by Al K. Line
Leel ignored her and focused on the little fish that darted between her legs. She sniffed the water like she could trail the fish that way.
Dogs can't smell through water, can they?
It was funny to watch Leel and her antics, and it took Arcene's mind off events in the city. She was having a hard time dealing with it. She put up a wall surrounding the patch of darkness in her mind where the despair waited, festering, making sure it wouldn't cut as deep as it otherwise could. It wasn't only the loss of Beamer's life that saddened her so deeply, it was the darkness within his father and the nurturing of such contempt and utter disregard for others, especially women, that would hurt the most if she let it.
Not for the first time she wondered if The Lethargy hadn't done humanity a favor if this was what people could so easily become — maybe it would have been better if whatever caused The Lethargy had actually finished what it started, although the way mankind had acted since then was doing a good job of completing the extinction event anyway.
But there was still good in the world, people she trusted, liked, even loved, although that had been the hardest thing of all to admit to herself, even more so to others. And what about her? Arcene knew she was different, even compared to people that had serious issues, but she didn't think she was bad, she just stood up for herself, was willful, and knew, deep down, what was right and what was wrong.
Sort of.
It got confusing, it always had. When she was hungry she saw nothing wrong with stealing, why should she? If there was food then she wanted it, but the lines always blurred: to take from others put them in greater danger, and that was bad. Letting yourself die was bad too, so Arcene tried not to steal unless she felt it justified, and anyway, it wasn't like truly being mean and cruel, that was one thing she absolutely could not stand: people being nasty and taking advantage of others just because they wanted to, or because they enjoyed it. No, that type of person deserved everything they got, and if they happened to be in Arcene's company when their warped nature was discovered, well, there would be trouble, plenty of it.
"Argh!" Arcene glowered at the chunk of concrete she'd stubbed her big toe on, annoyed with herself for daydreaming again and not staying focused. She should have learned by now that when you were in the wilds you had to keep your wits about you at all times. She shook her leg, trying to force the pain to disperse, but her toe throbbed like she'd whacked it with a hammer. Quickly, she shut down nociceptors, the white-hot points at the end of her nerves fading to happy blue as pain subsided.
"What's a lump of concrete doing here? Weird." She bent down and poked at it, a large crumbled chunk with pieces of aggregate making it look like an ancient relic, which she supposed was correct. Brown tears stained the man-made boulder where reinforcement rods had corroded.
Woof. Woof!
"It's just a lump of stuff Leel, no need to get angry." Arcene pushed the alien rock over with her foot, but there was nothing of interest underneath and Leel lost interest, continuing her fishing further down the stream bed.
Woof, woof. Woof! Arcene took a moment to register the strange echo of Leel's bark.
Why is it echoing? We're in the open. Arcene looked up in annoyance, hoping she hadn't cut her foot through her boot, praying she didn't feel the icy water seep through to her sock. She lifted it out of the water, pleased to find it scuffed not torn.
Arcene froze, one leg in the air, looking like a weaponized flamingo, and shouted, "No. Stop," before Leel's wagging tail disappeared into the jagged opening of a tunnel. Her bark echoed weakly in the dark interior before being sucked up by thick concrete walls as the visible part of the storm drain angled into the loose gray shale of the steep mountainside.
"Stupid dog, what's wrong with her?" Arcene dashed toward the strange tunnel, not so much because of its existence but because of where it was. Why was there an old concrete tunnel out here in the valley? Was it pre-Lethargy and used to divert the water? Or had somebody put it here since?
Maybe it led to the castle? It could! Yeah, it was probably used to divert the water, although at the moment it looked like it was less than ankle deep as it ran along the ancient concrete. Making it to the opening, there was no doubt it was a purposely placed diversion for the water — although the edge was crumbling, stained brown like the piece in the stream, it was sited well to catch the flow. The top and sides were now well hidden as the shale slid down the gully and slowly backed up the side of the hill, making it nothing but a dark hole in the mountainside.
