The Tchacata Machine - Chapter Four

Coonswater
August 6, 2017
10:38 PM

"I just saw a shooting star."

"I saw it, too."

Every day, after dark, when her family thought she was asleep, Nellie would sneak out of her house and meet her friend, Aleisha, in the cave beneath the mountain. A few hundred yards down the road was the town border, where the huge, faded, peeling sign stood greeting visitors: a cartoon mountain man wrapped in layers of furs, smiling underneath a speech bubble proclaiming, “Welcome to COONSWATER!” Beneath this, in smaller letters: “Home of Ol’ Bob Coon!” Coonswater had no tourist attractions, no history to speak of, and no jobs, but it had a mascot.

Nellie was thirteen years old – two months older than Aleisha – and these nights spent in front of the cave were the only time that the two of them were able to see each other. Nellie was from Mountainside, and Aleisha was from Riverside, and everyone knew that Riversiders and Mountainsiders didn’t get along. That was the way it had been for generations.

No one could put their finger on whatever kept both their families in the little mountain town, trapped in houses situated across from each other over the lazy, brown river. Once, it had been the jobs – now, it wasn’t much more than the houses. They weren’t good houses, but they were old, and the families living in them had been there forever.

Nellie’s father had been unemployed for the last three years. Her mother scraped by at her job at the gas station, making enough to pay taxes and buy groceries. Her brother Jeremy was gone – he’d been living on a friend’s couch in Minnesota for the last three years, occasionally sending letters with little wads of cash. Sometimes, that money was the only thing that put food on the family table.

On the other side of the mountain, next to the dam, towered the Benson Facility. That’s where all the rich people worked. Nobody in Nellie’s family knew what they did. They stuck to their side of the mountain, and the Riversiders and Mountainsiders to theirs. The facility was always open, night and day. The lights from the factory towers were bright enough to illuminate the clearing in front of the cave.

Using that light, Nellie crouched in front of the cave, wrapping a stick with some red ribbon she’d found in her mother’s sewing box. At the top of the stick she’d placed a bird skull. She’d made little blue and yellow circles around the eyes, which she thought made it look more intimidating. It wasn’t as impressive as Aleisha’s – Aleisha’s bird skull had more red ribbon coming out of the eye sockets, and she’d tied a broken bottle to the end of the stick to use as a weapon.

“You think this is good enough?” Nellie said, tying a couple sharp twigs to the base of her staff.

Aleisha inspected it, frowning. “You can’t kill nobody with that.”

“It’s not a killing stick,” said Nellie. “It’s to impress people.”

Aleisha froze as some police cars drove down the winding mountain path with their lights blaring. She waited until they were gone, and said in a whisper, “How you gonna scare somebody off if you can’t kill ‘em?”

“Who says I want to scare anybody off?” said Nellie, laughing.

“Your face’d scare off Ol’ Bob Coon.”

Nellie whacked Aleisha upside the head with her stick.  Aleisha shrugged, threw back her head and howled at the moon. Nellie joined her. The two of them carried on that way until they heard coyotes howling in the distance. Nellie sat back down and began tying bells to her stick. Aleisha stood in front of the cave and lit a cigarette. Aleisha smoked like a chimney. Nellie wished she’d stop, but that was Aleisha. “Why don’t we ever go in there?” said Aleisha, pointing to the cave.

Nellie attached another bell to her stick. “Cave monsters,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Well, we’re Cave Guardians,” said Aleisha. They’d awarded themselves that title years ago.

“The mountain’s cursed,” said Nellie.

“That makes it even better,” said Aleisha with a spark of mischief in her eyes.

Nellie felt goosebumps rising on her arms. She and Aleisha had gone a few feet in before, and come running out screaming when they’d thought they’d heard something moving. Aleisha had always wanted to go back. They’d been stockpiling flashlights and rope, but it never felt like enough.

Aleisha threw up her hands and said, “Screw this. We’re going in.” She turned on her flashlight and started walking.

