by Kris Moger
“Wow,” Teddy said, gasping.
They glanced at each other and started laughing.
“Wahhhoo,” shouted Jolon. “That’s more beautiful than Uppercity.”
He was right. The multitude of windows were free of debris, unbroken, and secure-looking. The glow emanating from them grew until Teddy had no need of his lamp.
“We live here,” Henri said, his face tear stained with joy.
“Perhaps,” he said with a lengthy sigh as reality settled in. “It might be possible. I mean, yes, we have light, but what about water and soil? What about food or power and consistent air? We don’t even know if the structure is safe. There’s a lot more to go through than one night is going to show us.”
“You sound like Pa,” Jolon said.
“So? He only wants the best for us. He wouldn’t bring us to this place unless he answered all those questions and a few more I’m too exhausted to think of.”
His brother held his hands up. “Hey, I wasn’t saying it was a bad thing.”
“We should go now,” said he, though he didn’t want to leave the rising sun. “We’ve got a ways to go to get back and no more time to explore further.”
Henri continued to stare at the sunrise. Teddy tugged his arm.
“Come on, before they find we are missing. We’re cutting things close as it is. All is good. We’ll come back. We’re changing the world, remember?” He smiled at him, and the brute grinned back, nodding.
“All right, adventurers, let’s get out of here. I need my bed,” Jolon said, yawning.
The future seemed exciting for once, and this gave them the energy to return home. On the way, they discussed the incredible possibilities their discovery presented. However, once Teddy slipped back into his bed, he was asleep in seconds. Only a moment went by before someone was shaking him. He brushed away the hands touching him.
“Go away.”
“Teddy,” his mother scolded. “Do not talk to me that way, sleepy or not. What’s the matter with you? You’re one of the first awake. You sick?” She touched his forehead, and he tried to wake up.
“No, nope. I’m fine. Just stayed up too late...”
“Doing what, writing?” she asked with a disapproving shake of her head.
“Umm, yep, uh-huh, writing. I couldn’t sleep so I got up and got inspired. Didn’t fall asleep until a second ago.”
She frowned with a suspicious glint in her eyes as she brushed strands of hair from his face. “Well, that explains you, but what explains Jolon and,” she snapped her fingers at Henri, snoring with vigour under the blankets, oblivious to everything, “I don’t know him well enough to know his sleeping patterns, but he does seem to be asleep.”
“Jolon is Jolon,” Teddy answered. “He’s always, well, Jolon.”
“Hmmm.” She shook her head. “Yes, that pretty much sums him up. Well, your father hopes to get an early start scrounging today, so you better rise, child. I’ll get breakfast going while you give yourself a cleaning. It’s your turn to bathe first, but hurry, mind you. Deb is wearing more muck on her than those dirt pies she’s always trying to make. Plus, Caden needs a good wash. It’ll refresh her and make her feel a little better.”
“How’s she doing this morning?” he asked, swinging himself out of his hammock.
“Stronger, I think. The coughing isn’t so bad, and she is less pale. You can sit with her for a while and tell her a story. She’d like that.”
He nodded and plucked a fresh shirt from his pile. She tossed him a towel as she left.
“Don’t use all the soap. We are almost out.”
Teddy stubbed his toe on the bed and yelped, but Henri only snored and rolled over. He put his towel around his neck and headed to the little room off the main space.
It was a bathroom from days gone by, but the water did not come from a tap to fill the tub. Instead, it dribbled in from a hose protruding through a hole in the wall, which led to a large metal container, which sat over a fire barrel in the kitchen. It functioned well except the system connected to an offshoot from a main pipe supplied by the Uppers. The valve was at their end, which meant they regulated when Underlings would get their water and how much. Pa rigged the bathtub, so the drain went to a filter system he had devised to make the water usable for longer. Still, he was restricted to a hand’s span of steamy water to bathe in.
To go first was a treat because the water was clean, but as each person washed up, they added a couple of inches to reheat the tub, so the last one got a full soak. It was a good system, a luxury most people did not possess. Most Underlings owned a drifting, pungent scent similar to rotting rats in a pile of crap, which arrived well before they appeared.
