“I ordered the maneuver and the maneuver failed, this is my responsibility and so I’ll go on the Camel to get help.”
“I’ll come with you,” Ulric says.
“No,” I reply. “You stay here with Volker and keep an eye on everything. Camels aren’t safe.”
“I’m not a child,” Ulric argues. “When you were my age you did far more dangerous things. You got your arm blown off.”
“I wasn’t a Knight, you are,” I state, my temper flaring. I did not need to worry about my brother in the desert.
“You should really listen to your brother, Ulric,” Volker insists. “Don’t you need to do more research with the book anyway?”
“I’m not going to do research while worrying if Ansel is safe or not,” Ulric states flatly. “I mean, we disagree but…still—I’m coming with you.”
“I’m not having this conversation—you’re staying. Volker prepare a Camel for me, I’m heading out in an hour,” I repeat myself as I stroll to the door and open it. I begin descending the staircase and hear footsteps behind me.
“Stop it, Ulric, you don’t know how dangerous it is out there,” I state.
“And it’s safer here?”
I turn around and look at him three steps above me.
“Yes, it is—we have guns, men, and most importantly, the closest thing to shelter in this desert. I need you here.”
“And what if something happens? Am I supposed to wonder what happened to my brother?”
“If I don’t come back by nightfall, they’ll send another Camel to look for us. We have three. I won’t be long.”
Ulric takes off his helmet in the safety of the cool staircase, leans close to me and whispers.
“I’m going. And I don’t feel safe here anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your crew has been…treating me oddly…I think it’s because I’ve been interrogating that Scavenger. They seem suspicious of me. It’s stupid but I just don’t feel comfortable if you leave me alone with them.”
My mind races in confusion. Crew treating Ulric badly? What the fuck.
“What are you talking about? Who has been treating you badly? What are they doing? I want names.”
“It’s just a feeling of mine. You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach. That gut instinct something isn’t right?”
“Far too well.”
“I get that feeling every time I’m eating lunch, or walking the halls. They stare, and mutter. As if I’m a threat. I think they suspect me of siding with the Scavenger, or being sympathetic, I don’t know, but after what happened with the Drop and Witzel I don’t feel safe here. Please.”
I look at my brother who has genuine concern on his face. My blood simmers as I contemplate how many feel that despicable way against a kid his age.
“Fine,” I say. “When we are done with this journey and get back to Europe I want names, and will handle it. Let’s just get this fixed.”
“Thank you,” he says.
We make our way down the stairs and underneath the deck. The Camels are housed in a large garage at the bottom of the ship. Men are rushing around us, attempting to fix anything they can and prepare for the long wait the Howling Dark will be in for. I study every face, thinking about which one could be planning something against Ulric. First, I damage my own ship, and now I might not even be able to trust my own crew.
Ulric and I walk through a doorway and a series of small hallways opens up into a large hangar. In front of me stands a line of three large orange vehicles held up by four wheels at either side. These were the Camels. Large compared to a human, yet small compared to anything we’d find out in the desert. Only a small light machine gun is propped on the top of the vehicle. They aren’t meant for offense, to put it lightly.
“I need supplies for a day’s journey to the Eagle Nest,” I tell one of my men, dressed in a cloth of burgundy. “Food, weapons, water.”
He nods and gathers other men to fetch the goods we need for our trek.
“When we go out there you need to realize it won’t be like being on this ship. This is an island in a sea,” I tell Ulric.
“I know,” he responds. “I can take the risks.”
A man hurries through the doorway and enters the hangar. His helmet is off, revealing a very sweaty and disheveled First Officer Volker.
“Did you get the supplies?” Volker asks, out of breath. I assume he ran downstairs.
“The men are getting what we need for the journey right now,” I say, examining the inside of the vast hangar. It’s dark and musty, with only a few hanging lamps for light.
After a few minutes of waiting, a line of men begin to load up our Camel with the supplies we need. They all nod and go on their way.
