Subterranean (14 page)

“Oh, come on, Rolan, I destroyed the ship chasing after me, they couldn’t have followed me here!” He stopped and looked over at Vale, who rustled in the bundle of cloth, and then quieted himself down to a whisper so as not to wake her. “Listen, I know something’s going on here, and it has been for a while. Ever since I got here I’ve been trying to figure out what it is, and all this secrecy you, and Vale, and Tural, and all the other Subterraneans are dabbling in is making it worse; I almost shot you earlier today because of it!

“Now, I like to think we’re friends, but friends don’t hide such important information from each other… I’m sitting here in the dark wondering if I’ll ever get the chance to save my world, if I’ll ever get the chance to save my sister, and you guys are stringing me along with your damn secrets.” He gave a quick sigh. “All I want to do is go back there and help… I don’t even care if I have to do it alone; I just need to do something about it!” He said the next words slowly and with slight annoyance, “So, why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?”

Rolan sat still, hiding his emotionally saturated face behind his sable lenses. “Well, Flynn,” he cleared the initial weak tone from his throat, “I follow Tural, my leader. And whatever he tells me to do, I do it.” Flynn was prepared to get up and walk off towards the city alone. “But,” the word filled him with a spark of hope, “I believe I can make an exception this time.”

Flynn smiled, greedily awaiting the explanation to come. “I won’t tell him you told me. I promise.”

Rolan sighed, deciding, for better or worse, to confide in his human friend. ”There was a sickness above ground.”

“You mean like a disease?”

“Quiet, Flynn. I am telling the story.”

“Right, sorry.”

“No, the sickness I speak of was no disease, though it certainly felt like one. Long ago, our planet was once host to two races that evolved on the same level… essentially, both reached sentience at the same time. Upon discovering their existence, we attempted to establish peaceful relations with them, but they simply ignored us. For years we coexisted without any violence between our respective species; the Subterraneans underground and the ‘Esuriens’ above ground.” Resentment entered his voice. “Then we noticed something.

“Our leader at the time, a famous Subterranean named Lunnak, the one who we worship to this day, visited the surface and witnessed the beginning of the end.” Flynn would’ve been on the edge of his seat by now if he were sitting in a chair. “The Esuriens were overpopulating the lands at an alarming rate, consuming and depleting the planet’s resources before they could replenish.

“Seeking more to sustain their unchecked growth, they ventured underground where they found us… sitting on an abundance of supplies and raw materials. We had what they wanted, so they took it from us. Lunnak tried desperately to negotiate a trade agreement or a bargain, but they were not interested; they used force from the start.

“Although we were technologically superior, they far outnumbered us; approximately seventy-five to one. The war did not last long, if it could be called a war… Millions of my people were slaughtered until only a few thousand remained. In a final effort of self-preservation, Lunnak gave the Esuriens a deal even they could not refuse: a way to harvest the unlimited resources of space.”

Flynn was speechless, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. “What?”

“The ‘Esuriens’, as well call them, are what you know as the ‘Ravagers’. Those old ruined buildings you saw previously...” He sighed deeply and looked around at the vast desert expanse surrounding them. “The Ravagers come from our planet, they share our blood, our DNA, and as far as we know, we are the reason they now travel space attacking planets like yours.”

“What?” Flynn was first taken aback by what he’d learned, and then shocked completely by the paralyzing revelation that washed over him. “So the Ravagers are… You’re related to…”

He stammered as he reeled from it all. He could hardly wrap his head around what’d he just heard: the Subterraneans are the reason his planet is in flames… They’re the reason his sister might be dead. He couldn’t resist the anger building inside of him; his muscles tensed and his voice thickened with the supple fuel of rage and indignation.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner!” Flynn snatched him up by his cultural garment and shook him with tightly clasped fists. “Why hide this from me?! Why?!”

“Because of this very reason!” Rolan broke Flynn’s hold on him and crawled backwards, pressing himself up against the frame of the vehicle and using it to pull himself up. “Imagine if we told you this when you had no attachment to our people. No reason to care for anything you might do.”

