 
Hardin's Dilemma

By A.S. Morrison

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 A.S. Morrison

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Table of Contents

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Chapter XVI

Chapter XVII

Chapter XVIII

Chapter XIX

Chapter XX

# I

The sun was bright on all the busy citizens of Wall City. The people hustled across streets and down sidewalks to get to their jobs and lives. They took little notice to all the people around them doing the same thing. On one particular street walked Nara and I, much slower than those around us.

It was our morning routine to walk around those crowded streets before she had to report to the Mayor's office. Nara would share what news she had and I would wait patiently for the news that pertained to me going back in the wall to try and save the rest of Humurom. I didn't want to go back in at first, but as time passed and days wore on I yearned to reenter and save the only home I knew. I couldn't stand not being able to know what was happening inside.

"Have you heard any news yet? On anything?" I asked; stuffing my hands deep into my pockets as a cold wind blew by. It was early spring, but winter didn't seem to want to give up its hold just yet.

"You know I haven't. I would have told you if I had."

"I know; I just can't stand waiting around for things to get decided. Things may be getting worse in there and I have no way of knowing."

I looked up at the giant dome that was visible from anywhere in Wall City. There were still so many mysteries about it. Why the tiny country of Dizuria wanted inside was the most striking at the moment. It had been two months since I risked six lives to get my sick mother out of the horrible conditions of a one hundred and fifty year old bomb shelter. She desperately needed medical attention. Everything turned out all right in the end on that journey, though my friend Morome was badly injured. It was around the same time that I found out that the people I had grown up knowing to fear were actually innocent. Hunters from my home of Humurom had been getting killed while looking for food. For years we blamed the only other country in the dome, Bozlin, but we discovered that it was actually Dizuria that was behind it all. Sadly in the last two months no more had been discovered.

"I'm sure the president and Gilik will figure something out." Nara said.

"Isn't it strange that the president comes here so often?" I asked.

"Evidently he thinks this is important enough to be involved in. And didn't you want him here?"

"I did, but I hate to think that this is getting so much attention by the government here. He makes everything take too long. If it was just me and Gilik then I probably would have been back in there with some troops to finish those Dizurians off."

"Gilik can't authorize sending anyone in and the president doesn't want to."

I groaned. "But now we have an enemy. We should be sending troops straight to Dizuria."

She frowned. "How is your mother?"

Nara wasn't very good at changing the subject, but I let it slide. "She's doing great. The treatments are almost over and the doctors see her making a full recovery."

"And Morome?"

"He was released from the hospital a few weeks ago." I said. I had completely forgotten to tell her when it happened.

"Where are the hunters now? I haven't seen them in a while?"

"Gilik sent them on a Journey Train to see the country. I think he just didn't want us all in his face all the time."

"That's right. I remember now."

Nara and I went into a little bakery to get something for breakfast. Every morning we walked someplace new and stopped in at someplace different. It was such a big city that I wondered if we would ever explore the whole thing. We each got a little pastry and went back outside. She had to pay for everything because I didn't have any way of making money. Since I wasn't a citizen of Azureland I would have a hard time explaining to employers where I was from since me being from Humurom was still kept secret. Or at least it was supposed to be. Several local newspapers ran the occasional article about how I was being experimented on. Nobody seemed to know that the hunters had ever come out.

I felt bad about Nara buying everything for me, but I promised myself that if I ever managed to get a job I would pay her back.

The first thing I felt outside was another cold blast of air. "I wish it would get warmer." I lamented.

"It should be heading that way soon."

She didn't seem to be bothered by the cold at all.

We turned around and started back towards the government building. I tried to think up something that I could ask her that I hadn't yet, but nothing came to mind. So I asked her something that I had already asked her many times.

"What do you know about Dizuria?"

She sighed, clearly exhausted by that question. "It's supposed to be a nice country. It has several resort cities on the ocean. The government is secretive and the leader rarely leaves." She put up her hand to stop me. "Except he was here just as you arrived."

This was the first I had heard of this. "He was?"

"Yeah, I just remembered. I was supposed to get him an appointment with Gilik but he left before I could. He only stayed one night."

For the first time in two months I felt like I was getting somewhere. "I must have been the reason he was here. He probably assumed I stole the bracelet."

"No, he couldn't have been. You being here wasn't made public until the day after you arrived. He was here that same night you came out. It was probably just a scheduled trip that happened to coincide with you."

That didn't dampen my spirits. "But either way he was here. I wonder if I saw him."

"Maybe, you were staying on the floor usually reserved for officials from other countries. The public does not have access to that floor so you were safe there."

So I might have seen the leader of the enemy country. That excited me for some reason. I was so close to the person causing all of the trouble and didn't even know it, and he didn't even know I was there.

My mind filled with all sorts of fantasies where I beat this mystery leader up and threw him down the elevator shaft. Those sure made me feel good. If only I could get a chance to do it in real life. After a while I grew tired of the fantasies and grew bored when thinking about how little there was for me to do.

"I wish I had something to do." I finally said.

"Gilik did suggest that you go on a Journey Ship and see the world a little. Ships leave from several countries all the time, even Dizuria."

"I told him that I wasn't going to leave while Mama was going through her treatments. And don't you think it's strange that he wants all of us Humurom's gone from Wall City?"

"He just wants you all to be doing something and not just waiting for the president to decide on what to do."

"If you say so."

We passed a stand selling newspapers and Nara grabbed one up. She paid for it, grabbed my arm, and took me out of the busy sidewalk and into an alley.

"Do you see this?" She flashed the newspaper in front of me but I didn't have time to make anything out. "Someone knows there are more of you here."

"How did they find out?"

I took the paper and looked. There was a headline that read: More among us. The picture showed a blurry image of people in front of the dome. It was a real picture. I could even see Lace kneeling over Morome and me falling to the ground.

"No idea, it could have been any number of things."

"I don't get it. Who could have been waiting there to get that picture, and why only put it out now? We've been careful around town. No more than three of us leave at a time and if anyone asks who we are we say we are part of the janitorial staff."

"I don't know who leaked it, but I'm sure Gilik will be mad."

"I hope he can find out who did it. What do you think it means for us?"

She thought for a minute. "It may mean you all should leave for a while and let the rumors die down."

"I'll think it over."

We arrived at the building about twenty minutes later. Nara left me to start work and I went straight for the elevator.

# II

A few minutes later I entered the apartment I was staying in. Mama and I shared it. It was on one of the top floors and was bigger than the one I stayed in before. It also smelled much better than where we lived in Humurom. There were two rooms. One had a bed and the other had a couch. I slept on the couch. It was nicer than anything I could have slept on in Humurom so I didn't mind. The hunters were split up into two apartments on the floor below. Lace and Morome had one and Peter and Dala had the other.

I saw Mama sitting in a chair by the window looking over the city, something she did a lot. I went up to her.

"How was your treatment today?"

She looked around and smiled when she saw me. "Oh, same as every day, but the doctor says I should be done soon."

"That's great."

"It beats sitting in our Residence."

I shivered. At just the thought of the Residence I felt as though I could smell all the concoctions that were made up to try to make my mother better. "Oh, yeah, do you remember that smell?"

She laughed. "It got pretty bad, didn't it? And now look at us. We are here in probably the best situation we could be in."

"Almost. I still feel for those in Humurom and wonder what Dizuria is going to do."

Mama nodded. "Once we get everybody out we can have the Azure's take care of it."

"If the president ever makes up his mind."

"It won't be too long now." Mama said soothingly.

I believed her when she said things like that. I knew she didn't have any more knowledge than I did, but I felt that she was right.

We both sat and watched the city below us. The little people were still bustling along as they did every day. I wondered if I would have been one of them if I had been born an Azure. I tried to imagine getting up for work, going, and then coming home to sleep and do it all again. Would I have fewer anxieties? Less to care about? I didn't know. I figured they all had something weighing them down, but I doubted it was anything like I had to worry about.

For almost an hour I sat there with Mama looking down at everyone else. Then a knock came at the door. I answered it. It was Mr. Jess, the doorman.

"Hardin, the president and the mayor would like to have a word with you."

I didn't bother asking what it was about, he didn't know. I said goodbye to Mama and followed him from the room. I knew my way to Gilik's office but I was usually so lost in thought that I often found myself on the wrong side of the building having no idea where I was. Mr. Jess knew I would do that and had me follow him the whole way.

We arrived at the office and I went in. I was surprised to see an extra person there. The president of Azureland sat behind the desk while Gilik stood next to him. Orin, the Bozlin boy I helped get through the wall two months before was also there. I sat in a chair next to his and waited.

The president started things off. "Hardin, it's good to see you again. How have things been?"

"Not too bad." I looked him over. He had a stern face that was awkwardly stretched into a friendly smile. His hair was perfectly trimmed while his suit was perfectly pressed. If there had been one wrinkle it would have stood out easily.

"Good," he continued. "I think you've met Orin."

"I have." We looked at each other and nodded. I hadn't seen Orin in several weeks. I didn't know what floor he was staying on. It was almost as if Gilik didn't want us together.

"Wonderful." His smile grew wider. It looked comically exaggerated on his stiff face.

Gilik took a step forward from behind the desk. He looked shabby compared to the president. "The reason you two are both here –"

The president cut him off. "I'll explain what's going on, Gilik. I think there should be some city concern you need to be dealing with."

Gilik looked rather annoyed. "This is a city concern."

The president ignored him. "Hardin, Orin, you are both here because you are needed to do something very special that will help both Azureland and your home countries. We need you both to go back into the wall and try to talk your people into leaving to come and live here. From what I've heard it sounds that Orin will have an easier time. But we need you both to try."

"I've already tried to get them out." I said. "The leader won't allow it."

The president shook his head, feigning compassion. "That is a shame. If anyone comes it will be better than no one. This may be the final trip through the wall for you two. I can't authorize anymore."

"The major problem with that idea is that if those Dizurians attack again many of the people will die." I said, hoping to get the response back I wanted. I didn't.

"Now we can't start blaming Dizuria yet."

I had to go over what the president said in my head because I thought at first that I didn't hear him right. "It was clearly them that attacked us. Have you spoken to them?"

"I may have. I will be sending one of our spies over to see what he can figure out, but not until after you two get back."

"Do we at least get weapons or help when we go in?"

"I'm sorry Hardin." He said, not even trying to look sorry. "I cannot authorize that. That would be seen as an act of war and I was elected to keep peace in Azureland."

My temper shot up faster than I could control. "And what do you call what they are doing to Humurom and Bozlin?"

He stood up threateningly. "I am not the leader of those countries. I have to keep my priorities on Azureland. If an Azure dies in the wall then that will lead to everyone finding out about what is going on in there, which will then result in an all out war with Dizuria."

I got up and took a step toward the desk, unafraid. "I don't see a problem with that. And besides, according to the paper this morning everybody already knows about all of us."

Gilik cut in. "That paper is full of superstitions. It recently reported that we were running experiments on you."

The president nodded. "That is true, but rumors have to start from somewhere. Have either of you told anyone?"

"No." Orin said quickly.

"Of course not." I added.

"Just making sure. Things like that are why we have sent the others on a Journey Train. We thought it better to separate you for a bit in case someone was snooping around."

My mind was so filled with anger that I wasn't sure where we stood. "So what now?"

The president sat back down and ran a hand over his hair. "Now you decide whether or not you will go in there or not and try to save more people before we shut you down for good. If the Dizurians created the bracelets then they can get out here just as you did and we need to be prepared with a wall guard."

I shook my head. "They are not going to be stupid enough to come out over here."

"One person, no, but a whole army, maybe. We have to tread carefully from here on out. If you two want to go in and get some people out, decide fast. The window of opportunity is about to close for good."

The president got up and left the room without another word. Gilik jumped back into his seat as soon as the door was closed.

"I suggest you two go in, he may not let you after this." Gilik said.

I sighed. "This was so much easier before he got involved."

Gilik shook his head at me. "I vaguely recall you wanting to go over my head and get him a few months ago."

"And I now thank you for not letting me."

Orin stood up to leave. "I think everything will turn out alright. The Bozlins will be more than willing to come out once they hear about all that's out here. But where will they stay?"

"The president has arranged for a town to be built up in the country for them. They will stay here for a while and then go out and help build their future homes. That is the good thing about you two coming out in Azureland. We have the land for things like this to happen."

"That might be the only thing good about it." I said under my breath.

"Now Hardin, imagine if you had come out in a different country. Who knows what could have happened."

He was right about that. If I had come out in Dizuria I would have been dead already.

Orin and I left the office. We started down the hallway when a memory came back to me.

"Do you know what still bugs me?"

He looked at me. "What?"

"That town that burned. I still can't figure anything out about it."

"I don't know, but they have destroyed many towns before that one."

"But why do they want us dead?"

Orin shrugged. "Maybe the president and Gilik can figure that out. Look, I'll come up with an idea on how to deal with the Bozlins and you do the same with the Humuroms."

"You can call them Hums if you like. I'm actually starting to warm up to it."

He laughed and turned around the next corner. I continued on back to the elevator. I thought about wandering around until I thought up an idea on how to deal with the Humuroms, but figured I never would so I went straight back to the room.

# III

It didn't take me long to grow tired of the food made in the government building. Soon after moving in Mama and I started eating out more often. We had tried quite a few restaurants as we learned to buy food from stores and cook at home. We were given a spending allowance that I wanted very much to pay back one day if I was able. But for now we saved it up and went out twice a week. That night was the second time that week.

Nara came with us to eat at a rather nice restaurant. I figured I might as well since I didn't know when I would be going back in the wall and whether or not I would ever come out again. We sat in the back corner at a table where we thought we wouldn't be overheard. I told Mama what the president and Gilik had said when I got back from the office. She had a disgruntled look on her face for the rest of the day.

"I can't believe that they want to send you back in." She said after we had settled into our seats.

"I know." I whispered. "This whole situation could have been resolved by meeting with the Dizurians face to face and finding out why they are doing this."

"He must think it's too dangerous."

"He's afraid," I said a little too loudly, "he's afraid that if someone from here gets killed then everybody will find out what's going on and a huge war will start with Dizuria."

"That does make sense." Nara said. "He has a giant country to worry about."

"And two more that are soon to be wiped off the map." I added.

Nara continued patiently. "Yes, but don't you remember how this whole thing started? Two countries starting a war that ended up destroying them."

"I just want the Humuroms and Bozlins out."

"No, you want revenge."

I scoffed at the idea even though she was correct. "They've killed so many."

"And how is killing more going to help?"

I couldn't answer that without seeming heartless so I didn't.

Our drinks came. I only got water. The waitress took our order and went off to give it to whoever took it after that. I assumed the cook.

"They're planning something." I whispered when we were alone again.

"What makes you think that?" Mama asked.

"Think about it Mama, the number of deaths skyrocketed after Milton was killed."

She mulled it over for a while. "Maybe it was the cases."

She was referring to the cases Milton and I stole from a guard while hunting almost a year earlier. It was strange that a Dizurian guard would be standing all alone in the middle of nowhere with a case of food and a case of guns, but that's what happened. I needed to thank that man, whoever he was. Because of those cases Milton and I got to be heroes just for a night.

"I doubt some meat and a few guns caused it."

Nara wagged her finger in my direction. "I've heard that the president will send somebody there finally. That should take care of that."

"He won't send anybody until after me and Orin get back. If we get back."

Mama grew stern. "Don't say that, Hardy."

"Sorry." I mumbled.

"The president knows what he is doing." Nara assured us. "You have to trust him."

I slouched down in despair and rested my chin on the table. "I miss when I could decide things. If I had my way I would have sent people in already to get everyone out. I feel like I don't control anything anymore. It's so frustrating."

"That's the thing you have to deal with when you become a part of a larger group."

"I wish I didn't have to deal with any of this. Right before I left the bunker the last time I wanted nothing to do with that place."

"Then why not leave Wall City and let others handle it?" Nara asked.

I sat up. "Because there was something in what Matilik said that still gets to me. Remember when I told you about that? He said that he was trying to save Humurom by keeping us in there. Well I want to save it by getting them out. The end of Humurom is coming. It's up to us to decide whether it's by slowly dying in a bunker or slowly assimilating out here. I'll take the latter any day."

Nara looked at me sadly, as if not sure whether to pity me or agree with what I said. "So would anybody in that situation. But sometimes the choice isn't up to us. Sometimes we only get a tiny opening and have to do what we can with that. This is your opening Hardin. And if you really want to do what you say then you have to make the most of it."

I nodded slowly, letting her opinion sink in. "I'll try, but it's going to be hard to get Matilik on my side."

Mama smiled at me from across the table. "If anybody can do it it's you. You made the plan that got us all here in the first place."

"Yeah, but this is different. The interesting thing is that my original idea was to take everyone out at once and hope for the best with no real destination. It was foolish then, but now that we have a destination it might work."

Mama's smile broadened. "How things can change in a year."

I definitely agreed with that. "It seems so long ago now. It's weird to think that I was discussing that with Milton just a year ago."

Our food came and we ate as if we hadn't in a week. The conversation grew lighter as we talked about the weather. I for one couldn't wait for spring to come. I was so tired of all the cold.

The restaurant slowly cleared out as evening turned to night. I looked around at the people left, wanting to make sure that they were out of ear shot. Someone caught my eye walking straight towards us. It was Orin.

"How did you find us?" I asked as he approached.

"Mr. Jess told me. I've come up with the plan. Where do you want me to tell you about it?"

I looked around again; no one was close enough to hear. "Here's good."

"Is it safe?"

"I think so."

He sat beside me, greeted Nara and Mama, and began. "I want to leave early tomorrow morning before we lose our nerve. We will sneak through the forest and hopefully get to Bozlin sometime tomorrow afternoon. We'll spend the night there."

"Wait." I interrupted. "Spend the night in Bozlin? They will never let me in."

"I'll make sure they do." He said casually. "We'll get you an outfit like they wear."

"I don't know about this." I said nervously.

Even though I knew the Bozlins weren't the ones killing the Humurom hunters I still had an uneasy feeling about them. Especially since they still thought that the Humurom's were killing them. I doubted that one young Bozlin could convince the rest of them that I was not a representative of years of fear and anguish.

"It'll be fine. Now after we find out how things are around there you'll head to Humurom and see if you can get some people out. We'll meet up again in Bozlin where I will have hopefully convinced everyone to leave. And from there we will come back here."

"How long do you think this will take?" Mama asked.

"Hopefully just a couple of days."

"I hope that's all." Mama said quietly.

"It will be." I promised.

Orin got up from the table. "Meet me at the wall just before dawn. I'll have everything ready."

He walked towards the exit, leaving us to ponder.

"I guess this will be my last good meal for a while." I said longingly to my now empty plate.

Nara put her hand up for the waitress to see. "Which is why I'm going to buy you desert."

That night I went around the block a few times outside the government building. It was my usual ritual when I had too much on my mind. I couldn't get over how fast everything was suddenly moving. Just that morning I was complaining about things going too slowly.

I didn't know if I should be happy or sad that I had to go back in. I was glad that I had a chance to do something productive, but scared that we would run into Dizurians that could take us out without any trouble. And what if the Humurom's actually did decide to come with me? So many would be killed trying to escape. Dizuria would know Azureland is a part of it just by seeing all the people heading for the wall. But maybe that was a good thing. If we got Dizuria to get Azureland involved then maybe a war would start and Dizuria would be wiped off the map and not Bozlin and Humurom.

My mind couldn't take much more of this. I tried to wipe it clean of everything that worried me. Of course it didn't work but I did manage to focus on the good. If I could get Humurom through the wall then my job was done. I could leave Wall City for a Journey Ship and let the leaders resolve the rest.

I looked up and found myself at the government building again. I put my head back to see the huge building set aglow in the night by countless lights coming through windows hundreds of feet above my head. I was finally safe there, and I would be again as soon as I got back.

# IV

I had a hard time sleeping that night. As soon as my head hit the soft pillows all the good I had been thinking of vanished, replaced by images of my bloody and torn body lying in the forest only feet from the wall. I dreamed of people screaming while I could do nothing to help them. It was a dream I had frequently, but never so stirring and real. I got up several times hoping that I heard a knock on the door with someone on the other side ready to tell me that an army would be traveling with us. No such luck.

The clock next to the couch I slept on began to buzz obnoxiously at 5:00. I wanted so badly to toss it out the window, but since I didn't know how to open the window that wouldn't work. I found some fruit in the little refrigerator we had and I ate that. When it was gone my stomach protested for more. I had eaten too much since being in Wall City and now my stomach forgot what it was like to go hungry most days.

I wasn't going to wake Mama, but she must have heard me moving around. As I opened the door to leave she called my name. I went to her. We hugged, telling each other that I would be back as soon as possible. We said our goodbyes and I left her for the first time since I left her in Humurom while I went to find the Cityers and ended up finding Azureland. She was in much better health now and I knew that I was the only one in danger this time.

The hallways looked different that early in the morning. I don't know what it was, perhaps just my perception of them. I took the elevator down and stepped out of the building into the cold morning air. I zipped my jacket up and walked straight for the dome.

I saw Orin studying the wall as I approached. He had a bag slung across his shoulder and reached into it when he turned to see me come up.

"Here, put this on real quick." He tossed me a blue uniform similar to the one he wore when we found him, which he was wearing again now.

"Out here?" My teeth were already chattering in the cold.

"Yes, I didn't know where your room was so I couldn't give it to you this morning like I had wanted to."

I attempted to quickly change from my warm jacket into the thin blue uniform, but I ended up going very slowly. I hadn't realized just how cold it was until I took my jacket off.

"Where did you get this?" I asked while shivering uncontrollably.

"It wasn't too hard to find blue pants and a blue shirt in the laundry room, it's a simple uniform. Oh and here's your bracelet. And take this pill also. Calrus said that you knew what to do with it if you needed it."

