Lovers of Babel

by Valerie Walker

  Crap.

  When we made it back to my living room it was night and the moon was out and full as ever.

  “I can’t believe that actually worked.”

  “Where’s my knife?”

  I handed Chad his knife and flopped down on the couch exhausted.

  “So what happens next?”

  “It’s time for Mia to make the transformation,” I said.

  “Do you think she’s going to change her mind about that?”

  “I hope not. I know she wants me to ask my father for permission to go with you, but I don’t want to. I already know what he’ll say: ‘Sage, you have no business leaving our jurisdiction. It’s too dangerous. Your future is too precious to risk.’”

  “So are you going to lie to her and tell her that you asked your dad?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  The next day we met Mia in the Mammoth Forest. The hidden sun was shining brighter than usual causing the sky to glow in a salmon radiance. We gathered around the aurora pond and watched the glowing fish as they swam in circles.

  “So how was your journey to the past?” Mia asked.

  “It was very strange,” Chad said.

  “We discovered a whole new world. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. We know where the Book of Wisdom is now,” I said.

  “That’s great, guys! But what exactly is this new world?”

  “We aren’t completely sure yet, but they are nothing like us. They don’t have powers, don’t use technology and they dress weird,” Chad said.

  “Wow. I thought we were the only people who existed out here.”

  “So did everyone else. We think there’s something that the Authorities aren’t telling us.”

  “How could anyone make it outside of the grid and not be caught by the Authorities?” Mia asked.

  “That’s why we’re going back there. We need to find out who those people are and what they want with the Book of Wisdom,” I said.

  Mia placed her palm against the surface of the pond.

  “Did you ask your father if you could go with Chad?”

  I paused.

  “He said it would be too dangerous. I told you Mia, my father would never let me go.”

  Mia stood up and walked over to a willow tree and pulled down on a branch.

  “So I guess that means you guys still need me to become Sage.”

  We looked at her.

  “Do you realize how dangerous this is? We could be sent to prison!”

  Chad walked over to her.

  “Don’t you want to find out what’s going on? Why there’s another civilization besides our own and what this book is all about?”

  “Look, I know we play around a lot, but this is serious. We need to do this to uncover the truth. I just have a sinking feeling that we’re all being deceived,” I said.

  “What about your chip? Even if I do transform into you, you’d still be traceable on the grid.”

  “As long as you pretend to be me and everything remains the same they’ll have no reason to look for me.”

  She was pacing around thinking hard.

  There was a long silence. Chad and I were looking at her hoping she’d agree to commit identity theft.

  “And what happens if I get caught?”

  “You won’t. You’re the best transformer in Power School. Plus, you know me well enough to impersonate me.”

  “What will I tell my parents?”

  “School’s out for the summer. Don’t you go to mimicry camp every year? That lasts about a month. That’ll give us plenty of time to make it back from the journey,” Chad said.

  “I’m supposed to leave for camp in a few days actually.”

  “Perfect. We’ll meet back here after you say goodbye to your family.”

  I walked over to Mia and placed my hands on her shoulders.

  “Thank you. I promise you won’t regret this no matter what happens. And hey you never know we just might save the world.”

  Three days later we were back in the forest and it was nighttime. The moon was crescent and it peeked through the trees in a comforting cradle. We all stood in a circle looking at each other as though our lives were about to be changed forever.

  “Okay Mia. Let’s see how well you can mimic Sage.”

  Mia stood in front of me and her skin color begin to darken. Chad was inspecting the changes to make sure they were precise.

  “A little darker.”

  When her skin was the color of caramel she stopped.

  “Now for the freckles,” Chad said.

  This was the hard part because I had so many freckles and they were scattered randomly across my cheeks. Mia had to be totally precise because if she missed the smallest detail someone could notice and ruin our plans.

  Mia stood closer to me and inspected my face.

  Her cheeks began to dot with random freckles. Chad was also watching closely and was coaching her on where to put certain freckles. I began to feel like a science experiment.

  “Okay, I think you got every single freckle on her face. Now, for the hair.”

  “That’s easy,” Mia said.

  She ran her hands through her straight black hair and it began to kink up and coil around her fingers. I was staring at my twin.

  “And finally for the eyes. This part needs to be perfect,” Chad said.

  My twin was staring me down. I could see her irises morphing into hazel and green pigments.

  Chad looked at her and then at me.

  “Wow. This is freaky.”

  “Did I do good?”

  “Well you have her appearance down perfectly, but remember that Sage’s voice isn’t as high as yours. Put a little rasp in there when you speak.”

  “Like this?” Mia said in her feeble attempt at sounding raspy.

  “Uh. Close enough.”

  The wind was picking up and we heard the rustling of the tree tops hovering over our heads.

  “Your parents think you’re at camp and there’s no possible way they’ll go looking for you, right?” Chad said.

  “Right. I told them that I’d call once a week to give them an update on how I’m doing, so that should be enough.”

  “Good. So, the only thing that’s left to do is go to Sage’s house and drop you off. Are you ready?”

