by Aaron Frale
“What the clans don’t know is there is a fungus that grows in the cave,” Anya said while they walked. “It doesn’t taste good, but it will keep you from keeling over yourself. So long as we can keep the water purifiers going, the sulfur springs will keep you hydrated too.”
“Are there springs on each side of the canyon walls?” Patel said.
Anya got silent and said, “Don’t let that get out, or other people might think they can burn the bridges again and hold half the place hostage. Either way, the elders put the food and water storage on the side without the springs in case it happens again.”
“I’m sorry,” Patel said.
Anya exploded. “Do you know what it’s like to watch your dad slowly waste away on the other side of a chasm, and you’ve got nothing you can do about it. You just watch him every day until one day he stops moving, and that’s it. He’s dead. Like the rest of them. Half the people you knew waiting for the siege to end. Waiting for help that would never come.”
“I’m sorry,” Patel said.
“Well, then, don’t be sorry,” Anya said. “Don’t even pretend to know what it is like to live here. See, the problem with versers is if they’ve been to one world, they’ve been to them all.”
Anya pushed past them and ran ahead. DeAndre chided Patel. “What did you say?”
“I don’t know!” Patel said, as he ran past toward their guide and attempted to calm her down.
Magdalena caught up with Patel and said, “Don’t worry; I’m pretty sure she has a little bit of the desert brain or whatever it is.”
“Yeah,” Patel said, and they continued down to the edge of the cliff where DeAndre was waiting. He told them that Anya had gone ahead, and they should remain here.
After about half an hour, Anya poked her head over the edge and said, “Come on, our snipers won’t shoot you.”
She disappeared down the cliff face.
“That’s reassuring,” DeAndre said and rolled his eyes.
She called out from below, “I am glad you can take comfort! They are good shots. The best, you know. Can hit a Judomon card from across the way.”
DeAndre peered over the edge, shrugged, and lowered himself down. Magdalena went next. When Patel got to the spot where they had climbed down, she noticed it wasn’t precisely a ladder but more of a series of grooves carved into the cliff face. From the size and distance, she placed them at Zion or the Grand Canyon in the American Southwest. However, it was hard to be sure because this world was the least like any she had seen. Even though most worlds ended up resembling each other in the sense that even without Hitler, the circumstances that allowed a particular ideology to take power made history the same in any world. This one was so radically different that even if they were on the continent colonized by European powers, there was nothing left of that civilization but remnants.
Whether it was Zion or the Grand Canyon, it was vast and almost gave her vertigo to look down into it. She sucked in a deep breath and put her feet over the edge until they made contact with a groove. Concentrating on one handhold at a time, she climbed with the rest of them. Halfway down the cliff face, she saw a narrow outcropping that snaked around a bend. She stepped onto it.
Patel caught up to the others. Anya trotted off like she was casually walking on a cinderblock wall like Patel used to do when she visited her friend in the suburbs. They lived in a neighborhood where the primary mode of transportation was atop the walls that divided the suburban plots. The others hugged the side of the cliff and proceeded with a little more caution. Even Patel could break bones if the force was sufficient enough, and a fall from halfway down would be enough to do it.
Around the bend, they made their way to a cave opening. Inside was a relatively large cavern that seemed to function as a market. However, unlike the market they escaped, people were trading handcrafted goods like clothes, pottery, and food rather than relics of a distant world. A toolmaker looked them up and down and said to Anya, “They look like they don’t have a set of cliff legs among them. I can fix them up with harnesses and climbing gear. I make it worth your while too, as a favor to your mother.”
“No, thank you, Halinford,” Anya said to the man. “They aren’t going to live here. They are versers.”
“Versers? Here?” Halinford said. “You sure the electorate approved this? You know the gangs would pay a pretty penny for any one of them.”
“It’s a good thing the gangs didn’t follow us here,” Anya said and led them through the market.
“What did he mean pay for us?” Patel said. “I thought they wanted our TF3s.”
“You are lucky you met one of the nice gangs.”
“Nice gangs! They were going to rob us!”
“Some want you as slaves. Others like to eat you. They claim verser meat is much better than humans spoiled by the desert.”
Anya led them further into the cave system. There were strings of rope lighting that kept the place lit with a dull glow. They passed what looked like a restaurant cave with various circular stone tables where people were gathered eating and drinking. Next came what Patel assumed were living quarters. There were arched doorways carved into the rock, and from one that was opened, Patel could see a family gathered around a salvaged television watching a grainy VHS video about some kid, an alien, and peanut butter candy.
“How do you get electricity?” Patel asked, glad that Anya didn’t seem to be in a foul mood anymore.
“Mostly the hot springs,” Anya said. “Though the equipment is dicey.”
As if on cue, the lights flickered and went out. She flicked on a flashlight she had on her person, and other residents did the same with various scavenged devices. Patel could even swear that she passed a guy holding an iPhone that seemed to serve more as a flashlight than a phone. An older resident who was caught without a light source was being guided by a kid who was happy to do his civic duty.
