Sandstorm Box Set Page 16

  “I figured they had meaning,” Neena said.

  “We get them when we turn of age,” he continued. “Our people believe something similar about the heavens as you believe. Although it seems you don’t wear the same marks. It is nice to think the pain of this life will mean something, in the end.”

  “That is a nice thought,” Neena agreed.

  She smiled. Over the course of the journey, Neena had developed a surprising concern for Kai. She had acclimated to traveling with him, but she also grew to appreciate his companionship. Hopefully, her people would see through their caution and listen to what he—to what they—had to say.

  They had positioned so they had a full view of the desert to the south, and also a healthy view to the north, through the rock’s round opening. Soon, darkness settled, revealing a sky spackled with stars. They settled back on their blankets, but kept vigilant.

  Looking up at those lights, Kai sighed and said, “When I was younger, I used to study the stars and wonder if one of them was Earth.”

  Neena smiled, feeling a hint of nostalgia. “I used to do the same thing.”

  “They said the giant, metal objects called ships were probably the size of this rock, or bigger. They said they could travel far greater distances than we can imagine. I always had trouble envisioning them.”

  Neena smiled. “My brothers used to ask me whether we would ever see one of those strange, metal devices. I told them one day they’d come down, bringing us to a place where we never worried about empty stomachs.” She paused as a humorous memory came back to her. “But then I told them, ‘If we never had to worry about food, what would we do with our time?’”

  Kai laughed softly. “At the very least, we wouldn’t have to worry about any monsters like the Abomination,” he said.

  “Who knows?” Neena shrugged. “Maybe there are worse monsters on other planets.”

  They stretched their stiff necks and arms, as the night grew colder. Neena pulled out some wolf meat. Together, they shared the gamey, stringy food, which tasted worse than the fawn, but was still edible. Soon, sleep tugged on their weary eyelids.

  “We should take shifts watching,” Neena suggested. “A better night’s rest will serve us well for the remainder of the journey.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Kai said. “Why don’t you sleep first? If I hear anything, I’ll wake you.”

  Neena looked over at his silhouette in the moonlight. If this had been their first night together, she might’ve refused, but with some meat in her stomach, enough water, and a warm blanket, Neena felt more secure than she had in days.

  She trusted Kai.

  She blinked several times, checking the desert and watching his shadow shift as he watched over her. For a moment, she had a fleeting memory of her father, and then she was on the road to sleep.

  Her last conscious thought was that they’d reach Red Rock in the morning.

  Chapter 41: Raj

  Raj lay in a bedroll in Helgid’s house. For a while, he listened to Samel’s quiet shifting, until his brother’s breaths grew soft and steady. Helgid rested without a sound, as she usually did.

  Raj was alone with his thoughts.

  Adriana was stuck in his mind. Thinking of the girl’s sad smile made his stomach flutter. He couldn’t stop recalling her blues eyes, her long dark hair, or the nice way she’d treated him. And of course, he’d never forget her extraordinary gift.

  Raj smiled in the dark as he remembered their conversation over tea.

  Adriana was several years older than him, but she was different. She talked to him in the way an adult would. She didn’t look down her nose at him, the way some of his neighbors did, or the way the boys did down by the river, when they spoke of his father.

  Most of the girls Raj’s age were concerned with playing childish games, or huddling close together and whispering.

  A few of them were nice, but none took an interest in him beyond a few brief conversations, and certainly none took an interest in his father.

  Raj felt a connection with Adriana deeper than sympathy. He felt close to her, because of the losses they’d suffered. He wanted to comfort her, so that she would never feel sad again. Lying in bed, he couldn’t stop thinking of the next time he’d see her.

  Would she think it strange if he came by tomorrow?

  Raj felt embarrassed. Even though he was in the dark, his cheeks flushed and his stomach grew tight. Adriana had invited him back, but he didn’t want to be a pest.

  Maybe he needed to give it some time.

  Or maybe he needed a reason.

  Reaching into his pocket, he took out the metal keepsake and turned it over in his hand in the dark. Adriana had already explained everything she knew about it, but maybe she would remember more with another conversation. Maybe together, they could stitch together some clues that would explain the origins of the wondrous object.

  At the very least, it was an excuse to talk to her again.

  Raj sighed. Perhaps whatever power existed in the heavens had brought them together for a reason. He smiled as the thought stuck in his mind.

  He would find her in the morning.

  Chapter 42: Darius

  Darius’s hands shook as he held on to his cane and his torch. His pulse pounded. Beads of sweat rolled from his brow as he trekked deeper into the auburn cave. He wanted to hurry, crawl faster through the passage he’d found, and emerge out the other side.

  He wanted to will the first part of the journey away.

  In his bag were five torches—enough to accommodate a long journey, if needed. On the way here, no Watchers had spotted him. Hopefully, that luck would continue.

  For the first time in as long as he remembered, Darius felt as if several years of fruitless searching might finally yield something. It felt like tonight, something was special.

  A screeching bat took flight from somewhere above him. Darius jolted more than he might normally have, if he hadn’t been in such haste. Slow down, he told himself. You don’t want to risk a fall.

