The Tunnel War

by Kevin George

  Which is the reason you need to keep doing the same thing, she reminded herself.

  With a shiver and a sigh, she turned away, her eyes needing a moment to adjust to the darkness of the hallway, where she found her makeshift bag and several pelts waiting a few feet away, ready to protect her whenever she found the slightest reason to leave. Self-survival would keep her here at least another day and she closed the door behind her, plunging her back into silence. Not wanting her bag to be seen by the wrong eyes, she took it into the bunk room, hiding it under the bed at the far end of the room.

  Before heading out to perform her daily routine, she opened a small closet in the hallway and retrieved the makeshift spear she’d been allowed to keep. She normally left it behind when leaving the barracks—or she made sure to appear clumsy while holding it wherever anyone could see her—but this moment of privacy allowed her to practice twirling the spear, to practice slashing with it from one side to the other, twisting and turning her body, the spear whipping and whooshing and destroying every invisible opponent she imagined in front of her.

  By the time her pulse raced and she breathed heavily, she felt stronger and better about her chance to protect herself. Sure, Henry Jonas and his teen followers had treated her with more respect than she’d expected, but she doubted that would last forever. Henry’s warning to feed her to the beasts had hung over her head like an omnipresent cloud of doom. Above had run out of corpses to feed the beasts months earlier, yet she’d managed to avoid becoming a meal, even when times became so desperate—and the beasts so hungry—that the beasts turned on each other.

  Julietta recalled a day several weeks earlier when Henry Jonas led a squad of pelted teens out of the Dome. She’d been certain they were coming to force her into one of the enclosure airlocks, and she’d hurried to don several pelts and grab her bag to escape through the outer wall’s door. But when the Pelteds went in the opposite direction of the barracks and emerged minutes later hauling several dead bodies—which were then used to feed the beasts—Julietta had felt relief unlike any she’d ever known. Even if the teens weren’t planning to use her as live bait, she’d seen the way some of the boys leered at her. As they grew older without parents around to teach them right from wrong, Julietta was afraid they would use her for other needs, a thought that caused her to shiver and think of King Edmond.

  Julietta closed her eyes and breathed deeply, pushing the memory of Edmond and the City Below out of her mind. Her stomach rumbled, bringing her back to the present, reminding her to focus on immediate problems instead of those from the past or future. She tossed her spear back into the closet, dressed in her warmest clothes, draped a pelt over her shoulders and headed out to the larger hallway connected to the Dome’s airlock. The airlock door was closed—as it always was—but she pressed her face against the hallway’s glass and looked beyond the beast enclosures to the far side of the compound.

  A few Pelteds gathered in other hallways, but not as many as had been there the day before. Julietta’s curiosity was piqued, but she knew better than to rush across the compound and started asking questions. She proceeded to one of the hallway airlocks, yanking it open and accessing one of the walkways that wended between the base of the Dome and the beasts’ fences. The weather was warmer than usual, though describing anything about Above as warm made Julietta snicker. She headed across the snowy path, her eyes drifting up to the Dome beside her, a part of her badly wanting to return inside, though another part of her knew that could lead to disaster. If Julietta was being honest with herself, she didn’t know what she wanted, didn’t know where she wanted to be, didn’t know if picking up her bag and heading into the White Nothingness might be the only choice that—

  Rattling exploded beside her and she stumbled to the ground, crawling her way back until bumping into a snowbank. Another rattle and then another sounded, and Julietta turned to a trio of Adolescent beasts leaned against the fence, pushing in on it, the fence bowing dangerously toward her. Julietta smiled and leapt to her feet, hurrying toward the fence.

  “What do you think the three of you are doing?” she asked with a smile. “You know you aren’t allowed to touch the fences.”