A few minutes later, the power came back on, and people stuffed their devices into their pockets and continued on their way like it was nothing. Anya explained that replacement parts for the grid were hard to come by because they had to scavenge most of them from the anomalies. It was rumored that the initial setup happened when a geothermal power plant appeared in the desert, and the cliff dwellers who were a couple of families at the time brought it home piece by piece.
However it got there, the power enabled them to grow, carve out new caves, and make use of ones deeper in the network. The places grew and eventually became the only democratic city on the entire planet. Or at least, as far as they knew. The anomalies made air travel a gamble, and no one was sure if there were even oceans anymore. For all Patel knew, they could be in the Marianas Trench.
Patel was awed by the vastness of the network. They went through tunnels and crossed rope bridges to the other side. Anya trotted with ease while the Tuners carefully followed.
By the time they got to their destination, Patel had lost track of which side of the cliff face they were on. She had noticed that the way they had climbed down wasn’t the only way. She had seen a woman with a baby strapped to her back deftly scaling her way down at one point in the journey. They were now deep in the cave system at the entrance to what seemed to be a temple.
There was a sizeable natural cavern were rope lights were coiled around stalactites and stalagmites. It glinted off of golden symbols of the sun, moon, and the stars. There was a mythical ambiance that permeated the place, and there were rows and rows of what were most likely prayer rugs like the Islamic faith. The carpets were intricate patterns that seemed to embody the cave system, the canyon, and the desert. Without any iconography of the major world religions present, it was almost like they had created a faith to fit their circumstance, and from the age of some of the rugs, it looked as if it had been around for a while.
“Come forth, my children,” a voice croaked in the dark. As they approached a natural platform made of rock in the back of the cave, Patel could see a woman on top sitting like
Buddha but thin as a rail. The shape of the cave amplified her voice, and it echoed throughout the space, making this an ideal location to hold services. Their footsteps seemed to disappear as they approached.
The woman was definitely the mother of Alex and Anya with the same facial structure. Her black hair had streaks of grey. It was long and woven into a golden headdress that made her hair resemble stripes of night in an eternal contest with the day. Some mirrors dangled from each of the tips that bounced light in every direction.
It was a stark contrast to her robe that was a dull grey cloth. It was almost like the clothes and her thin body were meant to make everything but her head disappear, and she would appear as a disembodied face preaching to the masses.
Even though the headgear looked like it would snap her head from her neck, she wore it like a part of her body and turned her head to take in each one of the newcomers one at a time. After a lingering gaze, she turned back to her daughter and said, “The sun has not feasted upon these travelers. They come from many worlds and do not worship the sun properly.”
Anya scoffed and said, “You can lose the act, Mother! They are Tuners! They aren’t scared of your chicanery.”
“The sun and the stars see all. The caves whisper the secrets, and the Earth swallows them whole. You too will see what I’ve seen.”
Anya turned to Patel, red in the face. “I’m sorry. Desert brain makes her think she is living the scriptures. All your sheep might eat this up, mom, but I’m your family. Just talk to us like you used too, before Dad.”
The woman bellowed, “Do not show insolence in the holy cave! Leave! Leave! Before the sun angers and the stars come crashing down! Leave.”
“Come on,” Anya said. “She is in one of her moods.”
Anya turned and walked out while her mother shouted out prayers and asked the sun to forgive her daughter and save the souls of the three travelers. The Tuners scrambled to follow, anxious to get away from what had turned out to be another religious fanatic. At least she wasn’t galvanizing her followers to burn all the worlds like the Order of the Flame.
Patel snuck a glance back and met eyes with Anya’s mom. The woman seemed to penetrate deep into her soul. There was something about her, but Anya wasn’t going to give them time to find out. They exited the chamber and didn’t look back.
∆∆∆
Later that night, Patel and DeAndre were sleeping in the guest bedroom of Anya’s residence. Being the daughter of the local priestess had its privileges. The place was the equivalent of a three-bedroom home carved out of rock. Because space was probably at a premium, Anya gathered that the twins were part of the upper class of this society.
After the cave, Anya treated them to a meal, showed the more mundane aspects of life in the caves, and refused to talk about the incident. When they were ready to retire, Magdalena took Alex’s old room, which was floor to ceiling full of scavenged stuff. Anya disappeared into the master suite (a sign that her mother no longer slept here) and directed DeAndre and Patel toward the guest room, which presumably was hers before her mother had gone full-time cave shaman.
After a reunion only days of lacking privacy could bring, DeAndre said, “What are we even doing here?”
“Hector risked his life to send us here,” Patel said and turned over to a spooning position.
“I know that. But what I mean is why did we go here? You’d think we had enough religious kooks for one lifetime.”
“Do you have any better ideas? At least Anya is a local guide who isn’t trying to rob us, or worse, eat us.”
“Do you think she’s really telling the truth on that one?” DeAndre asked and pinched her.
“Stop! Stop!”
