The raft teetered precariously in the wind.
It was just long enough to span the distance between the broken outcroppings that once formed the bridge between Bleach and Ammonia. Even so, it was full of holes, and the occasional drops of acid that would spin up from the rapids below it didn't help its stability at all. Reca thought it'd hold for her, but she couldn't seem to come up with a way to get Deca over. The time for puzzling was over- the sun peeked over the horizon.
"Wait here," said Reca. Deca flashed her interior lights.
With an abundance of caution, Reca put one foot onto the raft, then the other foot right in front of the first. It swayed gently and would surely sway more if she went fast, so she took a deep breath and steeled herself and sallied forth, careful to stay centered and avoid tipping the swiss-cheese sheet metal into the river. One foot, then the other. One foot, then...
Her foot slipped, tilting the raft and almost compromising its function as a makeshift bridge! With a startled hop, she managed to clear the remaining distance, but as she skidded onto the ground on the other side, she unintentionally pushed the raft into the river with her heel. It was swallowed by the current, and then the unsettling sound of hissing metal erupted from somewhere downstream.
Bubbles floated to the surface, and then it was too far away to even tell if it was still dissolving.
Getting back could wait until later. It had to- after all, if she jumped, given her little legs, she might not make it.
Ammonia had always been slightly visible due to its garish green buildings, but Reca noticed a few new things in the early-morning light. One was the tall wooden plank that stood ominously at the far end of the village- it was the same color as the desert during daytime but must have blended in with the night sky earlier. It had none of the flourishes typical of a shrine or altar, so Reca pondered its purpose, but was unable to come up with anything reasonable.
The layout of Ammonia was similar to Bleach, but it was missing a pool- instead, the equivalent room was labeled 'hospital'. It was just as decrepit as the pool room had been. Reca made it to the area she'd seen Aguri duck into- it was empty. She'd have to search all of Ammonia, then? It seemed like a daunting task despite the small size of the settlement, and there was no telling whether the people would be hostile or not-
"Are you looking for someone?"
A girl's voice. Reca couldn't remember how Aguri sounded exactly, but maybe it was her! Then again, what if it was someone else?
Reca realized she hadn't turned around yet. When she finally did, she saw the girl who had just spoken- not Aguri, but a taller, sinewy girl with dark hair and intensely freckled tan skin. What color had Aguri's hair been? Reca found herself unable to remember- it had been night, and Reca had seen Aguri for maybe a minute at most.
The girl's face knotted into a scowl of confusion, then she pointed to herself.
"Alabaster me," she said, taking each syllable slow. "Who you?" Alabaster pointed to Reca and then made a shrugging motion.
"Uh," stuttered Reca, "I know, um, I know how to talk."
"Ah! Then how come you didn't say anything?"
"I was just scared!"
"You don't have anything to be scared of." Alabaster put her hands on her hips and puffed up her cheeks. "This isn't Bleach!"
Reca didn't feel like getting on the bad side of every Ammonian by defending Bleach, especially since she'd just seen its mayor lock up a guy for being in love.
"Do you know A-A-Aguri?"
"Sure I do. She's my cousin!"
"Wow, so, then, could you tell me where she lives?"
"Why in the world would I know that?" Alabaster facepalmed with unnecessary percussive force.
"Because she's your cousin, I guess. That's what I thought."
"Kid, half the people in this place are my cousins!"
Right- the towns were originally two families.
"Well, then, could you give me any kind of a lead?"
Alabaster's striking eyes narrowed and looked Reca over with painful scrutiny, scanning for weakness.
"Whaddaya want with Aguri, anyway?"
Reca felt that all of her reasons were suddenly inadequate. Alabaster huffed and rubbed her temples. There were a million answers to give, but the only correct one might land Reca in hot water. Try as she might, she was unable to come up with anything convincing, and so she stood, staring like a deer in the headlights at Alabaster until the older girl turned around with an eye roll and walked off.
The figurative clock was ticking. She thought about perhaps asking Aguri to hold her and jump back over the river, but realized that that line of thinking was premature; she had to find and greet her first. But where was there to look? What if she knocked on the wrong door and upset the wrong person?
With a sense of begrudging determination, she returned to the bridge and looked over the town, scouting out an order to knock on doors. The first inklings of a fraudulent cover story crept into her mind- reassuring herself it would work and that she was a good liar, she rapped twice on the door to the first building on the left, labeled 'Vicemayor's Residence'. An old woman with curly white hair and patchy, freckly skin answered, peeking through the little flap near the top of the door that Reca assumed was for mail.
