Dismantling the barrier seemed to take them forever but it probably had more to do with our fatigue and foul smell than anything else. Being on alert all of the time is exhausting. I wished that our new allies would be more enthusiastic about putting their backs into the task but soon enough the barrier had been dismantled enough to allow us to squeeze through.
“Wow, you guys reek,” Segerick said.
“No shit,” I replied.
“Yes, shit,” Aleyda offered with a small laugh.
Alright, I laughed a little too. It was a pretty good quip. The rare times when Aleyda wasn’t so earnest and serious, I found that she had a decent sense of humor. Bowen on the other hand didn’t say anything. He went tromping out of the cave to find the nearest stream to clean up. Realizing that was a great idea, I immediately followed.
“Can someone please show us to the closest place we can get clean?” I called out.
Surprisingly, the guy I had put on his ass immediately volunteered. I don’t know whether it was because he was trying to be helpful or he just couldn’t stand the smell. I didn’t much care either. He led us down a small path until we reached a small waterfall, a thin rivulet of water sheeting down the mountain. There wasn’t enough room for all of us to get cleaned up at once so we we were forced to take turns. We let Bowen go first since it was his idea. Then, Aleyda took her turn and I went last. All the while, Segerick was badgering me for information.
“What did you find? Can you give me some details, some specifics?”
“Not until I am clean,” I said. “I feel grimy and nasty and disgusting.”
I swear that the expression on his face was like a little kid who just had his Christmas presents taken away from him. As time passed, I could tell that he was getting more and more agitated. A couple of times, he opened his mouth as if he were going to continue questioning me but each time he thought better of it and stopped himself before he said anything. He looked like a pot that was ready to boil over.
Finally, I was clean and in a much better mood to talk. I turned to him, still dripping wet from my impromptu shower.
“How much do you know about the history of this world?” I asked.
“Very little,” he admitted.
So, I told him about the invasion of five-fingers that came from the sea several hundred years ago. I explained that they had landed in a sparsely populated area of the world and had decent success conquering towns and villages and even a small city or two until the more densely populated areas closer to the inner sea had disgorged an unending wave of troops that had subjugated the remaining invaders and restored order to the southern areas of the continent. I explained how the redoubt I found fit into the invasion narrative and let him know that the people of the continent used the invasion as an excuse to demean and enslave five-fingered humans into the present day. None of my explanations, though, cured his impatience. He clearly wanted to interrupt and tell me to get to the point. But I was getting to the point, he just didn’t know it yet.
“So, that information is interesting,” he said. “What does it have to do with finding us a better place to live?”
“When the invaders came from the sea, the descriptions that I heard numbered them in the thousands. We think this island was their base and that they were here for quite a long time before they launched the invasion. We think we found that base, which is the size of a small city, deep within the mountain. Thankfully, there are exits close by on the western slope. There is a water supply, access to the sea for fishing, and by and large it looks much more comfortable than the squalor you are living in now. There is even a decent observation post so you can keep abreast of what’s going on around the island. There are other tunnels adjoining it that we didn’t have time to explore, but I assume at least a few of those will eventually lead to other exits. The people like us who lived here likely built the place up over decades. There is plenty of room for the others that you are likely to find. It is organized to be very defensible. Do I have your interest yet?”
“Oh yes, you have my interest,” he said. “When do we leave?”
“As soon as we can gather your people together,” I responded. “The journey through the mountain is not pleasant. Besides slogging through a chamber full of bat shit, which I might add is the very first cavern that we will encounter, we will need to travel together is a tight group. There are some creatures under the mountain that don’t seem all that friendly to me. Some of the passages are very tight so we won’t be able to carry anything with us that is too bulky. Maybe at some point in the future we can find our way back here above ground and take the things that are left behind, which we must hide. We can’t afford to draw any attention to this cave system. If we do, all of our efforts to find you a safe place to hole up in will be for naught. The place is defensible but I doubt a couple of dozen of you can hold off an army unit.”
“That makes sense,” he said. “We can spend the night tidying up a little and leave tomorrow morning.”
“We need to take as much food with us as we can,” I said. “I haven’t completely worked through the issues with the food supply. There is some evidence that some fairly nasty creatures make that part of the island home. We need to be somewhat cautious in our explorations until we understand where it is safe to go and where it isn’t. Once we make our way there, we will need to find a route back to this part of the island to rescue others and to ambush slaving expeditions for weapons, tools, and perhaps food. The place will be an improvement but it comes with its own set of challenges.”
“I don’t care,” he said. “I would rather fall striving for something than just sitting here waiting for our inevitable demise.”
“I understand. I would feel the same in your place.”
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That night, after everyone had trickled back to the cave, I went through my history lesson and explanation again. I noticed that the number of people there had grown by a couple of new arrivals. I could tell the new people from those who had spent more time here because of the despondent and incredulous expressions on their faces. Well, that and the fact they were still in better made clothing that had come into the world with them. Once I got to the part of my explanation talking about a better and perhaps safer place to live, hope rekindled in many of their eyes. Speaking of hope, I hope I wasn’t overselling things. Life would still be damn rough for these people.
That night, I spoke with Bethany.
“I think you will be better off staying here than you would be if we delivered you back to the company. It would likely save you months of abuse.”
“I understand, but honestly the only time I feel safe is when you three are around,” she said.
