“You going to be alright to take us all the way to the surface without rest?” Smoke asked. He had to say something to break the silence.
“I don’t really have much of a choice,” Penelope said angrily. “Having to push you two around as well won’t help in any way. Remind me to go back to the engine and kick their asses.”
“We’ll try and walk as much as we can,” Smoke said. “I know it’ll be a little slower than you’d like, but it’ll be even slower if your arms get too tired to move a lift crank. I’d turn the crank if I could, but my arms are just as fucked as my legs and Blue wouldn’t know the right way to turn the crank. I can’t say as I’m an expert, but I’d be able to figure it out just from years of seeing it. We need you at your peak Penelope, there’s no way around it.”
Penelope sneered, “Fine, just don’t slow me down too much. I’m not going to leave you two down here, just try and go quickly.”
The seventh below was exactly as Smoke remembered. The burned battered ruins of a world once fearful of slavery remained abandoned. This pleased Smoke; he would rejoice as soon as this place became crushed under the stones of the ceiling.
As Smoke stepped out of his wheeled chair his legs began to ache again. He took a step and when he didn’t fall over or collapse from pain he nodded to Penelope and proceeded towards the next lift. It didn’t take long before the pain in his legs returned. He’d be able to continue forward provided his legs didn’t begin seeping.
“When we get to the first below I’m going to want to go to my home,” Smoke said out of nowhere.
“Why?” Blue asked.
“I need a few things,” Smoke said. “I need the contract your sister signed so I can get my reward for bringing you home. I am also going to want to grab some healing salve for my arms and legs.”
“Isn’t there healing salves on a few of the upper floors? I’m pretty sure we can find some in the next floor,” Penelope said crossly. “I’m not going to want to take a detour just so you can feel better.”
Smoke nodded, “Yes, there’s healing salve on the next floor and up, but I don’t know where exactly we’ll find some. The shops will be boarded up and I wouldn’t be surprised if people took their healing salves with them when they went to the surface. We may find something lying around, but that could take much longer than just stopping by my place. Besides, we have to stop at my place anyway. It’d make more sense to just get everything there all at once.”
He could see the impatient anger rising inside Penelope. If he was going to continue having a lift driver he’d have to defuse the situation as best he could. He let his power flow through him - he doubted it would work perfectly, but it couldn’t hurt. “If we do happen to come by some healing salve I will use that stuff and make the best of it. I just don’t want my arms or legs to get infected. If we do find some along the way you can run to my place and grab the paper I need and we can be on our way much faster. Is that alright?”
Penelope narrowed her eyes at Smoke and soon nodded, “Yeah, that’s fine,” she said angrily, “But if you get us trapped down here I swear to The Writer I will find a way to resurrect you and I’ll kill you again.”
Smoke nodded, “Deal.”
Smoke had impressed himself. He didn’t think he’d be able to walk the several miles to the lift. He pushed his wheeled chair onto the platform. Blue followed behind and sat down immediately after. Smoke mimicked her action and watched as Penelope went to work on the lift.
The time it would take for the lift to reach the sixth below would not be enough to rest his legs. He could feel them seeping once again. He pressed the suit next to his legs in hopes of stopping the slow leaks between the scabs.
He looked to Blue to see her rubbing her crotch. He quickly looked away to avoid an awkward situation. “So,” Blue said, “after all this you’re still after a reward?”
“Kid,” Smoke said, “after all I went through I’d better be getting the reward. Now, my reward comes as soon as you’ve crossed the threshold to your home. After that I couldn’t give a fuck what you do. You can run away again and join the common folk for all I care. I can guarantee I will never work for your family again. Not that I’ll have to with the reward in my pocket, or if Fulcrum gets to me.”
“Fulcrum?” Penelope asked before Blue had been given a chance.
“I did something selfish and inadvertently fucked over a friend. He wants revenge and in some ways I deserve it. If he gets to me I won’t put up a fight. He went through a lot because of me.” Smoke’s eyes shot open, “It was my fault he got caught, but was not my fault that my father tortured him afterwards.”
“Do you know he was tortured?” Penelope asked. “If you escaped there’s no way you could possibly know for sure.”
“Yeah,” Blue agreed. “This story does seem a little suspicious.”
Smoke glared at the two women, “I know my father well enough to know he’d have tortured Fulcrum for trying to escape.”
“I assume you’ve seen him recently,” Blue said with an amused tone to her voice.
“Yeah,” When I was on the second below.
“Did you see any scars on him?” Penelope asked. “Did you see any real visible indicators that he had been tortured? I know if I were to torture someone I’d make sure scars were visible, even with clothing on - cheeks, necks, hands, forehead, anything that could show the others what would happen if they tried to leave. So, did you see any visible scars on him?”
Smoke thought back to the ale he’d had with Constance on the second below. He remembered Fulcrum remembering him and joining him at the table. He didn’t recall any scars. Smoke shook his head. “Not as far as I can recall.”
“I think Fulcrum and your father may be playing a fast one on you,” Penelope said.
“I think I would have figured that one out long before,” Smoke said defensively.
