The Humanarium

by CW Tickner

  He chuckled and turned his attention back to the farm. There were plenty of other workers, all old and greying. Two men, who must have been three times his own age, were dragging a creaking trolley full of sacks into one of the far rooms.

  ‘Are there no apprentices here? They could do the heavy work for you.’

  Mary frowned, straightened her back and dusted herself off. ‘I pull my own weight round here, sir.’

  Harl raised his hands in surrender. ‘No offence intended. I can see the farms are well-tended. I just think your knowledge could be put to better use. Why do the grunt work when you could be passing your gifts on to others? I wish I’d had someone like you to help me out when I was trying to work out which was a corn shoot and which was a weed.’

  The frown vanished as she burst out laughing. ‘Not a natural gardener, eh?’ She pursed her lips and then took the bucket from him. ‘You may be right, but we don’t have apprentices. The young go out to hunt or gather supplies and the elderly are only assigned to the farms once they’ve gained enough knowledge and time to be useful. But with all the extra work more hands are needed.’

  ‘How much additional food have we planted since the order was given to increase output?’

  She paused for a moment as she looked around at the beds. ‘We’ve set up more planting beds, enough to double the yield when we come to harvest.’

  ‘How long until we see results?’

  ‘I reckon sixty days,’ Mary said. ‘Maybe sooner if we don’t run out of fertilizer. We ain’t short at the moment, but I think we might deplete our stocks if we continue at this pace for much longer.’

  ‘If we need more, how can we get it?’ Harl asked. If his first one hundred days governing the people ended in starvation, it would be a disaster.

  ‘Probably best to get it from people’s homes as well as the community kitchen,’ she said, turning to look at a clay flower pot on a shelf as it rattled against the wall. She frowned as it tipped off and crashed to the floor.

  A grinding noise rose from the opposite side of the room and Harl assumed it was some piece of machinery, but a sudden look of terror came over Mary’s features. Her eyes widened as she scanned back and forth along the wall. The brickwork bulged out as if someone had flung a huge steel ball against the far side.

  ‘Borer,’ she whispered. The bucket of powder fell from her grip and spilled across the floor. ‘Borer!’ she screamed and grabbed Harl as she hurried for the exit. The other farmers were already sprinting towards the door.

  ‘What is it?’ Harl shouted as the sound grew and the ground began to shake. ‘What’s a borer?’

  The overhead lights danced on the end of their cables as Mary dragged him along, her grip like a vice. Powdered rock rained from a crack in the ceiling.

  ‘A worm,’ she shouted back as the rumble grew to a crescendo ‘Quick. We must get out.’

  ‘A worm?’

  The far wall exploded out into the room, blasting the fleeing workers against the opposite wall as rocks and vast chunks of concrete rained down around them.

  Harl froze. A mass of pink flesh and slime filled the hole. At first he couldn’t make out what he was seeing. It was just a horror writhing its way into the room, no face, no sense of a body, just ten strides of oozing madness. But Mary was right. It was like a worm. An enormous worm.

  The creature twisted in the hole then burst out, crushing workers beneath it as it crashed to the floor. Its razor-toothed mouth was big enough to swallow a man with ease, all pink and slimy, with rows of teeth reaching all the way back inside its cavernous throat. It launched across the room as fast as a runner, the bulbous body contracting and expanding in a grotesque way as it slithered from the hole. Hooks along its side propelled it through the open room as it crashed through the planters and smashed into the wall on the other side. The pink mass burrowed out as fast as it had come in, leaving a trail of blood and rocks across the floor.

  Harl found himself shielding Mary as she cursed the creature. They were crouched on the floor, but he’d wrapped his arms around her and used his body to cover hers when the worm blasted concrete across the room. She stood up, quivering as she gripped a piece of rock in one hand. The rage seemed to boil in her for a moment and then she screamed and threw the rock at the rear of the borer as it disappeared.

  ‘It’s gone,’ he said.