  “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Wait, before we go. Can I talk to you really fast?” I said.

  I brought Mia to the side to give her my final words of advice.

  “While you pretend to be me for a while I think I should give you a few pointers to make it easier. My father and I aren’t incredibly close so he shouldn’t bother you too much. My mother likes to talk to me about what’s going on in my life, but you know everything so you shouldn’t have trouble answering her questions. My grandfather visits occasionally and likes to tell me stories. Just listen to him. If you get bored I have a secret room underneath my bed with tons of created things. I keep them there because they’re some of my best work, but some of them are against jurisdiction. Mia I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am –“

  “You don’t have to thank me, Sage. I knew I was going to help you guys the moment you asked. Just be careful on your journey. I don’t know how long I could keep your façade without being found out.”

  “We will.”

  I hugged her and it felt like I was hugging myself. She really was the best transformer in school. She was also braver than she let on.

  “Okay, guys, we should get out of here,” Chad said.

  We stood in a circle holding hands and were standing in the center of my room within seconds.

  I immediately ran to my door and locked it.

  “Usually at this time of night I stay in my room reading or watching the holovision set,” I said.

  “Okay, I need to use the bathroom really quick. I’ll be right back.”

  Mia left the room and Chad and I stood there in silence, thinking.

  Sud
denly I heard my mother’s voice calling me from downstairs.

  “Let me go see what she wants.”

  My mom was asking me about my day and I couldn’t help feeling sad. I was going to miss her, but I had to pretend that I’d wake up and see her the next day. The truth was that I wouldn’t see her for a long time. The next time she’d see the real Sage, the real Sage would be a different person.

  While I was bonding with my mother downstairs over lemon cookies, Mia walked back into my room and closed the door. I wondered if Chad would ever get us confused; after all, Mia did an excellent job of mimicking me.

  About fifteen minutes later I saw Mia leave my room again. She had her head lowered and her mouth open as if she was in shock. What did she and Chad talk about?

  My mother wanted to go into my room and say goodbye to Chad before he left. I looked upstairs towards my room and saw Mia still standing outside my room. As we walked up the staircase I tried to make as much noise as possible so that Mia would hear us coming and hide. When we got to my door, thankfully, she wasn’t there. I slowly turned the doorknob to my room.

  I peeked my head inside to see if Mia was there, but there was only Chad sitting on the foot of my bed with his head in his hands.

  “Sage, I’ve seen your room in worse conditions. Let me in,” my mom pushed through the door.

  “Oh, hi Chad!” She said.

  Chad looked up slightly confused.

  “H-hi Mrs. Riley.”

  “I hear you’re going on your journey soon. Have you chosen your travel companions?”

  “Uh, yes. They’re actually waiting on me right now. I came to say goodbye to Sage.”

  “Aw, well, we’re sad to see you go, but we know you’ll succeed. This will do wonders for your reputation as a teleporter, you know. I’m so proud of you Chad and I know Sage is too,” my mom said.

  There was a long silence. We were all contemplating the seriousness of the mission that Chad was about to embark on. Chad was given license to travel beyond the jurisdiction of the Equinox which was something that no one was allowed to do; not since the beginning. He was only sixteen, but he was fierce and brave. The only thing that worried me was the fact that I was his only travel companion. We couldn’t have anyone else come with us for risk of my father finding out that I had left.

  “Well, I’ll leave you two alone to say your goodbyes,” my mother touched Chad’s face gently then walked out.

  Chad stood up and gave me a serious look. I raised my eyebrows oblivious to the reason.

  “Sage. Please say something.”

  “Say what?” I said obliviously.

  Chad looked at me visibly shaken.

  “Well, I-I-“

  He was rubbing the back of his neck in disbelief.

  “What are you talking about, Ch-“

  Suddenly, Mia walked in and Chad looked stunned. I studied his expression.

  “What’s with the face? Do you know what’s going on here?” I asked Mia.

  “Um, I have no idea. I was just in the bathroom brushing up on my transformation. I heard your mom in your room so I decided to hide out for a while,” Mia looked at Chad.

  “What’s gotten into you?” I asked.

  “It’s nothing. I think I might be coming down with a slight cold. Sorry, I just feel a little light-headed.”

  He sat back down on my bed looking forlorn.

  “I can take it from here. You guys need to go quickly so you can get back sooner. I wouldn’t want you to delay your trip any longer.”

  “You’re right, but Chad looks like he just saw a ghost. Should we let him rest first?”

  “No. No, I’m fine Sage, really. Let’s just go. We’ll teleport to the edge of the grid and journey to the new world. Hopefully, we make it halfway there by midday tomorrow. We can sleep along the way,” Chad said.

  “Goodbye, Mia. Take care of…me.”

  Chad walked over to Mia and gave her a long hug. I heard him whisper something to her. It sounded like he said “don’t tell,” but I wasn’t sure.

  “Bye, Mia. Thanks for everything.”

