Clan World

by Jim Kochanoff

  I couldn’t go on, and I couldn’t go back. I started to climb the rocks, keeping both sets of animals in my sight. The rocks were coarse and easy to get a foothold. I passed a gap and spied a vent of some sort protruding from the rock. What is something man-made doing here?

  I almost slipped and realized that this was not the time to speculate. I needed to focus. I stood on the rock, trying to make myself look bigger by waving my arms. Maybe I could intimidate the animal. The last tree went flying as the larger beast came moving toward me. It was painful to watch its slow, lumbering walk. I could run back to the clearing, but thanks to the little one below me, I was trapped between it and its family. Like the mother bear, I had only given it one option: attack.

  The ball of spikes came flying, and I had little time to find shelter as I wedged myself behind one of the larger rocks. The impact shook the stone, but I felt no pain, so I knew I was okay. But I couldn’t keep ducking these things all day. There had to be a way out. I looked at the overhang above me. The rock sloped down like a slide. Might make a good escape route. Or better yet, I could send down an avalanche of my own.

  “Come over here, ugly! Is that the best you got?” I laughed. If my friends could see me now, taunting a beast weighing several tons. They’d think I was out of my mind — and they wouldn’t be wrong. I noticed a large boulder that could do some damage if it was moved. I tried pushing it with my foot, but all it did was hurt my back. Damn, it won’t budge.

  I grabbed a rock and threw it at the big dinosaur’s face. As always, I had terrible aim, and it sailed off the beast’s head. But its eyes blinked, and I could tell I must have made it mad. Its eyelids lowered, and I watched its tail whip back majestically. For a second, I got caught up in his tail’s arc, the slow-motion trajectory.

  “Pene! Look out!” Jinn yelled from behind as she emerged from the trees.

  I ducked, and the spiny mass sailed behind me and struck the boulder above me. It shattered, and fragments littered into the air and rained down on me. Luckily, the boulder I had tried to move now wobbled, and I kicked as hard as I could in hope of dislodging it. “Owww!” I cried as my shoulder smarted from the weight, but the boulder rolled down toward the beast. It picked up speed and I hoped it would smash into the big dinosaur. But before the rock slid into the creature’s head, it ricocheted off another rock on the ground, spun, and then rolled to a complete stop. Any more bright ideas?

  I saw Jinn approaching and knew I had to do something quickly or the beast would turn its attention to her. My only advantage was surprise. I jumped down off the rock and ran toward the nest. I slid across the rock and landed by one of three babies. The other parent seemed alarmed but couldn’t swing her tail for fear of hurting their children. To further the impasse, I raised a rock as if I was going to crush the baby’s head. I had no idea if I could even hurt it, but my message was received; no one moved. Not even Jinn.

  The baby rolled on its back, showing me its belly. There was no malice in its actions. Unlike its parents, its tail didn’t seem to have developed yet. Still, it wasn’t like I wanted to pet it and have it sit on my lap. But if it wasn’t evil, then maybe its parents weren’t either. I lowered the rock and looked back toward the dinosaur that had released a killer ball of spikes only moments before. Its eyes blinked, and a realization crossed my mind. Maybe we had scared it by crossing its territory and it had attacked out of fear for its family. Or I was a fool and it was predatory and I couldn’t see it. But I saw intelligence, and suddenly it viewed me as less of a threat.

  I walked slowly away from the nest, never taking my eyes away from the largest dinosaur. I would not concede to this animal; it had to think of me as an equal. The babies squealed and followed their other parent away from the nest in the opposite direction. The main beast followed, never taking its eyes of off me, but its tail remained still.

  For several minutes I watched the family lumber off, and I wondered if we could share the same land and survive. Or would we always be doomed to fight each other until one side became extinct?

  “Wow! You just scared them off without throwing a punch. Must be your superpower.” Tuko smiled. Jinn rushed up to me and gave me a big hug. Then she let go and slapped my shoulder.

