Sky City (The Rise of an Orphan)

by RD Hale

  'I see no-one's bothered to tidy up!' I mutter.

  There is only one person I need to see, to check up on and as I head to the living quarters, which are just as cluttered with teenagers 'stuff' as ever, there is an apparent lack of oxygen in the room. Malfunctioning lungs gasp as distant memories are revived and I am rendered invisible by the nostalgic welcome of sheer pandemonium.

  Scoop's grinning infuriates a growling Bex, who is determined not to lose a tug of war with a towel. My money is on the girl as she clenches her fist, yelling: 'I will punch you!' Well within earshot Oscar and Killow are sprawled on couches sipping cider with empties scattered at their feet. The rest of the girls are sitting on stools, nattering at unintelligible speed whilst stuffing their faces with cheesy puffs.

  When I clear my throat the gang pause at the exact same moment and spin their heads, yelling: 'ARTURO!' in joyous tones. Upon hearing that word I feel a warm tear well in the corner of my eye. I resist the urge to wipe it away as smiles light every one of their too often unaffected mugs. Emmi crushes my ribcage with a bear-hug and I am once again reminded I really do have that most valuable of commodities - a family.

  'Hi sis, I hope you've behaved while I've been gone.'

  'Shut up, Arturo, I'll decide how I behave, not some prison escaper.' Emmi slaps my chest pathetically, asking: 'So why did they send you to prison?'

  'First of all, it's escapee. We're seriously gonna have to work on your vocabulary now that I'm free. The STG thought we kidnapped someone because we had their Citicards and they ensnared me with a glue gun, could've happened to anyone.'

  'It's hard to decide whether you're a criminal or a supernerd! You better tell me exactly what happened.'

  'Well I was fighting a leopard when they rescued me and I was immediately arrested. In prison I shared a cell with Sydney Anguson! I helped test his racing pod.'

  'That's not fair. How come you always get to do the fun stuff?!'

  'Fun!? I spent months in a filthy mine pit being fed gruel. Thought I'd never see you again... Oh and what the hell is that thing in your nose?'

  'My piercing, it looks cool doesn't it? I knew we'd get you back.' Emmi grins as nostril shrapnel catches light.

  Amidst the clamour there is one individual who seems indifferent to my return to slum-dwelling life as he gawps at the most unlikely of my rescuers. Oscar tiptoes over to a blushing Dynah, whispering: 'I'm glad you made it back safely,' as though it was the supergirl who almost got eaten by a leopard and spent forever in prison. The pair sit down together, arousing suspicion the stammerer may have at last made some progress into the mysterious world of females.

  Flopping onto torn leather I recline in my favourite seat, encircled by an audience who fill the couches, but my relaxation is short-lived as a frightful racket loudens. Shaggy-haired and sweating, Scoop approaches strumming a crummy guitar with all the wildness of a rockstar but none of the flair. The gang wince in response and Emmi uses her hands to protect her ears from this musical assault.

  'What the hell are you doing with that thing? My bones are still reverberating!'

  'You like it, Arturo? I found it at the ssthcrapyard. It has a broken ssthtring but it still works. I'm gonna form my own band!' Scoop proudly announces.

  'Please do us all a favour and commence your road to stardom in a sound-proof room, for everybody's sake!' I laugh as Scoop hides the guitar behind his legs with unexpected submissiveness. 'So, you guys have been okay in my absence?'

  'Well Turbo's helped out a bit, bought us some food and stuff. Not that we needed any help. The other night I scored twenty credits - rolled some lad's pocket while he was sleeping.' Sylvie smirks.

  'You thieving little shit! Poor lad probably didn't eat for days,' I reply.

  'Don't make me feel guilty, it was better him than me,' Sylvie says as her smirk fades.

  'Well at least your faces look a little fatter.'

  'I hope you're joking. What's Danny gonna think? That's it, I'm not eating a thing tomorrow!' Sylvie places hands over rodent cheeks.

  'Who the hell's Danny?'

  'He's my new boyfriend, he's mental. He's always doing these really mad th-'

  'Well he sounds like an idiot, dump him. You're too good for the divvies round here.'

  'Who do you expect me to go out with, a Citizen?'

