by Perrin Briar
“For as long as our ancestors’ memories,” Sturgess said.
“A long time then,” Bryan said.
“Yes,” Sturgess said. “But we haven’t always mined Gravitas.”
“Gravitas?” Bryan said. “What’s that?”
“The magnetic rocks, like what you see here,” Sturgess said. “Only they aren’t magnets, but gravity. They suck everything with a mass toward them. That’s why we call them Gravitas. We considered them holy relics, something put here to ward and protect us. They kept the hot red rivers from our lands, kept us safe.”
“Why do you mine for them now?” Zoe said.
“Because we have no other choice,” Sturgess said. “Once upon a time we were proud and happy people. Everyone in this world was. We were equal, every man, woman and child. No one was considered more or less important than anyone else. We each fulfilled an important role, a part of the whole. And then something changed.
“One day the Merchants came to us. They were farmers, growing crops and livestock, and they shared them amongst the people, just as we shared what we mined. Then one day they decided their product was worth more than ours. They demanded more gems, more rocks, in exchange for their food.
“This had never happened before. Everyone understood we all needed every resource in order to survive in comfort. To consider food more valuable than water or wood, was crazy. But there is something in human nature, I think, that will forever mean we will want to be better than others, that we will forever want to dominate and have dominion over them.
“And there are those who want to dominate, as well as those who are more amenable to being dominated. Everyone is on this continuum and all must accept their place within it. We all know the kind of people we are, where we belong. There is no way to change the nature of people.”
“No,” Zoe said. “But you don’t need to change the nature of people, only your situation. Sometimes all it takes is a single lion amongst the lambs to lead them to great victories and greater success. Only one is needed to unite an army.”
“But sheep are sheep,” Sturgess said.
“And an excuse is an excuse,” Bryan said. “You will never change or adapt if you accept that way of life for yourself. Not when you could become something else, something more. Revolutions have been started for a great deal less than the situation you have here. There is nothing I can do to aid you. You can only help yourself, but you have to want to help yourselves, or else you will be stuck here forever the way you are.”
“Maybe we like it the way it is,” Sturgess said, with more than a contrarian air about him.
“Carry on then,” Bryan said. “But in twenty years’ time, when your own children’s backs are breaking under the same labor you toiled under, do you want to look back and think what might have been? What could have been achieved if you had only stood up and done something about it?”
“We’re just miners,” Sturgess said. “What can we do?”
Zoe stood in front of the muscular man and looked him straight in the eye.
“A great deal more than you believe,” she said.
15.
CASSIE SLID a thick wedge of wood over the stack of rocks and then fixed it under the egg closest to the nest’s edge, where she might be able to leverage it over the side. She pushed with all her weight, her arms shaking under the strain. The lever creaked.
The egg was far heavier than Cassie had expected. She thought she felt the egg begin to move, edging up by an inch. She leaned further over it. The wood creaked louder.
Snap!
Cassie fell forward. She was on the floor of the nest, lying atop the thick trunk and the broken lever. She got to her hands and knees and peered at the egg. It hadn’t moved one inch. She clenched her teeth and kicked the egg. It was hard. She hopped back, clutching her foot.
Cassie turned her glare on Aaron, who sat across the nest, cross legged before a collection of rock fragments.
“Aaron,” Cassie said, standing over him with her hands on her hips. “I thought you were going to help me force the eggs over the side.”
“Something of that size must weigh two hundred pounds,” Aaron said. “Maybe more. You’ll never lift it over the side without machines.”
“Would you at least try and give me a hand?” Cassie said.
“All right,” Aaron said. “But don’t get angry when I say ‘I told you so’.”
“Then don’t say it,” Cassie said. “Even if you could.”
“Sorry, I can’t make that promise,” Aaron said. “There are too few chances of happiness to be had here as it is.”
“Being right is happiness to you?” Cassie said.
“It ain’t unhappiness,” Aaron said. “I know that much.”
“Give me a hand,” Cassie said.
They picked up a thick wedge of wood and jammed it under the egg. They pressed their weight onto it. The branch snapped. Aaron got to his feet, glanced at Cassie, who wore a glare that threatened great violence, and then strolled away without saying a word. He returned to his collection of broken rocks.
Cassie approached him and folded her arms. She sat beside him.
“At least I’m trying to get out of here,” Cassie said. “You’re just playing games.”
“Putting a puzzle together, actually,” Aaron said.
“A puzzle isn’t a game?” Cassie said.
“A puzzle is a brain stimulation exercise,” Aaron said.
“Right,” Cassie said, rolling her eyes. “Like I said, a game.”
She looked closer at what he was working on.
“What is that?” she said.
“I think it’s a map,” Aaron said.
“You think?” Cassie said. “Why don’t you know?”
“Because there are a lot of pieces missing,” Aaron said. “It’s hard to tell what it is.”
“A map?” Cassie said. “A map of what?”
“A place,” Aaron said. “What else could it be a map of?”
