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JASIRA’S SKIN TINGLED AS SHE FELT the sun’s warmth on her skin, waking her from an uncomfortable sleep. Her neck was sore, but after a few stretches, she felt refreshed and good to go. However, she couldn’t find Prianaj. It was like she had disappeared into thin air.
“Prianaj!” Jasira called out.
She checked to see if Adam was in the basket; thankfully, he was.
“Prianaj!” She repeated.
Jasira got up from the ground and turned her back to the wall she had been leaning on all night. She saw what was in front of her more clearly in the sun and gasped, widening her eyes and stepping back. Tiny concrete houses were unevenly crammed in a large field. They looked old and abandoned, and vines were growing all over them. Some even had entire trees growing through their centres. Jasira quickly grabbed the basket and ran through the gaps between the houses.
“Hello. Is anyone there?” she shouted.
Panic struck Jasira as she realised the paths were all dead ends. She was stuck in a giant maze of narrow alleyways, some of which she could barely fit through. Her breath became shallow, her eyes blurred and the world turned upside down.
“Oh God, where am I?” She quivered.
She moved desperately through the maze, trying to figure a way out, but no matter which way she turned, she always ended up at a dead end.. Adam cried in his basket, and the walls seemed to close in on her. She had never been claustrophobic – she had lived in a small home for twenty-one years – but this was too far out of her comfort zone.
“Prianaj!” she cried once more.
“Jasira!” Prianaj’s voice was close.
Hearing Prianaj was enough to calm Jasira down, and she followed the direction of the voice. She could also hear the rattling sound of the Cerberi opening the city gates; it sounded like cracks of thunder above their heads.
“Jasira!” Prianaj called again, much closer this time.
Jasira knew she was heading in the right direction, away from the gate and closer to Prianaj’s voice. She turned corner after corner, jumping over overgrown foliage. Prianaj bumped into her from the side, and they both fell to the ground. Jasira spun her body to break the fall of the basket, painfully bruising her back. She ignored the pain, grabbed a bunch of dry leaves beside her and threw them at Prianaj.
“You left without me!” she yelled.
“No, no. I didn’t.” Prianaj defended. “Nature was calling, I needed to relieve myself. I saw the old buildings, got distracted and explored a bit too much.”
“You scared me to death.” She gently pushed Prianaj’s shoulder.
“Sorry. I thought it would be a thirty-second expedition, but it looks like both of us got lost in the maze.”
“What is this place anyway?”
“I think it’s a part of the city people used to live in. Before the Culling, of course,” Prianaj said as her eyes scanned around the buildings.
“Spooky.”
They both laughed it off and proceeded through the labyrinth of buildings. Jasira finally felt the pain as she struggled to get up. She took a second to readjust before continuing to walk.
“This looks like the way through. That mountain range behind us is where the cave was,” Prianaj said as she pointed at the peaks behind them and threw a bag over her shoulders.
The rest of the terrain was covered entirely by grassland and bushes. There were occasionally random patches of dirt and dead grass, and it looked like the absence of humans had allowed the earth to recover.
Back in The Border, it was mandatory for everyone to attend a history class. It wasn’t like the typical history class where students are taught about ancient civilisations. These revised classes taught the people that human interaction with nature almost killed the earth. They were made to believe that men were to blame for the destruction of the world and its resources. Everyone believed it because the earth had healed in the absence of men. However, some women refused to accept that belief. They knew that the earth had recovered in part because there were fewer humans inhabiting it.
“I think that’s Monday up ahead.” Jasira said in delight, looking at a wide structure in the distance.
“Impossible. We’ve only been walking for half a day.”
“Maybe the map was wrong.”
“The map is definitely not to scale, but that is not Monday,” Prianaj said confidently.
They stopped to rest in the shade of a pin oak tree. Prianaj took two loaves of bread out from her backpack for them to share. Jasira took out a bottle of mashed vegetables for Adam and a second flask with water. The blaring sun wasn’t making their journey any easier, but Jasira made sure Adam was shaded from the sun the entire time because his skin was the most sensitive.
