The Engine What Runs the World

by Quinn Buckland

  “After a while I was permitted to take deliveries to the other floors. Plain and simple, I was a narc - a person who delivered drugs to suppliers on other floors. I was good at what I did as well. I had movement permissions from the Worms as well as an open invite to the sixth below. I even befriended a few of the Nagara. After a while though I wanted to sample what I was delivering to everyone and most were more than willing to share at least a little of their shipment. It was a steady decline from there. I wanted to use all the time. It wasn’t until I made my way to the third below on a high that I found her. I still remember how she looked that day - her red hair flowing behind her as she ran to me, the voice of an angel telling me to get through it, and her skin. It was the softest I’d ever touched.

  I was a mess; anyone with any sense would have walked away and allowed me to die. Instead she brought me in. She took care of me as I fought the addiction, through the sickness, mood swings and cold sweats, nights when I didn’t sleep - even through the violent outbursts. She stuck by me. Once I was clean she invited me to stay with her and I accepted. I don’t know what she saw in me, but from then on, I dedicated myself to her.

  I stayed with her for a long time before my father came for me and dragged me back to the fourth below. I couldn’t have been more than eighteen when I met Glass. She was beautiful. The most beautiful angel I’d ever seen in my life. I’ve still yet to see someone who strikes me in the same way. I owe my life to that woman. Through the years we’ve entertained the ideas of her coming to the fourth below or my staying in the third below. She didn’t want to leave her job and by the time I left the fourth below I wanted to put as much distance between my father and myself as possible. Last time I saw her I made the plan to stay with her for good. I wouldn’t need to work after the reward so I left to find you and here we are.”

  Blue placed her hand on Smoke’s arm, “I’m so sorry Smoke.”

  Smoke looked to Blue. She had tears in her eyes. “It’s not your fault,” Smoke said reassuringly, “It’s the people from the engine who did this. It’s them who I’ll be hunting for the rest of my life. I will be doing everything in my power to bring them down. So don’t you worry, this is not your fault. Had I chose to stay in the third below I have no doubt in my mind they would have abducted me all the same and captured her. The outcome would have been the same no matter what choice I had made.”

  Blue nodded as tears welled in her eyes. “How are you going to do it?” she asked after a moment of silence.

  “I don’t know,” Smoke said, “But I have a very good idea as to where to start.”

  21

  Constance had been gone for twelve hours before the soldiers had begun filling the steam-powered lift and entering the tower. Cobble couldn’t have been more proud of her. During her time in the underground and as a part of the rebellion against the towers he found himself feeling an attraction towards her. He could tell she was beginning to feel the same way. The feelings had to remain in the back of his mind until the end of the rebellion however.

  He had spoken with Homer and Blaze a couple times since Constance had left in hopes they’d find a way to get the boomers down to the ninth below. They had decided that they’d send a handful of men to make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good. It would be strictly voluntary. Cobble even agreed to volunteer if they didn’t find enough people provided Homer and Blaze accompanied him. No leader would be left behind. Before leaving he had planned on leaving Constance in charge again.

  The biggest problem in their way was finding enough rope to find their way back down to the first below. The lift drivers had sent the lifts down so Smoke and his lift driver friend could make it back to the surface. By this time it had been entirely obvious that Smoke was dead. That was a pity. He had liked Smoke in his younger days. Though being a man full of ambition he knew Smoke would be a great leader and have Cobble as his second in command.

  Once Smoke left, he had lost all the respect he had garnered for his friend over the years. He wanted nothing more than to see Smoke dead. He harboured that hatred for over a decade. Then Smoke returned, not as an attempt to reclaim his throne, but to pass through. If Cobble could have had his way he’d have let Smoke go and that would have been the end of it. Smoke wanted nothing to do with the fourth below. But Thomas had to go and fuck everything up. He had to capture Smoke and try to reconnect. He had to give Smoke a job and try to bring him back into the fold. Metal Jaw would have done his damndest to obey, but Cobble would have had to do something about it. Had Smoke teamed back up with his father he’d have convinced Smoke to leave and remind him as to why he left in the first place. Not optimal, but manageable.

  Cobble never expected Smoke to stab his own father and claim the throne for himself. It really was nothing more than a get-out-of-the-fourth-below tactic. A clever one, but a move that could have very well gotten himself and Constance killed. Instead he became the leader and soon left again. Now that Smoke was surely dead Cobble couldn’t help but hate the man again. His job had cut the rebellion off from where they needed to go.

  “Sir!” the messenger boy said. Cobble believed his name to be Tide.

  “Yes?” Cobble said as kindly as he could. The boy was nothing more than a messenger, no reason to be nasty to him.

  “I was sent by Homer, he says he’s got something you really need to see.”

  Cobble cocked his head to the side, “What is it?”

  Tide shook his head, “I don’t know sir, all Homer said was that you had to come see. You wouldn’t believe it otherwise.”

  “Where is he?” Cobble asked.

  “He’s by the lift sir,” Tide said before walking away.

