by Andrew Gates
“You still don’t hear it?” Ophelia asked.
“No,” Iris replied as she shook her head. “How faint is it?”
“It’s quiet. They must be far from here.”
“Human voices?”
Ophelia nodded.
“Which way?”
The girl did not answer right away.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” she eventually answered. “It’s hard to tell.”
Ophelia paused for a few moments as she listened to the world around her. She eventually turned to her left and pointed in that direction.
“That way?”
“Yeah,” the girl replied. “There are voices that way. Definitely that way.”
Iris nodded and placed her hand on Ophelia’s back, guiding her in that direction. The two of them walked together past trees and bushes and rocks. All the while, Iris heard nothing. If there really were voices, they were too faint for her to pick up. It took nearly five minutes before she first heard anything.
“Now I hear it!” Iris exclaimed in excitement. The voices definitely sounded human, though the speakers were muffled. It was not easy to discern any of the words.
“It sounds like we’re getting close,” Ophelia responded.
After a few more steps, the voices grew clearer.
“Hello!” the girl shouted.
The voices stopped for a moment.
“Hello?” someone else eventually responded. The voice sounded like Dan’s, though it was hard to tell for sure.
“Where are you?” Ophelia shouted.
“The big tree! The biggest one!” a different voice replied. This one sounded like Jallah.
A massive pine tree loomed above them, larger than all the rest. Its branches were thick like pillars, its leaves pointed like needles. It was almost impossible to miss.
Iris spotted Dan at its base. He stood directly beneath the tree, holding a flaming torch in his hand. The smoke from the torch got lost within the massive tree’s maze of branches.
“Dan!” she said with excitement. She ran to him with open arms. The weary teacher practically stumbled on her way over. They held an embrace. Iris could feel the heat from the fire against her back, but she ignored it. It felt good to be reunited with him.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Dan said as he held her. “I was worried about you. I thought it was just the three of us.”
“The three of us?”
Iris pulled away from him and looked at him in confusion.
“Up here!” Jallah’s voice added.
She faced upwards, into the maze of branches. To her surprise, Jallah and Margery were sitting in the tree like squirrels. She could hardly believe how high they were. It looked like they were ten meters up.
“Oh my!” she instinctively said.
The two kids waved down to her. Iris waved back.
“Jallah and Margery were in the tree when I found them,” Dan explained. “They climbed up there to escape the mantises and fell asleep.”
“They spent the whole night in the tree?” Iris asked.
Dan nodded.
Ophelia walked under the tree with them. She waved to the other kids.
“What about you?” Iris wondered.
“I found a ditch and hid inside. I stayed there for about half the night. Then I made my way to the crash site. Everything was still burning when I got there. That’s where I lit this torch. I went searching for other survivors after that. I only recently found Jallah and Margery here,” he said.
Iris studied his torch. The handle was made of a thick stick but the end seemed to be a darker, more metallic material. Whatever it was, it seemed to hold a flame perfectly.
“What is on the torch?” she wondered.
Dan looked at it again as if he needed to remind himself.
“Oh this? I’m not sure what material it is, but it came from the mantis ship. It has been burning this whole time.”
“Were there any signs of life back there?”
“The mantises crowded around it shortly after it came down. I guess they were trying to save the pilot. But when I got there hours after the crash, nobody was in sight,” Dan explained.
“Any idea what brought it down?”
Dan nodded.
“Oh, I don’t just have an idea. I saw it.”
“You saw it? Well what happened?”
Dan looked up again, as if checking on the kids. Iris instinctively did the same. It seemed they were slightly lower now. They must have been moving their way down the tree.
“It was Ryan,” Dan explained as he returned his gaze to Iris. “When the mantises left the ship, Ryan started shooting. Two of them ignored him, but one of them engaged him. It looked like it was all over. The mantis walked straight towards him with its claws raised. But Ryan slid beneath its legs at the last second and climbed onto its long abdomen. The mantis had trouble pulling him off from that position. At one point it turned its head to face backwards and Ryan placed the nose of the pistol right into the creature’s mouth.”
“Bang!” Jallah added as he continued climbing down. “Then Ryan shot the thing in the face. Blood went everywhere! It was so cool!”
Dan raised his hand to Jallah, as if telling him to calm down.
“Yes, then Ryan shot it and killed it.”
Iris felt her eyes widen.
“He killed it? He actually killed a mantis?” she said in disbelief.
Dan nodded.
“That’s not all. Once the beast was dead, Ryan grabbed the creature’s plasma cannon. That was the last I saw before I could not wait around any longer. One of the mantises was nearly on me. I had to run away.”
“But you’re saying Ryan used the plasma cannon on the ship?” Iris asked, clarifying the story.
“Yeah! That’s what happened!” Jallah added again. He seemed enthusiastic to describe the story. “Margery and I saw this part. It took him a while to figure out how to use the gun, but when he did, he pulled the trigger and bam! No more ship!”
