by Young, B. R.
As she looked across the water she saw a huge city full of buildings varying in shapes and sizes, some so large she could not fathom how they were built. The city spread out in both directions farther than her eyes could see. She just stood there staring in wonder at the site before her. “This…this is incredible. Did the guardians build all this?” she asked.
“No, they only maintain it, keeping it in good condition so it does not rot with the centuries. Your ancestors are the ones who built all this.”
“How could anyone so advanced be so destructive?” she asked.
“Greed and power, humanity was a lot different back then. They were advanced yes, they managed to build all this and they even built us, but they were also corrupt in their ideals and that inevitably led to their downfall,” said Dawn.
Lili wiped a single tear from her face as she thought of how far humanity had fallen to have had to give up all of this beauty and wonder to go and live the way her people now lived.
“We need to be moving and find someplace safe until your leg heals and you can walk on your own.”
Dawn took Lili to a small suburb area in New Jersey where the A.I. very rarely did any patrols or upkeep. They usually tended to the larger cities and left the smaller areas alone. Some care had been administered in the area, perhaps by one lone A.I. over the years but by the look of things it had been a very long time as many of the homes looked as if they were falling in on themselves and were in desperate need of a makeover.
After searching for several minutes she managed to find a structure that was in good enough shape that she could set Lili up comfortably enough until she was able to get some medication and bandages to properly bandage her ankle.
Dawn placed Lili on one of the makeshift beds she had put together so she could rest. Once she was settled down Dawn left to go in search of a store that would hopefully have the items she would need in order to help Lili get better.
Several blocks away she found an old drug store, it was worn down with age but it looked as if there were still some things left on the shelves. Dawn forced open the doors and walked inside, she made her way to the pharmacy in the back and searched through the different medications that were left. Unfortunately everything was old and unusable, she would have to look for natural remedies in the wooded area nearby. She knew of many things she could find. She did manage to find some canned food which might still be good and tossed those into the bags.
Dawn left the store and made her way into the woods that lined the edge of the small town. She knew what she needed to find, it was just a matter of searching for it. She searched the ground for several minutes beneath many trees before she came across a clump of green, almost heart-shaped leaves she was looking for. She dug into the ground pulling up the ginger roots. She tossed the roots into the bag and was heading back out of the woods when she spotted a birch tree nearby and plucked a vast amount of the leaves from the tree, she knew they were an anti-inflammatory pain reliever.
Dawn made her way back to the house and found Lili sleeping, she was tossing and turning a lot and doing a lot of mumbling about Kev and betrayal. Dawn could tell she was having bad dreams of some kind and that she was still in pain. She gently woke her up, “Lili, wake up Lili I’m back and I have some medicine that will help with the pain.”
"Thank you Dawn."
“It will take some time to prepare them, I need to cut and grind them first.”
Dawn emptied the sack onto the ground. Lili looked at the leaves and roots curiously. “What are those?”
“They are ginger roots and birch leaves. They are natural pain relievers. None of the manmade medicines were any good after so many years of sitting on the shelves,” said Dawn.
Dawn found a bowl and knife in the long abandoned kitchen and cut up some of the ginger. She then used her fingers and ground it into a paste. “Here eat this. It will be bitter but it will help with the pain.”
Lili took the bowl and scooped some of the paste out putting it to her lips, her lips puckered at the taste but she shoved it into her mouth and quickly swallowed it all grabbing the water jug to wash it down. Dawn had taken the birch leaves and cut them up into tiny pieces mixing them with water in a bowl. “I’m not going to have to eat those too am I?” Lili asked.
“No this is a poultice that I will wrap around your ankle to help with the swelling.” Dawn plastered Lili’s leg with the leaves and wrapped it with the cloth she had found lying around the abandoned house, as a bandage. “You should lie down and get some more rest and let the medicine take effect.”
18
Kev left the councilor on the other side of the debris and headed off in search of his friend with a smile on his face. He happened to glance down at the dust filled floor and noticed there was now only one set of tracks instead of the two. He started to worry and looked around the tunnel in a bit of a panic wondering why this was when he knew they had both been present at the other side of the rubble.
Kev could not help but think of the worst, he hoped that Lili had not somehow been trapped underneath all that rubble but then he shook it off. If she had been underneath all that he would have found her body when he was digging. He was still confused as to why there was only one set of tracks but continued to walk, following the tracks.
He walked on for hours, he missed having a companion along, any companion at this point would do just to distract from the quiet solitude of being alone in a quiet, alien environment such as this. Finally after hours of walking he could see a bright light up ahead. He stopped and stared, it was a blinding light, brighter than anything he had ever seen before.
Kev was afraid to go any further, what if what the councilors had said before were true and the world above really was poisonous? What if the moment he stepped out into the world above he died from the poison? It took him nearly twenty minutes of inner struggle before he finally decided he had to go out there no matter what.
