by Karmon Kuhn
“We need to leave. I am not positive how to get out of here, but I think we can find our way together.”
She nodded without a word, and I turned to leave. But, she didn’t follow. When I looked back, she was standing still with a hand on her belly, and the features on her face were scrunched.
“What is it?” I asked her.
“Nothing. It’s nothing. Let’s just go.”
I slithered toward the open door and felt the air. There were no signs of anyone, and we traveled to the right, being sure to avoid the direction that I’d come from. We made it only a few feet when Penny asked, “What about the others?”
“I don’t think we can get them out now, Penny. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, and it will be hard enough to get us out alive. I have to steal a pressure suit and carry you out myself. I don’t think I can get more than one of you out. I just . . .” My eyes started to brim with tears then.
“I understand. It’s no use letting them out if they’ll just be put back in their cages,” she paused, “Can we come back and get them? Just get help and . . . come back?”
It was unlikely that we’d make it out ourselves, but I agreed, “Yes. If we make it out, we will find someone to help them.”
“And, the baby?” she added.
“Of course,” I answered.
“Promise me that you’ll take care of the baby, Natalie?”
“I promise, Penny.” I said, a little unsettled at the way she implied that I’d be responsible for them on my own. “We really need to go now, okay?”
“I know,” she said, clearly still conflicted about leaving the other women there.
***
We turned corners haphazardly until I finally found a sign for my own department, the languages lab. The doorway between us was closed, but it was the standard translucent type of door that existed outside of the bizarre prison labs. It was the same door where all of this had started, but this time, I was on the other side.
As if fate was on our side, Moz, the colleague from my department, was in the tunnel slithering toward his office. I knocked on the door lightly to catch his attention. He looked over and did a double take. The following period of pause suggested his hesitance to approach us. There was sheer terror on his face. I swiveled my head and wriggled in a greeting.
He palmed the door scanner, and it opened. I bounded through, but Penny hesitated. Her hand was on her stomach again. I slithered over to retrieve her and then harshly whispered to Moz, “We need to go to your study room!”
“I read from your collection at the service because,” he paused, “you are dead.”
“Obviously not,” I said, pushing him aside.
He pointed and the three of us ducked into the room quickly.
“Do you have any appointments today? Any tours? Anything scheduled?” I asked
“No,” he answered.
“Good. We are all going to need to stay here, and if anyone comes, keep people out of the room.”
“I do not understand,” he said.
“We don't have time to explain everything!” I began in a harsh whisper, but then I reconsidered. He had at least opened the door. That was more than anyone else would have done for me. “This is Penny. She and I were captured by someone in the center. If I tell you more, you might be in danger.”
“Danger?” he asked and filled the room with his fear stench.
“Yes. We are in danger, but if we are all very careful, then perhaps you can avoid it. We just need some rest and a little bit of time to think for now,” I began and then added, “Do you have access to any of the pressurized suits for the tsùges̈sss?
“I do not. I completed my land trial so long ago,” he said and then thoughtfully added, “Perhaps, one of the new interns could get one.”
“Good. Can you communicate with someone to request that they bring one to you? Do not give a reason, just simply request it. And a thermal suit for me. Schedule it for as soon as possible and try to throw a territorial scent so that they leave quickly. Maybe have a meal while they arrive to cover our smells and keep whoever it is from inviting themselves in.”
“I can do that,” he answered, “but you must tell me what is happening. Why did the community news say that you died? Where have you been all this time?”
“I don’t think you want to know.”
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” He was fond of quoting authors in this way, and his use of a Huxley quote was effective.
“Okay, but first we need to re-arrange part of your office so that Penny and I are out of sight. And, you should stay at your table and face forward. If you talk, talk down as if you’re dictating. We don’t want anyone to draw any attention.”
He sent the communication as we moved things in the office. Then, I told him everything. The whole story as far as I knew it was short. It made me sick that so little had happened to cause so much chaos. My entire world had morphed and fallen apart, but I was able to explain the highlights in minutes.
When I finished, he sat silently and stared at the one decoration in the whole of his study, a non-distinct fishing spear hung on the wall. My heart rate elevated as I waited for his response. What if he didn’t believe me or, even worse, didn’t take my side? Before he could confirm, there was a knock on the door. He responded by first pulling a fresh piece of fish from the refrigeration slot in the wall and then blasting a territorial scent that filled the room completely in seconds.
I looked at Penny silently, and it seemed that even she could sense the barrier that he’d put up to protect us because her skin was pallid and green as if from seasickness. Although, she may have just smelled the fish.
From our hiding place, we heard the door slide open and there was a series of swishing, squishing, and crinkling noises as well as the faint odor of submission until the door audibly slid closed again. For a moment, there was just silence, and then we heard slithering back farther into the room.
I heard Moz’s seat shift as he sat back down, and I imagined him stick-straight and speaking forward as if in dictation, “There were only human suits available, Essehi.”
