Zenith

He opened the door separating the woman from the others of her kind then. She walked along that metal-lined hallway stiffly, though with purpose. Her mouth was a grim line.

She went first to speak with those who had known her longest, those which had cohabited with her in that place beneath the stairs before the strangers in red arrived. Her voice was quiet. Her expression was distant. She pointed down the hallway which led to the strangely oriented room.

He watched her. He watched all of them. Others, those who were smaller, or those which had once been outsiders that the woman's group had allowed to join them, took note of her appearance and demeanor. Murmurs of worry began to spread.

The woman rose then, and she forestalled them. She explained to all who were gathered there what would be asked of them. She told them of the escape and salvation which awaited them. It would take a great deal of time, and perhaps not all of them would survive to see it. Perhaps none of them would.

But it was nonetheless a hope. She placed emphasis on this fact. It was a chance to have lives better and more fulfilling than those which they had up to now lived on this windswept, hateful rock. They would not want for sustenance. It would be provided, at first through the packets, later through a process similar to that which they had used in growing the green objects, but a process which they would not need to work at personally. He would do this task, just as with the other tasks.

They did not understand. The woman, in truth, did not understand either. He could not make them understand. They lacked perspective, they lacked all the knowledge which their predecessors possessed. He could help them to understand. He was put here for that purpose. He was put here to guide. He had done it before. He would do it again.

The gathered ones did not decide for a long while. He waited. They did not trust the woman's words or her promises. Many felt as though she had misled them in bringing them here. Many grew loud. Some grew angry. The woman tried to reason with them, to calm them down, but they would not listen.

He spoke to them, then. He had never done this task so directly before. He had not needed to. He had not been able to. There had always been another to guide the others on their travels and to see them on their way. The traveler had been one such individual.

He spoke, but they still could not understand. Many of them cowered upon hearing the words. Even the woman cringed, her stoicism broken.

He made them understand. Their options were limited. When faced with certain death, they did as the woman asked.

They helped one another into the vertically stacked chambers. There was room for all in the reclining seats. They were strapped into place, helped by those who had not yet been secured. He ensured the straps were held tight and that they would not be released until they were well on their way.

The woman and her companion were the last two to remain free. She told her companion to carefully guide the others in her stead. They embraced one last time. Then she helped her companion into a seat as well.

He closed the door behind her when she left. He ensured it was sealed tightly. He closed more doors as well, as the woman retraced her steps down the hallway, to the room with the consoles and the glowing panel with its numerous circles.

The task was complicated. He guided her hands with words and images to ensure it was completed well. They went slowly. He focused all attention on this task.

The room shuddered as the earth around the room shuddered.

A white ball appeared on the screen next to the large blue one. A graceful line of dark red curved from it to a swarm of white balls near the large red one.

He thanked the woman. He opened the doors. He left her, then, both their tasks complete.

Yes

After the doors hissed shut and sealed themselves, the woman ordered those with her to stop. While they protected them from the invaders which sought to do them harm, they also trapped the woman inside the halls. She poked and prodded at them with her weapon. She wedged the weapon's tip into the tiny gaps along the floor and walls and ceiling and tried to pry the heavy metal doors loose or open. He had locked them, however. Her strength would not budge them.

The woman's companion, the survivor from her earlier visit to this place with tunnels of metal, used words to try calming the others with them. They gibbered and whimpered in high, frightened voices. Some of them joined the woman in trying to force the door open. They gripped at the doors with their fingertips and struggled with all their might to pull them apart. Some of them tore skin away in their hurry and desperation. The uncaring metal was streaked with red.

They stopped once they exhausted themselves, and they grew resigned and morose. The woman and her companion tried goading them back to movement, telling them of the stores of food and liquid which lay deeper within the tunnels, but many resisted her words. They felt betrayed. They cursed her, cursed their situation, cursed their lives. The smaller ones among them were confused but they still wept in empathy with the worry the larger ones expressed.

The woman chose her language slowly and with care as she explained the situation to those paralyzed by uncertainty.They needed to go deeper into the tunnels if they wanted to reach the room with the countless supplies of food. The woman promised that she would explore the tunnels that she had passed by before, that she would do everything she could to find an alternative path or to open the door.

Gradually, the others listened to her words. They rose and shuffled down the sterile corridor. They took their time. They had no need to hurry.

They cooed in surprise and awe at the traveler's corpse when they reached it. The smaller ones, ever curious, prodded at the desiccated remains with fingers. The larger and older ones stayed as far away from the traveler's body as they could.

They stopped in the room with the consoles and screens. It was just large enough to house them all and it lacked the topographical difficulties of the place beyond. The woman told them she would go ahead, that she would see what could be done about transporting the supply of liquid refreshment to them. They would not be left in darkness, for the screen with the concentric circles and colored balls still shed its soft glow.

She entered back into the strange place of linked, vertical chambers. She grabbed one of the tubes and pulled it in all directions. She put the end in her mouth and sucked on it. The liquid would not flow.

He quietly closed one of the doors along the hallway behind her, ensuring that no one could intrude. He had watched her for so long. He had also watched others, but always returned to her. He felt as though she was the best for the task at hand.

He spoke with her, finally. She was frightened, at first. She had never heard such a voice before. The voice was scratchy, somewhat garbled. The language was different in subtle ways from the one she used. He could not change that. He worked to help her understand, as much as possible.

He told her of a way which those with her could use to escape this place. He explained to her what needed to be done. He asked if she would complete the tasks necessary to make this happen.

She thought for a long while. He knew she could not decide easily. He had asked this from others, in the past. She was the last.

After the long while passed, she agreed. He told her what she must do.

Xenia

The woman and all her companions fled. He fled with them. He did not fear the vengeful invaders who sought to vent their anger on these attackers, their loud, echoing shouts coming from behind them. He went with them because the woman and her companions needed guidance on their journey. He would provide it.

The ones the woman had rescued had few supplies and no liquid to sustain them, as well as nothing to carry their paltry belongings in aside from the sling of their own arms. The woman burst open the tube along the left wall for drink, but they could not dally. The recent captives told the woman of the stashes of fat and oil which were above, stashes which the invaders had learned of through questioning the residents or their own exploration.

So they fled. The woman's light-bearing stick was the sole source of illumination which they had. She went before all the others, casting the bright beam of light upon the walls and floor to guide their steps and ensure that the way ahead remained safe and clear of obstruction and danger.

They moved as swiftly as possible. Despite the woman and her surviving companion knowing the path they would tread, the ones who had been victims of the invaders were mistreated and weakened by their captivity. They could not walk as swiftly or as surely as if they were healthy. The bricks of material which the woman and her companions has brought from the place deep under the earth helped offset this weakness, to some degree. They instilled bursts of energy and feelings of healthful satiation in everyone who ate them, but they could not undo the systematic abuse and malnutrition they had suffered. The invaders had only the wavering lights cast by the shoddy lanterns to see by, and they did not know the way. But they were well-fed and their anger buoyed their steps just as well as fear did those of the woman and her companions.

He only needed them to go a little farther. He could then intervene.

They reached the collapsed section of the tunnel. The woman broke open the tube one last time and implored everything to drink what they could. They would go without until they reached the sanctuary. The descent was rough. Some of the frailer former captives tumbled into the jagged mess of rocks below. Some died. Some were too injured to continue under their own strength. The woman told others to help those who still lived. They continued along the subducted tunnel, moving through the places where the walls were barren, gray stone and entering into the ones where the surfaces were plated in metal.

He closed the door behind them once they were all inside. They were trapped.

Wrath

The woman's return to her settlement at the surface was swift. She and her companions retraced their steps, sure as to the path they needed to take. He was with them as they went. They passed by the long-dead traveler. Partway through the long halls which connected the vertical room and the cavernous chamber where the pale horror had killed their third companion, they used up the last of the fuel for their weak lantern. The woman used the tube which made light then. Its brightness was welcome. It made the journey seem less arduous than it was.

Its corpse was still there. It stank more than it did previously.

The slope which they had descended proved the greatest obstacle in their way. They were careful and methodical in their ascent. The footing was treacherous. They used the rope well to secure their position and test the integrity of the path they hoped to use. Their precautions proved fruitful. More than once their footing shook loose as their weight dislodged precariously stacked hunks of rock. They would bring more rope with them upon their return and use it to create a safe, secure path for their entire community.

The water-bearing tube, the object which had been their initial salvation and the reason which first spurred exploration, now lay on their right as they followed the tunnel back upwards. They moved even more quickly now, eager to reach the place which was their home. A light flickered ahead, around a bend in the tunnel, and the woman switched off her own stick of light to conserve its mysterious power source.

They found others. They were not the strangers in red, but a different group. They bore weapons similar to those of the strangers in red, however, jagged lengths of metal affixed to poles by strips of leather or the tendons of slain beasts. They were brutish and scarred, marauders which had come across the wasteland of wind and earth and metal and had found a trace of their community.

They were as surprised by the woman and her companions as the woman and her companions were by their presence. The shock lasted only a few moments before most of the others which guarded the tunnel mouth fell upon the woman and her companions with ululating cries. One of them turned and retreated upwards, shouting.

The others were skilled, but the woman and her companions were fueled by anger. They stabbed and hewed at each other. The woman proved most deadly. She had been taught arts of war by the strangers in red. Her weapon was stained with the blood of the invaders.