Arcene noted that to the left of the tunnel the water was dammed. It looked ancient, like the work was done well before her birth, but it was still functioning rather well — creating a wide pool before draining away into the tunnel. The concrete with its perfectly symmetrical circumference was out of place amid the shale and the scrappy tufts of grass that clung to the water's edge and climbed up the steep sides of the gorge, but even the once perfectly poured concrete was now eroding, the moss eating into the hard surface, reclaiming it over the centuries.
Just another reminder of what was, and how nothing lasted forever. Nothing.
Woof.
Leel's bark was faint but insistent, and Arcene opened her mouth to call her back. Then her eyes sparkled and a wide smile spread across her face. With the hunger pangs forgotten, the concern over her big toe gone, and the worry about her own safety non-existent, Arcene leaned forward and excitedly stepped into the tunnel's mouth.
Adventure. Yes!
Arcene splish-splashed into darkness.
The Rat Men
It was hard to imagine ever being able to stand upright again. Arcene had been bent over for so long it felt like her spine was fused in an almost horizontal position. Her upper back, shoulders and arms all ached dully, sensations reduced to a background throb, but her lower back was on fire, like the fusing of her spine was ongoing, performed by a sadistic surgeon who insisted on using white-hot metal rods he pushed slowly into her bone to complete his despicable operation.
Why can't I stop the pain? Will I ever walk upright again?
The darkness was absolute for normal, non-Awoken eyesight. Pitch black, like entering The Void. Nothingness filled the air and Arcene had the strange feeling that soon she would come out into the light, reborn as a girl of fifteen rather than a newborn. She prayed for light, for normal daylight, but up ahead was emptiness, more tunnel, slow running water and the rough texture of concrete.
Every so often water would drip onto her head, foul-smelling liquid that seeped through the hillside over the years until it found the cracks where the sections of tunnel joined, then chewed away at the material until it joined the stream Arcene and Leel sloshed through.
Again, Arcene wondered if she should turn back, admit defeat and retrace her steps, knowing that at least that way lay freedom. But what if she'd gone well past the halfway mark and it would be quicker to just keep moving forward? Ugh, how could she know?
She'd been thinking the same thing for hours, repeatedly stopping and turning, her indecision annoying, but each time her resolve hardened and she turned back the way she had been headed, determined to see her decision through to the end. Stubbornness, that was all it was, but being stubborn meant cool stuff happened — who knew what she would miss out on if she turned back right when things could get interesting?
So far all there had been was water, concrete and the moaning of Leel — and the surgeon performing his despicable operation on her crumbling spine.
Arcene's mind played tricks on her. She was sure she could hear the water, or maybe the walls, whispering to her: "Go back, don't come in, you're not wanted here."
She shook her head in the dark, cursed for not having tied her hair back tight — it was wet and slimy and felt like that time she'd been so hungry she ate algae off rocks and ended up so ill she smeared her whole body in it and thought she was a frog.
Yip, yip, yip. Leel's unusual silence was broken by her incessant noise, not too far ahead by the sound of
it.
Arcene ramped up her vision the best she could, but the tunnel was so dark she saw little more than the hand in front of her face as the faintest trace of white, any further and it was just black. Black and wet.
"Leel? Leel, where are you girl? C'mon, don't you want company?" Arcene tried to convince herself that Leel was scared, when she knew that she was, if not frightened, then feeling less than overjoyed about the dark. It had gone on too long, had turned from an adventure into pain and an encroaching sense of claustrophobia, not to mention it was getting cold and her energy reserves were fast depleting as she burned precious calories to raise her core temperature.
We're gonna have to turn back soon, unless something happens to make this worthwhile.
Woof.
The bark sounded different, the echo distorted, and Arcene tried to focus on her friend as she took one soggy step after another. Her fingers felt like chipped fragments of bone as she trailed the curved wall, the sense of security overriding the rawness she shut down with ease.
Oompf.
"There you are, what you doin' girl?"
Leel whimpered.
