They reached the edges of the city at around midnight the next day, their feet cut to ribbons and their bellies cramping with hunger. Three had found some roots that they’d tried to eat, and Six had chewed on some moss, but there was precious little to be found in the area. It had possibly been picked clean by foragers from the facility, thought Six. The meals that they’d been served certainly could have been made from anything. The noises from the city were overwhelming to Six after the relative quiet of the facility, even with a distinct lack of people on the streets. She could see and hear that there were still lights on and music and people shouting at each other, as if the Red had not cut through the population like a scythe. But shops didn’t have glass windows anymore and people looked at each other with suspicion. Six could see some people who bore the scars from the Red all over their bodies, and some who had just a small patch of it across their forehead or over one cheek. And what is hiding under their clothes, she thought to herself. The suburbs were almost empty, they walked past streets and streets of empty houses before Six found one small enough for her.
‘We need a base,’ she said. Something so small and run down that anybody with sense would ignore for something bigger and better. Surely there are plenty of houses for everyone these days.’ But the first three showed signs of habitation. One house even came complete with the remains of a corpse in the bathtub. Six shuddered and moved on. Finally they found a small dusty room above an old laundry. In boxes they found some tatty clothes that reeked of mothballs, which Three rinsed out in a sink at the back of the store. They eased their thirst with water from the tap, hoping that their enhanced immune systems could cope with anything nasty that might be in the water. They hung their new wet clothes on some racks at the back of the store and made a bed each from small musty mattresses that Six found in an almost hidden wardrobe.
‘You do realise that there’s a mouse in yours, don’t you?’ she said to Three, with a perfectly straight face. He shrugged and collapsed onto his bed, sending dust up into the air.
‘We really should find some food, you know. I’m sure that all of the local stores have been pillaged long ago, but we might get lucky and find some supplies in someone’s kitchen cupboards?
‘I’ll start looking soon,’ said Three, yawning. ‘Just let me rest here for a minute, will you?’
‘Sleep well, Three. I’ll let you know if I find anything.’ Six covered with him with a probably itchy blanket and set off to find some food.
There was nothing at all that they could eat in the laundry. In fact, she guessed that the only reason that it had survived so long without being broken into was that there were houses everywhere without inhabitants that had everything a pillager could wish for. The house next door looked as if it had had the front garden set alight. Both of the windows were smashed and Six could see something moving around inside. Her ears told her that it was a rat, but it was awfully big if that was to be the case. She moved on. Was there anybody even out here in these houses? The second house looked run down but more or less intact. She pried a nail from the broken fence and used it to manipulate the lock and then pushed open the back door. The house was dark, but she could see everything thanks to her upgrades. She paused for a moment and listened carefully, but she could hear nothing but the slow flaking of the paint above her head. She found the kitchen quickly and gagged at the smell. Nobody had pillaged this place, she was certain. The refrigerator alone smelled as if several creatures had crawled into it and died slow painful deaths. She left it closed and instead began to rifle through the cupboards. There was some flour that looked to be in reasonable condition and quite a few tins of vegetables. Six used an old shirt to make a sling and loaded it with food. There were a couple of old tins of spaghetti and baked beans that would do them for a meal as well as jars of salt and sugar. She seized eagerly upon a packet of instant potato and one of gravy. Three might like that, she thought. There were a few pots and pans in the tiny kitchen at the back of the laundromat, and they both needed a hot meal.
As she was leaving the house, she spied a tangle of weeds that might just have been a garden once upon a time. She carefully put down her sack of foodstuffs and took a cautious prod into the dirt. Upon digging with a piece of wood that pretended to be a shovel, she discovered several carrots and some potatoes.
‘Even better than the instant stuff,’ she said to herself, smiling. A few were rotten, but most were intact. She added them to the folded-up shirt, figuring that the instant potato might come in handy anyway. She even ripped up a few handfuls of what looked like spinach. I used to hate this stuff, she thought. But now I need it. My body won’t go for long on instant potato. Making a mental note that this garden still had plenty in it, she pushed through the back gate and made her way back to Three.
He was sleeping like dead when she came into the room, only starting awake when she prodded him with her toe.
