Skyland (18 page)
"No."
"And I came here to help. I'm not going
anywhere. You know it, they know it, I know it. Besides, it's a
military ship. Soldiers everywhere. Barbed wire fence out there.
Where am I going to go? There's not much trouble I could get up
to"
"Probably not."
Harper leaned further in. "Why don't you
take a break?" he whispered. "I don't need a
guide
or
a guard."
The soldier's mouth dropped open for a
second. "What?"
"Go on. Take a break. Look, I'm here to
help. Everyone knows it."
Wills looked around. "I don't know..."
"Oh go on."
"Well..." His smile widened a bit. He shook
his head. "I couldn't. I really couldn't."
"Sure you could. You look dead tired. Look,
I'm not going to get into any trouble – like I even could anyway.
This place is locked down pretty good. Go take a nap or something.
I'll stay out of the way."
"I don't know... Really?"
"Yeah. If anyone asks, I'll just tell them I
went to pee and got lost."
Or whatever... I'll think of
something.
Wills stifled a laugh. "No one will ask. No
one asks questions around here."
"So go take a break, you look like you could
use it. Seriously."
"Yeah... Everyone's been pulling double
shifts since we left for this planet. We weren't prepared for a
war." He yawned. "There aren't enough of us out here."
"The war's not going to run out while you
catch some rest."
Finally, Wills nodded. Then he laughed.
"Alright. Just don't get into any trouble. Don't get
me
into
any trouble."
"I won't. Promise."
The long black hallways wound around and
around and around. Just like the Skyland ship, as massive as this
one had seemed from the outside, on the inside it was even bigger.
The halls just went on and on and on forever.
Left right, left, left, right, left, right,
right, right, straight for a while...
Harper had to count the turns to remember
how to get back. He even retraced his steps a few times to make
sure he remembered it right so far. And at each step, he
looked over his shoulder.
It was quiet.
Far quieter than a military base should be,
he thought. There were open doors and closed doors, regular doors
and heavy doors that were locked. And there were people – people
eating, people, sleeping, people chatting in the halls and inside
the rooms. But mostly there were empty rooms. Empty rooms, empty
halls.
Where is everyone? Are that many people at
the Tenth Day?
Unlike the ships flying through space, this
ship did not hum. It's walls did not vibrate, it's engines did not
rumble even a little. It was a fortress, moving only to be fixed on
whatever planet needed a fortress.
Ahead of him, the hallway ended at a set of
the heavy doors. One corridor went off to the right. His walk
slowed, and he thought for a second about whether he should turn
right and explore more or whether he really should be getting back
to meet Wills.
Two soldiers popped out of the hall on the
right.
Harper stepped back quick.
His heart sped up, but they turned away from
him, towards the heavy doors and did not glance back. One moment
later the doors opened for them, and the two walked into the
hallway beyond.
Harper stepped forward.
One step. Then another, then another.
Without thinking, he stuck his foot out as
the heavy doors swung closed and stopped them.
For a moment, he stood waiting for the two
soldiers to turn around and ask him what he was doing or perhaps
raise their weapons or maybe push him out.
They didn't.
They kept walking. One said something Harper
couldn't catch. The other laughed. Down and down the hallway they
walked, not looking back. Then they were far at the end, and then
around a corner.
And the hallway beyond the heavy door was
empty.
Harper moved forward, just half a step. One
of the doors swung closed, the other hit him in the back, almost
closed. He turned to inspect it. It was a door like all the others
on the ship – heavier, but otherwise identical – there was no
visible locking mechanism. But no doubt like the other heavy doors,
this one would lock, and lock behind him.
Harper stood for a moment. He wanted to know
what was behind the locked doors.
How will I get out?
He knelt down and undid his shoes, but a
shoe stuck between two heavy doors would attract attention. He took
off his socks and put his shoes back on. He balled the socks up and
stuck one in between a hinge of the door, then stepped back. The
door slowly swung towards the other, then rested almost closed with
a half-an-inch gap in between. Hardly noticeable. He pushed against
the door with one hand. It opened. He was not locked in.
If I get caught, I'll say I was lost.
He shook off his unease.
Wills will be in more trouble for
letting me wander.
He felt a twinge of guilt at the
thought.
It vanished as he turned away from the doors
and faced the hallway.
It was silent.
Unlike the others, mostly empty but with a
few voices here and there, this hall was devoid of sound. Harper
shifted uncomfortably. His shoe squeaked and he jumped. Then he
looked closer at the hall he was standing in.
At first, it had looked like a straight
corridor with no doors on either side. But as he ran his hand along
one wall, he realized there were seams in the apparently smooth
surface. Squinting at the walls, he saw more seams.
Doors.
Solid doors without handles, without
windows, without even light around the edges. More and more,
as far as he could see on either side. Doors.
And it was dark.
This hall was dimmer than the rest of the
ship. Not completely dark. There were glowing strips of light
around the ceiling and floor, like there were everywhere else on
the ship. But everywhere else, there had been light spilling out
from open doors here and there, out from windows, out from other
hallways. But here, there was just one long hall until the end
where it branched into other corridors. The light from them did not
brighten the gloom.
Harper took a few cautious steps down the
hall. He listened at the cracks of the doors, but the rooms were
either silent or soundproofed, and he heard nothing. Down the hall
he walked, ear pressed to the wall, hands running over the smooth
surface searching for any hint of another feature besides the
endless black metal and the lightless seams. He pressed against the
doors, but nothing happened.
Further and further down, past door after
door after door, he walked until he realized what he had wandered
in to – this place, a long hall of room after room after room,
close together, locked more securely than any other doors on the
ship...
A prison.
A thread of fearful tension snaked through
his stomach, and he stopped dead.
Do the doors even open?
