I almost left this world today, but this cruel place has a funny way of pulling you back in. A new world has been opened to me, a world that offers me a chance for some real closure on their deaths. I’ve closed the window for now, but it still tempts me, I want to close those thoughts out, but it seems they will haunt me for eternity. I can’t shut them out, but I will not allow them to speak to you, I will not write them down. I will focus instead on hope, hope that I will receive a response from scout_23, hope that whoever they are, can get me to the destination that calls for my presence, hope to maybe foster friendship in a community of outcasts. Hope that I will not be alone, forever.
Nina stared into the closet where her message glowed on the screen of the laptop sitting on the floor, connected to the strange wire that crudely came out of the back corner. She wondered how long it would take to receive a response. She had to find a way to pass the time, she grabbed the earbuds out of her bag and pulled her phone out of her pocket gesturing to start the music. She slouched in the chair, she couldn’t decide if it was uncomfortable, or just her aching back. Mentally dissociating in the music, she closed her eyes.
* * *
The laptop screen flashed bringing Nina back into the real world. The sun was beginning to set, and her room was filled with the orange light of the dying day. The natural orange light was contrasted heavily with the artificial blue, emanating from the screen that had returned to full brightness upon receiving the message. Nina paused the music and got out of the chair, falling to the floor in the closet, she set the computer on her lap reading the message she had just received from scout_23:
unknown_32
Welcome to the shadow, I wish your father could have introduced you to us himself, he was an integral part of our existence from what I know. I’m sorry for your loss. If you’re truly ready to go immediately, we can take you out tomorrow night, the group that was planned backed out, and we have nothing else planned. Let me know if you would like to make the journey, if you would, or want to set up a different time let me know. Also, what district are you in so we can know where to pick you up. Are you planning on coming alone?
scout_23
Nina felt a mixture of excitement and anxiety, she knew she wanted to do this, but she hadn’t expected it could be so soon. Also, she was now even more curious about what her father had to do with all this, an integral part, what could that be? She thought she could ask scout_23 assuming it was them she was meeting in person. Well, the sooner the better she thought to herself as she began to compose a response:
scout_23
I’m ready to make the trip tomorrow, I live in the Agricultural District, I will be coming alone.
unknown_32
She assumed she should get a response sooner this time, they had just sent the message, they should still be online. She watched the screen in anticipation, after a few minutes, a new message illuminated the screen:
unknown_32
Great! We can pick you up in the southwest corner of the district, there is a way across the border in the cornfield there. If you go through the field near the border wall, you’ll find us on an access road that cuts through the middle of the field. We’re driving a black four door pickup truck, Toyota if you got an eye for car models. My son and I will be transporting you. I’ll be wearing a red shirt and a blue baseball cap. Clap three times when you see us, and we’ll know it’s you. If you want to wear something easily identifiable, that’d be helpful too. Please respond to confirm.
scout_23
Nina read through the message committing to memory everything she read. She hadn’t seen much of this district so navigation would be a bit tougher, though she could use that if she were caught, since she was so new to the district it wouldn’t be unreasonable to be lost. She didn’t expect that excuse to fly in the middle of a cornfield, but suspected the danger of being caught there was low, otherwise they wouldn’t be meeting there. Then was the question of what to wear, she could wear the purple t-shirt, but were she caught in it… she wasn’t sure what would happen. Then she realized a skirt would be easily identifiable, nobody patrolling the fields would wear such unreasonable attire, but, then did she want to? She reasoned with herself that it could work two-fold by allowing her to play more easily being lost. She shifted the laptop closer and began to type:
scout_23
Confirmed. I’ll wear a black skirt. What time should I be there by?
unknown_32
Almost instantly she received a message back:
unknown_32
10:00 PM, try to be timely, we can’t wait forever. See you then.
scout_23
Nina repeated the important details of the message in her head, 10:00 PM, southwest cornfield, black pickup, two guys, older one in a red shirt blue hat. Once she felt she had successfully memorized it she left the page with the messages from scout_23 to plan her route to the meeting point.
Every point in the agricultural district was an hour to hour and a half train ride from her location on the western edge where the buildings of the city ended and the fields that fed the entire state began. She unplugged the wire from the laptop returning it to how she had always known it. Navigating to the transportation site she analyzed the transit maps for her new district. The only train heading to the southwest region was in the morning for those going to work, there were no passes to go to the region in the evening. Apparently, they only wanted people leaving the fields, not arriving at night. She then realized that getting to the other side of the district may not be as easy as she thought.
