Eve's Hollow by Charles Bedlam (best free e reader .txt) 📕

He thought to himself. “Rodrick Mental Institution,” he said. “I believe that is where he made his home some time ago. We might not know exactly where he is now, but Rodrick might have clues to his whereabouts. So if you're serious about finding him, that's where I think we should start.”

“Where is this place?” Estelle asked.

“It's something of a hike, but during my scouting, I secured a route.”

Estelle gave him a smile.

“But you should know,” he continued, “that the entrance is impassable. A couple hundred or so of the Gray Skins.”

Estelle responded without thinking. “I'm sure we'll figure it out.”

Ransley gave a chuckle. “I was hoping that would have deterred you, but I should have known better. We can leave as soon as you feel up to it.”

“I'm ready now.”

“Of course you are,” Ransley said as he took a gulp from his flammable drink.

He rose to his feet and walked across the room to pick up his bag. He pulled his coat back on and slung the bag over his shoulder. Estelle jumped to her feet and joined him near the kitchen. Ransley finished his drink and sat the glass down on the counter.

“Are you going to be okay?” Estelle asked.

“Hm? Oh, yes, yes, yes. I'm fine.”

The two left his penthouse and went to the elevator. Ransley stared at the buttons and Estelle looked at the floor as the iron box descended into the darkness of the city. The silence between them was thick and awkward.

“So, do you use all those guns,” Estelle asked in an attempt to start conversation.

“Actually, no,” Ransley answered, still staring at the buttons. “I find that it's easier to stay alive when you avoid confrontation all together.”

“Then why do you carry so many guns?”

He looked at her now.

“You saw for yourself,” he said, very seriously. “When you engage one, you have to engage them all. The guns aren't for when I want to fight, they're for when I don't.”

The silence fell upon them again. The elevator screeched to a halt at the bottom level that connected to the sky bridge. There was a second set of elevators that went down to the street. They boarded one and rode it down to the ground level of the building.

“We aren't taking the sky bridges?” Estelle asked as they walked on to the street.

“No,” Ransley said. “The sky bridges require too much energy to traverse to this location. We'd be walking much longer than necessary.”

Ransley brought Estelle to a set of stairs that descended beneath the streets. The top of the stairwell was encased in a glass cylinder with an opening large enough for three or four people to fit through at a time. The stairwell was just as large with a green rail going down the middle. Ransley went ahead of her. Estelle was hesitant.

“Aren't you coming?” Ransley asked, turning to look at her.

“I just-” She took a deep breath. “I don't like being underground.”

“It will be much faster this way. Come on.”

With a look of great unease upon her face, Estelle followed Ransley underground. Ransley explained to her that this form of transportation worked very much like something called “the metro” from where he was from. Estelle explained to Ransley that she lived in the countryside of her home for her entire life, so the city and all that came with it were still fairly new to her.

She felt a tightness in her chest as darkness surrounded them. Ransley reached into his bag, retrieving a flashlight, and illuminated the stairwell. The darkness and the closed space didn't seem to bother him as much as it did her. Only the white light of Ransley's flashlight showed the way. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, they found themselves in a long, concrete hallway.

“Even though the power is still on,” Ransley said, “a lot of areas are still without electricity. The train cars have power though.”

Their footsteps echoed off the concrete wall. After passing a set of turn styles, they descended another flight of stairs and came out onto a platform. The darkness was engulfing and Estelle felt similar as when she stood in the face of her anti-self.

“The car we want is over here,” Ransley said walking down the platform, passing four or five cars.

The tracks were separated in the middle where the platform connected to the opposite side of the space. This would give them access to the several rows of train cars. Above the platforms were metal signs that numbered the rows. Ransley flashed his light upon them and Estelle saw that the cars were numbered up to twenty-four. Ransley stopped at car number twelve, on their right side. This car seemed only slightly aged compared to the others, which to Estelle resembled rusty, orange, cans with holes for windows. Ransley pushed a button on car number twelve and the doors opened. With that, a trail of dim overhead lights flickered on.

“After you,” Ransley said, gesturing toward the open door.

Estelle entered the car and held onto a pole that was fixed in the ceiling and the floor. Ransley entered behind her and he pressed another button on the inside of the car, shutting the doors. The inside of the train car was lined with red cushioned seats on either side. There were two fire extinguishers, one at the front and one at the rear of the vessel. The floor was steel and grimy brown. Ransley moved to the front of the car where a console was placed with several levers and buttons.

