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Ch. 11

  The room was dark, quiet, and as I lay in that hard bed, only half awake. I drifted in and out of consciousness, waiting for the sun’s light to signal the morning. It took about an hour of this until I realized that there were no windows, and even if there were I was underground so it didn’t matter. I got up, once again wishing for a shower. I felt good and grimy now, not a single part of me clean. If my recollections were correct then Father Jared did not smell too great either, eliminating the possibility that he could help me find a bath. To his defense, however, I couldn’t accurately differentiate the musty smell of the church with his odor.

  I stumbled about in the dark, knocking over the little table, before finding the door. Another bowl of soup lay beside the door. I drank it down quickly, even if it was cold. Father Jared met me upstairs; he was busy with the seemingly never ending task of sweeping the floor. It was brighter inside, but the day had dawned gray, enhancing the gloominess of the church.

  “Good morning.” He said brightly, probably because he had company for the first time in a long while.

  “Morning, I think I need to be going soon.”

  “I think so as well. Please tell me, are you seeking Dimitrius to stop the invasion; is he going to invent something to stop them?”

  “Um . . .”

  “It’s alright if you can’t tell me.”

  “Let’s just say he is going to help.”

  Another smile, and with it my own spirits rose. I wanted to stay longer, but I knew it was time to go. He showed me out the back door. I said goodbye and made sure to thank him. He had me promise that I would come back on my way home. I said I would, but I secretly hoped that I would find a way home once with Dimitrius.

  It was gray outside; there was a chill in the air mixed with a slight mist. Everything was calm, quiet, as if just waiting for the perfect time to jump out. The ground was mushy. It must have rained overnight, and it looked like it might again. As I got closer to the town I noticed a pungent odor, worse than the church. It wasn’t until I was past the first house that I figured out what it was: waste, every possible thing that can fit in that word’s meaning. What used to be stone walkways were now covered in black sludge formed from years of dumping trash. The only place safe to walk was the grass, now mostly mud (I hoped). It was clear to see why Father Jared rarely left the church.

  The air through my sleeve was much nicer, and I was the only one around, so I didn’t have to worry about offending anyone. I trudged (really the only word to use) past a few buildings that could have once been houses, but now were just shells, possibly without anything inside. I did not want to find out. Luckily Sorm followed the same pattern that Thurm did. I came to a square, just a big empty space really, and could see four ways out. The one I wanted was directly ahead, only a few minutes away. In retrospect I suppose walking directly out into the town square was a mistake.

  Just a few feet until being hidden by buildings a voice called out.

  “Hello.” It said, filling square with an echo and my mind with dread.

  I didn’t stop, the voice was not Father Jared’s, was not filled with his kindness, his aged wisdom. This voice was hollow with no emotion.

  Almost there, I could have touched the first house when –

  “STOP!”

  There was nothing I could do, how could I ignore that? If I had kept walking they might have attacked. I turned, slowly, to see who it was. The sight gave me quite a shiver. It was a woman, clearly. What was not clear was whether or not she was human. She was about six feet tall, emaciated to the extent that I could clearly see every bone in her arm from half way across the square. She wore a blue dress that, like everything else in that town, was worn and could only be a shadow of its former glory. Her neck was extended, her head drooping slightly. Hands like claws, and a face that could only be described as harpy-like. She moved toward me and I almost ran for it, but I knew that that would only make things worse. So I stood, fearing the worst, not knowing what to do or what she wanted from me. It took everything I had to stay still. She smelled terrible the closer she got. She pointed a long bony finger at me, and then she spoke.

  “You . . . you are from Yim.” Her voice remained stained with her overpowering presence, I felt nauseated from the first word.

  “Yes.” I said slowly.

  Her hand twisted over, her index finger curled back and forth. “Come here.” Her voice was cracked, worn.

  “I’m actually on my way somewhere.”

  “Follow me.”

