The Ruins of Arlandia Complete Series

by William Wood

  Wexton stuck his head out the door, and shined his light in all directions, but focused on the ground.

  “We can climb down,” Wexton said. “It’s only a few feet.” He jumped down to the ground. When he landed the sound echoed down the tunnel. Everyone had their flashlights out.

  One by one they climbed out of the train and into the dark, cold tunnel. The ground was covered by a smooth light colored concrete. Wexton stood by the door and helped Barouke get out. They all gathered in a circle in front of the train.

  “We’re on foot from here,” Calvin said to the seven people and one small robot standing around him. “Twenty miles of unknown, probably unstable terrain. Don’t go off alone, please. We’re safer, and stronger if we stay together.”

  “And assume everything is dangerous,” Wexton added. “Because it probably is.”

  Wexton went first down the dark tunnel, into the darkness that never seemed to end.

  Walking was easy. The ground was flat and smooth. There was nothing to climb over; no obstacles, and the whole time they made a direct line to the star port. Calvin tried not to think about it, but when he looked at the walls and the concrete roof above them, he was terrified one strong quake would turn the tunnel into a tomb. Calvin wondered how strong the tunnel was. At first everyone stayed close together, but slowly spread out.

  In the first hour there were three minor quakes. No one seemed to notice, and if they did they didn’t react, but Calvin felt a stab of panic each time and didn’t relax until the shaking stopped.

  Another hour passed. They slowly plodded along. Calvin was exhausted; each step was becoming more difficult. He looked around and could tell that the others were feeling the same way. Nils and Barouke were trailing quite a distance behind. Calvin could see their lights bobbing up and down in the darkness.

  He was about to call for a break and suggest they stop for the night when he heard Dev say,

  “Are those stars?”

  Calvin looked up and saw several tiny white lights in the sky. They were beautiful. But that was impossible, right? They were underground. Calvin stared up, captivated, not watching where he was going.

  “Carnan!” Scribbles screeched.

  All of a sudden a hand grabbed the back of Calvin’s jacket and stopped him from taking another step. Calvin looked down to find he was on the edge of a steep drop off. Another foot and he would have fallen in. He shined his light inside the hole but could not see the bottom.

  He turned to see Wexton right behind him.

  “Thanks,” Calvin said. “That was close.”

  “No problem,” Wexton said. “That would have been bad.”

  Then Calvin kneeled down in front of the little robot. “Thank you Scribbles,” he said. “I’m glad you saw that. You must be able to see in the dark.”

  “Sri pan Carnan,” Scribbles whispered, gently touching Calvin’s hand.

  Calvin and the others shined their lights all around, and found a startling discovery. The tunnel roof had collapsed in.

  “Wow,” Astra breathed. “That was fortuitous. If the train hadn’t lost power we would have crashed into that.”

  “An earthquake must have caused this,” Petori commented.

  “Yeah,” Freks said from the darkness. “The big one we had two days ago, I’ll bet.”

  Calvin used the opportunity while waiting for Nils and Barouke to catch up, to look for a way past the cave in so they could continue walking in the tunnel. He had enough time to determine the way was completely blocked. There was no way they could get through it.

  “This might be a good place to stop for the night,” Calvin suggested. “Get some rest, eat something, and get an early start in the morning.”

  “That’s a very good idea,” Wexton said. “We still have a long walk ahead of us, and I for one would rather do it in the daylight.”

  “What do you think, Astra?” Calvin asked.

  “I agree,” she said. “We should have enough time to get to the star port before the planet explodes. But I would feel better if we could climb out of this hole, and find a place on the surface to sleep.”

  Everyone agreed. Wexton went first up the slope.

  Getting out of the hole was easy, there were a lot of things to hold onto; fallen trees, large rocks. Once out, they found themselves under a vast canopy of stars. Rolling hills with tall grass surrounded them, with only a few trees.

  “The sunset is beautiful,” Dev said, pointing. A bright dark red glow covered a small part of the horizon.