After he had washed, he dried off with a ratty towel decorated with shells and got dressed, wrapping his privates in a cloth he secured around his waist to make his pants more comfortable. Once, he managed to scrounge a wearable pair of briefs, but they wore out a while ago. Still, he never enjoyed the feeling of coarse trousers against the more sensitive parts of his skin. Rubbing his head, he bumped into Deb as he left the room. She grinned at him and held up a fragment of blobby yellow plastic with painted on eyes.
“Ducky and I are going swimming,” she said, slipping on the strange goggles Teddy had found her on one of his scrounges. They seemed to be a useless item in their world, but she loved to wear them under water.
“Wait for Ma before you go in,” he told her. “She needs to warm up the water first.”
She saluted him. “Yes, sir, I shall secure the area before the general gets here.” She started to sing, as loud as her lungs would let her, an odd tune their father had learned from his father. “I got the music in me, I got the music in me, I got the muuuusic in meeeee.”
Teddy laughed and thought of all those discs of ‘music’ he discovered, wondering if her song was on one of them and how a person got to listen. Somehow he doubted she was singing it right.
“Lovely, sweetheart,” his mother said as she passed him. “Breakfast is ready. Be sweet and bring some to Caden.”
Yawning, he cleared the sleep from his eyes. The bath refreshed him a little, but he was still so exhausted. He snagged a plate, put several pancakes with jam on it, and proceeded to Caden’s room as he munched his food.
She sat up in her bed, which took up most of the room. Deb decorated it with everything bright and colourful despite her objections. Bits of cloth of every colour stuck to the wall with pins and streamers dangled from the ceiling.
“Well, you’re missing all the fun,” Teddy told her as he put the plate on her blanket. “Fuel up. Ma will torture me if you don’t. This new?” he asked, glancing at the portrait of Pa displayed with all the other sketches on the wall.
Caden made a face but plucked a potatocake roll. “Yeah. Did it yesterday. What fun?”
“Oh, nothing much. We’re just working on a plan; that’s all.” She licked jam off her lip and arched her eyebrows.
“Who?”
He swallowed and snatched another cake. “Me, Jol, and Henri. It’s a surprise for you, and we’ll show you once you’re better, so rest and get well so you can join us.”
“Is that a pep talk? ‘Cause it sucks. Why Henri? He’s just a brute, a stranger.”
Teddy licked his fingers. “Yeah, but he’s pretty good. I mean, yeah, he’s all soft inside; he cares.”
“We don’t need a caring brute. They’re not supposed to possess feelings or anything human. He’s an enormous, overstuffed kitty with no claws. What good is he if we need to protect our home?”
She started coughing, and he gave her a tumbler of water.
“Don’t think of those problems. Doesn’t do you any good; won’t help.”
His sister dragged up her blanket and gave him a glare that was more hurt than annoyed. “What should I do, talk about bunnies and flowers as though I know what they are? I’m not you, Teddy. I can’t read books and make them come alive in my head. I haven’t got the imagination.”
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br /> “I’ll make them live for you,” he said though he wasn’t sure what he meant. It seemed to be the best answer he could give. “I’ll read to you, I’ll sketch them with you, I’ll dig holes in this wretched world until I find utopia for you.” He grasped her hand and stroked it. “Get better ‘cause you’re family, and I’m keeping my family. I’ll not lose any one of them.”
Caden stared at him for a second before she chuckled. “Jeepers, you’re a dose of drama, aren’t you? Next thing you know you’ll be as mushy as our brute.” She snatched a slip of paper by her desk and showed it to him. “That was on my pillow this morning when I woke up. Little creepy to think he was in here when I was sleeping, but it was kinda, and I do mean kinda, sweet.”
It was a card with balloons floating in a blue sky and the words ‘Get Well’ over the cream paper. Henri’s signature was scrawled in childish letters across the bottom. He must have found it when they were in the mall.
“Sweet,” he said with a grin.
