Chapter 3
"YOU'RE FROM MARS!" Gran cried out as she started to shake poor Abigail by the shoulders.
Blue and Eric managed to tear the two apart and drag the angry woman back while Calla rushed in to protect Abigail.
"What do you... think you're doing?" Eric grunted as Gran threw the boys off.
Grabbing Blue by the shirt, she lifted him up and continued to shout angrily.
"MB1 MEANS MARS BASE ONE. SO TELL ME THE TRUTH; YOU ARE FROM MARS! THAT INSIGNIA PROVES IT! Now tell me the TRUTH!"
Gran's sudden show of temper had taken everyone by surprise, and none of them were sure exactly what to do about it.
"Alright, alright just calm down and let me go" Blue relented.
Dropping him back onto his feet, the snarling woman fortunately came to her senses and returned to her chair, falling into it.
"I don't like being lied to" she declared.
"And I don't like being kidnapped and abused, you crazy bi..." Blue took a deep breath and tried again without swearing "Nobody lied to you."
"THEN WHY..." Gran too tried to calm down "why didn't you tell me you were from Mars?"
"Two reasons; firstly the subject had not come up yet and I was far too concerned about why we were kidnapped, and secondly I am not from Mars..."
"LIAR!" Gran interrupted.
"Let me finish you impatient jerk!" Blue sneered and cursed himself for losing control again "I was born on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Calla is from New Zealand; only my sister is from Mars. And in case you're wondering, we were not trying to keep it a secret, we just don't bother to carry illuminated signs advertising our origins to the world."
It was not like Blue to be so angry, but Calla could understand where his frustration came from. Although Gran did not like being verbally abused, after hearing Blues explanation she began to wonder if she had over reacted. Seeing that Blue and Calla had taken a protective stance over Abigail, she continued to direct her questions to Blue for the time being.
"So why did she come back to Earth? Nobody in their right mind would choose to come back to Earth."
"Abigail and my father were on the Mars Transfer Vehicle..."
"You mean the Star Cruiser" Calla interrupted and received a 'please, not now' glance from Blue.
"As I was saying" he continued "a nasty piece of work named Neville Sage tried to kill them when they discovered something no one was supposed to know about."
"Well that explains a lot straight off the bat" Gran noted. "As a former Mars Project section head, I knew Sage and the term nasty piece of work sounds right to me; it maybe rather an understatement."
Nancy chose that moment to return, so she and Eric joined Gran and listened with interest for almost an hour as Blue recounted the rescue of his father and sister, the discovery of the Deep Council on Mars, the various murders in Mars Base One, and his mothers escape from the red planet with a few of her friends, and his youngest sister Saffron. He told them about the attempt on his mother's life, causing instead the death of the son of a Deep Council member, ultimately bringing down the secret organisation.
He went on to tell them of how he and his mother were separated only hours after his birth leaving him to be raised by Doctor Sarah Spencer, and of meeting Calla about a year ago. He purposely left out all details about the Railgun, telling them only that he Abigail, Calla and Maximilian DeGroot had been traveling to a place where he they would meet up with both their families.
"And so you can see now, why you have to let us go" Blue stated "We have to get back to the Bull Ant and its communication systems."
Eric looked to Gran for any sign of an opinion on Blues story, but she just sat in her chair, resting her chin on the backs of her hands, pondering her next words carefully.
"Sorry boy but I can't let you go" she stated bluntly "We need young people like you here."
"There are lots of people like us in the world" Calla interrupted "There's no need..."
"YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE OUT THERE" Gran shouted.
"We've just come from out there" Calla disagreed.
"You're from another country... and your friend's from another planet. Listen, when I and many others were no longer needed on the Mars project, there was no great ceremony, we were thanked for our contribution, given a generous amount of supplies and a free out to take us close to our home towns and my families."
Calla and the others could see a combination of fear and sadness in her eyes as she told her story.
"We were attacked along the way by some very desperate people who beat us and stole everything they could eat or make use of, including our vehicle. The driver didn't see any point in staying with us, so he started walking back the way he had come. The others all went off in different directions, to the places they wanted to be, leaving me to continue home on my own. It took me almost a week of walking, having almost no food and only drinking from a river that was far from clean. When I finally got home, the place was virtually devoid of life.
The few people left in town told me all about the panic that ensued when the shops ran out of food and there was no longer any fuel for their cars. The town, like so many others was looted and the people fled to who knows where."
Calla took a step forward and spoke.