“Wait!” said Nellie. “Hold on…” She threw down her stick and grabbed her own flashlight.

That was when the factory tower exploded.

At first, Nellie couldn’t figure out what was happening – all she saw was a burst of light. She climbed up to the top of the cave to get a better look, and hunched over next to the chain link fence that marked the border of the Benson Research Initiative’s turf. The entire factory tower was on fire. Aleisha climbed up behind her. “You got a cell phone?” said Aleisha.

“No,” said Nellie. “Do you?”

“Do I look like I’m rich?”

“Should we get somebody?” said Nellie.

“You think nobody else sees this?” said Aleisha. It was true – through the trees, they could see little pinpricks of light where the people living in the houses up and down the mountain were waking up to see what was going on.

Nellie leaned against the fence, trying to get a better look. She saw a few people running towards the fire. Alarms were going off. Something darted out of the smoke – a person, wearing a thick black jacket that looked too big for it, dashing into the shadows behind another building. For a few seconds Nellie stared into the darkness, trying to see where the figure had gone, and then she saw it running across the clearing towards the fence, straight towards her and Aleisha.

Nellie could tell by the sound of its breath that it was a woman. In the light of the fire, Nellie saw that she had red, curly hair. “She’s gonna see us if we don’t get out of here,” Nellie hissed. Aleisha shrugged, thudding her stick against the ground, ready to use it.

The figure reached the fence a few feet away and climbed over, catching her thigh on one of the barbs atop the fence. She tumbled to the ground, clutching the wound on her leg and another on her stomach. Blood ran down her hands. The woman sat there for a moment or two, assessing her surroundings, and then looked straight into Nellie’s eyes.

Everyone froze until another alarm sounded. Guards poured out of the facility, running in all directions across the clearing. The woman stood up and bolted towards Nellie and Aleisha, screaming, “Run!”  

Without thinking, all three of them skidded down the hillside. Nellie and Aleisha hesitated in front of the mouth of the cave. The woman ran into it, yelling, “This way! Hurry – they’re coming!”

“Who’s coming?” asked Aleisha, dropping her staff and grabbing two of the flashlights she and Nellie had stockpiled at the mouth of the cave.

“The BRI,” the woman called back. “They just killed my dad. Now they’re coming after me.”

Nellie and Aleisha exchanged glances, shrugged, and went in after her.

The cave was deeper than Nellie had expected – much deeper, and narrower. The woman got down on her hands and knees and started crawling. The tunnel wasn’t much wider or taller than her hips. Nellie and Aleisha continued after her. Finally, the tunnel widened enough for them to stand. There were stairs. Someone had chiseled them out by hand – chips of rock lay in piles against the cave walls.

“You kids ever been down here before?” the woman asked between breaths.

“Never,” said Nellie. “Not this far.”

“Great. Me, either.”

They were walking on a path that appeared to have been carved out of rock ages ago. In the blackness, it was impossible to see how far down it led. The floor flattened, and the woman broke into a run.

“I’m Maggie, by the way,” the woman called back.

“Nellie,” said Nellie. “That’s Aleisha. How come they’re after you?”

“I worked for Benson Medical. We just got switched to new management, and – “ Maggie hefted herself up a ledge – “new management doesn’t like me.”

“Are you the one who blew up the factory?” Aleisha asked.

“No,” said Maggie, nearly falling down a dip in the path. “It was Benson. He made it look like my boyfriend did it.”

Suddenly, the path broadened dramatically, opening into a vast cavern. Nellie pointed her flashlight and saw that she couldn’t see the roof – this wasn’t a cave, but a canyon. A deep one – and wide. This couldn’t be – there were no rock formations like this anywhere near Coonswater. She could see sky above them – it was dark, but there was a hint of light in the distance. City lights against clouds, perhaps. The air here was… Wrong, somehow, and it made both girls uneasy.

Maggie paused, looking around. She spotted a ledge at the side of the canyon and ran for it. Nellie and Aleisha followed. The ledge was wide, but the rock was dark and slippery.

