Sandstorm Box Set

by T. W. Piperbrook

  That should’ve convinced her of the answer she feared.

  But it hadn’t.

  Adriana couldn’t stop thinking about Raj sneaking around the caves, avoiding the guard’s detection, keeping his weapon a secret. She couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d outwitted them all.

  If he was that resourceful, there was a chance Raj was still alive.

  And if he was alive, Adriana would find him.

  Chapter 29: Adriana

  Adriana looked across the cave at her sleeping parents, watching their stomachs softly rise and fall under the glow of a nearby torch. At the moment, they were deep in slumber.

  She looked to the end of the cave, where the guard leaned against the wall, scratching his beard.

  Adriana wasn’t stupid. She paid attention.

  She studied things.

  Like Raj, Adriana knew some of the tunnels, and where they led. Whenever Darius or the water collectors travelled their routes, she’d listened carefully, and asked tactful questions. She knew of a tunnel that carried people out to the desert patch, close to the river. That path was longer and more circuitous than the ledge, but of course, she couldn’t take the shorter route, without running into more guards and Sherry’s people.

  If this guard spotted her, she had an excuse.

  Bladder shy.

  That’s what an old woman had once said, when heading to a more private section of the cave to do her business.

  Waiting until the guard was occupied, Adriana rose quietly and snuck toward the interior tunnel. Her heart bounded. She followed the wall, sticking to the shadows, until she reached the curve in the tunnel.

  She passed the guard.

  Nobody yelled, or noticed her.

  She kept on, waiting until the tunnel was pitch black before sparking her torch.

  And then Adriana was alone.

  Lizards and rats skittered away from her. The smell of their droppings filled her nose. It seemed the small critters had gotten even more curious, with so much human activity. Her boots disturbed their waste, or accidentally kicked a few rotten carcasses. She stuck to the middle of the passage, avoiding dark crevices that made her nervous.

  Halfway down the tunnel, she realized that the air had gotten thicker.

  Adriana held her hand to her mouth, stifling a cough.

  Holding her torch high, she spotted a splash of light around the upcoming bend. Not a light.

  A fire!

  Panic struck her as billowing smoke headed in her direction. The smoke curled down the tunnel, getting worse. This wasn’t a campfire, but something worse. This time Adriana was unable to refrain from coughing. Something bad was happening.

  Something more urgent than her mission.

  She had to warn the others!

  Turning, Adriana raced back to her cave.

  Chapter 30: Neena

  “Fire! Fire!”

  Neena opened her eyes to smoke. Glancing upward, she saw a thick, gray cloud floating above her. Her heart pounded frantically. She looked over to find Adriana and a guard racing into view, cupping their mouths and screaming.

  “Everyone out!”

  Their words were like Watchers’ horns, creating instant alarm.

  A hundred people sprang from their bedrolls, casting aside blankets and fumbling for their children. They coughed, batting away the thickening smoke while heading for the exit. Neena looked left, frantically finding Samel, Kai, and Amos, who were already on their feet.

  “What’s happening?” Samel cried.

  “I’m not sure, but we need to go!” Neena said. Grabbing Samel’s hand, she yelled, “Cover your mouth and stay close!”

  Samel pressed his other hand over his mouth, stumbling after her, while Kai and Amos followed, bleary-eyed and confused. Neena pulled her shawl over her face, fearing that the smoke would invade her lungs and stop her beating heart. All around them, people raced through the haze, bumping into one another. The cave felt like a place of death that no one would escape. Too many people rushed in the same direction, and their panic was causing them to get in each other’s way.

  Smoke stung Neena’s eyes.

  Dizziness overtook her.

  With a cry, she stubbed her foot on a bag, nearly tripping. In their haste to leave, they’d had no time to pull on boots. Neena could no longer see more than tumbling bodies and thickening smoke.

  Looking over her shoulder, she found Adriana and the guard through the haze, shouting at a few disoriented people.

  “The fire is further down the tunnel! You need to go outside, on the ledge!”