He took a bracelet and pill out of the bag and tossed it to me. I quickly put the bracelet on my wrist and struggled to put the blue shirt on. I put the pill in my pocket. He told me the plan as I finished getting ready.

"Considering how our last encounter with the wall almost killed us, I don't want to leave the area right on the other side until we are sure there is no one there. If there is even the slightest noise come right back here and we'll try a few miles down. The only reason we're not doing that now is because from here it's a straight shot to Bozlin."

"Got it." I quickly tossed my clothes under the bridge connecting the platform we were on with the city, hoping nobody would take them.

Despite my complaining the day before about not being in control anymore, I liked Orin being in charge. He knew the best way to Bozlin and probably wandered through that forest many times in his life so I felt safe with him leading the way.

"Let's go." He said with an air of finality.

We put our wrists up to the wall and instantly felt the warm air of the forest. I opened my eyes to see mostly darkness, with faint outlines of trees all around. We dared not to move until we were certain there was no one else there. For long minutes on end we stood completely still, listening intently to the silence all around. I heard him move forward slowly. I followed close behind. I wished we had guns.

Our feet crunched the leaves on the ground and we moved even slower. There wasn't a sound. I wanted very much to be able to just run straight through the trees and be done with the fear but I knew I couldn't.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone around." Orin whispered as quietly as he could.

"It always seems that way. It's impossible to know if they are about to attack."

"We should be quiet nonetheless."

The sun began to rise somewhere beyond the dome. The way in front of us went from almost impossible to see to gradually lighter before our eyes. We looked in all directions on the ground and even into the trees to try and find if anyone was hiding. No one could be seen. The longer we walked the more it seemed that we were really alone. We walked with increasing ease and speed.

"You know what I've been wondering?" I murmured.

"What?"

"Why do you think they didn't come on through the wall and finish us off?"

"May have had orders not to or they didn't want their presence known that obviously to Azureland."

"What do you think of Azureland?" I asked him. "I never get to talk to you and ask you things like that."

He gave a big smile. "I can't believe any of it. I've been living every day in a state of bliss. In a weird way I'm glad to be back here. Of course I'm glad to try and get my dad and the others out, but I'm also happy to remember what it's like in here so that when I get back to Wall City I can experience the excitement all over again."

For the first time I really saw how young Orin was. He was only about fourteen years old, but presented himself to be much older. I wonder how old he saw me.

"There's another thing that's been bothering me." I said. "Why do the Bozlins build towns in the open?"

He laughed. "We are a stubborn bunch. There was no restriction on having kids, as there probably should have been, so the population grew to be pretty large. Once we found out that there was no danger of radiation we started settling outside. That's when we saw the wall. One of the older people that I knew said that when the wall was first discovered they thought it was a wall to keep us out." He paused. "Many were killed by the suspected Hums, but we had very stubborn leaders who refused to listen to reason and continued to go out. They hoped that eventually it would stop, or at least they would be able to fight back."

I grunted. "I wish the Hums felt that way. Our leader refused to let anybody out and we had to sneak out."

"Let's hope things are better now."

I nodded vigorously. "I hope for their sake it is."

The large cage thing came and went and pretty soon we were out of the forest. I thanked everything I knew to thank for our getting that far alive. Bozlin wouldn't be too far. Orin crept stealthily around the grass, now growing tall. I could tell he was looking for one of those grates.

"Aha." He suddenly exclaimed, sending me into a defensive stance. "Here we are. Are you ready?"

The anxiety of being an outsider engulfed me. "If you are sure I'll be alright."

"You're wearing the uniform, you'll be fine."

He twisted the center of the grate counterclockwise until there was a small mechanical noise and it shot down into the ground. He lowered himself into the hole and dropped down. I heard him hit somewhere below.

"Come on in."

I lowered myself in and let go. I fell with a thud some seven feet down onto the hard floor. My feet crumpled under me and my back hit the ground hard.

"Sorry about that. I should have warned you it was a bit of a drop." He helped me up.

We were in what appeared to be a very long and very dark hallway. It was lit every fifty feet or so by other grates in the ceiling. The walls were brown and metal. Orin twisted the grate on the floor and it shot back up to fill the hole as it did before. It was connected to the ground by a pipe several inches wide. Before I had time to look around too much he was off. I quickly caught up and stayed close.

"I want to stop by security first to see my dad."

Our footsteps echoed loudly in the seemingly endless tunnel we were in. It must have taken us back under the forest, though my sense of direction was lost before too long. The hall ended of a sudden. Orin took a right turn, a left, and another right. Each led to more corridors that looked exactly the same.

"How do you find your way around down here?" I asked, my voice echoing off the walls.

"It takes a while to figure out where everything is, but it's not too bad once you get used to it."

We turned down several more hallways before coming out into a larger one with doors on either side. He stopped and threw out his arm. He backed up slowly and went back around the corner.

"I don't want anyone to see me yet. We'll have to take this part cautiously."

Together we tiptoed out from behind the corner and made our way into the open. There was no one out at the moment but he seemed to think that there could be soon. Halfway down this area was a metal staircase that went down to a floor below. I looked down and saw several people walking about, all with the same blue uniforms that we wore.

Orin went to a door on the left side and opened it. It squeaked loudly. He slipped inside and motioned for me to do the same. We were now in a very small corridor that extended to a lit room up ahead. He turned to me and mouthed security and continued on.

I could hear someone talking in the room we were heading towards. It sounded as if they were talking to themselves.

"No, no, that won't do." The voice said. This was followed by a scratching sound of a pencil striking through something.

The man came into view. He was around forty and had short black hair with gray on the sides. He seemed very tired as he scratched out several more things on the paper he was looking at. He noticed someone was there and looked up. His eyes opened wide, his mouth dropped open, and he dropped his pencil.

"Orin? You're alive! How – where were you?"

"I got out of the wall." Orin said simply.

"You what?"

His father jumped up from his desk and went straight to his son. They embraced for what seemed like a long time.

"This is Hardin." Orin said, pointing to me once free of his father's hug. "He got me through and back."

His father came up to me and gave me a hug as well. "Thank you very much, Hardin."

He let me go and went back to his son.

Orin gave me a nod. "He's a Hum."

I wasn't prepared for that. His dad gave me the most peculiar look that seemed to show that he wasn't sure if he should be angry or not.

"He's a what?"

"It's alright. They're not the ones killing everyone. That's actually a small country outside the wall."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, dad."

His face showed confusion as he attempted to look past forty or so years of teachings. "I welcome you here then."

"Now I need your help." Orin said to his father. "Is there any way that you can get me in to see Ret?"

Orin's father didn't take his eyes off of me. "Yes, I think this is important enough."

He pulled his eyes from me with some difficulty and led us from the room. We went down the staircase that I had seen and were amongst others for the first time. Orin kept his head down, not wanting to be noticed. Not that it was too difficult. Nobody even looked our way. Most were also staring at the floor, mumbling to themselves. I sensed an undertone of misery that reminded me of Humurom. I was basically in the same place, an underground bunker full of people who had given up hope years before.

Orin's father took us down another level. This place was much bigger than Humurom. After turning down several corners we made it to a door with the word leader on it. He led us inside and down another hallway to the room at the end. A man older than Orin's father sat behind the desk. He looked as though he could have been seventy, but it was hard to tell in a place like Bozlin. The walls were covered with pencil drawings of all sorts of things, most just interesting designs.

"What's this? You're alive?" The man said when he saw Orin.

Orin stepped forward. "I can explain everything, Ret, but first I need to tell you what we need to do. We have a way to leave Bozlin forever, and not come back."

Ret scoffed. "We've tried everything. I don't think it's possible."

Orin held up his wrist to show the gold bracelet. "It is, with this."

"And that is?"

"The way out through the wall."

Ret came forward and grabbed Orin's wrist. He was so amazed he forgot there was a person attached. "It can't be."

"It is, Hardin here found me and invited me through with him."

That's not exactly how I remember it, but I appreciated that he didn't say we kidnapped him.

"And there are no Hums involved?" Ret asked.

I could feel Orin's father staring at me.

"Not a one." Orin lied.

"And you are positive it is safe?" Ret inquired, his face full of awe.

"Yes."

"All right then, when do we leave?"

My mouth dropped open. I never would have thought it could be that easy to convince someone, particularly a leader, to leave their home so easily.

"Very soon," Orin said, "but first is there any way that I can let Hardin stay the night?"

"He isn't from here?" Ret looked at me as if for the first time.

"No, I'll explain tomorrow."

Ret continued to look suspiciously at me. "All right, I trust you, Orin."

With that obstacle out of the way Orin thanked Ret and we went out to let him organize the exodus. Orin told his father that he would see him later and took me to find their Residence. It was two levels below the Leader Office. I was starting to believe that Bozlin went all the way to the center of the Earth.

There were two rooms in the apartment. One was his and one was his father's. There were two hard beds with one blanket a piece and an uncomfortable wooden chair. I tried to take the chair but Orin wouldn't let me. He put down an extra blanket he got somewhere and I sat on it. I was surprised at how comfortable the blanket made the floor. He left to find something to eat, no longer afraid to be seen.

I sat on my blanket and looked around the little apartment. I wondered how my life would have been different if I had been born there, with a friend like Orin and a leader willing to leave his home behind for a better one. I put my head back onto the blanket and imagined how great everything would have been. I didn't know for sure that it would be any different, but as a visitor it seemed like a much better place.

Orin came back and gave me an orange and some bread to eat. He also gave me several more oranges, some extra bread, and a glass jar of water to take with me. He told me about fruit trees that grew in a special room. They really did have everything to survive. I thought about telling him about Nutrition, but I saw no need to make him think any less of Humurom than he already did.

I went to sleep a little while later. I didn't know what time it was but it felt late. My anxiety about not being a Bozlin was gone. In fact it was one of the nicer nights I had had. The hope of getting everyone out of Humurom returned, and I was certain I could accomplish it.

Orin woke me early. I had gotten so used to being able to see outside when I woke that it was strange not knowing what time it was.

"Once you're gone I will tell Ret who you are, I can't risk it while you are here." He said as I ate an orange.

"Thanks, how do I get back in?"

"I'll show you how to work the grates."

He showed be back through the confusing hallways to the grates that we came in on. He twisted the pipe until the grate came back down. It rested a few inches from the floor.

"You see this knob?"

I looked and saw a small metal knob in the center of the grate. "Yes."

"It's clockwise halfway around to get out and counterclockwise halfway around to get back in."

"Got it." I got onto the grate and kneeled down, putting my hand on the knob. "If I'm not back in a week then I'll either be trapped in Humurom or dead so just go on."

"Got it."

# V

I twisted the knob clockwise and shot upwards out of Bozlin. The grate came to a jolting stop once back in place. I got up and checked my surroundings. As far as I could see I was alone. I started away from the forest towards Humurom.

This was the first time I was truly alone since going this same route on the way to getting Mama two months earlier. This time felt different. I had been out so long that I grew soft to my current situation. The fear was present, but the needed sense of constant danger was missing. If Dizurians appeared at that moment I probably would have froze, waiting to be killed.

The way back was forever engrained into my memory. I could have waited years and still made it without getting lost. There wasn't much to look at for the rest of the day. There were just fields all around. Once the trees disappeared from view behind me I could see as far as my eyes would let me and saw nothing but grass. As evening came the landscape began to change. Occasionally dead trees entered the mix. By nightfall I had made it a good distance. I wasn't tired yet and continued on.

My way was completely dark, and I took steps carefully. I could tell when I made it to the burnt town. I walked straight through it glad that I did not have to look at what was there. An hour after that I finally got to the ground to sleep. The silence was unnerving, but calming at the same time. As long as it stayed silent I knew I was safe.

The morning dawned and I woke with the light. Without any thought I got up and started again. I ate an orange. It didn't fill me up but I wanted to save the others in case I needed them to persuade the Hums to come with me.

Within hours I could see the remains of the town surrounding the bunker. I was making better progress than ever before. I began to grow nervous again. I stepped carefully through the foundations of houses careful to remember that someone could be hiding anywhere. I came to the remains of the church before long. I found the cross in the same place I had put it to remember Milton. I passed with just one glance.

The large bunker disguised as a mountain stood in the distance. The ladder which probably hadn't been used in two months could be seen hidden as rock. Instead of taking it up I looked on the ground for the hole I had climbed out of after Matilik had tossed me down a slimy slide into the bomb room. I knew that nobody would ever open the door so my only chance of getting in rested on me being able to climb the slimy slide up to the old Hunting Office. I hoped that someone would hear the knocking and find it strange enough to pry the door open or get Matilik to open it with his key.

Without intending to I had forgotten to come up with a concrete plan. My attention had been too focused on whether or not they would come with me that I forgot all about getting into the bunker in the first place.

The hole was well hidden behind a dead tree but I finally found it. Very slowly and carefully I lowered myself down, hung by my fingers, and dropped. I landed better than I had the last time and came away with only slight pain in my legs.

The six bombs that were said to have destroyed Humurom and Bozlin still sat in their places, unused but blamed for so much. I shook my head at the senselessness of it all and started towards the slide.

My ears picked up a small noise in the darkness off to my left and I stopped, listening for more. Something was shifting around over there. I turned slowly to see but could not. With more courage than I knew I had, I started towards it. An outline of something long could be seen near the wall. An animal? I hoped so.

I was not prepared for what happened next. The thing near the wall spoke. My breath caught somewhere in my lungs. The voice sounded hoarse and frail, but I knew exactly what it said, my name.

I overcame my fear and got on my knees, getting closer to it. There was only one person I still cared about in Humurom, and I had a sinking feeling that this was him.

"Stud?"

It made another noise, this time a grunt I took to be a 'yes'.

"What's happened to you?" I asked sadly.

He cleared his throat and was able to talk clearer. "Hey, man. I didn't think I'd see you again."

"Did Matilik do this to you?" I put my hand under his head and rested it on my leg.

He chocked another 'yes'.

All the displeasure I had towards Matilik turned to severe anger. "How long have you been down here?"

He tried to say something but coughed instead.

"Wait! Have some water first."

I took the glass jar of water I had been carrying and poured some into his mouth.

"I don't think it's going to help now." He said.

"Just take it. I'm going to get you out of here and take you to Azureland. They'll get you better."

"It's too late. But let me tell you what happened while I still can."

I gave him some bread and he ate it.

"Not yet, finish your bread and rest. I have a pill for you to take but I need to make sure you have something in your stomach first."

"I need to tell you." He insisted.

"Just rest first."

Stud finished the bit of bread I gave him and we sat in silence for some time. I was curious to find out what happened, and was afraid that Matilik's stupidity would ruin everything for all the Humurom's.

An hour later he sat up and inched into the light. I instantly recoiled unintentionally. He had been so badly beaten that his face was several different colors with dried blood flaking off. His cheek bone had been so badly broken that a good portion of the right side of his face was still swollen.

"Let me tell you now."

"Here, take this first." I handed him the pill.

He swallowed it. "Right after I let you out I was called to Matilik's office. I wasn't sure what he would do to me, I had never heard of anyone doing anything so blatantly against his rules."

"What did he do?"

"Nothing at first. He asked me if I knew anything and I said 'no'. He let it go for a while. I thought I was in the clear. A week later he called me back. There was a kid there I recognized from the Residence Office. Matilik said that I would train him. I thought that was good, that I had been forgiven. So I trained the kid for over a month. And then I got called to the old Hunting Office. Matilik was there, he said that he was angry with me for letting you go. He also said that I had spent the last month training my replacement. Someone came in after that. I didn't recognize him but he was very large. He knocked me down and beat me. They broke my legs and threw me down here." He wiped his eyes as tears started to roll down his cheeks. "Matilik said that he was sparing me, that I was lucky. He told me he wouldn't turn me into Nutrition like the others. We – We've been eating people, Hardin." He sobbed quietly. "I forced myself to throw it all up. I never wanted to eat anyone, Hardin!"

"It's alright." I said calmly. "Where we are going you never have to think about that again. But first I have to get in there and try to convince them to leave with us. If I don't there is a good chance they will all die in there."

Stud took a bit to calm himself down. "You can't, it won't work. After you left Matilik told everyone that you were a traitor and sided with the Cityers. If you go back in you'll get beaten and thrown down here or . . . worse."

"I have to try, this is my last chance."

"You will only get killed. I can't let you."

I thought it over. This could be my last chance to save Humurom, but if Stud was right there was a good chance I wouldn't even make it back out. There was only one think I could think of doing.

"This is what I'll do." I finally said. "I'll take you back to the wall and decide what to do next. I'll tell the mayor of the city I'm living in what's been happening here and maybe he'll have some advice."

I seriously doubted Gilik would do anything, but I couldn't make a decision that important on my own sitting in that bomb room.

"How do we get out?" Stud asked.

He was beginning to feel better. I knew how great the pill worked, but I was worried because I gave him the only one I had.

"The only way I know of to get out is by climbing over the bombs."

"Is that what they are?"

"Yes and they never went off."

He looked around at the bombs on the walls. "Then what did?"

I looked around as well. "I still don't know."

Stud now felt well enough to try and leave. I helped him up, his legs were practically useless. I kneeled down and he put his arms around my neck and held on. He was heavy, but there was no other way for me to carry him.

Now came the hard part, the climb. There was a small ledge a few feet off the ground. I got on that without too much trouble and turned my attention to the first bomb. The part that I could grab onto was sloped down, and with the extra weight I found it very difficult to get on top of it, and even to grip it. After several minutes of trial and error I managed to get on top of it and held onto the next bomb up for support. This continued all the way up until we were atop the highest bomb and only a few feet away from the hole in the ceiling. It all came down to the jump. If I made it than I could hopefully find a way to pull myself and Stud out of the hole and be on my way. If I missed then we would both fall back down to the ground and be in a worse state, and still have to do the whole thing over. I judged my distance, hoped for the best, and jumped. My fingers just barely grabbed onto the side of the hole, but I was slipping fast. My fingers cracked and ached as I readied for the impending drop back to the floor. Just then Stud reached up with one of his hands and also grabbed the side of the hole. Together we were able to pull ourselves up and to the freedom of the danger zone.

We breathed hard, just glad that we weren't broken on the floor. I got up, got Stud back in place on my back, and started for Bozlin.

The walk through the debris strewn roads was always a sad walk, but not for Stud. He marveled at everything around him, having never been outside before. It got old fast and I wished he would stop making noises as if that destroyed world was the greatest thing ever.

"How is your mother?" He asked when finished with his marveling.

"The medics in Azureland have her feeling great."

"Then maybe there is still hope for me."

"Of course there is. You need to get better. You may be my last connection to Humurom."

"What about your childhood?" Stud inquired thoughtfully. "All your memories?"

I turned my head enough to see the bunker growing smaller in the distance. I had failed at what I had come for. All I was supposed to do was get the Humurom's out, and I didn't even try. What if that really was my last chance? Was it worth the chance of getting killed to try? I didn't know.

"All right!" I suddenly exclaimed. "I've got a new plan."

"I love your plans."

"You can't have liked the last one, look where it got you."

"I still loved it. Look how many lives it made better."

I remembered back to after Milton was killed and Stud was the only friend that stuck with me. He had a way with making people feel better, and he was at it again.

"I'm assuming the hunters you took with you are in this new land." He said.

"Yes. Anyway the plan is to get just a few people willing to come back into the wall without Gilik's approval. If those people bring guns and other weapons then we can force the Humuroms out and be done with it once and for all."

"Good thinking. It's for their own good."

"That's what I figure."

We walked on. We passed the church and I showed him where Milton was killed. I told him all about my first trip into Azureland and about all the things I did. He once again seemed amazed at the possibilities.

"So you say you can take a journey on a train? What's the point?"

"It's actually a lot more fun than it sounds."

"And you saw large water?"

"Large bodies of water. Once everything is over we can all go on a Journey Ship and see the oceans."

The future was beginning to sound better and better to me. I had momentarily forgotten all about the people in Humurom.

# VI

The day passed unremarkably. We stopped a few times and finished off the oranges, bread, and water. When night came we had exhausted most of what we could talk about. But there was one thing I wanted to ask.

"How was morale the last few months?"

"Pretty bad." Stud said. "Making you the villain made things a little better."

"How so?"

"Giving them someone to hate gave them something to do and think about."

It was hard to imagine morale being lower than when I left. Matilik was taking that place to new lows almost daily.

"It's weird to be out here, but it's kind of nice." Stud whispered.

"I wouldn't say that."

Stud rested and I continued. With him on my back I moved much slower. It took half of the night just to get to the burnt town. I set him down and he woke back up.

"Are we stopping here for the night?"

"Yeah, I just need a few hours of sleep and I'll be ready to get us to Bozlin."

"I can wake you up at dawn."

"Sounds good."

As promised he woke me right at dawn. I was groggy, but needed to continue more than I needed sleep.

"I can't believe there is no one here." I said a few hours later. "Not that I'm complaining but I thought this place would be more heavily guarded now that Dizuria knows we can get in and out."

"Maybe they're afraid." Stud suggested.

"Of what?"

"Oh, I don't know."

I doubted that they would be afraid, but I also doubted that they would just give up because we made it to Azureland.

After a long time of walking my back grew tired and I was about ready to quit when the now familiar scent of grass hit my nose. Stud must have noticed it too.

"What's that smell?" He asked.

"That's grass."

"Are we there?"

"Not yet."

Even though I was used to the smell, I still got excited when we got to the fields. The journey was almost over, and even though I had to make at least one more to get the Hums out, I was relieved that everything had gone so well so far.

"Hardin?"

"Yes."

"Is it really that great out there?"