In her old district, the trains operated freely, and any citizen of that district could come and go as they pleased without need for approval. This was mostly due to the nature of the district being the center of the power grid for the rest of the city. If there was an emergency on the other side of the district that needed more engineers, the trains had to always be running in anticipation. For Nina, this meant she was free to travel around the district, she assumed every district shared this privilege, free to travel around the district, needing permission to leave.
This was not the case in this district. It was apparent by the train routes they did not want anyone in the fields that should not be and wanted no one in them after dark. Nina figured since the major land border of the city-state was various fields, they did not want anyone attempting to jump the border under the cover of night. Apparently, she was about to do just that, so there must be a way for her to get there in the morning, then she could kill time until night… somehow.
Nina’s formal education on Agricultural Engineering was to begin in a month, she figured there had to be tours of the district to get new students familiar with their new home. She went to the Agricultural Studies website under events, and found she couldn’t have been luckier, a tour tomorrow of the southwest region of the district was occurring, a train that wasn’t listed on the transportation site would take them to there in the afternoon, they would return on the train with the workers in the evening, but she had no intention of doing that. She took one of the few remaining spots with great anticipation, tomorrow she would make a journey she never seriously imagined would happen, a journey outside the city, she was exhilarated.
* * *
Nina had tried to get to sleep earlier, wanting to rest before setting off on this adventure. The excitement had made her sleep restless; she awoke still tired but motivated by strong desires. It felt wrong for her to be excited to visit a mass grave where her family’s bodies were buried. She felt it perverse that her wonder and curiosity had overtaken her sorrow and felt the need to constantly remind herself that this would not be a jubilant reunion like she’d seen in her dream. Her family wasn’t waiting for her there, alive and in hiding, they would be in the ash in the air she would breathe. Arriving at her destination would be a reminder of the bleak world to which she inhabited and felt that she would be cursed with eternal discontent, no matter what closure the place would bring her. She hated this notion.
She got up and prepared for the day like she was going to school, in effect she was. She was still unsure how she would slip out of the group and make her way to the meeting point, hoping the opportunity would present itself. She decided to go with all black for her outfit. She figured it would be easier to move about at night if she did. She sat in chair that still didn’t feel quite right, even though her back was no longer sore, she didn’t know how she was going to kill the morning.
She figured the best use of her time would be to study the maps and find the best place for her to slip off. Examining the far southwest corn field she noticed the access road in the dead center of the field, it was extremely narrow and hard to make out, she may have missed it had she not been looking for it. Her hope was the tour would take her near the field in which case she could slip among the corn and make her way to the center. She hoped that the seemingly useless compass app on her phone worked, it would be her only guide to the middle. It occurred to her that the government could easily track her phone and would likely see it cross the border, she would have to use it to navigate though. Hopefully no one would be watching, she would power it off once meeting up with scout_23. It felt weird to refer to a person that way in her thoughts.
She spent the rest of the morning attempting to memorize the map of the area she would be touring. She tried to note good duck off points and ways to distance herself from the group. She would have to make it so that as little mind would be paid to her as possible, so that when she disappeared, no one would notice. Eating a bowl of cereal for lunch she packed her bag with a few key items, the laptop, the purple shirt, and her notebook. All carried extreme sentiment and she had a strange feeling she may never return to this room again.
* * *
The tour turned out to be quite uneventful, Nina had hoped she would at least get something out of it but despite studying the map of the southwest corner of the district for hours she failed to realize that nearly this entire sector was dedicated to corn. She had hoped some of the buildings she saw on the map were greenhouses. Greenhouses in the Agricultural District were massive, stories high, they essentially created an entirely different ecosystem under their roofs, they enabled the city-state to be completely self-sufficient even when it came to food grown in completely different climates. Whole forests of tropical fruits could be grown beneath these structures Nina found fascinating. Sadly, the structures were just massive facilities for processing the corn and turning it into the many corn products that the fed the citizens. Nina did not find this particularly interesting.
Dinner was pork sandwiches and, of course, cornbread. After dinner was the last stop on the tour which Nina had been waiting for since she heard it announced, watching the sunset over the southwestern fields. The tour guide had been hyping it up since the beginning of the tour. It seemed it was about that time. The tour guide was a girl not much older than Nina, she likely had recently completed her Agricultural Education. Her enthusiasm for corn told Nina she was likely going to be working in this discipline. Her happiness was a bit infectious, and Nina found the girl had lifted her spirits just by being herself. Nina avoided directly interacting with her though, she didn’t want to become a familiar face, though she almost wished she could.