  “I don’t think that’s the sun,” Astra said. “I see fire, and smoke.”

  Calvin looked carefully. It took a second, but he finally made it out, and it reminded him of videos he’d seen as a kid, of volcanos violently exploding.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Wexton asked.

  “It’s a volcano,” Astra said.

  “How far away is it?” Dev asked. “Are we in danger here?” He took out his scanner and turned it on.

  “Are we in danger here?” Wexton asked. “You mean, other than the fact the planet is going to explode?”

  “I mean from the volcano, big guy,” Dev snapped.

  There was silence for several moments; everyone stared in awe at the distant fiery mountain.

  “This scanner only has a range of ten miles,” Dev said. “I don’t see the mountain, so it’s farther away than that.”

  “It looks at least fifty miles away,” Wexton said.

  Everyone found a place to lay their bedroll out on the ground in the grass near a large tree. Wexton made a fire, and everyone sat around it and ate.

  Several muted conversations began in the dark. Calvin and Astra sat together by the fire, and spoke quietly to each other. Scribbles sat down on the ground next to Astra, on the side away from Calvin.

  Calvin looked at Astra. She looked tired, and worried.

  “You’re not still blaming yourself for all this are you?” Calvin asked.

  “Well, yeah,” she said. “Because it is my fault. When I found out the first segment was a power source, and made a smaller version of it, I thought I’d found the secret to unlimited power. I was arrogant; it never occurred to me that I could have made a mistake. I should have doublechecked it; triple-checked it! But no, I was impatient and used it before it was ready. I’m sorry, I know I’ve said it over and over but I really am sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. We shouldn’t be here right now. It is my fault.”

  Calvin wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t know what to say. Anything he wanted to say would have sounded hollow because he couldn’t argue with her. But at the same time he wasn’t mad at her. They were desperate, and sometimes you have to do desperate things to survive. Sometimes they worked; sometimes they didn’t.

  When they finished eating, Astra moved closer to Calvin and rested her head on his shoulder. Calvin wrapped his arm around her and leaned his cheek on top of her head.

  “Calvin,” Astra said. “What’re we going to do if we get to the space port and there are no ships? Or worse, what if there’s no hangar?”

  “You know the answer to that as well as I do,” he said gently. It was another question he didn’t want to answer. He knew what he wanted to say; that he believed they were going to escape. That even though he’d only known the Alerians for a short time, he had a feeling they were keeping track of them. They had a way to watch them even through the cloaking device. When the Azure Frost dropped off their scanner, they immediately started searching for them. But deep in his heart he knew that was wishful thinking; there was no way any of it was true.

  “We’ll be OK,” he said, even though he didn’t believe it anymore.

  Astra smiled. “You’re right,” she said, wiping her eyes.

  “Are you worried about your parents?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Calvin said. “It’s been so long since I’ve talked to my father, I worry that they think I’m really dead this time. But right now I’m more worried about the whole planet. I
can’t stop thinking about the Goremog, when they scanned my brain and saw New Arlandia and the solar system. How long will it take them to find the planet and destroy it? They could be on their way there right now. Here’s the bigger question: How long were we unconscious on that Goremog ship? A week? A month? Longer than that? For all I know, the Goremog found New Arlandia months ago and destroyed it. I really need to contact my father. I have to find out what’s going on.”

  After they finished eating dry protein bars and water, they rolled out their beds. Calvin lay on his back and stared up at the stars. He felt helpless and lost. He knew their chances of surviving were almost nonexistent, but he decided to keep it to himself. He knew that negative talk would be the worst thing for everyone, so no matter what, he would stay positive. If they didn’t have any hope they might as well have stayed in the prison; ate and drank and enjoyed themselves right up to the end.

  Eventually he fell asleep, listening to the wind in the trees.