"I may not be from this country, but my parents went through similar things back in New Zealand, and I dare say it happened all over the world" she said accusingly "So for you to tell me I don't know what it's like out there..."
"Maybe you do, but I'd still wager Miss Mars doesn't know what we went through" Gran interrupted again.
"Well you are wrong again" Abigail stated "I had a wonderful class tutor in Professor Topolski, who lived through..."
"You know Topolski?" Gran actually smiled.
"Knew; he was murdered by the Mars Deep Council."
Gran rose from her chair and turned away to be alone with her thoughts for a moment.
"When?" she asked.
"A few months ago" Abigail replied.
"Hmm... I had a feeling they were bad news" Gran admitted.
"Wait... you knew about the Deep Council?" Blue wondered.
"I was very careful to keep the details of what I knew quite secret" Gran nodded "If they knew I had stuck my nose in where it did not belong, I doubt very much I'd be here to tell the tale."
"So how did you all end up here?" Calla asked.
"The few people left in my home town were just trying to survive by hunting, fishing and growing some food, but I knew the only way to ensure long term survival was to literally go underground. All over the world, every part of the Mars Project was based underground, where survival food stocks were stored, and where the people with wealth and power resided. But we didn't have access to anything as good as that, so we came up with the idea of starting again in an old railway tunnel. One of the old men in our group told us about this particular freight line through Canada and Alaska, where some tunnels go all the way through the mountains, and so we gathered our supplies and set off."
"And we've been thriving here ever since" Eric nodded "Even on the outside of the tunnel, the surrounding mountains protect us from meteor strikes and atmospheric explosions."
"A direct hit would still be a disaster though" Blue noted.
"The chances of that happening are extremely low" Gran smirked.
"But one day..." Blue tried to explain.
"NO! WE ARE SAFE HERE!" Gran insisted
Even Eric decided it would be unwise to be the first to speak after her last outburst. Striding off to the far side of the room, the lady who called herself Gran took a few more deep breaths.
"Get them out of here and find them a room for the night" she eventually ordered.
"But we don't have any more rooms ready for habitation yet" Eric informed her.
"It's one night" Gran argued "Just find one with the heat connected and throw them a few blankets; we sort it all out in the morning."
It didn't sound very inviting but nonetheless, they followed Eric and Nancy as they led the three from the room and back out into the corridor where the armed men still waited.
"What on Earth happened in there?" they asked "I don't think we've ever heard Gran so upset."
"You won't believe this" Eric replied "but these kids are from Mars."
"You're kidding me" one of the men gasped.
"At least try to get it right" Calla interrupted "Abby is from Mars, Blue and I are from good ol' mother Earth."
"It's no wonder Gran was so stressed out" Nancy noted.
"It must have reopened some very old wounds" Eric continued "I've never heard her open up so much about her past; she said even things I didn't know about."
They three prisoners were taken back out to the main railway tunnel and further into another side tunnel. This one was very rough and appeared to be still under construction as it still had narrow rail tracks with a few mining carts sitting idle near the entrance. The first few rooms cut into the rock had various tools stored inside, but eventually one was found they could use. The room was empty apart from a vent and a naked light bulb above the door, and it seemed particularly uninviting.
"Wait here" Eric told them before bolting the door from the outside.
Abigail looked around and chose a rocky piece of ground to sit on, hoping it may be a little more comfortable than all the other pieces of rocky ground... but it wasn't.
"So what do we do now?" she asked trying to hide the fact that she was close to tears.
"I'll tell you what we do" Calla responded quickly "We find a way out of here and leave that crazy woman and her silly ideas behind. I mean where does she get off making everyone call her Gran, as if she was some kind of lovable old lady? She doesn't look any older than my mother."
"Yeah she seems to desire being viewed as some kind of wise matriarch" Blue noted "But I can't help wondering if her odd nature is simply due to the stress of trying to take care of so many people, or if it's because of something she found out when working on the Mars Project? That was why Professor Adisa came to North America in the first place; in an attempt to discover the truth."
"Well I'll be happy just to let her stay here, with her nutty ideas of a substandard subterranean settlement, while we all head back to Sumatra" Calla declared.
"I agree the sooner we get out of here the better, but I think we should take it slow. If we try take off as soon as we're let out of here, they'll recapture us for sure and it will just make it more difficult to come up with an escape plan that will work. We don't want them always on alert, just waiting for us to make a run for it, we want them to think we've given up."
"I think the best way..." Abigail began.