“Where is Ryan now?” Ophelia wondered.
Dan shook his head.
“I don’t know. The kids don’t seem to know either. There was no sign of him after that.”
“He might still be out here,” Margery added.
“Or… or dead,” Jallah said, reluctantly. His tone was very different now.
“What about Tobias or Sixtine?” Iris wondered.
Dan shook his head again.
“Sixtine is probably dead. She could barely walk on her own,” Dan said. “To be honest, I’m amazed she lasted as long as she had.”
Iris sighed. That was a difficult thing to accept.
“I’m guessing you know where my brother’s family is. Otherwise you would have asked about them first,” Dan said.
Iris nodded. How could I forget to tell him?
“Yes, sorry. Greyson, Selena and the kids are all fine. We found a cave last night.”
“Good,” Dan said. “Good.”
Suddenly Margery dropped down and landed just a breath from Iris’s face. The startled woman jumped back in shock.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Margery said.
“I know,” Iris replied.
Jallah followed a few seconds later, dropping from the tree with a thud. He landed close to Ophelia and brushed some dirt off his jumpsuit.
“Let’s get to that cave you found,” Dan suggested. “That sounds like the safest place right now.”
“Do you think the mantises are still out here?” Margery asked.
“There hasn’t been another dropship in the area. Unless they walked the whole way home, I’m guessing the mantises are still here somewhere,” he said.
That thought brought a shiver to Iris’s spine.
“Then we should get moving,” Ophelia suggested.
“I agree,” Jallah added with a certain degree of fear in his voice.
“Do you remember the way back?” Dan asked, facing Iris again.
> “We didn’t mark it, but I think we can-”
“I do,” Ophelia interrupted.
“Good. Then let’s go,” Dan said.
Ophelia wasted no time. She motioned for them to follow along and they did.
“Are you going to keep that torch going the whole time?” Iris wondered.
Dan nodded.
“Of course. This fire doesn’t seem to give out. Imagine how much use we can get out of this,” he explained.
Iris had to admit, a fire that never went away was a valuable thing to have. She would just have to put up with the smoke.
The walk back did not take long. Iris did not realize how close they were to the cave this whole time. When they finally arrived, the rest of the group was fully awake. They smiled as they saw Iris and the others.
“Oh, thank the Lord Beyond Both Seas,” Selena said from a seated position.
Greyson approached them with open arms.
“We thought you were dead!” he explained. Greyson hugged his brother first, then Iris.
“Not dead,” Ophelia responded. “We found the others.”
Greyson smiled to Dan.
“Where were you?” he asked.
“The kids climbed up a tree when we scattered. I hid in a ditch at first and then decided to go looking for the others. I only recently found them,” Dan answered. “Then Iris and Ophelia found us,” he continued as he motioned towards them.
“Well, I’m glad we’re all together now,” Greyson said.
“What of the Navy?” Selena wondered.
Dan shook his head.
“No sign of any of them.”
“Damn,” Greyson said.
“What’s that fire on a stick?” Kaitlyn asked, changing the subject.
“This is called a torch,” Dan answered. He raised it up for all to see. Iris was still fascinated by the unique metal on the end of it. “They used to use these in the old days before there were flashlights.”
“Why?” Misha asked.
“So that they could see,” Dan explained. He waved it around, illuminating different sections of the cave wall.
“Can I touch it?” Kaitlyn asked.
Dan shook his head.
“No. It is very hot,” he replied.
“Since you have that, we might as well explore the cave,” Greyson suggested. “It looks like it goes deeper, but we can’t see how far it goes.”
“Sure.”
Dan carried the torch past the group. He walked deeper into the cave. Shadows followed around him as he walked, illuminating more and more of the damp walls with each step. He kept going and kept going. Iris was amazed. She started following him.
The cave eventually began to slope downward. Even with her sore muscles, Iris could still walk on the decline, but she knew that just a slip would send her sliding several meters.
Iris turned to look back. The cave entrance was nearly out of sight now. She could hardly make out the sunlight anymore.
“Damn, this goes deep,” Dan said in surprise. He turned to look back. “Is it just you following me, Iris?”
“Yes, just me,” she replied.
They continued along deeper and deeper. The walls started closing in tighter and tighter. The ceiling got lower and lower. The slope grew steeper and steeper. But then they reached the end.
“This is it,” Dan said as he pressed his hand against the wall before him. “This is as far as it goes.”
Iris walked up and pressed her hand against it too. This material felt different than the rock around them. It was smoother and thinner.
“Do you feel that?” she asked.
Dan shook his head.
“What do you mean?”
“That doesn’t feel like rock, right?”
Dan felt it again. This time he held his hand for longer. He slowly started nodding his head.
“No,” he said. “That doesn’t feel like rock at all.”
He held the torch closer to the material. The light reflected across its surface. For a moment it looked like there were two torches.
