Evolution (13 page)

“Can’t we save her before they enter the city?” I asked.

“She will still be under heavy guard,” Julian said. “The Slave Road is probably the most protected part of the Empire. A citizen can walk alone and unarmed from Jalisco Province to Oaxaca Province without fearing for his or her life. What’s more, slaves travel with caravans, under heavy guard.” Julian shook his head. “Attacking it head on would be a bad idea.”

“We can’t just use the ship, either,” Makara said. “We risk hurting Anna, not to mention the other slaves.”

“So, what can we do?” Ashton asked. “All I know is, we have to come up with something, quick. They’ll be in the city by tomorrow.”

“There’s another problem,” I said. “By the time we get inside the city, news of
Gilgamesh
might reach Augustus. Many might think it’s just a story, but the Emperor will know better. Once he knows about it, he will know it’s
somebody
from the United States is in his Empire.” I looked at Ashton. “He might even guess that it’s you.”

“That sort of news could be in Nova Roma as early as tomorrow, if Itcala sends a messenger immediately,” Ashton said. “Of course, that’s something we have no control over. We can only hope for the best. In fact, that may even help us. It will add legitimacy to what we have to tell him. If he knows we’re from the U.S., he will know we have access to resources that have given us knowledge about the xenovirus.”

Julian looked at all of us, confused. “I have no idea what you guys are talking about.”

“I know all this must be very strange for you,” Ashton said. “Like I said, we’ll catch you up when we can.

“
How
do you guys have a spaceship?” Julian asked. “Are you United States government? What are you doing in the Empire? Everyone I know believes the United States is gone.
Is
there still a government, somewhere?”

“It’s a long story, friend,” Ashton said.

Julian sighed, obviously frustrated. “I’ll wait for answers, then. But I want to know everything as soon as you get a chance.”

Ashton nodded his assent.

“So, back to Anna,” I said. “What do we do to find her?”

“Finding her will be the easy part,” Ashton said. “
Gilgamesh
has high resolution cameras that can point down and take photographs. We can easily spot a slave train moving southeast toward Nova Roma, and get a head count of what we would be up against.”

“Typically, the trains have anywhere from 25-50 slaves,” Julian said. “Sometimes more. There is usually about one guard for every two slaves, along with the slaves’ owner and anyone else who might be helping the owners. They take them to bidding blocks, set up in Central Square.” Julian sighed. “To me, any sort of rescue sounds impossible, as she will be under constant guard at all times.”

“And we still have our mission to accomplish,” Samuel said. “If we make a huge ruckus, then we will get off on the wrong foot with Augustus.”

“We can’t just leave Anna to die,” I said. “We’ve already gotten so far.” I turned to Julian. “How many people live in Nova Roma?”

“Thousands upon thousands,” he said. “It used to be an old city, but it grew from there. There are many foreigners living in Nova Roma, from the south, from the north...people will not notice you because of your foreign appearance. Although, the Imperial Garrison might ask questions. Getting in is the tricky part. Anyone who looks like a foreigner has to present papers they received at the Empire’s border/”

“Dropping in like we did at Itcala might not work as well,” Makara said. “Nova Roma has more people, and we are more likely to be spotted.”

“No foreigner can be in the Empire without authorization from the Foreign Ministry,” Julian said. “Anyone without transit papers is in defiance with Imperial Law.”

“What happens then?” I asked.

Julian shrugged. “Whatever happens to anyone who is in the Empire without reason. You have no rights. You can be killed, enslaved...anything.”

“With the war going on, papers might be hard to get for a Wastelander,” Ashton said. “I’m sure by this point, all trade has been cut off.”

“War?” Julian asked.

“That, too, is something we have to catch you up on,” Ashton said.

“We need more information,” Samuel said. “I don’t see how that’s going to happen up here. We can find the slave train and see what we’re up against. After, we have to find some way to infiltrate the city, never losing sight of Anna. If we watch closely, we might find an opportunity to rescue her.”

