A Machine Called Earth
Chapter 20- Sorry I'm Not A Fan Of Caves

Violet Town was a lawless city at heart, and its residents were asked to leave their morals at the gate. In the eyes of a selfish man, a city with no right and no wrong, where none were judged for their actions, none were looked down upon for their mutations. A city like this, could be called a paradise. But a selfish paradise, is not a paradise. For can a paradise exist without justice? Can the evil rule, and the greedy flourish? Can a paradise exist, where murder goes hand-in-hand with breathing?

A lawless city, is a paradox. A city is in essence, a place with law. If you wanted to be without law, leave the city, and live in the wilderness with the animals. There is always a chain-of-command, or in terms of a lawless city, a food-chain where, unless you were at the top, you would want laws, to keep you safe. Violet Town is nothing but the fleeting plans of foolish kings, the idea is one which fades away into reality. But was that their plan, to make a lawless city? No. Their plans were to change the course of nature. Be kings, play god. If you desire power, you need people. For power without people to lord over, is nothing. Hence the formation of Violet Town.

The curse gave you two choices. One, to seek out the cure. Sold by Ichabod, and such. Costing all that you owned. Or two, move to Violet Town, and embrace your mutated self. Becoming who you really are, deep down inside, when morality and law, no longer keeps you in place. And that is what happened to Patric. He gave himself to this selfish paradise, and whether commanded by Ichabod or not, to kill Hector, his eyes were fixed on his death.

And there he lay, dead, on the dusty road. The only signs of movement was from the collar of his jacket, blowing in the wind. A beast in royal clothes, is still a beast.

But the question was still screaming. Who made those shots, from within the trees? Hector looked around, quickly spinning from right to left, looking for signs of movement, rifle in hand, cocked and loaded. He stepped forward, moving Hope and Jessy behind him.

Out from the trees, from the left side of the road, came a voice saying, “Hector. Is that you?”

Hector knew that voice, and at that moment, he removed his finger from the trigger. And out walked, non-other than Charlie.

“Charlie! Wow, am I glad to see you.” Hector said in astonishment. A wave of relief washing over him.

Hector was now facing Charlie, and the corpse of Patric, lay behind him. But Hector then heard a sound coming from behind, and there was the silhouetted figure of a man. The figure then said in a gruff voice, “Nice shot old-chap, I taught you well, lad.” As he was leaning over Patric, and the others, searching them for supplies. It was (also to Hector’s astonishment), Valimir.

Valimir was business as usual, as he said,

“Charlie, help me move these bodies off the road.” And they did.

Valimir then moved on, into the thicket, expecting them all to follow. “Come on, let’s go.” Said Charlie, as he led them through the trees.

“Where are we going?” Hector asked.

“We’re going to our hideout.” Charlie replied.

Hector then turned toward Hope, as she was holding Jessy’s hand, giving her a nod, which said, its ok, we can trust them. They then made their way, through the trees, pushing away branches, stepping over fallen logs, until they caught up to Valimir, who was standing at a pile of leaves and branches on the ground. He then looked over his shoulder, one way, and then the other. Before lifting the branches that were concealing a hole.

“Ok, in you go. Lady’s first.” He said, motioning for Hope to go in the hole.

Hope was hesitant at first, as you’d expect. Looking down a hole, leading down into the black. But in no time, she picked up Jessy, holding him in her arms, and jumped.

“Ok, now you Hector.”

“Where does it lead?” Hector asked.

“It’s our hideout. A cave.” Charlie said.

“Damn. I was hoping it wasn’t. I’m not a fan of caves.” Hector said, as Charlie grabbed his arm, and practically pushed him down the hole.

Splash. At the bottom of the hole, was a pool of water. Hector was within the earth yet again. Soaking, they all exited the water, and made their way to an already made campfire. To dry themselves.

The cave was quite vast. And contrary to the cave where Hector was imprisoned, it was quite warm.

“Make yourselves at home.” Said Charlie, as he took a seat on an old wooden chest by the fire.

“So who are these?” He then said, pointing towards Hector’s traveling companions.

“Well, this is Hope, and this is Jessy.” Hector said introducing them.

“Nice to meet you.” Charlie replied.

Valimir, then walked to Jessy, bending down to him, saying, “Hello little boy. How are you?” As he said this, he smiled. But even a smile made through the loose, leathery skin, of Valimir’s brow, would bring fear in the eyes of any child. As Jessy’s bright eyes were fixed on the giant scar above his left eye. Jessy then moved away from him, grabbing hold of Hope’s arm.

“Children, what can you do.” Valimir said.

The rest of them laughed.

Charlie, being there when Hector began his journey, first leaving Tammerville, asked, “Where are you heading? What do you know? To be honest, I was beginning to think you hadn’t made it.”

“We’re heading to Maplestone, to the Arccon Archives. There we will find some answers.” Hector said, as they had some catching up to do. “I tell you, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you everything that had happened.”

Valimir quickly jumped in asking. “Why did they want to kill you? Those beasts on the road.”

“Hmm, that’s a long story. Let’s just say, they were bad.” Hector responded.

In the centre of the cave, was a twisted tree striving for survival. This tree was situated under a small hole in the earth, which must have given it just enough sunlight for it to grow. In fact, streams of moonlight were coming through the hole, illuminating the leaves of the mangled oak a chilling sapphire. And coming from behind the tree was a woman, who did not look too pleased. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNovᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Who are these people!” She yelled, looking towards Charlie and Valimir. “Thats just what we need... More mouths to feed.”