  'So did you... er, I know you might not wanna talk about prison, but was that stuff you said about Anguson true? Lel asks.

  'Like I said, I helped him test out the race pod. Not that it was all fun and games. Twelve hours a day down the mine decimates any sense of self-worth. The work camp is the most degrading place you can imagine.'

  'Ah I don't... Er, what was the racing pod like?' Lel asks.

  'Well it was amazing, I suppose. Very fast and surprisingly easy to pilot. I dunno but... er it's difficult to explain. When you're in that place you sort of become numb. I mean I enjoyed it, but not like I thought I would.'

  'Oh. Nothing bad happened to you inside, did it? Emmi asks.

  'Thankfully no. Other than the occasional baton blow the screws left me alone. And the cons were too exhausted to even think about giving anyone a hard time. There was plenty of bravado, but they looked scarier than they were. The worst thing about that place is the place itself and the fact you can't just get up and walk out. They control when you eat, sleep, wash and you are given no choice but to work, no matter how tired you are. The aches and pains were constant.'

  My hero-status is discomfiting as hours pass and I give carefully considered answers to my inquisitors who seem eager to speak, yet instantly hesitant as the words leave their mouths; all of them wary my ordeal has triggered a heart-hardening metamorphosis. And I am unsure if it is only their perception which has altered. Despite their embrace of the familiar outsider it seems my unchosen sabbatical was as protracted from their perspective as from mine.

  In a world where you only live for the moment a few months is a lifetime and I thought lack of common-sense would be their undoing. So it is a relief to see the boneheads were self-sufficient enough to move on, even if they were dumb enough to leave the door unlocked.

  'Arturo, it's your first night home. Do us a favour and smile! And tell us all about your adventures, none of the depressing stuff either.' Lel's big grin eases the tension in the room.

  'Well I had quite a reputation in the workcamp when they heard about the leopard fight. Anguson says I'm his hero! The man I work for, a local drug lord by the name of Jardine, decided I was too valuable to be locked up so he came to my rescue. Of course Ivor, Smig and Dynah played their part, they proved to be one hell of a fighting force. Jardine took us into the mountains to hide until everything died down and he spent the time training us in hand to hand and armed combat.'

  'Did you get to keep one of the gunssth?' Scoop asks excitedly.

  'Nah, why would I wanna do that when I live around you lot? You're an accident waiting to happen! I do have access to them any time I want though.'

  'Whoa, so you're like a gangster now?' Sylvie asks.

  'I'm a well-paid professional with skills which are highly sought after!'

  'Arturo, I was more skilled than you. Jardine said so. You missed every target you shot at!'

  'Mila, I put my skills into action when it mattered. Remember who brought down the stag? You just killed a few silly birds and squirrels. We couldn't even eat them, it was mindless carnage!'

  'Hmmm, what's more difficult to shoot - a bird or a stag?'

  Scoop sneaks away from my disputed proclamations of expertise, soon emerging from the backroom with a couple of green bottles and he generously hands me one. Breaking the seal I take my first sip and fizziness filters through my constitution, happily undoing the gains of my training regime as I laze in my throne. I did not realise how attached I had become to this wretched palace - I have missed home.

  'Hey Arturo, when you were gone Mila bought a load of ssthcider. We've still got about a hundred bottlesth in the van!' Scoop advises. />
  'It's good to see your guys have your priorities in order!'

  'So Arturo, what you gonna spend that money on? You should get a Delos Pod.' Killow sits upright mid-suggestion.

  'Hell yeah, that woul-'

  'Well my money was taken when I was arrested so I don't have as much now, but Mila on the other hand... Hey where you sneaking off to?!' I ask as my fellow fugitive climbs from her seat and tiptoes towards the stairwell.

  'She says she's spent it all taking care of us,' Emmi explains.

  'Yeah right, I can't believe you fell for that. Ah, I just remembered there's someone I need to contact,' I say and with memories of Sky City replaying in my mind I climb from my recliner to approach the compuscreen. The girls natter like they have already forgotten I exist as I log into my email account, splashing cider onto the keyboard. There is a message from Vytali:

  Sorry to hear about your mother, mate. Here's me thinking you were too chicken to fulfil our agreement! Msg me if you're still up for it when you return to Sky City.

