by ID Johnson
Again, Mist’s head bobbed up and down, and she bit into her bottom lip, pinking it before she let go and said, “You’ll have to see. For yourself.”
Rain’s eyebrows knit together as she puzzled over what she could be talking about. “I’d like to, but it may be suspicious for you to go out there twice in one day.”
This time, Mist’s head shook the other way. “Nope. Not me. Anyone else, sure, but all the Mothers know how much I like the outdoors.”
“True,” Rain admitted. She had taken her shoes off when she was changing; now, she considered whether or not to put on her sneakers or something more durable. Considering the precipitation they’d gotten the day before, she said, “I’ll get my boots. “ Mist nodded, and Rain stood, hoping whatever it was Mist had found would be worth the risk.
Chapter Three
The girls passed a few other students on their way downstairs and out the back of the building, but the others were busy chatting about class and studies. It was just as well; Rain didn’t want anyone to notice the pair--not that she intended to do anything to get either of them into trouble, but the woods they were headed into were sort of off-limits. Not that anyone had ever told them specifically not to go there, but no one else ever did, and it was well-known nothing good could ever come of straying too far from the other women.
Being an Agriculture student, Mist was naturally overly curious about the outdoors, so it made perfect sense she’d be drawn to the forested area. Despite her professors and the other Mothers encouraging the girls to let their curiosity be fulfilled through videos, books, and the carefully crafted learning centers available on campus, Mist had first began wandering through the woods they were headed to now when she was five or six. Rain had followed because Mist was her best friend, and she hadn’t wanted her to get lost--or hurt. At least that’s what she told herself. Though she wasn’t particularly interested in nature, there was something calming about being out of the center of activity.
They walked along the back side of the property, not speaking because Mist preferred not to most of the time, and skirted around the outside of another housing unit. They’d have to pass behind a construction site, what would be an additional home for the next group of young women ready to leave the Nursery at the medical building, as the other houses were nearly all full. Walking so close to the site worried Rain slightly. She knew the men that worked there were electronically tethered to the location, that they couldn’t step outside of the perimeter the Mothers had established for them, but it always concerned her to be so near them.
Mist must’ve been slightly frightened as well because she reached over and took Rain’s hand in hers a few paces before they neared first sight of the frame. Her expression didn’t show fear, though. Her eyes were wide with curiosity. In the distance, hammers pounded and drills blared. It would take the men a few years to finish since only six or seven of them were ever permitted to be on site at the same time. Any more than that, and they may find a way to rise up against the Mothers, regardless of all of the precautions that should prevent them from doing so. Still, considering the suffering womankind had gone through in the past, there was no sense in giving men the opportunity to reclaim their dictatorship.
The edge of the forest crept up to kiss the grass near the construction site. The girls had been entering the woods here for years, long before the building began to grow a few months earlier, and while they could have taken a different route, this was more familiar and didn’t depend upon them crossing past any other highly traveled areas where questions might be asked--not that they were doing anything wrong.
Mist’s grip increased and then she stopped abruptly in her tracks. Rain swiveled around to look and gasped.
A man stood near what would be the rear entrance of the house. She’d only seen one other construction worker in the last few months since the building had begun, and he was much older than the girls and hadn’t paid them any attention. This one was staring, his dark eyes penetrating through Mist and rendering her useless. Rain gulped down some air and pulled on her friend’s arm. “Let’s go,” she said.
Finding the ability to move again, Mist stepped forward, but it took another tug on her arm before her head whipped around and Mist crossed into the solace of trees.
They walked on for a few minutes. Rain assumed Mist wouldn’t mention the incident, seeing as though she didn’t particularly care for chatter anyway, but after they’d gone a few dozen yards into the dense woods, Mist said, “Why do you think he was looking at us like that?”
“I don’t know,” Rain admitted. There had been something haunting in his eyes. He didn’t look like any of the other construction workers she’d ever seen--from a distance, on other projects. Nor did he look like the other workers who’d been described to her. He looked too young to be a construction worker. He wasn’t deformed like the others, as far as she could tell, and he was somewhat attractive, which made her wonder why he wasn’t in IW. As far as she knew, all of the attractive men were kept there. Unless they had some other unappealing quality. “Maybe he has a learning disability.”
“Wouldn’t he have been taken to the Bridge then?” Mist asked, her voice a little louder than usual.
Rain stepped over a fallen log, not exactly sure where she was headed. Mist had been the one to find whatever it was they were looking for, so she should’ve been leading, but since she was still unsettled, Rain had to assume she was going the right way as she pondered the question. She didn’t like to think about the Bridge, but she believed Mist was right. They hadn’t gotten to that particular subject in her medical studies classes. Yet. Though she couldn’t see any differences in his legs from here, she said, “Maybe he’s lame. Who knows?”
“True.” Mist stepped ahead of her and went off in a direction Rain didn’t think they’d ever been before. She glanced behind her, telling herself she was monitoring the path, not making sure they weren’t being followed. “He looked… sad. I bet he is.”