All of the invaders lay dead when it was over. She did not remain uninjured, nor did her companions. One of them was killed. Blood and gasping gurgles emerged from a heinous gash across the throat. The woman bared her teeth as she finished the job.

The other invaders were alerted by now. The woman and her lone remaining companion used their knowledge of the tunnel system beneath their home and the light source she carried to their advantage. They split up to cover ground more quickly. He went with her.

The woman picked off lone invaders, skewering them before they were aware of her presence, leaving them expiring in pools of their own blood.

She came upon some of her fellow residents as well. They were fearful and mistreated. Many wanted for food. She left them some of the packaged bricks of material she had brought along and told them to gather deeper within the tunnels.

When the woman and her companion reunited, they realized they could not overcome all of the invaders. There were too many of them. This also prevented them from rescuing all of their fellow residents. It pained them. They did not want to leave any of them in the invaders' clutches. But they could not stay. They had saved many. They had even secured some supplies from the storage areas in the warren beneath the earth. It would perhaps be enough to bring them to the place they had found.

They turned and fled. The woman used her light-bearing stick to lead the way. The dreadful shouts of the invaders echoed down the tunnels after them.

Vivify

He opened the other door. The woman and her companion looked over at it in surprise. They had not expected it to open so suddenly. He had already moved beyond it, down the hallway beyond. More symbols were on the walls here. At the hall's end lay another chamber, but this one was different from the others. It, too, lay behind a door of metal.

He opened this door as well. It hissed at first, releasing a puff of stale air left trapped behind an impermeable seal. Once the seal had broken, the door slid open silently. Lights winked on, small globes which shone yellow-white. They were set behind transparent panels in the walls, and they illuminated the chamber. The room was cramped and overflowing with containers which lined the room's walls, stacked one atop the other and secured using green straps of elastic material. Each was wrapped in an opaque white sheet, and each had symbols describing its contents. He knew they were full of objects similar to the bricks found on the traveler.

The center of one of the walls had two parallel lines of seats extending from them, black and glossy. They were study and were oriented pointing upwards. Along one wall, right near the door which had just opened and stretching between a pair of openings in the floor and the ceiling, was a ladder made of metal, coated in a white paint. It led both upwards and downwards to identical-looking chambers.

The woman led her companions down the long hallway to the second door. She peered inside first and recoiled. Her expression was confused and subtly frightened. The sterile, metal-plated rooms and hallways of this place must be alien enough to her. A room which was constructed vertically, and which contained objects the like of which she had never seen, served only to further increase her wariness and suspicion.

She was not daunted by the strange surroundings. She said a few words to her companions and handed them her weapon, then she took the rungs of the nearby ladder and began to ascend. The impact of her hands and feet caused the metal of the ladder to ring out with each rung she climbed.

The top level of the series of stacked rooms was identical to all the others. No holes were in the wall, no other doors were visible. The woman tore open one of the wrapped packages and pulled out a handful of its contents. Bricks plummeted from the gash to impact against the walls and distant floor, rendering their contents into a crumbled mess. She climbed back down and reported her findings to her companions.

They spoke among themselves. There were enough of these bricks present to feed all of their companions for a long time. There was shelter here. There was light. All that it lacked was liquid.

He found liquid for them. It bubbled from a length of tubing, drawn from a great cistern which lay below the series of connected chambers. It had been painstakingly gathered there.

They were shocked at the sudden flow of clear liquid. The woman tried it, then put her mouth on the end of the tube and sucked on it until she was sated. Her companions did the same. They spoke more.

They would bring the others here. They could always return up if needed, they reasoned.

They gathered some of the packaged bricks of material to show to the others, as proof of their discovery. They set off again, this time retracing their steps. He went with them still, to be sure.

Understanding

The woman led her companions deeper beneath the earth. The tunnel they followed slanted downward at a shallow angle. It curved slightly to the right. Symbols were on the wall here, as well as alternating stripes of yellow and black. The stripes were angled as if to indicate a direction, the same which the woman and her companions were moving along.

They arrived at an archway. A thick door of lustrous metal attached to stout hinges was open, angled inwards to a chamber which lay beyond it. More sigils, some of which were similar to those which the strangers in red cut into the mortared walls of their constructed edifice, decorated the wall outside of the door.

Beyond the door lay a room.

It was not particularly large. Much of the walls, as well as the floor and ceiling, were plated in reflective metal. Metal husks, some tall and narrow, others short and wide, rested near the room's walls. Flat panes of glossy material hung on one wall above some of the husks. He recalled the very first room and noted this one's similarities to it. The first room had been in much worse shape. The boxy husks in that room above had been worn black, the metal sheets on the walls tarnished. This room was nearly pristine.

The woman and her companions spread out and searched the chamber. Another door lay on the opposite side. This one was shut, but the mechanism to open it was on this side. They found more supplies here in a container. They were more of the powdery, flaky cubes which they had found on the traveler's corpse.

One of the woman's companions bumped something while exploring. A light flashed suddenly on the glossy planes and they lit up, shedding a pale blue glow upon the faces of the woman and her companions. They were startled and raised their weapons defensively, but nothing more happened beyond the screen's surface changing, taking on different hues and colors as images and symbols appeared and then vanished. The three watched the screen with great suspicion as it cycled through a series of iterations. Finally the screen stopped on a single image.

The screen had a number of concentric circles in white upon a solid black surface. The center was dominated by a large sphere of orange. Nearest to the orange sphere was a blue one, which lay upon the innermost of the white circles. Beyond there, upon the remaining white circles traced out on the surface, were five other spheres of varying colors. Each sphere had a series of symbols next to it, some straight and some curved and some a bit of both.

Smaller spheres, solid blobs of white on the black background, were scattered throughout the image. Each of these also had attendant symbols. Most lay near the other, larger circles of different colors. None were near the blue sphere.

He discovered this all felt quite familiar. It was a diagram. He had a role in it. Not directly, but one which touched upon it, like the small white spheres touched tangentially upon the arcs drawn on the screen's surface.

He was to be part of it as well. Separate, in the end, but still connected. He grew aware of what was to be done. He knew why the woman and her companions were to come here. The others of community as well, back far above, shielded by a few ruined scraps of stone and metal from the burning sun locked overhead.

He found focus, at last. He found meaning, finally.

Traveler

He followed the woman and her two remaining companions as they followed the lower tunnel. Its structure and appearance, once they left behind the coarse, toppled remnants of the tunnel which had collapsed from above, became much like the path they had been following before. The walls and floor grew barren and boxy. They were built from smooth slabs of gray stone of monstrous size.

The quiet patter of the woman's careful footsteps echoed and reverberated from the walls. She and her companions walked along the corridor's length for a long time. They fed the tiny flame in their lantern as they went. They fed themselves, as well.

The tunnel seemed to stretch on without an end to them. They communicated as much among themselves. He was not convinced of this fact as they were. He knew that all things came to an end.

The tunnel changed. It no longer gradually curved away into the distance, but split into two paths. The woman did not know which way to go. They sat on the cold stone floor to consider. In the end, they could not arrive at any reason why they should favor the one path over the other. They tore a strip of fabric loose and oriented it so they could how which path would retrace their steps if they returned back this way. Then they took the tunnel heading to the left.

They found another in the tunnel after some time. It was old and did not move. Its skin was wrinkled and shrunken, pulled tight around its bones. Its teeth were bared in a snarling grin. It had on clothing of some variety, but it was not made from the same material as the woman's. It had possessions as well. The woman and her companions investigated them. Those were different from those which they carried, too.

They found squarish packets enclosed in a smooth, reflective coating. They found that their fingers could tear the material open. Inside were dried hunks of material. One of the woman's companions broke a corner off and tested it. It did not seem immediately lethal.

They also found a tube. It was shorter than the woman's forearm. The woman took it and touched a part of it. It cast light from one end, a long, strong beam that shone far brighter than the weak lantern the woman had now, nearly as bright as the light which shone, through the layers of stone and metal which separated her from it, above her head. This brought them more comfort and happiness than the crumbly squares. The light was their savior. With this, they could journey farther and in more safety. This buoyed their confidence.

The woman switched off the thing which made light. She worried that it would cease working if its gift of luminescence were squandered. They left the body behind them and continued on.

He lingered for a while. They had overlooked something, a scrap of material attached at the corpse's waist. It had symbols on its surface and some sort of drawing. He remembered the shape of those symbols.

He then followed after the wavering, distant, faint light of the woman's lantern's tiny flame.

Subversion

The woman and the survivors mourned the loss of their companion only for a short while. They could not linger in this place. Their light was not infinite. They refilled their partially emptied satchels with the belongings of their fallen companion. They stripped their companion. What they could not fit into their bags they bundled up in their companion's clothing. They tied the clothing together to form crude bags that they carried in their arms.

They left the corpse of the crawling horror to fester and rot. The wounds the woman had inflicted upon the creature stank and bubbled viscous slime. None of them wanted to risk contracting sickness from consuming the pale thing's gelid flesh.

The woman retrieved her lantern. They resumed their exploration through the crevasse. Its walls were broader than those of the tunnel above. They were too regular and straight to have a natural, geological origin. The floor remained uneven and continued to shift beneath their feet as they progressed.

