“How do you know all this?” Goldman asked. “I don’t even understand how you speak English.”
“I wandered over thousands of years,” Opellius said. “And I heard sounds from the other side of the territory wall. I believe now I encountered multiple territories in my life, and didn’t know for certain I was seeing different places.”
“I don’t get how any of them speak anything close to our language,” Lilli said. “You all really think this is the future of my world?”
“We do not know,” Nathaniel said. “All of us are learning together.”
“This gets more and more encouraging,” Lilli said.
“Can the hive mind tell us the proper direction for us to travel?” Nathaniel asked.
“I think so,” Opellius said.
“Good. Then Goldman and I will leave tomorrow morning.”
“Wait just a second,” Lilli said. “What about me?”
“Nate’s right,” Goldman said. “You didn’t ask to get dragged into this, and now the best thing we can do is keep you safe. Pretty much every adventure Nate goes on these days gets him into trouble.”
“So you want me to stay here and babysit the president guy you’ve got prisoner.”
“No,” Nathaniel said. “You should not go near Gustavus.”
“I didn’t really mean it,” she said. “I’m just venting, because this is all overwhelming and scary and shitty and I just don’t know what it is I really want to do…but if I’m gonna be stuck in this world, I kinda want to see more of it than just this house and Opellius’s thoughtful place.”
“What do you guys think?” Goldman asked.
“What does it matter what they think?” Lilli questioned. “I’m not going to have a council of men sit and decide the fate of the little damsel in distress. I want to go with. I’m not a liability to you. I can help.”
“She does have a point,” Goldman said.
“Aye,” said Nathaniel. “If you are determined to risk your life, it is not for us to stop you. Just know there is always a chance none of us comes back from this.”
“Noted,” Lilli said.
“Very well. And Opellius, you and the hive mind can take care of Gustavus? He is not to be taken lightly.”
“I remain aware of his dubious nature,” Opellius said. “And I am still a Great One, old as I am. The situation here will stay under control while you’re gone.”
“Good. Then it is settled. We leave tomorrow.”
5
The next morning, loaded with supplies from the hive mind, Nathaniel, Goldman and Lilli said goodbye to Opellius and walked behind his house and into the wilderness.
“You said goodbye to him like you don’t think you’ll see him again,” Lilli said.
“It is the way I’ve left things with him on every journey thus far,” Nathaniel said. “Because we face the unknown and it is unclear if any of us will return.”
“Right. Thanks for the reminder.”
“Have you been this way, Nate?” Goldman asked.
“Nay. The other territory—the one with the book—was in front of Opellius’s house. Or at least my journey began that way. I followed the remnants of a road for a long distance.”
“And you don’t know who made that road?” Lilli asked.
“There was barely anything left,” Nathaniel said. “But what was there among the weeds was black rock like the roads in your land.”
“Another checkmark in the ‘this is the future’ column,” Goldman said. “You feeling good, Nate?”
“Aye. I am. As much as I hate to admit it, I am only at my best on this side of the portal.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Lilli said. “You were dying over there.”
Nathaniel nodded.
“I don’t think that our time or world or whatever is what’s weakening you,” Goldman said. “We’ve faced elements of Great One-like power there.”
“So what is it?” Lilli asked.
“It’s the portal itself. Same reason only someone who goes through it can see it. It’s like a tether that sticks to us so we can get back through the book. And the tether is what’s messing with Nate’s powers.”
“Meaning what, exactly?”
“I don’t know. Maybe that the Great Ones are made from the same magic as the book? And it cancels out somehow. What do you think, Nate?”
Nathaniel frowned. “I think it matters not the nature of my abilities or if they connect to the book. I accept I can’t operate on the other side of the portal, and so here we are on this quest. That is all that matters.”
“You don’t wonder at all about where you come from?” Lilli asked. “Even knowing that everything you’d been told was a lie?”
“It wasn’t all a lie, Lilli,” Nathaniel said. “And I don’t have the luxury of wondering about it. It makes no difference. If we can find a way to get back to your land and take down Weber, perhaps none of this will ever have happened.”
“You’re really willing to unmake your whole existence?” Goldman asked. “That’s really something.”
“It is the only way. I’m dying one way or another, and it is my responsibility as a Great One to make the world better and safer than I found it.”
They walked on in silence for a few minutes. Lilli was the first to speak. “So we don’t know how far away this wall is? We’re just gonna keep walking through the woods until we see something different?”
“Aye. The hive mind set us on the right course, and we follow it.”
“And these woods are safe?”
“I would not know. I’ve never been here before.”
“Great. You don’t know anything about the threats out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“I fought giant dogs. Wild creatures.”
“Wolves?” Goldman asked.
“I am not familiar with that term,” Nathaniel said.
“Like big, gray, mean-ass dogs with sharp teeth. Drooling and growling and all that.”
Nathaniel nodded. “That could be. I only encountered the one group patrolling a rolling body of water.”
“A river,” Lilli said. “Maybe they’ve learned to fish in it if there isn’t much else around to hunt.”
