The Beneath

by S. C. Ransom

  “But—”

  “Listen to me, I’m stuck here.” I grab the chain and yank it hard to prove my point. “That’s why there is no door on this cell. You have to get Will, please, before it’s too late! Hide by the door and run for it as soon as it’s open. Find your way back out again and leave immediately. And don’t ever come back in here…”

  I’m willing her to leave while I’m still being brave. I don’t want to break down and sob like a child. I can’t believe that they’ve come to rescue me, and for a moment I am overwhelmed. I feel the tears threatening to come. I don’t deserve their help, so I turn away quickly.

  Lily’s hand is gentle on my shoulder.

  “I’m so sorry, Aria. I had no right to expect you to forgive me. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

  She leans over and rests her cheek on my head. I reach for her hand to squeeze it, to show her that there was nothing to forgive, but she’s gone, finally taking me at my word.

  I lie back on the mouldy mattress, tears blurring my vision, and at last I feel at peace. I’m glad that she doesn’t know the truth, and now there is no need to share it. I know that she is my friend and will always be there for me. She’s just proved that.

  I can die more easily now I know I have a friend.

  I ran blinded by tears down the dark, winding corridor away from Aria’s cell, unable to believe what I’d done to her. She was chained to the wall! And from the way she had reacted to me, the way she had turned away, she still blamed me. She had every right to as well. If only I hadn’t jumped to the wrong conclusions she’d never have come back down. And knowing that Will liked her too made the whole thing worse. My selfishness had created this mess. I had to find Will and get him to help me get her out.

  After turning down a few corridors I stopped and leaned against one of the dank walls, groping for the tissue in my pocket. I blew my nose as quietly as possible, trying to keep from sobbing out loud.

  “Lily? Is that you?” a voice hissed in the darkness.

  Pale hands were clutching a set of bars that reached across the width of the corridor, and almost hidden in the gloom behind was Will. I wiped my eyes and ran towards him.

  “Lily, thank goodness you’re all right. When they took you off I thought…” He stopped as he saw my tear-streaked face. “You are all right, aren’t you? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

  “No, no. I’m fine. I’ve just seen Aria. She’s—”

  “Alive? Is she OK?” he interrupted before I could finish.

  I nodded. “Alive, but trapped. She wants us to leave her and go. She says that there’s no time to waste and that you are in terrible danger – and you specifically, but I’m not sure why.”

  “What? I’m not leaving her. Rescuing her is what this is all about, right?” He rattled the bars again. “Come on, help me get out of here. And how come you’re not in a cell too?”

  “I don’t think they have very much regard for us girls. They put me a cell so flimsy that a quick kick sorted it out. I broke the lock on the second attempt.”

  I stepped back, sniffing loudly and wiping my face again. The bars spanned the full width of the tunnel, with a small door in the middle, like an old-fashioned prison cell. The door had a solid iron lock, and I shook it hard but the gate didn’t budge.

  “It looks as if you’ve been rather more securely locked up. Did you see what they did with the key?”

  “No, they threw me in here and slammed it shut before I could turn round.”

  “I can’t believe this is all going so horribly wrong,” I whispered. “We’re all locked up in here and waiting to die.”

  “I’m not waiting around for that, thank you,” said Will. “Stand back!”

  He took a flying kick at the lock before landing in a heap on the floor with a loud groan. The lock hadn’t budged.

  “Damn it. That always works in the movies,” he said, getting up and rubbing his foot. “Shouldn’t have used my bad ankle either, really.”

  But I was watching the little trail of stone dust that was still tumbling from the ceiling where the bars were fixed in.

  “The lock didn’t move, but the whole line of bars did. I wonder…”

  I took a firm hold of two of the bars near the wall and began to push them backwards and forwards. At first the give was almost unnoticeable, but quickly the metalwork began to move.

  “Come on, you’ve weakened it. You get the other side.”

