by Michael Soll
I placed my ear against the ground and heard what sounded like a faint whistling coming from below and then --
Kaolin’s foot stomped the ground as hard as she could. Dirt crumbled from above. She stomped again and more dirt came tumbling down.
I jumped to my feet and held her as tightly as I could to prevent her from stomping again.
“What’re you doing!?” She paused for a moment and looked me in the eyes. I had never been this close to a girl in my life, not since I was ejected out of my mother’s uterus.
She put her hand onto my chest. “You don’t want to die in this tunnel, do you?” And then, she pushed me back, jumped as high as she could and smashed into the ground beneath her.
The tunnel rumbled. Dirt and rocks came tumbling down from all directions. There was nowhere we could run. There was nothing we could do. I took what I assumed to be my last breath and closed my eyes when the floor beneath me collapsed and we plummeted below.
We hit the slick decline and sped down at an incredible speed. I reached for my tumbling ax to slow our descent but I couldn’t get it. All I could grab was Cotta’s flailing hand as we tried to grab onto the moving wall before our skin was completely shredded.
And then, we hit the ground and I lost my breath. I lost my understanding of reality and feeling. I touched my body to make sure it was still there. Cotta appeared above me, hand reaching down. I grabbed it and he hoisted me up.
Kaolin was a few feet away, picking up as much fallen chum as she could, gathering all of our tools.
I looked back up. All I could see was darkness, but I could hear something…
I grabbed my lantern off the ground and moved my way through an uneven tunnel, one that either formed itself or was made by clumsy hands.
I crawled through an uneven gap, squeezed through a tiny crevice, stood up and gazed at something I had never seen before in my life.
All I could do was stare and when Cotta and Kaolin arrived, they could only do the same.
It was beautiful and glimmered like the rock Ceramy had found, but it was moving and alive.
“What is it?” Cotta asked, stepping closer to the noise.
I moved in front of him and knelt down to the edge. I peered inside and saw a boy peering back. The boy made the same movements as I did, taunting me and then Kaolin knelt beside me and a girl who looked identical to her appeared. And then Cotta and his imposter.
I moved my hand toward the strange surface and felt my flesh submerge, past the boy looking back at me. My hand was cold and wet. I pulled it out and Kaolin screamed as she saw my hand. It had changed colors and looked new like that of a baby.
“Are you okay!?” Kaolin asked, fearful that I was in pain.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I put my hand back in and scooped up some of the liquid and put it to my face. I hesitantly stuck my tongue out and tasted it. “I think…I think it’s water.”
We stood up and looked out at what I assumed to be a body of water. “I didn’t know this much water existed in the world,” Cotta admired.
I raised my lantern over to the side and saw a spurt of water trickling out of a tunnel and splashing down into the large body. I looked back down at my hand, “I think it removed the dirt from my skin.”
“You can remove dirt from skin?” Cotta plunged his hand into the boy staring back at him and then lifted up his discolored flesh. “It smells weird. Good, but weird.”
I looked around for our other adventurer, but she was nowhere to be found. “Where’d Kaolin go --”
As soon as I uttered the words, a running Kaolin appeared and jumped into the water, causing an explosion of the liquid, spraying Cotta and me in the face.
And then, Kaolin was gone, disappeared, swallowed by the water until --
She rocketed out and splashed us with the liquid. Cotta and I were frozen in place, staring at the girl standing in the water.
“What?” she inquired, looking at us dumbfounded. She looked down and noticed her whole body had changed colors. And her hair…her hair was the color of teeth, but so much prettier. Her lips were blood red.
I started to feel dizzy and I could see Cotta looking the same. “Come on in, it feels so good!”
I was hesitant, afraid to see the colors my skin and hair would turn. What if I looked different than them?
