Novus Umbra Seclorum: Ch. 7

September 13, 2016
<Knuckles' POV>
I felt like I was floating in an eternal blackness, unable to move.  I didn't know if my eyes were open or closed.  I couldn't even tell if I was alive or dead.  All I could do is wait...and I waited for what seemed like an eternity, but for all I know it may have been just ten minutes.  Then suddenly I felt something gritty settle on my face.  Sand?  Dirt?  I don't know, but I could feel it tickling my nose, which I guess proved that I wasn't dead.  Then suddenly I sneezed and my eyes popped open.  The first thing I saw was a large hazy square of yellow and orange, then as my vision cleared I could make out the faint wisps of clouds.  Oh, it's the sky.  But why am I looking up at the sky, and why does it look square?  I tried sitting up, which took me several attempts because of how woozy I felt, and looked around to determine where I was.  I was surrounded on four sides by walls of dirt that extended well above my head, at least twenty feet away from me in every direction.  The sunlight streaming halfway down one of the walls, along with the orange-yellow color of the sky, made me conclude that it was some time in either the morning or evening, and more likely the evening because the temperature was too hot to be warming up from a cooler night.

The lumpy sensation beneath my person made me look down, and that's when I realized that the floor of this pit was covered with the bodies of other anthros, male and female, denuded of any clothing they might have been wearing, and all with the same characteristic blue and green spots on their bodies that I saw on the four of us in that gas chamber.  Many had their eyes and mouths frozen open in looks of pure terror and agony, and it caused me, as strong-stomached as I am, to get dry heaves.  I gasped in surprise when I saw the bodies of Sonic, Tails and Amy close by.  Tails' tongue was hanging limply out of his mouth, with remnants of foam still on his lips, and I saw scabs in Amy's ears where the blood had coagulated.  Instantly my mind turned to worry as I wondered if I, being the hardiest and most disciplined of the four, was the only one to survive the poisonous gas treatment.  I crawled on hands and knees over to my cohorts and one by one, I checked for breathing and pulse.  I could hear a faint heartbeat in Sonic's chest and I felt a weak pulse in Tails' neck, but Amy showed no signs of life whatsoever.

Depressed and hopeful at the same time, I pulled Sonic and Tails over to one wall and sat them upright, attempting to bring them to consciousness any way I could...even resorting to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Sonic (I didn't want to risk potentially getting poisoned from the foam on Tails' lips).  Suddenly I heard voices from up above and I pulled everyone down, lying as still as possible to pretend we were dead.  I could feel two distinct thumps as two more bodies were cast into the pit.  Once the voices faded again, I sat up and resumed my attempts to bring Sonic and Tails around, finally succeeding.  Tails woke with feverish coughing and choking sounds, and Sonic gave me a dazed, lethargic look as he slowly opened his eyes.  Neither of them seemed particularly responsive, so I sat close by and watched for any changes.

When they both turned to look at me, I promptly told them that we'd have to escape this pit or else we'd die for real.  Tails asked me where Amy was, and I gestured in her direction, muttering with an exasperated sigh that she didn't appear to have survived the poisoning.  He looked at Amy and gasped in surprise, though I could only guess if it was from seeing her denuded form, or hearing she was gone.  Sonic weakly asked me if I had any sort of plan for escape, and I shook my head.  But in the fading evening light I looked around and noticed that the walls in front of and behind me appeared to be smooth, but the other two had large scuff marks in them, as if this pit was dug using earthmoving equipment.  And the scuff marks had contours at regular intervals that could possibly be used for hand- and footholds.  I said, more thinking out loud than anything else, that we might be able to climb the walls, but it'd be best to do so under the cover of darkness.  I did directly warn Sonic and Tails, however, that we'd all have to play dead in case we heard any voices coming from outside the pit.

We patiently waited for several hours until the moon hung high in the sky and illuminated the floor of the pit with a ghostly glow.  Since I appeared to be in the best physical condition, I was the first to try scaling the wall.  I got to my feet, carefully stepped over to it and rubbed my palm across the surface, and felt a dense, gritty texture.  Mineral soil, most likely.  That was good news because the stiffer mineral soil would be more likely to support my weight.  I reached up to one nearby handhold and slowly put weight on it, digging my fingers into the soil to get a better grip.  It held, so I repeated the process until my head was peeking out the top of the pit, and I instantly scanned the panorama trying to determine where this pit was.  Off in the distance, probably a mile away or so, were the lights of the settlement.  I heard nothing but a soft breeze blowing past my ears, so I looked down at Sonic and Tails and said this was our chance to escape.  I climbed back down and instructed them to use my hand- and footholds to scale the wall.  As I gave them a boost up, I thought about Amy and how it wouldn't be proper to leave her behind, even if she hadn't survived.  We owe her our lives...the very least we could do is give her a proper burial.  Sonic and Tails agreed with the idea, so I gently picked up Amy and put her on my back in a way that any other time would be awkward and undignified, but modesty was probably the last thing on everyone's minds.

