Alone, but Never Alone

A Door Leading to the Unknown

Chapter 2, part 2
The city guards were still patrolling the streets, they searched vigorously for the cat that sent the people into a panic. The news of Kae's appearance spread like wild fire and soon the people of Amble were boarded up tightly in their homes.

Keith peered around the corner of the ally to see the two guards walking past.

"Do they know your face?" asked Yana, she stood behind him, peering over his shoulder.

"Not sure," said Keith. "Maybe."

"So how do we get out of here?"

"The city walls are east of here. I got in pretty easily."

Yana glanced behind her, watching out for guards. "I don't think it will be as easy getting out as it was getting in."
Kieth turned to face her. "You know this place, any ideas?"

"Well," said Yana. "We need a way to hide Kae."

"How do you hide your dæmon?" asked Kieth.

"Amicus changes I to something small and hides in my jacket, usually." said Yana. As if to demonstrate, Amicus changed into a little black mouse, crawled up Yana's pant leg, and slipped into her jacket sleeve. "But," continued Yana. "Kae, she can't change, and she looks too big to hide in your jacket."
Keith looked around the alley. "Is their something in that bin over there that I can carry her in?"

Yana felt a small stir of excitement in her sleeve just before Amicus poked his ferret head out and said, "I think I saw something earlier when I was over there!"

Amicus leaped out of the sleeve and sprinted over to the trash bin and disappeared behind it. Moments latter he popped back into sight, in his mouth was a strap of some kind, and as he pulled it out from behind the bin they saw that it was a tattered old messenger bag made of some sort of cheap brown cloth. He brought it over to Yana, standing up on his hind legs so that she could bend down and take the strap.

"This could work." said Kieth as Yana handed him the bag. He then adjusted the strap over his shoulder. He knelt down by Kae, who had been waiting patiently beside him, and he opened the flap of the the bag, allowing her to crawl right in. He then stood up and laid the flap back over the opening of the bag, so that no one could see inside of it.

Keith turned to Yana. "What do you think?"

Yana looked at the bag for a moment. It looked fine, if not a bit lumpy. As long as Kae didn't move, it's wouldn't be noticeable. She nodded to Keith in acceptance.

Amicus crawled back into her sleeve. Yana turned to step out of the ally, then thought of something and stopped abruptly. "Put your hood up, and stay in the shadows."

Without question, Kieth raised the hood of his denim jacket over his brown hair. "Okay, the exit is this way." he said, stepping out from the ally and crossing into the street. Yana followed, her eyes darting around, on the look out for guards. "Walk, don't run." told him. "Running attracts attention."

"Yeah," was all he said.

Yana began to wonder what he thought of her. Was this a good idea? Did he really care about her or was he only helping her because she was like him? If she wasn't like him, would he have still helped her? What would happen when they actually escaped Amble?
Amble. Leaving Amble. The thought had occurred to Yana a few times, but she never thought she would every actually try and do it. Amble was all she knew. What was she going to do in a different place?

Once they where in the clear, she planned to discuss those questions with Amicus. He knew only as much as she did, but it always made her feel better to talk to him about troubling things. She still trusted only Amicus.
At the moment however, the only thing that Amicus was worried about, was getting out of Amble without being caught. They had never felt so watched. Never been in a situation where they were being hunted.

They walked a block or two before reaching Main Street, the busiest street in Amble. They passed the stores that Yana used to play in. She began to think about how she would never see them again after they left Amble. She would miss them.

All of the stores were shut down. Quite unusual for the lights to be off at that time of night, but Yana knew it was because of Kae.

They continued to Broed Street, which was past Main Street. It was the darkest street, because it was at the edge of the city. Few people wanted to live near the wall.

They were passing through an ally when Keith came to a sudden stop at the corner. He pulled Yana back against the stone of the building. A few moments later five guards came into sight, they walks silently past the narrow ally without so much as a glance in their direction.

Yana and Kieth waited a few moments before continuing on. They crossed a few more streets and slinked through a couple more ally ways before reaching the wall.

It was a giant block of concrete that stood over five hundred feet tall, and stretched all the way around the city, shutting out the rest of the world. Yana had never actually seen the wall before, she stood and marveled at its greatness. Buildings were tall, and were filled with light, but they didn't stretch on for miles.

Amicus poked his little mouse head out from the top of her jacket. "It's magnificent!" he cried.

"How did you get through that?" Yana asked, turning to Kieth.

"There is a small entrance that isn't far from here." he said, then began walking eastward alongside the wall. "It's this way."

Yana followed close behind him. She ran her fingers along the stone of the wall as she walked. It felt delightfully cool against her fingers on that somewhat warm night. The stone was smooth and clean. No one went from Amble went near it, and the few people that visited Amble would only use the wall to come and go. Since the people of Amble were always caught up in glamor and parties-at least in Yana's eyes- no one felt the need to occupy themselves by vandalizing public property. Also, it helped that every three months, the service men of Amble would wash the entire wall. The event in it's self took a whole two months just to do it, and the third month was just for rest. Amble was known as the darkest, cleanest, most glamorous city of all.

"Here it is." said Keith, stopping suddenly. He began to feel around on the smooth surface of the wall.

"I don't see anything." said Yana. It didn't look like the way out to her. She began wondering if he really knew what he was doing.

"Here," Keith repeated, placing both of his hands parallel to each other on the stone. He then gave a quick shove.

Yana heard a crack from the wall. For a moment she thought that he had broken it, but then realized he wouldn't be strong enough. She then saw that sharp lines began to form in the rock, forming a large door shape. The rectangular shape in the stone began to sink back into the wall, which made the sound of stone scraping on stone. Then then it stopped about three inches into the wall. Another crack formed down through the middle, and the two sides of the rectangular form split apart, and slid away from each other ad into the wall. This made an opening in the wall.
It was a doorway into what appeared to be another world.

Light shown through. It was pale twilight. Yana peered through into another reality. She saw rolling hills of grass, bright yellow flowered, and trees that were fruit bearing and pleasing to look at. Just over the hills shown a thin line of beautiful golden sunlight. The sun was setting, but Yana knew that just over those hills, wherever that lead, it was day time.

"Come on," said Keith, gently, clearly seeing Yana's disbelief. He placed his hand on her back and guided her through the doorway, and into the foreign light.