A guard came in three times a day to serve her meals. Otherwise there was nothing for her to do. No one came, and neither was she allowed out. Beibei had been bored out of her mind before, but now this was the perfect opportunity for her to try out her spiritual consciousness and also go about the camp for more information.
The separation between the inner and outer areas of the camp was separated by a barrier array. Try as she might, she couldn't go through it even in her spiritual self. So she could only wait. Someone was bound to go through this barrier. She would wait and then closely follow the person out.
Perhaps since the leader was gone, the patrolling guards too had become more casual. As she made her way to the guard house, she noticed many of them sitting around in circles, gambling on the ores the commoners were using their lives to dig out. Some were sprawled out in the handful of cloth shacks built around the burning inner areas, gossiping or napping.
There were also three more caves near the cave where she herself was staying. She knew that these caves were holding more young girls. But they were not as lucky as her. She saw the guards going in and out of these caves. Beibei stood and looked at the caves for a long time. A sense of shame, helplessness and anger was boiling inside her. But in the end she looked down and turned away. What could she do for others when she couldn't even help herself. She laughed bitterly as she kept walking. The guilt of knowing yet not doing anything was weighing down in her heart. But why did she need to do anything? Why did she feel responsible for something she had not done, and something way beyond her means to stop? She was not a saint!
Beibei took a deep breath, and crouched down behind some empty stacks of chests and barrels near the guardroom. And she waited. It was not that there were no people going through the barrier.....but they always went out in groups. And she was still unsure about the capability of her spirit body.
This was like a trump card. She couldn't risk getting exposed. So she needed to wait for a single prey. That way she could still protect herself even if the person sensed something off.
At long last she made it through the barrier and came to the outer area of the camp. She barely had any memories of the first day she had come to the camp. She looked around in surprise. There were makeshift shacks, stalls, bars, gambling houses, and even small stone houses and inns. It was not very well planned, and the tiny town looked rather rickety and temporary.
The stones were roughly cut, the stalls and shops were made from the rough and thick barks of the Maramarae trees found in abundance in the desert. The fleshy but bitter pulp was mashed and turned to porridge to feed the commoners, whilst the thorns of the bark were chopped off, and then the bark was cut into strips and dried in the sun to be used as planks and boards. Desert plants were rather tenacious, and these planks, though unappealing to the eye, were very strong and lasted for a long time.
The buildings however did not look very stable, many tipping to one side or the other and resting against or overlapping the next building. They were built in clusters, with narrow dirt alleys winding through these separate clusters. The alleys themselves were a bit dark and spooky due to the overhanging buildings, part of the buildings jutting into the path, or simply lost under the clothes and sheets hanging on the beams of the buildings to blow-dry in the hot desert air.
Some of the guards had tried to raise plants in the camp, and Beibei came across plots of scraggly looking Copua, Benetou, and Kanchi growing haphazardly around the residential areas. These were root vegetables found growing in the desert around the camp. The Copus had a very thin skin, but the inside flesh was touch and tasteless. Thus they were perfect for the commoners.
In comparison the Benetou and Kanchi had much thicker skins, almost like rocks, but the inside was juicy and sweet. Naturally they were the provisions for the cultivators.
Beibei saw many female cultivators dressed up as guards in this area, and they were just as rowdy and laid-back as their male counterparts. However the number of female cultivators were far less than the men. Apparently the women did not prefer such thankless and exhausting jobs of guarding the Ore-mines in the middle of nowhere.
After making sure that she could sneak out through the outer area, she headed over to the outermost part of the camp. This was just a wall. But the wall surrounded the entire camp and was as wide as twenty people standing in a line. It was very high and sturdy and had a stone path right at the top where people could stand and the guards could patrol.
This camp was far away from the main city, and it was built like a fortress. The desert was filled with many vicious demonic beasts, and the scarcity of food and resources in the surroundings often drove the beasts to attack the camp. The wall was built from a combination alloy of Alkaneon Stones and Starmite metal ores. This special alloy gave the silver-blue color to the wall, and was capable of not only absorbing wind, water, ice and metal attacks, but could also channelize the absorbed energy into the defensive and offensive barriers protecting the entire camp.
And this was where Beibei was stuck. How was she supposed to go out through the large gate unless the array was shut down? She didn't even know how the array operated, nor where the core of the array was. Feeling tired and confused, Beibei walked back and sat down under the eaves of one of the tottering shacks. This place was comparatively deserted and dark - she needn't fear that people might come across her and discover her presence.
