Escape from Paradise

by D. Richard Ferguson

  Kailyn waited in silence.

  Adam sighed. “One of your people came into the city once and told me, ‘Don’t touch the gold.’ I have often wondered why she said that. Tonight especially. After ... some things that happened, I couldn’t get her words out of my head, and I’ve been trying to make sense of them. I know it sounds silly, but when something is on my mind, it seems like I can think more clearly when I get away from the gold. That’s why I’m out here.”

  Kailyn smiled and swung her legs around to face the city.

  Adam hesitated, then turned to look as well. Light from the moon glinted off the buildings.

  “What do you see?” she asked.

  Adam sat in silence, gazing at the city.

  Kailyn gave him a few moments, then leaned toward him and widened her eyes. “Well?”

  “I see ... gold.”

  “What else?”

  Adam paused, then frowned. “I see a place where thousands will wake up in a few hours and scurry around in a frenzy, accomplishing nothing. We move things, count things, buy, sell, work, rest—and we build beautiful buildings that fall on us, and we die.”

  Adam’s gaze dropped to the boulder, suddenly repulsed by the slumbering metropolis.

  “Sorry. I’m usually not this cynical. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Guess I’m just ... tired.”

  “It’s not because you’re tired. It’s because you can see now. You’re right about the gold. Being near it does cloud your vision. You’ve been out here, what, an hour? And you can already see how pointless your life is.”

  “Well, aren’t you little Miss Sunshine.”

  “No,” she said with a hint of a smile. “I told you—KAI-lyn.”

  Adam tried to read her face. Was that a child-like misunderstanding or mature humor?

  “Right,” Adam said, “your new name. Why did you change it?”

  “I’m not the one who changed it. Everyone who goes through the cottage gets a new name.”

  “What if they don’t want a new name? I don’t think I would. I like my name.”

  “Of course you like the name you’ve always had, because you’re still the person you’ve always been. But when you become a new person, your old name will no longer fit and you will come to hate it.”

  “Sounds like people who go there lose their identity. Why would anyone want that? I wouldn’t. I may not be the man I ought to be in some ways, but—”

  “You don’t lose your identity. You gain it. Right now, your identity is corrupted. When it is renewed, you’ll be what you were created to be.”

  Adam eyed Kailyn for a long moment. “The things you say ... you don’t really talk like a child.”

  Kailyn frowned. “Do I look like a child to you?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. No, you’re a big girl. Very mature. And you—”

  “Never mind,” she said. “It doesn’t matter right now. Just come with me to the cottage and you’ll understand.” She stood and hopped down off the boulder.

  Adam didn’t move.

  “I know a direct route. We could be there in two days if we hurry.” She motioned with her arm. “Come on.”

  “I ... don’t know. I have a lot of work—”

  She planted her hands on her hips. “Moving things around and counting them?”

  Adam frowned. “You don’t realize what you’re asking. My life is in the city. And I have enough gold now to buy anything I want.”

  “Like what?”

  “Anything. I can buy tools for work—”

  “Your work of moving things and—”

  “Not just work. We have entertainment in the city. We have flocks of birds with glorious colors. Whenever I need a break or just want to have some fun I—”

  “You enjoy some amusement. And what does that do for you?”

  “It gives me rest so I can have energy to ...” Adam hesitated, not wanting to hear her repeat the description of his meaningless job a third time.

  “You work and you have fun.” Her eyes widened, “But what about adventure?”

  “Adventure?” It was a new word for Adam, yet somehow he had an idea what it meant.

  “The city is obsessed with fun,” she said, “not adventure. That’s because fun is safe. Adventure isn’t.”

  “If it isn’t safe, why—”

  “Because adventure has higher stakes. The potential for great joy comes only when pursuing things of great value. But that means exposing yourself to the risk of great loss. Fun has little risk of loss and provides only the shallowest gain.

  But I must warn you,” she added. “Attaining great gain also awakens dangerous enemies.”

  “Right now I don’t care about fun or adventure. You said something about going home. Tell me more about that.”

  “That’s the adventure I’m talking about. I can show you the way, but it’s not an easy path. Not everyone makes it.”

  “Not everyone? There are ... others trying to find their way home?”

  “Your family, Adam.”

  He turned and studied the creek. Is it possible this strange little child has met my family? Could they be trapped here too? Did some of them ... not make it?

  “I’ll be honest. Finding my way home is something I gave up on some time ago. Or at least I tried. But thoughts of my family never go away. It’s like they’re built into me.”

  Adam tossed a pebble into the creek. “You asked why I came out here. Same reason I always come—to find peace.”

  He pointed to the churning rapids. “That’s what my life is like—tumbling, random chaos. It’s why I love watching the river. It calms me. The sounds, the motion, the complexity and simplicity. It’s like a metaphor of my life in some ways.”

  Kailyn picked up a stick and climbed back up to where Adam stood. They watched the rapids in silence for a few moments.

  She looked down at the placid eddy created by their boulder. “Is that what you want your life to be?”

  Adam watched the moonlight glisten off the smooth, quiet surface of the eddy. “I would give all the gold in my house for that.”

