The Darkly Stranger

Marie paused. She looked at her boys sleeping peacefully.

"What happened? What changed?" I asked, making sure to keep my voice low.

"It was a long time ago. There was a Zorkut princess, and she was betrothed. She was supposed to become the third or fourth wife of a very old, very mean Zorkut King on the far side of the planet. There was a Bumonth boy who worked in the castle and the princess fell in love with him, maybe as much out of necessity as because of his kindness. She asked him to take her away and help hide her."

Oh shit.

The little sliver of light that was coming in from the top of boulder darkened, as if suddenly the sky was filled with clouds or dust.

Marie continued to tell the story, although from the way she started I could tell how it would end.

"They were found out, and the boy's family tried to save them but in the end the princess, the boy, the boy's family, and most of his village was slaughtered. The Bumonths set an explosion in the river that caused the fault line between the continents widen, which probably seemed prudent at the time, but it caused the plates to separate completely into two continents. Eventually both sides made a truce that kept all the Zorkuts on one side and the Bumonths on the other. The Bumonths ended up with less land but more fertile soil."

"So every once in a while something pushes too far at the tension," I said getting pretty clear idea, "Then the it Zorkuts forget about the truce and plan an attack."

"Because the Zorkuts are bigger, and they have much better technology, it usually ends up being a slaughter."

"We have to do something," I said.

"I beg to differ. It would drive our spouses crazy, and distract them, and therefore endanger their lives. Not only would that, we can't do anything. We are trapped in here until someone comes and lets us out."

We heard another, amazingly loud, rat-tat-tat of explosions, followed by a low moan, the wail of the dying. Then there was the high keen on the scream that must've come from the beloved of the fallen.

"This is just the way things are. It's the way things have been for centuries. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Like hell," I said.

I spent the last few years essentially alone in my house. I had become quieter and meeker until a field mouse had more courage than I did. For a second my hands shook and sweat poured down my forehead. God, if something happened to Tan. I had never been in love. Truthfully, I've never even been close to being in love. Whatever it was I was in the brink of being now I wasn't about to let it go because I was used to staying inside. I wanted love, and I was going to fight for it. Nothing was going to stop me. Not a boulder, not Marie's resigned pessimism, and certainly not these fuckers who were blowing up my town. Hell no.

"Okay, the first thing we need to do is get out here."

An explosion sounded, amazingly close, and the smell of smoke, spent ammunition, and burning flesh surged into the cave.

"Step one," I mumbled to myself. "Move that rock."

"That boulder must weigh five hundred pounds," Marie said.

"I don't think so. If it were that heavy Tan and John wouldn't be able to move it. They might have super speed, but they don't have super strength."

I looked around the cave. Now that my eyes adjusted to the dim light I can see a little more. The cave was a lot longer and deeper then I had realized. About thirty feet into the cave the stalactites that hung from the ceiling like beautiful amber crystals were even sharper, and they were dripping down almost clear sparkling tears. Just a little further than where the big stalactites started there are two or three poles that looked a little like blue bamboo, a pile of spears, a few long wooden planks, and a thick post. I grabbed the post, hefted it a few times to get a feel for the weight and balance, put it over my shoulder like a baseball bat. I jiggled and bounced it a little while picturing a really hard swing with good follow-through. I stepped up to a stalactite that I judged to be thin enough to break but solid enough to be of use. I took a deep breath, hauled the post back even further, and let loose the hardest swing of my life with all my might.

The stalactite broke with a shark sharp, clean crack followed by a glass breaking like tinkle of nearby rock chips scattering down. The sound echoed in the chamber. I spit out a particle of crystal dust. The piece broke rather cleanly, flat in some places and round in others. It was about a foot and a half long, looked sturdy as hell, and came to a vicious sharp point. I tucked to the crystal shard under my arm and I quickly picked up a couple of the spears and the longest of the wood planks. I carried them onto the front of the cave; by the time I got there the plank was dragging on the ground.

I had woken the two older boys.

"Mom?" the oldest one asked. The middle boy said the same thing the Bumonths' language. I could hear the doubt and confusion voices.