Ransley flipped a switch and hit a couple of buttons. The car vibrated and hummed to life. Ransley pulled a couple of levers and the car slowly screeched forward. The screeching didn't last long and Estelle was so overjoyed that this mode of transportation didn't rattle her bones like the behemoth from her father's estate. The car rode through the darkness. Ransley explained that these cars were made to transport workers and materials throughout the city. With so many people living in Eve's Hollow, it was more convenient to give the workers their own private railway. While underground now, Ransley said that the tracks would eventually take them back above ground, then through the city. Sure enough, after a few minutes, Estelle saw the towering black spires of Eve's Hollow engulfed by red fog.

The tracks that the car was set on ascended as it came out of the tunnel. It rose high above the streets and between the skyscrapers. Estelle marveled at how vast the city was. She enjoyed flying through the air on the train. She felt untouchable by the Punished. Estelle attempted to see if she could spot anything on the ground, but they were too far up to be able to see the streets.

“I keep forgetting how enormous this place is,” Estelle said, gazing out the window.

“I don't think that there's any person who has ever crossed the entire city,” Ransley said.

“What's the story behind this place?” Estelle asked, still staring at the buildings.

“As you know, this city was once a very different place,” Ransley responded. “The sky was blue as blue could be, the clouds were fluffy, the night was crisp and diamond filled. But because of mankind's greed and selfishness, the creator of the city, Ashlyn, cursed it and all who resided within.”

“Were you here when it happened?”

“Me? Yes. When the fog came, the people mutated into what we know as the Punished. There were others though, worse monsters. And there were people who didn't change.”

“Like you?”

“Yes. And yourself. I've seen people arrive in Eve's Hollow only to fall to the ground and lose their minds. It's a terrible thing to witness.”

There was a brief silence between them.

“I've seen some very terrible things since I've been here,” Estelle said.

The train car shook on the tracks as it entered a section of buildings that rose high above the train, casting them in semi-darkness.

“You mean like that massacre you told me about?”

Ransley turned to look at Estelle. She nodded. Her heart, then sank into her chest as a realization washed over her. She spoke it out loud, more to solidify it to herself, than to inform Ransley.

“The man who kidnapped me was the same man responsible for that massacre.”

Estelle looked at the ground in a trance. She could feel Ransley's eyes staring at her though.

“How do you know this?” he asked her firmly.

“The men that I saw inspecting the deaths in the massacre were the same men who were assigned to babysit me at his estate.”

The words sounded bitter coming out of her mouth and to her, tasted twice as bad. Babysitting. Child. She turned away from Ransley and leaned her head against the window.

“I'm sorry for your friend that died there,” she said quietly. “I ran away from that man and I never want to see him again.”

“Well I think that's best,” Ransley said. “Look. We're approaching our stop.”

Rapidly approaching was a station upon a platform that was connected to a sky bridge. The buildings stood around them as if watching them approach. The train screeched to a stop. Ransley shut down the car and opened the doors for them to leave. After stepping out, Ransley closed the door using the button on the outside of the car.

The station consisted of a concrete platform encased in large glass panes with metal frames between them. The glass panes extended from the opening of the platform to the back, then up the familiar flight of stairs to a sky bridge. In the center of the platform was a series of connected seats for workers to sit in while they waited for their train. This space was broken and abandoned like everywhere else Estelle had seen.

“While you were asleep, I came through here,” Ransley told her. “Saw to it that there were no Punished and made sure it was safe for us.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Estelle said as they began to climb the stairs. “You did it alone?”

Ransley nodded

“You could have died. Why take that risk for me?”

Ransley chuckled as they reached the landing at the top of the stairs.

“Well you showed up at my door half-dead and asking for my help. I knew once I found a lead that you'd want to pursue it. You don't want my help anymore?”

“It's not that- I'm sorry.”

Estelle realized how offensive that must have sounded.

“I appreciate your help. I really do.”

Estelle organized her thoughts and wondered why she kept questioning his help. The answer came to her quicker than she had expected.

“It's just,” she hesitated. “It's just that in my past life, I- she was always on the run. She often needed the help of strangers and more than a few of them expected a kind of payment no woman should have to give. Everyone wants something.”

“I see,” Ransley said quietly. “Well the only thing I have left to lose is my life and I figured if I lost it doing some good- well, that's fine by me.”

Estelle was speechless.

Now they were traveling across a series of roof tops. There were three in total and a single steel and glass bridge stretched across them all creating a single grand walkway. The path was fifty yards wide and several hundred yards long. Seats were situated on the sides as well as trash cans, telephone booths, and one that made Estelle cringe, a snack machine.

“You haven't asked me for anything,” Estelle said. “Before I even woke up, you came out here and found