Hardin's Dilemma

by A.S. Morrison

tired we got. With that came more stumbling on tree roots close to the trees and rocks when we strayed too far. After several monotonous and tiring hours I began to see the first hints of light. With the new light came a new sense that everything was going to get better.

  “What do you think Azureland will do?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Since we are both sure that this will be the last chance for Humurom and for the wall I think they might take action.”

  “Do you really think so?” I asked excitedly.

  “Yes, but it will be too dangerous for you to go in now.”

  “I know.” I said sullenly.

  I knew perfectly well that anyone going into the wall would be attacked, but my lasting feeling towards Azureland was that they would have some new technology that could help defeat all the guards. I think I was becoming an optimist. I always tried to think of the best, but I usually believed the worst was going to happen. Now that was beginning to change. More recently I was thinking that the best would happen and actually believed it could happen. That was progress I suppose.

  Sometime that morning we came to the wall. We were in a part of the dome that I had never been to before. It pleased me slightly to know that all that area I had been in the last few days was once Humurom.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  He took a look around. “I always wondered what was in here.”

  I smiled strangely. I got the feeling that I was showing somebody the inside of my home. “I may never be back in here. If all goes well anyway. I just don’t know about letting the fate of Humurom lie with Azureland, when they haven’t wanted to do much about it.”

  “That’s the hard part of these things. Sometimes all we can do is let others decide and hope for the best.”

  I nodded, feeling the weight of the situation. “Let’s go.”

  We put our wrists up to the wall and jolted through. We squinted in the morning sun. There was nothing but dirt and grass for miles. A mountain range rested beyond that. It was a cool day, much nicer than the cold I was used to in Azureland.

  “Not much resistance, huh?” I said, surprised that we didn’t see anyone near the wall.

  “If anybody was there they probably saw our uniforms and didn’t think we were up to trouble. Now let’s see if we can find some tracks or a town.”

  We walked diagonally from the wall out into the desolate country. I believed we were in Zamiastin. We kicked up dirt along the way, always looking for around for some sign of life.

  About a mile out and Theen grabbed my arm. “Look.” He pointed off to our left. A train was coming towards us. It was still small in the distance, but we could tell what it was. “It’s a cargo train, perfect.”

  “Why is that perfect?”

  “Because it will be going slow and we can jump on. I think it might have boxcars, even better.”

  As it came closer we saw that it did indeed have boxcars. The engine passed and we waved. The conductor waved back. Near the end of the train we found a boxcar with the door slightly open and jumped on. It was dark and smelled of the horse stable Nara took me to once, though there weren’t any horses on this trip.

  “Made it.” I said, settling myself onto the hard floor.

  “So now we –”

  He stopped short. There were other people in the car with us, a man, a woman, a teenager, and two little kids. They appeared to be a family. They huddled together on the opposite wall, looking at us with fear.

  “Hello.” Theen called to them.

  “Hello.” The woman said, holding the two little kids tightly in her arms.

  “Where are you from?” Theen asked.

  “We are from here.” The man answered quickly. He sounded panicked.

  “Is it the uniform?” Theen inquired. “We aren’t Dizurians. We only have these on to escape. We are from Azureland and are going there now.”

  “We are also escaping.” The man said.

  “Do you know where this train goes?”

  “Away from Dizuria, that’s all that matters.”

  Theen took the bag and divided up the bread. He gave the majority to the family. They were very glad to get it; they hadn’t eaten in some time.

  They told their story. The father worked in a small factory out in the country. It was designed to build tables and chairs but when Leric took over it was converted to make weapons. That was where the guns and Nawings were built. One day a group of people wearing the same red uniforms that we were wearing came to collect people for the Dome Project, the father wasn’t chosen, though his teenage son was. Afraid that they would lose him forever the family packed up and left the tiny hut they were given to live in and escaped using the train. That explained why they were frightened when we suddenly appeared in their boxcar. They thought that we had followed them to bring them back to Dizuria.

  Theen told them our story, omitting certain parts and changing others. He told them that we grew up in similar circumstances and trained in the dome. We all agreed that it was in their best interest to get out of there.

  Meeting that family brought me back to what Billus had said to me in the forest. He told me not to blame the Dizurians because they were just people trying to live their lives. And he was right. These were the type of people that Leric was trying to get rid of, the people that just wanted to live and not go along with his plans.

  “Have others escaped?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes. Many have before us. I don’t think that the leader even cares too much. As long as we are gone and out of his way.”

  Around midday Theen could see that we were approaching a town. It looked small.

  “Hardin, let’s get off here.”

  “If this isn’t a train hub then we might have to wait a long time before we find another train.”

  “Good thinking.” He said. “We’ll go through the town and if we see other trains we will get off. I’m just afraid of ending up someplace nowhere near civilization. These trains sometimes end up in places like that.”

  He slid the door to the car until it was only open an inch. He looked through the town as we passed. There were other trains seen coming and going from tracks that led in all directions.

  “Might as well try it.” Theen said, opening the door.

  We said goodbye to the family and jumped off the train when we thought it a safe distance from the town. The train was going so slow that we could have just stepped right off.

  Small wooden houses made up the majority of the buildings in the little town. A few buildings stood above the rest, but nothing to the scale of Diz City or Wall City. The streets weren’t paved. Horse drawn carriages and carts were followed by clouds of dust. The people wore simple and comfortable clothes. We stuck out in our bright red.

  “We’ll have to get money somehow.” Theen pointed out as we entered the town.

  “How?”

  The idea of money escaped my mind. I blame the fact that for the first twenty two years of my life I never had to deal with it.

  “Give me your bracelet.”

  He must have been going nuts. “What?”

  “They won’t be any good in a few days anyway. Maybe we can make some money off of them.”

  I felt the gold band on my wrist. “I don’t know.”

  “Nobody is going to know what they are.”

  He was right. I reluctantly handed over my bracelet.

  “Now see if you can find a train schedule or something.”

  He left to find somebody to sell the bracelets to. I went over to the train station to find a schedule.

  The station was just a little booth with a man sitting there selling tickets. Beside the booth was a board with all the days’ trains. There were only four that day. Two had gone by already, including the cargo train that wasn’t scheduled to stop. The third was a train going to Westernia. And to my surprise the fourth was going straight to Wall City. It originated
from Diz Beach, which I can only assume was one of the much talked about oceanfront towns in Dizuria. It was due to arrive in four hours and leave shortly after.

  Theen found me a few minutes later carrying several gold coins.

  “Here we go. The man said that this was enough for two train tickets. What did you find out?”

  “There’s a train leaving tonight to Wall City.”

  “Good, let’s see if we can get some tickets somewhere.”

  I showed him to the little booth.

  “Excuse me sir, we need two tickets for Wall City.”

  The man was really old. He squinted at Theen. “How many?”

  “Two.”

  “That will be 2 S.”

  “What? Oh, 2 S. Here you go.” He handed the man two coins. One remained.

  The man handed us the two tickets.

  “Thank you. Can you tell me what I can buy with what’s left?” Theen held up the remaining coin.

  “Not much.”

  We wandered around the town looking for food that we could buy with the last coin. I had a feeling that Theen got a bad deal for those bracelets, but we got what we needed so it didn’t matter.

  The coin wasn’t enough to buy us cooked meat from a woman selling it from a stand on the side of the road. Theen took it into a small store and he put the coin on the counter. The store owner gave us a slice of cake. Train tickets were cheaper than I thought they would be. We split the cake. It was good, but not enough to fill either of us up at all.

  We spent the next few hours walking through the small town. Our outfits didn’t get the attention I thought they would. Some people looked but nobody asked us where we were from or what we were doing there. It was a