by Stefan Bolz
Ty doesn't seem to notice. With a sure step, he leads them through the labyrinth, through narrow passageways and darkened corridors, ever downward toward a destination neither of them wants to arrive at. Once in a while, Aries receives an image from Born-of-Night. There is no movement on the floors above or below, except the occasional worker here and there. An eerie emptiness envelops the space. Ty stops in his tracks, pushes backward a few feet, signaling her to be quiet. They are in a narrow hallway between two large filtration units, eight floors above the prison.
Born-of-Night, can you see anything on the floor we're on? she thinks, hoping the hawk is receiving her scattered thoughts.
I'm three floors above you; coming down now.
Ty pulls Aries behind one of the units. From there they watch as at first one, then two, and right behind them a third member of the S.S.U. passes their hallway. The third one slows down and turns in their direction, about thirty feet away. Ty looks around. There is only a very narrow space where they can hide. The semidarkness might help them, but only if the guards don't have infrared or night vision goggles. At that moment they see that the guard has turned on a flashlight. A bright beam, most likely from a headlamp, dances over the floor and walls.
Aries points at the area above Ty. He nods and holds out his hands for her to step into. She pushes up and over his head, trying to find something on the slippery surface to hold on to. There are two narrow welding lines on either side of her. She pushes her hands into them to see if they’ll hold her up. They do, but barely. She figures she has about ten seconds before she'll inevitably begin to slip. Ty holds her foot but she can feel his arms starting to shake from her weight.
Then she hears the footsteps approaching their hiding place. Aries dare not to move. Are they slowing down? Is the guard moving in their direction? Has he maybe seen them already and is now waiting until she can't hold on anymore? Her arms begin to shake. Dread spreads within her. It could all be over now, all end right here.
Then the footsteps move away from them and when Aries can't hold on anymore she slides down while trying to hold on to Ty's shoulders, and lands on the grated floor. The sound of her boot echoes through the space. She doesn't move, doesn't breathe. But as the footsteps don't return, she relaxes. Ty hunches over, holding his hands.
"I'm sorry," Aries says.
"No, no. Great idea. It’s been a while since I did this," he says, smiling through the pain.
There are about twelve guards that I can see. Most of them are below you. Born-of-Night's thoughts don't come as a surprise.
"Twelve guards," Aries says to Ty. "Most of them below us."
"We can't make it through there," Ty says quietly. "We either have to wait or try to find a different way somehow."
"But there isn't one. You said so yourself."
"I know. But trying to get through those next floors would be suicide."
"I agree," Aries says.
I can guide you.
"Born-of-Night says she can guide us."
"Oh."
Aries sees the doubt in his eyes. But behind that also lurks hope. A foolish hope. The hope that, against all odds and better judgment and a lifetime of experience, a hawk and a fifteen-year-old girl can guide them safely through eight floors of hostile territory, passing a dozen or more highly trained guards ready to kill on sight.
"Sure, why not?" he answers. "It's not that I know a better way. Besides, I always wanted to find a way to get even."
He takes his hairband out, combs his hair tight and back into a ponytail, grabs the short pencil that is still stuck behind his ear and slips it into one of his pockets.
"Ready?" he says.
Aries can't help herself and puts her arms around him, hugging him so tight that he gasps for air.
"Easy there. This old body is getting fragile," he says, but he can't help smiling at Aries.
"Thank you," she says.
You have a clear path to the stairs and down one flight, Born-of-Night tells her.
"Let's go," Aries says.
They move as quietly as possible, without losing too much speed, through the labyrinth of hallways and toward the stairs. The thought occurs to Aries that at this moment she has fully accepted Born-of-Night's lead and trusts her unequivocally.
I'm glad you do. She hears the hawk's thoughts as they arrive at the bottom of the stairs. There are four guards on this floor that I can make out. Go to your right and stay in that hallway until the end.
Ty walks behind Aries as they make their way to the end.
Go right and wait.
Aries makes a right turn and stops, gesturing Ty to do the same.
All clear. Go toward the stairs and wait at the top.
Aries moves, followed by Ty. They are a unit, moving almost as one, completely in tune with one another. When they arrive at the stairwell and look down, Aries catches an image from Born-of-Night. Must be from the floor below.
What is that? she asks in her thoughts.
Looks like a spider.
"Spider?" Aries doesn't realize at first that she’s said this out loud. The hope she had seen in his eyes a few minutes ago bleeds out of him.
"Dammit!"
"What is it?" she asks.
"Spider drones. You're talking about spider drones. They can't fly but they can do pretty much everything else."
"I've never heard of them," Aries replies.
"Can you ask how many there are?"
So far, I can see only two, Born-of-Night answers.
"Two."
"I'd take ten S.S. guards before one of them," Ty says.
"What do we do?"
"I have no idea. They have no blind spot."
"Blind spot?"
"Their field of vision is complete. Behind them, above them, on their sides and in front. We can't approach them without being detected." Ty scratches his stubbly beard.
"Then let's not. Let's try to move around them. There are only two."
