In The Shadows of the Cavern of Death (Shadows of Death Book 1) (12 page)

“Um, no thank you, I’m fine” I said, before turning back to Tristian. He was no longer sitting but standing looking at me as if he had never seen me before. Caught in his gaze I don’t know how long, we would have stood like that forever if a knock at the door hadn’t broken our concentration. The girl who offered me a drink walked by and opened the door, letting in the small group of people waiting on the other side. Before I had a chance to get uncomfortable with their obvious appraisal of me, I felt Tristian move to my side. I smiled at Mayla, the only face in the group we recognized, and she moved forward to stand at my other side.

“Tristian, Misty, please allow me to make introductions.” Motioning to a tall, dark-haired man in a uniform, she said, “This is Johnathon, our head of security. The man to his right is Marcus, our local Council Representative.” Turning me a little from the short, portly man, she continued, “The lady right there is Evelyn, Marcus’s wife, and last but not least this is Peter, a good friend of mine and our head historian,” she finished, indicating the older tall man pushing up his glasses.

Murmuring our hellos, we followed Mayla’s lead when she motioned us all to the table. Everyone remained quiet as the two girls moved around the table serving us. The food they put in front of us were things I had never seen before, delicious smells rose from each as they uncovered them. Smiling, the two girls stepped forward, whispering in my ear as they placed a little of each thing on my plate, letting me know what it was. When they were finished, they went back a few feet and just stood there waiting for us to eat. Confused, it took me a moment to realize that they weren’t going to join us. Unable to back to hold back my anger, I said, “I didn’t realize that you kept slaves.”

Four shocked expressions turned to look at me. “These girls aren’t slaves, they work here. We don’t keep slaves,” Mayla said, the first to find her voice.

“Then why aren’t they joining us?” I demanded, not believing a word coming out of her mouth.

“Because they work here,” she said, puzzled at the anger she could see of my face.

“Are they allowed to leave when they wish and stop working here at any time?” I asked, still suspicious.

Before Mayla could answer me, one of the girls stepped forward, smiling, “This is a job for us, we’re paid weekly for it and are able to quit at any time and go find work elsewhere. We’re not forced to be here,” she said, as the other girl nodded, looking confused.

Letting out a breath, I could feel my cheeks turning pink, but I kept Mayla’s gaze, “I’m sorry if I insulted you, but I had to be sure that you weren’t the same. I’ll die before I live like that again,” I venomously told her, wanting there to be no misunderstanding.

“We had heard from Prey that escaped the city’s Hunters that they were kept as servants, but they never reacted as you have,” the thin man named Peter said, speaking at me as if I was slow. “So we are sorry that no one informed you that the indentured servitude system is not in use here,” he explained, smiling at me as if I was a child.

“I don’t believe I said ‘indentured servitude,’ but ‘slaves,’ and as I told Mayla, we do not come from the city. We have never seen the city. We did not know of its existence until recently,” I told him coldly, annoyed at his superior attitude.

Making a scoffing sound it his throat, he said, “If you didn’t come from the city, then where did you come from, under a rock?”

Placing a hand on my shoulder, Tristian stopped the blistering retort that I was going to deliver. Looking over to him, I saw the hardened look he speared Paul with before speaking. “As a matter of fact, we did crawl out from under a rock.” Seeing the disbelieving look, he continued. “Or to be more precise, we crawled through them. Since the day the government let loose the cleansing upon this land, our people have been kept deep within caverns below the surface as slaves. Generation upon generation have been born, worked, and died in those caverns. Slaves to a system that caters to the Loyalists and their needs.” Holding up his hand, stopping Peter’s interruption, he said, “Each year we have a lottery as a form of population control. All those but a select few Contributors in their twenty-first year are put to death. We recently learned that it was a lie, along with many other things. Until the day we crawled from a hole and saw the sky, we believed that the world above was still uninhabitable. We took a chance and barely managed to escape the cavern, losing her two sister in the process.”

“You’re survivors of the Cavern of Death,” the man named Johnathon said in disbelief. “It’s real.”

With wide eyes, I turned and looked at him––he knew. “How do you know about the Cavern of Death?” I whispered, unsure if I wanted the answer, but needed to know.

“Some Prey spoke of it when we first found them in their delirium, but once they were healed they never mentioned it again. We always thought it was just delusions and dismissed it,” he said, staring at Tristian and I with a strange look. “But it’s true?”

“Yes, we come from the caverns below, but they aren’t all called the Cavern of Death. The Cavern of Death is where you go during your twenty-first year––” stopping, I looked to Tristian, wondering how much to tell him. After a hard look at the man, he turned and gave me a small nod. “We always believed that the Cavern of Death is where you went to die, but recently we learned that there is much more to it than that,” I said, then stopped, looking at the rapt expressions that surrounded us, and took a deep breath. “We were always told that there was a minimum amount of room, so as our punishment for the uprising, we were forced to death at our twenty-first year. The truth we learned was that there are hundreds of caves below, most filled with hundreds of thousands of our people. Early after we were forced below, the animals died from a disease and could not be regrown, which left the Loyalists with a limited food source.” Closing my eyes, I allowed a shudder to pass through me before opening them and staring right into Johnathon’s. “So they found a new protein source. It was decided that resources were wasted upon us and that we grew useless as we aged. A young workforce to see to their needs was more preferable. After the animals’ death, the Cavern of Death was started and so was a new meat source,” I finished, watching as he realized the truth behind my words. Disbelief followed by disgust then horror crossed his face as he gazed into my eyes.

“You’re lying, the caverns were emptied hundreds of years ago when the city dwellers came to the surface and built their homes there,” Peter said, gazing at me in disgust. “Do you think making up stories about where you came from will make thing easier for you? We told you that we don’t believe in indentured servitude.”