  “It’s nice to see you too. What’s that for?”

  “For trying to do everything yourself. You could have gotten yourself killed.” I noticed the fresh wound dripping from her shoulder.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I’m good.” She looked at Tuko. “Thanks to my bro. And to you, Pene, for buying us time.”

  “If the two of you are done hugging it out, you both should look at something.” Jinn and I looked at each other and then walked over to Tuko. He was looking at the gaping hole in the rocks I had stood on. Tuko stared into the dark.

  “Did you see this?” I looked down at the demolished portion of the vent I had seen earlier.

  “Yeah, but I was kind of busy trying to save my life. What’s the big deal about the vent?”

  “It’s not the vent I’m looking at. It’s the ladder,” he pointed. The twisted remains of a ladder descended into the dark. A bunch of manmade console ports appeared out of the wall.

  What the hell? What is this place?

  “What is it?” Jinn asked. I contemplated how something manmade would exist in the middle of nowhere underneath us. If I had learned one thing about this world, it was that it seemed like a rabbit hole. The more I thought I understood, the more confused I became.

  “Only one way to find out.” I readied to descend into the darkness.

  10

  Experiment

  Just before I stepped to go down the ladder, Tuko blocked my way.

  “Let me go down first.” I could have sworn he was using his macho voice on me. I pushed him aside.

  “It’s okay, I just chased off the killer monster, I think I can handle whatever is down there.” I stepped down into the darkness and gripped the metal rails. They were in decent shape, not rough or rusty to my touch. I climbed down another rung and saw nothing at the bottom. I looked up at Tuko, who seemed to read my mind.

  “Did you want me to drop a rock?” he asked with a grin at the corner of his mouth.

  “Yes, please. Let’s make sure that I won’t be climbing for a long time.” He disappeared and then came back into view. I mean, how hard was it for him to find a rock? I motioned with my hand. “Any time now.” He dropped the rock. We waited for a couple of seconds, and then I heard a muffled sound of rock on rock.

  “Well, at least we know it’s not bottomless.” He smirked and motioned for me to continue descending. I felt like slapping the smile right off his face. I took another step downward. I moved slowly, envisioning a slippery spot and falling to my death. Instead, after a minute it became so dark I couldn’t even see the rungs of the ladder and had to find them by feel. I looked up and could only see the glow of light. Tuko had not followed. My feet hit an uneven surface and I realized that I had reached bottom.

  I felt around the wall. It was rough and moist. There was a groove and I tried to reach in. Something skittered across my fingers. I screamed.

  “Are you okay?” Tuko’s voice echoed from above.

  “Yes,” I answered harshly, a little embarrassed. “Just give me a minute, I can’t see the hand in front of my face.” I continued feeling the rock surface, not sure of what I was looking for until I found it. My hand crossed a soft, wire-like object and then a square shape. I felt a button on its surface and smashed it down. I heard the echo of power-feeding circuits and lights began to illuminate a short tunnel. It was still dark, but at least I could see. “Okay, you guys can come down now.”

  I moved forward and spied a circuit breaker on the left wall. I passed it and stepped into a main room. Light bulbs on long wires hung from the roof and shone down on some type of lab. There was a computer in one corner with an old monitor that had green and red wires hanging out of it. A metal chair with rollers was stationed in fro
nt of it. I pushed it aside and it scraped along a flat floor. A thick coating of dust was on everything; nobody had been here for a long while. On a white table lay a schematic of a series of towns. I could see Trall located to the far west. Several symbols were spread across the map.

  But a series of photos on a table caught my attention. There were dozens of shots of animals, mostly dinosaurs indigenous to this world. None of the animals acted like they were being observed. On one of the walls there were about a dozen blank monitors. Was this some type of was observation station?

  “What is this place?” Tuko asked as he entered the room. I could hear another thump down the hall, which must have been Jinn jumping off the ladder.