He started walking slowly towards the light. The closer he got to the end the brighter the light seemed to get and the more it seemed to hurt his eyes. He eventually had to close his eyes putting his hands over them to keep the light out. He refused to stop walking however, he had to find Lili and nothing was going to stop him.
He could feel the warmth of the light on his face, he could tell he’d left the tunnel and was now directly out underneath the light, it took a while for his eyes to adjust but once he was able to he took his hands down and slowly opened his eyes, blinking several times to adjust to the brightness. The pure beauty and majestic scenery that lay before him had him in complete awe, Kev stood there gaping at his surroundings, completely forgetting for a moment everything he had come here to do.
He knew in that instant that everything the councilors had told him was a lie, that his whole life was somehow less than what it could have been. Seeing all of this just proved even more that what Dawn had told them was true and it made him feel even more foolish for what he’d done and made him even more determined to make it up to Lili, but first he had to find her.
Unfortunately out here there was no more dust to follow so he had no clue how he was going to be able to find them, he didn’t know this world or where to begin. He figured they would stay clear of the bigger buildings where there would likely be guardians on patrol, so he guessed they’d go for someplace smaller and less conspicuous. The question was, where was this place?
He had no idea where to look but he saw several buildings off in the distance to his left that looked as though they were quite tall. If he could get to the top of them he just might be able to have a good view to see the surrounding area and see if there was an isolated area where they might go and hide away from guardian patrols.
He made his way slowly over to the buildings doing his best to stay hidden within the shadows of buildings and trees. He saw no living things or any signs of the guardians but he wanted to be sure he wasn’t spotted by anything.
He got to the building he’d spotted and went t
o the door but it wouldn’t open, it seemed to be stuck and no matter how much he pulled at it, it would not open. Kev was not sure what he was going to do, no matter what he did the door refused to budge. He started to walk around the building looking at all the windows trying to see if any of them were open or could be opened. Finally as he got all the way back around, he gave up, in frustration he grabbed a rock from the ground and smashed a window.
He climbed his way into the building through the broken window. He got a small piece of the glass stuck into his hand, he pulled the glass out and wiped the blood off on his shirt to get a better look and found that it was a pretty big gash. He used a section of his shirt which he’d ripped off, as a bandage until he was able to find something better to use.
He found a set of stairs and started to climb, it looked as though it was going to be a very long climb to the top as the building was much taller than any building he had ever seen before. There was a lot of dust on the stairs and they looked to be a little on the weak side and appeared to be rusting in areas. He was about half way up the building when one of the steps gave out and his foot went right through the floor of the step.
He immediately felt the pain as he pulled his leg back through the hole and saw the blood from the huge gash in his leg. This was just not going the way he had hoped it would go for him at all. First he cut his hand and now his leg, he tore off another chunk of his shirt and wrapped it around his leg to hold off the bleeding. He was determined to get to the top of this building no matter what. He began climbing the stairs again, this time he took the stairs slower taking each step with more caution as he tested each one to be sure it would hold his weight.
It took him nearly an hour of walking at this pace before he finally managed to get to the top of the stars. He saw a door that said roof access and pushed the door open to look out over a vast landscape. He moved over to the edge of the building and looked down upon the scene below him, he immediately regretted that decision, he got very dizzy and everything around him began to spin very fast, he stumbled backwards several steps and had to close his eyes and take several deep breaths before he felt well enough to open his eyes again.
He had never been up this high before and was not prepared for the site he saw when he looked straight down. He took another tentative look around at the horizon, looking in awe at how small everything seemed from up here at this vantage point. It was amazing to him, how you could see so much so far away. He looked over into the large looming city structures across the wide river, he could see small figures that looked to be guardians moving around here and there.
Kev shifted his gaze back to this side of the river and looked off to a smaller settlement that had mostly smaller houses, he didn’t see any guardians or movement of any kind. He figured this would be a more likely spot for someone to hide out if they were looking to avoid being seen. He looked around and found a couple other settlements that were similar to the first one he saw with small houses and not much else. He wasn’t sure just what to do when out of the corner of his eye in one of the settlements he thought he saw a streak of red moving around on the streets. He turned and looked, he could clearly see movement and saw what looked to be a person with bright red hair, and he knew it had to be Dawn. He was happy that now at least he knew which direction he needed to travel in he only hoped he’d be able to get to them before they moved on.
He made a mental note of the direction he needed and started back down the stairs. He moved a little bit faster now he knew which steps were safe to take. Most of them were strong enough to hold him and he managed to get back down without any trouble at all. The problem he had was getting back out of the window, he was feeling a lot of pain from the cut in both his leg and hand and he was also feeling slightly light headed from loss of blood as well as being tired from climbing the stairs. He struggled and jumped and scraped himself up a bit but he finally managed to get himself back out of the window.