It would be smart not to comment. They were certainly not being monitored amidst the trees, but Rain always kept her tongue still when it came to making remarks that could potentially be taken as speaking out against the Motherhood. Not that she thought Mist meant any ill-will against the Mothers. Still, she had to agree with her friend. He did look sad, but his emotions were not something the girls should be concerned with. “He brought it upon himself,” she reminded Mist, paraphrasing one of the lessons all girls were taught from the time they were small children. She must’ve said it at least a hundred times in her lifetime already, along with plenty of other proverbs. “All men are innately evil.” “Men have no emotions other than lust and greed.” “Men are incapable of love or joy.” So many others…. “Man brought his current conditions upon himself through his mistreatment of Women from the dawn of time until the age of the Claiming of Power by President Michaela and her army of Strong Women.”
At Rain’s remark that he’d brought it on himself, Mist stopped again and turned to look at Rain, her eyes slightly narrowed, her mouth ajar for a moment before she spoke. In a sharp whisper, she asked, “Do you believe that? How did he bring it upon himself, Rain? What did he ever do?”
Rain swallowed hard, surprised to hear her friend articulate such an objectionable idea. “What do you mean?” Rain stammered, tilting her head to the side.
Not saying more, Mist spun around and continued on her path, leaving Rain to follow, her forehead still crinkled as she pondered the questions her best friend had just asked her and the small seed that began to take root in her consciousness.
Chapter Four
Birds twittered to each other in the nearby trees, leaping from branch to branch or fluttering through the air in search of food or companionship. Some of their songs were cheerful and bright while others were haunting, like the look in that construction worker’s eyes. Rain tried not to picture him, but the weight of Mist’s words had forced his image into her mind, and she couldn’t help but wonder what he
r friend had meant by what she’d stated earlier, that the man shouldn’t be blamed for whatever had brought him to that position in life. Who else was there that should be held accountable? Shouldn’t all men be held responsible for what they had done, collectively as a sex, to women throughout history?
A twig snapped beneath her feet, bringing her back to the woods around her, and a squirrel darted across the path in front of Mist. The Mothers said wildlife was coming back in abundance now that so many girls were choosing to become naturists. They hoped that someday there would be thousands of squirrels, rabbits, and other forest creatures as there had been in days of old, before the war.
After a few more moments of walking, they stepped into a clearing. A quick look around revealed that Rain did know the place after all, but they’d never approached from this direction before. She wondered why Mist hadn’t brought her in the usual way but did not ask. Several tall, older trees stood sentinel around the perimeter of the clearing with new growth springing up beyond them, and off in the distance stood the ruins of a burned down dwelling.
The house had been here for hundreds of years, Rain supposed. Based on the remains, she’d done some architectural research years ago when she and Mist had first stumbled upon it, and she was of the opinion it was likely built a hundred years or more before the Claiming of Power. The timbers were charred in black residue, scarred from time, weather, and whatever had started the fire. She imagined it had been taken down in one of the attacks of WWIII. The area now known as Michaelanburg had been part of a country called the United States back then. All of the girls learned about the US in their history classes, how it was one of the most powerful nations in the world until the men’s greed brought it tumbling down. WWIII had not been kind to the country, and then when the men were at their weakest, Michaela and her followers had launched their attack, eventually claiming power, ending men’s reign and creating this new country out of the remains of the old.
There were other places in what used to be the United States that were occupied, but Rain had heard none of them were organized into governments the way Michaelanburg was. The war had taken its toll for certain. Whole cities were destroyed during the bombing. In fact, so much of the world was devastated, only a handful of nations had survived. While Michaela had tried to organize similar movements in the bigger nations--places called China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom, to name a few--she hadn’t been successful. Those nations that survived the war limped along, trying their best to reinstate themselves in the world, to rebuild what had been lost, but it was Rain’s understanding that so much had been destroyed during the war the world would likely never be the same.
In Michaelanburg, it was a welcome thought as they were certain if men in other nations ever heard of the justice being meted out here, they would attempt to move on the country and take power away from the Mothers, proclaiming they were “liberating men held captive against their will.” Rain shuddered at the thought of an invasion from a foreign power as she followed Mist through the high grass, running her fingers through the brambles. They certainly learned of the importance of keeping the Motherhood strong in every class they attended, and the Grand-Mothers especially were quick to remind them that should any outside nation attempt to raise arms against Michaelanburg, the girls must do all they can to protect their way of life. Luckily, there were large swaths of destroyed land, oceans, mountains, and other barriers to protect the country on nearly every side. So long as the planet did not recover from the horrors of war, their nation should be safe.
Mist walked over to a spot near the burned down house and stopped next to a pile of fallen timbers. “Here,” she said, pointing at the ground. “I was looking around earlier and sat down on this log.”
Rain stepped up beside her, rested her hands on her hips and waited for her to continue.
