Maybe her father would take some time on the way to trade for dried fish at Waters, and to visit Tinker and Mary. They hadn’t stopped in to see them the last few times they’d flown over their place. If Father got it into his head they were running behind schedule then he wouldn’t this time either, but Liberty really hoped they would. Tinker and Molly were such sweet people. No matter what her father said about love, it seemed to her that the world needed more of it, if Tinker and Molly were anything to go by. They made it look like the most wondrous thing in the world.
Not that Liberty ever said that to her father – not if she didn’t want to listen to a long drawn out lecture about how dangerous it was. But as far as she could see, love only led to more love. How could something so wonderful turn into hate? But who was she to argue with her father? He was always right about everything else, so he had to know something she didn’t.
Liberty laughed out loud and rolled her eyes. It was silly thinking about love anyway. She was in the middle of The Forbidden Lands. Who was there to meet and fall in love with here? Not a damn soul. Tinker and Molly were the only couple she had met in all of her and her father’s travels who actually admitted to loving each other.
All the other people Liberty knew were loners and seemed quite happy to remain so. Besides, she couldn’t imagine someone like Shatter, Waters, Polly, Billy or Golden allowing anyone else into their lives. Who would kiss Shatter with his layers of spit and deer jerky on his chin? Waters always smelled like fish. Polly loved her bees too much ever to love a human, and Billy, well, he never failed to smell like his goats and his old cheese.
Now, Golden was an altogether different matter. She had a pleasing personality and beautiful long hair that matched her name. Out in the sun it sparkled. Even though Golden kept it piled on top of her head in a loose bun, by the end of the day those long curls would escape and fall down the nape of her neck.
It was easy to imagine someone falling in love with Golden. The truth was, Liberty had secretly hoped Golden and her father would fall in love. Liberty longed for a mother and wouldn’t have minded staying there with Golden, with her open fields and rows upon rows of apple trees.
Liberty shook her head. Why was she wasting time thinking about love? It wasn’t a possibility for her. The population had dwindled to only a handful of people, so what were the odds she would ever meet someone her own age, and even if she did, it wasn’t likely she would be willing to leave Airus. The skies were her home. The world was a dangerous place but Airus gave her freedom and safety. She loved the feel of the wind on her face and watching the scenery below her change.
Her newly scrubbed skin made Liberty feel like a new person. Even though it was out of character, as she started out for the galley she sang the song her father sang to her whenever she needed cheering up.
As she left the cabin, she glanced up at the sky. “Father should be returning soon. I better stop dawdling.” If he was as hungry as she was, he would want more than cheese and apples. Hurrying into the galley, she searched through every drawer, looking over all their food supplies until she remembered the gifts Golden had handed her before they’d boarded Airus at their last visit. Liberty rummaged through the apple drawer until she spotted what she was looking for.
She carefully unwrapped the pears and set them aside. Maybe she should wait for Father to return before cutting them. He still had to clean up before dinner. She headed back out on deck and was surprised to see how dark it had become. Where the hell was he?
She headed over to the railing and looked out into the dark, foreboding remains of the city. Its starkness sent a shiver down her spine. The wind was up and howled through the trash littered streets and broken buildings. What The Great War hadn’t destroyed, the eight hundred years since had certainly reduced what had surely once been a beautiful place into nothing more than a crumbling shambles. As a child, Liberty had imagined the sound the wind made to be the whispers and voices of the ghosts of those killed during the war, and of those who’d starved during the desperate times afterwards when food and water had become so scarce.
Liberty now paced the deck from bow to stern. Her growing concern only made the wind sound more and more like cries and screams. Nothing had ever convinced her it was other than the victims of that war trying to get someone to notice they still walked the streets of Forbidden.
“Where is he?” There was no way he would stay out this late. Even he wouldn’t break the rule about being back onboard before dark. That rule was to protect them and Airus. The airship was their home and refuge and so had to be safeguarded.
The wind whipped Liberty’s hair into her face and stirred her already frayed nerves. The harder it blew the more certain Liberty became that something had happened to her father. He would never purposely not be here to make certain the airship was securely grounded – rule one: take good care of your home.
Liberty ran into the cabin and slipped out of her clean shift. She grabbed the dirty clothes she had taken off earlier for she couldn’t go stumbling around in the rubble without proper protection, and she had no intention of returning to the airship until she’d found Father.
Chapter Six
Liberty put her lamp down and tucked a stray curl of hair behind her ear. She was simply too exhausted to go through the motions of braiding it again.
Where was Father?
Worry had eaten at her insides all night but Liberty had refused to stop until she found him. Twice she’d been back to Airus to make certain he hadn’t already returned, but each time everything looked the same as before. If he had been there, he would have left whatever he had salvaged on deck, but there was nothing. So she had headed back out, and methodically searched each and every place they had gone to in previous years. He hadn’t been at any of them.
Liberty peered at the now graying sky. It would be daylight soon. That would certainly help in her search. For now, though, she leaned against the side of a half demolished skyscraper, to rest her aching shoulders. Her boots had rubbed blisters on the back of her heels. It was tempting to go back to Airus to rest up for a couple of hours, but the thought that he might be somewhere hurt and bleeding made that idea an impossibility.
