The sound of our footsteps echoed off the walls as we descended the long dimly lit passage. The cave was warm and smelled of old mildew. It wasn’t pleasant. The fungus-lined walls gave off a deep orange glow, bathing us in an eerie light. As creepy as it was I was glad for it. At least we could see around us.
A few steps down and I sneezed, struggling with my bindings to wipe my nose. A warm odor had hit me in the face. While it wasn’t unpleasant, I hadn’t expected it. It felt unnatural, some sort of heating system perhaps? I was too scared of Andromeda to ask. Earlier she had growled at Jude to behave.
Our bindings were secured firmly behind us. While I knew I could escape whenever I wanted, it was a basic sailor’s knot, I figured this would be the best way to get inside the human settlement. I mean imagine sneaking into an underground cavern complex.
Jude had struggled with the idea at first but quickly gave in to an intimidating growl from Andromeda. While she seemed nice enough, we still had a mission to complete. I am sure whatever we needed to know would be here somewhere in the city. I couldn’t put my finger on it but that beacon was bothering me and last I looked this was its direction.
Suddenly a glow at the end of the stairwell caught my attention. We were finally approaching the exit. Hopefully, the air would be fresher there.
Just beyond the entrance, we were greeted with a most unusual sight. A bustling underground city sprawled out before us. It was an expansion of bold, massive dark caverns that sparkled with a multitude of different gems and precious metals, some of them familiar to me and some not. Droves of people wearing reddish, bluish, and greenish coats wove in and out of three different caverns with those same colors in the carpeting and walls.
Sitting amidst the caves a huge stalagmite towered over the throngs almost a centerpiece to the whole complex. It was definitely the highest point in the cave and it loomed closer as we navigated the crowds of people. Was that where we were going? Jude let out a scream of excitement. The caves apparently had a fangirl in its midst now.
"Are those limestone caves?" Jude asked, ignoring his bindings."And those floors, pure quartzite!”
I groaned in response. Only Jude could turn a green mile into a field trip. He continued.
"Oh my, what if they have a diamond room?!" he shouted, scaring the onlookers with a sudden outburst. "Do you?"
Andromeda remained silent, her attention more on the destination than the task at hand.
I diverted my gaze from the surrounding crowds, a lot of them stopping to gawk at what they perceived to be a spectacle. Typical people. I am glad to see that evolution had nothing on attention spans.
My attention fell to the floor, it twinkling like a fractured crystal. A broken snow globe flitted through my mind bringing me back to that farmhouse when I was fifteen. The little boy had dropped it after Jude had shot him. It had rolled to my feet half shattered and splattered with blood. It had been his favorite toy. My own blood dripped from my lips after the father had beaten me within an inch of my life. Jude had tried to shoot him off, and he had used his son as a smoke screen. Fractured crystal fragments glowed in the muted candlelight that night, as we buried him next to his mother. I was jostled out of the memory, as we were led up some stairs.
The three halls looked inviting with their carpeting in red, green, and blue, but the twinkling cavern did not. They looked as any cavern would from the outside, although from here I could see tarps on many of the entrances.
‘“People live in those?” I asked without thinking, noticing the numbered nameplates next to the tarp doors.. Andromeda shrugged. It was obvious we weren’t getting answers from her any time soon. Jude liked to see me frustrated. He increased his questions as we climbed the stairs. They were as shiny as the quartz but of some other rock. Wasn’t limestone either. I turned to Jude.
“What are these stairs made of?” I whispered.
“Granite,” he replied, as we took a turn and entered one of the caverns. It was lined with metal cells and two were occupied.
“Captain!!” yelled Lana as she fought with her restraints.
“Hey, cuz! You got captured too?” said Bartholomew, as he sat slouched on the ground.
“What no Hellos for me?” muttered Jude, as we were each led to a cell and tied down. I wasn’t worried. I could break this system easily enough, but then where would I go was the question. This cave was the easiest to spot for a reason.
“We amoebas have the capacity for higher reasoning,” said Bartholomew with a teeth-bearing grin.
Lana laughed. “What did you think we didn’t hear you, Jude?”
“Pwned,” I muttered.
“Shut it,” scowled Jude, as the others laughed. Jude shuffled away head hanging slightly between his shoulders. I felt bad for his situation, but he had earned it from the others with his usual vitriolic personality.