“Sit,” Mist insisted.
With an arched eyebrow, Rain sank down onto the log. “Okay….”
“And I was about to get up and head home when I noticed a glint on the ground… to my right.”
Rain turned her head that direction, but she didn’t see anything. “A glint?”
“Yeah, the sun must’ve been catching it just right because I’ve never noticed it before,” Mist said, climbing over the log and stepping over to where she had indicated Rain should look. She brushed aside some debris and branches, but Rain still didn’t see anything. “Come here.”
With a sigh, Rain pulled herself up off of the log, hoping this didn’t turn out to be a waste of time. If it was a button or a penny or something….
But it wasn’t. As soon as Rain stood up, she saw it. A shiny piece of metal protruded from the ground. They must’ve played her a thousand times over the years, run around the burned out dwelling, climbed trees on the perimeter. She’d never seen it before, but it was obvious it had been there for longer than the girls had been alive, longer than Michaelanburg had existed.
Taking cautious steps over, Rain stopped, her eyes glued to the shimmering object. She knew immediately what it was, but she had to ask. “Is that a… handle.”
“Yes,” Mist assured her, and brushing away a bit more dirt with the toe of her sneaker, she continued. “And this is… a door.”
Chapter Five
Rain managed to pull her eyes off of the unexpected entryway in the ground before her and meet Mist’s gaze. “A door?” she repeated. “Why would there be a door in the ground?”
Mist shrugged but still answered. “I’m not sure. I opened it earlier and went a few steps inside, but it’s so dark, I didn’t want to go alone.” Her eyes flickered a few times before she added, “I’m not scared or anything. I just… didn’t want to get trapped down there.”
A small smile pulled up one corner of Rain’s mouth. She knew her friend well enough to know she would be a little scared to go down there alone, as anyone would, but not terrified. “Do you want me to stay here and make sure the door stays open? Or keep an eye out for… anyone?”
Before she even finished, Mist was shaking her head. “No, it’s okay. I don’t think anyone will come out this far. No one ever has before. We can just put some heavy logs on the door to keep it open.” She reached down and grabbed the handle, and Rain found herself holding her breath, a bit afraid of what might be down there, even though Mist said she’d already gone down.
The hinges on the door creaked, and a cloud of dust and dirt filled the air as it lifted off of its resting place. Rain coughed and covered her face as Mist pulled the door completely open and dropped it on the ground with a thud. It was made out of what appeared to be some sort of thin metal, and both sides were covered in rust. She had no idea how long it had been here, undetected, or what purpose it served, but the four by four hole it left in the ground looked slightly ominous, sort of like a square mouth ready to suck in whoever happened to be unfortunate enough to cross its path.
Mist pulled out a flashtube, a thin metal cylinder that projected a bright beam for up to a half-mile and adjusted it to wide so that the beam would spread out across the entire staircase that led down into what smelled like a dark, dank stone prison.
Wiping perspiration off of her free hand onto her jeans, Mist licked her upper lip. “I only went about four steps down before. The steps are wooden, but I think the door kept away most of the moisture over the years. They creaked a little but felt solid.”
“‘Kay,” Rain said with a nod, feeling more than a little anxious herself. “Maybe there’ll be some clues down there as to what this place was used for.”
Mist’s head rocked back and forth as she scooped her red hair over her shoulder. She gulped in air, swallowed hard, and then started down the stairs as if she were diving into a pool of water. Rain didn’t blame her for hesitating, but once Mist had taken a few steps, she followed.
The wood was a little spongy, but it felt solid enough, and Rain was glad they had the light. Few of the sun’s rays penetrated all the way to the floor because of where the stairs
were located in relation to the rest of the room. Mist reached the bottom and said, “It’s brick, I think.”
“Brick?” Rain took the last few steps in a hurry because that didn’t make sense to her. When she stepped down, her feet met what felt like a similar material to what the outer walls the buildings in town were built from. Mist angled the light directly to the floor and turned the beam down so it wasn’t glaringly bright. Whatever it was, it was white and divided into squares, but not like the small red bricks they were used to. “Weird.”
Mist shrugged, and they both seemed to decide it didn’t matter at the same time, so Mist adjusted the flashtube again and illuminated the space around them.
It wasn’t large, maybe a bit bigger than the room they shared, and it was mostly empty, though clutter covered the floor--leaves, splintered wood, broken glass, some pieces of metal that looked like perhaps they had been part of an appliance at one point in time. What appeared to be the leg of a broken chair stuck up into the air in the far corner. Dozens of cans were scattered amidst the rest, as well as clear plastic jugs that looked to be empty.
“What do you think happened here?” Mist asked, taking it all in. “There aren’t any leaves on the stairs….”
“Maybe the door was open for a while at one point and they blew in,” Rain suggested. “Then, someone closed it.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Mist agreed, though it wasn’t likely they’d ever have any idea what had transpired in the space. “Do you think it’s safe to… look around?”