The Humanarium

by CW Tickner

  ‘I believe you,’ Drew said. He bit into a piece of cold meat and chewed in silence, anger scrawled on his face. He looked out the door to the Sight. ‘And you can get us out?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kane said, ‘but first we need to cut through the next wall and travel on until we can find the petroleum. Then we can get both our people away from the Aylen.’

  ‘We’ll join you,’ Drew said walking to one of the piles of rags. He almost collapsed into the bundle. ‘Sleep first.’

  The alarm sounded, blaring the dreaded sound throughout the tank as if the Aylen themselves were screaming in through a hole in the barrier.

  All of the fighters had slept in their armour with weapons close to hand, as if expecting such a wake up call. Damen spoke as the tank-dwellers rolled over and snatched up their blades and spears.

  ‘The sentries will sort it,’ he said.

  Harl led them outside to join those on duty. Drew was already outside, his sword drawn but unbloodied. Hivers lay dead all around and the sentries were kicking the burnt and broken bodies to check they were truly dead. It looked as though Damen’s men had dispatched them easily enough. No one seemed to be injured.

  ‘We’re lucky it was not a more grievous foe,’ Drew said, sheathing his sword as he stared at the multitude of gates as if recalling worse times.

  ‘What type of creatures come out?’ Damen asked.

  ‘The hivers are the most common,’ Drew said, ‘but we’ve faced much worse.’

  ‘Like the one attacking you when we arrived?’ Kane asked.

  ‘No,’ Drew said, ‘the worst was a swarm of low, many-legged creatures. Ten in all.’

  ‘Ten scuttlers?’ Damen asked, his interest piqued. ‘You fought ten of them?’

  ‘Yes, although we don’t have the same name for them, but that fits them well,’ Drew said. ‘We lost double that number during the battle and had to set traps to triumph in the end, but it was still too many men to lose. Good men. Their blood stains this soil like so many others. But we remember their names and their sacrifice and they shall never be forgotten.’

  The way he said it made Damen look at him in a new light.

  ‘You must tell me of this great battle,’ Damen said, ‘and the names of those you lost.’

  ‘It would do them honour,’ Drew said. ‘The fighting has been hard for too long.’

  ‘You don’t need to fight any more,’ Harl said. ‘You’ll come with us?’

  ‘We will,’ Drew said. ‘We’ve discussed the wonders you speak of and agree that even if it’s not true, any place is better than this.’

  Oscar grinned at Drew and stepped forward to place a hand on the man’s shoulder.

  ‘It’s the right choice,’ he said, his rhythmic voice was deep and gruff as Drew nodded.

  ‘We’ve been neighbours for a long time,’ Drew said, ‘It’s about time we become one people and start a new life.’

  ‘One tribe,’ Oscar said.

  Harl looked around as they talked about what to expect from the outside world once they made it beyond the Aylens’ door. He could feel the death in the place. Blood had trickled from the dead bodies to form ruby puddles on the muddy ground. Years of fighting had impregnated the soil with it and he could smell disease in the air. Sonora would’ve been horrified. The Aylen had inflicted so much suffering and murder on Drew’s people. The weight of that pain had to be unbearable, but when he looked back at Drew and saw the strength of his posture he felt proud of the man. Horror after horror had been thrown onto his shoulders and yet he still stood tall and proud, and the men around him looked on with love and respect shining in their eyes. It was an example for all.

  ‘We should not linger here,’ Kane said, joining Harl outside. ‘Feels like death will return here until it claims everything within these four walls.’

  ‘Then we leave now,’ Harl said. ‘Unless Damen wants to hang around for another ten scuttlers to arrive.’

  Kane shushed him.

  ‘Don’t say that,’ he said, glancing at the hunter. ‘He might hear you.’

  Harl chuckled and headed to where Damen, Oscar and Drew were standing.

  The three warriors looked up as he and Kane approached.

  ‘We’ll leave immediately,’ Harl said. ‘Pick six good men to stay behind and keep the way clear for our return.’

