Half Way Home

by Hugh Howey

  Tarsi came over after helping arrange wet clothes to assist Kelvin and me as we cleaned firewood. I couldn’t help but notice the way Kelvin stole glances at Tarsi’s nakedness. As I watched him, I found myself doing the same to him, my jealousy transforming into embarrassment and excitement.

  “It’s a shame we can’t stay here,” Tarsi said, kneeling down and crossing her arms across her chest. “Colony will eventually look for us, don’t you guys think? Maybe they’ll even resume mining operations if the base ever gets fully established.”

  “I agree,” I said. “I’m sick of running, but we need to move on as soon as the rain stops and Mica feels better.”

  “We might have to carry her out,” Kelvin said. “I think—”

  “Tractor!” somebody yelled. We all looked up toward the mine entrance to see Karl running toward us. He grabbed his shirt from one of the limbs and fought to get it on. “There’s a tractor heading our way from the canopy,” he said.

  We scrambled to get dressed and finish our food. I grabbed one of the water pouches and looked to the cooking fire—I hesitated, then regretfully doused it. Kelvin did the same for the one by Mica.

  “We need to get deeper into the mine,” Karl said.

  “Our tracks are everywhere out there,” Leila responded. “They’ll know where we are.”

  “Where we were. Maybe they’ll think we moved on.”

  “You guys go,” Peter said. “Mica and I are staying here. I want her to get some medical attention, anyway.”

  Mica started to argue, then began coughing, her excruciating pain leaking out through the grunts and throat-clearing.

  “We can carry her,” I told Peter. “Come with us.”

  “Go,” he said, shaking his head. “We never saw you guys. I’ll take credit for the mess in here and outside.”

  We could hear the tractor approaching, the steady rumble of the engine growing like slow-moving thunder. Tarsi knelt by the fire and put the flashlight back together, all the parts having been set out to dry. It flicked on with a solid beam. She handed it to me. I looked up and noticed everyone getting the last of their things together and looking at me once again as if I knew where to lead them.

  “Get out of here,” Peter said.

  “Go with them,” Mica croaked to Peter. “Leave me.”

  He gave me a look—steady eyes and clenched jaw—that let me know he wouldn’t be reasoned with. Not by me and not by Mica. I bent over and kissed the top of Mica’s head. Peter raised his hand to me, and I clasped it. “Nothing foolish,” I told him. “If they don’t come looking, please don’t go to them. We’ll get you out of here.”

  “I’ll leave our fate up to them,” he said, nodding.

  “Thanks.” I was grateful for the compromise.

  I grabbed my pack, turned to join the others, and we all headed deeper into the mine. Swinging the flashlight back and forth, I illuminated the way for the rest. Behind us, the rumble of the tractor grew, the blat of the engine filling the shaft of rock with powerful, angry sounds. We hurried forward, following the tunnel as it descended into the mountain, trying to put as much distance as possible between ourselves and whoever had come for us.

  When the engine abruptly stopped, the ensuing silence felt as laden with danger as the rumblings had. The nervous chattering between ourselves ceased as we fought to move quickly yet quietly. Looking over my shoulder, I could no longer see the light from the mouth of the mine due to slight rise at its entrance. Still, I worried the flashlight would be visible to our uninvited guests, the beam dancing like a flame to anyone peering down the shaft. I placed my hand over the lens and let just enough light spill through my fingers to see where I was stepping. I felt hands on my shoulders as our group linked up to move as one.

  Every now and then I played the light off the walls to look for an indention or a side passage to turn down. Nothing. And ahead of us, the darkness seemed to extend into forever while a cool column of air wafted up in our faces like the mountain’s frigid exhalations.

  We heard shouts behind us, voices yelling back and forth, and I knew Mica and Peter had been discovered. As we shuffled ever deeper into the cold and scary darkness, I tried to remember that the danger was behind us, but that illusion became harder and harder to maintain. The pattering of our feet sounded like thunder; I imagined the noise exploding back up to the people from the colony, betraying us. I wondered if we should stop and wait in silence, running only if we heard pursuers coming. Turning to whisper the idea to Kelvin, I completely missed the drop-off in the floor of the mine.

