XIV
The sun snuck in through the curtains to wake me early the next morning. I tried to get back to sleep but the anxiety I was under prevented that. I went out to meet Nara in the lobby. The elevator was a lot easier to use the second time. I waited on the same couch as I did the day before. As I was waiting two people stopped a short distance from me. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but when I heard something about me I couldn’t resist.
“So you say he’s staying here?” The first man asked.
“That’s what I hear.” The second man replied.
“What do you think he looks like?”
“What makes you think he looks any different?”
The first man scratched his chin. “I don’t know. I assume he’s been living underground or something for years. He probably looks like a bum.”
They continued walking. It was interesting to hear the unfiltered opinions of me. Nara came up a little while later. I asked her what people thought of me. She told me that I was getting popular and that people wanted to meet me. They probably wouldn’t recognize me though since I blended in so well. We went to the café again and had some more omelets and then headed out.
“Where are we going?” I asked when we stepped out into the frigid morning.
“The mayor wants you to see the country, and this is the easiest way.” She said casually.
“How are we going to see the entire country?”
“By train.”
The word sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “I don’t know if you forgot, but I have no idea what that is.”
“Sorry, a train is a very large vehicle that travels a rail line. It goes pretty fast.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve read about those.” I was happy that I was an avid reader. I would have been even more lost if I wasn’t.
“Do you want to try it?” She asked, though it was clear that it had already been decided.
“Absolutely.” It was so nice to be able to try new things without worrying about being ambushed by Cityers.
The train station was about a mile from the government building. It stood a good deal taller than many of the buildings, and was much wider. Nara bought the tickets and soon we were on one of the many platforms with about a thousand other people. A loud whistle accompanied a train coming up to the platform next to ours. The train was silver and very large. The front was curved down.
“Whoa, that’s different than the ones I’ve seen.” I was used to old style trains with a smoke stack on the top.
“They’ve gone through a few changes over the last hundred years.”
“Are they faster?”
“You’ll find out.”
A few minutes later a train pulled up in front of us. The doors opened but only a few people got on. Nara picked out two seats at the very back of the car, several rows away from anybody else. A man came by and took our tickets. Only seconds later we took off. That’s really the only way to describe it. I was pushed back into my seat as the train shot out of the station at an amazing speed. I tried to sit up but Nara pushed me back. Once we were at the desired speed I could move again.
“No way!” I exclaim excitedly, wishing to experience the acceleration again.
The tracks curved their way out of the city and into the country side. A few houses passed by in the blink of an eye, but mostly there was just grass and hills to look at. Nara opened a book and began to read. I spent my time looking out the window at everything passing by.
“How many countries border the wall?” I ask suddenly, several minutes later.
“Five.” Nara said without looking up from her book.
“Are the other four like this?”
“Wall City is the nicest city as far as technology and building size, but overall most of the places are the same.”
“And nobody can get into the wall?”
“No, which is what makes your bracelet so strange.”
“The Cityers must have an incredible Technology Office.”
“I suppose so.” She said while turning a page.
“So who are these other countries?”
She closed her book. “There’s Murion, which is to the south.”
“Where is Azureland?”
“To the east. Then there’s Zamiastin to the north, Westernia to the west, and then a tiny country called Dizuria right between Zamiastin and Westernia.”
“And are these the world’s only countries?”
“Oh no, there are hundreds. Some are across huge oceans.”
This really put me over the top in my amazement quota. I could only imagine a world so large. What caught my attention the most was the oceans. “Oceans? Are we going to see one?”
“No, Azureland doesn’t have a coast, but it does have a lake, and that’s where we’re going.”
“I can’t wait to see water.” The tiny springs at home were probably no match for a lake.
I looked out the window again and saw white flecks whizzing past us. “What is that?” I asked, not sure if I should be worried.
She laughed. “Snow.”
I read about snow on many occasions. “This day has everything!” It was safe to say that the train was all I needed to push my responsibilities from my mind. The snow made sure they stayed away.
I quietly watched the snow as Nara went back to reading. I shivered despite it being warm on the train. My mind was at ease in those few minutes. The ground slowly grew white as the snow accumulated. I wanted to go out and play in it, like they did long ago. A half an hour later the train slowed to a stop.