Once all of us were out of the pit, we took off in the opposite direction than the settlement.  We couldn't manage anything faster than a brisk walk, both because we all still felt the debilitating effects of the poison, and we were taking turns carrying Amy.  But we didn't get very far before realizing that we had no idea where we were going.  I did remember, however, that the settlement was somewhere in the deserts of the northwest part of the country, and that the closest refuge would be the western border.  But how to determine which way is west, I wondered out loud.  Tails promptly spoke up, saying he once saw a TV documentary about astronomy and knew enough about the constellations to locate the North Star in the sky.  Trusting his judgment, we changed direction and started heading west.  I constantly kept an eye out for coyotes or other desert predators that might be prowling about for a midnight snack.

Hours later, having crossed many miles in bare feet, we were exhausted to the point of nearly collapsing.  That was enough for one day.  I set Amy down and built a small campfire using whatever combustible materials I could find, like tumbleweeds and dry brush, and creating a spark by clacking rocks together.  In the meantime, Tails went off in search of cactus leaves that we could suck the moisture out of.  Once we had regained some of our strength, I dug a shallow trench with a sharp flat stone and laid Amy's body in it.  I asked Sonic and Tails to stand close and join hands as I recited a prayer for our departed cohort: "Heavenly Father, we gather here to mourn the loss of our friend Amy.  Please welcome her into Your heavenly realm with open arms, and show her the love and kindness that no one else extended to her here below.  We thank her and You for us being here today, and we ask that you watch over us as we continue to flee from the wickedness and evil of this world.  In Your name we pray, amen."  And with that, I covered her up and set a ring of stones around her grave.  Shortly after, our fire went out and the moon began to set, which was our cue to get some sleep.  We needed to gain as much strength as possible if we were to survive the uncertainty of the days ahead.

---

September 16, 2016
<Sonic's POV>
I was awakened by something poking at me, and when I opened my eyes I saw a buzzard trying to peck at my arm.  I shooed it away and sat up, rubbing my eyes.  Once I confirmed that Tails and Knuckles were still here, I looked around, trying to determine what time of day it was.  The sun illuminated the sky a burnt orange in the direction we were heading...it was probably evening.  And as I wiped the sweat from my brow, I could see a nasty sunburn all over my arms, legs and torso.  I promptly woke up Tails and Knuckles, and used some sand to cover up the ashes of last night's campfire.  While walking behind a nearby large boulder to relieve myself, I noticed the ring of stones Knuckles had placed on the ground yesterday to mark Amy's grave.  I placed my hand in the middle and mouthed the words "Goodbye, Amy.  I will never forget you."  But then I got to my feet and returned to the group once I heard Tails calling out my name.

We followed the direction of the setting sun until the stars were visible in the sky, and then navigated by the North Star like before.  We were able to cover a greater distance that night than the previous -- even breaking into a full run at times -- for three reasons: we weren't having to take turns carrying Amy, we all felt stronger than yesterday (or at least I did), and the primarily rocky terrain transitioned to flat, smooth sand that felt comfortably warm beneath our feet.  And for days, we continued this pattern, staving off the threats of heat exhaustion, starvation and dehydration all the while fearing that the humans may have noticed our escape and sent out search parties.

That all changed this evening, when we came across a two-lane asphalt roadway whose surface had cracked down much of its length, presumably from the heat and lack of moisture.  It was the first sign of civilization we'd seen in days, and we figured we'd have a chance of finding something if we followed it.  And follow it we did, still continuing in the same general westerly direction, until in the distance we saw the silhouette of a small building with a light inside.  Without thinking, I started picking up my pace and Tails and Knuckles followed suit.  In retrospect, it may not have been such a good idea to approach a building without knowing what it was, or if the occupants inside would even take kindly to three half-dead anthros appearing out of nowhere.  But in our dehydration-induced delusion, rational thought stood little chance against brute survival instinct.  Tails was the first one to spot a door on the building, and by that point we were so focused on getting to that door that none of us noticed the short concrete step that elevated the whole building above ground.  My right foot caught the edge of the step and I fell forward, causing a chain reaction that resulted in all three of us faceplanting on the concrete, mere feet from the entrance.  My whole body went numb and just as I faded out of consciousness, I heard the sound of a door opening and a voice saying "Who's th..."