“Perhaps. Other than the...woofs?”
“Wolves,” Goldman said.
“Aye. Other than the wolves, we encountered one mutant when Goldman and I were in his car.”
“Mutant?” Lilli asked. “Is that something like the hive mind guys?”
“They’re actually sorta similar,” Goldman said. “The mutant looked like those dudes’ older and much uglier cousin.”
“And you don’t know where all of them came from?”
“Do you know what Nate knew about all of this before he fell off his wall?” Goldman asked.
“He fell off a wall?” Lilli asked.
“Like Humpty Dumpty,” Goldman said.
“I’m not even going to ask.”
“Well, anyway, he thought this place was Hell. Literally. Like there was supposed to be fire that would burn you to a crisp and that was all. Endless fire.”
“Aye,” Nathaniel said. “That was the fundamental lie of the Authority. Though it seems they believed their own lies.”
“Do you really think it was a total fabrication just to keep people in line?” Lilli asked. She bent down and studied the ground.
“What are you doing?” Nathaniel asked.
Lilli pushed aside the dead leaves that carpeted the ground, and rubbed at the dirt. “Just looking for more of your road material. Look. There’s a tiny bit of something there.”
Nathaniel crouched next to her. “Goldman, she’s right. Look!”
“Shit, yeah. There’s more road. Makes sense the easiest path through the forest would be where there had once not been a forest at all.”
“Aye. What was your point, Lilli? About the lies and the Hellfire.”
She stood up and started walking again. “I don’t know. Just thinking about all of
it. It takes a lot of assuming, and I’m not sure if my mind is more comfortable with time travel or going to another world. But if we say that this is the future, then it all has to connect to the world I know. Your rules and stuff were in place for thousands of years. Maybe more. So I think, well, what if there was once fire out here. What if you couldn’t go into the wilderness without dying.”
“Wait,” Goldman said. “You mean like nuclear fire?”
Lilli nodded.
“Jesus Christ. You think we got nuked?”
“I don’t know what I think,” she said. “Just saying it would explain a lot of the myth.”
“What is nuked?” Nathaniel asked.
“It’s like the worst, most damaging thing our society knew how to do with its technology and weapons,” Goldman said. “Always the worst-case scenario would be to set off these bombs that would destroy everything around, and leave an uninhabitable place for a long time after.”
Nathaniel nodded. “Would the walls have shielded against such a weapon?”
“That’s a tough one,” Goldman said. “Fallout and radiation and whatever would have easily made their way in to the territories. I don’t think we’ve got all the answers, even if Lilli’s idea is on the right trail. Still, just one more reason to think we have to stop whatever the hell Weber is up to.”
They continued along the path through the wilderness for the entire day, stopping occasionally when Goldman or Lilli required rest or any of them needed to relieve themselves, and with one long pause midday for eating lunch.
By the time the sun dipped low on the horizon, Nathaniel could see his companions struggling to keep up the pace. The terrain was not smooth and not easily traversed, and the sheer monotony of the journey thus far was taking a toll on their morale.
“I think we should make camp here,” Nathaniel said.
Goldman yawned. “I don’t know, Nate. I was kinda hoping to break free of these woods first. The open plains are pretty at night. This place would be a little terrifying in the dark, if I’m being honest.”
“You are armed, are you not?”
“Yeah, but still…”
“It’s fine,” Lilli said. “Let’s get some rest. My legs are about to fall off, and if we have to do this shit tomorrow too, I need to take a break for a while.”
They stepped off the path into a small clearing surrounded by towering trees and overhanging vines. Goldman sat in the middle of the clearing, and leaned back. He winced as his injured shoulder touched the ground, then he rolled onto his side in an awkward attempt to look natural.
“I’d kill for a chaise lounge right about now,” he said.
Nathaniel watched Lilli wander to the other side of the clearing to study the trees. He set down the bulk of their belongings, which had become more and more his responsibility as the others tired. He sat next to Goldman and looked up at the colors of the darkening sky.
“She’s doing okay,” Goldman said.
“Aye. For now. She’s fascinated by the nature of the world and that draws her focus.”
“She raises interesting points. And a lot of questions. I’ve been thinking about more of my own as we walked.”
“Such as?”
Goldman sat up and rubbed at his arm. “The animals. Or lack thereof. We can hear the birds, and we see them occasionally sitting up in the trees and whatever. I guess they mostly land on the upper side of the canopy where we can’t see them. But on the ground there’s like nothing.”
“What would you expect to see?” Nathaniel asked.
“I don’t know. If this was the woods of my world I’d say maybe rodents, snakes, something like that. Depending on where exactly we are. But in an open and unconstrained world, it could be anything. Those wolves…they could actually just be wild dogs that evolved over time. And there should be wild cats here, big or small. And I don’t even know what else. Bears? Lizards? There are bugs…those skeeter things are scary as shit. I don’t even really know what I’m driving at here. I just expect the wilderness to be teeming with life of all shapes and sizes. This is so repressed. Maybe that’s not the best word.”
