by Jakob Tanner
The girl grabbed Max in a tight embrace.
“Max,” she sobbed. “I thought you were dead.”
She cried into his chest for a moment and then pulled away.
“Wait...” she said. “You’re standing up. You’re walking. What happened?”
Max told her the story as quickly as he could.
“Listen, I don’t have much time left before I have to go back,” he said. “We won’t be seeing each other again after this. So I wanted to say goodbye. I don’t think I would’ve been able to get through all these years with Mr. Grimes without you.”
Sarah sniffled. “Me too. What will I do here without you? Who will protect me from him?”
“I made sure he won’t harm anyone in here ever again,” Max said. He handed the flash drive over to her. “If he even thinks about it—which I highly doubt he will after my talk with him—you just let him know you have one of these flash drives and know how to contact me.”
“How will I contact you?”
“Right now,” said Max. “I’m not sure. The city has it pretty well set up that people in the tower-zone can’t communicate with those in the outer-rim and vice versa, but I’ll figure out a way. What I need you to do is promise me, you’ll look after everyone.”
She nodded her head, determinedly.
“I’m sad to say goodbye,” she said, her eyes tearing up again. “But I’m glad you’re one step closer to achieving your dream.”
“Thanks,” Max smiled. “And hey—I think I helped you get one step closer to yours as well. I have a pretty good feeling the Mr. Grimes we grew up with is no more.”
They hugged each other again and said goodbye for the final time.
Max hurried out the door and through the streets of the outer-rim.
He only had fifteen minutes left to get back to the secret tower-zone entrance Sakura had brought him to.
He picked up the pace as he walked through the city he once called home.
This was the last time he’d come here, he thought.
He wasn’t going to miss it.
The tower at the center of the city loomed large in the night sky.
It felt as if he was walking determinedly towards it.
A shadow flickered at his side.
The glint of steel emerged out of nowhere.
Max grabbed hold of the attacker’s arm.
“Agh,” screamed the attacker.
His face appeared beneath the streetlight.
It was Seth.
So the bully spent his free time mugging people in the streets, too, huh?
He had always wondered why Seth picked on him so much. What had he ever done? It was finally crystal clear to him. He picked on those weaker than him so he could feel strong. Stroke his demented ego. That was the reason. Simple as that.
Max wished he still had that powerful punch ability from the minotaur.
“Maxie—” Seth shivered recognizing him in shock.
Max twisted Seth’s arm and kneed him as hard as he could in the gut.
The boy collapsed to the ground.
He kicked him again in the stomach, just to make sure the bully didn’t run after him to get some kind of revenge.
He looked down at Seth, groaning in pain.
In a little over twenty-four hours, the tables had turned.
Landing a good kick into Seth was a fitting conclusion to his life in the outer-rim.
He was a citizen of the tower-zone now.
Samuel Archer stood at the window of his penthouse home in the tower-zone.
His view looked over the whole city. The tower, the tower-zone, and even beyond the wall into the outer-rim.
The sounds of rattling chains echoed behind him, followed by the groans of several monsters.
“Settle down, my pets,” said the man. “I’ll feed you soon enough.”
He was waiting for someone. He didn’t like to be kept waiting.
Then a shadowy figure emerged on his balcony.
Samuel took a step outside onto his penthouse balcony, closing the door behind him.
“Have you found anything out about the newest citizen?”
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to gather much, sir,” said the shadowy figure, perched on the very edge of the balcony.
“Do I pay you for no results?”
The figure noticeably shuddered. He was well aware of the type of pain Samuel Archer could inflict on him.
“He was illegally thrown in yesterday. It looks like the climber president and Sakura The Golden Blade are going to let him stay.”
“What is his trait? Does he have one?”
“The Golden Blade destroyed the analyst’s file,” said the shadowy figure. “It will take a bit more work to find out what it is.”
“It must be a powerful trait then,” sighed Samuel. “Sakura wouldn’t go so far as to destroy the analyst’s documents if it were anything else. He must have an uncommon or rare trait then.”
“Do you think his presence will effect our plans?” asked the shadowy figure.
“A puny boy from the outer-rim?” scoffed Samuel. “I doubt he’ll amount to anything, but it is good to be cautious. Keep a close eye on him. If he ends up in our way, we’ll simply remove him.”
11
“Well, I guess you’ll be crashing here tonight,” said Sakura, opening the door to her apartment.
She flipped on the light switch and Max gaped at the messy living room in front of him.
Potato chip bags and instant noodle cups littered the floor, alongside cans of beer.
Sakura looked around her apartment and laughed. “Sorry—I wasn’t expecting any visitors.”
“Oh really? I couldn’t tell,” said Max, trying to be polite but worried he was coming across as sarcastic.
He was surprised by how messy it all was. Sakura was such a powerful fighter and seemed to take her job as a defense climber seriously that he was expecting her apartment to be cleaner.
The woman waltzed in and threw her leather jacket on the floor. She headed to her refrigerator and grabbed a can of beer.
“Help yourself to whatever you’d like,” she said. “What’s mine is yours.”