The next time I opened my eyes, I was staring up at blurry figures.  Blinking several times, I saw Tails and Knuckles, saying "Sonic, are you OK?"  Instantly I sat up, wondering where we might be now, before suddenly clutching my forehead and abdomen in pain.  Tails immediately reacted with "Easy, Sonic.  You're hurt.  Lie down and relax."  I lied down again as Tails suggested, but how could I relax?  As I pulled my hand away from my forehead, I saw matted blood on my palm, which didn't make me feel any more reassured.  My head was spinning with all sorts of unanswered questions, but the only one that managed to escape my lips was "What happened?"  Then out of nowhere, I heard a response in baritone: "You all took a rather nasty fall on my front porch.  But you looked like you were in worse shape than just a fall, so I brought you inside."  I slowly sat up and turned around to determine the source of the voice: an anthro grey wolf, aged but with the vitality of a younger wolf, dressed in loose-fitting white robes.  He said "I better get you something for that cut," then promptly stood up and walked out of the room.  That's when I actually got the chance to look around: it appeared to be a large room inside someone's house, with a flat, earthen-color ceiling and sandstone walls that glistened ever so slightly in the light.  In one corner of the room was a sturdy wooden dining table and chairs that looked like they'd been built decades ago, and in the corner immediately adjacent were wooden cabinets, a stove, a vintage-style refrigerator and other kitchen fixtures.  I was sitting on a threadbare, olive-green couch while Tails and Knuckles were on a blue-grey loveseat whose leather surface was cracked and peeling, and on the opposite wall was a long bookshelf with hundreds of books in various states of wear.  Combined with the apparent lack of radio, television or computer, I felt like I had stepped back in time.

Then the wolf re-entered the room carrying a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some gauze, but then paused.  "It just occurred to me that it might be better to dress that wound of yours after you wash up.  The same goes for you two as well," looking at Tails and Knuckles.  "Wash all that dirt and sand off, and I'll prepare you guys something to eat.  You look like you haven't eaten in days."  He pointed us in the direction of his bathroom, and we took turns taking a shower.  The cool water on my skin was such a comforting feeling that I wanted to stay in there forever, but I didn't want to keep this generous wolf waiting.  We returned to find the wolf had set several bowls of something hot on the dining table -- it turned out to be a mix of ground beef, corn and chili peppers.  I probably made a fool of myself as fast as I wolfed the stuff down (no pun intended), but I was so hungry I didn't even care.  I did, however, thank the wolf for his hospitality after the fact, and so did Tails and Knuckles.

Having satisfied our most pressing needs, the three of us were in better mindset to talk with our benefactor who had still not identified himself.  Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he introduced himself as Tiberius, and told us of how he'd come to live alone out in the middle of nowhere.  He was originally from the sunny southern coasts, but after the death of his best friend and a painful divorce from his wife, he wanted to make a fresh start in a completely new location by just driving along the road until he ran out of gas and making a home there.  Ever the handyman, he had built this desert-themed farmhouse and fields with his bare hands (it turned out that the corn and chili peppers we'd eaten had been grown in the very fields he tended).  But he hadn't counted on the loneliness that the isolation would bring, and in recent years he'd suffered from bouts of depression.  In fact, we were the first outsiders who'd been in his home in over a year, which is probably why he was so eager to tend to three strangers.

"But enough about me," he said with a certain excitement in his voice that came from talking to other people for the first time in so long.  "Tell me your story of how you ended up at my doorstep."  And so, piece by piece, we told him all that had happened to us and other anthros in the past few years.  Based on his reactions, he hadn't heard any of this first-hand, which didn't surprise me given how isolated he was.  His jaw nearly dropped once we told him we'd been poisoned and left for dead in a large pit, all for no other reason than not being human.  And when we mentioned the fourth member of our group who didn't survive the poisoning, he looked down at the floor and said nothing, but I could see the tears in his eyes.  "I thought I had known what pain and suffering was, but now I know it's nothing compared to what you all have been through.  I shall keep your departed friend in my prayers."

Suddenly a clock started chiming loudly.  Alarmed, I looked around and saw the grandfather clock in the corner.  It was midnight already.  Tiberius looked also, and said "My, how late it is.  We should all get some rest.  I'll see if I can find some blankets and pillows for you."  As he left the room, I exchanged glances with Tails and Knuckles and, without realizing it, yawned (which of course caused them to yawn too).  Tiberius returned with blankets and pillows, and suggested that two of us sleep on opposite ends of the couch while one could take the loveseat.  By carefully interleaving our legs, Tails and I were able to lie completely flat on the couch together.  It didn't take long from the time Tiberius turned off the lights that I was fast asleep.