The Underlands

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. It used to be a doorway, she thought. But the years had buried it with rubble and now only the top quarter of it remained open. Letting in light and sand. What could have been a door was now splinters and dust on the floor. She’d never dare step outside. Even if she could wriggle and pull herself through the gap remaining, what she could see was uninviting. Rubble and sand. And hot. Just being in the room had her shirt sticking uncomfortably to her body. She imagined leaving and instantly the sun burning her skin to a crisp and frying her hair and boiling her eyes. Becoming a sand wraith, doomed to seek out the water of the living.

She shivered despite the heat and quickly tendered to Tatter Vest.

This was his room. Nobody else knew it existed she was sure. If they did, the elders would have blocked off The Scratch years ago.

She carefully checked Tatter Vest over, making sure none of his bones had broken in the last quake and his little bomb was still securely in his hand. She knew it was a grenade. She knew of the fighting that caused the outside to be the way it is. Tatter Vest hadn’t stood a chance. But he still fought. She figured that had to count for something.

Once she was sure Tatter Vest was all to rights, she recited the prayer of the Honourable Fighter for him and left through the hole in the floor. Leaving the room behind her to it’s solumn, whispering heat.

Getting back to the main hall was complicated but she knew the way. Not many were brave or curious enough to venture through the warren of paths and tunnels around the Halls that were built centuries ago. Many had collapsed in, rubble from the buildings above proving too heavy for them, causing a system of unstable dead ends. Others had eroded from water running it’s course. And yet others, closer to the surface, had skeletal occupants. Of which she knew of two that were whole; Tatter Vest, and Rat Tails down the red hall. Both of which she made sure to visit every so often to remind them they were remembered and to check on them after a quake. It must get awfully lonely for them up there, she thought.

She reached The Scratch and paused to ready herself. The first time through, she’d been terrified. It had been a dare. The other kids wanted to know what was on the otherside of the jaggard tunnel of shattered piping and toothy concrete. Her older brother Sevis had tried three years ago but got stuck halfway, just before the bend. It had taken four hours to get him out and he was in the hospital wing for days. He still had the scars from it. And the nightmares.

Aeser however was far slimmer and smaller than Sevis had been. At fourteen she was still one of the smallest of her generation. The perfect size for exploring.

She picked the fabric strips out of the front pocket of her shirt and wrapped her arms and legs. Two seperate strips she wound round her hands, tucking the tails into the arm wraps. Satisfied, she ducked down and began carefully picking her way through the old concrete tunnel. This was the wider side, so she was able to get through by just bending over, grabbing pieces at the top and carefully manoeuvring her legs and feet around and between the sharp concrete and steel. It wasn’t long before she reached the bend, at this point the tunnel had become too narrow and she was forced to crawl. The worst part about the bend was how dark it was. Aeser was sure it would be a lot easier if she just had some light. But the blue moss only liked to grow on flat serfaces and the bend in the Scratch was anything but. This was where the wrapps were necessary. They couldn’t entirely prevent scrapes, but they certainly helped.

She crawled forward and entered the bit of The Scratch where she had to lay almost entirely flat, the bit just before Sevis got stuck. She grabbed a ledge of jutting concrete that kept the end of the tunnel from view, and, breathing out half her air, pulled herself around and out into the marginely wider, end stretch. There was light on this side, she could see the glow moss of the empty cave just ahead. Even after having done this trip almost thirty times now, it was hard not to feel relieved at having made it through.

Her exit from The Scratch was anything but graceful, crawling out doward among broken rock and concrete. She managed not to slip and faceplant into the dirt this time. She was getting better at this. That was a win. But as she stood up to dust herself off and check for cuts, something moved in the shadows of the cave. She startled as Elder Erik’s disproving scowl stepped into the light of the moss.