"Excuse me," Reca said, involuntarily putting on a cutesy accent. "Do you know Aguri?"
"Troublemaker," said the woman. Was she talking about Aguri or Reca?
"Are... You... Do you mean me or Aguri?"
The flap clicked shut and Reca figured she would probably have better luck somewhere else.
After receiving no response from the next few buildings- they weren't houses, after all, just recreational and government structures- Reca walked up to a rowhouse with no nameplate, just a number- 255. There were surely less than thirty buildings in the settlement, so what did that number represent? She momentarily put the question out of her mind and knocked. A muscular boy, or maybe a muscular boyish-looking man, answered, and Reca realized that she'd subconsciously assumed the villages were somehow segregated by gender.
"Who are you?"
Reca's cover story melted out of her mind. She hadn't come up with a fake name!
"I'm... Reca."
"Am I supposed to know who you are?"
He leaned down into her face and raised one eyebrow so far that his eye socket was almost visible. Reca noticed that he lacked the freckles she'd seen on everyone in Ammonia so far.
"No. I'm looking for Aguri, actually."
"Hm, Aguri, huh? I'm her cousin."
"Seems kinda common in this place."
"Unfortunately. Tell you what- she lives in 378, I know that. If she asks how you found out, tell her Aron sent her, right?"
"...Right."
He winked and closed the door. Less hostile than the others, for sure- what was it with this place? They probably didn't get many visitors, but neither did Andistronica, and the people back there were always kind. Then again, Reca had never actually seen any kind of visitor come through- maybe because of the flesh monsters.
378 ought to be somewhere ahead of 255. There weren't that many rowhouses- or houses in general- in the village, so Reca figured it shouldn't be too hard to find. As she trundled along the green-tinged pavement that served as a sort of main street for Ammonia, her eyes fell once again upon the wooden plank. It really was just an ordinary wooden plank- there were no flourishes previously hidden by the buildings. Was it a ceremonial item?
259 on the right. 266 on the left. 301 on the right. 360 on the left. 389 on the right... 378 on the left! What was up with the numbering system?
378 seemed to be in worse condition than the other rowhouses. The plaster on the walls was peeling intensely in places, and the door was a splintering plank of wood similar to the 'ceremonial' plank, rather than a cement block. This was it. Reca raised her knuckles and knocked- she had never done this much knocking in one day- then she waited.
A girl- Aguri? opened the door. Past her, Reca could see a dozen people sitting on threadbare rugs on the cement floor, cooking on portable stoves, playing some sort of board game, and sleeping, almost in piles. Before she could get a better look, the girl who might have been Aguri moved into the doorway and blocked off the view.
"Who are you?"
Reca would have come up with an answer, but she had one important question-
"Aguri?"
It wasn't as articulate as she'd hoped it would be. The girl pondered for a second.
"Oh, you're looking for Aguri?"
"Yes! Is she here?"
"Sure- just- lemme-" she slammed the door. Reca wondered if she was ever going to come back, but sure enough, she returned with Aguri a few minutes later. The resemblance was striking- they had the same deep brown eyes and rosy cheeks, as well as the same face shapes. Perhaps they were close relatives, maybe even twin sisters.
"You're the girl from last night," said Aguri with a half-yawn, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "More purple than I thought."
Reca blushed red-violet- that was, after all, the color red and purple made- and questioned whether she should interpret that as a compliment or an insult.
"Argento, can we have a sec...?"
"Right, okay. You're letting a draft in," Argento hissed, shoving Aguri outside and closing the door again. Now that Reca really put some thought into it, the rowhouses didn't seem like they'd be very warm inside, and the desert air got a bit cooler near the river. How could the temperature of the acid be explained, then?
"...id you want to talk to me about?"
Aguri was talking! She had been too invested in her internal monologue to notice.
"What?"
"What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Oh! Right! Benji told me to come over here and tell you he loves you!"
With a gasp, Aguri pulled Reca into the shadow of the next rowhouse.
"Not so loud!"
"I'm sorry," Reca whispered.
"It's alright- just don't do that again. He sent you here? That doesn't sound like him."
"Technically I decided to come over myself, and he told me what to say to you when he found out."
With a deep, dissatisfied sigh, Aguri ran one hand through her short hair. The silence almost made it possible for Reca to hear the muffled conversations inside the adjacent rowhouse, but the concrete made them unintelligible.
"...So, why did you come over here, then? In the first place?"
Reca had no real explanation other than curiosity, but she managed to come up with something she assumed would sound plausible.
"I want to help reunite the villages!"