  “Be safe, you guys. And don’t take too long. Find the book then get out of there.”

  That would prove to be much harder than we thought.

  Chapter 5: Journey Beyond the Grid

  Before we set off on our journey Chad and I made sure we had all the proper supplies that we might need: retractable tents, dried up space food, H2O inhaler, a book on silent hexes, a few pairs of fresh underwear, compass, mini lasers to make fire, and plenty of other things that we may need in that abyss beyond the grid.

  Chad and I had no idea what to expect. It was a crime to cross the Equinox jurisdiction, but Chad had been given special permission from my father. I, on the other hand, was about to commit a crime punishable by a lifetime of imprisonment. The only thing that was protecting me from getting found out was Mia’s mimicry, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me in the clear. I, along with every Equinoxian citizen, had a chip in my eye that was implanted there when I was just an infant. If by some reason the Authorities decided to track my whereabouts they would see that I was no longer on the grid. And when they would discover this they would hunt me down. Being the leader’s daughter wasn’t amnesty for this type of crime. I suspected that my father would grant me forgiveness if I was caught, but my father was all about setting examples. The greatest example to his citizen droids would be the imprisonment of his precious daughter.

  Chad and I grabbed our backpacks, put them on and said our final goodbyes to Mia.

  “Take care of my mother. Try to stay out of the spotlight for a while. I’ll try to bring you a souvenir,” I said.

  “Thank you.”

  “We’ll miss you.”

  “I’ll miss you guys too.”

  I grabbed Chad’s hand as we stood side by side on the ocean carpet. Then, we were gone. The trek to the edge of the grid was a few minutes longer than usual. At first, it felt like we were suspended in a kaleidoscope of bright light, and then we were standing on the edge of a cliff.

  “So this is the edge of the grid. The edge of the grid is the edge of a cliff. Typical.”

  We looked out toward the space beyond and saw nothing but darkness. It was night and the stars were out, but even the stars didn’t brighten the abyss.

  “Should we find a spot to climb down?” I said.

  “No. I think we should wait until morning to start climbing. It’s way too dark out there.”

  We walked a few feet away from the edge and pitched a tent. The air outside was cool with a slightly warm breeze coming from the world beyond.

  At first we laid there on our backs in silence.

  Then I spoke.

  “What do you think is out there?”

  “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s mysterious enough to hide under the dark of night.”

  The sound of morning birds woke us. They were created to alert the sleeping Equinox to the morning when the light from the distant sun was too dim for day.

  I shoved a grainy earth bar in my mouth and crawled outside our tent for a better look at the abyss.

  What I saw nearly made me choke on my breakfast.

  “Chad!”

  “What?” he said groggily.

  “You’re going to want to see this.”

  Chad peaked his head out the tent and his sleepy expression transformed into shock.

  “What is it?”

  Chad crawled out the tent and stood by me.

  “It’s what they in the old age called a desert.”

  There was no vegetation that we could see from the high cliff. The ground was brown and dusty and there were mounds of dirt that dipped and curved for miles into the distance.

  I looked back toward the Equinox and saw vast vegetation. The trees were white as snow and as tall as giants. I stared out into the abyss and it was like two worlds had somehow fused together. There was no gradual change in the environment from the Equinox to the abyss. It
was simply a cliff that separated our world from a desert wasteland.

  “Are you ready, Sage?”

  I paused for a while taking in the unfamiliar territory that I was about to enter.

  “I’m ready.”

  We gathered our tent that folded nicely into a small bag and started walking along the edge of the cliff looking for a way down. After a few minutes we came across a series of stones that were jutting out of the cliff toward the bottom. The cliff was hundreds of feet high and the climb down looked daunting.

  “It looks like this is our only way down. How about it?”

  I looked in my backpack and grabbed the rope that I packed at the last minute.

  “Here, we’ll use this. Wrap it around your waist and I’ll do the same.”

  After we were bound together, Chad wrapped the end of the rope to a nearby tree and tied it tightly. There was enough rope to get us down to the bottom.

  Chad started climbing first taking cautious steps. Once he was far enough down I began my descent. I lowered myself to a steady pace, keeping an eye on the trees that were once our shelter. As they began to rise out of my eye line with each descending step, a fear began to grow inside of me. When they were gone and all I could see was the rocks and formations on the cliff I knew that my world was going to be changed forever.

  “How are you doing up there?” Chad yelled.

  “I’m okay. Just trying to take my time.”

  My hands were beginning to chafe from the rocks.

  About twenty minutes later Chad made it down to the sand.

  “You can do it, Sage! You only have a few more steps.”

  The truth was, I had more like a few more feet left. My hands were burning and my palms were cut and bruised.

  “I don’t think I can go any further! My hands are slipping!”

  “Just take a break then. Try to prop yourself up using your legs!”

  That was impossible because the cliff was at a perfect 90 degree angle and was too steep to rest my body.

  I stepped down onto another rock and then suddenly my hand slipped. I was holding on with only my left hand while the other arm was dangling out.