  I send a reply:

  Hey Vytali. How you doing? It's been a long time, but I'm back in the city now and with student life being so lame I'm planning an adventure in the slums. I need someone who's dumb enough to join me! Let me know if you're feeling brave.

  Emmi and Scoop pull stools up at the compuscreen as I traverse the web, musing over images of disintegrating temples over-whelmed by plant life, which are pleading to be explored. The annotation states that mysterious underground chambers are haunted by citizens of a fallen kingdom who wail at the feet of toppled statues of gods who abandoned them.

  'This place looks seriously creepy, tell me what it says,' Emmi demands.

  'Well to sum it up there's about two thousand Ankan ruins in Anatolia. They had a civilisation which lasted two thousand five hundred years until Nyberun settlers wiped them out. Charwood Forest is one of the best places to see them. There are dozens of sites which have been neglected and forgotten about,' I advise.

  'Isn't that forest over-run with mutants?' Emmi asks.

  'All forests have one or two mutants, they're just animals! Anyway technically they're not mutants, they're genetically engineered hybrids. Apparently the reason nobody bothers with these places is because some of them are used as criminal hideouts and some are even booby trapped!'

  'Whoa awesthome, they might contain loot. We should go and ssthee what we can find!' Scoop suggests.

  'No way, it sounds far too dangerous!' Emmi replies.

  'You're not too chicken are ya?' I ask.

  An Unusual Day Trip

  Close to midday we pack provisions and clamber into the van which is stocked with bottles of Spectral Cider to satiate our compulsion for waywardness. Mila brings a virtually mute, tomboyish friend called Cari along for the ride, who no-one else seems to like and Killow attempts to drive but stalls at the first attempt. Heading off, we firstly drop Dynah at the jungle hideout at her insistence, leaving the girls and Oscar feeling miffed.

  'Are you sure you don't wanna come with us? It won't be any fun without your superpowers to annoy the boys!' Sylvie asks.

  'I'm sure you guys will have fun without me. Goodbye.' Dynah smiles back from the fringe of trees.

  'Who's gonna protect us from the wild animals now?' Sylvie closes the van door.

  'Ahem, you do realise you're in the presence of a trained hunter?'

  'Oh, whatever Arturo.' Mila jealously flicks her eyes.

  Our journey is spent singing songs and inputting rude words when we do not know the lyrics as we head southwest to an unusual sub-climate in the highlands. After driving for a couple of hours, we arrive at an oasis where glorious sunshine penetrates shadowy woodland which resembles a scene from a fairy tale. Dandelions float in the breeze and a lizard glides from bluish leaves to snatch a dragonfly as I jump out of the van. The door slides open and the gang climb out to sit on a lumpy patch of grass where we sip battery acid and eat pasties.

  'What was that?' Bex removes the bottle from her lips as a howl echoes through the hills of this remote wilderness.

  'Probably just wolves,' I mumble.

  'That's it, I'm getting in the van!' Bex shrieks.

  'Stop being a girl! Everyone knows wolves don't eat people,' Killow insists.

  'I don't think that's true, Killow, I'm pretty sure humans are on the menu,' Mila replies.

  'Okay, the ruins tend to be near water. Let's look out for a river or stream, follow it and see what we find. Apparently they're everywhere, hidden amongst the trees,' I advise.

  'So what do you plan on doing if those wolves chase us, Arturo?' Mila booms.

  'Don't worry I can handle it. I took down a full grown stag, remember?'

  'That was when you had a weapon. We're unarmed, you tool!' Mila's chin shakes as she bites her lip.

  'Look, the important thing is that we stick together and show no fear. No animal will attack a group of people unless someone tries to run.'

  'Arturo, you better know what you're doing.' Mila sighs.

  'Hey any animal that takes one look at you or Bex is likely to run a mile!'

  Laughter roars from boys' mouths but frowning girls suffer from a humour-outage and turn away to natter amongst themselves in some foreign language. Tipsiness makes my legs restless so I chuck the empty bottle over my shoulder and march back and forth until the others finish. We did not travel to the forest of ruins to drink cider in a glade and bickering is getting tedious.

