Freed

by Holly Hook

  I eye the stick of dynamite that Weslie holds. We're still safe in our ring of light. Les doesn't dare move any closer. “Okay. Perhaps you did blow up the worm,” he says. “I think I did hear some kind of boom a few hours ago.”

  “I did, too,” says a woman behind us.

  Les eyes us with something like admiration. Perhaps, even fear. “Keep following me,” he says. “I think we can work out some kind of deal here.”

  Weslie lowers the dynamite. Antoine whispers something to her and she keeps it in her hand as she walks. Travis's arm shakes with the effort of holding up the lantern for so long. I relieve him of it.

  Les ducks down. “This is the entrance to our home,” he says. “It's too small for the worm to get in. Duck. You don't want to get hit on the head.”

  He's standing before a small opening into another cavern. He ducks down and vanishes inside.

  I follow. I have to almost crawl to get through the opening. It's lined with red ore. Again, there's no Flamestone. It's just black and red now. Darkness and blood. These people are depleting their resources down here. No wonder they're desperate for supplies. I'm getting some ideas for what they'll want in return for helping us.

  Maybe us killing the worm will help us get off easy. We've just given them access to the burrows.

  And maybe they've seen Talia. They might even have her here.

  I manage to straighten up as soon as the space opens. Travis and Shawn come through behind me and along with them, Pit. His tail's wagging. He's not uneasy around these people. I'm glad to see it. He's the best danger detector we have.

  “Move aside,” Les says. “You may put out your lights. There is a bit of illumination down here.”

  “Put out the light?” Shawn asks.

  “I don't know if that's a good idea,” Travis says. “You might try to attack us.”

  “We won't,” Les promises. “I know you can't and won't trust me, but in order for us to talk properly, you need to put that light out.”

  I remember his words. He wants supplies. These people must have almost nothing down here. Maybe we can negotiate some kind of trade.

  “Lights out, or we don't talk. They're hurting our eyes.”

  “Do it,” Weslie whispers to me.

  Shawn grabs my hand. He's ready to spring into action. Things might hit the fan in seconds. Footsteps surround us and echo off the walls. We're in a big chamber. There are a lot of people here. A lot of Disgraced that got dumped down here like trash.

  I fumble with the bottom of the safety lamp and turn it off. At the same time, Antoine drops the torch and rolls it out with his foot.

  Darkness slams down. I blink. My eyes adjust, and then I notice.

  There's a little bit of light down here after all. The glow of the lamp drowned it out and stopped me from seeing it.

  We're in a large, dome like chamber the size of three high school gymnasiums put together. I blink, not sure of what I'm seeing at first. Faint light seems to come from the walls and the ceiling above. There are gems embedded in the walls here. Giant gems, each one the size of a beach ball. They all look cut by some professional back home and each one is glowing. The whole chamber looks full of them. We're in a cave of crystal here and I can't help but let my jaw fall open at the sight.

  It's like we're standing inside a giant crown or helmet made of giant jewels.

  “Holy--” Shawn starts.

  And each one's giving off a soft glow. Red. Blue. Orange, green and yellow. All the colors blend together and cast the chamber in just enough glow so that I can see. And there is old furniture scattered around the room, too. An ancient couch sits against the far wall and a crooked wooden table rests nearby. There are spare pillows and chairs lying around. Blankets. Even a couple of pickaxes lay propped up against a yellow gem. These people have been scavenging for a long time.

  “This chamber used to be an old meeting place for the original Flamestone Society,” Les says. “They designed this room a long time ago and abandoned it when the worm found its way into these parts. There used to be a gateway here that led to Earth, but it's long since dried up. Have a seat here in the middle, and we'll discuss what we can do for each other.”

  “The Society got all the way down here?” Antoine asks.

  “It must have been when they first came to this world,” I say. “Maybe before they started using slaves. I don't think they were bad at first.”

  “They've been bad for most of their history,” Les says. “They're never going to change. Sit, please.” He points to the center of the room.

  There's a raised platform of stone in the middle of the room. It's a natural formation, but I get that it's supposed to be the hot seat. There's no furniture on it. I go over and stand, waiting for something to happen. Pit sits beside me. Shawn and Travis join me and Weslie and Antoine step up last. I feel like I'm in some dream. The gems continue to give off a soft glow around us. Places like this don't even exist on Earth.

  And for the first time, I see how many people are here.

  We stand a little above them now. Les was right. There are a few dozen, all dressed in ragged clothes. It's like an underground version of Wompitt and Les is the fallen version of Ned, only much skinnier. There are men. Women. They're in equal numbers. And Les is right that there are a few children here. One woman even holds a baby that's sleeping in her arms. The baby is wrapped in something blue. I squint, and realize it's the skin of one of those Light Eaters. These people have very few options for clothing themselves. Another man wears the skin of a Light Eater for pants. I imagine those can't be too comfortable.

  “How many of you are there?” Shawn asks.

  “Thirty-nine,” Les answers. “We all wound up here after the Society screwed us over. I expect your friend will arrive here, too. We are expecting him. Most of us are unfortunates who the Society lied to. Our children are born like us, unable to go to the surface in the daytime. We can't survive up there for long. Our only hope is to stay here, work together, and do what we can to stay alive.”

