The Humanarium

by CW Tickner

  ‘But you must also stand ready to leave. When the Aylen finds us it will be terrible, a wrath unlike any we have ever seen. The ship has been fitted to accommodate all of us and, over the next few days, you must familiarise yourselves with it and the roles you must take up when it departs. As you know, we’ve no idea how long the journey will be, or even its final destination. If you want to stay, you may do so, but know that we may not be able to return. We’ve no idea what we will be heading into and the ship’s systems remain clouded in mystery. It could be a one way trip, so you’ll have to weigh your choice carefully. There aren’t any easy solutions here. Every path poses a danger.’

  He took a moment to run his gaze over the crowd, locking his eyes on as many of their worried faces as he could. But there was something more there now.

  ‘We’ve all been prisoners, you at the hands of the Enlightened. The people in the tanks under the torment of the Aylen. This ship is the key that will finally unlock our lives, our potential, our hope. We are strongest together, even against a foe as great as the Aylen. No force is strong enough to defeat us if we stand with our brothers and sisters, our friends. We are unstoppable. Together we will win freedom!’

  He stepped down from the platform and walked away to the sound of the cheering crowd.

  Sonora was waiting for him. She took his hand.

  ‘You are their hope,’ she said.

  ‘Unless we’ve got it all wrong and I’m simply leading the herd to slaughter.’

  Chapter 52

  As soon as I put more materials inside, the creatures automatically began construction. I didn’t know what to expect – I foolishly thought that it might be nests. But after the holes they then raised a large communal structure, then smaller buildings popped up around it in parody of a city hall and surrounding town.

  The men assembled before Harl on what was once Delta’s main street, and they all looked ready for action. Each man shouldered a large backpack laden with food, water, air breathers, books and weapons. Two of the men carried a melting lance each, while another team looped large coils of rope over their shoulders. Harl was carrying much the same as the others, while his sword hung on one side of his belt and a pistol on the other. His mind wandered to Sonora as he watched the group preparing to leave.

  She had understood that Harl needed to go and, to his surprise, she hadn’t ask him to stay, or insist on going with him. It was like she’d known all along that he’d go back, but dragging her with him would be unfair. She had no home to return to, unlike Harl; everything had been uprooted around her and literally dumped. He was glad that, regardless of what happened to him, she still had Gorman to look after her. If the blind old man hadn’t been around then, most likely, Harl wouldn’t have had the heart to leave.

  It caught him by surprise when he heard Sonora’s calls from a distance. He had assumed that he’d not see her again after they had said goodbye, but now there she was, like a beacon of what he was fighting for shining out for all to see.

  She walked briskly up to him, worry etching her features. He stepped forward into her embrace, wondering what had come over her.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, starting to worry. She didn’t reply for a time and Harl was about to prompt her when she spoke.

  ‘I didn’t want to let you leave before seeing you once more,’ she said. ‘There’s something you need to hear before you go. I wasn’t going to say anything until your return, but I have thought it over and I wanted you to have a reason...’ Her voice trailed off.

  ‘A reason for what?’ Harl asked, wondering just what she meant.

  ‘A reason for returning,’ she said.

  ‘I would return for you, alone,’ he said. ‘I’d walk under the foot of an Aylen for you.’

  ‘You won’t be returning for just me alone,’ she said, stepping back half a pace and looking up at him to see if he understood.

  He looked her up and down and shrugged.

  ‘Men!’ she said, exasperated. ‘We’re going to have a baby, Harl.’

  It took him a moment for the words to sink in and, when he was sure he had heard right, he laughed out loud in joy, startling her. Instead of saying a word he moved in to hold her, just a bit less tightly around her waist than before.

  ‘I don’t have to go if you need me,’ he said after a time. His voice was full to bursting with happiness as he stepped back to smile at her like an idiot. ‘Someone else can go instead.’

  ‘You must go,’ she said, smiling right back at him, ‘but come back for the both of us.’