"Good girl, it's all right. Fancy being scared of a silly old tunnel. Haha, you're old enough to know better." Arcene felt around until the familiar bumpy head of Leel was beneath her hand and she rubbed the ear, thick as her old leather boots and just as wrinkled — it comforted them both.
Leel whimpered again. Arcene felt muscles tighten as a paw lifted into the air, making a strange scraping sound as it fell back into the water.
"What is it girl? You found something cool?" Arcene felt past Leel and cold metal greeted her, tiny shards piercing her skin like rose thorns. Blood dropped into the water and flowed away.
Arcene stepped back as her nose almost touched metal, then moved her head left then right, up then down, and made out a lattice of well-rusted metal that was some kind of gate built into the tunnel.
Now things are getting interesting.
"Well, if they want to keep us out then that means it's worth getting in." Arcene slid her hands gently across the ancient metal, searching for a latch or way to open the barrier. Was it a permanent part of the design or was this an access point that could be opened and closed? Being almost blind wasn't helping and she fumbled with tender fingers for a way in but found nothing.
Clank.
Arcene peered closely and discovered Leel's snout nudging a catch carefully. She lifted it up and pushed forward.
The gate squealed in anger at the disturbance but the hinges held fast and it swung inward.
"Well, if that's not an invitation then I don't know what is. Come on girl, let's go see what's waiting for us, eh?"
Arcene marched forward; a reluctant Leel followed behind.
They managed all of five seconds before the peace was shattered.
Squeak, squeak, squeak.
The noise was faint at first, like the squeal of the gate but coming from ahead, but the sound seemed closer, coming at them in a hurry. It was soon apparent where the squeaks came from as the first rat ran past and Leel, with eyes better adjusted to the darkness than Arcene's, lunged for it and the quiet crunch of bone told she had caught her quarry.
Moments later they were overrun. Hundreds of tiny sharp claws snagged on her socks and scampered over Leel as the rodents passed, seemingly making a dash for freedom now they knew the gate was open.
The darkness made no difference, Arcene could see the pinpricks of gray light through The Noise that signaled the tiny life-forms, or at least tiny compared to her and Leel, not at all small in terms of your usual rat proportions. These were fat and fast, like super-rats. Thick fur scratched past their faces as they charged down the tunnel, many dashing past almost at right angles to the floor as they vied for space to make their escape.
The tidal wave of flesh passed as quickly as it had appeared, leaving nothing but an astonished Arcene and a somewhat less hungry Leel in its wake.
"Well, that was... odd. Wonder why they were so keen to get away? Surely if they got in then they could get out just as easily?"
Never one to be intimidated, Arcene took the onslaught of stinky vermin in her stride. She pulled up her socks, tried not to get too annoyed at the tiny tears to the fabric, and found a ribbon in the backpack still thankfully secured on Leel's back. She tied her hair back, wiped her forehead and tried her best not to gag on the stench of damp rodent. They headed deeper into the tunnel.
No going back now, it's got to lead somewhere.
As they pushed forward the occasional rat scampered past, much more sedately than the horde that had poured down the tunnel earlier, and the tiny pricks of light seen through The Noise were easy enough to avoid. Leel had also seemingly decided that rat was less than appetizing and left them to whatever mission they felt compelled to take part in.
"Whoa!" Arcene teetered on the brink, her feet halfway over the edge of the tunnel that ended abruptly and without warning. She waved her arms about in a panic before she managed to grab the slimy edge of the tunnel opening and shoved back against Leel.
Down below was a pool, the water dark and menacing as if resting before continuing its journey through numerous tunnels like hers.
Wait, it's not dark. Arcene had been so caught up in her aches and pains she'd failed to notice the slight increase in light as she moved down the tunnel. She peered into the cavern and realized there was a dull-red, ambient light, although she couldn't identify the source. She raised her eyes, noticing a ledge in front that ran from her tunnel to others dotted around the sides of a square space — hers was the only one where water poured out, the others had... Were they people?