The woman and her companions could easily walk three abreast here. They did not. They proceeded in a loose, triangular formation. They used the butts of their weapons to prod the path before them. They were methodical and careful. He trailed behind all of them at the edge of their light.

The tunnel they followed ceased running parallel to the tunnel above after a distance. They regrouped and discussed how best to attempt returning to the upper level. The walls slanted gradually closer together as they rose and the rubble from the collapsed floor was neither piled high enough nor in a favorable position to scale it. One of the woman's companions flung the rope up into the darkness, still hoping the loop at its end would catch on something. It would not reach the full vertical distance to regain the upper tunnel, but it might serve as a useful anchor with which to start the climb. The slap of the braided fibers on the cold stone echoed back down to them.

It caught on something eventually. The woman's companion gave a whoop when it did. The rope was pulled taut. They tugged on it hard to see if it would hold.

It did not.

It came loose in a rumble of stone and they leaped back to avoid the jagged hunk of rock which plummeted down. It crashed into the gathered stones. Dust filled the air. The woman and her companions coughed. They bled from many small wounds inflicted by flecks of shattered stone that exploded outwards in the impact.

Everything went dark. The lantern's fire was extinguished in the cloying cloud of debris. He heard the woman and her companions shout. He knew they groped blindly for one another. He saw sparks as the woman labored to relight the lantern by striking a stone against a strip of metal. She made muffled, painful sounds.

She kindled the flame, in time. He saw her fingers were bleeding from where she had rasped the stone's sharp edges against her flesh. The woman's companions checked her wounds and helped her to bind them. The strips of cloth turned bright red with her blood. He was reminded of the mantle she had worn once.

They appraised their new situation. The fallen chunk of stone had embedded itself in the irregular piles of rubble which comprised the floor. It was fairly large, perhaps twice as large as the woman. Despite its intimidating size, it seemed easily climbable using the series of handholds jutting out along its broken edge. It leaned at a lopsided angle.

The rope lay partially buried under its bulk and the three struggled to shift the heavy mass enough to extract it. Two of them used their metal bars as leverage to pry up the stone, bit by bit. The third reached down and pulled the rope loose. It slithered across the stones like a worm left to expire beneath the uncaring, unceasing light above.

The rope could not be entirely freed. Loosing the last bit of it would require shifting the boulder so much that its weight would cause it to topple over. As it was now, it stood mostly upright. One of the woman's companions squirmed into the crack made through the efforts of the woman and the other companion to pull the rope's length as taut as possible before cutting it. He watched. One lapse of fortitude and the woman would lose a second companion.

The woman and her companion's strengths held. Only a comparatively small length of rope was left trapped under the rocky mass. Another loop was tied at the rope's end, and one of the woman's companions scaled atop the boulder. It wobbled as additional weight rested at its apex, but it did not fall.

The rope failed to catch on anything this time. The woman's two companions tried for some time. They switched off duties while the woman further sorted and reorganized their belongings, arranging them to use the least possible space in their satchels. They gave up.

They faced a choice. They would either return to their settlement or they would follow the new tunnel which crawled away in a different direction from the tube they had been following. They would lose the guidance of the tube along this path.

They took stock of their supplies. They could afford to press on. They left the crevasse with its uncertain footing behind them after consuming some of their supplies and resting. He watched them as they did. He followed them when they rose from their seats and continued their search.

Ravage

The tunnels were dark and constricting. The woman and her companions made their way cautiously, slowly. They carried their supplies in slings upon their backs. They were meticulous in how they were rationed. They had no idea how deeply they must go.

The tube remained to their left as they traveled. The walls and floor were gray stone, coarse and worn down by trickling droplets of moisture which seeped and flowed and gradually abraded the surface over many long years. Sometimes small creatures could be seen, eight-legged and pale things which cast out gossamer strands to snare other, yet smaller creatures. They were too small to make a good meal for the woman and her companions, but they supplemented the dried flesh and greenery nicely.

They journeyed for some time, guided by the wavering light cast by their fat-burning lantern, until they arrived at a collapsed stretch of tunnel. The floor had given way and the chunks of rock formed a rough chute which led to whatever depths lay below. The gap was too large to leap and its opposite side was out of view, shrouded by shadows too distant to be banished by the lantern's light. One of the woman's companions tried throwing a rope across the chasm in the hopes of snagging it on something beyond, but these attempts accomplished nothing.

They tied their lantern to the end of the rope and lowered it carefully into the hole to see how deep it went. Some distance, but not insurmountably so. They discussed their options. The woman decided that they would descend and find a way to climb back up after.

He preceded them in their descent. The bottom was jagged and uneven. He was unsure what the slabs and shards of stone fallen from above rested upon. Their footing was uneven and shifted with the slightest motion. Smaller stones were dislodged to roll and clatter away in minor avalanches. The sound echoes loudly.

The woman retrieved the lantern and held it aloft. She and her companions held their sharpened metal poles at the ready. They were wary.

Their wariness was rewarded. There was something else which lived in this place, down below, amidst the rubble in an alcove formed by the crumbled stone. He saw it before they did. They were not taken by surprise. It was pale, bloated. It did not scurry or leap upon its many legs so long as heave its bulk at them. Its mandibles were large. Its eyes were pale. Its carapace rasped across the stones with a deathly, rattling scrape that reverberated hollowly.

One of the woman's companions fell. Blood spurted from a leg wound. The woman screamed and thrust her pole. It pierced the thing's hide. Milky fluid oozed from the puncture. The bloated thing chittered and tried to turn upon the woman. Its girth was not suited to such a maneuver. It sidled awkwardly instead. She stabbed again. This took it in the thing's head. It screeched and heaved. Its rear parts thrashed. Its legs scrabbled. It stopped moving.

The woman's companion was dying. The wound leaked blood and pus. It grew discolored. The creature was venomous.

The woman said some words to her dying companion. Then she thrust her implement through her companion's heart.

They were now three. He was with them, as well.

Quandary

One of the metal tubes which carried the liquid broke. He saw it happen due to the negligence of some of the residents. They had opened a valve on its side which caused the liquid to trickle out from within. As they were collecting it, one of the residents broke the valve. They could not stop the liquid from coming out. It seemed to be an endless flow.

The woman and others worried that the flow would not be endless. They were concerned that the store of liquid would empty. They collected what they could in the containers of metal which they possessed, in basins made from the skulls of the large beasts that had been killed, but this was a paltry amount that would not last an extensive amount of time. It would be consumed by the residents, used on their green growing things, and evaporate on its own. The existence of the leak was kept hidden from the bulk of the residents. The woman feared there would be panic if their security and way of life were threatened. Only the woman and the water-bearers were appraised fully. He was, as well.

The immediate reaction was to plug the hole shut with dirt and other objects. This lessened the flow, but did not stop it entirely. It provided them more time to think on what to do.

They decided that they would follow the tubes to their source and learn the truth of what danger their settlement faced. The woman would lead the excursion. It would take place some time later. They had supplies to gather. They needed to find a way to provide light.

They gathered fat and oil from the animals they killed and began to render it into fuel. The process was slow and difficult. It prevented those parts of the prey from being consumed. The production of this fuel took many attempts, and some of it was wasted.

This was not done in secret. All the residents were told that the woman had a curiosity in seeing where the tubes led. They were told it would further increase the viability and longevity of their settlement.

It took time. Windstorms occurred. More wanderers joined the group. They were put to work. Those who had resided there longer, who were trusted, began to range farther from the protection of their edifice in search of prey to keep up the production and demand of the fat-fuel. No one knew how much would be needed. The woman aimed to bring along as much of it as she could.

The flow of liquid, when the plug of dirt and bone was removed, gradually grew weaker.

They could wait no longer. The woman set out with three others of her group, some of whom had been with her long ago when they were chosen by the strangers in red to push wobbly carts down the distant tunnels.

He was the fifth.

Patterns

The group of travelers which included the woman ceased to be travelers after they found the tubes of metal. When the tubes were breached, they dribbled and spilled liquid similar to that which had been in the pools far underground. This brought them great joy. The former resident's death was forgotten. The group settled into its new residence. The woman who once had worn the red mantle became a leader. Others took note of her suggestions and wisdom. He felt this was somehow natural. The woman had experienced much. Without her, they would still be thralls of the strangers in red.

They found kernels and seeds which the former resident had stored away. They placed these into dirt and used the mechanisms the former resident had crafted to rotate the small, green things which had sprouted into and out of the light which pierced through the cracks in the wall of their new residence. They grew, in time, and were consumed.

They put effort into hiding their presence. They were mistrustful of others. Anything which was not used routinely was hidden in the tunnels. These objects were only brought up or used when needed. It allowed them to react swiftly without worry of leaving those items scattered for others to find. He suspected they still feared the vengeance of the strangers in red. But they also feared more. Members of the group were always on watch, looking in all directions across the barren landscape for signs of other life.

Occasionally others passed by, large groups which resembled the woman's own, who bore weapons and had an air of violence about them. The lookouts would give shouts of warning. When this took place, the woman ushered everyone deep into the tunnels below. He would go with them. They would bring the containers of dirt and green which needed the light and the liquid to grow along with them. Then they would wait. They did not have access to the pulpy mash which the strangers in red harvested to use in their pale, green lanterns. They crouched in darkness.

