Cajole, Amiss, Bulwark

Cajole - to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance
Amiss - If you say that something is amiss, you mean there is something wrong
Bulwark - a solid wall-like structure raised for defense


It was dark. Val was walking fast along the last meters of the North Bulwark. Half-destroyed, no longer in use, this section of the Bulwark was towering over a hundred of so houses leaning to its broad, two-mile side. Fifteen miles to the West, Val could discern two green lights on the edge of the next remaining section of the Bulwark – lights meant another town and green, everything was fine. If Val turned to the East, he probably would make out the shape of yet another section of the Bulwark. There were no lights. This settlement was gulped two years ago and no one dared to go there and see what remained.

It was chilly outside, though the bulk of the Bulwark protected the town from the nasty winds that raged beyond. Partially because of being cold and partially because Val wanted to get it over with as soon as possible he quickened his pace. Despite of a growling stomach and anticipation of a decent dinner tonight, Val began to feel that after all it was a bad idea to go. His brother cajoled him into this by promising to split the food even before feeding children: it meant that in the first time this year Val would eat enough. That was great, but talking to the worms was his brother's job, not Val's, brother's. It didn't matter that he broke a leg and could only wobble a little on the good leg – it was still his responsibility. 

Val reached the end of the wall and he found himself standing in front of the hole. Doing everything quickly before he would panic and ran, Val bent and began to crawl into a dark, narrow tunnel. He kept crawling in darkness – worms didn't like either sunlight or electric light and nobody dared to do anything that might upset a worm. He tried to keep his head as low as possible in fear of smashing it into some sharp edge of the tunnel. 

"Fifty meters," his brother told him, "fifty meters you need to crawl and there will be a cavern and it will be lit." In spite of his alertness, the disappearance of the floor of the tunnel was too sudden and Val fell out of the opening onto the stone floor of the cavern. It was dimly lit by the milky-white light streaming from the walls and ceiling: some sort of fluorescent plants perhaps. There was another way out of the cavern; a much larger opening filled with darkness was cutting through the opposite wall. It was separated from the chamber by a stone barrier that aroused half the height of the opening. The top of the barrier was flat and seemed to be polished by innumerous touches of hands or other limbs. 

Surprised by his own courage, Val took off his rucksack and slowly, trying not to make any extra noise, approached the barrier. When he put the rucksack down onto the flat stone, something clanged inside it; then Val backed away to the farthest wall of the cavern. He sat down, pulled his legs closer, rested his chin on his knees, and prepared to wait. 

They called them worms, but actually no one knew who or what they were. They looked like worms with long white slimy bodies creeping in their tunnels under destroyed cities. However, they had multiple legs or hands that looked more like that of an insect. They might be something else, though nobody could care less. It was impossible to grow food on the surface of the planet after the Blow and the only way to replenish supplies was to trade with worms: the last pieces of technology that men possessed for food. Worms probably managed to grow something under the ground.  No one actually knew what it was, for they saw food only after it was preparedl; the appointed man would go to the worms and bring back food that was to be cooked by chiefs of the community and distributed among its members.  

A low rustle caught Val's attention and he fixed his gaze upon the entrance of the second tunnel. A worm was coming. His brother told him that this kind of sound announces an approaching of a worm. Soon the light fell upon a ghostly-white skin of the worm and its six bulging eyes peered with inhuman intensity into the cavern. The vision of the white pulsing body and thick liquid slowly trickling down from it onto the floor was so revolting that immediately a feeling of nausea sprang up from Val's stomach and he hardly suppressed an urge to vomit. The worm, ignoring human’s presence, produced one articulated limb, picked up the bag and passed it somewhere behind and down the tunnel not even revising its content. 

With horror and an extreme feeling that something was very amiss Val watched as the worm, after dealing with the rucksack, started to squeeze its fat tail through the opening into the cavern. The part of the worm that was in the chamber was about three meters long when it stopped moving and Val was able to tear his gaze off it and look upon the face of the worm. He saw a pair of limbs with long and apparently sharp blades in them. They were gleaming in the semidarkness. A swift movement – the tail separated from the body and with a wet flop fell over the barrier. When startled Val stopped staring at the convulsing tail and looked into the tunnel, he saw nothing. The worm was gone; it left the food.