There were voices coming from somewhere far behind.

"Do you hear that?" Nellie hissed.

Maggie flattened herself against the rock, listening. "Shit," she said. “That’s them. Hurry.”  

They kept climbing. "What happens if they see us?" Nellie asked.

"Just keep climbing," said Maggie. Nellie felt a little wad of dread begin to form in her stomach - this was real. The explosion had been real. This cave, canyon, whatever it was, was real. Whoever these people were, chasing after them…  They were real, too. She thought of Randy Cowell, the Riversider boy who’d disappeared a few years back. She wondered if maybe he’d gone wandering down one of these caves, too.

They came to a crack in the canyon wall and ducked inside. The walls narrowed as the path spiraled upward. The atmosphere had an odd, stale odor to it. The air felt tingly, and Nellie swore she felt the hairs on her body standing on end, like the whole place was filled with static electricity.

The path turned, suddenly, and there was nothing but complete and total darkness. Aleisha shone her flashlight into the tunnel. There was nothing there – just dark.

"Come on," said Maggie, stepping into the blackness. As she did so, the dark seemed to swallow her whole, but Nellie heard Maggie calling back - "Come on! Hurry!"

Nellie pointed her flashlight at Aleisha. The light just barely caught the side of Aleisha’s face – Nellie could see where she’d smeared a line of the yellow acrylic they’d been using earlier to decorate their bird skulls. “Cave guardians,” Nellie said more to herself than to Aleisha, and followed Maggie into the darkness, hoping that the tunnel didn’t end in a thousand foot drop. She felt Aleisha's hand on her shoulder. The two of them held on to each other, arm over arm, as if that were enough to save them from falling.

Nellie remembered her mother telling her that Aleisha wouldn't stick with her if times got tough. “That’s how the Riversiders are,” she’d said, as if she knew.  

For ten solid minutes, they waded through the darkness. The voices and footsteps behind them had faded. The only thing guiding them along the path was the cold, dry rock. Aleisha called out "Hey! Lady! You still over there?"

"I’m up here," Maggie called back.  

“How far down this cave are we supposed to go?”

"I don't know," she said. "Just keep going."

Nellie began to notice that the ground felt different. She put her hand to the ground and felt something plantlike stretched across the floor. The floor felt soft, almost spongy. She started to stand back up and felt something brush past her leg. She screamed, which made both Aleisha and Maggie scream.

"What was it?" asked Maggie.

“I felt something,” said Nellie, pointing her flashlight at the floor. Nothing was there. Maggie pointed her light further down the tunnel. It reflected, briefly, against a pair of small eyes in the darkness. Maggie relaxed.

"It's just a warp cat," she said.

"A what?" said Aleisha.

The eyes suddenly disappeared.

"Western creatures,” said Maggie. “They only live down in these caves.”

"Why do they call them warp cats?" asked Aleisha.

“It’s… hard to explain. These caves - we call them Valleys - are the connecting factor in a vast network of wormholes. That’s what we call the West. Anyway, the cats live here. Somehow they’ve developed the ability to bend reality to teleport wherever they want to using the West. We don’t really understand how they do it.”

Nellie shone her light back and forth across the cave floor. There was nothing there. “Wormholes, like… black holes?”

"Exactly,” said Maggie.

"That's bullshit," said Aleisha. She screamed when another cat brushed past her leg.

"Looks like we’re in a den of them," said Maggie. "That's weird... Usually, they stick closer to the inside of the cave. Unless there’s something scaring them…" She glanced back towards the darkness, then shuddered, “Probably just us.”

Maggie leaned against the wall, listening. The footsteps behind them had returned. Nellie heard a man’s voice yelling, “There’s a ledge! Up here!”

"Keep moving," said Maggie, pushing Nellie and Aleisha forward.  

The plants were getting thicker, and harder to run through. Aleisha tripped over one of the vines and fell flailing to her face before Maggie and Nellie stopped to help her back up. The darkness had begun to subside. The cave narrowed until the three of them were crawling on their hands and knees, and then the path steepened. Nellie climbed up the rocks and vines, slipping and trying not to bump her head on the rocky ceiling. She noticed that the temperature had begun to rise. She felt a warm breeze on her face.

Over Maggie’s shoulder, Nellie glimpsed a patch of dim light – starlight. Maggie pointed ahead. “Look – sky.”

They crawled out onto a rubbery, pale surface. Aleisha shone her flashlight around. The ground was white. It wasn’t snow – wherever they were, it was warm. There were plants poking out of the ground here and there unlike anything Nellie had seen before – feathery purple fronds, blue tendrils curling into spirals, and tall, white stems with translucent teal-colored orbs bobbing at the top.

Aleisha frowned, her brow knitted in that same expression she always got when Nellie was helping her with homework and she didn’t understand something. “Hey Maggie?” said Aleisha. “Where the hell are we?”

The light of Maggie’s flashlight bobbed in a circle around them, showing patches of spiraling vines and beds of cotton. "Tearis,” she muttered.

"What?"

“We’re on Tearis.”

"Ain’t never heard of that," said Aleisha. "Is it on the other side of the mountain?"

"No," said Maggie. "A lot further than that."

"Where is it, then?" said Aleisha.

Maggie turned to Nellie an Aleisha. "I'm not exactly sure how to put this. That cave we just went through, the Valley, the West… it’s not on any specific planet. Like I said, it’s… actually part of a black hole, somewhere, and somehow the earth is connected to it. We don’t know exactly how it works… That’s part of what the BRI is studying.”  She shook her head. "There's some kind of quantum physics involved... Not my forte; I’m not a physicist. The point is that all those tunnels inside that cave lead to certain places on a few other planets."

Nellie looked up. She could see a sky full of stars, but they weren’t the same ones that she and Aleisha spent their hours staring at from their hiding place in front of the cave. She could see the silhouettes of what looked like trees framing the night sky, but they weren’t like the trees she was familiar with in Coonswater - they were narrower, like individual blades of grass, and instead of leaves, they were covered in some kind of fleshy membrane.

"This is crazy," Aleisha muttered, shining her light across the tree top. Something small and white jumped across one of the branches, making a low cooing noise. A chorus of sounds rose up from the trees around them. “So, we’re on another planet?”

“Yep,” said Maggie. “One of two orbiting the star HD 133600, at least that support life. This one’s got the most Valleys. The other one’s called Echtectular... that place is harder to get to.”

“Are there people there, too?”

“Yeah. But… we won’t see any of them.”

Nellie had been edging closer and closer to Maggie’s side while Aleisha asked questions.  “Are those people still back there?” Nellie whispered.

Maggie glanced back towards the tunnel. "Probably," she said. She turned her flashlight off and headed into an area where the white grass stood tallest. “Lights off - let’s get away from the cave. I don’t think they’ll try to follow us too far if they make it out here at all.”  

Nellie heard things rustling in the foliage as she walked across the rubbery ground. She saw the silhouettes of flying things gliding across the night sky. The sound of crickets would have been welcome, but instead all she heard was a choir of moans, whistles, and sighs. Something big was out there, stalking across the white ground. Maggie could hear it, too, and seemed to be edging away from it while at the same time trying not to make too much noise.

Just then, something burst out of the cave. Men. At least four of them, all wearing BRI uniforms. They were carrying flashlights and guns. "Get down," Maggie hissed, and pulled Nellie and Aleisha behind a thick cluster of the white plants.

The men formed a tight circle outside the cave, shining their flashlights up and down the trees. “Holy shit,” said one. “We’re on Tearis.”  

“You think she made it this far?” said another.

The other muttered something unintelligible. Nellie put her arm on Aleisha’s shoulder and squeezed tight. Aleisha did the same to her. Maggie crouched in front of them.

Two of the men began to circle the area while the others stayed near the cave entrance. One of them pulled what looked like a cell phone out of his pocket and began to report: “Helenski – no, we didn’t find her. No... I think it’s somewhere – yeah, yeah – I think it’s somewhere near where the riots took place in ‘78. Yes… I think so. I don’t know. I didn’t see that.” He paused, and finished, “I’ll let them know. No. Sorry. Bye.” The man put his phone away. “We need to go back,” he said. “The Western Front used to run through here.”

“You sure?” said one of the others. “She could have still gone this way.”

The first man looked around, frowning. “It’s not worth it,” he said. “We don’t know what’s out here.”

“What,” said the other, “you afraid of the Western Front?”

“Shut up, Jay,” said the first.

The vines shuddered. Nellie looked to her right and saw something huge slinking through the trees - it was walking on all fours. It was white, vaguely translucent, and had what looked like one huge spike sticking out the end of its nose. The BRI men saw it and pointed their flashlights at it. “Fuck!” Jay hissed. “Asbilok!” he drew his gun and fired at the creature. It gave an ear-splitting howl and charged after him. The other two men fired. The creature lurched forward, bellowed in pain, and fell.

The men gathered around the creature’s body. “Let’s get out of here,” the first man panted, and the others nodded in agreement. They filed back into the cave.  

Nellie, Maggie and Aleisha lay where they were for what felt like hours. Neither of them moved or said a word until finally, Maggie stood up, sighed, and leaned against a tree.

“Fuck,” Aleisha muttered. “Fuck… what was that thing?”

“An asbilok,” said Maggie. “Tearil creature. They’re… dangerous. Really dangerous. Like over in Coonswater, you got bears, and on Tearis you have asbiloks. They’re just meaner than bears. They usually only attack at night… and then only if they see you moving.”

“Fuck!” Aleisha said again, leaning forward to try to get a better look at the fallen creature.

"We can't go anywhere right now," said Maggie. "Not yet. I'm thinking for now we just lie low right here until the sun comes up.” She sat up and leaned back against a large plant, sighing.

“Then what?” said Nellie.

“I have to find the Tearils.”

"The what?" said Aleisha.

"People from Tearis," said Maggie. "Right before that explosion happened, my boyfriend told me to go there… I have to tell them what the BRI has been doing. I know they’ll listen. My family has worked with them for years… They’re good people. And they can get you home.”  

Nellie pulled her legs up against her chest and leaned against another plant. Aleisha was on her knees, trying to look around without being too obvious to any encroaching predator. “Are the Tearils human?” she said.

"Sort of," said Maggie. "Humanoid. We all descended from a common ancestor."

"How is that possible if they're from a different planet?" asked Nellie.

"Easy," said Maggie. "A couple primates got turned around in the caves, came out on a bunch of different planets, and evolution took it from there." She cleared away some of the vines into a nest shape, and scooted down into it. "If you move the plants, it's pretty cozy.”

Nellie put her hand on the ground. It almost felt gooey, like it was sticking to her fingers. "What’s up with the ground?” she asked.

"It’s just Tearis,” said Maggie.

There was a long pause. "Why's it sticking to my hands like this?" asked Nellie.

Maggie grunted. “I can’t think right now. Just go to sleep.”

Nellie felt a hand touching her left arm; Aleisha was settling down beside her. "What do we do?" Nellie whispered.

"Just lay here, I guess," said Aleisha. "Nothing else we can do, right?"

"We’ll be missing,” said Nellie. “Our families are gonna look for us.”

“At least it’s both of us," said Aleisha. “Nobody’s gonna get blamed. Not like it was with Randy.” When Randy Cowell had disappeared, everyone on Aleisha’s side of the river had blamed the Mountainsiders. The Mountainsiders had refused to accept the blame, and the feud had risen to a crescendo as the two sides had feuded more aggressively than had in decades. Eventually, the search was given up, and Nellie’s family had a new reason to hate Aleisha.

“Maybe it’ll make them work together,” Nellie mumbled. She lay there staring up at the sky for a long time before she finally drifted off.