If they had any kind of light, they’d have to be blind to miss me in here.
The number of footsteps didn’t seem to match the number of our group and I feared more of Mario's men had followed us into the facility.
As they shuffled closer, a beam of light fell across the open doorway.
One of them mumbled something half a meter away. I raised my staff high, ready to bring it down on the skull of whoever entered.
18
“Hey, watch it!” yelped Don, bumbling the light stick in his hands.
I angled the staff away just before it collided with the man’s face.
“Sorry, thought you were someone else,” I said, propping the shaft on my shoulder. “Is it just you?”
Don shook his head and stepped aside to reveal Jennifer.
“Lucia!” she squeaked. “You’re alive! We thought you were a goner.”
“You weren’t the only one,” I told her. “Where’s everyone else?”
The pair looked at each other with equally grim expressions. My heart plummeted at the thought of losing more people. We couldn’t have gone through hell and back only to fall at the finish line. The staggering injustice of that scenario was almost too much to bear.
“Guys?” I prompted. “What happened?”
Jennifer spoke first. “After we made it into the stairwell the only way to go was up,” she explained. “Without your light, Mark used the pad.”
She flicked a glance at Don’s light, pausing.
“What did you find?” I asked, unable to puzzle it out.
“Wolves,” Don finished for her, gulping. “The biggest den I’ve ever seen.”
“Everyone freaked out,” Jennifer continued. “Then I was stumbling alone in the dark until I saw Don’s light. Good thing you found that utility closet,” she told him.
Something in her tone caught my attention and Don nodded but looked at the ground nervously.
“What are the chances of that?” I wondered out loud. “Can I see it?”
“Sure,” he said, handing it over with a guilty expression.
I studied it for a moment then stared hard at the man. “This is one of our greenhouse lights. You didn’t get that from here.”
“I knew it,” scoffed Jennifer. “Your story just didn’t make any sense. How long have you had that on you?”
He didn’t have to say anything for me to guess the answer.
“From the beg
inning,” I said irritably.
Don nodded.
“Why did you let me disable our only weapon if you had that the whole time?” I demanded.
I knew this wasn’t the best time for an interrogation, but his actions had put everyone at risk, himself included.
“I was saving it in case I needed to break off from the group,” he muttered, then nudged his chin up in defiance to look at Jennifer. “Look, I’m the one who got it past the guards. And lucky for you I did. You’d still be running around alone in the dark if not for me.”
“Don’t turn this around to make yourself some kind of hero.” Jennifer fisted her hands on her hips and stared daggers at him.
Recognizing that the argument could draw attention, I waved my hands at them. “We can talk about this later. For now, let’s focus on finding the others.”
“I’m not finding anyone,” Don asserted. “Between the wolves, the Boneclaws, Mario, and radiation, they’re probably all dead by now. No, we should go home and send a hunting party to find them.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Fine,” I said, handing the light stick back. “If you want to be a coward, I’m not going to try and convince you otherwise.”
When he took it, I turned on my heel and stalked out of the room, taking off in the direction I’d originally been headed. I couldn’t understand how someone could be so devoid of concern for his people. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so surprising after all, considering the uprising that Mario had facilitated.
Not everyone had been forced into it, I reminded myself. Some, whatever their reasons, had joined him willingly.
The idea made me question everything I thought I knew about my fellow colonists. Sure, most everyone was selfish, at least a little. You saw it every day in the compound. People arguing over whether some item belonged to them or cheating at a game. Even Nero’s romantic antics garnered him extra favors.
But this behavior went beyond getting an extra ration or being crowned this year’s tag ball champion. It spoke of an unrest that had to have been festering for a while.
Janus taught us about Earth history in detail—wars that had been fought, entire civilizations erased, and collapsed empires. Each one began with failures of leadership.
What mistake had my father made?
“Slow down,” Jennifer said, breaking into my reverie and coming to my side. “I never said I wouldn’t come with you.”
“Sorry,” I told her.
“It’s okay. He was being an ass,” the scavenger declared in a low voice. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he’ll come back.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked, doubtful at her words.
“He’s not going to stay here alone with the wolves on the hunt,” she said smugly.
We’d almost rounded the next corner of the long hallway when the sound of jogging feet came from behind us.
Just as Jennifer had predicted, Don had joined us.
I raised an eyebrow at her, and she grinned.
Don didn’t say anything. As I was about to make a crack about him changing his mind, something or someone squealed.
“Do you think that was one of the others?” Don squeaked.
“I doubt any one of us would be stupid enough to make that loud of a noise with wolves on the hunt,” I pointed out.
“That definitely wasn’t human,” Jennifer whispered urgently, no longer smiling. “I’ve heard that before in the caves. It’s a wolf, no doubt about that. I still don’t understand how they even got in here though.”
Don just looked terrified.
“Time to go,” I ordered, walking again.
“We came this way,” Jennifer said. “Didn’t find anything.
I told her about my theory regarding the trail of mess leading to an emergency exit.
“That’s pretty smart,” she said, giving me a nod of approval.