“What are we going to do when we get to Monday?” Jasira asked.
“I guess I’ll start another garden and sell my produce in a marketplace, and we’ll have to find somewhere to stay.”
“Another cave?”
“Perhaps. You know Adam won’t be able to go out often when he’s older. It will be far too dangerous.”
“We can cross that bridge when we get there,” Jasira responded.
The closer they got to the structure, the more Jasira realised it wasn’t in fact Monday. It was an enormous iron fence that stretched as far to the east as it did to the west. It stood over ten meters high and probably ran the same length deep. The top was covered with barbed wire, and it was labelled with several signs that read:
‘Warning electric fence’
The fence was bordered by a thick layer of bare sandy soil.
“Shit. What a setback!” Jasira cussed.
“Who’s that?” Prianaj asked, pointing at someone walking towards them.
“They’re not wearing Cerberi uniform.”
“Who else would be way out here?”
However, the woman was not alone. She was with another younger woman. Both of them had tied their blonde hair in a low ponytail and were wearing button-up shirts with blue jeans. Their leather boots were scuffed, and their skin was fairly tanned.
“You two are a long way from home,” the older woman said. “What are you doing out here?”
“We could ask you two the same thing,” Prianaj said.
“We noticed Cerberi coming through this fence last night,” the younger woman said.
“Now what did I say about keeping your mouth shut, Braelyn.” The older woman raised her voice and gave the younger woman a look of concern.
She was probably the younger woman’s mother. They had the same facial structure and almost identical eyes.
“Don’t mind her,” the older woman said. “My name’s Talani. Are you two travelling? I don’t see too many people carrying baskets or backpacks around here.” Talani spoke with her hands on her hips.
“Passing through,” Prianaj said. “Your accent.”
“Pardon me?” Talani asked.
“Your accent,” she repeated. “I thought Southern accents were lost in the Culling.”
“We moved out here long ago. I guess we just adapted with the environment,” Braelyn said. “We’ve been stargazing, try’na catch that blood moon the prophecy talks about.”
Talani looked at Braelyn again, this time with seriousness in her eyes.
“The blood moon passed some nights ago,” Prianaj responded.
The whole time they spoke, Prianaj kept eye contact with both strangers, keeping Jasira behind her.
“Well, too bad we couldn’t catch a glimpse of it. If the boy was born, he’d be worth a fortune. The Queen would pay a hefty price for him, don’t ya reckon?”
Prianaj completely avoided Talani’s question, fearing for the boy’s life.
“You said you moved out here, I don’t see any buildings,” she said.
“What are you two looking for anyway?” Talani asked.
“Like I said, we are just passing through.”
“What about you?” Talani asked, looking at Jasira. “Cat got your tongue?” She laughed hysterically.
Paralysed with fear, Jasira couldn’t speak.
“She’s mute,” Prianaj said. “Cerberi cut her tongue out years ago.”
“Shame. Couldn’t imagine your pain.”
“We best be going now.”
“Whoa now, hold on. You two don’t expect to find a way through the fence, do you? There’s no way through, at least not for miles. Follow us, we can get you two through,” Talani insisted.
“We can make it just fine on our own.”
They walked past the two strangers.
“What’s the matter, don’t trust us?” Talani began. “Look, this fence isn’t even electrified.”
Talani touched the fence with her bare hands. Prianaj was expecting a reaction, but Talani was right; the fence was in fact not electrified.
“That was stupid.”
“I can help you two get across.”
“I said we’ll be just fine on our own,” Prianaj insisted.
“All right then, can’t say I didn’t offer to help. You two take care now.”
Prianaj walked right past the strangers, looking over their heads. Braelyn smiled at Jasira, who nodded back. The strangers hurried past them, rushing to an overgrown bush. Jasira looked back, curious to see what they were doing. Talani must have thought nobody was looking because she lifted a hatch from under the bush, revealing a bunker into which the two disappeared.