“Bethany,” I replied. “We are making this stuff up as we go. It is not inconceivable that we end up dead somewhere on the side of the mountain. We will do everything that we can to make certain that doesn’t happen but there are no guarantees. If you stay with these people, you will suffer privation. If we deliver you to the company and we aren’t able to show back up, then you are headed for life as a slave. If you want to go back to the company compound we will deliver you there, but think long and hard about that choice. Safety is an illusion and risks abound on every side. I won’t make the decision for you. You need to decide for yourself. But from where I am sitting, staying looks like a better option for me than going does.”
“I’ll think about it and decide once we get where you are going,” she said. Then she moved off to the side of our camp staring broodingly into the darkness.
We needed to make it back to the company soon. The cat pelts I had acquired had started to rot and would need to be preserved to hold any value. Also, these people needed tools. Later that night, Segerick showed us the meager valuables that his troop had been able to acquire. There were more skins of various animals, a few chunks of gold that had been picked up from a nearby stream and a few uncut gemstones. I wasn’t sure that everything put together was worth a whole lot, but some wealth was better than no wealth, at least for our purposes.
Early the next morning, we set out, each able bodied person laden with supplies. I made certain that everyone had something to cover their heads with before we left. Rabies remained a concern. As we slogged our way through the bat cave there was complaining, so much complaining. I let everyone know that there would be a chance to clean up in a short time. It was not, however, quite as short of a time as I promised. The very old and the very young slowed us. It felt like we had to stop for a break every fifteen minutes or so and the breaks weren’t short. I led the way, Aleyda was in the middle of the column and Bowen was in the rear. Whenever we stopped, he looked extremely frustrated. He was responsible for making certain nobody wandered off and got lost, which must have proven challenging. Aleyda carried our lantern, exhausting what little oil we had left to make certain that there was some light in the darkness. I didn’t feel comfortable revealing all of my secrets to this group. I assumed her duties took more effort than my own. By the time we made it to the room with the underground pool, it felt like half the day had already passed. People started rushing over to get clean but I stopped them. I told them that we needed to drink and refill our water supplies before anyone polluted the pool with bat guano. This caused some mild grumbling but I think most people could understand the sense of it.
That morning we hadn’t run into any more of the grubs or anything else that had proven hostile. I was grateful for that. Defending this many people would be a challenge in the best of times and this wasn’t the best of times. The people I was near goggled at the corpses of the grubs we did pass. I didn’t have the heart to tell them about the tentacles. I think that might have sent one or two of them over the edge.
After everyone had cleaned up and snacked a little on our meager supplies, we continued deeper into the mountain. The rest of our journey was long and uneventful, just the way I liked it. There was a lot more complaining when we came to the last narrow passage that led to the city. About halfway through that passage, some of our elderly required rest but since there was no good place to stop Bowen and Aleyda continued to usher them forward. Looking around after we busted out into the main tunnel, I could see more than a few abrasions where people had lost skin on their way through. Some of the supplies we carried had been left behind before we entered the last passage, so the three of us and a few others had to traverse it twice. I could feel my patience getting damn thin. When I made it back, Segerick spoke to me.
“Why did you bring us here? This passage doesn’t look any better than the place we left.”
“We are not there yet,” I said tersely. “If you go down the passage to the right, you will find yourself on a shelf high above a cove down below. There are stairs down but they are fairly overgrown. To our left is the main complex. We are close.”
I pitched my voice louder so everyone could hear me.
“When we go through the entrance tunnel, walk in the middle and not towards the side. Some of the supports look rigged to collapse and we don’t need the mountain falling on top of us. That would be a poor way to end our trip today.”
Then, we turned left and soon made our way to the entrance tunnel. Light was going to be an issue once the oil ran out and we left. Torches would be near the top of our priorities. They would need to be somewhat conservative with cooking fires and the like. Smoke pouring out of the top of the mountain would be a dead giveaway that something was going on under it.
We made our way through the kill zone without stopping. We walked silently. The newcomers seemed overwhelmed by the evidence of thousands of hours of human labor that was writ in the walls and ceiling. After we had cleared the entrance tunnel, we stopped in the guardroom to rest. I walked over to Segerick.
“Is this starting to look better to you yet?” I asked.
“Better and better,” he replied.
“I want to make the last part of our trip in one go,” I said. “At our glacially slow pace, it will probably take twenty minutes so let’s get well rested here. Light is going to be an issue down here and you can’t go crazy with fires or else you will give away your position. That and food need to be your first priorities. Thankfully, during the day there are ventilation shafts that let some light in. Nights are going to be dark and uncomfortable.”
“I understand,” he said. “It wouldn’t do to go through all of this effort just to lose everything due to carelessness.”
“The people who lived here seemed to live communally, in barracks-style accommodations. I suggest you hole up in one or two of the barracks. There is no need to get spread out all over the place.”
With a last burst of effort, we pushed towards the center of the complex. Finally, we arrived in the public area with the stream.
“This will be your new home,” I announced. “You will have ample access to water. Eventually, you will likely be able to craft some primitive furniture. There are facilities to take care of biological necessity. Here, I think you all can live a little more like humans. You need to still stay together, though. Spreading out just increases all of your risk. We’ll try to get all of this sorted out tomorrow when there is at least a little light down here. Until then, let’s find a large room and bed down for the night.”
And that’s exactly what we did.