From the Gobblers
a/n: This was my real first fan fiction from ages ago! I think I wrote it in about 2004 after I finished The Golden Compass, and I just found it, revised it, and put it online.
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.
Why did I trust her? Why was I stupid enough to follow her? Why does such an elegant woman have to be in charge of the Gobblers? Why oh why? I could keep asking why questions, but what help will they do. I'm trapped inside a place, and I can't get out, no matter how hard we all try.
Tauntings filled the mind of one Sariah Kliss. How many times had she been told not to go out after dark? Too many times, and now… She was here. She shuddered. Her once elegant daemon Marioente was cuddled up against her chest, cat formed. They had just gotten back from all those measurements and tests those horrible people put them through all the time.
Her friend Ciara was sitting at the end of her bed. "What did they do today?" She must've noticed how she was shaking.
Sariah shuddered. "Almost the unthinkable! They were only inches away from poor Mario, but the man withdrew his foot barely in time to avoid him. It was so scary. And Mario changed into a moth and messed up their whole experiment." Her daemon whimpered and cuddled close to her.
"What?" Ciara gasped for breath. "The… the… unthinkable? My insides go all awry just thinking about it. I-I- hear-"
"Don't tell me! I can't stand it!" Sariah took a couple deep breaths. "How has this place reduced us to so little? I used to be so outgoing! So energetic, care-free! And Mario would change every two minutes practically!"
Ciara had a peaceful look fro around half a moment. "Me to…" She sighed. "Well, me and Oti
were always happy, not exactly active- but happy."
"We have to get out of here!" Sariah announced confidently.
Ciara raised her eyebrow. "How? How in the world are we going to get out of here! There's people all over the place, every single entrance and exit!"
"Well, nobody ever makes a place like this without a back secret exit without a sort of back door, or secret passage. We just have to find it."
How can she be so confident? "Nobody's ever made it out of here alive, except for the people who are
'transported' to else where!" Ciara stressed. There is no possible way out. The place had more security than… Anywhere she could possibly imagine.
"Well, if you don't want to try, I'll go alone!"
"You're crazier than I thought Sariah!"
"You're with me or against me Ciara. What's worse, all this torture, or a quick painless death." Good question, Sariah commented quietly. Talking without speaking can be quite a habit.
Ciara couldn't answer. How close had her daemon come from being touched by fingers that weren't her own. Far too many. Even those cruel worker's hands near her daemon (or her own body for that matter) gave her insides a chill. "But how do you know that it'd be painless? I doubt if they found us, they'd just set us free with a bullet! They'd probably take us back, and run twice as many tests on us!"
"But... We might also make it out." The girls grey eyes met and they knew that they wouldn't be separated again. Ciara let out a long sad sigh.
"I suppose there's no arguing in that case?" She wondered aloud, trying to capture the humorous spark she knew must be hiding somewhere deep within both of them. But her efforts were met with a stony faced shake of the head, and Ciara emidatly gave up.
"Let's go through what we have," Sariah said, opening the trunk that sat at the end of the cot she spent a few hours on tossing and turning every night. Ciara followed in suite, although she really didn't have a clue what to look for, or what Sariah might be looking for, for Sariah was throwing things over her small shoulder, barely thinking once about any of them.
Ciara started doing the same, except actually paying attention to what she was doing. Not that it took much. She had a set of clothes, jama's, a few books she had smuggled out of the recreation center, an extra sheet, and a daemon sized blanket, which Oti refused to use. She failed to see how any could help them get out of this place.
She looked over at Sariah's pile, which wasn't very different from her own, except she seemed to have a lot more clothes. When Sariah had finally finished throwing things around, she span around to face Ciara. "Now," she started in an all knowing tone. "I think it should be clear what we have to do."
Ciara responded with a questioning look. "Come on Ci! Haven't I ever shown you the note?" Ciara looked down at her daemon, and they shook their heads. Ciara shared a look with her own daemon, currently a squirrel. Sariah shook her head in disappointment, as though Ciara ought to have known better. Sariah pulled out a small folded up piece of paper and threw it at Ciara.