Judy was her name, she was blonde and pale, she silenced the cafeteria where the touring students ate with a shout, “Eat your last bite, we’re off to the fields, it’s the first day of summer, the sunset should be extra beautiful, you cannot miss it,” she dramatically emphasized the last words and turned on her heel out the door.
Nina discarded her empty plate and followed the crowd out the doors keeping mind to stay to the back, but not too obviously far back. She had noticed the same few people stuck to the back each time, she hoped they would assume she moved to the front if she disappeared. Where they ate was a short walk to the edge of the corn fields, they were massive. Every rolling hill in eyesight was covered in the green stalks of corn that were tinged with the red, orange, yellow, and purple of one of the most vibrant sunsets she had ever seen. Judy turned to the crowd, her blonde hair had taken the color of the waning light, she exclaimed to the crowd, “You won’t see a better sunset in the entire SSNY, I guarantee it.”
The group all stood enamored by the sunset. Nina took the opportunity to drop down the hill they were standing on into the sea of corn heading towards the fading sunlight. She turned and watched the group look out over the rolling fields, she crouched among the corn stalks trying to stay out of sight. The light slowly faded, and Nina heard Judy announce it was time to head back, the group slowly retreated up the road out of sight. Not noticing their numbers had been reduced by one. Nina almost felt disappointed her actions were so inconsequential to everyone else, nobody noticed she was gone because nobody noticed she was there, but that was the goal, right?
Nina walked towards the sun, if she could make it to the road before it set, she wouldn’t have to rely on her phone to navigate, making her movements being tracked slightly less likely. Walking through the cornfield through the fading light was beautiful, the last rays of sunlight cascaded through the corn stalks until none remained. Darkness arrived, it was darker than Nina had ever experienced, in the city there was always some light but here she could hardly see a few feet in front of her guided by the faint light of a crescent moon. She refused to use her phone for navigation all she had to do was walk in a straight line, surely, she was still going the same direction.
The beauty of walking through the cornfields guided by moonlight lost its luster after the seventh climb up another hill. Nina had broken a sweat, the black blouse glued to her skin uncomfortably and her hair was sticking to her face. She had to be nearly there, she checked the time on her wrist, 9:50 PM, she had ten minutes to get there, she thought she would be early, now she was worried she would be late.
Just as her anxiety was overcoming her, she noticed the ground beneath her was harder, it was paved. It was nearly impossible to tell the road existed. The corn on either side leaned over the pavement and the space was nearly as wide as the other lanes that ran in the north to south direction. Nina was unsure how a truck would even fit. She figured south was the direction to head closer to the border, she turned left.
After a few minutes of walking down the road she noticed something metal glinting in the moonlight. The object took shape and appeared to be a truck, a black truck. Clap three times was the request, she clapped, each one seemed deafening in the surrounding silence. The last clap echoed in the valley the road sat in. Suddenly headlights flashed and Nina found herself momentarily blinded. When she regained her sight, she saw a man, in a blue hat and a red t-shirt, as described. The man was large, and the shirt fit tight around his protruding belly and large arms. He had a bushy brown beard that obscured most of his face. Between the hat pulled down low and the beard were kind blue eyes.
The man crossed his arms, “I didn’t think you’d show,” he bellowed at her. “After the group that bailed on us today, I said to my son, what are the chances that some girl shows up all alone? He argued no one agrees to meet the next day if they don’t intend to show. Looks like he was right,” he laughed heartily, “I’m Gerald, the one known as scout_23, I think first names should be enough.”
“I’m Nina,” she responded, though still in a bit of shock from the blinding light.
She heard the passenger door of the truck open and close, a boy looking to be her age stepped into the light. He was as tall as his father, not as large, but still appeared strong, he also wore a red shirt that appeared to be too big for him, the blue baseball cap was backwards and some of his hair stuck out the hole, it was the same color as his father’s beard.
He said in a similar deep and joyful voice, “I’m Jon, known as scout_44, sorry about my dad here, there was really no need to leave the headlights off, he just has a flair for the dramatic.”
“Hey, those lights needed to be off…”
“We chose this spot because there are no patrols, who was gonna see us?” Jon argued.
Gerald trailed off muttering something to himself inaudibly.
Nina was beginning to regain her senses, “So how does all this work?” she asked.
Jon smiled cryptically, “You’ll see, I don’t want to ruin the surprise, no one should be spoiled of the adventure of crossing the border.”
