Chapter 57
Fifty-Seven
Ayla
There were a lot of people waiting the next day.
All in all, we ended up with five carts and twenty-four people, including the drivers.
Even better, we had eleven dogs! The group was bigger than Zasen wanted, but no one was willing to be left behind, and as one woman put it, more hands meant we'd unload even faster.
But when I checked the back of the carts, I realized the meat we'd harvested didn't look like I'd expected.
In Lorsa, Zasen tended to carve the animals up into proper servings.
This? They'd cut the bellies open and removed the intestines so nothing would spoil, but everything else was left intact.
The deer still had their hide and horns!
As we walked, Kanik explained that delivering it like this would make it clear there were more things to eat than people.
Even if the women didn't see it before it was prepared, the hunters would.
Changing a few minds would hopefully start people talking, and one crack in the complete authority of the elders would only lead to more.
He also let me know it had been Rymar's idea.
When I asked Rymar about it, he called it propaganda.
That wasn't a word I knew, but when he explained the concept, it sounded like how the Moles did everything.
Twisting words and thoughts to fit their needs was how they'd kept us all so ashamed we never pushed back.
It worked for them, so using the tactic against them seemed fitting somehow.
But the walk was a long one. For the first few hours, everyone traipsed easily.
The dogs ran loose, sniffing at whatever they wanted.
The feeling of the people around us, both Dragons and Reapers alike, was almost excited.
For once, they were doing something. Maybe it wouldn't work, but if it did?
If we could stop them, then maybe Tobias wouldn't be stuck in there waiting for a promotion so he could bring us the code!
Although so much time walking also meant a lot of time to think.
Our big problem was getting a code. I knew there was a lock on the door, but I'd never seen it - at least not from the outside.
On the inside, there was a room that was always closed.
I knew the elders could open it, and I knew the means to shut off the intruder alarm was in there, but only because of that one incident that had happened when I was a child.
I did know of another code.
"Zasen?" I asked, stretching my legs so I could catch up to him. "Have you ever seen the door to the compound?"
"Yes..." He gave me a funny look. "Haven't you?"
I shook my head. "When I left, I was shackled, I had just been stripped, and I thought they'd throw me out and leave. Instead, they dragged me up the hill and chained me to the tree. I didn't think to look back! I was so surprised by the grass, sky, moonlight, and everything else."
"Makes sense," he agreed.
"So what does the door look like?"
"Um..." He laughed once. "It's large. Twice as big as the doors we have on our homes. More wide than tall, and it's made of metal. Weather has rusted it in some places, but the kind of metal they used is trying to resist the corrosion. Why?"
"The lock?" I pressed.
He shrugged, clearly not knowing what I was looking for. "There are 3 long handles that serve as latches for the thing. They're secured. Trust me, I've tried them a few times."
"And the means to open them?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said. "Ayla, the entire thing is like nothing in Lorsa. Rumors once said it was aliens who designed the thing. We knew it wasn't, but the look of that place is weird enough it's an easy thing to believe. Why?"
"Is there a keypad?" I asked, holding up my hands to approximate the size. "Something about like this with buttons on it? They might have numbers on them, or maybe those have worn off, but three buttons across and four down?"
His focus shifted to the trees we were passing and his brow furrowed. "I think so? Like a metal square with smaller squares inside? Silver. Well, a silver-colored metal. Why, Ayla?"
I chewed at my lower lip, thinking hard. "The Moles like to keep things the same. They never change anything - or didn't."
"Uh-huh..." He was watching me warily.
"Zasen, I know a code."
And his feet stopped. "Why didn't you say this before?"
"I did! That night we couldn't sleep? I told you then." I flopped my hands at my sides. "I didn't know the one on the outside would be the same kind of lock. I just... I never put it together, but I was thinking, and then I realized, and I don't know, I mean, maybe..."
"You're fine," he promised, clasping my shoulder to stop my rambling. "Just tell me what you know?"
I nodded, but before I could start, Rymar hurried over. "Problem?" he asked.
But that brought Kanik. "What's wrong?"
And I hung my head. "I know a code."
"'A' is not the same as 'the,'" Rymar said, immediately seeing the issue.
I nodded. "Yeah, but the Moles like to keep things the same. I don't know if they can even change the codes, or if that's just the way they are. What I do know is the code for the quarantine doors didn't change from when I was a girl until I turned twenty."
"Okay?" Kanik asked, looking between all of us like he was lost.
"What if they only have one code?" I asked. "What if I've known the code this whole time and didn't realize it?"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait?" Kanik begged. "Ayla, you know a code, and you've known it for a while, but it's for a different door. How many other doors are locked in there?"
"I don't know of any," I admitted. "But as a girl, I didn't get the chance to see places that would be restricted."
"Such as?" Zasen asked.
"The weapons room, or the reloading area. Meat preparation was another where we weren't allowed. Most of the men's places, like their meeting hall, were all locked as well, but they were all up a hallway we weren't allowed in."
"So too far to see if there was a code on those doors," Rymar realized, hooking his arm around my shoulders to get me walking again - making Zasen and Kanik follow. "So, if your code does work, Ayla, then what?"
"We could get in!" I hissed.