  “No idea. Was hoping you could tell me.” But I could tell from the amazement in Tuko’s eyes that this was nothing like anything he had seen. I walked over to a computer and pressed the power button. A green light came on and noise whirled as if the hard drive booted up.

  “What are you doing?” Jinn asked from behind.

  “Turning on a computer, seeing if we can access what was going on here.”

  Jinn’s face darkened as if she didn’t understand what was going on. “You can make this work?”

  “Maybe. Worth a try. Have you not used one?”

  “No. Most computers broke down and hardly anyone could fix them. Stop acting like you know more than us,” Tuko jeered. Jinn and I looked at each other. Should I share my secret with him?

  “Knowing more than you is not a big accomplishment,” Jinn teased Tuko, who pretended not to hear. I reached into the desk, looking for slips of paper. Most of the contents were scribbles, a few wrappers, and bunch of pens that didn’t work. The computer light flashed green, and I pressed the monitor button. It came to life. Somewhere in there must be a generator to power the lights and computer. By the amount of dust on the monitor, I was lucky that anything started at all. The screen came up and requested a login and password. There was nothing of value in the desk so I checked a bulletin board.

  There was a collection of technical documents that made no sense to me. The lack of personal effects was surprising. Did whoever worked down here not have any family? No pictures of anyone they cared about? I scanned the margins of one document and found someone’s handwriting near the top in blue pen. Good thing none of us can remember our passwords. I typed into the two boxes on the screen, and the computer acknowledged that I had entered the correct information. It began loading another screen. Both Jinn and Tuko stood behind me.

  “You seem to know what you are doing,” stated Tuko.

  “Surprised?” I gave him a smirk. “Maybe I’m more than just a pretty face.” The screen loaded and my smile immediately disappeared.

  The screen was divided into folders, each with different dinosaur names. They appeared like a collection of studied beasts. I pressed on the ankylosaurs folder. Our recent encounter had me interested in what make them tick. There were a series of images and videos stored in the folder. I could feel Tuko and Jinn’s silent interest as they pressed from behind. I clicked on the video. The scream almost floored me. I quickly found the volume and reduced it. The animal was inside a cage, with a desert surrounding it. I saw metal prods with electricity raining down on the animal. It screamed in agony every time it was touched. Its tail seemed to be lashed down and it couldn’t move it in protest.

  “Where is this?” Tuko asked. “It’s like no place I’ve ever seen.” I had no answer but watched the video and was horrified when the animal turned its head. Wires were connected to its face, and I thought I could see exposed flesh, as if the animal was some type of experiment. What awful things could have been done to this creature? The video ended, and my hand scrolled for another video. Jinn stopped my mouse.

  “What is that?” She pointed to a folder with the label with clan names. I clicked it open and dozens of clan folders came up. Once I saw the Armor folder, I knew which one she wanted. I clicked it and inside the folder there were videos, images, and documents. Jinn pointed to a video with a grainy but familiar image and I clicked on it. Although the video was old, one of the people was recognizable — just a lot younger. It was Jinn and Tuko’s father! The video was taken from above their heads, and the camera continued gliding silently above them. The conversation took place in a meeting room where the participants sat around in a semi-circle.

  “We must work together with the other clans, or we will continue to fight amongst ourselves. Until then we’ll always be fighting for survival instead of growing as a society.”

  “Look how young Dad looked. His hair is so long,” Jinn commented.

  “And look who is behind him!” Tuko pointed out. A young woman looked at their father and you could tell there was a spark between them. She must be their mother.

  “You are very naive, Strika. The clans have existed this way for centuries and we’re still here. You don’t understand how government is run,” another young man with a scar on his right eyebrow responded. By his condescending tone, he had heard the same argument before and thought he had all the answers. I immediately disliked him.

  “And where has that gotten us? The clans are constantly fighting against each other: taking; scavenging; hating. Our society is stagnant. We are so concerned with trying to get food on our tables that we never innovate, we never grow.”