“No you wouldn’t have,” Blue said. “You were too close to both of them. By the time your brain would have allowed you to process any real logic in the matter you’d have already made up your mind on it. I don’t know how long you’ve been holding onto that guilt, but it’s been too long. You’re only now figuring out you’ve done nothing wrong.”
Smoke began to think. He knew his father to be the sort of person to play mental games on people when it wasn’t worth the bloodshed. It was possible Penelope and Blue were correct in their assertion. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but the guilt he’d been harboring for the past decade may have been completely misplaced. “If what you’re saying is true, then Fulcrum is a dead man. He’ll likely kill me in the process, so that’ll be two less bad men in the world.”
Penelope and Blue exchanged glances. Smoke could see the lights of the sixth below above. He prepared himself for the empty floor. This would be a bit of a change, the seventh to ninth below had been empty when he had gone down, and they had left little impact on his way back up. This time the overcrowded sixth below would be empty. He didn’t know how he would feel about it.
The moment Smoke saw the emptiness of the sixth below a feeling of finality swept over him. The knowledge of the underground going to the surface became all the more real to him. He could see the town just ahead with the vacated buildings and empty cages. He’d never seen the floor in such a state. He didn’t think he ever would. As he stepped from the lift platform with his wheeled chair in his hands a tear fell from his eye. A small goodbye to the world he had known his entire life.
The empty cages made Smoke happy. The underground Nagara slave trade had ended. It was possible and likely the slave trade would continue on the surface, but having it out in the open instead of having it as nothing more than a dirty secret the rich allowed in the center of the underground could help end it once and for all.
Blue had begun walking straighter and didn’t appear as if she still needed the chair. She’d be suffering from the electrical burns for quite some time, but she seemed to be ignoring the pain better than Smoke. “
I can’t believe I survived this place,” Blue said suddenly.
Smoke gave her a concerned look, “What do you mean?”
“The whole time I was on this floor I half expected to get picked up by one of the slavers.”
Smoke shook his head slightly, “You were safe here from the slavers. They’d never capture someone on their own level unless it’s a person who had already escaped. The only place you were in any sort of danger from the Nagara was on the seventh below.”
If anyone would get picked up it would be on the seventh below. All someone would have to do on the sixth would be to scream and a swarm of Nagara and spectators would be there in moments. Crime was pretty sparse in the sixth below. It wasn’t safe by any means, but considering the floors surrounding it, it was one of the safest center levels.
The lift to the fifth below was a wondrous sight to Smoke. In one glimpse his previous question had been answered. Every lift would be a sight of magnificence and one step closer to the surface. They repeated their actions with the lift as they did with the platforms before it. Penelope began turning the crank and the platform began to rise.
“How are you holding up?” Smoke asked Penelope.
“Arms are getting a little tired,” Penelope said as she made a pained face. “Don’t worry, I’ll be able to get us to the surface, though I am starting to think a quick stop at your place may not be the worst idea.”
“What happened to wanting to get to the surface as quickly as possible?” Blue asked.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Penelope said. “My rush is obviously from not wanting to get buried. I’d have to dig myself out and that wouldn’t be good for me. But, I’m starting to think something went wrong. I thought about the time Smoke and I spent searching the eighth and ninth bellows and then our time in the engine. It takes a lot of time for me to reassemble myself when I’m in that sort of state. It’s not inconceivable that we missed the deadline. I think the people in the engine hadn’t lied to you. I think there’s a mole and they managed to get every boomer and dismantle them. The underground isn’t going anywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should take any major chances and just wait. We should get to the surface as quickly as we can, but I think a quick break on the first below wouldn’t hurt anything.”
“Wonderful,” Smoke said while rubbing his legs.
His arms still hurt but the pain had been dulled by the aching in his legs. They were going through the levels quicker than he had expected, that was good for everything but his legs. It had only been six hours since their escape from the engine and Smoke waited with bated breath for the surface. If they didn’t stop before making the detour to his home they’d be on the surface early the next day, or at least what Smoke believed to be the next day. Without his fob watch or any visible timepieces it had been difficult to accurately determine the time of day.
The fifth below was as dark as ever. Smoke couldn’t imagine what the floor would be like if the inhabitants had allowed for proper lighting. He believed it would look not much different than the first below. The lines of homes and the large center park convinced him of this. The level was dark and frightening - even more so now that nobody remained. “We need to get out of here as quickly as we can,” Smoke said nervously. “I don’t like this floor.”
The women agreed and they walked as quickly as they could through the fifth below. Smoke thought back to the history of the level and the wars fought against the Nagara. Now the Worms and the Nagara were working together. He didn’t know how all those years of hatred could be put aside. It was almost miraculous.
Smoke didn’t feel the same wondrous feeling he had with the previous two lifts. He believed it to be from the darkness around him. The desire to be rid of the fifth below was overwhelming. Penelope waited for him and Blue to get settled on the platform and began to turn the crank. The three continued to make small talk on their way to the fourth below.