“But there’s nothing here, and no people,” Cassie said. “You saw the blasted lands when the bird flew up here. There’s nothing here.”
“Doesn’t mean it has always been that way,” Aaron said. “I mean, someone must have been here to make this map, right? I mean, it’s carved in stone. It takes a certain amount of skill and technological development to be able to make something like this. And judging by the map they drew, it wasn’t always like this. There used to be plants, trees, animals, forests.”
“Animals, I can attest to,” Cassie said with a glance toward the eggs.
“But what are all these other pieces?” Cassie said, touching them with her foot.
“I don’t know,” Aaron said. “It looks like there are two maps.”
“One before, one after whatever happened here?” Cassie said.
“Maybe,” Aaron said. “But then, some of the locations ought to match up. Like here. There’s the mountain we’re on, and the mountain can’t have just suddenly popped into existence, can it?”
“Unless it did,” Cassie said. “The world might have suddenly changed.”
“And there are still things here for the birds to eat,” Aaron said. “And the snakes. We’re surrounded by bones and plants. There might be some part of the world that is still okay.”
“But which parts?” Cassie said.
Aaron shrugged.
“If it wasn’t for the mist, we might be able to see,” he said. “As it is, I don’t know.”
“Why are the rocks here in the first place?” Cassie said. “It’s not like the chicks can eat it.”
“They need rocks because they don’t have peristalsis,” Aaron said, “that is, the ability to move food into their stomachs with the use of internal muscles in the esophagus. They need these rocks in order to be able to mash up their food. That’s how they do it.”
“How do you even know all of this?” Cassie said.
Aaron shrugged.
“But these birds use these rocks f
or a reason they don’t fully understand,” he said. “They sit here and swallow them, grind up their food, and then drop them in the morning before they take off to fly. These rocks might be the best at grinding up their food, but they’re not the lightest and airiest rocks to carry around if they need to take wing.”
“How about the Passage?” Cassie said. “Have you seen anywhere where it might be yet?”
“No,” Aaron said. “But like the water world, it might not even be on the surface. If this world has endured some tumultuous event, which is very likely with all the lava all over the place, there might not be any sign of it anymore. It might be gone.”
“That’s a comforting thought,” Cassie said.
There was a tearing sound, something Aaron and Cassie didn’t immediately recognize. They followed it to the middle shell, the one Cassie had knocked on earlier.
Cassie pressed her hand to its surface and found a hole in the shell, the missing piece, like the piece of a puzzle, laying on the nest’s floor.
“Our time’s almost up,” Cassie said.
16.
THE ACCOMMODATION Bryan and Zoe had been assigned were temporary buildings. They had canvas walls and ceilings, tents that could be easily removed from one place to another. It wasn’t large, but it was comfortable, with hanging animal skins and feather pillows. Children ran between the tents playing tag, their shadows dancing on the walls.
The children worked, as evidenced by the cuts and grazes on their arms and legs. They helped their parents with mining, as well as the other jobs in the camp. There was no formal education. They were schooled in the skill of mining. That was their education, their calling. It had been chosen for them.
The tents had thick luxurious blankets and pillows spread across the floor. It had a warm homely lived-in feel that was not lost on the surface-dwelling adults. It was like a warm retreat away from the harsh winter, a quirky getaway in a teepee.
“They seem nice,” Zoe said.
“Locals have seemed nice before, if you’ll recall,” Bryan said. “But then out come the pitchforks and the flaming torches. Before long they’re beating our heads open with cudgels.”
He moved to the door and pulled a flap open, peering out.
“We can’t trust these people,” he said. “We need to get out of here as soon as we can.”
“Nice to know you’re not about to panic anytime soon,” Zoe said, rolling her eyes. “They said they would give us a map of where we might find the kids.”
“Holding us ransom,” Bryan said. “That’s what this is.”
“Ransom for what?” Zoe said. “We don’t have anything they want.”
“There’s always something,” Bryan said. “You’ll see.”
He bent over a washbasin and scrubbed his face with cold water and soap. He managed to wash half the floorspace while he was at it. Zoe took her turn, taking special care to scrub behind her ears. Somehow she’d managed to get a small mountain tucked behind them.
Once they were washed and cleaned they took a long nap. When they awoke they found their clothes clean, dry and repaired. They were invited to join the locals, who were themselves washed and cleaned and prepared for what appeared to be a special event. They looked upon Bryan and Zoe with something approaching expectation.
The locals wore loincloths and danced around the pool of magma. Then they sat around flat tables on the ground and began to eat with their fingers.
“So,” Sturgess said. “You’re from the surface.”
“We are,” Zoe said.
Whispers broke out amongst the assembled. They were excited about something.
“Please, tell us about your world,” Sturgess said.
“What would you like to know?” Bryan said.
“Anything and everything,” Sturgess said. “Whatever you think would be of interest to us.”
“There’s so much…” Bryan said. “There’s a sky, a large land mass, oceans…”
“Oceans?” Sturgess said, ears perking up.
