“We have to live somehow.” Sergio’s mind had finally caught up with itself, and he concluded that he would rather distract himself with conversation than be trapped in his own thoughts. He might not have much longer to spend talking with her and had to take advantage of the opportunities when she was loquacious. “What else are we supposed to do to survive?”
“Leave.” Marco said ominously, keeping her eyes focused on clearing the cobwebs with the lighter.
Sergio looked back at her with brows knit in confusion; he attempted to laugh, because she had to be joking. Yet, her expression remained as stern and resolute as he’d seen on the first night that he met her, her steel pupils lit up with red and yellow reflections as the fire spread and died again.
“Y-you’re serious?” He stuttered, putting a hand on her arm and forcing her to face him.
“I think it could be possible… There have to be places on this Earth that haven’t been touched by radiation and fire.” She kept her focus on the webs, but with an ear tuned for his reply.
“They’ve sent scouts before; trying to see what was beyond the edge of the city. Most of them never returned and the ones who did only reported the same destruction for miles and miles. It’s further than anyone can go with only so many filters… not to mention all the creatures up there…” Sergio’s voice waned as he internalized his monologue, trying to imagine what he might pack in his rucksack if his mission was to walk across the surface to another city. It was intangible to him how distant other places actually were, having never been outside Rome even when he was a child.
“What if the ones who didn’t return simply found something better?” Marco said softly, stowing away her lighter as the last of the cobwebs were disintegrated.
“But then why wouldn’t they come back for the rest of us?” Sergio could only imagine that they had been lost or killed somehow, what other reason could there be?
“Would you want the job of sorting everyone out?” Marco tugged at the rusty door to the control room but it didn’t budge.
“What do you mean, sorting?” Sergio cocked his head curiously.
“I imagine you’d only want to bring good people with you to a new city… So then how do you ensure that those such as the Nationalists and Cannibals don’t follow you?” Marco held up a hand as if the solution was contained in it but the answer wasn’t so simple.
“I hope you’re wrong.” Was his only reply; and he set about prying open the door to the switchboard. He couldn’t imagine that other people had escaped the tunnels and gone on to live elsewhere without anyone hearing about it. Wouldn’t someone who discovered such a paradise want to come back for his friends? His family?
“Do you really want to live here forever? In this wretched underground world that we never asked for and had no hand in creating? Won’t you even try?” Her eyes expressed determination and also anger.
“I wouldn’t even know where to go.” Sergio strained the words as he finally lurched the door aside.
“Then we should start somewhere close, somewhere we know the location of precisely.” Marco stepped up into the door frame after Sergio had gone inside; it was as if she intended to block his path back out until he agreed with her.
“You talk as if you’ve already chosen a place.” Sergio said quietly as he examined the buttons and knobs on the panel in front of him, trying to make sense of the controls.
“Emerald City.” Marco leaned in, waiting eagerly for his reply.
Sergio absorbed her statement for a moment, caught between wanting to know what her interest in the legendary station was and also trying to select the right button for the lights. After deciding on a large black switch he flipped it up and was happily surprised that he had chosen the right one. The white lights over the platform sparked to life and he grinned at Marco. Noticing her pressing expression, he quickly caught himself up on the past few seconds of conversation.
“Why there?” He managed to ask after a few seconds of thought. “It’s just a silly legend.”
“If anyone would know about the probabilities of survival, or where to go, it would be the scientists who knew the world before it ended.” Marco dropped her eyes to the floor and Sergio knew she wasn’t telling the whole truth. “It’s not a legend, Sergio. You wanted to know what the true mission was, earlier. Well that’s my idea, my hope, to find a way to leave The Subway and live a real life again.”
Sergio was momentarily stunned, as if her words hung all around him and prevented him from moving. Her proposal wasn’t entirely crazy, and had the core energy of serious hope and possibility. But there was something else hanging in the words, a kind of melancholic desperation in them.
“You’re looking for someone there.” He stated simply, and her answer was confirmed when her head shot up and she glared at him blankly.
“H-how did you…?” She squeaked.
“I am getting to know you after all.” He smiled crookedly, putting a hand on the door frame as his way of asking her to move back so he could exit.
She didn’t respond with any words, but tried to hide an impressed smile and stepped aside, letting Sergio lead the way back to the railing that would open to let them on to the train when it arrived. He thought he could hear the hum of the monorail in the distance, but it was impossible to tell because each station was sealed separately from the tunnels.
“Would it be too much for me to ask who it is?” Sergio asked after a few moments of her stunned silence. Her answer proved to him that he had earned the right to know.
“My father. In the dream, he was telling me…” Marco gazed across the tracks to the far wall as she was assumedly conjuring memories of the man. “He was a chemist, or still is. I don’t know exactly what he did, but he studied abroad in Germany. Then he became a professor at Rome University and met my mother.”
Her story actually answered more than one question for him. Now he knew why she had, at times, been partial to German sayings, and the foreign name of her clan finally made sense.
“And you think he’s still there?” Sergio found himself also hoping that it could be true.
“Well, he was at work when… when it happened.” Marco shrugged and shook her head clear of her memories. “He could still be there now, at the University, or in the stations below it.”
“So, how do you plan on—” Sergio began, but suddenly a whirring was heard and the hermetic lock over the tracks squeaked open.
A shiny silver train approached them and stopped squarely in front of the railing. An automated voice bade them to stand clear as the doors opened. Sergio caught sight of Marco’ excited expression before they boarded. He could only guess that she’d never been on a real running train before. The doors slid shut and the heavy partition in their path eased open, bearing them into a black tunnel softened only by the headlights which shone a meter in front of them.
Marco clutched nervously against one of the front seats, though she looked through the forward windshield with astonishment. Sergio smiled to himself, amused by her enjoyment and remembering his own amazement when he had first stepped aboard. He hoped the feeling would last as long as possible for them both, because the atmosphere would most certainly change once they arrived at D6. There were many serious and sad things to speak about and Sergio attempted to clear his mind to make way for the right words.
Chapter 17: D6
“Is this what you thought it would be like?” Sergio asked of Marco, watching her steel blue eyes as they followed the rails thoughtfully.
“What, the Subway-2?” Marco replied, only glancing at him for a second, then was drawn back to the mesmerizing motion of the train as it devoured the tunnel ten meters at a time. “It wasn’t such a fantasy in the first place. I’d heard the tales, of course. But who would believe such junk?”