by CW Tickner
The crowd barely dispersed that night. The majority of the townspeople were still milling around the main square or gossiping in the Golden Spear long after the light switched off. Harl stayed with Troy and walked out of town to the barrier where they’d cut the hole.
‘So I’ve been thinking,’ Troy said.
‘Oh dear.’
‘When the baby comes,’ Troy carried on,’ I’m convinced it will have striped hair, half and half.’
Harl chuckled. ‘As long as it’s healthy then I don’t mind what it looks like.’
‘Unless it comes out looking like Rufus,’ Troy said.
Harl smiled. ‘I just hope Sonora is alright. They’ve been preparing the ship for a long time and, with so much food and water to load on board, I doubt she has been idle.’
‘She seems like a strong woman,’ Troy said as they stopped in front of Damen’s guards by the hole. The guards had moved the black wooden cover to one side, leaving a view through the barrier into the growing tank beyond the hole.
‘Blimey,’ Troy said, stepping forward and running his hands around the inside of the barrier, marvelling at the world beyond. ‘You managed to escape that tank in a similar way?’
‘Yes,’ Harl said. ‘We had to cross the ground under the eye of the Aylen. Luckily we weren’t spotted. But I’ll admit I’m worried about so many people moving back through the tanks on our way out. If we do it during the dark cycle, we’ll need to bring a lot of fire liquid to traverse the tanks safely. If any Aylen see it burning, it will be obvious what’s happening.’
‘Was it dangerous coming through the tanks then?’ Troy asked.
‘The only real threat was in the tank Drew came from. The rest were dangerous simply because of the people we found. I’ve no idea what the purpose of Drew’s land was, but something horrible was going on, and I can’t let it continue any more.’ Harl looked back at the glowing town. ‘I wonder how everyone will react to each other when they meet along the way. The first time they see the sun and stars will be worth it alone.’
‘One more cycle,’ Troy said, ‘and you can find out. All this makes me glad I didn’t find a permanent woman.’
‘And why’s that?’ Harl asked.
‘Just think,’ Troy said, excited. ‘In a cycle’s time I’m going to be meeting hundreds of women more exotic than I could imagine.’
‘And?’
‘And with me being so handsome I should get pick of the crop. It’s going to be an extremely interesting harvest.’
Harl laughed. ‘Just be careful you don’t suffer the jealousy of the men who have lived with them all their lives, or you’re bound to find trouble.’
‘Trouble? Me?’ Troy said, feigning innocence.
They both laughed and then headed back to town.
The buzz of talk the following morning was a ripple of excitement and fear. People had read the books by torchlight during the dark cycle and word of mouth had spread quickly to the rest.
A mass of packing was being done within homes, so as not to attract unwanted Aylen attention. The shops were emptying their shelves in exchange for people’s word that they would help the owners in future times of need.
Harl believed everything to be well with the other tanks. A couple of Aylens had peered inside with their usual interest, but nothing to cause alarm. He had also made a point to wander about the town, speaking with old friends and reassuring them about what was to come. It seemed like a simple gesture, but the warmth with which he was received gave him fresh hope for the future.
Damen had also been going around town. He and Oscar gave out the air breathers and instructed people how to use them by placing them on the roof of the mouth and taking slow, steady breaths. There had been some resistance to the men at first. The oddness of their looks made people nervous and it was only when Troy joined them that people began to take note of what they were saying and show gratitude.
‘Strange men approaching,’ Troy would shout as he marched ahead of Damen and Oscar. ‘Hide your daughters and then place your bets on which one gets the pox first!’
Just before the darkness came, Harl had everyone line up by the hole, ready to move. It was a risk, but attempting to organise them by the light of liquid fire would have been a disaster. Children ran amok between bags and carts, while some of the adults kept returning to their home to bring out fresh bags full of possessions that would be useless beyond the tanks.
Damen kept them in check and soon a pile of reluctantly discarded items stood beside the hole. He had taken to walking the length of the line shouting that if they did not organise themselves then people might be left behind.