  ‘If the Aylen see a build up of creatures,’ Kane said, ‘they will surely investigate. It is vital that our mission and escape are kept hidden until the last possible moment.’

  It was a grim and dangerous task, but as Drew and Damen picked out soldiers, the chosen men stood taller, clearly honoured to have been given the task. They took a rifle each and headed for a more defensible position.

  ‘We will have to act fast from here on,’ Kane said. ‘No more stopping. We need to press on and get back home as soon as we can.’

  Harl explained to Drew about the melting lance as they waited. He accepted it as he had everything else, quite calmly and with little scepticism. He was an understanding man, clearly placed in a difficult situation.

  ‘Where did you all come from?’ Harl asked as the men gathered their meagre belongings.

  Drew didn’t answer. Instead the young boy spoke up.

  ‘A dark place,’ Zane said. ‘Don’t remember much of it. Don’t want to. But I had a family there. We didn’t all grow up together if that’s what you mean.’ He glanced at Drew. ‘No one knows where he came from, but a few of us knew of each other before we were brought here.’

  Drew looked around as if he’d overheard and the boy broke into a light jog to catch up with the other soldiers. Harl didn’t want to provoke the man and so he let it lie.

  Reaching the barrier, they cut through with no trouble this time. The two lancers managed to pull the block free and Harl stepped through into a new world.

  The view was astonishing and he knew immediately that this world would be vastly different to any place he would ever see again.

  Chapter 60

  With all the creatures I found near their lair I could create a self contained ecosystem. It would not be an entire ecosystem but there’s enough for predators and prey at a basic level.

  The tank was split into two levels. The first was the ground level, as flat as a board and covered with fields and ditches. The other was a giant-sized shelf halfway up the tank that was set against the rear wall. At ground level, the sprawling farmlands were dotted with small, single-story hovels and a grid of gravel roads that spread towards the shadowy area underneath the shelf.

  But what amazed Harl was the shelf. It hung out over a third of the farmland and blocked the light from above to leave the small dwellings underneath it in perpetual shadow. A heavy block wall ran along the shelf edge. It rose at least five times the height of a man to form a solid white barrier unmarred by blemish or defect along its whole length, except for where a huge ornate archway sat in its centre. The archway was big enough to accommodate three carts side by side, and a multitude of spires and rising turrets poked above it, hinting at a vast city behind. Each spire seemed to compete for space as they grew taller and more grand, only for the competition to end in the furthest corner of the tank where a single white tower rose to dominate those around it.

  The only way into the city was via a long stone ramp that led from a crossroads in the middle of the farmlands up to the archway high above. All along the ramp, carts pulled by long trains of cattle trundled up and down under the relentless cracks of whips. People hauled baskets back and forth, heads bowed under their loads, but they were very different to look at. Their skin had a deep bronze tan and their eyes were hooded under jet coloured hair. They looked more alien to Harl than anyone he had met so far

  ‘Soldiers,’ Damen said, pointing out armoured men walking along the length of the ramp.

  One of the cloaked soldiers thrashed a whip at a scrawny figure who had spilled a basket of produce. The man cowered as the whip lashed him, but he still managed to scramble around under the o
nslaught as he tried to stop the contents rolling back down the ramp.

  ‘They don’t look friendly,’ Oscar said.

  ‘They look like slaves,’ Kane said.

  Harl had to agree. Everyone looked underfed and weary as they carried their burdens or ploughed the fields behind a team of malnourished cattle.

  ‘We should stay here and not risk being discovered,’ Kane said, looking behind them at a hollow in the ground where they had entered.

  The flat ground sloped up towards the barriers on either side of the world as if the farmlands had been created by levelling the soil with a giant trowel before the excess was piled near the walls. By sheer luck they had entered close to a hollow in the hilltop where they could remain unseen. They might be spotted if someone used a looking glass to peer down at them from the shelf, but most of the taller towers were on the far side of the shelf, and there was no one patrolling the parapets along the length of the imposing white wall.