  ‘Of course I will,’ he said, reaching out to hold her again.

  For a short time they were rooted to the ground, oblivious to the world around them by the joy of what was to come.

  Yara and Gorman appeared at the gateway into the city. Yara waved and escorted the old man over to them.

  ‘Where are you, my lad?’ he asked as he approached the group.

  ‘Here, Gorman,’ Harl said, touching the old man’s arm gently.

  ‘Ah, good,’ Gorman said, coming to a stop. ‘You remember the plan?’

  ‘Of course,’ Harl said having gone over it a dozen times.

  ‘We’ll have everything ready for your return. But be careful with those you find inside,’ he cautioned. ‘They’ll be stubborn-headed about what you’ve got to tell them and it’ll take a lot of effort on your part to remain calm, so take your time and use logic and reason. Oh, how I wish I could come with you,’ he said and Harl felt for the old man.

  ‘You’ll be here for the next stage when we return,’ Harl said, hoping to encourage him. ‘Make sure the scientists and mechanics are ready with the ship when we bring the fire liquid, and keep people inside the caves. I hope we won’t have to leave immediately, but in any case it won’t hurt to be ready.’

  ‘I’ll make sure they know their business,’ Gorman said. ‘It’s about time you left, I think.’ He turned to Sonora. ‘You will be going too?’

  ‘No grandpa,’ she said.

  Gorman didn’t seem to register the name.

  ‘Definitely not,’ Harl said, smirking. Sonora shot him a withering look.

  Gorman raised an eyebrow at Harl’s words.

  Harl moved to Gorman and in a hushed voice said, ‘Make sure you look after the both of them, grandpa. Or should I say, great-grandpa?’

  Gorman took a second to react to the words.

  ‘You, two... Three?’ he said, stumbling over his words. He stepped close to Sonora, careful not to embrace her tightly. ‘Wonderful,’ he said as she returned the hug. ‘Truly a blessing, my dear.’

  ‘I’ll see you when I return, Gorman,’ Harl said, half skipping across to the soldiers waiting patiently for him. Gorman nodded and muttered to himself, a smile creasing his lined face.

  ‘Bloody great-grandpa,’ he said as Sonora laughed. ‘The cheek of the lad.’

  It was the last words Harl heard as he moved into his group of men, still smiling like an idiot to the bafflement of those waiting for him.

  ‘Time to be going,’ he said. ‘I want to be back before my child is born.’

  Raucous cheers burst from the men around him. They shouldered their packs and, as one, moved into the forest of giant grass.

  A communications cable had been laid between Delta and the outpost nearest the Aylen shop. The outpost would be their last stop en route and was a final chance to turn back if anyone had a change of heart. Harl was sure that none of the men would back down, but he knew how much he was asking of them. There was only a slim chance of success, but as he looked around he felt pride in the look of determination on their faces.

  They followed the cable through the forest for the better part of the day. It was a very different route than the one Damen had guided them along on their way to Delta, much more travelled. The grass stalks had been cut back to create a clearer path and Harl got the sense that there were other hunters stalking along at their sides just out of sight. It felt safer.

  When they reache
d the wasteland created from the remnants of Sonora’s tank, Damen led them confidently through. Unlike before, shoots pushed life up through the hills of soil, but it was still a horrid reminder of the casual way an Aylen could be so destructive. Buildings lay broken around them and decaying bodies sprawled in the sunlight, flies buzzing all over them. It was a chilling sight and silence weighed down on the group as they hurried through.

  But Harl felt different as he plodded along. He had spent some of the happiest days of his life in Sonora’s world, so he should have been sick with the horror of what was around him. Instead, he found each step get lighter as he walked. He wasn’t running away any more; he was going back. He was returning to free people so something like this could never happen again. And the baby was like a shield around him, the joy of it lifting his spirits, hammering the horrors around into weapons that he would use in the battles ahead.