He wondered, for a wild moment, if he had
wandered into a one-way dungeon with doors that opened only once.
He looked back down the hallway towards the door he had
almost-closed behind himself. A chink of light shone through from
the rest of the ship beyond. He fought the urge to run back and be
safe on the other side, before he delivered himself to his own
cell.
He shivered thinking what might be behind
the black doors.
That's why the soldiers weren't concerned?
That's why they were laughing? This is not a place of vicious
enemies, this is the place of dead enemies...?
He was frozen. His feet stood where they
were, but his eyes looked back at the far door wanting, wanting,
wanting to be on the other side.
He looked around himself.
Silence, dimness.
He took a half step backwards, an
involuntary, reflexive, retreating step back towards safety. He
took another. But as his head whipped from side to side looking for
a soldier's boot around the corner, he saw a light he hadn't
noticed before.
One door stood open.
Down, down, down the hall, almost at the
end, some light spilled out from a door, open perhaps only a few
inches. So close to the end of the hall, it's light must have
blended with the other hallways' and been invisible from the far
end.
What is in there?
Harper's jaw twitched. He grimaced at his
own curiosity.
No. Go! Go before you get yourself into a
one-way room.
But his eyes were locked on the open door,
and his feet were twitching towards it, inching into a step,
shuffling away from safety, further down the hall towards the open
cell. The open door got closer and closer. Harper paused,
listening. There was no sound outside or inside the room. Closer
and closer his feet shuffled.
He was almost there.
He leaned against the wall only two feet
away from the cell from which the light spilled. He pressed himself
flat against the black wall and inched along it, peering at the
gap. His hands were in fists at his side. Then the gap was
right beside him, but still he could see nothing on the other side
of the door. He peeked an eye around the corner.
An old man lay on a bed.
A table sat in the middle of the room with
two chairs sitting empty across from each other. A tray with crumbs
sat on the table. The old man lay on his side, not moving, but
Harper could see his shoulders twitching, just a little,
breathing.
It's just a grandpa.
Harper let his breath out, a breath he
hadn't known he was holding. He took another step, then turned his
head sharply away from the acrid smell coming from the open door.
The room smelled of piss.
The man looked up.
The wizened lids flicked up, grey eyes
floated in a sunken face on a still body, and they fixed on
Harper's face. Harper twitched, but held the old man's gaze. He did
not recognize him.
"Hey, grandpa," he said, and the old man
just stared up some more. "What are you doing here?"
"I... I..." The cracked voice rasped over
the dry, cracked lips, and the grey eyes blinked once, twice. "I...
don't know anything."
Harper stared at the shriveled husk of a
body, barely living. His lips moved mechanically, out of habit,
forming a response that didn't fit the bizarre conversation. "I
know" he said. He didn't know what else to say. He made his voice
soft, calming, and held up his hands palms open, a gesture of
peace. "I know," he said again.
Harper took another step into the room. He
clenched his jaw tight so he wouldn't retch at the smell.
He can't be dangerous.
He took another step, and the old man just
watched.
But if not dangerous... useful? But how? An
old man!
He shivered. And took another step.
This time the old man groaned and rolled over, turning away from
Harper, burying the old face into what was probably supposed to be
a mattress.
"Go away," the cracked voice pleaded,
muffled now.
"It's ok, nobody's around," said Harper,
stupidly.
Of course there are people around! It's a military
base.
"No one's taken notice of me, and I've been wandering
around for a bit."
For now.
The insistent urge to flee – to run back to
the relative safety of the well-lit halls where his room and his
soft and puffy bed with its soft and puffy pillows were – gnawed at
his gut. Again. But curiosity and revulsion kept his back to the
door. He took another step. He could have reached out and touched
the end of the bed.
"Go away... go away." The muffled voice was
more insistent.
"Come with me."
Harper heart thudded hard again. His own
words shocked him.
He stared at the old man. His stomach
clenched with pity. His breath choked on the smell of piss. He
nodded once to himself, agreeing with his own un-thought-out
words.
"Yeah, come with me," he said again. "Let's
get you out of here." He finally turned back to the door, took a
couple quick, light steps and leaned around the opening to check
the silent hallway. "I've got the big doors down there unlocked. No
one's around – everyone's at worship or something." He was
rambling. "And-and people don't ask questions here." He stopped and
took a breath.
He's just a grandpa...
"No, no... we won't get out.... no..."
"Come on, come one." Harper gestured
frantically towards the door, but the old man's face was still
buried and turned away. "It's ok, we'll find a way out."
Or try
anyway.
"Come on-"
"No... no. I don't have anywhere...anywhere
to–"
"It's okay, me neither," said Harper. "We'll
find a place."
"No. No... my wife–my wife is... she isn't
here, I can't go anywhere without her."
"We'll go find her, then. When we get out,
we'll find her and bring her with us."
The old man laughed, and finally rolled back
over. His eyes met Harper's again and he smiled. "You'll go into
the Sky to find her?"
"Oh..." Harper's throat clenched.
"Grandpa... I'm sorry."
"Go."
"No, not without you," he said. "Look, your
door's open. It's their own fault. And they would have locked it
if-if they wanted to keep you in here. Come on."
"I don't know... I don't know... anything.
The man... the man left it open."
The man?
"Who?"
"The man... I don't know... I don't know
anything."
Damnit.
"Well, then we should go
before he comes back–"
"No!"
Harper's hand's were shaking. He stared at
the old man on the bed who was now curled in a ball, refusing to
look at him.
The man...
"Ok, ok."
We probably
couldn't get out anyway.
"Ok, grandpa. " He took a breath,
and closed his eyes. He swallowed again and opened them. "Ok.
I'll... I'll go. But I'll come back. I'll-I'll find a way, and I'll
come back."