  Kailyn pointed with the stick. “Do you see where the slow upstream movement of the eddy collides with the downstream current coming around the rock? They call that an eddy fence.”

  She tossed the stick into the eddy. They both watched as it floated gently upstream toward the boulder. When it met with the eddy fence, the stick tumbled a couple times, was carried several yards downstream by the main current, and was pulled back into the eddy where it drifted toward the rock again.

  The cycle repeated a dozen times. Finally, the stick caught in a swirl along the eddy fence and was pulled under.

  Minutes passed. Adam shifted his weight as his eyes darted about the eddy to see if the stick would reappear.

  “Do you think it ...” Adam looked up. Kailyn was nowhere in sight. He stood and climbed off the boulder. She was gone.

  Adam peered into the darkness to the west. What’s out there?

  *****

  High in the western mountains, a man named Watson and his friend Layth waited in a cavernous hallway within the Ruler’s headquarters as the high country wind howled outside.

  Normally, Watson’s profound intellect was sufficient to solve whatever challenge he faced. But now he could only stare at the glistening marble floor, powerless to help the woman he so dearly loved. He winced with each scream emanating from the other side of the door. But this was part of the training, and she had to go through it alone.

  Layth nodded toward the sign above the door. “She’ll be strong. You’ll see.”

  Watson looked at the sign and touched the patch covering the eye he lost behind that same door. Layth was right, of course. Neither of the men would have survived the battles in the lowlands without the training. And the war to come would require strength, skill, and whatever weapon Abigail was learning to use in that room.

  Another of Abigail’s screams penetrated the door. Both men looked again at the sign: Ro
om of Delights. Every room Watson had explored in this building had served to prepare him for the war, but none had been more painful—or more crucial than this one.

  “Thank you for coming,” Watson said. “This mission could prove exceptionally perilous. And there is no one I would rather have fighting beside me than you.”

  Layth smiled through his red, bushy beard, lifted his massive, scar-patched arm and squeezed Watson’s shoulder.

  Watson couldn’t help but grin whenever he saw Layth’s untamable red hair, which insisted on lunging in every direction like a wildfire burning on his head. He considered it a fitting metaphor of Layth’s unpredictable and devastating heroics on the battlefield. Watson had many times seen the enemy run in terror at Layth’s arrival.

  What a comical contrast the two of us comprise, he thought. Watson knew his slender build and neatly trimmed beard struck terror in the heart of no one. He could only hope his analytical skills and knowledge of the enemy’s tactics would prove helpful on this mission.

  At last, Abigail emerged from the room, her smiling face still bleeding.

  “Did you receive your weapon?” Watson asked.

  “You’re looking at it,” she said.

  “It’s a good one,” Layth remarked. “Perfect for you.”

  Watson nodded in agreement. “What is the mission?”

  “The most recent collapse in the city revealed a point of vulnerability,” she said. “There is already an operation underway to exploit it, but forces are gathering to defend the city. We are to assist the operation and bring those who are vulnerable here before the city rebuilds its defenses.”

  “Ah yes. And assume Layth will be join—”

  “No. Only the two of us for now. The Ruler doesn’t want us to ...” she turned to Layth and smiled, “attract attention.”

  Chapter 5

  Levi Lamar had hoped to be out of sight before they noticed the bag was missing. But the woman spotted him and alerted the others. Now it was a foot race.

  Normally, leaving this bunch in the dust would have been easy. Levi could run like the wind. But the bag of plunder he stole slowed him down.

  There is no way I’m getting out of here with this bag. Where can I stash it?

  He considered facing his pursuer. The man had forty pounds on Levi but was older and slower. I bet I can take him.

  Even if he couldn’t, he would rather lose a fight than run from one. But were there others? He didn’t want to risk losing the plunder. Decent food was a lot harder to come by here in the high country, and this fruit would keep him supplied for days.

  He made it across the meadow and climbed halfway up the ridge before hiding the bag in a dense bush on the steep side above the path.

  He took off running northwest along the tree line. Unburdened, Levi could now easily put distance between him and the bruiser, who still lumbered through the meadow.

  When he was convinced he had made his escape, Levi turned northward and climbed to the top of the ridge. He would make his way east and drop down to where he’d left the bag.

  He looked forward to enjoying the fruit. But even more, he loved the chaos he had caused. It was like kicking an anthill.

  What could be more fun than taking things from morons who didn’t deserve them in the first place? The more daring the heist, the more satisfying. Levi still relished his recent score in the city—all that gold from one house. A wide grin parted his lips when he thought of some rich snob arriving home and discovering he was no longer rich.

  When Levi thought of his victims, he saw his father, drunk, standing over him after a relentless beating. Levi had never exacted revenge on his father, but now years of suppressed rage exploded on anyone who got in Levi’s way.

  A raspy wheeze closed from behind. Before he could turn, a blow to Levi’s head sent him to the dirt. He cursed, rolled, bounced to his feet, and faced the assailant. A young guy, maybe Levi’s age crouched, still holding his club.

  “I got ‘im!” he shouted.

  Three others quickly arrived, surrounding Levi.