She opened up and squinted at the handwriting. It had obviously been written in a hurry, or someone just always had small cramped writing. "It's so terrible," she started reading slowly. "It has to happen to me. I know what they do but I can't avoid it. Once it's happened it will be eternal. Although I know I shall soon be one helping direct it, I never wanted any part in it. Get out of here now. Basement door is hidden in nurse Katrina's quarters. Get out!"
Ciara spent another few seconds just looking at the paper. "Well..." She took a few deep breaths.
"I'm assuming that was written by one of the doctors, obviously before something big happened. Probably the same thing that happened to him as what they're doing to the kids!" Sariah started. "But the last sentences are more important. I think he's directing us to a way out of here! He must be! Why would someone just randomly drop in a message about a basement? I think we've got to go down there!"
"Well, I suppose that's not all that crazy. A lot of assuming, but not insane."
"So... Are you ready to go?"
"What?
"Are... You... Ready... To... Go? Exactly what I said before!" Ciara stared at her blankly, in that 'you've got to be kidding' sort of look. "Because whether you like it or not, we're going." Sariah's daemon had become a red fox looking half ready for a fight. Oti had changed to a Lynx, and they were growling at each other intently. After a few stiff seconds, Oti's growls grew smaller and smaller, and ceased.
Ciara sighed, admitting defeat. "Fine. I suppose we'll go. But don't you think it'd be safer to wait 'till night falls?"
"No not really. If we go now, we can more or less avoid suspicion. And Katrina would probably be out."
"Katrina's the one who works in the... um..." Ciara paused, trying to remember one of the seemingly identical nurses. "The hospital, right?"
"Yeah. But don't worry about that now. We need to get ready to get out of here."
"But don't you think we'd freeze to death if we were out there?"
"Well, there must be a town within reasonable distance." Sariah paused, thinking Ciara might have just struck a point. "Well, come on, we might as well go down to the hidden basement."
Sariah stood up, and Ciara followed hesitantly. They made their ways through the halls, making up excuses in case they got caught snooping around Katrina's room.
Sariah carefully knocked on the door where Katrina's name was on the door. "I'm still not sure..." Ciara started to say, but Sariah had already opened the door.
The servant's quarters weren't all that different from the children's, save for the fact that they were single and smaller. "Come on, it won't be hard! I'll start on this side, you over there, let's go."
Ciara nodded dumbly, and her daemon became a German Shepard dog trying the search out a trace. They hadn't been searching long when Sariah's daemon let out a small bark. "I found it!" He yelped in a collie's voice. Ciara found the dog had been searching under the bed.
Sariah and Ciara fell onto their stomachs to look under the bed. Sure enough, Mario had found a little trap door. There was just enough room for them to slide through, or so it looked right now. Ciara crawled around to where the door opened up.
"Well, are you ready to go?"
"I'm not s... yeah... Yes, I'm ready." Ciara took a deep breath.
"Look, I'll go first, and you can follow after a minute or so. It feels like there's a little slide right here, I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Good luck," Ciara encouraged, as Sariah slipped her feet under the trapdoor.
"See you soon," Sariah smiled, and let go of the floorboard she'd been holding.
"Do you really think it's safe?" Oti asked as soon as Sariah had disappeared.
"No, I don't... But we've got to!"
"No we don't, we could go back to our room."
"For what? To get killed at the hands of these evil people? No!" Ciara slipped onto her stomach, and put her feet down the tunnel. "We're going, now come on!" He turned into a crow and flew through the small opening.
"Ready to go!" Ciara let go of the board, and found herself descending down a long slide. This emidatly reminded her of her days back in London. But the ride was over in less than three seconds. She hit the floor softly, and saw Sariah waiting for her.
"It's great! Look!" She pointed at the opposite wall. What a welcome sight! There was a small sledge sitting there, with what looked like full provisions.
A grin lit up Ciara's face. "It's... It's..."
"And I bet there's more here! There's a pile of furs over in the other corner it looks like. We're set! We can get out of here!"
The smiles spreading across their faces couldn't have grown much larger. They were finally able to escape. They'd never have to see this place again on the inside.
With their two daemons pulling the sledge, they managed to make it out. By some miracle they made it past the tartars and every other impossibility, and made it to a village, the same village where Tony Makaros had haunted. And they make it back to their families safe and sound, but never quite the same.
A/n: You've gotta love happy endings.