  Harl found the trip fascinating. The world seemed so big and ever-changing. Kane had said that from historical documents they believed it to be so vast it would take thousands of days to run around it. It gave him hope. If it really was that big then maybe they could use the ship to get far enough away from the Aylen that humanity would have a chance to live in peace. With the baby on the way he wanted nothing more than to use the ship to find somewhere out of the way and to watch their child grow up away from the slavery of the tanks.

  He knew it was a fragile dream, but he cherished it, nonetheless.

  A high-pitched screeching broke his thoughts.

  As one, they looked up. Three hivers soared overhead, wings beating the warm air as they dropped to the ground thirty paces away where the stalks opened up into a clearing. They hissed as they landed and then scurried towards Harl’s group.

  ‘Form up!’ Damen shouted. The men stepped into a ragged line and raised their rifles.

  Harl knelt to the side of the line, pistol shaky in his grip, all thoughts of the last few moments vanished to be replaced by sharp memories of the hivers attacking him and Sonora. The creatures were ten paces from them as Damen called out, ‘Fire two!’

  A scattered line of blue shots raced towards the hivers as each man fired twice. The hivers were hit simultaneously, changing from three hissing monsters into burnt limbs and droplets of gore.

  The men waited calmly, eyes scanning the stalks.

  ‘Good shooting,’ Damen said.

  Harl hadn’t even fired.

  ‘You two,’ Damen said, picking out two of the soldiers, ‘front and rear guard from now on.’

  Harl was impressed at the display. Damen had trained these men into a precise force who followed orders even under pressure.

  He said as much to Damen as they started off again, weaving around the broken corpses.

  ‘All it takes is discipline,’ Damen said. ‘Enough disciplined men and one of those giants won’t stand a chance.’

  Harl wasn’t so sure, but the hiver fight had been more than impressive. Not one man had suffered a scratch.

  Kane slipped in beside them, almost tripping on a burnt abdomen. Damen laughed.

  ‘I have yet to congratulate you on the good news,’ Kane said. ‘Another child is a blessing for the city. We need all the young minds we can get.’

  ‘Thank you, Kane,’ Harl said. He felt that he had a chance to get to know the man now that they were out and away from the ship. Kane’s adoration of it had been the main reason for the progress, but it didn’t make for easy conversation. ‘How are you feeling about going into the shop?’

  Kane cast a quick glance at Damen, who had crossed to one of the soldiers and was chatting about the fight, as if killing hivers had been a bit of fun sport.

  ‘Nervous,’ Kane said, ‘but I would like to see for myself what has become of those inside. I don’t think I can truly believe it until I see it with my own eyes. If it’s as you say, and the Aylen are selling us for a profit of some sort, then it will be our duty to put a stop to it. But how many have already gone? Hundreds? Thousands? Even if we manage to free those held in the shop, how can we hope to free the ones who’ve been sold?’

  ‘We must try,’ Harl said. ‘Once we’ve got most of them out then we can work out how to free others.’

  He could not imagine where those who had been lifted went. How far away were they? What kind of lives did they lead? His parents’ lifting still haunted him. He had thought them dead for years, but was there a chance that they were still alive somewhere? The thought was choking. It was something he couldn’t face, couldn’t think about. He forced it to the back of his mind and turned his thoughts back to the matter at hand.

  ‘Have you heard of any other buildings similar to this one,’ he asked, raising a hand to shield his eyes from sun so that he could examine the grey building that smothered the horizon ahead. It was a perfect rectangle, featureless as an egg, except for the doorway.

  ‘When the Passives returned a long time ago,’ Kane said, ‘there were reports that they’d seen similar buildings in lands far beyond where they settled, although no one has ever confirmed the story. But it would make sense. There have to be other dwellings for these other Aylen that you spoke of, possibly in closer proximity, like in a town or village.’

  Harl tried to imagine ten or even fifty Aylen in close proximity. They would block everything except the sky directly above, a wall of giant limbs and deafening voices.

