by A. M. White
Into the Roar
Book 2
Acknowledgements
Lion photo credited to Ryan Christian
Instagram @glacio_vita
Poem credited to Simon Hodgson
Instagram @etch_my_soul
Beyond the open door,
Lays waste no more,
Far reaching and further,
Than all those who crossed before.
She lay in wait,
For someone to climb,
Over the gate.
-S. Hodgson
To my loves,
I would walk into the Roar for you.
Prologue
Timothy walked beside me, as I hobbled. It was hard to use crutches in the sand. As good of a job as Timothy did making them, I hated them. I had used them for a few days.
Cara had procured more of her healing cream, upon our arrival at the camp. It expedited the healing process immensely. I secretly limped around without the crutches. Still, Timothy insisted that I use them.
Cara ran ahead; over the small dune. She beckoned for us to move faster. Eventually she gave up on my struggle and disappeared.
It was hard to believe that only a few days ago, I almost died before we reached the small village by the sea. Infection had set into the wound and Timothy persuaded the doctor to spare me. The capsule that held sensitive information from our suppressors was extracted. I would be scarred for life, from the burns and surgery.
I was happy with the battle scars. They reminded me of how far I had come since I was a slave.
At the summit of the dune, we paused. My eyes widened at the beauty of the ocean. My hopes paled in comparison to the expanse before me. The blue of the water stunned me. The sand stretched for miles in either direction. The salty air blew the hair from my face.
Timothy positioned himself behind me and wrapped his arms underneath mine. “This is gorgeous, but there is nothing like the look on your face at this moment. I will remember it forever.” He kissed me and lifted me into his arms. He carried me closer to the shoreline. His arms were strong beneath my body. Timothy always made me feel safe.
My senses were alive in this place. The sounds, the smells, and the waves that glistened calmed every fear I had. I felt the release I had waited for.
Cara ran down to the water. She stripped her clothes and splashed into the shallows. I giggled at the coarse girl I knew, she behaved like a child. She was as wild and free as the ocean.
Timothy placed me on a sheet that Cara had spread. He sat next to me. We relished in the moment.
Timothy waited to return to the beach again. He wanted to experience it with me, for the second time. We both sat in silence and savored our riches.
After a while, Timothy rolled on his side to face me. “Since I got the generator from the next settlement, Doc says he will have the encryption figured out in the next couple of days.” He sighed. “I’ve been talking with him about what to do with the information.”
I bowed my head. “Something tells me, that involves you.” I peered at him between strands of my hair.
He nodded and reached for my hand. “It does, but I’ve been rallying a few guys to join me. They are going to start training with me tomorrow.”
“That doesn’t leave me much time to get rid of these things.” I pointed at the crutches.
He shook his head. “Whatever we come up with, I can’t take you.”
“I’m not asking you. I won’t let you go without me.” I said sternly.
There was no way he was going anywhere without me. Timothy and his sister saved me from a work camp about a month ago. We had gone through so much together. On our journey, we became a family. We watched out for each other. Somehow, I’d even fallen in love with Timothy.
My new love looked in my eyes and opened his mouth to protest. I raised my eyebrows at him. He closed his mouth. We locked stares in a standoff.
“I can do it. In a few more days, I’ll make sure I can. If I can’t walk without the crutches, you win.” I compromised.
Timothy gave in. He knew this was a war he wouldn’t win. Secretly, I hoped he didn’t want to leave me either.
“Timothy! Timothy!” A small boy charged at us from the dune. “Doctor said come quickly! He was able to break the code!”
We looked at each other in exasperation.
“Come on!” The boy darted away.
Chapter One
The doctor greeted the three of us upon arrival. He didn’t even bat an eyelash at the fact that Cara was wrapped only a thin white sheet in his lab. Her hair dripped salty sea water onto the floor. His focus was directed to a tiny screen and wires that lay upon his desk.
Dr. Jameson stood over the wreckage of the capsule. Sweat dripped from his brow. He pushed his glasses back to the bridge of his nose. He waved us closer to his machines.
“This is remarkable in every way.” He fumbled with the small screen and a line of numbers filled it. “Alex,” he nodded at me, “delivered more than I could’ve asked for. See?” He lightly touched my arm. A zap of static electricity tickled my arm.
He held a device with numerical patterns on its screen to our faces. We passed quizzical glances among ourselves.
Timothy was irritated and shrugged. “Doc, those numbers, mean nothing to us. Please speak to us in English.”
Jameson huffed. “Of course not! I can only read it because I helped write the encryption.” He laughed.
I swayed. He was a peculiar man. Most over-the-top geniuses are. I swallowed back the memory that this man wished to spare the capsule over my life. I slid my hand into Timothy’s and squeezed.
“So, you can translate it?” Timothy asked.