  The beasts made an odd whining sound and stepped back, plopping down onto their hind quarters. The beasts grew thinner by the day, their thick coats of fur not nearly as lustrous as they’d once been. Their fur had thinned particularly around their faces, allowing Julietta to see more of their human-like skin. Though certain beasts had tried to devour her on several occasions, she hated to see them like this, hated to see them suffering from starvation as much as she was.

  The first beast pressed its nose against the chain link and grunted, steam bellowing between its razor-sharp teeth. Julietta removed the glove from her right hand and pressed her palm against the fence, feeling the cold metal and the beast’s warm breath at the same time. The beast stuck its tongue out and licked her, its teeth inches from Julietta’s fingers. The next beast swiped at the first one, causing Julietta to recoil. Soon, all three beasts were lashing out at each other and Julietta was afraid they’d tear each other limb from limb.

  “Shhh, please, all three of you need to stop this right now,” she snapped at them.

  One of the beasts turned its head toward her, allowing the other two to pounce, knocking it to the ground. They loomed over the downed beast, the sight filling Julietta with dread. She hurried to the fence and grabbed it with both hands, shaking it so hard that she thought it might collapse. But the rattling got the beasts’ attention and they stopped fighting long enough to hear Julietta begin to hum. It wasn’t a specific song, merely a calming sound that convinced them to lumber back to the fence and sit down. She moved her hand from one beast to the next, letting them take turns licking her, several more beasts showing up moments later.

  Once she stopped humming, the beasts took turns growling, but not the low, threatening variety. They sounded as if they were whining and Julietta smiled at the idea of them wanting to hear more.

  “I’ll come back later,” she told them. “But only if you remain well behaved. I know you’re hungry and I promise I’ll do what I can to find you food.”

  A few of beasts snorted and wandered off, while others remained sitting in place. The one that licked Julietta’s hand first walked along the length of fence, just on the other side of Julietta, its eyes on her the entire time. A part of Julietta wanted to stop and stay with the beast for hours—bonding with the strange creatures was the only source of contentment she’d experienced in months—but she suddenly spotted movement in the next hallway, where Henry emerged with a contingent of teens, the group dragging another person, whose head was covered by a hood.

  Julietta knew right away who was beneath the hood. Forgetting her policy to stay quiet and out of the way, she rushed to the next hallway, hurrying through the airlock as all eyes turned on her. Henry appeared amused by her presence, especially when his followers raised their spears as she approached.

  “You’re feeding him to the beasts? You know what they’ll do to him out there,” she argued.

  “The same thing we should’ve done to him in here. . . perhaps the same thing we should do to you?” Henry asked with a smirk.

  Julietta turned to the pair of teens holding the hooded man’s arms. For a moment, she locked eyes with Atticus, the oldest teen from the Dome. He looked at her and smiled, not unlike the way he often looked at her when acting as liaison between the Dome and the Herders’ barracks (which was now more like the Herder’s barracks). Atticus liked to talk and the two had become fast friends. Julietta recognized the way he blushed whenever he looked at her; as a former teacher in The Third, she was no stranger to boys forming crushes on her. She’d done nothing to elicit these feelings from Atticus—and was always ready to rebuff him if he tried to turn their friendly conversations into something more—but the teen mostly babbled about happenings within the Dome, information she’d been more than happy to hear.

  But
now wasn’t the time for smiles and she quickly turned away, not before noticing Henry glance from her to Atticus and then back to her.

  “Hasn’t his leadership and advice helped to steady the chaos within the Dome?” Julietta asked.

  The amusement left Henry’s face. He turned to his followers, eyeing each of them suspiciously, nobody willing to meet his gaze. His jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed when they returned to Julietta.

  “I’m the reason the Dome recovered. This man,” he spat, giving the hooded prisoner a shove, causing the man to fall to his knees and grunt in pain, “is the reason the Dome faced such chaos in the first place. He helped kill my family. . . he helped kill all of our families.”