  CHAPTER THIRTY:

  CANYONS AND CRATERS

  Calvin woke up before it started to get light. He heard several people walking around, talking in muted voices. When he sat up, a deep soreness spread through his back, arms, and legs. Several gray shadows moved in the darkness. Calvin looked over at Astra, she was already sitting up and was munching on her breakfast; another protein bar.

  “Good morning,” she said. “How did you sleep?” “I don’t know if it’s from sleeping on the ground, or from all the walking, but I’m sore all over.” Calvin said.

  “Wait till tomorrow,” a voice said from the darkness. It was Wexton. “After we’ve walked all day through the mountains.”

  Calvin opened his backpack and took out whatever was on top. He opened the silver wrapping, which revealed a dark red protein bar. He smelled it first. It didn't have any smell. He took a small bite. It was sweet, and tasted very good. He took a drink of water.

  “It could be the stress too,” Astra said quietly. “You were tightening your muscles a lot yesterday, weren’t you?”

  Calvin had to think about it. “Yeah, I suppose I was.”

  “I was too. It was a stressful day.”

  “Yeah,” Calvin said. “It was.”

  They ate quietly for a while.

  “These aren’t bad,” Calvin said after he finished his last bite. “I’m surprised. I expected them to taste worse, especially since its alien dehydrated food. Our scientists were more concerned with nutrition than taste, so ours are not very good. I wonder how these make me feel full after just a few bites.”

  “Once it gets into your stomach it expands,” Astra explained.

  “Apparently the Goremog are very good at surviving,”

  “Yes,” Astra said grimly. “They are.”

  There was very little preparation or packing required. Everyone was ready to go in a few minutes.

  They walked through a field of tall grass, still thick with dew. Calvin's boots and legs below his knees quickly became soaked, but his feet felt dry. The sun slowly climbed above the horizon; the warmth felt good.

  Once the sun had cleared the mountains, it was clear that the sky looked different than it had the day before. There were no clouds, but the sky was not blue, it was dirty brown, as if there was thick smog in the air. Calvin wondered if it was from last night’s volcanic eruption, but wasn’t sure.

  Calvin and Astra walked side by side, with Scribbles between them.

  Wexton led them through a narrow gorge in between two mountains. They followed a dry stream bed; tall rock walls stood on either side. The canyon ended and they entered a wide valley ringed with tall snowcapped mountains. It took six hours to cross to the other side; they stopped only for short water breaks. When they reached a fast moving river, they stopped under the shade of a large tree, sat on the ground and had something to eat.

  Dev retrieved his scanner from his backpack and gazed intently into his screen. The sun was now directly over them.

  As they were sitting there, looking up at the dirty sky, something very strange happened. A dead calm fell around them. The birds stopped chirping; it seemed that all noise ceased.

  Then suddenly there was a massive explosion. On the horizon, the entire top of one mountain peak was gone, hidden behind a massive black cloud. A tall pillar of smoke mushroomed into the sky. The blast wave hit with a fury that knocked everyone to the ground, and the trees swayed back and forth violently.

  “Oh, Zap!” Dev shouted. He looked intently into his scanner. “Calvin, we’re going to want to get to higher ground; soon.”

  Everyone quickly got to their feet. Calvin stared at the mountain; torrents of fire were shooting into the air. “Calvin, come on,” Astra urged. They put all their food away, packed up their bags and headed up the side of the nearest mountain. They followed a narrow path that looked like a dry stream bed.

  Several massive boulders fell from the sky and smashed into the sides of nearby mountains; nothing close to them, but close enough to scare them half to death from the impact, and the deafening explosion.

  They formed a single file line. Nils led the way. The first hour was brutal; it was steep and they had to go very slow. They picked their way over and around large rocks, fallen trees and thick needle-bush patches. The sun beat down on them mercilessly. The heat was oppressive.

  Calvin was glad when they reached the top. The path leveled out, and they found a dozen large flat rocks. They sat down for a break, and drank water. Calvin looked around, hoping to see a tree. He was more than a little disappointed that there were no trees near them. There were some farther up the mountain, but there was no way he was going to walk up there just to get some shade.

  They only rested for five minutes. Their desire to get out of the sun and find shade kept them going. The path stayed flat for about fifteen more minutes, which was very nice, and also widened out a little. They found the remains of a rail system, mostly buried in the ground. The tracks went off to the left and disappeared at the edge of a large crater. A set of disintegrated stairs also ended at the crater. A concrete path led away into a wall of trees.

  “Clearly this is where the main rail line ran,” Calvin said. “This looks like a blast crater.”

  “Not this high up,” Dev said, looking at his scanner. “Look, this must be another line.”

  “They must have had a mining operation up here,” Astra suggested. She bent down and picked up a small black rock. “This is Borenite; a rare and valuable mineral. The Goremog use this as armor plating for their ships. It’s the strongest known substance in the universe.”

  “So that’s what they were doing here,” Nils said. “That makes sense. They wanted the Borenite.”

  “You’re right,” Dev said. “But according to the scanner, there should be a personnel entrance into the system, over there.”

  The path disappeared into a wall of trees. Hundreds of branches blocked the way. Nils looked at Calvin with a questioning look.

  “Follow the path,” Calvin said.

  Nils pushed ahead, forcing his way through the dense wall of overgrown foliage. Everyone else followed one by one. Calvin did his best to hold the branches back for Astra, even at the expense of having one whack him in the face. After thirty feet, they pushed through into a cave.

  Once inside, Calvin noticed it wasn’t dark. He looked back at the tree covered entrance. No light from outside was coming in. It was also nice and cool. If nothing else it was a perfect break from the heat, which was much worse today than in recent days.

  Inside was a large cave that looked like it had been carved out by water. The walls were smooth and glowed with a soft blue light. Calvin placed his hand on the cool stone and ran it down the wall.

  “Astounding,” Calvin breathed. “I wonder what’s making the rocks glow.” A dozen tiny springs fell through the cracks of the ceiling and pooled on the floor. Everyone sat down on the floor and took a nice long break. They drank out of the springs, and refilled their water bottles. Calvin sat n
ext to Astra.

  “How are you doing?” he asked her.

  “Fine,” she said. “Better now.” She put her hand into a small spring that ran down the wall behind her. “I really enjoyed our time at the Inn. I needed that break. It was so nice sleeping in a bed, eating hot food, getting clean clothes and taking baths. I already miss it.”

  “Me too,” Calvin agreed. “Too bad we couldn’t take the pub with us.”

  Astra laughed. It was a relief to see her in a happy mood.

  After they rested, the group followed Nils onward down a narrow rock path deeper into the mountain. There was a three foot wide pool of water on each side of the path. The grade was gentle, and the going was easy. The rock ceiling was covered with small sharp rocks, only a few inches above Calvin’s head. The taller people in the group had to bend down to keep from hitting their heads on them. Their footsteps echoed softly, and even the motorized motions of Scribbles were easily heard, where out in the open she was too quiet to hear.

  The path made a few turns, but generally kept going in the same direction. The rocks emitted a soft blue light the whole way, making it relatively easy to see. The pools opened up and became much wider along both sides.

  Forty minutes later they entered into a vast open space. The stream on the right crossed through the path ahead of them. Several small round stones were in the water. They used them to easily cross over without getting wet. The two streams merged and emptied into an enormous lake directly in front of them. The ceiling above the lake was flat, and glowed. The lake was dark black in color, like ink, but captured the light from above. It had a silent beautiful quality.

  The path ended at a wooden dock, which was half built into the rock. At the end of the dock was a large iron wheel with ropes that stretched off into the distance. Dev stopped next to the iron wheel and consulted his scanner.

  “It’s beautiful,” Astra gasped. Her voice echoed throughout the room. Calvin and Astra approached a wooden railing, and peered down into the water. It was too dark to see below the surface. Calvin was amazed. It was very beautiful there, and peaceful.