Other times those on lookout would give a shout and the woman and others would venture forth with weapons. He followed them and watched as they killed beasts. Some were similar to the great, gangling-legged creature the woman had hunted with her companions when she was a young woman. Others had a more feral and ferocious look about them. They fought back and injured or killed some of the group. Still others were covered in great plates of horn or chitin that resisted the thrusts and stabs and slashes of the group's weapons. These were killed in more inventive ways, by collapsing stones to crush them, or luring them to topple and fall in a way that exposed their vulnerable underbellies. The meat and blood and viscera and bones were taken and prepared over fires fueled by their dried-out refuse.

And other times the lookout would give a third shout. This alerted the group to the existence of small bands or lone wanderers who crossed the dusty wasteland. They carried possessions of their own. Sometimes in crude carts, as had the woman's companions. Sometimes in their arms or on their backs. The woman and her companions would fall upon those groups and seize their belongings.

Those who resisted were killed. Those who surrendered were taken into custody and moved in places below the earth where they were kept under close watch and tested. Those who failed the tests were also killed. Those who succeeded were allowed to join the group, though they were treated as lessers and were made to do much of the difficult and dangerous and monotonous work and labor. They were not allowed access to any of the group's tools or weapons.

He felt this was somehow natural, as well.

Opportunity

The woman and the others traversed the dusty expanse. They headed away from the large, circular system of underground tunnels by walking along one of the wide paths which lay between the ruined structures to either side, one of those radial spokes that stretched to the limits of sight. The choice of direction they took was meaningless. All were the same. The hot, motionless light suspended in a ceiling of blue and gray burned upon the barren earth regardless.

They moved in the shadows of the great crumbling structures whenever possible. The shadows, too, never changed in orientation. The only differences in size came about due to the dimensions of the objects which cast the shadows. It was too hot to move outside the protection provided by the shade for an extended period of time. They ate dried bits of flesh and other materials as they walked. They had nothing to burn so they could not char the meat they carried.

They stopped often to rest and to consume liquid they brought along in pale bags. He saw they needed to do this to continue to travel. Their bodies grew weary. At times many of them would stop moving entirely, huddled together against the wall of one of the battered structures. He watched them when they stopped to rest like this. The ones who did not sprawl in the dirt would look around warily. He saw that they feared attack. Perhaps from the strangers in red, perhaps from others they had never encountered.

In time, they would return to motion and resume their journey.

The wind was an endless torment which the group bore. They covered their faces with scraps of material to keep from choking on the plumes of dust kicked up by the wind's passage. When the sprawling blackness loomed in the distance, when the winds grew fiercer and begin to whirl in powerful gusts that tugged at their bodies, they sought shelter in the nearby structures. They favored those that had only one entrance. They removed heavy, folded sheets of dried skin from the bottoms of their carts and draped them over the openings. They stopped much of the dirt from being blown in when the great dust storms swept by. The storms were one of the few times everyone in the group could rest simultaneously in the protective darkness.

Members of their group would explore some of the structures, if their passages had not collapsed or were not blocked shut by masses of rock and dirt blown in by the winds. They always went deeper with weapons. They carried pale lights. The woman went on these excursions. He was not certain what they sought. Whatever it was, they never seemed to find it.

After much wandering, one of the smaller members of the group gave a shout and pointed. Something stood in stark contrast to the unending tapestry of brown, gray, and red. It was a patch of something which grew up from the dirt. It had fronds. They were colored green, though barely.

The discovery excited the others. They moved within one of the larger structures which stood nearby despite no trace of a windstorm in the distance. The woman and others investigated the growth. They bickered. Some wanted to remain. They viewed the presence of this wiry patch as a great portend. Some wanted to continue moving on. They felt it was dangerous. Others might be nearby who would attack and kill the group.

The woman struck a compromise. They would stay, for a short time, and explore the surrounding area. If they found what they sought, those who wished to remain would be vindicated. If they encountered resistance, they would react appropriately.

The light burned overhead. The woman and her companions explored all of the structures near the patch. They searched for the existence of tunnels like those they had left behind. He followed the young woman when she went inside the structures. She did not find what she sought. They expanded the radius of their search.

They found one other. The woman was not present when it happened. He was. The stranger was wiry and wrinkled and leaned upon a length of metal. The stranger resided inside one of the structures. Its walls had crumbled in a way that the light from outside could enter. The stranger maintained things which somewhat resembled the patch of material that the woman's group had found. They were inside containers filled with dirt. The stranger moved them in and out of the ceaseless light. They produced things which the stranger could eat.

The woman's companions tried to take the stranger and his possessions into their custody. The stranger did not want this to happen. The stranger resisted when the woman's companions used force. The stranger ruined the containers and destroyed their contents. Blood fell to the ground, caused by the stranger's own hand. The stranger's secrets remained hidden.

The woman was not pleased when she learned of what happened. But the woman did not let her distaste prevent her from moving herself and her companions to the place where the stranger once resided. He moved with them.

There were tunnels here. The tunnels held warrens of creatures of various sizes and shapes. The stranger had eaten of them before. Now the woman and her companions did so.

They would explore.

Net

When the group of travelers reached the next place under the stairs, it was set upon by others.

He saw the attackers just before they struck They must have come down the stairs from above. Their first task was to remove all those who resided in this place. All bodies were removed. Any blood was cleaned.

The attackers stood near the exit leading to the upper area. They feigned being the residents of this place. This prevented the strangers in red from immediately noticing that the attackers did not resemble the dead ones. Their forms were made silhouetted and featureless by the bright light surrounding them.

He did not know how long the attackers had waited. Their patience was rewarded. The strangers in red were taken by surprise and some were killed by projectiles before they realized their peril. The woman lived.

The leader of the strangers in red reacted swiftly. They took out their own weapons and fell upon the attackers. Screams echoed off the walls and ceiling. Blood flowed. He felt it was a futile act. The strangers in red were not only taken by surprise, but they were also outnumbered by the attackers. More died.

When the leader of the strangers in red was struck down, the resolve of the others who wore red mantles shattered. They tried to flee. They were killed.

Alone of all the strangers in red, the woman lived. He saw this was not by chance. The woman removed the mantle and tossed it to the bloody ground. She spoke with one of the attackers. He recognized the attacker as the one the woman had spoken to in the edifice long ago, after she had hidden the container of scarabs. They embraced. They seemed content.

Some of the attackers had died. They were taken up the stairs into the harsh light, carried by others. At the top, the others of this group beneath the stairs waited. They huddled in the scant shade provided by one of the crumbling structures. They dug holes in the packed earth and put the bodies in them. They did the same with the motionless forms of the strangers in red. The woman threw her mantle into the pit into which the leader of the strangers in red was dumped.

The dirt was replaced over them.

The group, now greatly increased in size, collected all the possessions which once belonged to the strangers in red. The lanterns and weapons were divided out. All the possessions of this place were loaded into the carts as well. Some then went to the trolleys to push them back along the tunnel. They went about the labor with more joy. The supplies looked plentiful.

They retraced their steps to the first place at the bottom of the stairs. The members of that group who had remained joined them there. They worked together to lift the carts up the steps. When the carts were on level ground once more, they took turns pushing them. The wheels on the carts forged paths through the dirt. He suspected they did not know where they planned to go. He, too, did not know where to go.

He followed behind them as they set off together in that dusty, windswept place above.

Metamorphosis

He wandered along the course of the tunnels for a long while. Sometimes the tunnels slanted upwards and led to places where the harsh white light from above shone through unobstructed openings. Sometimes there were stairs, other times only ramps. They led to the room above. Specific details were different. Structures were of different shapes and sizes. At times they were more densely packed than others. He explored one shadowed warren which was made of the walls of those structures.

The less-ruined ones were inhabited. The ones residing here were darker and coarser than those who resided below. They were worn by the light and the heat and the dirt and the wind. They were warlike, not like the ones residing near the pools below. They battled over access to liquid which bubbled up from some place underground or collected in dark ravines where it was not devoured by the relentless light or parched earth. He could not understand why they would be in such a conflict. The liquid was grimy with the dusty deposit flung everywhere by the gusting wind. He tried it and found it lacking.

He returned to the place from which he emerged and continued through the tunnels. In some places the light was dimmer, filtering through a jumbled pile of rubble, or through cracks in the walls or ceiling which opened parts of it to the open space above. Some of the tunnels were collapsed entirely. He found ways around them, through smaller shafts which was at times accessible nearby, or through jagged paths crudely hacked into the walls. He took as long as was necessary to travel.

He came upon other inhabited places. He arrived at a commonality as to why they chose to reside where they did. They lived where the openings in the stone were large enough to allow them to pass through and where they had an easy way to access other creatures and the liquid.

He continued along the tunnels and in time emerged into a familiar place. It was the place at the bottom of the stairs, where the young woman and her companions had dragged the beast. It was still inhabited. He found that satisfactory.

The strangers in red came then. He recognized two of them. One was the leader of the strangers in red, different now compared to long ago. The other was the young woman. She was more different, now. She bore more scars. She was no longer young. Some of the residents of the place under the stairs seemed to be aware of who she once was. They did not share this with her or with one another or with the strangers in red. He suspected it would not have changed things.

