by E. R. Torre
“I still got some money,” she said. She reached into her jacket pocket and produced a trio of credit chips. She frowned. “A lot less than I thought.”
“I do appreciate the business.”
Laverna gripped the table and slid to the edge of her chair. With great effort she got to her feet.
“Don’t worry,” Laverna said. “If I fall on my ass I’ll figure a way back up. I always do.”
Max nodded. He returned to the bar’s counter and finished wiping it down. As he did, Laverna moved from her table to the bar’s back wall and into a corridor leading to the rest rooms. Her movements were very slow and she used the walls beside her to steady herself.
“One foot after the other,” she muttered. “Just like you learned when you were a baby.”
She heard a sound and looked back.
“We’re closed,” Max said.
From where she stood, Laverna saw the bar’s entrance and, despite her grogginess, felt an electric charge pass through her.
A man and woman entered the bar. The man was large and muscular. His hair was deep black and his face looked chiseled from granite. His black trench coat’s style was unique and identified him as an Inquisitor.
This was the last person Laverna expected to see in Bordertown and the very last person she wanted to face. Inquisitors shackled and transported her here. They were the ones that abandoned her on this hellish world.
Laverna fell back against the wall. Her eyes moved from the Inquisitor to his companion.
The woman was in her late 30s and had a short-sleeved shirt. Really short sleeved. Laverna didn’t recognize the style of her clothing but they looked rugged, military. A pair of dice were tattooed on her right upper arm. Unlike the Inquisitor, the woman’s attention was on the bar and, after a while, the corridor Laverna hid in.
Can she see me? Laverna wondered.
The Inquisitor talked to Max. They spoke in low voices.
Laverna kept her eyes on them. She focused on the Inquisitor and his companion’s faces and realized they both looked as if they were under a great deal of stress. For some reason, she had a feeling others dear to them were in danger.
Something about them elicited a sense of… Trust.
They’re as trapped as you are, Laverna thought.
She rubbed her head.
Why in Hades would I think that?
She tried to shake off the feeling while concentrating as hard as she could on listening to the Inquisitor’s conversation with Max. She caught a few words here and there and found them confusing.
The Inquisitor’s female companion stepped away and approached the corridor Laverna hid in.
Laverna stepped back further into the shadows.
The woman with the dice tattoos stared directly at her and saw her through the darkness. The woman’s mouth opened and she spoke. The words sounded like nonsense, the fragments of a nursery rhyme.
“…if three of thirty should die…” she said. “…then it’s the end…”
Laverna didn’t understand.
This is a dream. Either that or a hallucination. She can’t see you. She’s not here. They’re not here.
Laverna stumbled backwards and completed her trip to the bathroom.
Laverna inserted change into a slot and activated the water in the bathroom stall.
The water flow was weak and dripped into the sink. Her payment offered only a minute of this commodity and Laverna made sure to quickly and thoroughly wash her face and hands.
The water was cold and energizing and when it ended she dried her hands and face and laid the toilet lid down. She sat on it.
When was the last time you saw an Inquisitor in Bordertown? she thought before realizing she never saw an Inquisitor in Bordertown.
So why was one here now?
Laverna considered that.
Maybe he’s checking on the people confined to this planet. How many here are wanted felons?
Laverna knew little about the history of the other scavengers. Were they all stuck on this world because of past crimes? Had she unknowingly been in a prison world all this time?
Could they be after Carson? Is that why he packed up and made himself scarce?
Laverna shook her head.
There was no good explanation for the Inquisitor and his companion’s presence. Though Laverna sensed they weren’t bad people, she had absolutely no desire to meet them.
I’ll just wait until they’re gone, she thought and checked her watch. Ten minutes. Ten more minutes. By then, they’ll be on their way.
She closed her eyes.
The exhaustion was back and greater than before. Her limbs felt soft, formless. She couldn’t move them. She couldn’t move anything at all.
Your drink was spiked, she thought. No. I drank it a long time ago. Too long…
She tried to focus.
If the Inquisitor and his woman aren’t after Carson, then maybe they’re after the stranger. The one who gave me that Godsdamned drink.
Another thought proved even more frightening.
Maybe they’re all after me.
“Don’t be paranoid,” she muttered and tried to move.
She couldn’t.
You’re exhausted. You’ll be fine.
Instead of trying to get up, she leaned back. The bathroom light timer expired and the lights switched off. In the darkness, Laverna no longer felt as if she was sitting. She felt as if she were lying down.
The feeling was eerily familiar. She tried to remember why.
Her thoughts faded.
She slept.
INTERLUDE
The Distant Past…
With the passage of time, the tribe expanded. They now numbered twenty six.
The three mysterious forest dwellers who joined the group several summers before remained distant from the others. Despite this, the tribe appreciated their help with the hunt.
