The Belly of the Beast

Ch. 47, The Thickest Tomb

Dagger didn't speak for some time, which was likely wise. I wished I could have seen Skull's face when he met the others, and discovered we had disappeared. Would they blame each other? Or would the mystery of Z grow?

Dagger's breath came tight and short, his hand wrapped so tightly around mine I wished I would have lent him my metal hand instead. After a few minutes he whispered, "Where are we?'

I had an inkling, but I didn't want to tell him for fear that he'd walk right back up the staircase, ambush be damned. "Quiet," I whispered, and kept pulling, our progress slow in the complete darkness. After fifty steps I hit a wall. It took a few minutes of fumbling, and I had to pass the Bible to Dagger, but finally I found a switch that sprung the door open. The comfort of the tight staircase disappeared as we stepped out into an immense, foreboding darkness.

My heartbeat drummed in my ears, the soft steps of my feet disappearing into the vastness. A stale scent hung in the air. I lifted a shaking hand and took another step forward. Most of the levels had lights that lit up from movement. My feet moved slowly forward, so I swung my hand, hoping to trigger one.

A light burst to life. Dagger swore and I squinted away from the sudden brightness.

"Z?" Dagger called from behind me.

"Hold on," I whispered, breathless, unable to say more.

Rising all around us, was something like I'd seen in picture books, but never imagined would exist on the Beast. A town.

There were rustic three storied buildings with shutters, cobblestone pathways, and colorful banners strung back and forth between it all. Our stairwell opened into a fountain, like the one we'd left, and a path snaked by it, as if couples had once strolled by and admired the music of the water. It would have been quaint, if not for the all consuming silence, and the coating of dust dulling all color, scent and sound.

The sensory light I'd triggered stood a few feet to our left, a lamp post that glowed through dust coated glass.

"Where are we?" Dagger whispered. The fear in his voice told me he already knew.

"Level N." A chill ran through me at the words, fear and excitement both. Because the words on the riddle made sense now: this was the forgotten tomb. Somewhere on this level were the secrets that a woman from the Top had died for.

Behind me Dagger dropped the Bible and attempted to reopen the metal door that had slid back into place. But the metal siding concealed the staircase so well, even I wouldn't have guessed it was there.

"We need to go back, Z," he said when I made no move to help him. "Help me open the door!" His flesh fingers trailed uselessly over the metal: he wouldn't be able to open it without me.

I made a careful note of its location, and then, without responding, stepped out of the fountain, drawn deeper into the town, and what seemed to be some sort of marketplace.

The crooked pathway led me beneath silent, looming buildings, lined on either side with wooden stalls. Colorful signs hung above the stalls, marking them for clothing, toys, food and other goods. I leaned over one of them marked Satchels and found a neat supply of bags, in all different fabrics. Here I had expected chaos, but this place looked like the people had packed away their things, with plans to return. But they never had.

My secrets lie buried in the thickest tomb.

Dagger still worked at the staircase behind me, so I pulled the flyer I'd tucked in my pocket free and stared down at the words. Cryosleep: Safe and Cozy! Sleep your way to Second Earth, and wake in paradise. So which was it? Had the people of this level gone to sleep? If we looked long enough, would we find them sleeping away the centuries? Or was the truth something more sinister? I'd robbed enough bodies in the Chute that the dead didn't scare me. What did scare me was the thought of an entire level missing. Especially a level so much higher than the Belly.

Dagger finally gave up trying to open the door and strode over to me.

"What is that?" He snatched the flyer from my hands before I could think to hide it.

"A flyer." I stared down at a fork in the pathways, debating which way to go. The main pathway cut through the stalls, leading deeper into the level, but a side one looked like it led out.

"Where the hell did you get this?" Dagger's voice was low and dangerous, and pulled me from my musings. I turned to him with a tinge of guilt in my chest. He'd asked to be my partner, but he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Still, as much as I wanted to find the truth here, and solve the riddle, I didn't want to explore this level alone. So I decided to tell him the truth. Or at least part of it.

"It was in the Bible you lent me."

He lifted the Bible I'd forgotten I'd given him to hold. "This Bible?"

"Yes. Can I have it back?" He passed it to me and I thumbed through the pages, not really sure what I was looking for, but seeing nothing that stood out. When I looked up, Dagger watched me with hard, discerning eyes.

"Searching for more prayers, Z?" There was something dangerous in his voice.

"No." I closed the book, swallowing and looking down the street. "Look, Dag, we could go back up that staircase, to men trying to kill us."

He folded his arms, voice careful, as if he suspected a trap. "We could."

"Or," I gestured to the marketplace. "We could resupply. Rest. Find some water, food, weapons even. Let the men above thin each other out."

He stared at me with those dark, brooding eyes, as if he thought he could ferret out my secrets. I met his eyes, look for look. You think a single look will break me, Dagger? I've spent my whole life hiding. Stare away.

"Fine," he finally said. "But no more than twenty four hours. We don't want any Jackals coming to look for us."

As if a Jackal would come to the Dead Level. But I just nodded, letting him keep his ego intact. Then, on impulse, I leaned over the stall, picked up one of the satchels, and tucked the heavy Bible inside.

"You ready now?" he said, lifting a brow.

"I'm always ready, partner."

I set off, taking the smaller path. Dagger followed close behind, only stopping when I paused to leave arrows in the dust. I wanted to make sure we had a clear path back to the fountain. As we walked, lampposts flared to light before us, carving a path of light through the darkness. I tried not to think about how long until the path behind us went dark.

It was just when the marketplace stalls ended, and another lamppost flared to life before us, that I saw it. Pasted to the side of one of the buildings, stood a more faded version of the flyer Dagger had torn from my hands. Some strange emotion twisted in my chest as I walked towards it and then ripped it from the wall. I turned to Dagger, holding the flyer up.

"It's the same one that was in the Bible," I said.

"So?"

I ignored his tone, caught up in the unfolding mystery before me. Side by side the two flyers were identical. "It doesn't make sense," I said. "Why give these people flyers about cryosleep, and then tell the rest of the ship that the entire level had died in a sudden sickness?"

"The sickness might have come right after."

I looked up from the flyers to give him a disbelieving look. "Sure, and then they served them all tea and cakes."

He didn't answer. I shook my head, and then started off again. Something Yana had once said to me resurfaced. The simplest answer is usually the right one. So what was the simplest explanation of what had happened here?

"It just doesn't make sense," I said to the empty path before me, my voice swallowed in the vastness. "Why tell one story here, and another to the rest of the Beast?" I paused, then forced myself to say the words aloud. "Unless the real story was something else. Something the Admiral wanted kept secret." Something so dark and terrible a woman from the Top... what? Discovered it? And then concealed it in a riddle? That was the part I couldn't understand.

"Like what?" Dagger interrupted my thoughts.

"I don't know. But whatever the truth is, I think it's somewhere on this level."

"And if we catch the sickness and die down here?"

I shrugged, and kept walking. "Live in the Beast, die in the Beast." Dagger followed me in silence.