"And a dozen guards," Ty replies.
"Well, yes." A slight smile appears on Aries's face. "We have no choice, Ty."
"I know."
"Follow me," she says quietly, and steps onto the stairway.
Slowly they move downward, and from there make their way to the other side of the core to the next set of stairways and downward again. Born-of-Night's watchful eyes guide their path, ever downward, through the labyrinth of tanks, water regenerators, and filtration units. Twice they almost run into a guard and once they barely escape walking straight into the sight line of one of the drones.
Aries is concentrating so hard on keeping the connection with Born-of-Night that she almost doesn't catch the thought within her that this is too easy. When she becomes aware of it, they are only three floors above the prison.
"Wait," she says quietly to Ty. "Something's wrong here. There’s no way this could be going as smoothly as it is."
"I agree. I've been thinking the same thing. We're not that good."
They are moving with you, holding your speed but keeping their distance, Born-of-Night tells Aries.
"Why would they not catch us if they could?"
"Beats me," Ty replies.
"Unless they want us to get to our destination."
"So they can find out what we know. Makes sense. This is an exercise for them. We're not a real threat. An old man and a girl. What kind of damage can we possibly do?"
Aries smiles. "Start a revolution?"
"Well, there's that," Ty replies. "But they don't know what to make of us. They must have gone through all the possible scenarios and have applied countermeasures to all of them to keep the people in check. But they could not have foreseen you—you and that feathered friend of yours. They don't know what to make of us."
"So they wait," she says.
"So they wait. And once we reach the prison walls we're like a rat in a cage. There's nowhere for us to go and they know that."
"And they're right."
Ty nods, then a sm
ile crosses his face.
"Let's make them wrong," he says quietly.
"Let's make them wrong," Aries replies.
But the thought, as strong as it seemed when Aries spoke it out loud, begins to dissipate as they move down another staircase. She tries to hold on to it as long as she can, but the hope she had felt only a minute ago slowly turns into despair. She can't get rid of the feeling that this is not going to end well. Part of her is afraid that they are willingly going into a trap. The whole notion of why the Forgotten Floors should bear such significance suddenly eludes her. What if Born-of-Night is wrong? What if this is the exact opposite of what they should be doing? What if going up was the right thing to do?
And what if I am a drone, some kind of sophisticated android predator bird sent here by them to lead you astray? Born-of-Night's thoughts cut through her own.
Aries has to admit to herself that she has thought this, if only for a moment.
Trust yourself, Aries. Trust what you know and not what you think you know. Start there. It will lead you back to me.
This whole plan, Aries replies, is based on you, a bird, telling me, a human, in my thoughts, that we have to reach a certain place. You don't know why we have to go there. Neither do I. If one were to look at it from the outside, it would seem ridiculous at best. But I still believe you. Or at least I did.
There is silence for a moment.
Ty believes you, Born-of-Night eventually answers.
And I have no clue why.
Because he loves you. And he trusts you. And he thinks that, as foolish as it might be, he wouldn't let you go by yourself—
A blue ball of electric current explodes next to Aries, sweeping her off her feet. She falls forward; pain floods her right cheek as the still tender and swollen flesh impacts the grated floor. She gets to her feet and stumbles toward Ty, who’s holding his shoulder in pain.
I didn't see them, Born-of-Night tells her.
"I guess they changed their mind," Ty says, as they turn a corner and race down the narrow hallway toward the last stairwell.
"Now what?" Aries asks when they reach the bottom. The grated floor here is interchanged with thick plates of steel.
"Let's first make ourselves invisible." Ty scans the overhead pipes as they navigate through the narrow space. "You still have the six-point hexagon?"
Aries reaches into her satchel. "I thought you'd never ask."
He smiles, climbs up toward one of the pipes, and turns a bolt on what looks like a large valve. Hot steam escapes with a hissing sound.
"Come!" He moves around another corner and toward another valve. He repeats the same procedure. Thick steam begins to fill the space.
"Two more," he says, as he runs straight down and to their right. Aries follows until they get to another valve. Just before they reach it, Aries sees something above them. The grated ceiling reveals a dark shape moving with immense speed. Metallic footsteps crawl over the steel floor.
"They’re coming," she says under her breath.
Ty opens the fourth valve. The steam fills the space from all directions, reducing visibility to next to nothing.
"We have to climb," Ty says, while he grabs Aries’s hand. They reach a narrow ladder, mounted to a huge metal cylinder.
"Drinking water for the prison," he says. "You go first."
Aries grabs the first rung and starts to climb. The ladder is encased in a semicircular metal chassis not unlike the lifts. They climb past the ceiling and onto the floor above, and up from there. Aries reaches the top of the tank. There is a large turning wheel and a circular hatch in its center.
"Help me open this thing," Ty says.
They both pull on the wheel and slowly, under enormous strain, they open it. Ty lifts the hatch.
