Under The Cities' Shadow Part 1/2

Part one of a dual narrative sci-fi short story

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

Mira

The room was hot and stuffy, and there were far too many adults dancing, and talking about silly things. I hated these parties more than anything, but Mother and Father always insisted I be dragged along. I pushed my way through the crowd, until I was out of the building. The fresh evening air wrapped around me. A hundred feet in front of me was the edge of Prospice. With a running start I leaped over the small wall at the edge of the sky city. There was nothing like a fall to clear one’s head. I lay back and enjoyed the rush of air around me, as I looked back up at Prospice floating overhead. I let myself fall another hundred feet, then pushed the button to inflate my suit with the gas that would carry me back to Prospice. For a moment nothing happened, then only my legs inflated, slowing my fall. The suit had never failed to inflate fully. I plummeted, like a helpless meteorite, towards earth.

Kavi

I finished washing the dish in my hand, and placed it on the drying rack.

“I’m heading home now, don’t forget to take out the garbage when you lock up, boy.” Mr. Cortavian called from the door.

“Aye aye captain!” I called back. I heard him laugh, then the bell jingled behind him.

Two plates and a frying pan later, I had the keys to the shop in one hand, and a full bag of trash in the other. I opened the door to look out at the sheer and long drop to the ground, a little platform waited, ready to deliver me to the ground. The heights never bothered me, when I had first come to the city the crowded skyscrapers had astonished, and frightened me. They were gargantuan in comparison to what we had back on the farm, but now the nearly 400 foot drop hardly felt like an inch to me. I stepped onto the platform, and waited patiently as it descended into the streets of the city below. An hour ago, heck, fifteen minutes ago, the platform would not have been there. You see, each employee at the shop has a time that they start and end work, if you get to the base of the building even a minute late, you’ll have missed your platform, your work, and your day's pay. The same went for coming down. Of course I had never been late, nah, I couldn’t afford to lose a day's pay, not even if I were on death's doorstep.

The platform thudded to a halt in the narrow alley behind the shop, the thing was so full of other people's trash I wondered why Mr. Cortavian was so particular that I walk the hundred meters to the dumpster anyway. But that’s Mr. Cortavian for you, he has his way for everything, and he expects it to be followed. That’s one of the reasons I like Mr. Cortavian, he won’t take nothing from nobody, even when it’s the smarter choice. I lugged the seeping bag of trash down the alley, quietly cursing every scrap of metal that caught on my already torn shoes. Heaving, I swung the bag into the dumpster, it landed with a satisfying thunk.

I turned, to make a start on the long journey home. Most of the year home was the closet-of-a-bedroom in back of the shop, but for those two days a year where I do something other than work, home is the farm where my family works as labourers In the fields. I wanted to get to the train station as soon as possible, I wasn’t worried about being late or anything, but I had learned the hard way not to hang round back of the shop for any longer than was necessary. Just as I was about to head out from the alley, I noticed my shoelace was untied. Bending down I quickly did it in a bow. I stood and did a quick stretch when, from the corner of my eye, I saw a body fall from the sky landing in the dumpster with a heavy thud. I turned away, I had seen seven suicides since leaving the farm, but each one still brought fresh horror and disgust. City life required a toughness and will, that not everyone had, and the hundreds of skyscrapers provide ample opportunity—

A low groan brought my attention back to the dumpster.

The person may have wanted to take their life, but there was no reason for me to allow them to die. So I piled up empty buckets, and bits of rubbish, until I was high enough that I could see over the rim of the dumpster.    

The girl was dressed in a White jumpsuit, with puffy legs, that almost looked like they were deflating. She was unconscious, but alive, her chest slowly rose and fell. I could have just walked away, but I wasn’t about to leave an unconscious girl alone in an alley, not on a place like earth I wouldn’t. Maybe if she was in the sky cities she might be fine, but not down here, that would take a miracle, scratch that, it would take five miracles. I shook her shoulder but the only reaction I got was another groan. I slid one arm under her head, there was something hard there which must have knocked her out, and the other under her legs. Three, two, one, I hefted her upwards. She was lighter than she looked, and her legs sort of carried themselves. But just a little.    

I started making my way to the train station, it was a long walk on a good day, and nothing short of exhaustion when you’re carrying someone else too. You would think that I’d stick out like a sore-thumb, walking down the street carrying a girl who looks like she’s dead, but hardly anyone even noticed me, and those who did just scurried out of the way tucking staring children behind them.

