Children of the Void: Book One of the Aionian Saga (38 page)

Chapter One

Takomi felt something wet and warm beneath her face and opened her eyes.
 
It was dark, but she could see something shiny on the hard floor beneath her face.
 
The room smelled like someone had taken a hospital and moved it into a mechanic’s shop.
 
The acoustics told her that this room was quite large.

With great effort, she lifted her head out of the puddle.
 
Everything hurt, but most of all her face.
 
Her fatigue was only overcome by her desire to lift herself out of the wetness she was lying in.
 
It took some time to orient herself, and little by little her mind began to process her surroundings.
 
She tried to sit up, and her head clanged into something solid.
 
Her vision flashed. She bit her tongue to keep from cursing out loud while she brought her hand to her head. Her palm slapped against bare skin and she recoiled. Slowly, she touched her head again. Her hair was gone. This time she did curse out loud.

A voice pierced the darkness. “Who’s there?”
 
The speaker was close by, but Takomi couldn’t tell where.
 
It took a moment for her to realize who it was.

“Sophia, is that you?” she asked.
 
She looked around in the darkness, feeling cold metal above her head and bars to her side.

“Takomi!” answered Sophia.
 
“I’m so glad to hear your voice.
 
Where are you?”

Takomi moved toward the sound of Sophia’s voice.
 
She came up against more metal bars. The cage was tiny.
 
“Over here,” she said, pushing up on the ceiling of her enclosure to no avail.
 
Pain coursed through her body as she struggled against the metal bars.
 
“I’m in some kind of cage.”

“Me too,” said Sophia.
 
Her voice sounded weak, as if each word weighed down on her.
 
Takomi reached through the bars.
 
Her skinny arms scrapped against the rough metal, but she hardly noticed.

“Can you reach me?” said Takomi, groping for something solid in the darkness.

“I’m trying,” said Sophia, but now Takomi could tell she was too far away.
 
She thought she could just make out vague shapes in the distance, but couldn’t be sure it wasn’t her imagination.

Takomi felt a surge of panic rising up in her.
 
She would have given anything for just a little bit of light.
 
“I don’t think I can reach you,” she said, trying not to let the fear into her voice.
 
She pushed her arm out further until the bones of her shoulder were smashed between the bars.
 
She probed the surrounding area but could only find the cold floor.
 
She pulled her arm back, ignoring the pain as it scraped the skin off her arms.
 
She moved down to the corner of her box and shoved her arm through the bars once more.
 

This time she felt more bars continuing in a straight line from her own cage.
 
Two cages side by side.
 
“I feel something,” she said.
 
“I think our cages are stacked together.”
 
She felt around the cage, feeling the bars and floor and ceiling.
 
Suddenly her hand touched something soft and wet.
 
She recoiled, ripping her arm out from between the bars.
 
She cursed again.

“What is it?” asked Sophia.
 
“What did you find?”

Takomi retreated the the back of her cell.
 
She tried to catch her breath between terrified gasps.
 
“Something’s in there,” she said.
 
“I felt it.”

“In where?” asked Sophia, her own voice tinged with panic.

Takomi took several deep breaths, recovering slightly from her moment of panic.
 
“In the cage next to mine,” she said, inching back toward the center of the cage.
 
“I felt something in there, through the bars.”

“Do you think it could be Joseph, or Gideon?” asked Sophia.
 
“They’ve got to be somewhere.”

Takomi felt embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that herself.
 
It very well could be one of the boys, but she still kept her distance from the walls of the cage.

“It could be,” said Takomi.
 
“I kind of freaked out when I felt it, so I didn’t have time to check.”

“Well can you check again?” asked Sophia.

Takomi gulped.
 
“I… I don’t know.
 
What if it’s not one of them?
 
It could be anything in there.”
 
She heard movement coming from Sophia’s direction.
 
“Is that you moving around Sophia?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” answered Sophia.
 
“I’m seeing if I can figure out what it is.
 
I don’t feel anything outside my cage.
 
You’re going to have to check again.”

Takomi felt her heart skip a beat.
 
The idea of sticking her arm out into the darkness again made her skin crawl.
 
She tried to convince herself that the thing she felt was Gideon or Joseph’s arm or leg, but her mind kept on coming up with more horrifying alternatives.
 
She swallowed hard, then slid herself closer to the bars.

She found the corner of her cage again.
 
She strained to see something in the darkness, but it was as if she were blind.
 
She leaned forward as close as she dared.
 
“Joseph?” she whispered. “Gideon?
 
Is that you?”
 
She listened for several seconds.
 
She thought she could hear something breathing nearby.
 
She closed her eyes as tight as she could, then opened them again, but the darkness remained.
 

“Can you hear me?” she said, just a tiny bit louder.
 
Still nothing but the faint sound of breathing.

“Can you feel it?” asked Sophia.
 
The sudden sound made Takomi jump.

“Not yet,” said Takomi.
 
She couldn’t bring herself to tell Sophia that she was too frightened.
 
She clenched her jaw, then crawled forward to the edge of her cage.
 
Her hand crept through the bars and along the ground.
 
She concentrated on the texture of the floor to keep her mind off of the possible horrors within the next cage.
 
Her fingers bumped into something, and she flinched.
 
She hesitated a moment, then reached out once again.
 

This time when she came into contact with the object she did not pull away.
 
She poked at it, and found that it was soft.
 
