Inside

Chapter 4

Four

Midtown is not as great as Dublin said. Everywhere we go, brown, bumpy walls and caves face us. Turn right, dirt. Turn left, soil. There's ground above us, and guess what? More ground below us. It's dark and void of life, apart from us and the repulsing bugs. Dublin doesn't seem to mind any of those things. Not even the freezing cold bothers him, while I barely sleep because I shiver violently. Dublin still loves this place. Every time he wakes up, he looks around and smiles widely at all the brown surrounding us.

The dark and silence has forced my imagination to go wild. I've been imagining myself giving reports to Deliyah about the Outside. It all started with the truth I've discovered.

"Hi, Deliyah. Sorry I haven't been around, but, even though it's hard to believe, I'm Outside with Crome, our cleaning instructer, and with a Crake. Remember that day when we thought Crome might know something? I decided to follow him and that's gotten me into more trouble than we could ever have imagined. Crakes are real, and they work for the government. Some Crakes asked Crome if he could help them. They needed him to go Outside, which is also real, because the Outside hasn't been comunicating with the government. That's probably because the government sends Crakes every two years or-so to steal toddlers from Outsiders and brainwash them. Lovely government we have. So I got sucked into this mess by following Crome. We were chased by Crakes with guns and we finally left."

Sometimes I wish I would have told her I was going after Crome. She might have come with me. But there is no use dwelling in the past. I pushed the thought aside and focussed on telling imaginary Deliyah about the Outside and Crome and Dublin.

"Outside is nothing special. It's all dark and cold and filled with insects. Dublin, the Crake, said that the insects are harmless. I still don't like them. Crome said that the Outside is like this because we are actually UNDERGROUND. It was hard to believe but it's the only thing that makes sense. We need to climb up to get to the Surface.

Crome isn't so bad half the time. The other half he is mad. Anything can make him snap, so I try to keep quiet. I am unsuccesful at it. Dublin also talks alot. He isn't the person I thought a Crake would be. He isn't viscious, or blood-thristy. He is actually nice and happy and child-like. So child-like, that sometimes he is naive to the point of stupidity. We're a strange combination of people, but we'll survive. Hopefully."

I told imaginary Josh the same thing, and strangely, I haven't dreamt of him. Ever since we left the buildings I haven't dreamt of him. I assume it's because of the stress and the temperature and... I don't know. I'm just trying to find an explanation for my dreamless sleeps. Maybe it's because I haven't slept long enough for my mind to drift into a deep sleep. Crome only let's us sleep for a few hours. We slept for four hours once. That's the longest I've slept.

I'm not the only one who has started imagining things. Every once in a while I hear Dublin mumble happy sentences. Mostly it's just "Look at this" and "Wait right here" and "Isn't it big?" Sometimes I wonder if he is talking to us, but he never expects an answer. It must be his imaginary friend.

Crome doesn't seem to have imagined things, but he does look paranoid. Every little sound makes him jump and he looks around every corner and in every cave.

Like a minute ago. After we collected all the maps, which took us only a day thanks to Crome's 'we gotta move' attitude. I'm sure he's afraid that Crakes have come after us. He would deny it.

"I'm not afraid of anything," he would say. "I'm being cautious."

"Aw man," Dublin says sadly.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"We're almost at the end."

Crome turns abruptly and anxiously asks, "How do you know?"

Dublin drags his feet as he walks to the entrance of a near cave.

"See this?" He says pointing to some lines drawn on the wall next to the cave.

"This is a secret code Crakes made up to keep messages from Outsiders. Whenever Crakes on the Outside wrote to each other, they wrote with this code so if an Outsider were to get a hold of the note, they wouldn't understand."

"What does it say?" Crome asks walking closer and pointing the light at the wall.

"It's reads 'End Near'," Dublin says.

"That's crystal clear," I mumble.

"Great!" Crome yells. "I am tired of this sickening place!"

He turns and stomps away. Crome and his unexpected outbursts. Dublin looks at me scared but I just shrug and answer "It's Crome". That should explain everything.

We follow Crome until Dublin finds another message.

"Wait," he says. I turn and watch as Dublin inspects the lines and deciphers the message.

"We're about to enter some tunnels," he informs us.

"Alright. Before we reach the tunnels, we need to find supplies. Enter every cave you see and bring out whatever you think is useful," Crome orders.

I nod and we all go into different caves.