  Still, some inner force pushed him on.

  All at once, he remembered that strange doorway in his dream. Instead of recalling the frightening parts of that nightmare, he recalled Akron’s hopeful face and their reconnection. He recalled the joy in his heart at finding his friend alive.

  Darius knew better than to believe the lies of sleep, which made glittery promises and ripped them away. Still, some spark drove him.

  He traveled the same caves as he had the night before, winding past the smooth walls, until he reached the narrow passage where he’d first encountered the fox. Darius’ heart beat faster as he came across the pile of rocks he’d pulled aside. The passage was still exposed.

  Of course, it was.

  No one was foolish enough to enter these caves, except Darius.

  He swallowed as he crawled through the small opening, feeling the same fear he had the first time about getting stuck, until he was upright and on the other side. This time, he had no decision to make.

  Darius turned left.

  The cave widened, following a curvy path. His torch light revealed trails of rodent scat. In one corner, he found a small, fresh rat corpse that hadn’t yet been ferreted away.

  Maybe scavenging animals feared these caves.

  He doubted the truth of that paranoid thought—the fox had been here, after all—and yet he couldn’t help feeling that way, as the tunnel took a deep, downward slope. Darius tread with careful steps as he avoided scattered rocks and larger, jagged pieces of stone that had broken off the walls. A long, straight gash drew his attention to a nearby part of the tunnel, where a miner had chipped off a piece, long ago.

  He’d seen plenty of similar marks before, of course, but it was the first mark in this cave, and that gave him a strange intuition.

  A sign?

  Darius’s hope grew as he moved faster than he should, heading deeper into the tunnels, even farther from the surface and Red Rock. He held his torch higher, ligh
ting his way as small, fast-moving insects scurried into holes. A small cave lizard bolted from the torch light.

  A strange smell hit Darius’s nose.

  The cave smelled dank, old. He kept going until the tunnel broadened and became an enormous, chamber-sized room. The ceiling sloped so high that he couldn’t see the top with his torch light, nor could he see the tops of the walls.

  Rocks and dust littered his way.

  He slowed his steps as he saw something.

  Past the rocks, pieces of a strange, gray substance lined the floor. The waste-like material was flaky and ashen.

  What was this?

  Something gleamed in the light of his torch, pressing him onward.

  Darius inched forward, over more of the ash, until he was upon it.

  His breath caught in his throat.

  A skeleton.

  Chapter 43: Darius

  Darius knelt next to the skeleton, setting down his torch.

  Tattered clothes hung around the yellowed bones. Of course, the flesh was gone. Most of the skeleton was whole, but pieces of it had decayed, or been tugged away by scavenging animals. Darius held his breath and inched closer, guessing that the remains belonged to a medium-sized man or woman.

  Or a boy.

  Akron?

  Darius trembled as he studied the yellowed bones.

  The clothing was in so many shreds that it was impossible to tell how the outfit had looked when it was intact. He saw no other clues as to the person’s identity, no belongings that would help him make a determination.

  Whom had he discovered?

  He stared at the old, decayed skeleton, as if the person might get up and answer his questions. But that was as silly as believing in his dream. A sense of failure struck him as he realized his quest might’ve ended in another question.

  And then he noticed a pair of tattered boots on the dead person’s feet.

  Unlike the shredded pieces of clothing, the leather was intact, save a few holes.

  A memory came back to him. All at once, Darius was in his hovel, fixing a spear and listening to Akron speak of one of the recent attacks he’d survived, about a snake that surprised him on a recent trip. The snake had leapt out from a crevice in the one of the tunnels, striking Akron on the tip of one of his boots. At the time, Akron had smiled with youthful exuberance, telling of how he’d escaped the creature. It was easy to smile, once the danger was over and you had survived.

  Or maybe he’d wished to impress Darius, who had always been his hero.

  Which boot had Akron shown him?

  His left.

  Darius’s heart fluttered as he lifted his torch, until he could see the top of the worn, partially decayed leather.

  On top of the left boot, right where he remembered it, were two fang-sized marks.

  Akron.

  Darius’s torch fell from his hands. The wavering flames of his torch illuminated the gaping eye sockets, the jutting ribs, and the decaying bones.

  Two years worth of building sadness became a bursting dam of tears.

  Akron’s happy smile was gone.

  This was his end.

  Darius collapsed the rest of the way to the ground, sobbing. His quiet gasps became heavy moans, echoing through the enormous chamber. He tried blotting away tears he could no longer stop.

  Akron had looked up to him, and Darius had failed him. He should’ve tried harder to find him, when it counted. He should never have told him about the caves.

  I was his hero, and his friend.

  And now he’s gone.

  When he closed his eyes, he could still see the boy’s excited face, relaying his discoveries. His trips had been the highlight of his days, just as they had been for Darius.

  And now those days were over for both of them.

  Darius cried for Akron’s mother, and his father, who had suffered too much, and for too long. He sobbed until he had no more tears to blot on his wrinkled skin, and the last of his crying echoes ceased.

  When he was finished, he sat up and stared at the skeleton.

  A lingering question came back to him.