  With Will pulling as I pushed, we soon had the whole section of bars moving by a couple of centimetres, and eventually the old, rusty iron could take it no more. One of the main crossbars broke and a section of the bars fell in, showering us with stone dust and rust. Will eased through the gap, then stood up and gave me a quick hug.

  “Thanks, Lily, it feels good to be out of there. Now, let’s see if we can persuade Aria to come with us.”

  “She’s chained to the wall, so we’ll need to fix that first.”

  I was talking over my shoulder as I led the way back towards Aria’s cell.

  “Chained? Nice people. Which way now?”

  I stopped dead. I had no idea, and two corridors twisted and turned away from us.

  “It’s not too far. I was only running for a minute or two, and we could hear you banging on the bars. We have to be quick though.”

  “OK, there’s only one quick way to do this,” he said. “ARIA! ARIA, where are you?”

  There was nothing but silence as a faint echo died away.

  “She wants us to leave, to save ourselves and not waste time,” I guessed. “ARIA! We’re not leaving until we speak to you, so hurry up and tell us where you are!”

  I paused for a moment, listening hard.

  “I mean it, you know I do!”

  “Over here.”

  Her voice was flat and resigned, and it came from a doorway not far from us. Will was off like a shot so I hung back slightly, not wanting to see their reunion. I couldn’t help but hear though.

  “My God, look at you!” Will’s voice was shocked. “Are you OK apart from that? Have they hurt you?”

  “Never mind that, you must go, now, both of you. You’re in terrible danger!”

  “Not without you, Aria. You’re why we’re here so it would be pretty pointless leaving without you.”

  There was a moment of silence and I jumped when I heard my name being called.

  “Lily, where are you? We need your help!”

  I looked back down the dark, twisting tunnel. There was no sign of anyone coming. Inside the small cell, Will was sitting on the mattress next to Aria, pulling at the chain fixed into the wall.

  “Come on, we need another one of your smart ideas. How are we going to get this free?”

  A thought was nagging at my mind.

  “The cell you were in wasn’t exactly secure, was it?” I said. “I mean, they clearly don’t expect people to choose to escape. It’s very odd. Here, let me look at the manacle.”

  Aria held out her slim ankle, which was now bloodied and bruised. I sat down, resting her foot gently on my knee so that she didn’t have to hold her leg up. The metal ring had a rough hinge and a rusty-looking keyhole. I wiggled the locked side but all I succeeded in doing was making Aria gasp as I accidently jarred it against her raw skin.

  “Watch it, Lily. Be careful,” muttered Will.

  I guessed that he would rather be the one helping her. I sneaked a quick glance at Aria but she was looking down, bottom lip caught between her teeth.

  “It’s not as easy as I hoped,” I sighed, bending over to try and see better in the dim light.

  “They know there’s nowhere to go!” exclaimed Will. “That’s why security here is so rubbish.”

  “Of course!” I said. “That’s exactly right. Why make it hard to escape when you’re a prisoner in the first place?”

  I straightened up for a moment, holding the manacle so that it wouldn’t rest on the damaged skin. As I changed my grip I felt something in it mov
e.

  “Hang on a second,” I whispered to myself as I turned it round her ankle, hinge side uppermost. “All we need to do is take out the pin!”

  “What’s that?”

  Will jumped up from where he had been trying to dig the bolt out of the wall and bent down to see.

  “The hinge – look, it’s held together with just one small pin. All I need is a bit of metal to push it with. What have we got?”

  I looked around the dimly lit, damp room, which was completely bare apart from the mouldy-looking pile of rags that Aria was sitting on. There was absolutely nothing that might do the job.

  “I can go back to the other cell; there might be something there,” said Will, standing up again and walking directly in front of me.

  “No. Look, we can use this.” I grabbed his hand and hauled him back. “Your watch strap has a metal bit on the buckle. Let’s try that.”

  He tore the watch off and thrust it into my hands, then leaned down towards Aria’s foot, considering our best angle of attack. I could feel the heat of him radiating towards me.