Troy clutched a bundle of torches and strode up and down handing them over, before lighting the rags on the top with his own torch. When all the torches had been lit there was no part of the line left in darkness.
The light above the world shut off, leaving only the orange flickering torches to illuminate the crowd’s terrified faces. A silence more profound than any Harl had ever known descended over the world.
‘Time to go,’ he said.
Chapter 71
I have experimented with the cultures inside. Some live with the bare minimum and face a harsh existence, while others are given excessive resources. They seem to adapt to any circumstance, but are mostly affected by changes in temperature for long durations.
Damen kicked one of his heavy boots at the fake panel covering the hole and it flew into Sonora’s old land, bringing the scent of freshly-tilled soil and planted crops through the hole.
They made fast time across the sprouting valley of grass. Damen’s men had gone ahead and placed torches along the route. The torch line stretched to the opposite side of the tank and, with the Aylen not expected until morning, they had a good window of escape. The torches were being lit one after another by a runner sent ahead with a torch. The fiery glow blossomed out, lighting up the landscape around it with a flickering yellow hue.
Harl was the first through. When he reached the second hole on the other side of the tank, he looked back to see the long line of blazing torches and the shadowy mass of three hundred people moving across the terrain. It was a staggering sight to see and it gave him a nervous thrill greater than anything he’d experienced to far. This was where their defiance started. This was the moment when they stopped believing in gods and made a stand. This was a moment of history.
As they passed into the next tank, the overhanging shelf loomed to their right, like a shadowed Aylen mousetrap waiting to snap shut and catch them. The flames lining the fields below the city reflected off the underside of the shelf, casting the tall spires above in eerie shadow.
‘By the gods!’ Troy exclaimed as he walked in front of Harl. He looked up at the city and the long ramp that led to the giant archway above.‘Is that what I think it is?’
‘It’s a city,’ Harl said.
‘I think we got it bad judging by the looks of this place,’ Troy said. ‘They must have lived like kings.’
‘The people who built it were enslaved,’ Harl said, putting a damper on his friend’s remark.
‘Still,’ Troy said, ‘maybe we could’ve done better if we had worked together more in our own land.’
‘Maybe,’ Harl said. ‘Perhaps the Aylens gave them more to work with. There were more people in this land than ours.’
‘Where are they?’ Troy asked, stumbling on a clump of mud as they trudged across the field.
‘Some were unfriendly,’ Harl said. ‘They didn’t take too kindly to us upsetting their way of life. The rest will meet us on the other side.’ He saw the smile on Troy’s lips in the torch light. ‘And it’ll be too dark to talk to the women.’
‘Perhaps they’ll need a hand across all this difficult terrain,’ Troy said, flicking a lump of mud from his boots.
Harl smiled as Troy’s pace quickened.
Damen jogged up and down the line to keep stragglers moving in the right direction and thinning the crowd wherever th
e train bunched up. He was having a particularly challenging time with the bogging soil as it tripped the unwary and sucked boots off those without decent footwear.
It took longer than Harl had hoped to cross the soggy fields and treacherous ditches that made up the ground floor of the tank. The mud clung to his boots, slowing the entire train as families stumbled in the quagmire. When Harl finally saw the hill where the hole into the next tank lay, he could make out a mass of torches lighting up a crowd of chattering people.
‘Harl?’ It was Kane’s voice coming from somewhere on top of the hill.
‘It’s me, Kane,’ Harl said, holding up a hand so Kane could spot him.
Kane trotted down to them, relief on his face.
‘Kane, this is Troy,’ Harl said, pointing to his friend.
Kane put a hand out in the Deltan gesture of greeting, but Troy was paying him no attention. Instead he was eyeing a group of women, giggling among themselves in the light of a small fire.
‘Troy?’ Harl said, digging an elbow in Troy’s ribs.
‘Ouch,’ Troy said. ‘Oh, yeah, nice to meet you, Dane.’