  Passing a few dying embers, Neena had a moment to confirm that their cooking fires weren’t the source of the smoke, before reaching the cave’s threshold.

  A hundred people poured out of its mouth, clasping shawls or shirts over their mouths, gasping for air. They grabbed their children close, keeping them away from the ledge. The night sky illuminated their silhouettes. Only a few were quick-witted enough to bring torches, or spears.

  The rest were barefoot and unarmed.

  Finding a place near Kai, Amos, and Samara, Neena huddled under the light of a neighbor’s torch. Shouts and cries filled the air, as people searched for their missing relatives. The pouring smoke blotted out most of the light from inside the cave, making it difficult to see. Neena folded her arms, fighting off the nighttime cold.

  Spotting the shouting guard, Neena grabbed him and asked, “Where’s the fire?”

  Red-faced and sweating, the man huffed, “Adriana saw smoke coming from the other direction of the tunnel! She alerted me!”

  “Adriana told you?”

  “Yes. She was going to the bathroom,” the guard said, obviously angry with himself for not finding it first. “I should’ve spotted it.”

  Neena nodded, listening to more.

  “When I went around the corner to check what she found, I saw a huge fire burning, and people fanning the flames toward our cave! Someone started it on purpose!”

  “What?” Neena asked incredulously. “Who?”

  The guard didn’t answer.

  He didn’t need to.

  Neena’s gaze roamed along the ledge. Through breaks in her people, she spotted a group of women with torches standing at the mouth of the Center Cave. Neena couldn’t make out everything, but she saw enough. At the forefront of the women, holding her head high, was Sherry.

  Chapter 31: Sherry

  Sherry’s allegiant women clustered around her, hugging one another, or patting each other’s backs, congratulating each other. Sherry’s eyes riveted far along the ledge and to the two people at the front of the crowd.

  Satisfaction made her temporarily forget her emotional pain.

  Neena and Kai were alive, but they were miserable. Their postures showed their confusion, and their terror. Staring at the scattered, panicked Right Cavers, she couldn’t help her elation.

  “We did it!” cried a few of the women, squeezing one another.

  Wiping some soot from her face, Jodi said, “Everything worked exactly as you planned, Sherry. We drove them out!”

  Sherry rubbed her stomach. Her only regret was that she couldn’t join her women in that tunnel, lighting the fire and fanning the flames.

  She wanted nothing more than to see Neena’s anguished face up close.

  Soon.

  “What now?” asked Jodi, when some of the celebration had died down.

  “Hopefully our warning is clear,” Sherry answered. “Even still, we’ll keep a close eye on them. We’ll ensure that they are not a threat.”

  Jodi nodded with satisfaction.

  Sherry’s revenge wasn’t a hope, but a certainty.

  She’d beat Neena and Kai down, the way they had done to her. She’d strip them of the safety they took for granted. She’d make them feel the piercing pain of loss and guilt that she felt each night, before she went to sleep, thinking of Gary. The Right Caver’s misery would become a venomous poison, taking root inside them and spreading to one
another. Soon, they’d hand them over to her.

  And then she’d kill them.

  A small discomfort made Sherry look down at her small, growing belly. She rubbed it in a circle.

  “What’s wrong?” Jodi asked, noticing.

  “Nothing,” she said with a smile. “The baby must be kicking. Apparently, it is as excited as I am.”

  Chapter 32: Neena

  Belching smoke poured from the cave, filling the air with its odorous fumes. Through the haze, Neena watched Sherry and her cohort file back inside the Center Cave, until no one was left. Despite their absence, the light of their torches showed they were still near the entrance, watching.

  “Do you think they’re going to attack us?” Kai asked.

  “If they wanted to attack, they would’ve it already.” Neena seethed. “They’re toying with us.”

  “Ignorant pieces of waste,” spat the guard.