They made love a second time, and DeAndre was now fast asleep. Something had woken Patel to high alert. They weren’t used to spending the night in any given universe, much less a whole week. Before the loss of HQ, they were always in and then home in time for dinner. As far as day jobs were concerned, she couldn’t beat it, and the retirement package secured for each Tuner would even give her dad pause. Now, deep in a cave system of an Earth gone wrong, maybe she should have gone for some position in a university, pouring over data, and never even known about the vastness of the multiverse.
Her scream was cut short went a thin figure emerged from the shadows and placed a hand over her mouth. A delicate boney finger was placed on cracked lips. Patel realized it was Anya’s mom, Aunnika. She had seen the name on a tattered, old chore list and deduced it because she already knew Alex and Anya. The priestess was wearing a plain robe and had her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Patel was about to wake DeAndre when the woman whispered, “The cave will only speak to you. The other versers must stay behind. You must take a leap of faith.”
Patel briefly contemplated gathering her sword but decided Aunnika was harmless enough. She climbed from the bed, got dressed, and followed the woman out of the room. The mother led Patel through the living room which was lit with night lights. The front door opened into blackness. The hallways were not lit at night. The woman motioned for Patel to grab her shoulder and slipped into the inky dark.
Aunnika walked with ease through the pitch-black tunnels. Patel’s heart rate increase as she envisioned falling into an abyss. It was terrifying to be at the mercy of a person that Anya painted as crazy, but yeah, somehow the unknown compelled her to keep her hand tight on the woman’s shoulder.
It was the same yearning to reach the precipice of the unknown that had compelled her to science and ultimately, the leap to join the Tuners. Patel wanted to push the limit of human knowledge. In a way, she and Ludie were a lot alike. However, unlike him, she had boundaries she wouldn’t cross.
They marched for what felt like hours in the darkness that would only briefly abate when they would traverse a bridge in the light of the moon. Finally, after journeying through the silent city, they came to another cave. This one had a bioluminescent moss growing on the walls. When she was about to touch it, the shaman warned her away, saying it was toxic. Patel stayed a reasonable distance from the edge that made her feel like she was walking on an endless lake.
The smell of sulfur assaulted her lungs, and the room began to heat up very quickly. Just before it became unbearable, the priestess sat at the edge of a drop-off and motioned for Patel to sit. The woman was in the same cross-legged style while Patel leaned on her hip with her legs to one side. The glow of the moss wasn’t enough to see into the drop below, but from the thickness of the air, she assumed she didn’t want to get too close to the precipice.
Anya’s mom, who was right up on the edge as one could humanly get, said, “You are right to be cautious. The boiling lake is below. It is rumored the first families only had one punishment. You would be cast into the lake.”
“And now?”
“Don’t be silly, girl. Banishment is enough deterrence for anyone thinking of causing harm to others.”
“But Anya said that the clans were trying too—”
“Anya thinks the whole world is out to get our secrets. Truth be told, their father died of a bad batch of cave fungus, nothing more. You see, we have always been prepared for a siege. It wasn’t the first and won’t be the last. There has been water storage on both sides of the city enough for years. Cave fungus, the kind that nourishes us, lives throughout this system. But if you don’t cultivate it right, it can develop toxins harmful to the body, but only after you overeat like when you are forced to eat it for weeks on end. After it’s too late, your body stops absorbing nutrients, and you starve to death with a full tummy. There is a simple test for the batches, but they were expired on their father’s side. The Terando clan foiled all our attempts to provide testing equipment and untainted food. Even with half the colony down, we still sent them screaming into pits below. Warlords come and go, but the caves provide for all.”
“Is that why I’m here? The caves told you to bring me?”
Aunnika erupted with laughter. “Is that what my daughter t
old you? The caves talk to me? I am a vessel for the will of the sun, moon, and Earth below. Nothing more. I can no more interpret the will of the caves than an ant can deduce the study plans of a field biologist. All I know is that when the caves provide me food, I will eat, when they give me respite, I sleep, and when they demand a sacrifice, there is nothing I can do but watch them die.”
Patel got goosebumps and pulled her feet closer in. The woman chuckled again.
“Relax, they do not demand sacrifice from you. That was already made when your patriarch defied the Order.”
“You mean Hector?” Patel said. She couldn’t help but think that whatever followed the broadcast couldn’t have been good. “But how to do you know?”
“A secret connection with the gods?” The priestess laughed. “My reputation precedes me. I have a TF3 you know. The ability runs in the family.”
“You were a Tuner!”
“Now, you are getting it.”
“So, you knew Hector, when he could tune?”
“I was so much more than that. From that handsome man you were with, I see that things haven’t changed much since I was at HQ.”
It was Patel’s turn to laugh. “I’m sorry, but you and Hector knocked boots? We have to sneak around because Hector would blow a lid.”
“Same with the Director of our time. There is a certain flexibility in the rules that only work if you perceive there is none. When you are older, you’ll understand. Suffice it to say, Hector was not unlike you once, which is why he cares enough to risk sending you to me.”
“Why did he send us here?”
“To hear the will of the caves,” Aunnika smiled and said.
“I’m beginning to empathize with Anya; your cryptic answers are starting to piss me off.”