  The kid with the stick won’t be a problem, Levi thought, sizing up the situation. The two standing below him probably weren’t much of a threat either. But the one above him looked like a guy who could handle himself.

  In a fight, Levi didn’t care about the size of a man’s muscles. What mattered was his ability to take punishment. This fellow looked to be a hard man who worked with his hands. His pockmarked skin and the stubble on his square, grizzled jaw barely hid a jagged scar. The rest of his face was shaded by the brim of a leather hat that had seen better days.

  Levi touched the back of his neck where blood soaked his collar. If this fight was going to happen, sooner was better than later. He launched himself toward the two men below. His fist connected with the first, and the man’s nose broke under Levi’s knuckles.

  Using his momentum, he tackled the other man. They tumbled partway down the hill and Levi ended up on top. He gave the man one good shot to the face, knocking him out.

  His first impulse was to grab a nearby stone and crush the man’s skull. Levi thought nothing of taking a life, but ... not this time.

  Levi leaped to his feet. With those two out of the fight, he could focus on the guy with the hat. But he had to get on even ground.

  Too late. A stone hard fist pounded Levi with a force that rivaled any punch he had ever taken. And he had taken many. The blow sent Levi tumbling backward down the hill. He grabbed a branch and arrested his fall. In an instant, he was back on his feet, trying not to show his dizziness.

  A blow from nowhere cracked the back of his head and he went down. The kid with the stick stood over him. This time Levi couldn’t return to his feet. Through blurred vision, he saw four more men had arrived.

  When Levi refocused, the man with the hat stood over him. “You got one last chance, boy. Tell us where the bag is.”

  “How should I know where your wife is? Can’t you keep track of the old bag yourself?” The man rewarded Levi’s smart mouth with a boot to the side of his face. Blood filled his mouth.

  Merciless pounding followed, and Levi lost consciousness.

  *****

  A breathless warrior reported to his commander, Adramelech. “The bag is in place. What do you want done with Levi?”

  “Let him die. He has served his purpose.”

  Levi had stolen hundreds of times before, but he could never have dreamed the sequence of events this theft would put into motion. The world would be changed forever.

  Like most people in this world, Levi had been made an unwitting pawn in a war he didn’t know existed. For centuries, an army of warriors from the city battled the forces of the high country. And with the simple placement of a bag of fruit in the high country, Adramelech’s plan commenced.

  Chapter 6

  As Adam approached the city gate, the darkness softened and the first gleam of sunlight painted the clouds, dissolving the blackness into hints of blue. The sunrise was a welcome distraction from his throbbing hands and oppressive fatigue. He loved watching the world come alive like a beautiful woman waking from her sleep. It renewed within him springs of hope.

  “Adam, were you out there all night? Alone?” The gatekeeper shook his head. “One of these days the mountain people will get to you and you’ll regret being so reckless.”

  “I appreciate your concern. I think you may be right. Last night was ...”

  “Did something happen out there? You look ... rough.”

  “I just need rest,” Adam said.

  “Were you at the collapse site last night?”

  Adam nodded.

  “Were you the one who rescued Jacqueline Steadman?”

  “We helped a lot of people. I don’t know who Jacquel—”

  “She was trapped under a pile of gold debris and everyone gave up on her except one man. She said his name was Adam.”

  “Oh, yeah, that was me. I was—”

  “Adam, do you know who she is? That�
��s Royce Steadman’s daughter. Steadman owns all the gold mines in the north quarter. And he’s looking for you. One of his men came by here last night asking if you left the city. Do you realize what that means? If you saved his daughter’s life, you’ll never have to work again. You’re about to have wealth beyond anything you ever imagined!”

  A surge of adrenaline awakened Adam from his fatigue. “Did the man tell you that?”

  “He said, ‘Mr. Steadman wishes to express his gratitude.’ But I know what that means. Steadman once gave a guy twenty bars of gold because he had helped a boy who was being bullied. He’s a generous man. And they say he never forgets an act of kindness.”

  A stick in an eddy, Adam thought, smiling.

  The gatekeeper gripped Adam’s shoulder. “He told me if I saw you to send you directly to the Steadman estate. If I were you, I’d skip breakfast—skip everything and head straight over there.”

  Adam smiled. “If I went now, I’m afraid I’d make a fool of myself. I’m kind of ... out of sorts. I’ll get some sleep then go this afternoon.”

  A few hours earlier, Adam would have been elated to hear about Jacqueline and her father. But the little girl’s words held his heart and soul captive. He’d been warned that the mountain people were con artists. But how could she know about him—about his family? A world of forgotten desires about home reawakened, and nothing else seemed to matter.

  Adam had never been so glad to arrive at the Northridge neighborhood. His gold and a soft bed awaited just blocks away.

  But when he turned down his street, howls and cries shattered the morning peace and echoed through the row of houses. He ran to the crowd gathering on his front lawn.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  The circle opened to reveal the source of the screams. George’s pale, lifeless body lay motionless. His wife knelt over him, sobbing.

  A neighbor laid his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Adam. I know you were close.”

  Adam struggled to find words. “He was the first friend I ever had. He ... What happened? How did ... Was it a looter?”