When We Shed Civilization

Chapter 38

Beth was tempted to agree. The Baseballers were ridiculous in their baseball garb and macho behavior. The Bikers lived in a world long gone, an idealized world of rock and roll that never had existed. And the Tunnelers—they seemed to be swamped in ancient belief.

"How is it, in your hamlet?" Rebecca asked. "Are there any more... young people, like you and me?"

"Yes." Best to stay close to the truth. There were a handful of folks in her age at Seaside. "I've got quite a number of cousins."

"That must be wonderful." Rebecca had accelerated her step and now walked beside Beth, with the mounds between them. She had a pretty smile even though one of her front teeth was missing.

Beth shrugged. Her cousins were a nuisance, more often than not. "Aren't there any younger folks here, besides you?"

Rebecca shook her head and looked at the mushrooms.

Maybe having those cousins wasn't so bad. Beth felt sorry for the girl and was tempted to invite her to Seaside.

With a deep breath, she dismissed the preposterous thought.

"We are a small community," Eliah said. "Even with the Lord's help, life in these tunnels isn't easy."

"So, why don't you leave the tunnels?" Beth stopped as their path ended at an open door leading into a stairwell. She gestured upwards. "Why don't you go to the surface?"

"There's the other gangs," Eliah said. "They would try to chase us away. And then, there's something else..." He motioned at Rebecca to enter the stairwell. "We're going down here. Rebecca, you're the one with the light. Lead the way."

Beth followed Rebecca down the stairs. "Something else?"

"Our eyes... They are different from yours. Different from normal human eyes. We see well in the dark, but we can't bear the light of day."

Mutations. Beth had heard rumors about mutated animals. Spike had mentioned the mutotes, the mutated coyotes. But she'd never have thought that humans were affected, too.

She wondered how it would feel like, being confined to darkness all the time. Living your life underground, venturing forth only in the dead of night?

She didn't dare ask these people. So the descended silently until they reached the end of the stairs and a circular room at their bottom. Several round openings lined its walls.

A tiny stream of water entered the room from one of them and left through the other one. Rebecca scooped up a handful of the liquid and drank.

"You must be thirsty," Eliah said. "It's safe, drink."

Her throat was parched, so she followed Rebecca's example. The liquid had a tang of metal, but it quenched her thirst.

The swallowing re-awoke the nausea in her bowels. She coughed.

"You're lucky to be alive," Eliah said. "The river's poison can kill you."

"I know."

Coughing once more, Beth noted Rebecca staring at her. The lamp illuminated her thin face from below, giving her an eerie look, with her hair and chin lit up but her face in shadow. Her eyes, though, almost glowed, with a slight tinge of red.

She remembered the stare from last night, at the riverbank.

Rebecca looked at Eliah. "Can't she stay?"

He shook his head. "You know Jael won't have it. Nor the others. They don't like strangers."

She pulled the corners of her mouth down. But then she pointed at the exit through which the water left the room. "This one."

Confused, Beth eyed the round opening, then she looked back at Rebecca.

Eyes that couldn't see the sun.

"This tunnel will take you to the river," Eliah said. "It goes around a bend and then heads for the river. We can't come with you because it's light out there now."

"It goes to the place where you have found me?" Beth asked.

Rebecca nodded.

So Beth still had to cross the river to get home. And the only bridge was held by the Baseballers.

"Is there away across the river without taking the bridge?" she asked.

Eliah arched his bristly brows. "Didn't you say that your village... your hamlet was to the North?"

"Yes, but it's on the other side of the river."

"There's the subway tunnel," Rebecca said.

Eliah nodded. "Right. Unless it's flooded with river water by now. And," he looked at Beth, "it would take you to the wastelands."