  Kane winced as the distant man was whipped again and again until he hunched down into a ball. ‘Something tells me that we won’t be unwelcome if we go striding down there preaching about freedom,’

  ‘We should send scouts out,’ Damen said. He pointed up at the vast city perched on the shelf.‘I want to know what’s going before we decide on anything. I don’t like the look of that place. It stinks of privilege.’

  ‘It won’t work,’ Kane said. ‘These people don’t resemble us. We’d stand out among them like a candle in darkness.’

  ‘Then this is an ideal place to make camp for the night while we send out scouts,’ Harl said.

  ‘What happened to pushing on as fast as possible?’ Kane asked.

  ‘I’m not in a rush to get caught and whipped,’ Harl said. ‘If we-’

  ‘Down!’ Damen said, throwing himself to the ground just as two labourers came out of the nearest building. They were still a long way off, but if they happened to glance up the slope they would easily spot the newcomers.

  Harl lay on his belly in the grass tufts that covered the ridge as he observed the two labourers. One slung a basket over his shoulder and knelt down so that the other could fill it with wood from a pile beside the stone hut. Then they turned away and headed along a dirt track towards a cobblestone crossroad.

  ‘Can we hide out among them?’ Oscar asked, rising again to a crouch.

  ‘If a few of us can head down to those farm buildings,’ Harl said, looking at the squat stone buildings on the edge of the nearest field. ‘They might accept food and supplies in exchange for information.’

  ‘Or report us and have us whipped until our spines turn to powdered chalk,’ Kane put in.

  ‘I’ll go,’ Damen said.

  ‘And I,’ Oscar said. ‘I haven’t seen anything like this before.’

  ‘Couldn’t let you have all the fun,’ Drew said, seemingly unwilling to let others have all the action.

  ‘Take some of the books with you,’ Kane said, ‘that way, even if we do not find a way to free these people, we can leave evidence that there is more to life than what their masters tell them. We should head out soon afterwards so that we can continue our search for the petroleum.’ He rubbed his hands as if eager to find the fuel and get on board the ship.

  ‘I won’t leave these people to suffer,’ Harl said.

  ‘And if the Aylen discovers what’s going on before we can recover the liquid?’ Kane asked.

  ‘Then so be it,’ Harl said. ‘You haven’t known oppression.’

  Kane shrugged an apology.

  ‘We should split into two groups,’ Harl said. ‘Damen, Oscar, and I will make for the houses out in the open.’ He pointed to the building where the two men had loaded the firewood and swept his arm out to indicate the buildings closest to them across the fields. ‘Drew, take two of Damen’s men and head under the overhang. Careful in there. It’s much more densely populated.’

  Drew looked at him, his scarred face weighing up whether he wanted to take orders from a stranger, but then he nodded and looked at his own men, who were still staring in wonder at the giant city hanging in the air.

  ‘I will take one of my own as well,’ he said, choosing a grizzled-looking man whose beard was split into a fork.

  ‘Can I come, Drew?’ Zane asked, looking hopefully up at him.

  Drew shook his head. Too dangerous for a large group Zane. I need you to keep an eye on the other men for me and keep their morale up.’

  Zane seemed to grow taller with the sudden responsibility.

  ‘We’ll wait until night comes,’ Harl said.

  ‘Night?’ Zane asked.

  ‘Darkness,’ Kane said as he looked back at the hole they’d cut in the tank. ‘I will send someone back to Uman before we cover the hole. He’ll want to know our plan and I’ll wait here until the messenger returns.’

  ‘Coward,’ Damen said as he walked over to his soldiers to explain the plan.

  ‘Thug,’ Kane murmured.

  When the lights shut off, Harl was surprised to see that flickering flames still came from the city on the shelf. The lights were scattered up the towers like the stars in the sky outside. It was a stunningly beautiful sight and a part of him just wanted to sit there and admire the view. What would Sonora think of it? He pictured them living in one of the towers to raise their child and he had to admit that it was an enticing prospect. But when he looked down at the landscape below the shelf he knew that he could never accept such a life. There had to be fairness. He could never abandon those who were suffering.

