“No! No! I don’t believe it!” She raged, hitting the shower head. “How is it possible to live like this?”
Tao was barking harder and harder. Of course, nothing that would alarm the whole neighbourhood, but enough to add more tension to the current situation. Matilda, very angry, got her arm outside the cubicle and fumbled toward the shelf, looking for a towel.
“Quiet down, Tao, quiet down,” she was constantly repeating while she finally got her hand on what she was looking for.
It didn’t take her long to remove the foam and dry herself partially. Indeed, the towel wasn’t of the best quality. The fabric looked more like a bed sheet than a towel. Tao was insisting too much.
“Ermessende, Ermessende,” Matilda was humming in a low voice.
Her skin still wet, she put on one of the two white tunics and the red leather boots in no time. Soaked with water, the light fabric was sticking to her chest in a very erotic way, but Matilda didn’t notice it right away. She caught Tao who willingly let her, and she opened the door.
“Ermessende... Ermessende...where are you?” She was mumbling.
She took the gateway toward the metallic spiral staircase leading upstairs. She climbed one floor up, then guiding herself based on her instinct, she got closer to the opposite apartment supposed to be Ermessende’s.
This must be this one.
The door opened even before she got time to knock.
“I was wondering when you would come to see me,” an eighty-year-old woman with coloured cheeks and a sweet smile said - like a mother appeasing her child.
“Ermessende?” Matilda asked her shyly.
“There is nobody else in this unit, so, yes, I guess I’m indeed.”
“Nobody else except you?”
“I’m afraid so. But, come inside, I was just brewing some infusion.”
“I thought plants, like everything else, were unfit for human consumption because of the radioactivity.”
“That’s indeed the case, but hopefully our engineers are quite talented,” Ermessende joked.
Matilda was expecting anything except meeting someone looking so happy and peaceful, in particular in such an enclosed, wet and cold place and, even less, cloistered in just eight square yards. Even less, such an old woman, with a face so marked by the age. She must easily be more than 80 years old and, despite the life condition the Kathars had, she was looking healthy, maybe just a little pale. She was quite surprised to find an apartment full of memories, full of life from the colour of the flying fabric and of the pictures of any kind reflecting the light of dozen candles harmoniously laid around but in perfect order. Tao was struggling in Matilda’s arms while her host was closing the door behind her.
“Good heavens, I haven’t seen such a cute face for so long, what’s his name?”
“Tao.”
“Hello Tao,” she told him and stroked his nose.
He started to bark with virulence.
“He isn’t angry at you, he’s simply hungry and thirsty,” Matilda reassured her.
“Oh! In this case...”
Ermessende opened a small pantry half-hidden by an ochre-golden fabric chosen with much taste. She took one portion of a paste which seemed to be very calorific, and put it in a small and ancient enamelled plate.
“Here, little hungry animal,” she said while setting the dish on the floor.
“Hmm...,” Matilda began.
“Water, I didn’t forget,” Ermessende interrupted her and took a bowl to fill it. “I guess you’ve already used your whole water reserve for today, right”? She laughed.
“Kind of frustrating, yes.”
“You’ll get used to it very fast. You’ll be surprised to discover what we can do with 2 gallons of water.”
“How many people are we in this building?”
“From the latest news, just you and me.”
“I don’t understand, where are the others?”
“Please, sit. The infusion is ready.”
Matilda made sure everything was good for Tao, then sat on the bed which was lowered.
“Here,” Ermessende simply said while putting a cup filled with the yellow beverage on a piece of wood acting as a table.
“Hmm! It smells good, what is it?”
“Taste it before, I’ll tell you if you can’t guess.”
Matilda raised the cup to her lips and took a tiny sip. The nectar had a milky flavour mixed with an after taste of roots and fresh soil.
“It’s good and different from everything I’ve already drunk,” Matilda said surprised.. “But I can’t say what it is.”
“This is a mushroom and liquorice based infusion from our underground plantation, then I add some extract of spruce roots we collect in the mountain.”
“I thought everything was contaminated outside,” Matilda worried.
“We’ve devices to measure radioactivity. So, we often go through the area, until the South of Spain, to measure the contamination level of the soils, the trees and the animals.”
“I would have never guessed some animals are living in the contaminated regions.”
“You want to know? There were never that many. Since mankind has fled these regions, the wildlife took over its right place. There are so many of them, so if their meat wasn’t so contaminated, we would have enough food until the end of time.”
“So, how do you do?”
“Insects. Do you see this paste Tao seems to like so much? This is larvae and worms breed in the cave.”
“I know a lot about insects. I worked in the cricket farms for two years.”
“In this case, you’ll easily get used to our larvae,” Ermessende joked.
“I wanted to ask you, I found some pictures under my bed...”
“Yes, it has become a tradition since we arrived here.”
“How so?”
‘To leave a track in the unit we’ve lived in.”