  Had he and Tarsi not seen it and pulled me back, I would’ve gone headfirst into it. The entire group came to a halt as the three of us fell down, several others crashing into us and falling in a heap as well. Grunts and whispered complaints elicited a round of shushes from the rest. We disentangled ourselves, and I crawled forward, playing the light across the floor.

  Ahead of us, the smooth surface of the mine floor terminated, curving down into a larger opening. I went to the edge and directed the light down. Below, the bottom of a wide room could be seen just a dozen feet down a steep curve. Kelvin came up beside me and peered down. I tapped him on the back, pointed below, then swung my feet over the edge. He patted my arm and pointed to the flashlight. Nodding, I gave it to him, and he shone it along my path, shielding the top of the light’s cone with his other hand to minimize our exposure. Pushing off, I half-slid, half-stumbled down to the bottom. I turned and waved, then caught Tarsi in my arms as she scampered down after.

  The two of us helped slow the arrival of the next pair, everyone eager to get out of that shaft. Kelvin came last, his feet smacking the rock loudly as his legs churned to keep up with his rapid descent. He returned the flashlight to me, and I used it to explore our surroundings.

  The floor was shaped like a half-circle, with none of the straight edges from the other shaft. Playing the light on the wall opposite our arrival, I saw the mine shaft continue on the other side, not quite as far up the curve as the shaft from which we’d descended.

  Risking some light upwards, I followed the curve of the room as it arched up over us and met itself. We were standing in a perfectly circular room. A draft of frigid air stirred from the side; I pointed my light that direction and saw that it wasn’t a room at all. It was another tunnel, but not a natural one. It was eerily similar to the kind we had explored in the trees, only bigger.

  Much, much bigger.

  Someone cursed behind me. Whispered fears coursed through our group as we huddled together. I felt as though we were standing in the path of an onrushing tractor, tempting fate just by being there. The shouts echoing down the mine shaft from above became background noise to a larger danger. I turned and played the light down the tunnel in the other direction, terrified that unless I saw nothing was there, something would be.

  And something was. Not a monster, but a bright flash—a glimmer of my own light reflected back. There were more whispers from the group, followed by panicked shushes. Kelvin grabbed my wrist and aimed the light at the reflective material. We all took a step forward, marveling at the sight of raw gold lying in the floor of the tunnel—thick, cylindrical coils of it. There was enough gold in that single heap to make hundreds of barrels or thousands of bowls. The mound was the size of our entire group laid out along the ground.

  Kelvin went forward to touch it. I started to whisper a complaint.

  And then a solitary gunshot sounded out.

  • 29 • Company You Keep

  The report of the gun sounded high and crisp as it rattled through the dense rock. The noise rang down around us, causing us all to duck reflexively. I cupped my hand over the flashlight and held my breath, waiting on the second shot—but it never came.

  Kelvin grasped my shoulder and leaned over, his breath in my ear, his voice barely audible. “No ricochet,” he said.

  It took a moment for the awful logic to sink in. My stomach cramped with fear. I turned away from the gold and shu
ffled back toward the two mine shafts, working my way through the stunned group. When I got to the continuation of the shaft high up the curved wall—the portion we hadn’t been down yet—I paused, waiting for Kelvin and the others to catch up.

  We gathered together, whispering and shushing each other, when the distant silence was shattered by the rev of a tractor engine. The noise altered pitch as the vehicle entered the mouth of the mine in the unseen distance—it became high and piercing, much like the gunshot. Tarsi came up beside me, the worry in her face visible by the dim light seeping through my fingers. I pointed up the curved wall to the mouth of the square mine shaft. Several of the others were already trying to climb their way up.

  Kelvin scampered up the curve as far as he could, but instead of reaching for the lip above, he turned back and motioned for Tarsi. I helped push her to him with one hand, lighting the way with the other. Together, we boosted her up to the lip, which she pulled herself over in a flurry of kicking feet.