"And?" Zasen pressed, moving to walk on my other side.
Kanik shifted to Rymar's free shoulder. "Right now, it's night down there. That means the lights are off, right? Ayla, do they have guards at night?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "I do know that some places have dim lights, like outside the facilities."
"Which facilities?" Zasen asked.
"The communal bathrooms," I explained. "When the hunters returned, the lights always stayed on in the infirmary and the halls around it, so they can be controlled, but I don't know how."
"Fuck," Rymar grumbled.
"I want to know about the dim lights," Kanik pressed. "Ayla, could we use that to get in far enough to free the women? The ones in quarantine? Could you take us there?"
"Yes."
And the three men shared a look. It was proud and hopeful at the same time. I knew what they were thinking, but there was one big problem with all of this.
"It might not work!"
"But that's still better than the chances we had ten minutes ago," Rymar said. "Ayla, what is the worst that happens? Nothing?"
"Or they catch us when we're unloading the meat and shoot all of us," I said.
Which made Kanik snort out a laugh. "I mean, she's not wrong."
"No, but I want to know everything about what's inside there," Zasen said. "Ayla, if you can open that door, and we're not ready for what will pour out? Then we shouldn't open the door. But if this could work?" His lips curled in the kind of look that would've scared me when I'd first arrived.
The kind that looked excited for death. The sort I'd seen on so many men when they took out their anger on a woman. It was the same look Reynold Saunders had worn when he'd agreed to marry me. The one on his face right before I'd shoved a fork into his arm.
The kind that lacked any fear.
So as we walked, I explained everything I knew. Zasen and Kanik picked at each detail, extracting more from my memory than I'd realized was possible. I knew the hall, how it angled down, and the path to the first light. From there, I could walk blind to the girls' hall. I was sure of it!
But I didn't know where Callah was now. She was married, so she wouldn't be in the girls' hall anymore. No, she and Tobias would have their own rooms, tucked among countless others on any of a few dozen halls. In other words, they were all but out of reach.
"How will I find them?" I finally asked.
"They'll find us," Zasen promised. "We have enough people here who speak English now. We'll yell for them if we have to. Ayla, all we need is to get inside!"
"And you might be able to do that," Rymar said. "If you can, everything will end today."
"We have enough people," Kanik said.
But I wasn't sure we did. Then again, more wouldn't help. The halls were dark, they'd be crowded, and inside was nothing like out here. We wouldn't be able to get around them, use camouflage, or blend with our surroundings.
And people would die.
All too soon, we reached the descent that led to the door. It was a slow and gradual slope, completely devoid of trees. The grass grew thick here, running right up to the stone cliff of the mountain's face.
I paused, standing at the top of the hill and looked up.
Jagged rocks stood well above me, but not nearly as high as I'd expected.
But when I looked back, I realized we were already on the mountain.
The Reaper's camp was below us and to the east. Lorsa was to the north.
The paths behind us meandered down slowly, proving the hill we'd just come up covered the only world I'd known before - and it was such a small thing compared to the world out here.
"Okay!" Zasen said. "We're going to set everything right in front of the door!" He pointed. "I want archers at the ready. If that door opens for any reason, we need to be prepared for the worst."
"But!" Rymar said, taking over. "They could be willing to negotiate for food. We want to do this peacefully if possible, so do not shoot without good reason!"
"And we will trade out on the lifting," Zasen said, marching his way down toward the door. "Bring the first cart!"
I jogged after him, refusing to be left behind. Kanik and Rymar stayed at the top, armed with bows. I hadn't realized Rymar even owned one, but it could've been borrowed. He had a habit of never making a fuss about such things.
I reached the line between the hard flooring I'd grown up with and the grass I now took for granted just as the first cart pulled up, angled sideways to escape easily if necessary. Immediately, all of us reached into the back, grabbing what we could.
"It needs to be well back from the door," I told them. "Give them space to inspect it, otherwise they'll assume a trap."
"Ayla, grab the head of this deer," Zasen ordered.
I did, taking a handful of antlers while three others moved to handle the weight of its body. It was large, but the elk were even bigger. Pigs, large birds, rabbits, and so much more were among the offerings we'd brought, and most were too big for me to lift on my own.
The whole time, I kept stealing glances at the exterior of that door.
The pile on the ground grew and the cart emptied out, so the next moved into place. I wanted to keep going, but Zasen made me head up and take my turn guarding the ones lifting. When he joined me, I felt a bit better about it, but I kept looking at the way this door was made.
It was heavier and wider than the one for quarantine, but similar in many ways. The latch was made from bolts of metal. A few of them. The hinges on it were massive, proving the thing had to be heavy, and I remembered it as being thick. Sadly, I hadn't paid enough attention to know how thick.
"Well?" Zasen asked as the second cart moved out of the way and the teams switched again.
"I want to look at it," I said. "To see if there's a keypad."
"We unload first," he told me. "Then we move everyone else back. Until then, you can look all you want, but do not touch."
"I can do that," I promised.
But on the side? I saw something that looked exactly like the worn number pad I was used to. Every time I lifted an animal from the cart, I recited the code in my head, terrified it might slip away now when we could be so very close: 4-4-6-3.
That could be the number that freed Callah from Hell.