A World Divided

by Rebekah Clipper

  The water looked so tantalizing, shimmering in the bright sunshine. She pushed away thoughts of cholera and other water-borne parasites. This was a dream, right? Nothing could hurt her here. She lowered herself to her knees and reached out her hands to cup some water.

  Just as her hands were about to submerge a voice from directly behind her said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” It sounded like an elderly woman who had smoked a pack a day for forty years.

  Caitlin jumped at the sound and twisted to see who had spoken, one hand falling into the water so she could stabilize herself. She looked all around her, but the only sign of life was the moose. He looked down at her hand and lazily walked away from the water back toward the meadow. About twenty yards up, he turned and continued to stare her down. An overwhelming sense of dread arose, but she pushed it away. Obviously, the moose hadn’t talked. He was a boy after all, and the voice had been a woman’s. She must have imagined it. That seems like perfect rationalization, she thought sardonically to herself.

  She turned herself back around and went to move her right hand, which was immersed in the ice-cold water. As Caitlin pulled her hand up, she became aware of an immensely sticky plant surrounding her wrist. It was distorted beneath the water, a muddy gray-brown color. It was elongated, reaching deeper into the water where she was unable to see its base. As she pulled, it tightened painfully around her wrist, refusing to relinquish its hold. Panic bubbled inside her. She looked around to find something sharp she could cut it off with. Nothing but those damned rounded pebbles were within reach.

  Caitlin put her left hand into the water to try to remove the plant with her nails. The moment her hand breached the surface she saw a slight disturbance in the center of the lake. The small wake moved swiftly in her direction. She pulled her hand out a moment before a second plant slid into place next to the first. It lifted its tip slightly out of the water. Caitlin was baffled to see it wasn’t a plant but some sort of tentacle with circular suckers on the bottom. The appendage felt around, apparently searching for the arm that had just been there. After a moment it moved to her firmly stuck right hand and wrapped itself slightly above the other tentacle.

  The action pulled Caitlin out of her mystified stupor. She screamed and began using her entire body weight to pull against the stretchy, tactile organs. She quickly lost feeling in her hand, which turned a purplish-blue from lack of circulation. For a moment she made a slow retreat, the tentacles stretching until they became translucent. Caitlin thought they might snap, and she would be able to escape. Just as that hopeful thought crossed her mind the creature she was attached to pulled back. The immense strength of it dragged her forward with ease. She held onto her balance for a second and then pitched bodily into the water.

  Immediately, her entire body was enveloped with additional tentacles. She took a swift breath and was pulled beneath the surface of the water where she struggled fruitlessly against the creature. As she was pulled closer, she was able to make out the body of the beast that would surely cause her death. It looked similar to pictures of squid she had seen before, with a long protruding head. The similarities stopped there. Instead of two large eyes, it had dozens of smaller eyes that began at the tip of its head and traveled down to its abnormally large mouth. The mouth was filled with wickedly sharp looking teeth. The better to eat you with, my dear, she thought. Her brain had an annoying habit of babbling when she was scared. The monster appeared to also have hundreds of tentacles trailing from its body, although she could be projecting slightly due to the predicament she found herself in.

  Caitlin observed all this in the seconds it took for the beast to pull her to its razor-studded mouth. She wasn’t dreaming. Her lungs screamed for oxygen, and real death loomed directly in front of her. Bubbles erupted from her mouth as she tried to scream.

  Once she gave in to the fact she had no hope of survival, she relaxed. Warmth spread around her. It was almost pleasant, despite the enormous flesh-rending being getting ready to consume her. Lack of oxygen to the brain apparently had some up sides.

  Just before the monster placed her into its mouth it froze, mouth gaping open. The tentacles surrounding her loosened and dropped away.

  Her mind was fuzzy. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening. A muted splash sounded near her, and she turned to see the moose diving down toward her. Without thinking, Caitlin flung her arms out and wrapped them around one of the moose’s antlers. The animal turned its body and swiftly headed for shore. Caitlin found purchase on his back as he broke the surface of the lake. As soon as she was on shore, she clumsily slid off the moose’s back, coughing and gasping for air. Her legs could not hold her weight, so she fell to the ground, arms outstretched in front of her. The moose put his head down to her rump and gently pushed her legs out of the water while she continued to sputter.