  Now this was not the time to showcase bad judgment, but I threw caution to the wind in what can only be described as a lapse of mental reasoning. There was something there, in my mind, forcing me toward her, an obsession. She might look strange but she may have valuable knowledge. One foot after the other and I was following close behind. She must have been awfully mesmerizing in her overall shocking appearance. She wandered through several streets, and for the first time I noticed indications that this town was habited. Shuttered windows creaked open just a hair to see what was going on. I caught sight of wondering eyes, all pointed directly at me as if I was the strange looking one. A few doors had tiny holes in them, and I am certain people were right behind the doors watching as well. We entered a small alleyway between two rows of houses. This woman kept craning her neck around in all directions, adding to the already overflowing list of disturbing things about her.

  She stopped. I stopped just in time, or I would have walked right into her. She turned to the left, facing a large piece of what looked like a wooden wall resting up against the side of a building. We stood there looking at this thing for a while. I didn’t see any importance to it but I had come this far, no point in turning back. She reached a hand out and knocked, very quietly, on the piece of wall. Again we waited, I looked around, nobody in sight, but I could feel the presence of people hidden all around. And then the wall moved, slowly, revealing a hole in the ground.

  She pointed at the hole. “Go.”

  “You know, I really –”

  “Go now!” she said, her voice stern, yet quiet.

  I did as I was told, got down and slowly and let my legs drop down into the hole. There was a peg that I rested my feet on as I lowered myself into the ground. Following the pegs I landed on a solid surface after a minute of descending. It was a tunnel. The walls were dirt and sloped outward from the ceiling. I marveled at her guts to use a tunnel so unsafe. It was dark; the only light came from the hole I came down. The light went out, and I heard a thud beside me.

  “This way.”

  I could hear the woman walking down the dark tunnel and followed. I ran into the walls multiple times. It was hard to follow a straight path without my eyes guiding me. There seemed to be no end in sight for the darkness, but just as I was about to audibly complain the faintest hint of light could be seen up ahead. The tunnel curved to the right, the light could clearly be seen now. It was from a fire up ahead, it flickered light and shadows down the walls. We came out into a large cavernous room, cut rough and ragged by nature. Stalactites hung low from the ceiling, eternally dripping down to the stalagmites below. The fire stood in the very center, warming bodies asleep all around. There must have been a hundred people in there. The woman turned to me, placing a hand on my shoulder, leaning in close.

  “Are you the girl from the capital going to see Dimitrius?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “Word gets around quickly by Dimitrians.” She saw my look of confusion and said, “Angeela came by last night.”

  “I can’t promise anything, what you were told about Earth is mostly lies.”

  “So you really are from there?” She said in disbelief.

  “Yes, but again it is not like you think.”

  “Is it better than here?”

  “Well yes . . .”

  “That’s good enough for us.”

  “For who, w
ho are these people?”

  “We are the ones in hiding; we live down here so we don’t have to deal with the Hurdeen’s anymore.”

  “You mean the Terror Bringers?”

  “Oh no, you must have been brainwashed by those people in the capital. The Voratiots are not our enemies, at least not anymore.”

  I was very confused. “But . . . wait, I don’t get it.”

  She sighed. “The Voratiots, or Terror Bringers as they are known in Yim are coming to bring us under their control, and we can’t wait. Look outside. What do you see? You see a town forgotten by the great Hurdeen, and we want no part of them. They let us die just so they can have a buffer zone between them and the Voratiots, not to mention the Forgotten Lands, always full of thieves. We are waiting until it is safe, and it will only be safe once the Voratiots come. Personally, I hope they destroy the capital.”

  “If they really are going to invade, then you all will be the first to go.”

  “No, we will welcome them with arms wide; they will let us live and destroy the capital.”

  “If they are so great then who destroyed this place?”

  She scoffed, “Who destroyed it? The Hurdeen destroyed it by letting us rot.”

  “You are Hurdeen.”

  “Only officially.”

  “I am so confused.”