Arcene peered across the void, searching the gaping mouths of the circle openings, peering at ledges fat and thin, noticing rope walkways and dubious looking ladders tied at random to the walls of the space.
Below and to the right was a large platform full of what at first appeared to be mounds of rags, except rags don't move, and they don't have hundreds of eyes all raised in your direction hidden behind hairy faces or covered by patches of material in all colors, taking on a similar red hue from the strange light.
The large platform was a living mass of writhing cloth hard to make sense of, but the upturned heads, some visible, some little more than a pair of goggles shrouded in the shadows of makeshift hoods, told Arcene that this was a community of sorts, far removed from the lives being led above ground. She'd encountered strange people before, heard stories of numerous bizarre communities where life and law had warped over the centuries, heck, she herself had first-hand experience of a group of nuns that took it upon themselves to cloister themselves away for centuries, warping a once worldwide religion until it became unrecognizable.
This was something different. This was... a little awkward.
"Um, hello," she shouted into the emptiness.
Heads turned, rags moved and limbs writhed, but nobody answered. If anything, it seemed like the people below huddled closer to each other. Were they scared?
Leel poked her head between Arcene's legs, pushing them wide to accommodate her thick jaw, and peered down at the congregation.
Woof.
The greeting echoed around the chamber, searching for a place to find a home, traveling down tunnels until it was lost in the darkness.
At the sound of the bark the mass of bodies and cloth seemed to become instantly alive — low murmurs reached their ears up on the ledge. It was as though Leel's bark held more weight than Arcene's words.
Maybe they just like dogs?
"Can I come down?" Silence. "Okay, I'm coming down. It's only polite after all." Arcene stepped out of the tunnel mouth and onto the narrow ledge. She ever-so-slowly straightened her back, feeling the vertebra snap into place as she unwound like an animal released from a small cage. With hands on hips Arcene stretched back and up, luxuriating in the feel of limbs and the lithe body. She felt like a tree free to reach for the sky and grow into majesty.
Arc
ene took a moment to see where the ledge went and saw that although it was almost lost in the gloom it appeared to wind its way around the edge of the chamber, sometimes narrowing, getting fat and sloping dangerously in others, and as with other ledges dotted around the room it joined to them by makeshift bridges or anything from thick ropes to fragile swings made of lengths of cloth tied together.
Doesn't look like a place you'd want to practice your acrobatics.
"Can I come down this way? Is that okay?" The people below stared, or ignored her completely, so Arcene took that as a positive sign and began her descent to the silent watchers below.
Leel followed behind, her breath coming fast and hot on Arcene's knee-pits, tickling her legs. What was she doing? Normally Leel's breath would be at her neck, not her legs. Turning, Arcene failed to stifle a laugh. "Haha, what are you doing you daft dog? You're not a panther. Come on, up."
Leel was almost flat on her belly, wobbly skin scraping the floor thick with dirt. Arcene was sure there were little mushrooms growing in clumps like tiny eruptions of smoke in the dark.
"Why are you crawling like that? You aren't hunting, and anyway you'll get your belly all dirty. Get up," whispered Arcene, casting nervous glances at those below. This wasn't the dangerous warrior girl impression she hoped to create — they looked like a pair of lost travelers who didn't know what they were doing, rather than two dangerous adventurers you wouldn't want to mess with.
With a reluctant whimper Leel straightened up to her full height, stretched her neck up high and yawned. There was a communal "Ooh," from the crowd below, who clambered eagerly to their feet. Goggles were adjusted and wiped, hoods and scarves were removed from faces, and then the weirdest thing of all happened: they bowed.
They aren't doing that for me, they're bowing to Leel. What is going on here?
They carried on moving, making their way carefully around the room until they could get to one of the rickety bridges that led to a lower level. It continued like that for some time, the large group of people coming into sharp focus as they reached their level. It was hard to tell where limbs began or ended, so caked in dirt and rotten rags were they, but if Arcene was one thing then she was nonjudgmental — life was hard and weird stuff wasn't that much of a surprise as nobody knew what normal was anyway.
