by Perrin Briar
“I wish I could help you,” Sturgess said. “Really, I do. But in all our years of digging we’ve never found a way out. Ever.”
“Where does the Gravitas go after you unearth it?” Bryan said.
“To the Merchants,” Sturgess said.
“How do you get to them?” Bryan said.
“With the use of a large Gravitas platform,” Sturgess said.
Bryan shook his head.
“We’re looking for something more like a Passage,” he said.
“A Passage?” Sturgess said. “What’s that?”
Zoe’s heart sank. If he didn’t even know what it was called, how was he going to know where it was?
“It’s a doorway,” Zoe said. “A way out of this place, to another world. Someone steps through it and when they come out the other end, they emerge in another place. Have you seen anywhere like that?”
“Ah,” Sturgess said with a light in his eyes. “Yes. We have such a place.”
“You do?” Bryan said. “You know where it is?”
“Of course,” Sturgess said. “In fact, we’re just about to use it now. Would you like to see?”
17.
“THERE’S SOMETHING wrong with this map,” Aaron said.
“Of course there is,” Cassie said. “It’s in a million pieces.”
Aaron had been hard at work piecing it together for the past few hours, barely even taking his eyes off it while he ate. With his photographic memory, he was able to link images together in a way Cassie could never do. They were a mosaic, consisting of thousands of individual pieces. It distracted Aaron and kept him calm, reason enough to let him continue with it.
Cassie was occasionally able to find one or two pieces, but it was predominantly up to Aaron to put the map together. Each time he picked up a piece he was quick to discover another that was its twin, recalling exactly where he’d put it amongst the dozens of piles he’d assembled.
Aaron stood up and peered down at the pieces he had fit together with a critical eye. As he moved around them, he tilted his head from one side to the other, trying as best he could to fit them together in his mind, deciding how best to approach them.
“What do you mean?” Cassie said.
“They don’t all fit together,” Aaron said. “There are too many pieces. I’m certain it’s a map. But of what?”
“I thought it was of this world?” Cassie said.
“I can’t seem to locate the areas we started in and flew over,” Aaron said. “This is the mountain where we are now. But the magma area we first appeared is on this other map. How can that be? It’s like we arrived on one planet, and then the birds took us to another.”
“The world has probably changed since we came here,” Cassie said.
“Sure,” Aaron said. “But not to this extent.”
“Maybe it’s a badly designed piece of work,” Cassie said. “There are old maps of our world that are completely wrong.”
“Maybe,” Aaron said with a frown.
“What else could it be?” Cassie said.
“I don’t know,” Aaron admitted.
He turned his head, taking in the pieces.
“It’s almost like they’re pieces of two different maps,” he said. “But why would anyone make a map of two different worlds when he was in this one?”
“So maybe someone from another world came here,” Cassie said. “That’s not beyond the realm of possibility, is it? We did, after all.”
“No,” Aaron said. “I suppose not. But why would someone put them in mosaic form?”
“Why not?” Cassie said. “Maybe it was a show of knowledge or something. A way to show how smart they were, with two worlds coming together like this.”
The birds deposited some strange fruit on the floor of the nest. It wasn’t meant for their consumption, of course, but for the chicks once they hatched. There wasn’t a chance Cassie and Aaron weren’t going to eat it while they had the chance.
“Come eat something,” Cassie said. “We’ll get back to work after we fill our bellies.”
They sat down and began to munch on the fruit. It tasted sweet and stung the roofs of their mouths with flavor. The birds perched on one leg on the edge of the nest, heads tucked under their wings. They were sleeping, and not for the first time Cassie considered pushing them over the side.
Even if she was able to do so—unlikely, given their weight—they would only awaken and spread their wings and return back to the nest, angry and in need of vengeance. She’d need to tie their wings up, to make them incapable of being able to rescue themselves.
Even so, it would only remove part of the threat they faced. They were still perched on the top of a mountain with an army of giant snakes to battle through, not to mention the ravenous chicks who would attack them as soon as they hatched. It was hopeless.
Cassie sat back and continued to eat listlessly. They ate without conversation, Aaron’s mind far away and distant on the subject of the maps. Meanwhile, Cassie was left to hunt the few mice and rats that made it to the nest to pick over the scraps of food Cassie used as a lure. She hunted with blow darts and other ancient weapons that the birds had unknowingly brought to the nest.
All the while, watching over them, were the six giant eggs. The cracks in their shells were growing longer, thicker, and soon they would no longer be in a single piece. At some point a gap had grown large enough to reveal a single blood vesseled eye peering down at them, unflinching, unblinking. And hungry.
18.
IT WAS A dour affair. But then, it was a funeral, Bryan thought. They should be somber events.
Shortly before Bryan and Zoe had shown up there had been a cave-in. Half a dozen miners had been buried beneath a shelf of earth and the other miners had been unable to get them out before they suffocated to death.
The fallen men and women were lined up before what Bryan recognized as a Passage, a slit in the earth. Their bodies lay prostrate beneath thin blankets. Not many people were shedding tears. Death was a common visitor in this part of the world.
