Like Veins of Red Rubies (Most Precious Book 1) (4 page)

"Be safe honey," Emily
said.

Stanley leaned in and kissed her.
"I’ll see you tonight," he said.

Stanley walked past the row of
domiciles, through the streets to the town square. The crowd was larger that
day, and Stanley had trouble pushing through them. He received sad looks from
the men and women in the crowd and sometimes, the occasional pat on the back, a
cheer, or a word of encouragement. One woman even said, "Oh please, do be
careful in there."

Stanley went into the cave and
walked across the lake. He was met by Mr. Roberts.

"I got a lot of worried
looks from the crowd," Stanley said. "I suppose word of Victor’s
incident has gotten out."

"It has spread to every ear
in that short time," said Mr. Roberts. "I’ve received countless
appeals to end this project and countless more praising my efforts."

Victor emerged from the lake and
said, "Do you have thoughts of ending this?"

"It is only our third day
and we are bound to run into a few accidents," said Mr. Roberts.

Stanley nodded. He went over to
the base of his tunnel and equipped his gear. Victor was already there with his
gear on, having his pill.

Victor grabbed the drill and
fastened it to his back. He climbed into the tunnel and made his way up,
followed by Stanley. The distance up was long, but Victor had learned to climb
faster, by sort of propelling his feet from each ledge. But when they reached
the top, Victor was drained of energy. He sat down and panted.

"Let me rest a while,"
said Victor. "I am tired by the time I get up here. Now I have to hold the
drill up for hours."

"Well you won't trust me
with it, so bear that in mind," said Stanley, who was also panting.
"It’s kind of hard to get air in this place, isn't it?"

Victor ceased his panting and looked
up. "Tell me," he said. "What was your real intention? When you
voted to dig up, were you really hoping to reach the surface? Or was it for the
rubies?"

"It was the rubies,"
said Stanley.

Victor raised his hands and
smacked them on his legs. "I knew it," he said.

"It is fine," said
Stanley. "Other council members have voted to dig as well."

"It’s not fine," said
Victor. "You had the power to prevent this project from ever happening.
Haven’t you seen the things we dug up? They’ve all been weapons. You and I have
both been injured by them. It won’t be long until the same happens to the
others."

"I do worry about
that," Stanley said. "But we are undertaking a bold task. It would be
abnormal if we ran into nothing."

Victor did not reply. He grabbed
his drill, aimed at the tunnel, and dug. Stanley stayed behind and diligently
pushed the mounds of brown dirt down. They continued for a good long time. They
had climbed about fifty ledges when the dirt seemed different, as in having a
slightly reflective tinge to them. They ran through Stanley’s hands and
fingers, and at one point, large chunks of silvery dirt ran down.

"Wait," Stanley said.
"Wait, Victor stop."

Victor stopped his drill and
looked down. "What?" he said.

Stanley pointed at the dirt and
said, "Have a look at this."

Victor glanced at the dirt, but
didn’t react. He set his visor aside and focused his eyes and his mouth drew
open. "What is this?" he said. He dug his hand into the dirt and
grabbed a fistful of it. Specks of silvery metal glistened under his helmet
light.

Stanley looked past Victor and
pointed. "Look."

Victor turned and faced the wall
where he had previously dug. Scattered along the dirt were silver sticks that
were either cut by the drill or pushed in.

Victor shuffled up and ran his
finger along one of them. It was embedded deep within the dirt, so he dug his
finger in and picked it out. It fell, along with the dirt around it. Victor
picked it up and held it before him and glanced at it. His eyes zoomed in and
widened as he carefully looked at all sides of it.

"Show me," said
Stanley.

Victor slowly turned and brought
it before Stanley. Stanley poked his head closely in, but Victor shook it and
said, "No, just take it."

Stanley took it with both hands
and observed it. It was an old metal stick, silver in color, and smooth in
texture. It was flat and thin, and it curved at the tip and divided into three
separate points.

