Banished

The din of alarms and shouting finally fades behind us. One of the guards tripped Aito’s motion sensors in the night and we’d only gotten away through quick thinking (Aito’s) and precisely planted knives (mine). It had been close. A couple of the nastier minders almost caught up to us and it would have gotten seriously bloody if Khane hadn’t been able to close the rusted grate to the valve and engage the inner lock. Now they know where we are but they can’t get at us, not anytime soon anyway. I am counting it a win. We are going to need a few more of those before the day is out.

I reassure myself that I have made the right choice, to escape with my friends as opposed to throwing myself on the mercy of the minders. I suppose in my weak moment I had just wanted to delay the inevitable, if only for a little while longer. Now that the decision is made, however, I feel lighter, free.

I shuffle along behind Naoaki with Khane behind and Aito leading. Fish has turned out to be much lighter than I had expected and aside from the odd burbling sounds in my ear I am beginning to think I have gotten the better deal. Although, he does squirm a bit which is disconcerting. I am not sure how long we walk. The narrow tunnel has no obvious marks or breaks to define the passage of time. It seems to go on forever, the shuffling through near darkness with only Aito’s bobbing glo-light to guide us. I can’t see my own feet and I begin to wonder if we are circling the city, doomed to emerge right where we’d entered.

Aito’s sharp whisper breaks my negative thoughts.

“Don’t touch them! Don’t touch anything that glows or is too pretty.”

I have only a moment to wonder what he is going on about when I spot the fluorescent crawlies. They move out of our way but slowly, without fear. They are cute in a fuzzy lizard with wings kind of way. Even that doesn’t really describe them well. They have rounded snouts and large liquid eyes that watch us appraisingly. They don’t look like they are dangerous but I know to follow Aito’s instructions.

A whispered curse from behind me suggests that someone else hasn’t listened.

“Idiot!” I shake my head.

“It bit me!” Khane actually sounds indignant.

Khane swears a few more times. It must really sting. I do not have much sympathy for him, however. I am willing to bet it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as a broken rib. We keep walking, avoiding the the softly glowing creatures, doggedly trudging as though we have a destination beyond simply moving forward. I keep hearing muttering behind me but I ignore it. Fish squirms until I nudge him with my elbow. Whatever is bothering him will have to wait. There is nowhere to stop.

Finally, we spill out onto a narrow ledge. An abrupt right angle had prevented me from realizing we have reached the end of the tunnel. Sunlight pours down on us and I blink my second lids into place. Built in sunshades. I might have orange eyes but I can see perfectly well in any light.

“Damn, I’m bushed! Fish. You ok?” Naoaki heaves her pack onto the sloping stone slab and turns to check on Fish.

Her eyes widen and I worry for a moment that I’d jabbed her cousin a little too hard with my elbow. Her stare continues past us, however. I turn and muffle a laugh. Khane shuffles into view, his whole hand glowing a soft pale yellow. He is sweating profusely and his face is flushed. I had wondered just how poisonous those things were. I am glad now that I had the sense to listen to Aito’s warning.

“I think I saidnotto touch.” Aito sighs. He turns away from Khane and peers down into the forest below.

We are maybe fifteen feet up from the ground, high enough to be safe from most creatures. I stand beside him and scan the area for the strange or unusual, expecting both. Mostly, however, I just see palm trees and thickly growing plants with long red leaves. Nothing moves.

“I had hoped to have a little more time to observe before plunging in but that isn’t going to happen now. Fish, think you can find some palmetto plants?” Asks Aito.

I hear a squeaky, “yessss.” From my back and shiver. Fish is kind of creepy.

“Naoaki, can you scout out front? Let us know if there is anything dangerous in the immediate are? We’ll follow you down in two minutes.” Aito takes to leadership smoothly. His keen intellect and casual confidence make him a natural in spite of his small stature and angelic features. I wonder for the millionth time what his twist is.

Khane groans. I turn back and am surprised to see him lowering himself to his knees. The glow in his hand has traveled up his arm. I can just see bits of it peeking through breaks in his leathers. He looks bad.

“Keira, help me get him down. It is too far for us to use this ledge as a base and soon he won’t be able to move on his own.” Aito instructs me.

I looked around. Even if we had thought to pack a rope there was nothing up here to attach the end to. Once we went down, there would be no getting back up.

“What’s happening to him?” I ask as I grab Khane by the upper arm. His good arm. Even I am not mean enough to kick a person when they are down, much as he deserves it. I can’t believe he’s gone and gotten himself hurt, we hadn’t even gotten out of the Compound yet. So stupid.