Far away from the main city.....inside a desert full of wild and ferocious beasts.....within an impenetrable wall...how was she going to cross all these hurdles on her own? Would she have to give in to the circumstances?! She didn't want to! Death was preferable to the humiliation and torture she would have to face at the hands of the leader. Moreover, if she succeeded in living through the hellish days, she would just be picked and thrown into this 'Birthing-Camp'.....whatever that was! A shudder coursed through her body, as she sat staring listlessly at the gravel covered ground, feeling helpless and angry.
"I heard two of the workers fell ill. More than 60 workers have come down with illness in the past 6 months. When will they be sent over?"
"We'll wait till the end of this month. Then we'll send all the fallen ones together. No matter how many of them fall, the resting place keeps demanding for more and more."
"Don't you feel the number of fallen workers have been increasing? It's like their bodies are degenerating! And also the resting camps demands keep on going up!"
"The higher ups have not said a word. Didn't you see how everyone kept mum when the Pupla Ore-Camp fell because almost all the workers had fallen?"
"It feels like sending the commoners to the Resting Camp is more necessary than excavating ores! By the way.....what exactly happens in these Resting camps? Why is there no information about it?"
"Shush! Don't ask what you shouldn't know! Do you know about Zenthal? He was from Pupla Mines. He wanted to find out why the higher ups were busy sending the workers to the resting-camps, and tried to get into one of those camps disguised as a guard."
"Oh? I didn't hear of it. So, what did he find out?"
"Hmph! The next day his body was brought out and thrown into the desert to feed the wild beasts. They said that he was a spy from the Outside, and he was trying to create a rebel using the workers."
For a while there was silence as the people processed this information. Beibei could feel the fear hovering over the group even through the walls of the building.
"By the way.....what exactly is the Outside? Where is it? We have gone all over the desert on our missions. But I have never come across any town or village or area known as the Outside before!"
"Tsk! You ask too many questions. You will die one day wondering how exactly you lost your life! Don't you know - the more you know, the quicker you die."
"Hmmm. You are too restless and let your curiosity get the best of you! Keep your head down and just do what you are told to do. Haven't you just gotten married? Do you wish to die without seeing your child's face?"
The group went silent once more before changing their direction of topics and went on to gambling and gossiping about beautiful women. Beibei still kept her ears glued to the walls, hoping to catch onto some more vital information, but before long the people inside got up and left. Beibei kept sitting, mulling over the words she had just heard.
Two more people were ill in the workers camp? She suddenly thought of Menji. That old woman was one of the few people who had cared for her whole heartedly. Ever since she came to the camp, the people were themselves too tired and hungry to care about others. Other than the man who had shared his secret stash of food with her, Menji had been looking over her all the time. Secretly bringing her water, keeping aside her own buns to give to her, helping her when she had difficulty waking up due to fatigue and hunger....she was always taking care of her.
It had been three days since she was separated from the workers camp. She suddenly wanted to go back and check up on Menji. Beibei got up and rushed off, following a couple of guards going in for the shift change, and then made her way towards the ore mines. It was now almost noon, so Menji should be in the mines. But the entrance to the mines were being closely guarded. Moreover, there was a barrier, and she couldn't sneak in unless the barrier was taken down!
Beibei wandered around at a distance, wondering how she should go about it, then finally decided to take a peek into the workers residential area just to make sure.
The cave quarters had two more caves at the very end. These were smaller, and stood a bit separate from the rest. Usually the sick and unusable workers would be kept in these caves. Where they went from here was unknown. But once someone was brought to these caves, no one ever saw them again.
The entrance was blocked, but Beibei had already discovered that her spirit body could go through any type of wall as long as there were no barriers. Slowly and cautiously she passed through the walls, then looked around in the almost dark interior of the cave. The cave was smelly, as if no one had cleaned it up in a long time. She looked around for a while, and noticed three lump-like things lying at the end of the cave. One of the lumps lay still, and there was a disgusting stench of poop emanating from it. Beibei moved away, trying to block out the smell. Though she was in her spirit self, her senses seemed to be too strong!
She strained her eyes to look at the other two lumps and instantly felt a jolt inside her head.
The second lump, which was wrapped up like a dumpling inside dirty and moldy sheets...was Menji!