Beneath Us! (BL)

Chapter 10

"Tian wake up," Axel nudged his side. The boy lazily opened his eyes to see all of the village people standing and peering out of the slots of the carriages.

Tian got to his feet shakily and pushed his way through to one of the slots. The people huddled against each other nervously, speaking under their breaths in fear of being heard and beaten once more.

"Look!" Someone shouted in both fear and excitement.

His eyes widened at the chaotic sight in front of him. He'd never been this far East, and he'd never seen the fields of fire. Hundreds and hundreds of miles filled with lava and active volcanoes. They were passing one of the geysers right as it erupted, spraying boiling water against the sides of the carriages. The people shielded their faces, but the spray still left a sting against their exposed skin. Beyond the geysers, a reddish haze lit the horizon with the promise of more fire to come. Lava spilled out onto the land, casting a heavy fog to enshroud its furthest reaches. The villagers could feel the heat against their skin, pushing the coldness from their bones.

"It's beautiful," Jocelyne whispered.

"My family originally came from here. They said that the ground beneath them had split apart. Hundreds died as lava rose from the cracks of the Earth. Ash had blanketed the sky so thick that they choked to death. But this place was once beautiful farmland. Rolling hills and massive rivers. But when the volcano blew, the beautiful land was reduced to nothing but the hellish fields of fire. It claimed everything it touched. Just like humanity. "

"They say even the cruelest of monsters can't survive here. The water is acidic and burns the skin and the land beneath your feet melts your toes. If you get too close to the boiling pits, your nose fills up with blood and you become horrendously sick."

Ash still blanketed the ground, hundreds of years after. The massive volcano raged beneath them, spewing continuous lava that only seemed to harden as it moved. The ground shook beneath the large trucks, keeping the place in a constant state of horrifying movement. The acidic wind carried the ash into the carriages, creating a chain reaction of coughing and choking. Where there wasn't lava, there were massive pools of greenish purple water with steam rising up and curling against the glint of the sunlight. It bubbled and boiled seconds before another geyser blew hundreds and hundreds of miles up, spraying out in the sky and raining boiling hot water against the ground. The further they went, the harder it was to breathe. They were traveling straight through massive plumes of thick choking ash.

"Take cover!" Tian ordered. "Cover your mouths! Don't breathe in the ash, keep your mouths and noses covered!"

The people hovered close to each other, using the cloth from their clothing to cover their own faces. Ash poured in all of a sudden, and the carriages started to heat up from the metallic bottom. The very air tasted acidic and poisonous, and despite the cloth over their faces, they couldn't stop coughing and choking. Ash blew in through the slots, settling on their skin and in their hair, covering it in endless gray.

"My skin is burning!" someone wailed, dropping his cloth to nurse his burnt flesh on the bottoms of his feet. Immediately, the ash started to swirl in towards him and covered his mouth and clump together. He fell back, unable to catch a single breath. "I can't breathe!"

He spluttered and clawed at his throat, but the ash kept clogging his mouth. Tian slid to his side, the feces and muck taking his feet right out from underneath him. Bile rose up in his mouth and he tried to not to let it go any further. Tian tried digging at the ash in the man's mouth with his only free hand frantically. The man inhaled more and was starting to grow blue without oxygen. There was ash everywhere, deep in his esophagus and against his white teeth. Axel came to his side and they managed to dig out enough of it to clear his airway. He sat up choking and wheezing with watery eyes. Tian shoved a cloth back over his face with a glare.

"Don't ever do that again," Tian ordered before standing against the wall.

His feet burned inside the shoes, but standing was the only option for everyone. Just by touching the sides of the metal walls, their skin started to smoke and ache. The metal around them was only getting hotter the further they went.

The people wailed as the sunlight started to disappear. The biggest ash plume they'd ever seen rose up, spreading across the sky. Lava spewed up from a deep orifice in the ground and anything it dared to touch, caught fire. It sprayed against the sides of the vehicles with an unearthly roar and the people flinched back in fear.

"Stay back!" Tian ordered. The people couldn't help but clasp their hands together and pray to whatever god or spirit that would listen.

Countless hours later, they were finally able to collapse and rest. The heat was gone and there was no more ash coming in through the openings. They dropped their clothes and nursed their burns as best as they possibly could. Their throats were dry and scratchy and the vehicles finally spluttered to a stop in the dark. Without the sun, they couldn't move. His mother had told him about those vehicles before. Solar powered. During the night, they heard the men moving around outside the vehicles, but the doors didn't open.

With the rest of his people trying to fall asleep despite the disgusting filth they were forced to wade in, Tian was finally able to assess his own wounds. The bruises and cuts from earlier were starting to close or turn a different, lighter shade of purple. It was hard to tell amongst the ash that had settled on his skin, sticking to him like glue by his own sweat. With shoes, his burns weren't as bad. He was afraid though, as he watched his people. They were terribly bruised and thirsty. And it was only half his people in his carriage, the other half were across from them. However, the other half didn't look out their openings so Tian truly didn't know if they'd made it through the fields of fire. What scared him the most, though, was where they were going. The man from earlier had protected him as best as he could, but now they were heading into territory that would be even more hostile towards him. He was afraid for his people, but he was more afraid for himself.

Tian sighed before sitting down once more. He traced the lines against his skin with his fingers, shaking his head. His father had been able to channel light through the lines so easily. Tian, he'd never even seen a blip of possibility with his. However, his father knew something Tian didn't.

He shook his head. He just had to focus on getting his people out of the situation that they were in. The biggest threat is what would happen when they reached the Capital. Slaves, that's what Maria had said before she... before she'd died. The Capital was so big that they needed slaves now, or maybe they always had slaves. They were truly going into a world they knew nothing about. His people... he couldn't let them be slaves. No matter what, Maria would want him to get them out. Somehow, if he could break the restraints and escape, they could do it. However, what blocked their chance of freedom was the Fields of Fire. His people would never make it across alive. They'd be caught before they could get anywhere and then maybe he truly would be killed for it. Or worse, the people Maria trusted him with. The man that had helped him earlier, RT, could only help him so much. If Tian attempted to escape and was caught, Tian doubted the massive human could be able to aid him again.

He was supposed to have the strength of a dozen men, enhanced speed and agility like his father. But when he needed it most, the fear had overpowered it all. Then Maria died and he'd been overtaken by rage and his people had all been captured.

Tian hissed, slamming his fist against the side of the carriage hard enough to leave a massive dent. He should be strong enough to rip this metal apart. He should've been a warrior, a Kukouk man coming of age. Not some weak human who could barely save himself. He couldn't even control his powers long enough to protect anyone.

"Maria," Tian whispered. "What should I do now? I don't know where we're going, I don't know what awaits us. I'm scared."

She never answered.

The men packed up early the next morning, and pushed off right as the sun rose over the horizon. The hard bumpy roads were starting to smooth out the closer they got. More villages started popping up, but the village people didn't dare to even lift their heads. They were situated differently. Bigger, with larger buildings and more people.