The Moon Dwellers

by David Estes

  “What did you mean when you said you thought we were meant to be doing this?” I ask as we continue walking.

  Roc wrinkles up his face, squints his eyes. “I don’t know, it’s probably nothing, but…”

  “What?”

  “I just feel like we have a chance to make things better. You know, for everyone. I mean, the secrets your father is keeping from the moon and star dwellers, people should know that stuff.”

  It’s been a while since Roc and I have spoken about my father’s secrets. Well, one particular secret really. I am one of only a handful of people that know, but I told Roc anyway. At first I was stunned, but later I realized it wasn’t that surprising. It is my father, after all. I don’t see the connection to our current situation, though.

  “What’s that got to do with us?” I say.

  “I don’t know. It kind of popped into my head just now. It just feels like we’re in the middle of something big, or at least something bigger than just a guy who likes a girl, or vice versa.”

  “You think she likes me, too?”

  “No…I mean, I don’t know, maybe. In any case, that’s not important. What’s important is what we do at the end of all of this, or maybe at the same time, whichever makes more sense. I think we need to tell people about what your dad is doing.”

  I think about it. I guess I’m not as big a thinker as Roc. I’m so focused on my own little world, my own feelings, that I don’t really consider whether we could—or whether we should—do anything to help other people, particularly the moon and star dwellers. I think back to before my heart was revived—when I saw Adele for the first time. At that point I would’ve brushed off Roc’s words like pesky gnats. After all, I hated my own life so much that I couldn’t worry about the miserable lives of others. But now, because of my unexpected feelings for a moon dweller, albeit one I’ve never met, Roc’s words resonate powerfully with me.

  Despite the plethora of thoughts running through my head, all I reply is, “Maybe you’re right.”

  “As usual,” Roc says.

  We have no idea where we are, so we just keep walking in a straight line, hoping to emerge from the Lonely Caverns soon. We still have plenty of food in the pack—our moon dweller captors hadn’t even bothered to empty it out. Still, if we don’t find our way out soon we’ll have little chance of tracking down Adele.

  Thus, I am ecstatic when we run into one of the main tunnels through the caverns. I am cautious, too, because I have no idea where our captors were headed—for all I know they might be just in front of or behind us, waiting to pounce. We move swiftly through the main tunnel without incident, meeting no other travelers.

  It is late at night when we reach the exit to subchapter 16, the land of the waterfall caves. Although we’ve received no authorization to travel within the Moon Realm, we purchased some fake papers before leaving the Sun Realm. As we use them at the border, I keep my head lowered and my hat on to ensure I’m not recognized.

  At long last we are back to civilization. Or at least the closest to civilization that my father’s ridiculous taxes allow the moon dwellers to be. The subchapter is dark, but has a decent number of street lights. I can’t speak for Roc, but I am desperate for a real bed.

  We head for the commercial district. I can vaguely remember the city zoning—a domed, circular cave with a reservoir around the outside and the city built outwards from the center—from my previous visits, but Roc remembers far better, so I let him lead.

  Although we feel relatively safe, we stick to the shadows, avoiding passing directly by any late-night strollers, and choose a deserted street from which to select a hotel. And it’s a good thing we are careful. We’ve just taken a shortcut through a seedy alley, and are about to turn onto a main street, when we hear a chorus of footsteps moving toward us.

  We shrink back into the alley, deep into the shadows, and peer to the street beyond. A group of sun dweller troops—at least eight—run past us, moving toward the city center. I only see the leader for a moment as he flashes by, but I’d recognize him anywhere.

  Rivet is back in the game.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Adele

  “They’re here!” Tawni exclaims.

  “Who?” I ask, above the roar of the waterfall.

  Tawni and Elsey splash into the water to join us. They are breathing hard, already soaked from head to toe like us, a result of jumping through the series of waterfalls.

  “Rivet, I think,” Tawni says. “We heard them coming down the tunnel. A man was talking—I think I recognized his voice from the telebox.” Tawni’s eyes are wide and white.

  “We don’t know that they’ll come through the waterfalls,” Cole says.

  “Yes, they will,” I say. “They’ll have maps. They wouldn’t have wandered down this tunnel by mistake. It’s probably a shortcut or something.”

  “But how will they get down?” Elsey asks. Her eyebrows are raised and her head cocked to the side. She looks more like a child than she has since we rescued her, innocent and naïve.

  “They might have ropes,” I say. “But we don’t.”

  Finally, Cole agrees with the opinion I had already voiced. “We’ve got to jump.”

  “And it’s got to be fast,” I second. “They could come through any moment.” I glance at the waterfall, expecting Rivet’s scarred face to emerge from the water in slow motion, his teeth replaced with fangs, his fingers sporting daggers for nails.

  The waterfall remains untouched.

  I feel like the hourglass on our lives is all but empty. We don’t have time to sit around sipping tea and eating muffins and discussing the pros and cons of jumping off a cliff into untested waters. Plus we don’t have any muffins. Nor tea.

  “Me first, then El, Tawni, and Cole,” I bark. I don’t have time to wait for agreement from the others. Waiting means death.

  I step up and jump, not allowing myself any time to chicken out.

  I should’ve at least thought about how I would jump. In my mind I’d pictured a perfect swan dive, floating through the air with grace and elegance. But my body instinctively tries to go straight down, feet first. Because of my uncertainty, I end up halfway in between, my body horizontal, chest facing down.

  Belly flop time.

  My heart is in my throat, and I am feeling something between utter fear and complete elation. There is no time to think, but at the last minute I try to turn my body to improve my landing. It doesn’t help.

  When my shoulder hits the water I think I might’ve jumped too far and landed on the stone—that’s how hard the impact is. Rather than a splash, I make more of a vicious thwap! when I enter the water. Pain shoots through the nerves in my shoulder, running quickly down my arm and into my hand. When I feel myself sinking, however, I realize it is the water that has literally put the smack-down on me.

  The water closes in around me and I am transported into the belly of my childhood nightmares. Falling down the well; thrashing in the water; sinking into oblivion; no way out. It has been a long time since I’ve felt scared of water. Growing up, my dad forced me to conquer my fear, taught me to swim. Slowly, I grew to love the feeling of water rushing around my body. No! There is no well—not this time. I can escape this nightmare.

  Ignoring the pain and bad memories, I kick upwards. Once, twice, thrice: finally breaking the surface. I want to scream with pain, but I hold it inside me, trying to get through it by punching the water with my uninjured arm.

  I look up and realize I am still directly below the tunnel entrance. By kicking hard, I manage to get far enough away from the landing zone that I won’t accidentally break someone’s fall with my head.

  I see Elsey jump. Her launch is more timid than mine was, but is far more effective. She drops feet first in a perfect pencil dive, barely making a splash as she cuts through the water. Although I watch closely in case she needs help, I’m not worried about her; like me, El is a strong swimmer, and clearly a better jumper. A few seconds later sh
e bobs up, smiling, like it is just a normal day down at the swimming hole.

  “That was glorious, wasn’t it?” Elsey says, swimming over.

  “Not the word I would choose,” I mumble, rubbing my shoulder while treading water using only my feet.

  Seconds later, Tawni’s white hair whooshes from above as she executes the perfect swan dive that I’d imagined for myself. “Just great,” I say, my shoulder hurting worse than ever. Or perhaps it is my pride. It is definitely one or the other.

  At least I did better than Cole, whose big dark body flails down from above like he is being attacked by an angry horde of flapping bats. In the meantime Tawni has resurfaced, so we all have a good laugh when Cole creates a liquid mountain upon smacking into the water.

  My laughter doesn’t last long, however, as a minute passes and Cole has yet to reach the surface. Even under the dim glow provided by the overhead cavern lights, the water looks as black as oil.

  I squeal as something grabs me, pulling me under. I kick away from my attacker and come up spluttering. Tawni and Elsey are laughing.

  “What the hell was that?” I say.

  A deep voice from behind me says, “That was for laughing at me.” It’s Cole.

  “How’d you even know I was laughing? You were underwater.”

  “I just knew,” Cole says, a twinkle in his dark eyes.

  “Well, what about them?” I say, motioning at the other two. “They laughed, too.”

  “You were laughing harder,” Cole says, his face as serious as stone.

  I shake my head. “Rivet could be right behind us, we shouldn’t be messing around. We’d better keep moving.”

  If Rivet and his new gang of men are in the tunnel above us, we never see them, which suits me just fine. I hope I never see his evil mug ever again.

  It feels strange being in a moon dweller city again. Although we’ve only been out of subchapter 14 for a few days, it’s the longest I’ve ever been away from the place. I know I shouldn’t be nostalgic but I am. Maybe subchapter 14 hasn’t been particularly kind to me as of late, but I still have a ton of happy memories there, before everything got so messed up.

  The other weird thing is that we are just passing through. It feels like after such a long, hard journey through the Lonely Caverns, we should stay awhile, see the sights, try the local fare—I don’t know, something. But that is not an option. We are wanted criminals, our faces known across all the Tri-Realms. There are probably plenty of moon dwellers who will be willing to help us, but we have no idea who we can trust. Someone pretending to be our friend could turn us in a second later, seeking a reward.

  We are dripping wet, traveling on the outskirts of town, trying to decide what to do next, when Cole says, “This place hasn’t been bombed, has it?”

  We can’t see much from where we are, so I stop, trying to remember the view from above the waterfall. The city had looked pretty amazing, and definitely intact, a far cry from the smoldering wreckage of our subchapter.

  “I don’t think so,” I say.

  “I hope they stop that dreadful bombing soon,” Elsey says.

  “Me, too, El. Me, too.”

  “I’m simply famished,” Elsey says.

  I’ve been ignoring my hunger for three days now, but suddenly at the thought of food, my stomach constricts, groans, twists up.

  “I could eat,” Cole says, opening his pack. It seems like he is always hungry.

  “Not that stuff again,” Elsey says. Despite her overdramatic description of the food in the orphanage, she is already growing tired of our canned beans.

  “We could all use some real food,” Tawni notes.

  “Sure, let’s just waltz into town, looking like we crawled out of a sewer, pop into a café, shove a fistful of Nailins at the owner, and walk out with a bunch of food,” I say.

  “For your information, I was thinking of something a bit more discreet,” Tawni says.

  I sense the slightest hint of anger in Tawni’s voice, which is unlike her. If she starts getting mad at my misplaced, ill-timed sarcasm, this is going to turn into a long trip. Perhaps it is time to take a risk—for all our benefit.

  “I could go steal some loaves of bread,” Cole offers. “I’m good at that.”

  To be honest, I’m shocked. Now that I know the true story—that there was no bread, only heartache and pain—I can’t believe he can still make such a joke. To me it’s more proof of his strength. That he can be such a happy, funny, good person, after all he’s been through, is simply incredible. I even manage to laugh at his joke—because I know he wants me to.

  Tawni smirks, quickly snapping out of her rare bad mood. “I was thinking more like we wait until nightfall, sneak into the city, and have Elsey pay someone to get us some food.”

  “Why Elsey?” I ask.

  “Because her face will be less likely to be recognized,” Tawni says, shrugging. “I’m sure she’s been on the news, too, but she’s not a wanted criminal.”

  “I don’t know…” I say.

  “I’ll do it,” Elsey says. When I frown, she says, “I can do this, Adele. I know I can. Please let me help.”

  I take a deep breath. It makes sense and I’m tired of beans, too. “Okay. On one condition: that we stay close by in case you have any trouble.”

  “Yes, yes, of course,” Elsey says, waving me off as if my suggestion is the most obvious thing in the world.

  The cavern returns to its natural shade of black as night falls and the lights are extinguished. The street lights remain on, but barely cast enough light to highlight the roads. We wait patiently in the dark, slowly drying out, until we are sure it is safe. Although I am anxious to keep moving, I actually enjoy the break, and use it as a chance to speak to Elsey.

  “Are you okay, El?” I ask. Cole and Tawni have walked away, on a mission to find the least conspicuous way into the city.

  “I am now,” Elsey says.

  “But before?”

  “I tried to be optimistic, like Father always taught us,” she says, wrinkling her button nose. “But I was depressed sometimes. If it wasn’t for Ranna I would have felt so alone, I don’t know what I would have done.”

  “Tried to run away?”

  “Maybe.” Elsey looks at me with a seriousness that is far older than her age. “Do you miss Mother and Father?”

  “Of course, El.”

  “Oh, so do I. So much I can hardly breathe sometimes.”

  “We’ll find them,” I say, making a promise I intend to keep.

  “I’m so glad you made friends, Adele. How long have you known Cole and Tawni?”

  After hearing how tough things were for her, the last thing I want to do is depress her with my sad story in the Pen, and how, until a few days ago, I’d felt even more alone than her. But I also can’t lie to my sister—never could. “I’ve known them a little while.”

  “And Tristan? I know you told me the story, but have you really only been interested in him for a few days?”

  “That’s the truth,” I say, feeling silly.

  “That’s so romantic,” Elsey says. “Oh, Adele. I really think you two will make a cute couple!”

  Now I really feel silly. A couple? If…and that is a big if…Tristan is still alive, I’ll never see him again. And if (there you go, another wild, impossible if) I ever see him again, I doubt very much that I’ll stand out from his other more vocal, more attractive female fans.

  “El, I really don’t think that’s going to happen.”

  “Sure, sis,” Elsey says with a wink.

  I don’t have a chance to contradict her further, because the others return, excited.

  “We found a route that’s pretty dark the whole way to the center,” Cole says, smiling.

  They are still thinking about getting real food, but I am thinking about what to do afterwards. We can’t stay in subchapter 16—not with Rivet and his gang roaming somewhere nearby. We need a plan to get to the Northern subchapters, subchapter 26, where my da
d is being kept prisoner. Camp Blood and Stone.

  “Okay, food first,” I concede. “Then what?” I hate asking the question without having some brilliant suggestion, but I can’t seem to think. Sometimes I feel like I’ve only got two brain cells, and even when I rub both of them together nothing seems to happen. This is one of those times.

  “We’ve been talking about that, too,” Tawni says. “And I think we’ve got it figured out. Why do we need to keep trekking through the dangerous inter-chapter caverns, being chased by a gang of bloodthirsty men with a license to kill us, when we could ride all the way north?”

  “Ride?” I say. “You mean, like on a train?”

  “Of course a train, what else? They have night express trains, direct from subchapter to subchapter. We could disguise ourselves as nomads, cover our faces, and buy a ticket. Even if they recognize us, we’ll be long gone before anyone has a chance to do anything about it.”

  The thought of saving us hundreds of miles of walking and getting to my dad faster at the same time is tantalizing. But it also screams suicide. “I don’t know…” I say. “Seems a bit risky.”

  Cole says, “This whole thing is risky, Adele. All I know is we’ve got to do something unexpected or we’re gonna get caught. Let’s give it a try, and if we get caught, I promise to let you say ‘I told you so.’”

  “I’ll relish the opportunity,” I say, not mentioning the fact that if we get caught we’ll be dead.

  The city is beckoning to us, and the thought of food is making my mouth water. As planned, we pick our way through the city via alleys and small side streets, staying out of sight like ghosts in the night.

  Eventually we find a small café that seems to be open and still taking customers.

  “Showtime,” Cole says, gesturing to Elsey.

  I scowl, still not completely comfortable with my sister’s role in our operation, but I bite my tongue and manage to keep my thoughts to myself. Before I can even consider changing my mind, Elsey gives me a quick hug and sneaks away, sticking to the shadows, moving toward the café, which is conveniently located on the corner of our alley and the main street.