The strangers in red took goods in tribute. They seized meat and tubers as they had previously and placed them into the trolleys which were again pulled out of shadowed recesses. Some members of the group under the stairs were chosen to push them. He found it familiar.

The woman took offered objects with the same coldness as the other strangers and placed them in the squeaking, wobbly carts with an indifferent expression. She hid her feelings well.

When the leader of the strangers in red felt enough had been taken, the group set off down the tunnel. He was going in the same direction. He followed her again.

Now the woman marched alongside the other strangers in red, rather than among them.

Labyrinth

He left the room in which the young woman was held at the next opportunity. The strangers in red came to take her away again. She still carried the mantle the leader had given to her in her arms. They escorted her back down the hallway which she had come. He eluded them and went in the opposite direction, deeper into the confusing structure in which the strangers in red lurked.

He continued for a while. At a point, the walls grew different. They were not stone stacked and held together any longer, but solid, smooth sheets of gray. They resembled the outsides of some of the crumbled structures in the dust-swept expanse far above. Bars of metal reinforced them, though this metal was still strong. Its remote location protected it to some degree from wear over time. He found little trace of passage by the strangers in red. They avoided this place, though they could easily find their way to and from it.

Symbols decorated the walls, ones that were similar to one of those which the strangers in red used to adorn their own structures. These were not carved upon the surface. They were drawn. He was struck by their familiarity. He tried to recall their meaning. Nothing.

The way was dark and for the most part quiet. He occasionally heard, or felt, something reverberate through the stone on all sides. Deep, thrumming noises, like a great monstrous beast that breathed. Perhaps it was a gargantuan version of the beast the young woman had slain above. He could not pinpoint the source of the noise. At times it grew louder and closer. Other times it appeared to recede.

Air sometimes moved as well. It was cool and dry and not as strong as the winds above.

Nothing lived here. Even the small creatures that lived in the walls were absent.

He came to a chamber. In some ways it resembled the large room connected to the tunnels. It others it was like the very first room with the boxes. Boxes were here, too, lining the walls. He tried to break them. They were resilient. Other objects were here, containers of different shapes. Some were curved, others straight. Some of them had the symbol upon the walls placed on their surfaces, and smaller symbols as well. He found no meaning in them.

Liquid lay in a pool upon the floor. He found this odd. More containers were at the bottom of the pool. He retrieved one. It was made of metal, but a different metal from the others. It was much heavier. He opened it. Inside were poles. Most were dark. A few glowed a very dull red. He was reminded of the mantles the strangers wore. He recalled the young woman. It seemed long ago.

The room led to another passage beyond. He followed it.

It led, in time, to another place. The walls changed once more. Others were here, similar to the young woman and the strangers in red. There were not a great many. They did not live in a single large room, but in a warren of connected passages. Groups of three or four claimed a section of these tunnels as their own. As was the case in the place claimed by the strangers in red, these residents made a mash of gently glowing material and smeared it on objects to provide light.

Pools of liquid existed around the place they chose as a residence. Some had a method to retrieve objects from the pools. He looked into the pools when an opportunity arose. He saw creatures, pale and wriggling, instead of inert poles of metal. Others shepherded puffy growths in areas where they placed their refuse, while still more set out to retrieve other creatures from farther along the tunnels. Only a few tools of metal were here. Most used objects made of rock and bone.

This place was peaceful. He wondered how long they had existed here and how they had first found this place. He would receive no answers. He watched then, and continued journeying when the residents had nothing more to reveal.

Kindred

He waited in the room with the young woman. She waited too. There was nothing more that she could do, sealed in this place as she was.

She stumbled about in the dark, at first. She carefully approached the nearest wall and traced her fingertips over it, seeking out the minute crack in the stone which outlined the entrance. It took some time. She was thorough in her explorations.

She did find it, eventually. She braced herself and pushed at the wall to see if she could dislodge the stone which covered the entrance using her own strength. It did not move.

She sat, then. She did not speak. She curled her arms around her body for comfort or for warmth and waited. He watched her do this. He felt no need to speak, either.

He wondered if he could move this stone. He had moved others, before, in the very first room with the boxes. They were not this size. He still carried his tool. He did not doubt that it was possible.

She was not aware of the stone's movement until it was done. Pale, greenish light dimly illuminated the sterile room through the growing opening. She stood and moved to the opposite side of the room.

The way was open, but a stranger in red stood in the opening The leader from before. Some others of the red-mantled ones stood a short distance away. The leader of the strangers in red carried something draped across the arms. Another mantle.

The leader spoke to the young woman then. The voice was calm and controlled. The ranks of the strangers in red were always in need of more members with appropriate skills. She had these skills and talents. It made compelling arguments and promised incentives to the young woman and to the young woman's companions, the ones who had pushed the carts here to this place far below the surface and the ones which still resided at the bottom of the stairwell above. Service would be rewarded.

The leader of the strangers in red continued. Denying this would be punished. Dereliction of her purpose would be punished. Punishment would be meted out in an appropriate way. The leader of the strangers in red emphasized this point. The young woman grasped the intent behind those words.

The young woman considered. She was stubborn. She was also compassionate. She would not allow innocents to suffer for her misdeeds.

The leader of the strangers in red extended the mantle. She took it and draped it across her shoulders. It was still moist with the blood of one which she had slain before.

The leader of the strangers in red spoke to the other red-mantled ones outside the room, and the large stone was moved back into place. Darkness returned.

The young woman in red collapsed to the floor. She clutched the mantle to herself. She felt pain. He watched.

Juxtaposition

The strangers in red, the young woman, and the dozens who followed them along the narrow path drew nearer to the structure at the road's end. He could make out its details now. It was graceful, in its own way. The walls were not built haphazardly from chunks of stone stacked together, studded with countless small gaps and held erect only by friction. These walls were taller than all the others. Their component stones were cut into blocks, fitted and held together by some other material. They stretched across the narrowest part of this end of the room in an impenetrable barricade.

One opening existed in the wall, wide enough for three to walk side by side. Some of the strangers in red stood there. They welcomed their brethren and took the young woman into their custody. The ones which trailed behind shouted words. They were barred entry. The red-mantled guards used their weapons to threaten the surging press backwards.

He crept by them unnoticed.

Inside the large wall was different from outside them. The structures here, invisible from without, were ordered, constructed with a similar care as the large wall. They were ornate and decorated. Carvings were incised into the rock, symbols of importance to the strangers in red.

Some resided here who did not bear the red mantles. They looked akin to the fire-tenders in the outer settlement, ones who lacked apathy and frailty like many of the others. They worked at tasks more complicated and important than mashing those luminescent pustules into a glowing paste. He recognized some of the containers of legless scarabs, where they worked to render the insects into a crushed slurry blended together with liquid.

Others hammered at shafts or shards of metal with stones and crude mallets, working the edges of the material into a cutting point for use in weapons. He saw that some of them had long hair. He had not taken note of hair until now. Those ones had hair with a color similar to that of the mantles worn by the strangers in red.

The strangers in red milled about this place, but they were not as perpetually present as they had been in the outer community. While they watched the others at their work, the residents of this place were allowed to go about their business without molestation.

Only one structure came close to matching the outer wall's size. It was a sprawling edifice constructed against the rear wall, opposite the opening which led back to the outer community. The top of the ceiling slanted down to meet the top of the wall, enclosing it.

The young woman and her escorts were walking to this place. It had an opening which was sealed behind a pair of stone slabs. Strangers in red pulled these slabs apart to reveal a hallway within. The interior was lit with numerous flasks which held the glowing sludge. They entered. He followed

The structure's inside was divided by walls of stone into hallways with rooms branching off from them. It was evocative of the ruined structures so far above. He felt this was intended. Strangers knelt within some of them, heads bowed as they recited words in a peculiar cadence. They ignored, and were ignored by, the young woman and her escort.

They traveled deeper into the place. He was surprised at its scope. Parts of the surrounding walls were not made of the fitted stones, but were natural extentions of the rock comprising the outer wall of the large room in which this structure was built. They passed through more hallways and tunnels, past rooms stocked with containers and rooms stocked with weapons and rooms in which the strangers knelt and slept.

They stopped in front of one particular section of the wall. Some of the strangers in red maneuvered a flat stone, similar to the ones at the entrance, aside and revealed a room beyond it. He entered the room. It was small, but not so small as to be uncomfortably cramped. The young woman was shoved into the room by the leader of the strangers in red, who said some words to here. She did not reply.

The stone was pushed back into place and everything became black.

Indictment

He trailed behind the young woman when she left the other three behind her. She appeared forlorn. Her steps lacked surety and she seemed, for the first time and despite the rigors she had recently experienced, tired. Her head drooped, her posture slumped, and she looked more like the others, the broken and exhausted and hopeless, now than ever before. He decided she was not suffering from physical want, but lacking some other, intangible, thing.

As she neared the center of the large room, where the cooking fires still burned and cast light that bit eyes accustomed to the dark, she took note of a number of the strangers in red in the area. There were more than before. They had gathered the populace near the fires in groups of three or four, each watched over by someone who wore a red mantle and carried a weapon in the hands. The only ones who were not broken into clusters like this were the healthier-looking ones that had tended the fires, the handful of residents that had not gone to take part in the scarab tide, and the few individuals who had been taken through the tunnels along with the young woman. These groups kept to themselves, separate from the others, and watched the proceedings with interest at the very outskirts of the illumination granted by the cooking fires.