  Where were Akron’s belongings?

  Darius looked on either side of the body, but he still saw nothing to answer his previous observation. If Akron had been here, his belongings—his torch—must be close by. Smearing another, final tear, Darius picked up his own torch and looked past the body, intent on exploring the rest of the dark chamber until he found answers.

  Akron’s parents deserved them.

  The room returned to silence.

  Darius pulled himself upright and took a step, and then another, wading through more of the flaky black, brown, or grey substance. The vile material caved under his boots. What was he stepping in?

  He held his torch higher, looking for some obvious clue about Akron’s death that he had missed.

  He stepped a few feet farther into the chamber.

  And stopped.

  Darius’s mouth hung open as his light revealed dozens of scattered human bones. Most were cracked and broken, covered in the same substance he’d stepped over, or in. Unlike Akron’s, none of these bones were in the shape of a skeleton. A fear different from any he had ever known overtook Darius, but he couldn’t stop moving.

  It felt as if he were in a dream again, and something propelled him.

  More and more bones covered the floor; enough that it was impossible to tell how many people he looked at, though he suspected it might be dozens. Darius had never seen so many bodies in one place. Even the worst sandstorms hadn’t yielded so many deaths.

  He stepped carefully around the vile, long-rotted substance, finding places to put his feet where he wouldn’t trip on a bone. He kept his eyes glued to the fringes of his torch light. The chamber was enormous—bigger than the tunnel that preceded it.

  Working his way past the bodies, he felt an intense fear.

  He couldn’t imagine what had done something so horrible.

  Darius continued past more of the bones, entering a drier portion of the cave that seemed even wider. His hands shook as he held the torch higher, finding something else in its light. Darius froze. Shards of fear prickled through him.

  In front of him was an enormous skeleton—bigger than that of any creature he’d seen, almost the size of the chamber in which he stood. Giant, curved rib bones comprised most of the circular, mammoth remains. Strange, spear-like objects littered the floor underneath the skeleton’s center, looking as if they had once been attached. At the front, an enormous round jaw hung open, displaying two gigantic rows of yellowed, jagged teeth.

  Each of those teeth was the size of Darius’s body.

  Slowly, a horror became a realization, as Darius looked over his shoulder in the direction of the human bones, and the vile, rotten substance surrounding them, and back to the remains of the enormous, frightening beast. Somehow, the creature was responsible for their deaths.

  Darius trembled.

  Chapter 44: Raj

  Raj snuck out into a quiet morning, under the amber glow of the rising sun. Only a few people lingered near their homes, stretching, or staring up at the cliffs. A few cleaned off pushcarts, or quietly washed laundry. Raj looked back at the house, where Helgid and Samel still slept. He wouldn’t be gone long enough for them to worry.

  Reaching into his pocket, he squeezed the object that Adriana gave him—his excuse to visit her again.

  He took the path toward her house, following the same route he’d taken the day before, replaying their conversations in his head. He thought about the memory she’d shared of her grandmother. She’d said that they’d had tea each morning, and she missed it.

  Maybe she and Raj could fill that time together.

  It was a pleasant thought, and the more Raj turned it in his head, the more he liked it.

  Soon he’d reached Adriana’s mud brick hovel. The door was closed. Raj looked around the area, noticing a few neighbors tending chores, but he didn’t see Adriana. He listened for
her voice as he walked slowly past her home. A few muffled voices echoed through the wall.

  Probably her mom and dad.

  Would they consider it rude if he knocked so early? Raj didn’t want to be a pest, nor did he want to annoy some people that he might see often, if he were lucky enough to spend more time with Adriana.

  He went past the house, deciding he would come back in a while.

  Turning onto the main path past Adriana’s alley, he looked right, toward the river. A few people walked toward the bridge in the distance, heading toward the Green Crops. Others stood at the banks, dipping their buckets in the water.

  Nearing the river, he studied the slow-moving current. The sun cast a warm glare off the water. Nearby, a mother and father with a toddler splashed and played happily. Seeing that image reminded him of his own parents.

  Perhaps he’d visit their graves.

  He continued over the well-trodden trail, until the bridge was underfoot. A few people leaned over the rail, looking out over the water, or nodding at him. Off in the distance, Raj studied the rock formations that loomed over the colony, where a few Watchers gazed out over the people below, observing them.

  Following the same path as the procession had, he crossed the length of sandy desert, coming around the corner of the western formation and arriving at the field of stones where he’d stood with most of the others the day before.

  Three people huddled by a gravestone.

  Raj picked a diagonal path, cutting past them, curving by some half-buried grave markers. Using memory to guide him, he counted them, until he reached the stones marking his parent’s graves.

  Raj put his palms on the ground, kneeling close enough that the other people couldn’t hear him.

  “Hi Mom. Hi Dad,” he said quietly. “I miss you.”

  Raj swallowed, as an unexpected sadness hit him.

  “Neena is still out hunting,” he whispered, speaking around the lump in his throat. “I’m hoping she’s okay, after the sandstorm. I’m doing what I can to take care of Samel, like you would’ve wanted. And Helgid is helping us, too.”