She pressed her back into the rough edges of the concrete, hoping the pain would help her become more alert. The first time her father had ever needed her help and she was letting him down. Liberty squeezed her eyes shut. He said he was going to the jar factory. He wouldn’t have strayed far from that plan because he knew it was important for her to know exactly where he was in case of an emergency.
So if he didn’t deviate from his plan to head straight to the factory, there had to be a good reason why she hadn’t found him yet. So, what had happened to him? Where were the most dangerous areas between the airship and the jar factory?
Liberty chewed on a thumbnail. The pathway wasn’t exactly straight between the factory and Airus. She clambered onto a pile of rubble to get a better view in the growing light, then ran her eye between the factory and Airus. She remembered her father once or twice taking them by a shortcut he’d called the “subway”, and sure enough, there in the distance was its battered old sign. Even though he had only taken them that way a couple of times, she knew he often used it himself when in a hurry. But it had been nearing dark when he’d set off so she found it hard to believe he would have risked taking such a dangerous path.
Liberty slapped the wall with the palms of her hands and pushed away from it. There was only one way to know for certain. She would have to go there and take a look.
Having a plan boosted her spirits even though she was apprehensive about going near what her father had always warned her against. It had been one of his favorite lectures on the way to The Forbidden Lands. In fact, he could go on for hours about what could happen if someone were to fall into the tunnels that made up the subway. Where should she check first, though? Choosing wrong might further endanger his life. Father knew the path toward the factory like the back of his hand
and was smart enough never to chance going near the collapsed parking garage. A few years back they had been near there when a part of it collapsed and sent an avalanche of concrete and ancient cars hurtling their way. They had only escaped from certain death by sheer dumb luck and fast foot work. He had forbidden her ever to go that way again and she doubted he would have chanced it himself. But it was possible he might have taken the road that ran above the subway.
When she got there, she saw that sections of it had collapsed into the subway’s tunnel beneath. There were, though, still long stretches that hadn’t. What if more of the road had collapsed since the last time he’d come this way? He wouldn’t have known that before setting out.
Liberty crossed her fingers and ran along the intact section of road, back towards the jar factory, dodging chunks of concrete and the remains of automobiles. As she drew near, she slowed and looked directly ahead.
Her face was flushed from the running and her heart beat faster than normal. She hadn’t seen any signs of recent damage to the road, into which he may have stumbled, and so she began to wonder if he’d come this way at all. Maybe he had changed his mind about going to the factory. She glanced around at the enormous skyscrapers that went on and on for miles. The city was far too large to search every inch of it.
Doubt now nibbled away at Liberty’s confidence, stopping her in her tracks. She bent at the waist and tried to control her breathing and scattered thoughts. She had never had to make life and death decisions before. Father had always kept her safe, always drilled into her that she must always-always follow his rules.
She closed her eyes. “How many times has he told me that the rules had been created for a reason?” Too many times to believe he would break them himself, even if he had been in a hurry.
“What would Father do?” She straightened and scanned the area again, now noticing a large hole further up the road, what looked like a fresh one. Throwing caution to the wind, Liberty took off at a sprint and skidded to a stop at the mouth of the cavernous opening.
Concrete and dirt covered rusted-out subway cars and track were revealed at the bottom of the massive cave-in. When the ground at her feet began crumbling under her boots, though, Liberty scooted back a pace although her eyes were still held by what was inside the dark hole.
A movement caught her attention, and a shudder ran throughout her.
“Rats.” Liberty hitched her pants up as if that would be a defense against the disgusting critters. She hated dark places and the creepy crawly things in them.
“No problem. If one gets too close, I’ll just stomp it to smithereens.” Liberty jumped back when yet more dirt beneath her feet shifted, then she frowned.
“Forget the rats. My biggest problem is finding a way down without breaking my neck.” Liberty looked around, and then fate itself looked kindly upon her. What was left of a partially collapsed bridge stood at the side of the road, the start of its span jutting out above the hole. The remainder had dropped in, forming a concrete staircase down to the bottom.
“I wonder,” and she ran to it, around the edge of the hole.
“It looks like it might hold my weight,” Liberty said to herself as she put some weight onto the concrete railing of the fallen section. Slipping a foot across, she stood on the steps and held her breath, hoping she didn’t end up crashing to the bottom. When nothing bad happened, Liberty took a deep breath and started the long descent into the dark depths.
Chapter Seven
Fear tickled at the back of Liberty’s throat, leaving it dry and hard for her to swallow. The tunnel smelled like dank dirt and was draped in gray shadows. The intact sections were blacker than any night she had ever had to endure. The only thing that kept her moving forward was the thought that her father could be just up ahead, needing her help. She stuck to the sides of the tunnel to avoid running face first into an old subway car or something and inched forward, her hand tracing along the sides of the moldy walls, more for moral support than anything else. Not being able to see where she was going was playing tricks with her mind.
Liberty’s harsh breathing sounded loud in her own ears, but she strained to hear if her father was answering her calls for him.
