All Of Us - Part 1: Summer

Chapter 15 - Hideaway

- Dæor -

"So Ah-Knu is our next target ?"

"Yeah. Brin suggested it. He told us that its Isfalt was going to Epoh for a weekend, just the right amount of time for us to be in and out. Man, this is the first time we rely on Brin for intel and he gives us great stuff within a week. If we had known, we could have started asking him earlier," Keiti muses.

Gail looks up from the other side of the table, a crinkled map somewhat smoothed out between her outstretched fingers. "Don't speak too fast, Keiti. It's definitely harder than the other ones," Gail warns. "It's a fortified village. That's because-"

I clear my throat. "We done ?"

Gail looks at me fast - too fast; she isn't able to hide the surprise in her eyes. "Uh, yeah, we're done. I guess I'll give you the details of the why of the what later, then," she nervously nods.

I push my chair back and get up, irritated. " 'K. I'll be in the first bathroom."

"Wait ! What about the party tonight ?" Keiti interjects, getting up as well.

I sigh pointedly. "No."

Gail tries to mediate the situation by turning to her brother: "What about you, Lino ?" He shruggs. "Nope. Gonna train." I feel a kindling of sympathy directed towards the boy. One sensible person here.

Keiti ignores the attempt. "Please, Dæor. When's the last time you had fun ?"

I turn to her. My vague irritation has morphed into anger.

"I have never been and will never go to that stupid-ass party, d'ya hear ? Now stop pestering me about it."

She closes her mouth and stays silent, but her eyes burn in my direction. I know I've hurt her. The party is really important to her. We hold one every Friday in the main cave. It was her idea, back in the woods. "To celebrate the dead," she had explained. "To celebrate the living."

I turn away and stomp out, narrowly hearing Gail's low murmur to Keiti: "Ah, leave it be. You know how he is these days. I'll come with you..." I get out of earshot as I stride towards the first bathroom.

Brushing past a girl - don't remember her name - I push against the makeshift door and stumble into the room. Darn. The torch is out again. The only source of light is a thin ray of sunlight at the far end of the room. I take out the two compulsory rocks we all have to carry around, and rub them against each other. Nothing happens, and I try again, a little harder. Still no results. This time, I close my eyes and let Gail's words fill my ears: "how he is these days...." Without noticing, I start rubbing frantically and before I know it, I have a spark. Quickly, I hurry and light the torch. With a crackle, the fire flames to life and I hold it up.

The moving source of light projects shadows onto the walls, thick and menacing. As they dance around the room, I focus my attention on the large expanse in front of me. Lake #2, we call it.

We couldn't believe our luck when we stumbled upon this place. Keiti and I had been wandering around for a while, and we were desperate for shelter. The cold season was coming; that meant that without something over our heads, we would freeze to death. Well, we found shelter all right - but not in a form we had ever imagined.

It was Keiti who had noticed it. We were meandering around, debating about whether we should try to get help from a villager or stay separated from everyone else, as we had done for all that time. We hadn't noticed where we were going, and I had tripped and fallen into the ravine. Keiti, panicked, ran down and almost fell as well - I chuckle at the memory. We were far from the agile fighters we are today. Anyways, it was only when she was next to me that she noticed the large cliff before us. I remember very clearly: she was mesmerized by how imposing it was, how smooth it seemed. When she yelled out in surprise, she made me jump out of my skin. In confused, garbled words, she tried to explain that she had seen a leaf detach itself from a branch and float downwards - before disappearing inside the cliff. Intrigued, I had scrambled to my feet to look closer. The cliff did in fact have a slit at the top. It wasn't even that small; it just was made to resemble a crack in the cliff. Without listening to my warnings, Keiti began to climb the cliff from the side, where the face was much more jagged. She quickly reached the top and peered down, before - to my utter panic- falling down. In the crack.

I didn't hear her landing, or the loud cursing that followed. But I did hit the rock with my two fists, begging the stone to give the one and only person in my life who was still alive back. And then I noticed it was hollow.

I moved to the side, trying to get a better look, when an ear-wrenching "skkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk" echoed through the forest. To my dismay and my ears' suffering, the rock seemed to split as it fell into the ravine. Out came Keiti, bruised but overall faring well - miracuously. She had seen a mechanism inside and pulled on it. Turns out - the rock was a clever work of plaster, decorated to look as a cliff. The moss that grew naturally on it did the rest. It was foolproof, when closed. There was a complex mechanism inside the caves allowing it to open, similar to a drawbridge. If it hadn't been open when we came across it, we would never had been able to get in. That's why camp can never be abandoned: we need rebels inside at all times to be able to open up. The climbing stunt Keiti did was far too dangerous to be repeated.

We went inside and explored. To our absolute awe, there was water inside. And not a little puddle: an entire collection of lakes, along with an irrigation system carved out in the rock. After having settled in, we decided that this miracle was mostly natural, but also had been touched up by humans: there was evidence of tools having chipped at the stone.

Inside, we found evidence of past human activity. There were charred logs in various spots, some small ancient objects here and there, a mass of chopped wood stocked in one of the back caves. The amount of objects, sometimes seemingly valuable, pointed at a hurried departure. The mystery stayed thick for years and years to come, until a rebel found a symbol carved in the main caves, hidden in a corner: a triangle, sliced in half by a line with two circles at the end of it. After a lot of research (mostly Gail's), we found out that it was a symbol of an underground system of escaped Servs. This must have been their hideout. As to where they had gone, why they left in such a hurry... I guess we'll never know.

But we decided to commemorate them. Their symbol became ours, and every single rebel has a variation of the symbol - two circles, one line and a triangle, somewhere on their body. The only two identical symbols are Keiti's and mine; we choose to keep the original Serv system's sign. The mark connects us, materializes our bond. Lightly, I brush the back of my neck and trace the tattoo before dropping my hand.

With flourish, I lift my arm and tug my shirt off. Then down come my pants, till I am stark naked. I take a deep breath before sprinting and diving into the lake. The cold hits me, numbing me immediately. Water surges past my face as I swim deeper. I only stop my descent when I brush the rock floor with my fingertip; I then spin and push off it with my two feet.

My head breaks at the surface and I breathe in deeply. All the anger and frustration I had in me dissolves in the freezing water. Even my headache - which is constant by now - seems calmed by the water. I let myself float, belly up. Ma taught us how to swim, in the castle moat. It was probably the filthiest and worst place to do so, but she didn't have many alternatives. I was lucky she taught me. Few of the rebels actually know how to swim, which means that I am one of the only rebels who goes into Lake #2 - the deepest bathroom lake. I gasp and dive in again. After a few comings and goings, I get out and quickly dry myself with the towels piled on the floor. I hesitate, then dress back again. I need to head back out.

I can't hide here forever.