Flynn charged at him and regained control, slamming him against the vehicle. “And you thought this was the best way to control me?! With lies?!” Flynn swung a hard punch at Rolan’s face, the force meeting with a crack and a splatter of blood that sprayed across the sands. “But it’s all undone now, Rolan! Undone by the very trust you tried to create!”

“Wha… What is going on?” Vale ascended from her igloo of dingy clothing and gasped at the sight of Flynn on top of Rolan with his knife drawn and held to his throat. “Flynn, no!” She stumbled to her feet and went after them with awkward disoriented steps. “Get off him!” She grabbed Flynn by the collar and yanked him off, then secured his arms in restraint.

“Get your hands off me, Ravager filth!” He wrested free and kicked her away, her back crashing to the sand.

With a hand wrapped tightly around the hilt of his knife, he approached Rolan, who tried to run away, but kept falling down in his struggle to regain his balance. Eventually, the weakness of the bitter cold overtook him, pinning him to the ground for good. Flynn stood a few meters away from him, ready to charge at him with the fury of his entire species, when he heard Vale implore him to spare Rolan’s life.

“Flynn, no, please! We are your friends!”

Friends
.

Something about that word struck him as odd. He never had anyone he could truly call a friend, only acquaintances that mostly faked a passing interest in him or his affairs, at best. No one was ever there for him when he needed someone… someone to talk to, someone to laugh with, someone to love. His sister was the closest thing that ever came to a friend, and for all he knew she was gone.

There was something about the emotion, too. The emotion in Vale’s voice that made Flynn feel like he was in the company of something… someone with empathy and compassion within their heart, not the evil, sealed chambers he sensed pumping the wicked blood inside the Ravagers. He turned to look at Vale, who was lying in the sands, still reeling from the knockback of his blow, and then back at Rolan, who lay on his back with blood dripping from his face.

“Ah!” He peered at his hands in shame and then threw the knife down. “No…”

He glanced over at his two friends once more, the wind lashing their faces, before running off into the dark sea of desert to escape the site where he had almost struck them down.

Chapter 13

Friend or Foe

He ran until his lungs were fully depleted and his legs would no longer carry him, which was not far in the desert. It was still night and the wind was blowing more furiously than ever, commanding the shifting sands to move at the behest of its icy will.

Flynn stared out into the swath of dunes that coveted the land before him, and pondered on how everything had gotten so bad so quickly. His mind was charged with the pulsing urges of a hundred emotions, each of them bursting through the floodgates for only a moment before being swept back into containment. Within the span of a few short minutes he was convinced by a dozen different philosophies, and then just as swiftly fell back into the despair of dubiety.

He hadn’t the slightest clue of what to do; everything seemed right one moment, and then the next it all seemed wrong. He believed he should not kill Rolan or Vale for they were his friends, yet he felt angry… furious, but at an indeterminate source. He was angry at the Subterraneans for their part in ascending the Ravagers, he was angry at Tural for his deception, he was angry at Rolan and Vale for not trusting him, he was angry at himself for not figuring it all out sooner, he was angry at Radovan for ever telling him about the hidden truth, he was angry at Earth for being so incompetent in dealing with the Ravagers, he was angry at his sister for always making him feel guilty… The whole world was victim to his condemnations, and he just wanted it all gone, everything, just gone.

He was tired and wanted to sleep, never again to wake up. Someone else must have survived, someone else must have gotten help; it’s the way it always worked on Earth: no matter what you do, there’s always someone else who can do it, too. So, what was the point? He fell to his knees and looked up at the sky, the stars still taunting him with their incessant twinkling.

“What do you want from me?!” He thought of events passed and tensed his mind, spitting them out in his failure to understand. Truly, there must be some higher force at work here, imposing their will through such complicating machinations as these. “Why are you doing this to me?!”

He had one goal: return to Earth. Yet there have been nothing but obstacles, obstacles, obstacles, and more obstacles. To make things worse, he was stranded on the Ravager home planet, stuck with the biological cousins of his mortal enemies. Oh, how bitterly ironic, he thought.

Sensing no answers to alleviate his mystification, he cried out once more to the stars, the howl of his emotions soaring into the ether. “I know you hear me!!” Defeated, his head dropped down, lifting slightly with each heave of his powerful chest.