Iris studied it again. She recognized the feeling. The last time she felt something like this, Iris could feel it humming, beating like a heart. But this time it was steady, as if long dead.
“Border,” she said aloud in a half-whispered tone.
“What?” Dan asked.
“This is no wall,” she explained. “It’s a window.”
“A window?” Dan pressed it again. His eyes widened. “You’re right! It’s glass!”
Iris pulled her hand away.
“This must be another buried structure,” she continued, “another remnant from the surface.”
“What could it be?”
Iris shook her head and shrugged.
“It could be anything! This was a city, remember? There were buildings everywhere.”
Dan paused as if trying to consider their next move.
“Let’s get the rest of the group,” he eventually proposed. “They’ll want to see this.”
“Do you think we should go in?” Iris wondered.
“Maybe. It could be a safe place to stay,” Dan suggested. “We could use it to rest and hide from the mantises before continuing west.”
So he still wants to move west.
“Okay, let’s go tell them,” Iris said.
Dan nodded and turned back around.
The walk back was harder than the walk down. The rocky surface was slippery, which did not help along the upward slope. Iris found herself nearly losing her footing a few times. When they finally reached the top, the group seemed worried.
“What is it?” Dan asked as he studied their expressions.
“You guys were just gone a long time. We thought something might’ve happened,” Greyson answered.
Dan shook his head.
“No,” he said, “but there’s something we want to show you.”
Iris smashed the rock against the glass as hard as she could. Her arms were sore. She felt worn out. Once again, it did no good.
“It’s too thick,” she said, practically out of breath.
The others gathered around her. All of them had given it a shot, save for Selena and the youngest girls. Nobody had been able to smash the glass.
“I think I know the problem,” Dan explained. “We’re hitting the glass at different places. If we want to break it, we need to concentrate our hits.”
“You mean hit the same point over and over again?” Greyson clarified.
“Yeah. Centralize the impact. Hit it exactly in the center.”
Without saying anything, Jallah walked up and took the rock from Iris’s hand. She let him have it and took a few steps back, giving him some room. The boy pulled his arm back and struck the glass wall directly in the center.
Jallah wiped some sweat from his face and did it again and again. By the third hit, a small crack began to form.
“It’s working!” Greyson noted.
Jallah was tired now. He passed the rock off to Dan, who was nearest to him. Dan took a few steps forward and smashed it some more. After a few strikes, the glass was now covered in cracks.
Greyson, Margery and Ophelia instinctively jumped in and started kicking at it. Their kicks did not seem to do much. But after a perfectly centered strike right in the middle, the entire glass surface shattered and fell into an empty hole behind it.
The group held their breath, not knowing what to expect next.
Dan held the torch inside for the others to see. The view did not seem particularly interesting. It was just an office. A dusty desk and chair leaned against the wall of an otherwise empty room.
“Should we go in?” Margery asked.
“We came this far,” Dan answered.
Unsurprisingly, Dan was the first one to go inside. He put his right foot in first and practically dropped a whole meter before he landed on the floor. The torch toppled out of his hands as he fell but he quickly picked it back up again and stood straight.
�
��Watch out. It’s a longer drop than it looks!” he explained.
The group all came through one by one, careful not to cut themselves on the glass. Greyson and Iris had to assist Selena and the youngest girls, but eventually they all got through. Iris was the last to enter. She coughed.
“It’s dusty in here,” she said, searching around.
Dan held the torch up to different parts of the room. The walls were a dull grey color, but unlike the halls of Harrison, these walls were decorated by old war medals and framed photographs of surface era humans. Iris studied them with interest.
“This was someone’s office,” Iris explained aloud. “This was what it used to look like. It’s been untouched all this time!”
“I know it’s all interesting, but let’s search the area first. We need to figure out where we are and what this building looks like,” Dan suggested.
The historian in her could not have been more fascinated by this small office space. She wanted to study everything in sight. But the survivalist in her knew that Dan was right. For all they knew, this could have been another trap.
“Yes, of course,” Iris replied, though it pained her to say it.
She left the room and entered a wide hallway. Selena and the youngest girls immediately sat down, leaning against the side of the dusty wall.
“They need to rest. I’ll stay with them,” Greyson said.
Dan nodded his head.
“It will get very dark without a torch,” he explained.
Greyson simply nodded back. Iris could tell he understood.
She turned away from Greyson and moved next to Dan and his torch, as did the three other kids. The five of them slowly walked away from the others.
Navigating through the structure was like navigating through the empty station in her dreams. It was as quiet as death and as dark as the deepest depths of the ocean. They followed through a long empty corridor, which seemed to span on forever. Most of the hall was straight, but there were a few times when it turned ever subtly to the left. The group huddled around the torch the entire time, following the hall on and on.
After what must have been 15 minutes, Iris felt her stomach growl like the creatures that had attacked them in the night. She held her belly and looked to the others. They seemed tired.