She allowed a few more fingers to trail over it.
 
It was warm, and covered in something wet.
 
Her stomach clenched as she prodded the sticky wet object.
 
She moved up along the object until she came to a spot that was no longer wet.
 
Without the disturbing wet sensation, she gained a bit more confidence.
 

“It’s not moving,” she said.
 
“It’s warm.
 
It feels like…,” she slid her hand farther up the object and felt something that felt like cloth.
 
“I think it’s an arm.”

“Is it one of the boys?
 
Can you tell?” asked Sophia.

“Not yet,” answered Takomi, feeling the fear replaced by curiosity, and maybe even a little hope.
 
She grasped the object, squeezing it gently.
 
As she moved up it definitely felt more like an arm.
 
She came to a shoulder, a very large shoulder, then to a thick neck.
 
Her hand moved up until it came to a chin, then a face.
 
She felt the big nose and lips, then felt the close cropped hair on the head.

“It’s Joseph,” breathed Takomi.
 
“It’s gotta be him.”
 
Sophia sighed in relief as Takomi felt Joseph’s head.
 
Her hand came to something crusty in his hair.
 
She probed gingerly, and felt soft, sticky flesh where there should have been hair.
 
Takomi gasped.

“What is it?” asked Sophia.

Takomi gently touched the edges of the wound, finding it to be several inches long.
 
“He’s hurt,” she said.
 
“Bad.
 
There’s a big cut on his head, and I think I felt blood on his arm.”

“Is he…,” Sophia let the words hang in the air.

Takomi felt for Joseph’s neck and put two fingers to it.
 
“He’s alive,” she said after a moment, remembering that she had heard and felt his breath.
 
She gripped his shoulder, shaking him slightly.
 
“Joseph,” she said.
 
“Joseph, can you hear me?”
 
But there was no reply.

“Do you think he’s okay?” asked Sophia.
 
Takomi detected fear and pain in her voice.
 

Takomi readjusted to get a few more inches of reach.
 
She felt along as much of Joseph’s chest as she could.
 
“There’s a lot of blood,” said Takomi, almost too quiet to be heard.
 
She felt a lump in her throat, and before she could do anything about it tears started running down her cheeks.
 
She wished there was something she could do.
 
She pulled her arm back into her cage and wiped the blood off on her shirt.
 
With her other arm she wiped away her tears.

“Gideon?” she said, as loudly as she dared.
 
“Gideon, can you hear me?
 
Where are you?”
 
There was no reply.
 
Takomi rolled over on her back and positioned herself with her feet up against the bars.
 
With a grunt she kicked hard against the cage.
 
She kicked again, and again, but it was useless.

“Takomi what are you doing?” asked Sophia.

Takomi repositioned and started kicking against the ceiling.
 
“We’ve got to get out of here,” she said between grunts.
 
“Wherever here is.”

“Stop,” said Sophia.
 
“You’re just going to hurt yourself.”
 

Takomi paused.
 
“Well what do you suggest?” she said in a tone that was more angry than she realized.
 
“You just want to rot in some cage?
 
Joseph is hurt.
 
I can’t find Gideon.
 
I don’t even know where we are?”
 
She kicked once more against the unyielding cage and let out a frustrated scream.

There was a bright flash and Takomi winced, covering her eyes in pain.
 
Sophia cried out as well.
 
After some time Takomi uncovered her eyes and blinked as she tried to adjust to the light.
 
Eventually she could make out her surroundings.
 
Her cage was indeed a dull gray metal, barely big enough for her to move around.
 
All around her were boxes and crates, like a large warehouse.
 
Her cage was stacked on top of something else, so that she was a meter or two above the ground.

She looked over and saw that she was right about being next to Joseph.
 
The huge boy was covered in blood, and the wound on his head was worse than Takomi had feared.
 
As she moved closer to him she noticed the puddle she had woken up in was blood as well.
 
She looked down at herself and saw she was covered in it.
 
She had cuts and scrapes all over her body, but none so bad as Joseph’s.

Beyond Joseph’s cage she saw Sophia a few meters away.
 
She was propped up on one elbow looking around the warehouse.
 
She too was covered in dirt and blood.
 
Takomi could see a large wound in Sophia’s abdomen, and the older woman looked very pale.
 
They locked eyes, and Takomi could see a look of terror in Sophia’s eyes.
 
She wondered if she looked the same.

“Where are we, Sophia?
 
Where’s Gideon?” she asked.

Sophia just shook her head and looked around.
 
“I don’t know.”
 
Sophia moved to the edge of her cage, wincing as she did so.
 
She looked down into the room, and her eyes went wide.
 
Takomi crawled over to look down at whatever it was Sophia saw.
 
Joseph’s cage was in the way, but Takomi was able to see half of something that looked like a long table.
 
It was dirty, and had an assortment of straps hanging off of it.
 
On a crate next to it sat a silver tray with an assortment of sharp, metal tools.

“What is this place?” whispered Sophia.
 
The two of them looked at each other, and Takomi thought she had never seen anyone look so terrified.
 

There was a loud screech of metal from somewhere behind Sophia.
 
They looked as a huge metal door slid open, letting in even more light.
 
Takomi blinked and saw the silhouette of two large figures in the doorway.
 
She couldn’t make them out at first, but as they marched into the room she saw what looked like two massive insects walking towards them.
 
She recoiled into the back of her cage, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Sophia do the same thing.