What Happened at The Mound

Corpse Carrier - Act 1 | Chapter 16 - What Happened at The Mound
Two Hours and Forty One Minute After Juna Died

Twenty minutes had passed since Juna stepped outside of the gasoline-stenched village located in Ground Zero. Since then, she had approached The Mound encapsulating the village and walked around it counterclockwise. Juna noticed many unique things about The Mound, though nothing truly fantasy-like that she had hoped. Still it was fun to find the difference in the normal things in this world compared to Earth.

For starters, The Mound never stayed true to the height Juna and Theo had once climbed. Some sections of The Mound were steep enough to rival a brick wall, while other sections—mainly the section she walked alongside now—had small divots inside of a more angled slope. Every now and then she would come across a divot about three feet or more wide with living creatures nested inside. Though no creature was as heart-throbbing as Specks, Juna still found joy in observing these new animals burrowed in The Mound.

Close to five minutes ago one of the creatures Juna examined caught her attention greatly. A heavy winged bird. The closest thing Juna managed to compare it to was a graceful swan—without all the grace. Its wings slumped to the stone ground and dragged against the gravel as it waddled up and down The Mound. The bird would use its rounded beak to scoop up any insects living inside of the inch-wide divots near the bottom, then transport them back up to the top before dropping the squirming bugs from its mouth into the nest.

It proved difficult to completely see inside the three-foot-wide divot, but from what Juna could make out the mother bird had three younglings all eager to eat—and all with the same heavy wings. However, since then Juna had not crossed any other exotic species, and especially not another large divot.

That was until now however.

Located at possibly the furthest point of The Mound from the village Juna found both things. A divot—close to eight feet in height and caved into the bottom of The Mound. And an exotic animal—Theo, curled up inside, hunkered down and scanning over Juna’s etched out book.

A Fossil, from what Radu called it.

“For a second I thought you actually went into The Chasm.” Juna asked, setting Specks down so he could comb his fur. “What are you doing out here?”

Theo flipped a page in the book. He didn't even glance her way.

“And I thought you were babying up to Radu enough for him to take you down there,” Theo said. “Why are you still acting so calm? Do you even realize in the slightest what kind of position we’re stuck in. That we are not on Earth.”

How snarky, Juna thought.

“Have you always acted like this even at school?” she asked.

Theo slammed the book closed. “Oh yeah, of course I did, because school was so much like a damp cave with tremors caused by an unknown monster right below us. So yeah, I guess I did act just the same.”

The swelling in Juna’s left eye worsened. An odd tingling sensation. The pain had seemed to calm down since their arrival inside the cavern. Even during the almost hour-long trek to find the village the pain in her eye was never noticeable.

Though when talking to Theo? Her eye ached just as it did when Reyna had thrown the punch.

“Sarcasm, Juna,” Theo said at the lack of a reply. “That was sarcasm.”

“I know,” she said.

“That makes one of us at least.”

Juna squinted her eyes, then raised her one movable eyebrow.

Theo tossed the hefty book outside of the divot, letting its pages flutter through the air as it fell.

THUD

“How did someone as dumb as you even manage to decipher whatever in the world that ridiculous thing says?” Theo asked.

Did he need to call me dumb?

“I don’t understand it at all!” Theo continued. “I’ve been at it for half an hour and page after page only make everything more complicated. Radu mentioned this book was a Fossil, or something, that this,” he gestured air quotation with his hands, “Chasm, somehow sent the book to our world. To you. Because, I mean, of course it did. Totally. An enormous fissure in the ground definitely sent a book with untranslatable words all the way to Earth just for you to read, right?”

Juna didn’t respond. The throbbing in her left eye pulsed into a banging inside her skull while Theo seemed to grow more hysterical by the second. Shutting up was something Juna could do—something she wouldn’t mess up. Pleading and bargaining were skills that turned out to be as useless as asking for a teachers’ help. In the end, Juna found it beneficial to clamp her mouth, shut up, and stay quiet. When Juna stopped talking, Reyna stopped torturing her.

An old habit.

