Banished

by L M Feldt

  “So they wanted to harvest my very dna?” I had been outraged before when I imagined loosing an arm or an eye but somehow this was way worse. They wanted to harvest my very essence, everything about me that made me - me.

  “Yes. Among other things probably.” Aito finishes his meal in silence and I sense that his usual self-assurance has taken a beating. It is one thing to suspect horror and another to have the terrible truths revealed in a lab. How he knew about the attack or the clones I have no idea, his rebel friends maybe.

  The next day is overcast and humid. We are descending down into a wetter environment now. The grass grows thicker, greener. The plants and trees are growing thicker too….and more exotic. Khane has been avoiding me, which works for me. We head west, always west, toward the setting sun and the City of Lights.

  Aito leads with Khane, then Micha and his pet trailing. Naoaki and I bring up the rear, alert for danger.

  “Do you think….” Naoaki starts and hesitates, “Do you think Fish, Ash, is following us?”

  “I don’t know. He seems to be aware of our location but is keeping his distance. I’m sure when he is ready he’ll make himself known.” I try to assure her. I know they were close and I can see it hurts her feelings that he hasn’t approached her.

  “I bet you’re right.” She says.

  The humidity is getting thicker the lower we go and I long to sweep my hair from my neck. Even in the marsh it hadn’t been this wet. I am considering cutting my long hair like Naoaki when she startles me with another question.

  “Is Aito with the rebels?” She asks.

  I hesitate to answer. I have had questions about Aito for a while now. I know he is communicating with someone. Who’s side is he on?

  “I have no idea.” I say truthfully. “Up until the other day I didn’t even know there were rebels or a resistance of any kind. I thought they were all sheep.”

  We continue in silence for a while. The trees have fewer leaves now, or rather very large, broad ones that sprout from the top and drape down. They are still and the little bit of breeze that followed us from the marsh has died.

  “If you hadn’t been born with orange eyes do you think you might have been Queen someday?” Naoaki asks.

  I think my friends are fascinated by my lineage. In a strange way I suppose I am too…aside from the whole bit of my body being the Queen’s own spare parts supply.

  “Well, I’d have to kill off my two older sisters first.” I pretend to consider the idea from a practical standpoint. “Plus the Queen herself would have to be dead, so that’s all a lot of work. Also, I’d have to do it without getting caught….pretty unlikely no matter what color my eyes are.”

  Naoaki nods along, as though planning the technicalities through in her head. I am finding her seriousness a little funny but I don’t want to damage our still fragile friendship by bursting out laughing.

  “But if you were Queen, you could change all the rules. You could make it so twists were equal to everyone else. You could make it so families stayed together.”

  “We are family Naoaki, now. Always.”

  I am still thinking about what it would be like to be Queen, to have the power to change peoples lives for the better when the first strike hits a nearby tree. The blinding power of it is shocking. Lightning. We run.

  The storm has crept up on us somehow, masked by the thick humidity. I had assumed the growing darkness to be sundown but now I realize it is far too early. Crashing through the foliage with total abandon we are herded deeper into the tropical forest. The storm’s violence follows us as we crash through the underbrush, fleeing the crazy lightning, desperately searching for something, anything to protect us. And suddenly, Khane smacks right into a wall. A building sprouts up out of the thick jungle as if by magic. He recovers quickly and starts searching for a door or a window or any entry. Then we are all searching, our hands skimming over the wet, moss covered stone. It is nearly full dark now. Either we find an opening or we spend the night out in the crazy storm.

  Thirty Two

  “Here!” Naoaki yells from my right.

  I scramble through wet plants, their long stems grabbing at my legs. I reach Naoaki and discover a small opening where the mortar between the stones has given way. A small pile of misshapen stones lies at our feet, I discover them when my foot comes in contact with something hard. Wincing in pain I use my fingers to pry other stones loose. The opening is still too small for any of us to wiggle through, even Aito. My hands are getting scraped up but we are making headway. I watch as Micha’s pet slithers through. I can’t tell if he intended to send it in as a scout, if so I think it is a good idea, though how it is going to tell us anything helpful I can’t imagine.

  Thunder crashes around us but soon the opening is large enough for everyone to crawl through. Inside, the stone floor is uneven but dry. The sound of the storm is muted too. It is also pitch black and we are all exhausted. I am hungry and I assume the others are too but we all just curl up on the hard floor and call it a night.

  I dream that Aito is communicating again using the strange bracelet. At least, I think it is a dream.

  “I tested everyone….yes…..no….I understand but…” In my dream I see Aito, his face illuminated by the pale light of the bracelet. Strange, I think, that none of us have asked about it again. His expression is tight, pained, tiny worry line between his eyes I never noticed before.

  “She…..yes. It’s her.”

  I fall back asleep, missing any more of his one sided conversation but I am left with the lingering feeling that all is not well between Aito and the mysterious person on the other side.