  “That's a raw deal,” Travis says.

  “We must eat Flamestone in order to survive, just like the Dwellers,” Les explains. No one else dares speak. He's the supreme leader here. “We must dodge the monsters down here, who don't care who or what they eat. We have to keep ourselves a secret from the Society. If they know we're down here in good numbers, they might consider us a threat and try to destroy us. That is another reason we do not dare go up into the mines.”

  “What do you want from us?” Antoine asks. “How can we help you?”

  Les paces around us, slowly. The others watch in silence. “There are a lot of things that we need. Food, or one, but you may have solved our problem by killing the worm. We should now be able to access the mines.”

  Score one, I think. “Can you help us and the trapped workers find our way out of here?” I ask. “That mine has lots of Flamestone. You guys should be set for generations.”

  “Food is not our only problem,” Les continues. He stops by the woman with the baby. “There used to be forty-four of us here. Two of us followed a large Flamestone vein into a very deep cavern a few days ago and they haven't come back.” He circles around the back of us and my neck prickles. “I think you guys could help us with returning them to us.”

  “How?” Shawn asks. “We need details.”

  “I will tell you what you need to do when the time comes,” Les says. “My question is, what do the five of you think you can do for us? Do you know of any way to free us from our condition? We have no future down here. I have been thinking of ways for us all to escape our situation for a long, long time.” Les circles around to face us again. “We need a way to remove our tattoos and return to normal, to be able to see the sun again. Do any of you have any advanced knowledge of the ores and workings in this world? Any knowledge you may have caught from the Flamestone Society?” Les steps closer and faces Antoine and Weslie. “The two of you have been in this world for a while.” He st
udies their furs and leather.

  I glance at Weslie. She glances at Antoine and grabs his hand. I understand. She's afraid of losing him again. He's the biggest expert on these ores that I know. What if the Disgraced want to keep him and make him work on a cure, like some countries forced scientists to make bombs for them?

  But these aren't bombs. These are people who just want to go back to the way they were before. They want to go home, just like us.

  “We want you guys to find a cure, too,” I say. “It looks like we're all on the same side here.” I'll leave it up to Antoine and Weslie if they want to bring up his experiments. “I do know a little about the Flamestone. I know it can be tattooed under skin like this green stuff. Except what it does is make a Society member burst into flames if they spill the secrets of the Society back on Earth. At least, that's what one member told me.” I won't tell them that I know Garrett. Some of these people might have made deals with him. Been stabbed in the back by him. I'm just arrived in Wompitt all over again.

  Antoine coughs. “I know some things about these ores.”

  Weslie sucks in a breath. “Antoine!”

  “Hey. We need their help,” he says. “They need ours.” He straightens up on the rock and faces Les. “Before I got captured for a second time, I was working on some experiments back up on the surface. I mostly worked on Flamestone, trying to see what it does, and we think there's a way to find the center of it somewhere deep in this world. I've learned a lot about it, including how it grows.”

  “Have you worked on Slimestone at all?” Les asks.

  I remember Antoine's cave. He had stuff written on the walls. There had been something about Slimestone. He must have worked on it, or tried. There's lots of it up on the surface in the rocks.

  “I have,” he says. “I didn't get to work on it very much, though. But I like working on these ores. All I've gotten to work on are those two. The others, like this red stuff and the blue ore, I haven't gotten to even touch yet since it's so far in the ground. There's still a lot of experiments to run.”

  “It's called Brainstone,” Les says. “What do you know about Slimestone? I haven't seen it all the way down here myself. It's only up in the layers we'd starve in.”

  “Well, I just found out it can spread through your body in some cases,” he says. “And I know that sunlight makes it dissolve unless it's trapped in rock. That's why the things from underground have a hard time functioning on the surface in the daytime.”

  I face him. I hadn't known that.

  “Do you know of anything else that can get rid of Slimestone? Without killing us?” Les asks.

  Antoine shakes his head. “There must be something else it reacts with, too. Flamestone can turn into Deadstone, for one. There must be something that can get the stuff out of your bodies without killing all of you. We might just have to find out what that is.”

  Weslie shrinks closer to him. I have a feeling I know where this is going.

  Les puts his hand on his chin. “I hope so,” he says. “There are many other ores down here you can experiment with. I propose this trade. We help your group and the trapped workers find their way to the surface. In exchange,” he draws closer to Antoine, “you remain with us and work on finding us a cure to our condition. We will provide you with working space, food, water, and protection. We will also provide you with what materials we can.”

  Weslie grabs his hand. Squeezes. She swallows, but doesn't dare speak up.

  This is what she feared.

  Les addresses all of us. “This is in addition to...some other tasks I want the rest of you to complete.”

  Antoine shifts. He looks at Weslie, asking for her input.

  “I have to stay with him,” Weslie says.

  Les thinks again. Someone in the back says something. We're still surrounded by all these dark figures, the doomed and the desperate. “We can allow that,” he says. “There are fish in the river we can catch for you. We will even help you dig out the ores that you need. I'll even send some people to the higher levels in order to gather some Slimestone for you. But the two of you cannot leave us until you've done all that you can to help us.”