  Julietta normally found most of the teens to be reasonable, but she didn’t see a single friendly face among them now, though she made a point to avoid looking toward Atticus. She couldn’t blame the rest of them. The hooded man’s actions were indefensible, but she wasn’t ready to step aside and let the teens cast him to his doom. Julietta had been cast into the beasts’ cages and didn’t wish such a fate on her worst enemy.

  “Yes, but from what I’ve heard, he’s done plenty to try atoning for what happened,” Julietta said.

  A sneer formed on Henry’s face. Though his eyes stayed on Julietta, she had a feeling the worst of his anger wasn’t aimed toward her.

  “Some might argue you played a big role in what happened to my father and grandfather,” Henry said, taking a step toward her. “That you can be blamed for the insurrection in the Dome.”

  Julietta shook her head. She opened her mouth to deny the allegations but could barely muster a gasp. “I didn’t ask for any of this,” she finally said.

  “Nobody said you did,” Henry countered. “But there’s no denying your presence Above—that you surviving the Herder’s test when you had no right to—was the first step that led to revolt. Our lives were all changed for the worse the day you arrived.”

  Julietta knew he was right. She also knew there’d be no point arguing with him.

  “Be that as it may,” she said with a sigh, “I refuse to feed him to the beasts. If that’s his fate, you’ll be the ones to pass the sentence, not me. Good luck stopping the beasts from destroying each other to get to him.”

  Henry smiled and stepped closer. Julietta noticed all eyes turning to her, glances of confusion shared among the other teens. She was clearly missing something and didn’t like it.

  “I see how you adore the beasts,” Henry said. “Sounds like you’re nervous about them harming each other.”

  Instinct told Julietta to step back, lower her head and show reverence for the Dome leader. She stepped forward instead, holding her head high, glaring directly into Henry’s eyes.

  “You misinterpret my kindness for weakness,” she said. “Do I ever turn down food you give me? The dried meat? You think I don’t know where that comes from?”

  Fire burned in Henry’s eyes. Julietta nearly apologized but knew it was too late. She didn’t feel much safer even after a smile spread across Henry’s lips.

  “He’s not being fed to the beasts,” he snorted. “He’s being sent Below.”

  Henry nodded to the Pelteds, who gripped the hooded man’s arms and continued to drag him down the hallway, headed for the tunnel leading to the elevator Below. The man beneath the hood did not resist, nor did he scream or speak or make a single sound. Julietta stepped in his direction, but Henry cut her off.

  “Why?” Julietta asked, more horrified by this fate than by the hooded man being sent into the beasts’ cage.

  “It was demanded by the king Below,” Henry said. “to rekindle the deal for more of their prisoners to be sent to us, the same deal my father once made with them.”

  Henry stepped past her, rejoining the other Pelteds. When Julietta thought of the beasts being starved—in turn diminishing meat production, causing all humans Above and Below to starve—she knew the sacrifice of a single man was worth it. Still, Julietta couldn’t imagine ‘ill’ Thirders—or anyone else from Below—being forced into the beasts’ cages again. Though she was technically the only Herder, the teens had been feeding corpses to the beasts, a job she expected they’d continue once living meals were provided.

  “You’re that willing to defer all power to King Edmond? To show how weak you are?” she called out. Several Pelteds glanced back at her, their faces twisting with tension. “Aren’t you afraid that could lead to another attack on the Dome by Below?”

  “This is our best—and probably final—chance to get what we need from them,” Henry said. “We sent peace offerings and received some in return.”

  Julietta snickered. “A few crushed corpses the beasts barely touched? Do you really think King Edmond will give you what we’ll need to sustain our numbers?”

  “Better than nothing,” Henry said with a shrug.

  “Barely,” Julietta called out, hurrying after him. “I hear we’ve gone through all the corpses from our side and theirs. . . we’ve gone through all the prisoners and the extra people that were living in the Dome.”

  “But not all of them living in the barracks,” Henry snapped.

