Down and Out: A Young Adult Dystopian Adventure (The Undercity Series Book 1) (15 page)

At the moment he thought he would never breathe again, he hit a ledge. Thrashing about, he seized a pipe, hauling himself upward. At least, he hoped he was going upward. He was so disoriented, he wasn’t sure, but somehow he surfaced with a wrenching gasp. Coughing and wheezing, he dragged himself to shallow ground and lay still, unable to move anymore. Water ran out of his mouth with every cough. He blacked out.

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H
e didn’t know how much time had gone by when he regained consciousness, but he was grateful he did. Shaking, he crawled further onto the cement floor and sat shivering, and thanking the universe, and whomever else he could think of, he was still alive. He lost his light and soaked the contents of his stash. Wherever he was, he could breathe, and the area seemed to be well lit.

“So, you’re all right?”

He pivoted around at the sound of the rich, feminine voice. She stood by him with a floor-length dress on and extensive hair twisted up in a heavy bun, and a beautiful golden dog by her side. Her complexion was rusty and freckled. She seemed about the age of his mother; he guessed by the grey hair and the wrinkles around her cedar-brown eyes.  She was smiling at him with a full set of teeth most Uppers would envy.

“Uh, um...”

“You do speak, yes? You sputtered some choice words when I hauled you out.”

Shivering, he backed away, but the pool was behind him, so he huddled in a ball. “Yes, I speak. You got me out?”

“Of course, me and Toro here.” She scratched behind the dog’s ear, and its tongue lolled about. “Otherwise that current would have pulled you under and who knows where you would have ended up.”

“Mmmmy fffather,” he gasped, his teeth chattering. “The ratdogs. I need to....”

“You need to get warm,” she interrupted as she threw a blanket around his shoulders. “Come on, stop your shaking and get under this cover. I got a fire going at my hovel and a crumb of tasty food. I’ll see to your father. Where was he? Up the channel? Not a good place to be.”

Teddy’s stomach betrayed him at the thought of something to eat, grumbling with vigour. He let her drag him away, his head heavy. They went toward the place where the light was strongest; Toro fell in beside him, his tail wagging and his tongue hanging out.

“You live here?” he asked as she sat him in a comfy chair by a little pot stove built with a pipe that sent the smoke somewhere away. She stuck a bowl of soup in front of him and held out a spoon.

“All my life.” She took a seat across from him, petting Toro.

“Alone?  How?” He sipped the steaming liquid, savouring the rich, unfamiliar flavour. “What is this?”

“Mushrooms, onions, and other stuff, and, no, Toro’s my company.” He gaped at her, his brain muddled.

“Oh, boy, don’t you stare so. I’m not a demon or anything so scary. You are not hallucinating. I once had a wife and even a mom and dad, but they passed away as did her family.”

Teddy sipped his soup, trying to think of what to say. His thoughts wouldn’t clear. “I lost my parents too, but others took care of me... oh, oh.” He jumped to his feet.

“My Pa, he’ll think I’m dead. I need to help him. The ratdogs.” His head swirled, and he fell back in his seat.

“You sit, boy, before I need to scoop you up from the floor.”  She put a hand on his arm. “You’re not ready to go dashing off.” A look of recognition came over her face. “Oh, you are the boy from above.” She wiggled a digit at him. “I remember you and another shorter one and a bigger one, clumsy looking. You were scrounging about the upstairs.”

“My Pa,” he said weakly, his lungs burning.

“Relax, boy, I’ll get to your father. Where’d you leave him?”

“Parking C,” he mumbled, his head thicker than a brick wall.

She laid him down on a couch on his side and whacked his back. More water poured out as he started to cough. She stopped and cocked an ear near his chest as though listening to him breathe.

“Lungs are empty. You rest, and I’ll be right back.”

His head was so heavy. Exhausted, he fell into a dream. He was strolling in a field with the sun shining down and birds flying about, but he did not feel the warmth or hear them sing. Nor did he sense the grass beneath his bare feet. He only knew what they were from the pictures he had seen. He had touched his arm and felt his skin, but the vegetation was nothing to him. All he had was his own self as though he was sealed away from all other forms of life. Terrified, he began to panic, but he heard a laugh he recognized and relaxed. He opened his eyes as the laughter became more present and drew him back to consciousness.