I smiled at the thought of getting back through the wall to safety. "Yes. The moment I got there I knew I stumbled on something so much greater than I had ever expected. I mean, this place is it. It has all the things to make any Humurom or Bozlin feel like they've found paradise."

"And you're sure they will let me in?"

"They were the ones who told me to come and get you."

"Really?"

I nodded.

"The moment you left I wondered if I should have gone with you. I realized I should have."

I always wondered why he didn't come. "Then why didn't you?"

"I thought I was needed. I was also scared. In leader training they teach never to let Humurom fall. I thought by going with the rebel I would be letting my people down."

I nodded, understanding perfectly what he meant. "I've thought about that myself. I've come to the conclusion that there is no right answer. Especially – or exclusively – in this situation. If we let Humurom stay in that bunker, it dies out. If we bring them out, they will eventually spread out and disappear."

"You don't know that. Maybe they might form their own community until this place is cleaned up and come back to rebuild it."

I hadn't thought of that before. "That sounds like it might just please everybody. I'll have to go back and tell that to Matilik. But first I have to ask Gilik if I can come back in. And if not then I will have to sneak back in."

The forest loomed in the distance. I began looking around for the grates. As I was looking I realized I never thanked Stud for something.

"Thank you for looking after Mama while I was away."

"You're welcome. I was the only person she really trusted anyway."

I found one of the grates. I turned the knob counterclockwise and it vanished into the ground. I lowered myself in and dropped. With Stud on my back it felt like I had dropped a greater distance than I actually had. We were in the long dark tunnel, and I couldn't remember how to get anywhere.

"Is this Bozlin?" Stud asked.

"Yes."

"I can't believe I'm here."

"It's a little strange, isn't it?"

I could hear noises coming from up ahead somewhere. I started towards them. That place had so many tunnels and they each echoed so badly that I wasn't sure where the noises were even coming from. We turned around several corners, only to get more lost. It took around twenty minutes but we made it to that bigger hallway with the doors on either side.

There were people going about, talking to each other and to themselves in hushed excited tones. They didn't seem to notice me at all as I made my way through the crowds, looking for Orin. I followed the people, hoping they would lead me to him. I was right. Orin was in a hallway with several of the grates that I hadn't been to yet. He was calling out orders.

"Is everybody ready?" He yelled. "All right. 10 . . . 9 . . . 8"

When he finished counting four people shot into the air and out of Bozlin. The grates came down and four new people took their places. I squeezed through the growing lines and got to Orin.

"Orin, I'm back."

"Great! We've already moved three fourths of Bozlin to Wall City."

I could see the excitement on his face from getting his people to safety and being the one to lead them there.

"You move fast. Oh, this here is Stud."

"Pleased to meet you." Stud said.

Orin smiled. "That's your real name?"

"Yes."

"Interesting. Hardin, there hasn't been a single attack yet. Maybe Dizuria has given up on that."

"Doubtful. Remember how intensely they attacked us?"

"Maybe they are afraid of Azureland." Orin suggested.

"Whatever it is I'm glad." I said. "How are things at the wall?"

"I took the first group out and went through. Gilik has several streets blocked off so nobody sees what's going on. I came back with a few who are now guides. They take everyone to the wall. On the other side some Azures show them where to go next. Gilik said that three whole hotels are being used now until they finish that area being prepared for them. Where are the Hums?"

I tried to think up an excuse, but couldn't. "Stud is it. I'm now considered evil in Humurom. If I had gone in I wouldn't have made it out."

"But all those people."

"I know. I'm hoping to bring some people back to force them out."

Orin shook his head. "Doubtful, Gilik made it clear that no one from Wall City is to go in."

"I'll talk to him."

All the people waiting were soon out and on their way to the wall. Orin waited to see if anybody else was coming. When no one else came he called to me.

"Hardin, come with me. I need to get Ret out. He's part of the last group."

Orin took us first to the Medic's Office where we left Stud with the medics who were about to move the sick and injured.

We found Ret sitting in his office, looking around at the drawings on the wall.

"I can't believe I'm leaving." He said, as if the whole thing couldn't possibly be real. "I've always wondered what it would be like to finally leave. I never thought that I would be the leader to do it."

"It had to be someone." Orin noted.

"No it didn't." Ret continued. "We could have all died in here as the next generation takes over, just like we did. Eventually something would have happened to kill us all and Bozlin would have ended forever. But now it won't. Because of you, Orin, it won't. We will get out and be a part of the world again. And it's because of you."

I wished that Matilik had thought like Ret. To see a leader care so much about his people to realize that alive and spread out is better than together and dead made me feel sad for Humurom. Not that I needed to feel any worse about it, but I did. Ret gave me the satisfaction in knowing that the world within the wall really could be optimistic and bright even when there was no reason for it to be.

I came back to reality to hear Orin speaking. Let's get out of here. With any luck this place will just be a memory."

Ret slowly got out of his chair, ran his hands against the wall, and left the room for the last time. Orin watched to make sure Ret was really heading to the grates.

"Do you want a tour? I need to make sure everyone is out."

I agreed and we set off. I can't remember too much of Bozlin because it had so many tunnels and I couldn't mentally keep up with where we had been and where we were going.

"How big is this place?" I asked after going down into the fifth level below ground.

"There are miles and miles of tunnels under here. How big is Humurom?"

"It has one large middle section and some hallways off of that, but that's it."

"This place was built many years before the war. When it came time there was enough room for several hundred people."

"There are only around a hundred people in Humurom, though there was a sickness outbreak when I was little. It killed my father."

"My mom died in a Hum attack. Well I guess a Dizurian attack. She was in a town similar to the one you saw burn."

"And you still came with us."

He shrugged. "I wanted to know more about Azureland, and for some reason I trusted you. Or I might have just been too scared to do anything but follow."

At the end of yet another hallway came a large and bright room with many trees. This room went all the way up to the ground. Around one hundred grates brought light in. It smelled wonderful in that room. Orin and I wandered through the rows of trees.

"It's amazing that you all managed this." I said, looking all around.

"We were very prepared. We even have bees somewhere."

I felt some of the leaves on one of the trees absentmindedly. "I wish Humurom was. If we even had one fruit tree . . . though it would have died probably."

"It's a sad day in Bozlin when one of the trees dies."

There was no one in that large room and we started back. Orin stopped on every floor to look in all the rooms. Each floor was deserted. It gave a sad feel to the place during that happy time. The cold dark halls reminded me of one of the old stories I used to read. I wanted to say something deep and meaningful to Orin about it all, but couldn't find the right words. Instead I walked quietly behind him through all of the levels, getting a feel for the place that I feared my whole life.

"I guess this is it." He said when we reached the top level.

"You may never see this place again."

"With my luck I'll be back in a week."

We both laughed.

Back at the grates only Ret was left. He looked up through the ceiling at the clouds up above. He turned when he heard us approaching.

"You two go first. I want to be the last one."

"You know for a place I've been scared of my entire life, this place is pretty nice." I said.

"Oh, you're the Hum?" Ret said, looking me over.

"I am."

He stared at me with a bizarre expression. It was as if he had seen a ghost for the first time and was slowly realizing what it was. He pulled his eyes from me, once again with great difficulty, and looked at Orin.

"Thank you Orin. This would never have been possible without you."

"I wouldn't have known anything without Hardin."

I wished he hadn't said anything because it brought another strange look my way from Ret.

"And I wouldn't have known if Humurom wasn't in such a bad state." I said.

Ret lit up. "So this even started with good news."

I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, I hoped he was.

Orin and I stepped on the grates and turned the knobs clockwise. I felt the freeing sensation of being lifted up out of the ground and jolting to a stop on the ground. I got up, shook myself and stepped toward the forest.

A couple hours later we stood in the small clearing, the wall loomed eerily in front of us. As Orin had said, there were no Dizurians anywhere. Ret stepped up to the wall and put a bracelet on.

"Everyone else is already out. It's just us. I'm about to be the leader that got everyone out of Bozlin safely. I don't know if there are words capable of describing this moment."

"Just go." Orin urged. "We'll tell your biographer that you said something fantastic and heartwarming."

Ret took an excited breath. "Tell them that I had everyone together and gave a great big speech and was torn between the two worlds."

Orin took Ret's wrist and put it up to the wall. He disappeared.

I looked back through the forest. The leaves swayed in a slight breeze. "I can't believe no one attacked."

"Be thankful." Orin said. He disappeared through the wall.

I watched the forest intently, wondering where the Dizurians were. There wasn't even a movement of animals.

"I am." I whispered to the trees.

I backed up to the wall and put my arm up. I had one last glimpse of the forest before going through the wall.

# VII

It was night in Wall City. I watched Ret and Orin being led away to the hotels. I retrieved my clothes from under the bridge and started for the government building. It wasn't too cold that night. It felt good to be back in the city, away from any danger. The idea of going back in to force the Hums out was starting to seem feasible. As long as the Dizurians stayed away it would work perfectly. I didn't care where they were or what they were doing; none of it would matter once everyone was out.

The lobby was quiet and dark. I took a minute and sat in one of the soft chairs. It felt so good to close my eyes and not worry. I laughed at my freedom, soon to be the freedom of all of Humurom. I jumped up, excited to tell Mama.

She wasn't alone when I got to the room. The hunters from Humurom were there, and so was Nara. Mama came up to give me a hug when she saw me.

"Oh, good, you're here. We were worried."

"How was the Journey Train?" I asked the others.

"Great!" Peter exclaimed. "It was a blast. We caught butterflies, made cakes, and even made strange masks. Mine looks a little ghoulish, don't you think?"

He held up a green and brown mask that looked like the face of something I would find in an abandoned laboratory.

"It is strange."

"I didn't bring mine, it was so bad." Lace laughed.

"I made the best cake . . . on my fourth try." Dala said happily.

"That's only because I cooked mine too long." Morome added.

They all playfully argued about cakes, masks and butterflies. I looked them over, glad to see how healthy and strong they looked. I never noticed how thin and gaunt they looked in the bunker, but now that I could see the difference I was amazed.

I remembered back to how I met them all. Before I left the bunker to make peace with the Cityers I formed a team of hunters to accompany me. I met Lace, and her cousin Morome, who looked great considering how injured he was when he made it through the wall. Peter was an old friend who I rarely talked to anymore before he joined the team. We had grown apart because of our different work schedules, but were now back to being the best of friends. Dala was the youngest. Her parents died when she was very young. Her guardian took her out hunting when she was still little.

"So how did it go?" Nara asked from the corner. I had forgotten she was there.

"Not great."

The room grew silent fast. All eyes were glued to me.

I told them all the story of what happened the last few days. I could see their faces lose the excitement of the Journey Train and find the cold dark stares that were so familiar in Humurom.

"What about our families?" Lase asked.

"I know." I stressed. "I'm going to talk with the president or Gilik sometime tomorrow and ask if I can get help next time to force them out. We weren't attacked once. That may be a good sign."

Lace looked around in disbelief. "And if he says no?"

I knew how they felt. It wasn't long ago that I felt the growing defeat of not being able to help a family member. "Look," I said dismally, "I'm not going to let your families stay in there. The best plan we have is to go back in with guns and force them out."

Morome stepped forward. "All right. I wouldn't mind going back in there with all the power. Let Matilik say the Hunting Office is closed with a gun in his face."

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "That might be the best way to do things now."

I was glad to hear they were on my side again. If that plan hadn't been thought up I don't know what they would think of me.

There was a knock at the door. It was Mr. Jess.

"Hardin, your friend Stud is downstairs in the Care Wing. He must undergo surgery immediately, but you can see him now if you would like."

I thanked him and he left. "Anybody else want to come?"

"I'll go." Mama said, standing up.

"And you only got him out?" Lace said skeptically.

"I told you how that happened." I said defensively.

Peter shook his head. "And after everything he did for us he gets treated like that. You're a dangerous person to have around, Hardin."

"Matilik sure seems to think I am."

Mama and I left for the Care Wing. It was actually in another building adjacent to that one, but could be reached by going through an underground tunnel, the entrance of which was on the first floor.

The Care Wing was full of doctors and nurses all wearing different colored uniforms. They rushed to and fro, attending to a lot of the people fresh from the wall. We found Stud in an area reserved for people about to go in for surgery. He wore a simple white gown and looked even worse in the rooms lighting.

"Hello Stud, how are you?" Mama asked as we approached.

His eyes widened. "Patricia, you look great."

I wasn't used to hearing my mother's name. It sounded weird to me for some reason.

"I wish you did." She said, patting his hand.

"The only reason I look like anything is because of Hardin. He saved my life."

"He's good at that."

This conversation was getting too weird for me. "Have they told you anything?"

"They said my legs are in bad shape and I may never walk again. They are both broken and badly infected."

"They'll fix you up." I promised.

He pointed to various things in the room that he had never seen before. "How about this place. It's so great. I thought many times about what it might be like, but its better."

Mama leaned in as though about to tell a secret. "Wait till you try the food."

Stud nodded excitedly. "I don't know if I can."

The doctor came in and sent us out.

On the way back to the elevator I had a sense that someone was watching me. I turned to see a girl looking my way. She appeared to be several years younger than me with blonde hair. I glanced at her, hoping she would look away, but she didn't. We stared at each other for several seconds. She didn't look mean or dangerous. Her expression was emotionless. I tried to find something there, a frown or a smile, but there was nothing. The elevator came and I jumped in. The door closed. I could still see her looking at me. I had never seen her in my life. It was a strange enough experience to unnerve me. I let it drift from my mind and refocused on Humurom.

Back in the room I sat with Nara in the corner. "Is there any way you can get me a meeting with Gilik?"

"I don't know; his schedule is tight right now. He's going to spend a lot of tomorrow checking on the Bozlins."

"Then I'll go to one of the hotels and find him. Do you know which ones they are in?"

"The closest is a block from here. You know that tall brown one we pass every day?"

I thought for a minute and remembered which one she was talking about. "I'll see him there then."

"Nara looked worried about something.

"What is it?" I asked.

"What is everyone going to say about them?"

I hadn't thought much about the media. If the journalists in Azureland knew about it how long would it take for Dizuria to find out? "No idea, but I hope they aren't too mean."

"Everyone was pretty excited when you got here."

"That's probably worn off by now, especially since they've kept me so secret."

"You're right. Nobody really cares so much now. Everyone just wants to go on with their lives. But something as big as this will bring pressure on the government."

"Why?"

She looked out the window. "Who's paying for them to stay here? Who's paying for their little town?"

"I don't know, the government?"

She nodded slowly. "And where does the government get their money?"

I honestly didn't know where governments got their money. I shrugged.

"In this country the people pay the government. And when they find out things will not be pretty."

I waved my hand to show I didn't care. "By the time people figure out the whole situation the town will be built and people won't care."

"Never underestimate people's ability to care." She looked at her watch. "I've got to go. Goodnight all."

Everyone said their goodnights. Within a few minutes I was alone with Mama. She went on to bed, telling me again how glad she was that I was there. I fell onto the couch and tried to sleep. After an hour of trying I got up and left the room.

There was too much swimming around in my head for me to sleep. The future of Humurom was in most danger, but thanks to Nara I now feared for Bozlin. What if the people of Azureland didn't want them? Would they ever find out?

I stepped off the elevator back into the deserted lobby. I went straight for the doors, wanting nothing more than to be out in the cold air, hoping it would clear my head.

There were still people out that late. They sauntered about, some more coordinated than others. I watched as a group passed me, all singing and stumbling over each other. I paid little attention to them.

It was cloudy out. I wondered if it would rain. I liked the rain. It cleansed whole areas at a time; and me along with them. I hoped it would cleanse me, as I needed it desperately.

I could remember the first time I felt rain. It was only my second hunting day with Milton. I remember how stupid I was to freak out when I started feeling the water land on me. He had to calm me down and keep me moving.

"Haven't you seen rain before?" He had asked.

"Not like this." I said stupidly. Of course I hadn't ever felt any kind of rain, I had never been outside.

"Keep quiet and come on."

I felt safe when Milton was in charge of our hunting trips. He kept me in line and made sure we kept on a schedule. I would have given anything for him to be in charge of my current mess. He would probably know just what to do and do it.

I suddenly realized how hungry I was. I hadn't eaten for hours, and hadn't had anything filling in days. I stopped at a little store and looked around. They had all sorts of things in wrappers, mainly pastries, which I was very fond. They did have sandwiches already made up and I took one of those. I put the sandwich in front of the cashier. They looked at me expectantly.

"You gonna pay for this?"

I felt around in my pockets but didn't have any money. "Never mind, I'll put it back."

Someone came up from behind me and put some coins on the counter. "I've got this."

I looked over to see the same girl that had stared at me earlier. Not wanting to be in debt to her I shook my head and left the store.

"Hey!" She called as I attempted to get distance between us. I looked back. She ran up to me. "Don't you want this?" She handed me the sandwich. "And don't worry about paying me back; I never liked those coins anyway."

Before I could say anything she disappeared into a nearby alley. I thanked her under my breath and went straight back to my room. I still didn't know who she was, but I had enough of dealing with her already.

Before going back to the couch I looked out the window. The dome glowed mysteriously on the edge of town. It still housed so many secrets. There was no way I would learn them all, but I didn't want to. There was only one thing I wanted, and after I got that I would leave it forever, hoping to forget all I knew inside it.

# VIII

It was raining when I woke up. I sat in a half conscious state on the couch watching the droplets hit the window. Nothing was on my mind, I couldn't have asked for a better time. I dragged myself out of bed, washed up, and went downstairs. Mama had gotten up before me and was undergoing treatment.

I didn't have anything to protect against the rain; not that I would have worn it anyway. I stopped at a diner next to the hotel and got something to eat. I remembered money this time.

Someone was blocking the entrance to the hotel. I had to tell them that I knew Orin for him to let me in. That was apparently some sort of code. The lobby was filled with people sitting around waiting to be put into rooms. I talked to someone who told me that Orin was on an upper floor. I started with the fifth floor and went up from there, finally finding him on the twelfth. He was going door to door; making sure everything was alright for everyone. He looked overly stressed.

"How are things here?" I asked.

He looked around angrily, trying to figure out who was talking. When he noticed me he attempted to smile but the anger was still there. "Alright, I guess, except there aren't enough rooms for everyone. Gilik won't let Ret do anything so I have to do it all. I've spent the whole night trying to get people to double up in these rooms." He threw his arms up in defeat. "For a group of people coming from where we came they sure are being picky about roommates. I just hope nobody knows why we are here. Something in the paper this morning said they thought this was some sort of group from some country I've never heard of."

"At least they're out of the wall."

"It's not over until we get that town built. And then I'm not sure how we will ever pay everything back."

He walked quickly. I waited while he yelled at some people to let somebody in the room with them.

"They can get jobs." I said when he was done.

He looked at me as if I had said the stupidest thing. "Nobody knows how to work. They didn't have to do anything in Bozlin. Trust me; the only way things will get better is if the wall comes down. I've asked Gilik, but he says they need these key things to get it down and that Dizuria won't give theirs up or they don't have one or something."

"Do you happen to know where he is?"

He shrugged and pointed behind him.

I got out of the way as he banged on another door. I hoped he was just tired. All this talk of not being able to pay Azureland back was starting to annoy me. They wanted us to go in and get everyone out so they didn't die. And now we had to pay them back? They didn't do it to be nice?

Gilik was on the next floor up. He looked just as annoyed as Orin. I hesitated before going up to him.

"Gilik." I called.

"You should be more like Orin, Hardin. He always calls me sir."

"I wanted to talk to you about going back into the wall. I know that if we get soldiers and guns we can force them out. There were no Dizurian attacks so it will be safe."

"Nobody from out here will go in." He said without looking at me.

"Then how about I go in with some guns? The hunters and I can go in and force them out."

He stopped and took me by the shoulders. "Hardin, nobody is going back in. I made that clear to you before you went in."

I brushed him off. "All you have to do is give us the bracelets and let us in."

He shook his head sadly. "Hardin, do you know why I won't let anybody from here in?"

"You told me."

"I'll tell you again. If I let somebody in and something happens to them, then we all have to deal with their families and friends. Any one of those people could tell the entire world about what's going on. And before you know it everybody around the wall will want to get in, and that includes Dizuria. They will pretend that they have no idea how we got in, and you know what? People will believe them. And all of my people here will want to know why the president and I have been hiding things from them."

"What does that have to do with letting us in with guns?"

He wasn't pleased with how slow I was in getting his point. "The more people who come out means the more people I have to worry about if something happens to one of you when you go in."

"You don't have to worry about that." I assured. "We have all been through loss before."

He sighed deeply. "Hardin, you are a good kid, you really are. But you need to let that place go. It will ruin you like it almost did to that friend of yours you brought out."

I was running out of things to say. "But all those people. . . "

"Have made the decision not to leave when they had the chance. Now I have to be going. I have a lot to do."

He left me standing there wanting more. I wanted answers and for him to say that my idea was the only one left and I had to get to work immediately. Instead I got nothing of the sort. I got another leader to admit defeat in the face of an idea that would actually work to save people.

I wanted to punch a wall, or Gilik. My anger reached out for a moment and I clenched my fists tightly, squeezing as hard as I could. And then it was gone. My emotions emptied out. I stood alone in that hallway with no ideas left and no clue how I was going to tell the others that their families would have to die alone without them. I put my hand against the wall and cried. A rush of negativity shot through me, I couldn't help it. I slouched against the wall, slipping to the floor.

I sat in that spot some thirty minutes. I didn't care about anything around me or even where I was. One of the Bozlins came out of their rooms and helped me up. He asked me what was wrong but I shook my head and walked away.

Somehow I made it back to my room. The rain had stopped outside. I really wish it hadn't. I no longer felt the cleansing effects as I did just an hour before. All I felt was the muggy humidity I was so familiar with from hunting. To my horror all the hunters were in my room. I tried to leave but Lace called me back. She asked how things went.