The statement was met with an even deeper sigh rather than the understanding that Reca had hoped for. Finally, Aguri stopped fiddling with her hair and turned to Reca, bags under her eyes now visible.
"Kind of insulting that you think you'll manage when plenty of people in the villages have been trying forever, right?"
Maybe it was.
"Well, if I could just find out what caused the conflict-"
"Water caused it! And now there's less water than ever, and the solution Mayor Amaryllis and Mayor Baris came up with was to limit the people being born. Y'know, I have six toes on my left foot," she said, reaching down to take her slipper off, but Reca stopped her.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, it's a genetic deformity, which means I'm not the healthiest girl in Ammonia."
"Oh. And... who is?"
"I don't know! Last time, I was too young, and the second-placer from that time broke her leg last year, meaning it'd have to be either the third-placer or a new person who's only now old enough to be considered. There's no question about who's the healthiest guy, though."
"Yeah?"
"Aron. He's always flirting with the girls, too, because he says he needs practice for when he wins. Not if he wins, when he wins."
"Huh? But isn't everyone here related?"
"Welcome to nowhere," mumbled Aguri.
It was a bleak existence, but at least the people weren't starving. Reca had a million more questions, but was beginning to sense agitation in Aguri's voice, and so she narrowed her list down to just three.
"Who's in third place?"
"They aren't supposed to reveal that. Only first and second- first because they have to be sent over, of course, and second because the person in second place is most likely gonna get picked next time. Last time there was a big scandal where someone snuck a look at third and fourth place, and this girl- Alabaster- swore up and down that she was fourth place."
"I saw her earlier!"
"I'm not surprised- she's always out and about."
"Anyways, where do Ammonians get food?"
Caught off-guard by the question, Aguri's eyes widened. Reca, noticing the reaction, elaborated:
"Back home we just ate flesh monsters, and the guy in the desert had cans of food, but so far nobody else has even had, like, a farm, so I was wondering what people in these settlements eat all the time! It just seems weird, y'know?"
Aguri laughed without smiling.
"Come with me," she said, grabbing Reca by the hand and stooping down to lead her along. They plodded past rowhouses and unit houses until they arrived at a nondescript, crumbling building with a 'door' that was really just a curtain pegged to the frame. Aguri pushed the curtain aside and ducked past, vanishing- a few seconds later, her hand reappeared and beckoned Reca in.
The interior- if one could call it that- was awash in sunlight leaking through the massive hole in the center of the roof. Wooden planter boxes full of fertile soil, little greenish brownish sprouts peeking up, covered the ground, arranged in an irregular formation. An awful smell permeated the air, and Reca noticed that it was coming from a heaping container of unidentifiable brown stuff in the corner.
Birdsong wouldn't have been out of place. There was no birdsong, though, nor any birds- just the wind.
"We should probably get going soon," said Aguri.
"Huh? Why?"
"The farmhands get here in a little while."
It made sense that there were 'farmers' to maintain the plants, even if the dilapidated outer shell of the farm had a serene aura of abandonment to it. She was satisfied with her answer to the food question- but then again, she still couldn't explain how Rivergal or Edette managed to survive. Maybe she'd see Rivergal again, and then she'd ask- yes, surely she would.
"Look, if you want to help reconnect the villages, my offer is still open."
"No- not in broad daylight. Actually, not ever. If you're gonna do anything, you have to do it yourself."
"Could you at least help me back over?"
A light flashed behind Aguri's eyes as the two of them left the building. When Reca followed Aguri's line of sight, she noticed the edge of the ceremonial(?) wooden plank peeking over the roofs of Ammonia. As if reading her mind, the older girl began to speak-
"If you really want to cause a scene, why don't you use the plank?"
Use the plank?
"Uh, how do I do that...?"
Aguri laughed again in that same emotionless way. Maybe her brash personality made up for Benji's shyness- that was the only theory Reca could come up with as to the nature of their dynamic.
"Isn't it obvious?"
Reca meekly shook her head.
"You pick it up and lay it across the river like a bridge!"
Suddenly, all was clear. Of course! People were supposed to cross over every five years- they needed a way to do it!
"I thought," gulped Reca, blushing like a grape, "that it was some sort of religious thing."
When Aguri cackled in response, Reca detected a fleeting hint of snide glee, but it vanished as soon as she tried to focus on it.
"A wooden plank? What religion would that be?"
"I figure there are a ton of weird ones like that out here."
"Fair enough, fair enough."
At the base of the plank, Reca's hands started shaking. Societal upheaval was always a matter of courage, even when it came to liberating(?) dinky towns in the middle of nowhere. What if the townspeople killed her? Worse, what if they killed Aguri or Benji?