“Flynn?” The voice had taken him entirely by surprise.

“What?!” He spun around, jumping to his feet. “Who’s there?!”

“Vale.” The feminine voice was weak in the wind.

“What do you want?” He turned back out to the desert. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“You were shouting at the sky.”

“No, I wasn’t…”

She smiled. “You know,” her steps drew closer until they stopped, where she presumably stood next to him, “the sky is where Lunnak is.”

“Lunnak?” He tensed his voice. “You mean the guy who decided to share such a lovely race of destructive aliens with the rest of the galaxy?”

“Well…” She clutched at something in her pocket. “He was not evil.” She sat down next to Flynn, who was still standing. “I heard he is the reason the Subterraneans can think about things other than food. Things like love and compassion. Things that make us like you, Flynn. You would never harm our people simply because you have the capability, and we would never harm your people, either; Lunnak would never allow it. He only did what was necessary to save his people.” She turned to him. “Surely you could understand that.”

Flynn caught a glance of her in the corner of his eye; she was holding something shaped like a teardrop. He panicked instantly, clawing at his chest for the pendant Lisa had given him. Nothing was there. “Is that…?” He knelt down next to Vale and stared at the object in her hands.

“Yes. You dropped it in the fight with Rolan.” She held it to her eyes, watching the cerulean charm dangle from the delicate silver chain, winding in and out with each gust of the wind. “It is beautiful.”

“More than you know.” His mind conjured images of Lisa’s lurid smile, the pendant on her chest a reflection of her captivating eyes.

“You must really love her.” He didn’t respond, simply glimpsing at the object in desire. “Here,” she held it out to him and escorted the long chain down as it collapsed into his hands, “this is not something for me to have…” she touched his hand at the end, when it had all fallen into his caress, “…or to destroy.”

Flynn drifted into silence, enchanted by the vivid imagery that radiated from the cold pendant as it lay in his cupped hands.
Lisa
, he said to himself, wondering what she would say to him at a time like this. He pictured her next to him, her arms around him, and her lips inches away from his.
Promise me you’ll bring this back.
The warmth of her whisper felt as if she were truly in front of him. He squeezed the pendant lightly in his hand and brought it to his forehead.

“Whatever happens, I promise I’ll bring this back.” He caught himself thinking about his sister, as well, sitting on his bed looking up at him expectantly as he muttered his thoughts, his voice just barely perceptible in the wind.

“What?” Vale swiveled her head to him. “Did you say something, Flynn?”

Filled with renewed vigor, he found the will to confront the issue at hand. He supposed it was Lisa, but something made him think clearly now; off all the things nagging at his mind, his conscience sorted out the brightest one, glowing iridescently and irradiated with guilt. Flynn wasn’t entirely innocent in the wicked game of trust.

“I’m sorry about the radio.” The words rushed from his mouth like a regrettably humbled man. “I should’ve trusted you… But I was afraid you would take it away. I just needed something… anything… that could’ve gotten me back to Earth.”

Vale let Flynn wallow in a nerve-wracking silence for a few long seconds before she answered. “You should have told me.” She said somberly. “I waited for you to tell me.”

“You knew?” He asked sharply.

She turned to him and warmed his body with a smile. “Yes.”

“How?” He quickly became confused. “Why didn’t you take it from me? Did you tell Tural?”

“I did not inform anyone.” She folded one hand over another. “You deserved to have it. It was a device from your ship and as long as it remained underground, we were safe.”

Flynn felt an overwhelming rush of guilt pour over him, and then he remembered he wasn’t the only one who had something to hide. “Why didn’t you tell me about your connection to the Ravagers? Why hide it all?”

“I wanted to tell you.” She answered without meeting his eyes.

“But why didn’t you?”

“There are certain things we wish to forget, for thinking of them causes only grief.” She looked at him with a slight smile. “You are the first of another species we have seen in a long time, Flynn. It is exciting and frightening to all of us.” Her smile faded. “In a way, though, you lost everything because of us, because of our actions. We were afraid to tell you, because even we know what desperation makes a being capable of.” Her eyes shifted over to the direction of the city. “And then there is Tural; he informed us not to tell you. As much as I may disagree with him, he is still our leader.”

