Hardin's Dilemma

relieved. “I can’t believe you are forgiving me.”

  “I’m thanking you not forgiving you.” I said sternly. “It’s because of you that I lost a friend. I didn’t know him very long, but by protecting me and making me a hero just for a night he will always remind me that there is good in the worst places. You also took the last peace from my mind. Showing me that in the center of everyone’s heart is chaos that can be brought out no matter how hard it’s been covered up. I’ve seen it again and again since then. You and this Jurt changed me that day and I’m still not sure if it was for the best.”

  He nodded appreciatively. “I am sorry.”

  “Why did you even tell me?”

  “I wanted to finally tell someone. It weighed on me for so long. But tell me, how bad is it over there?”

  “Horrible. There’s nothing worse than the state in there. I just want to get everybody out.”

  “How?”

  I thought again if it was best to tell him. I decided it was.

  “Right now I think that if I can go with some guns I can force them out.”

  He thought for a second. “You know I could be some use to you. If we could sneak out one night before we go back to Dizuria then maybe we can get over there. It would be tricky and we would have to bring the bracelets to get on the other side, but it just might work.”

  “I don’t know.”

  I worried about getting caught. It was a nice offer though. If nothing else came up before we had to leave the wall and go back to Diz City then maybe I would go with that idea and get things done without the hunters.

  “I really want to make everything up.” He said. “And since I know I can’t all the way this might be something I can do for you. It will at least make me feel better.”

  I worried about making plans to far in advance because things never seemed to work out the way I think they will. I revisited the idea of just getting the Humurom’s out and then leaving all the land to Dizuria. Apart from the killing of the hunters and Bozlins I really can’t see that much wrong with Dizuria taking over the land.

  “If we can keep it under wraps long enough then yeah, that might work.”

  “I’ll try to make sure I can get some bracelets and sneak out.”

  He was becoming more excited the more we talked.

  “What will happen if we get caught?” I asked nervously.

  “Several things might happen. If they don’t suspect what we are doing they might just throw us out. If they do then we might be in for extreme dark room training.”

  This dark room stuff sounded really messed up. “What is that exactly?”

  He shivered. “It’s a set of brainwashing and torture techniques designed to make the most aggressive soldiers. Most of the people who are sent in have changed forever.”

  “How did you get through it?”

  “If you can remember who you are and that what they are doing to you is not real pain then you can get out relatively normal.”

  “I wish I knew what happened with all those people guarding the wall.” I said.

  “I don’t know for sure, but I guess they were all brought back here for more intense dark room training. To make sure that they killed any living things near the wall, since they obviously didn’t last time. Did you take advantage of that?”

  “We got all of the Bozlins out.”

  “Really?” He sounded impressed.

  “Just the Humurom’s now.”

  “And then it’s over?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good.”

  I thought about the super aggressive soldiers that would be back at the wall. That meant that Billus, Theen, and I would have to be the ones to liberate Humurom. Waiting for the hunters would take too long.

  “Any reason in particular that Dizuria wants a super aggressive army?” I asked, fearing the answer.

  “I’m assuming that they think you will come back in with an army.”

  “That’s funny because I wanted to. The president of Azureland wouldn’t let me.”

  “This goes to the top of both governments then.”

  I felt stupid for telling him that. Even if I did trust him it was a bad idea to tell too much, at least until he helped and we were safely in Azureland.

  We turned our attention to the task at hand, which we still hadn’t found much success in. That little object had to be somewhere; I only hoped that we would find it before too much time had passed. We were running out of food.

  The day passed and we still hadn’t found anything. It was beginning to get worrisome. Billus found another nice spot for a camp. The rain had stopped but not before making the ground muddy. We found a patch of shrubs and grass and maneuvered around until we found a way to sleep on it. It got dark and we could no longer see each other.

  “I actually thought you were going to attack me when I told you all that this morning.” He said, I could tell he was smiling.

