by A. M. White
“You might as well get used to the extra attention young lady. Not many young ladies made it through the end.” Elijah sat forward.
I wasn’t sure if I liked him or not. He had grandfatherly air, but the way he talked about my looks made me uncomfortable. I just smiled so as not to offend him. He obviously had some authority here.
“Timothy, how long do you expect to stay this time?” Elijah asked. He began coughing and spit into a handkerchief.
“Only tonight; we really need a good night’s rest,” he sighed.
“I am so looking forward to a good wash, too,” Cara jumped in.
“Help yourselves. I assume that the same type of accommodation will suffice? Same size, same price,” he clapped his hands and a teenage boy in rags materialized, “Chris, please take the payment from the nice man,” he ordered.
Timothy dug in Cara’s pack and produced a few pieces of gold jewelry. He handed them to the servant boy. Chris scampered away without a word.
I was a little surprised by the exchange. The initial greeting seemed friendly, but everything turned business, quickly.
Timothy promised to stop by before we left tomorrow and then he ushered Cara and me out the door. I walked in step with the other two. People were huddled around fires to cook. A loose dog trotted past us. This place was alive.
Cara slapped Timothy’s arm. “As good as that bath sounds I have a few things I got to pick up while I’m here.”
He turned to me and draped an arm over my shoulder He warned, “It is probably a good idea for you to stick close to me here. Elijah took a liking to you and that means the word will spread that there is a new, pretty girl in the village. Some guys like to prey on newborn girls like you.”
“Great! That is what people like me are called, newborn? Not to mention the men part gives me the creeps.” I watched my feet.
“I know, but wait till you sleep in a real bed again. It will make all those creeps worth it,” he teased.
“I have questions now,” I looked at his face.
“Ok, shoot,” he was calm.
“What is Elijah to this place?” I ventured.
“He is like the mayor or an innkeeper. He makes sure that everything runs and money is made for the village to stay running,” Timothy explained.
“What about the servant, Chris?” I went on.
“He is an orphan. Elijah makes sure he is taken care of. It might not look great, but the kid has his needs met and he isn’t alone in the world. He would die on his own,” he replied.
I nodded, but still wondered if that was better than being a slave to Elijah. I had been a slave and I had felt like I was dying from the inside. It was slow and I had forgotten what it was like to be alive. I was still trying to remember.
We made our way through a maze of people trying to barter goods. Everything from livestock to produce was shoved in our faces. There were women of questionable morals advertising themselves in little clothing. Men sat around barrels on wooden stools drinking some type of alcohol. I was sure of the alcohol because of their boisterous and animated demeanors.
I allowed Timothy to pull me into his side. It felt safer to be as close to him as I could get. A few men stared at me in a way that made me uneasy. One yelled an obscene cat call at me. Timothy raised his head to make sure the man saw his eyes. The man shut up.
Timothy guided me to a small shelter. He held the door for me. I was a little nervous about us being alone together. He had been kind and empathetic, but I also had to remember I was a meal ticket for Cara and him.
Chapter Eleven
The whole shack consisted of two rooms. The first room was a sitting room with a couple of wooden chairs and an old scavenged couch. There was a large metal tub near a lit fireplace at the far end of the room. I collapsed onto the couch. It felt so good to sit on something soft.
Timothy disappeared into the back room, checking it out. Upon his return, he announced that there were only two beds. He pursed his lips, “I forgot to ask for a place with three beds”.
“I will be fine right here,” I sighed, “Compared to what I have been sleeping on the last couple of years, I’ll take it.”
He took a seat across from me. He asked, “Are you sure? I don’t feel like that is the gentlemanly thing to do.”
I giggled, “Don’t worry, you have been chivalrous enough.”
“Ok, but then you get first dibs on the bath.” He stood. “I’ll go find someone to fill the tub for you.”
“Mmmm. Deal,” I muttered.
Timothy laughed at me and left. I pulled off my boots and laid flat on the couch. I didn’t even care that it smelled a little musty. The light from the one window in the room caught dust particles in a way that looked like glitter. The outside business was muffled through the walls. My eyes felt heavy.
Timothy returned with clean linens and a young girl carrying two large pails. She was thin and hardened from exposure. Her rags and submissive disposition gave away that she was a servant. My heart sank at the thought.
Timothy placed the linens on the hearth. He introduced us, “Alex, this is Mira; she is going to make you a lovely warm bath.”
“That sounds wonderful.” I sat up and waited to be told what to do next.
Mira poured the steamy water into the metal tub. “Ma’am, I’ll be right back with more water and some soap for you.” She bowed in my direction and was gone.
I raised an eyebrow at Timothy. “I’m not sure how I feel about the whole servant situation,” I confessed.
“Do you wish to not bathe in protest?” He smirked.
“Try and stand in my way.” I tried to sound bold but I really wanted him to get out of my way. I had no intention of exposing myself in front of him, even if it was harmless.
“I am going to go find us some food. Cara might be back before me, let her know.” He backed out of the door, “oh, wrap in a sheet on the hearth, I arranged for someone to wash our clothes.”
“Timothy, you are my hero,” I joked.