“Yes, very large ones,” Bryan said. “They reach from one end of the world to the other. In fact, we just came from a world almost entirely dominated by water.”
The locals’ eyes were wide. It sounded like the stuff of dreams.
“There are other worlds?” Sturgess said.
“Yes, many probably,” Bryan said. “But we’ve only seen two so far. Three, including this one.”
“You’re the leader here?” Zoe said.
“Unofficially,” Sturgess said. “Officially, there is no leader. We govern ourselves.”
“Is there anything in particular you would like to know about our world?” Zoe said. “Perhaps it would be easier for you to ask questions about the things you’d like to know about.”
“Do you have miners where you come from?” a local with a narrow face said.
“Yes,” Bryan said. “We have miners, but not as many as we used to. Though there are more in other countries around the world.”
“How many countries are there?” another local with a missing finger said.
“One hundred and ninety-five at last count,” Bryan said. “But there are more and more all the time.”
“More grow?” the local said.
“That can happen, but it’s rare,” Bryan said. “Usually from the bottom of the sea, from active volcanoes. Usually new countries are formed from old ones: breaking apart and claiming independence.”
“Break apart?” Sturgess said. “What do you mean?”
“They decide they’re better off on their own and govern themselves,” Bryan said.
“Oh,” Sturgess said. “I didn’t know such a thing was possible.”
“Of course it is,” Bryan said. “Just as countries can join together, they can break apart too, and become smaller nations within the whole. And not just countries, but groups within nations, and countries within continents. There’s no way of stopping it once it takes hold.”
“When what takes hold?” Sturgess said.
“An idea,” Zoe said. “They can be infectious. They can grip tighter than a wrestler and won’t let go, and can be deadlier than anything man can make. Though, I suppose, it could be argued ideas are manmade.”
A silence filled the space. Bryan wasn’t sure it was a good one.
“What is it you mine for here?” Zoe said. “You mentioned Gravitas before. We noticed the material you took out of the ground, and the strange properties it has.”
“After we extract each boulder we must remove ourselves to another location,” Sturgess said. “The magma and lava follows us wherever we go.”
“Do you ever think maybe you shouldn’t take the magnet rocks out of the earth?” Zoe said. “That perhaps they’re part of a larger ecosystem?”
“Yes,” Sturgess said. “Frequently. But the Merchants need it. And without them, we would go hungry. We no longer have the means of supporting ourselves or our families, and so we’re left with no choice but to do this.”
“Where are these Merchants?” Zoe said.
“Far from here,” Sturgess said. “Out of reach for most of us. It seems whenever we have troubles, they hit us harder to punish us, as if it was our fault for not hitting our quotas.”
“That’s barbaric,” Zoe said.
“That’s life,” Sturgess said. “And how can we help you? I understand you’ve lost your children?”
“We didn’t lose them,” Zoe said. “They were taken from us.”
“Taken?” Sturgess said.
“By giant birds,” Bryan said.
“Ah,” Sturgess said. “The Humungo birds. I understand. Then you have a long journey ahead of you. The birds live far from here. That is part of the reason why we travel around to work, why we live so far from other people.”
“Can you show us where these birds live?” Zoe said.
“Of course,” Sturgess said. “Though you will find the journey difficult.”
“Please let us know what the fastest route is,” Z
oe said. “We want to get there as quickly as possible.”
“It’ll be over land,” Sturgess said. “It’s always over land here. We don’t have a lot of water.”
“I wonder what made the Merchants think their commodity was worth more than the Gravitas material,” Zoe said. “On the surface, your material would be the most valuable resource in the world.”
“But we’re not on the surface,” Sturgess said. “Maybe they just woke up one day and came up with the idea. Stranger things have been known to happen. People wake up, decide they want something new, something they haven’t ever wanted before, and they pursue it. They’re greedy and can’t wait to begin extracting as much as they can out of the people. And for the past thirty years we’ve just put up with it.”
“But you don’t have to,” Zoe said.
“Earlier you mentioned about how some of your countries decided to be independent,” Sturgess said.
“Yes,” Zoe said.
“How did they do that?” Sturgess said. “How did they go from dreaming about it, to actually doing it?”
“With great difficulty, I imagine,” Zoe said. “But they did it. And if they can do it, anyone can. It begins with a seed, a doubt, a belief, a need and a want to be something more than they are. And then one person meets others like him, who want the same thing. I guess it grows from there.
“An idea becomes idealism, and eventually, after a great deal of time, they decide to work together to do something about it. And it’s then that they become greater than just one or two, or even a group, of people, when they become the idea themselves.”
Sturgess nodded, taking in the life lessons Zoe was giving him. He looked up at the sky.
“Sometimes I look up at the stars and think about whether there are other people out there, looking back down on me,” he said.
He turned to Zoe.
“And now I know there is someone else out there,” he said. “They’re not where I thought they would be, but people from another world, another place.”
“Yes,” Zoe said. “And we’ll need your help if we’re going to get back there.”