“Here we are.” Nara announced, leading the way off the train.
“That was it?”
She was laughing again. It wasn’t mean or sarcastic, but kind and understanding. “Yeah, that was it.”
I liked watching her laugh, she had a pretty smile. “It was a short ride.”
I followed her off the train into the freezing snow. I flinched every time a snowflake hit me, they are so cold. The platform was just a long stretch of stone sitting up off the ground. The train took off and we were the only ones who got off. There was nothing to see but white in all directions. At first I thought that she made a mistake but she led me away into the snow as if she knew where she was. I was so excited I jumped off the platform. I don’t know what I was expecting but I let out a yelp as the snow froze every part of me it could. I rushed over to Nara, shivering uncontrollably.
“IT’S FREEZING.” I chattered.
“Its snow, of course it is.”
“I should bring some back for my friends.”
“It’ll melt.”
“It does that?” I asked stupidly.
Another laugh. “You have so much to learn. Books can’t teach you everything.”
We walked for a while. I tried hard not to sink into the snow; it must have started much earlier out there because it was much deeper. “Are we going to the lake?”
“Yes, and we are also making a slight detour. My parent’s house overlooks the lake, and I thought we might as well go see them.”
I sensed that she was trying to keep this part a secret until then. I presumed that she didn’t have time to go home very often. “You could have just told me from the start. I’m alright with anything; I don’t have anywhere to go for a while.”
“There it is, up there. See it?”
I looked. Up ahead the ground sloped up, and on the top of the hill was a two story house surrounded by bare trees. “It looks nice.”
“I’m going to go in first, let them know about you.”
“Me, the guy from the wall.” I expected I was supposed to be a secret.
“I can’t tell them that, I’ll just say you’re a friend from the city.”
“I’ll wait here.”
Nara went in. I tried to get a view of the lake but was too afraid to move very far and so couldn’t see it. She came back out in a hurry. “You’re a floor cleaner, alright?”
I was so confused. “I’m a what?”
A middle aged man appeared at the door. “Hello there Hardin, come on it.” We went in. “I’m Mr. Kilray. I’m sorry to say my wife will not be joining us, she is at her mother’s, she is very sick.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that, sir.” I said, knowing all too well how hard that can be.
“Call me Mr. Kilray, or Joe, but no sir.” He had a friendly smile, blonde hair, and dark eyes like his daughter.
“Yes s—Mr. Kilray.
The house was warm and smelled inviting. He led us into the living room to the right of the door. Several plush chairs were sitting out on a very ornate carpet. We all took a seat. He clapped his hands together. “Now, what do you do in the big city, Hardin?”
I tried to remember what Nara had told me. “I’m a door cleaner.” I said proudly.
“Floor cleaner!” Nara suddenly shouted, making the rest of us jump.
“Floor cleaner, excuse me.” I corrected.
He stared at us as if we were both crazy. “Right,” he said slowly, “well whatever you clean I’m sure you do a good job, you look like a hard worker.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m going to take Hardin out to see the lake,” Nara said nervously, “come on Hardin.”
We both went out the back door. At the bottom of the hill the lake started, and didn’t end at any visible shore, it was that large. “What a sight.” I whispered as I took in the view.”
“That was close. When I told him someone came with me he automatically asked if it was the man from the wall’.”
I wasn’t surprised. “He’s smart.”
“And he knows I do Giliks dirty work.”
“I’m dirty work?” I said without taking my eyes off the water. Large sheets of ice were floating around.
“I didn’t mean you.” She said quickly.
“I’m joking. But that lake is amazing. Does the ocean look bigger?”
“Way bigger.”
“Wow.”
“Hey kids,” Mr. Kilray called from the back door, “come on in and get some food, it’s almost dinner time.”
“Already?” I asked Nara after her father disappeared inside again.
“He eats really early.”
The kitchen was to the left of the front door. There was a table, a counter, and a stove and a few other things I didn’t know the name of. The table was full of some of the most amazing smelling food I had ever seen. And there was so much of it, enough to feed at least six people.
