Freed

by Holly Hook

  I'm coming with you, he says.

  “I don't know what that gas will do to you,” I say. “You didn't want to step through it before.” I take my palm and lower it. Sit down, I say. But Pit turns away and puts his nose on the floor of the tunnel entrance. He sniffs.

  “You think he senses something?” Travis asks.

  “He must know it's a rescue mission,” I say. “He smells someone. He knows they're in trouble.”

  Pit walks into the tunnel.

  Travis takes the first brave steps. The red gas scatters around his ankles, then hugs them again. Pit keeps his nose to the ground and the gas wisps around his face.

  “Pit!” I shout.

  But he keeps going as if the stuff isn't even there. Either he's forgotten about it, or he's changed his mind about its danger.

  “I don't see anything other than these fumes in here,” Travis says. “Our lamp hasn't gone out. We should be safe to proceed.”

  And he steps down the incline. The gas rises to his knees.

  “Dude,” Shawn says. “Once we're far enough down there, that gas will be over our heads. I don't like that, even with these masks on.”

  “I don't, either,” Travis says.

  “Talia's down there,” I say. “I've faced worse things than these red fumes.” I breathe. In. Out. The mask makes a loud rasping noise as I do. I try to sound brave, but it's not working very well. My voice shakes.

  “We're not even sure these masks will protect us.” Shawn adjusts his, making sure it's on his face as tight as it can be. The rubber hugs his skin.

  “We can't find Talia if we don't try,” Travis says.

  “I hope there's no monsters down here,” Shawn says. “If there are, they'll be crazy monsters.”

  “That's even better,” I say. We all sound like we have the worst colds in these things.

  Travis cuts in front of Pit. The gas rises to our chests as we walk deeper, down the incline and further into the tunnel. I glance back. The faint red light allows me to see the entrance to the shore. It's a circle of black. It's not too far. We can always run back to it if we need to.

  “Pit,” I say. I pet him. “You okay?”

  His tail wags. He seems all right, even though the gas is up over his outstretched ears now. I follow Shawn and Travis. The gas comes up to my neck.

  And then, everything's got a filmy red curtain over it.

  I hold my breath. My skin tingles a bit, like it did wading through that other gas up in the burrow. Then I dare a breath. It comes through the respirator. The air smells fine. I'm still sane—right? “Shawn? Travis? You okay?”

  “Yes,” Shawn says. He grabs my hand. “I think these masks are working.”

  Pit stiffens.

  There's a sound.

  Skittering.

  We haven't heard the sound in ages, but it's there. The Dwellers are down here and they're moving around. They're guarding any workers they might have brought down. They're after the huge Flamestone vein hanging over our heads. It hugs the ceiling, going downward just like the rest of the cave. I wonder if it grew this way on purpose, following the open air until it found a spot where it could start going for the surface. I never asked Antoine how it grows. I only know that it goes through stone, very slowly over thousands of years.

  Pit's tail wags harder. There's food ahead. Maybe this is why he came down after all.

  He's hungry. Just like the Disgraced.

  “I think the dinner bell just rang,” Shawn says, pointing to him.

  Pit bounds further down the cave. He glances back at us. What are you waiting for? Come on. He's almost...impatient.

  “Okay,” I say. “After you, Pit.” I can only hope that since he's from this world, the gas doesn't affect him the way it does us.

  I link hands with Shawn and we follow Travis. The walls have more red than black with only the giant, sparkling orange one over our heads. I feel like we're walking through some warped Halloween attraction. Everything's got an angry red glow here, even the air.

  I hold my breath. Shawn's mask makes a loud snoring noise as he breathes in and out. “I think these masks are protecting us,” he says. “Think about it. Why would the Society bring these into this world if they didn't work against this gas? It's the only gas we've run into down here.”

  I take a breath. It comes slow and I adjust my vision through the mask best I can. Pit's still there, standing in the red haze. It's like I'm standing in a giant red cloud of tobacco smoke. It reminds me of the time Dad used to smoke and he forgot to roll down the windows in his car. Like that dumb cigarette I tried after school one time. Only this stuff is worse. Way worse.