Marie cursed under her breath.

There were more explosions followed by more screams. There was also a new sound. The raging crackle of a huge wall of fire.

I held the crystal dagger like a pickax and began chopping away at the top of the boulder on the left side. Marie's children ran to her.

Luckily the boulder was softer than the dagger. The big boulder began to flake a little bit right away, but it was slow going.

"At that rate you'll dig a hole large enough for us to crawl out through by the time the battle is over."

I gave three more vicious chops.

"I don't have to carve a hole big enough for us to wriggle out through."

I shoved two spears into the hole, and used them to prop up the board exactly where I wanted it. I pushed my back to the wall, and used my makeshift lever to shimmy up until I was in position. With both my knees bent almost to my chest, and the bottom of my feet flat on the board, I pushed with all my might. The boulder rocked a little and then rocked right back into place. A waft of smoke came in, and billowed around me as if it was targeted right to go up my nose and cause a coughing fit. When it passed, I squinted my eyes, focused my strength on my torso and into my thighs, and with a huge rebel yell and a surge of adrenaline I pushed hard enough to move a small little building. The boulder rolled away slightly leaving a gap between the cave wall and the edge of the rock that was about a foot and quarter wide.

"Bingo. Hello leverage, thank you college physics class."

"Yeah, brilliant," Marie said, and the tinge of sarcasm was clear in her voice. "Now what?" She gave a very quiet snort, but I heard it. "Are you going to go out there with no weapons, no speed, no plan?"

I looked out the gap. As much as I imagined the horror from the sounds and smells, the view was worse.

"Absolutely not," I said. "Now you have a decision to make, Marie. You can help me go out there and be the deciding factor that kicks ass, or you can stay here and bitch about how we were helpless when the people you've lived with for twenty-five years, our people, get picked off like ants under a magnifying glass."

"What do you have in mind?" Marie asked and I could hear the change in her voice.

Truthfully, when I broke off the crystal, and chopped a way to make the hole, and use leverage to push the boulder out of the way, I was working one step at a time. I hadn't had any plan.

Now that I began to think about it, as juxtaposition to Marie's resistance and my years of passivity, the plan began to take shape.

"Marie, water is a very spiritual thing here. They don't conserve it, so I assume them have a lot of it."

She nodded.

"Where does it come from? Do they pump it all up from the river?"

"No. They've got multiple large tanks, uphill of the village, in case there ever is a drought, which there hasn't been as long as I've lived here. They've also got rain barrels in the same area, as well as smaller ones in the back of their houses. Their main energy source comes from water actually. Everything comes from what they call the grand. It's another bigger river near the tanks, and on it they have a huge working dam."

I looked out at the Zorkuts on the battlefield with their big heavy armor. "The Bumonths as good a swimmers as they are runners?" "Better."

"There's our plan." I ducked further into the cave as another round of smaller explosions came close to the exit.

"We've got to get to that dam. If we can—"

"I get it."

"Marie, I'd give you the option of staying here with your kids, but I can't find the dam without you. So I'm begging you."

She turned to her oldest boy. "Sweetheart, I need you to take care of your brothers."

"I can help."

"I'm sure you could." They both looked at the baby. "But I need you here."

He stood up taller, pushed his shoulders back and nodded.

Marie turned to me. "Let's go."

I looked out the gap.

"We're heading that way?" I asked and pointed.

Marie nodded.

I waited until there seemed to be a slight break in the barrage of destruction, and said, "Now!"

We both sprinted out across the edge of the village and toward the tree line.

I thought my spending so much time sitting at the computer would have made me sluggish, but spikes of need and desperation helped me put on an impressive burst of speed. Nowhere near what Bumonths could do, but I felt like I was running with the wind, faster than I thought possible.

We made it across the town square, past the entrance into the forest, and Marie took a second to look back. I tugged at her arm. We started running again and made it past what I thought of as the boundaries of the village.

We were pushing a lot of plants out of the way as we went, but we were still going fast. I ignored the occasional branch that Marie pushed out of the way that snapped back to whap me in the face. The forest thinned out a little, the ground and plants changed slightly; there was a dip, and the ground became rocky.

"We're almost there; it's only about a mile from here," she said.

The ground began to rise up on a sharp incline. My breaths puffed out loudly like a struggling freight train. A sharp stitch of pain lanced through my side, a result of not being able to suck up enough oxygen to match the pace I was going. The incline of the hill was getting to me.

Just as I was beginning to think that I would need to take a break for a minute to catch my breath I heard the roar of rushing water. Marie ran even faster. There was no way to keep up but I kept her in my sight.

Then we were there. The dam was huge.

"All right," I said looking around. "There's got to be a...release valve or something."

Marie pointed to small door on the other side of the river. She didn't say anything else; she just sprinted across a walkway on top of the dam.

Aargh. I hate heights. I really hate heights. I hate heights like Indiana Jones hates snakes. Why did the controls have to be on the other side of the dam? The walkway, suspended just above the immensely tall dam, was about two feet wide, and some of it was organic green grate.

Really. I have to be the hero? What was I thinking?

I ran after her. She'd already disappeared through the weathered door.

"Huh," I said. Staring at the same control board Marie was staring at. "They're huge toggles." I guess I had been suspecting a large wheel that we would need to turn, the kind that I'd seen in movies that people turned to open valves or to get in and out of hatches on submarines and spaceships.

"John gave me a tour this place when I first got here. I think if I remember correctly, each switch corresponds to a wall section of the dam, and when you throw the switch the wall lifts."

"Sounds great to me," I said. I grabbed the handle and tried to pull it up. It didn't budge. "Help me."

Marie put her hands next to mine and we pulled upwards. This switch creaked and moved about a half inch, and then another inch, but it wasn't not enough.

"We can't pull it," I said. "We've got to get underneath and push."

We both bent down, and on the count of three, with a huge thrust we pushed up.

The toggle flipped. The sound of rushing water was deafening. The roar of water had been loud before, when only a small controlled bit was coming through a small slit in the top of one panel. As soon as we threw that first switch it was like a crowd of a thousand people growling at a rock concert.

We moved on to the next big switch and then repeated the same routine four more times.

We left the control room and the gushing water was splashing up so hard it was soaking the walkway.

"That's just fabulous," I said.

"We got to go now!" I couldn't hear her over the roar of the water.

"What?" I asked.

"Now!" She screamed. "We got to go now before the water gains even more force and takes out the walkway."

She didn't wait to see if I could hear her. She turned and ran across to the other side.

My heart seized up and bobbed up into my throat as if it were going to try to break loose. For a split second I froze, my fear of heights gripping me. If I didn't go now there was no way I would get back to the other side. There was no way I was going to let Tan die alone. There was no way I was going to let Tan die. Fear, you can go fuck yourself.

I hurried after Marie, going as fast as I dared, bracing myself against the force of the splash. I gotten almost all the way over when my feet slipped and I fell smack on my chest and plummeted over the edge. At the very last minute I grabbed the edge of the walkway. For one harrowing moment I dangled over what seemed like a hundred foot drop.

Then Marie was above me. She grabbed my forearms in a tight grip and then hauled me up.

She held and practically dragged me the last few steps of the way. I was still hyperventilating after we got onto solid ground. I looked at the dirt underneath my feet and want to kiss it.

"Do you think we still need to open the tanks?" I yelled.

"Yeah. I think so," she said. "It will help direct the water flow toward the battlefield."

Luckily the tanks opened with just a pull rope. We opened all the tanks and, despite my attempt to stand behind them when I pulled the ropes, I found myself swamped in waist deep water. It took less than a second pick up speed. I was yanked off my feet. I had to grab the post of a tank after being tossed down the deluge from one to another.

"We've got build some kind of raft!" I yelled.

Maria was holding on to a tree a few feet away from me. She shook her head. First I thought she was disagreeing with me but then I realized she was shaking her head to show she couldn't hear me.

"Raft!" I yelled again.

I guess it would've been nice if I thought of that earlier.

