by Eden Wolfe
No more.
She didn’t notice the entry of the Tower, didn’t notice as she walked in a trance to the stairwell. She climbed the nineteen floors, her mind blank. Her resolve set.
As she reached the door to the Great Geneticist’s office, she didn’t think but gave it a bang before throwing it wide open. Her plan needed to be put into motion.
It starts now.
“Your timing is impeccable,” Uma’s face was strange, as though Irene had caught her doing something she shouldn’t, but she hadn’t been doing anything at all. Except thinking.
There’s more to this woman than she’s ever shown. She’s manipulative. Indeed, she belongs in the Queen’s camp.
“Sit down,” Irene closed the door behind her and locked it, “I need you to listen. It’s important that you not miss a word I’m about to say.”
Irene gave an overview of what the Queen had said, focusing on the fact that the antidote would be in Gale’s blood, avoiding any mention of how the antidote had gotten there. Uma listened, her arms crossed and her body leaning forward as if waiting for the mystery to resolve itself.
Irene wet her lips, she hadn’t realized how dry they had become. “So I am going to get her. I will collect Gale; I will pull her out from whatever depths she has crawled herself into, and I will bring her back. Then we will have the cure for the Sisters.”
“And then Daphna will give us the solution to Elgin,” Uma couldn’t contain her smile. She didn’t care what happened to Gale. Uma had to know that Gale’s blood wouldn’t just be freely delivered. After all, Uma had known all that had happened with Sara. The torture. Violence. And finally, the secrets that had dripped from her lips. Irene had watched it all. Uma hadn’t been there, but she had known everything.
Irene tried to stay focused on the matter at hand. She was far from having achieved her goal.
“Bring Daphna in here. She will understand the implications of us finding Gale. The Queen is committed to having Gale’s blood delivered.”
“Her blood?”
Irene did not respond.
“Of course, her blood.” Uma shrugged, “Her blood is all we need really, isn’t it?”
Irene did not reply.
“I’ll get Daphna. It’s time this was cleared up. It’s time that Elgin was finished and Lower Earth resumed its rightful course,” Uma turned to walk out of the room.
“I couldn’t agree with you more.”
Uma stopped, her hand on the doorknob. She looked back at Irene. “I’ve done my best.”
“I’m sure you have.”
“No one is more committed in this Tower to the preservation of Lower Earth than me.”
Irene gave her head a slow nod.
Uma stepped back into the office. “It’s true, I have committed everything to this Tower. I’ve committed everything to this Queen. I would do anything for her. I truly believe that she can see the way forward, she is the one more than anyone else who came before who can see the future of Geb, of women, of our whole society. My faith in her will never falter. My commitment to her is unfailing.”
“I believe you,” Irene said.
And she did.
It was precisely the reason why Irene didn’t trust her for a second.
“And the Guard!” Uma added, shouting. Her eyes lit up.
“And the Guard? What does that mean?”
Uma almost ran across the office, coming to stand in front of Irene. “I know all you have had to sacrifice, Irene. The challenges of being second in command. For you, it was to the Queen. For me, it was to Roman.”
Are you comparing the Queen of Lower Earth to the man who ran the Tower for one of the most disgraceful periods in our history?
“No,” Uma’s spine stiffened. “I’m saying that you and I have more in common than may appear at first.”
Irene closed her eyes. Her patience was running thin.
Why would she want to align herself with me now? She’s got her own motives. She has her own agenda. And all of this is taking too long. I’ve got to get out of here.
“You were going to get Daphna.”
“Oh, yes,” Uma backed away, “I’m getting her right now.”
Irene listened to the sound of the air coming out of her mouth and she let her head rest in her hand for a moment. It was all happening so fast. Wasn’t that how all great fissures occurred? Years of pressure building up until one day, without forewarning, an earthquake destroys it all. The earthquake was happening within her heart, and all Irene could think about was getting away.
She heard the door creak open.
“Here she is, I’ve got her. She was reviewing the sequence, as expected, on the seventeenth floor.”
I have to get Daphna alone.
“Yes, fine,” Irene began, “Daphna, the Queen has identified the location of Subject Zero through her various modes of deduction and eyes across the country. You don’t need me to tell you that the Queen has ways that are beyond the rest of us. With that knowledge, I shall go on a mission, to bring her back, and we know that with the secrets that lie in her blood, we will now be able to combat the illness that is the very reason you have come. You know the woman; you know it’s Gale. Now we know where she is. And thus, within a matter of days, the resolution to your illness which so afflicts the heart of the Queen will be under control.”
Daphna’s eyes narrowed.
Irene continued hoping the message would get across. “Everything you wanted, it shall now be provided. You no longer need the Tower, your solution is on its way.”
“I see.”
Uma stepped between Daphna and Irene, “Now give me Elgin. If you even have it. Once a traitor, always a traitor. It can be difficult to discern the truth when it comes from the lips of one who already abandoned our greatest cause. Stop holding this over Lower Earth. Your frustration is with me, not with those who are suffering. So give it.”