  As soon as she was sure she could in fact breathe again, she rolled onto her back to look up into the moose’s pink eyes. He moved his head down and smelled her as he had in the meadow. Caitlin placed a hand on his damp cheek and petted him. He moved his head slightly until she was scratching above his left ear. He let out a moan that shook her whole body. She took that as a good sign. After a moment he nudged her, indicating the hill behind her with his head. Taking the hint, she gathered her strength, and made her way away from the shore to the grasses beyond. At a suitable distance, they both collapsed. He stared at her a moment and then placed his head on the ground, releasing a contented sigh.

  Caitlin was unsure how long they lay there. Her clothes were still damp, but her hair was drying quickly in the sun above. She must have dozed off. She was a surprised to see her companion had not left her side. Slowly, she sat up and placed a hand on the moose’s head below his right antler. Lackadaisically, he opened one eye to look at her and then swiftly shut it again, his breathing calm and even.

  “Thank you,” she whispered to him. “You saved my life. I would have been done for if it weren’t for you.”

  The moose opened his eyes again, snorted, and wiggled his ears as if he enjoyed the praise.

  “Now what should I call you? Mr. Moose doesn’t seem like an appropriate name for a hero.”

  “He already has a name,” said the gravelly voice from earlier. “It is long and complicated and difficult to pronounce. It really is a stupid name, but I wasn’t the one who gifted it to him.” An elderly woman made her way from behind a pine tree. She had a stooped back and her gnarled fingers gripped a wooden cane. Intricate carvings ran up and down the cane but it was too far away to make them out. The woman hobbled slowly toward the duo on the ground. “You can call him Oscar. He may respond if he feels like it. And for your information, this incompetent beast did not save your life. In fact, he could have easily drowned the both of you. A diving moose? Have you ever seen a more ridiculous thing?” The woman let out a raspy laugh.

  Caitlin took unexplainable offense at the woman’s words. She didn’t like her badmouthing the moose. “Now that was uncalled for. I think Oscar was incredibly brave.”

  The moose snorted at the old woman and placed his head lovingly on Caitlin’s shoulder. The weight of his head nearly drove her back to the ground, but she stayed in her seated position.

  The woman pointed her cane at Oscar, and said, “Oh, quiet you. You know true and well your actions were stupid. And you, young lady” --she moved the accusatory stick towards Caitlin-- “if you had listened to me in the first place, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now. The Boolah is not going to be happy with me after this stunt, and she is certainly going to take her sweet time allowing me access to her lake again. The idiocy of this day knows no limits.”

  Caitlin didn’t know how to respond. She sat there, slack-jawed, as the woman continued to tell her off. Caitlin wasn’t sure the tirade would ever end until the moose stood up, calmly walked over to the woman, and wrapped his lips around her staff. He forcefully removed it from her hand and tossed it beyond the woman’s reach toward the tree she had em
erged from. He lowered his head until his enormous antlers were facing directly toward her, and he let out a thundering bellow.

  The woman looked at him, a glint of humor in her gray eyes, and threw her hands up into the air. “Fine, fine. You don’t have to be so rude about it. Come on then,” she said, indicating Caitlin. “Let’s get you home and dried off.”

  She turned away, not waiting for a response, and hobbled back the direction she had come. Oscar went ahead of her and retrieved her cane, placing it gently into the old woman’s hand. Without looking back, she said, “I’m not going to wait for you to weigh the pros and cons. Get a move on!”

  Caitlin waited for a moment longer and then rose to her feet, following the old woman into the trees.

