Lovers of Babel (25 page)

“Um, I have no idea. I was just in the bathroom brushing up on my transformation. I heard your mom in your room so I decided to hide out for a while,” Mia looked at
Chad.

“What’s gotten into you
?” I asked.

“It’s nothing. I think I might be coming down with a slight cold. Sorry
, I just feel a little light-headed.”

He sat back down on my bed looking forlorn.

“I can take it from here. You guys need to go quickly so you can get back sooner. I wouldn’t want you to delay your trip any longer.”

“You’re right, but
Chad looks like he just saw a ghost. Should we let him rest first?”

“No. No
, I’m fine Sage, really. Let’s just go. We’ll teleport to the edge of the grid and journey to the new world. Hopefully, we make it halfway there by midday tomorrow. We can sleep along the way,” Chad said.

“Goodbye
, Mia. Take care of…me.”

Chad
walked over to Mia and gave her a long hug. I heard him whisper something to her. It sounded like he said “don’t tell,” but I wasn’t sure.

“
Bye, Mia. Thanks for everything.”

“Be safe
, you guys. And don’t take too long. Find the book then get out of there.”

That would prove to be much harder than we thought.

Chapter 5
: Journey Beyond the Grid

Before we set off on our journey Chad and I made sure we had all the proper supplies that we might need: retractable tents, dried up space food, H2O inhaler, a book on silent hexes, a few pairs of fresh underwear, compass, mini lasers to make fire, and plenty of other things that we may need in that abyss beyond the grid.

Chad
and I had no idea what to expect. It was a crime to cross the Equinox jurisdiction, but Chad had been given special permission from my father. I, on the other hand, was about to commit a crime punishable by a lifetime of imprisonment.  The only thing that was protecting me from getting found out was Mia’s mimicry, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me in the clear. I, along with every Equinoxian citizen, had a chip in my eye that was implanted there when I was just an infant. If by some reason the Authorities decided to track my whereabouts they would see that I was no longer on the grid. And when they would discover this they would hunt me down. Being the leader’s daughter wasn’t  amnesty for this type of crime. I suspected that my father would grant me forgiveness if I was caught, but my father was all about setting examples. The greatest example to his citizen droids would be the imprisonment of his precious daughter.

Chad
and I grabbed our backpacks, put them on and said our final goodbyes to Mia.

“Take care of my mother
. Try to stay out of the spotlight for a while. I’ll try to bring you a souvenir,” I said.

“Thank you
.”

“We’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you guys too.”

I grabbed
Chad’s hand as we stood side by side on the ocean carpet. Then, we were gone. The trek to the edge of the grid was a few minutes longer than usual. At first, it felt like we were suspended in a kaleidoscope of bright light, and then we were standing on the edge of a cliff.

“So this is the edge of the grid. The edge of the grid is the edge of a cliff. Typical.”

We looked out toward the space beyond and saw nothing but darkness. It was night and the stars were out, but even the stars didn’t brighten the abyss.

“Should we find a spot to climb down?” I said.

“No. I think we should wait until morning to start climbing. It’s way too dark out there.”

We walked a few feet away from the edge and pitched a tent. The air outside was cool
with a slightly warm breeze coming from the world beyond.

At first we laid there on our backs in silence.

Then I spoke.

“What do you think is out there?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s mysterious enough to hide under the dark of night.”

The sound of morning
birds woke us. They were created to alert the sleeping Equinox to the morning when the light from the distant sun was too dim for day.

I shoved a grainy earth bar in my mouth and crawled outside our tent for a better look at the abyss.

What I saw nearly made me choke on my breakfast.

“
Chad!”

“What?” he said groggily.

“You’re going to want to see this.”

Chad
peaked his head out the tent and his sleepy expression transformed into shock.

“What is it?”

Chad crawled out the tent and stood by me.

“It’s what t
hey in the old age called a desert.”

There was no vegetation
that we could see from the high cliff. The ground was brown and dusty and there were mounds of dirt that dipped and curved for miles into the distance.

I looked back toward the Equinox and saw vast vegetation. The trees were white as snow and as tall as giants. I stared out into the abyss and it was like two worlds had somehow fused together. There was no gradual change in the environment from the Equinox to the abyss. It was simply a cliff that separat
ed our world from a desert wasteland.

“Are you ready, Sage?”

I paused for a while taking in the unfamiliar territory that I was about to enter.

“I’m ready.”

We gathered our tent that folded nicely into a small bag and started walking along the edge of the cliff looking for a way down. After a few minutes we came across a series of stones that were jutting out of the cliff toward the bottom. The cliff was hundreds of feet high and the climb down looked daunting.

“It looks like this is our only way down.
How about it?”

I looked in my backpack and grabbed the rope that I packed at the last minute.

“Here, we’ll use this. Wrap it around your waist and I’ll do the same.”

After we were bound together,
Chad wrapped the end of the rope to a nearby tree and tied it tightly. There was enough rope to get us down to the bottom.

