Cured (29 page)

Theo grinned. “I think they are exactly that
height.”

“
The Crater,”
said Ellina. “We’re not at the bottom
a
crater. We are at the bottom
of
The
Crater.”

I didn’t know
a lot about geography, but I new of The Crater. We had learnt about
how it used to be one of the most visited landmarks of the
continent, but was now an obsolete waste of space. We had learnt
about how The Crater was an entirely useless area of land. It was
impossible to reside there, because there was no water source, and
it couldn’t be used for farming for the same reason. Instead, the
area was ignored almost completely. In fact, there was only one
reason for anyone to venture into the desert of our continent.
Somewhere, no one knew of the exact location, was
Tartarus.

Tartarus was
the worst fate that anyone could be assigned. When the Olympia
hierarchy started, Tartarus was used as a punishment for those who
dissented the new government. Anyone who refused to take the Cure,
or Primes who refused to live on Olympia and rule, were imprisoned
in Tartarus.

However,
since there was rarely any dissent among the population nowadays,
no one had been sent to Tartarus in decades. Some even said that
the prison was a myth designed to scare us into submitting to
authority. Still, fear of the prison was installed in us from a
young age, as our parents, teachers and WallScreens told us of the
doomed life that existed in Tartarus. Felix had always mocked me
for believing t
he threats. But I
believed. Mother used to demand that Louisa read me a fairy story
each night before bed, even though they gave me nightmares. The
tale of Sisyphus who tried to cheat death, was sent to Tartarus and
forced to roll a boulder up a hill, where upon reaching the top it
would just roll back down again and again for all eternity. She
made Louisa read to me the story of Tantalus, who fed his son to
the Gods in attempt to please them, and then was condemned to a
life of starvation in Tartarus, where he was chained to a tree
filled with luscious fruit which he could not reach, and standing
in a pool of water that was only slightly too shallow for him to
drink. From a young age I knew these stories were embellishments,
but I still imagined that Tartarus existed. I asked my mother what
the prison was really like, and she told me that the stories were
true to an extent. She explained that it wasn’t important to know
exactly what was to be found at Tarturus, but to instead just
imagine my worst nightmare. Tartarus was intended to be a replica
of hell. The ultimate punishment. I believed her, and so did the
majority of the Fields. Why else would no one have challenged the
hierarchy? It was fear that kept the entire system in check. Fear
of being sent to hell on earth.

“Tarturus?” The one word voiced all of my
fears to the others. I had no doubt that they were all thinking
along the same lines as I was.

Felix scoffed, “Ave. That place doesn’t
exist.”

I ignored him. “Do you reckon we are meant to
be hunting down Tartarus?” I asked the other two.

“No,” said Ellina quietly.

We all turned
to look at her. She was shaking her head. “It doesn’t make sense.
Hercules’ seventh task was capturing the Cretan Bull. It was the
task that we were meant to use Meatlo…” Her voice trailed out when
she saw my expression.

Theo ignored
Ellina’s little spiel. “Even if Tarturus does exist, no one knows
where it is, it would be a needle in the haystack scenario, and we
don’t have time to hunt down a needle,” he looked at me, “I reckon
we need to get out of this Crater, and see what’s up there.” He
pointed upwards. “Clearly the Alphas meant for us to go up and out,
because there are handholds all marked out for us.” He walked over
and put a hand on the wall, gripping a tiny ridge that protruded
from the rock.

“You know there is no way Felix and I can
climb that cliff, Theo. And even if we rode on your back, you
wouldn’t manage our weight for 8000 feet it’s too far. We would
barely reach halfway before we all fell to our deaths.”

“
Ellina and I
will climb it. We will go see what’s up there. Then we can figure
out a plan from there.”

Theo and
Ellina climbed the cliff edge quickly. They spotted the handholds
immediately, and it looked as though they were gliding up the
rocks. Felix suggested we start walking the Crater lengthways to
gain our bearings, whilst we waited for the others. I wasn’t so
sure. What if we were attacked? Or if we got lost in the Crater?
Worst of all, what if we found Tartarus down there? But Felix was
adamant that we should keep moving, and explore our surroundings so
I reluctantly agreed, hoisting my bag onto my back and following
his lead.

The sun was
hot, and before long my entire body was drenched in sweat. I kept
rubbing at my eyes, the perspiration stinging them and blurring my
vision. Felix tore off the new shirt he had retrieved from the
aircraft and wiped his body down. I was too hot to care what he
looked like.

“
Don’t turn
around,
” I demanded as we walked in
single file. Felix immediately spun to look at me. “I said don’t
turn around. I am stripping off a layer,” I said.

His eyes stayed on me and we stopped
walking.

“Felix at this point I don’t care if you’re
looking. It is so stinking hot that I need to strip off, whether
you’re watching or not.”

To show him I
wasn’t messing around I tugged the hems of my pullover and singlet
and began to peel them off my body. He shook his head and quickly
averted his eyes. I used the saturated clothing to wipe the
perspiration from my body as Felix had done, and shoved them into
my pack.

“Don’t turn around.” I said again. “I am
walking in my underwear for now.”

He nodded, still facing away and started to
walk again.

We walked for a long time before Felix came
to an abrupt stop. I hadn’t been paying attention and walked
straight into his back.

“
Sorry,
” I muttered. Felix didn’t
reply. He was standing dead still, head inclined, looking
upwards.

“Fe…?”

He spun
around to face me and I immediately wrapped my arms around my body,
self-conscious. His eyes dropped below my face and I flushed,
squirming uncomfortably. Get it together Avery, I scolded myself,
I’d known Felix all my life and he’d seen me in my underwear
countless times. It just felt different now for some
reason.

By the time Felix’s eyes returned to mine I
was bright red with embarrassment. I readied myself for an arrogant
comment or at least laughter at my embarrassment to come from his
lips, but Felix’s expression was solemn, even sad.

He took a
step toward
me and held me. His body
pressed to mine. I shivered involuntarily and wrapped my arms
around his waist. I looked up, trying to meet his gaze, but his
face was much closer than I had anticipated, and before I knew what
was going on, he pressed his chapped lips to mine. The kiss was
much different to the one we had exchanged in the car. That kiss
was light and fleeting, leaving me wondering whether it had even
happened. This kiss was rough. His calloused hands held my waist
too tightly and his dry lips chaffed mine. I moved my hands up and
ran them through his hair. What was happening? This was Felix! My
best childhood friend. I stumbled backwards, my hand pressed to my
tingling mouth.

“Ave.” His arms fell to his sides, releasing
my waist.

I looked at
him, confused. His eyes were soft and pleading, but there was
something else there. I knew the expression. I had seen it time
after time on a much younger Felix. The only time I had seen him
truly scared was when his father was home and he would run over to
my house and pound on the door, terrified that his father had
followed him. I would open the door to let him in and he would
barrel into me, hugging me so tightly I used to think I would pass
out before he finally released me. His eyes would be desperate,
needing, and his brow would be creased into a thousand crinkles.
Before he even said anything I would know that his father had
attacked again, and I knew the expression he wore now was the very
same as those times. His face was the image of pure
fear.

“
I… Ave…
Sorry…
” Felix finally managed, taking a
step towards me. I moved back again.

“
What is it
Felix? What is the matter?” I asked him.

“
What do you
mean what’
s the matter? Nothing is the
matter!” he tried, feigning an innocent smile, “Jeez, was kissing
me really that bad?”

“
Felix,
” I growled. I knew there
was something more to it. Felix’s expression had been one of pure
terror and the fear had still not left his eyes.

He grunted. “I hate it when you read me like
that.”

“
What’s
wrong?” I nearly
shouted.

The smile dropped from his face, being
replaced by the fearful frown again. Felix turned and pointed.

A few meters
away, and about two hundred feet up was a large ledge that jutted
out from the rest of the cliff. It had been carved and sanded down,
making a perfect circle platform. A landing pad. Above the ledge
was a hole in the rock. The opening was only a few meters tall and
less than a meter wide, but it was manmade, its shape too perfect
an arch for it to be natural. Above the archway was flattened rock,
which had been carved. Two words etched into the otherwise
completely smooth surface. Two words that made my stomach clench
into a tight knot. My head felt light, and black dots began to mar
my vision. Felix stepped towards me again, watching my reaction
closely. This time I didn’t step back. I couldn’t have moved if I
tried. Instead I let myself fall against Felix’s chest. He put an
arm around me, supporting my weight. I couldn’t tear my eyes from
the words:

Tartarus.

Morte.

Chapter 28

I had never
paid attention in Latin class. The language was boring and
obsolete. But I knew exactly what was written on the arch, which I
now knew to be an entranceway. Tartarus. Death.

“
You were
right all along,
” Felix murmured, still
holding me up.

My whole body shook with fear. I didn’t feel
like telling him ‘I told you so,’ I felt like turning and running
away as fast as I could. After a long time, I managed to find my
voice, “The others,” I whispered, my voice a barely audible
rasp.

He nodded,
“Let’s go back and find them. They need to see this.”

“We are not going up there Felix.”

“Yes we are.”

“
No
way.”

“
Avery.” His
tone was impatient.
“You know we have to.
So stop arguing. I am just as scared as you are, and I want to run
in the opposite direction just as much. But you know as well as I
do that this could be important.”

“
Important
how?” I argued, “Ellina said that the Cretan Bull has nothing to do
with Tarturus. There is no link. It’s irrelevant.”

But I knew
the answer. I knew why we needed to explore the prison. Tartarus
was one of the main threats that the Alphas used to keep society in
line. If we were to prove that the place no longer existed, we
would remove one of their tools of oppression. Without Tarturus,
the Alphas had no real scare tactic. The prison was what frightened
everyone into submission in the first place; so maybe disproving
its existence could spark a rebellion.

Before Felix could answer my question,
though, he slapped a hand over my mouth.

A rumbling
sound was coming from somewhere far in the distance, back in the
direction we had walked from. I squinted down the Crater, searching
for the source of the noise. Felix did the same. The rumbling
became louder.

“
Running,
” Felix whispered. I knew
he was right; something was running towards us, very
fast.

He took my
hand and pulled me to the side of the Crater until our backs
pressed against the rock. Finally I saw something emerging from the
haze. Two figures. Human. Plus something much bigger. Something
inhuman. A beast.

“
The
bull,
” I murmured. “The bull is the next
task.”

Why weren’t Ellina and Theo fighting it? Was
it too strong for them? They came closer and I examined the animal.
Taking in the barrel chest, winding horns, and sharpened tusks. No.
It couldn’t be.

Ellina’s
voice screamed out a single word and my suspicions were affirmed.
“Meatloaf!” she yelled again as her and Theo ran towards us, the
beast following closely behind. They reached us and Ellina grabbed
me, crouched, and wrenched me onto her back in a piggyback
position, she turned to the wall and began scaling the rock. We
reached about ten meters up before she slowed, her feet finding two
reasonably stable ridges to hold our weight. She hugged her body
tightly to the wall and I moved my weight forward, to make the load
lighter for her. Theo had Felix in the same position and was only a
short distance from us, also now stationary on the wall.

“Why is he so angry?” I gasped, locking my
eyes on the wall in front of me so I didn’t look down.

“
They’ve
messed with him,” s
aid Ellina, “Theo
tried to tackle him like last time, but he’s stronger now. We were
right when we thought that Meatloaf could be used for both the boar
task and the bull task. The Alphas planned for us to make the
beasts angry the first time, so that they would be harder to take
down the second time.”