"You shouldn't be with me when it happens," Reca said, voice involuntarily quivering.
"I wasn't planning on it."
"O-okay..."
Aguri spun on her heel and walked away, one hand on her hip. Reca was left alone with the plank- she didn't have much time. She couldn't get caught. This would be now or never. With an escape vehicle primed, it shouldn't be too much of an issue to get away if the villagers became hostile...
After standing and shaking for the better part of what might have been a few minutes, Reca seized the wood, gave it a yank, and found that it actually had some resistance to it. C'mon- one more tug, two more tugs-
Pop!
With the plank safely in hand, Reca made a mad dash for the bridge. It was heavier than she'd anticipated, but thankfully no one was chasing her like she assumed they'd be. The dash came to an anticlimactic end at the river, where Reca fumbled to lay the plank down and found that it was perfectly sturdy and just long enough to act as a stable conveyor between the banks.
She crossed. There was no need to painstakingly put one foot in front of the other, and so there was no sense of journey, no stakes.
The people of Bleach weren't up and about either.
Maybe, Reca thought, she wouldn't have to worry about societal upheaval at all. Maybe she would be long gone before anyone noticed. Life in the river towns started late in the day and presumably ended before the night fell. There was only one person visible in Bleach- Benji, who had a bucket of plaster in hand and a shoddy wooden tool for slathering it on.
He turned as Reca approached, and she realized he had hardly gotten anything done yet. Most of the plaster damage was still there. Had he been procrastinating, or had he just been let out of the pool room?
"Hey," he said.
"You need some help?"
"Are you... sure you'd be able to reach...?"
Come to think of it, the damaged spots were high up. If only-
With a gasp, Reca dashed off and returned with Deca in tow.
"I don't think that thing can-"
Reca stepped onto the ladder mounted to Deca's side, and Benji suddenly understood her meaning. He thought for a second, shrugged, and handed Reca the bucket of plaster. Upon reaching for it, Reca realized she didn't have any kind of a tool to use- maybe her hands would suffice, especially since the little applier Benji was using didn't seem to be specialty-made for the purpose.
As if reading her mind, Benji remarked-
"You can just use your hands."
She hoped she'd be able to get her hands on some of the village's water afterwards, but noted that there was a can or two of creamed corn left in the van just in case. Her bones jiggled at the imagined sensation of washing off with creamed corn. Still, she stuck her hand into the bucket of wet cement-ish stuff and smeared it over the acid stains, hanging off the ladder with the other hand and moving, with Deca's help, between buildings.
The sun had barely moved in the sky by the time Reca and Benji finished. The girl had time to think about things, now, like how time seemed immaterial and wishy-washy even with the sun as a guide. Was that normal? The clocks back home all ran at different speeds, but the adults had pointed to one clock as the 'most accurate' timepiece. Their efforts to adjust the others all ended in swearing and the gritting of teeth. Now, seconds seemed like minutes, and minute seemed like half-minutes, and hours seemed like days.
"What're you thinking about?" asked Benji.
"Just about how to clean my hands," lied Reca.
"Come to the mess hall."
With no choice in the matter, Reca dismounted and followed Benji to a little purple building with no sign outside. Past the door, several concrete table-like structures sprouted from the ground, surrounding a square grill pit that sat directly below a vent in the ceiling. There was a spigot jammed into the far wall, and when Benji turned it on, he made sure to only twist a little bit, summoning forth a minuscule drizzle that Reca tried to make full use of- her hands were still slightly slimy when he turned it off.
"Sorry. That's about my non-potable water allowance for the day."
"No, it's fine," she replied, wringing her hands and rubbing them frantically over her clothes. She wasn't sure what 'non-potable' meant, but got the gist.
"Where are you going, anyways? I get the feeling you didn't wanna come here, specifically."
"To Hell. Pandemonia. I heard there's..." the title of the person- the knowledgeable one- escaped her, so she tried to describe the idea. "...There's a person there who might have an answer to the question I've been asking."
"Who told you that?"
How could she explain all of Nukecorp to someone who probably hadn't even heard of it?
"Someone I trust."
"Fine, keep it a secret." Benji's voice had an unusual bite to it.
"No! It's just hard to explain, okay?"
"I know- but you could say, like, your mom, or your mentor... the way you said it makes you sound like a comic book character."
Reca puffed up her cheeks and almost harrumphed, but was eventually able to calm down.
"Then I'll just say that an all-knowing robot told me."