Prianaj and Jasira walked along the fence line for about an hour. The fence just kept extending; it seemed endless.
“Maybe those two could have helped us,” Jasira said.
“I didn’t trust them. Especially the older one,” Prianaj replied.
Eventually, they found a gaping hole in the fence big enough for a small animal to wriggle through. Jasira crouched down and prepared to crawl through.
“Wait!” Prianaj shouted.
Jasira crawled back a few steps and sat on the ground. Prianaj picked up a branch that was covered in dry leaves and threw it at the fence. It sparked up and exploded in flames, crackling as it burned. Jasira jumped back and covered her face with her forearms.
“Told you I didn’t trust them.”
“How do we get through now?” Jasira asked.
“We need to find the generator and turn it off. My guess is those women turned it back on. But the question is, where’s the generator?”
“I think I might know,” Jasira said.
They started to walk back to where they met the two strangers. This time, they walked faster, shortening the walk by about fifteen minutes. Prianaj recognised the warning signs and the barbed wire at the top of the fence.
“There is no generator here,” Prianaj began. “We’ve been walking forever.”
“It’s here, trust me,” Jasira said.
She looked around the bushes where she last saw the strangers, stomping up and down until she heard a loud clang from under her boots. She dusted away the dirt that covered the large metal hatch with her hands.
“Told you.”
“What is it?”
“I saw them go through here. My guess is the generator in here. Do you have another one of those black smoke rocks?” she asked.
“Yeah, I have two more.”
“All right then. This is what we’re going to do. I’m going to lift the hatch; you throw in the black smoke rocks. Then we hide behind those bushes until the strangers come out. Once they’re out, I’ll go in and turn off the generator, you keep watch in case they come back. Once its off, we go through the fence.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Prianaj agreed.
Jasira’s feeble arms struggled as she lifted the hatch. Prianaj clenched the black smoke rock in one hand and the basket in the other. The tunnel into the bunker was well lit by a descending column of artificial lights.
“Electricity,” Jasira said.
They heard two people muttering, and their shadows moved closer to the entrance. Prianaj threw in one black smoke rock, and it exploded into a huge black cloud. She then threw in the second one for good measure. Jasira shut the hatch, and they hid behind one of the hedges. A few minutes passed, and nobody came out of the hatch.
“Are you sure they’re in there?” Prianaj asked.
“Positive. I’m sure of it.”
Just as she spoke, the hatch opened and the strangers exited, coughing out black soot. It took them a second to reset themselves.
“That mute girl and the old lady probably got electrocuted,” Talani said, coughing up chunks of smoke. “The generator can’t handle that surge.”
“Which way did they go?” Braelyn asked, brushing away black soot from her face.
“I think that way,” Talani said as she pointed in the left direction.
“We didn’t go that way,” Prianaj whispered.
“Don’t worry. It gives us more time,” Jasira said, stretching her arm to stop Prianaj from speaking. “I’m going in. Wait for me to come back out.”
Jasira crouched down behind the bushes and proceeded to the hatch. The metal ladder was uncomfortably warm. The majority of the smoke had cleared out, but some of it still lingered. She squinted her eyes so she could see more clearly and tied a cloth around her face to avoid inhaling the smoke. To her right, there were two open doors – one led to a room with two beds, and the other to a room with food and supplies. There was a third door on her left, but it was locked. Jasira tried to manipulate the handle, but it didn’t budge. She assumed the generator was behind the locked door.
The bunker had a wide area that had a small dirty couch and stacks of shelves. She rummaged through the shelves to find something she could use to break into the locked room, such as an axe or a bat. She turned heavy crates upside down, sending the contents rattling all over the concrete floor. Most of them were filled with clothes or books, which were of no use to her.