“Yes, the caverns were emptied of our government and its Loyalists hundreds of years ago,” I yelled, slamming my hand on the table, “but not the Contributors––we are kept below as slaves and food.”

Shocked silence filled the room at my declaration. Whatever Peter the historian was about to say was silenced with a slashing gesture from Johnathon. Rising from the table, I left my uneaten food and went to the bedroom, slamming the door behind me, trying to regain control of my emotions. That bastard’s total dismissal of my words brought images of vacant stares, bodies hanging by hooks. Shuddering at the images, I dropped to my knees as the images became my cousins, their accusing stares. I don’t know how long I sat there lost in the horrors of my mind before I felt Tristian’s arms around me picking me up and carrying me to the bed. Not letting go, he laid beside me, pulling me tighter as unshed tears burned behind the lids of my eyes.

The room was bathed in total darkness when I finally fought free of the past. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice as hoarse as if I had been screaming aloud instead of just in my head.

Squeezing me tightly, he tucked me more firmly under his chin. “Why, it took everything in me not to beat that superior little shit into the ground.”

Smiling at the image before the realization of what I had done hit me, I said, “I made this harder for us. They won’t accept us after what I did.”

“If they won’t accept us for you telling the truth, then we don’t need to be here.” Pulling away to look into my eyes, he said, “It’s a large world out there and this is only a small piece of it. We can go anywhere and make a new home.” He smiled as he pulled me back into his body.

“Do you think the reason that the others that escaped didn’t tell them about us was because they were afraid of their reaction?”

“No, I think they didn’t tell them about us because they were cowards,” he growled, anger tightening his body.

Rubbing my hand in little circles on his chest, I said, “You see how they reacted, how they looked at us. If it was you and you escaped the city wouldn’t you have said nothing, not wanting to jeopardize a future among people who didn’t hurt you? Who accepted you and helped you? Wouldn’t you want to start a new life where no one knew the horrors of what you had done?”

Releasing me, he rolled to his back, placing his hand over mine, then stopping its movement he stared at the ceiling for long moments before he spoke. “I would have screamed to the heavens the truth of what I knew. I would have told in the hopes that a way could be found to help those still below”––he squeezed my hand to keep me silent––“I found out some things before they left. Johnathon came to me and said that they trade with the city.”

Letting his words sink in, a horrible thought came to me. “Do you think that they lied and they really know what goes on within the city?”

“I don’t think that the people at the table lied,” he slowly said, letting me know that he wasn’t sure if someone within this place didn’t know or at least suspect the truth.

It they knew the truth, they would want us silenced immediately. If they suspected the truth, they would want the same thing “Is it safe for us to stay here or should we try and leave now?”

Sighing, he said, “For now we stay, at least until we know what’s going on in this place. Tomorrow we’ll start looking for the truth.” Leaning over, he turned off the light next to the bed. “Go to sleep, we’re safe enough for tonight.”

Closing my eyes, I forced my body to relax into his, even as my mind wouldn’t, rushing through the day’s events. I was usually so cautious with what I said and did. Now in one moment of abandonment I had thrown my years of caution to the wind and spoken out of turn. The freedom of our time above ground took away my natural caution––I just hoped that I would live to regret my mistake.

Chapter 12

Breakfast was waiting for us on the table when we got up. Fresh fruits and breads with things to spread upon them. The drinks were just as strange. Keely, one of the servers from the night before, was there and explained what everything was. The thing she called coffee was bitter and I would have avoided it if she didn’t fix it as she did, adding creams and sugars. It tasted pretty good after she was done. After a few moments, I finally got her to sit with us, and she laughed at my amazement as she explained all the different foods and juices.

I could tell the moment that she got comfortable with us. She started casting us little looks and a blush ran down her cheeks. Taking mercy on her, I said, “You can ask us anything you want.”

Blushing even harder, she said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so obvious.”

Smiling, I patted her hand. “It’s alright, you can ask us anything you’d like. You’ve been very kind to us,” I said, trying to look nonthreatening.

“It’s just that I heard what you said last night. We were told not to talk about it, but I figured since you were the ones that originally said it that it would be OK,” Keely stuttered, looking down, unable to hold my eye.

I took a quick look at Tristian before turning back to her. So they were told to keep what we said quiet. “It’s perfectly OK to talk to us about it, they just meant not to talk to anyone else,” I lied, wanting to find out what she knew.

Seeming relieved at my words, she asked, “I was wondering if what you said was true, are there people really imprisoned below the City to the West?”

“Yes, there are. They’re trapped there with no one to help them.” I saw in her eyes what she really wanted to ask me. “What I said was true. Everything that I said was true. What I said about the Cavern of Death is true.”

With wide eyes she looked at me, I could see a struggle in them before a decision shown in them. “We trade with them, the people from the city.”

“How long have you traded with them?”

Glancing around like she expected someone to jump out and stop her, she said, “They came out of the caverns about seven hundred years ago. We stayed away from them because they weren’t friendly to us. They built their city then, about two hundred years ago, and we began to trade with them. Little things at first––grains and fruit, until it has become what it is today. A very large commerce between our cities,” she whispered.

Her warning was clear. The people profiting from the trades were not going to take kindly to the revelations that our truths could reveal. The sound of the door opening caused us all to jump. Moving away from the table, Keely busied her with her trays while Tristian and I looked down to our plates.

“I’m glad to see you’re up,” Johnathon said, walking in wearing his uniform. Looking over to Keely, he said, “I’d like to speak with you two privately.” Ducking her head, she murmured an excuse and practically ran out the door. Nodding my hello, I quietly sat as Tristian asked him to join us. Glancing at him through my lashes, I wondered if he heard anything. Was he here to see what we knew? Staring at us, he said, “I’d like to speak to you about last night.”