  “We're okay,” Shawn says. “Just don't take your mask off to sneeze or anything.”

  “I wasn't planning on it,” I say, taking another breath. I watch the walls to make sure I don't see any snakes crawling down them. How will I be able to tell what's real and what's not? Anything can happen in this world.

  We walk, Pit leading this time. There's more tiny feet again, hundreds of them, and they seem to echo from everywhere at once. I can only see maybe fifty feet ahead of us. There haven't been any other signs of life yet. It's like an evil version of the cave that had the glowing mushrooms, only without any life. This place is a dead zone that nothing can tolerate.

  More skittering. Pit's claws click as he trots downhill. He's not having any problems yet. He still seems to have a good grip on reality.

  The ceiling rises and then I spot them.

  The Dwellers.

  They're surrounding someone standing far away in the mist. Pit runs for them. The person holds a pickaxe and they're trying to swing at the Flamestone in the ceiling. The worker's mostly missing it. It's just out of his reach. We get closer. The figure's a man and he's also got on a mask.

  The Dwellers all squeal and scatter as Pit leaps. The man stops and backs into the wall. So this is why the Society brought in spare masks. It's to keep the unfortunates functioning. The man faces us. Is he still sane? I can't tell. The mask makes it look like there's nothing but a dark void underneath it.

  Pit chomps down on a Dweller that was too slow and starts chewing. His tail wags back and forth. Yes. He's happy. It's as if the gas isn't even here for him.

  “Who are you?” the man asks. He points to Pit. “Is he real? Are you real?” He won't back away from the wall.

  “Yes. We're real,” I tell him. “That's Pit. He likes Dwellers.”

  Where's Talia? That's all I can think. It's like playing the first Mario game. Sorry, but Talia is in another castle. I let go of Shawn's hand and step forward. This man seems better than the crazy lady from back up in the mine. “Have you seen a teen girl down here lately? She was brought down not too long ago.”

  “Several hours ago,” Shawn adds. “She has dark hair and might have been wearing a hot pink bow in her hair.”

  “What's this thing?” the man asks, pointing at Pit. He's not listening to us. “Is it going to attack me?” He tightens his grip on his pickaxe. There's a pile of Flamestone on the floor next to the man. They're his lucky shots.

  “No,” I say, stepping between him and Pit. “He won't hurt you. He just likes to eat Dwellers, so you had better not do a thing to him. He might help us. And you. Tell us where you saw that girl go, and we will tell you how to get out of here and get back to the surface.” This man had to have seen her. There's no other place the Dwellers would have taken her.

  “Yeah, right,” the man says. Somewhere in the red glow behind him, the Dwellers are reassembling, skittering back into formation. I don't dare look at them. I can only make out their little points in the haze. I feel like we've gone to some demon world. “They never let us out of here. You're lying. And besides, I can't tell which way is up or down anymore.”

  “What do you mean?” Travis asks. “Up is that way.” He points up the tunnel.

  “This gas,” he says as if Travis has asked the dumbest thing in the world. “It confuses you. I don't know the w
ay out of here. Even if you've got a mask, it still gets to you after a while. I think it gets in through your skin or something.”

  I hold my breath again. The tingling across my bare arms is still there.

  The man waves his arms. “You guys must have just gotten down here. Keeping those masks on will keep the hallucinations from getting too bad, but say goodbye to your sense of direction.” Then he flinches, backing away from something in the air next to him.

  He's seeing things. This is a bad sign.

  I tense. Keep my arms as close to my body as I can, trying to keep the thinner parts of my skin away from the fog. What good is it doing? There's red gas everywhere. Touching my skin everywhere. It must be getting absorbed into my body by now.

  “Did you see a teen girl?” Shawn asks again. “We'll lead you out of here ourselves if you tell us. All you have to do to get out is...never mind. Tell us, and we'll take you out of here. We have someone who's ready to take you to the surface.”

  “I saw a girl and a man earlier,” the guy says. “They got taken farther down the cave. One of them was babbling. The girl, I think. They didn't even give her a mask. I think the Dwellers forgot to hand her one. I don't think I've been in farther than this.”