  Morning brings a wan green light filtering through the gap in the wall. It is enough to see what sort of place we have entered. It appears to be a hallway of some kind. Pillars frame a wide square doorway with stairs leading down into the blackness beyond. The stone walls are slick with moss and dampness and I am not excited about exploring this place further, I have had enough of enclosed buildings. I am about to crawl through the opening and see what sort of day we have when a light blooms in the darkness at the top of the stairs. Aito’s face is harshly illuminated, appearing to float in the blackness.

  “Should we check it out?” He asks but really suggests, the way he always does.

  “You can.” I respond, “I’m having breakfast.” I duck through the hole, eager to escape the confines of the cave-like building.

  Naoaki follows me with Micha and his pet soon after. Khane remains behind with Aito to look at some long forgotten hovel in the jungle. It has given us a dry place to sleep in relative safety for the night but I am restless and eager to push on.

  “That storm was the worst I have ever seen.” Micha exclaims.

  I have to agree as I look around at blackened trees. Some are still smoking. The air is slightly less humid than before so I am optimistic about making good time today. I settle on my haunches with my back to the cool stone wall and tear off a bite of dried fish. Naoaki and Micha follow my lead and soon we munch companionably in the early morning light.

  “Don’t feed that thing real food Micha! What are you thinking? It’s dead!” Naoaki scolds.

  Guiltily Micha slips the remnant another tiny bit of dried fish.

  “Micha!”

  “Sorry! He remembers eating though. It’s hard for him to see us eat and not eat too.”

  “Well feed him some leaves or something. Jeez, how long have you been doing that?”

  “What? Not long.”

  I can see from the look on Micha’s face that he is lying. I roll my eyes and stay out of it, watching as Micha feeds his pet a leaf off a nearby bush. It snaps it up and chews with it’s odd lizard mouth, empty eye holes practically rolling in happiness.

  I am about to take another bite when a deafening roar rolls over us. Something huge is crashing through the forest, making no effort at stealth. Tree tops are swaying and we take that as our cue to move. I am last through the opening, leaving the last
of my dried fish where it’s dropped. Scooting backward I watch for the creature, wondering what new monster has arrived to make our lives difficult. The trees part and there stands something both terrifying and so wretched it makes me unbearably sad. The great furred head is mostly feline with a great bushy mane. One eye is significantly larger than the other and weeps yellow goop. Thick fangs sprout from the lower jaw, curving upward, one nearly poking out the good eye. Tufts of fur are left on the tree bark where it has pushed past and lost skin. Then I see a snaking head rise up over the the first one. I scoot back as fast as I can, tripping over my own feet and landing on my butt.

  “Back! Get back!” I hiss to the group in general.

  From outside we can now hear a cacophony of strange sounds; hissing and crying and odd gurgles. There is a lot of rustling and scratching, then it is quiet. We huddle at the top of the stairs and wait. I am holding my breath. I do not want to fight this thing, it is large enough to have pushed aside adult trees without even noticing. It also appears quite mad.

  There is more rustling then a snout pokes through the opening we’d made. The nose is black and lightly furred and looks nothing like either of the other two heads I’d seen. The long jaws open and it pants, a long strand of white frothed saliva hanging down. It sniffs again and lets out a sudden loud bark making me jump. Then Naoaki is tugging on my arm and as quietly as I can, I step slowly backward, into the darkness.

  Suddenly I hear the click of the firestarter, it’s telltale smell of sulfur permeating the air around us.

  “Are you crazy?” I hiss behind me. I turn and see Aito’s face shining above the flickering light.

  “It’s blind, look.” Whispers Aito.

  I turn and see he’s right. Where the eyes should be are two concave hollows, places for eyes that never developed. It is worse somehow with the empty sockets than if the bone had grown smooth. The nose twitches as I watch. The sulfur from the fire-starter has drifted past us, filling the outer room. The head snorts and coughs, withdrawing, then bellows just outside the small opening. Inside, the sound is deafening.

  We are all standing stock still, some of us with our hands still over our ears, as we wait for the beast to loose interest in us. As the crashing and bellowing fade away I take a deep breath, relieved I won’t have to fight it, at least for now.

  “That was smart, hiding our scent.” I compliment Aito. It was risky too, taking the chance that it couldn’t still sense light and shadow even without eyes.

  “It will be back. Our trail leads here. It will pick up our scent again when it circles around.” Responds Aito.

  “So we have to leave now.” Naoaki starts for the opening but I grab her arm. I know Aito’s tone. There is more information coming. Sure enough, he’s shaking his head.