Apparently Cotta wasn’t thinking what I was thinking because he quickly jumped in and resurfaced with brighter and lighter hair, his eyes brighter than ever. “Come on in! Don’t be such a crag!” Cotta and Kaolin laughed. I knew I had to go in, so I stopped thinking and I jumped --
I hit the water and my body went into shock. I opened my eyes underneath and could see the brown escaping my skin and I could see Cotta and Kaolin’s hands intertwined.
I resurfaced and found Kaolin and Cotta smiling at me. I looked down at the imposter in the water and he was beautiful. His hair shined, his eyes twinkled. My two friends splashed me with water and I splashed back.
I hurried over to them and we both dunked our heads underneath. I felt a soft hand interlock with mine and then a callused one took hold of my other. We stood in a circle, hands clenched, smiles gleaming.
I had never felt better in my entire life. I felt reborn and lighter and…like fresh meat, like fresh milk, just…fresh.
Kaolin smiled at me and rubbed my arm, then smiled at Cotta. She moved closer to him and placed her lips against his. Their eyes closed as mine remained open, and then, she pulled away and came close to me, leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine.
I was dizzy again and my heart was pulsating as if I were running through the collapsing tunnel. She pulled away from my lips and Cotta and I placed our lips against each other, but I wanted to do it again with Kaolin, so I did, and so did Cotta.
We pressed lips for awhile and rubbed each others’ bodies. I felt as if I couldn’t breathe and my body would collapse. A wave of energy pulsated all over and I felt like I was weightless. I felt like impossible.
I got out of the water and lay on the soil, staring up at the shield above me. I wanted to touch the ceiling, but I knew it was out of reach. I wanted to jump higher than I could jump and slowly peel away the barrier. I wanted to move through the air as if I were walking, arms outstretched and pointing towards freedom, my one and only dream, to be in a place without a ceiling and without any walls. An ancient tunnel in all directions, where the darkness was occupied with anything that was or could ever be. I would put down my lantern and walk into the black and become that anything, I would occupy somebody else’s dreams because if I were to ever enter that void, I could only be a dream, an unfiltered, undiminished dream.
But for now, I was me.
We ate and we slept and then we awoke. There was only one direction we could continue. The water was carving a path through the dirt so we got inside and walked through the wetness, making sure to hold our torches up high so they wouldn’t get extinguished.
Kaolin was much happier now, pushing her hands through the water and propelling herself forward like there was no gravity.
“I’ve never felt this good in my entire life.” Kaolin moved to her back and pulled herself along.
“It’s nice, but not as good as tunneling.” Cotta slurped up some water and spit it out.
“It’s way better!” she retorted, floating effortlessly in the water.
“How can you say this is better than tunneling? You wouldn’t know. All you’ve known is your cubby.” Cotta was getting a bit heated. There was nothing he loved more than striking his ax against dirt.
“What do you think we’ve been doing all this time? It’s really not all that fun.”
“We haven’t been tunneling! We’ve been walking. It’s not the same as crawling through a path you carved out. If you’d journeyed through the hive you would know.” Cotta was full fledged annoyed.
Instead of ending the conversation, Kaolin pushed on. “I have. This is better.”
I looked over at her. “I thought you never tunneled.�
�
“I never said that.”
“You implied it.”
“You inferred it, I never said it.”
“So, you could’ve found your way back. We didn’t have to take you along.”
“Nobody made you do anything. Nobody forced you.”
“You knew I’d feel bad sending you back. You knew I thought you couldn’t make it. You used that against me.”
“Maybe.”
I was just as annoyed as Cotta. With every step, I felt as if I were losing more and more control. My feet wobbled. I felt as if I would fall forward. I couldn’t keep myself steady. I had never been so angry to the point of feeling this way. In fact, I really didn’t feel that angry, so why was my body feeling this way?
I looked over and saw Cotta stumble and fall into the water, his body pushing forward at an accelerated speed before he regained control.
Kaolin also struggled walking. And then, I fell and the water pulled me faster and faster through the narrowing tunnel. Behind me, Kaolin’s screams echoed all around.