  Cobble shrugged and began walking towards the lift. People avoided the lift as best they could. It reminded them of their oppression and the days without sunlight. He thought to when they had first emerged from the underground. Everyone became afraid of the openness and began running for whatever shelter they could find. The openness of the surface didn’t bother Cobble, what he had difficulty with was how high the sky was. He looked all the way up and he still couldn’t see a ceiling. A few white puffy clouds hung in the air that could have been the remnant of what had once been a ceiling. A thought he had kept to himself. A thought he’d soon learned was very wrong.

  Homer had been standing by the lift as Tide had said. The Worm leader stood with a massive grin on his face. “What’s going on,” Cobble asked.

  “Look,” Homer said with excitement, “The lift is coming up. Someone was still down there and they are making their way back.”

  “Do you think it’s…?”

  “It could very well be Callahan,” Homer said with less amusement. “Honestly, I hope it is. We could ask what took him so long. I don’t think he’d have wanted to stick around too long once he found the seventh below and lower had all been evacuated.”

  “We gave him a lot of time to search as much as he could. If the girl he’s looking for is down there he’d have found her long before now. I don’t know what took him so long, but we will certainly find out.”

  “Do you think he’ll talk?”

  “I know he will,” Cobble said with a grin.

  He looked down the hole and to his surprise he could see Smoke, a lift driver and a young girl siting on the platform. “Callahan!” he called down.

  He could see Smoke look up, “Cobble? Is that you?”

  “Goddamn right it is!” he called back. “Get your ass up here, what took you so long?”

  “I’ll explain once I’ve gotten a good meal and a drink for myself and my friends here.”

  Cobble nodded, “Sounds fair to me.” As Smoke emerged he saw the two women he’d traveled with. The lift driver was a muscular woman with long curled black hair and dark skin. The young girl had been the girl from Smoke’s photo. Blue, if he recalled correctly.

  “You have no idea how good it is to feel fresh air right now,” Smoke said with a grin.

  Smoke began to walk
away from Cobble towards the town. He was walking funny; in fact all his movements seemed to be off. “You alright?” Cobble asked.

  “I have one hell of a story to tell you. I just need to eat first. So does Blue and Penelope. Take us to the town and we will regale you with our stories. They need to be heard.”

  Something in Smoke’s voice caused Cobble to shudder. It was cold and unfeeling, the voice of a man who had taken a walk through Hell and lived to see the other side. He followed behind Smoke along with Homer.

  He’d have tried to bring Blaze along as well, but truth be told he didn’t know where the Nagara had gone. Not long after emerging, the Nagara had done what they needed before disappearing completely. Cobble believed them to be at the borders taking messages and sending some back, Cobble didn’t have the time, the resources or the caring to find out. The Nagara had a desire for power and to be seen as superior, provided there was no real danger for them. They took in slaves and sold what they could. They had no interest in being a part of a collective; they wanted to be important. Receiving and sending messages was an important job. That is, if they were doing that at all.

  The town was filled with people from the underground. Many were busy building shelters from baked clay to hide away from the weather that plagued them every night. People helped each other in the building and in a short time the town had grown to triple the size. Several shops had been built, a church had been erected as well as another blacksmith and other gardening projects that would exponentially grow the amount of food the town could produce.

  When Cobble opened the doors to the tavern everyone stopped and cleared a table for him and placed enough chairs for those following him. The barkeep immediately began pouring ale into large mugs. “You’ve certainly made a name for yourself,” Smoke said.

  He wasn’t sure if it had been intended as a compliment or an offhanded remark. He chose to take it as a compliment. “People appreciate a person willing to take charge and tear down the tower that has repressed them for so long. Imagine what we could do with the skins.”

  “Yeah about that,” Smoke said angrily. “Why was I left in the dark about the revolution?”

  “Because I know you,” Cobble said nervously. “Your reaction literally could have gone either way, especially with the job you have and the number of skins you had to lose if we succeeded. You may have wanted to preserve the tower, considering you’d be eligible to live in the towers. Plus with your abilities you’d have the means of doing just that.”

  “I only wanted one thing with my reward money,” Smoke said. “I wanted to get a small plot of land for Glass and me to live. We could have lived in peace and done as we wished.”

  “Where is Glass?” Cobble asked. “I haven’t seen her since the first below.”

  Smoke hung his head. Cobble could see the pain in his face and he didn’t need to say another word.

  The barmaid placed the mugs of ale in front of everyone and walked away. Cobble, Homer, Smoke and the lift driver all took a drink. The young girl didn’t seem to be interested in the drink until the lift driver nodded to give her the go ahead. Blue took a drink, made an odd face and took another sip. She’d get used to the taste in time. When Smoke brought the mug down he said, “Alright, so you two know what happened after I left the fifth below, probably even the sixth below. That said, I’ll start my story at the seventh and go from there.”

  The tale Smoke began to tell seemed standard, him looking for the young girl Blue. It was once he got to the part with him and the lift driver, who he learned was named Penelope, found a man in the ninth below - that was when the story got interesting. Cobble listened on and soaked in every word.

  22

  Smoke awoke in the same inn he had slept the last time he had been to the surface. The room was different; the placements of the washbasin, wash tub and desk gave it away.