  “Don’t be, it will all be clear soon. Dimitrius will clean it all up for you. Rumor has it that he is in league with the Voratiots. Once they take over his true supporters will be awarded by going to Earth.”

  “Quick thought: have you ever considered making this place to be as good as you think Earth is?”

  She just stared at me. Something tells me that she did not understand what I was saying at all. There was a noise close by, a little girl had woken up and gasped when she saw me. She woke the person next to her, they did the same, and soon everybody was awake and looking at me eagerly as if I was about to do a great magic trick. The woman, who everyone was calling Meg, pulled me up to a higher elevation of rock and set me up in front of the whole group, now in a cluster right before me.

  “This is the girl from Earth!” She called out.

  Pandemonium, everyone cheered and shouted. I had never experienced anything like that and I must say it felt kind of good. For a moment I lost it in my own elation and thought that I must have done something special for these people. But as they calmed down I remembered that they only cared about me because I was from Earth, nothing else. That brought me back to reality and once again I wondered just why I was in Hurdeen at all. I had no answers from anyone, and desperately needed them.

  “Why don’t you tell everyone what Earth is like?” Meg shouted above the last of the cheers.

  Another huge roar from the crowd. I didn’t know what to do or what to say, but I decided to start with what they needed to know. “Look, Earth is great, but a lot of what you heard is not real.”

  “You mean you really don’t have things that you can fly in?” One person asked.

  “We do, they’re called airplanes.”

  “I knew it!” The same person shouted.

  “And things that you can travel very fast in?” Somebody else asked.

  “We do, they are called cars.”

  Once again there was applause.

  “What I mean is that the stories you’ve been told about our history are not real.”

  “There’s no doubt that Dimitrius is an embellisher, but not to that degree, perhaps you just live in the wrong place.” Meg said.

  “That’s not right, because no matter where you’re at, with the exception of a few remote locations, news is broadcast from all parts of the world. We know what happens shortly after it occurs; secrets are not kept secrets for long.”

  I had them hooked, not an eye wavered away from me. It was so blatant that I was not helping my “Earth is lame” argument.

  “You mean you know of places beyond Earth?”

  Earth is the name of the planet.”

  “You know what goes on elsewhere on the planet?” Meg asked excitedly.

  “Yes, but so do you, I mean you know what happens with the Voratiots.”

  “But what’s beyond that? What’s beyond the seas? We have no idea.”

  “Nobody’s ever explored?” I asked. The idea of unexplored land was foreign to me.

  “Why would we? How would we?”

  “Just go, get out there and see what you can find.”

  “What is your name?”

  “Bessie.”

  “Forget being a Dimitrian, we should all be Bessie-ans.”

  “No no, that won’t do, what you should be are you-ans.” I didn’t realize that it made no sense until it was already out of my mouth.

  “What can we do on our own?” An old man asked in the front.

  “You can explore. You can do things, fight back and do something.”

  “No doubt we’ll get beat.” The man said.

  “You don’t know that.” I was really getting fired up now. “You might be surprised. There’s no point in hiding here in this cave when you can determine your own destiny. And that’s the point, make your world the way you want it. If you know of a way to change things for the better, do it.”

  I was expecting cheers, but there were none. Their captivated faces now showed confusion.

  “That all sounds good,” Meg said, “but you don’t understand how hard that really is. Earth may permit that sort of behavior but not here. If we were to say those things to the council they would have us all imprisoned. The best thing we can do is to wait till the Voratiots come and join them.”

  “If that’s all you want then I have no reason to say anything else. I need to be going now anyway.” I stepped down from the elevated section of rock and started to the tunnel.

  “Bessie,” Meg called, “don’t think bad of us. We have no other choice.”

  “It’s alright,” I said, feigning a smile, “I got it.”

  I started back down the tunnel without another look back. A little boy chased after me and led the way with a lit torch. The flame burned the stick to a stub, but not before we made it back to the hole. I thanked him and started up; he went back to the cave.