Max stepped into the apartment, peering around. It was a very large apartment and Max could see that if it were clean, it might actually be quite impressive and maybe even swanky-looking. Beyond the messiness was a tall bookshelf full of paperback novels with cheesy titles like Lovers First, Climbers Second and Love Has No Walls.
He pulled the book out from the shelf.
Sakura’s eyes lit up. “Are you a fan? That one’s my favorite. I love how you think the couple might not end up together, but then they do. So sweet!”
Max laughed and put the book back on the shelf. “I haven’t read it but maybe I’ll give it a try later.
Sakura cracked open her beer and took a long swig and then sighed.
“I’d love to write a book like that one day,” she said, clasping her hands together like an adoring teenaged girl at a boy band concert. “One about star-crossed lovers who battle the odds and end up together in the end.”
She sighed once more as her fantasy floated away from her. “But that will have to wait until I retire from being a climber. As much as it would be nice to pursue, I have the ability to protect others, so I must honor and respect that power.”
Max nodded his head. He got the distinct feeling Sakura may have been speaking more to herself than to him, but he wasn’t going to say anything.
The woman plopped down on her couch and turned to him.
“So,” she said. “I’m realizing I’m doing a terrible job at hosting. Are you hungry? I don’t have much beyond instant noodles. They’re in the cupboard over there.”
Max stepped over the dirty carpet to the small kitchen area. He opened up the cupboards to find an impressive array of Styrofoam instant noodle cups, but not much else.
There was a pack of bacon in the freezer and some leftover eggs in the fridge.<
br />
I can work with this, Max thought to himself.
He turned back to Sakura. “Thank you for letting me stay with you. Let me cook us some dinner.”
Fifteen minutes later, he placed a bowl of fried bacon and egg ramen in front of Sakura.
Her eyes widened at the sight of the bowl.
“Amazing,” she said. “You’ll impress a lucky lady one day with such culinary prowess.”
Max nodded awkwardly. He was no romantic expert in any way whatsoever, but he had a pretty strong inclination that instant noodles poured over sizzling bacon and eggs was not the meal to a lady’s heart.
Sakura scarfed down her whole bowl in less than a minute.
“Dee-licious!”
She burped and fell back on the couch and placed her hand on her stomach.
Despite her being quite older than him, Max had no problem admitting Sakura was a very attractive woman. That is, until he stepped into her apartment and met this other Sakura.
“Let’s make a deal,” said Sakura. “You can stay here in my extra bedroom for as long as you want. I won’t take any rent from you, but here are my conditions: you’ll keep this place tidy, cook dinner, and—this is the most important part—three of those meals must be bacon and egg ramen.”
She stared him dead in the eyes. “Do we have a deal?”
Her zealous love for bacon and egg ramen kind of freaked Max out a little, but her offer was more than fair. He was quick to nod in agreement.
“Amazing,” said Sakura. “My new teenaged roommate. Makes me feel young again.”
She leaned back on the couch and continued talking.
“So, Max,” she said, “What exactly is your plan then? You’ve entered a whole new place. You can’t go back to where you came from. What’s your next step?”
Max didn’t hesitate.
“To climb the tower and find my sister!” he declared.
He may have been shyer to share that goal in the past, but he was in the tower-zone now. He could walk. He had a powerful ability. He could pursue his goal full steam ahead and that’s exactly what he would do.
Sakura laughed. “Slow down there, mister. You’re far off from entering the tower. You’re not even an official climber yet.”
Max’s shoulders slumped. “I’m not?”
“No,” said Sakura. “To become a climber you need to complete one term—that’s two semesters—at the climber academy. Then you’ll be officially a climber, at which point, you’ll have to choose which type of climber you want to be.”
“I thought all climbers were the same,” said Max.
“Wrong again,” said Sakura, shaking her head. “In the tower-zone, climbers are divided into five sub-groups: tower climbers, defense climbers, healer climbers, police climbers, and city climbers.”
“It’s pretty obvious from their names,” Sakura continued. “But I’ll outline them for you. Tower climbers explore and complete missions within the tower. Defense climbers focus primarily on defending the city from the monster waves. Police climbers focus on anything the regular tower-zone police can’t handle, including rogue climbers. Healer climbers focus on healing the citizens of the tower-zone, citizens and climbers alike. And, lastly, city climbers deal with important climber infrastructure within the tower-zone.”
“So I guess I want to be a tower climber then,” said Max.
“Correct,” said Sakura. “Which also happens to be the most difficult climber branch to qualify for. You’ll have to graduate in the top-tier of your class to be able to register as a tower climber.”
Max sighed. Only moments ago, his goal of exploring the tower and seeing his sister again felt within reach. Now it felt just as far away as ever.
Sakura stood up and petted Max’s hair affectionately.
“Don’t look so glum, mister,” she said. “We’re taking it one step at a time. Right now we’re going to go to bed. Your room is over there. And tomorrow I’ll show you the climber academy and get you signed up. Sound good?”
Max nodded excitedly.
Tomorrow he was going to take his first step towards becoming a tower climber.
12
Max woke up to the sound of voices.