“Pa?” he croaked, his throat aching.

“Ah, my boy,” his father exclaimed, his face before him with tears streaming down his cheeks. “I thought I had lost you.”

He wrapped his father in a hug. “Oh, Pa. I’m sorry. I slipped and fell in.”

“That’s okay; that’s okay. You’re okay, and this is all that counts,” Pa said, stroking his head.

Teddy inched his aching body into a more comfortable position, and his father was beside him with a supporting arm. He smiled at the lady across from them before he turned back to his father. “How did you get away from the ratdogs?”

“Oh,” his father shrugged as though a bit embarrassed. “I got the first one with my knife and threw my light at the second, and the creature ran. Didn’t hurt I yelled my brains out. When I turned around and you were gone, I thought I’d die right there. Spent the next while searching everywhere until Nuna here found me blathering like an idiot.”

“Ahg, you weren’t so bad.” She dismissed his comments and gave him a mug of steaming liquid. “People around here are so far and few between it is only right we fall apart when we believe we’ve lost one.”

He and his father exchanged glances. “So, there are others?” Pa asked.

Her gaze shifted, and she fidgeted restlessly with her clothes. “There were,” she admitted with an uncomfortable laugh. “I suppose somewhere there still are.”

“I don’t understand.”

She slapped her hands on her lap. “Oh, I guess this all deserves a lengthy explanation. Or not, but I haven’t had anyone to talk to in,” she waved a dismissive hand, “oh, forever. Don’t need much of a calendar around here. My people, what there was of them, lived in the ruins that way.”

The woman gestured north then pointed further west. “Maybe it was that way. Never been much good at directions. We lived in these passages and the food dwindled as the water ran out. Oh, hell, the whole place slipped down a hole of irretrievable destitution. Pretty soon, there was little left, and my wife and I figured we’d take our family and search for somewhere better. Well, no one wanted to come with us. They all chose to hold on and stay and search the area a little more. They were certain they would hit the grand bucket of resources. We couldn’t get them to leave, so we went ourselves.”

“That must have been scary.”

She shrugged. “It was what it was. Well, we made our way here, and it was a good thing too, ‘cause when we went back to tell them about the little oasis we discovered, the passage back had collapsed. So, we made a home here,” her voice got hollow as did her gaze, “and that was that.”

It might be because his body was mushy like pasty potato bread, but he was having difficulty sorting her story out. “So, your wife is... where?”

His father put a hand on his leg, and he shook his head. “She’s no more, my boy, just as so many others.”

They fell silent, the weight of their reality pulling them all down as though the air was low in oxygen. Uncomfortable, Teddy let his gaze wander the room.

The place wasn’t too awful. Shelves of canned goods lined the walls; as well, she had a small pile of clothing in a basket and some cleaning supplies his mother would drool over. She even had some dishes in decent condition and a painting of an empty field over the table. The most curious item emanated a strange glare from strips anchored to the ceiling. How did she get that? He stood, attracted to the radiance, which seemed like magic. All he wanted was to touch it and check if the light was real.

“I wouldn’t if you don’t mind,” she said, and he froze just as his fingers began to sense the heat from the bulb.

“Oh, sorry, it will burn?”

“I imagine so, but most likely fall out and burst into a million dangerous pieces of air born shards.”

Pa snickered while Teddy sat on his hands. “So, how does it work?” he asked instead.

“Don’t know. I’m no so talented with electricity as my wife was. When she saw the flowing water, she built this steam-induced generator to supply power. That’s what you almost got sucked into.”

“Incredible,” exclaimed his father, his eyes the size of Ma’s potatocakes. He jumped to his feet and paced in small circles. “So, you live here, Nuna, and you have electricity, and food, and access to a whole world above you. This is amazing.”

Teddy’s stomach protested its emptiness.

She took a box from the shelf and gave it to him. Oat and rosemary crackers, he had never had those before. He ripped the top open and dug in, delighting in the new flavour, despite the usual stale aftertaste.

“I suppose,” she said. “This is where I do my laundry, though. We never stay here too long; too many of those strange wild dog creatures.”

