Sargasso - Chapter 3

Sargasso - is a serial short story. If you missed Chapter 2 click here. 

To my readers:  So, when I started writing this story I believed I was going to be able to write it in 3 chapters. I apparently misjudged my own imagination. For all of you who were hoping for a conclusion to Sargasso today, you are going to have to wait until next week for Chapter 4. (That is, unless, I come with something for Chapter 5...) - Peter-John

"Sargasso"

by Peter-John Campbell

Chapter 3

So-young opened her eyes. She looked up and saw that her drop had only been ten feet, but she felt every inch of it. Her left leg and arm throbbed. The palm of her hand was scraped and bleeding. She felt cold, or damp. With a groan, she sat up and found that she was lying in a puddle of water. Standing, she felt dizzy. She reached to balance herself and cringed as she touched the wall coated with a thin filmy slime.

This dank hollow existed in stark contrast to the city above. With 10% of the population assigned to a special work detail, the metropolis was kept immaculate. Daily they would clean, polish, wash, sweep, and fix every blemish that could be found. Not a crack, hole, or smudge was ever seen. The city was flawless, all part of the Great Father's plan to show their nation's superiority.

The deep slurring sound of a whale passing over echoed through the tunnel. So-young knew that it was time to move.

Picture art courtesy of Six Wing Studios 

For the next hour she winced along through the musty darkness, the occasional beam of light giving her enough to see by, when the path took a sudden and slick decline. Struggling to keep her balance, she slid down the slope and into a large chamber, a conflux of several tunnels. It was an odd place, and from the decayed debris laying around it was obvious that it had at one time served as someone's home. 

Painted on the walls were signs and symbols. So-young recognized some of them. They were the marks of the rebellion from a few years ago, a sorrowful attempt to overthrow the government. The insurrectionists captured the Capitol for a day with the promise that their stand would embolden the public, and that they would rise to join them. But with a quick and fierce retaliation, the army responded by leveling the building. The rebels who survived were hung for a week in the public square. Barbaric, but the Great Father wanted to quell any other descent before it formed.

So-young looked around, slowly scanning the walls, reading what was written. Brushing the soot off of one spot to get a better look, she jerked her hand back as if she had touched something hot. Startled by the obscenity, written in white. It was an illegal word. Article 73: Any speech that is in direct defiance to the State is prohibited. There were nine illegal words. But this one was the most forbidden. So-young looked around with a nervous impulse to make sure no one saw her. To write, speak, or even read one of the nine words was punishable by death.

So-young had only seen this word one other time in her life, scratched into the back of a seat on the bus she road home from school. She didn't report it and became sick with guilt. Finally, her State Guardian forced her to unburden her obvious secret, and So-young confessed her sin. The next day she was greeted with a new bus and driver.

Standing in its presence now, So-young looked on with fear and awe. She stepped forward and touched it, almost reverently. She feared the word but longed to understand its meaning.

...

The rush of water and fresh air was a welcome change of scenery. So-young waded through the knee high water that drained out into the river. She climbed out of the tunnel into the ravine, looking around to get her bearings.

Picture art courtesy of Six Wing Studios 

This area was familiar to her because years ago it had been the national park. So-young and her husband would come here in their time off to hike and camp, the only activity permitted outside the city limits. As private citizens, acquiring the special permits needed was virtually unheard of, but he had done it. That was the type of man he was; always working to make her smile and find a way to make life more bearable for So-young.

It had all changed, though, when the frontline of the battle was pushed back. That was a dark time. The army encountered heavy losses, and the enemy, pushing hard, forced them back to the north base of the mountains. The city was on high alert at all times. Food was rationed, a stricter curfew was set, and the park was shut down. The city limits morphed into a fortress over night, all for the sake of protecting the people. But, when the war moved north and the enemy was again out of range, the policies stayed in effect. No one dared ask why.

The water was too high to cross, and still icy cold from the spring thaw. There were only two safe ways across the river; the main road, which would be guarded, and the old train-line bridge, if it was even still there. She decided that the storm drain must have positioned her downstream from the old train-line. She turned west and headed upstream.

She had only walked a few yards when she saw the figure of someone lying on the ground ahead. So-young ducked behind a tree, terrified. Considering her next move, the wind blew and the smell of rotting flesh smacked her in the face like cold water. Relieved, her heart all the same began to beat harder, and the horrid thought of seeing a dead body made her anxious. She took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves and slowly looked around the tree. It was the body of a man in peasant clothes, lying face down. It was apparent that he had been there for a few weeks.

Something up the hill caught her eye. Another body. Then two more, further up. So-young nervously came out from behind the tree. More bodies. The further she looked, the more she saw. Hundreds of corpses, piled and decaying, covered the ground from the top of the ridge to the river. So-young felt faint. She looked around, but there was no other way to go. She would have to walk through the open graveyard.

Closing her eyes, she took a shallow breath and stepped forward, not looking down but only at the trees ahead. The ground crunched beneath her feet.

Suddenly, she heard angry shouts from above. So-young turned and could see the silhouettes of several people standing on the ridge. She threw herself to the ground between two bodies. The shouts became louder. The silhouettes trembled. So-young jumped with the sound of the first shot. A body fell into the ravine, and the sound of men laughing could be heard from the top of the hill. Burying her face into her arm, So-young tried not to scream as the other silhouettes fell.

- Click here to read Chapter 4 - 

Sargasso by Peter-John Campbell ©2012 

Picture art courtesy of Six Wings Studio