“What does that mean?” Penny asked.
“I’ll need to modify, Penny. I need the suit. Without it, my colleagues will be able to see and sense me too easily.”
“That is not the only challenge. How can you avoid detection when inside obstreperous technology?” Moz added.
The fabric was adaptable to different sizes, but it needed to be thick like a second skin to contain all of the technology it utilized. So, any time the material moved in the open air, it was audible. He was right to be concerned.
The three of us puzzled in silence until Moz spoke again,“I will assist you.”
“But, if you’re caught . . .” I protested.
“That is a problem for another time,” he sighed.“If I have contributed to this injustice as part of the tsez̈ø, let this be my penance.”
I lifted my chin in a sign of respect, and Penny smiled. My people were much like hers. Not all good or bad but mostly somewhere in between. Fallible, but worthy.
“What about recycling collection?” I asked.
“If I was seen with recycling containers, it would look suspicious, and I do not know that we can trust anyone else to do it,” he answered grimly.
“What if he rolled us out in a specimen cage?” Penny asked.
“A what?” We both asked simultaneously.
“A specimen cage. Whenever I was moved to a different room, they chained my shackle to a little cage that they could push around. Maybe, you could push us out in one of those.”
“I have no cage!” I could smell the indignance and horror that Moz emitted in response.
Still taken aback by what Penny had just shared, I paused. I scanned the room for inspiration. As I observed the abundance of precious volumes, I had an idea.
“A cart from the library! You take m
anuscripts home sometimes, correct?”
“Yes. I suppose that would make sense. I can retrieve a cart from the library for you to lie in and then cover you with books.” Moz’s answer was matter-of-fact, but the worry in the study room was palpable.
***
As Moz gathered supplies and the cart, I prepared for modification. “Penny, I think you should turn away. This will be quite disturbing.”
Penny was silent at first and then spoke through clenched teeth. “No, Natalie. You got sick before. I wanna help.”
“I don’t think that you can,” I said and placed my hand on her face. The sight of my claws on her soft cheek was unsettling, but she didn’t flinch. Instead, she rested her head against my palm.
“It’s okay. I’ll need your help sometime too.”
I looked at her for a moment and laid myself long across the floor. My lungs filled with a long breath of air, and I relaxed my limbs. And then, nothing happened. I wagged my arms back and forth and pushed a breath out of my nose to relax myself. When I finished and urged my body to modify, again there was nothing. My body lacked even the slightest stirring of change.
“Penny, it isn’t working.”
“What do you mean?” she whispered in a frightened tone.
“This has never happened before!” I answered in my own terrified whisper.
“Well . . . what’s different about this time?”
“A lot is different this time!” I answered.
“What can we do to make this more normal?”
“Food. Maybe I need to eat first. And, I think you should look away when I start the process. I’ve never changed in front of a human before.”
“Okay. That’s fine.”
I pulled out some of the fish from Moz’s refrigeration cabinet and dug my teeth in. Penny’s face turned green again, and she turned her face away. Her expression became tense and focused.
“I apologize, Penny. Is it the smell?”
“It’s fine,”she answered.
I opened my throat and swallowed the rest of the fish whole to give her some relief. It didn’t take long for me to feel a bit stronger from the meal. So, I laid back down, and Penny turned her back to me.
I had a singular goal. To change. This time, when I urged my body, it followed my commands. My skeleton began the process, and I gripped my fists tightly and clenched my jaw out of instinct. Next, my muscles followed and the skin. As I neared the end in a daze, Penny was at my side. She was a comfort but also a distraction. The process slowed and stopped, but it didn’t feel right.
“Your eyes are yellow again this time,” she said and brushed the sweaty hair off my forehead. “Is that bad?”
Chapter 20
M
oz entered with a satchel. “The cart is outside. Hurry and get into the suits.”
We did as we were told. Then, he checked the hallway, and we stepped carefully into the cart. Moz covered us with his favorite manuscripts and I saw him running his claws over them with longing. With a nod, he placed a final book over my face and pushed the cart through the tunnel.
Penny struggled with the ride. I could feel her deep, steady breaths as she controlled her panic. I wanted to comfort her and coach her through it, but all I could do was snuggle in closer and hope that she understood my intent.
Even though I’d traveled from the department up to the sea-floor parking, this trip was like none before it. The constant fear that someone, anyone, would greet us around a corner created a stunning tension.
I counted each turn. And when we rounded the last corner, hope filled my chest as I breathed in. Before I could let it out, a lockdown alarm thundered through the tunnel. This had only happened once during my work at the tsez̈ø when a virus in medical was not properly contained. At the time, it was a mild annoyance and was taken care of quickly by staff of the department. I prayed, to no one in particular, that this time would be the same.
Moz walked on and pushed the cart closer to the exit. Even though we wouldn’t have access, he tried it anyway. Penny shivered. I wanted so badly to explain the situation and comfort her, but we couldn’t afford to make any noise.