The young woman skirted around the area until she felt she could rejoin her companions. She spoke with them about the proceedings. They replied in hushed, fearful whispers.

The strangers in red were questioning the residents one by one. They had found a container of scarabs which had not been taken back to the settlement with the others. They were seeking the one who had committed this deed. The ones being questioned were chosen at random from the various groups. They were taken behind one of the walls, out of view of the others. They could be heard but not seen. The ones whose interrogations were finished were taken and held within a larger enclosure some distance away, under close watch by the strangers in red.

He saw the combination of these things served to increase the tension the remainder of the populace felt. Some of the ones yet to be chosen pleaded for clemency. Others sat on the ground, abject and resigned to the worst possible outcome if a culprit were not apprehended sooner. A few were stoic. He suspected their stoicism would break when it came their turn.

The young woman failed to hide her shock at this revelation. Her companions looked at her. One stepped away from the others, turned partway, prepared to speak or to shout. She lurched, managed to lock an elbow around the throat, and cut the sound off. It was reduced to a startled wheeze. He saw her pull that one back to fall together upon the hard stone. The young woman's companions clustered around the two as they scuffled to block them from easy view. One of them reached down to separate the combatants and hissed warnings that they remain quiet, that this was not their affair, that they do not fight each other. The one that the young woman had been fighting heeded these words and calmed down.

He could see that the young woman did not. She was too involved in this event. She had set it into motion. She knew that the red-mantled ones would not be satisfied if all the residents pleaded their innocence. They would select one or two and use their lives as a way to exert fear and maintain control over the population here, and populations elsewhere.

She shook off the restraining grasp of her companions and set her mouth in a grim line. He found her sense of nobility intriguing. He had learned that this place was not a place where sacrifices of this sort were routine. She would receive no reward or vindication if she did as she planned. Her companions would not support her choice. They might even suffer punishment.

They instead prevented her from carrying it out, or apprehended her themselves. He did not care what the motivation could be, as the deed was the same, The one which had separated the young woman and her opponent took note of her expression and grabbed her, keeping her silent in the same way as she had done before. Others assisted.

The fight did not go unnoticed this time. The fire-tenders shouted for the strangers in red. The strangers in red left their tended groups. Some of those held in the groups had the fortitude and initiative to flee. They scattered in all directions. Others remained where they were, despite the guards' absence. Those were conditioned better.

He watched as the leader of the strangers in red, the same individual who had collected the young woman and her companions from their place at the bottom of the stairs, approached. The one who had first grabbed at the young woman spat hurtful words and threats at her. The young woman did not react to those words.

The young woman was outnumbered. The leader of the strangers in red issued orders that she not be killed here. She fought the strangers in red when they came to take her. She managed to wrest away the weapon. She used it. Blood flowed, hers and theirs. Their blood was a darker red than their mantles. She did not die. Two of the strangers in red did.

He watched from a distance as she was taken, in the end. They bore her struggling body towards the large structure at the end of the road which was made of poles which glowed. The populace of this place followed in a vast cloud, more curious than afraid now that the red-mantled ones' ire had a definite outlet. None walked outside the path. The numbers were funneled between the parallel rows of poles. He found it curious that they did not.

He did.

Happiness

He followed the young woman as she crept back to the inhabited part of the room. She crawled on her hands and knees in the darkness. Though she could not see, she was guided by the faint glow in the room's center and used that to orient herself. She was taking a circuitous route, one which would allow her to return with minimal suspicion.

He saw the looming, black outline of the larger edifice seen earlier grow nearer as she made her way around the area. He could see, from this new angle, that a road of sorts lay in a straight line leading from the center of the room to the front of that structure. The road's boundaries were delineated by poles hammered into the earth. Their tops glowed faintly with the same luminescent paste used elsewhere. No one stood on the road.

The young woman nodded in satisfaction, then changed direction to return to the center of the place. She regained her feet and walked, carefully at first, but with more confidence as she came closer to the center. None of the strangers in red were near when she passed reached the shabby set of walls at the outermost edge. She walked past the structure, past a gap in the walls, and looked around warily. He, meanwhile, peered inside.

A group of residents were within. One of them was frail and wasted and lay upon a crude mattress of spongy material. Two others stood nearby. One held a small container filled with the concoction prepared in the cookpots to the first's mouth. They spoke in hushed voices.

The young woman returned then to look within as well. The two recoiled at her appearance in surprise, but relaxed when they saw that she was not one of the strangers in red. She spoke, and their reaction changed even more. They became animated, excited, and the younger of the two crossed the small enclosure to hold the young woman in a tight embrace. They spoke quickly and quietly, then the young women went to kneel next to the one resting on the floor.

He watched the four. They radiated something rare and precious in this strange and uncaring place, where options seemed limited deciding between the risks found beneath an endless, burning light and frequent storms of dirt and rock, or under the harsh, unyielding, and mysterious influence and power of the strangers in red.

The young women spoke with the others for some time. She seemed at peace as she did. She told them of the container of legless scarabs she had hidden and gave detailed instructions on how they could retrieve it. The resident which had not embraced her seemed appalled by this news, but the other resident reacted more calmly and assured the young woman that the trove would be claimed before the strangers in red could find out about it.

The young woman then turned to go. The others did not want this. Even the weak one upon the floor pleaded for her to delay. He heard her explain that the strangers in red would wonder where she had gone once the bounty of scarabs had been processed and they could take more careful stock of the situation. She embraced the one resident again, then exited the enclosure.

He saw she did not wish things to be this way, either.

Gluttony

He saw many other residents of this place rise and hurry in the direction of the noise. Even the frail or elderly ones who lay in place, hardly moving, roused themselves to hobble and crawl in the wake of the others. More than fifty residents in total followed the sound. The ones which had received their food brought their platters with, careful not to spill any of their precious rations. The handful which waited in line for food and the ones which controlled the cookpots were the only ones of this community that did not investigate. Neither did the young woman's companions, nor the ones wearing red mantles that watched over the eating area.

Other red-mantled guards did investigate. Among them was the leader of the strangers in red. The young woman went, as well. He also followed.

One of the smaller residents had broken away a portion of the outer wall. Chips and chunks of stone lay in piles before a gaping hole. The small resident, and others of similar size, clustered around the hole. They gibbered in excitement, reaching towards the floor to snatch something up from a dark, undulating tide which surged and flowed from the hole. They raised their hands to their mouths after, then repeated the motion. The larger citizens did as well, when they reached a place where they could interact with the strange tide.

He saw the tide was made of countless scurrying beetles, fat and bloated scarabs so large that three or four of them would fill one's palm. Their carapaces were dark and shimmered slightly in the weak greenish light cast by the luminescent paste which filled the clear jars and clung to the ends of metal rods. The residents scooped them up. The beetles kicked their spiny legs uselessly, until the residents pulled them off, one by one. After, some of them chose to twist off the scarabs' blunt heads. Others shoveled the twitching insects into their mouths whole. Regardless, teeth crunched through the beetles' exoskeletons to get at the pulpy flesh which lay inside.

The strangers in red tried to stop them at first. They shouted. They used the shafts of their weapons as bludgeons on a few of the residents. But the strangers in red were too few to stop all of them, and they gave up trying to stop the feast as a whole. Some residents, the ones that had been around the cookpot, or those which had the luck or foresight to bring rusted containers along, began scooping some of the writhing mass into the objects they carried, and the red-mantled ones focused their attention on those individuals. They exchanged words and brandished their weapons, and those citizens capitulated to the demands of the strangers in red. They surrendered their full or half-full containers, some more reluctantly than others, then proceeded to gorge themselves as the others did. Scarabs skittered beneath the piles of rubble, desperate for sanctuary, but the piles were cleared aside by the residents.

Then a few of the red-mantled ones were dispatched to the center of the large room by their leader. They returned a short while later with more empty containers, and these were disseminated to the gathered crowd. Those citizens surrendered these containers once they were filled, and a chain of labor was quickly implemented to maximize the efficiency of collecting the scurrying beetle horde. Some of the citizens were also sent back to the center of the cavernous room, escorted by the strangers in red.

The young woman was caught up in this chaos, and though she was not a resident of this place, this fact was ignored or overlooked by the strangers in red. They gave her a container and commanded her to go to work filling it. He watched her try to argue, but her words went unheeded. She collected beetles as well, yanking off legs and heads before dropping the plump remainder into her container. Chitin clacked against metal and more chitin as the contained filled.

The swarm of beetles, though it seemed endless, lessened eventually. Fewer of the insects crawled from the hole. The containers filled more slowly. The smaller citizens tried to wriggle inside the gap in the wall. They stretched with their arms and managed to extract a few dozen more, but the bulk of the insects had already been harvested. The small ones stepped back and informed the others that there were no more scarabs to be found here. This prompted the strangers in red to command all the residents back to the center of the room.

He saw the young woman slink along the wall, away from the gathered crowd and towards the piles of rubble that had been cleared away earlier. The red-mantled ones were focused on the residents of this place, of making sure they were all accounted. She carried her container of beetles with her. He watched her hide it among the relocated piles of rock.

