Michael Soll - Scorched

Cotta and I reached our secret path in no time. There was no need to play any game to decide who was going. It was going to be me breaching through, giving birth to my new life.

I quickly crawled through the tunnel and immediately began chipping away. I could feel my future inching up in front of me. The oxygen was thin in the tunnel, but I was undeterred. I could smell the mystery ahead. Whereas the unknown was frightening to many of those in the hive, for me, it was my freedom.

I slammed the butte of my ax against the wall. Again and again and again until finally, I broke through and a gust of air splashed against my face and doused my light.

It was pitch black. I didn’t think my light would go out this soon. I continued to break through the wall, and I crawled blindly ahead, feeling my way hesitantly. I turned and shouted, “I’m through!”

I sat there in darkness for a few moments. I had no idea what lay in front of me, but instead of being scared, I was excited. I spotted Cotta’s light inching through the tunnel. His head finally poked through, anxiety smattered across his face. “We have a problem.”

Before I could ask him what he meant, I saw the problem crawling up behind him:

Kaolin.

“What do we do?” Cotta asked as he relit my lantern.

“She can’t come with us!” I shouted stubbornly.

“If we send her back, she’ll tell everybody where we went.” Cotta took a seat on the ground as if he were exhausted from mining all day.

I wanted to sit down with him, but I needed to take charge. “We don’t have enough supplies for her. We send her back and collapse the tunnel.”

Kaolin looked at me with her wide eyes. “I don’t know how to get back.”

“It’s her first time away from the hive,” Cotta said calmly.

I jumped to my feet and ushered her back to the tunnel. “It’s easy. Go through here, then at the divide go left, then the next intersection go up two tunnels and right three. Then crawl through that and go through two intersections, take the tunnel at the way bottom, then go left at the fork.”

Kaolin stared at me blankly.

“We don’t even know if she wants to come with us!” I stammered.

Kaolin smiled, “I want to go with you.”

“No, you don’t. You’re just a kid. The colony needs you.” I had gone over a thousand scenarios but had never imagined this happening.

Cotta took a bite of his chum. “We’d need her if we want to repopulate.”

“We’re explorers not colonists! And we’ve got to conserve our food!” I snatched away his chum. And then, I realized something that made my stomach churn. “At the end of the celebration, the future breeders are toasted. They’re going to notice she’s gone.”

Cotta picked up his ax and headed toward the opening of our tunnel. “Should we cave it in?”

I thought about all of our options. I thought about what collapsing the tunnel meant. “We conceal the entrance to the tunnel. It’ll buy us some more time.”

Cotta and I stared at each other in silence, communicating our thoughts telepathically. Kaolin examined us, trying to understand what we weren’t saying. “I have a question…” she said tentatively. “You conceal the tunnel… it takes them longer, but then they find it and we’re still stuck in the Old Hive.”

Cotta turned to the girl: “Our ancestors who founded the original hive, their paths were never caved in, they’re just unstable but…”

“It doesn’t matter what we’re doing,” I interrupted, “we’re going to draw you directions and conceal the entrance. If anybody asks where we went, you just say you don’t know.”

I enthusiastically nodded after saying my ingenious plan. Kaolin snatched some of my chum and took a bite. “I’ll tell them exactly where you went.”

“You’re not coming with us! She’s not coming with us!” I sputtered.

Cotta stood up and calmly moved toward the tunnel. “I’ll conceal the entrance. You two work all this out.” He grabbed his lantern and disappeared.

“I’ll pull my weight. I won’t slow you down. I’m stronger than you think.”

I looked down at the scrawny girl. “All you’ve ever done is lie down and stare at dirt.”

“All you’ve ever done is whack dirt to get to more dirt.”

“If it weren’t for my whacking, you would’ve starved a long time ago.”

“You’re only a little older than me. Don’t act like you’re an elder or something.”

Cotta reappeared with a large grin. “Who’s ready for an epic adventure? I can be the journey guide. On our right, we have some dirt — on the left we have some more dirt… beneath us, you guessed it, even more dirt.”

Kaolin laughed. I hated her laugh. I hated her for spoiling my dream. I paused for a moment and ran every scenario in my head, but there was nothing I could do. The only way the journey could proceed was with her. But I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. No. I wouldn’t tell her she was part of our adventure. I would just ignore her. That would be her punishment.

I looked over at Cotta, “Let’s go.”

The Old Hive was magnificent. It was much larger than our newer one, with multiple winding paths leading to numerous large cubbies. We tried to light the Old Central Tank but the methane had run dry long ago.

Our old home was much different than I had imagined as imaginations tend to stray from the concrete. Some time after my father overheard my dreams, he had gathered a few of the elders to tell stories of the past hive. They explained the old paths in detail and described the oldest of the old that led to some unknown locale only our ancestors had seen. It was a present my father gave to me, his way of pushing me toward my future as I headed through his past.

“This way,” I said to Cotta while ignoring Kaolin.

She didn’t bring much. No lantern because she was never issued one, no ax because she never needed one, and no food because it was always brought to her lap.

We passed through the Old Hive and made our way to the tunnels near the back. After the Great Quake, many of the tunnels were demolished but the ancient ones survived. Our parents had fixed our old home the best they could but they knew it would be a more difficult task reinforcing the large hive with clay so they built the new one, a sturdier and safer place for future generations to thrive.

Cotta and I walked at a brisk pace while Kaolin was forced to run to catch up. “What if the ancient tunnels dead end?” she asked while kicking the dirt beneath her foot.

I ignored her because she didn’t exist.

“They’ll find you two and then we’ll all be punished.”

Cotta gave me a pleading look, asking me with his eyes whether or not he could acknowledge her existence.

“They’ll cut your rations in half for a cycle. That’s for sure. Who knows what else they’ll do…”

Cotta chirped in and ignored my glare, “The ancient tunnels are the sturdiest of them all. And they go on forever.”

“Where do they lead to?”

“I don’t know. Where does forever go?” Cotta asked nonchalantly but soon got caught up in his own question. He looked over at me, waiting for my answer. Kaolin also looked my way, questioning me with her big, stupid eyes.

I finally gave in. “It doesn’t go on forever. It’ll lead us up and into a mineshaft.”

Kaolin grabbed some chum from my stash and took a bite. “And then where’re we going? To the surface?”

Cotta laughed. “We’re not going to the surface. We’d die if we go up there.”

Kaolin gazed at me, waiting for my response.

“That’s a stupid thing for you to say. We can’t go to the surface. If you’re tagging along, you can’t say dumb stuff like that.”