“There’s more?” his father said, chuckling euphorically as he took a cracker. “Could we, that is, would you mind if we explored a portion? We don’t want to intrude. It’s just, well,” he blushed a little, “this is exciting, you see.”

Nuna waved at him. “Understandable. It’s so good to talk to someone again. Now, I told you about me, what brought you here? I’m guessing your story is not too different than mine, but I am hopeful.”

“Oh, well yes, about the same,” his father began, scratching at his neck.

“Except for the few greedy soul-sucking leeches devouring life and breath of everyone else,” Teddy said under his breath.

“I’d like to be kinder than that, but he sums the situation up quite well,” Pa agreed. “There are a few people controlling everything people need to stay alive, and they make the rest of us grovel for it.”

She stared in surprise. “The few, the many? We came from a gathering of about twenty people. How many of you are there?”

Teddy sunk into the couch; a whole crate of fears opened up inside him and spilled out everywhere. “What difference does it make? They are people needing a new world. They sit in filth and beg for the air they breathe.”

“Ted, relax,” said his father.

“This may seem like the answers to your searching, but you can’t throw...” She paused, her attention taken by something he could not see in the dim space around them. “We should take ourselves elsewhere. It is getting late, and this part is unsafe; the animals see this as a larder because of the water. They come to drink and hunt each other.”

Pa helped him to his feet, and they hurried after her as she left the hovel. As she dragged open a rusted door with bits missing out of it like a moth-eaten cardigan, she flicked a switch on the wall, and the lights behind them went out. He stared be- hind him, marveling at what he could only equate to a true expression of a magic he had only ever read about. The hallway they entered had lighted fixtures running down its length, and the glow made him feel exposed. He had dreamt of living in a world without gloominess for so long that when facing the reality, he thought he would feel elation. But he was accustomed to the security of the shadows. Here he was surrounded by luminosity, and he wanted to shrink away and hide.

“Pa, we should get back to the others,” he whispered, pulling on his father’s sleeve.

“Don’t worry, Ted, we’ll get back. Your brother and Georges know we may not be back for a day or two.”

“But, Pa....”

“Teddy, patience. You’ve been through a horrible ordeal, and you need rest. For the moment we are safe, and, I’ll admit I am more than a trace curious.”

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T
eddy decided not to argue.  He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shuffled on. His head and chest still hurt and he was having wobbly moments as he went. He had to agree, the possibilities of this part of the world appeared limitless, but would she share them—and if she wouldn’t, then what?

Nuna was humming as she went ahead of them her hands clasped behind her back; her ratty sweater hung in drapes of faded colour and ripped threads.  She should have been like others living underground—hair tied up in a knotted mess, dirt so deep it coloured the skin, and some physical limitation, a limp or missing digits. However, she was all healthy and clean.

“So, where are we are going?” Pa asked. “A collection of stores converted to a home or a series of apartments and you chose the golden one?”

Nuna tilted her head. “A blend of both. I can’t say what bits of the past your people carved out for your society, but my wife and I did find what one might consider a paradise. We called the next room the fountain plaza.” She paused and opened another door, which led to a stairwell.

They went up and up, and the air became fresher and warmer. Teddy still felt a little unstable, so he was glad when they left the stairs. Despite having a vivid imagination, he was not ready for the spectacle he beheld when they went through the door.

Enormous was an inadequate word; the room would hold a third of Uppercity with ease. Lights of all sorts dangled high above them—stars caught inside, issuing beams, which sparkled and reflected off cool, clear pools of water spilling over each other into a basin wider than his room.

“Of all the beauty,” said Pa, his voice faint. He twirled around, his arms extended and his hands outstretched. “This, this is beyond...”

“Words.” Teddy leaned against a chair near the side of the fountain, his chest burning and ribs aching. His head was soggy and his breathing difficult.

“This, I believe, they called a hotel in the past. We dubbed the place the tower because the building goes up four floors.” Nuna told them with a grin on her face. “We were thrilled when we found it. The water is drinkable and refills via a complex plumbing system. We mapped out the ebbs and flows of the setup. As far as I understand, the water flows to a valve, which pumps it in by some trick of gravity. Any better explanation would take more research than we had time for.”