Mira shuffled back in the room with more hot water. She pulled a bar of soap from her apron and placed it by the linens.
“I will leave you to it,” she nodded. “Be back in a while to change the water.” She gave me a strange look.
“Thank you,” I cooed.
It felt so good to be in a place like this. I stood and began to pull off my clothes. The heat of the water stung, but it also soothed my cold bones. My leg ached and I inspected my scar. It had a way of reminding me it was there.
I sank down into the water slowly, moaning the whole way. I couldn’t have imagined a better feeling in the world. The sounds from the village could still be heard through the walls to remind me I wasn’t completely alone.
I scrubbed years of grime from my skin. We were only allowed sponge baths in the camp. My hair and scalp stripped of the soil and sweat. I was me again, well, as close as I could get to the old me.
Cara barged in the front door. I sloshed around making sure I was covered. She shut the door and gave me a frown. “Aw man, you beat me to it,” she whined.
“It’s ok, Timothy is having the girl switch out the water for each of us,” I offered.
“He is such a good man, eh?” She joked, but stopped quickly, “Speaking of, where is that bugger?”
I nodded, with the towel wrapped around myself modestly, “He went to find us food.”
“The man is a genius," she giggled. “I’ll grab your linen for you.”
She plopped her full knapsack to the floor. Cara grabbed a bleached white sheet from the hearth and stretched it open.
She turned her head, “I won’t look. Good grief, you better hurry before Timothy gets back if you are that worried about anyone seeing you in there.”
I quickly got out and wrapped myself in the sheet. The water was a muddy brown, which surprise me. Cara dragged a chair over to the fireplace for me. Wow, she was actually being thoughtful.
“Thank you,” I smiled and basked in the he
at of the fire.
“So, what’s the sleeping situation?” Cara walked into the other room.
“No worries, I called the couch,” I stated.
I heard her throw herself onto one of the beds. She groaned loudly. I smiled; it felt good to not be the only one excited about the little things.
Mira came back and began to prepare the tub for Cara. Cara wasn’t as bashful about getting into the bath. She stripped and got in quickly. She didn’t seem at all fazed by Mira and I being in the room.
Mira kept her head down and avoided looking at Cara. I found it odd that she didn’t acknowledge Cara. I decided it was about time to start asking some of the tough questions. Maybe I would talk to Timothy after dinner.
Timothy looked so proud of himself, returning with smoked chicken, corn on the cob, and leaven bread. Cara waved us into the other room to eat so she could bathe. We sat on the beds inhaling the food, grunting and moaning while we quickly savored it.
“Thank you," I stopped to lick my fingers, “for all of this.”
“Alex, we all needed this. A little civilization in our lives to remind us why we are running,” Timothy grinned. He tore some meat from the bone.
“I think it is time for me to know,” I felt like I was invading by asking.
“I know. The guy in the market and Mira kind of brought the issue back up, huh?” Timothy mumbled. He stared at his food.
“Kind of,” I replied. “It’s easy to forget that you aren’t like me but then you do something that a normal person couldn’t. Like, carry me running through the forest faster than anything I’ve seen.”
“I will take that as a compliment. It took some time to adapt to your ways.” He picked at the chicken bone. He slowly answered, “We come from them, under the earth.”
Chapter Twelve
I had known deep down, but the confirmation was still shocking. The thought was different from reality. I looked up at him and he met my gaze. He looked me over. I think he was waiting for a scream, or me to run, or pass out, or something.
I swallowed, “Ok, how?” It was all I could manage.
“Cara and I were part of a colony under the earth. It is further down than any of you can drill or tunnel. Our people had been planning to come to the surface for some time. Your people had to know there was something going on down there. For instance, the frequent earthquakes and tidal waves; they were from our explosives, expanding in areas closer to the surface,” Timothy explained. He lay back on the bed.
I nodded. This did make sense. In the years before the first real roar, earthquakes and tidal waves had occurred more and more often. Many people died, from what we believed were natural disasters.
He went on. “We had been taught to believe that one day the earth would be ours. From birth, we were indoctrinated to believe that the people on the surface would kill the Earth. Unfortunately, your people lived up to that. We were made to watch scenes of your wars, famine, pollution, an all other human evil. It was a form of brainwashing.”
My head sank even further. I couldn’t look at him. As a human race, we had messed up. We fought over a million things, land, resources, religion, and many even pettier reasons. We allowed people to starve to death. I remembered children on television starving with their bellies distended.
Many of our oceans were over fished. People had screwed up and there had been oil flowing in to our earth’s greatest resource. I even recalled visiting a beach and carrying grocery bags to pick up trash left by other people during the day, filling them over and over. We had been slowly killing the planet we inhabited.
“I understand that,” I agreed, “but your people killed us for our mistakes and they are using us as slaves!”
“I know,” Timothy looked at me, “some of us found out about that. A few of my people played a video cast of the initial roar. I couldn’t allow that to happen to a whole race of people. It was sickening to think we did that. I knew the scale of what we did immediately. That’s when I met Cara. She had worked along healers and often carried correspondence for them. She found me in our colony. Cara had been looking at her messages and new a lot more about the plans for your people than I did.”