"He won't let us back in." I said dully, bracing for the backlash.

"What?" Lace said accusingly. "We have to get in."

"He gave me the whole explanation as to why we shouldn't."

Dala stood up and walked to the small kitchen area. "Oh well, glad to be out of there."

Morome looked at her threateningly. His large size would have intimidated anybody else. "You don't need to talk; you don't have any family left."

I slouched down into a chair. "I don't know what to do."

Lace came over and pointed a finger at me. "You need to get those bracelets so we can get in. He can deal with us about it when we get out."

"We also need weapons." Morome added.

Dala took a bottle of water out of the fridge and nodded approvingly. "I've seen the guards training area in the basement."

Lace turned her frown into a smile. "Great, we'll have a day where we take everything we need and go."

"This isn't like sneaking around Humurom." I said. "There are thousands of people here to see us." I sounded pessimistic still, but I was becoming relieved that I had such a great team of strategists.

Morome shrugged as if the answer was as simple as can be. "Then we'll be quiet about it."

"Did we – did we just come up with a plan that fast?" I asked in disbelief.

"I think we did." Peter said from the window.

We discussed the problematic points of the plan. There really weren't any. Dala could go to the training room and pretend to be interested in becoming a guard so she could look around for weapons. And even if they said no she promised us that she would still sneak around. Morome had become close to Calrus in recent days to learn more about the bracelets and said that he could find out where they were kept. All that was left was to get what was needed and sneak back into the wall sometime in the middle of the night when no one was looking.

Mama, who listened silently from her bed in the other room, looked less than thrilled that we were planning to go back in. She feigned a smile and said that it was the only way to do what was necessary. I felt for her. She felt similar to the way I felt about leaving her to find the Cityers. I didn't have any regards to my own well being and only wished for hers to get better.

The hunters left to go back to their own rooms around dinner time. I sat with Mama on her bed and promised that nothing would happen to me. I knew she believed me, but I didn't know if she truly believed the thought. We went out to eat. I don't remember much about what was said or what was eaten, my mind was on everything else. Once again I thought about how easy it would be to just forget it all and go on that Journey Ship Gilik had mentioned. All my worries gone and cares lifted. It sounded too good to be true. And somewhere deep within I knew that it was.

# IX

I wanted nothing more than to discuss things over with Nara when I got up the next morning. She was my rock. I could talk to her about anything. Sometimes she didn't agree with me but she was still the only person I felt comfortable talking everything over with. Unfortunately she was at work. Instead I went down to see Stud with Mama. I knew he should have been done with surgery, but I didn't hear anything about his condition.

I asked a nurse when I arrived at the Care Wing about his whereabouts. She told me he had been recuperating. She led me to his room. He was still a sad sight, but this time we knew he would make it. The nurse told me that they had to do some extensive surgery on his legs. He would only be able to walk again with extensive therapy. He didn't look too put out about it. When he saw us his face lit up.

"Hey, my two favorite people." He said as if about to burst from wanting to talk about his experiences.

"How do you feel?" Mama asked.

Stud sat up. His face was heavily bandaged on one side. "Physically, not great. But mentally I feel amazing. This place sure is something. So Hardin, have you found anything out yet? Are you going back in?"

I couldn't risk telling him our plan with the possibility of nurses being around. "No." I said sadly, winking.

"Well that's not going to stop you." He said simply.

"It might." I winked again but I don't think he understood my meaning.

"No, you'll do something nobody's expecting and save the day. I know you will. I believe in you."

Mama stroked my shoulder. "So do I."

Someone with a food cart came in and gave Stud a salad.

"Have you tried the meat yet?" I asked.

"I'm going to stick to the leafy stuff. I've been turned off to meat."

"Why?" Mama asked.

"It's nice to have a change." I said quickly. I had no intentions of telling Mama about Nutrition.

"So what now?" Stud looked about to fall asleep. I suppose it was the medicine.

"The hunters are still trying to figure out what to do." I said.

"Can't blame them."

"Yeah," I said slowly as I thought about all the things the hunters were capable of, "but what if we get caught?"

He laughed at me. "So what? Can't do anything worse then what you've already been through."

"They could send us in and not let us out."

He stopped laughing, thought for a second, and started laughing again. "Or send you to that bad country, what's it called again?"

"Dizuria."

"Yeah, that's it. They could send you there."

I started laughing too. "That would be great. I could fight them head on."

"Oh, I'd love to see that."

Mama didn't join in. I don't think she much liked us joking about that sort of thing. We stopped when Mr. Jess came in. For a doorman he had an amazing skill of finding people.

"Mr. Gilik would like to talk with you, Hardin, immediately."

"What is it now?" I asked, attempting to sound as annoyed as possible.

"He said something about Dizuria."

I exchanged glances with Stud.

"Alright, thanks."

Mr. Jess left.

"Sounds interesting." Stud said, resting back against an assortment of fluffy pillows.

"I'd better go see what's up." I turned to Mama. "I'll see you in the room later."

I took the scenic route to Gilik's office again. I don't know why I had such a hard time finding that place. Nara sat at the desk in the hall.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I don't know but he's excited about something."

I knocked and let myself in. Gilik was chuckling, evidently having been told a good joke just before I went in. Beside him was a man I had never seen before. He was several years older than me with very curly brown hair. He had the face of someone you could trust without question. He looked friendly and approachable, unlike Gilik who looked stiff and moody even when he laughed.

"Hardin meet Theen." Gilik said proudly, as though meeting Theen would surely be the highlight of my week.

"Hello." I said uneasily.

Theen stepped forward, hand stretched out. I Shook it.

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Hardin."

Gilik came forward and put his arm around Theen. "I have a very special mission for the both of you, but first I think you should tell Hardin who you are."

Theen spread his arms out wide in a carefree sort of way. "I am a Dizurian."

I stepped away from him. Without even realizing it at first I found myself giving him the same astonished and confused look Ret had given me when he found out that I was a Humurom.

When I didn't respond he continued. "I thought that should come out first."

"What are you doing here?" I managed to say.

He smiled and shook his head. "I'm also an Azure."

I was really confused now. "How?"

He sat down on Gilik's desk. "I was born in Dizuria and left when I was ten. Because I lived in the middle of the country they didn't really care about me, and so they never noticed. When I got here I got a new identity and eventually came to work for the government as a spy. Every time I go back to Dizuria I can show them my papers and fit right back in, not that I would want to."

"Do you know why they are in the wall?" I asked.

"No, but I do know there is a special part of the government that is very secretive, and I think you may have figured out what they are doing."

"Yes." Gilik said, snapping me out of the confused state I was in. "Now on about your mission. I have thought about what you said yesterday, Hardin, and I want to give you one more chance to save your people. You two are to go to Dizuria as diplomats to handle the return of a necklace that is over one thousand years old that once belonged to one of their queens. They've wanted it forever but I never wanted to send it over. But now I see that we can use it to get you two in."

"Why is it here?" I asked.

"I don't know." Gilik said with a wave of his hand. "There was some battle a long time ago and it fell into the hands of a soldier and his descendent built the city. Now look, it is extremely hard to get access into the Dizurian capital unless you have a good reason, and right now we do. Most of the time if they want anything they will come here, but I've managed to get their leader to let us come to him."

"Alright," I said, "let me figure this out. You are actually going to send us to Dizuria?"

"Yes."

Part of me was excited to get a chance to go and see the place I could only imagine in my nightmares. Another part of me was really scared that they either wouldn't let us back out or figure out who I was and get rid of me. There was only one thing left to ask. "Why me and not someone more experienced?"

"You know everything there is to know about what's inside the wall and Theen knows everything a Dizurian knows about that country. You two are the perfect pair to do this. And I know that you probably want more control over this situation, and here it is. You two are going to be calling the shots here."

"But Dizuria!" I said loudly. "If they find out who I am –"

"They won't. Has anyone here confronted you about it?"

"No." I lied. Nara's father figured it out real quick when I was at his house a few months before.

"There you go." Gilik said happily.

"I promise this will go well." Theen said. "I should be able to figure out what's going on if I can get into a few places."

"It will be tricky." Gilik agreed.

"I'm up for the challenge." Theen said proudly.

"Then that's it. I will get the train tickets. Be ready by tomorrow morning and meet me at the train station at 6:00."

"Tomorrow?" I said, somewhat concerned. "That's soon."

"The sooner the better in this case." Gilik responded.

"Agreed." Theen added.

I don't remember much about the end of the meeting or where I went afterward. I had a similar experience when I found out that Dizuria was behind the killings. When I became conscious of my surroundings I was on the ninth floor just wandering about. I don't know why I chose that floor when I got into the elevator.

When I got back to the room Mama wasn't back yet. I wanted to talk to someone about it so I went to Peter and Dala's room. Only Peter was there.

"Well, I'm going to Dizuria." I announced.

"Really?" Peter seemed almost as mystified as I had been upon getting the news.

"Yep, Gilik decided it and I'm leaving tomorrow."

"What will you do?"

"I'm going to spy in hopes of uncovering what they are doing and bring back evidence."

"Why?" He asked.

"Hopefully if we can get something on them we can tell the world and other countries will get mad and they will stop, I guess."

Peter tapped his finger against his chin, thinking. "Are you sure he is not sending you there to keep you quiet about going back in the wall. I mean if we go back in there we can get everybody out and who cares what happens in there after that."

Peter made a good point. I mulled it over for a bit, becoming worried that he was right. "No, I think he realizes that this is the more direct way to handle the problem. I've wanted somebody to go in and snoop around and I guess now I can be a part of it."

He looked at me quizzically.

"But," I continued, "if nothing good comes of this when we get back then we can continue our plans for sneaking in to get everyone out. Or you can go in without me."

"I'd rather you be there. You know more about getting around than we do. But we will continue the plan up until the point of going in. So when you get back you can tell us what the story is and we'll know whether we have to go in or not. I may be speaking for myself, but I really don't want to have to go in unless we are sure we have to."

A few minutes later I was going back through the hallways, not even sure where I was again. This whole thing had me perplexed, but I looked on the bright side. I was actively doing something for the good of Humurom, just like I had always wanted to. I could still remember telling Milton about my plans to save everybody. He usually scoffed at the ideas, and hated when I even brought the idea up. He was comfortable where he was. He had a job he knew and goals that did not exceed his level of commitment. Come to think of it I wondered why I ever looked up to him or believed that he would have taken my side in looking for the Cityers like I had intended on doing. He probably would have stayed where he was and continued doing what he did. For the first time I realized that he was not the visionary I had made him out to be after his death. He was just a guy trying to survive.

I walked around a bit more. I finally came to the conclusion that if he were alive to see me find Azureland he would have been the first one out the door to get Mama back there safely. That made me feel better about Milton, I didn't have to put him in the class of people that didn't want to help. According to me he would have after all.

I found myself at the elevator. I pushed the button for it to come. I noticed a person out of the corner of my eye and I looked. It was that same girl who was staring at me before, the one that paid for my sandwich. I hit the elevator button again to no avail. I could tell she was walking toward me.

"Name's Historia." She said.

I ignored her.

She leaned in close, too close, and whispered. "I know who you are . . ."

I fought the urge to look at her, but the urge was becoming too strong. I looked at her while only moving my head a little. "You have me confused with someone else."

"No I don't."

I decided I didn't want to wait for the elevator and walked away. She followed close behind.

"I'm a part of something big," She said softly right behind me, "something that likes you a lot. If you ever need anything let us know. We run much more smoothly than the government."

I stopped, turning toward her, trying to keep composure. "I'll keep that in mind."

"You can tell your mother and hunter friends too."

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. She smiled and walked away. I tried forming words but nothing came to mind. How did she know about them? Nobody, not even that crazy newspaper had gotten anything right in the details. I went back to the elevator; more scared and anxious than going to Dizuria could ever make me.

# X

Early the next morning we all walked over to the train station together. We had to leave the building separately and only communicate once there for fear of journalists. We met up and looked for Gilik. The crowds of everyday work goers were hard to maneuver through. We found Gilik near the farthest platform with Theen and Nara. The hunters and Mama introduced themselves. Gilik took me aside to whisper some final instructions.

"You ready, Hardin?" He didn't let me respond. "Theen will tell you everything when you get on the train."

"I'm ready."

Gilik walked away without another word. I joined the others who were already laughing and joking with Theen.

"Go ahead and beat up a few of those Dizurians." Lace laughed.

"Yeah, for me too." Morome added. "Get a little revenge."

We were far enough away from the busy platforms for anybody to overhear, but I wished they were whispering when talking about that kind of thing.

A train with only one passenger car pulled up behind us. Theen and I boarded and waved from the window.

"I love you, Mama." I yelled over the din of trains and whistles. "I'll be back before you know it."

She said something back but I didn't catch it. The train moved under us and I waved frantically as the people I loved most grew smaller and smaller into the distance. We came out of the station and got up to speed on a remote track that quickly turned and took us away from the city.

I pulled my head in and looked around. We were the only ones there. Theen led the way and we picked seats right in the middle. We sat across from each other.

"Where is everybody?" I asked.

"This is a special train. Dizuria only lets a few people into the capital at once."

"Do you think you can tell me everything that I need to know about Dizuria on this trip?"

He deliberated the scope of what I was asking. "I can tell you enough."

I looked out the window. The city had disappeared, being replaced by cute little stone houses set a good distance apart. Each had a large green yard with a wooden fence around it.

"How long until we get there?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the little houses.

"Early tomorrow morning since we have no other stops."

"That long?"

"Don't worry, I brought food."

"And the necklace?"

"Have that too."

The stone houses were no longer in sight. They were replaced by large fields and hills in all directions. I really took in how large Azureland was. There was definitely room for the Bozlins and Humuroms. My fragile spirits, which rose and fell more frequently than the sun, went back up.

"Let's get started." I said when tired of watching the fields fly by. The train was moving very fast. "What can you tell me?"

He was also staring out the window. He looked at me for a second, realized what I had said, and then nodded. "The first thing you need to know is the plan. Now when we get there we will stay in their government building. It's the only place for foreigners to stay in the city, also called Dizuria, or more usually Diz City. Generally when I go they let me stay three nights. Because this is something they are very interested in it might be longer. The reason they let me stay for so long is because they really want me to go back and tell how terrible the city is."

"That makes no sense." I said.

"It does if you think about it. The best way to keep people from snooping around is to make sure nobody is there. The streets are filthy, crime is everywhere, and the place smells terrible. The only nice place is the government building. Now don't get me wrong. The country does have nice spots. Because they are on the ocean, and need money, their seaside cities are wonderful. But that's not the Dizuria we are going to. With any luck we'll peel back the mask and find the truth underneath, mostly why they are killing all those people. If we find anything we need to get evidence to bring back and show the other countries around the wall. They will hopefully spring into action and help out. We'll give those countries bracelets, I hear Calrus is making a lot, and they can help get Humurom out."

"Why don't we just give them the bracelets and tell them Dizuria made them?"

"Dizuria is a tricky country. They will find a way to turn it around and pin the bad on Azureland."

"Who would believe them?"

"They have powerful allies. We don't want to start a war. If all the other countries around the wall believe us then we will be better off."

I looked back out the window at the pretty fields. Occasionally a tree or house would zoom by. It made me sleepy to look at the same thing over and over again.

"So what do I do while you are snooping around?" I couldn't take my eyes off the green out the window.

"I need you to come with me and use your knowledge of inside the wall to find evidence. If there's a picture of something inside maybe, or a note about inside, or even a uniform used inside. Anything will work as long as it can tie them to being inside. Oh, and one more thing. This will be dangerous, we could get caught."

"I'm used to things being dangerous." I said absent mindedly. I could see large fields full of cows and pigs. I had never seen so many animals at once. I wondered what they were all doing out there. There was a large building nearby, but I didn't get a good look at it.

"That's another reason Gilik chose you."

I took a quick nap. I grew very tired staring out the window and found myself dozing off. Theen didn't seem to mind. He pulled out a book and started reading. I woke up an hour later. We were now in a different country, Zamiastin. When I opened my eyes I was looking up at a very large mountain. Zamiastin is full of them. These were much more interesting to watch. The train took its time climbing tracks up and around mountains and through tunnels. We passed little towns and a big city, not stopping for anything.

The hours passed by slowly with nothing to do. I was beginning to get very hungry, and Theen must have too because he pulled out sandwiches sometime in the evening.

"Do you want to know something weird?" I asked; my mouth full of chicken and bread.

"What?"

"Somebody recognized me yesterday."

"You sure?"

"They said something about Mama and the hunters."

He nodded seriously. "Should you have told Gilik?"

"I'm not sure."

"Things should sort themselves out while we're gone."

I wasn't sure what he meant. Did he think Historia would just forget about me? I didn't want to ask. For some reason I feared the answer.

"We left kind of fast, didn't we?" I said.

"They wanted us there before we could lose our nerve. But don't worry; this will be a quick and easy trip. Before you know it we will be back on the train for home."

I could see in his face that he didn't believe that. I wondered if Gilik had told him to say that sort of thing, just as he told Nara to take me away when I first arrived in Azureland because he thought me unstable. This led me to question if I had ever been told something straight. I didn't want to get any more paranoid than I already was so I thought of other things.

We finished our sandwiches and washed them down with soda. I wasn't quite used to the sensations that came along with soda yet, but it was always an interesting experience to drink it.

"Are they building a place for you all like they are for the Bozlins?"

"I don't know. I guess they'll decide once they see if more are coming out. If it's just us then they might just let us stay where we are. Of course they will probably want us out of the government building soon. Once everything is over I want to go on a Journey Ship and see the ocean."

Theen put his head back and pushed his seat back. "That sounds great."

It was dark outside. The lights dimmed. I moved to the back of the train so we could have more room. I lifted up the armrests on the chairs so I had room to lie down. I watched the darkness out the window and soon found myself drifting off to sleep.

Sometime in the early morning I heard someone nearby. I opened my eyes and heard something about Dizuria. I sat up and looked out the window. The only thing I saw was trees.

"Dizuria is very wooded." Theen was standing nearby.

"I see a lot of places for people to hide." I said drowsily.

"Nobody is going to jump out if that's what you mean."

The trees didn't last too long. The train reached more fields and I was disappointed to not see more interesting landscapes.

"Oh, hey, there's Diz City."

I could just see the tall buildings in the distance. We were still a ways away but I could already tell that they were all a dingy gray. I took a deep breath and hoped for everything to go smoothly.

# XI

The closer we got the more I wanted to go back. My anxiety overcame me and did not get better as I saw the state of that city. Theen was right, Dizuria was a dirty mess. The buildings were all poorly kept. Many had broken windows and all of them had graffiti and paint covering the bases. Trash of all kinds was scattered throughout the streets. These included cups, paper, wrappers, old bikes, and the occasional heap of sheets or clothes. There was something about the overall atmosphere that had me trying to push myself back, hoping the train would follow my lead. Instead we pushed deeper into the center, where things only looked worse. At one point we passed a large group of people screaming and throwing things into a large fire. I had never seen such disorder in my life, and I had seen some pretty disturbing things.

"What do you think?" Theen asked solemnly.

"They really did a good job at making this place unappealing." I said more cheerfully than I felt.

The train began to slow. The anxiety grew with every second. We were approaching a very tall gray building, but this one was not like the others. It had the same graffiti that the others had, but this one was made to appear worn and dirty instead of ending up that way. If one looked closely they would see that it was actually very clean.

The train stopped. My heart was beating fast and I had a hard time controlling my hands. I couldn't keep them from shaking. This wasn't like the times of danger in the wall. In those cases I knew what I was getting into by being outside and quickly went into survival mode when something happened. Now I found myself moving closer and closer to the enemy without any way of stopping once I realized the magnitude of everything. If they figured out who I was I wouldn't be back on a train to Azureland, I would probably be fed to the fire on the street.

Theen grabbed his bag and told me to follow close behind, and to make sure I didn't look as terrified as I felt, and apparently looked at that moment. I stood up straight, feigned a smile, and stepped from the train. The air was almost as bad as the sights. I didn't know what the smell was and can only describe it as foul.

A mischievous looking man was waiting for us outside. He smiled toothily, showing gaps and what looked like blood stains. His smile wasn't evil looking, but it did have a negative quality I couldn't place.

"Do you have the necklace?" He asked; his voice wheezy.

"Yes." Theen said, showing him a small bag.

The man turned and walked away. Theen followed and I followed Theen. The man led us into the tall gray building.

The interior wasn't as bad as the outside led us to believe. The walls were clean beige. A grand marble spiral staircase went from the ground floor up into the ceiling. There were chairs and tables set out, they were scarcely decorated. All were wood and a few had red cushions.

The man pointed to a door to our right. Theen nodded and we went over to it. Inside was a small room with a tile floor and a small table with two light blue piles. They were clothes, a shirt and pants.

"We have to switch into these." Theen said, picking up a shirt and tossing it to me.

"Why?"

"They want to make sure we are not hiding anything in our clothes."

This all sounded very strange but we changed quickly, left our clothes in the room, and came back out.

The man led us up the staircase to another level that looked much the same as the first. We went up higher and higher, each floor looking exactly the same. The only difference was how many doors the walls had. On about the sixth or seventh floor, I had lost count; he took us to one of the doors. He opened it and let us in.

I looked about the room; it was small and had only two pictures on it. One had a simple yellow flower, and the other had a mountain. My eyes then turned to the man sitting behind a little wooden desk with nothing on it. My mouth dropped open unexpectedly. I had seen that man before. I knew I had, I only had to remember where. But where could I have seen someone from Dizuria? And then it hit me, the morning after I arrived in Azureland, the man talking in the hallway, the man who had lost something. This was him.