There were songs, a beautiful mournful moan and groan from the throats of the assembled, accompanied by gentle drums. Families of the deceased stood closest to the Passage and their loved ones.
The Passage opened up, and an unbearable heat emanated from it, like standing before an open oven door when it’s at full blast. Bryan could feel it even from this distance, despite being so far away. The congregation sweated profusely. There wasn’t a man to say anything over the bodies, only the gentle mournful moans and groans.
The bodies were picked up and lowered into the pits one by one. The blankets were removed at the last moment—they couldn’t afford to lose them. The bodies began to cook before they even arrived at the Passage. The flames licked their skin and made it bubble, their hair fizzle, an unpleasant burning aroma.
Then the meat began to burn and fester and cook, turning it brown before they sank into the flames. They dropped each of the bodies into the pit, one by one, until they were all gone. Once the flames had subsided, the singing slowed and came to a stop. The congregation began to disperse, until just Bryan and Zoe remained.
“Great,” Bryan said, turning to Zoe. “Do you want to go in first, or shall I?”
“There must be a way to go through the Passage without getting cooked,” Zoe said. “Some kind of ice suit or protective gel?”
“Look where we are,” Bryan said. “Does it look like they have a research center tucked away somewhere?”
“We’ll figure something out,” Zoe said. “None of this really matters till we get Aaron and Cassie back. Once we have them, then we can try to figure a way out of here.”
“Hey,” Sturgess said, approaching them. “I have the map you’ll need to get to the birds’ nest. It stops on the edge of our knowledge. After that, you’re on your own, but it should get you close to the nest.”
“Thank you,” Bryan said.
“Listen,” Sturgess said, running a hand through his thick locks. “Why
don’t you stay with us? We have plenty of food and water, and I’m sure there’s lots of things you could teach us.”
“Thank you,” Zoe said. “But we need to find our children.”
Sturgess nodded, but was distant with thought.
“Look,” he said. “I didn’t want to tell you this before, but no one ever returns from the Humungos. I’m sorry. I don’t say this to discourage you. But it’s the truth. Once a Humungo takes them, they never come back.”
“There’s one difference between us and the others,” Bryan said. “We have no intention of coming back.”
Sturgess nodded, smiled, and then clapped Bryan on the shoulder.
“Yes,” he said. “Of course. And that shall be your saving grace, I have no doubt. We don’t have much, but what we have is yours. If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask. We wish you all the best in your efforts of finding your children.”
“Thank you, Sturgess,” Bryan said. “You’re a good man. Good people. You’ve renewed my trust in humanity.”
“You know, you don’t have to put up with this,” Zoe said to Sturgess. “With having the Merchants as your masters.”
“What other choice do we have?” Sturgess said.
Zoe could tell he already knew what other choice he had, but she pressed on anyway.
“You can rebel,” Zoe said.
“Rebel?” Sturgess said.
His face scrunched up with thought.
“What does this mean, ‘rebel’?” he said.
“It means to fight against those who try to wield power over you,” Zoe said.
“And how would we go about doing something like that?” Sturgess said.
“Well, you begin by making demands,” Zoe said. “Telling them what you want.”
“And they’ll just hand it to us?” Sturgess said.
“No,” Zoe said. “But you stop digging so they’ll have no choice but to give you what you want.”
“Stop digging?” Sturgess said. “But that’s what we are. We’re diggers. If we didn’t dig, what would we be?”
“You’d be humans,” Zoe said. “People. Who provide an important service.”
“What if they say no?” Sturgess said.
“Then they say no,” Zoe said. “What else can they do?”
“They can stop sending us food,” Sturgess said. “They barely send us enough as it is.”
Zoe picked up her backpack and hefted it onto her shoulders.
“Fine,” Zoe said. “But don’t go blaming others if your situation doesn’t change. It’s up to you to decide your fate, not someone else. Our kids were taken from us. Now, we’re going to get them back. You don’t have to live with your situation. Demand more. If you want more.”
Zoe shook Sturgess’s hand, an awkward operation, as he had never done it before, and then gave him a hug. Bryan shook his hand too. They turned and left the camp.
Sturgess watched the fleeting backs of these two extraordinary people. He certainly did want more. All the miners did. But did they have the courage to do what was necessary? Did he?
19.
“IF MOM and Bryan are coming to find us, they’ll probably come this way,” Aaron said, finger trailing a route across the map. “The least we can do is figure out where the Passage is.”
“Having these maps won’t do us much good anyway,” Cassie said. “We won’t be able to take them with us if we do manage to get out of here.”
“We don’t need to take them with us,” Aaron said.
“You can remember them?” Cassie said.
“I’ve already memorized them,” Aaron said with a shrug. “It’s not difficult.”
“Meanwhile the eggs are hatching,” Cassie said. “None of this means anything if those eggs hatch before our parents get here.”
Aaron turned to look at the eggs. He seemed surprised to find the large cracks in their shells. He’d been so absorbed in his activity he hadn’t noticed their degeneration.
“You’re right,” he said. “We need to come up with a way to keep them from hatching. We can’t push them over the side. They’re too heavy.”
“Then there’s only one thing we can do,” Cassie said.