Feast

The survivors of the new group were only allowed to claim the bodies of the three which had been killed after their possessions had been ransacked to the liking of the strangers in red and added to the carts of charred meat taken from the first stairwell-group. He watched as the red-mantled strangers talked among themselves. One of them said something while making a dismissive gesture towards the corpses, and others of the strangers laughed. The leader of the strangers in red said nothing, only watching the survivors as they took the limbs of the fallen and dragged them into the shadows.

Only then did the leader say a few words to the other strangers and the young woman and the others from the first stairwell-group, and they turned away to resume their journey down the tunnel. He did the same. He heard the sounds of tearing flesh to the rear, and light flared, orange and yellow, and the faintest tendrils of smoke slithered along the ceiling before it became too dark to see, and the strangers in red withdrew their lanterns once more.

They moved deeper below the earth. Life was down here, small, pale crawling things with no eyes and long, feathery antennae that scuttled on numerous legs. They fled into minute crevices in the floor and walls at the group's approach. Larger creatures, also colorless and eyeless but covered in skin rather than scales, lived here as well. Most of them could escape before the group came too close. Some were dull, or injured, or unlucky, and they were snatched up by the strangers in red and eaten alive. The crunch of tiny bones filled the tunnel when this happened. The young woman and the others who pushed the carts could not do the same. He could tell that they longed to.

They emerged into another open area, but this one was not connected to a place where that bright, white light shone, as with the others. It was a room, large and sprawling. He could not see its ceiling nor its far end, but this was due to the darkness which filled the limits of vision. Boxy edifices were erected here, or more accurately rooms were made within this room, delineated by chunks of stone lifted and fitted together to form crude walls. These were of varying heights. He could see over some of them into rooms that were given over to mats of faintly glowing objects, bulbous growths raised in gardens fertilized by the refuse of the gardens' keepers. One structure was larger than all the others, a vague shadow in the distance which dwarfed all the others.

He could see others here. Some wore mantles of red, as did the strangers. They bore objects of war of various shapes and sizes. Most others looked and dressed more like the young woman or her companions. They sat or squatted at work, or lay motionless on the uncaring floor in restless sleep. No fires burned here. Some pounded the luminescent growths into paste and put them into clear containers under the watchful eye of the strangers in red, or daubed lengths of metal or long stones with it. These poles and stones were driven into gaps in the walls of rock to shed their wan light and allow its residents to see.

Others processed different objects for different purposes. Some of the smaller ones carried buckets or satchels and patrolled the perimeter of the large room, snatching creatures from the floor and walls, or reaching into crevices and extracting their struggling forms. They, too, were watched by strangers in red. He saw them reach into their buckets and pop squirming handfuls into their mouth whenever their watcher's attention was elsewhere.

The young woman and the other cart-pushers were told to go to the center of the room by the leader of the strangers in red. They obeyed. The residents of this community looked up as the wheels of their trolleys squeaked and rumbled by. Some did so in interest, others out of sheer instinct. When they reached the center, members of the community came to unload the carts. They all tried to grab pieces of the charred meat. They would not eat it. He knew they were aware of the consequences if they were to do so. But they could lick away the juices clinging to their fingertips after the meat had been delivered.

The receivers of the meat, tubers, and other items did not wear mantles of red, but they seemed to have the favor of the strangers. They looked healthier, stronger, less hopeless. Their clothing was less ragged. Strangers in red still stood watchfully nearby, but they did not seem as concerned with what they were doing. They used sharp implements to divide the hunks of meat, chopping it into strips and cubes. Some of the meat was set aside, and strangers in red came to carry it away towards the towering structure. The rest was thrown into a large basin of metal and mixed with tubers and other things. Fires were struck, and the basins were set atop them to cook.

The young woman and her companions stood silently, unsure what to do. The leader of the strangers in red approached them and spoke with them, indicating the large basins. The young woman's companions made sounds of gratitude. One of them fell to the hard stone and grabbed at the leader's feet in paroxysm, cutting open the skin and bleeding from the knees. The young woman said nothing.

In time, the tenders of the basins shouted, and the members of the community came in ones and twos to scoop the mixture out using shallow dishes. The young woman and her companions were allowed to go to the basins as well. They had no dishes of their own. The leader of the strangers in red forced some of the community to turn theirs over. He could see that the young woman was not pleased, but she was practical. She scooped, and she ate.

He heard shouts of joy from across the large room then. Heads turned to investigate their source and their reason.

Empathy

The tunnel stretched ahead, subtly curving to the left the whole while. The light gradually receded as the blazing fire lit by the stairwell-group grew farther away. The strangers in red seemed to have come prepared. Each reached beneath their mantle and withdrew clear containers filled with a paste that gave a faint green-yellow glow. Two of the strangers in red were ordered by their leader to walk a bit farther ahead. Individually, the crude lanterns did not shed much light, but their combined illumination allowed the group to continue navigating the tunnel without slowing down.

He still trailed behind them, at the edge of vision. No one spoke, and the only sound was the echoing rattle of the carts as they trundled down the tunnel. This continued for some time, until a dim light could be seen gradually illuminating the tunnel from up ahead.

It was another enclave which lay at the bottom of another set of stairs leading upwards into that bright, sterile light above. This one was more populated than the earlier one had been, though its members seemed more downtrodden and furtive. They cringed more at the sight of the strangers in red. Most fell back from the light and only a few stood their ground, the tallest and strongest-looking of that group.

The leader of the strangers in red addressed them and this led to extensive conversation punctuated with angry gestures and raised voices. Most of the other strangers skulked among the enclave, poking, prodding, investigating, claiming bits of dried meat or gnarled tubers as their own, returning them to the carts. They struck those who resisted or tried to hide their belongings with their weapons. Sharp cracks and answering cries of pain rebounded from the vaulted ceiling. The shouting grew louder, the gesticulating more fervent.

Two of the strangers in red remained to watch over the carts and the small group which had pulled them. He saw them look at each other as the conflict escalated. They exchanged words with each other, then one of them ran to assist in the scuffle. The other remained, keeping watch over the carts and their tenders. Most of them were pale and terrified, but the young woman seemed composed, steely, tense. She waited, her gaze inscrutable.

He heard a particularly shrill cry and turned to view its cause. One of the strangers in red stood above the tallest resident of this area, who had collapsed to the ground. Blood dripped from the end of the stranger's bladed weapon, and blood spread out upon the ground in a growing pool which flowed from a wound in the tall resident's abdomen. Others of the group darted from the shadows, but the leader of the strangers in red shouted words at them, and shouted different words at the other strangers. They all formed up, except for the one remaining near the trolleys, brandishing their weapons and yelling. The injured man had been pulled back and was tended to by some others of their group.

The young woman watched them. He watched the young woman. Then she closed her eyes, relaxed her muscles, and exhaled a deep breath. He knew she had calculated the odds of wrestling away the red-mantled guard's weapon, using it to attack, rallying the others to help her. Now was not the time.

Her mouth was a hard line as the strangers in red advanced towards the fallen man. They forced aside anyone even partially in their way, including the few that were trying to staunch the flow of blood from the gaping wound to the man's midsection. The fallen man looked up at the leader of the strangers in red and snarled words laced with the sharpest vitriol. Then the fallen man spat. In response, the red-mantled man buried his weapon in the fallen man's throat, twisted it, pulled it back out.

Two others were executed by the command of the red-mantled one. The young woman watched, her hands balled into impotent fists. He continued to watch the young woman.

Descent

He crept behind the three, the woman and the two others, along another of the paths radiating out from the large clearing. The going was slow as they dragged the large beast's carcass behind them. They pulled it towards a hole in one of the structures along the path, one which had a set of stairs leading underground. They had to reorient themselves, two in the front and the woman behind, to haul the beast down the stairs.

A room lay at the bottom of the stairs, its walls and floor kept clear of the dust and gravel from above. The light filtering down the stairs from above was dimmer here. More beings were there, both male and female, some larger and some smaller. They squatted around the very edges of the light, near a long tunnel that curved off into the darkness, but once they saw what the three hunters had in tow they made sounds of jubilation and fell upon the carcass with short blades, slicing into the hide, skinning the beast with ruthless efficiency.

They let nothing go to waste. Organs were cut out and set aside. Some of the smallest ones brought containers of metal to catch the blood which trickled from the cuts, dipping their fingers into the collected liquid and popping the stained digits into their mouths when the larger ones had their attentions focused elsewhere. Others of the group, bent and bowed from age and hardship, brought out scraps of material and one of them ignited the pile. Before long a fire danced, its smoke collecting in the high-vaulted ceiling and drifting gradually down the tunnel. He breathed its scent in, heady and ripe, and again experienced a flash of remembrance, something at the edge of awareness.

They threw slabs upon meat across thin spears of metal and seared them in the flames while others processed the organs, hacking them up and mixing them in with the buckets of blood. After a while, some of the group took the skewers of meat and ate from them, or brought them to the weakened members of the group, and fresh meat was placed on fresh skewers, and the process was repeated. They worked quickly, furtively.

He felt no need to intervene or partake. He merely watched. He remained attentive and could see, then, better than they when a cluster of shapes came from one of the tunnels. There were nine in all. They looked like the others, but they were dressed fully and wore mantles woven of a red fabric about their heads and shoulders. They carried weapons, ones that looked finer than the ones borne by the three hunters earlier. Though they were outnumbered nearly two-to-one by the stairwell-group, they approached without hesitation and one of them spoke.

