Hardin's Dilemma

by A.S. Morrison

alone in that hallway with no ideas left and no clue how I was going to tell the others that their families would have to die alone without them. I put my hand against the wall and cried. A rush of negativity shot through me, I couldn’t help it. I slouched against the wall, slipping to the floor.

  I sat in that spot some thirty minutes. I didn’t care about anything around me or even where I was. One of the Bozlins came out of their rooms and helped me up. He asked me what was wrong but I shook my head and walked away.

  Somehow I made it back to my room. The rain had stopped outside. I really wish it hadn’t. I no longer felt the cleansing effects as I did just an hour before. All I felt was the muggy humidity I was so familiar with from hunting. To my horror all the hunters were in my room. I tried to leave but Lace called me back. She asked how things went.

  “He won’t let us back in.” I said dully, bracing for the backlash.

  “What?” Lace said accusingly. “We have to get in.”

  “He gave me the whole explanation as to why we shouldn’t.”

  Dala stood up and walked to the small kitchen area. “Oh well, glad to be out of there.”

  Morome looked at her threateningly. His large size would have intimidated anybody else. “You don’t need to talk; you don’t have any family left.”

  I slouched down into a chair. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Lace came over and pointed a finger at me. “You need to get those bracelets so we can get in. He can deal with us about it when we get out.”

  “We also need weapons.” Morome added.

  Dala took a bottle of water out of the fridge and nodded approvingly. “I’ve seen the guards training area in the basement.”

  Lace turned her frown into a smile. “Great, we’ll have a day where we take everything we need and go.”

  “This isn’t like sneaking around Humurom.” I said. “There are thousands of people here to see us.” I sounded pessimistic still, but I was becoming relieved that I had such a great team of strategists.

  Morome shrugged as if the answer was as simple as can be. “Then we’ll be quiet about it.”

  “Did we – did we just come up with a plan that fast?” I asked in disbelief.

  “I think we did.” Peter said from the window.

  We discussed the problematic points of the plan. There really weren’t any. Dala could go to the training room and pretend to be interested in becoming a guard so she could look around for weapons. And even if they said no she promised us that she would still sneak around. Morome had become close to Calrus in recent days to learn more about the bracelets and said that he could find out where they were kept. All that was left was to get what was needed and sneak back into the wall sometime in the middle of the night when no one was looking.

  Mama, who listened silently from her bed in the other room, looked less than thrilled that we were planning to go back in. She feigned a smile and said that it was the only way to do what was necessary. I felt for her. She felt similar to the way I felt about leaving her to find the Cityers. I didn’t have any regards to my own well being and only wished for hers to get better.

  The hunters left to go back to their own rooms around dinner time. I sat with Mama on her bed and promised that nothing would happen to me. I knew she believed me, but I didn’t know if she truly believed the thought. We went out to eat. I don’t remember much about what was said or what was eaten, my mind was on everything else. Once again I thought about how easy it would be to just forget it all and go on that Journey Ship Gilik had mentioned. All my worries gone and cares lifted. It sounded too good to be true. And somewhere deep within I knew that it was.

  IX

  I wanted nothing more than to discuss things over with Nara when I got up the next morning. She was my rock. I could talk to her about anything. Sometimes she didn’t agree with me but she was still the only person I felt comfortable talking everything over with. Unfortunately she was at work. Instead I went down to see Stud with Mama. I knew he should have been done with surgery, but I didn’t hear anything about his condition.

  I asked a nurse when I arrived at the Care Wing about his whereabouts. She told me he had been recuperating. She led me to his room. He was still a sad sight, but this time we knew he would make it. The nurse told me that they had to do some extensive surgery on his legs. He would only be able to walk again with extensive therapy. He didn’t look too put out about it. When he saw us his face lit up.

  “Hey, my two favorite people.” He said as if about to burst from wanting to talk about his experiences.

  “How do you feel?” Mama asked.

  Stud sat up. His face was heavily bandaged on one side. “Physically, not great. But mentally I feel amazing. This place sure is something. So Hardin, have you found anything out yet? Are you going back in?”