  “I think there may be more. Did you see the ears? Those were not wolf ears. That creature is a chimera, a genetic stew of all different animals. It looked unhealthy too which implies a less than successful hybrid.” Aito stops and sees my irritated look. He sighs. “Put more simply, if it was a mutation generations old it would have adapted and nature would have corrected some of the issues or it would be dead already. This is a recent, first generation creature, and someone must be feeding it.” I nodded at Aito’s assessment. The way the beast crashed through the woods, any potential prey would hear it coming and move on.

  “Someone is still twisting DNA.” States Naoaki flatly.

  Aito nods in agreement.

  “Someone who has no idea what they are doing and no moral issues with doing it.” He adds.

  Khane suddenly pops up from behind Aito. I hadn’t even noticed his absence.

  “I got the bar moved.” He hefts his ax with a fierce grin.

  Aito motions for us to follow. Flicking on a glo-stick, something he must have whipped up in the labs, he leads us deeper underground. The area where we’d slept had been a small space and I’d thought it to be part of someone’s house. Now, looking up and watching the glow of Aito’s stick fade away into the blackness I can see just how wrong I was. This had never been a home. The open space is wide and low and keeps stepping lower. There are support struts but otherwise I can only assume this place was once used for storage. Lots of storage. We finally reach a back wall where Khane has put his ax to good use. The door rests on a metal rail and looks easy enough to move now that the long bar is broken in two.

  “The door is constructed differently than this room. I think the area behind here was built long after this first space. Someone must have wanted storage first and then needed something more permanent.” Aito informs us.

  “What do…” Naoaki’s voice is drowned out by a bellow of rage that reverberates through the long cavern.

  “Lets get on the other side of this door and then talk.” Suggests Khane.

  Sometime later we can still hear faint cries of anger. Aito has assured us that the metal door, reinforced by the sliding walls on rails, will protect us should the creature break through to the storage room. Maybe, I think. But what if this underground labyrinth is ultimately a dead end? How much of our supplies will we go through to find out? Maybe we should have made a run for it when the creature wandered off again? Too late now, everyone is already moving forward, happy for a direction without a monster involved.

  The area we are traveling through is pretty boring. Interconnected rooms, empty, lead to more rooms, each one outfitted with the sliding walls on rails. Aito keeps assuring me that the first set will hold the beast but my fingers itch to close more. I don’t like having that creature at our backs.

  Finally, the scenery changes and the monotony ends. We enter what appears to be living quarters. There are small chambers with beds arranged around a central room. There is a sunken area in the middle with cushions that have seen better days and an open pit that looks like it used to hold fire. It is rustic but sort of homey for underground living. I scuff my toes against the floor and wonder at the odd springy mat. The thick fibers are interwoven and still in newish condition, so I know it can’t be anything organic. I am a little alarmed at myself, I’m starting to think like Aito, analyzing every little thing.

  Micha drops his pack and flops, he is clearly worn out. I too feel as though I have been walking for a day. It is hard to tell without the sun overhead. Micha stretches out on the odd cushy floor, his pet cuddled in his arms.

  I make a face and move to help Naoaki close the rolling walls. She is having the same thoughts as I am. We lock the bar in place, cutting off the route behind us. At least now I can sleep without fear of that creature sneaking up on us. Silly in a way since it is clear it has never snuck up on anything but I still feel better.

  We eat a light meal of dried fish and tubers. We are safe and my belly is full but even so, I am restless. I am not sure why but the misshapen thing in the jungle has thrown me. My friends hadn’t seen most of it. They didn’t see the weeping, puss filled eyes or any of the other deformities that should have been the death of it. Aito is right, nature has a way of weeding out the less fit and that creature was definitely less than fit. Still, it was scary and I had no wish to fight it but the fact that it is still alive and crashing through the forest means that it is being kept alive by someone, either as a pet or protection.

  “I can’t sleep. Tell us a story Aito.” asks Micha.

  It has been a long time since he’s regaled us with one of his stories.

  “Alright.” Agrees Aito, surprising me. He lights a fire-starter and coaxes a small flame from the bits of wood left in the pit. Always a bit of theater with him. I inch closer and get comfortable.

  “This is a story about a young boy no more than five years old. He was small for his size too so a lot of people mistook him for a toddler. His name was Pike and he loved his family more than anything but not more than his pet bird. This bird was unusual. It's egg had been nestled in with those of a crow’s, it's real mother having hidden it there for safety. It was a mocking bird and though it's coloring was brilliant orange r
ather than black, it could crow with the best of them.

  The boy and the bird went everywhere together. The boy was too young to enter school yet and too old for the nursery, so he wandered the fields near his village, his orange bird perched on his shoulder. One day the boy saw a nest of eagles and went to investigate. The eagles were high up in a tree so he tried calling to them, hoping they would come down so he could see them better. The eagles ignored the boy until the orange mocking bird copied their cry, throwing their speech back at them. The problem of course is that the orange bird could only mimic what it heard. Because each type of bird has a different language, the mocking bird had no idea what it was saying to the eagles. It only knew crow.