"You have the necklace?" He asked without looking at us.

"Yes sir." Theen carefully put the small bag on the desk. I noticed the name plate on his desk. His name was Leric.

Leric took the necklace out of the bag and admired it. It had a gold chain and a little rock with some kind of inscription for the pendent. "Ah, it's beautiful. You can leave."

Theen turned to go. I was expecting more and so stood there, not sure what to do.

"Wait." Leric said.

Theen turned back around. "Yes sir?"

Leric turned the necklace over in his hands, squinting at us. "What do you think of the man who came from the wall?"

A chill went through me.

"We don't know much about him." Theen said casually.

"No, I mean what's your opinion of him?" Leric corrected.

"I find it very strange that someone could have survived that long." Theen paused. "I wish I could meet him." He added as an afterthought.

"And you?" Leric looked at me.

I didn't know what to say, but I thought of something quickly. "I wonder how he got out."

Leric nodded as though he was thinking the same thing. "It's curious. Anyhow there is a room prepared for you. If I have any questions regarding this necklace I will contact you in the morning. If not then the train will be back around at noon." He went back to staring at the necklace, signaling our time to leave his office.

The man who took us there led us out and up more flights of stairs until we came to a dark hallway, probably twelve stories above the ground.

The room he put us in was small, hard, and had several large bugs crawling on the walls and the floor. Even my old Residence didn't look that bad. The beds were rock hard and only had a thin and holy blanket. Our clothes had been brought up and were on the beds. The man left us and we sat around, trying to figure out what to do next.

"I saw that leader on my first morning in Azureland." I said, thinking the last hour over in my head. "He was talking to someone about losing something and he thought it was there. In fact he knew it was there."

"Well don't mention it."

"I won't."

He stood up, the bed creaked horribly. "Alright, they usually keep the kitchens open all day. I'm going down to see if I can find anything to eat. Maybe I'll get lucky and find something else too."

"Do you want me to stay here?"

"You'd better for now."

After he left I went to the window. We had a nice view. It looked out over the whole city. I could make out the little people down below destroying an automobile. Theen was gone for a long time. I watched as the sun started for the horizon. The days seemed shorter here. After a while people started out of the other buildings and into the messy streets. They took little notice of anything around them as they headed for home, wherever that was. That one group of people grew tired of attacking the automobile, now a fiery wreck, and started terrorizing the people around them. I made the realization that there wasn't much difference between Dizuria, Humurom, and Bozlin, except perhaps the food. I started to feel for the random masses down there in the streets being harassed for no reason. I wasn't about to do anything about it, but I still felt for them.

Theen came back with a sack full of bread and two mugs of soup. It was all pretty nasty tasting, but I didn't mind, I had had worse.

"Did you find anything out?" I asked hopefully.

He finished his bread and answered. "I did. It seems that there are people around that are not wearing the usual blue uniforms like we are. They wear red pants, a red vest, and a white shirt. I couldn't figure much about them but they looked suspicious. They would always look in all directions no matter where they went, as if someone was always following them. It was strange."

"Maybe they know something."

"We can hope. I want to go out tonight and sneak around a bit. You should come in case we see someone you recognize from the wall. You said you encountered them in there?"

"Yes, but I never got a look at anyone's face. I think they were all wearing gray. It's hard to remember now. Every time I saw them I was running for my life. So they could have been wearing bright pink and I wouldn't have noticed."

We finished our food and were ready to head out and look for clues. I tried to turn my anxiety into excitement, but of course it didn't work. I imagined all of the great things that would come if we somehow stopped Dizuria right there that night. All of my ideas seemed so outlandish that I couldn't even take them seriously as fantasies.

Before we could leave someone came to the door. This man was taller and older than Leric, with white hair and a friendly smile that looked real. He appeared to be completely out of place in Dizuria. He introduced himself as Martvy, the second in command to Leric.

"It's nice to meet you two." He said pleasantly.

"Nice to meet you." Theen replied.

I stayed back, not sure if his appearance was a trap to make us feel safe.

"It's nice to finally get that necklace back." He said. "We've wanted it for a long time." He waited for us to respond, but we didn't so he continued. "I hope your stay in Diz is a nice one. Don't be afraid to seek me out if you need anything."

He smiled nodded. Right before he left he looked at me and gave me a stern look. It lasted for only a second, but it stuck with me. It seemed to say more than anything he could have spoken, but I didn't seem to catch the meaning. Once he was gone we resumed our plan to explore.

The dark hallway outside our door was even more ominous at night. There was a single electric light in the ceiling at the center of the hall. It didn't illuminate much more than a small ring around it. There could have been anyone hiding just beyond the reach of the light. Theen and I tiptoed down the hall, away from where we had come earlier. We passed the light and were met by total darkness. Theen took the lead. I could only hear where he was by the creaks of the floorboards. Somewhere up ahead he made a small noise.

"There's a door here that's open." He whispered back to me. "Stay there for a second."

I did as I was told. I heard him go into the room and come out a minute later.

"Nothing, just another room. I didn't think they would keep anything up here with us, but it was worth a shot. Let's go back to the stairs and go downstairs."

I followed quietly. The stairs were lit by more lights, making the journey down much less daunting. Voices could be heard on the stairs somewhere below us. They were too far down to worry about.

The floor below ours had a large room just like all the others down to the first floor. Theen told me that they probably did that to confuse people so they didn't know what floor they were on. We took a look around at all the doors. There were three on that level. Two of the doors were locked and the other led to a bathroom. The next three levels down had similar results. They each had a different number of rooms leading off, but most were locked or had bathrooms.

"There could be anything behind these locked doors." Theen complained several floors down.

"They wouldn't keep anything too secret unlocked." I pointed out.

"They would if they thought nobody ever came here."

"They might have locked them because we're here."

On the next level we heard people coming up the stairs. We got off and sat in some of the uncomfortable wooden chairs scattered about, trying to look casual. Two people came up right as we sat down, a man and a woman. They wore the red vests and pants that Theen had mentioned. They talked as if there was nobody for miles that could overhear them.

"So I didn't know about the dark room." The man said. He was large with long wavy hair.

"My goodness how did you get out of it?" The woman asked.

"I told them I'd rather protect Leric." The man said

"And they believed it?" The woman sounded amazed.

"Sure did."

They continued up the stairs and vanished onto the level above. Theen put a finger to his lips and got up, following them up the stairs. I hesitated, but crept up the stairs behind him.

The two in red got off at the next floor and went straight to one of the doors that had been locked. Theen and I hid on the stairs, only the tops of our heads were visible as we watched. The man did something to the wall beside the door. I could not see because the woman blocked my view. The door opened and they went in, closing the door behind them.

"That's it. That door must lead somewhere important."

"Or not." I said.

"Let's hope it does. Come on, back to the room."

Late into the night we sat around trying to come up with our next move. Finally Theen made a plan that we could work with.

"This is what we'll do." He yawned. "In the morning we will leave a note saying that we left early because something came up at home. Then we'll try to sneak into that room and see what's going on. If we get caught just say that we are looking for the kitchens, I've used that many times and always get away with wherever I'm sneaking around. You see they don't care much if you wander around, as long as you leave as soon as they tell you too and don't come back."

"But you do come back."

"They never remember me. It seems their minds are always preoccupied with other things to care about me."

"They don't seem to care much about their privacy." I said.

"Oh they do."

At long last we went to bed.

I was shaken awake before dawn. We sat quietly as Theen made out the note he was going to leave on the pillow saying that we left early. I prepared myself mentally and was ready to go when he finished. It was too late to back out now, and I was beginning to believe that something good might happen through that door.

We left the room, taking our Azureland clothes with us. No one was around. We got to the door and Theen started looking around for what might have let the two in the night before. He pulled back a square of fake wallpaper, revealing a button. He pushed it, the door clicked.

"That was easy." I said, relieved and anxious.

"It's probably meant for people to find, but the right people, not us."

He told me to wait near the door while he went inside to have a look around. I waited in a wooden chair near the stairs, looking over to the door every few seconds. I put the clothes under my seat. Voices came from below. I hoped they wouldn't be coming up the stairs. Unfortunately they did. Their voices grew and I could hear their footfalls on the stairs. Panicked, I went to the door. I started knocking, I don't know why; it was just the first thing that came to my mind. The people, there were three, came up behind me.

"What are you doing?" A man in the red uniform asked.

"Isn't this the kitchens?" I said stupidly.

"That's downstairs."

The door flung open and Theen emerged; now wearing the same red uniform.

"Who are you?" He asked me coldly.

"What?" I was so confused.

"Come with me." He grabbed me by the arm and led me to the stairs. The others shook their heads and went through the door.

When they were gone Theen let me go.

"Where did you get that?" I asked, pointing to his outfit.

"There was a closet full of them in that hallway. I think it leads to some sort of secret room or headquarters. Here, I got you one. Switch into it and we'll figure out where it goes."

I quickly changed into the white shirt, red vest and pants, and the red hat. For the first time I noticed that the hats had the eye and triangle symbol that was on the case Milton and I found. I felt bad putting all that on. I decided I would take an extra long shower when I got back to Wall City.

# XII

Theen got us through the door and into yet another long hallway. I was beginning to think that long hallways were a staple in every country. It ended at another door a good distance away. On our right was a small room with a rack holding around forty or so red uniforms with hats on top of each one. No one was in our way as we walked down to the next door.

"Darn." Theen groaned when we got to the next door.

Right beside the door was a key pad with numbers on it.

"How are we supposed to get on now?"

Right as he finished talking the door behind us opened and another person in the red uniform came in.

Theen began to rummage through his pockets, sighing loudly.

"Anything the matter?" The man asked as he approached. He was only a few years older than me.

"Wouldn't you know it?" Theen laughed innocently. "I've forgotten the number."

The man's eyes lit up. "I did the same thing the other day; I really wish they would stop changing it all the time."

"I know, right." Theen said.

"It's okay, I got you."

The man put in the four digit code. The door opened, revealing itself to be an elevator.

Theen nodded. "I was one off."

We all got in the small elevator. The door closed and the man pushed the down button.

"I'm Murray." The man said. "Nice to meet you. I guess you two are new." We nodded. "They'll tell you everything you need to know when you get there. But there's something that I should tell you. Most new recruits are transferred straight to the wall now. And there is almost no training time at all anymore. They just throw you all out there and expect you to start working. Of course there is a training phase but that's so short now too."

"Why?" I asked.

"Nobody really knows, I guess they'll tell you when you get there. But you know their motto. 'Less is better', and they mean less knowledge. It used to be that the worse you did in the class the better the shot in the dome. All the smarties got research and development or construction or something."

"What do you do?" Theen asked with a big goofy smile on his face.

"I cook. Someone has got to do it. And I like it, don't have to get messy." The elevator stopped and the door opened. "Oh, here we are."

We got off the elevator into the largest room I've ever been in. The ceiling was probably one hundred feet above our heads and the far wall was so far back I could barely see it. There were brick buildings inside this room and rows and rows of the peculiar flying contraptions I had seen the Dizurians use in the forest when I was getting Mama out of the wall. Now that I was closer to them I saw that they were round with a flat bottom and had one seat inside. There was nothing covering the top except for a single bar.

"Go straight and you should find the new recruit classroom." Murray pointed down the aisle between the buildings and flying things. "Lessons are only a day now. Things are really going crazy around here."

"Why?" I asked again.

"I don't know. They must want to do something big. Anyway, I'll be seeing you." He went into the first building.

"That was informative." Theen said, starting in the direction Murray had pointed.

"He was so nice." I said, not sure how to react to it all yet.

"Not just a faceless monster, huh?"

"It was easier when it was."

I followed Theen, looking around at all the buildings and flying things. There were people all over, all wearing red. Some were going from building to building and some were just wandering about.

"What are we doing? Are we actually going to that classroom?" I asked.

"Yes, if it's only a day we can manage it. And it might be useful. I'm sure whatever they will teach us will be worth, well you know, using."

He amended his statement right as several people passed us. They didn't look like the evil monsters I wanted them to be. Most were smiling and going about their business just as anybody anywhere else would do.

"What if we get into something we can't get out of?" I reasoned quietly.

"Then we'll be in trouble. But you worry too much, this is exactly the kind of thing that we came here to do. Imagine the reward if we get enough info."

I did, and I like what I thought of. The main goal was to get all the Humurom's out, and if this could help then I was on board.

The classroom building was the last one, all the way at the end of that enormous room. There was a sign outside telling when the classes were to start. We got there with twenty minutes to spare.

There were thirty or so desks in rows. Only six seats were filled. The students were all fairly young, probably a few years younger than me. Except for one, he looked a few years older than me. We took seats in the back and waited for what was to come next.

A man came into the room some time later. He was in the middle of life with short gray hair and an expression that told that he could have been anywhere else and it would have been better than there.

"You will only refer to me as L or Mr. L and that is it. Not that it matters, you will not be in this class long enough to care what my name is, and I don't care for yours." He took a few seconds to stare us down. "A sorry bunch. I had high hopes for the new recruits. Every day you all get worse. I guess that should be expected. They really are digging up roots to find you." He looked suspiciously at the man I assumed to be older. "What is your name?"

"Billus." He responded. "I was in this class before."

"Don't care to know why." Mr. L said nastily. "Everybody else seems new. I'll tell you what you need to know."

He then began to tell the story of the war between Humurom and Bozlin. This was the first instance where I knew that whatever we had stumbled into had something to do with the wall. It was interesting to hear about it from a Dizurian point of view. Not much was different. For the most part it was what I heard in Azureland, but that soon changed as he began to tell us that Dizuria had a way to get in the wall.

". . . Our operations started small." He said. "We took samples and found that no nuclear bombs ever went off. So should that mean that we quit our research and let everyone in and out? No, it doesn't. One of our past leaders made the decision that what we should really be doing is settling the area. It's no secret that Dizuria got the short end of the stick in the land grabbing of a few hundred years ago. For those who don't know that is when the little empires all around this continent formed full countries. Each piece of land was suddenly up for grabs. Back then our leaders didn't believe in imperialism and look where it got us. While Azureland and Westernia grew huge, the poor countries in the middle were left out. Those were Dizuria, Humurom, and Bozlin. None of us liked that very much and so tensions rose. Azureland did a few things to try to make peace because they are so honorable." He scoffed. "It didn't work. Eventually Humurom and Bozlin tensions began to heat up, and that's when we saw our opportunity. Dizuria decided to wait it out, hoping that whichever country was left standing, they would give us some of the land of the loser. Unfortunately they were stupid and both built nuclear bombs, something outlawed long ago when the idea first sprang up that it was possible. Well as you can imagine that wouldn't do.

"New technologies enabled the surrounding countries to be able to have a plan just in case the war went in that direction, and it did. The representatives from each of the surrounding countries came here to propose the dome. And how could we say no with that much pressure? No use in having all the big countries mad at us. They knew we would be a hard sell so they let us tweak the plan. And can you guess what we said? We decided that we would be the ones to create the necessary code in our computers to be able to get back in once enough time had passed. Now it just so happened that they 'forgot' to put in that code. At least that's what we told the other countries. But who could blame us? Things escalated so quickly. The type of computer program needed for the dome could not be changed once it was in use. Once up this thing was going to be up forever, unless there was some way already present in it for it to come down. Now I'm not going to get into the mess about how all those hundreds of computers used to power the thing became one super computer somewhere underground. That's too much to talk about for you people. Just know that it happened, and that they tried to change the code then, but it didn't work. We were in the clear.

"Our government waited some years before going in, and once inside we found that it was safe, as I have mentioned. Everything was destroyed, and we are still not sure how that happened if no nuclear bombs went off. What we didn't expect was that people had survived in bunkers. I know that's news to you, but they did survive. They were very good at hiding. One group, what was left of Humurom, lived in a mountain. The other group, Bozlin, lived underground. These two places were thirty some miles away from each other. At first we decided to ignore them. Very few people ever came out of the mountain so we saw no point to bother them, and besides they lived a good twenty miles from the wall on our border. The Bozlins though came out frequently and even set up little towns again. Can't have that so we started training people to kill them. If they knew that we were there then they would try to get out, meaning that the people out here would know we lied to them for so long. Then people started getting too far from the mountain, can't have that. So we sent some people to kill them. Not too fast though, don't want anybody getting suspicious enough to start investigating. Now I know this sounds bad, but think of it a different way. Those two countries had tried to kill everyone by building nuclear bombs. All the countries could have been destroyed if we let that happen. They had their chance and they ruined it for themselves. We are just finishing the job.

"The important thing to take away from all this is that Dizuria is inside attempting to build up an offense to keep those survivors quiet until we figure out what to do. Every leader has different ideas on what should be done with them. Some say we should leave them alone, some say we should kill them all. Leric, our leader for the past two years, has done a good job at making himself clear that he wants them all gone, but in a controlled way. You see the main concern is that they did in fact make nuclear bombs. We have the video files from long ago to prove it. If we try anything too quick they might just set them off in fear. Can't have that either. So it's a messy situation and Leric is trying his best to confront the naysayers in his small circle of mayors. Now I don't know why there is such a huge influx of recruits, those are his orders. They don't tell me anything but what I need to tell you. All I know is that soon all the land in that wall will be ours and we will be able to spread out and have all the land we want and nobody will ever know."

I sat in the back of the class in awe at what I was hearing. We had hit it big. This was everything. Mr. L was giving us exactly what we wanted to know. If only we had a recording device with us. While what he was saying did scare me, I was happy that we finally had something to go back to Azureland with. If we could get something solid to bring back as proof then everything would get better in no time, I knew it.

He continued on for several hours. Next he talked about the checkpoints and that cleared up another issue. He told us that checkpoints had been set up all along the edge of the wall so nobody could get too close to the edge of the dome. That explained why we were only attacked when we got to the wall. And it may have also explained what that old cage was that we found near the wall.

He went on for several hours about things that had nothing to do with the wall. He told about the skills we would have needed if this was a classroom full of the brightest students, the kind he was used to teaching.

I zoned out while he insulted us and tried to think of something I could ask to shine more light on the subject of killing Humuroms but I couldn't think of anything without seeming too knowledgeable about them, after all this was supposed to be the first time I learned of their continued existence.

Mr. L finished with a two hour explanation of why this was all important. Everything he said was about how Dizuria was so badly treated throughout history and how they deserved to get that land. I had a very hard time trying to stay awake. I occasionally looked over to Theen who was trying his best to look like he was enjoying the lecture.

A man and woman entered the room. I hadn't even noticed that Mr. L had stopped talking.

"Give us your name and we will decide which group to put you in." The woman said, holding a clipboard. "Wait; there are two more people than are on our list."

"You are still going by the lists?" Mr. L asked the woman. "They are getting people from all over the country, most aren't on the list."

The woman seemed to think that this was a plausible idea and continued on, asking all of us our names. I accidentally told her my name was Hardin, but I couldn't think of another on such short notice. She told four of us to go with her and the others to go with the man who had come in with her. We followed her out into a small hallway that led from the back of the classroom. She stopped us halfway down the hall.

"Go ahead and get to know each other, you two are going to be in the Wild Group."

We introduced ourselves to the others. Besides Theen our group had a girl named Zurrel and the man named Billus. They seemed nice, though when I introduced myself to Billus his eyes grew wide. He stared at me strangely for a few seconds before introducing himself.

"Alright that's enough." The woman said. "Let me show you to where you will be staying for tonight."

We followed her to the end of the hall and into another elevator. All of us squeezed in and went up to the eighth floor. She told that this part of level eight was not connected to the other part and that nobody could get there unless they were part of the Dome Project. We split up into different rooms. Theen and I were put into one room and the other two were put into another. Wake up for the next morning was to be at six.

"I guess we really got roped into something, didn't we?" Theen said when we were alone in our rooms, which looked almost identical to the rooms we had the night before, but without the windows.

"I hope it pays off. I feel dirty just by being in contact with all this." I wiped my hands on my pants.

"We should learn a lot in the next few days."

"They didn't even tell us anything that was going to happen other than saying that we are going to be wild, whatever that means."

"I think they do that so we don't try to escape." Theen reasoned. "They want us to think that it won't be so bad until we get there."

There was a knock at the door. I opened it to find Zurrel standing there.

"Hello, I'm in this group." She said.

"Yeah." I said, not sure what else to say to that.

"Any ideas on what's going to happen tomorrow?" She asked anxiously.

Theen came up behind me. "None."

He let her in.

"Me neither." She said. "How did you get into this?"

Theen ignored the question. "How did they get you?"

She sighed. "Came to the city to run an errand for my boss and I was arrested and brought here."

"That's horrible." I said.

"No, I hated that job."

I nodded slowly, not sure how to react. She seemed so nonchalant about the whole thing.

"Something similar happened to us." Theen lied.

She shivered. "I don't like the sound of wild."

Theen nodded in agreement. "Definitely doesn't sound good."

There was another knock. Billus was at the door.

"Getting to know each other?" He said.

Zurrel pointed a finger at him. "Did you say that you had done this before?"

"Yes." Billus said simply.

"What is it like?" She pressed on.

"I shouldn't tell you. You'll figure it out on your own."

"Come on, tell us something." Zurrel pleaded.

He looked at us pityingly. "Wild means inside the dome." He left without another word.

# XIII

I didn't sleep well at all that night. I had a history of nightmares dating back to my childhood, each getting more bizarre as time went on. I had a dream that I was back in the forest. It was probably my sixth or seventh time back there in my dreams. I was getting to the point where it didn't bother me so much.

In the dream I was running through the forest near the wall. Instead of the faceless gray shapes that chased me in my other dreams I saw fully formed humans all wearing red. They had faces this time, and I recognized each one as people I had seen the day before. It was getting too real. The fear that I had tried hard to defeat in those dreams was back. I can't remember how it ended, I think I was killed, that's how they usually ended.

