Dishonor [Nanowrimo 2013]

Chapter 10: Beyond the Wall

Chapter 10: Beyond the Wall

 

I wanted to do something special to mark the moment, but Roderick quickly led us out of there. He might have even been shaking some. Apparently he didn’t like that box as much as I didn’t like it, but he was determined to get out of it fast.

Kevin looked over at me, “Ready to go Liv? Let’s do this at the same time.”

I just smiled and started counting, “one, two, three.” On three we both nudged our horses forward and rode out into the glaring sunlight with a bright blue sky.

And that sky. I had never imagined how bright the sun could be or how beautiful the blue sky could be. I couldn’t describe it as anything other than the purest shade of light blue ever to grace anything in this world. “Why is the sky blue?” I asked no one in general and no one else was paying attention to answer. We were all fascinated with this beautiful world outside the wall.

There was a city around us or at least the ruins of it. There were old houses left here to rot, but for some reason they hadn’t fully rotted. It looked…abandoned. I looked back and the gates of the wall were closed behind us. It was only forward now.

I pulled out my compass and map and oriented myself. Roderick rode up beside me steering his poor creature next to mine, “Don’t worry about that. I already have figured out which way we need to head, how far it is, and all that fun stuff. I’m so excited to finally get to use the skills I learned in the wall!”

He trotted forward bouncing in his saddle and heading almost parallel but slightly away from the wall. I glanced over at Kevin and rolled my eyes before pushing Kingston into a trot. It was stupid to name a creature that was going to die, but Kingston had come with the name.

Roderick quickly went back to a walk. Apparently bouncing at the trot was uncomfortable and Roderick didn’t enjoy it.

We traveled in silence for a while. Then Roderick called a halt. He pulled out some sort of little square thing and I remembered his claims of a radiation detector. I hadn’t really thought such a device existed so I had forgotten it till now.

“We are good on radiation for a while longer. We’ll need to take a pill tonight with dinner. And no, I don’t know if we will need our three pills at equal length.” He smiled from under his hood. Then the hood covered his face again and we were riding forward.

I pulled out some of my travel food and chewed on a stick of extremely chewy meet. One bite of this stuff would last almost an hour it seemed. Eventually we passed beyond houses and there were dead trees on either side. I could still see the wall and the giant dome of pink in the background.

Even that eventually disappeared as we rode away from the blast, from our city, and toward the mountains, or where according to the old maps, mountains should be. Who knew what the bombs had done to the world?

I was enjoying being in the sun. And this sun wasn’t muted. It was in its pure and unaltered form. It was warm and comforting as it told time. I was so glad to be out of the dark walls where I had lost myself for a while, but now, here, I found myself again. I found myself in the ruins of an old world that was at the same time such a new world.

It would be a good place to start over if it wasn’t for the radiation. Once, long ago, people found this world and deemed it the new world. Now it was the old world and yet also the new world.

I was extremely excited about leaving the wall, but it was also my death sentence.

The sun sent rays of red light across the sky as it neared the horizon and Roderick called for a halt again. He checked his device and nodded. “We need to take our first pill.”