“Are you sure you can hold everything down while I’m gone?” I ask Volker.
“More than I do already?” he laughs, and we shake hands.
“Good luck out there you both,” he says, shaking hands with Ulric as well.
“You as well, First Officer,” I say.
Ulric and I walk into the open back of the Camel. It’s a large transport meant to fit around ten people, so that means we’ll have enough space.
“Are you sure you don’t want any more men to come with you?” Volker asks me, standing outside the Camel.
“I don’t want to risk anymore on this journey,” I shout back. “This is my job.” And I give him a smile before I press the button on the side wall which will begin closing the large hatch inside. As the Camel’s hatch slowly shuts, Volker raises his arm outstretched in a salute.
“Sieg Heil,” he calmly says.
“Sieg Heil,” I repeat back.
The hatch rises over his face, and Volker disappears from view. A few seconds later, it closes with a deafening hiss, signifying that the cabin is pressurized and ready for travel. The lights around Ulric and me illuminate the grey steel box that is this vehicle. A row of seats line the edge of the walls, leading up to a cockpit with a wheel.
“I didn’t want you to come on this with me,” I tell Ulric, sitting. Then I get up, pace across the cabin to the seat at the front of the Camel, and prop myself neatly on it. Both hands wrap around the wheel as I take in the large windowed space that the front provides.
“I know,” Ulric replies.
Alarms blare throughout the hangar. Red lights swirl around the great, large doors as they swing open. The bright light of the Kiln floods into my eyes as the sea of salt reveals itself. Dust and sand softly hug the steel portal with the whistling of wind.
My rusted arm presses a single large button on the dashboard of the Camel. The vehicle rumbles, as its engines roar to life, awoken from its slumber. Everything vibrates for a few seconds before settling down. I look to my left and see Volker, his hand raised in salute. I meet him with a nod, then turn back to the desert before me.
Ulric appears to my right, plopping himself down on the other seat. His face isn’t laced with nervousness, but anticipation. The same anticipation as when he first came to this place. I didn’t want Ulric here. Not just in this Camel, but in this land. I knew it was a terrible idea to include him on such a dangerous journey, but instead of listening to my gut, I suppressed it and allowed my little brother to be put in this situation.
If he weren’t here, perhaps I’d just drive this Camel toward the Nest hoping, no, pleading that another Scavenger ship would find me. The Howling Dark would send another Camel. My men would survive without me.
My mind is tantalized by the image of me walking out into the desert one last time, gun in hand, ready to face down them all. Ulric says that seeing your opponent before you kill them doesn’t matter, but I couldn’t disagree more. There truly is nothing like it. I feel myself getting weaker every day. My breath labors, my skin wrinkles, my back aches. There is no greater curse than li
ving past your prime.
Walking out into the desert to face down the Scavengers—that is the way I would want to go. I was robbed of that back in the military. I was robbed of a noble death. This rusted arm reminds me of it every time I wake up.
As I press on the pedal and the Camel moves forward, its tires hitting the desert ground with a graveling thump, my mind goes blank. All I think about is the pleasure of serving the Reich. The pleasure of dying with honor.
Yet now, with Ulric at my side, I cannot do that. He is better than me. Knows more about the Reich than me. He’d serve our race better than I ever could, even if we disagree. So as the Camel travels forth, away from the broken-down ship, I put aside in my mind the will for a glorifying death and focus on the dark towers up ahead.
The Kiln
The Howling Dark has disappeared past the rippling waves of hot desert air. The salt flats have evolved into the rougher terrain of sandy dunes. Looking forward, I can see the gradual curves transforming into larger hills. Camels are built for these steep inclines on the slippery slopes; however, it makes our journey far longer as a result.
Wind howls past the wide windows of the cockpit, carrying the dust cloud kicked up by the tires high up to the teal-blue skies. It is the only cloud in sight. With my foot on the pedal, I push the Camel to its limits. It bounces and sways as it collides with the rolling dunes. Thoughts in my head persist of another Scavenger ship arriving and finishing off the crew. They’d put up a reasonable fight with their still-operating guns, but without mobility the ship would still be a sitting duck.