  “And what do you propose?” asked an older woman with a kindly face.

  “Reach out to the other clans, propose a truce. Set up a barter system. There are resources we need that will make our clan stronger.”

  “Give resources to our sworn enemies? Next you’ll be proposing we hand weapons to them so they can fight against us,” the man with the scar jeered, and several other men in the room joined in laughing at his joke. Their father was silent, as if considering that.

  “Dero, that is a great idea. I really appreciate you joining in the spirit of this request.” Their father’s smile was playful, but you could see the edge in his actions. It was as if he was taunting the other man.

  “He’s from the Chycle Clan.” The realization hit me.

  “Enough!” Dero slammed his fist onto the table. “I will not stand here and be lectured to by someone who has no experience running his clan’s affairs. You will do as you’re told and be happy to sit at this table.” The room was quiet and I looked at their father anticipating his response. But it wasn’t him that answered.

  “No.” She said it evenly, without malice, but there was power to her voice. Jinn’s mother stood up and walked into the center of the room. The video faded away for a second and when it appeared again, she was standing before Dero. “For years you have promoted conflict. Hundreds have died so that your clan could stay in power. There is no growth in your leadership, only death and meager survival.”

  “You are a woman and have no voice at this table. You can’t tell me how to run this council. You think a woman can tell me what to do?”

  “No.” Everyone’s heads turned back to their father. “But we can run it together.” The two of them looked at each other to show their united will. “You could only run on hate for so long.” The video ended, but I felt like I had seen the beginning of the change of leadership for the clans. Jinn and Tuko were silent, but I could imagine what was going on in their minds.

  “Your parents were very brave. They forced changes that affected your clan and many others,” I said, wishing I still had my parents to be proud of. They remained quiet.

  “I didn’t realize how strong they both are,” Jinn added, looking a bit ashamed of herself.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “We are what’s wrong, Pene,” Tuko answered without his usual arrogance. “We have butted heads with our parents for years. Accusing them of being frozen in the old ways, not listening to our suggestions.”

  “You two aren’t unlike your parents at their age. Maybe you are not as far apart as you think.” They nodded; they would both have a lot to consider before we reached the Cradle. I th
ought about my life at home and the discoveries I had made about my parents. It changed things. The video also changed things in other ways.

  “How did we see this footage on our parents?” Jinn asked. “It was like they were being watched from above.”

  “I think this thing took the footage.” Tuko pointed across the room. Several bee drones sat on a workbench in a row, like little soldiers ready to be activated. He walked over and picked one up. “Is this not like the one you found in the junkyard?” He gestured. He was right; they looked the same. He fumbled with his drone. “What does this do?” He manipulated a switch, and the unthinkable happened. The drone’s eyes turned red.

  “What?” Tuko yelled as the drone came alive. He immediately dropped it. It fell several inches and then hovered just above the surface of the table. It rotated slowly, as if trying to examine its surroundings. As if turned to us, it stopped as if it was recording footage of our existence. Someone on the other side could now be watching us.

  “Get it!” I yelled. I saw a broom in the corner and grabbed the handle. Jinn and Tuko did not initially share my concern.

  “Why are you so worked up over a flying mechanical toy? I don’t think it can sting us,” Tuko asked, annoyed.

  “You’re scaring me, Pene. What’s the big deal,” Jinn asked.

  “The. Big. Deal,” I said each word as I tried to hit the bee, which moved effortlessly out of my reach, “is that ‘toy’ has recorded the footage you just saw. It’s probably been spying on you most of your lifetime and you never knew.” I took a breath. “And there is probably someone watching us right now!” The two of them looked at each other and I could tell that they needed no further prodding. They looked around the room for a weapon. The bee seemed amused by our antics and floated to the top of the ceiling, beyond my ability to reach it.

  Jinn began to throw objects from the desk at the bee. Some were hard and small like a rock, but the bee moved effortlessly away from each one, like a matador teasing an angry bull.