Daphna’s eyes didn’t leave Irene, “It’s waiting for you. Been there since I got here.”
“What? What are you saying?”
“I embedded the sequence within the same treatment I developed all those years ago. Did it the day I got here. Look at the latest treatment for the water in Cork Town and you’ll find what you’re looking for in Elgin. I simply slipped the page in one of the files. But it’s hidden in the sequence.”
“You never could just make things simple, could you?” Uma stormed towards the door shouting even before she got there, “Lydia! Pull all the files on the Cork Town water issue. - No, you might need to go way back.” Uma looked back to Daphna, “Go back as far as twenty-five years. If I know anything, what I’m looking for is probably right at the very beginning.” And she left her office, slamming the door behind her.
Daphna was smiling.
But Irene took no pleasure in her small victory. “We don’t have long. The antidote is in Gale’s blood, and only there. The Queen intended it that way. You won’t find anything in the files here. I’m to go to the Dark Counties, to the farm on the edge of Rainfields, to bring Gale back so that she can be bled for the rest of her living years until the treatment can be artificially replicated.”
A small gasp escaped Daphna’s lips. “The Queen would go that far? What am I saying? Of course, she would.”
Irene stepped as close to Daphna as possible, though she rose two heads taller than her. “I can’t do it anymore, Daphna. Everything you know about me, everything you’ve heard… Perhaps it was once true. No more. An earthquake has run through my soul. I can’t abduct Gale. I can’t watch her be bled because of the vengeful Queen’s impulse. I can’t watch Lower Earth continue to descend into a state that resembles too much the world we were before the Mist.”
Daphna nodded. “I know too well what you’re talking about. Perhaps I had the benefit of foresight in my earlier years. It’s why I had to go. And I could go to the Sisters. But where can a Commandante go? There’s nowhere for you in Lower Earth. You won’t be safe. Or if you’re safe, you won�
��t be living freely.”
“I know. I know.”
They stood in silence for a moment.
Irene whispered, “By tomorrow, I’ll be gone. Can you do what must be done, with Gale?”
“Yes, the Sisters can do it, and we will make sure that the treatment reaches all of Lower Earth, not just the Strangelands.”
“I don’t doubt you. If anything, I wish I could’ve followed your path much earlier than this.”
“Go well, Irene.”
She had no more words left. She suddenly felt like she had already spoken more words in her life than she ever should have. She tilted her head to Daphna and walked out of the office. The sun was setting.
She had to prepare, she would leave as soon as the black of night fell.
And she would never come back.
She felt like she was drowning on the nighttime air. It sat thick and heavy in the back of her throat. But her steps were light and her gait long. Despite the fear cascading through her brain, her body knew what needed to be done. Her sack hung heavy on her back, as many days’ rations as she could manage. She would have to take every unbeaten route until she could reach Gana. And even once there, everything had to be done in disguise, in silence, away from peering eyes.
She left the city walls and headed eastward; she knew a track that would lead her northward while avoiding any possible foot traffic. Just as she begged the moon to shine less bright, to provide just enough light to be able to see her way but not so much that she would be seen, a cloud crossed into the midnight sky.
A gift from the ancestors.
I am finally heading in the right direction.
Her steps were meditative, falling into a rhythm. A chant of her feet into the earth, a chant of freedom, a chant of liberty, a chant of journey, though the destination remained far, far away.
She climbed the hill of long grass and brambles to a height where she had a view of all of Geb. She’d never seen the city like this before. In the midnight’s dim moonlight, the city was like a dark gem. The stone of the fortress glimmered while Central Tower stood as a testament, and then the city grew outward from there. Towers and alleys and laneways.
No movement in the lockdown. It was as though the city was dead. Beautiful, and dead.
A shift of the grass on the hill below caught her eye and she crouched down. Her heart began pumping, though she had every reason to be where she was. She had every right. As far as anyone else needed to know, she was heading to the Dark Counties to collect Gale, a traitor who had infected the country. She was not in the wrong, except in her own mind. She was still the Commandante, not that anyone would doubt it. Only Daphna knew her plans.
The steps came closer, shifting grass and crunching dirt. Irene grasped the knife hanging from her belt just as the figure approached the top of the hill. Irene squinted her eyes. She couldn’t believe who was standing before her.
This makes no sense.
She stood from her hiding place. “What are you doing here, Roman?”
Roman froze. They stood, staring at each other as the cloud passed and the moonlight intensified, casting a ghostly color across his face.
He’s degrading, Irene thought, though she didn’t dare speak another word.
35
Roman
Although the route he was walking was one he knew well, every corner was somehow new. He saw every building, every alley, every landmark as though for the first time.
But it was the last time.
He didn’t feel sentimental about it, only curious.
It never occurred to me just how much we have been able to rebuild. The world was over. The world had ended. But look where we are now.
His newfound awe cast a light of nostalgia on the city, a sense of remembrance, even though he hadn’t yet left.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?”
Roman’s heart jumped into his throat. He hadn’t gotten out of the city limits, and he was already found out? What sign had he left behind, what clue?