“How was this cooked so fast?” I asked.
“I have a Speed Cooker; things get done in a minute.” Mr. Kilray said.
“That’s incredible.”
He looked back at me. “What do you use?”
“Oh, I use one of those; I just don’t usually get so much food out of it.”
“Uh-huh.” He said slowly.
“Let’s eat.” Nara called out loudly.
We all sat down around the table. I helped myself to some beef because it was the only thing I recognized, but soon I was trying a little of everything.
“So what brings you two all the way out here?” Mr. Kilray asked as he shoveled a yellow something onto his plate.
Nara answered for me. “Hardin is a floor cleaner and doesn’t get out much. When I said I was going to see my parents by the lake he was like ‘by the lake!’ and came right along.”
“Is this true Hardin?”
“Why shouldn’t it be?”
“What?”
“It’s totally true.” I exclaimed. I wasn’t very good under this kind of pressure.
“Do you always act so strange?”
“I don’t get out much.” I said with a smile.
I made my way around the table and found that everything was good. I felt more alert and overall a lot better than I had at home. I think it was the food. This proved to me that my mother would probably get better if she were there. It helped my mood slightly to know that.
I came to a soup bowl near the end of the table. “What is this?”
“It’s chicken noodle soup. You know; the easiest and cheapest food you can buy for the Speed Cooker.” Mr. Kilray explained.
“Of course it is.” I really should have stopped talking.
“So dad,” Nara cut in, “I love what you did with the yard.”
Mr. Kilray didn’t take his eyes off me. “You can’t see the yard.”
He didn’t say anything for the rest of dinner, but he managed to keep a suspicious eye on me the whole time. After we ate he invited us into the living room to have chocolate cake. It was the first time I had chocolate. All I can say is that I was very impressed.
“So what do you two make of the fellow who came from inside the wall?” Mr. Kilray asked over cake.
“You found out fast.” I said.
“I have a TV.”
I wasn’t sure what this was and so made my best guess. “So do I.”
“With you?” He asked with a grin.
“He doesn’t.” Nara said.
“I left it on the train.”
Mr. Kilray tried hard not to laugh.
“I think it’s great, a very historic event.” Nara attempted to get back on subject.
Mr. Kilray nodded. “Too bad nobody knows where he is. News reporters found out that he was sent away somewhere, tons of rumors.”
“Maybe he wanted to see the country.” I said.
“Maybe the lake.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I looked over to Nara. She had a look on her face as if to say: “this was a terrible idea”.
“What do you think of the wall, Mr. Kilray?” I asked.
“What do I think of it?”
“This cake is great.” Nara said in vain.
“What’s your opinion of it, what does it stand for to you?”
“Did mom make it?”
“I bought it.” Mr. Kilray said. “It stands for a lost cause, Hardin, a period when everybody was making the wrong decisions. It’s something we can’t take back, we can only learn from it.”
I thought about this for a minute. I could see where he was coming from, and I couldn’t blame him for feeling that way. It’s not like he could see what was going on inside. “I see it as a terrible idea as well, but I also see it as a tragedy for all those inside. Their neighbors and friends chose to hide them away instead of helping them.”
“Differing opinions are what makes the world so great.” He asserted.
“I agree.”
“See, now we’re best friends.”
I enjoyed his sense of humor. Most people in Humurom only knew morbid humor. Mr. Kilray was the personification of Azureland in my eyes. His personality was new and fresh, I hadn’t met anybody like him before. “What do you think should be done about it?”
“The guy who came out changes everything. Before that nobody ever knew anybody was alive, and now we have to figure out everything we can that he can teach us to see if there are others and if they’re friendly. If so, then we’ll try to get them all out. There’s no way we’ll get the wall down, so that’s the only way.”
“And if they’re not friendly?”
“Then they’ll try to keep them from coming out. The thing I don’t understand is why they let him out of the city. I doubt they have all the information they need.”
“That is a good question.” I said quietly.
Mr. Kilray got up. “It’s getting late, I’ll clean up.”