I fell beneath the water and my lungs screamed. I couldn’t get back to the air, I couldn’t get back to the oxygen. A rock appeared in front of me, but I couldn’t move and the rock didn’t want to. It struck me in the stomach and ripped apart my flesh. The water turned red and my eyes fluttered.
I raised my hand above me and touched sky and felt the air speed around my damp hand. My lantern floated passed me and then submerged in the water and everything went dark. I became a dream.
I couldn’t see where I was heading or where I had come from. I couldn’t see the blood escaping my body, all I could feel was the throbbing on my stomach and the muffled yells from behind.
I knew I was dying. I knew I would die. I knew this was the end.And then, in the pitch black, I saw a faint light ahead. The light got brighter as my light got dimmer.
My battered body smashed into something rigid and I got sucked deep beneath the water before I finally resurfaced.
I was lying on dirt staring up at a structure I could never imagine. The darkness was gone and I could see everything. I could see the water flowing through the object and spinning this thing and the thing kept spinning as more and more water swept through it.
I wondered if Kaolin and Cotta would see the magnificent creation. I wondered if they had survived the rocks or were shredded like I was. I wondered if they would find my body and make me part of theirs.
And then, I saw a pair of feet, without toes and shapeless, one large callous over skin. I looked up and saw wrinkled and weathered blue skin, and then a black stomach and chest.
A light brighter than any I ever saw shined in my eyes and I couldn’t see. The light quickly disappeared and I regained my vision.
Standing before me was a boy roughly my age. He examined my stomach and my body. He knelt down beside me, hand on my chest and said, “Are you olbreay?”
I used every ounce of energy I had left and uttered, “My name is Spec.”
The boy looked at me, confusion smattered across his face and said, “I’m golereana hepetta. Jureld searlen still. You’re golereanna be fine.”
He pressed his hand against my wound. The blood slowed and he smiled and said, “I’m Joey.”
SECTION TWO
Extinguished:
“The small wad of burning paper drew down to a wisp of flame and then died out leaving a faint pattern for just a moment in the incandescence like the shape of a flower, a molten rose. Then all was dark again.”
-- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
CHAPTER NINE
Joey:
He was bleeding bad. There was a gash on his abdomen the size of my watch. “You’re going to be okay -- I just need to stop the bleeding.”
He shook his head and grabbed my hand. “It’s ner youlseuh. I’m groniling deole.”
I shined my flashlight toward where I left my friends, “Help! Hurry!” My hands were stained red, and I could feel his breathing slow down. That’s when I noticed the two foreign shadows appear.
In front of me stood two people I had never seen before, naked and unflinching. They stared at me as if I were a ghost, no doubt the companions of the wounded boy lying in front of me.
“Holy shit!” James yelled as he appeared, shining the flashlight on the two strangers. “Where’d they come from?”
Bryan held his tiny pocket knife firmly in hand, ready to strike. “They’re NaNas.”
“There aint no more NaNas alive.” James shone the light on the girl’s mouth. “Show us your teeth.”
“He’s bleeding out -- we gotta get him to Shaw.” I pressed my hands down harder on his large wound.
“We can’t help him til we know he’s not a NaNa,” James said, flashlight still pointed at their faces.
Bryan knelt down and opened the boy’s mouth. “Smells like a NaNa --”
“Like you ever smelled one before!” I took my shirt off and tied it against the boy’s stomach. “Help me carry him.”
Bryan continued to threaten the strangers with his knife while James walked over and examined the body. “I’ll get his arms. I don’t want his thing flapping in my face.”
James and I hoisted the boy up, but the blood started to gush out faster. I turned to Bryan who was brandishing a knife gleefully. “Come hold his wound.”
“The hell I am. I don’t want no blood on my hands.”
“His blood’s gonna be on your hands if you don’t help!”
“Shit…” Bryan pointed his knife at the girl. “You. Yeah, you. Come here.” The girl stood frozen, staring at him blankly. “They sure are dumb.”
“Put your knife away.”
“Man, I never get to use the knife!” Bryan put the knife away and walked toward the girl, hands in the air. “I’m not gonna hurt you.” He grabbed her hand but she quickly pulled back. “You want your buddy to die?” He waved her forward. She tentatively followed him to the boy in our hands.
“Can you put your hand on your friend’s wound?” I asked, unsure if she understood what I was saying.
She glanced over at the boy. “What’s…wound?”
“They aren’t as dumb as they look.” James motioned Bryan over. “Take his arms.” Bryan reluctantly grabbed the boy’s arms while James gently held the girl’s hand and pressed it down on the wound. He looked over at the other boy. “Come here.”
The boy did not move, either unable to comprehend what James was saying or unwilling to cooperate. James waved him over but he wouldn’t budge.
“Take my knife. He’ll come if you got it shoved up against his throat,” Bryan laughed as the words trickled off his tongue.
James took a step closer. Put his hand to his chest. “James. James.” He pointed to the stranger. He furled his eyebrows and tapped his chest, “Cotta.” He pointed to the girl and said, “Kaolin.” To the wounded boy: “Spec.”
I looked over toward the girl. “Kaolin?” She nodded slowly. “Hold tighter. Harder.” She was confused.
James walked over and pressed his hand on top of hers and pushed down. Their eyes met and James looked uneasy. He removed his hand and motioned Cotta over. “We gotta go before he bleeds out.
***
It was chaos. Hundreds of people rushed through the City Center when they spotted us carrying the bleeding boy.
“Joseph!” My father emerged from the crowd, his large sword firmly in hand. Beside my father, his Chief of Staff, Riley rushed forward, sword pointed at Cotta.
“They don’t look like NaNas, sir.” Riley carefully opened Cotta’s mouth with the tip of his sword. “Too old to not be initiated.”
Shaw appeared with a few of his assistants. “Prep the OR.” They took the bleeding boy and rushed him toward the hospital. I looked down at my clothes and they were painted red.
My father lowered his sword and approached me. Placed his thumb on my cheek and wiped off some of the blood. “Where’d you find them?”
“By the watermill.”
H
e examined the situation as he so often does. He had been mayor of our city since before I was born. He had saved us from the waves of NaNa attacks and even demolished their village.
“Get our guests some clothes. Food and water. Lock them up until we know more.” A couple of the City Guards chained a subdued Cotta and Kaolin. They didn’t struggle, they just looked all around, amazed at anything and everything.
My father eyed me. “You okay?” I nodded. “Get washed up.”
I walked through the crowd and passed some of my classmates. “What’d they look like, Joey!?” “Were their teeth as sharp as all the stories!?” “Did they attack you!?”
I answered the questions as best as I could, but my mind was elsewhere. I couldn’t stop thinking about the bloodied boy who may or may not be alive. If he lived, it’s because I just happened to find him at the right moment. If he died, it’s because I didn’t act fast enough. His life was decided by my hands.
I walked passed the statue of Jacobson and Fiddler’s Fountain. I tripped over a loose brick by Cantor’s Steps. I’ll tell my father about it when he gets back and it’ll be fixed within the hour.
I got home and walked upstairs to my shower. I turned the faucet on and warm water dribbled down my face, but the water was only nice for ten minutes before it got cold. I was forced to get out of the shower prematurely and dry off.
I stood in my room, bored. I waited for the sound of the door opening so that my father could tell me whether the stranger would live or not. I lay on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. It was littered with cracks. I had tried to count them on numerous occasions, but I always wound up falling asleep before I could finish. And then there’s always the heated debate every dozen cracks or so whether a crack is one or two and then I have to get up and get a closer look to see if there’s a gap.
I yawned. It had been a long and arduous day. Bryan and James and I had to check on the watermill clog. And then there was the whole strangers thing. I’m tired. Let’s see. One crack. Two cracks. Three. Four. Five…
CHAPTER TEN