  ‘It’ll be back for the food,’ she said and grabbed his arm and began pulling him towards the door. ‘We must get out before-’

  The closest wall shattered as the borer turned in the solid rock and forced its way back out above them.

  They dived away from the falling blocks as the borer reared up over the planters, its circular maw opening to show hundreds of its small white teeth. It leaned over and slammed, mouth first, down onto the planters, swallowing the tallest crops whole.

  Harl watched in horror as the borer reared up again and again, each time swallowing enough food to feed a family. He had nothing to fight it with, but an idea came to him as he watched it smash one of the dangling overhead lights.

  He ran towards the writhing mass, leapt up, and used the borer as a quick foothold to boost up and grab the free-hanging cable, tearing it’s fixings from the ceiling as he dropped. He pulled down hard until he had enough loose cable and then plunged the bare end deep into the creature’s slimy pink flesh. Sparks flew from the live wire, lighting up the borer’s insides as Harl was flung back against the wall by the creature during its final squirming death throes.

  ‘Harl?’

  He opened his eyes to see Sonora’s tear-streaked face. She let out a cry of happiness at his feeble smile and flung her arms around him. He turned his head to see the beast lying motionless across a ruined section of planters, bodies of men scattered around it on the floor like rag dolls. Damen and an escort of armed men were standing around him, admiration on their faces as they glanced from Harl to the dead mass of blubber.

  ‘Well, no one’s done that before,’ Damen said, grinning as he extended a hand to help Harl up.

  ‘Disgusting,’ Harl said, wiping slime from his clothes.

  ‘A young one,’ Damen said, tilting his head towards the borer. ‘They dig under the soil, usually a lot deeper than this. I can’t remember the last time they came into the caves. You’re lucky to have survived such a fight.’

  ‘Young?’ Harl said. He walked over to the dead worm and paced along its length. Fifteen strides. ‘How much bigger do they get?’

  ‘Hard to say,’ Damen said, eyeing the mass of blubbery pink flesh. ‘Rumours from the old mines hint at some, fifty metres long, but no one has seen one here in a long time.’

  ‘It’s happened once before,’ Mary said from behind Harl.

  He turned to face the greying woman.

  ‘Too many years for me to count,’ she continued, shaking as she picked up a broken pot. ‘I only remember it as a nightmare.’

  Harl crouched down and brushed some of the soil from the face of one of the dead men before him. The man’s face had been crushed in the attack. Harl closed the dead man’s eyes and wished him peace.

  ‘Did we lose anyone else?’ he said to Damen.

  ‘Six in total,’ Damen said, ‘including the head farmer. Probably more if you hadn’t stopped it.’

  Harl looked from Damen to the old woman.

  ‘Mary, would you take charge of the farms? We need someone who knows what they’re doing and I think you’d be perfect for the job. Will you take it?’

  A look of surprise lit her creased face.

  ‘I’m too old,’ she said, then mumbled something as she plucked at her dress with her fingers.

  ‘It will take days to find another,’ he said, ‘and you’ve already told me that you know more than most. I don’t know anyone else who has the skills, let alone the courage to throw rocks at borers. You’re perfect for the job.’

  ‘Thank you so much, sir,’ she said.

  Harl laughed and leant down close to her ear.


  ‘You’re welcome, Mary. And remember, it’s Harl.’

  ‘Yes, er… Harl… sir.’

  ‘How are you paid?’ he asked.

  ‘Food and shelter,’ she said. ‘I live on the outskirts of town near the main gate.’

  ‘Take as much food as you need from the farms and I’ll see if we can get you moved inside the cave system. It will save you a long walk.’

  ‘Thank you so much,’ she said. ‘I won’t let you down.’

  Chapter 49

  I have gathered some wood, stone and malleable metal resources and will place them in to see what they do with them.

  The days passed and progress was everywhere Harl looked. Factories powered into overdrive, churning out new equipment, clothing and weapons. Food poured out from the farms until no one went to sleep hungry and an excess mounted, allowing them to trade outside of Delta.

