What the Birds Knew, part one

"You see?" Vik had run on ahead and Ed was panting trying to keep up as they climbed the hill.
"Can't see anything! Too dark!" The younger boy braced himself on one of the wispy trees, catching his breath.
"Over there," Vik was standing on the crest, pointing off into the distance. Ed clambered over the edge and took in the view. The hill was not large, but it still offered a modest view of the floodplains below. As his eyes focused, Ed could make it out. It wasn't much more than a grey blur at this distance, but he could see the wall.
"Dug said not to go near. Said they kill you 'fore you even see 'em."
"Dug's old and stupid. You want to see inside or no?" Vik turned to the younger boy. "Can't get over by myself."

The moon had emerged from the clouds, so the boys smeared mud on their faces and deerskin coats to hide them from its light. They crept slowly through the bog, keeping their bodies low and their eyes open for snakes. Here and there, the wetland was broken by patches of cattails and shrubs. Here they would dash ahead, keeping the foliage between them and the wall.
It was bigger than Ed thought it would be, many times the height of the tallest man. As they neared the base, they could see something glowing inside, almost as if whatever lay beyond was burning brightly and without smoke.
They were creeping through a dense patch of trees near the wall when Vik stopped abruptly. He pointed to his right.
There among the reeds, almost entirely swallowed by the mud was a rusted metal frame. Ed knew what it was. Cars were everywhere. They were full of useful metal parts, turned on their sides they made excellent walls, you could even live in some of the bigger ones.
This one was open all around and had a frame which supported a far rarer relic -- a gun. A big gun at that. Dug had the village's only example of the weapon, a simple long rifle he polished far more often than he fired. This car gun was several times its size, but choked with creeping vines and rust.
Vik put his finger to his mouth and pointed up at the wall above them. Elsewhere it was smooth concrete, but here it was pocked with craters of varying sizes, with one huge one just beyond Vik's reach. Dark, twisted rods protruded from the wall's damaged section.

"Quiet now," Vik whispered as he removed the rope he'd wrapped around his torso, "and leave that."
Ed knew he meant his spear. He found the short metal rod buried in the mud inside a brick building that was too thin to be a house. It was about as long as his leg, heavy, with two points, one of which curved backward. It gave him blisters, but he scraped off the rust and sharpened it with a rock. Grudgingly, he removed the cloth strap and laid it inside the gun car so he would remember.
"Take this," Vik handed Ed the rope. It was old and rough, but flexible. "I boost you up and you knot it, right?"
"Right," Ed nodded and looked up at the wall. He could feel his heart in his throat. Vik walked right up to the wall and knelt in the sandy mud around its base. Ed looped the rope and draped it around his neck before he climbed onto the older boy's shoulders.

After that it was as easy as climbing a tree. Ed scurried up the wall using the metal rods exposed by whatever carved the holes. When he was most of the way up, he wrapped the rope around one of them and knotted it, leaving about equal amounts on either side of the knot. Below, Vik seized his end and pulled hard, testing it. When he was satisfied, he followed Ed up the wall.
Just before the boys reached the top, Vik tapped Ed's foot from below. He pointed off to the side where a sparrow had nested in one of the holes blasted into the face of the wall and smiled. Ed grinned back.
"Only the birds know what they do inside the wall," was all Dug would ever say about it, other than warning them to keep their distance -- which he did at length.

Ed gained the top just before Vik, but as he reached over the edge, he felt something snag. He pulled his hand back and saw the blood trickling down his arm before he felt the tear in his palm. He gasped, and almost lost his hold with the other hand.
"Cut me," he gasped. "Somethin'."
Vik hissed to silence him and climbed up beside. He gripped the edge more tentatively, and pulled himself up to his chin. "Ah," he said and began to rifle through the leather bags he had sewn into his belt. He handed a strip of cloth to Ed. As he was trying to wrap his hand properly without falling, Ed noticed Vik hoisting himself to the top brandishing shiny metal pliers.

After Vik had cut through the barbed wire and tossed a portion of it behind them, the boys climbed to the top and looked beyond. It was as if they'd crossed into another world. The smell of the swamp was gone, replaced by the smells of dirt and rain and waste. The wall went straight down from where they were, but here and there it was supported by a rounded tower made of the same material. From them, bright lights shone down below, like single burning rays of sunlight. The ground here was flat and covered with low vegetation, but beyond they could make out buildings at least as tall as the wall itself, all of them glowing so brightly, they could not see in the shadows around them.
They lowered themselves with the other half of the rope and left it dangling there for the return trip. The ground was moist and spongy between the plants, which were all identical, growing in long rows side by side.
Vik did not wait to puzzle out this mystery. He motioned for Ed to follow and together they made their way across the bizarre plain, careful to avoid the roving circles of light cast by the towers.

Beyond the fields, they found another wall -- much shorter than the first, but made of polished metal and too high to scale. To their right, it seemed to run unbroken all the way to the big wall after it turned.
Ed was about to suggest they turn back when Vik noticed the lights off to the left. "
You see?"
Ed saw, although he wished he hadn't.
As they got closer, they could see that the light came from a small building, just a room really, that intersected the metal wall. It had a door with a window, and from it a path ran out into the field.
Vik edged up to the small building. Ed held back in its shadow, wishing he could dissuade Vik, but too frightened to speak. The light was not like the ones from the towers, it was just a small lamp, dimly illuminating the area.
Vik crawled beneath the door, careful to stay away from the window. As he made to pull himself up to peer inside, he placed a hand on the door. As soon as he put his weight on it, the door swung open and Vik tumbled into the room beyond. Ed jumped when he heard. He saw the door close behind Vik with an audible click.
He heard a muffled pounding from the other side, but Vik did not emerge. "Hey!" he heard from inside. More knocking. "Push it, Ed. I can't!"
Through the window Ed could see Vik alone in the small room. While Vik pounded on his side in vain, it swung open easily for Ed.
"Opens from one side," Ed declared, and immediately felt stupid for saying it. He entered the room which was made of the same polished metal as the wall, with a black dome in the center of the ceiling. Vik paused to wedge his pliers in the first door to keep it ajar before they tested the door opposite.

Confident that the other door opened from both sides, the boys walked out to a dusty road that ran along the metal wall. Beyond that they could see a series of long, tall buildings with dim alleys running between them. They tried a few of the doors, but found them firmly locked. They could not see anyone around, but they could hear the sounds of people off in the direction of the glowing city they saw from the wall.
Keeping to the shadows, they moved in that direction.

It was the biggest village they had ever seen. More people than Ed thought could live in one place spread out all around in a dense mass of tents and lean-tos strung between mismatched wood and brick cottages. The streets were dirty and poorly-lit, but even at this hour the people were awake -- eating and drinking and laughing and fighting.

The shacks and hovels were small enough that the boys could see the city beyond. The buildings got bigger and brighter until they seemed impossible. It was as if they'd wandered into a story about the old world, when people built skyscrapers and the cars moved on their own and men and women made war in the sky like eagles.

Ed could see that even Vik was afraid.