  I couldn’t risk telling him our plan with the possibility of nurses being around. “No.” I said sadly, winking.

  “Well that’s not going to stop you.” He said simply.

  “It might.” I winked again but I don’t think he understood my meaning.

  “No, you’ll do something nobody’s expecting and save the day. I know you will. I believe in you.”

  Mama stroked my shoulder. “So do I.”

  Someone with a food cart came in and gave Stud a salad.

  “Have you tried the meat yet?” I asked.

  “I’m going to stick to the leafy stuff. I’ve been turned off to meat.”

  “Why?” Mama asked.

  “It’s nice to have a change.” I said quickly. I had no intentions of telling Mama about Nutrition.

  “So what now?” Stud looked about to fall asleep. I suppose it was the medicine.

  “The hunters are still trying to figure out what to do.” I said.

  “Can’t blame them.”

  “Yeah,” I said slowly as I thought about all the things the hunters were capable of, “but what if we get caught?”

  He laughed at me. “So what? Can’t do anything worse then what you’ve already been through.”

  “They could send us in and not let us out.”

  He stopped laughing, thought for a second, and started laughing again. “Or send you to that bad country, what’s it called again?”

  “Dizuria.”

  “Yeah, that’s it. They could send you there.”

  I started laughing too. “That would be great. I could fight them head on.”

  “Oh, I’d love to see that.”

  Mama didn’t join in. I don’t think she much liked us joking about that sort of thing. We stopped when Mr. Jess came in. For a doorman he had an amazing skill of finding people.

  “Mr. Gilik would like to talk with you, Hardin, immediately.”

  “What is it now?” I asked, attempting to sound as annoyed as possible.

  “He said something about Dizuria.”

  I exchanged glances with Stud.

  “Alright, thanks.”

  Mr. Jess left.

  “Sounds interesting.” Stud said, resting back against an assortment of fluffy pillows.

  “I’d better go see what’s up.” I turned to Mama. “I’ll see you in the room later.”

  I took the scenic route to Gilik's office again. I don’t know why I had such a hard time finding that place. Nara sat at the desk in the hall.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I don’t know but he’s excited about something.”

  I knocked and let myself in. Gilik was chuckling, evidently having been told a good joke just before I went in. Beside him was a man I had never seen before. He was several years older than me with very curly brown hair. He had the face of someone you could trust without question. He looked friendly and approachable, unlike Gilik who looked stiff and moody even when he laughed.

  “Hardin meet Theen.” Gilik said proudly, as though meeting Theen would surely be the highlight of my week.

&nbs
p; “Hello.” I said uneasily.

  Theen stepped forward, hand stretched out. I Shook it.

  “I’m very pleased to meet you, Hardin.”

  Gilik came forward and put his arm around Theen. “I have a very special mission for the both of you, but first I think you should tell Hardin who you are.”

  Theen spread his arms out wide in a carefree sort of way. “I am a Dizurian.”

  I stepped away from him. Without even realizing it at first I found myself giving him the same astonished and confused look Ret had given me when he found out that I was a Humurom.

  When I didn’t respond he continued. “I thought that should come out first.”

  “What are you doing here?” I managed to say.

  He smiled and shook his head. “I’m also an Azure.”

  I was really confused now. “How?”

  He sat down on Gilik’s desk. “I was born in Dizuria and left when I was ten. Because I lived in the middle of the country they didn’t really care about me, and so they never noticed. When I got here I got a new identity and eventually came to work for the government as a spy. Every time I go back to Dizuria I can show them my papers and fit right back in, not that I would want to.”

  “Do you know why they are in the wall?” I asked.

  “No, but I do know there is a special part of the government that is very secretive, and I think you may have figured out what they are doing.”

  “Yes.” Gilik said, snapping me out of the confused state I was in. “Now on about your mission. I have thought about what you said yesterday, Hardin, and I want to give you one more chance to save your people. You two are to go to Dizuria as diplomats to handle the return of a necklace that is over one thousand