  “I don’t like to pick fights.” I said simply, forgetting that I had just picked a fight the night before.

  “Then you are in the wrong place.”

  “Not for long.”

  I heard him move around, getting up a little bit. “Can I really come with you?”

  “I’ll need your help to scare the Humurom’s.”

  “I can’t believe I’m this close to finally getting out of all this.” He could barely contain his enthusiasm.

  I wondered if that was my purpose in life; to get people out of horrible situations. It wouldn’t be that bad of a purpose I suppose.

  “Where do you live now?” He asked.

  “In Wall City, in Azureland.”

  “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

  I yawned, feeling surprisingly better than I had since being in Dizuria. “Now you can.”

  I shut my eyes and drifted off to sleep sometime soon after.

  XVI

  The ground was still wet when I got up. I had mud stains on my back. We wasted no time. We ate the rest of the bread and some of the meat and started out, determined to find the object.

  “I’m going to see if I can think up a plan today for getting those people out.” Billus said.

  “I just hope we find the object.”

  “Yes, that too.”

  I was glad to see how excited he was about helping me. His experience and knowledge of the dome and Dizuria would come in handy if things worked out our way. Not that they ever did. But I was hopeful that this time was going to be different.

  We came to a part of the forest that Billus seemed to be familiar with. He paced back and forth in one little area, certain that it was where he found the hidden object last time he had to look. There was a tree with a hollow in it. He studied it for a long time.

  “I remember this tree, I’m positive. This is where it was hidden last time.”

  He put his hand in the hollow and came out with a gold wristwatch in his hand.

  “And here it is.”

  We both sighed in relief.

  “Now let’s get back in one piece.” He put the watch in the bag.

  “Do you know which way is out?” I asked, fairly sure that we were completely lost.

  “It shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

  I wasn’t a strong believer in his sense of direction at this point.

  He took off in the direction that he thought would take us straight back to the castle. An hour later he changed his mind and went a different direction. An hour after that he sat down on a tree stump and frowned.

  “It was easier last time.”

  “Can you climb? If one of us climbs a tree we might be able to see the castle.” I suggested.

  “I’m not going to climb up there. I don’t plan on breaking my neck.”

  “Well I don’t know how to climb a tree.”

  “Then I guess we’ll have to follow my directions.” He stood up with a fresh resolve and started in a new direction.

  We ate the dried mea
t and finished our water. With no food left we were forced to make the best decision on which way to go.

  “Do you know what direction it is?” I asked as evening approached.

  “No. Wait, do you hear that?”

  I listened. I could hear the far away sounds of gun fire. “That sounds like the right way.”

  We followed the sounds. They grew louder all the time. Within ten minutes we stumbled out of the forest and back to where we started. We saw Filn near the fenced in shooting area and went straight to him.

  “We found it.” Billus handed the watch to Filn.

  “So you did. It didn’t take you too long at all. This is going to be good for you Billus. They might put you out there when the rest go out.”

  “The rest of what?” Billus asked nervously.

  “News came in while you were in. But it’s been kept secret. If you make it out of dark room training I’ll tell you.”

  Billus was beginning to look very anxious. “I think it would be better if you told me now.”

  Filn smiled. “Just don’t tell anyone I told you.” He motioned for us to lean in. “There is going to be a full scale assault on the Bozlins and Humuroms.”

  My breath caught somewhere in my lungs.

  “We are going to take them out and finally get this dome to be all ours.”

  It disturbed me to see how happy he was with all of this.

  He saw the confusion in our faces. “It’ll go smoothly I promise. They don’t have much to fight with. Leric thinks that if we go after them all at once they won’t be able to detonate those bombs. In no time at all we will have all the room we could ever ask for.”

  Billus tried several times to speak but couldn’t at first. “Why are they deciding this now?”

  “They decided it when that guy got out of the wall. We know he came back in and took more out. Somebody, most likely the Azures,