When we got to the station I handed the man in the stained blue uniform my ticket confirmation order, and bought another one for the girl with the five spare credits I was planning on giving to Ma.

“You know the dead ride free of charge,” The man said “so long as you got a coffin, or at least a sheet.”

“Thanks, but she’s not dead.” I replied, taking the paper from his hand. The man shook his head, and let out a disbelieving sigh.

“Terminal nine, The train leaves in an hour.” I thanked him again and, hitching the girl up in my arms, started for terminal nine. I found an empty bench at the terminal, and propped the girl up on her arm, she wound up slumped against my shoulder in the end. Letting out a long breath I looked up at the roof of the terminal, dirty, grey, and all together dull, like everything on this whole damn planet. Before Grampa died he would tell me stories he heard from his Grampa, stories about a world that was filled with rolling green hills, and skies as blue as dye-number-twenty-nine. Most of the time I think Grampa was making things up, it was just too hard to imagine. With a loud screeee the train pulled in. I stood, this time tossing the girl over my shoulder. Thankfully I didn’t have any luggage, I still had clothes down at the farm, and nothing worth bringing in the city. I pushed through the crowded train compartments, people jostled me from all sides, and the girl bumped against my back. Eventually I found an empty platform wide enough for the two of us. I took her off of my shoulder and held her in a sort of standing position. There was a squeal as the train pulled away from the platform, then BAM the train picked up speed and I was flung back against the wall. My spine, head, and legs were all pressed hard into the foam covering of the wall, and for the first time I was able to let go of the girl.

Two minutes, and a hundred miles later we began to slow down as we pulled into the next station, bit by bit the pressure eased off of me. It was such a relief to be rid of that horrible constricting feeling that I nearly forgot about the girl, I had to lunge forward to catch her before she hit the ground. Once we were off the train I found an empty corner to sit and wait for the connecting train.    

Mira  

I opened my eyes to the glorious view of a sweaty back. I wasn’t sure what exactly was happening. I had needed fresh air so I had decided to take a fall, but somehow my suit had malfunctioned. Thankfully it had inflated enough that I hadn’t died on impact, but I still must have hit my head because I had a pounding headache. Whoever the back belonged to had me slung over their shoulder, and with every step they took my nose was further battered. I must have landed on earth and maybe—no—maybe I had been kidnapped! The thought was unsettling, but it would explain why I was over someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. A few steps later I was placed on the ground in a little corner out of view. I squinted through half closed eyes at a boy, maybe three or four years older than I was, He turned towards me and I quickly closed my eyes.    

Kavi  

For a moment I thought her eyes flickered, but it must have just been my imagination, because when I looked she was as still as a statue. I got up and stretched, it felt good. I’d only ridden the train six times, and every time it took the life right out of me, It’s not really a feeling you ever get used to. When I turned around the girl was awake and — crying? She was hunched against the wall with her arm raised over her head.    

“Please—please, d-don’t hurt me!”    

What was she talking about? Not two hours ago she had been ready to kill herself, and now she was scared that I, unarmed I, was going to hurt her?    

Mira

I sounded helpless and pathetic, I’m not going to lie about that, but I was desperate.    

The boy was a good two heads taller than me, and had the kind of muscles that you only see on bodyguards back on Prospice.    

Kavi

I pulled her hands from her face, which was surprisingly difficult, considering how skinny she was.

“I’m not trying to hurt you.” I soothed, but she wouldn’t stop blubbering. The more I tried to convince her she was safe, the more she cried. And believe me, at this point the whole thing was really beginning to bother me.

“For the billionth time!” I exclaimed. “I’m not trying to hurt you. In fact, you should be grateful to me, after all I’m the one who saved your stupid neck when you tried to kill yourself! That worked out real well didn’t it? Won’t be pulling another stunt like that any time soon I bet?”

Mira

“Kill myself?” I interjected.

“That’s usually what happens when you jump from a building.” he said

“I didn’t jump from a building, I fell from Prospice.”

Ten minutes later we had explained to each other all the events leading up to our meeting. The train had come, and I got the thrill of riding it for the first time, though it was nothing compared to falling. Now I sat on a small block of broken concrete sipping on some strange fizzy drink, the ride had terribly perturbed my stomach. Kavi, as the boy had told me his name was, sat down next to me. Although he was on the ground, he was still a good head taller than me.

“Is your stomach any better?” He asked. I nodded with a slight smile.