I woke before anybody could wake me. Without windows I couldn't tell what time it was. I assumed it was still before dawn. Theen was still asleep. I got up and took a shower in the little bathroom. The water never did get hot, but it was at least warm.

It was hard to believe that I was surrounded by all the things I had learned to fear, this time for real. It wasn't the same as when I was in Bozlin. There I knew that those people never meant me harm, unlike here. I wondered what they would do to me if they found out I was from Humurom. Probably torture and interrogate me, or just kill me.

Mr. L hadn't even mentioned someone leaving the wall during his lecture. I wonder why. They obviously knew about me, Leric even asked us what we thought of it all. I suppose since it wasn't in his curriculum he didn't care to teach it.

I finished my shower and got into the red uniform again. Theen was up by then, he showered after me. The woman who gave us those rooms was back, I never did learn her name. She came by to make sure we were all up and led us back down the escalator and outside a back door, into the chilly morning air. An automobile with many seats was waiting for us there. We all got in and took off down the road. The road had holes and cracks all over it and the vehicle bumped and jolted through the city. I could see the dome glow ahead of us, we were heading straight for it.

I was getting nervous again. That combined with the cold night air blowing in from the open windows gave me quite a shiver. No one spoke, we all watched silently as we approached the wall. The vehicle stopped right next to it and we got out. The woman handed us bracelets, told us to put them on, and showed us how to get through the wall.

We followed quickly, disappearing from Diz City and entering the much warmer side of the wall. My shivering continued despite the warmer climate. The woman then told us to go to the castle, and left back through the wall.

This area of the dome was much different than what I was used to. There was a large castle only a hundred yards from the wall. It had high walls and four towers that stretched into the sky. To the left of the castle was a large fenced area with small hills and wooden posts. People milled about, unconcerned that more had just joined them. Billus led the way through a muddy field to get to it. As we approached a large muscular man with a bald head came up to us.

"I am Filn." The man said. "I will be your instructor for the next week. You four will learn the basics of being a Dizurian Wall Guard. This is a crash course so listen closely or you will not make it. We've already had three accidental explosions that have killed five, don't be the sixth. As you've probably heard we will be doing things much faster than usual. Usually it takes a year for one of these guards to graduate and be adequate for their missions. But the leader has instructed us that something very big will be happening soon and so if you know which end of the gun won't blow your face off you'll be accepted in. That is so sad. Anyway, we'll put you in pairs. Girlie, you and curly get together. That leaves Billus and the wild eyed one." He pointed at me. "Good to have you back, Billus, your experience should come in handy. Now let's get the itineraries set. Today we will show you around and show you to the weapons. Tomorrow you will get into your roles. Sounds good! Billus, show the others around, I'm tired of being a tour guide."

"Yes sir." Billus said.

Filn nodded and went away.

Billus huddled us together. "Alright, this here is the castle. It was built by Humurom and Dizuria several hundred years ago and then destroyed after the wall was put up. The foundation remained. It was the first job of the wall guards when they got in. It has been the main base ever since. All the guards start training here. Let's go in."

While he talked he looked right at me, as if studying me. I finally looked at the castle behind him, feeling a little uncomfortable.

The inside was dark and cool, with very few lights. The walls were stone and a thin and dirty purple carpet covered most of the floor. He showed us through some of the rooms on the first floor. There were offices with people hard at work doing something. A cafeteria full of people eating whatever happened to be brought in that morning from Diz City. Several large rooms had bunk beds for the trainees. And down a short flight of stairs was a room with a big metal door. An armory. He didn't have access to that and so we just looked at the formidable door.

Up on the second floor he showed us more offices and meeting rooms for the guards who would be stationed in the castle after training. I took care to look into those rooms, hoping to find maps or diagrams to take, but they were all empty as far as I could see. The roof was next on our tour. From there we could make out a ruined city in the distance. Only a few walls and foundations survived. To our left was a great forest that probably connected to the forests we came through on the train. Our right had muddy fields as far as the eye could see.

"This was the vision." Billus began. "When the leaders saw this they knew that with a little work and time they could make this their own and create a new and expanded Dizuria without the fear of intruders or enemies. Then people were found alive, as you've heard. The leaders bickered nonstop and no official ruling could be made. So the land continued to waste away even after the castle was finished. A few expeditions were made, but none to establish anything. That changed when our current leader took over. The guards were given the mission to kill every person away from the bunkers. Now we have to be careful that the people inside don't find out or, as Mr. L said, they will detonate the nuclear bombs that they are hiding. And if that happens then the radiation will make this place uninhabitable for a very long time, what with no way for the radiation to escape." He suddenly gave me a stern look, and then looked away. "So that's about it."

He led us outside and to the fenced in area I saw earlier. Several people were shooting guns at targets.

"This is where we will be training tomorrow."

He then took us to the edge of the forest.

"This is where two of us will spend a few days. There are two roles: Finder and Shooter. Meaning two of us will be sent into the woods to find something while the other two will go through training to kill."

On our way back to the castle about twenty of those flying things, Billus said they were called Nawings, flew over us. I suddenly ducked and, seeing that no one else was, stood up straight again. They were flying all around doing maneuvers right above our heads.

Billus showed us to our bunk beds. There were two sets in the tiny room. Theen took the top and I took the bottom of one. Billus took the bottom of the other.

"Go ahead and rest. We won't do anything today. They don't want to scare us too bad on our first day." He got onto his bed and put his hat over his eyes.

Zurrel stood over him. "Why are you doing this course again?"

Billus didn't move. "It's a long story. Just get some rest or go look around. I'll get you at dinner time."

Theen and I left the room and wandered about the castle. We didn't talk much, afraid to be overheard. There wasn't much to do there. Everyone seemed to have something important on their mind and shared it with others in hushed tones, often stopping when they saw us. We got back up to the roof a while later and looked out over everything.

"So this is what it looks like in here." Theen said, amazed.

"It's ugly." I grunted.

"I guess it would be for those who are stationed here for a long time." He gave me a slight wry smile and turned away.

We spent the afternoon in our bunks. I tried to take a nap but couldn't fall asleep with the whizzing of Nawings and gunfire. Billus got us up for dinner some time later.

The cafeteria was giving out bowls of chicken soup. It wasn't the best I had had, but it wasn't too bad either. We sat and discussed the day's events.

"So I was going around today," Zurrel said when we were all finished, "and I heard something about a dark room, what is that?"

Billus sighed deeply; I could tell he didn't want to talk about whatever that was. "The dark room training is something that the recruits go through when they are done with the rest of the training. It's not something I should be telling you about; it's kind of a secret."

Zurrel looked highly interested at that. "Oh, come on tell us, is it hard?"

Billus stood up. "Just forget it alright; you'll get your chance. I'll meet you back at the room." He slammed his bowl down with the rest of the empty ones on a nearby table and left.

Sometime later we all got back to the room and went to bed. Once again I had a hard time sleeping. Not because of any noise, it was very quiet, but because I was awfully nervous of what was to come. I finally dozed off sometime in the middle of the night. By the time I got up I hardly felt like I slept at all.

"Wake up, shooting time." Filn called from the door at dawn.

We trudged out into the muddy morning. It was obvious that I wasn't the only one who had a hard time sleeping. We all looked tired.

Once in the fence Filn handed us guns that resembled the ones Milton and I found. They had been used many times and had dents and scratches all over. We got in a line and began to shoot at small round targets twenty yards away. Giant mounds of dirt were right behind the targets in case we missed. And we missed. I thought I would be the only one to miss but we all managed it well. The mound exploded over and over with small lumps of dirt constantly being shot into the air. The resulting cloud of dust made it impossible to see and we missed even worse. No one wanted to stop, each of us were certain that the next try would get the target. Finally Filn stepped in and stopped us. We waited for a minute until the cloud dissipated and we continued.

Billus was the first to hit his target. I was surprised at how long it took him. He was the only one of us to do this before. I assumed he was originally put into the Finder group.

I was the last to hit mine. Some five minutes later I finally did and we were able to move on to harder targets. They continually got smaller until we had each hit five. It took me the longest but they all waited patiently for me to finish.

"That's enough." Filn said when I finished. He sounded put out at our inaccuracy. "The next group has to come in now. Billus take them back to the room and tell them what's in store for the next few days."

"What is in store?" Billus asked.

"We are going straight to the final training."

"Yes sir."

There was a note waiting for us when we got back to the room.

"We have our pairings." Billus announced half-heartedly. "Hardin, you're with me as Finders. And you two will learn how to fly the Nawings and shoot more. That means that me and Hardin will go into the woods and look for something hidden."

"What is it?" I asked.

"No idea; could be anything. It was a gold watch last time."

"Is that it? Are we done after that?" Zurrel asked hopefully.

"Only dark room training after that."

"And you're sure you don't want to tell us about it?"

"Yes."

We went to the cafeteria and had more soup. That's all they seemed to make. Billus went to bed early and instructed me to as well since we had to get up early to get to the forest. I wasn't tired yet and so followed Theen and Zurrel outside for a walk. The usual stillness of the dome was present, but knowing I was surrounded by people made it a little less scary, which was interesting because I was surrounded by the ones I usually would fear in there.

"You know, I can't tell if his is exciting or not." Zurrel whispered in the quiet night.

"I can't believe this has all been kept secret." Theen whispered back.

She sighed contently. "Every country has its secrets."

"But not like this. What's the final goal here?"

"You heard it, to take over this land. And why not, nobody is using it."

I jumped into the conversation. "The Humurom's are."

"They're all but dead. Besides I hear they can get out now anyway." She said.

"Where did you hear that?"

"It's a rumor."

"How did they even get out?" Theen asked, staring at the dark starless sky of the dome.

"I don't know." Zurrel said. "Maybe the whole thing was a lie by the Azurelanders. There is too much politics for the wall to ever come down so I don't see what's so bad about letting everyone in and dividing up the place."

"Watch what you say around here." Theen warned. "They seem to want the whole thing."

A scream rose up from the forest. We stopped and listened. We strained our ears to hear more.

"That must be the Finders." Zurrel whispered.

"Just when you think that you can relax, you can't." Theen said nervously.

There wouldn't be any more screams or noises at all. A little unnerved, we made it back to the room and tried to get to sleep. And once again I couldn't.

# XIV

Billus and I left early, too early. We dragged ourselves out of the castle and to Filn, who was waiting near the gated shooting area. He nodded slowly and turned to the forest.

"Better get in there." He said. "And Stay close. There are others in there that haven't found what they are looking for and don't care if they take yours. They can get aggressive."

Billus took the lead and I reluctantly followed. The trees blocked the little light available at the castle and plunged us into a darkness that seemed just a tad darker than anything I had ever seen. In this darkness was the sense of amazement at everything that had transpired. I tried to look back at the last few days and piece together how I ended up there. It was baffling that I could end up in the very place I was trying to form a plan against. I was inside the enemy camp and couldn't find a way to bring it down. I couldn't do it by myself, or even with one hundred others. It would take much more. In fact it would take an entire country, and that's why I made a promise to myself in those first few minutes of darkness and brush. I promised that I would only get the Humuroms out and leave it at that. Not that I ever really wanted to go to war with Dizuria. It was too risky and would cause too many deaths. Now the only thing to do was to get Humurom out and leave it. And that was final. I had talked about it for a while but this was the first time that I actually believed that it was the only way. As long as there were no guards near the wall we would be fine. But why were there no guards near the wall? That still puzzled me.

The first few hours went by incredible slow. The sun rose and lit up the dome enough to see where we were going. That only made me more scared; now others could see us.

"Do we have any food?" I asked after a while of watching the ground to make sure I didn't trip on a tree root.

"Filn gave me a bag with some food in it, and that's all we get."

"What if we leave the trees and quit?"

"Usually we would be thrown out, but since they need so many people I would guess they might keep us anyway and send us back in."

Getting thrown out sounded like a good plan for when I met up with Theen. I was afraid we were going to be stuck in that place. I didn't know what they did with people once training was over. I asked Billus. He didn't know what they did with them now, before they would just send them on to whatever job they wanted them to do.

Billus checked every tree for holes and every clear patch of ground for something buried. As the day approached afternoon we still had no leads on what we were looking for. He sat down beside a tree in defeat. I sat with my back to another tree close by.

"This whole thing baffles me." I said. I wanted to inch closer to what I really wanted to know but didn't want to come out and say it.

"What part?"

"I just never thought that I would be in here going through training to do . . . I don't even know what."

He nodded, staring absentmindedly at a bush nearby. "That's what I thought my first time in here. You are taking it pretty well though, for your first time."

He gave me yet another strange look at "for the first time". I looked past that.

"What's it like out there, when you are doing your job?"

"Quiet. Occasionally something happens that you have to be prepared for, but those are few and far between."

"Did you ever see the Humurom bunker?" My voice grew stern unintentionally.

"A few times."

"Was it big?" My voice lowered, my eyes searched the side of his face suspiciously.

"Yes."

"Did you know there were people in it?" I asked accusingly.

"Yes." His whisper was barely audible.

I felt that I was getting too serious for someone who wasn't supposed to even know about it until two days before.

"Wow!" I said stupidly. "That must have been crazy."

He looked startled at my sudden change but didn't say anything or even look my way. Instead he looked up at the sky.

"It might rain."

"It just might." I said calmly.

The bag Filn gave us was filled with fresh fruit, a few pieces of bread, and dried meat. We saved the bread and meat and started on the oranges. And then it was time to continue in our search for the object.

I wasn't much help. I spent the evening in my head and only came out to look around to show that I was at least trying. My head buzzed with the usual garble that ended in fantasies where I either killed Leric or was killed by a falling tree branch. I wondered what Leric thought of our leaving early. Did Mama and the others miss me? They probably didn't have any idea as to what was going on. I worried for her. I had no way of contacting her. But she was tough; she made it through my supposed death once so I suppose she could go through this.

Night came before we found even the slightest hint of a hidden object. Billus thought it best to set up some sort of camp. We gathered leaves and brush to put down on a couple of soft spots we found. Just as it was getting too dark to see we finished. It didn't look like much, but it was more comfortable than just the hard ground. I tried to find a comfortable position when I heard footsteps coming towards us. Two formidable men came into the clearing. They looked at us with nasty expressions of anger.

"Ah, thanks for making camp for us." The first one said threateningly.

"This is ours, find your own." Billus said calmly.

"We would, but someone stole ours." The second man said.

They moved in toward us.

"That's not our problem." Billus got up, starting away from them.

I stood up as well but I was tired and nervous, and did not want to deal with their stupidity.

"I'm making it your problem. Now back off."

"No." I growled.

"Hardin, let's just go." Billus said from the trees.

"No, I'm tired of people like this."

The two men looked at each other and laughed. They both were at least six inches taller than me.

Its strange how in moments like that all the anger and anxiety we keep built up can come rushing out at the slightest annoyance. This was the first time that I had a chance to confront a Dizurian face to face, and all the emotions bottled up from the last few meetings exploded out of me.

"You best go before we get mad." One of them said. I was so mad I couldn't even remember which one was which.

"You think they know that killing one of them will get us bonus points with the boss." The other said.

"No I do not."

"That's not true." I said. I really had no idea.

"Hardin come on." Billus begged.

"I've run too much." I told him.

"I just hope you don't scream too much." One of the men pulled a knife from a pocket and waved it in my face.

Without warning he lunged at me, barely missing. I took off with Billus through the forest and away from them. I could hardly see and it took all my balance and coordination to not run straight into a tree. The heavy footfalls of our chasers were in my ear, they were close behind. My head turned toward the sound and I could see one of them carrying a large tree branch. I could only see glimpses of Billus ahead of me as he tore through the darkening terrain. I tried to keep up but was falling behind, lucky for me I think the others were too. The low light mixing in with my growing fatigue did not end well. Somewhere along the way I ran head first into a tree. I was immediately knocked out.

# XV

I opened my eyes and stared mindlessly up at the canopy above. The leaves shuddered as rain drops hit them. It was morning. Droplets hit my face. I jolted up. My head hurt tremendously and I rested it back on the ground. I looked around and saw a soggy piece of bread sitting on the bag Filn had given Billus. I shoved it in my mouth without a thought to it even being mine. It was beginning to go stale. I was glad to see that there was no sign of the two from last night. They must have lost us in the dark.

Several minutes went by and I tried to lift my head again. It still hurt but I managed to get into a half sitting position, my back slouched against a large tree. I looked to my left and saw Billus; he sat beside another tree, staring steadfastly at something in front of him. I tried to see what it was but there seemed to be nothing there. I took the bag and looked for more bread. I tore off another piece and ate it. There were two jars of water. I took one and drank a little bit. That helped more than anything. My forehead had a large bruise that was sore to touch. I looked back over to Billus; he was still staring off somewhere. I was starting to get the impression that he was in deep thought.

"I know who you are." He said quietly.

I had to think for a second to understand what he had said. Had he hit a tree too? Of course he knew who I was; I had been wandering the forest with him for a while.

"What?"

He frowned deeply, staring hard at something only he could see. "When I saw you in that classroom I thought I was in another nightmare, or flashback."

I was getting worried. What was he talking about?

"You've come a long way."

Somewhere deep within me I made a connection. A connection that was too frightful to even think too much on. I looked hard at Billus, hoping he would change the subject.

"I live in the country." I said; my own voice barely a whisper.

"This one."

I began to sweat. My hands clenched around dirt and squeezed hard.

"You have me confused." I feigned a smile.

"We were scouting that day." His voice was monotone, without the slightest hint of emotion. "We came across the church in the afternoon."

I felt sick. It was beyond just my head at this point, my heart hurt. I wanted so badly to be back in Azureland with my mother and friends. I had a strong suspicion that I did not want to hear what he had to say.

"Being Finder I told the others." He continued, much to my displeasure. "It was the perfect place for a hide out. It was my fault. One of the shooters handed me two grenades. I didn't want to throw them. I knew I wouldn't live if I didn't. I threw the first one. You just stood there. It took forever for you to move. When you finally did run I threw the other. Your friend screamed . . ."

Tears welled up in my eyes. Images flashed in my mind of the events as I remembered them. I had tried so hard to keep them from the front of my mind. And yet there they were. I could do nothing but watch, just like then.

"I was given another grenade." Billus shivered. "I didn't throw that one. The damage had been done. Jurt, our leader, finally took it and threw it. Your friend was thrown. Jurt went over and shot him. He told me to check if you were dead. I didn't want to get too close, I assumed you were. We came back here and Jurt turned me in for not throwing that grenade. I was immediately thrown out of the Dome Project. I was only reinstated because they need so many people." He wiped his eyes. "I'm sorry, Hardin. I didn't want to be there. I was one of the few who came out of dark room training unchanged. . . .but I didn't."

We sat in silence, each going over the events of that day in our own way. We may have been on opposite sides, but we felt almost the same about it. I thought for a second that he was pretending to feel for me, but I could see in his face that he wasn't.

I reminded myself over and over again that I was sitting there in that forest with a giant bruise on my forehead for a reason. If Billus really did feel bad for what he did, then maybe he was the right person to help me get what I needed.

"I can't believe I'm here." I said finally, allowing time for us to recompose ourselves.

He looked at me for the first time since I had gotten up. "How did you get out of the wall?"

I hesitated at first. There was a small chance that he was an amazing actor and was going to relay what I was going to tell him straight to Leric. I didn't believe that. I could sense his sincerity.

"I found a bracelet just lying around."

"I suppose that's fate. But I think these extra guards are because of you. Leric is afraid that you will bring more people in. He hasn't said much about it, everything is kept secret in Dizuria."

"There was nobody anywhere near the wall the last time I went in over there."

He pondered that for a bit. "Hmm, that is interesting. I wish I knew enough to tell you why."

Even if he was on my side I had to tread carefully to get the information that I wanted. But how was I supposed to go about getting a Dizurian to give me something that would condemn his own people? Would he feel any type of guilt for that? There was only one way to find out.

"What he is doing is wrong." I said, paying close attention to his reaction. There was none.

"Don't think badly of the people in Dizuria, they are just like any other. They just want to live their lives."

"Too many are living them in here." I brought my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.

He looked at me again, his eyes strained for some type of emotion to grab on to. "What are you even doing here?"

"We didn't mean to end up in all this. I just hope we can get out."

A shuffling noise came to our ears from somewhere.

"Come on, let's get moving." He said, getting up.

We started away from the noise. My body ached all over with every step. I wanted to start that day over. I pretended that nothing happened between us and that he was still just the person I met a few days before who was helping me find the object to pass our recruiting class.

The rain picked up. I enjoyed the sounds it made as it fell through the trees. It was nice to hear something calm in that silent world.

"Are you alright now that you know what I've done?" Billus asked, too afraid to look at me.

I knew that I would have reacted differently if I had met him before finding Azureland. I didn't know how to react now. Things were so different. Life, despite its never ending obstacles, was getting better for me with every person I got out of Humurom. To my surprise, and ultimate pleasure, I found myself being thankful. It was a strange thankfulness. I felt a little like I was committing a massive faux pas for even thinking that.

"I want to thank you." I said. He looked puzzled at my response. "You started the chain of events that led me here. This may not be the best of places, but it's better than where I was. Without you I would be sitting in Humurom right now, probably with my dead mother, wondering just how worse my life could get before it's ending without ever getting to see the outside again."

He laughed, relieved. "I can't believe you are forgiving me."

"I'm thanking you not forgiving you." I said sternly. "It's because of you that I lost a friend. I didn't know him very long, but by protecting me and making me a hero just for a night he will always remind me that there is good in the worst places. You also took the last peace from my mind. Showing me that in the center of everyone's heart is chaos that can be brought out no matter how hard it's been covered up. I've seen it again and again since then. You and this Jurt changed me that day and I'm still not sure if it was for the best."