  He stepped forward, prepared for a fight, probably still upset about his perceived failings. A few Right Cavers who had managed to grab spears gripped them more tightly, anticipating trouble, but no one emerged from the Center Cave, nor did they emerge from the Left, which seemed to have been vacated.

  After a while of watching the ledge, the Right Cavers relaxed, but only slightly. Neena turned her attention to the cave, watching smoke fill the air and sky, and then to the other end of the ledge, which ended in just a few feet. The only way down from the cliffs was past the Center Cave, or through their own, smoke-infested home.

  “What are we going to do?” Kai asked, eyeing the rattled Right Cavers.

  Half-dressed and shivering, they looked at each other for answers. Only the guard and a few of his comrades seemed ready to battle. Most of the Right Cavers were weaponless. The children were crying and cold. And the elderly—and a bunch of others—were already wheezing from the smoke they’d inhaled.

  Neena gritted her teeth. The illogical part of her wanted to join the guards, rush down the ledge, and reclaim the last of their dignity. But her instincts told her that would be a bad idea.

  “They’ve smoked us out of our home,” Neena reiterated. “All our possessions—our bedrolls and our bags—are inside. And so are most of our torches. Most of us don’t even have spears, or boots.”

  “They probably counted on that,” Kai said.

  “We should pay them back,” the guard persisted, clenching and unclenching his fists. “We should make sure this never happens again.”

  “I’m not sure we’re in the condition to march down and confront them,” said Salvador, clutching his spear.

  Looking down the ledge, Neena pictured herself and her people inching along it, sharing a few torches, and even fewer spears. Some might fall to their deaths. Others might retreat, or perish in a pointless battle. Could they really fight Sherry and her women?

  Neena questioned her fantasy of revenge.

  How many children were in that cave? Three dozen? Four? And most of the women were mothers. Sherry’s people had clearly incited an attack, but how could she and the Right Cavers kill a slew of women in front of their offspring? Would any of her people actually do it?

  Neena couldn’t imagine it, as much as she wanted to believe she could.

  Nor could she imagine leaving their own children and infirm unprotected.

  More anger settled in her heart.

  Sherry knew what she was doing.

  Neena shook her head in frustration. Whatever game this was, the Right Cavers had clearly lost.

  With no other logical options, Neena said, “Let’s wait until the fire burns out, and then we’ll go inside and assess the damage.”

  Chapter 33: Neena

  Neena peered into the murky tunnel. Most of the small cooking fires by the entrance had died out, leaving the rest of the Right Cave to smoky shadow. Through the gloom, she saw a few of their scattered bags, bedrolls, and flasks.

  Sherry and her women were nowhere in sight.

  Holding up a torch and a spear, she beckoned for the dozen people behind her to follow. Kai, Roberto, Salvador, Samara, and eight others walked in slowly, shawls tied around their mouths, spears pointed in front of them.

  The odor of fire and smoke was pungent enough that they could smell it even through their fabric barriers. Every so often, one of them coughed, drawing the nervous attention of the others. It appeared that the inciting fire had died out. Turning behind her, Neena checked on the people on the ledge, who waited with hesitation, and more than a little fear. Every now and then, they shone their lights in the direction of Sherry’s cave, making sure no one followed.

  Treading softly, Neena’s group continued, skirting around their loose possessions. Blankets lay tangled in messy heaps. Clothes were scattered everywhere. It felt as if they walked into a ruined colony, as tattered and destroyed as the one down in the desert.

  Avoiding flasks that could turn an ankle, and bags that could cause a fall, Neena and the others traveled deeper into the cave, reaching the curve where the guard had been stationed, before heading toward the source of the fire.

  Wispy smoke hovered near the ceiling.

  Neena led with her spear, half-expecting Sherry and her cohorts to leap out, but she saw and heard nothing.

  “Where was the fire?” Neena asked the guard.

  “Farther down, I think,” he said, his voice muffled through his shawl.

  Keeping a tight formation, they continued with the turn, until someone cried out, noticing something. On the ground ahead, charred and melded, lay a heap of broken spears and rags. Digging through the embers, Neena found a few pieces of kindling that had escaped the flames, and some larger sticks. Further down the tunnel, they found some discarded blankets that were used to direct the fire.

  Other than those scorched remnants, the tunnel was empty.

  Chapter 34: Neena

  The hundred and fifty Right Cavers shifted on the ledge, clinging to one another, nervously watching the children. A few of the injured people coughed, while others dusted dirt from their clothes, or rubbed their eyes.

  Voicing the question on all of their minds, Samara asked, “What now?”

  Neena looked around at her people. Almost the entire night had been spent fleeing the fire, standing on the ledge, or inspecting the cave. They were chilly, they were miserable, and when the sun came up, they’d bake. Succumbing to fatigue, some already crouched on the ledge, or leaned against the wall.

  Looking toward the Center Cave, Neena saw only a few faint lights. She couldn’t see anyone, but she sensed Sherry’s people watching. Always watching.

  Anger roiled inside her.

  “The cave is dangerous, with so much smoke,” Neena said. “The fire’s fumes will linger for a long while, making people sick. We can’t stay there now.”

  As if on cue, someone coughed.

  Beckoning to a few people behind him, still struggling for air, Kai worried, “We have about a dozen or so people with issues. They need a place to lie down and rest.”

  “And obviously, we can’t stay here on the ledge,” Neena said.

  “So, should we move?” Samara asked.

  Neena thought on it. “I don’t see that we have another choice.”

  “Where will we go?” asked Roberto.

  Kai scratched his chin, working through something. After a while, he recalled something. “When we were first settling in the caves, Darius told me about a few other tunnels, farther back in the formation. One of them had a small spring. It is a bit of a journey, but we could stay there temporarily until our cave completely airs out. And we’ll eliminate the risk of running into Sherry’s people at the spring.”

  “That’d be a blessing,” mumbled another woman.

  “Are you sure you can find it?” Neena asked Kai.

  “Darius told me the way to get there,” Kai said. “His marks are still on the walls, from his days of exploring.”

  Neena blew a breath. “We’ll have to keep the smoke of our torches to a minimum, since we won�
��t have an entrance.”

  “And we won’t want to attract Sherry’s people,” Kai added. “That means we should avoid cooking fires. We’ll have to rely on our dried rations.”

  Neena shook her head. Those rations were already running low. But what else could they do?

  She sighed. “I don’t see another option.”

  Chapter 35: Neena

  Strapped with their bags and belongings, the hundred and fifty Right Cavers marched behind Neena, Kai, Samara, Roberto, and Salvador. They’d stationed their strongest men and women in front and behind, who kept an eye on any branching tunnels. Despite leaving the location of the fire, the smell of smoke came with them, in their bedrolls, blankets, and clothing. Each whiff fueled Neena’s anger.

  Just as they’d suspected, about a dozen people had inhaled an unhealthy amount of it. Their coughs carried throughout the line, reminding everyone else of the fire’s toll. The thought of Sherry’s people being so close, undetected, fueled a flame in Neena’s belly that scorched worse than anything their enemies had burned.

  She put her anger into her steps, hoping to leave those people behind.

  Walking in a tight group, they curved through the tunnels, deserting the place where they’d spent the last few weeks. The Right Cave wasn’t home, but it was the closest thing they had. And now it was violated. Ruined.

  Neena couldn’t imagine ever going back.

  The children wiped their faces, smearing frightened tears and keeping close to their parents. The elderly hobbled along. For a while, coughing was the only sound, as they followed Darius’s marks. Each of those etchings on the wall reminded Neena of her dead friend. One day, she swore, she’d bury him.

  After traveling a long while—and hearing no signs of danger—they allowed themselves to speak in whispers.

  “Our plans to find Raj will have to wait,” Kai hissed, leaning close to Neena’s ear.

  Neena fought the sick feeling in her gut. “Each step brings us farther from the Comm Building. If anyone comes out, we won’t be able to see them.”