  'We've been sitting here for ages and I don't think I can bear listening to whining lasses a second longer! Let's go and explore,' Killow insists.

  'Why can't we just stay here? We'll be eaten if we go in there!' Sylvie protests.

  'We could be eaten if we sit here! Come on.' Killow stands on fidgety legs and one by one the others follow the midget's lead.

  Sylvie pouts as we lock the van to protect our precious cargo and she unwillingly tags along with our band of cider-swilling swashbucklers. As we leave the glade redoia branches consume the tainted sky, forming a dense canopy from which falling leaves drift in and out of light shafts. Bulbous pumpine palms wrestle colossal toadstools on a carpet of pink and green weeds and spiked vines hiss as they slither up tree trunks. A furry creature with glowing baubles dangling from its forehead is identified as a gremol by a quick search on my holowatch.

  'Wow that thing is freaky, even for a mutant,' Bex mumbles as the gremol's bioluminescence deactivates.

  'So Cari, I don't think I've heard you say a word yet. Where you from?' I decide to put the new girl at ease because I am nice like that.

  'Um... Howdon,' Cari mumbles and her eyeballs inflate like the question was impolite.

  'Sounds like you had to think about that. So anyway do you have parents? Brothers? Sisters? You still go to school?' I ask.

  'Um... Yeah.'

  'Yeah to which?'

  'All of them.'

  'You're doing okay then? So what you doing hanging round with us scumbags?'

  'I like Mila,' Cari whispers, staring at scuffed shoes.

  'Whoa the way you said that, it sounded like you like her! You do realise she's not that way inclined, I mean I don't want to dash-'

  'Arturo, shut up you dick. She's my friend,' Mila snaps.

  'Hey I'm just trying to be friendly. Sorry I spoke!'

  Sealing my lips I track our path with my holowatch satnav and we trek towards a blossoming of colour which is no doubt beckoning us to prized artifacts. Trembling bushes elicit nervous murmurs as we venture where humans no longer belong, keyed up by a nature indifferent to our discomfort. The suspense is broken by squealing as Oscar seizes a spider with sizable fangs, which was nestled between thorns. He holds out the squirming arthropod for the aghast girls, and Scoop to recoil from.

  'The r-rose haired tarantula, it's not dangerous.' Oscar grins.

  'Urgh, put it down!' Sylvie shrieks, her face contorted with disgust.

  'If you track your grandparents back a few hundred million years, y
ou two share a common ancestor. You're cousins!' I explain.

  'There is no way that is true.'

  'So because you don't like the sound of something, you're prepared to ignore the evidence? Can you not see the family resemblance?' I receive a glare from every one of the girls as the boys snigger.

  Squinting eyes adjust to the increase in light intensity as the canopy opens to unveil a crocus-lined rapid, breached by polished rocks. A slug stares with marble-sized stalk eyes, before seeking refuge under wild flowers. We squelch along the muddy banks of the tributary to a stone bridge which is ravaged by over-zealous roots but somehow still standing. There is a crumbling sound as we hurry across and my sister is the last to leap to safety as large stones tumble into the water.

  On the far side the forest is ever more gnarled, but I glimpse our hidden goal. We take the least troublesome path towards remnants of a mysterious city guarded by branches ready to spear us on approach. A row of battlements lead my gaze to a wall demolished by a fallen redoia, exposing a broken upper floor and castle tower swathed in leaves.

  'Can you see that? Time to explore,' I bellow and we squeeze through buttress roots spreading over the arching entrance, then wade through weeds which fill the keep like an overgrown garden. The boys bound up a crumbling spiral staircase and leap a large gap by propelling from a broken step barely wide enough to place one foot.

  Bex and Mila follow suit, but the other girls take an exhausting amount of persuasion and when an unfamiliar noise prompts them into action they discover the jump is easier than they expected. Landing one by one the girls' nervous frowns transform into proud grins and we continue upstairs, emerging on the partially intact upper floor.

  A pair of walaboons perch on ivy-covered battlements and Mila reaches between drooping leaves to grab a yellow fruit with green bumps, which she offers to the arboreal creatures. She turns her scrunched face, squeaking as a walaboon bounces over to snatch fruit and takes a bite, revealing sharp canines between its wrinkled nose and wispy beard.