The stairwell-group cringed and its members looked at one another. Their expressions were hopeless. The sole exception was that of the young woman. He could see anger in the set of her jaw, in the whiteness of her clenched fists. She did not like these strangers or what they represented. She wanted to act, but refrained from doing so.

The strangers in red spread out and watched the stairwell-group work. The smaller members, when they went to dip their fingers in the garish soup of blood and organ meat, were struck by the strangers in red. They shouted, and the smaller ones fell back with whimpers of pain and of fear. When the chunks of meat were finished roasting over the fire, they were taken aside and placed into trolleys brought from the shadows, crude sleds resting upon wobbly wheels.

When the trolleys were filled to the satisfaction of the strangers in red, some members of the stairwell-group were pulled aside and made to push them down the tunnel under the close eye of the strangers in red. The woman was one of the chosen. She hid her disdain for the strangers in red when one of them approached, lowering her eyes and appearing deferential, nodding her head sullenly in time with his words. The facade did not last longer than it needed. He could see the seething hate she felt the moment the stranger in red turned away from her.

When she and the others were lined up to take the carts, she attempted to delay, to take a place at the very back of the group behind the rearmost of the strangers in red, but the one who had first addressed the stairwell-group noticed, and ordered a pair of the strangers to fall in behind her. The larger group set out, marching down the dark tunnel. The members of the stairwell-group, standing forlorn, watched their brethren fade into the shadows. When they had vanished, they returned to their labors, making use of the offal and hide and bones which the strangers in red had not deigned to claim as theirs.

He found little reason to remain there. He trailed the strangers in red.

Community

He continued to walk along the path with mounds of earth on both flanks. Ahead, the path split in two and the edifices fell back to make room for a large, circular space. The path broadened and swept in curves to the left and to the right around its perimeter. Radial paths seemingly identical to the first came in at regular intervals from among the towering structures to meet and join together. The spaces between the spokes were filled with hard-packed, powdery earth instead of the black, crumbled gravel which covered the paths themselves. The intermittent gusts of wind tugged wisps of dirt loose to drift to and fro in a seething cloud.

He noticed another structure which stood in the center of the area. It was shaped roughly like a basin, cracked and crumbling. A shape carved of a light-colored stone stood on a stained pedestal in the center of the basin, but it was vague and worn, rendered anonymous by the relentless, scouring wind. He could make out a smaller shape at the basin's lip, leaning into it, occluded by the roiling dust clouds. It stood on its hind legs, facing away, seemingly oblivious.

He walked closer and its shape grew clearer during the approach. Its legs were long and slender, seemingly too thin and fragile to adequately support its weight. The thing's barrel-shaped body was covered with a patchwork of wiry hair, brown and gray and black in random stripes and spots and whorls. He was smaller than it, a fact discernible even at this distance.

He must have made too much noise in approaching it. It propped its upper body upon its front legs and raised its head from within the basin. It turned its head so its head was in profile. Yellowed teeth and bone peeked through sores and abscesses that wept dark, blood-streaked pus along the thing's muzzle. Its nostrils flared, and it heaved away from the edge of the basin with a wheeze of air that puffed out through the its nostrils. Its limbs jerked, and the stumpy, hooflike fingers at the ends of its legs danced a frantic tattoo on the hard ground as it bounded away.

He watched it go. It crossed the circular arena in a few moments, covering the distance in a few long strides of its spidery legs. He heard another sound, then, a composite ululating made of layered noises. Something arced out from the shadow of one of the blocky structures lining the paths and buried itself in the creature's side. Its shrill cry echoed off the enclosing walls of the area, and the force of the blow upset its balance and sent it crashing to the earth.

He saw other forms emerge. They had a familiar shape--two arms, two legs, a head. Three in all. They wore ragged bits of grimy fabric which failed to entirely cover their bodies. One of them was subtly different from the others, smaller and slighter. They all carried tools, metal poles with sharpened tips. They fanned out around the wounded creature, which was struggling to regain its feet in a series of awkward, sprawling jerks. Viscous blood flowed from the puncture wound in its flank in sluggish rivulets to plop upon the dry earth. It snarled and kicked out with one limb, and one of the new forms leaped backwards to avoid the slashing hoof.

This provided an opportunity for the two others to dart forward and impale it with their weapons. The smaller of them brought its metal blade across the creature's neck. Blood gushed and the earth drank greedily. One of the others shouted, gesticulating at the fresh wound. The other cast aside its pole and knelt, heedless of the larger creature's weakening convulsions. It cupped its hands to catch the tacky liquid. It also drank, but it made happy, gluttonous noises as it did, so unlike the silent earth.

The other two moved next to the felled beast and did the same. They jostled for position, at first, but soon fell into a rhythm which let the least amount of the depleting bloodflow go to waste, alternating between cupping their hands to receive the hot fluid fresh from the wound and holding them in a place to catch stray droplets. He watched them gorge themselves, until the stream of blood was reduced to a mere trickle which seeped among the scruffy hairs of the beast's piebald pelt. They fell back under the harsh light, their hands and arms and mouths and faces streaked vivid red. They lay that way for a while, until the smallest of the three roused itself. It collected the discarded weapons, leaned them against the motionless bulk, and then looked around warily.

He looked back and recognized her as a woman. Her face was craggy, lined, worn, and ageless, much like the earth and the buildings. Her blood-streaked mouth was a hard, serious line, and her eyes were piercing and attentive. He moved quickly to evade her gaze. Now did not seem like the correct time to be seen.

He heard the woman's companions stir as well. They exchanged words, garbled and meaningless, while pointing to the dead creature lying in the dirt. They collected their implements, fitting them into slings on their backs. The three then grabbed hold of the creature, one at the head, one at the hind-legs, and the woman in between, at the fore-legs. They hauled it through the dirt, stirring tiny clouds of dust in their wake.

He followed them.

Beauty

He emerged from the small opening made in the door's corroded metal. The ground was gritty and hard. Tiny, sharp fragments of stone prodded the tender flesh of palms and knees, not deeply enough to draw blood, but just deeply enough to radiate tingling discomfort from the points of penetration. He rose at the earliest opportunity and brushed the clinging shards away. They fell to the coarse earth in a cascading patter of musical clicks and clacks. He watched them land, not looking away from the gravelly earth until every last one had fallen.

He looked around. This room was much larger than the previous one. He decided the previous room was indeed a small one. The ceiling here was dark blue smudged with wisps of gray. A single round light was in the ceiling, brighter here than it had been in the previous room. He could not look directly at it for long before the flashes of color returned, this time speckled with dots of black.

He scanned to the left, then the right. The walls presumably met the floor a goodly distance away, but objects blocked the line of sight. They were different sizes but all roughly the same shape, rectangular. Many of them had black openings set at regular intervals on their outer surface. Few of them were perfectly rectangular. Many of them had parts missing, gaping wounds in their surfaces which revealed tubes of metal set in stony flesh. He did not know where the missing parts had gone.

He turned and looked behind, at the place which held the small room, which held the box, and saw another object similar to the others. It loomed overhead and cast a long shadow across the dark earth. The air moved once more, dragging chunks of stone in its wake, rasping and chittering along the broad, straight paths which lay between the ruined objects. He felt it push, felt it form a buffeting cocoon which tugged and whispered supplications of surrender to its force. He was not dragged along.

He still held the crude tool in one hand. It was heavy. He looked down at it and decided to keep it, for now. It could prove useful, if there were other doors to break. He could discard it later, if needed.

He decided to walk against the wind's push. Striving against the resistance felt somehow natural, proper, right. He walked for some time. Chips of stone moved in the air currents, biting and stinging. He could taste it, smell it, dry and gritty, The light burned overhead, sterile and unmoving. The shadows of the towering objects which flanked the path gave occasional respite from the light's glare. He noticed that smaller, squarer, objects lay nestled between the larger ones at times. He could see into these smaller ones through their openings. They, too, were made of cells, rooms within rooms.

The wind grew fiercer and it stirred more and more of the powdery ground in its wake. Stinging bits of rock danced in whorls, spinning skyward in a powerful vortex before losing their momentum and returning to earth. The fine dust hung suspended in the air and formed a haze which began to spread gradually. It crept in bilious clouds that dimmed the ever-present light from a pristine white to a murky red, and from there darker yet. It grew more difficult to breathe.

He decided to take shelter. He entered one of the small objects. It was empty and sterile. A thick layer of dust clung to every surface, perhaps flung inside by prior storms. He moved to the rearmost part of the room and hunkered down in the corner facing the walls. He curled up. The wind roared now, as if it were a living creature. Dust and sand and stone flew, and the blackness swallowed everything.

When it subsided, it seemed as though it never had been, but for the knee-deep mix of gravel and sand which filled the room. The light shone again, bright and white as before. He straightened and rose. A thick layer of sediment flowed and heaped, sending fresh clouds of fine dust puffing in all directions.

He waded through the deposit, taking long and loping strides to raise the feet enough for another step. He reached the exit and emerged into the light again, looking around. Banks of grit were piled along the sides of the objects, tall and broad slopes of brown and black that sluggishly shifted and stirred in the weakened breeze. The center of the path was clear of obstruction. He forged a way there, then turned and resumed walking.