Upon emerging within the fourth below, Smoke’s heart began to sink. This had been the place he had grown up. It was the place he’d known best of all and to see it as an empty shell of what it had been not long ago caused a shallow depression. He desperately wanted to go see his old home one last time, or to go to the gathering tavern or to see the old interrogation rooms. All of which he had to come to grips with never seeing again. They’d be abandoned forever now; a feeling of ambivalence came to him with that thought.
As he walked past the abandoned buildings he kept an eye out for anyone who had remained behind. A lot of inhabitants of the fourth below never wanted to leave their home. It wouldn’t be shocking in the least if someone had stayed behind. On the other hand, Cobble was a man who made sure a job was done thoroughly. He wouldn’t have left the fourth below unless he was sure everyone was safely on the next level.
They sped through the fourth below towards the next lift. Smoke gave a small wave goodbye to his past home and hung his head. He didn’t realize how much he’d missed the fourth below. Even the last time he’d been there hadn’t had as much of an effect. He’d maybe felt a slight sense of nostalgia, but for the most part he’d felt nothing for the place. The knowledge he’d never see this floor again brought all the good memories flooding back and he knew he’d miss the place more than he’d realized.
Once the fourth below had disappeared from view Smoke allowed himself to relax. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been until the last of the fourth had been hidden from view and he’d sunk into his chair. Penelope and Blue didn’t say a word, they couldn’t have understood why Smoke’s emotions had been on high, nor did they ask. He was thankful for this.
The next stop wasn’t going to be much easier.
The third below brought even more memories back to Smoke. While he wouldn’t be sad to see it go, there was a lot of his history spent in this floor. There was a lot of history with Glass.
Glass.
The thought he’d see Glass on the surface pleased him. He’d be with his woman once again. It may not have been in the setting they’d imagined, but with the reward money he’d be able to get a home for the both of them and they’d be able to live together happily. Whatever the future had for them, if she was with him he’d be happy and he’d do his damndest to make sure she’d be happy as well.
“We’re so close,” one of the women said.
Smoke could hear the two of them talking though his head was miles away on the surface. He could picture her face in his head. He’d been a horrible human at one point and not worthy of her affection. He still didn’t think he’d done enough good to be worthy of her, but he’d try every day to do what he had to do to prove himself to himself. She didn’t need convincing. She’d never needed convincing. She’d loved him for so many years and he’d just as soon leave her behind every time due to his own personal regret and arrogance.
“Never again,” Smoke said aloud to himself.
“What was that?” Penelope asked.
“Nothing,” Smoke said vacantly, “I was talking to myself.”
Smoke hardly noticed when Penelope turned the lift’s crank to bring them to the second below. The trip had been quick. It was the quickest Smoke had ever moved through the underground. He looked to Penelope and could see her beginning to tire out. Her breath became laboured and her arms shook. “Are you going to be alright to get us to the next floor?” Smoke asked. “If need be, we can stop for a bit on the second below. It’s not like we’ll be spending a whole lot of time at my place. If you need to rest, we will rest. It’s fine with us.”
Penelope smiled, it was not the reaction Smoke had expected, “I’ll be fine for one more lift ride,” she said happily. “I think I’m getting a second, or my sixth wind,” she laughed. “The next lift may be a bit slower, but I’ll be alright. So long as I feel I can get us there there’s no need to worry.”
Smoke nodded in agreement and kept silent. If she believed herself capable he’d trust her. She had as much to lose down here as both him and Blue, maybe more.
At worst the two of them would die. He thought about her immortality and believed it came with some perks including a decent healing factor that would keep her muscles growing as she needed them. She may be going slower, but healing took time and energy. He couldn’t imagine she’d had much to eat to keep up with the healing since she’d pulled herself together. That alone would have taken a lot of energy to accomplish.
He could feel himself getting hungry as well. “I’m going to insist we stop for a bit on the second below to eat,” Smoke said assertively. “Penelope needs to keep up her strength and you and I should eat as well. It’ll be good for healing our wounds.”
Penelope nodded while Blue showed no reaction to his words.
As they reached the second below Smoke began to scan the area for anything to eat. He expected any surface vegetables to have rotted away. They’d have to look for darkplants to eat. They grew all year round and there’d easily be a plot of land still holding the darkplant - ready to eat.
Penelope told the two of them to wait by the lift while she scouted around and looked for anything to eat. Smoke agreed, considering she’d be able to get where she needed to be quicker alone than with the two of them.
Blue looked around the second below. “I don’t remember being here,” she said aloud.
Smoke didn’t imagine she had intended to say it, but she did and he decided to engage. “It’s not a very memorable place. You can get weapons here and some surface food, but that’s about it.”
“How about you?” Blue asked. “Do you remember your last time here?”
Smoke nodded. He remembered purchasing the shortblade for Constance. He remembered his bet with her as well. Most of all he remembered his deal with Fulcrum. The deal he now planned to break at his earliest convenience. “Yeah,” he said softly, “I remember it very well.”
“I guess that’s not really surprising,” Blue said with a straight face. “You’ve lived down here all your life. I bet you remember most of your times on each floor.”
The Engine What Runs the World Page 27