‘You can sleep later, boy. I have food.’ He groaned and got up, rubbing his short hair. ‘And I hope you never let anybody sneak up on you like that again,’ she grinned.
‘No hearing upgrades for me, remember?’ He grumbled, pawing through the food. ‘Hey, you found some good stuff here. Thanks, Six. I’ll look tomorrow, will I?’ Six nodded and told him about what she’d found.
‘There’s even a bit of a garden three houses down, hence the potato and carrots. Don’t wrinkle your nose at the spinach; I think we could do with something green. Most of the houses around here were pretty much left alone, I think. We’re pretty far out. I think families would have migrated in a bit closer, with the population dropping. The city itself might give us a bit of trouble, though.’
‘Did you see any sign of Five?’ asked Three as he pulled out a pot and opened the tin of spaghetti. ‘Good thing these ring pulls mean we don’t need a can opener, right?’
‘Nothing of Five. I don’t even know if she came this way. Are you sure she would have come to the city?’
‘It was all she talked about when you weren’t around. I think she was worried that you’d try to stop her or something. I mean, she was pretty paranoid, after all, right?’
‘Yeah, I suppose she was,’ said Six, fiddling with the stove. ‘Damn, I hope that there’s still gas in the pipes.’
‘No, this place has a tank, I saw it as we came in,’ said Three.
‘So much the better,’ said Six, as the flames leapt up. ‘I don’t know what services would still be on. I suppose it depends on how much order they’ve established, right? I mean, if people banded together to try to get things organised, they’d want to restore the power and water pretty quickly, wouldn’t they? And the water’s on here, so there must be some kind of order. Either that or nobody ever shut it off. I don’t know, it’s so hard to tell when we don’t know anything. Can you find some bowls or something?’
‘Yeah, they’re here. Want to cook up the instant potato, then?’ he said.
In the end, they did make about half of the instant potato, but decided to hoard the gravy, as there wasn’t much in the bottom of the packet. They spooned the spaghetti over the white clumps and washed it all down with tap water. It was all they could do not to gobble it with their hands.
‘God, that’s better,’ said Six when she’d finished. ‘I was getting so hungry that I stopped being hungry, and that’s never a good sign. Help me wash these, will you?’
They dutifully rinsed all of their bowls and glasses and stacked them into an ancient dish rack.
‘Can we sleep now?’ asked Three plaintively. ‘I’m dead.’
‘I’m sure I’ll wake up if I hear anything unusual,’ said Six, yawning. They went upstairs and collapsed on their mattresses, pulling their blankets up to their chins. ‘Goodnight Three,’ she said, already half asleep.
‘Goodnight, Six,’ he replied, yawning.
Sunlight on their faces woke them up in the morning. For a moment, Six luxuriated in the feel of the heat on her face and then blinked as the light streamed into her open eyes. She nudged Three until he turned around and give her a filthy look.
‘Your turn to cook breakfast,’ she said sweetly. To her surprise, he managed to make some kind of damper out of the flour and the salt.
‘I think they might have given me a history of drovers or something,’ he said apologetically. ‘Now all we need is a billy for tea, right?’ They broke the bread and ate it steaming. ‘Sorry we don’t have any jam or anything,’ said Three. ‘Someone… my mother? I think she made this for me once. We ate it with jam. I remember that, but I don’t remember her face.’ He dashed aside a tear angrily. ‘How about you, Six? Do you remember your family?’
‘Just my little brothers,’ she said sadly. ‘They used to tumble and fight all the time. And they had the stupidest smiles. I don’t remember what my Dad looks like. I thought I did once, until I remembered that I was thinking of someone from the TV. It wasn’t him at all, but I thought it was. Mum… No, I don’t know. I can remember that she had black hair like mine, but that’s the only thing. I wouldn’t recognise her if I walked past her in the street. I’d just have to hope that she’d recognise me, you know? But I doubt she would. Not after all these years. And my hair and my face… No, I’ll never see her again.’
‘Don’t you want to at least try to find them?’ asked Three.
‘But where would I even start? I can’t remember the street number or anything. Nothing, Three. I don’t even remember if this was our city. I don’t even know which city this is, you know?’