‘Kane,’ Harl said, but Troy was already ogling the women again.
‘Have you sent a final group to extinguish the torches?’ Kane asked, staring back at the line of flames running away into the distance.
‘Damn,’ Harl said. He should have remembered. If they left a line of bright lights, the Aylen would figure out they’d escaped a lot more quickly, possibly before they could make it to Delta. He cursed his stupidity.
‘Don’t worry,’ Kane said. ‘I can find a volunteer group to go back, stamp them out, and check for stragglers once we get through here.’
Harl looked at the hole Kane indicated. Just on the other side was Drew’s tank. Men were already lined up inside with weapons pointed towards the back in case the alarm went off and the creatures let loose.
‘There could be trouble during the crossing if something is released,’ Damen said, joining them. ‘I’ll need Oscar and more men to guard while you cross. If anything comes we’ll slaughter it.’
Harl nodded. He didn’t want to risk a rampaging animal tearing into the train of already fearful people.
‘I’ll stay as well,’ Harl said, ‘perhaps patrol the flank.’
‘What about me?’ Troy asked.
‘Stay here and let those coming up behind know that they can rest here until their turn to go through, but don’t let the line of people break. Keep them flowing through the hole.’
Troy glanced at Harl’s sword as if to imply he wanted to be more than a herder, but a woman’s voice distracted him. One of the ex-slaves was asking how long they were to be left waiting and Troy’s face lit up with a cheeky smile.
‘They’re beautiful,’ he said in a daze.
Harl gave him a look that he hoped would convey caution.
‘What?’ Troy asked, innocently. ‘If it’s as dangerous as you say in there, then someone should protect them.’
‘They’re tougher than you, Troy Everett,’ Harl said, looking to Kane who was smiling.
‘I’ll keep an eye out here,’ Kane said, giving Harl a quick wink, ‘and send a party back to extinguish the flames.’
Drew led his ragged band of soldiers in front of Harl as they stalked towards the doors at the rear of the tank which housed the creatures. They spread out and formed a watchful line, rifles and torches at the ready. The dozen or so men waited as the sound of feet trudging through the blood slick mud behind them wore on and on. Harl glanced back as he led men to the side on a patrol. The stream of people reached the exit and began to file through without incident.
The alarm suddenly blared, echoing inside the tank as Harl’s heart sank. The doors flew open and pure fear gripped him at what emerged. Dozens of doors had slammed open at once and the dim lights just beyond them revealed the shadows writhing inside. It was not just one creature, or even a group, it was a deadly mixture.
A dozen hivers swarmed out from a hatch far above the ground, wings flapping at their sudden freedom. Then, from a short wide opening further down, two scuttlers raced out. Their low, many-legged bodies weaved across the ground towards Drew’s men. The largest door wrenched free as a ferocious strider burst out, its six, spindly legs covered in spikes, and supporting its long, green body high above the ground as it thundered out. It was the same kind of creature that the soldiers had been fighting when Harl had first entered the tank, but this one seemed far bigger. It hammered its razor-spiked legs into the mud as it screeched a horrible sound of pure rage and galloped at them.
‘Fight together, live together,’ Drew said, hurling his torch out toward the strider and raising his sword as the monsters closed the gap.
‘Form up!’ Harl said to his own group of men. ‘Throw your torches out to light the area.’
He hadn’t anticipated so many hostiles, and knew that his small group of men wouldn’t be able stop so many. His only hope lay in getting back to the barrier and sealing the hole behind them. He turned to see the column of lights had disappeared, leaving a small group of men behind to guard the hole.
The soldiers rallied around Harl and he was suddenly flanked by Oscar and Drew on either side. The hivers were the first to reach them and they landed hard in the sticky mud. Their mouths opened wide as they hissed in unison.
‘Fire and retreat back to the hole!’ Harl called.