  I grabbed Mindy and we did the same; the rest of the group figured out what was required and began working together.

  Tarsi hissed something down to us, but with the tractor roaring ever closer, it was impossible to hear.

  “There’s no room,” Mindy said, relaying the message down. I glanced over my shoulder and saw a growing light dancing in the mouth of the shaft from which we’d descended. It looked like a fire, one that was growing rapidly. Turning back, I forgot caution and lifted the flashlight as high as I could, illuminating the ledge we were struggling to reach.

  Tarsi cursed.

  Rising up behind her were piles of large rocks and shards of twisted metal paneling. I put a hand on Kelvin’s shoulder and pushed myself higher, trying to see what was in the way. Mindy and Tarsi, the only two on the ledge, turned to follow the flashlight’s beam. They were leaning back over fallen boulders and large chunks of broken machinery.

  Despite the ruination of the equipment, I recognized it at once. Perhaps the sound of the blatting engine of the approaching tractor helped me on a subconscious level. We were looking at the remains of a mining tractor amid rubble that had fallen from the edge of the roof. I could see a clear path over the heap and to the passage beyond, but it would take time to crawl through. We’d have to go one at a time and be careful to not get sliced up on the sheared metal.

  Suddenly, Kelvin pulled me down and fumbled for my flashlight. I started to argue and push him away, then saw the bright light growing behind us. I could tell by the roar of the engine and the play of headlights on the rock above that we didn’t have much time.

  I turned to urge Tarsi and Mindy to come back down, but they were in the middle of pulling another person up. We began shouting at each other, the blat of the tractor so loud it seemed to offer a false cover. Half of us were yelling to get over the lip, others were pulling and insisting we run down the larger, round tunnel. And even that latter group couldn’t agree, as I felt myself tugged in both directions at once.

  When the headlights hit us, the rays acted like a steel blade slicing through our indecision. Our thoughts and plans fell away—as did our logic and ability to reason. All that remained was the urge to flee. I fell back down the slope as someone pulled me along. Our bare feet slapped the stone as the group in the tunnel darted off in both directions, scattering like nighttime bugs at the sudden pop of a worklight.

  I flicked off the flashlight, and we stumbled through the darkness. Ahead of me, someone tripped and tumbled, cursing. We slowed and felt along with our hands; I came across a large object, cold and smooth. The glow of the headlights leaking around the corner caught on the surface of—

  More gold.

  Jorge—who had obviously been the one to trip—lay on the other side of it. He held his foot and whispered violence. The rest of our fractured group crowded around him, trying to help him up and pull him into the deeper darkness. There were only four of us, the rest having run the other way along the round tunnel’s length.

  Someone shouted out over the engine’s roar: “Stop! Stop!”

  We froze, our group as still as a statue. The shouting continued as a bright light filled the tunnel behind us, illuminating the curved wall and the blocked mine shaft. Wet brakes squealed, causing the lights to dip down then bounce back up. The sharp noise sliced through my nerves and cut off the mad yelling. The feeling in my body gradually returned as I realized the shouting hadn’t been for us—it had been for the tractor—someone yelling to hit the brakes before they tumbled into the larger tunnel.

  As the panic passed, our small group scampered up the same curved wall the tractor’s headlights shone through, the solace of darkness pulling at us.

  We heard shouting over the idling engine: “When I say stop, you need to stop, asshole!”

  The sound of other voices, voices from our fellow colonists, filled me with an odd mix of emotions—of panic marbled with normalcy.

  A door slammed, another odd sound after being away from the colony for what felt like a lifetime.

  “I couldn’t hear you,” a second voice shouted. “Besides, I saw the floor was missing.”

  “Kill that engine, man.”

  “And risk the battery? We’ve got tons of fuel. Besides, I want the light. The tunnel across the way is blocked.”

  “We’ll have to climb down to get over there.” The cone of a flashlight burst out of the larger radiance created by the headlights. It slid toward us, sending us further up the slope. “Maybe they went down this larger tunnel—”

  “Wait! I just saw something move over there.”