We followed the path a little longer, and sure enough it led us straight to a bank of elevators. To the left of them was a stairwell, and I felt a swell of relief when it came into view.
The door opened smoothly and the three of us trudged our way down to the next level. We would have kept going if not for the demolished steps leading away from the landing.
“Guess we’re going out this door. Hopefully there’s another way down,” I whispered, opening it a crack to check for danger.
The way looked clear, so I motioned the others forward.
This level held more of the same disorder as upstairs, but a quick search showed that it lacked another set of stairs. I was ready to go back the way we came when the elevators caught my eye. The doors were open, but the cars themselves were missing.
I stuck my head inside one and swept the staff’s light around. It looked sound, or at least I didn’t see any obvious concerns. The elevator car sat two levels up and the bottom wasn’t quite visible in the staff’s light. When I turned around, Don jerked his head back and forth.
“There is no chance you’re going to get me down there,” he said.
“If you know of another way, I’m all ears.” I waited for him to say something.
“That settles it then,” Jennifer said, trying to conceal a smirk at Don’s discomfort and failing hard.
“What if the car gives way?” Don asked nervously. “Or we fall?”
“Then it will be over so quick you won’t even feel it,” Jennifer replied.
“Those cars have been sitting up there for almost two thousand years,” I reminded him. “I think they’ll keep a little longer.”
“What about your staff? You can’t climb down with one hand,” he pointed out in a last-ditch attempt to stall the inevitable.
He did have a point there.
Nothing on this level suggested the wolves’ presence, so I felt comfortable leaving them for a few moments. I’d seen an oversized bag with a long shoulder strap attached to it among the fallen items and went back to find it.
When I returned, I had the staff tied securely to my back. It wasn’t pretty, but it would work.
“Don’t drop the light, Don. With the staff on my back I can’t activate mine,” I warned him.
“Maybe you should hold it,” he told Jennifer, trying to thrust it at her.
“Oh no, Don, I couldn’t,” she said sweetly, pushing it back. “You earned it since you got it past the rebels.”
Though her little jabs were funny, they only served to rile up Don more. I gave her a warning look.
She rolled her eyes and nodded, saying she understood. “I’ll take the light and go first,” she offered. “That way you can follow me down, Don.”
“Yeah? That’s probably a good idea. You being the experienced scavenger and all. I bet you deal with this sort of thing all the time,” he rambled anxiously.
Jennifer held the light in her teeth and eased down into the elevator shaft. She gave me a brief nod, then began her descent in slow, careful movements.
Don and I stood at the edge and waited until she was on the next level. “Okay, you’re up,” I said, patting him on the back.
He swallowed hard, already sweating profusely, but did as I instructed. By the time it was my turn to go, the light had almost receded completely and I could barely see Jennifer.
I felt around for hand holds and lowered myself down, hoping I’d told Don the truth about the car not moving.
When I caught up to the other two, Jennifer had stopped. “How far down should we go?” she asked. “This could go down to sublevels we don’t even know about.”
“Did Mark say anything about that?” I asked, wracking my brain for the information.
“I don’t remember,” she admitted. “I kind of tuned him out after a while.”
“Three,” answered Don, surprising me. “He said when we got into the building, we would have to go down three levels to get out.”
Now that he said it, it did sound familiar. “Okay, so the floor I met you on, was that the level you came in on?”
“No, we came up one level,” J
ennifer said from below. “We’ve come down two already, so two more to go.”
A squeal echoed somewhere above, and I peered into the darkness looking for the source. It was nearly impossible to see much of anything so far above us.
But even in the meager light, I could see the car suspended above our heads shudder with a metallic clang as something heavy landed inside. A scratching noise came from it, followed by another squeal.
I kept an eye on Don so I didn’t accidentally step on his head, but he was already shimmying down the shaft quickly, spurred on by a healthy dose of fear. Jennifer must have been on the move, too. I couldn’t see her light anymore.
The noises continued in the elevator above, but the brakes held, much to my relief. I thought we’d gone too far and was about to say as much when something reached out of the inky darkness and grabbed my arm.
“It’s me,” whispered Jennifer from outside the shaft.
“What the hell?!” I hissed. “I almost—”
“I know, sorry. My light died and I was keeping an eye out for you. I think there are definitely more wolves here.”
Once my heartbeat was more or less back to normal, I retrieved the staff from my back. I brought the light back gradually until our eyes were used to it again and did a silent check of our new surroundings.
“Looks—”
Before I could finish, shouting voices came from somewhere nearby, then they were mixed with baying and growling. Gunfire erupted next, in a series of loud, reverberating pops.
“Either of you have a weapon?” I asked sharply.
Don shook his head then held up his hand at my pointed stare. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I haven’t even touched a gun in years. Don’t like ‘em.”
Somehow that information failed to surprise me. I was beginning to wonder how the man had even stood up to Mario in the first place.
“Me either,” said Jennifer, worriedly. “I didn’t think anyone did.”
“Okay,” I said, blowing out a breath. “You two should hang back. No sense going into a gunfight with no weapon.”
“Your staff isn’t exactly up to snuff at the moment,” she pointed out.