The soldiers fired and a wave of shots slammed into the hivers. Four died instantly, turning into charred husks that filled the air with the putrid smell of burning. Several others took to the air again and swooped down mid flight, knocking a man over before he could turn to run. As the hivers dived at them again, Oscar broke from the circle and hauled the man back as the hiver’s pincers snapped at empty air. He kicked the hiver hard in the face, forcing it back, and dragged the man to his feet and towards the hole in the side of the tank.
Twice more the hivers dived at them, but Damen and Drew stopped as Harl rushed past and the two men held a line, firing up at the diving creatures. Their concentrated fire brought more hivers down, covering the pair in gore. A final one landed as Drew’s rifle clicked on empty. He tossed the gun aside and drew his sword, side-stepping the hiver’s lunge as he hacked down through its neck with several well-aimed blows. The creature crumpled and stilled.
‘Scuttlers,’ Damen called.
The two scuttlers weaved towards them, closing the gap fast.
‘Run!’ Harl cried, hoping the two wouldn’t try and fight.
He turned for the exit and found himself a hundred paces away, but then a man screamed at the back of the group and Harl glanced back to find that a scuttler was crawling over one of the men as he tried to fight it off. The second hiver joined in the frenzy and together they pinned the man to the bloody ground and tore his limbs off.
Drew and Oscar separated from the group as the six-legged strider scurried down the hill along the side of the tank, making for the hole. They raced to meet it, giving the others time to make it closer to the exit hole. Damen let off more shots but stopped as the creature reared up over Drew and Oscar and then slammed down around them, encaging them inside it’s legs. They stood back to back underneath its pale belly and Oscar fired his rifle up as Drew attempted to sever the spiked legs with his sword.
The scuttlers discarded the soldier’s mangled carcass and wound towards the strider. Harl stopped to fire at them, then dropped his rifle as the trigger clicked and tore his sword free. He pressed the button and stepped from the cluster of retreating men and ran, full pelt, at the two scuttlers who were homing in on Oscar and Drew.
Harl screamed like a madman, drowning out the constant noise of rifles as the pair of scuttlers closed in on him instead. He jumped aside as the leading beast lurched forward, and then brought the sword down in a sweeping arc to cut a deep slice through the thick armour. He was forced backwards as the second scuttler turned, snapping its pincers and weaving towards him. He swung the blade down in pan
ic and it bit into the side of the creature’s head. It flipped over, screaming in pain, but its tail smashed into his chest, knocking him to the ground. It writhed and screeched as Harl scrambled to his feet and ran.
A heavy thump drew Harl’s attention. The strider had collapsed to the ground with most of its legs severed. Oscar and Drew jumped back from the creature as it spun uselessly on the reddened ground, thrashing its remaining two legs in an effort to reach them.
Suddenly, the alarm sounded again and a chill seeped into Harl’s bones. Twisting around in the mud, he saw two of the tall-legged striders scamper from the doors and rush straight for them. Another pair of scuttlers wove from the shadows.
‘Run!’ Drew cried, and Oscar and Damen broke formation, turned, and raced for the hole.
The striders’ long legs covered the ground so fast that Harl barely had time to turn and run. A man stumbled in the mud as Harl overtook him and Harl slowed to loop an arm through his and heave him up again.
‘Move!’ Harl yelled, but the man slipped again, threatening to drag him to the ground as well.
The man let out a hideous scream as the injured scuttler raced up his back and sank its teeth into his neck, throwing him forward into the mud.
The hole was close, promising safety, but the striders had caught up. The slowest soldier was Zane. The young boy turned and fired up at the long-legged monsters as they cast him in shadow. Their hooked legs swept into the panicked boy as he fired up into the soft bellies.
Drew roared and rushed forward, grabbing Zane by the arm and then hauling him out from underneath the beast. The boy fled towards the exit hole as Drew severed the creature’s nearest leg with his sword, but the creature spun in place and knocked him over with one of its flailing limbs. It tore a gash in his shoulder and Drew roared with the pain. Harl could see the rage in his eyes as he looked up at the creature from where he was sprawled in the blood-soaked mud.