  “Please, I know that you’re trying to help, but this is taking far too long,” Aria pleaded. “The Farmer will be here any minute, and then he’ll have you both killed. Why don’t you understand? I’m a lost cause, and I took that risk, but you two don’t have to die.”

  “Why does he want to kill us?” asked Will. “There are only the two of us, after all, so we’re not much of a threat. All we want is a conversation.”

  Aria sighed. “He’s been getting worse and worse for years. He really hates the Aboves and has been breeding larger and larger numbers of the Crop, ready to attack. Or at least that’s what Dane told me. And more of the Crop means more Feeders are needed to feed them, so he’s been getting really harsh with his punishments. I think he’s gone mad. Dane thinks he’s just plain evil, but almost everyone else just blindly obeys him, regardless of how bad their situation is becoming. We had to do something.”

  “So what were you hoping to achieve Above? Dane mentioned that you were helping him with something. Was that to do with it?”

  While we had been talking I had been jabbing at the hinge with the buckle, desperate to find that small bit of movement I’d felt before. And suddenly it slipped home, the pin dropping noiselessly into my lap. I grabbed either side of the manacle and pulled hard, expecting resistance, but the whole thing just fell apart in my hands.

  “Oh, you did it!” said Aria, reaching down to rub her ankle carefully. “Thank you.”

  She looked up at me and smiled before turning to Will.

  “Thank you too. I don’t deserve it, but it’s good to see you.”

  She hadn’t answered my question, but I didn’t push it. Instead I handed the watch back to Will and stood up, pulling Aria upright with me.

  “Can you walk?” he asked as she gingerly put her weight on the injured ankle.

  “Yes,” she hissed through gritted teeth, carefully stepping with just the toes of her left foot on the ground and leaning on me for support.

  “This is no time for bravery,” I said. “Will, get on the other side. If we both help it’ll be quicker.”

  Will scooped up Aria’s other arm and slung it round his shoulders, and between us we lifted her towards the door.

  “OK, Aria,” said Will as we got to the entrance. “A bit of local knowledge would be good at this point. Where do we go now?”

  The pain in my ankle is pulsing, and I wonder if I broke something when they threw me in here. My friends are carrying my weight as I direct them out. My heart feels so free because they are here, risking everything to save me, and yet I can’t stand being responsible for their deaths. I have to find a way to get them out of here, away from the Crop and the Farmer. I lead them back the way we were all bought in, and we soon arrive at the heavy studded door.

  “That door means business,” says Will, touching the old iron studs. “I’m not sure how we’re going to get that open.”

  “Can we take it off its hinges?” asks Lily, running her fingers around the edge.

  “They’re not that daft,” says Will, shaking his head.

  “How about we pretend that one of us is sick, and when the guard comes in we overpower him?”

  “Oh, come on, really? Which cheesy films have you been watching?” he asks.

  I feel helpless as they discuss how they might escape – I know it’s impossible. Finally Will starts banging on the door.

  “Quick, come quickly, please! She’s dying!” he shouts over and over, before turning back to Lily with a crooked smile. “I can’t believe you persuaded me to do this.”

  Lily is about to answer when we hear the great bolts being drawn back on the other side.

  “Ready?” hisses Will, poised to jump.

  Lily nods and the door slams open. Will presses his back to the wall in the gloom, waiting, while Lily and I stand in the light. I see a figure step through the door and I recognise the silhouette. Dane. I can’t warn him.

  Will leaps from the darkness and grabs him by the neck. They fight, and fall to the ground, but the shadows make it hard to see. Then I hear Lily gasp, “No, don’t!”

  The door is pushed wide and light floods the corridor. Will has been completely overwhelmed, his arms pinned behind him by two other men. Dane is holding a knife so tightly against his throat that I can see a trickle of blood. Lily leaps forward, but the knife glints as Dane slices it across Will’s neck.