Disease, age, and injury took their toll as life expectancy in these times was low. Each new addition was often equalized with a death. Babies were born and, now and again, others appeared and joined the tribe while the older and sicker members passed away.
The tribe’s elderly leader, the man who allowed the three strangers into his group, passed away one peaceful, cloudless night. His women lamented their loss yet were pleased with the cloudless sky on that tragic day. Their leader and lover, father and brother, would surely ascend unimpeded to the stars to sit at the right hand of the Gods.
After his body was buried with his favorite spear, his son took over. He proved a skilled tribe leader and, over time, things changed as they inevitably did.
While his father accepted the three forest dwellers, upon his death suspicions about them grew.
Unlike the others, the three strangers did not age. While everyone experienced illness or worse, the three strangers never did. Through bad times and limited food, the strangers appeared well fed and healthy while others around them suffered. Some wondered if these three did not need nourishment but ate out of courtesy.
Even more curious was the fact that the two men of this trio showed no interest in their woman or, for that matter, any of the tribe’s women. For that matter, the trio’s woman, who was of the right age and looked perfectly capable of bearing a child, also had no interest in either her men or any of the tribe’s men. With each passing season the members of the tribe found it strange she neither carried nor bore a child.
In time the tribe’s men offered themselves to the woman yet could not interest her.
They brought her their finest trophies and foods and tried to seduce her with kindness. They paraded before her in displays of strength and fought each other for her attention.
None of these efforts gained her interest.
There came a hot summer night when one of the tribesmen, more excited than he should have been, tried to force himself upon her. His bloody screams awoke everyone. In the morning, he carried painful bruises and fresh cuts across his body. He was unable t
o join the hunt for three days and he, as well as the other men of the tribe, never again offered themselves to this woman.
Primitive oral communication was further filled with gossip on the strangers and even the tribe’s new leader wondered aloud if these three were, as his father believed, forest spirits in disguise.
If so, why were they here?
More importantly, why did they remain?
Had they come to judge the tribe? And if so, could they grow bored of their human company and destroy those they walked among?
Little did he realize that in time, the strangers would indeed witness the tribe’s fall.
ACT III
34
You need to get up.
You need to move.
Now.
The words pounded in her head until Laverna opened her eyes.
She tried to sit up. She couldn’t.
Despite her grogginess, she was surprised to find she was indeed lying and not sitting. She couldn’t open her eyes, at least for that moment, and her arms and legs were tied down.
What in Hades is this?!
It didn’t take long before she was on the verge of panic. With all her might she pulled at the straps which held her. They gave, just a little, and she doubled her efforts. She let out a roar and one of them, the strap on her left arm, snapped.
Laverna fell back. With her free hand she reached up and felt around her face. To her horror, there was a metal mask covering her head. She desperately felt around it and found a clasp. She pulled at it.
With a loud click the mask was released. It slid off her and noisily crashed to the floor.
Laverna looked around but saw nothing. The room she was in was completely dark. She rubbed her head with her free hand.
How long have I been out? she thought.
It felt like seconds. Of course, it couldn’t be.
She freed her right hand and, while doing so, realized the straps that held her in place were made of reinforced fabric. It was the type used to keep heavy cargo in place.
With both arms free, Laverna did the same for her legs. Despite her disorientation, fear, and the throbbing in her head, she felt fresh, strong.
Renewed.
You need to move.
Now.
The words echoed in her head, the remnants, she thought, of some forgotten dream. The voice was not her own. It was male.
Or is it?
Other than the fact that it wasn’t hers, the voice could have been male just as easily as it could have been female.
The darkness around her was absolute and Laverna felt around and at the bed she lay on. It was familiar. Everything about this strange situation felt so damn familiar.
You’re fine. Get moving.
Laverna sat at the edge of the bed and her feet touched the floor. It was firm, metal. Laverna stood up and walked forward, her arms before her. She found a wall and moved along its edge until coming to a door.
This place, she realized, had the same dimensions as the bar’s bathroom yet it clearly wasn’t.
Laverna gripped the door’s handle. It felt the same as the one in Max’s bathroom. She pulled at it. The door groaned as if it hadn’t been opened in years.
Dim light filtered in from beyond and it took a few moments for Laverna’s eyes to adjust to it. When they did, she stifled a surprised yell.
The corridor before her had stark metal walls filled with sophisticated computers. It was the exact size and shape of the corridor in Max’s Bar leading to the bathroom yet the furnishings were completely different. There was no wood paneling, there were no wall decorations. The corridor looked like one from…
…from a hospital.
Laverna looked back at the room she emerged from.
Like the corridor, it had the exact same dimensions as the bar’s bathroom. Its walls were also metallic and lined with computer equipment.
The toilet she sat and fell asleep on was replaced with a sophisticated though very dusty bed. Wires stretched out from behind it and a metal crown, the thing she removed from her face, lay on the floor. The straps she had broken looked old, frayed. They too were covered in dust.