“Just put one foot in front of the other.” Good advice but every brain cell screamed for her to turn around and get the hell out of here before more of the tunnel collapsed. She stayed focused by concentrating on a patch of daylight up ahead. If she didn’t find Father before reaching it then he probably wasn’t in the subway. But then where to look next? How far could he have strayed in the nighttime darkness?
Something scurried across Liberty’s boots. Her loud shriek echoed through the tunnel as she hurried her pace, concentrating even harder on the light up ahead.
A distant moan stopped her in her tracks. “Father?” She strained for a reply and didn’t have long to wait. Another moan echoed through the tunnel, immediately drawing Liberty toward this one hope she’d had all night.
She was stopped by a loose pile of earth and a mounded tangle of sharp-edged debris.
“You might as well stop dilly-dallying around. It’s the only way over,” Liberty said to herself as she kicked at the bottom of the pile, and when nothing fell, scrambled up, only stopping when she’d reached the top. From there she could see three rusted-out subway cars, a figure lying on top of the first.
“Father!” Liberty didn’t wait for an answer but scampered down the loose dirt, jumping large lumps of concrete, hoping to hell she didn’t cause an avalanche that would bury them both.
When she finally reached the subway cars, she jumped onto the fourth. Now on firmer ground she could run the rest of the way to her father and so soon found him lying there at an odd angle. His head and arms were draped off the edge of the car. It worried Liberty that he hadn’t acknowledged any of her many calls as she’d run toward him.
Aapeli lay in such a way that Liberty really feared he might fall, and was tempted to grab his feet and pull him fully onto the top of the car, but she hesitated. What if his back were injured? Would she do more harm than good?
She knelt by his side and slipped a hand down the back of his shirt, placing it on his back. His skin felt clammy but his back rose and fell with each labored breath. When she pulled her hand out, it was sticky. She sniffed her fingers. There was no mistaking the unpleasant telltale scent of blood. Liberty lifted his shirt away but couldn’t see enough in the darkness.
She lay flat on top of the car and leaned over its edge, to feel at his forehead. “Father? Can you hear me?”
She turned his head to get a good look at his face. “You need to wake up and talk to me.”
Time stood still as she waited for some response but none came. Liberty scooted back and rocked onto her heels. How the hell was she going to get him out of this hole? She stood and looked up at the buildings towering over the opening, then noticed another subway sign. There must be an entrance here too, somewhere around here, she reasoned. All she could do was go and search it out.
She knelt by her father. “Don’t despair. I’ll be right back.” She touched his shoulder and waited a moment, hoping against hope he had heard. When he didn’t move, though, her earlier euphoria fizzled out.
Liberty jumped off the car and looked up into Aapeli’s face, to see how he was doing, and then whispered, “Now I understand why you always told me only to worry about one thing at a time. Too many at once will only befuddle your mind.”
When he didn’t respond, she kissed his forehead and gathered her resolve. She would damned well find a way out of this tunnel, and then, and only then, worry about what to do next. Her jaw now firmly set, she carefully headed out in search of the entrance, her fingers crossed.
Liberty whispered, so as not to disturb the rodents, “I’m not a quitter, and my father isn’t going to die down here if there’s anything I can do about it,” but each step only led to yet more darkness. The stairway should have been close to the sign she’d seen, so why wasn’t there som
e hint of daylight? Her earlier confidence dwindled with each faltering step. She turned and looked back, wondering if she ought to return to her father. What if she were wrong? Maybe she was wasting precious time. Fortunately, her feet had a mind of their own and kept her moving forward until the tunnel began to grow lighter and lighter. And there it was – the entranceway. Throwing caution to the wind, Liberty ran to the brightly lit stairway.
Chapter Eight
“Father, just a couple more steps. We’re almost there.” Sweat ran down Liberty’s face and her arms quivered from the strain of trying to support his weight and keep them both from falling backward off the ladder. She eyed Airus’s railing with longing.
They were so close but so far away. The long trip out of the subway and back to Airus had sapped most of Aapeli’s strength and so with each step he had pressed more of his weight onto Liberty. They had stumbled several times over the last few yards to the airship but by some miracle she had kept them both upright. When they’d finally reached it, Liberty had held him against the ladder to give him time to catch his breath and regain some of his strength. She suspected he would have liked to lay down instead, but feared she would never get him back on his feet if he did. Now they were both too exhausted to finish the last leg of their journey. On the first step of the ladder he had tripped and almost sent them both flying backwards. That was the moment Liberty began to doubt she would ever get her father back on board the airship.
It took several attempts but they finally found a rhythm to the climb: her using her shoulder under his hips as he pulled himself up onto the next rung. Each time they paused Liberty drew in a deep breath and then pushed again until her father had his feet on the next. Even though every muscle in her body screamed for her to stop and rest, she closed her mind against their protests and continued the effort, determined to make it on board. During all this time her father never complained, but she could feel that with each victory they achieved he was more dependent upon her strength to reach the next goal. If they didn’t make it on board soon, they might both fall from the ladder.
The Liberty Series Page 3