Flynn drifted off into thought, sending the conversation into a silence as he pondered on everything he’d just heard. From around him, he once again heard the vague sound of something slithering through the sands like a snake. “Did you see that?” He trained a finger on the moving presence, ominously gliding along with its interminable tail sliding behind it.

“No, what is it?” Vale glanced at his point of interest.

“It looks like a really long snake or something.”

“I do not see anything.”

He stared at the presence, drawn in by its movements, like watching a bug crawling tentatively across the floor.
What is that?
Then, abruptly breaking his concentration, a loud rumbling off in the distance resounded in the cold, frozen air of the desert wastes. Flynn peered over in the direction from where it came.

“Is that thunder?”

The concept of a storm happening now, while they were stranded without a ride, was almost unbearable to think about. “No, that was the explosives I placed near the vehicle. Something must have triggered the trap I set.” She writhed around in an attempt to stand up, but stopped at the sight of Flynn’s outstretched hand. Her eyes softened with gratitude and she grabbed him, letting his strong arms pull her erect.

“We should move now.”

They returned to the campsite where Rolan was already collecting scraps of cloth and bundling them up with the basic gear they needed for travel. The fires from the nearby explosion burned only a short while before being snuffed out by the sand, although an unidentifiable charred object did remain in the small crater left behind. Flynn stared at the strange remains until the glint from his knife caught his attention, at which point he seized the blade in his hands and replaced it in the holster on the side of his leg.

“Let’s go.” He said as he heaved a sack of salvaged parts wrapped in tattered clothes over his shoulder. “It’s freezing out here.”

And so they pushed on with rejuvenated strength; the city wasn’t far now.

Bittersweet Return

The air was charged with tension as they trudged onward to the city; the icy wind threatened to freeze the damp atmosphere and rain dreadful flakes of snow upon them at any moment.

Flynn and Rolan were silent the whole time, even when one of them required assistance in passing through the rugged terrain, each of them turned to Vale first for help, and only aided one another if it was absolutely necessary. Vale watched on as the growing divide between Flynn and Rolan unearthed itself, a newly forged friendship dealing with the bumps and bruises of its most recent encounter with animosity.

Contrary to appearances, Flynn actually had a strong desire to confront Rolan about his actions and apologize for having escalated the situation to such violent levels, but every time he steeled himself to deliver his regrets, a wracking pain in the pit of his stomach wrenched him away. His guilt was soothed by a constant reminder that Rolan wasn’t the only victim here… he was, too.

Nevertheless, they all collectively thanked the heavens when the mouth of the cave that hid the massive bulkhead doors to the city was at last in sight.

“Finally!” Their tired bodies droned into the opening doors, and then collapsed onto the warm, hard floor of the hangar. The hot air instantly melted away their frozen bones and relaxed every muscle in their body as the heat worked its way deep inside them and chased out every last shivering remnant of the surface. They were tempted to fall asleep right there if it weren’t for the requisition’s officer, who handed them each a container filled with warm water.

“You three should speak to Tural. He has been worried about your mission.”

“Soon.” Vale downed a gulp of water and then fell back, stretching her limbs out on the floor.

After resting up for a while in the hangar, they removed their frosted armor and clothes, donned fresh garments, and then went to go visit Tural in his chambers. Flynn rubbed the teardrop pendant the entire time he accompanied Rolan and Vale, thinking of Lisa and imagining his return to her with the token of a fulfilled promise firmly in his hands. He barely thought of what he would say to Tural, now that he knows the truth the Subterranean leader has been trying so hard to keep from him.

As far as he was concerned, anything dealing with the Ravagers would be addressed later; Lisa was waiting for him.

Coincidences

Lisa sat next to the barricade looking out a window with her chin resting on her hand. It had been a while, long enough for her to worry that Flynn had made it back to the city and was searching for her in the hospital room, clueless as to where she actually was. Worst of all, Tural was no doubt filling Flynn’s head with all sorts of crazy accusations of an attack on his life by her, which she hoped he would dismiss outright.