‘Neither do I. But I don’t think I lived here, either. Not around here, anyway.’
‘So what next? We’re out, Six. We can do anything we want.’
‘But what should we do, honestly?
‘You have me, you know,’ said Three, looking hurt. ‘Aren’t we brother and sister now? Forged together, right?’
‘Yes, of course you’re right, Three. Of course. Well, I suppose we’ll have to see what everything’s like around here before we decide what to do. I don’t know, maybe what we know about
‘We just have to find them, right? When they’re probably just as terrified as
‘Well, your hand is easy,’ said Six. ‘We can just wrap something around it and put you in a sling. Pretend you broke it or something. I should be able to discourage anyone who wants to take a closer look. As for my eyes… I think I’ll need some glasses or something at the very least. Maybe people won’t realise for a while, you never know. The only problem is the red markings that everyone has. Any ideas?’
‘I think I saw some dyes in the back of the shop. I suppose people had things coloured here? Maybe we could use some of the red stuff to give ourselves markings?’
‘I could probably match the colour pretty well if I saw someone up fairly closely, especially if I have a few things to mix it with.’
‘Well, do you want to go out and have a look around? Maybe you’ll see a few people.’
‘Right, and I’ll see if I can find some more food, too. I suppose we can always use this place as a cache when we move on. At least next time we won’t have to go looking, right?’
‘I’ll stay here and try to find some dyes. Oh, and I think some of those clothes are dry if you want some?’
‘What have you got that will fit me?’
‘Try this,’ he said, throwing her a large t-shirt. It was faded and had a hole in the sleeve, but the dark colour would show up less than her blue shirt from the facility. ‘There aren’t any shoes around, sorry. Maybe you could look for some?’
‘Sure, let me look at your feet.’ She quickly memorised the size and set out, taking a chunk of Three’s damper with her. Today, she thought she would go in the opposite direction, where some of the slightly nicer houses were. After walking for about ten minutes, she found a likely looking place in which she could hear no movement. The front door was securely locked, but the back door had a window panes, so she smashed one out and slid her arm through to release the lock. This house seemed much fresher than the others. Maybe they should move into here, if they wanted to sleep somewhere without mice in the mattresses. Looking around, Six surmised that whoever had left here had left more recently than some of the other occupants in the neighbourhood. There wasn’t as much dust and the fridge had been cleaned out. There was also a wealth of canned foods in a cupboard under the sink. She stacked them into her makeshift pack and tried to only take what she thought they needed. Some didn’t have ring-pulls, so she found a can opener and tucked it into her pack. Behind some of the cans she found an emergency supply kit with bandages and antiseptics, as well as matches and a few small knives with various attachments. Better than nothing, she thought. Besides, they might not be lucky and find a house with gas bottles in the future.
Tactically, the place was sound, with an upstairs that only had one staircase. It could be barricaded easily, and two of the upstairs windows would let you drop onto the garage, so that escape was possible in an emergency. She liked it, and as well-stocked and secure as it was, she didn’t think people were going to come back. It was too far out, for a start, and there was nothing of value besides the food, anyway.
Six looked in several of the wardrobes for clothes that she thought might fit her and Three, and not smell quite so badly of mothballs. She found two warm jackets that were made of darker colours and a few pairs of jeans. Six rolled them all into a ball and put it on a bed for later. Then, she started looking for shoes. At the back of one of the wardrobes, she found a pair of old Nikes that fit her well, and grabbed another faded pair of trainers in Three’s size, after she discarded half a dozen pairs. Taking the clothes and the shoes downstairs, she found a large plastic bin-bag that would fit all of her new possessions, and proceeded to stuff them in. The sack with the food in it went around her shoulders and she set off back to the laundry.
‘She’ll be back soon, you know,’ whimpered Three from inside the room. ‘And she’s much bigger and stronger than I am.’ Six rolled her eyes. Whoever was holding Three ‘prisoner’ obviously didn’t realise who he was dealing with. Three must think that there was some value in keeping the assailant alive, or he would have beaten him to a pulp by now. Six quietly put down the food and clothes and crept upstairs to the bedroom. Three must have heard her coming, even without upgrades, because he dropped to his side and groaned loudly, giving Six enough time to slide the rather skinny kid with the big rusty knife into an arm lock that obviously really hurt from the way he was screaming.