Marie scrunched up her face as if she was thinking hard. She pointed something downriver. I couldn't tell exactly what she was pointing at. She nodded me, one firm nod, and then she let go. I had a second to decide whether to let go and follow her lead or risk having her be carried out of sight. I voted for letting go. As soon as I loosened my hands my head plunged underwater, and it rushed into my mouth and up my nose.

I managed to right myself and get my head above water for a minute before I was sucked under again. My clothes and shoes dragged me down. Within seconds it felt like I had cement blocks tied me, determined to see that I drowned before I could be of any help.

I struggled to get my shoes off, stuttering every time I got a mouthful of water. My pants were so waterlogged and heavy, but it seemed like they would be a lot harder to get off than my top, so I decided to try to tackle that first. I was halfway in the process of pulling my shirt over my head, when I spotted Marie. She was clinging to a pink tree. I had to let my shirt drop back into place and take two strong strokes to get me into line with where she was before I almost blew past her.

Once I grabbed onto the tree Marie gestured up, indicating the whole tree but I didn't know what she meant. She took out a small knife from some kind of hidden side pocket. Where did that come from? It's not like she had two layers of skin to hide things. She began hacking away at the tree just below where we were hanging onto it. What the hell was she doing? If she cut all the way through the tree we'd be swept down river again.

The tree broke free and we were whooshed away with the current.

The tree floated. It was so buoyant it was almost like it was pushing upward.

Huh.

Marie straddled the tree. Just as I was beginning to grasp our new situation she targeted another tree, and grabbed on hard as we were about to soar past it. She repeated the process with the knife.

Marie was grabbing on to the tree stub with one hand, and slowly working her way toward the top of the tree with the other.

Unfortunately, this meant pushing the main part of the tree away from her. Of course I was holding on to that part. Marie continued to push the bulk of the tree further into the middle of the river, the fastest rushing section.

Which meant I was getting tossed around faster.

Oh, that so didn't make me happy.

A violent surge of water blocked my vision of her for a second. When the waves of water moved and I could see her again, she had used the thinner, vine-like parts from the top of the tree to lash two trees together.

Two for two.

I had to admit having a little bit bigger flotation device was reassuring.

She let us be carried away again. The speed was amazing.

Marie found another tree and started hacking it off at about the water line again. This time because I knew exactly what she was doing, I was able to walk hand over hand closer to her and I was a little calmer when I ended up in a slightly a faster current.

With the three trees lashed together, we climbed on top of our makeshift raft and had a ride in style. Bonus. The river gained even more speed, and we rushed toward the village to see what damage we had wrought. I took a moment to say a quick prayer.

The way back was so much faster than the way out to the dam. The water volume and pressure increased. I began to picture what I might find when we got back to the village, and I pictured an epic flood, with waters rising over the top of the buildings by forty feet.

"We've got to get back there!" I yelled, pointing up river toward the dam.

"What?" Marie yelled.

"We have to get back to the dam!" I yelled louder.

I can see when what I was thinking hit her. We already let loose enough water to flood the village. If too much more water kept pouring in, there wouldn't be a village. It would've been wiped out like the stories from Noah's time in the Bible.

"There's no way we can get back upstream," Marie said loudly.

We both focused on the fast, pounding rush of water. We could paddle all day and all day and all we would do is manage to stay in the same place.

I looked up. The tops of the trees were relatively close together and far above the fray.

"Can we climb up and jump our way back?" I asked.

She grabbed onto a large, dark purple tree and pulled our makeshift raft tight against it as she contemplated the question.

"Yes, I think so. How good a climber and jumper are you?" she asked.

Not good, I thought but I didn't say anything right away. My curvy body always felt too heavy for my frame and, while I'd never actually told anyone because I hated to admit it even to myself, there was that afraid of heights thing.

She saw my expression said, "I'll go back myself. Now that the switches are loosened one person will be enough to flip them. You go back to the village and help our husbands and make sure nothing bad happens to my kids."

Without waiting for answer, she let go of the raft and began climbing up the purple tree. I was swept back into the flow of the current before I could decide to agree with her plan or not. I watched her scramble up the tree like the most agile of monkeys and leap from one tree to the next. Within seconds the water rushed me around the bend and she was out of sight.