Jasira moved to another pile of crates and noticed that the very top one had some metal bars sticking out of it. She jumped to reach it, but it was too high so she stacked empty crates to climb up. The higher she climbed, the more unstable the stack became. She reached to pull a metal bar but fell, smashing into some of the crates on the ground. Unscathed, she picked up a crowbar and spun it in her hands.
This will work, she thought.
She hit the locked door repeatedly with the crowbar. The wood was almost completely rotten, which made it easier to chip away at it. She knocked off the handle, but another lock kept the door from being opened. Jasira kicked the door and managed to create a gaping hole in it. She continued to kick it until the hole was big enough for her to fit through.
The room was dark, but she felt around the door jamb for a light switch, aided by the blinking lights of a beeping machine. The ceiling lights flickered as they were turned on, revealing the generator in the room. The machine, which almost reached the ceiling, covered the entire back wall.
“Let’s turn this thing off,” she said to herself.
She fiddled with some of the buttons, but all they did was make the machine noisier. The internal fan spun fast and blew out hot air, which made the bunker hotter than outside. The pipes running above it shook, making clanking noises.
“Prianaj isn’t the only one who knows science.”
Jasira used to attend general classes in The Border and particularly enjoyed the science classes.
She bashed in the pipes, with the crowbar vibrating in her hands. The pipes cracked, and a warm liquid sprayed out all over her face, with some entering her mouth. It tasted like gasoline, and the strong odour confirmed it. She continued hitting the pipes until the gasoline gushed out all over the generator and entered the crevices. Sparks flew out and ignited the generator. Jasira immediately ran out of the room and climbed up the ladder.
She removed the cloth from her face and breathed in the fresh air. She crawled back to Prianaj, who was still waiting behind the hedges, and warned her to get back down.
“What happened?” Prianaj asked.
“Just wait, you’ll see,” Jasira replied with a smirk on her face.
Talani and Braelyn were seconds away from the hatch. Too close to not notice.
“They must have gone the other way,” Talani said. “What’s that smell?” She sniffed the air.
“It smells like it’s coming from the bunker,” Braelyn pointed to the hatch. “Gasoline.”
“Careful, those pipes were old.”
Braelyn ignored Talani and entered the bunker.
“Braelyn! You come right back.”
“Oh no,” Jasira whispered.
“What is it?” Prianaj asked. “What did you do?”
Talani followed Braelyn into the bunker, closing the hatch above their heads. The ground beneath Jasira and Prianaj shook violently, and with a loud pop, the hatch flew hundreds of meters above their heads. It felt like an earthquake. Suddenly, the ground exploded into plumes of black smoke, with the whole atmosphere becoming engulfed with fire and hot shards of metal. Prianaj and Jasira were thrown back by the blast, landing on their backsides. Prianaj caught the basket in her hands and wrapped her arms around it. Pieces of rock and wood landed beside them, missing their heads by inches. The dust settled around them, and Jasira laughed, sitting up and wiping the sweat from her forehead.
“That’s what I did,” she said.
They sat on the ground for a while, laughing and coughing.
“Somebody would have seen that,” Prianaj said.
“You’re right. That explosion was a lot bigger than I expected.”
“We just wanted to turn off the generator, and you went and blew up the damn thing. You crazy idiot!” Prianaj continued laughing.
It wasn’t long before guilt hovered around in Jasira’s mind, clouding the thought of if what she had done was the right thing. It was the only option. The more she thought about it, the more her gut wrenched. Evil was never an option Jasira considered, not even once. But she didn’t know if it was a monster inside her that woke up, or if it was her conscious protecting her son.
When the afternoon light faded, they made their way to the hole in the fence, running this time instead of walking. Prianaj threw another stick at the fence.
“Just to be sure,” she said.
Nothing happened, no flames, no sparks. Jasira entered first, crawling on all fours. Prianaj followed with the basket. They settled for the night underneath a collapsed bridge, and Prianaj tended a small fire. Jasira made sure the ground was soft because she knew it was where they would set up their new lives, away from their past.