Patchworld 1

This is a rewrite of my last story. Rather, it has the same characters with the same overall personalities, but it's written in a different tense, and in a different setting, and maybe (I'm not sure yet) a different world and a different plot.  If you want to see more of these characters,you can look at my last story, which starts at the work called 'Over the Bridge', and is in Ben's point of view, who's less of a grump then you'd think.

The two had been walking for some time now. Their clothes were stiff and discolored, and their soft-booted feet dragged slightly on the stone-paved road, whispering. The streets were quiet in these parts, grey, and damp with stale rain.

The younger boy stopped at an alleyway and smiled into it wearily. The visible space between the two buildings faded into darkness so quickly that it was easy to tell that it wasn’t what the boy saw at that moment that made him smile; More the idea of it, another version of it that he’d seen before that he knew.

The older boy went past him without stopping for the scenery(there was none anyway). Less of a romantic, he was. His companion hastened to catch up.

Because the elder was walking fast and they hadn’t walked fast for a while, the younger boy tripped a little with each step. His boots were too big for him, and sleep pooled under his eyes deeply and darkly so, even small-boned as as he was, his movements were slow and flickery, the way a candle burns.

The older boy was steadier. He knew what was ahead of him and he would plod along until he met it. It was very close then, and he was giving his last, consistent, leg of it before he knew he would collapse. It wasn’t hard to, really, with their backs pressed against the wall, leaning their weight against it.

The alleyway was longer than it looked to be before entering it. It was so dark and the buildings that made it were solid, with no gaps in between them. Just a narrow gap in between looming, long brick barriers. Anyone else might have overlooked the metal grate built into the right hand wall. Anyone would, because of the dimness, but the boys had done this before, feeling for that frame and the latch that opened it.

The latch was very small, and held in place by a half-in screw. The older boy rubbed his hands together. His bones were stiff and weak from the cold. Then he turned the screw first one way and then the other-he always forgot which way it turned, to loosen it- and it fell into his palm. He pocketed it.

They looked at each other and now they both grinned. Because they were back.

The passageway was warm,and pitch-black,comfortable, like the state before sleep. The boys crawled through for it for what seems like hours.But that’s what it’s like, falling asleep. It seems like hours but it isn’t, really.

The older boy stopped at the first fork in the passageway. He always forgot which one to go through.

“This one.” The younger boy pointed to the left tunnel.

“Which one?”

“That one.” The younger insisted.

“Which one? I can’t see. You think I can sense where you’re pointing? With my mind?” The elder huffed.

“Oh. Sorry. It’s the one on the left.”

“Thank you.”

At the second fork the older boy stopped again.

“On the right.”

If they went a little ways through the right tunnel they could hear voices whispering excitedly, and and footsteps below them, hurried. The two stopped, and knocked the ground that they had been crawling on cautiously.

“We’re up here.” The younger boy said.

A young girl’s voice answered. “Up where? We can’t see you, you know. Knock harder.” The younger boy laughed.

The older boy knocked more forcefully. ”Here.”

“Okay. Back up a little, you’re right on the lever. If you don’t, you’re gonna fall.”

When he did so, there was a creaking, scraping noise under them, and the panel just in front of the older boy descended. They both blinked from the soft light that hit their eyes. A small, black framed face stared up at them, beaming.

“You’re back! Hi, Ben!” Ben put a finger to his lips.

“Sorry,” she said, more quietly. “Hi, Naz.”

“Hey,” the younger boy whispered. “Don’t mind him. He’s just grumpy.” He winked.

“I know. he’s always like this after a trip.” She turned to Ben.“The others aren’t even asleep. I woke them up when I heard you.”

Ben sighed. “You shouldn’t have, Kira. They need rest.” He paused. “So do you.”

He peered into the room. “Where’s Alden?”

“He’s looking after them. I was on watch for you.”

“We’d be coming no matter what. You didn’t have to wait for us.”

The girl shrugged. “I was excited, alright? I knew you would be back soon. One of us has stayed up for the past couple days on watch.”

“Mmm… can’t be helped now. Help us in, will you?”

“Uh huh.”

“Here’s the stuff.” Ben handed the girl a thick, green-brown backpack. “This is the wood. Naz has the supplies.”

“Need a hand with those, too?”

“No. It’s a light haul today.”

Kira wrinkled her nose. “After two weeks? It’s a light haul?” Neither of the boys responded, but fell through the opening one at a time, onto the dirt floor. Naz reached up to reset the lever, which the girl was much too short for.

What light there was was coming from a slit window in the metal door, leading to the extended room in the back. It shifted suddenly once, and then a lot. Shadows shoved each other over back and forth in spotlight of the ray. Ben became aware of muffled giggling.

“I thought you said Alden was taking care of them.”