We waited. I expected a team of aggressive captors to round the corner and overtake the three of us any second. Instead, a few harmless-looking researchers came to check on my colleague and ask what was happening. It unsettled me to have anyone nearby, but I much preferred them to some other nefarious persons who might surface from inside another secret part of the compound.
Moz made polite grunts of listening until even that was too much. At first, I thought he was just bored of the conversation, and then, I heard a voice.
“What’s in the cart?”
“Some volumes that I am taking to my home for further study,” Moz answered.
The guard dipped down and removed a book. I could see him as he straightened up and inspected it. He’d chosen the copy that covered my face, leaving behind an eerie blank space camouflaged like the bottom of the cart.
“Yes. That one is a classic piece of human literature, Treasure Island. Have you read it?”
The guard’s face was unbelieving as if Moz had asked him something ridiculous. The guard leaned over to grab another book, and Moz slid between him and the side of the cart.
“The adventures of the human in this are incredible. He survives shipwrecks and capture and then is marooned on an island. The way in which he interacts with the water is so deliciously foreign. I wrote my most recent thesis on the themes therein . . .”
The more that Moz talked, the lower that the guard sank. Not in submission, but out of abject boredom. Moz was a genius.
“And the end, fellow, the end! Jùṣù. It . . .”
“Yes. Very well then, fellow,” said the guard, peeling himself away from the cart.
“Oh! Well, if you want to borrow my copy, let me know. I will gladly . . .” started Moz.
“No, no. That will not be necessary.” He punctuated the desperate goodbye by tossing the book back onto the pile.
Moz leaned in and positioned the book to its place over my face and went back to grunting to the polite small talk of his colleagues. After much too long, there was an all-clear signal and the exits audibly clicked back into accessibility. The other researchers showed varying signs of relief, which Moz mirrored. Penny sighed and Moz mimicked her to cover up the noise as he hurried out the door.
***
After exiting the entry tunnel down, we advanced to the parking area. Usually, it was quiet and relatively abandoned, but due to the lockdown, there were researchers exiting the tunnels on all sides of the lot.
Moz pulled a loose cover over the cart to keep the books from floating out and ushered it toward his juz̈uṣùs̈. In the chaos, he kept a calm and neutral pace. Once we reached the vehicle, he operated the doors and then nudged the cart toward it. He removed books by the handfuls into the vehicle, but before he could help us up and out of the cart, something interrupted him.
We were so close, but Zhoshi had found us! With a jolt, Moz pushed the cart roughly into the juz̈uṣùs̈ and closed the door behind us. I rushed to the front and turned it on with a quick switch. Penny followed slowly, and sat next to me, looking back at the two male creatures behind us through the back shield.
I lifted the juz̈uṣùs̈, trying not to catch the attention of anyone else in the lot, and began draining it so that we could take our suits off Zhoshi was aware of the risks of too much attention just as I was and tried to keep his communication with my colleague as civil as an office disagreement might normally be. But, he was clearly distracted by the moving juz̈uṣùs̈ that had no driver.
“He can’t find us, Natalie.” Penny was rattled. “And, I hope your friend makes it out of here.”
She peeled off her hood and ducked away from the front shield. The effect was so strange. A bobbing head of matted brown hair crouched between the control panels and seating area of the vehicle.
As soon as the words passed my lips, I felt foolish. After all of this, would she really want to go anywhere with me? After everything that I’d brought into her life?
“Well . . . I can take you wherever you want to go.” I corrected.
She looked at me with surprise and then understanding and fumbled for one of my camouflaged hands until I took hers, “I could never leave you, Natalie. Not after everything that’s happened.”
Even with my face still shielded by the suit, I could tell she saw me and accepted me. I relished the thought. I wanted so badly to sweep her up in my arms and never let her go.
But, I’d already let the tender moment distract me a moment too long. As we sped up out of the parking trenches, I noticed a juz̈uṣùs̈ following us closely.
“Penny, you need to put the hood back on.”
“What’s wrong?” She looked around with wild eyes.
“Hurry! And, secure yourself to the seat. I think we’re being followed.”
I maneuvered through a few twists of the parking trench and then up into the polyp encrusted seafloor. Once outside the trench, I took a sharp left into a thick covering of gnarled coral. The juz̈uṣùs̈ stayed close behind. I looped around and back into the trench over a different exit of the tsez̈ø. In a split second, the other vehicle was behind us again.
“We are definitely being followed,” I said. “Hang onto something.”
I pulled the direction stick back sharply, and we sped upward, almost hitting another driver in the process. The near miss created some distance between us and the tail. My eyes darted around for signs of peace officers, but there were none. So, I pulled back hard again, and we bolted up and around the layers of sea floor.
We whipped through small passages and a few tunnels before the other vehicle was out of sight for more than a few seconds. In my haste to celebrate, I looked over at Penny until she screeched. A tight-knit school of many hundreds of fish rose up out of the dark depths in front of us.