I sat there while they got things cleaned up. I wasn’t sure what to do and so just tried to stay out of the way. I wanted to ask Nara why she hadn’t asked me any questions, but I found it difficult to get her alone. Every time she came by the living room she was called back to help in the kitchen. It bothered me that she hadn’t asked anything. There must have been some reason why I was out there besides wasting time. I would have probably gone crazy trying to wait i
t out in the city with nothing to do, but was that the only reason? I had a sneaking suspicion that I had become a piece of something bigger than I realized. The thought freaked me out a bit and I pushed it from my mind.
Mr. Kilray showed me to a guest bedroom on the second floor. Night came before long and I spent the evening watching it snow, using the front porch light directly below the room for light. I tried to sleep when I got tired, but couldn’t bring myself to rid my mind of the day’s anxieties. Finally I gave up and went downstairs to watch the snow better. I sat in the living room and pulled the curtain back. The house was still, quiet, it was so nice.
I heard a noise behind me and looked to see Mr. Kilray standing there, looking serious. “What do you think of it here?” He asked quietly.
“Sorry?”
“I know you’re the man from the wall, you didn’t exactly hide it very well.”
I sighed. “I know, I don’t get why I can’t tell anyone.”
“You’re already famous, a hero to some who wished that some good news would someday come from that eyesore. They want you to not be sucked into the hype. I think that’s why they sent you away. The less you know about your fame the better, that’s how I see it.”
“I just wish they would let me back in.”
“They don’t?”
“No.”
“How did you get out?”
“I found a bracelet that transported me out. Now the scientists in the city are trying to recreate it, and until they do I’m stuck here.”
“And did you tell them everything they could possible learn from you?”
“No, not really.”
He nodded slowly. “Then why send you across the country?”
“No idea.” I was just as stumped as he was.
He sat down in one of the chairs. “Where did you live in there?”
I retold my story, starting with Humurom, but without the Nutrition. How the team was formed and how we got to the wall. He didn’t ask any questions or interrupt me. I could tell he was taking it all in very seriously.
“That’s too bad.” He said when I finished. “I would say it’s odd that we speak so similarly, but I guess that humans grow and change at the same rate no matter where they are. It’s just amazing that you all survived so long. What did you eat?”
I hesitated, not wanting to tell too much. “For the first hundred years we ate canned food. Since then we’ve had to hunt deer and eat something called Nutrition.”
“If the entire place was destroyed by nuclear bombs then how are there deer?”
Leave it to the man living hundreds of miles away from the dome to come up with the one question I should have been asking for years. I couldn’t believe that I had never thought about that before. Could deer survive nuclear explosions? I doubted it since humans couldn’t. Maybe they hid somewhere like we did. It didn’t make any sense and all I was doing was making my head hurt by thinking about it. But I needed an answer, and knew I wasn’t going to get any there. I mentally told myself to remember to ask it as soon as I saw Calrus again. “I don’t know.” I finally said. “There are so many questions I can’t answer.”
“Maybe you will eventually.”
“Hopefully.” I liked talking to Mr. Kilray, he was very understanding. I was glad Nara took me out there.
“What are you going to do when you get back?”
“Try to get my mother out. She’ll be better here than she is there.”
“Well, I hope you succeed.”
I turned back to watching the snow. He shifted in his chair, I thought he was about to get up, but he didn’t. I looked over and could tell that he was watching me. I wondered if I was what he expected from someone from the wall. “I can’t believe all this.” I said after a while.
“I imagine it’s a little overwhelming.”
“It was at first, but I’m good at adapting to sudden changes, or at least I think that I am.”
“I hope it gets better for your people. It will be nice to get everyone out. What did you know of the outside?”
I had to think about that for a moment. “I saw paintings of green grass and people enjoying the outside. It was always a fantasy of mine to be able to go out and not be afraid; to sit on grass and enjoy the sun. We thought the sun didn’t like us, never shining down on us. We had no idea that there was something blocking it.”
“It must have been warm in there. The sun must have been heating up the walls, not letting the warmth out or the cold in.”
“That’s why it was so warm.” I mused.