  He sat up and felt the scabs that coated his arms and legs pull with each movement. He grimaced with the pain and made his way out of the bed. He filled the tub with the hot running water and lowered himself in. The heat felt great on his wounds as the scabs became moist and more pliable. He sank into the tub until the water covered his face. As he re-emerged from the water he could feel his face without the caked-on dirt and blood from the four engine men. He pulled more water to his face and scrubbed until he was sure his face had become perfectly clean of the dirt and blood that had coated him.

  As he exited the tub he looked at the dark brown water and pulled the plug. Those days were officially behind him. He needed no more reminders. He then moved to the mirror and took a long look at his face. He didn’t recognize the grizzled man looking back at him. Smoke had often been the sort of man who preferred to be clean shaven. Odd times he’d grow a bit of facial hair, but those days were few and far between.

  He picked up a straight razor from the desk and began running it along his cheek. The hair from his face fell off in small clumps into the small bowl filled with water. He enjoyed shaving. It made him feel like a new man every time he put the razor down.

  As he looked at the man in the mirror, now without the beard he could see the pain that hid at the corners of his eyes and mouth. He didn’t think there’d be any chance of hiding it, nor did he want to. The pain was what would keep him alive. The pain would be what forced him to see it through. He’d made a vow and he had every intention of following through with it. First, he had a reward to cash in.

  He exited his room and walked down the long hallway to the tavern. The barmaid came and took his order and left shortly after. He and Blue had made the agreement that she would meet with him after a long sleep. She needed a comfortable sleep for once and Smoke was willing to wait, at least for a little while. However, he didn’t trust that she wouldn’t leave in the middle of the night, despite the plan they had made on the lift, so he had posted a guard at her door. Once he’d eaten he’d go check on her. If she were still sleeping he’d wait outside her door and they’d leave for the tower.

  Cobble entered the tavern and grinned as he saw Smoke. He moved and sat on the opposite end of the table, “Good morning,” he said cheerfully. “I trust you slept well. You’re certainly looking better now that you’ve slept and shaved.”

  “I feel better too,” Smoke said. “Where’s Constance?” he asked without skipping a beat, “I haven’t seen her since I got back.”

  “She’s storming the tower. I’ll be honest; I thought that woman would get eaten alive by the fourth below when you left her in charge. I was pleasantly surprised. She’s quite the exemplary leader. She helped bring us up to the surface and took charge as a surface representative. She wanted to be sure nobody on the surface would be hurt. At least those who chose to stay out of the combat.”

  “I knew she’d be alright,” Smoke lied. “She’d shown me she had what it took. I wouldn’t have left her there if I had any doubt she’d be harmed. Although, I figured it’d be you taking care of her.”

  “She didn’t really need me,” Cobble said with a grin, “but, since we are on the subject of leadership.”

  Smoke nodded his head knowing exactly what Cobble wanted to hear. The barmaid returned with Smoke’s meal of synthetic eggs and real sausage with two pieces of bread. “Quite simply, I am going to remain the leader until everything is done here,” Smoke said. “I know it seems unfair and in all honesty I don’t want the title. But, it’s the one thing protecting me from Fulcrum right now. Once I know Fulcrum has been taken care of I will happily hand the reigns over and you can run the Cartel any way you wish. You can go legit or keep living a life of crime, I really don’t care. I have my own fish to fry. So, if you want the title you can get your people to start hunting Fulcrum down. He’ll be on the surface; he probably has been for quite a while.”

  Cobble stared at Smoke, “So you want to be sure that you’re going to live past this?”

  “That’s exactly it,” Smoke said. “I do have a question for you though.”

  “Go ahead,” Cobbl
e said. “My leader.”

  “What happened to Fulcrum when I left the fourth below?”

  “What do you mean what happened?” Cobble asked with his head cocked to the right.

  “Fulcrum and I had planned to leave the fourth below together. I made it out and he got captured. We were supposed to meet at the lift. When he didn’t make it I knew he’d been captured.”

  Cobble shook his head, “Fulcrum was never captured. He never tried to escape, he didn’t want to. He knew you’d had a change of heart and I’m assuming decided to use it against you. He certainly harboured a lot of hatred for you for leaving. We all were angry, but I think he took it personally.”

  “Well,” Smoke said before taking a bit out of one of the sausages, “I want him found and brought to me alive. I have some questions.”

  “Did you seriously think he tried to escape and had been captured?” Cobble asked.

  Smoke didn’t respond; he didn’t need to. He continued to eat his meal while Cobble waited for his own meal. The two sat in contemplative silence. Cobble had been used to being the leader and Smoke’s return would throw a serious wrench into his plans. What he didn’t seem to know was that he had no intentions of getting in the way of the siege or stopping people from living on the surface. This was a better life for them.

  He stood and thanked Cobble for his time and left for the inn again. The guard on duty was dressed in a set of thick leather armour. Nothing that could stop a revolving pistol shot, but it could stop most blades and blunt attacks. The guard gave Smoke a nod and allowed him to knock on the door. There was a brief moment of silence before Smoke heard Blue’s voice, “Yeah?”