“Dear boy, I can read it like it is English. Look here, you see this number sequence?” He pointed to a list of numbers.
Timothy nodded.
Jameson ran his finger along the numbers as he read. “This device is to be used to restart the machines at full capacity, after the transition to the new energy source is complete.”
My stomach sank. The three of us had speculated that the new form of energy would come from humans. I knew that we would soon find out the truth behind that inference.
The doctor regarded us and waited for our reaction. Timothy stood straight. Cara cupped a hand over her mouth in astonishment. I continued to keep my balance, in the anticipation of what was to come.
Finally, Timothy broke the silence. “How much is there?”
“I have a whole manual here. It gives the locations of the main machine. The pathways energy will be carried through. It even provides the modifications needed; how to harvest the new source of power source and how to convert it. Unfortunately, that is a dismal business.”
Jameson was clearly excited about his discovery. Even the sordid details were just gears in the process to him.
I lurched forward and gagged. I pushed through the others and out the door. I immediately dropped the crutches and threw up into a bush. I wiped my mouth as Timothy reached me.
“Are you ok?” He rubbed my back.
“I think so. It was just the reality of the whole situation.” I whimpered and regained my composure.
“I know. Just remember you have the option to stay here when we go.” He offered nonchalantly.
“I already told you, that is not an option.” I grumbled.
He raised his hands to surrender.
Cara came out of the hut. She surveyed the aftermath of our argument.
“When are you going to learn? She will always win.” Cara joined us. She picked up my crutches and handed them to me. “We have some talking to do, but not here.”
She took my arm and directed us away f
rom the doctor’s living quarters and back to our own.
People went about their daily chores. They became a living maze that we found our way through. The smells of food being cooked, the giggles of children that played in the dirt, and people’s voices felt like a film that carried out around us.
I limped into our modest hut. Timothy closed the door behind us and guided me to a chair. Cara came and sat at my feet.
“This is heavy.” She eyed me and put a hand on my lap.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” I mumbled.
Cara looked down at her knees. I knew the answer. Her reaction confirmed that their people planned to use human bodies as fuel. Yet, I was still shocked that the people Timothy and Cara came from were capable of such disgusting acts against humanity.
Timothy squeezed my shoulder. “I’ve told Alex that I am gathering a group of men to train. Most of them have real experience with hunting or have spent time in the military. We are going to use the information Doc retrieves to put an end to this. There has to be a main line or power grid we can shut down.”
Cara looked up at him. “And I plan on going.”
Timothy threw his hands in the air. “Not you too?”
“Of course I am!” Cara exclaimed.
Timothy ran his fingers through his hair and paced the room. He shook his head in silence. His eyes darted from the thatched ceiling, to us, to the floor, and back to us. Cara and I expected him to refuse to allow us to go.
“Timothy, you aren’t going without us. We both love you too much to sit around here waiting to find out whether you are okay or not. Neither of us would ever forgive ourselves if something happened and we could’ve helped in any way.” I explained with fervor.
Timothy paused and looked Cara and I over. He raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t a fight I’m going to win, is it?”
Cara and I answered together. “No!”
He shrugged. “Then I’m not going to waste my time trying to persuade you otherwise.”
He stormed out the door and slammed it shut.
Cara turned back to me. “He will get over it. Once we are on our way, he will be happy. We have been useful in the past.” She bent over and hugged me. “I’m going to go ask the Doc to journal everything he translates, for us. I’ve also got to get busy collecting enough medicine.”
I relaxed into the chair. “It’s hard for me to imagine you being anything but a healer. How did you end up a messenger?”
Cara picked at the dirt under her finger nails. “I was bred to be a messenger, but I showed a lot of promise as a healer at an early age. So, I was tracked to go into training as a healer. That doesn’t occur very often. The people in charge don’t like to admit flaws in the system.”
“Then why did you change?” I asked.
“Let’s say, I saw enough that I didn’t like. Things I didn’t want to be a part of. I made little mistakes on purpose; nothing too bad so that I could still be useful, just not as a healer.” She patted my leg. “I gotta get going.”
I looked at her blankly. “What does that leave me to do?”
She paused in the doorway. “Rest, we will be training soon.” She pulled the door closed behind her.
Chapter Two
I couldn’t rest. My mind was too busy. I imagined all the circumstances we might come into on our mission to stop the machines. The same resolve ended each train of thought. We would do whatever needed to be done.
Several years ago, the world as we knew it ceased to exist. Roars were sounded by an underground population that decided humans were a plague upon the Earth. In some ways, they were right. We used, desecrated, and destroyed everything we touched. Species of animals and plants went extinct due to overkill or habitat loss at an unprecedented rate. Consumption of natural resources put a strain on the global ecosystem.
These moles, as some call them, had finally found a way to extinguish our civilization, so that they would be able to come to the surface. They have giant underground machines that consume energy and produce frequencies that can control human’s memories, physical abilities, and even enslave us.