Victor raised his drill and kept
it off. With it, he stabbed the dirt, and chunks fell off, along with the
silver sticks. Stanley collected them before they could slide down.

"Careful," Victor said.
He set his drill down and picked up some of the sticks. "Look at this
one." He handed another one to Stanley.

It was similar to the one Stanley
saw before, but about three quarters up, it menacingly curved outward. There
were multiple sharply cut ridges in the curved part. Stanley scratched it
against the tip of his gauntlet and left a cut mark. He looked up. "What
are these?"

Victor continued scanning his
handful of sticks. "I don’t know," he said. "But it’s a miracle
that we found them now."

"How is that so?"

"It is better that
experienced people ran into this," Victor said. "We’ve dug enough
today. We should return below and show the others."

Stanley nodded and took the
drill. "Collect the sticks, as many as you can," he said.

Victor gathered a bundle of the
metal sticks and said, "I have enough."

Stanley slid down, and Victor
followed him. Ailey met them.

"Where’s Mr. Roberts?"
Victor said.

"Outside," said Ailey.

Stanley and Victor made their way
through the lake. They exited the cave and ran to the town square. Mr. Roberts
was there, talking to the crowd.

"Mr. Roberts," called
Victor. "Mr. Roberts, take a look at this." He laid the sticks out on
a bench.

Mr. Roberts took one and glanced
at it. "What is this?"

"We don’t know," Victor
said. "We ran into them just recently."

Ailey and some of the other
council members emerged from the cave. Ailey said, "What’s going on?"

"We’ve discovered
something," said Victor. "Things I believe to be weapons."

A collective gasp ran along the
crowd and they shuffled and poked their necks out for a look.

Ailey held up a stick and said,
"What do you suppose this was used for?"

Victor took the stick from Ailey
and held it up against the streetlight. "The tip is concave, but it seems
rigid around the edges. It’s probably used to remove the eye or maybe some
other organs."

A woman wailed and some children
cried. Husbands held their families and shot glares at Victor.

"Do not scare the women and
children," said Mr. Roberts. He set the stick down. "Whatever the
purpose of these tools may be, they did not harm any of us. Let us keep it that
way."

"Yes," said Victor.
"We should destroy them now."

A grumble of agreement ran
through the crowd. Even most of the council members nodded. Stanley stood
quietly.

"Return them to the
cave," said Mr. Roberts "They can be dealt with there."

Victor gathered the sticks and
dashed over to the cave. "Grab the rest," he said.

Stanley and Ailey gathered the
remaining sticks and followed Victor. Mr. Roberts and the other council members
followed.

Victor tossed the sticks to the
stone floor and grabbed a drill that was set against the wall. Stanley and
Ailey entered with their sticks.

"Okay good, place them
there," Victor said.

Stanley and Ailey tossed their
sticks into the pile and stepped away.

Victor activated the drill and
aimed it at the sticks. He lunged and shredded the sticks to bits and forced
them deep into the ground below until they became nothing but silver dust. He
set the drill aside and nodded at the council members.

"We did a good job this
day," he said. The council members cheered at him.

Victor emerged from the cave as
the council members followed.

"Did you destroy them?"
said a young man.

"Yes," said Victor.
"We destroyed all of them. You need not worry any longer."

The crowd cheered and clapped at
Victor. Shouts of, "Good man!" and "A wise decision!" were
heard with the countless other words of joyous praise. Victor walked to the
crowd, where he was met by pats on the back and hugs and even kisses.

Stanley walked away from the
crowd and made his way past the streets, to the row of domiciles. All the way,
he kept his hand in his pocket as he ran his finger between three metal sticks
within.

Emily answered the door.

"Welcome," she said.
She leaned in for a kiss and Stanley gave her a peck and walked in.

Stanley went straight to the
shower and washed. He changed into his nightwear then sat at the table.

Emily walked up behind him and
wrapped her arms around him. She leaned in and whispered into his ear,
"Stanley, join me in bed. We haven’t had a proper talk in a long
while."

