“She’s dead. She.” Syn floated up, dropping both necklaces from her hands. The two chains drifted lazily. The thin line of metal along the butterfly caught the light from the sunstrips and glinted. “But why? Why do this?”
The sunstrips above did not provide the pervasive white light as the ones on her side did. Soot dimmed the strips that were still functional. Most others hung, unlit. Several were ravaged, torn into with massive holes from which a wide array of wires and tubes fell out.
“They’re scavengers too,” Syn said.
“Not like you. You would never raid the sun.”
“Why?” she asked again. She did not expect an answer, and none came. Instead, she followed up with a more answerable question, “What do you see?”
Blip said, “Not much.”
Thick, dark clouds hovered over much of the Disc. The clouds hung low in the sky. Above the dark billows, the unflinching Orisha masks looked out. Their stoic permanence observed but did not move. Whatever their assignment—protect or guard or warn—they had failed.
The clouds rolled, as if in a slow boil, and separated, revealing the scorched landscape below. Perhaps buildings, familiar shapes that Syn half-remembered from her own Disc, but no trees. The limited view showed nothing but a barren land. She felt as if she was staring into some dark cavern that she was about to fall into, to fall forever, over and over and over.
Like Alice.
“The Rabbit Hole.”
Blip gave a grunt, “Huh?”
“We’re going to fall and never land.”
“We don’t have to go down.”
Before Syn could answer, before she could even reflect on whether she wanted to, from behind them, down the corridor to the mirror gate room, a slam reverberated. Soon after, a phantasmic howl followed. A second cry answered it. The first replied, and it was louder. Closer.
“They found us.” Syn’s eyes were wild.
“They must have been searching!” Blip said.
“Go!” Syn shouted. Blip flew and moved to the control panel, signaling to shut the doors.
From ahead of them, down the corridor, one of the creatures erupted. It was even larger closer up. Massive scars splintered its face, making it look like it’s face had been flayed open and left to heal. The one good eye was dark and wild. Its hair was uncombed and impossibly long. Syn had always wondered at her own hair—longer than any girl’s she had seen in the films. The thing’s hair was twice hers and gummed with dirt and mud. Leaves, twigs, and paper littered it. He had drawn large shapes—attempts at words—across his chest. While he was tall, he was also thin.
And naked.
Syn had seen nude men in films. She had seen the naked bodies of corpses before her, and Blip had cleaned up her Disc with the help of the dumb bots, but she had never seen a living nude man. He charged at her, bellowing at the top of his lungs. His furious glare locked on her.
Like her, it managed the low gravity with grace. It had spent hours up here and moved from rung to rung, pulling itself along with a steady rhythm like a rower.
And it was fast.
“Shut it!” Syn yelled at Blip. She was crouched, with her bare feet against the view window, aimed out at him. She gripped her spear and jabbed its point at him. She’d fight.
Just then, the other one entered the corridor behind the first. Its face wasn’t scarred and its hair wasn’t as long, but it was just as foul and terrifying as the first. Both screamed in unison and charged, faces contorted in rage, drooling and fierce.
Blip shouted, “The door does not recognize me. It will not listen to me.”
“Threaten it!”
“I am!”
The creature was now a few meters away. With a jerk of its arm, it cleared the distance and swiped a meaty paw at Blip who continued to talk to the Jacob while swerving out of the way. Syn used the moment to stab at the thing. She struck his arm, causing droplets of blood to erupt from the gash and float about her. It howled in pain and jerked back, accidentally hitting the second one.
“There!” Blip said. The control panel lit green, but the doors still stayed open.
The creature had lost its momentum, but it spun and reached to yank Syn’s spear from her hands. She saw the intent and jerked the spear up, twisting it to slam the other end up into the first one’s jaw. His head jerked back and head-butted the second one behind it. Two for one. She couldn’t believe her luck.
The doors began to shut. The one further back wrapped its meaty paws around the side of its companion and shoved it out of the way. The first went tumbling through space, out of Syn’s view.
Syn stabbed at the second one, but it was faster than the first and avoided the jab. Instead, it gripped the shaft of the spear and pulled on it hard. Syn refused to let go. and the force of the pull yanked her away from the wall.
The doors were nearly closed. She let go of the spear, but her momentum was sending her out. Blip slammed into her from the side, diverting her trajectory. She hit the inside of the door just as it shut, her spear slid from her view, and the second burly jammed his arm into the gap. The heavy doors slammed shut, severing the arm. The burly wailed from the other side. Something began to beat against the other side of the door. The severed forearm and hand floated in the air around them, blood draining from the sliced end, splashing against Syn, and Blip, and the hanging corpse.
Syn shouted, “No!” at the loss of her spear and started to pull at the seam of the shut doors. “No!”
The Jacob descended, and Blip shouted, “It’s over!”
Syn spun, her eyes wide. “His arm! The doors aren’t to do that…” Her words came out in a stutter. “They’re not supposed to… It’s safe. There’s…”
“That subroutine must have been deactivated,” Blip said and floated up toward the window.
Syn wasn’t finished. “My spear. He took my spear. They have my spear!” She beat against the door, “That was mine! I made that!”
“We’ll get it back.”
“No! I made that. That was mine!”
“Get ready,” Blip said.
This statement brought her pause. “For what?”
“Gravity.”
As he said it, she noticed a slight tug. They were still kilometers above the base of the Dark Disc, and gravity was only a faint pull against them. The blood floating through the air, the droplets that hadn’t clung to Blip and herself or the walls, were starting to descend.
She knew the routine and maneuvered around to place her back against the wall and aim her legs straight down. The gravity would increase incrementally until her feet were flat against the floor. She did have to refer to the window to confirm she was heading downward. She had made that mistake once before, aiming her head down because she was in a hurry and then being too caught up in her thoughts or what she’d discovered to right herself before gravity grabbed hold, and she’d slid to the floor.
She was safe now. But without her spear. She slammed her hand against the wall.
“What were those things?”
Blip did that small move with his head that communicated a simple I don’t know without saying it.
“Well, what do you know?”
Blip turned.
Syn pressed, “Seriously, you’re supposed to be the brilliant mind around here. For years we’ve been in our Disc. And before that, in the white room. And you didn’t know there were people over here! You’re lying, Blip! Lying!”
“I am not!”
“You were!”
“You’re just angry over your stupid stick.”
She pushed off from the wall, although, as gravity was taking hold, her expected charge fell short. She screamed at him, irritated at his words and at the poor effort in charging him. “It’s not a stupid stick! I made it! That was my spear!” She yelled at the top of her lungs. Her face was red, and her freckles stood out, dark like her eyes and hair. Sweat beaded on her forehead and she ground her teeth together. “Arggghhh!”