One by one the others turned in for the night, the long day finally catching up with us all. I stood near the cell entrance gazing out, not really looking at anything in particular, lost in thought. My mind was a mess and our situation seemed more and more pressing the more I thought about it. I couldn’t contact anyone for support, as a matter of fact, we were on our own. We would more than likely not see anyone we knew for a very long time.
I was anxious.My mind turned toward the council and a lump appeared in my throat. Who the heck were they and was our lives really in their hands? If so, I really needed to have a chat with them. Surely explaining our situation would put us in a better light? I gritted my teeth, I knew what I had to do. I glanced over at the others. They were tossing and turning in their sleep but looked innocently unaware of the situation.
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I paused for a brief moment, my thoughts catching me off guard. What if I failed? What about the others? What if escaping the cell would only lead to more harm, even our potential deaths? I wasn't even fit to be here, let alone in the captain's chair, I am--I stopped myself.
I was spiraling, letting the stress get to me. We were on our own, no cavalry from high command was going to swoop in and save us. If I didn't do it, then whom? I took a deep breath. I have the training.
Bartholomew raised one sleepy eye and gazed at my slouched posture. “What’s up cuz?” his voice hoarse from sleeping. The others stayed mercifully asleep.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I responded weakly, giving an awkward smile and what I hoped was a reassuring shrug.
He cocked an eyebrow and I waited on his usual snarky response. To my surprise, he nodded and closed his, the fatigue we all surely felt finally pulling him back into an uneasy slumber. I was finally alone.
The ballad of torturous thoughts played themselves out again but I had a renewed sense of purpose. It was do or don’t. Either way, I would deal with the consequences afterward. My attention finally returned to my bindings.
I took a quick glance towards the entrance. No traffic. Really It had been hours, surely they didn’t just leave prisoners unattended…I mean what if they escaped? I stifled a laugh. Right.
The knot came undone easily enough, easier than I had first thought as a matter of fact. The woman didn’t know how to tie them well. My training partner once tied one that took me an hour to get out of. I was docked points but the grin on my friend’s face was huge that day.
With the bindings finally off, I turned my attention toward my trip sack. It was a small bag. Big enough to fit between my pinched index finger and thumb. Despite its size, the space within was HUGE; the ultimate in space and discretion tech. I just hope it still worked out here. I let out a small cheer and quickly covered my mouth. The bag worked, but if I got caught it wouldn't make a difference. I glanced around awkwardly and listened for footsteps. A few minutes passed and nothing happened. I let out a breath. No one was coming, so I returned to my work.
Struggling to get my magnet free of the bag, I swore at my lack of foresight. Why did I have to pack it so tightly? An almost infinite amount of space and I still found a way to make things difficult for myself. Anyway my logic was, that electromagnets were locking us in, so why not reverse the polarity of the magnetic field? What has a magnetic field? A magnet of course! A big one!
Freeing the magnet at last and one flick of the wrist later, the hum of the magnetic field ceased to exist. I smiled to myself at a job well done. Now for the lock.
I pulled out a tiny glass vile full of green liquid, acid. Very dangerous and very illegal, so naturally I needed to have a stash right? A few drips on the lock and boom.
The smell of inorganic fumes filled the cell and I gagged on the colorless gas produced. Probably toxic, but who has time to sweat over the details, besides I was free!
Strange laws of physics.
I crept out out into the cavern, the crowds just feet away. Then it dawned on me. I was out in the open! In my excitement at exiting the cell, I failed to pay attention to what I was exiting to. I sat down and prayed that no one would notice me.
A few minutes passed and I seemed to be in the clear, the bustling people not so much as even glancing in my direction. But then I had another problem. I had no idea where I was! Wouldn't that be great, my stupendous escape only to be foiled by getting lost and then having them beef up security when they returned me to my cell!
Even then, they might hold the others hostage when they find out I have escaped and that would defeat the purpose entirely. It's not like I can rescue them right now anyway. Sure I could fight, but the whole base?
My lack of direction had occurred to me in captivity sure. I thought why not steal some form of map, meet the council, and then let them capture me again? Was it half-baked? At best yes, but this was the only way I had and therefore the best way
My thoughts came back to the situation at hand. I still hadn't been noticed and I hadn't moved. At the space station, we would have been reprimanded for being so unaware. The differences of our worlds seemed even more glaring at that moment. I took in the panorama around me.