Stanley kissed her arms and said,
"I have to do some work tonight. You go ahead, I’ll join you
shortly."

But he never did. Emily fell
asleep alone, for Stanley stayed at the table and studied his three metal
sticks. Late into the early morning, he went over to his bed. He slipped the
sticks under his mattress and stared at them for a while before falling asleep.

"Stanley, honey, wake
up." Emily shook Stanley, who was messily sprawled over the bed.
"Stanley," she said louder. "Wake up."

Stanley released a long,
vibrating snore as he snapped awake.

"What, what is it?" he
mumbled, voice hoarse. He looked around and blinked rapidly.

"The town clock just rang
nine," said Emily.

"Right."
Stanley rubbed his eye with the
base of his palm. "I should get going." He stood up and went to the
closet.

"Aren’t you going to
wash?" said Emily.

"No point in doing that. I’m
going to get dirty soon anyway." Stanley removed his nightwear and tossed
it on the bed. He changed into his white shirt and casual pants. He grabbed his
apron as he walked out. "I’ll see you tonight," he called.

He put on his apron as he dashed
past the domiciles, through the streets, to town hall. He pushed through the
crowd and went through the hole, into the cave. He walked through the lake that
had almost completely been filled with dirt.

Victor was sitting at the base of
the tunnel. "Where were you?" he said.

"I’m sorry. I slept
in," Stanley said. "You waited for me?"

"No one wanted to climb up
with me. It's too much of a risk for them." Victor picked up the drill.
"Get your gear on and come on up." He climbed up the tunnel and
disappeared.

Stanley equipped his gear and
followed after Victor. He had already begun drilling. Mounds of dirt slid down,
amassing at Stanley’s feet.

"Hold on for a moment,"
Stanley said.

Victor set his drill down.

Stanley cleared the dirt and
reached Victor then said, "Go on."

Victor continued drilling and
Stanley siphoned the dirt down. As they drilled, they left a trail of plastic
tubes with sharp metal points. Victor stopped and picked one of them up.

"Look at these," he
said. "Long sharp point, it could stick you right in your eye."

"We should be fine,"
Stanley said. "Your drill will destroy most of them. I’ll push whatever
passes by."

"We should tell the council.
They need to know of everything that we find." Victor tried climbing down,
but Stanley placed a hand on his chest.

"We can do that later,"
Stanley said. "These are just plastic tubes that happen to have thin metal
points. They haven’t hurt us, so there’s no reason to be alarmed. "Let’s
just continue drilling."

Victor blinked then turned. He
raised his drill and continued upward. They climbed about thirty more ledges,
all the while discovering more of the plastic tubes and leaving a trail of
them. They continued until Victor stopped the drill and set it down.

"Take a look at this,"
he said. He reached with both hands into the dirt and pulled out a long pole.
At the tip of the pole was a fan of thistles that curved at the ends. Victor
tapped it with his finger. The tip punctured his glove and left a small mark.

"Do you see this?" Victor
said. "Can you see what we’re coming across?"

Stanley silently gazed at the
tool that Victor held.

"These are starting to look
like weapons to you, right?" said Victor. "You have to realize that
these things are dangerous."

Stanley remained silent.

"We’ll stop here,"
Victor said. He raised the tool. "We’ll show this to the others. We’ll
show them everything that we’ve found. Collect as many of those tubes as you
can."

Stanley slowly turned and
gathered some of the plastic tubes, careful to avoid the thin, sharp points.
While collecting them, he noted the markings on the sides: a pattern of long
lines and smaller ones filled in between, labeled with numbers.

"Here," Victor said as
he handed Stanley the drill.

Stanley slid down, drill and
plastic tubes in hand. He stepped out of the tunnel and Victor emerged soon
after.

The other council members had
formed a dense crowd far off to one of the other tunnels.

"Hey," Victor called,
"What’s going on over there?"

The crowd parted to reveal Ailey
standing in the middle. He was holding a thick, wooden rod with a metal slab
fashioned at the top. It fanned out to one side, forming a pointy, curved head.

