C. Schmidt - Hock City

“And the sun cycles; what are those?”

“My father told me that before the object fell from the sky, every day had sunlight; every night had darkness. But after the event, the sun would retreat at times, and it would be darkness across the lands. Sometimes it would retreat for a few hours – a few days. Sometimes months. We don’t know understand why it does this; it’s never the same length of time. When the sun appears, we call it a ‘cycle.’ During these sun cycles is the only time when you can safely scavenge for resources like food, water or clothing – without much worry of what lurked when darkness came. Darkness in the desert is not safe for anyone. As you know well enough by now.”

“So what do you do when its darkness for a long period of time?”

“What else can we do? We survive somehow. Many of us starve or die due to dehydration. Some try to make it to other corridors, even in the midst of the dark. Most don’t return.”

A noise could be heard outside the walls as Kinth explained more about the event that changed the Pines. At first, it was a challenge to gauge from where the sound was coming.

“You hear that?”

“Yep, doesn’t sound good,” Kinth replied.

“Jesse, wake up! Wake up, Jesse!”

The sound continued; it grew louder and intrusive.

“What is that?” Jesse asked, as he yawned and stretched.

“Sounds like it’s coming from that wall.”

Kinth, without much effort, broke the chain to which he was confined while walking over to Langston.

“Damn, are you serious? All this time you could have freed us and you just sat there?”

Kinth ignored Langston’s complaint as he broke his chains and then did the same for Jesse. The two of them walked closer to the area from which the sound was coming from. Langston put his head to the cold, dingy wall, as Jesse waited by the column to which he had been attached.

“I’m going to watch from over here, ‘cause that don’t sound good.”

The rumbling behind the wall continued, causing the dim lighting in the room to flicker.

“Watch out,” Kinth pushed Langston out of his way just before he threw multiple jabs at the wall. The stones began to shatter, falling to the floor with each punch. A thick layer of dirt started to show, as Kinth destroyed enough of the stones to create an opening.

The three of them stood still as they watched the dirt move. Something from the other side was pushing it.

“Step back,” Langston insisted.

Mounds of dirt fell to the floor after moving from the wall. A voice could be heard. A nose burst through the remaining pack of gravel and stone without notice. The nostrils sniffed the room as claws began to show.

“Hey kid, ya’ miss me?!”

“Miles!”

“The one and only.”

Jesse greeted his friend with a big hug.

“Man, you’re dirty!”

“What did you expect? Okay, okay – get off me. Enough with the mushy stuff.”

“Man – am I glad to see you!”

“I bet you are.” Miles turned to Langston, “Still like staring, I see. You humans, I tell ya.’ Nobody told you that staring is rude, sir?”

“Still getting acclimated to things here.”

“Well, well – look who decided to come home.”

“Good to see you, old friend,” Kinth replied.

“Wait, you know Miles?” asked Jesse.

“He was affected by the object from the sky, wasn’t he?” Langston interjected.

“I sure was, human. I was a friend of Hock City’s first and only Guardian. God rest his soul. Not that new jerk – no offense Kinth. Before the event, when that freakin’ thing fell from the sky, I was just an annoying mole that ate everything in the Guardian’s garden. After it hit, it did something to me. I started to understand you humans. Soon, I learned how to speak. After a while, the Guardian and I became friends. My companions and I helped him create the tunnels.”

As Miles spoke, more of his kind dropped into the room behind him.

“Anyway. Let me introduce y’all. Everybody, this is my family. Family – this is everybody. I heard that the Guardian’s goons got to ya,’ and brought you here. Couldn’t figure out where you were at first. We had to circle around a couple times until we were able to get your scent. We could smell the human before you two.”

“Of course you could,” Langston spoke under his breath.

“Your scent came from above ground for a while. We couldn’t risk being seen, so we stayed below, and waited for an opportunity. We got lucky when they brought you down here. Oh, and thanks for making that hole – by the way. Would have taken us forever to get through that concrete.”

“Anytime,” Kinth said.

“We dug a route to the nearest tunnel that will lead you out. The city is a mad house after that scene you two caused, so we can’t go that way. That prick-of-a-brother of yours shut down all access points. He closed all the gates and forced most of the people outside the walls. He is killing anyone who saw the human.”

“Damn, all those people,” replied Langston.

“Yep. It’s his way to keep this quiet and flush out any more of you.”

“We need to go! They will come for us soon!”

“Hold on kid. We have a couple problems, though.”

“What problems?” Kinth asked.

“First of all, we aren’t sure which corridor we dug to. We run the risk of going to an unwelcoming territory. And two, the tunnel we dug will only fit the human and anybody smaller.”

“Wait, unwelcoming territory? I thought that event just divided the land,” Langston interrupted.

“Yes! But it divided people’s hearts and minds too! You really think everyone was going to stay the same after losing loved ones, land and other things that were important to them? For a while it was every man for himself out here. Killing and more killing. Madness. No unity. This was something else my father fought against. He worked hard to prevent wars between the lands.”

All eyes were on Kinth at this moment. His words shook the room because of his extraordinary size and passion.

“Relax people. Let’s get back on track. Kinth, you are not going to be able to fit in the tunnels we dug. It’s as simple as that. But we can circle back and widen it. This will take some time, though.”

"Understood. No sense in wasting time. Go on without me. I can manage." Kinth began to gather the chains to which they were once attached to, combining them to create a weapon using only the links. "I have things to settle here anyway. We will meet again."

Langston walked over to Kinth, and extended his hand. They shook as brothers whom were once strangers.

“Hey kid, take care of him, will ya’?”

“I got him covered,” Jesse replied with a cocky tone, as he wasted no time entering the tunnel behind Miles.

“Goodness, the theatrics in this place. All right kid, let’s go.”

Langston started to climb into the hole after Jesse, when he stopped suddenly. “Wait. What are you going to do to him?”

“Don’t worry about it. My problem.”

“No, it’s our problem.”

“Oh, so all of a sudden you are a part of this? It’s my problem. Go home – live your life. I’m sure our paths will cross again.”

“Oh boy. The drama! Can we go please?” Miles grew frustrated.

“Why wouldn’t I be a part? I just found out that we are brothers of the same father. I won’t have much of a life without knowing how this ends.”

“We need to go, now. I can smell someone headed toward this room,” Miles chimed in.

“Okay, tough guy. What do you suggest then?” Kinth asked.

“Find a way out – meet us at your station.”