He started heading off, however he knew he needed to stop and rest before he could go any further. Just as he was about to stop he heard a noise coming from the area he’d just left, as he looked back he saw two guardians examining the building he’d just been in. Kev quickly ducked behind a small building to his left and hid himself from site. He had somehow managed to alert the guardians to his presence here in the area, he knew he had to get out of here fast. He was going to have to keep moving now and try to make it as far as he could and just hope he wouldn’t pass out on the way.
He slowly crept away from the building and made his way down the road in the general direction of the area he had thought he saw Dawn. It was hard going for him as he felt weak and tired, he tried his best to keep out of sight as he walked in case the guardians came looking for him. It took him a couple of hours of hard walking before he got to the place where he thought he saw Dawn moving around, now all he had to do was find the place they were staying, that was going to be the hard part.
He walked up to the first house he came to and found it would be impossible for anyone to stay there as the roof was caved in and the door was jammed shut. Kev moved on to the next house and found that one to be in the same shape as the last, the next several house he tried seemed to be in the same shape as the first houses. He eventually came to a house that looked like it might be habitable he only hoped this was the place because he couldn’t go on any more. He leaned against the door and used what strength he had left to knock on the door as loudly as he could.
19
Lili had been asleep for several hours, she seemed to be feeling less pain since eating that paste because she didn’t toss and turn and she seemed to not be having nightmares any more. Dawn sat by her side watching patiently as her friend slept, making sure she was comfortable and safe.
As she sat in the solitude of the house a banging could suddenly be heard throughout the house waking Lili from her sleep. She shot up, her eyes wide open, “What is that? Who could possibly be knocking here in an abandoned village?” she asked.
“I do not know, but I shall find out,” said Dawn as she moved to the door.
Dawn moved slowly to the door, she opened it a crack to look out and the door flew open as Kev fell inside. He was unable to stand any longer, he looked up and saw Lili lying on the makeshift bed Dawn had made, he looked her in the eyes and said, “Lili, I’m sorry.” Then he passed out.
“Kev,” Lili screamed. “What happened to him? How did he find us?” she asked.
“I do not know and I do not like it,” Dawn said as she grabbed him, pulling him inside so she could shut the door. She pulled him over to the floor near Lili and they saw all the blood soaked bandages.
“He’s hurt bad,” Lili sobbed as she started removing the bandages. “We need to clean him up.”
“You clean him up and grind up some more of that ginger root into a paste. See if you can get him to eat it, I am going to make sure he has not brought anyone with him,” said Dawn as she made her way out the door.
Lili grabbed the bottles of water they kept near her bed and began slowly cleaning the wound on Kev’s hand, it was a small gash with a little bit of blood oozing from it, most of it dried by now. Lili grabbed some clean rags that Dawn had gathered and wrapped his hand. She then slid her way down to his leg. She winced at the sight of this wound, it was much worse looking. It was bigger and red around the outside edge with plenty of blood still oozing from it. Lili did her best to clean it and wrapped fresh bandages around the wound.
Once she’d finished cleaning his wounds she grabbed some of the root and cut them up into the bowl, she used the end of the knife and started smashing the root over and over again until it was a thick paste. She scooped it out and put a big chunk of it into his mouth, pouring some water in and tilting his head a little, she had to hold his nose closed to make him swallow the water and paste. She laid him back on the floor and let him rest, she had done all she could.
Lili couldn’t help wonder why he was here, she was still angry at him for
what he’d done to her, he’d betrayed her and gotten her into a lot of trouble with the councilors and the guardians and now he had the nerve to show up here. She couldn’t understand why he did all those things and now decided to show up here. Did he think everything would really be ok, that they could just be friends after what happened? Lili was still so angry but she was also worried that her friend was laying there on the floor, hurt and possibly dying. She might not even be able to talk to him again, to simply ask him why.
It was about this time that Dawn came back inside. “We are safe, there was no one else with him. I do not understand how he managed to find us here.”
“Well if he lives you can ask him yourself. I cleaned his wounds and gave him some of the paste. The wound on his leg doesn’t look good though.”
Dawn bent down and removed the dressing from the leg wound and looked at it, “You are right this wound is infected, he will need something different for this. If he does not get some soon he will die, or we will have to cut off his leg.”
Lili’s eyes grew big and tears started to form at the thought of Kev dying. “Can you find something for him around here?” she asked wiping away some tears. “I know he betrayed me and I’m still so very angry at him but I don’t want him to die.”
“Yes I will go and see what I can find. I only hope no guardians come this way, between your ankle and his injuries we will not be able to leave this place any time soon,” said Dawn.
“I’m sure we will be ok, we have you to protect us,” Lili said with a smile.
“I can only do so much.” She made her way back out the door leaving Lili and Kev to rest.
20
Dawn tried hard to understand these humans but sometimes they just seemed so illogical. She did not understand why Lili would still be so attached to someone that betrayed her the way Kev had done. She thought about this as she headed off into the woods. She took her time going this time, the man was passed out and in no immediate danger so she felt no need to hurry.