The Roars traveled through the ground. They paralyzed humans and allowed the moles to harvest us. I was enslaved by the Roars. Some of the humans were spared, either because they weren't in contact with the ground when they came, or they were on the outskirts of their reach.
In those days, I worked in a camp. I lived there for years after the initial Roars blanketed the Earth. I was made to dig big trenches in the ground, for reasons unknown.
The Roars took everything from me. My family, my way of life, my hopes were all gone with the sounds.
The underground machines were overloaded when they produced the first Roars. They can no longer reach long distances.
The capsule has been taken from my leg with the plans of how to fix the machines. Now we must stop the end of the world, again.
Timothy and Cara are from the underground civilization. They felt that the genocide was wrong. They defected and came to live among us. They became fetchers; paid to rescue people like me.
The doctor hired them to find me. He was on a team of doctors and scientists that put the capsule in my leg. I was meant to be a transporter; used as a vessel to move the instructions of how to switch energy sources and fix the great machines that broadcast the major Roars. Those machines can affect large areas.
I jiggled a pen in my hand. I looked down upon a sheet of handmade paper. There was a drawing of some sort of machine in front of me. I looked at it. I didn’t know how it got there. It scared me.
“How did I do that without knowing? What was this machine?” My thoughts spun uncontrollably.
My hand vibrated and I grabbed it with my other hand. I pulled it into my chest.
Timothy opened the door and saw the look on my face. He took long strides to come to my side. He saw the drawing and picked it up. His eyes widened. He gently coerced the hand I had retracted to my chest to his.
“I think we need to show this to the doctor.” He was astonished.
“But I don’t even remember doing it.” I protested.
“That’s part of the reason we have to show him.” Timothy handed me the crutches.
“Can I stop pretending I need those now?” I asked quietly.
He set them down against the chair. “If you promise to stay close to me?”
Timothy picked up the drawing and folded it neatly.
“I’m not sure why my drawing is of any interest to the doctor.” I shrugged. “I was just doodling while I was thinking things through. Doesn’t the doctor have bigger things he needs to be worrying about?”
“Alex, you drew one of the Roar machines. That’s what is on the paper and you don’t even remember drawing it. This is definitely something he needs to worry about.” Timothy said urgently.
“What?” I had never seen one of the machines. There had to be a mistake.
“Come on, we need to figure this out.” Timothy guided me out of the door and back among the business of the village.
Once we made our way back to the lab, Timothy knocked on the door. The door cracked and Dr. Jameson peeked through the narrow space.
“What is it son? You know I am working on a highly time sensitive situation here.” He whispered.
“Of course I do, but this can’t wait.” Timothy announced and pushed through the door. He didn’t pause for an invitation.
Timothy dragged me into the room behind him. He pulled the folded paper from his pocket and laid it out on a makeshift surgery table. It was the table where my own surgery had been carried out.
“I walked into my hut to find that Alex had drawn this.” Timothy pointed at the sketch.
The doctor put his glasses on and leaned down to have a closer look. It took a minute for him to process the picture. He straightened and looked at me.
“When did you draw this?” He questioned.
“Just a few minutes ago, I think. I was thinking about how I came to be here. There w
as a gap in time. After, I realized I had drawn this.” I nodded at the paper. “I don’t remember drawing it. I was just doodling.”
Jameson clasped his hands together and leaned back to inspect the drawing further.
“I assume you have never been below the surface? At least that you remember?” He glared at me from the rims of his glasses.
“Not that I know of.” I replied.
“This is really quite remarkable. I’m not sure what it implies, but remarkable, nonetheless.” He fiddled with the bottom of his shirt.
He walked to the desk where the capsule rested. He began to shuffle through a pile of loose papers. Eventually, he found the one he was looking for. He brought it back to the table and laid it down.
The two drawings were very similar. The machines had wires that protruded from the same places. Nuts and bolts lined the metal symmetrically. I noticed even some of the shading matched.
“This is a picture of the Roar machine I drew. I had to draw it from memory. I was down in the tunnels, just long enough to sneak a glimpse of one of the machines. Somehow, you know what it looks like, too.”
I stood back and let that sink in to my brain. He implied that I had seen the machines. That couldn’t be true. I would remember something like that.
Timothy put his arm around me. “She doesn’t believe she’s ever been below. If that is what Alex says, I believe her. Is there any other way she could know?”
The doctor picked up the pictures and made his way back to the desk. He found the right place to store them amongst the notes.
He sighed. “I’m not sure if the other theory I have is more dangerous. There are many things I don’t fully understand about the capsule yet. She could have some sort of residual information that was transferred from it. The implications that assigns are almost unfathomable. It would mean that the capsule has leaked or gave Alex some of its data.”