All three fell silent as soon as they heard the door bolt slide back. The door opened and Eric entered carrying some old blankets; Nancy and two others followed with a single thin stained foam mattress and a couple of pillows.
"Sorry but this was all we could come up with on such short notice" Eric stated.
The men carrying the mattress dropped it on the ground and left.
"You should think about making better preparations before you go out and kidnap under aged girls. You know there's a name for people like you" Calla sneered; her words clearly upsetting Eric.
"I'll let those insults slide for now; you'll find out tomorrow how wrong you really are" Eric snapped as he turned to leave.
Calla went back to grumbling under her breath about their sparse accommodations, causing the angry young man to turn back.
"DO YOU THINK WE ALL LIVE IN THE LAP OF LUXURY?" he snapped "If you want furniture in here, you'll damn well make it yourself."
And with that said, he slammed the door leaving them alone with Nancy.
"Well then... I know it's not much but there is warm air coming in through the vent and after breakfast tomorrow, I'll see if Gran will let me help you get your accommodations fixed up."
"All three of us have to live in one room?" Blue asked.
"It's a big room" Nancy tried to sound cheerful "And we all started out like this but over time, you'll be able to chisel out more space. We have people who can advise you on how to do that without causing a cave in."
"We have to dig out our own rooms... out of solid rock?" Calla gasped.
"We all did my dear, but you'll find if you help others with their work, they'll help you here. We all work together here" Nancy smiled.
All three of the prisoners just stared at Nancy with looks of disbelief.
"Yes... well... I'm sure things will look brighter after some rest and a hearty breakfast" she tried to smile warmly "Umm... goodnight then.
Nancy closed the door behind her and slid the bolt across, locking them in.
"Maybe you shouldn't antagonise everybody" Abigail suggested to Calla.
"No I think she did the right thing" Blue disagreed "If we come across as being too united, it could work to our disadvantage; so I think it's good if Calla gets a reputation for being angry and aloof."
"I can do that... easy" Calla smiled as she shook the dust off one of the blankets.
"Who gets the bed?" Abigail asked.
"You two share it" Blue offered "I'll just use one of the blankets."
Calla heaved an obvious sigh as she shook her head.
"You know what your problem is?" she smiled "Neither of you have had to make do with limited supplies with a large family."
Dragging the mattress next to the door, she place it length ways along the wall and spread out one blanket on the ground alongside.
"Grab a pillow each then lie down with your heads on the mattress, and your legs over the side on the blanket. If you lie that way, we all fit" Calla noted.
Before laying down herself, Calla folded the floor blanket over their feet and spread the other two blankets over them. She then reached up and switched off the light. After a minute, Abigail broke the silence.
"Cozy, but this pillow smells bad."
"None of us have a floral aroma at the moment" Blue noted.
"I can't think of another two smelly people I'd rather be with" Calla noted.
There was another short silence, broken once again by Abigail.
"I don't think I'm gonna like it here" she stated.
"Amen" Blue and Calla replied in unison.
'
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High in the North Atlantic, southwest of Iceland, a small yellowish green reptilian creature with bulbous eyes and two scrawny, twisted horns on its head circled over a small island formed on the Mid Atlantic Ridge. No trees grew on this cold rocky outcrop and the only covering to be seen consisted of grasses, moss and shrubs. Among this sparse greenery, several breeds of sea birds sheltered; and nested and it was here that the attention of the flying lizard was drawn.
Having chosen its prey, the creature swooped down and landed almost on top of a temporarily unattended nest, and swiftly stole one of the four small eggs within. A number of birds began squawking loudly, running at the intruder with wings high and necks arched. There was no hope of recovering the egg, which had been swallowed as soon as it had been taken, but the birds seemed determined not to let the invader have any more success in its thievery. As migratory birds, they had encountered various egg stealing reptiles before, and had never had any trouble driving them off by simply banding together and making a lot of noise. But they were soon to learn, that this was no ordinary lizard.
At first the small creature retreated from the feathered onslaught, but when the birds were all bunched up in pursuit, the reptile turned suddenly, opened its mouth and sent a large fireball flying pack at the surprised flock.
Almost too late, the birds scattered in all directions as the aroma of singed feathers wafted through the air. The entire flock had learned something new and very important. There was one very distinct difference between a lizard, and a dragon.
'
When I started writing this new tale, I was determind to move the story along faster than I usually do, just in case my health let me down. But now that I'm feeling much stronger, I've been going back over every chapter and adding more detail and more conversation. That's why this 2000 word chapter has nearly 3000 words in it ;)