"I discovered it in my
tunnel," Ailey said. "It almost fell on me. I was lucky I moved away.
The metal part is sharp."

"Well look what we’ve
found," Victor said. He walked over and showed them the long metal pole
with the fanned top. He held it next to Ailey’s tool.

"They’re similar in
structure," Ailey said. "Just the heads are different."

"Different or not, they’re
weapons," Victor said. "Stanley, show them the plastic tubes."

Stanley set his drill aside and
laid the tubes on his hand. He approached and displayed it to the council
members. Most of them gasped and others looked on quietly, but all of their
expressions darkened.

Mr. Roberts stepped forward and
picked one up.

"Careful with the
point," Victor said.

Mr. Roberts scanned the tube from
the base to the thin, metal tip. "No one was hurt?" he said.

"I’m fine," said Ailey.

"I’m fine as well,"
said Victor.

"These tools are
dangerous," Mr. Roberts said.

"They are weapons,"
said Victor. "When will you understand that these are all weapons? Like
the first one Stanley encountered--the stick with the pointed tip." He
held his own tool before him. "But these are more intricate, more
lethal."

"We will keep them in the
corner here for future research." said Mr. Roberts. "And no one will
go near them."

"No, we will destroy
them," said Victor.

The crowd mumbled in agreement.

Mr. Roberts looked around at them.
"Those who wish to preserve these tools, raise your hand." Six
people, including Mr. Roberts and Mr. Albertson, raised their hands. Stanley
kept his down.

"All who wish to destroy
them," said Victor. The rest of the council members, including Victor and
Ailey, raised their hands. Stanley didn’t.

"Are you not going to vote,
Mr. Barrett?" said Mr. Roberts.

"You lost by a wide
margin," said Stanley. "My vote will change nothing."

Victor beckoned for Ailey to
follow and said to Stanley, "Bring those tubes."

Stanley took the tube from Mr.
Roberts and took them to the corner. He tossed them down, on top of the two
tools.

"Stand back," Victor
said as he pulled his visor down. He started his drill and lunged at the tools,
viciously tearing them. Shredded bits shot in all directions until only a hole
remained.

Victor dropped his drill and set
his visor aside. He walked up to Stanley and Mr. Roberts, looked them in the
eyes and said, "They are all weapons." He removed his gear and left.

Stanley walked up to Mr. Roberts
and opened his mouth, but Mr. Roberts said, "We’re going to
continue."

Stanley nodded and shook his
hand. He set his gear down and walked across the dirt filled lake, the water
rising only to his ankles. He went out to town square, where the clock rang
nine. Stanley walked past the square, through the streets, and past the
domiciles. Emily was waiting outside.

"Honey," she said. She
leaned in and kissed Stanley. She presented a pill and a cup of water.

"Oh thank you sweetie,"
Stanley said. He took the pill and swallowed it, then washed it down with the
water. Emily ate her pills and drank her water.

"Well, how about you wash
up?" she said.

"Let me just get settled
before I do anything," Stanley said.

"All right," said
Emily. "Would you mind if I washed then?"

"Go ahead."

"Okay," Emily said with
a smile. She stepped into the shower and washed.

Stanley sat on his bed and
slightly lifted the mattress. The three metal sticks glimmered under the light
of the bedside lamp. He reached into his pocket and produced one of the plastic
tubes that he had found. He carefully placed it beside the metal sticks and set
the mattress down. He stood up, walked over to the closet, and changed into his
sleepwear. He then lay on his bed and closed his eyes. Emily emerged from the
shower.

"You’re not going to
wash?" she said.

"No."

Emily sat down next to Stanley
and placed her arm on his shoulder.

"Did something happen?"
she said. "Let's talk about it. I'm here to listen."

"I would love to, but I am
far too tired," Stanley said, "Maybe tomorrow."

"All right then."

As Emily changed into her
sleepwear, Stanley fell into a deep slumber.