“Nara tells me that you both are leaving in the morning. I’ll leave you be, I only came down for a snack. You can help yourself to something if you can figure it out.” He went back upstairs.
I had grown tired and followed him upstairs. The bed was nice and soft, like the one in Wall City. I fell asleep almost instantly, waking again at first light. I took time to look over the little details of the house. The walls were white with a yellow hue. They could have been any color and I wouldn’t care. I was just happy they weren’t metal. The floor was made out of pieces of wood, very unique. My room was filled with shelves of books and little dolls. I imagined that it was my room; that I spent every day of my life sleeping in it. It was a nice fantasy, but I soon returned to the sad reality where I grew up in Humurom.
My stomach alerted me to the need of food and I went downstairs, ready to be met with breakfast. Instead I found the kitchen empty. I was the first one up, and I had slept in until dawn, that was late for me. Mr. Kilray had said that I could make food if I could figure out how. I decided to attempt it. The problem was that I couldn’t find any food. The cabinets were filled with square boxes of various sizes. There were words on them of different foods. One had peaches in it. I had read about peaches on numerous occasions and was excited to finally try them. The words on the box seemed strange. For instance one said “fresh peaches”. Now how could peaches be fresh if they were in a box in a cabinet? I took the box down and opened it. Inside was a smaller box. I opened that box to find that it had a small bowl inside with white chunks of what appeared to be salt. The smaller box had more writing on it.
Heating Instructions:
1. Open box
2. Put in Speed Cooker for two clicks
3. Enjoy!
What did that mean? Two Clicks? I assumed the Speed Cooker was the large white box with a door on the front that sat on the counter. I put the peaches in and closed the door. To the right of the door was a small round dial. I twisted it and heard a click. One mystery solved! It clicked a second time and I waited. Nothing happened. I tried a few more clicks but still nothing happened. I noticed a small button under the dial. This was obviously the “on” button; I can’t believe I didn’t notice it earlier. I pushed the button and was pleasantly surprised to see the cooker light up.
The peaches turned from white to a lovely orange. But they didn’t stop there. They quickly turned darker and shriveled up. Was I supposed to open the door? Hit the button again? I didn’t know. To my horror the peaches turned black and caught fire. I yelped and threw the door open only to be met with the most terrible odor I have ever encountered. I was so scared that I fled out the back door to avoid suspicion.
I went down the snowy hill towards the lake, settling on a rock only a few feet from the shore. Little waves lapped up against a tiny strip of sand. Despite the cold I wanted to stay in that spot as long as I could and enjoy the sights and sounds. No thought went towards home, or my responsibility to get back there. I wanted so badly to be from there, to have spent my childhood looking at lakes and snow and not metal and Nutrition. I couldn’t turn back time, but perhaps I could live there and experience it as a child who is looking at the world as if everything is fresh and new. I was over the small bit of disappointment caused by the noisy city, and experiencing the initial wonder again. I thought I would probab
ly be feeling that way every time I was in someplace new. My mood went through so many ups and downs in a weekly basis at home that sometimes I wondered if there was something wrong with me. I had no answer and never wanted the medics to come anywhere near me. Perhaps that was just how I was, and there was nothing wrong with me.
I heard footsteps behind me and looked back to see Nara. “That was some smell you created in there.”
“Is he mad?”
“He can’t stop laughing.”
That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting, but I was glad I could go back inside without fear of being yelled at. “What’s the plan today?”
She nodded towards the lake. “I was thinking about a boat ride. Want to come?”
I jumped up, the only thing better than looking at the lake would be to travel on it. We went to a small wooden boat a little ways down the shore and got in. I was surprised at how it rocked and almost turned over. She steadied me and I sat down, a little frightened of what it was going to feel like. Nara pushed off from the shore and we glided into the open water, pushing past sheets of ice along the way. The boat swayed from side to side. I pretended like I was used to it but we both knew I had no experience with anything like that.
“This is fun.” I said. “Though a little more daring then I thought. I keep feeling like I’m going to fall out.”
“You won’t, I promise.”
I heard a hint of humor in her voice and was unsure of how to respond. “I’ve been thinking about how to get my mother out, and I think I may expand my plan.”