“No, they shouldn’t,” Gerald agreed, “But first, a few things, any electronics you have must be powered off before this adventure, they can turn them back on if they notice, but once you’re over the border they can’t track you, so no reason to get rid of anything.”
Nina powered off the small bracelet that acted as a watch among other things, and her phone. She had already fully powered the laptop her bag off, she had anticipated this request.
“That’s all,” Gerald began, “We’ll fill you in on the details and outfit you with a few things once we cross the border. If we’re caught, we kidnapped you, plain and simple, all the risk is on us, none on you, once were over the border though, anything is fair game,” Gerald approached her, the closer he got the more towering he seemed, he looked down at her, “You ready for this Nina?”
Nina mustered as much confidence in her voice as she could find, “Yeah I am,” the enthusiasm wasn’t really there.
Gerald’s beard moved into what must’ve been a smile. Jon grinned.
“You can take shotgun for the border crossing,” Jon said as he hopped into the back.
“Thanks,” Nina replied.
Nina climbed into the black truck; the interior was simple with few features. In the center console was a radio with a microphone attached, Nina wondered who it contacted.
“So, the radio piques your interest,” Gerald said noticing she was examining it. “This pre-war piece of machinery has yet to fail us, we can listen in on border patrol, communicate with friendlies, and eavesdrop on the not so friendly. It was quite the find by little Jon when he was what, ten, eleven?” Gerald looked back at his son.
“Ten,” Jon confirmed, “And in now nearly a decade I’ve found nothing as useful.”
“True, true,” Gerald chided, “Alright, it’s about time we get a move on,” Gerald turned the ignition and the truck roared to life.
“Now comes the tricky part,” Gerald began to explain to Nina, “This road is narrow until right around the border crossing, so, we go backwards!”
Sure, enough, Gerald put the truck in reverse and it accelerated backwards towards the border. The corn stalks beat against the side of the truck rhythmically. They spent 10 minutes according to the small clock on the dashboard speeding backwards when abruptly, Gerald spun the wheel hard, and the car skidded perpendicular to what had been its constant motion. Nina noticed in this small spot the corn sat in a circle around them, just enough space for that stunt to be performed. Gerald had done it flawlessly, likely because he had done it hundreds of times.
Gerald cheered, “Another happy landing. Last time Jon tried; we took out a whole row.”
“You mean the first time I tried it,” Jon scoffed.
Gerald picked up the receiver attached to the radio, “Operator this is scout_23 I’m at the corn palace with scout_44, were transporting unknown_32 as part of operation grief. Requesting permission to enter.”
A static voice responded, “We see you scout_23 lifting the palace gates now. Stay safe out there.”
Nina wasn’t sure what she was looking for, other than this opening they sat in, nothing appeared different. Suddenly, immediately in front of them the corn began to rise, Nina watched as at least a meter of dirt was lifted into the air revealing a tunnel that angled down into the dirt.
Nina was about to ask how this all existed, but Gerald had anticipated this question, “These tunnels,” he said gesturing towards the gaping hole, “were built during the war, evidently not by who’s in power now, because they don’t know of their existence as far as we know. Who built them and why is a bit of a mystery, we’re just lucky we were the ones to find ‘em first. Someone on our side working the fields stumbled upon this here contraption several years ago and we have since outfitted it to our fancy, sure makes border crossing easier, it’s one of a kind all of our border crossing happens here now, lot simpler lot easier than before…” Gerald trailed off, it was evident that those days had been much harder.
“Isn’t it risky to bring all your illegal traffic to one place?” Nina asked.
“Probably,” Gerald replied, “but we haven’t been caught yet, so we’ll continue to use this until it’s compromised, this tunnel may be one of a kind, but it certainly isn’t the first place all our traffic has been routed through, there’s always a hole, usually someone stumbles upon ‘em by sheer luck.”
The truck lurched forward and began descending underground, the tunnel was initially cramped, only large enough for a single vehicle, as it leveled out, it widened revealing a two-lane road complete with reflective yellow lines that disappeared into the darkness. Gerald picked up the receiver, “Operator, scout_23 reporting, we have successfully entered the palace, close the gates.”
The static voice replied, “Confirmed, closing the gates.” With that signal, the rumbling of machinery could be heard as the ground lowered back down, the incline they had just come through was replaced with a wall of concrete.
“How did one guy just stumble upon this place?” Nina asked a bit incredulously.