She tossed the card aside. “Guess so, but don’t ever think I want more of this. In fact, you tell him I’m not in any way interested in his kindnesses. They freak me out.”
“If you want me to,” he said as he went to get up. The fatigue of his night out was beginning to weigh on him. He ached to snag a little more sleep before his father came looking for him.
Caden grasped his arm as he went to leave. “Well, tell him not to be too mushy.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I know; no bunnies.”
“What about bunnies?” Deb chirped as she bounced in the room looking fresh and sweet in her new little dress. “They sound cute. What are bunnies?”
“They’re the monsters living under the bed and nip at your toes when you won’t lie still at night,” Caden told her and Teddy hugged her as she squealed in terror.
“Don’t pay attention to her, Deb. Bunnies are adorable little creatures with long ears and fuzzy tails.”
“Pa’s looking for you,” Deb said and stuck her tongue out at Caden. “He says you are to meet him in the tank section by the tunnel door.”
He stifled a yawn and left them with a wave. So much for catching a little more rest. Still, they would be going back again, which meant exploring the sunshine area in full daylight. Full daylight with all those sky windows, the prospects fired up his spirit, and he quickened his pace.
“How can you be so hyper?” asked a disheveled Jolon as he sat at the table playing with a pancake.
“Pa’s going back in the tunnels,” he replied as he slung his stash on his back. His oxygen tank needed recharging, and Pa would question him on that. He guessed he could say he didn’t recharge it from the other day.
His brother shook his head as he slathered a heavy dose of jam on his potatocake. “Nah, he’s not.”
Teddy stopped in his tracks. “What do you mean? Ma said he wanted to spend most of the day there.”
“Change of plans. ’Parently, Mrs. Fish was here this morning going on about another cave-in, which took out a large part of the Nest, so we’re to get whatever cruddy supplies the Uppers don’t want and bring them to the survivors.”
“The Nest, huh? That’s going to be interesting.”
“Yeah, what will the Uppers do for cheap entertainment now?”
The cynicism in his brother’s voice was understandable, so Teddy ignored it. He had his own disappointments and issues to sort out. True, his goal was to save the rest of Undercity, but now he had to spend the day delivering mothy blankets and loads of potatocakes.
“Jolon, take your bath,” Ma ordered, bustling about mixing potato flour and water. “You stink like an old shoe.”
“The orphans won’t mind, Ma,” he said as he stood and licked his fingertips clean. “In fact, the odour might help them be more comfortable.”
She thrust her spatula at him. “Wash yourself.”
Teddy laughed until she turned her utensil in his direction. “You get to your father. There is much to do and few who are willing to assist, so go.”
He turned to escape, but she stopped him with a fling of her spoon, which almost covered him in potato batter. “And get the lump out of bed too. We need all hands today, strong ones.”
“How true, how true,” Mrs. Fish said as she entered their home.
A stringy lady with little muscle and warm, tawny skin, she had lots of head and mahogany hair. It was an odd picture that left him wondering how her neck could support so much, but she was kind despite how much she liked to talk. She swept her floor-length cloak, with its fading red flowers, around her.
“It is a horrible tragedy. I don’t know what we’ll do. The elder Underlings are talking of organizing their own government again to address such events. They plan on sending a delegation to meet with the council of Upperlords to ask for some aid and extra water. Doubt they will help. They seem to be determined to exterminate the Underlings, but they’d be in a stew, wouldn’t they? Who would do their work for them? They’d need to get dirty and dig for themselves.”
Taking up a spatula, she set about turning potatocakes with impressive efficiency. “A few of the other ladies are gathering some rat goop to take as well, but we’re short on bandages.”
Ma jabbed her spoon at him. “He and his brother can get that together if he ever gets over his wonderful imitation of a statue and gets on with things.”
Teddy got the hint and left to get Henri. His mother was one of the kindest, happiest people he ever met, but when serious work needed to be done, she became stern and efficient.