“My mother has lived in the apartment I’m in?” Matilda asked surprised.
“Indeed, but she didn’t stay long. Maximum two weeks, before going to Africa. Ava was her successor.”
“Ava? The woman on the other picture? The one receiving the consolamentum?”
“Indeed. A very good friend of your dear mother.”
“What happened to her?”
“She left us two years ago. A lung infection,” Ermessende mourned.
“You were close, right?”
“We were only a few inhabitants left in this housing area. She and I always refused the offer to regroup in other cavities. At our age, changes aren’t an easy thing. We spent all our time together. I’m the last one living here. But, not any more.”
The obvious happiness from the beginning of the encounter had just made way to the deepest bitterness brought by nostalgia. Just looking at her facial expression, Matilda could sense Ermessende’s emotional distress. She just knew her for a few minutes, but she was already feeling a kind of family bond. Maybe it was the fact she knew her mother that she lived one flat above her, even if it was only for two weeks. Or maybe was it the suffering she was feeling and could easily relate to. Whatever, Matilda was feeling peculiarly good with her. She drank another sip of the infusion, thinking she had to get used to its strange taste, as she certainly wasn’t here for just a short time. Matilda started to yawn and laboriously blinked. Tao had eaten the whole insect paste from his plate. He was lying down, at his master’s feet, full and, like her, he was overwhelmed by this sad day.
“You seem to be exhausted, my dear,” Ermessende shyly told her.
“I’ve the feeling this day is never ending.”
“In this case, go back to rest, we will have time to speak tomorrow.”
“In fact, I don’t really know if I’ll be able to sleep. I really don’t want to stay alone,” Matilda said, touched.
“Hmm! What do you think about going to get your mattress? You could camp next to my bed.”
“I’m going right now,” Matilda replied with
enthusiasm.
“I’ll take care of Tao, don’t worry.”
Matilda did so eagerly and disappeared. She flew down the stairs very quickly and was back in her housing unit in a blink. She lowered down the bed, took the light mattress and the duvet out and went back to the gateway outside. At this instant, some armed guards on their night patrols, walked past the unit, and attracted by the noise, aimed their powerful flash lights towards Matilda, who, surprised, stood still.
“Everything all right, miss?” The closest one asked.
“Uhh! Yes, everything all right,” she stuttered.
Matilda just stared at their two weapons looking exactly like the one used to kill Paul and her mother. The second soldier insisted.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, yes, sorry, I’m too tired... I, I’ve to go,” she answered with hesitation.
“Good night, and don’t hang around in the gallery by night without a flash light, you could hurt yourself.”
Without answering, Matilda took the stairs, troubled by the terrible memory of Paul killed in cold blood by the militiaman under the Legatee’s command. She was viewing again this weapon directed to his back and the gloomy electronic noise preceding the deadly shot. She came around as soon as she faced Ermessende’s door. She breathed deeply, and entered almost apologising.
“Come, come inside, my dear.”
Matilda stood in the doorstep, without daring settling her mattress. Tao was sleeping in a sort of multicoloured scarfed entwined like a kind of improvised nest.
“That’s nice.”
“What?”
“Tao,” Matilda answered while glancing toward him.
“You will see, during the night, the temperature drops down quickly in the cave. So we cover ourselves properly. At present, it’s kind of mild, it’s the middle of the summer. But during winter, the temperature drops fast to 25 Fahrenheit.”
“I can’t remember a temperature below 55 or 60 Fahrenheit. It must be unbearable?”
“Not that much. We’re using individual heating unit working with an atomic pile.”
“Isn’t that risky?”
“There is never no risk. Nevertheless, we never had any accident. Atomic piles have been so well developed to perfection before the Godless Decade. Almost everything is now working with atomic energy. The only issue is to get some.”
“The robot dogs?”
“Among others, yes. Drones too. Without speaking of the very high radioactivity level in the production plants. In the future, we will have no other choice than to attack the convoys delivering the piles to the Church.
“Tell me...”
“I’m listening to you.”
“I thought weapons were forbidden in the cave.”
“Indeed, they are.”
Dubious, Matilda added.
“I just met two heavily armed soldiers patrolling.”
“Hmm! Simple riot control weapons. It’s impossible to kill with those.”
“Are you sure about this?” Matilda asked her, baffled.
“Of course I’m ! A good shot, and you faint, your muscles paralysed. In the worst case, you get a strong headache during a few days.”
“I need to speak to Blanche!”
“Right now?” Ermessende asked, surprised.
“Yes, right now!”
“What is so urgent, my dear?”
“If what you’re saying is true, then Paul and my mother are probably still alive.”
*
* *
“How do you want to name her?”
“Ava!”
“A Cathar name... Come on, you know we can’t.”
“What do you think of Matilda?”
“Matilda Akamba... it sounds good,” Guilhabert smiled.
“So what can be said about Matilda Lecuyer?” Esclarmonde added, rushing him tenderly.