  Harl wished Drew all the best and arranged to meet back at the camp before day came, then he, Oscar and Damen split from the group and headed for the farms.

  His own plan was to place the books near buildings where they’d easily be found, scattering the others in the fields to be discovered in the morning. The more inhabitants knew about them before they were discovered the better. It was a risk, but he didn’t know of any other way to proceed without increasing the amount of danger they were already in.

  They crept into the darkness, crouching low over the ploughed fields as they crawled through the ditches that lined the sides. The land was empty of people and cattle, as if they had been eaten by the thin sheen of mist that had risen from the fields to hover at knee height above the fertile soil.

  When they reached the house where they had seen the two men, light flickered out from the only window beside the door. The window didn’t have any glass in it, just a rotten lattice of wood with a veil of cloth drawn across it. The diamond shapes of light between the wood lit up the gravel path that led to the door.

  While Damen and Oscar kept an eye out, Harl ducked down under the window frame and slipped out a book from the bag around his shoulder. He placed it on the stone doorstep and paused as voices drifted out from inside. The voices were hushed, but he was relieved when he understood them. Kane had warned that each world might have it’s own language, something that Harl still couldn’t get his head around. It would have made their task almost impossible.

  He hesitated at the door. He didn’t have the courage to peer inside for fear of being seen, but perhaps on the way back he would risk it, so he crept back to the edge of the nearest field and headed deeper towards the centre of the tank. Time was slipping away.

  Chapter 61

  In order to best access the tanks, I have built in airtight flaps at the top of each, front and back. Being able to reach in from both ends will be a great help, especially if the tanks are stacked.

  The silence was eerie as they skirted a wide path around the ramp in the centre of the tank. Harl had lost count of the number of houses they had stopped at along the way and he was covered in soil and debris from all the fields and ditches they’d crawled through. All the houses they had visited were built in a similar fashion, single story rectangles made from grey stone, with a simple door and window at the front.

  ‘That’s the last one,’ he said from the shelter of a rickety lean-to at the side of one house.
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br />   They were ready to work their way back across the land to their camp. It would be easier going because they could cut straight across the fields on the return trip. Harl knew they had been far too exposed dropping off the books and his shoulders relaxed when it was done, as if he’d been carrying a burden heavier than just the books.

  He began to edge out from the lean-to when a woman’s voice broke the silence. It came from inside the house.

  ‘Fetch some wood, Argus,’ the shrill voice said. ‘Fire’s out again.’

  Harl glanced down at the feeble pile of logs stacked under the lean-to beside him and cursed. The door clattered open and footsteps rounded the corner. Damen and Oscar scurried along the side of the house and ducked around the corner. Harl turned to follow them, but his foot snagged the pile of wood and he was sent sprawling to the floor.

  ‘Hey!’ a man’s voice called.

  Harl scrambled to his feet and looked up. A short skinny silhouette stood glaring at him.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Harl said quickly, not wanting the man to draw attention or call for help.

  When the man took a step closer, he froze. Shock was written all over his face as he looked at Harl.

  ‘I am not from here, Argus,’ Harl said, hoping the name might ease the tension. ‘I mean no harm to you.’

  ‘And yet you’re creeping around my house?’ Argus’ eyes flicked to the lean-to. ‘Stealing my wood?’

  ‘I’m not stealing,’ Harl said. ‘I have something to give you.’

  ‘Are you alone?’ Argus asked, looking at the dirt on the ground near Harl. Oscar and Damen’s footprints stood out clearly.

  ‘No,’ Harl said, relieved that the man had not run off in fear.

  Argus sucked in a breath to shout.

  ‘Wait!’ Harl hissed. ‘Please, Argus. Hear me out. Then I will leave.’ The words tumbled out before Argus could call for help and, instead of shouting, Argus let out a long sigh.

  ‘Tell me,’ he said, simply.

  ‘I have two companions with me,’ Harl said. ‘We-’