Thomas Gown and his companions have escaped from captivity, but only by fleeing deeper into the unknown, to face new dangers. They are carrying a secret that could save the world, though, and they have a duty to take it to those who can make use of...
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One park cavern had survived the great disaster, the one adjacent to Fenring sector, but most of the plants that had originally been growing there had died, either from age or neglect. The only ones that grew there now were the hardy ones that could self pollinate and seed themselves over many generations, without any assistance from the human occupants who, over the past three hundred years, had only occasionally produced an individual with any interest in horticulture.
The skeletons of four dead trees stood near the centre, venerated and preserved like ancient religious artifacts, but even so most of their smaller branches had long since broken off, leaving just the trunks and larger branches looking like the withered hands of corpses that had died in agony. The only living plants were grass, dandelions, clover and other turf weeds, growing wild and untended across the entire floor of the cavern, and a huge, unkempt tangle of bramble that filled the entire south western corner. Hundreds of people filled the cavern, though. Families enjoying picnics in trampled down patches of grass while laughing children played nearby. They had no idea what the cavern had once looked like, what a well tended garden was supposed to look like. To them, this was the great outdoors and they loved it.
Silverby looked around as he crossed it as nonchalantly as possible, accompanied by Shaun and Matthew who were also dressed in Hewlak guard uniforms. This had been Traldian territory before the war, and the Hewlak soldier had never been here before. “It’s like one of the caverns outside the city,” he mused as several people glared at them with undisguised hostility, “but with gravity, and there’s only plants on the ground. Nothing on the walls or ceiling. It’s been nearly fifty years since anyone from our side of the city’s been here. Is this what the fallen world is like?”
“Erm, after a fashion,” said Matthew. “You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”
Silverby nodded and bent down to brush the straggly knee high grass with his fingers. “It’s dry,” he said. “The caverns are always damp. How do they live without water?”
“Maybe it rains sometimes,” suggested Shaun, looking up at the glowing ceiling. “There could be pipes up there, dropping water sometimes. Maybe these people know.”
“We’ll ask them some other time,” said Silverby. “Let’s not get distracted from our purpose.”
The others nodded, and then fell silent as a group of half a dozen young men passed them by, one of them holding a leather football. Matthew watched them enviously as they headed towards a part of the cavern largely unoccupied at the moment and spread out to kick the ball between them. He clearly wished he could join in, but the Fenrisians would be unlikely to welcome guards wearing the uniforms of their conquerors and Shaun ushered them to greater speed, wanting them to get out of there as quickly as possible.
The problem was to get into Laxu sector without anyone seeing them. The airlocks from Hewlak and Fenring sector could not be used without them being seen, and they couldn’t think of any plausible reason for wanting to enter the dead sector other than to obtain a Pantry. Anyone who saw them using one of those airlocks would know immediately what they were up to and the game would be over. Fortunately there was another entrance, reached by means of a short corridor between Laxu sector and the park caverns, and since there were no residences in that part of the city they had a much better chance of being able to use it unseen. If, by some chance, there were people loitering there, they would use their authority as guards to move them on.
