Red Sky: Chapter 19 - Part 2

The week did not start like any other. Ray was replaced by a pale imitation. Tamo looked like Ray, he had the same build as Ray and some of the same mannerisms, but none of the innate wildness. He was polite and quiet. He took Com’s manuscript when it was offered and dutifully read it. He listened to Max’s stories and nodded along with every word. He rarely talked out of turn and never questioned or challenged our opinions. These are all positive traits, so why did they bother me? Perhaps, I was being harder on him because he was a newt. I was quiet as well when I first came to the red moon. I couldn’t expect him to arrive fully formed.

Tamo talked more with his fellow newts before and after sitting down to eat than he did with the rest of us at the table. My class quickly broke into the factions of our partners and kept up little communication. His class seemed to have a sense of solidarity the other classes did not. I felt an almost involuntary resistance to these new inmates. Now that I had survived my first year I looked down on them. They were not one of us, so why were they among us. I wanted them gone. And if they were going to stay, I wanted them to suffer like I had suffered, to earn their place on the red moon. For the first time in my life, I understood the concept of hazing. It wasn’t a proud moment, but it was one I couldn’t resist.

Down at the other end of the cafeteria, I could see Pale Yellow felt the same way. He was pushing one of the newts to the floor as a crowd gathered around. In the Lion’s faction he could act on his feelings in a brutal way. In their group, hazing was not only allowed, it was encouraged. I started to feel guilty about my automatic rejection of Tamo. I looked back to him trying to remember how I felt one year earlier, how grateful I had been to Max for his generosity, but as I looked at Tamo I didn’t feel generous. I could only see that he wasn’t Ray.

*

The rumbling had been a false tremor. The three of us listened as the rumbling grew, waiting for our air pocket to seal shut. The rods held. We still had time. Twenty seconds by my count.

The rope tugged. There was someone on the other end.

I tugged back to let them know we were still alive.

The shadow pointed to a small blue dot that was barely visible through a narrow corridor of rock. But it was visible. It was the size of a fingernail. The size of the ore that we mine. It was seven meters away. But if we could see it that meant there was a path back to the world.

I grabbed ahold of the tether that connected the two other inmates.

“Follow me,” I said.

After two tugs on the cord to let them know we were coming, I dove back into the dirt headfirst aiming myself at the tiny blue spot.

I made it the first three meters, enough to encase my body in the dirt. I was still holding the tether of the two other inmates in my right hand. The first one, the shadow, latched onto my heels when I dove in to the dirt. His hands remained clamped onto me like a pair of closed vices pulling me back as I tried to move forward. I desperately needed those feet to push me through. I tried pumping my legs, but the force of his weight was too great. The dirt was swallowing us like quicksand.

My shoulders were tired now. I needed Ray’s powerful shoulders or the Lion’s powerful shoulders, anybody’s except my own slim version. I was down to fifteen seconds. We had fifteen seconds to make four meters. I put my head down to burrow forward, but my body, which first disobeyed me by leaping to save those two inmates, disobeyed me once again. If I was moving a centimeter at a time the first time through, I was moving a millimeter at a time now. It wasn’t enough. We only had ten seconds left.

And then I was moving with great power. At first, I thought the shadow might be pushing me. Then I realized the force came from my midsection, from the tether around my waist. My belt was propelling me forward and the dirt began to part. The freeze light blinked in the distance. I could hear noise. Not the sound of rolling thunder, but the sound of inmates struggling.

Nine. We moved a meter. Eight. We moved another meter. Seven. We were gaining speed. I lost count because we were moving so fast. It felt like we were being pulled by ten hover ships. My hands and arms tried to protect my head by creating a wedge as we burrowed through the wall of dirt. Then I was on the ground. The shadow and his partner tumbled over me. My heart was still pounding. All of my features indistinguishable from the dirt and mud covering my body. I heard a loud rumble. The rolling thunder stopped. The second crush filled in our air pocket, but the three of us were safe. I put my head down. I wanted to fall asleep right there on the floor of the mine.

Peering through my half-closed eyelid, I could see a giant boot. It was a guard’s boot. It was shiny and looked brand new. It was Beetleface. I raised my eyes to look up and saw the point of a lance as it slowly tracked the movement of my head. As the small dot became a large circle, I knew what was coming. I closed my eyes when the lance hit me, the jolt coursing through my body. I didn’t stand up. My rescue efforts had washed away all of my energy. There was nothing left to allow me to stand.

The two other inmates from the air pocket were now on their feet. They had risen when the lance struck me and I let out a squeal from the pain. If only I could rise as well. The lance was focused on my head again. There would be no relief from Beetleface. I would either rise to my feet or die from repeated electric shocks. The jolt flowed through my body a second time, starting at the base of my neck down my spine through my limbs. I used that jolt like a charge from a battery. I had no choice. I had to force my tired body to stand. The jolt gave me a few seconds of life. I bounced up and was standing face to helmet with Beetleface. I wobbled. Max put his hand on my shoulder to steady me.

“What happened here?” Beetleface’s helmet spoke in an accusatory manner.

“He saved them?” Max volunteered for me.

The darkened helmet looked over to Max and then looked down and noticed the severed tether he was still holding in his hand. He then noticed the other half of the tether dangling from my belt.

“Why are you two separated?”

“Didn’t you hear me? He saved those two from the cave-in.” Max tried again. Other inmates shouted support as another guard held them back. My head pounded, the surge from the lance wore off and my body was drained again. I wobbled a second time, this time my knees buckling slightly.

“You two,” Beetleface pointed at the two inmates behind me, the ones I saved. They were covered in dirt and soil, just as I was.

“Go back to work.”

“You two,” he then pointed at Max and myself. “Come with me.”

“I cut the tether. I jumped in to the cave-in. He had nothing to do with it.” Anger gave me the energy to speak. I needed to save Max from whatever torture awaited.

Beetleface thought. I could see my reflection in his dark visor as he contemplated my words. There was no face behind that visor, only cold darkness, which made my reflection even clearer. Clumps of dirt hung from my face. There was a decent sized rock stuck in my hair above my right ear. The entire left side of my face was scraped red. I looked closer. I could see my eyes hidden beneath all of that dirt. It was the first time I had been able to look into my eyes since arriving. Who would have thought Beetleface’s darkened visor was the best mirror on the red moon?

“You stay.” Beetleface said to Max. He didn’t say anything to me. He prodded me with the lance again. I shook the dirt and pebbles out of my hair and we began to walk to the elevators.

Next Chapter: Chapter 20
Previous Chapter: Chapter 19 - Part 1