Those dark towers are growing. Tall spindling structures act as a beacon. Ulric sits next to me, looking out into the wide-open stretch of nothingness.
“I told you to let me call in the Drop…” Ulric says again, his eyes staying focused on the dunes outside. My fists clench around the steering wheel. I can feel my heart race faster, as this vehicle travels down the sandy desert.
“I’ve done that maneuver before,” I repeat.
“Yeah, I know,” he says. “You’ve done everything down here before, but you know what happened? You got arrogant. You thought this place was your personal little sandpit and that you could do whatever you pleased, but you were wrong.”
“Shut the fuck up…” I curse, closing my eyes for just a second.
“What happened to you, Ansel?” Ulric mutters in disgust. “Is this what the Kiln does? Changes people? When…when was the last time you were even in Germania?”
I think about it, my eyes feel like they are coming out of my sockets. What kind of situation is this? The fucking stress is going to kill me. I feel like my heart is going to explode.
“Eight years ago,” I say, feeling my head.
“In eight years you haven’t even been up north?” Ulric asks me, to which I respond with a “yes.” He puts his hands to his eyes. “This isn’t how regular Europeans act. You disregard the laws. You harm other Aryans. You act like a bloodthirsty savage when confronted with the opportunity—”
“They attacked our ship—”
“It wasn’t just the ship,” he cuts me off. “You did it to that girl as well. This place is not what the Reich aspired to what it would be. It isn’t like what Atlantropa was supposed to be at all. It’s savage. It makes people savage. It made you savage, just admit it.”
“Admit what?” I growl.
“Admit you only stay in this fucking desert because it’s how you can escape the prying eye of the Reich you pretend to so dearly care about.”
“I serve the Reich in my own way. I don’t need you coming to the Kiln and telling me how I act in this desolate wasteland is bad,” I mutter, keeping my eyes squarely on the dunes ahead of us. The towers of the Eagle Nest grow slowly the closer we get. Ulric doesn’t respond, and we sit in silence for a few minutes.
“It’s not even about the Reich,” Ulric says. “After the last few days, I’ve just been thinking about what the point of this place even is. I’m sure we could come up with some other solution for renewable energy. Do we even need to depend on the dams anymore?”
“What?” I laugh. “You want to just flood the Kiln?”
“What’s the point of this place?” Ulric argues, his voice rising. “If we got rid of the dams it’d put a barrier between us and the rest of the world. We’d have the sea again and we wouldn’t need to worry about Scavengers attacking our people.”
“They could just get water vessels,” I state. “Then they would actually attack Europe.”
“So you’re telling me the strongest nation on earth couldn’t keep out a few pirates?” Ulric concludes with a laugh.
I sit in silence, running my hand through my hair in frustration. “We’re talking about the fucking Atlantropan dams,” I say, staring out the window. “You know how insane you sound?”
“Do you know how insane you’ve become?” Ulric retorts. “Why would we want to keep the Kiln? All it is…is an immoral place that corrupts normal Aryans. It’s a burden on Europe, if anything…I can’t believe I’m even saying that.…”
“It’s the best option we have right now,” I say. “Without those dams, Europe wouldn’t have energy. We’d fall right back into chaos like the Great War.”
“I don’t know…perhaps if we could figure out some better way to have renewable energy…we wouldn’t need the dams,” Ulric concludes. “Say we did.”
“Say we did what?”
“Say we came up with a new form of renewable energy and didn’t need the dams anymore. Europe is still stable and we don’t need the Kiln. That’s the perfect solution,” he theorizes with an upraised, matter-of-fact finger.
I don’t say anything for a few seconds. The temples of my head are beating. I can feel my chest heaving faster and faster. Why can I not breathe?