She could see Benji giving her a strange look out of the corner of her eye, but she ignored it. If he wanted the truth, he shouldn't have been surprised when he got it. Reca hoped she wouldn't come to regret that thought later, though. Benji, to her relief, didn't probe her for more information, and the two of them walked out into the sun, where Reca's hands begun to dry.
"Next, we should report to Baris. Or, actually, scratch that- I should do it alone. He'd freak if he knew you helped me."
"That sounds right," said Reca, suddenly remembering something she'd wondered about earlier. "Oh, and by the way- do you know where the secret to breeding is kept?"
Benji let out a chortle, or maybe a chuckle- either way, it came out like a spittake despite the fact that his mouth was empty.
"Where did that question come from?"
"You live in some sort of dystopian society where nobody knows that stuff, right?"
"Sure! But if everybody knew how, they'd just inbreed and make things worse! Well, that's the idea behind keeping it a secret, anyway. I guess you asking means you don't know?"
"I'm just a kid!"
"Yeah, but for a kid, you seem weirdly interested in this stuff." He sighed. "Just leave it be."
"Fine! But you and Aguri-"
"It's just a fling, okay? Ever since we were kids- I mean, she'd just sneak over- it's not going to be anything serious! If I get picked- unlikely- but if I get picked- I mean- I wouldn't complain, I wouldn't complain, if-"
"I get it!" Reca didn't get it, but wanted to prevent Benji from descending further into incoherency. "I just gave you the tools for revolution, though!"
"Is this what you do when you go to a new place? Just try to uproot the whole- the whole- the whole society? Look, I appreciate your help, kid, okay? Just- I mean- just- just stop trying to change things when you don't even know how things are!"
The soft-spoken boy from the previous night was gone, and in his place was a stuttering mess. Feeling herself shrink, Reca stepped back, words ringing in her head.
"You said it better than I ever could," said a feminine voice from behind Reca. Aguri! "Kid- whatever your name was- go wherever you're going, but listen to me, huh? Don't try to right great wrongs, especially if you've only been here a day."
"I was just trying to-"
Aguri's hand came down fast and hard over Reca's mouth. The tense silence that followed didn't last long- a great rumbling erupted in the distance. Footsteps- yelling, too.
"Run," said Aguri as the air temperature almost dropped a degree. Reca didn't need to be told twice. She ran, and out of the corner of her eye she caught the source of the commotion- a crowd of Ammonians charging the bridge, some brandishing household tools as weapons. As she slipped through side-streets and threaded along the main road towards Deca, she saw people- lots of people- crowding out of the houses, moving towards the opposing throng, whispering questions among themselves and murmuring unintelligibly.
When she reached Deca, the mobs were about to collide. It was like watching ants battle in slow motion.
"Go slow," Reca whispered to Deca. "I want to hear what they're saying. But do it real stealthy so they don't notice we're getting away!"
Deca couldn't swing stealthy, so she settled for the next best thing and moved backwards in short spurts, avoiding the usual persistent rumble of her engine. The din calmed and Mayor Amaryllis, the old woman, began to speak over what remained of the murmur.
"Aguri, my child! Do you have nothing better to do than disturb the peace?"
The chorus of voices started up again.
"Hold on, she didn't do it," said Benji. The Ammonians chattered angrily because a Bleacher was speaking, and the Bleachers chattered angrily because one of their own was defending an Ammonian?
"So you did it, then? You corrupted out darling little-"
"It was that stranger girl! She's probably getting away!"
The mood change was palpable. "Faster," Reca hissed, and Deca did her very best to go slow and fast at the same time, utilizing a frantic pattern of spurts.
"I've had it with outsiders in this town. That graffiti girl last time, and now this-" Mayor Baris gnashed his teeth and spoke so loud his voice became hoarse.
"We ought to make a new decree about it!" cried Mayor Amaryllis. "We shan't have any more outsiders running around within our borders!"
"They're agreeing on something," Reca said, lost in a reverie that almost shielded her from the unfortunate reality of a group of angry villagers moving towards her faster than she was currently moving. "I did it."
If Deca could speak, she would have said several things, first and foremost 'You didn't do anything'. But she couldn't speak- she had no mouth, and her rudimentary light-language was far from enough to convey the message she needed to convey right now. She could do one thing, though- she could drive. And so she did. As the wave of Ammonians and Bleachers cascaded towards her, she spun around, almost riding up on two wheels, and roared off into the distance, spinning up a cloud of dust.
When it cleared, and when the villagers had finished coughing, they found that Reca and Deca were gone. The river stretched ahead in front of them, ever wider, ever hotter.
"Keep going," said Reca. "Until we reach Pandemonia. Even if there's another settlement, don't stop."
Deca agreed.