It was something to see. Everything was in shades of twinkling fragmented light, the walls reflecting like a disco ball in a dance club. A kaleidoscope of colors streamed across the colored floor.
Were these colors even natural? My mind began to wander back to my own time. Almost every culture was mixed into one overarching culture, Humanism, the art of being human. Culture was an almost nonexistent thing now on NR1. When humans united to make NR1 that type of racism ended and a new one began.
We haven’t learned our lesson about the equality of the species I guessed. Perfect against the nonperfect and I was nonperfect. Had always been nonperfect. My spots marked me as well as my almost normal eyes. Perfect humans had odd-colored eyes. I had regular brown with yellow flecks. You could mistake them for honey-hued in normal lighting.
How long had humans actually lived underground like this? Coming from an encombering background as I had the open sky meant freedom. I was free from being what society dictated, a nonperfect. I was free of the past finding me, its slimy fingers abated way up in the clouds. I would have atrophied in a cave with its imposing walls of rock and metals. Its secrets. It was not for me.
Suddenly I was hoisted up by my arms! In my absent-minded state, a group of guards had caught me unaware and began to drag me back toward the cells.
"I-I want to speak to your council," I demanded weakly, one of the guards pinning me against the roughly sculpted wall, the coldness making me wince.
His partner on my other arm laughed but a third just looked at me, his face as cold and emotionless as the stone wall. Wearing red or blue coats, each guard was built roughly like a linebacker for a football team. Two were brunette one was blond
Suddenly the blond held up his hand and the other two went quiet. He gazed at me a moment with his cold green eyes, giving me a slight chill. His presence demanded respect for sure.
"Take him to the council chambers," he ordered, finally breaking the silence. I was about to smile in thanks when he spoke again.
"Let's see if he can plea to our leaders," he muttered sarcastically sending the others into a fit of laughter. So much for respect.
At this point, my emotions were mixed at best. I wasn't so sure about my plan now given how easily the guards gave me what I wanted. As a matter of fact, my blood had run cold. I just wanted to run back to the safety of my cell with my tail between my legs. To make matters worse, being dragged into the chambers after being captured wasn't going to help my case either!
After a moment's pause, I was hoisted to my feet again, my toes barely dragging across the smooth floor. So much for a daring escape! We came to another flight of stairs and I figured they would give me a chance to get some traction. No such luck, I practically stumbled down them and would have if the guards had let me go. These guys were stronger than they looked!
We rounded another corner and I half stumbled down yet another flight of stairs. A round antebellum-like room approached ahead.
They can’t be so bad can they?
I was taken up through the limestone hall with the red carpet. The place had four metal doors with a peephole, but all that was visible were empty desks. We bypassed the other doors and headed straight for two big doors at the end. The boss guard opened it and led me through. In front of me was a seating much like a judge and jury stand. A thin woman with a hawkish nose was in the judge’s seat. A tall black man wearing an army-like BDU was to the left, along with a Chinese woman with an emerald stare. To the right was a brunette round-ish woman and a I swear Vincent Van Gogh! Standing in front of them all was Andromeda, who was pleading her case with patience.
“I do not believe these people are with the symbiotes. They are as they say lost and from somewhere else,” she said fidgeting due to Van Gogh’s deep gaze.
“Well, if not from here then where?” demanded the roundish lady as she fanned herself. She too had a Spanish accent. I still preferred Andromeda’s accent. She was kneeling now that I got a wider picture as the boss guard moved to the right catching Van Gogh’s eyes. I was hard to miss after that but the council ignored me like a stale cookie.
“Taric, why are you here,” questioned the Chinese woman, her stare going through and past me to the other guards who were shaking slightly. I could tell from their shaky grips.
“Pardon to interrupt you Lady Chang, but we caught one trying to escape,” mumbled the first guard. I gave an indignant look.
“Did it look like I was trying to escape while I was sitting on a ledge right in front of your nose?” I muttered and got clocked in the head for it. I scowled and faced the council who wanted to ignore me. Well, I wouldn’t let them. My crew’s lives depended on me convincing these people we were harmless. Mostly. I tried glaring but it probably came out as a bashful. Guard two began to laugh.
“This mouse wants to talk to the council?” he muttered, poking me. I kicked him in the shin. It was lightning quick. No one was ready for the mouse to kick a little ass.
“Y-Yes I do,” I answered.