  The entire population had been relocated within the new tunnels and chambers. It had been chaotic at first with so many people trying to find their way around the unfamiliar passageways. Harl organised men and stationed them at strategic points to give directions, but many of the newcomers still wandered around lost. He worried about it for days, concerned that the confusion might breed uncertainty and resentment, but then he remembered how Gorman had set up markers to navigate and so he had men install sign posts throughout the city so that people could find their way around without fear.

  Sonora found a friend in Mary. They sat and talked for hours about the plant life around Delta, both old and young sharing their knowledge while they helped those who’d lived outside adapt to the new regime.

  Harl had ordered the deconstruction of Delta’s perimeter wall and outer housing. He knew that if an Aylen found the rock, it would see the sprawl of buildings hidden behind the wall and attack. There was no way to hide any of it, so all they could do was destroy it. Damen had protested, but Harl had remained adamant.

  ‘We can’t hold on to it, Damen,’ he had said as they walked through the outer streets of Delta one night. ‘This is like a child’s toy to them. They could crush it underfoot and hardly notice. We can’t risk losing people like that. We’ve got to hide and that means it all has to go.’

  Damen had walked away in silence, leaving Harl to worry about it through the night. But when they met the following morning, the hunter had given him a long, hard look and then nodded.

  ‘If it has to be done, then I will do it,’ he said, staring out across the buildings. ‘I’ve known nowhere better than these streets, Harl. The caves and tunnels are for the Enlightened. Passives were never allowed to live in there and now that we’re being forced to move in… It feels like they’re controlling us again.’

  ‘There is no you and them anymore Damen, and I don’t want to force anyone into a life they do not want,’ Harl said. ‘But I do want to keep them safe.’

  Damen nodded. ‘It’ll be done.’

  While Damen saw to the destruction of the wall and exterior buildings, Harl turned his attention to the caves.

  As part of their long-term expansion, parties of miners had been opening out some of the smallest tunnels. These tunnels had been ignored for years because they were barely large enough for a child to crawl through, but, with the growing demand for space, Harl had ordered the exploration of every nook and cranny in the hivers’ maze. The Enlightened had mapped the tunnels years ago, but they had ignored all of the crawl-spaces that were now being explored. Most were just dead ends, small shafts bored into the rock, like the tiny honeycomb nature of a beehive. But there were others that led to larger caves, some still bearing the grisly ancient remains of hivers that had crawled into their cold, dark isolation to die.

  Uman was fascinated by the skeletons. He broke them apart and laid all of their bones on the rock like a plan of the once-living creature. Harl had watched him measure and weigh each part in his hands, then move legs in joints, test their strength, find their weaknesses. He practised the correct way to slide a sword between their interlocked armour so that it could penetrate the creature’s heart. And then, when he had done with them, he had the bones carted away to leave only a single skull behind, which he fashioned into a war helmet. Sonora was revolted by the sight of it, but Uman’s eyes gleamed whenever he slid it over his head and he ignored all pleas to get rid of it.

  The caves continued to be explored and even Kane was amazed at the vastness of the network. The miners had soon opened out enough space to double Delta’s capacity, with a whole host of tunnels still to explore, but it was dark and dangerous work.

  Harl was devastated when four miners lost their lives in a cave in, and kept waking in a sweat at night as nightmares of his own close call in the prison mines tormented him. All he could feel was the rock pressing down around him, the dust choking his lungs, and Troy’s hands clawing at his ankles as his friend tried to drag him out.

  But the nightmares were worth it in the end. The miners had been exploring the new caves for four days when Harl was sent an urgent summons. He scrambled through the tunnels, dragging himself on his stomach through some of the narrow squeezes until he reached the men. They were all talking excitedly around a small lantern and grinned as soon as he slithered through the last opening into the cave.

  ‘We’ve found a place you should see, boss,’ said the leader, Cooper, as he offered Harl a hand to drag him up. He was a small man, barely coming up to Harl’s shoulder, but his grip was like iron, tempered by the corded muscles bulging in his arms.