“I can’t live up north,” I admit. There is no response from Ulric. “I’d go insane…doing anything else. This ship, the Kiln with all the flaws…this is the only place I thrive…I can’t go north again.”
“We’d never have to fight the Scavengers in our territory again. All those men who just died, the people in the Eagle Nests over the years, they’d be safe. Witzel, might be—”
“I enjoy it,” I say flatly. “All of it. Killing those Scavenger fucks. Seeing them squirm as I cut them up limb by limb…after everything I’ve seen. It’s makes life worth living. That’s your answer.”
Ulric looks at me with emotionless eyes before turning to look back out the window. There is no retort from him again. What were once distant and dark blurs have transformed into a forest of tall, spiraling towers sprouting out of the desert floor. As the ship slowly makes its way forward, the collection of buildings reveal themselves in all their glory. A traditional Eagle Nest colony often only has one tower. A wide, tree-like structure that stretches a kilometer-and-a-half into the air.
The thin towers ripple in the desert air. They are so close. As I gaze out toward them, suddenly everything goes bright…then silent. Pain shoots through my face. I clutch my eyes shut. I think I curse, but I’m not sure. Everything goes dark.
When I come to, there is wind. So much wind. As I attempt to open my eyes, I’m greeted with a blast of sandy desert air. My hand goes to my mouth, and when I look down, I see a palm covered in scarlet liquid. Fuck. Everything swirls about.
Feeling around, I can tell I’m no longer in my seat—everything is metal and steel. As my head swivels around, I notice that I’m lying by the side of the Camel. Why am I on the side of the Camel? To my right, I see glass scattered about the cabin, a remnant of the window that was once there. What hit us?
A pain swells in my chest and I violently cough. I suddenly realize I don’t have my helmet on. The air gets knocked out of me as I continue to cough. My eyes catch something floating above me. Is that sand? No, it’s moving too slow to be from the wind. It’s smoke. Fire. The Camel is on fire. For
cing myself onto my side, I prop myself back up with my arms. Blood trickles off the side of my face and hits the metal wall.
Where is Ulric? My eyes open wide at the realization.
“Ulric…” I cough, continuing to dry-heave, “Ulric…”
A moan radiates throughout the vehicle. It’s to my right, in the cockpit. Still in a daze, I force myself up and look into the shotgun seat. Ulric sits, slumped over in his chair. His face is speckled with bits of glass and blood cakes his face. His helmet got knocked off as well. My hands run over his chest and neck. There is no large piece. He didn’t end up like Witzel.
He’s still breathing as well. I tap his face a few times, calling his name. Eventually he comes to, and his eyes spring open, followed by a loud gasp.
“Ansel!” he exclaims, his arms clutching at his chest. “What…what the fuck…happened?”
“I don’t know…” I answer back. “I think we hit something.…”
He swivels his head around, and the full extent of our situation comes to him too.
“I don’t know, but I think the Camel got busted…” I say, through coughs. “We have to get out of here.”
“Out of here?” he questions. “We’re in the desert, what do we do?”
“Just…collect any supplies you need. We have duffle bags in the back. Water, food, extra energy packs…I think we got about a day of emergency…” I spit blood onto the floor; I think I lost some teeth. “Day of emergency supplies…go pack now…”
He nods his head and flops out of his seat, crawling and then stumbling about the cabin, which is now full of displaced items.
I cling onto the chair and lift myself up. A pain goes through my knee, but I try to ignore it. What the hell happened?
In a daze, we go around the busted Camel, as smoke continues to clog the vehicle. We keep our heads down, grabbing as much supplies as we can and shoving them into makeshift bags. I gather all I can fit, and sling one onto my shoulder. It’s a large brown bag that fits nicely wrapped around my back.
I look to Ulric, who is still trying to collect everything, but his hands are shaking too much to grasp onto the small packets of food and water. Migrating over, I help my distressed brother. Packing everything he’ll need, and then handing him his armored helmet.
The Atlantropa Articles Page 11
