Harvest Time

6 - Feeding Time

"What are they?" I asked the man, who told me his name was Teshlo.

Two or three minutes after rescuing me, Teshlo had stopped and crept off to one side. He had led me to what he called the feeding pit.

We watched from behind some trees as creatures drank and picked meat from the pit, shovelling it into their mouths and swallowing even larger bits whole. Some of the creatures grunted, others howled, especially if there was any contention over the ownership of one of the larger pieces of meat, but no actual fights broke out.

I swallowed trying, once more, not to throw up. Given what was in the feeding pit, it was obvious where the pipe from that building ended up. These creatures were eating the remains of the breeders and all those others snatched from our world. Shaking, I closed my eyes knowing that, somewhere in that mess, were the remains of Joselle. I prayed that her death had come quickly.

The creatures were gangly and tall, and also hairless and naked. Sometimes they walked on two legs like men, and sometimes on all fours. Their skulls were squat and flat across the top of the cranium.

"As far as we can tell, they were once men like us," Teshlo said.

"What? Are you certain? Are they dangerous?"

"No, not any more. They just live to feed off what the Harvesters bring back. There's not many of them left."

"Are they dying?"

He nodded. "It has been speculated that they are too stupid to remember how to breed. But they were once numerous. We found the remains of their civilisation. It even had books with history engraved onto some materials that must have lasted millennia. The writings even speak of Earth."

"You mean Earth was real?"

He nodded once more. "Yes, of course it was. It was the original home of mankind before we spread across the worlds of Between. Elcanah is the one who has managed to decipher some of their history. She's been here even longer than me. You will meet her at the village."

"Village? How long have you been here then?"

"More than forty years by my reckoning. Elcanah has been here at least five years longer."

"How did she arrive?"

"She was a scientist working with extending the breeder capacity and was captured along with the breeders she was experimenting on. The Harvester returned before she had been pushed through the masher and, like all of us, she managed to escape the building."

"Which citadel are you from? Is Elcanah from the same one?"

"She told me she was from the thirty-ninth citadel, Hollexton."

"Huh? I know no such place. And, surely, there are only twenty, aren't there?"

"Is that all that's left now?"

"What do you mean?"

"When I was captured there were still thirty-two, though Emla, the last person to arrive here alive, said there were twenty-one. Mine was called Creela – have you heard of it?"

I shook my head.

"Which was yours, then?"

"Hallandra," I said, and he nodded, showing he recognised the name, so I added, "But there have only ever been twenty citadels, haven't there?"

Teshlo sighed and shook his head. What era are you from, boy?"

"Era? What do you mean?"

"How many years since Peacetime was established?"

I shook my head. That knowledge was long lost.

"So, by your time, all knowledge of the wars and Peacetime has been forgotten," he said with a sigh.

"Peacetime I know of... but no one knows when it happened. What are wars?"

He stared off into the distance for a while before continuing. "Elcanah remembers the time before Peacetime, and the wars when citadels still battled against each other. Back when the land was still filled with forests."

The idea of citadels fighting each other was alien to me, but it stirred a memory. "Was that what the siege engines were for? I never really understood that stuff."

"Yes. There was another in the village, Jerringla – she's dead now – the Harvesters had taken her feet. She arrived nearly ten years ago but we could do nothing for her pain and after she... well, eventually she took her own life. She told us that Peacetime was three thousand years ago but, for me, it was nearer one thousand."

I frowned. His calculations made no sense.

"Yes, I can see it is confusing for you. How often do the Harvesters come to Hallandra?"

"About once every six or seven years, I think."

He nodded. "They go out every four days and, as far as we can establish, they always go to Nervanna, but we suspect they don't all go out together. Still, we think they invade each citadel at least once every ten to twelve days."

I frowned yet again.

"Time runs differently between Nervanna and here," he told me. "I was captured when I was not much older than you. Yet I was born at least four thousand years before you were conceived. We once tried to calculate exactly what the time relationship is between the worlds, but every new arrival seems to invalidate our calculations – there doesn't seem to be a constant time difference."

As we watched the creatures that had once been men, I tried to take in all that he told me. But, I had trouble thinking about time that ran to a different and inconstant beat.

"Come," he said. "It will soon be getting dark and this world has but the one sun. I want to be back at the village before it sets."

"Why? Is it dangerous in the dark?"

"Hah, no. Well, not here, anyway," he replied. "But I'd rather not trip over vines or walk into trees. My eyes are not as sharp as they once were, and there is a lack of opticians on this world."

I trailed behind him as he followed some sort of pathway between trees that appeared almost identical to me.

"I presume your capture was similar to mine," he said as he pushed his way through foliage that was waxy and constantly dripping with water.

"What do you mean?"

"I was entangled in a Harvester's tentacle, pulled inside it just as it came back to this world and shut off. It's how most of us arrived."

"Er, no. We killed one – but I was still inside it when it came here."

He stopped walking. Now it was Teshlo's turn to frown.

"You what? You say you killed a Harvester? How?"

"Pushed a mirror mount from the dome roof down on top of it."

"And it stopped?"

"For a while. Others were trying to pull the mirror mount off it when it started up and came here."

"Which part of the Harvester was damaged?"

"The bit under the hatch on the top panel. There were lots of thin ropes running between small metal boxes."

He nodded. "Electronics. Possibly the control circuits then."

I had no idea what he was talking about.

Thanks for reading. Please don't forget to comment and vote on the story! The next part will be along in a week or two.