“We better go then, it’s another ten clicks to the house.” He stood and I followed, but my head was still light and my legs were wobbly, so it wasn’t long before Kavi had picked me up and placed me on his back.

Kavi

She was a nice girl. Her eyes were bright, and her face had a sort of gentle, sweet look about it, her hair was long and black turning pure white at the bottom, and had been done up in waterfall braids. But at the present time her most attractive feature was her weight. She couldn’t have been more than eighty pounds. She didn’t make for bad company either, she asked almost as many questions about earth as I did about Prospice. From what she told me the sky cities were even more incredible than they sounded. Although I still didn’t care for the idea of falling for pleasure.

“Sometimes,” she said, “Prospice goes through clouds so big that we can only see by the guide lights for a full day!”    

Oh! How I longed to be up there, drifting through clouds, and watching the stars. But the only way for an earth boy like myself to get up is to be selected. A selected person would either be sent to work as a servant, or, if you were good enough, as a personal guard. I didn’t care to spend my life keeping someone else’s hide safe, so I intended to get in as a servant. My friend, Benjamin, had been selected last year to serve on the sky city Covan, how I envied those with the good fortune to be selected.    

Mira   

We, rather Kavi, walked down the road he said led to his parents' farm house. When he had told me we were heading into the country this was not at all what I had imagined. I knew what the cities looked like from class videos, but the countryside in the videos Always looked green, and alive and fresh. Yes the rows of crops still grew in beautiful shades of green, but the brightness only accentuated the dilapidated buildings and roads surrounding them. Even the people seemed dull. I thought I caught one man smile, his spic white uniform designated him as one of the brave souls from the sky cities who had volunteered to oversee earth farms.

I twirled a lock of kavi’s hair around my finger, it was thick and dark, but beneath it was something I did not understand.

“Kavi?” I ventured

“Hmm?”

“Did you know there is a piece of metal in your head?” “huh?”

Kavi  

It was the kind of thing you could go your whole life without noticing, the metal was hardly wider than a needle. It had taken Mira nearly three minutes to help me find it, and even then I had a hard time believing it.

When I was six we had lived next to an abandoned construction site. One time when my brother and I had been playing on the rubble there, I had fallen and woken up minutes later, my head aching terribly. No one was ever really sure the extent of my injuries, as the only witness was my nine-year-old brother. Perhaps when I had fallen an old nail had become embedded in my skull. I had always had brain-shattering migraines, and now that I thought about it they seemed to stem from that spot. I thought of the metal nail resentfully, after all, my migraines were the reason my applications to serve on the sky cities had been denied.

Mira

When we arrived at ‘the farm house’, it was —er— different than I had expected. What I had expected was a cozy cabin built from felled trees, Instead the road we had been following had run into what seemed to be a solid wall of buildings. Ramshackle house was stacked upon ramshackle house. Each building was more crooked than the last, the ones at the bottom had walls, while the ones closer to the top were made of bits of scrap metal and cardboard, some were made of only a few poles covered with a piece of fabric. Kavi carried me through the narrow alleyways between buildings, often scraping his broad shoulders against the walls. People crowded the streets, talking, selling stuff, pickpocketing, or just mulling around. Now we were standing outside one of the better built houses, towards the bottom of a tower. Kavi lowered me to the ground and knocked on the door.    

Kavi

Ma opened the door, and wrapped me in a rib crushing hug. When she let me go she was talking so fast I could hardly keep up.

“Well look at you! Oh! You’ve grown so much, and put on some muscle too. You always were such a scrawny thing. Have you Been eating well? Getting enough sleep? How’s city life?” And a barrage of a million other questions were fired at me in rapid succession, Then ma’s eyes fell on Mira. “And who, may I ask, is this?” She said, shooting me a sly smile, I blushed in spite of myself.    

“Can we talk inside Ma?” Her eyes darkened, she pulled us in, quickly closing the door behind Mira. Ma sat us down at the kitchen table — a plank of wood laid over old milk crates.    

“Where’re Billy and Martha?” I asked, peering into the open door of their bedroom.    

“Over at Drallen’s, helping Sophie with dinner, they're bringing it over tonight. Now who is this young lady?” She gave Mira a genial smile.    

“This is Mira,” I said, “she’s from Prospice.” Ma quickly got up and shuttered the windows.

“I think you’d better tell me everything that happened, and exactly how it happened.”

To be continued…

Part two coming soon, subscribe to follow along!