“Hey, Hen, we need you,” he said and kicked at the bed. The brute grunted and continued to snore. He kicked harder. “Heeennnnrriiiii, wake up, up, up,” he shouted. “My Ma is on her way armed with a spoon, and her skirt’s in a knot, so we’ve got to get going.”
“Huh, uhhnm?” he said, yawning with a smile on his face as though he was leaving a good dream.
“Come on; we’ve got to get moving. There’s been a cave-in and they need assistance.”
That got him started. He bolted upright, still clothed from last night’s adventure, and almost knocked Teddy over as he rushed to get out the room.
“Hey, wait up,” he called, scrambling after him. “You need breakfast first.”
Ma stepped in front of Henri and stuck her spoon under his large nose. “Eat; help after.” She tapped her utensil on a fresh plate of potatocakes. “Devour those, and then you two take these containers of food to the wagon. Pa is filling it with blankets and other supplies, and we’ll leave as soon as we can.”
Jolon ventured out of the bathroom somewhat cleaner than he was before. “Done, Ma. Water’s still warm.”
She flicked her spoon and showered the floor in remnants of potato. Her wild hair floated about her with a life of its own. “Later. You and Teddy cut up those rags in the bin by the stores of odd statues.” “Ma, you told me to take the potatocakes to the....”
“Just do it,” she said, rushing back to her stove.
“But I can’t do two things at once,” he protested, and she started to cry.
“Just, oh, I don’t know, my sweet. It’s all so...”
Mrs. Fish put an arm around her. “All right, dear, everything’s all right. Teddy isn’t trying to cause trouble. He’ll do the bandages with Jolon; the big guy can move the bins into the cart. All is well. Let’s you and I do the cooking.”
His mother nodded, and the boys escaped.
“Wow, this must be a bad one,” Jolon said as they entered the warehouse.
Mrs. Fish’s husband was stacking supplies in the wagon with Pa. His two sons were with them, taking things from the highest shelves with their long arms. They all had Mrs. Fish character traits—quite tall and strong with sizeable heads while Mr. Fish was stockier with broad shoulders, black hair, bronze skin, and a long beard. Teddy waved at them as he set to work cutting up the cloth with old scissors. He always liked them. They were funny and generous and helped him out a few times when he had been on his own.
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“I’ve never seen Ma in such a state,” Jolon added as he grasped some scissors.
“I think she’s worn out from existing like this.”
“We all are. That’s the good part of what we’ve found. Might mean freedom, right?”
Teddy bobbed his head in agreement. He hoped so, but he was scared. There was still tremendous risk in separating from the Upperlords and their horde of brutes.
“I suppose.”
“You suppose? Did you see that place or were we dreaming? It was stunning, and we didn’t get through the whole area.”
Teddy snipped and rolled, creating a large pile of multi-coloured bandages. “There’s still so much to explore, though, and.” His voice went soft as he leaned close. “And we don’t even know how safe the place is yet.”
His brother made a face. “Safe? Look what we’re doing; we’re making bandages to try and help a pit load of people injured in a cave-in. There’s no doctor, no nurses, no emergency people to pitch in, just us their neighbours. That’s it. I don’t think life can get worse.”
“All right, boys, that’ll have to do for now. Mrs. Fish is going to round up a couple of the younger kids to help, so you two can assist with the digging,” their mother said as she came up behind them. “Take what you can and let’s get going.”
They packed the cart with lanterns, blankets, food, and shovels, and dragged the worn wagon after their family as they left for the East Side. The wheels wobbled and creaked in protest of its load as they crossed the bridge. It took a while to get to their destination. Teddy rubbed his eyes as he went, wishing for an hour’s more sleep, but he started to see the toll the new cave in had taken on Undercity and he felt ashamed. People he knew, people he grew up with huddled in the gloom, crying and moaning. Rubble, broken beams, and broken people—the devastation was frightening. Cement dust filled the air and made breathing difficult.
Coughing, Teddy flicked on another lantern.
“Oh, hell,” Jolon said, gazing about. “This is going to be fun. Little light, bad air, and it’s hot. Jeeze, it’s hot.”