“Oh yeah, just fall silent now. Sure, go ahead, it’s not like you were flapping your lips for hours the second we woke up in this hole. Oh wow! Look at this cute lizard and, oh my goodness! Could it be? Wow, a bunch of—” Theo dropped the girly impression, “stupid rocks for miles to see!”

Juna stared.

Theo waited.

Her eyes burned.

Theo's lips curled.

She grabbed her own wrist and he grabbed on to whatever composure remained.

“Say something,” Theo grumbled.

Juna couldn't. It was better to say nothing at all. To allow the insults to be hurled until the aggressor became bored.

“What's wrong with you?” Theo asked, disgusted.

Throbbing—stinging back in her left eye. Juna's old world—her old self—fought to mesh back into the new world.

“I'm done,” Theo said. His eyes sharpened to switchblades and his voice turned rougher than any nearby stone. “The whole reason we're in this mess is because of you. And I'm tired of pretending like it’s not. All because your life wasn't just sunshine and rainbows, you decided to pick up a creepy—” Theo kicked the heavy, semi-battered book. “—otherworldly manual! And then…and then took your own life. For what? Because you couldn't handle a few snarky comments from Reyna? Because school wasn't going well? What made you feel so sorry for yourself that you needed to escape and bring me with you? Newsflash here, we all have problems back on Earth too. My sister's paralyzed and I've been working myself to the bone in order to pay off her medical bills! Oh—oh and guess what now, by some stroke of luck she was offered a medical grant that would finally pay her interest off in full. Just one more week. One more week and finally, finally my sister wouldn’t feel like such a helpless burden anymore. For once she could smile and not have to be in pain while relying on everyone all the time. I could quit work and visit her more. I could focus more on school and get a better job for her. I could save her!”

Theo fell silent. He gnawed at his lip.

“You…all because you couldn't suck it up…now I don't even know if she's okay.”

“You knew?” Juna asked, head tilted low.

Theo raised an eyebrow, confused, and looked as though he would miserably yell with anger again. He didn't. Instead Theo asked, “Knew what?”

Juna clenched at her skirt’s edge. “What Reyna was doing to me…”

“I guess, yeah. Though it's not as if you ever got hurt,” Theo said.

“Hurt?” Juna asked, her left eye pulsing with pain.

“One time then.” Theo stammered. “Out of the entire year Reyna only hurt you once. Sure that sucks, Reyna is a pile of garbage but still—”

“But still,” Juna interrupted, “you sat by and watched.”

Theo said nothing, though his eyes stayed sharper than glass, and his brow never once slacked.

Juna, however, had enough of being quiet.

“You watched them crumple up my career from that day. I saw you from the corner of my eye. You watched from the fountain. Did nothing. Said nothing even when the teacher brought it up in class. For someone as loud as you are now, you never bothered to speak up for me in class.”

Theo rapped his fingers against his hip and started, “So what if I—”

“SHUT UP!” Juna yelled.

Theo went quiet.

Juna kept talking.

“You're the one who bumped into me in the hallway. You're the reason my book fell out of the bag onto the floor. You're the one that saw my black eye and said nothing. You're the one who saw Reyna pulling on my hair and did nothing. You're the one that left me.”

“I saved you!” Theo yelled. “I'm the one who jumped in the water to save you when you threw yourself off the bridge! Me! I did! And now you're making me out to be the villain?"

“What does it matter if you tried to save me in the end? You never bother helping me until that point.”

“Oh come on,” Theo groaned, exaggeratingly palming his face. “Like—like I would have known you were planning on killing yourself! If I would have known that then of course I would have done something to help.”

“Would you?” Juna asked, unapologetic.

“Of course!”

“Fine,” Juna said, releasing her skirt and locking eyes with Theo. The pain from her left eye completely gone. Calm. “Then prove it. Save me again.”

Theo scrunched his eyes, fiddled with his index finger and thumb. “What?”

“Down here,” Juna said. “Save me.” She forced through the pain to widen both eyes and smile. “If I'm ever in danger down here, then step in and prove to me you would have saved me. After all,” she turned away, “this is our new home. We’ll be down here for the rest of our lives.”