“How so?”
I actually hadn’t spent any time thinking about it and made it up as I went along. Though it sounded right and I was glad that I said it when I was done. “I want to get everyone out.”
“That would be a –”
“Migration. Is that what you were going to say?”
She frowned. “No, I was going to say it would be a dangerous idea.”
I was a little embarrassed. “Yes it will be, but it’s possible. I don’t mean moving everyone out at once, just a few at a time. With the help of some weapons and fighters from here it should be easy. The Cityers will have no chance of stopping us.”
She looked at me for a while, searching for something in my expression. “I think you’re going in the wrong direction with the Bozlins.”
“They went in the wrong direction first when they killed Milton.”
“I don’t know who that is, but you can’t tell me it’s been a one way street.”
I was not familiar with that expression. “If you are trying to say that we caused any of it then –” I was about to say that she was insane, but I remembered the burning homes that I had witnessed. “Then you’re probably right, but they’re not my people, and I need to help my people first.”
“You’re putting people in categories; that’s never a good idea. That’s how the wall went up in the first place.”
“Then there’s no problem continuing the ideas.” I said stubbornly.
She looked about to yell, but thought better of it. “You don’t have to think like them, the people of the past, you can think differently.”
I was back in the church saying something similar to Milton. People are people. Something about that really annoyed me. It wasn’t the same thing at all. When I told Milton that same thing I wanted him to think independently of the leaders. In that boat that day I wanted to save my people from certain doom. She had no idea what she was talking about. “I do think differently, but decisions are made for the good of as many of ‘your’ people as they can be.”
“And good decisions are made for the good of everyone everywhere.” She stopped short as if remembering something she was supposed to do, or not do. “It’s really cold out here. Do you want to go back?”
I could tell she was hiding something, which made me slightly paranoid. But I chose not to act on it. “That sounds good.”
Nara rowed the boat back to the shore and we dismounted. I tidied up my room and spent another few minutes fantasizing my made up childhood. We met in the living room where we had breakfast. The smell I made had thankfully left. After breakfast we said our goodbyes.
“Goodbye you two, it’s been an interesting time.” Mr. Kilray laughed.
Nara hugged her father. “I’ll stay longer next time.”
“It was nice to meet you, Mr. Kilray.” I said.
“Best of luck Hardin, I look forward to seeing you again.”
XV
We left the house and returned to the snow. Nara led me back towards the train platform. It occurred to me that I had no idea where we were going, but I didn’t care at that moment. I was alright with wherever. The platform was empty and covered in snow, just like the last time I saw it.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get to stay very long.” I apologized.
“It was nice to see him at all; I never get to come out here. Thank you for being alright with it.”
“I thought it was great. You know I’m sure we have time if you want to go out and see your mother and grandmother.”
“No, I thought we could take a Journey Train for a few days.”
“Again, I don’t know much about here.”
She cleared away snow and sat on the lone bench. “Sorry, the Journey Train is a slow train that families like to take for vacation.”
I sat down next to her. “Do they go anywhere?”
“They ride around the country.”
“Their entire vacation is spent on a train?” That sounded boring to me.
“They stop at various stations and get to explore the towns for a day.”
“Well that’s not too bad. Is it expensive?”
She pulled two pieces of cardboard out of her pocket. “My dad has two year passes that he let us have.”
A train appeared on the horizon. It was not nearly as fast as the one we had taken out there. It was also much taller and wider. It stopped in front of us and we got on. The first car was nothing as I expected. There was a large tank of water six feet high with people swimming around in it. I was bemused by their means to entertain themselves. Nara led the way into the next car. A sign on the door read: Bake Your Own Cake Car. Ten oven and table sets surrounded the walls. The travelers wore long white outfits and funny looking tall hats. It smelled really good in there. The next car was more normal, a simple dinner car.
We made our way past the Catch a Butterfly Car, through an empty car used for entertainment and made it to the Sleepers. These were three cars in a row lined with beds. We settled on two beds in the last car. Nara explained as much as she could. About how some rich rail owner thought that travelling vacations were the next big thing and so opened the first Journey Train. There were different kinds; each train had different combinations of activity cars.