  He led Harl along a short tunnel that was thankfully high enough to walk upright in, and then raised one hand as they approached an opening.

  ‘Kane has been tinkering with some technology of late,’ Cooper said. He pulled out a small bottle and held it up. ‘It’s a combination of waxes that burn brightly when lit. They’ve been damned useful down here. I’ll show you.’

  He drew his knife and a piece of flint and soon had sparks showering down over the bottle. The wick caught and he held the bottle still for a moment as the flame steadied, and then moved up to the entrance.

  ‘Prepare yourself for a shock,’ he said, then pitched the bottle through the opening.

  Harl had expected the bottle to smash against a wall or skitter across the floor. Instead, it sailed out in a huge arc through the darkness ahead and then dropped down out of sight. Harl hurried forward and peered down to where the bottle was still falling through the black expanse below. A moment later it hit the ground and smashed, splashing flaming wax across the rock around it. Harl teetered on the brink of the opening, stunned by the magnitude of the space before him.

  ‘We figure it’s at least two hundred metres deep and at least fifty up above the level we’re on. It must be some kind of old colony space for the queen that was abandoned well before humans drove the last of the hivers out.’

  Cooper dropped another wax bottle out, but it smashed only about ten feet below them. ‘Looks like there are tiered levels, platforms, or whatever you want to call them, everywhere. We’ve used about twenty bottles so far – Kane’s going to kill us – but it looks a right interesting place, boss.’

  Harl thanked Cooper and his men, and then returned to the tactics room. Kane and Damen were talking over lunch when Harl walked in.

  ‘Damen,’ he said. ‘Have you demolished the outside market yet?’

  Damen nodded, chewed for a moment, and then forced the mouthful of food down. ‘It’s nearly complete. We’re just carting the rubble away before a team of men begin transplanting saplings and grass to cover the more obvious signs that we’ve been there. Why?’

  Harl took a seat and rolled out a map of the new tunnels that Cooper had given him.

  ‘See this new area,’ he said, tapping the map with one finger. ‘I’ve just been down there and they’ve discovered a new cave. It’s bigger than anything we’ve got already and so far down that even the Aylen would break a sweat digging down to it. We need space for a new market and this seems perfect.’

  Kane
peered at the map. ‘It could be struggle to run power cables down there, even once the tunnels have been widened.’

  Damen spun the map around to face him and traced the passages with his fingers.

  ‘I’m surprised you missed this, science boy,’ he said, a smile forming on his face as he tapped the map with one finger. He slumped against the back of his chair.

  ‘Missed what?’ Kane mumbled in annoyance. ‘No one’s been in those tunnels. How could I miss it if I didn’t know it was there?’

  Damen laughed.

  ‘I don’t mean the chamber. Look back at the map. The new chamber lies directly below the old council bedrooms. Some of our existing tunnels must run close to the new cave. If we could dig down to it, we’d need less of your precious cable.’

  Kane agreed, muttering something about being too old for Damen to call him a boy, and set about organising the new space.

  Shafts were dug down to it and spiral steps chiselled into the rock to allow access to the cavern. When they strung the first electric lights up across the roof of the cavern, they marvelled again at the majesty of the space. Tunnels and balconies wormed their way around the walls and into the rock, and they discovered a small spring of water at the bottom.

  The market moved in soon afterwards and it became a hive of activity. Many moved closer to the new area as their houses outside the caves were dismantled after a week the market sellers clustered across the floor and spread all the way up the walls, using the ledges and alcoves as shops and stalls. Young boys swung down between the levels on ropes tied to counterweights, bearing messages and orders to the lower levels before hurling themselves back up with an answer. Hawkers’ cries echoed from the roof and the constant chatter of voices and activity gave a life to the space that had been absent since the hivers had abandoned it so long ago.

  Harl sat on a small bench near the entrance staring down at all the activity with Sonora. Night had fallen outside, but the market was still teaming with excited activity.