  I froze, horrified at what I was seeing. Dane lowered the knife and shoved Will away from him, letting him slump to the floor. Aria reached forward to stop me but I shook her off and dived across the corridor to where Will was lying.

  “What have you done?” I shouted at Dane. He ignored me.

  I turned Will over, hardly daring to look. He was gasping for breath, and I pressed my hand over his to stop the blood seeping through his fingers.

  “Let me look, Will,” I said, trying to get him to focus on me. The gasping continued, but his eyes met mine. “Let me see,” I whispered, my hand over his.

  Will’s shoulders heaved. “Give me a minute,” he coughed. “He winded me.”

  “I just need to see your neck – how badly are you cut?”

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see the men were advancing towards Aria, and I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to help both of them. But Will was in the most immediate danger, so I focused on him, lifting his fingers. A vivid red line ran across his neck, but it wasn’t the gaping wound I had feared. Most of the blood seemed to be coming from a small cut where the point of the knife had been originally pressing into his skin, and it was dripping, not pumping. Had Dane spared him deliberately?

  “He missed the artery.” I gave Will a brief smile. “You’re not dying right now.”

  “Probably not long though,” he whispered back, still trying to catch his breath. “They don’t look friendly.”

  The men had surrounded Aria. She looked very small and defenceless, her slight frame dwarfed by the crowd, most of whom looked extremely menacing as they hunched over her, fists clenched. As I watched, one of the men called to the others.

  “He’s here!”

  Everyone in the corridor turned to watch as a tall, dark-haired man swept through the entrance. Wearing a white shirt and waistcoat, he looked better coordinated than all the others, as if his clothes had been actively selected rather than thrown on from a charity shop bargain bucket. A stick or cane of some sort was under his arm. With a look of utter contempt at Will and me, he turned to the crowd and raised his hand. The men fell silent and shuffled apart to reveal Aria. She was standing as tall as possible, showing no sign of the pain in her ankle, with her hands clenched into tight fists. But her face was white with fear. Behind her, two of the crowd held her arms securely.

  The dark-haired man walked slowly towards her, looking her up and down as she stared at the wall behind him. Finally he stepped back and, using his cane, moved her chin until she
was looking at him.

  “Really, Aria, what have you been doing now?”

  His voice was low and surprisingly calm. Aria ignored him, but I could see that she was shaking.

  “I said, what have you been doing now?” An edge of steel crept into the last word.

  Aria’s jaw was clenched tight. “Nothing,” she hissed.

  The Farmer leaned towards her, waving back her guards with a flick of his cane. He shook his head slowly.

  “I expected better of you. Revealing the Community to strangers is treason. You know that. What would your mother have said?”

  Aria swallowed hard, but the look in her eyes had turned to pure hatred. She said nothing.

  He lifted the cane back under her chin, making her flinch. She was shaking so hard I could almost hear it.

  “You have forgotten your place,” he said in a low but clear voice. “I expect an apology.”

  Still she said nothing.

  There was a sharp intake of breath from someone in the crowd, and he stared at her for a couple of seconds before looking away, sighing loudly.

  “Beyond hope, as we feared. Take them all to the Assembly Chamber. We need to get this trial out of the way as quickly as possible.”

  We were bundled out of the cell-block corridor through the heavy door. There was no chance to talk with Aria as we were whisked along endless low, stone tunnels. Thankfully Will and I were kept together, and we tried hard to reassure each other that everything was going to be OK.

  “I mean,” said Will at one point as we were walking a little more slowly along a winding section, “what good would it do to harm us? We’re only here to rescue Aria, not to run off with the silver or something.”

  “Exactly! I’m sure they’ll be letting us go once we’ve had a chance to explain ourselves.”

  I tried to sound convincing as I couldn’t bring myself to say out loud what I feared.”How is your neck? Has it stopped bleeding?”

  Will looked very pasty under the artificial lights.