For a second, he thought he heard Mr. Grimes speaking to the other orphans, but then he remembered he hadn’t slept at the group home last night. In fact, he was never going to sleep there again.
“C’mon in,” said Sakura. “If you see a dopey ginger kid walking around, don’t mind him.”
We had visitors?
Sakura hadn’t mentioned anything about guests coming in the morning.
Max rubbed his eyes and took in the apartment.
Sun was shining through the windows and Sakura was leading a man with a yellow hard hat over to the windows.
The man double-tapped his fingers against the glass, then held his two fingers against the window and turned them like he was turning the lock of a safe.
A blue arcane rune appeared suddenly on the window.
“Ah,” said the man. “Looking good here.”
He tapped the window and the rune disappeared.
“All good, Ms. Sato,” said the man, heading towards the door. “See you next month.”
Max looked back and forth to the now empty doorway and Sakura.
“What the heck was that about?”
Sakura laughed. “Wow—you don’t think about all the little things that must be different over beyond the wall in the outer-rim. Having some culture shock, are you?”
Max scratched the back of his head. “Maybe...”
It was hard to describe what he was feeling. Waking up on the couch, forgetting where he had slept had made him feel—if only briefly—oppressively alone. Homesick, maybe.
But could he really be homesick for Mr. Grimes’ group home?
Perhaps it was the sense of unknown versus the comfort of routine. Even if that routine was terrible.
“Why the long face, mister?” said Sakura with her hands on her hips. “We got a big day today. So get dressed and let’s get going.”
They picked up coffee and croissants at a small café on the street below and started walking towards the center of the city.
As they walked, Sakura explained the odd visit from the man with the hard hat.
“So that man works for the city climbers,” said Sakura. “Once a month, after every monster wave, a team of inspectors, such as that man you saw today, is sent out across the city to check and make sure all the defensive runes are still working.”
“Oh neat,” said Max, munching on his croissant eagerly.
“That’s why it was so surprising when I saw you in the battle with the minotaur,” explained Sakura. “Those runes are very powerful. People can’t exit or leave them once they’re turned on for the monster wave. Since so much of the city’s infrastructure is prepared for those attacks, it’s weird when something so inconsistent happens.”
“What other jobs can people have in the tower-zone?” asked Max, swallowing the last of his croissant.
“All sorts,” said Sakura. “Just like in the outer-rim. A city needs doctors, firemen, policemen, janitors, garbage men, cooks, and the list goes on. Some of those jobs here in the tower-zone are aided by the use of climber technology or climber magic themselves.”
Max had always thought every single citizen of the tower-zone was a climber, but that was clearly proving not to be the case.
“But why would people who aren’t climbers agree to stay in the tower-zone restricted to one place?”
Sakura sighed. “There are few troublemaker politicians who try to stir up that line of thinking. There are methods to obtain a visa to leave, though it’s not done that often.”
Max remembered hearing rumors about a man who had worked at his high school supposedly being a former tower-zone citizen. Kids would get him to try and divulge secrets of the mysterious other city, but he wouldn’t budge. It was illegal for tower-zone immigrants to speak about the tower-zone in th
e outer-rim. It was part of the contract in obtaining their visa. To do so was punishable by lethal injection.
“But why? If you weren’t able to climb, wouldn’t you want to leave the tower-zone? Leave Zestiris altogether,” said Max, beginning to daydream. “Go surfing in California. Eat deep-dish pizza in Chicago.”
Sakura looked at Max, funnily. “Surfing? Deep-dish pizza?”
“What—you don’t know about—”
Max stopped.
Of course, she didn’t. Just as certain information wasn’t talked about in the outer-rim, so too, were things about the rest of world kept from those in the tower-zone.
Max wondered who controlled and managed all the knowledge flowing in and out of Zestiris, but figured it was a question to save for another day.
“There’s a lot of good reasons to live in the tower-zone if you’re not a climber,” said Sakura. “Less than 5% of Zestiris’ population of five million become climbers. For the rest of the population, though, there are still climber-adjacent professions that attract those who can’t unlock a profile or trait. Scholars, archaeologists, and manatechnologists just to name a few. Then there’s the access to healing. Tell me, Max. What would’ve happened to your legs in an outer-rim hospital after the fight with the minotaur?”
Max let out a long sigh. “Nothing good. Certainly it wouldn’t have ended with me walking as if I was never once in a wheelchair.”
“Exactly,” said Sakura. “That’s a pretty attractive premium for a lot of people. The life expectancy in the tower-zone is surprisingly quite high for a place that deals with monster attack waves once a month.”
They eventually stopped in front of a tall glass building.
The place looked like an ordinary office building with people with briefcases walking in and out of the spinning glass doors.
“Welcome to the climber’s guild!” said Sakura, excitedly.
Max looked around cautiously. A few groups of people loitered outside, smoking cigarettes. They all had metal badges pinned to their shirts and jackets. The pins were mostly copper with the odd silver glimmering here and there.
Max had already figured out that those colors and the letters engraved on them signified their rank. It was interesting that so far he hadn’t seen anyone with the ruby-colored badge that Sakura wore.