Chapter 9: Chapter IX: Back into The Womb

Olivia thought he was mad when Kai jumped blindly into purple abyss. But they survived—he hadn't been aiming for the bottom, but for the narrow walkway naturally worn into the cliffside. The mutant added a new set of wounds to his collection as a result.

She glanced at his scraped arms and hands, which he’d used as brakes when they slid down the rocks.

“We need to stop. You can’t keep going like this.”

He shook his head.

Stubborn beyond reason.

“I know you’re worried—”

Kai cut her off.

“It’s too dangerous. We might have lost our captors, but who knows what else we’re going to find down here. You’re not a fighter, and I...” He staggered slightly, before regaining composure. “I’m not in my best shape right now.”

That’s an understatement...

“Let me help you at least then,” Olivia said, taking his waist.

Kai stared at her in silence for a while, then relented, letting her pull his arm around her neck.

They walked, keeping close to the wall, with barely an arm's length of visibility around them, surrounded by pinkish fog.

“Do you know where this ends?” she asked.

“It will end, somewhere.”

“That’s... assuring.”

“We just need to keep going.”

Kai struggled to walk, yet he still refused to support himself on her entirely. Which she was grateful in a way, as Olivia thought she might’ve collapsed under his full weight.

“What is this place?” she asked.

He turned to her, looking somewhat shocked.

“You... truly don’t know.”

Olivia held herself back. That felt a bit insulting.

“Back at home we spend most of our lives defending ourselves against your kind and scrapping by to survive. There’s no time for sight-seeing, I’m afraid.”

“So, that’s what you call it... self-defense.”

She frowned.

“What else would it be? You trapped us in our little corner of the world since...” Olivia looked around her, searching for answers she didn’t have. “Since you came into this world.”

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“I see...” Kai lifted his head as if searching for the sun. “After a hundred years of war it’s only natural you’d think like this. I know someone who thinks the same.”

“And you... don’t?”

He looked at her.

“No. As much as you may want to hate and blame me for everything that is wrong with this world, I can’t bring myself to do the same to you.”

“So, you just kill us for sport then?”

He lowered his head, looking ahead again, a painfully sad look on his face.

“I have no excuses.”

Olivia swallowed.

He was serious. There was not an ounce of hatred or malice in his eyes.

She didn’t know what to say.

“Kai.”

“Yes?”

“What is this place, after all?”

He winced in pain, throwing some more of his weight on her.

Olivia held him.

“The Rifts are the end and the beginning of everything we know. They are the wombs of the apocalypse.”

“If that’s true... then how we don’t know that?”

Kai shook his head.

“We must have indeed isolated your people from the broader world. It’s unfortunate what it’s lost in war.”

“Who started this war?”

Her question amused him, it seemed. Kai chuckled faintly.

“I don’t have all answers myself, Olivia. Who do you think started this?”

She didn’t need to think too deeply about this subject.

“You did. With your warrior obsession, your hunger to conquer. We’re just trying to live our lives.”

“You might be right.”

“See, even you—”

He cut her short.

“But I don’t believe it.”

Olivia stopped, and so did he in front of her.

“What? You can’t possibly mean to blame us for this,” she said.

“Oh, but I do. You, and us, our hearts and places like this.”

“Our hearts?”

“Yes. When the Rifts split the earth and changed us on the outside, we were unable to look past our differences. Some might have even used that as an excuse to fight over the resources that were growing increasingly scarce.”

He stepped closer, looking down at her.

“So, who’s to blame for this war, Olivia, if not our pitiful human hearts?”

Her eyes widened.

“Is that... what you believe?” she asked.

His eyes were soft and black.

“With all my heart.”

Her lips were dry.

“I see...”

Kai turned.

“We must keep going.”

“Wait.”

He stopped.

She squeezed herself between his left arm and torso, pulling some of his weight to her.

“Let me... help you.”

“Thank you.”

They continued down the path.

----------------------------------------

It was getting dark. They had been walking through the fog the whole day with no sign of an exit anywhere. Kai feared he was going to collapse at any minute, bringing her down the abyss with him.

“Let us stop for the night,” he said.

She looked tired as well.

“But I thought you said...”

“I know. I was hoping we would find an exit earlier.”

She let go of his waist.

“You don’t know everything yourself as well, do you?”

An exhausted smile grew at the corner of his lips.

“I don’t,” he said, sliding down the wall to sit on the ground.

She did the same beside him.

“I hope I don’t nod off into the abyss,” she said.

“We warriors don’t nod off. Just hold onto me.”

She frowned.

“What do mean warriors don’t nod off? You’re telling me you sleep like statues?”

“Oh...” He looked away, embarrassed. “We don’t relax much, not even in our sleep. Just... take my arm, if you will.”

Kai saw his reflection on her goggles as she leaned closer to take it.

Resting was definitely the best decision.

“Thank you,” she said softly, already falling asleep.

“For what?”

“For saving my life earlier.”

“I kidnapped you, Olivia.”

“That was just your pitiful human...” Her eyes closed completely. “Heart...”

Shocked, Kai watched her drift into sleep in silence.

No, I... I took you from your home. Threatened you...

He rested his head back against the wall, but his eyes rolled down to her on their own.

It was hard to believe he did those things to this girl that slept so peacefully by his side.

What was he thinking? She almost died because of him...

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, but she was already deep asleep.

He closed his eyes, hoping the womb of the apocalypse would be kind to its children this night.