The whole thing seemed so insane to me, and yet there I was, enjoying every minute of it. The rest of the morning was spent at the pool. Nara rented me a bathing suit, which I found rather disgusting, but apparently it was their way of doing things so I didn’t complain. The pool was so crowded and I didn’t know how to swim, so it was a short visit. After the pool we tried our hands at making a cake. I had no visual or mental picture as to how the endeavor was supposed to be handled. I did whatever Nara did. She cracked my eggs and I poured the flour. She watched me the entire time to make sure I was doing it right. It was a fun time; I don’t remember having a better time in my entire life. My batter flew out of the bowl when I mixed too hard and we laughed and joked about it. She followed it up by accidentally throwing her mixing instrument halfway across the car, though it was clearly forced to make me look better.
The cakes baked in a Speed Cooker for six clicks. Nara’s came out looking and smelling amazing; while mine drooped and was an odd shade of gray. Next we squeezed a white icing onto the top. It was so delicious that I covered mine with it in hopes of making it taste better. Hers was definit
ely better, but she gave mine a good review since it was my first. We sat at the table to eat them.
“This is the greatest thing. I can’t wait to see my team trying to make a cake.” I took a bite of my cake and wished I hadn’t. I don’t know what was wrong with it, but whatever it was I could only laugh at a mistake that had no repercussions.
“You seem really proud of them.” Nara said.
“They saved my life. And even though they didn’t exactly agree with me –”
“How’s your cake.” She interrupted.
There it was again, her interrupting me. “Why do you keep doing that?”
“What?”
“You keep changing the subject.”
“I don’t mean to.”
I wasn’t convinced. She only seemed to do that when we started talking about Humurom. And she was the one who asked the first question. That was the end of talking for the evening. We took the leftovers of hers with us and threw mine away.
Once that was finished we went to the dinner car, though in my excitement I don’t remember what we ate. It was all a blur, a joyful blur. It was in stark contrast to how I felt around dinner time at home. There I was tense. Even months after my short stint as a hunter I dreaded dinner time, more than the average Humurom. I had the same dread when the hunters returned. It was terrible not knowing if they all would come back. The difference was that I had Mama, and each dinner meant the close of another day where she was still sick and I was nowhere near finding a way to help her. I wondered what she was doing at that moment. Stud was probably giving her dinner while the medics prepared some kind of concoction that wouldn’t work.
The night ended in the Sleepers. I was on the top bunk and Nara was on the bottom. I found it endlessly amusing that beds were stacked on top of each other. It wasn’t snowing; there was only darkness out the windows. I watched anyway, trying to relieve myself of the last bits of anxiety. It was strangely freeing to be with people I didn’t know on a moving train in a country I wasn’t familiar with; because it was safe. I wanted to temporarily leave my wonder and lack of knowledge behind and finish the trip as someone from Azureland. I had attempted that before but always succumbed to the fact that knowledge is hard to fake. The main problem was that when I entered the wall again I would have to find the fear and anxiety to survive. At that moment on the train while watching the darkness all I wanted to do was enjoy it. I knew I should have been wary, and I was to a certain extent about why I was out in the middle of nowhere, but it didn’t dampen my spirit as it should have.
The slowing of the train woke me. We were coming to a stop at the first town. Out the window I saw cute little houses that were all the exact same. Nara and I went to the dining car for a quick breakfast and then went out into town. A light coating of snow was on the ground. We wandered about for a while, all the time going farther out towards snow covered fields that extended out into the distance.
A tower stood a good ways out. I was a little surprised that Nara went straight for it, leaving the train and other travelers. It was a tower made of red stone. It looked really old, even older then the church back home. The inside consisted of a long and tight spiral staircase that ended in a viewing room at the very top. There were no windows, just open spaces. The floor was covered in a thin dust of snow. We looked out into the distance. There was nothing at all except for the town. Humurom looked so full of towns and cities that it was strange to see so much open space in Azureland.
“How old is this?” I asked after a while.
“Really old, I believe about three hundred.” She made several small noises as though fighting with herself to ask me something. “Have you thought any about the Bozlins?”