“The septh have laid an egg in him. That is the glow you see. It will travel up his bloodstream, growing and feeding until it reaches his heart. There, unless we are able to expel it, the larvae will grow until his heart bursts, feeding off the iron and sugar in his blood.”

“Ugh!” I drop Khane’s arm in revulsion.

“Keira!” Aito shakes his head at me. “It won’t be interested in you while it has his blood to feed on. Besides, I think your blood carries more steel than iron.”

Together we get Khane down off the ledge, making sure to get all of our gear down first. Tricky to do with Fish making odd noises in my ear the whole time. Aito sees my face and quickly explains before I say something rude.

“He’s using his twist to track the plant I need to expel the larvae from Khane’s bloodstream. I am not sure if it is a form of sonar or an olfactory component.”

I sigh, properly chastised. A person’s twist is twinned to their soul. To complain about Fish’s twist would be the ultimate insult. To refocus myself I stand under the overhang and scan for any sign of Naoaki. The stillness is unnerving. Not even a whisper of a breeze moves the leaves or grasses. Finally, I see movement in the strands of red leaves, the only sign of Naoaki’s passage. She shifts into the visible spectrum about ten feet away looking vaguely surprised.

“All clear.” She glances over my shoulder at Fish. “Anything?”

“Yessss.” Fish’s soft scraping burble sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it.

I follow Naoaki into the forest, keeping a watchful eye on our surroundings. Fish’s continued whispering sets my teeth on edge and I hope we find this plant quickly. Also, I smell ozone in the air and the stillness suddenly makes sense. A storm is coming.

“What was that funny look back there?” I ask her.

Naoaki tosses a bemused glance back at me, flicking her long red braid over her shoulder.

“Did you expect to still be alive?” She replies.

I grunt and smile. I know what she means. I am willing to bet that not one of us expected to be met with such a mundane environment on the outside. I had my own fears about what was on the other side of the wall and I am sure the others did too. Yet, so far there has been no grasping tentacles or monstrous sharp beak waiting to snap me in two. This is a regular forest, something I have never seen but read about in our ancient history class. It gives me hope. A dangerous feeling.

Finally, Naoaki stops and I pull up along side her. We stand before a small pond. Rushes and other plants line the waters edge. Nearby, a small palm tree grows at an angle, hanging out over the water. It looks picturesque and calm enough but my nerves are on edge. Fish whispers but Naoaki’s hand shoots up, silencing him as ripples break the surface of the water. Fish struggles in the strapping that holds him until he is facing forward over my left shoulder. He seems squishier than I remember and I wonder what that is all about. A series of complicated hand signals flash between them.

Naoaki drops her harness of weapons and dives gracefully into the water before I realize her intentions. I gasp and swear, tugging at Fish’s harness to go after her. Is she crazy? Who knows what mutated monsters might live in there. Fish taps my shoulder, then pulls a braid to get my attention.

“She ok.” He sputters, then coughs.

Speech is getting harder for him. I pause and watch the ripples stop. Suddenly a violent thrashing froths the water white and I nearly dive in after her yet again but Fish’s delicate hand reassures me. I stand anxiously at the shore’s edge, sure some grotesque monster is holding her under, chewing on a leg. I don’t like that I can’t see her but a moment later Naoaki’s wet head pops up. She swims smoothly up to shore and drops a squirming silvery eel at my feet, deftly cuts the head off and dives back into the water. We have a pile of gutted eels in a matter of minutes. A pile of sopping dark green weeds is next. Hand signals fly back and forth. Naoaki points to a reed growing in clumps at the pond’s edge. More hand signals.

Naoaki wades over to the reeds and carefully pulls the first plant up, roots and all. The roots glow darkly, a purple bruise that reminds me of something rotten. She gathers three of these, rinses off the mud and then bundles everything up, keeping the reeds and their ugly roots separate from the rest of our catch. She fills our water bottles and we head back with our loot.

We arrive to find that Aito set up camp all on his own. The pop-up tent is small but will easily accommodate the five of us. A small brazier hangs from the ceiling below a vent hole and the glowing embers have already started a small fire in the curved brass bowl. Aito takes the reeds from Naoaki, cuts the green tops off and drops the ugly roots into a tin cup with some water. It boils quickly and smells foul.

I help Aito move Khane outside, close enough to the opening of the tent that we can still see him but far enough away that he will expel the larvae without it getting back into the tent and inside one of us. A barrier of salted mercury further prevents it from entering our tent.

“What is this?” I ask as Aito feeds Khane the now tepid brew. The color had changed from rotted eggplant to a more pleasing soft green.

“Poison.”