‘Where the fuck did you come from?’ he screeched, tearfully.
‘Drop the knife, kid,’ said Six, even though he wasn’t much older than her. ‘We’re not going to hurt you. Unless you attempt to hurt us, and then we’ll just take you out. Get me?’
‘You don’t fucking scare me! I’ll cut you up!’ he said, waving the knife. Six rolled her eyes and kicked it neatly out of his hand. It clattered on the floor, where Three pounced on it.
‘You broke my hand! You broke my fucking hand!’ The kid cried, massaging his hand and therefore not wiping off the snot that was leaking down his face. ‘I’ll kill you for that, I’ll fucking kill you!’
‘Kid, do you honestly think you have the slightest chance against us?’ asked Three, slipping into his favourite defensive position. His hand showed clearly through the rags. The kid stopped for a second and smeared his leaking snot all over his face.
‘You’re mechs! I can’t fucking believe this! Where the fuck did you come from?’
‘Mechs?’ Six looked at Three, puzzled. ‘Must be slang for upgrades. Cute name.’
‘Whatever. You think he’ll do us in?’
‘Don’t you mechs know anything? Half of us left in this place are illegal.’ At their blank looks he elaborated. ‘Illegal means that you’ve either had upgrades or you were given a cure during the days of the plague. I got it, but I tell everyone that I had the Red. My mate Johnny can make a fake splotch that does me fine. But I haven’t got anything like you guys. Holy fuck, your eyes!’
Six grimaced and looked away. Obviously they weren’t exactly commonplace out here. She really needed some sunglasses or something to cover them up.
‘What do they do? Can you see in the dark?’
‘Yeah, sure I can. What can you tell us about the Red Hands?’
‘Why should I fucking tell you?’
‘We can feed you,’ said Three, looking at the boy’s skinny frame.
‘I can get my own food,’ said the boy, but some of the fight had gone out of him. ‘Where is it? What do you have?’
‘Six? Find anything?’
‘Yeah, I have a heap of cans and some evaporated milk. I also found some clothes that should fit us pretty well.’
‘Lead on, then,’ said Three, keeping a firm eye on the kid. ‘That’s right, you get to walk in front of me. And no bolting. My friend here might look like you can kick her over in one go, but she’s tough as hell and will chase you down in a second. You want food? Then play nice, hear me?’
‘Am I supposed to be the good cop?’ joked Six. Three looked blank. ‘Something
‘Later, let’s get something into our young friend here, yeah?’
‘Is spaghetti going to be alright?’ Six asked, turning on the stove. ‘We don’t really have much else in the cupboard that we keep for people who try to kill us.’ The kid gulped.
‘My name is Tim,’ he said.
‘It’s not good to lie,’ said Six, dumping half a can of cold spaghetti into a saucepan with a plop. ‘Try again.’
‘Fine, you got me. Daniel,’ said the boy, crossing his arms over his thin chest. ‘My name is Daniel.’
‘What did I just say, kid? I’ve got ears so good that I can listen to your brain working. What’s your name, and I don’t want any crap this time.’
‘Marcus,’ he said sullenly, looking at his feet. ‘They used to call me Marcus.’
‘That’s better. Now, what can you tell us about the Red Brothers?’
‘What do you know?’
‘Not much. Just tell me anything you can think of. Who they recruit, who runs them, what they think about people with a cure, that sort of thing.’
‘Well, for a start, they hate anyone with upgrades. You’re illegal. If they catch you on the streets, they’ll throw you into lockup. That’s where they run all of their experiments. I think they have some captive scientists working for them, just so that they can really cut into people without them dying. That’s what my mate Jenks told me, but he could be lying. Is that food ready yet?’
‘Here,’ said Six, handing him a bowl with the heated spaghetti. ‘And a spoon. So, what would they think of you, being cured and all?’