“What in Hades?” Laverna muttered.
She returned to the bed and ran her hands over the cushion. It was smooth yet firm. The bed’s padding was cracked, as if worn down by time. The only part of the bed not covered in dust was the center. It had the shape of—
Laverna’s hand came to her mouth.
It had the shape of her body.
She examined her clothing and found they, like most of the room, were also covered in layers of dust. She brushed the dust off and examined the clothing more carefully. It was the same scavenger outfit she wore when she entered Bordertown. Looking closer still, she realized it was also the type worn by off duty Phaecian military. The clothing she once wore while off duty.
This doesn’t make sense.
Laverna detected the faint smell of sterilizer and old memories came back to her.
The bed before her was a medi-unit. It was exactly like the one she lay on back then, when she awoke from…
Laverna stifled a gasp.
She remembered Gehinnom and waking on that medi-bed, strapped down and blinded. A Doctor came to visit her. He asked so many questions…
Laverna pulled at her dusty sleeves and examined her arms. Her skin was smooth and unblemished. There was no evidence the many wires dangling over the bed were connected to her. It was little consolation as they were designed to be unobtrusive.
She shook her head and her body trembled.
“What is this?!” she yelled. Her voice echoed through the room and corridor beyond.
Laverna took an uneasy step back and heard a click and a whirl. Perhaps sensing she was no longer on the bed, the machinery buried deep within it turned off.
Laverna hurried back to the door leading out of the room and entered the outer corridor.
The equipment on the walls, like the bed, was in the process of shutting off.
Laverna remained terrified yet moved forward, hurrying down the corridor and reaching its end. She stood at the opening which lead into the bar and came to a full stop.
The room beyond –the room that should have been Max’s Bar– had the exact same dimensions but like the corridor and bathroom was radically changed. Walls once lined with decorations and shelves once filled with bottles now carried sophisticated computer terminals. Several monitors flickered and died.
“This can’t be.”
Where the bar’s counter once lay was a very large computer terminal.
“Max?” Laverna called out.
She walked to that computer and found it too was in the process of shutting off.
Crunching sounds came from below. She looked down and realized she stepped on a glass container and broke it. Within the container was a clear liquid which smelled of disinfectant.
The floor was covered in a thin layer of sand. It had the same color as the desertland sand she was so familiar with. She touched it and found it also had the same consistency.
A howl came from the bar’s entrance and Laverna’s head shot up in time to see the door leading into the room creak open.
The door barely hung on its hinges. Wind whipped through the cracks and desert sand flew in. This sand accumulated over a very long period of time and was thickest around the door’s opening. Beyond the crack lay darkness.
Laverna moved closer to what was once the bar’s counter and found it too was covered in a thin layer of sand. The chairs and tables around the room had the same general shape and style of the ones that were in the bar but were no longer served barflies. They were part of an elaborate computer station.
“Max?” Laverna called out for a second time.
She examined the counter.
The computer equipment which replaced the bottles was exotic and Laverna couldn’t begin to guess at their purpose. A faded paper lay on that counter and Laverna picked it up. The paper was brown and b
rittle with age. It was a requisition order and it listed today’s date for delivery.
“What in Hades?” Laverna said.
The requisition order carried a series of codes Laverna couldn’t decipher. She set the paper aside and walked to and around the counter. She feared she’d find Max there, lying on the floor, his mummified body as covered with desert sand as the rest of this one-time bar.
She was relieved to find he wasn’t there.
“Where are you, Max?” she whispered.
To the counter’s side was a wall and a dark metal door. When this space was a bar, the door led to Max’s office. Laverna approached it and noted it, like the bar’s entrance, was warped as if time and the elements had taken a toll on it.
Laverna placed her hand on that door. In her last memories, it was painted a bright light brown. Now, it was dark and corroded and rusted at its edges.
Laverna pulled the knob and the door’s hinges squeaked yet held. She pulled harder. The mechanism cried before giving way.
Laverna looked into the room beyond.
The office, a place Laverna saw only a few times and from a distance when Max exited the place, was sparse and mostly deserted. A worn, well used desk once faced the door and a group of cabinets once filled in the rest of the space. They were all gone.
Laverna stepped into the near empty office.
A single file cabinet stood beside the door. She opened one of its drawers and found a few sheets of paper within. These papers were also brown and aged. They were receipts from shipments. As with the requisition sheet she found outside, the shipments were described only by numbers. Some listed weight and, if the records were accurate, the cargo was incredibly large and heavy. There was no way this small Bordertown bar would order that much liquor and foodstuff.
Laverna moved to the center of the room. Under layers of desert sand were more sheets of paper. She kicked at them and read similar shipment orders.
To her right was a closed door. She reached for and pulled it open. Like the outer door, it opened with a noisy screech. Revealed was a small, private bathroom. The toilet and sink were bone dry and, like everything else, was also covered in a fine layer of sand.