  “Good enough,” Shawn says. “Here. We'll take you back out to the river. There's a man out there who's leading the workers to safety in exchange for us doing rescues for him. His name is Les. Don't be too mean to him.”

  Shawn nods to me and take the guy's arm. The man flinches again, then stills. “You're real,” he says.

  Behind him, the Dwellers gather. Pit growls and keeps them back. They squeal in horror. They won't dare come through him.

  “Let's go,” Travis says. “I don't like pushing my luck down here.”

  I can't believe this man can't follow a tunnel straight out of here. It's as if his whole world consists of that vein of Flamestone in the ceiling. It's as thick as ever, as thick as a tree trunk. All he has to do is follow that.

  “Come on,” Shawn says. “All of us. This will give us a break from the gas.”

  We walk back towards the river, heading uphill. It's harder this time. I breathe harder, keeping my axe by my side. Is the river this way? Of course it is. This guy must be lying about the gas making you lose your sense of direction. Or was the river the other way? No. Shawn's right. The gas is getting thinner up this way and my face is poking out of it now. The world grows clearer. Pit bounds out and towards the water. He's not being affected at all. I step out of the gas completely and wipe my arms off and beat out my clothes, trying to get out all of the fumes. It must be doing something to us. But other than a bit of confusion, I don't feel sick or anything.

  The man straightens up as we reach the shore of the river. “I'm out,” he says. “You're real.”

  “Go straight,” Shawn instructs. “Across the water. There's a man over there who will wait for you. Tell him that we're going back in to find others.” Shawn lets go of the man's arm. We stand there as the worker staggers across the water. Travis holds up the lantern, giving him some light. He splashes towards the shadowy form of Les on the other side. Les takes his arm and helps him out. The two talk in low voices. The man removes his gas mask. Throws it down on the ground.

  My mind's clear now. “Come on,” I say, hating my words. “We need to get back in there and see who else is stuck. Les is still counting on us to find two of his people.”

  “I can't believe I almost got turned around back there,” Shawn says.

  “You did, too?” I ask. My dread grows.

  Shawn nods. “Pit seems fine, through. I don't think the gas bothers him any. We're going to need him in there.”

  Travis also beats off his clothes. “I think some of it got in through my skin,” he says. “I didn't realize that could happen. We've got to make our next run quick.”

  I feel fine now. I lead the way back down into the tunnel. “We should still keep these masks on,” I say. “He pretty much said it'll stop all the worst effects, whatever those are.”

  Pit's tail is wagging and we move faster now, trying to stay in the gas as little as possible. Pit walks ahead of us. The Dwellers are trying to reorganize ahead, but once they see Pit coming, they all scatter into the red fog once again. We haven't seen any Light Eaters down here. Maybe their skin absorbs this stuff too well. I keep my breaths shallow and I feel a bit dizzy from the lack of air, but Travis's lantern still burns. But the confusion I felt isn't coming back yet. How did I almost miss the fact that the exit is so close? The gas must be its own trap down here. Workers come down and they can never find their way out again.

  I'll have to tell Pit to get us out if we go in too far. We have him.

  We walk past where the man was mining. Over the chunks of Flamestone. The fog grows a little thicker. More of the gas has gathered down here. It's dense and it's hugging the ground. It's almost in layers. A thick layer on the bottom, and a thin layer on top. Pit walks through the thick layer like it's not even there, sniffing the ground for any sign of Dwellers.

  “Hello?” I call. My voice is still muffled. “Is anyone down here?” Which way are we going again? Straight. Of course. There's only one way to go in this tunnel.

  And then the cave splits. Twin tunnels branch off in two different directions.

  I stop. “Crap,” I say.

  “Which way?” Travis asks. Then he looks up and reaches for the ceiling. “The Flamestone vein goes down the one on the left. I think that's the one the Dwellers would have taken people down. And the one Les's people would have followed.”

  Of course. The orange, sparkling stone heads that way, hugging the ceiling. Its sparkles almost look bloody in the red light.

  “I think you're right,” I say.