“Thought about them?”
She laughed awkwardly. “Are you still going to leave them? Because I was thinking, maybe some people here can go in and talk to them.”
“Nara, I tried that already.” I said soothingly. “They attacked and then we ran. They’re not going to talk, I realize that now.”
“It was just a thought.” She said quickly. “Do you know who built this tower?”
“No.” How was I supposed to know?
“The Humuroms and Azures did it together. It showed friendship. That’s the whole reason why it was built, just to show that there was a bond. It served no purpose.”
I scoffed. “Why would anybody build anything with no practical purpose? What a waste of time and material.”
“You’re too used to having no time and no material to appreciate it.”
I know she didn’t mean it as an insult, but I took it as one anyway. “They could have made something worthwhile.”
“Is this trip worthwhile to you?” She asked, visibly annoyed. “Because we really haven’t done anything productive.”
I watched several people coming towards the tower, not wanting to look at Nara. “I’ve seen the country.” I said quietly.
“And what good is that if you go and get yourself killed by the Bozlins?”
That really set me off. “Then why did you bring me?”
“I—there are people coming in, we better get down.”
There she went again, changing the subject. I was too angry to realize that she was the one who brought up the subject in the first place this time. She headed down the stairs and I followed close behind. Making sure to stomp my feet on every step. The realization came to me that I was probably sent away for some political reason. Maybe the bracelet was the first step to getting an army into the wall. Or perhaps they wanted me away while they agreed what to do with me. So many horrible ideas entered my head, most ending with me being experimented on in a lab while my people got slaughtered. These were probably unfounded, but when I was mad or scared I could really create some strange thoughts.
Nara started toward the train, not taking a look back to see if I was still there. For a second I wanted to go back to the tower until the train left, but I knew I needed the train to get back to the wall. There was no telling if a faster one would even come out there. I caught up to her before we reached the town.
“I want to go back.”
“We are.” She said angrily.
“No, now, I want to get back to the city.”
“We will get there eventually.”
“Why did they want me away? Were they planning something?”
“What?” She stopped just feet short of the first house.
“I know there’s a reason why I’m here.” I said quietly as several people passed us. They sounded happy, without a care about anything else. “Why do you keep changing the subject every time we really get talking about my home or why I’m out here?”
“You’re paranoid.” She said with a shrug.
She tried to continue but I stopped her. “No, I’m not.” I actually was, but telling her that wasn’t going to help my argument.
She made some more of those strange sounds before saying: “Gilik thinks you’re unstable. He wanted you in the country because he thought it would keep you calm more than the city. And he didn’t want you seeing the wall every day; he thought it would send you into flashbacks. He instructed me to try and not talk too much about Humurom, but it’s been hard.” She stopped for me to respond, but I didn’t. “I really do want to know about the Bozlins.”
“I’m not unstable.” I whispered. Somehow a huge weight was lifted off of me. All those scary thoughts drifted away as I found out that the truth was much less frightening.
“I know, but he wanted to be safe rather than sorry.”
My mood brightened dramatically. “Let’s get back on that train before it leaves us. Do you have any way to contact Calrus and see how long it will take for him to finish?”
“I have been in contact with him.”
“Really? I haven’t noticed.” Long distance communication sounded so amazing.
“They didn’t want you to think about it.”
/> “Can you contact him now?”
“Yes, on the train.”
Back in our Sleeper Nara took out a small device from her bag. She pointed it at the wall and Calrus appeared on the wall. My eyes widened in disbelief, it was as if I was looking at him through a window. It occurred to me that this was how the man had been speaking to the wall on my first morning.
“Oh Nara, how are you?” Calrus then noticed me. “And Hardin, it’s nice to see you.” He was clearly nervous about my presence.
Nara smiled slyly. “We were wondering if you were done with the bracelets?”
“Oh, I’m afraid not.”
My spirits sank slightly. “Do you know when you might be?”
“At least another week, they are very complicated.”
I frowned. “Really? It’s strange that the Cityers were able to create them.”
Calrus hesitated before speaking. “Well that’s the problem; I don’t believe that they did.”