She approached a pile of black sticks that sat to one side.
“I found these while I was looking for things to eat,” Cassie said. “But when I chewed on them, I found they were inedible. I kept chewing and chewing and spat them out. I couldn’t swallow it, even hungry as I was. Later, when it started to dry, I found it had become hard. I had to brush it off my teeth otherwise it would have glued my mouth shut.”
“Now that would have been a miracle,” Aaron said.
Cassie glared at him.
“I tried setting fire to them too, but they just melted, like they were made of candle wax or something,” she said.
“Natural glue,” Aaron said. “Luck. That makes a change.”
Cassie used the last of their kindling to start a small fire and handed a smoking stick to Aaron. She kept one for herself. They placed the black stick on the tip of the flame and after a moment, the stick began to melt. Its black outer bark gave way to the cloudy white material excreted from beneath.
They approached the egg with the largest cracks and worked on it first. Soon, the eye that stared from the inside was covered. Cassie and Aaron didn’t stop until they had smothered every inch of the cracks. The shell looked like it had received a facelift. Then they got started on the other shells, covering them with their own layer of liquid glue.
Finally, sweating from their exertions, their glue sticks run down to nubs, Cassie and Aaron backed away and appraised their handiwork. They’d done a good job, but now they were out of glue sticks. There was nothing more they could do. Hopefully it would be enough to hold the chicks back before their parents could find and rescue them.
Then the middle egg began to rock side to side.
The shell pressed outward from the inside. The glue held as the shell bent. Aaron and Cassie’s breath was stuck in their throats. A hard thud smacked the inside of the egg. The shell rocked and rolled forward onto its front. There were three hard thrusts from the inside, and a beak smashed through the shell, a beak tiny in comparison to its parents, but still the size of Cassie and Aaron’s heads.
Cassie and Aaron backed away.
“Now what do we do?” Aaron said. “We angered it. Now it’s going to kill us!”
“No,” Cassie said. “We’ll hide.”
“Hide where?” Aaron said. “It’s going to find us eventually. And what’ll we do for food? And what about the other chicks who’ll hatch?”
“We’ll think of something,” Cassie said. “We always have in the past.”
“We’ve never been trapped on the top of a mountain surrounded by giant killer snakes and birds before!” Aaron said.
“Stay calm,” Cassie said.
“You stay calm!” Aaron said “I’m going to panic.”
The chick chirruped and poked its beak out of the hole it had made.
“Push it back in!” Cassie said.
“Push it back in?” Aaron said. “You must be joking! It’s ten times bigger than us! There’s no way we’ll push it back in its shell like that!”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Cassie said.
“Hide!” Aaron said.
They ran around the eggs and hid behind them. They were big and there was plenty of space for them to conceal themselves. They peered around a shell to watch the renegade egg.
The sound of the shell cracking open was grotesque in the silence. Cassie caught sight of fluffy yellow feathers that pushed through the shell, covered in some kind of bloody viscous mucus. It got to its webbed feet and stood at its full height. It was enormous.
Cassie, not realizing she had been holding her breath, pulled back behind the egg. She came face to face with dozens of cracks over the remaining eggs. They too were already beginning to split open along the seams.
“We’re not going t
o get out of here,” Cassie said.
They weren’t going to last long hiding as they were. They were going to be discovered eventually. They needed to face their aggressors. Suddenly Cassie didn’t feel afraid any longer. When your number had been called, it had been called, and there was no way to outrun fate.
“Cassie!” Aaron said. “Cassie! What are you doing? Get down!”
“Our parents aren’t going to get to us in time,” Cassie said, her voice hollow.
“You don’t know that!” Aaron said. “There’s a chance they could find us, any minute.”
“There’s one place we need them to be, but they’re not,” Cassie said. “What does that tell you? You can count the time we have left by the cracks in the shells. There’s hardly any time left. I say we face this monster and face her on our own terms.”
Aaron just stared at Cassie, unsure of her words, unsure whether he wanted to take the risk, whether it was in fact worth taking in the first place. But he couldn’t help himself. He got to his feet too.
“I suppose we’ll have more chance of success if we try to defend ourselves together,” Aaron said. “Though we don’t have any weapons and no real way of succeeding. Let’s head into the fray and let ourselves get killed. Why not? It’s not like we’ve got anything else to live for.”
“Always looking on the bright side,” Cassie said. “That’s what I like about you, Aaron.”
They edged toward the wall. It felt like they were in a nightmarish fairy tale, populated by Humpty Dumpty’s extended family. Though Cassie knew what she had to do, what she had to face, she wasn’t all that excited about doing it.
She pulled back when she peered around the seemingly endless curve of the giant egg. It could have been the surface of its own dimpled planet. She rounded the shell to the middle of the nest.
Cassie gasped, coming to a stop. The chick was a perfectly scaled up version of the chicks Cassie had seen on the farms on the surface. There would have been nothing remotely scary about it if it wasn’t for its sheer size. It was a beast.
It was six feet tall, wide around the hips and narrow at its shoulders. Its head was square and wore a small fractured piece of shell on its head, similar to a flat cap.