Cara entered the room wrapped in her sheet. She interrupted, “We were part of a regimented life. I knew something wasn’t right. I guess my moral compass took over.” She sat on the bed next to me.
Timothy smiled at her, “It wasn’t right. Long story short, we decided to defect and leave it all behind,” he said reassuringly.
“The best way we could help and survive was this,” Cara pointed at me.
“So all of this is so your kind can live on the surface?” I asked.
Timothy answered, “Yes, they truly believe that in order to save our world, they have to.”
“The solution was to kill billions of people?” I was disgusted.
Cara looked at me right in my eyes. “Alex, you know the Earth can’t go on the way it is. However, the way they are going about it is wrong.”
Cara put her hand on mine. I wanted to pull mine away, but it felt good to have been touched.
“So, you are running from them too? You defected?” I probed.
“Yes, if we end up back with them, they will kill us”, Cara admitted. She looked at her lap, “We are the most hated of our kind. They can’t control us with the roar. We know their technology and healing recipes. That is how we rescued you. We were able to tap in to the roar and send our message to you.”
I looked at her in amazement. I was sitting beside someone that had not seen the light of day growing up.
Again, they confirmed my belief that they were not like me. I had heard their story and they had given me the chance to form my own opinion of them.
Cara rubbed my hand and spoke softly, “Why don’t you rest? I think that is enough for today.”
I got up and staggered to the couch. My eyes fluttered while Mira readied the bath for Timothy. She moved mechanically about the room. I wanted to ask her about the others. How had she survived? How had she come to being a bath maid?
Instead, I rolled over on the couch, my nose against the cushions. The sun had disappeared below the horizon a long time ago. I heard Timothy fumbling with his clothes and sinking into the tub. I drifted into sleep.
My dreams took me beneath the Earth. People were chipping away and moving the ground inside tunnels. The people looked like us, except their eyes were white. They were completely white, the opposite of Cara’s and Timothy’s.
A woman walked between the workers and a horn sounded. The people turned and made their way to a large cavern. Enormous screens came to life with images. Most were of landscapes void of people’s influence. Mountains hovered in the distance, beaches remained unscathed, and plains spread across golden horizons.
“This is what we work for! This is our Earth! We will no longer be chained by the restraints of dirt and the darkness of our tunnels!” a voice boomed, an applause erupted and the vision changed view. From above the cavern, I saw the immense crowd below. There were more people than there were stars in the sky.
I awoke with a start. Timothy hovered over me.
It was dark and I clutched the sheet to me.
“Sh, it’s ok. I just wanted you to go outside with me,” he beckoned.
“What are you doing?” I mumbled. My eyes were trying to come into focus.
His eyes weren’t black as they were before. They were completely white. It shocked me and I sat back on the couch.
“Wha- what?” I stuttered.
“I want you to see me and I want to explain,” he held out a hand to me.
Reluctantly, I took his offered hand. His face urged me to follow. He pulled me to the door, a finger over his lips, telling me to stay quiet. Our feet padded on the raised wood.
Outside, he sat on the porch and motioned for me to sit next to him. I looked around; there was still noise coming from the market area. The barrels still flowed with ale, I supposed. I sat down.
; “I can tell you neither of us have ever had someone we were saving actually save one of us. I really meant it when I thanked you. It was a shock to me that one of you would do that for us,” he whispered.
“I had to Timothy, you two are taking me to my new home,” I admitted.
He nodded, “But, I had always rescued weak people. You have no idea how many times I have risked my own life-- that Cara has risked hers.” He shook his head, “I know this is a lot for you to come to terms with, but I am beginning to realize that you are a lot stronger than I expected.”
I blurted, “Now, you can begin with why your eyes are white?”
He rubbed his eyes, “I wanted to show you. These are my real eyes. We wear dark tinted contacts most of the time. The sun is too much for us. Coming from generations beneath the Earth, we have evolved to this. We can see in the dark but the light blinds us. We have to wear thick tinted contacts.”
I took a deep breath, “This is a lot for me. I just had a dream that your eyes were like that.”
A strange look spread across his face and he rubbed the scar on the back of his hand. “I know it is probably overwhelming, but I think you are stronger than most of the people we run across. Most are afraid or angered that we come from the people that did this.” He explained.
“I get it. I’m just not sure how to feel right now. I am alone is this world until I find out who paid you to come for me,” I said, harsher than I meant.
Timothy reached for my hand, “Right now, I am glad I was paid to save you.”
I stood, “I appreciate that. I have a lot to sort out. You have to remember, I lost my family. You don’t know the things I have seen.”
Timothy bowed his head. “I can only guess,” he related.
I went back to my couch. I stared at the tub. Timothy came through the door and went straight to bed. Being woken up had startled me enough that I couldn’t go back to sleep. I restlessly dozed off and on for hours.
At some point, our clothes had been brought back. They were stacked in one of the chairs. I retrieved mine and hurriedly dressed. I decided I was going to sneak out. Maybe I could find Mira and get a human perspective of what this world had become. She obviously had seen things by the way she reacted around them.