We spent an entire week in the house, waiting for Suvan to heal. Upon the first examination, I had found that her wound was particularly nasty. Once I had boiled some water, I carefully cleaned the deep gash, removing whatever dirt I could find. Then using a needle and thread, I sewed the scraps of flesh together. She was strong girl and managed not to cry out in pain. She then spent most of her time on the sofa, resting,
The house felt strange, almost haunted. It was like the spirits of the dead still walked through the halls and rooms. I always felt uneasy sleeping inside, even after I had dragged the corpse out to bury, deep in the forest. I spent most of my time exploring the island, hunting for food with the bow as I went. With the fresh water from the stream and the availability of rabbits and birds, we were soon both gaining weight.
When she could finally walk, Suvan limped around the house, examining the various artifacts. From her experience, she explained the workings of the refrigerator and oven, and how the Ancients used the power of electricity to make them work. No one knew how to make electricity anymore, but it seemed like a wondrous invention, if not a little short-sighted. Who would want to depend on anything so ethereal? Man could always depend on the burning of wood and the light of the oil lamp.
In the kitchen, she had found a container, made from that wondrous material called plastic, which would be suitable for carrying water. I added that to my belt to carry. She was most amazed by the pistol I had discovered, claiming it was the only one she had ever seen. “These are rare,” she exclaimed as her hand gently brushed over the metal workings.
I said proudly, “I've only seen one myself in the hands of the sub-Vizier. Only the most important men have them.”
“They are worth a fortune.”
I laughed. “I’m afraid there is no one here to buy it. Anyway, I prefer to keep it. There are eleven shots left, and they may save our lives someday.”
She shrugged. “Though I am a scavenger and know these cities well, I still do not trust these tools of the Ancients. The bow and the sword are more reliable.”
I replied, “The string of the bow can snap. The sword gets nicked and dull with use. Like all things, they are just tools that must be cared for. The gun is no different, but is vastly more powerful.”
She motioned at the dusty walls of the house. “The Ancients had everything –technology that we can only dream of. But still, they are dead and gone. What did all these powerful things get the poor owner of this home? He couldn't face the destruction of the old world, so he decided to kill himself. That gun could not save his life.”
“That was then, and this is now,” I replied, wanting to drop the subject.
Seeing my discomfort, she smiled. “It really doesn't matter to me what you do with that pistol. I just don't trust anything that I do not understand.”
“I do not fully understand it myself, but it will serve to protect us.”
We spent the last day here preparing provisions and filling our containers with water. I really did not want to leave this oasis of the Wasteland, but I knew we couldn't stay here much longer. During the day, I had seen several Mutans coming to the stream to fill their water jugs. The trails leading to the island also indicated that they had been here before, so it was best to leave before Suvan and I were accidentally discovered.
As the sun slipped away, we left the island and returned to the trail that followed the canyon wall. With each block of streets we passed, the ruins were becoming larger and the nearby streets more crowded with rubble. In the light of the half-moon, I could see that some of the buildings had still managed to stand upright, the skeleton framework showing through the broken windows and collapsed floors. It was eerily quiet. The world of the Ancients was dead, and only ghosts of the past existed. It was obvious that Kalam and the Rebel Scouts had gone through this area on horseback, using their speed to quickly traverse through the dangers. On foot, this was an entirely different situation since we were at the mercy of the Mutans or any other strange beast that inhabited this wretched place.
It was almost dawn when stopped to look for a place to hole up for the day. We were passing by the intersection of two streets. Out of habit, I looked down the gloomy road to check that we were not being observed. To my amazement, I thought I saw someone standing in front of a building that was some one hundred yards away. Though the moonlight was waning, I knew it wasn’t a Mutan because this figure stood taller than any of those twisted creatures. In my excitement, I pulled on Suvan’s sleeve and pointed at this sight.
She asked impatiently, “What is it?”
“Don’t you see it?”
Suvan began looking over the street. It was only a moment before she let out a gasp. She then took me by the hand, and we started cautiously down the street, using the destroyed cars as cover. We stopped some ten yards away, seemingly undetected. At this distance I saw it was a man dressed in tattered clothes. He did not notice us but continued to stare ahead, standing as still as a statue.
“I'm going to take a closer look” I whispered into Suvan’s ear.
“No, wait!” she shouted as I broke from her grasp.
Foolishly ignoring her warning, I stepped out onto the street and quickly approached the man. I could her Suvan’s footsteps behind me. She was warning me to stop. When I was within touching distance, the ground underneath my feet began to immediately break away. I felt Suvan grab my arm, but it was too late. The dirt underneath crumbled. We fell together into a hidden pit.
After a second of falling, I hit the bottom hard, knocking the breath out of me. At the same time, Suvan landed next to me with a grunt. We were immediately engulfed in a cloud of dust which only added to the confusion.