  “And that blue ore, too,” Antoine says. “You need to bring me some of that. I've never had the chance to run any experiments on that, either.”

  “The Waterstone,” Les says. “That's down here, too. I do know a bit about that stuff. It reacts with Flamestone and makes it dissolve. That’s what makes me think there could be something other than sunlight that makes Slimestone dissolve, too.”

  Their words fall dim on my ears.

  Weslie and Antoine are staying down here. We have to leave them if we're going to get out of here, find Talia, and rescue all the trapped workers.

  They could have to stay down here for months. Maybe even years. We might not ever see each other again. My chest tightens. Weslie and Antoine are my friends. We've been through so much crap together.

  “I agree,” Antoine says. “But Weslie has to stay with me. We just got separated and we're not going to have it happen again. What's the deal if we find you a cure?”

  “Then we all go free,” Les says, raising his voice. He turns and faces his followers. “I want five of you to go into the upper mines and get us a good sample of Slimestone so that this man can work. Another five of you are to go up and find some light sources so this man can actually see what he's doing. And another five of you will go into the old worm burrow, find the workers, and show them a way out of here.”

  The shadowy figures in the room begin to scatter and assemble into small groups. People whisper. I feel like we're standing in a ring of lost souls. Soon, Jaden will find his way here if he's survived. Maybe he and Weslie will see each other again if he survives Antoine.

  Antoine looks down at the stone. He's not getting out of here after all. “Thank you.”

  Weslie grabs his arm. She looks calmer now. A lot less scared. “I'll help you find a cure,” she says in a low voice.

  My eyes water.

  We're leaving her.

  Maybe even for good.

  But what are we going to do without her?

  I stand. Weslie's taking off her pack.

  “The three of you might need this stuff,” she says, handing Shawn her overflowing pack and the gun. Her voice cracks. The sticks of explosives and the gas masks bounce around inside. “If I'm going to be here, I'll be pretty safe.”

  Shawn's eyes get huge. “We might need that.”

  Weslie's eyes are watery. The colored light reflects off them. “You never know. We might see each other again. At least I've conquered my fear of the underground. For now.”

  Pit rubs against her legs and she pets him. He seems to understand.

  “If I can, I'll see you again,” I say. “I don't know what's going to happen out there.” I hate this. I hate it with every inch of my being. I've recovered two people I care about just to lose two more all over again. What would I do if they wanted to keep Shawn down here? Could I get the strength to stay with him?

  But we have lives to save. If we have to do this, so be it.

  “And we still need to find Talia,” I say. “I really wish you could have met her.”

  “I might,” Weslie says. She manages a small smile. “She might still be alive. These people know what they're doing down here.” She glances around. Les's people have backed away, giving us some room to talk. Five of them are already ducking out of the tiny entrance, an entrance that no giant worm can get through. That thought makes me glad that Weslie's not in any danger of that. And these people won't let Weslie and Antoine get snatched by the Dwellers again—will they? They must have a way to seal off the entrance if they need to.

  Shawn puts on her pack. “We should leave you some rations,” I say.

  “No. Take them. These people aren't going to let us starve,” Antoine says. “Don't worry. I'm in my element here. I love experimenting. I have a good reason to be successful now. I don't think these are bad people
or anything. At least, they aren't anymore.”

  I can't help but tear up. “We'll come back for you,” I say. “We will. It shouldn't be too hard to do, once these guys show us the path.” I'm lying. I know I could never find this place again.

  “I hope you can get back to Earth,” Weslie tells me. “That you can get back to your mother. It's not like Antoine and I really have anything to go back to there. It's a good thing to help these people out. And if Jaden gets here, we're helping him out, too.” She sounds sad. I know that with all her being, she wants to get back to Earth. Where people don't get eaten my monsters or sold into Dweller mines.

  “That's a good point,” I manage.

  And we hug.

  It seems to last forever. At least this hideout isn't a terrible place like the mines. There's some beauty down here and Weslie's going to get to stay in it.

  We separate and Antoine gets me in a hug, too.

  “Miss you,” he says. “Don't worry. I'm sure I'll have fun down here.”

  “You know,” I say. “I told Jaden you might be able to figure out a cure for him.”

  “He might show up here,” Antoine says. “You never know. I'll be happy to see him.”

  I laugh. “And we might be able to come back and see you,” I say. “If we find a way in and out of here that won't get us killed.”

  “Don't risk your lives,” he says, releasing me. Then he claps Travis and Shawn on the backs. “Nice working with you, Elaine's friends.”

  “And you,” Shawn says, shaking his hand.

  Les walks up. He's been so patient with us. “It's time to go,” he says. “I will show you where to go. I've already sent a group to wait by the mines for my orders. I've sent another to go get some Slimestone and another to find the lighting. We're going to be spread thin, but with the worm gone, I think it's safe enough to do it.”

  “It's gone, all right,” Travis says. “Thanks to these two girls.”

  “Do you know any ways back to Earth?” I ask. I have to at least see my mother again before coming back here. I can't imagine leaving Weslie and Antoine down here forever, even if they're being taken care of.