  Chapter Seven

  Elise

  Drip…. Drip…. Drip…. Drip… The rhythmic sound of water lulled Elise to consciousness. The ground beneath her was cold and hard. Her head hurt, and her neck ached. She let out a quiet groan as she pushed herself into a sitting position. Slowly, she opened her eyelids and was gripped with fear. The world was pitch black. She couldn’t see her hand in front of her. Had the flood caused her to go blind? Was that possible? The last thing she remembered was the water from her bathroom moving rapidly up her thighs.

  Vaguely, she recalled calling her dad, but he didn’t answer his phone. As she was leaving a message the water sucked violently backward. Her legs could not resist the force, and she was swept up in the vortex. She, her mother, and Chase swirled around the bathroom, knocking into all the fixtures. Then, nothing but darkness.

  Elise suddenly felt the need to run in every direction at once, her heart pounding in her ears. Resisting the urge, she stopped thinking and focused on breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. Her dad had her mom do that when she started panicking. Elise took several breaths until she was able to think properly, and her pulse slowed again. She reached her arms out, and her left hand landed on a rough surface. Running her fingers over it told her it wasn’t a regular wall. It was covered in bumps and crevices and was slightly damp. She guessed it was probably rock of some sort. She gingerly moved herself onto her knees, feeling the floor in front of her. She eased herself over to the right until she felt the opposite wall. It was a relatively small enclosure.

  Rolling back over, she carefully raised herself into a standing position. She reached above but wasn’t able to feel the ceiling. Okay, if I got in here, there has got to be a way out, she thought. She reached through her memories to find anything she may have learned about being trapped in a pitch-black cave. Unfortunately, her memories were as blank as the world in front of her. Moving forward seemed like as good of a plan as any. She moved back to the wall on her left and started forward at a snail’s pace, tentatively feeling in front of her with her foot before putting it down.

  Travelling for what seemed like hours, Elise’s mood deflated. The system she worked through didn’t seem to go anywhere but forward. She felt no breaks in the wall. Occasionally, she would move back to the other side, but the distance between them never changed. She was getting ready to give up when the floor before her dropped. She stopped abruptly; afraid she had reached a pit. Carefully, she sat her bottom firmly on the floor and reached out with her foot. Expecting nothing but air, she was pleasantly surprised to feel solid ground about six inches below. She stepped down and reached for the wall on her left, almost falling when it wasn’t there to support her.

  As she turned to figure out her surroundings, she heard the nearly imperceptible sound of something breathing. Instantly, she stopped moving, her body filled with lead. The creature was in the room with her. A low growl sounded. She couldn’t figure out how far it was, but any distance was too close. There was no escape. Even if she could see, the beast had a clear advantage. The echo of claws moving toward her bounced off the walls in the chamber. They seemed to be coming from all around.

  Her heart pounded so loudly she was surprised its sound wasn’t echoing. She didn’t know what to do. She desperately wished her dad was there to protect her. Without a second thought, Elise fell to the ground crossing her legs and pulling her head down with her arms. She let the tears fall freely, knowing she only had moments to live.

  The creature moved close enough for her to smell its rancid breath. It inhaled her scent deeply and then more quickly ran its damp nose up and down her arms. It let out a soft whimper and then licked her with a ferocious intensity. She could sense its body wagging uncontrollably as it continued giving her an impromptu tongue bath. Its whimpers became more pronounced, and Elise’s tears transformed to giggles.

  “Chase? Chase!” She unlocked her arms and placed them around the enthusiastic animal. She rubbed her hands through his short fur as he climbed on top of her, knocking her to her back. She wriggled and giggled, petting him until he calmed down. Finally, with as much force as she could muster, Elise pushed him off her enough to sit back up, never stopping her petting. “I’m so happy I found you. Chase, I don’t know what to do. Can you find our way out? I can’t see anything.” In response, Chase licked her cheek, removing the evidence of tears. “Yeah, that’s kind of what I thought. Well, now that we’re together, we can figure this out. Did you… did you see Mom anywhere?” Unsurprisingly, the dog did not answer her question.