Gerald pointed to the left wall, under the dim glow of the yellowing overhead lights of the tunnel it was evident that part of the wall had been resealed with new concrete. “Sinkhole, that part of the wall collapsed bringing the ground with it, happened to be our guy was standing in the vicinity, saw the thing collapsed and noticed the tunnel. When he got back, he posted what he saw on one of the scouting forums. One of the scouts checked the tunnel out that night, after walking through it, he turned up at our outpost on the other side of the border in the morning. Quick as we could, we got the hole filled in and patched up the wall, now it’s ours.”
“Seems a lot of dumb luck we got,” Jon muttered from behind her, “One of these days, it’ll catch up to us.”
Gerald made a dismissive noise. “Alright Nina, we’ll prep you in the tunnels where it’s safe and we’ve got light,” he gestured to the yellowing plastic tubes that illuminated the space.
Gerald opened the door to the truck and stepped out and gestured Nina to do the same. In the back of the truck was a steel box that spanned the width of the bed. Gerald climbed into the truck bed and opened the box with a key. Nina couldn’t see what was inside from the ground but guessed a lot as Gerald rummaged through it. He pulled out a few things and then closed and locked the box.
Jon walked to the back and opened the tailgate. Nina then saw various items strewn about: A few pieces of paper, maps probably, some plastic bottles of water, and an assortment of weapons, consisting of knives and handguns. Gerald picked up one of each and put them on the lowered tailgate jumping out of the truck as Jon climbed in.
“I’m gonna give you a couple things in case we get separated,” Gerald said handing her the objects, “A map: there are useful safe houses and other locations on there, the passwords to each are written on it, the moon is west tonight for navigation.”
The map was folded and new, freshly made for this specific journey. Gerald continued, “This is a simple hunting knife and will be pretty useful in most survival situations, worst case scenario, it’s a weapon.” The knife had a plastic handle, the blade was covered by a leather sheath. Nina pulled it out, it was also new, the silver metal glinted in the dim light, the edge appeared sharp.
Gerald then picked up the gun, “If there happens to be a dire situation, I’m giving you a flare gun.” He opened the orange pistol and picked up a red cylinder, “You open this up, and drop the flare in, close it, push the pin down, pull the trigger. Aim it into the sky and someone will see it, if it’s not us, hope it’s someone friendly. If it’s one of the government patrols, you can try the kidnapping ploy, people are sometimes trafficked against their will, so it isn’t unreasonable…” he trailed off. “But that shouldn’t be necessary.” He handed Nina the flares and the gun, she began putting the objects in her backpack.
Gerald handed her a few other things, water, food, and matches all for survival purposes if they happened to be separated. This began to make Nina somewhat uneasy, though both Gerald and Jon wore masks of confidence, the veil was thin, and they were evidently concerned of something. Was there a greater threat they weren’t telling her, or did they just see her as a naïve girl who would inevitably get in some trouble?
Jon had outfitted himself with a holster that wrapped around his right leg that held a handgun, he had also put on a worn jacket with large pockets that he was meticulously placing various items in. Gerald was beginning to outfit himself in a similar manner.
When both men had finished, they hopped out of the truck and Gerald slammed the tailgate closed, the sound echoed down the tunnel. Jon took the passenger seat this time and Nina sat in the back. Gerald lurched the truck forward as they sped down the tunnel, it quickly became dark as the yellow lights of the entrance faded and they were guided only by the white glow of the truck’s headlights.
Keeping his eyes on the road Gerald said to Nina, “There are few different people we may encounter while on the road that I want you to know about Nina. Most dangerous would be the locals, people that live in these regions are protective of their land, deadly. Marauders are also dangerous, they’re always looking to score off travelers, it’s their way of life. There’s a mafia from the provinces that sometimes operates down here, but they usually keep to themselves. Most dangerous is probably government patrols, the guys that patrol across the border can be a bit… over the top, compared to the regular patrols inside the state.”
Nina nodded in understanding, she hadn’t realized how many people operated outside the city, the way they taught it in school the space between the SSNY and Philadelphia was desolate, most of the limited travel between the states was done by boat.
Gerald started to explain more about what Nina was beginning to realize was more dangerous than she expected, “We shouldn’t attract to much trouble, the locals are really only violent to government types, trying to take their land, some of those families have owned their land since before the war, it’s incredible they’ve been able to keep it so long. I’ve got a feeling it won’t last forever; I think the only reason this region is tolerated is because the government’s got have somewhere to hide their skeletons, in this case literally… sorry,” he finished solemnly. Nina didn’t respond, she knew that she should have said something, but the moment passed, and she said nothing. The three of them sat in silence.