  ‘Here,’ Damen said, turning off the animal trail they had been following into a gap between a tight group of stalks. He dropped his bag. ‘We’ll stay here the night and reach the outpost in the morning.’

  ‘Why not press on?’ one of the soldiers said, glancing down the trail. ‘We could make it.’

  Damen shook his head. ‘Can you see in the dark, Krill? Men die in the blackness along these trails. I won’t have us picked off one by one on our way to the scout post. Rest and have some peace.’

  Krill didn’t argue, but dropped his gear and began to gather logs for a fire.

  ‘Trails?’ Kane said, looking down at the narrow lane where the moss grew less dense. ‘What uses them?’

  Harl stepped inside the rough ring of stalks, hoping that whatever made the pathways was friendly.

  ‘Sliders,’ Damen said as he settled himself down against a log for a rest. ‘like a borer above ground. They slither along the trails during the dark, picking off anything foolish enough to stray onto them.’ He seemed to catch Kane’s look of terror. ‘Don’t worry, clever man, the fire should keep them away.’

  ‘Should?’ Kane said. ‘What do you mean “should”?’

  Chapter 53

  I have noticed that the creatures show signs of compassion when one is taken from the tank. Those in close proximity usually show signs of fear but at other times they seem to collapse from loss.

  Harl had barely managed to find a comfy spot between the roots under his bedroll before Damen was shaking him awake.

  ‘Time to be going,’ he said, proffering a dried lump of meat to Harl. The hunter had his bag on and, with the exception of Harl and Kane, everyone was ready to leave.

  When Harl stepped back out through the ring of stalks onto the trail, he found the men crouched around Damen as he studied something on the ground. Harl edged round to the front to see what was wrong. Yellow blood covered the ground in front of Damen. He looked up.

  ‘We were lucky,’ he said. ‘Seems like the slider butchered something in the night. Best press on.’

  Harl loosened his pistol inside its holster at the reminder of how dangerous it was out there. He had been lulled into feeling secure during their march the previous day, but death still lurked in the shadows.

  They continued on as the sun arced overhead before Damen trudged off the trail between a series of tall, sandy boulders, five times the height of a man. They jutted up like Aylen fingers erupting from the soil, and were far too big for any group of men to move. The tops were dotted with small rock-hugging plants that trailed down the jagged sides.

  Where the n
arrow path ran between two of the largest rocks, a figure stepped out, seemingly from the side of the sheer cliff. It was Uman. As they neared he called out a greeting and Harl could make out an archway to one side that led into a hollowed out boulder. Holes had been cut higher up in the rock and the tanned face of a watching guard eyed their approach.

  As Harl’s group entered the outpost, Uman grabbed Damen’s hand and clasped it in both of his.

  ‘So you finally made it,’ he said.

  ‘Not all of us are as sure footed as you, Uman, son of Udal,’ Damen said, releasing the tight grip. ‘We had to stop before nightfall or risk the sliders.’

  ‘You’ll be needing a meal before we go then,’ Uman said, looking around at a pale-faced woman who dashed off only to return a few moment later with a tray of bread and meats.

  Harl explored the adapted cave as the men threw off equipment and slumped in the cool interior. It had three small rock-hewn rooms and a ladder that led to an upper room where a single guard could look out from a series of windows. There was an armoury in one room, while small camp beds had been set up in another so that the soldiers could sleep when not on shift. The last room housed the communications equipment and a compact cooking area. A speaker box stood on a stone table against one wall and a bundle of cables snaked outside to lead all the way back to Delta. A solider was already in contact with the city about their arrival.

  ‘Arla will alert us if we get any further messages,’ Uman said. ‘So I suggest you grab something to eat and have a rest before heading out again. I’ll be travelling into the shop with you, but then I’ll wait by the door. I can easily make the trip back here when I need to. People will want to know as soon as you’re out.’