It wasn’t much of a plan, but at least it was something. Maybe an opportunity would present itself. But first, we had to find our way inside the city itself, and get to Central Square before Anna did.

“It would be a good idea to get what rest you can,” Ashton said. “It’s near three in the morning, and you all will have to get an early start tomorrow.”

Samuel turned to Julian. “I’ll show you to your bunk. Tomorrow morning I will catch you up on everything.”

***

W
e caught what little sleep we could. By the time we awoke, it was morning. After eating a small meal, we gathered once more on the bridge.

By midmorning, we were following the Slave Road at a slow hover above the clouds. We poked below now and again to get a glimpse of the road, trying to spy the caravan Anna was a part of.

The first few times we did this, we caught nothing. By the fourth time, however, the camera panned on exactly what we were looking for.

Julian was in awe of the equipment. Everything was different from what he was used to – the spaceship, the food, the way we treated him. He was remarkably resilient, and had taken to his new surroundings quickly. I wanted to learn more about him, but that would have to wait for another time.

“That is it,” Julian said.

The LCD showed the curving line of road, along with the small shapes of pack animals and rectangular cages. On the sides of the caravan, guards walked slowly.

In the distance, below the clouds, I caught my first sight of Nova Roma on the horizon. It was situated in a large valley, and thousands of buildings rose from crisscrossing urban streets. A large stone wall surrounded its entire perimeter, and small, wooden buildings spilled outside the walls themselves, as if they were leeching onto the city. Many large, stone buildings stood within the city itself. In the middle was a tall, circular arena: the
Coleseo
.

Green mountains hugged the city’s border to the north, and some low hills to the south and east. The main access point was from the west – the direction from which we were flying.

“We can’t attack that caravan,” Ashton said. “Not without killing Anna in the process.”

It was hard to believe that Anna was
there
, heading straight for the city. What would she think if she knew we were watching her right now, that we were going to save her? Or did she feel like we abandoned her? Just seeing the image on the screen gave me a reason to go on. It was
something
.

Ashton pointed to the north. “I can drop you off there, behind that mountain. The ship needs to remain hidden. If you hurry, you all can make it to Central Square before they do.”

“Head that way, then,” Samuel said.

Ashton changed the trajectory of the ship, carrying us above the clouds once more.

W
e landed on an empty road behind the mountain. As soon as we exited the blast door,
Gilgamesh
lifted off. We received no radio, not wanting to risk our messages being intercepted. Instead, Ashton would keep an eye on this spot for when we were ready to be lifted out.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best we could come up with.

The morning was gray and misty, the wind cool up in the green mountains. We followed the dirt road as it curved through a pass, leading to the valley below where the city was situated. We passed a farmer, his donkey, and cart on our way down. He eyed us strangely, but said nothing as we passed.

Samuel began to jog as the road sloped even more downhill. As the sun rose higher, it burned through the mist. Before us was the city of Nova Roma, spreading throughout the entire valley. There were thousands of buildings, through which hundreds of stone streets crisscrossed. I could even see people walking in massive crowds in the distance, all of them tiny dots from my distance. The
Coleseo
stood clearly in the center of the city. Its three tiers of stone arches rose above the other buildings, forming a perfect circle. Unlike the rest of the big buildings in the town, this had been built from scratch. It was amazing that Augustus could have achieved such a feat.

“Almost there,” Samuel said. “Keep moving!”

We ran down the rest of the way down the mountain. We came across more people walking both toward and away from the city – people dressed in robes, and the poorer ones dressed in rags. At one point, a set of guards came up the road. We ducked out of the way and hid behind a boulder until they passed, not wanting to risk questioning.

When we got back on the road again, we left the highlands and entered a thick forest. After running another couple miles, we were there. Before us was an ivy-clad stone gatehouse that led into Nova Roma. The tall, wooden doors were wide open, and crowds of people passed both in and out of the city. Some of the people had to pause before a set of guards to answer questions.