Phoebus, who was keeping watch in the hall, suddenly entered in the microbiology lab where the embracing couple seemed very peaceful despite the circumstances. Noises of gunfire were coming from everywhere. The soldiers of the Milicia Christi had just entered the building and the purge was going to be ruthless. No trial, no question, repentance was impossible. Death was coming to them in its darkest way.
“They’re coming. We’ve no time to waste,” Phoebus warned them.
“It will be Matilda,” Guilhabert whispered in her ear before releasing their embrace.
Phoebus insisted.
“Now, Guilhabert!” Now!”
Time to dry her tear and to raise her head, Esclarmonde was now in Niaux sanctuary, leading Matilda’s consolamentum with Phoebus and Guiraud. A completely full backpack was waiting to be grabbed at her feet, something she wouldn’t forget to do after holding her hand above Matilda’s head who was kneeling, happy and accomplished. She closed her eyes to say the appropriate liturgical words. When she opened her eyes again, Guilhabert, lying on the ground in front of her, had a shredded shoulder and his guts were spilling out a gaping wound. Despite the really shocking situation, he was staring in her eyes, his face covered with his own blown, and told her with no difficulty, without showing any suffering, like if they still were in this lab.
“You will be safe in Kalia. I’ll meet you there.”
“Guilhabert!” Esclarmonde yelled while suddenly opening her eyes.
To her surprise, she was comfortably lying in such a big bed that she couldn’t even imagine it could exist. Was it still a dream or the reality? The shiny ecru colour silk linen covering her body gently slid on her skin while she was standing back to look at her surroundings. It wasn’t a dream. The room itself was huge. While she was looking at the furnishing, she was seized by such an intense headache she held her head in her hands during a few seconds begging loudly for it to stop. When the pain gave her a bit of respite a few seconds later, she finally discovered she was just wearing a simple and slightly transparent nightdress and some underwear a bit darker but just long enough to reach the top of her knees.
Where am I?
She was really surprised by the design and the modernity of the premises. The material was the purest possible, sublimating the floor, the strangely smooth and uniform walls made of concrete with no covering. Esclarmonde, used to the warmer building of Kalia, quickly thought about the League of Nations in Paris, where she had lectured about reproductive biology a few years before the great purge. This completely anachronistic comparison helped her feel much more confident. Furniture made of waste wood with perfect finishing, as she hadn’t seen for decades, were punctuating the space. An atrium, fully delimited by glass walls, was in the centre of the suite. Inside, a magnificent palm tree, whose top was far above in a light shaft leading outside, was surrounded by plants with wide leaves. They seemed to be magically floating around a small waterfall hurtling a few artificial rocks arranged to lead the water to a small pond populated with exotic animals. On the left, a majestic table was covered with a plethora of dishes looking so delicious. A wealth of papayas, bananas and mangos. Some bread, some Viennese pastries, some slices of ham, milk, tea, coffee, fruit juices with sparkling colours. A feast like she hadn’t seen since the great purge. Reaching the mattress edge, Esclarmonde got immediately immersed in the stunning view of the tropical forest canopies, she got through the glass window spreading on the whole 60 feet width of the room. She came closer, looking for any hint allowing her to identify the place. Down the building, she noticed the nature had literally taken over its right place, in the middle of what seemed to have been an average size city. Former factory ruins, or maybe of a popular market, were still standing between very robust tropical trees and between conquering and flourishing plants. A rusty and dented plate, lying on the floor were still letting the letters M.E.R.C.D.O. appeared.
Hum... Mercado. Brasilia... Inosanto!
Looking more closely, she noticed, between the trees, a patrol of two militiamen wearing stealth suit, who was probably going around. The building place from where she was looking at th
e scenery was culminating at a hundred yards at least. Suddenly, a drone, completely identical to the big ones, but much smaller than the one she was used to see, and coming from nowhere, took a stationary position outside, in front of her, and seemed to record her from every angle. Esclarmonde took one step backward. She wasn’t the kind of woman easily impressed, but the situation, the apparent luxury, the majestic nature around her and even the absolute quietness of the place, were much more confusing than usual.
The drone disappeared as fast as it had appeared, when, suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
Matilda!
Esclarmonde turned back. In her mind, it could only be Matilda or Paul. Or maybe even both of them. Despite being foolish, she couldn’t get rid of this strong idea. Her increased awareness of the reality was slowing coming back, when the door opened.
*
* *
“Are you sure about what you’re saying?”
A glimmer of hope was shining in Phoebus’s eyes while he was looking for Trancavel who just arrived.
‘What is so urgent it can’t wait tomorrow?” He declared a bit annoyed.
“Matilda is claiming the militiamen who shot Paul and Esclarmonde were using riot control weapons,” his father answered.
“I’m not pretending anything, I’m sure of it!” She yelled.
“And why such a revelation is coming from nowhere just right now?” Trancavel said ironically.
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