“The world I knew didn’t have much in the way of wildlife. There were fish cultivated in the lakes and ponds throughout the land, and we had dogs as pets. Occasionally cats wandered in and out of the enclaves. And there were the deerkin.”
“Deer?”
“Deerkin. Tan, horned beasts. Peaceful and good for food.”
“Sounds a lot like deer to me,” Goldman said.
“They are mutated in many cases. Hard to find the good ones.”
“Which lends more credibility to the nuke argument.”
Nathaniel shrugged. “The more we learn about the reality of the world, the more it seems like a very terrible thing occurred. Maybe many terrible things. Somewhere between your time and the start of mine.”
“That does seem to be what we’re seeing. I keep looking for a straightforward explanation of everything, and I kinda worry that we may not find it.”
“I still contend that doesn’t matter. We erase it all.”
“I know. I know.”
Nathaniel crossed his legs. “I would like to try the meditayshoon again.”
“Told you you’d be into that shit. It’s good. Especially when there’s so much going on that we don’t understand.”
“Aye.”
They sat in silence. Nathaniel heard the chirping of the birds Goldman had spoken about. He heard the buzzing of flying insects, and felt a few of the crawling ones move over his legs. His mind wanted to follow the trajectory of Goldman’s words, and ponder the questions about wildlife he’d never had reason to consider. But as he returned his focus to his breathing, the other thoughts and worries moved away. He felt something within him center and relax.
When he opened his eyes, Goldman and Lilli were chatting off to the side of the clearing. He watched them and thought about the many companions in his life who had come and gone. Few had been lost with the sheer brutality of Achmis and Esther’s endings, but he had lost many friends, many loved ones. He cared about Goldman a great deal, and though he had not spent much time with Lilli, he was indebted to her and knew he could grow to care about her too. It was his lot as the surviving Great One of his territory to care for the people who couldn’t care for themselves.
That gave him some pause. He had spent so long being slightly removed from most everyone else in the world that he had started to view the normals like they were children. And yet, what had his recent experiences shown? Achmis had saved him at the cost of Achmis’s own life. That act had enabled the very journey Nathaniel was now on. And Lilli had made his quest possible in the strange foreign land on the far side of the magic book’s portal. And Goldman had saved him in both that other land and in Nathaniel’s own.
He had misjudged the normals, and for that he felt a great shame. Not just because of the disrespect it meant towards Achmis, Goldman and Lilli, but because of what he’d once known and had forgotten. He had been a normal human himself once, as part of his training as a Great One. And those experiences had been pushed so far away over the millennia that he had nearly lost them. And to forget that…to forget Amara…
He sighed and watched as Goldman and Lilli walked back over just as the sun plunged below the surface and cast the world into magical purple hues.
Goldman got up after meditating for a while and went to find Lilli. He noticed how deeply focused Nathaniel seemed to be. That was good. The poor guy was a mess and if teaching him how to be present made a difference, all the better for all of them. Nathaniel needed to be on his game.
Lilli was still studying the trees with intense interest. Goldman walked over to her and cleared his throat.
“Sorry to intrude,” he said. “Nate’s having some ‘me’ time and I thought I’d see what you’re up to.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “I’ve just been looking at the trees.”
“Yeah, I got that. What’s so interestin
g about them?”
“Well, they’re gigantic, for one thing. But not thousands of years old.”
“So what’s that mean?”
“I’m not sure. I’m not a scientist. But it seems like the forest out here reset at least once since Nathaniel and his territory were around. Probably more than once. So whatever came before…the hellscape this land was supposed to be…these trees weren’t part of it. And probably not the trees that came before them.”
“Right.” Goldman reached out and felt the deeply grooved texture of the bark. “So whatever was before is gone.”
“Yeah. And that means it would be really hard to determine where exactly we are. The weather feels not too different from spring at home. But what does that mean?”
“Hmm. We should ask Nate if he has seasons here.”
“That would be interesting to know,” Lilli said. “Still, I’m not sure that would tell us all that much. Land shifts. Climate changes. And nuclear war would change it a lot, wouldn’t it?”
“I’d think so. What about other signs? Shouldn’t there be something other than the little asphalt chunks? And wouldn’t thousands of years have buried them?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “If we’re right, it’s been a really, really long time. Long enough for exposed metal to rust away to nothing. For dirt to build up and cover a lot of what was there. But then there can be erosion that reveals hidden things. I don’t know. I saw this special on TV once about what would happen to the world if all the humans went away.”
“That sounds a little creepy.”
“It was, and it was a little farfetched. Just presumed that everybody vanished for no good reason, which is a pretty far cry from everything getting blown up.”
“So what did the show teach?” Goldman asked.
“That in a matter of like a hundred years the wild will reclaim civilization. So imagine a devastated world with the survivors herded into these controlled territories.”
“And left alone for thousands and thousands of years.”
“Yep. I’m not convinced I’m not insane, but if I accept this as real, I think we’re looking at the results of a nuclear holocaust fast-forwarding by millennia. I guess. Like I said, I don’t really know what I’m talking about.”
The Lost Enclave Page 4