by GM Gambrell
Nine
Duncan wandered the streets of New Dallas trying not to think about Justice Smith of the 234th Healing Corps. Instead, he concentrated on the cities unique architecture, comparing the things he saw, things he’d grown up around, to the images he’d seen in the books from the secret library. The street lamps were identical, down to the light bulbs. The rusted poles shot up at awkward angles, and he’d always thought that the builders were trying to be funny, but he noticed they all leaned in the same direction, as if some great blast had knocked them down. There were traffic signals, like in the pictures, but they didn’t work as they had then. They flashed green, red, and yellow constantly. The old cars that he’d instantly recognized in the book had been built into the walls of buildings, scooped up along with other debris as if a giant constructor had, instead of cleaning up the mess, simply incorporated the junk into the construction of the new buildings. There were even street signs, identical to the ones he’d seen in the pictures, and he knew that they had been there long before the Magicians had.
The Magicians had simply built their new cities out of the ashes of the old cities.
There were other examples throughout the city. The bridge over the New Dallas River was made from a dozen of the Tiger Battle Tanks. He wondered if they’d been dug up later, after Magicians had buried their crews alive, or had their crews died in some other way? Even the Magic School’s walls seemed to be built from hundreds of different styles of brick, as if a thousand buildings had been destroyed and their remains used to build the school. To their credit, he thought, they’d wasted nothing in building their new home.
“Is there a problem, citizen?” a Magistrate asked, stepping out of the shadows.
The Magistrates were selected from the graduates of the Magic School who excelled at offensive and defensive magic. They trained their whole lives to protect the rest of the populace from…Duncan didn’t quite know what they protected them from. They’d served a purpose a thousand year ago, when the humans were still a threat, waging a hopeless guerilla war after the Last War, but it seemed like they were no longer needed. There were no human armies lurking, waiting to regain their place in the world. The few crimes they did follow up on could just as easily be solved by regular Magicians. There just wasn’t any place for the Magistrates in the new world, yet they still commanded the same fear and respect they had a thousand years earlier.
“No, no problem, officer. I’m just out for a walk.”
“I don’t like your kind wandering our streets,” the Magistrate said simply.
“My kind?”
“The non-Magical, like Diamond Jim. I know that you intend this city harm. I know that there is nothing you do that isn’t nefarious in some way. I’m watching you.”
He didn’t know what to say. “Sir, I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You might not want to destroy something now, but you will. You are just like Diamond Jim, and while the stupid residents of this city might not understand your threat, I do. And if you so much as breathe wrong, I’ll be there to stop you. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Duncan replied. He didn’t know what else to say to the Magistrate.
“Now move along.”
He didn’t go home despite the Magistrate’s warning. He kept wandering through New Dallas, cataloguing the things that were of the old world from before the Last War. None of it was original, and he came to think of the Magicians as leeches, sucking the life from the old world. Yes, he knew that the humans from times past had nearly destroyed their world through war and pollution, but were the Magicians any better? They’d created nothing on their own, built nothing besides New Atlantis. They were sucking the life out of a world that no longer existed.
Outside the park that surrounded the courthouse downtown, he heard a familiar rustling, felt a rush of wind, and became very excited. He’d been waiting so long to hear the sounds of that machine, hoping that Jim would return and he could learn more about him and possibly clear up some of what he thought were at least misconceptions about Diamond Jim. Though he’d only met the man once, he just couldn’t believe that Jim was responsible for those acts of terrorism that the Magicians accused him of.
He rushed into the park and the helicopter was indeed there, hovering above the courthouse like an angry dragonfly. He jumped and waved, trying to get the pilot’s attention, but to no avail. Jim was obviously there for some other reason and Duncan watched as something lowered from the helicopter on a cable, releasing just above the courthouse roof. No matter, he thought, as he took off in a flat run for the doors of the great granite building. I’ll just run up to the roof and he’ll have to see me there.
Duncan didn’t get a chance to reach the top floor, though, as a great explosion leapt out from the courthouse. The force caught him, flipping him end over end and away from the building. He landed behind the small wall of the park fence and huddled up to it as the burning rock and bits of the building shot out, peppering him and catching his tunic on fire. He screamed but couldn’t be heard over the roar of the fires and the wave of heat. He lay there a long time, watching as the helicopter darted up and away, into the night. Stunned as he was, he could only think that Jim had done a lot to clean up the old bird since he’d seen it last. The rust spots were gone and it looked brand new, as if Jim had spent the entire time away from the city cleaning and restoring the machine.
Magicians came out of the surrounding buildings, quickly using their magic to contain the fires. The old courthouse burned brightly, though, lighting up the entire area. People ran up to him and asked if he was all right, but he couldn’t hear them. He was deaf from the explosion. Someone cast a quick heal-all spell on him and put out the fires on his clothing. Between the circling Magicians, he could see the Magistrates gathering in the park.
He got to his knees first, and then to his feet.
And then he ran.