qazyfiction

Chapter 18 – Part 1

Lilith had been expecting a large, unfriendly place, all gray blocks of poured concrete, dirty and grimy like the city Silver had taken her to a few days before. What she found, instead, was a small town of wood and stone, with orderly streets and carefully decorated facades.  Most of the buildings were at most two levels high, although on the other side of town she could see something tall, painted all white; a church, perhaps.

She slowed her pace as they entered the town, examining her surroundings with suppressed awe. Every house had wooden window frames and doors—Wooden! Were they all rich?—and some even had potted flowers on display, outside of their homes where anybody could touch them.

And while there wasn’t quite a cheer to the air, the town lacked the desperate, hidden violence she’d seen before.  As a matter of fact, had the streets not been so empty, Lilith would have almost said this town felt like a home.

There was a sense of order, society, structure; things she had never seen before above ground.  And this was just the residential area; it was likely the central hall—or whatever it was called—was an even richer area. The road itself was plain dirt, but the houses… It went against everything Lilith had even been taught. The infected weren’t supposed to be civilized.

Lilith shaded her eyes.  There wasn’t much shade on the street itself, and now that they were out of the forest, away from the sheltering tree branches, Lilith felt even hotter than before.  She took off her hood and pushed her cloak off of her shoulders, feeling a little nauseous and drowsy, and realized she was straggling even further behind.  She forced herself to catch up and felt winded by the effort.

Silver shot her an irritated look. “Keep close.”

Amber, rather surprisingly, came to Lilith’s defence. “She made her way out of Tulkan, Silver. She’ll be fine here.”

Tulkan; that had to be the city Silver had taken her to.  Lilith stored the name away for future reference, tried to keep her eyes on the road rather than on the houses. She didn’t want to look like a tourist.

“She had ‘help’ in Tulkan,” Silver replied, his eyes dropping to Lilith’s wrist.

She hid her arm behind her back and scowled right back at Silver. “She only got help right at the very end.” Her anger flared up again, but this time it was directed at herself. She hated feeling drawn to Silver, and couldn’t even understand why she was; he was such a miserable bastard.

Amber seemed to take that as a cue to change topic. “Right, what should we do first?”

Silver crossed his arms and looked away without responding. Amber turned to Lilith and raised an eyebrow.

Lilith wanted to explore the town, uncover why it was so different from what she had seen before, but she doubted the weres would like that answer. She opted for the practical option. “I’m kind of thirsty, I guess.”

Amber didn’t reply, simply stepping closer to peer at her face.

Lilith felt instantly self-conscious, and reached up to touch her cheeks. “What’s wrong?”

Amber poked at her cheeks with a finger. “You’re burnt.”

“Burnt? That’s impossible.” She hadn’t been that close to the fire last night, and there weren’t any daybulbs around. She patted her cheeks gently; they did feel a little warm, now that Amber mentioned it.

“Oh, it’s very possible,” Amber rejoined. “You should probably pull your hood back up unless you want to get even more sunburnt.”

The sun?  Lilith glanced up involuntarily, her eyes watering at the intense light.  She hadn’t felt anything, and surely it was too far away to cause any damage. But Amber looked convinced, so Lilith pulled up her hood, blinking to clear the spots in her vision.

Amber smiled at her. “Right. Let’s get you something to drink.”

Lilith enviously eyed Amber and Silver’s bare heads as they resumed walking; why didn’t they need to cover up?

They kept to the outskirts of the town, following the edge until they reached the lakeside.  Here was where everyone was; along the waterfront was a series of stalls, a local market of sorts which lacked the frantic bustle of Tulkan. People were ambling back and forth, most of them with their heads uncovered, pausing to examine goods with the unhurried patience of those comfortable in their environment.

They were closer to the white building now. It was on the other side of the market, made entirely of stone and painted white. There was a large set of double doors, and on those doors, a dark green cross, strangely familiar.

Lilith moved forward, intending to head towards the building and take a closer look. She stepped on something soft and squirming.

A snake! Lilith leaped back just as a pained squeal pierced her eardrums.

She looked down. It wasn’t a snake; it was a large rat—a huge rat, really—the biggest she’d ever seen, with a long, rounded tail. Its fur was a dark, coarse brown, and it had a small white patch on its muzzle.

It turned to her, raised up on its hind legs, looking distinctly peeved. It chattered at her angrily, its sharp orange-yellow teeth seeming all of a sudden quite vicious for an animal its size. But just as her concern grew, the creature peeked behind Lilith and seemed to deflate.  It turned and marched off, its purposeful movements too intelligent to be those of an animal.  Lilith stared after it, curious.

Amber joined her side, a small smile on her face. “I love nutria,” she remarked as they resumed walking. “They’re so tasty.”

And with that comment, Lilith’s sense of comfort vanished. She wasn’t home. She had to remember that. Even here, where it seemed so normal, so safe, she was amongst animals. She’d never be safe until she got back underground.

Then she realized where Amber was leading her and her stomach sank further.