  The flashlight stopped and went back to join the rest of the light shining directly across. I struggled to place the voice; it seemed intimately familiar.

  “Where?” the other person asked.

  “Straight across.”

  “You sure it wasn’t a shadow?”

  “Shadows don’t move unless something else is, you idiot. Hey! You there! I command you in the name of Colony to come out!”

  Oliver.

  I couldn’t believe it. I also couldn’t believe his presence filled me with as much fear as any other would have. Save Hickson, of course. I could taste the panic in my mouth; I wondered if I should feel relief, instead. And yet, of all the colonists I abandoned by crawling through the fence, I was closest to Oliver, and I suspect he judged me the most harshly for my betrayal. My departure was like turning my back on the very gods he worshipped.

  A hand tightened around my arm. The power of the grip and reaction to Oliver’s voice let me know Kelvin was part of our little group. Our little group shorn off another little group, the remnants of another group—

  “Come out or we’re shooting,” Oliver said.

  A deep growl followed. At first I thought it was my stomach, giving us away. Then I feared Tarsi and Mindy had disturbed the rubble, if indeed they were still up in the mineshaft. I cursed myself for allowing the group to get separated as the rumbling grew, a vibration in the wall accompanying it.

  I looked down the round tunnel to my side and peered into the blackness. The sound of crunching rock could be heard in the distance. Behind me, a gunshot rang out, causing every muscle in my body to spasm. Our group contracted together. We ducked down—and not just from the sound of gunfire but for stability. The earth beneath us was moving, drowning out the rattle of the idling engine and Oliver’s yelling.

  Turning back to the light, I saw a muzzle flash lance out, accompanied by another boom of gunfire. The shot zinged off the stone above the other mineshaft.

  Over the growing rumble, one of the voices yelled out: “That’s your last warning. Come out of there! We can see you!”

  Tarsi and Mindy stood up from behind their shelter of rubble. From our angle, I could only see them from the shoulders up, their hands by their ears.

  “Get over here,” one guy yelled.

  I saw Tarsi’s head dart side to side, looking both ways down the large tunnel. She was searching for us, but it looked like a refusal to t
he demand.

  “Get over here or I shoot!” the voice insisted.

  “Can’t you feel that earthquake?” Oliver shouted at her. “That’s a sign from the gods for you to do what we say!”

  A sudden and larger rumble amid the vibrations seemed to punctuate his audacious claim, lending a mad sort of credence to it. I peered back into the blackness—felt a draft of cool air across my cheek—and had a sickening realization, both mind-shattering and obvious.

  It wasn’t an earthquake heading our way.

  • 30 • The Burrowing

  The rumblings grew, and I could hear rock clattering to the floor of our cylindrical tunnel. To my other side, the voices by the tractor shouted at each other and to Tarsi and Mindy. More gunfire was promised. Our group pawed at each other, daring to hiss our fears as we collectively realized something was moving in our direction. Kelvin clutched my arm and tried to say something to me, but I couldn’t hear over the rest of the noise, the loudest of which had become the pounding of my own pulse throbbing in my ears.

  I pulled away from him, the need to run more powerful than any other.

  “Oliver!” I shouted, as I stumbled into the light. I looked up the curved wall at the bulk of the tractor above. Its three headlights shone out around two silhouetted forms, both completely black save for the glint of gold in each of their hands. It was their guns. They immediately became trained on me.

  “Don’t shoot! Let us up!” I turned to look back at my group and waved them out. I had to bend my knees and keep my feet apart, as the vibrations grew into tremors. “This isn’t an earthquake,” I yelled up to Oliver, and for everyone else’s benefit.

  One of the girls in the opposite stretch of tunnel yelped as it sank in. The rest of our group poured out, joining me in the light. The guy beside Oliver began yelling at us, his golden gun darting back and forth. I finally placed his physique and voice. Rogers—one of the enforcers from the supply group.