  He slowly turned to the other teens, all of whom stared at the floor or the world beyond the hallway’s green glass walls. Only one Pelted looked up, but Atticus’s eyes were aimed at Julietta.

  “Would anyone like to explain how she seems to know so much?” Henry asked his group.

  Atticus quickly looked away, shaking his head like the rest of the Pelteds did.

  “Wasn’t hard to figure out on my own,” Julietta said, her words coming a bit too quickly. “I haven’t seen the beasts fed for a while, I know what that must mean. I also know King Edmond only responds to strength and any concessions you make will lead to more demands from Below.”

  The teen Pelteds turned to their leader, suddenly hesitant to enter the tunnel.

  “We’re doing things my way and I say we’re trading one worthless old man for what we need,” Henry said before looking at the Pelteds. “Load him into the elevator and wait for the return of patients. I expect them to be sent back right away. Now.”

  The Pelteds snapped to action, the group scurrying out of the hallway and into the darkened tunnel beyond. Julietta had lost the argument and whispered a silent apology to the hooded man as he was led away. Henry began to follow when he suddenly stopped and told the Pelteds to do the same.

  “Atticus,” Henry said. “Stay with me. I need your help with something.”

  Julietta turned away, hoping to avoid Atticus’s gaze undoubtedly aimed her way. She tried to slink away, but Henry told her to stop. Atticus stopped several feet back. Though Henry’s eyes remained on Julietta the whole time, he reached an open hand back to Atticus, making it clear what he wanted. Atticus hesitated a moment before handing over his spear.

  Henry loomed over Julietta. He’d grown taller the last few months and seemed bigger with the weapon in hand. But as he came closer, Julietta saw how much thinner he’d become, how his cheeks were sunken, how the lack of food had affected him as much as his followers. He twirled the spear several times, finally holding it with the tip a few inches from Julietta’s chest. Instinct told her to back up, but she found it difficult to be too concerned for her own life.

  “We might have one more prisoner to feed the beasts,” he said matter-of-factly.

  Julietta shrugged. “Do what you must,” she said, her nonchalance causing Henry’s shoulders to grow tense and the spear to shake in his hands. “Just remember, even though your followers are the ones feeding the beasts, I’m the one keeping them calm, I’m the one stopping them from turning on each other.”

  “That’ll happen anyway if we don’t feed them something. . . or someone,” Henry said.

  Julietta frowned but nodded.

  “Let’s hope one final meal will hold them over long enough to make our deal with Below,” Henry said.

  Julietta took a deep breath and held it in. Rather than take a last gl
ance at the world around her, she closed her eyes, her mind finding Isaac in a different time and a different place, a place where they’d once been happy. She didn’t know if he was dead or alive but was briefly filled with shame for hoping he hadn’t survived the White Nothingness, hoping he’d succumbed to the weather and died, and was now waiting for her wherever people went after they died. . .

  Julietta winced as she heard the thud of spear striking flesh. She was surprised to feel no pain and wondered if death wasn’t as painful as life. When she heard a groan of pain—one that didn’t come from her throat—and heard another thud—this time flesh hitting the floor—she opened her eyes and saw Atticus splayed across the floor, the spear sticking out of his chest, a pool of blood spreading around him. His eyes found Julietta’s in time for her to see the spark of life leave him forever.

  Julietta felt numb. She didn’t bother to ask why Henry killed him, but he answered the unspoken question anyway.

  “Sorry if you’ve lost your source of information, but I can’t keep people alive if I can’t trust them,” he said.

  He yanked the spear out of Atticus’s chest and wiped its bloody tip on the dead teen’s pelt. Without another word, he headed toward the tunnel. Julietta looked in the opposite direction, where the airlock door remained wide open to the Dome.

  “You’re not going back inside?” she asked.

  “And leave the others to deal with Below on their own?” he asked, shaking his head. “I don’t lead by having others do my dirty work. This plan with Below will work and it will work because of me.”