“Are you alright?” I sheepishly asked Suvan.
“I don’t think anything is broken,” she replied crossly as she found my hand.
Until the dust settled, we sat there, clutching each other like children. We soon found ourselves in the bottom of a rough pit that was approximately six feet in diameter. The opening above was some fifteen feet away. The immobile figure that drew me to this trap was resting on my feet. It wasn’t a man at all, but some type of statue made from a light plastic material.
“You fool,” Suvan said now that the shock had abated. “This was a trap set by the Mutan. They used this old shop dummy as bait and you fell for it.”
“You didn’t seem to catch on that fact too quickly either,” I grumbled.
“I’m not the one who walked right into this pit,” she spat out. “I was warning you, but you weren’t listening.”
I shrugged. “We’re lucky - at least they didn’t plant the bottom with stakes.”
“As you found already out, the Mutan prefer to cook their food alive,” Suvan sharply reminded me. “We only have a few minutes before sunrise, so we had better start working on a way out of here before some Mutan comes along and discovers us.”
“We can try,” I said with little hope since from here the task looked nearly impossible.
At first I tried to climb up the sides, but the walls of the pit were too steep. They were also roughly cut, and any purchase I found quickly crumbled in my hands. I fell back with exasperation. For the next attempt, I merely braced my shoulders against a wall and had Suvan climb on top of me. As her toes dug painfully into the top of my shoulders, she tried to reach the edge.
“It’s too far away!”
“Jump for it,” I said through gritted teeth. Her position shifted, sending waves of pain through my shoulders. She jumped. A shower of dirt struck my head as I took a step backwards and looked up. She was hanging onto the edge, but the ground there was already giving away from her weight. She soon fell, but I was able to catch her. We collapsed together into a heap.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, rubbing my jaw where her head had connected in the fall.
“I’m fine,” she replied grumpily.
“We will have to dig our way out of here,
” I said, as I eyed the edge of the pit.
“That will take hours and there isn’t enough time.” As she spoke, her words were punctuated by the lightening of the sky above. Dawn was coming, which meant the Mutans would soon be out, prowling the streets.
“We don’t have much choice,” I replied testily.
My idea was to dig on one side of the pit, causing the wall to collapse. We could stand on this mound, eventually creating an angled slope leading to freedom. It would be dangerous work since we both risked being buried alive if the wall came down too quickly. I started gingerly, removing handfuls of dirt at a time. Suvan joined in to help. The sun above was getting higher with every moment. As our work slowly progressed, I noticed that the color of the earth here was darker than above. This was rich soil, suitable for farming and completely unlike the desert above. What had happened here to cauase such a change? This was another mystery to consider at some other time. Any further thought in this direction was interrupted by the movement I saw above us. A human head with long gray hair peeked over the edge, the eyes boring into us.
“Hoo-Hoo!” the man laughed. “I never expected to catch anything like this!”
“This is your trap?” I called out.
“Of course it is!” he replied with a giggle. “Who else could it be?”
“I thought it was the Mutans,” I answered.
“Hoo-Hoo!” he laughed again. “Those silly things could never make anything so clever – so wonderfully ingenious as this! And you fell for it! Hoo-Hoo! That's the funniest thing I have ever seen."
I looked at Suvan who shook her head, her eyes filled with distrust.
“Could you help us out of here?” I asked hopefully.
“Well, I don’t know.”
“Please,” Suvan said. “It won’t be much longer before the Mutans come patrolling the streets. You will captured along with us.”
“Hoo! They wouldn’t dare touch me. Now hold on a second.”
His face disappeared from the edge. Soon a slim rope uncurled down into the pit. It was made of a thin blue material that was slippery to the touch. I motioned to Suvan to take the rope. She started climbing up, bringing an avalanche of dirt down on me. She was soon out. I followed suit and after a difficult scramble, found myself back on the street.
There Suvan was standing still, but her bow was out with an arrow notched and ready to go. As my eyes followed the direction of her gaze, I saw that we were surrounded by hundreds of Mutans. They were standing completely still on both sides of us, blocking both sides of the street. The man who had rescued us was a few feet away. With his back to us, the stranger was busily untying the rope that was attached to a destroyed car. He straightened up and began winding the rope up into a tidy coil. He then turned and took a few steps towards us. I saw the eyes of all the Mutans follow his every move.
“Now you’re safe and sound,” the man said, his eyes going over Suvan in a lustful manner that I found off-putting.
“What about them?” Suvan spat out.
His eyes were shining with delight. “Oh, they won’t hurt you as long as you are with me. Now come on, follow me.”
He walked towards the Mutans, who parted to let him pass. Without showing any interest towards these gray-skinned monsters, he led us to a trash-filled stairway protected by a cracked concrete wall. We followed him down into the gloom below.
Chapter 16