"Okay, here's the deal. The water is going to be room temperature but it will feel cold to you. The tank is probably filled halfway, so you'll hit the surface about ten feet below us. We have to swim underwater down to the bottom and from there to our right and through a pipe that’s about fifteen feet long. From there it goes up again until we reach another hatch inside the prison. Once we open that, we'll be in a small utility room. We'll take it from there."
Aries glances from him into the opening.
"What is it?"
"I can't swim," she says. "I've only been to that stupid beach once and I never went back."
"Okay. Well. You don't need to swim. You just need to move your arms backward like this."
He makes a swimming motion, moving both arms from above his head downward on his sides.
"It's easy. And you're a quick learner." But his smile betrays him. "I should have asked you. This was a stupid plan. I should have asked if you could swim."
"It's okay, Ty. I can do this. I can do this."
"You sure?"
"No."
He smiles. "That's my girl." And serious again: "I'll lead you to the pipe and you will go through it first. That way I can push you and make sure you're not stuck. The whole thing shouldn't take longer than a minute."
"Okay," Aries replies.
"Breathe in deeply a few times. That way you'll store some oxygen in your lungs."
"Okay." The slowly rising panic makes it hard for her to form a clear thought.
"Wait five seconds until you jump so I can move out of the way," Ty says.
When he climbs into the hatch, Aries hears the footsteps below. There's no turning back now.
"See you down there," Ty says, and his body disappears into the darkness. One second later, a splash.
"All clear," she hears him whisper. She puts her feet into the opening, as Ty had. Then she holds on to the rim of the hatch, breathes in several times, and through the pounding of her heart she orders herself to jump. The shock of the water temperature makes her cry out. She has the presence of mind not to inhale while she's under, although she struggles to resist the urge to do so, until she feels Ty grab her arm and pull her to the surface.
"You're okay!" His voice, although a whisper, is amplified by the metal walls. "Breathe. And try to stay calm. I got you."
"I'm good," she says, even though she doesn't know why she says it. Maybe, since he is the one who has to get her out, to keep Ty calm.
"I was thinking about us doing a dry run, swim down to the bottom and come back up to see how you're doing, but I think we should just go for it. We are more than halfway down already. Should be less than ten feet down."
"Okay."
"Aries. Listen to me. You'll get the urge to take a breath and it'll feel like you'll pass out if you don't. Just don't. The rest is making it to the other side..."
There is a pause, during which he looks at her.
"I never had a daughter," he says. "Never thought of having children. But... when I saw you come in on your first day with your shiny hard hat and that small notepad in your hand, ready to write down your instructions, I knew... I knew... What I'm trying to say is, don't breathe in, okay?"
"I won't. I promise."
"Okay. Let's do this."
They both take a few breaths. Aries watches Ty and adjusts her breathing so it’s in line with his. Then he drops down and his head disappears underwater.
* * *
She didn't think it would be that dark. The residual light only illuminates a couple of feet before her. Aries sees the blurred outline of Ty's arm and head in front of her. He seems to gesture for her to follow. The swimming part isn't the problem. She gets the gist of it after the second time she pushes her arms downward. What she hadn't realized before she’d gone under was how much oxygen she would have… or wouldn't have.
After three strokes she reaches the bottom of the cylinder. The opening into the pipe is nothing more than a slightly darker circle within the darkness. She feels Ty's hand more than she sees it. He grabs her arm, pulls her toward him, and pushes her into the pipe. It's tight. Where she could see at least a dark outline of her surroundings before, there is now only blackness. Her back scrapes along the p
ipe, slowing her down. She can't move her arms too easily and she can feel Ty trying to push her forward.
To direct her mind toward something to focus on she tries to think of Born-of-Night, but her thoughts are too erratic. They jump from utter panic to listening to her pounding heart and trying not to imagine herself inside a pipe filled with water. And below that is the other thought, the one she won't allow to come near. It is the thought of what will happen if the hatch on the other side won't open. What if it's stuck, welded shut, or simply not there anymore?
Her lungs begin to revolt when they are halfway through the pipe. The lack of oxygen creates a powerful reflex to open her mouth and breathe in. But she can't. She won't. She promised Ty, promised to stay strong, to not give in. But all her thoughts begin to turn around their own axis as they are being pulled toward the strong vortex of panic that takes hold of her. At the end of the pipe, she simply runs out of time. The last thought she has, before her mouth opens and she swallows water, is of her lungs exploding, her heart stopping and her dying without ever taking another breath.
She doesn’t know that she’s out of the pipe, that Ty pushes her into the small holding tank, that his hand holds her arm and that he pulls her up to the small air pocket. She doesn't smell the staleness of it, doesn't see the hatch above their heads. She doesn't hear Ty calling her name when he sees she's not breathing. She's not aware of him pulling her out of the hatch and placing her gently on the floor of the small utility room. Neither does she feel his mouth on hers when he tries to revive her. She doesn't sense the rhythm of his hands as they push on her chest and she doesn't feel the warm tears that fall onto her face from his. She feels none of it.
Chapter 10 — In Between
"Will you spend your life with me—where the light turns to shadow,