Chad
started climbing first taking cautious steps. Once he was far enough down I began my descent.  I lowered myself to a steady pace, keeping an eye on the trees that were once our shelter. As they began to rise out of my eye line with each descending step, a fear began to grow inside of me. When they were gone and all I could see was the rocks and formations on the cliff I knew that my world was going to be changed forever.

“How are you doing up there
?” Chad yelled.

“I’m okay.
Just trying to take my time.”

My hands were beginning to chafe from the rocks.

About twenty minutes later Chad made it down to the sand.

“You can do it
, Sage! You only have a few more steps.”

The truth was
, I had more like a few more
feet
left. My hands were burning and my palms were cut and bruised.

“I don’t think I can go any further! My hands are slipping!”

“Just take a break then. Try to prop yourself up using your legs!”

That was impossible because the cliff was at a perfect 90 degree angle and was too steep to rest my body.

I stepped down onto another rock and then suddenly my hand slipped. I was holding on with only my left hand while the other arm was dangling out.

“Sage
, hold on! You have to!”

I tried to pull the right side of my body back toward the cliff, but my left hand was too hurt and bruised to hold on tight enough. Then it began to slip.

“Chad, I’m going to fall!”

Since I had the rope
, I figured I could just use it to climb down, but my hands were too damaged to even hold the rope.

Finally,
my left hand lost its strength and I was dangling from the rope around my waist. I could feel the rope starting to give under my weight. I loosened up the rope from around my waist to give it some slack and tried to lower myself by putting my feet on the cliff and walking down. This worked for a while, but the rope was beginning to break from all the strain. I increased my pace which only made the rope break more.

Suddenly, I heard a loud
SNAP
and I went falling down toward the desert floor.

Chad
was right below me and stood there with his arms out ready to catch me. I plummeted about twenty feet right into his arms and we fell over creating a hole in the sand.

Everything went black f
or a while.

When I opened my eyes
, I rolled over and saw Chad’s limp body surrounded by sand.

“
Chad, wake up!” I shook him.

He sat up and rubbed his head.
His body had made a three foot indentation in the sand.

“Are you okay?”

“I feel like I got hit by a mammoth.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You fell on me from twenty feet in the air. That’s what I’m saying.”

“Fine.
You can stay here a while and nurse your wounds while I go explore.”

“
Hold on. I’ll be up in a minute,” Chad said wincing as he tried to lift himself up.

I looked around my
new environment and saw nothing but sand. How boring. The climate was extremely dry and the temperature was much hotter than I had ever experienced. I wiped my brow and realized that I was sweating profusely.

I looked up into the sky and saw the sun. I couldn’t believe it.

“Chad, look, it’s the sun!”

Chad
looked up with his mouth agape.

How could it be that the sun was there, but not in the Equinox? I began to wonder how far we had traveled. The
world outside the grid must be way bigger than we thought.

Chad
finally got up and walked over to me.

“Wherever we are we must’ve travelled far to be in the presence of the sun.”

“Let’s start walking.”

After hours of walking through the
scorching desert, the intense heat and dryness started to affect us. The Equinox was very cold, and in order to not freeze to death we wore body suits that were equipped with thermal protection to keep our bodies insulated at all times. Some people wore the suits under their normal clothing, but Chad and I decided to wear nothing but our suit and terrain shoes. That was our first mistake. There we were, sweating profusely under the desert sun in space clothing.

The heat and exhaustion were weighing us down and our pace began to slow to that of a snail.
Then, we began to feel a sensation that we’ve never experienced before: thirst.

We decided to take a break and sat down on the hot sand.
I reached into my backpack for my H2O inhaler, wrapped my lips around the mouth-piece and took a deep breath. I could feel the water molecules making their way throughout my system, cooling me down from the inside out. One inhale of this was equivalent to three bottles of water, but there was only enough for ten breaths. I handed the inhaler to Chad.

I stood up and surveyed the environment. From where we were I could see nothing but sand mounds and the occasional dried up cactus plant. I walked a little further out
, leaving Chad behind. There was no protection from the sun in this place. Thankfully or body suits protected us from extreme sun burn. Every part of our body was covered except for our faces and hands. My cheeks were pounding.

I climbed a nearby sand mound to
see how much further we’d have to go before we reach some sign of life. I kicked my feet in the sand to get a better grip to climb. Once I reached the top, I looked behind me and saw Chad watching me. I looked ahead and saw something protruding from the sand a few miles into the distance. It was hard to make out from where I was, but it looked to be a large white triangle in the sand.

“
I see something! We should go check it out!” I yelled.

I steadily made my way down.
Chad walked over and we headed toward the strange object in the sand.

When we reached it
, it was much larger than it seemed originally. It was a type of triangular structure with decorative ridges in the inside rim. It looked to be a part of a bigger structure. Maybe a building.

“What is this thing?”
Chad said.

“I think it’s a part of a building that got buried by all this sand.
”

This made
Chad start, and he grabbed my shoulders in excitement.

“Remember when we learned about our ancestors in power school?
About the apocalypse? What if this is a structure from the old age?”