  They sat quietly together for a long time. Elise finally got tired of doing nothing and decided to explore. As soon as she stood, Chase’s dog tags jingled quietly beside her. She placed her right hand on the nape of his neck and stretched her left hand out. She stepped carefully until she found the jagged wall, Chase bumping against her hip with every step. Running her fingers slowly up and down the wall, she felt something soft. As soon as she touched it a small glimmer of green light ignited within it. “Whoa,” Elise said, pulling her hand back for a moment. The light continued to radiate. It wasn’t much to see by but enough to show her more moss directly next to it.

  Elise put both of her hands up and started rubbing them against the unusual plant-like substance. The more she rubbed the brighter it glowed. After several minutes the room was illuminated by a pale, diluted light. She worried the light would go out relatively quickly, but it held strong. “Grammy told me about this,” she said to Chase. “It’s called bio… ummm… biolumence, I think. Some animals in the ocean can do it. I’ve never heard of plants doing it, but I guess anything’s possible. Now that we can see maybe we can come up with a plan.”

  Glancing around the room showed she was indeed in a cave system. Three other pathways extended from the chamber, excluding the one she had just come from. The room wasn’t particularly large, about the size of her parents’ bedroom. In the center a rock stuck straight up. It was about half as tall as she was with a thin base that widened to a flat, rounded top. It looked like it could be used as a table. She ran her hand over it and was surprised at how smooth the rock was. Chase sniffed around the bottom and then lifted his leg to it. “Gross, Chase.” He looked up at her and gave her one of his pit bull smiles, tongue lolling to the side, and panted slightly. She smiled back at him, beyond grateful for his companionship.

  “Mom must be somewhere around here. She was in the room with us when the whirlpool got us. Do you think we should look for her? Or should we stay here to see if she shows up? Dad told me if I was ever lost, I should stay put in one place. That way it would be easier for them to find me. Or tell a police officer if I see one.” She looked around and then faced Chase again. “I don’t think we’re going to find any police officers here, do you?” In response the dog began sniffing around the edges of the room. She followed him, not wanting him to get too far away from her.

  He did several lazy loops around the room, each time stopping for a prolonged period in front of one particular exit. After the fourth pass he gave her a short, clipped bark and started moving down the dark hole. He stopped after a few feet, turned back to her, and barked again.

  “Okay, if you’re sure. Mom probably wouldn’t be able to find us in
here anyway, if she’s even looking.” Elise followed the dog, happy to find the walls of this chamber were covered in the bioluminescent moss. She kept her hand on the wall as they progressed forward, lighting their passage. After no time at all they came to a “T” in the path. Without slowing his pace, Chase turned to the right. She followed him closely.

  The ground sloped upward, and Chase began moving more swiftly. Elise had to run to keep up with him. Anytime they came upon crossroads, the dog did not balk. He kept his pace consistent. Elise got a stitch in her side and was preparing to tell the dog to stop when he took another right and sat abruptly. He glanced back at her momentarily and then focused his attention in front of him, wagging his tail slowly.

  Elise turned the corner and was surprised to see a wooden door sunken back into the rock walls. The wood looked old and had yellow light streaming through holes in the planks. A handle on the right-hand side was made of some sort of metal. The same metal hung horizontally in thick strips above and below the handle. The door was not overtly tall, just clearing her head in height. She turned around in a small circle but didn’t see anything else in the vicinity that would signify people.

  “Should we… knock?” Elise asked Chase, feeling unsure. Again, he looked at her and back to the door, tail wagging. She decided that if Chase wasn’t scared, she wouldn’t be either. Walking up next to the dog, she rapped three quick beats on the wood and stood back to wait. After a few moments she knocked again, slightly louder. No one answered.

  “I don’t think anyone’s here. Maybe we should just go.” The thought of entering the door made Elise’s stomach twist. She couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason why. Possibly being lost in an endless cave had something to do with her unease.

  Quickly, she went over the options in her mind. They could either go through the mysterious door with light clearly showing through the opposite side, or they could continue to aimlessly wander through the cave system possibly wandering farther and farther into the earth until they starved to death. Put that way it seemed rather silly she hadn’t already entered.