He nodded appreciatively. "I am sorry."

"Why did you even tell me?"

"I wanted to finally tell someone. It weighed on me for so long. But tell me, how bad is it over there?"

"Horrible. There's nothing worse than the state in there. I just want to get everybody out."

"How?"

I thought again if it was best to tell him. I decided it was.

"Right now I think that if I can go with some guns I can force them out."

He thought for a second. "You know I could be some use to you. If we could sneak out one night before we go back to Dizuria then maybe we can get over there. It would be tricky and we would have to bring the bracelets to get on the other side, but it just might work."

"I don't know."

I worried about getting caught. It was a nice offer though. If nothing else came up before we had to leave the wall and go back to Diz City then maybe I would go with that idea and get things done without the hunters.

"I really want to make everything up." He said. "And since I know I can't all the way this might be something I can do for you. It will at least make me feel better."

I worried about making plans to far in advance because things never seemed to work out the way I think they will. I revisited the idea of just getting the Humurom's out and then leaving all the land to Dizuria. Apart from the killing of the hunters and Bozlins I really can't see that much wrong with Dizuria taking over the land.

"If we can keep it under wraps long enough then yeah, that might work."

"I'll try to make sure I can get some bracelets and sneak out."

He was becoming more excited the more we talked.

"What will happen if we get caught?" I asked nervously.

"Several things might happen. If they don't suspect what we are doing they might just throw us out. If they do then we might be in for extreme dark room training."

This dark room stuff sounded really messed up. "What is that exactly?"

He shivered. "It's a set of brainwashing and torture techniques designed to make the most aggressive soldiers. Most of the people who are sent in have changed forever."

"How did you get through it?"

"If you can remember who you are and that what they are doing to you is not real pain then you can get out relatively normal."

"I wish I knew what happened with all those people guarding the wall." I said.

"I don't know for sure, but I guess they were all brought back here for more intense dark room training. To make sure that they killed any living things near the wall, since they obviously didn't last time. Did you take advantage of that?"

"We got all of the Bozlins out."

"Really?" He sounded impressed.

"Just the Humurom's now."

"And then it's over?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

I thought about the super aggressive soldiers that would be back at the wall. That meant that Billus, Theen, and I would have to be the ones to liberate Humurom. Waiting for the hunters would take too long.

"Any reason in particular that Dizuria wants a super aggressive army?" I asked, fearing the answer.

"I'm assuming that they think you will come back in with an army."

"That's funny because I wanted to. The president of Azureland wouldn't let me."

"This goes to the top of both governments then."

I felt stupid for telling him that. Even if I did trust him it was a bad idea to tell too much, at least until he helped and we were safely in Azureland.

We turned our attention to the task at hand, which we still hadn't found much success in. That little object had to be somewhere; I only hoped that we would find it before too much time had passed. We were running out of food.

The day passed and we still hadn't found anything. It was beginning to get worrisome. Billus found another nice spot for a camp. The rain had stopped but not before making the ground muddy. We found a patch of shrubs and grass and maneuvered around until we found a way to sleep on it. It got dark and we could no longer see each other.

"I actually thought you were going to attack me when I told you all that this morning." He said, I could tell he was smiling.

"I don't like to pick fights." I said simply, forgetting that I had just picked a fight the night before.

"Then you are in the wrong place."

"Not for long."

I heard him move around, getting up a little bit. "Can I really come with you?"

"I'll need your help to scare the Humurom's."

"I can't believe I'm this close to finally getting out of all this." He could barely contain his enthusiasm.

I wondered if that was my purpose in life; to get people out of horrible situations. It wouldn't be that bad of a purpose I suppose.

"Where do you live now?" He asked.

"In Wall City, in Azureland."

"I've always wanted to go there."

I yawned, feeling surprisingly better than I had since being in Dizuria. "Now you can."

I shut my eyes and drifted off to sleep sometime soon after.

# XVI

The ground was still wet when I got up. I had mud stains on my back. We wasted no time. We ate the rest of the bread and some of the meat and started out, determined to find the object.

"I'm going to see if I can think up a plan today for getting those people out." Billus said.

"I just hope we find the object."

"Yes, that too."

I was glad to see how excited he was about helping me. His experience and knowledge of the dome and Dizuria would come in handy if things worked out our way. Not that they ever did. But I was hopeful that this time was going to be different.

We came to a part of the forest that Billus seemed to be familiar with. He paced back and forth in one little area, certain that it was where he found the hidden object last time he had to look. There was a tree with a hollow in it. He studied it for a long time.

"I remember this tree, I'm positive. This is where it was hidden last time."

He put his hand in the hollow and came out with a gold wristwatch in his hand.

"And here it is."

We both sighed in relief.

"Now let's get back in one piece." He put the watch in the bag.

"Do you know which way is out?" I asked, fairly sure that we were completely lost.

"It shouldn't be too hard to find."

I wasn't a strong believer in his sense of direction at this point.

He took off in the direction that he thought would take us straight back to the castle. An hour later he changed his mind and went a different direction. An hour after that he sat down on a tree stump and frowned.

"It was easier last time."

"Can you climb? If one of us climbs a tree we might be able to see the castle." I suggested.

"I'm not going to climb up there. I don't plan on breaking my neck."

"Well I don't know how to climb a tree."

"Then I guess we'll have to follow my directions." He stood up with a fresh resolve and started in a new direction.

We ate the dried meat and finished our water. With no food left we were forced to make the best decision on which way to go.

"Do you know what direction it is?" I asked as evening approached.

"No. Wait, do you hear that?"

I listened. I could hear the far away sounds of gun fire. "That sounds like the right way."

We followed the sounds. They grew louder all the time. Within ten minutes we stumbled out of the forest and back to where we started. We saw Filn near the fenced in shooting area and went straight to him.

"We found it." Billus handed the watch to Filn.

"So you did. It didn't take you too long at all. This is going to be good for you Billus. They might put you out there when the rest go out."

"The rest of what?" Billus asked nervously.

"News came in while you were in. But it's been kept secret. If you make it out of dark room training I'll tell you."

Billus was beginning to look very anxious. "I think it would be better if you told me now."

Filn smiled. "Just don't tell anyone I told you." He motioned for us to lean in. "There is going to be a full scale assault on the Bozlins and Humuroms."

My breath caught somewhere in my lungs.

"We are going to take them out and finally get this dome to be all ours."

It disturbed me to see how happy he was with all of this.

He saw the confusion in our faces. "It'll go smoothly I promise. They don't have much to fight with. Leric thinks that if we go after them all at once they won't be able to detonate those bombs. In no time at all we will have all the room we could ever ask for."

Billus tried several times to speak but couldn't at first. "Why are they deciding this now?"

"They decided it when that guy got out of the wall. We know he came back in and took more out. Somebody, most likely the Azures, know all about us and are probably going to send in an army any time now. It took all of Leric's authority to get the mayors to agree. Of course nothing can be done officially about it until they agree, and they do now. It sure took long enough. That second in command, that Martvy, he really pushed for it not to happen, but he was outvoted."

I found the courage to speak. "But why not just let the Humurom's out?"

Filn looked at me as though I had gone insane. "You can't let them out. A few people telling the world about us is one thing. A lot of people telling it might have some people believing. Leric ordered all of the wall guards back for more training, so we can only hope he hasn't come back in again. But now they are back where they are supposed to be so if anybody comes in now they aren't gonna make it three steps before being blown up."

My heart dropped. My breathing grew shallow. "When does this start?" My voice was shaking.

He scrunched up his face in concentration. "The bracelets change over in ten days I think, so right after that."

"The bracelets do what?" I accidentally shouted.

"Yeah, it's great right? You see the bracelets like you used to get in have a specific code thing in them to let people in. Now I'm not very good with all this computer stuff. I know that there is one underground somewhere that controls the whole thing, but I'm not too sure about it. Anyway there is another code set up for something like this. Basically in ten days something will be switched and all those bracelets we have now won't work anymore. Only the new ones will. And we are going to take extra care of those. It would be sooner but it's going to take a while for them to get enough for all the new recruits."

I could feel our plan falling apart with every word Filn said. "So you said, um, how long again?"

"Ten days. After that all this will be ours. Now I see you both look worried. Don't be, you two should be finished with dark room training by then. Kill a few of those mountain people for me."

Billus had to take my arm and lead me away. I don't recall anything between talking to Filn and arriving at our room. The color had drained from my face and I was pretty sure my legs were going to give out any second. I took a seat on my bed.

Theen welcomed us back. He started to tell us about all the great things they got to do like flying the Nawings. I wasn't listening. Billus stopped him and told him what Filn had said. Zurrel came in from somewhere. Billus sent her out so we could talk. There wasn't any sense in getting another person involved at this point.

"There's only one thing left to do." Billus said after telling Theen everything we knew. "We have to get you two to the wall and hope nobody knows. There's no point in going to Humurom if everyone is going to get killed trying to get out."

"Aren't you coming?" I asked. I didn't want to lose somebody who was so keen on helping.

"Somebody has to be here to tell Filn your story. After you two are out I'm going to tell him that Theen had to take you out because you were really sick. That's the only way anybody gets out of here. No point in getting everybody sick."

"I could stay here and help slow this down and Hardin can go back and tell Azureland." Theen said.

Billus shook his head. "No, nothing will slow them down. You need to help get Hardin back. Besides you don't want to go through dark room training if you don't have to."

This was beginning to sound hopeless. "How am I supposed to get to Azureland from here?"

"You can't go through Dizuria. Unless there is a special event there won't be any trains coming or going from Diz City. You will have to go out in a different country."

Theen got up and paced the room. "So only ten days. That doesn't leave much time for Azureland to do much. We don't even have anything to prove what is going on."

"The only things we have are these outfits." I lamented.

"I got it." Billus exclaimed. "We leave tonight. You two will take a couple bracelets and walk around the edge of the forest. Eventually you will find the wall. If you go through there you should be in Zamiastin. From there find a town with a railroad and get back to Azureland. From there it is up to you."

I let my head drop to the pillow and closed my eyes. Everything was falling apart again. The only good thing was that with a time limit I knew when things were going to happen. "How are we supposed to get out with guards everywhere?" I rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands.

"I think they only guard the populated areas like around cities. As far as I know Zamiastin does not have any cities near the wall. Now you two should take a nap and get ready. I'll go and see if I can get some food and the bracelets."

"Be careful." I called as he left the room.

I took his advice and took a nap. Despite all the thoughts rushing through my head I was tired enough to fall asleep within a few minutes.

Something hitting the floor woke me up. Billus was back with a sack of food along with two bracelets. Zurrel was staring at me intently from her bed.

"So you don't feel too well?" She asked.

"No he doesn't." Billus responded for me. "That's no surprise though, we ran out of food quickly. I left him alone for one minute and he started to eat a plant that should definitely not be eaten. Now he is getting a very contagious virus from it and has to be quarantined right away. Theen is going to go and see to it that he does."

Zurrel nodded but continued to stare at me through narrowed eyes.

"Alright, it's about time to go. You ready Hardin?"

I got up and pretended to be dizzy. "Whoa, I think I'd better get going."

Billus and Theen each put one arm around me and helped me out of the room.

"Goodbye Zurrel. I hope we see each other soon." I said as we left.

Once outside I stopped the act. It was already dark. "What's in the bag?"

Billus took out a loaf of bread. "All I could get was some stale bread, so don't take too long getting there."

He walked with us until we got to the edge of the forest. I don't know what time it was but there was nobody around. We stood in an awkward silence near the trees.

"This is it." Billus said, sighing. "But before you go can you tell me what Azureland is like?"

I smiled, remembering my first time there. "It's great. There is so much there and everyone seems content with life. It has tall shiny buildings and nice clean streets. Out in the country there are miles and miles of nothing. But it's a good nothing. Not like here. It's an expectant nothing, waiting for the day when something will be built or brought in to make the area just another piece of society. I know you'll make it there. And when you do I'll take you on a Journey Train." I laughed at the excited mysticism on his face. "It's a huge train where people bake cakes and catch butterflies. It sounds strange but it's amazing."

"I can't wait." Billus said. I could tell he really couldn't.

We shook hands and nodded in mutual understanding of our pasts. Pasts that collided just the other morning.

"Don't forget. You have around nine days now." He said.

"I won't forget."

We said our final goodbyes and started for Azureland. I took a look back and could still see Billus staring after us. I wish there was a way to take him with us. I smiled and promised myself that in just ten days everything would be over and he would be in Azureland like he always wanted.

It's interesting how a year can change someone's outlook on life. If I had met Billus right after Milton died I probably would have hated him forever. But now I didn't. I was actually glad I met him and that he told me what he did. There was a sense of closure now. The shapeless forms that attacked us that day were actual human beings all along. They weren't necessarily mean or evil; they were just forced into roles by torture and the need for survival.

I walked a little faster, knowing that I was on a mission. We had enough knowledge now to get Azureland to some kind of action, I was sure of it.

# XVII

It was hard to stay near the trees when it was so dark. We either ended up too far away or between the trees. Theen kept his arms out in front of him while I followed close behind holding the bag. I wished it was closer to dawn. I imagined us hitting the wall head first when we got to it. It had a faint glow from the outside but I don't think it did from the inside. The glow on the wall next to Wall City must have just been the reflection of the city lights.

"How was it in there?" Theen asked me, wanting a break from the eerie silence of the dome.

"Not too bad. We got chased away from our camp by some mean guys, but nothing too bad. How was your training?"

"Does that explain the bruise? Our time was fairly interesting. When we were finished with gun stuff we learned how to fly those Nawings. I didn't learn much but it was still interesting. We were scheduled to start dark room training in a few days."

I told him what Billus had told me about the dark room training. Theen seemed glad to be away from it.

"Zurrel is nice. We should have thought about letting her in on everything."

"I didn't want anybody else to lie." I said, scraping my arm against a tree I had gotten too close to. "You never know when someone might slip up."

The more we walked the more tired we got. With that came more stumbling on tree roots close to the trees and rocks when we strayed too far. After several monotonous and tiring hours I began to see the first hints of light. With the new light came a new sense that everything was going to get better.

"What do you think Azureland will do?" I asked.

He shrugged. "It's hard to say. Since we are both sure that this will be the last chance for Humurom and for the wall I think they might take action."

"Do you really think so?" I asked excitedly.

"Yes, but it will be too dangerous for you to go in now."

"I know." I said sullenly.

I knew perfectly well that anyone going into the wall would be attacked, but my lasting feeling towards Azureland was that they would have some new technology that could help defeat all the guards. I think I was becoming an optimist. I always tried to think of the best, but I usually believed the worst was going to happen. Now that was beginning to change. More recently I was thinking that the best would happen and actually believed it could happen. That was progress I suppose.

Sometime that morning we came to the wall. We were in a part of the dome that I had never been to before. It pleased me slightly to know that all that area I had been in the last few days was once Humurom.

"You ready?" I asked.

He took a look around. "I always wondered what was in here."

I smiled strangely. I got the feeling that I was showing somebody the inside of my home. "I may never be back in here. If all goes well anyway. I just don't know about letting the fate of Humurom lie with Azureland, when they haven't wanted to do much about it."

"That's the hard part of these things. Sometimes all we can do is let others decide and hope for the best."

I nodded, feeling the weight of the situation. "Let's go."

We put our wrists up to the wall and jolted through. We squinted in the morning sun. There was nothing but dirt and grass for miles. A mountain range rested beyond that. It was a cool day, much nicer than the cold I was used to in Azureland.

"Not much resistance, huh?" I said, surprised that we didn't see anyone near the wall.

"If anybody was there they probably saw our uniforms and didn't think we were up to trouble. Now let's see if we can find some tracks or a town."

We walked diagonally from the wall out into the desolate country. I believed we were in Zamiastin. We kicked up dirt along the way, always looking for around for some sign of life.

About a mile out and Theen grabbed my arm. "Look." He pointed off to our left. A train was coming towards us. It was still small in the distance, but we could tell what it was. "It's a cargo train, perfect."

"Why is that perfect?"

"Because it will be going slow and we can jump on. I think it might have boxcars, even better."

As it came closer we saw that it did indeed have boxcars. The engine passed and we waved. The conductor waved back. Near the end of the train we found a boxcar with the door slightly open and jumped on. It was dark and smelled of the horse stable Nara took me to once, though there weren't any horses on this trip.

"Made it." I said, settling myself onto the hard floor.

"So now we –"

He stopped short. There were other people in the car with us, a man, a woman, a teenager, and two little kids. They appeared to be a family. They huddled together on the opposite wall, looking at us with fear.

"Hello." Theen called to them.

"Hello." The woman said, holding the two little kids tightly in her arms.

"Where are you from?" Theen asked.

"We are from here." The man answered quickly. He sounded panicked.

"Is it the uniform?" Theen inquired. "We aren't Dizurians. We only have these on to escape. We are from Azureland and are going there now."

"We are also escaping." The man said.

"Do you know where this train goes?"

"Away from Dizuria, that's all that matters."

Theen took the bag and divided up the bread. He gave the majority to the family. They were very glad to get it; they hadn't eaten in some time.

They told their story. The father worked in a small factory out in the country. It was designed to build tables and chairs but when Leric took over it was converted to make weapons. That was where the guns and Nawings were built. One day a group of people wearing the same red uniforms that we were wearing came to collect people for the Dome Project, the father wasn't chosen, though his teenage son was. Afraid that they would lose him forever the family packed up and left the tiny hut they were given to live in and escaped using the train. That explained why they were frightened when we suddenly appeared in their boxcar. They thought that we had followed them to bring them back to Dizuria.

Theen told them our story, omitting certain parts and changing others. He told them that we grew up in similar circumstances and trained in the dome. We all agreed that it was in their best interest to get out of there.

Meeting that family brought me back to what Billus had said to me in the forest. He told me not to blame the Dizurians because they were just people trying to live their lives. And he was right. These were the type of people that Leric was trying to get rid of, the people that just wanted to live and not go along with his plans.

"Have others escaped?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. Many have before us. I don't think that the leader even cares too much. As long as we are gone and out of his way."

Around midday Theen could see that we were approaching a town. It looked small.

"Hardin, let's get off here."

"If this isn't a train hub then we might have to wait a long time before we find another train."

"Good thinking." He said. "We'll go through the town and if we see other trains we will get off. I'm just afraid of ending up someplace nowhere near civilization. These trains sometimes end up in places like that."

He slid the door to the car until it was only open an inch. He looked through the town as we passed. There were other trains seen coming and going from tracks that led in all directions.

"Might as well try it." Theen said, opening the door.

We said goodbye to the family and jumped off the train when we thought it a safe distance from the town. The train was going so slow that we could have just stepped right off.

Small wooden houses made up the majority of the buildings in the little town. A few buildings stood above the rest, but nothing to the scale of Diz City or Wall City. The streets weren't paved. Horse drawn carriages and carts were followed by clouds of dust. The people wore simple and comfortable clothes. We stuck out in our bright red.

"We'll have to get money somehow." Theen pointed out as we entered the town.

"How?"

The idea of money escaped my mind. I blame the fact that for the first twenty two years of my life I never had to deal with it.

"Give me your bracelet."

He must have been going nuts. "What?"

"They won't be any good in a few days anyway. Maybe we can make some money off of them."

I felt the gold band on my wrist. "I don't know."

"Nobody is going to know what they are."

He was right. I reluctantly handed over my bracelet.

"Now see if you can find a train schedule or something."

He left to find somebody to sell the bracelets to. I went over to the train station to find a schedule.

The station was just a little booth with a man sitting there selling tickets. Beside the booth was a board with all the days' trains. There were only four that day. Two had gone by already, including the cargo train that wasn't scheduled to stop. The third was a train going to Westernia. And to my surprise the fourth was going straight to Wall City. It originated from Diz Beach, which I can only assume was one of the much talked about oceanfront towns in Dizuria. It was due to arrive in four hours and leave shortly after.

Theen found me a few minutes later carrying several gold coins.

"Here we go. The man said that this was enough for two train tickets. What did you find out?"

"There's a train leaving tonight to Wall City."

"Good, let's see if we can get some tickets somewhere."

I showed him to the little booth.

"Excuse me sir, we need two tickets for Wall City."

The man was really old. He squinted at Theen. "How many?"

"Two."

"That will be 2 S."

"What? Oh, 2 S. Here you go." He handed the man two coins. One remained.

The man handed us the two tickets.

"Thank you. Can you tell me what I can buy with what's left?" Theen held up the remaining coin.

"Not much."

We wandered around the town looking for food that we could buy with the last coin. I had a feeling that Theen got a bad deal for those bracelets, but we got what we needed so it didn't matter.

The coin wasn't enough to buy us cooked meat from a woman selling it from a stand on the side of the road. Theen took it into a small store and he put the coin on the counter. The store owner gave us a slice of cake. Train tickets were cheaper than I thought they would be. We split the cake. It was good, but not enough to fill either of us up at all.

We spent the next few hours walking through the small town. Our outfits didn't get the attention I thought they would. Some people looked but nobody asked us where we were from or what we were doing there. It was a nice evening overall. The sun slowly sank and though my stomach was growling I enjoyed the calm before the inevitable storm that was to come when we arrived in Azureland.

The train arrived just after dark. It was a small train with only a few passengers on board. We found a quiet spot in the very back.

"We will only have eight days left by the time we get to the city." I whispered, looking out the window. All I could see was my reflection in the dark window.

"Don't worry." Theen whispered back. "Things can move pretty quickly in Azureland when they want it to."

"I'm just afraid they won't do anything."

"You should sleep. When you wake up we will be in Wall City and everything will seem just a little bit better."

I took his advice and closed my eyes, my head resting against the cold window. The darkness outside gently lulled me to sleep.