He turned around slowly.
The woman grabbed a child by the wrist. “Climbing out the window? At this hour? Imagine if we didn’t live on the ground floor! How can you be so reckless? We are in lockdown, child! You could get us both disappeared!”
The child screamed, but Roman couldn’t blame her. She was just doing the same thing he was. Trying to escape.
His heartbeat slowed, and although he knew he should feel relieved, he didn’t. Not one bit.
He took extra care now, there wasn’t far left to go before he would reach the city limits. So far the Guard had not fortified the entry points to the city, but he expected it was coming. That was why it had to be tonight. Even if he could invent a reason to give the Queen for not having yet found the woman and child, once the city was closed, he wouldn’t be going anywhere.
He didn’t dare approach too close to the fortress, although that would be the most logical place to leave the city. From there he could catch one of the tracks that headed north, one of those that weren’t surveyed. But if he got too close to the fortress and came into the sights of one of the Guard, his plan would be off. He could make an excuse for being in the streets, he would likely get away with it. Even Ariane would allow him that leeway given his current mission. But he didn’t want it to come to that, because then he’d be watched.
He just had to get out.
After that, he had no more answers. Maybe he could go to the Dark Counties. Maybe the Strangelands. Maybe he would die before he reached either of them.
His body was letting him down. He felt the changes inside him.
He let out a sigh of relief as the exit of the city before him was unguarded and open. His breathing was shallow but his heart beat louder than a drum.
Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot…
He thought he would forget how to do it. All he had to do was walk, not catch anyone’s eye, just keep moving, just keep moving, just keep moving.
The hill that led up and out of Geb County was his last obvious obstacle. Once he was over that, he knew there was very little surveillance undertaken, and none on a regular basis. After all, it didn’t lead anywhere.
But for Roman, it led exactly where he wanted to go. To the rest of his life. Or what was left of it.
It’s a curse to be born a man in this world. Living to die, living to try to create more life, this endless cycle. Perhaps the boy child will finally turn this cycle around. Maybe he’s the one, maybe the solution is in his blood. Oh, how I would’ve loved to have worked on it, to have studied it. That had been the dream all along, wasn’t it?
He only hoped he had played some small part in the rebirth of man.
Roman climbed the hill, trying to keep himself somewhat covered by the high grasses. If he stayed low against the ground as he went, chances were slim anyone from the city would notice any movement at all on the hill. They would have to be looking for him, and as far as he could tell, no one even knew he was gone. Daphna knew it was coming, Anna and Trudith and the child, the one sister, Adel, but that was all.
But is it too many? Is there any chance any of them might have leaked the information? Looking to improve their situation? Is someone waiting for me just over this hill?
No, it was impossible. No one knew where he was going. No one would know to look for him on the hill. Everyone else had their own reasons for keeping his departure secret.
No one is there. I have to carry on. Feet stepping, hands pulling at the grasses, just keep going. There’s no other sound, even the moon has clouded over to give me cover.
He smiled even as the grass ripped the palms of his hands open. Things were starting to go right for him.
“What are you doing here, Roman?”
He froze in place, his face fell. It felt like all of him was falling, falling deep into the center of the earth, swallowing him whole. The end. But he hadn’t moved.
The cloud moved away from the moonlight and he could see her, t
all and shining.
Irene.
He had no words. He tried to consider the possibilities, but nothing came. His mind was already dead. Dead like the rest of him would be in the coming time. Months, maybe some years. Not more than that.
“I said, what are you doing here, Roman?”
Her tone of voice is soft, there’s no one else here, she’s alone.
Now he saw that Irene’s face was not the hard Commandante he was so used to seeing. Something in her had changed.
What was she doing on the hill?
“Come,” she turned and walked further away from the city.
Roman followed. There was no other choice. They reached the crest of the hill and descended a little further, out of any line of sight from the city.
A part of him was desperate to ask what she was doing there. But his logical brain didn’t let him speak a word. He couldn’t trust anyone now, least of all the Queen’s Commandante. Perhaps the Guard wasn’t far at all. His last shred of self-preservation told him to be careful.
Irene stopped and looked him down and up, “You’re leaving.”
Roman waited. What could he possibly say? Then he noticed the sack on Irene’s back. Was she on a mission? Or was there something else going on?
Somewhere deep inside himself, he felt the movement of blood, a bubbling, a change. It may have been subtle, but Roman knew what it meant. Even if he did make it away, how much longer did he possibly have to live?
And Irene’s face was so changed. Her eyes were soft, her lips were open a bit, as if she, too, didn’t know what to say.
He made the decision. It was a bet, and he may very well have been betting the wrong way, but even so, what difference did it make now?
“Yes, I’m leaving.”
“As am I. I can’t stay. I can’t.” Her dark eyes shone in the moonlight.
“I understand,” Roman nodded, but it hadn’t sunken in. The Commandante? Leaving the Queen? It didn’t seem plausible.
But there they were, more than thirty years behind them, the rest of Lower Earth in front of them, and their backs to Geb.