“How are we supposed to get in there with those guards?” I asked.

Julian stepped up beside me. “I don’t see any way to avoid it. Your skin color and clothing alone will give you away. I’m the only one of us who could pass through.”

“Is there a way you can talk to the guard?”

Julian shook his head. “The fact you only speak English will tell them you are slaves. English is the slaves’ language.”

“So, we need to avoid confrontation,” Samuel said.

Julian nodded. “Exactly.”

We stood there for a moment, thinking of how we might get inside.

“Is there another gate we could go through?” I asked.

“There are five gates into the city,” Julian said. “All of them are watched. All we can do is hope to sneak by and not get noticed.”

“That doesn’t seem like a good idea,” I said.

“I don’t know of any other way,” Samuel said.

“Wait,” Makara said.

She pointed to a large group of people, walking toward the gate from a dirt path leading into the forest. They seemed to be together in some sort of a religious procession. They were dressed in dark, fine robes. In the center, a silver tray was carried, spilling out smoke from an urn. The smell of incense tingled my nostrils. The urn was wreathed in colorful flowers of red and yellow. There were about twenty in the procession. Many held their heads low, as if in mourning.

“A rich man’s funeral, most likely,” Julian said. “There is a cemetery within the forest they are likely returning from. It’s not likely that the guards will stop them. If we can somehow attach ourselves to them without anyone noticing...”

“That’s our way in,” Samuel said.

Samuel walked forward boldly, and we followed him. As we neared the gate, the crowds thickened. It was early enough in the morning that anyone living outside the city would still be making their way in – and that worked in our favor. It wasn’t hard to attach ourselves to the tail of the funeral procession. By the time we were that close, there were enough people around us to where we didn’t stick out. We neared the gate, keeping our heads low like the mourners.

I tried not to think of how we would stick out, being so differently dressed from them. But a moment later, we were out of the sun and in the shade of the gatehouse. The chatter of the crowd echoed within the confines of the entrance, and I didn’t dare glance to my left, where a group of people separated us from the guards. Finally, we were through the gates, walking into the sunlight of the city. Before stopping, we walked on with the procession for another moment.

I glanced back toward the gate. The guards were there questioning a new group of people.

“We made it,” I said, hardly able to believe it.

But no one was listening. They were gazing in awe at the buildings surrounding us. The street was bursting with people, flowing down a long, stone avenue like a river toward the city’s center. Tall, stone buildings lined each side of the street, and green trees occupied a median in the center of the avenue. Carts filled with sundries, anything from produce to glassware to clothing to household goods, lined the building fronts, behind each of which a merchant hawked his or her wares. The people were dressed in robes of white and brown, the richer wearing more vibrant colors of yellow, red, and purple. Head scarves covered the faces of most of the women, obscuring almost all of their features except the eyes. The richer and more colorful the woman’s clothing, the more her face was hidden. The poor wore simple tunics of burlap or cotton, all undyed and dirt brown.

The morning air smelled of unwashed flesh and animal dung. The thrum of human life was near deafening.

As we walked ahead, a contingent of guards marched down the street, regaled in leather armor and carrying long, pointed spears. Standing at the head of the contingent was a leader wearing a yellow and black-spotted jaguar headdress. The crowds parted before them, giving them plenty of space to continue walking. The guards marched past us without even a glance. As soon as they passed, people filled the void they left behind. It was a scene of confused chaos.

In the distance, the
Coleseo
towered above the other buildings. A large temple rose on our left, marble steps leading to an altar surrounded by both green trees and pillars. Smoky incense drifted from the temple’s open doorway, trailing down the steps and into the street below. A vendor to our right shouted, hawking a sugary pastry which carried the scent of cinnamon. Despite my breakfast that morning, my stomach growled.

The entire city was overwhelming, and boasted the wealth and power of the Nova Roman Empire. The amount of things to see was a bit overwhelming, and it made Raider Bluff, the largest city I had seen to this point, look like a tiny dot.