Hector quickly turned towards Charlie, to witness his reply. Only to see him with a scared, stunned look on his face, as he bumbled out, “We saved them from the monsters. They were going to kill them.”

“And when were you going to tell me? That you brought three people to feed, we scarcely have enough food for ourselves.”

Charlie looked down, then said in an unenthusiastic voice, “Sorry guys... This is Bliss.”

“But she’s anything but.” Valimir remarked. Causing a gleam of rage in her eyes at Valimir’s words.

“YOU STUPID OLD...” Suddenly she was cut off by Valimir’s booming words.

“Get back in the kitchen women!” He yelled.

“Charlie! When are you going to put that man down?” Said Bliss, referring to Charlie killing Valimir like an old dog, putting him out of he’s misery. Bliss stormed away, around a corner to where the food was kept, were she began to prepare some food, regardless of her dislike. Valimir walked away also, annoyed at Bliss’s sense of authority, which he obviously didn’t respect. Valimir believed that he should be in charge, and he certainly acted as though he was in charge, whether she liked it or not.

Hope then stood up, and went to talk to Bliss. Then in a comforting tone, she asked, “Are you ok? I’m sorry if we are an inconvenience. We mean not to be.”

Bliss looked up at Hope, for she had her head down aggressively chopping some potatoes. “Yea, I’m fine. I’m sorry for that.” That being her unfriendly outburst.

“It’s just been hard, the last couple weeks. The curse, and all that. And living with Valimir, that brute, I don’t know how much more I can take.”

Hope gave Bliss an understanding nod, saying. “Here, let me help you.” And that she did. As they were preparing a meal of boiled potatoes, and damper, Hope asked. “So how did you come to live with Charlie and Valimir?”

“Well, I lived with my aunty, in her cottage just out of Tammerville. When all started happening, Charlie came and took me away. Charlie is my cousin you see. I actually had no idea what was going on, I hadn't even seen a monster at that time, and it took a lot on Charlie’s side, to get me to come with him.”

“What about your aunty?” Hope asked.

“Well yea, that’s when my suspicions first arose. She went into town one morning. To do some trading. But, that evening, she never came home. The next day was when Charlie came.” Bliss explained.

Meanwhile as Valimir and Hector sat by the campfire, Jessy had gotten over his nerves. Jessy stared making funny faces at Charlie. And Charlie was doing the same back to him. That was until Jessy made the comment towards Charlie, saying, “Your hair is funny... It’s like long girl hair.” He ended the harsh observation with sticking his tongue out at Charlie.

Charlie responded with, “Oh yea? Well you don’t even have a real sword. You got a toy, wooden sword.”

At that, Jessy sprung up and pulled is sword out, poking it into Charlie’s knee. Charlie let out a gasp, as he grabbed his leg. “Why you little bast-”

“Charlie! Never underestimate your opponent.” Valimir said, cutting off Charlie’s words. And at that, they let out a great laughter.

After their meal, Hector continued talking to Valimir. He was a man of strategy, and Hector wanted to know what his thoughts were. Also, he wanted to know where he went after the train incident.

“So where have you been Val? No one in Tammerville had seen you since the train incident. Rumor had it, you moved into your old farm estate, but no one had ever seen any signs of life from there.”

Valimir looked at Hector and smiled. “Yea, I kinda dropped off the radar didn’t I? And trust me, if I wanna stay unnoticed, that’s exactly what I do. But I did miss you old-chap.”

“So you did move into your old farm house?” Hector asked. Valimir nodded.

“I thought you said you’d never go back there. Too many memories.”

“Yea I know lad, but I had to get out of the town. After all, I wasn’t a Guard anymore. What else was I going to do?”

“Hmm, I though the mayor would at least keep you, as his bodyguard or something. He did regard you quite well. Not that I knew him very well.”

“Well he did ask if I wanted to. But sometimes you got to take some time away, and wash the blood off your hands. I was in the Great War, you know? It was time for me to rest.”

“I always thought that you were in the Great War, but I never knew for sure.”

“Ah yes, well I wanted to rest, but then this curse came. I had eyes on the town, always. And as soon as all that started happening, I met up with Charlie. And here we are now. He’s a good lad, but he isn’t you, old-chap.” Valimir let out a smile as he said those words. He did take Hector under his wing, for many years. He taught him everything he know. Ever since Hector’s father died.

The Great War was many years ago, long before Hector was born. However, its name isn’t a fitting one. It shouldn’t be called a ‘Great’ war, it was a devastating war. Many died, and it changed the world. Well, at least the world, in Arccon. Valimir served, and by the destructive hand of the war, his wife and daughter fell victim.

Valimir taking Hector under his wing, was something that wasn’t just helping Hector, it was also helping him. He looked after Hector, and taught him, like a father to a son. He worked endlessly, as a Guard. Always taking up any task possible. ‘I guess he never wanted to return to his home. Where his wife and daughter lived.’ Hector thought silently.

Valimir looked at Hector intently, as he asked about his journey. He asked what Hector had discovered, what he knew. So Hector told him, everything. He seemed ever so concerned for this land. He actually seemed a lot more worried for the people and the land than Hector was. Well now, Hector has a drive to reverse the curse. But when he began his journey, he had no desire to help the people. He wanted adventure, yes, but he cared not for the people.

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