# XVIII

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes were the empty fields of Azureland. The city loomed in front of us. The train began to slow. It was morning. The bright sun shined off the buildings and into my eyes. I turned from the window to see Theen with his hand on the back of the seat in front of his, ready to get off.

The train stopped at the station and we got off, heading for the government building. We had eight days left until the bracelets were useless. That meant only eight days to save Humurom. And then I could forget about what was in that wall forever.

We briskly walked to the government building. The work day just started and large groups of people were still on the streets. In twenty minutes we were at the steps of the building, and a few minutes after that we were outside of Gilik's office. Nara sat at the secretary desk that morning.

"Hardin! You're here, what happened? We lost all contact with you."

"Can we see Gilik?" I said harshly.

She became serious. "Yes."

Theen and I entered his office. Gilik sat behind the desk reading the paper.

"Well here you are." He put the paper down and stood up. "Find anything out?"

"Quite a bit." Theen said.

"And we have to hurry." I added.

We told him everything we could about what we had been doing the past few days. Starting with the necklace and ending with the family that was stowing away on the train. We stressed the importance of the bracelet switch over and made sure to include the dark room training. By the end he nodded slowly and shook his head.

"So only a handful of days until the bracelets are obsolete."

"And a few more until Humurom is." I said.

He sighed. "I see. That is a shame for many reasons."

"What will you do?"

"I'll have to think about it."

My mouth dropped open. "There isn't any time. You need to send someone, an army."

He looked at me as though I was saying something completely outlandish. "No Azureland army will ever be sent to Dizuria or the wall, I've told you that. Besides, I can't authorize that and I don't see the need to contact the president. He made it clear to me the last time he was here that he only wants to be disturbed when Azureland's safety is in question."

My temper was rising fast. "What about the other countries? Get them involved."

"With what proof? Those outfits?"

"You can give them bracelets and they can see for themselves."

He looked at me pityingly. "If others get the bracelets then we will have a problem with Dizuria."

"You already have a problem with Dizuria!" I shouted. This was my last chance to do something and it was being taken away by the only person who could help.

"I don't see one."

"You are being completely unreasonable."

He banged his hands on the desk and became very serious. "I suggest you leave this office Hardin before I decide to do nothing at all. I am not going to risk the lives of hundreds of Azures in a war with Dizuria over some Humurom's who clearly don't want to leave anyway."

I calmed myself down a bit. "If we can just have some weapons–"

"Nobody is going to go in until I make a decision. Now get out and let me."

"Yes sir." Theen said. He had backed up all the way to the door.

I forced myself to turn around and leave. I walked straight down the hall, not even acknowledging Nara as I passed. Theen walked beside me.

"He'll come up with a plan, I promise. Now you should go see your mother, she is probably worried sick."

He went off to the right and I continued to the next left. When I turned the corner I saw Historia halfway down the hall, leaning against the wall. When she saw me she quickly removed something from her ear. I was so mad I didn't even care what she was doing there.

"Things don't seem to be going your way, do they?" She said as I approached.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I passed her. She followed.

"The people I am with might be able to help."

"I doubt it." I made it to the elevator and pressed the button.

"Why don't you come by sometime?"

She handed me a small card. I took it but didn't look at it.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm fine."

The elevator came and we both got in. She pushed the button for the floor directly above mine.

"There is too much here for one person to deal with."

I didn't know what she was talking about. Could she know what I was going through?

"Look," I said, finally turning towards her. "I'm not feeling that great right now. Is there any chance you could start making sense and tell me how you know so much?"

"No." She said with a smile.

"That's great." I said quietly.

The elevator doors opened and I got out.

"Only eight days left." She said.

I flipped around. She was smiling and pointing to the card I still had in my hand. Before I could say anything the doors closed and she was gone.

I looked at the card. There was an address printed on it for someplace in Wall City. I didn't recognize where it was.

How could she know about that? There wasn't any time for Gilik to tell anyone. I suddenly felt like I was being watched. I looked all around but nobody was there. It was the same feeling that I had while hunting in Humurom, and I remembered how well that turned out.

I opened the door to my room and was surprised to see it empty. Mama must have been at her treatment and I figured the hunters were in their own rooms. I didn't much want to talk to anybody just yet.

I was very hungry. I found quite a bit of food in the fridge. Mama must have been shopping. I made myself a couple of sandwiches. When I was finished I sat on the couch and found myself falling asleep.

I got up a few hours later to the sound of someone coming into the room.

"Hardy! You're back! We were so worried." Mama said when she saw me.

Nobody came in with her. I was glad that she was the only one, but I didn't like the idea of telling the story again and again.

She sat beside me and I went over everything that happened from arriving in Diz City to arriving in Wall City that morning. She didn't make a noise while I was talking.

"So what are we going to do?" Mama asked.

"Gilik is thinking about it."

"He'll come up with something."

Was everybody being overly optimistic or did they really think that Gilik would save everyone? He hadn't done anything for the Humurom's yet.

"I want to talk with Stud, where is he?" I figured Stud wouldn't judge me like the others would.

"He's still recovering downstairs."

A minute later I was entering the Care Wing and asking a nurse where Stud was. He had been transferred to a different section where they could watch his progress better. I found it with some difficulty. Stud was in a small room with a bed and a chair. He was rolling around the room in a wheelchair. He looked a lot better than I had seen him in a while.

"Hey, Stud." I took a seat in the chair.

"You're back. How did it go?"

Once again I told the story. He nodded and frowned, but let me finish. "Oh." Was all he said when I finished.

"I thought you might tell me how things were when you left again."

"Terrible, it was worse than ever. A lot of people had just given up."

"Any deaths?" I asked.

"Yes. Aren't there always?"

"Hmm . . . do you think it's gotten worse since then?"

Stud looked at me for a long time. He rolled himself over and put his hand over mine. "What are you going to do with this information?"

"I just, I don't know. I figured if they were all sick –"

"Don't rationalize it that way. You can't think that they will all die anyway. That's not the way to handle this."

"I don't know what else to do. Gilik said that nobody is going in. He's given up on it. What if us going in doesn't change anything? Then we would probably be killed by those vicious wall guards for no reason. We are never going to get them all out. I figure if it's all going downhill anyway it might as well without more people dead."

Stud rolled around the room. "Just don't give in."

The nurse came in to give him his medicine and I left. I really didn't know what to do. I was beginning to think that Gilik was right not to let anyone in, especially now. There was no way to keep people from being killed with the wall guards. If I could just let it go then everything would be better. It didn't dawn on me that the hunters would be a harder sell.

I wanted to talk to Historia. I wanted to know what she knew and how she knew it. I had a strange feeling that she could actually help. I went around the building looking for her but couldn't find her. I thought of the card she gave me but I didn't want to leave the building. In the end I went back up to the room to face the hunters.

# XIX

I tried to think up a way to tell the others without them getting mad at me for not doing more. Nothing came to mind. When I got back to the room they were all there looking at me expectantly. Mama had told them the story so I wouldn't have to.

Lace came up to me, she looked angry. "We can't let this happen. Our families are still in there. We have to go in."

"They put up guards again. If we go in we will be killed." My voice was tired, deflated.

"We made it before." Morome said.

I shook my head, trying to get them to understand the hopelessness, a hopelessness that came over me like a wave upon getting out of the meeting with Gilik. "Remember how it was when we got back to the wall, how bad that was? It will be worse now. And even if we get to Humurom there is no way that we can get them all out."

"It's over." Peter said from the window.

"No it's not." I said, my voice growing for the first time. "We made it. We can represent Humurom."

Lace gave me a sickening stare. "I'm going back in. I'll die protecting my home if I have to."

I threw my arms wide. "Look around. Why would you give all this up?"

"Because it's not the same without them!" She stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her.

I thought about Mama and how I would be if somebody told me I couldn't go back in to get her out. That's probably how Lace felt. I couldn't blame her. I wasn't seeing things from her point of view. I acted and took the chances to go back in and get Mama, and now Lace wanted to do the same thing.

I sat down, defeated. Dala patted my shoulder.

"You're right. We are Humurom now."

I had to think of something fast. Lace was going to get killed if she snuck back in alone. Then again we all might get killed if we snuck back in together. I was truly lost.

There was a knock at the door. It was Mr. Jess. Gilik wanted to see me again. I thanked Mr. Jess and followed him out of the room. As I waited for the elevator I could hear somebody crying down the hall. I was certain it was Lace.

"Hardin, I've made a decision." Gilik said when I entered his office.

My heart beat faster. "Yes?"

"I am going to send five of our top diplomats to Dizuria to confront their leader about this. I have called Leric and he is willing to send a train to hear what we have to say. I didn't tell him what they are going to talk about, of course."

I was overcome with emotion. This wasn't the best I could have asked for, but maybe it would work out after all. "Thank you sir."

Gilik put his hand up. "But we have another problem. You may not be aware of this, but four people have been killed in recent weeks within two blocks of this building. All four killed were young men around your age."

"That's terrible." I said, not sure what he was getting at.

"Yes it is." He continued. "One of the killers was captured this morning trying to board a train for the Dizurian coast. What was strange was that he was wearing the same outfit that you are wearing now."

I looked down, completely forgetting what I was wearing with all the stress of talking with Lace and the others. I was still wearing the red Dizurian Dome Project uniform.

Gilik nodded. "I think you know what that means."

I did know. Leric had sent assassins to kill the man who got out of the wall. I'm sure somebody went back to him with a rough idea as to what I looked like. I wonder why he didn't notice when I was standing in front of his face. He probably never thought I would make it that far.

"It means Dizurians have been sent to kill me." I said, looking at the floor.

"I have a feeling that they didn't bother wearing disguises. If what you said is true then nobody knew what those uniforms meant, and so wouldn't think twice about seeing them. I'm going to ask you to leave the city until the diplomats get back."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

It wouldn't be the first time that Gilik sent me somewhere right as I was ready to do something else. I was beginning to think that he would use the killings as an excuse to get me out of his hair.

"I have a feeling that the killers might get more frequent once the diplomats arrive there. For now they don't know anything about you being there and so don't know that we know what we do. They don't know about the Bozlins yet I don't think. They have been moved from here and are now living in tents near their new town. We are telling people that they lived here and were sent out there because of overpopulation." He paused. "I want to safely tell the world that the man from the wall has left the city. I've already denied rumors that others came with you. I don't know if they believe me, but they seem to want you dead most of all."

"But why?"

"I don't know. Did you do anything besides just get out?"

I tried to think back. I didn't recall doing anything that would garner the need for assassins. "No."

"Now I suggest that you get packed. Nara has agreed that you and the others that came out with you will go and stay with her family for a few days. Their house is far enough away from this city to give you all some privacy. I've told the builders of the new Bozlin town to build a few houses for you all so you can live there. If all goes well with this diplomatic trip than we can get your people out and everything will be just fine."

"What did you tell the diplomats to say?" I asked.

"They are going to tell Leric that we know about their want to have the dome to themselves and that we don't care. They can have it and we'll keep the secret as long as they don't come out on our side and they let the Humurom's leave. They will live here like the Bozlins, I didn't mention them, and everything will be better. The most important thing is to end this mess once and for all. Does that sound good? I'm sure you would rather just go back to living your life and be free of the burden. Isn't that what you want?"

"And we have to leave?"

"Yes, that is my decision so that the killings will stop. Nara's parents agreed to it and everything else is set. You are scheduled to leave in the morning. A few hours later the diplomats will leave for Dizuria. Remember Hardin, this is your home now. Before long you will be out there with the Bozlins. They are making their own houses. They are being trained by professionals and soon will be in charge of the whole thing."

"That sounds nice."

I thought it over, though I don't think I had a say in the decision one way or another. I actually thought it was a good idea. I thanked him and left the office, once again feeling the hopefulness that everything was going to get better. I couldn't wait to tell the others.

# XX

I went straight up to the room to tell them all the news. They also said that it seemed to be the best option so far. Morome told Lace and somehow got her on board. The only condition was that we come back as soon as we heard any news. I wholeheartedly agreed to that.

The hunters left to pack for the trip. Mama put her clothes in the Dizurian case that Milton and I found so long ago. She said it reminded her of me more than of Dizuria, but I still felt weird about her bringing it.

The next morning we woke bright and early and made our way to the train station. It was a cool morning but spring was finally coming in. The usual noise and congestion of morning commuters was oddly muted. When we arrived at the station Gilik was waiting for us with another specialty train. We would be the only passengers.

"If anything happens I will call Nara straight away." Gilik assured me.

"Thanks." I said, not sure what else to say.

We boarded the train. Lace had calmed down overnight. She talked excitedly about getting to ride a train again. The others seemed equally joyful. Overall we felt that this new plan was going to be the plan that finally brought Humurom out of the wall and an end to all our worries. There was a small part of me that kept creeping into the back of my mind that didn't believe it. That tiny part of me was certain that something would go wrong. I couldn't listen to that part of me; I had to be positive once again.

The train slowly started to move out of the station. I looked back and saw Gilik leaving the platform. He was probably going to give final instructions to the diplomats.

Mama was quite fascinated by how fast we were going. She was downright mystified when we really started picking up speed.

Nara sat beside me. "How are you feeling? We haven't talked much recently."

"Sorry." I apologized. "Thanks by the way, for all of this. You've done way too much for all of us."

She laughed. "There's no limit to goodness."

"No limit to anything, even bad things."

"It can seem that way."

The view outside the windows became less congested. Soon fields of grass replaced the cityscape. This trip didn't have the wonder that the first trip that way had. That day we ended up in a blizzard. One day that wonder would be back. I slouched down in my chair and thought of finally going on that Journey Ship to see the world. It wouldn't be too long now.

For the next few hours we talked about trains, snow, and speed cookers. The words Dizurian, wall, and diplomats were not uttered once. Before I knew it we were slowing. The long stretch of stone that made up the platform came into view. We disembarked the train. It was becoming a nice warm spring day. Nara led the way towards the house. I told everyone all about my last time there on the train and didn't have anything left to say. They were really excited about seeing the lake.

The house came into view a minute later. It was at the top of a small hill and had several large trees nearby. Mr. Kilray came out of the house and waved to us. A woman appeared next to him. That must have been Mrs. Kilray. She looked a lot like Nara except for her graying hair.

Mr. Kilray came up to greet us. "Welcome home Nara." He turned to me. "So nice to see you again Hardin. When Nara asked me if you all could come I couldn't say yes fast enough. I love having company."

I shook his hand. "It's nice to be back."

He went around and introduced himself to everyone. I wondered how much he knew about why we were there. I hoped he didn't know much.

Mrs. Kilray took us out back to see the lake. It was very beautiful in the midday spring sun. I had to joke about the lack of ice. I felt that they were getting sick of my 'when I was here last time' stories but I was enjoying myself too much to care. I had to continually tell myself that things could go wrong quickly just to keep from feeling too great about being back at that house. It was definitely a highlight of my first time in Azureland.

We went back to the front and the hunters and Mama went into the house. I looked back the way we came, trying to see if I could see the dome. I couldn't; we were too far away. Maybe that was a good thing. I told myself once again that everything was going to be fine while we were there. Gilik knew what he was doing and the diplomats would save the day. Leric would give up the Humuroms and Azureland would never tell anyone about them being in there. All would be well.

I turned and started into the house to hear Mr. Kilray give out the sleeping arrangements. I breathed a sigh of relief. Only seven days until the bracelets were obsolete. Only seven days before we could feel what it was like to have normal lives.
The first chapter of the final story in the Hardin's War series

Hardin's Calling
I sat in the darkened kitchen of the Kilray house. My hands clutched the warm cup of tea I made using the Speed Cooker. It was my first successful attempt at getting it to work. I could hear the soft breathing of the hunters sleeping in the living room. Lace was on the couch while Dala, Peter, and Morome were on the floor. I could not even see Dala; she had disappeared in the heap of blankets Mrs. Kilray had set out for her. I hoped they liked their stay. They seemed to. Mr. Kilray had taken them out on the lake just a few hours before. It was dark, but that didn't stop them from telling stories about how wonderful it all was when they got back.

My mind worked through various fantasies, as it usually did. They all started with the diplomats Gilik sent to Dizuria getting on the train. I imagined them forming a plan of action and then arriving in Diz City with all the necessary weapons to take down the entire government. Leric would surrender immediately and call off all the wall guards he sent out.

I took a sip of the tea. It was still warm. I sighed deeply and looked out a window into the back yard. It was too dark to see the lake. All I could see was my reflection frowning back at me in the dim lighting. I shook slightly, I was becoming increasingly nervous. There was a time limit now. Only seven days left until the bracelets switched over and we would never get back into the wall. My fantasies turned dark. What if the whole venture was a disappointment? What if the diplomats came back after only making things worse? I didn't dare think about that.

I put my head in my hands and groaned. How did all this happen? Well I knew when it started. It all began when Milton and I brought those cases back while hunting. The very next day Milton was killed and I started to build my determination to make sure everybody got out of Humurom alive. That was only one year ago. It seemed like so much longer. Five years felt closer to reality.

The ceiling creaked. Someone was moving around. I could hear footfalls on the stairs. Nara appeared. She wore a pink dressing gown. She went into the kitchen and began using the Speed Cooker. She paid no attention to me. When finished she came over and sat across from me, setting a cup of tea down on the table.

We sat for a while without talking, without even making eye contact. I fixed my sights on the window again, straining to see something through the darkness.

"How's the tea?" She finally said, stirring hers with a spoon.

I looked at her. She smiled but I knew it wasn't genuine. "It's alright."

She looked down into her cup. "This kind was always my favorite. My dad used to buy it for me when I was little. It calmed the nerves. Still does. We used to always try different things in the winter. Different deserts, different breads. It always was a big deal because the store is so far away. What did you eat?"

I wasn't going to tell her about Nutrition. I thought back to see if there was something else. "I once shared a can of fruit. It was one of the last. I thought it was the best tasting stuff in the world. I don't remember what it was exactly. I gave a piece to Peter, he liked it too. We used to talk about all the food we read about and wondered what it all tasted like. We had a scale we used. The food we thought would taste the best was labeled as fruit like. Looking back that can was probably so bad we were lucky it didn't kill us." I smirked at the thought. "We're lucky everything didn't kill us actually."

She shook her head, still looking into her cup. "I can only imagine how bad it was in there."

"Please don't."

She looked up. "Sorry."

"It's alright." I mumbled.

I finished my tea and set the cup down. Maybe it did calm the nerves. I felt a bit better than I had before.

"Do you want to live with the Bozlins?" Nara asked.

I wasn't expecting that question. It took a moment for me to think it over. "I guess. It's better than being in the government building, constantly feeling that I owe everyone."

"We can get you a job. But first we need to get you an identity. The president can authorize giving you an I.D. and a place of birth in Azureland. You can even choose a last name."

"I like yours."

Her spoon clanked on the side of the cup. "That's a good one."

"So it would be like I'm a normal Azure and nobody would ever know?"

"Exactly. He can't do much now, but once things get sorted out a bit he can get it done. Then you can go anywhere in Azureland and start over for good."

"That sounds great."

I imagined all the things I could do as an actual Azure. I realized I didn't know anything I could do except get a job. But I'm sure there were a lot of things available for me once that happened.

"Gilik will probably want you to do it soon. But it's your decision."

"He doesn't seem to want me involved with anything anymore."

"It's not that." She leaned in close as though someone might be listening. "He doesn't want to get involved. He's afraid of losing his job if people find out anything. He's been playing it cool, but trust me, he's worried that you might be the end of him. He's been elected three times. He's tried to get rid of the council by continuingly giving them time off and doing things himself. That's why the president keeps coming, to force him from doing everything." She leaned back and nodded. "Please never mention any of that."

"I won't."

Nara looked over at the sleeping hunters in the living room. "How about them? What are they going to do?"

I shrugged. "They'll probably take you all up on that offer to become citizens. We can all start over."

"And Stud?"

"I don't know. I guess it's a good idea to wait until all this is over to do anything."

Once again we sat in silence. I thought over what she said about Gilik. I suppose it was pretty obvious that he was worried about me messing things up for him. I didn't mean to, but that's what happens when so many secrets are kept away from people. I was the Nutrition of Azureland.

"You know I almost gave up. I almost wanted to just leave on that ship and forget the whole thing."

"Anybody would have wanted to do that." She said comfortingly.

"But those Humurom's need me. I'm the only one still trying to save them."

"And you will one way or another."

I looked at her suspiciously. "You shouldn't say that. Not if you work for the government."

"We all have our secrets. If there is any way I can help let me know."

"I will."

I was becoming worried about all these secrets.

She stretched her arms out in front of her. "That's it then. I've wanted to talk with you alone for a while now. Maybe I'll be able to get to sleep now."

"I know how you feel. With those diplomats gone I've had the hardest time sleeping tonight."

"You will probably have time for a nap during the day."

"After the hunters go out on the lake again."

She stood up. "I can't believe my dad took them out in the boat at night. He never goes out on the lake at night. He was probably just excited to get to show it to them. He gets lonely out here since my mom has been going to visit her parents."

"Your parents are so nice. I like spending time with them."

"And they like you."

A buzzing noise came from somewhere. Nara reached into a pocket and pulled out the communication device that projected images onto surfaces. She pointed it at the table where an image of Gilik appeared. I quickly got up and stepped away so he could not see me. The image of Gilik looked distressed.

"Nara, are you safe?"

"Yes." She said slowly.

"I need you back here first thing in the morning. The diplomats are all dead."

Also by A.S. Morrison

The Last Golden Rose

Poiye

Hardin's War

Hardin's Calling

The Tunnel Dream

The Little Brown Box

A Translation of Inspiration

Three Very Short Stories

Evening's with Littleberry and Other Short Stories

A. Candle's Light