‘Street kids like me? Well, they don’t care so much if someone gave you a cure and then chucked you out on the streets. We couldn’t help it, after all. Sometimes they’ll try to get you to ingest a super version of their serum, to give you the virus again. Then you either die, or you’re ‘reborn’ again, to be just like them. But most of them don’t really care. They’re more interested in trying to get people who lived through the plague to join their ranks. They shout on street corners and things like that. You know, stuff that really wants to make you join.’
‘Marvellous,’ sighed Three.
‘Oh, and they fucking hate you. Anyone with an upgrade is the devil to them. They say that you’ve missed the testing fire of God, and that you’re an abomination. They have some of their priests always out looking for you. They’d not only kill you, but they’d torture you in public. I’d lay low if I were you. Even those who run around with illegal upgrades have to be careful. But you guys? I’m betting that seeing as you don’t know anything about what’s really going on out here that you were someone’s pet science project. That means that whatever they did to you was sanctioned by the government before the plague hit. They were supposed to be building super soldiers for the war effort, but when the plague swept though and killed everyone older than five or six, and left people broken and crippled, they had no choice but to experiment on kids. Yeah, sometimes you’ll see them in the city. They don’t come out much, and they usually have something wrapped around them, like a big old filthy cloak. You know, to try and blend in. Well, if you don’t wear your Mark proudly on the streets, you stick out like dogs balls. Any kid that walks around with upgrades has got to be shit hot, and strong enough to fight off six or eight of the Hand’s best. As I said, they fucking hate you guys.’
‘Isn’t that a comforting thought?’ said Six, scraping the last of the spaghetti into a bowl and setting it aside. ‘So there are people with illegal upgrades?’
‘Yeah, they mostly only come out at night, when the Hands are holding their fire ceremonies. They can be up all night, chanting at their flames and burning parts of themselves off in it. Apparently the Red wasn’t good enough, now they’ve got to show that they’re extra holy by holding their hands in a fire or something.’ The kid burped and put his bowl into the sink. Surprisingly, he started to wash the dishes.
‘Tell you what. I can introduce you to some of my friends. A few of them have some minor upgrades, and they might be able to help you out. One of them is a real technology master; he did all of his himself. This was before the plague, too, so he never even got touched by it. I guess he thought it might be safe to come out after the storm blew over, but he didn’t know the half of it, I guess. Anyway, he makes good disguises. Bring a few cans to throw into the pot and everyone will listen to what you have to say.’
Three and Six looked at each other. They were rested and reasonably full, they could probably take care of themselves, depending on how many they had to go up against. Six would have killed for some decent weapons, just in case, but all she had were the little pocket knives. She scrubbed her hands through her growing hair. Soon it would fall into her eyes, she thought.
‘Why not? I’m sure we can handle anything that comes our way. And we need information more than anything, right?’
‘You’re right. But I don’t know, I want this place to be safe, and now that he knows that we’re here…’
‘I won’t bring anyone back to your squat. It’s against the code. I just thought this place was empty and you surprised me, so I pulled my knife. Can I have that back, by the way?’ Three shrugged and gave it to him. He was fast enough to fend off the boy if he had any plans to attack. Six fished around in the bundle until she found the smaller knives and gave one to Three. He unfolded the blade as long as his ring finger and snorted.
‘They had better be really slow if you think I can do damage with this,’ he said.
‘Oh, shut up. I know that you’re good enough to do damage with a blunt spoon,’ said Six. Three nodded in acquiescence and held the knife in the middle of his metal palm. His eyes went blank for a moment as he accessed the parts of his memory for fighting with knives, and in particular, this kind. After a second, he nodded and pocketed the tiny blade.
‘I might be glad if it one day,’ he admitted, gruffly. ‘You have yours, right?’
‘Yeah, and there are some clothes. Jeans and some shirts. You might as well cover up that uniform that
‘Good thinking. Wait a second, Marcus. I’ll change while you watch him. Then you can change, right?’ said Three, grabbing the clothes and ducking into the laundry room, where he could at least pretend to be modest. Six eyed the kid. Not much to fight, but he’d never had to fight off the virus, which meant that his body was fairly undamaged. Some of the plague victims ended up with something or other not working to its fullest capacity, which was why
Three emerged from the laundry room wearing the jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. It nearly covered his entire hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment