“Children are very mysterious living creatures,” Feiluo continued. “For clones, as soon as we are born, we are already equipped with an adult’s form. We do not experience any sort of childhood. The childhood of a human’s life must be very happy.”
“Honestly, I can’t remember my own childhood well, and the feelings I can recall weren’t very happy,” A-Ka said.
Heishi carried the small girl piggyback as he walked. Staying by Heishi’s side, A-Ka gently kidded with her.
“And what’s your name, little one?” he asked.
“Ann,” she responded timidly.
A-Ka smiled. “Ann, keep your chin up. We will find hope.”
She nodded.
The sun rose and set.
This was an almost endless stretch of road, as traveling through the snowy mountains was very difficult. They couldn’t find food, which caused everyone despair and frustration. Only A-Ka persisted, using his magnetic field generator to set down a magnetic trap. Sometimes he caught one or two birds that fell into the trap, and even a roe deer once. He always handed the food to the girl and the women to eat.
At first, Heishi found this bizarre, but he gradually got used to A-Ka’s ways.
Just when everyone was on the brink of collapse, Feiluo led them out of the snowy region into an expansive plain. If they kept going forward, they would reach the shoreline of the inland sea on the western side of the continent.
They had spent almost half a year on this journey. Now, as everyone exhausted the last of their energy, they finally saw the first light of day. The whole group’s clothes were in tatters, especially Heishi’s; on the journey here, he had been in the lead every time they broke a path through the brambles. Now, Heishi simply went around with his torso bare, tying his shirt, which was just a few strips of cloth, around his waist.
At one point, in order to save Ann, Feiluo had been bitten by a venomous snake. Fortunately, because he was a clone, he wasn’t affected by venom.
A-Ka was also completely bedraggled, his clothes torn beyond repair. The cloth straps of his satchel had also broken. He’d had no choice but to borrow two strips of cloth from Heishi and tie them together around his body.
Two people had died of sickness on the journey. A-Ka couldn’t save them; all he could do was bring the survivors here. The most troubling thing was that one of the people who had died from hardship had been Ann’s mother. Ann joined A-Ka’s little squad after that. Throughout the rest of their journey, Ann kept asking where her mother had gone, and Feiluo answered that her mother had gone ahead to scout out the road. Despite her mother’s absence, Ann didn’t cry or make a fuss.
This was a very spacious area, and the oldest place on the Astrolabe. It lay at the Astrolabe’s very center, bridging the distance between the snowy mountains and the primordial forests below, separating the Country of Machines from the western shore. This region was called the Primeval Heart. Historically, this place had been called the Creator’s laboratory because many different kinds of species lived on these plains. In the prehistoric era, T. rexes had run rampant in the area. Even the mechanical troops couldn’t survive here.
Establishing supply lines would take too long and be too difficult an undertaking. So, when the humans escaped from the City of Steel after the revolution many years ago and arrived at the edge of the western shoreline, they could only cobble together this base of operations for the Rebel Alliance.
However, everything here was temporary. Everyone knew that sooner or later Father’s patrols would arrive and occupy the entire western shoreline. Only by leaving the landmass and drifting across the seas toward the countries on the far side would they survive.
The humans living near the Primeval Heart were constantly wary of ambushes from both the wild animals living on the plains as well as the mechanical troops from the even more distant Eastern Continent. Every day here was gut-wrenching, spent in a state of constant, unending anxiety.
In the Ant Nest, A-Ka had heard legends surrounding this place. Back then, he had thought it would be nice if he could make his way here one day. After all he’d been through, he realized how laughable his original idea of driving K across the great ocean to seek out the famous mythical land had been.
“After crossing the border here, we’ll see Martha Town,” Feiluo said.
Their ragtag group, covered in the dust of the road, stood on a slope on the plains and looked downward. No one spoke for a long time.
From border to border, on the open plains that spanned hundreds of miles as far as the eye could see, every inch of space was packed with humans. These people sat or lay down or congregated in front of the wire netted fence, waiting for Martha Town to let them in. The wire fence stood like a border between countries, at the edge of their last hope, mercilessly refusing anyone’s approach.
A-Ka had never expected that there would be this many people. At a glance, there had to be tens of thousands gathered here.
Quite a few humans must have escaped from the prison that was the City of Steel since the revolution. They each took their own paths, spreading out across all corners of the mainland. A-Ka had thought that his group, which had directly crossed the high-altitude plains, was near the front of the pack. He’d certainly never expected that there would be this many ahead of them who had no lodgings and no place to rest.
The humans crowded in front of the wire netting, shouting loudly. “Let us in!”
Behind them was a uniformed group of resistance fighters in battle gear, holding weapons as they watched over the refugee groups on the plain.
A-Ka stood at a distance, his face filled with confusion. “What should we do?”
Heishi shrugged, looking wholly unconcerned as his gaze swept over that plain.
“Don’t worry,” Feiluo said. “I’ll try to negotiate.”
The sun would set soon. The winter days were short, the nights were long, and the winds were bitingly cold. Feiluo led Ann, A-Ka, and the rest through the crowd to the front of the wire fence.
Behind it, a rebel soldier immediately pointed his gun at them, asking warily, “Who are you?”
A bright light shone overhead, landing on the faces of those present. Feiluo swept aside his dirty bangs with a finger, revealing his forehead and his indigo-blue eyes. “One of your own,” he said, “from the 7th Troop.”
“The 7th Troop was dissolved!” the other said. “The brothers in the City of Steel all died!”
Feiluo fell silent. From every direction, quite a few armed troopers came over, lifted up their helmets, and revealed their own indigo-blue eyes. They were all clones.
“Are there humans here?” A-Ka asked. “I have a few things I want to say. We all escaped from the city.”
“Everyone here is a refugee from the City of Steel,” one of the clone soldiers answered. “You’re not special. Go wait outside.” He then pointed at Feiluo with the mouth of his gun. “You, you’re one of us. You can come in.”
“Wait for me here, just for a bit,” Feiluo said to A-Ka and Heishi. “Ann, let’s go. We’re up first.”
The small door in the wire fence opened a crack, and Feiluo had Ann go first. Ann was a little afraid, turning her head back to look at them.
Heishi, in a rare departure from his usual stone-cold demeanor, spoke words of comfort. “Go. You will be safe.”
This series of events roused the displeasure of many around them, and the crowd began to shout. Feiluo squeezed through to the other side of the wire fence and nodded to A-Ka, indicating for him to remain calm, before he took Ann with him as they disappeared into the darkness of the night. The people behind A-Ka crowded him until he could hardly breathe, and he turned in hopes of finding an empty space to sit down in, but he couldn’t even take a step forward. Finally, Heishi grabbed his collar and dragged him out of the crowd.
The rest of the group found an empty spot and watched the xenon lamps high above the wire fence turn the night into daytime with their light. Tapp and the rest were still nearby.
“That clone definitely won’t let us in,” Tapp said disdainfully.
“I trust that he will.”
In his heart, A-Ka had another thought, but he didn’t say it. He felt that Feiluo would save him and Heishi, but he might not save these temporary human companions. After all, Tapp and the rest of his group had tried to kill Feiluo.
The calls of animals echoed in the distance. Under the cover of darkness, the depths of the plains seemed to hide countless dangers that were unknown to the humans.
The long night deepened, and the sky shone with a brilliant starry river as the plains sank into a heavy sleep.
Startling awake from his dreams, A-Ka looked around. It was still nighttime.
“Come with me,” a clone said in a low voice. “Don’t disturb the others.”
“Where’s Heishi?” A-Ka asked.