  We turn. Head down the left tunnel. Pit doesn't protest. The Dwellers skitter behind us, gathering again from wherever they've hidden. We must be about a couple hundred feet inside this cavern by now, with Les waiting back at the riverbank. He's waiting for us to bring out some of his people. What if we can't find them and we come back out empty handed? What if he decides that he doesn't need to show us the way to the surface after all? What if we're down here forever and we get lost? There's nothing to eat or drink. Anyone unprotected would get lost for sure.

  How long have we been walking again?

  I look back. Shawn and Travis are right behind me. And behind them, there's nothing but fog and a tunnel. To where?

  The exit. The Flamestone vein leads right to the exit. I have to remember that. If I can follow it, I can get out of here.

  “Hello?” I repeat.

  “Is someone there?” a woman asks. “We're lost.”

  I quicken my step and Pit runs into the fog ahead. It's so thick he vanishes twenty feet away. “Yes,” I say. “We're here to get you out of here. Come towards my voice.”

  “Your voice is coming from everywhere.”

  Then I see someone.

  The woman, and a child sitting together on the bottom of the cave, unprotected by any gas masks. The child wears a tunic made of Light Eater skin and the woman a ragged set of jeans and an ancient sweater that she probably came through a gateway with years ago. There are chips of Flamestone around them. They've been surviving on it.

  They're the missing Disgraced that Les told us about.

  The child looks at us and screams. She backs away into her mother. They have no masks, all right, and they've got the same greenish eyes that Jaden has now.

  “What are those?” the little girl asks.

  The mother stands up and holds her close. “What are you?” she asks. “Are you aliens? Have you brought your ship?”

  I glance at Shawn and Travis and they shake their heads. This gas does make people crazy after all. This woman has lost it.

  “Are you here to take us away?” the woman asks. “I've been bad. I don't deserve it. My daughter and I had to come down here because we've sinned.”

  “Fresh air,” Travis says. “Just grab them.”r />
  I'm glad I have two big guys with me. Travis lunges at the woman and pulls her up from the floor. She screams. The little girl beats at his side and Shawn picks her up. She kicks him in the chest with her bare foot. I whirl around. Which way is out? The Flamestone. There was something about the Flamestone. It leads out. But it goes down the tunnel both ways. One way will lead us deeper. The other, out. “Pit,” I say. How can I tell him to lead us out of here?

  But he seems to understand.

  He grabs onto my pant leg with his teeth. Pulls me in one direction down the cavern, the way I wouldn't have picked. This stuff really does confuse you.

  “This way!” I shout over the high pitched screams of the girl.

  “Ouch!” Shawn shouts. “Come on, Travis.”

  We walk back out of the tunnel as fast as we can. Is that a split? Yes. We passed it. Of course. I let Pit lead the way and we walk past the crowd of Dwellers again. We were here before. Thankfully the mask helps me to avoid their gazes. One runs across my foot in a panic but I can't see anything out of the periphery of my vision. The gas thins. I poke my head above it and see sparkling water that reflects the light of the lantern. I glance back. Travis is dragging the woman, who doesn't resist much. She's babbling nonsense. Something about car motors. The little girl keeps kicking and screaming.

  We emerge on the shore and the world opens up. I lift the mask from my face and take a breath of the clean air.

  The little girl keeps screaming and Les shouts something from across the river. He's still here. “Cecilia!”

  She stops. “Uncle Les?”

  Shawn sets her down. She catches her breath from the effort of fighting against him and the woman goes silent, too. They stand at the shore, regaining their sanity. At least this gas isn't permanent.

  “Swim across the river towards me,” he says. “I'm here. Do not go back in the cave.”

  The woman and the girl head into the water, hand in hand. They're silent.

  Shawn pops the mask off his face for a moment. There's sweat forming around his eyes and his hair's plastered to his head. “I need a break,” he says. “The air's safe here.”

  I brush some of the hair out of my face. “So do I.” I watch the woman wade across the river with her daughter in tow. At least, I think it's her daughter. The little girl takes drink after drink of the clear water. They're thirsty. How long were they in there and how often to the Disgraced need to drink? Maybe they need water just as much as we do.