by J Porteous
Jessica stared up at the light. ‘Is that electricity?’
I nodded. ‘One use for it. It’s what we saw the other night.’
‘It’s amazing.’
It was amazing. As mundane as it would have been to me before the plague, even I couldn’t help but stare at it in disbelief. It had been nine long years since I had seen such a thing.
The man searched the boxes we had lined up, his heavy, tired eyes lighting up as he looked through them. He scratched his unkempt beard and sat back down. ‘Where did you find all this?’
‘Old Oxford,’ I replied.
‘It’s a good find. Very good, in fact. It’s more than enough for a month’s citizenship.’ He scribbled some more notes on the papers, pulling out a rubber stamp and pressing it down on each one. He turned them towards us and offered the pen. ‘Fill in the details it asks for. If you don’t know how to write, I can do it for you.’
I wrapped my fingers around the pen, the act seemingly unnatural after going so long without practice. There was only one area to fill out, and that was for your name. I scrawled out what everyone knew me as. Gamekeeper.
I offered the pen to Jessica, her face glowing red momentarily. ‘Anything the matter?’
‘I don’t know how to do that.’
‘Your dad never taught you?’
She pointed to the pen. ‘We never had one of those things.’
‘Ah. Well, I’ll fill it out for you.’ I wrote Jessica’s name, then handed the pen to Felix.
The man at the desk spoke while Felix and Diego filled in their forms. ‘Welcome to Hope, the first of the new cities,’ he said. ‘These forms grant you citizenship for a month. To continue to be a citizen, we need the same kind of salvage every month for it to be renewed. If you don’t bring us anything, you’re out on your arse. I’m Warden Daniels, chief of security. You’ll see the guards at their stations. They are there to stop anything from happening to the city or its staff, but that’s all they’ll get involved with. Anything else, you’re on your own.’
The mention of guards reminded me of the passes in my pocket. I pulled them out of my coat pocket and offered them to Warden Daniels.
He glanced at them then looked up at me. ‘Am I meant to be looking at something?’
‘We were attacked,’ I said. ‘Back in Oxford. We found these on our attackers.’ I pushed them across the desk. ‘You might find them interesting.’
Warden Daniels gave them a cursory glance, then screwed them up and placed the messy ball at the edge of his desk. ‘Not really.’
Felix leaned in across the desk. ‘Two people from the city tried to kill us. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?’
Warden Daniels sighed. ‘Look, you’re new here so I’ll cut you some slack. If it’s inside the city walls, we’ll take a look. If it’s outside then it’s nothing to do with us.’
‘So you’re not even going to look into it?’ Felix replied.
Warden Daniels shrugged. ‘What’s there to look into? They’re dead, you’re not. I’d be happy with the result if I were you.’
Felix opened his mouth to speak again, but I intervened and grabbed his arm. I lowered my voice. ‘Leave it.’
Felix chewed his lip unhappily, then stepped back. I grabbed my stamped paper and placed it in my pocket. ‘I’m sorry, it’s been a rough few days.’
‘It’s been a rough few years,’ the Warden replied. ‘First things first, all new citizens get to stay in the Flophouse for their first week, it lets you buy yourself some time. After that, you need to start renting rooms from those who have them in the city. What they charge, both amount and in what form, is up to them. The only rule is don’t kill anyone, and especially don’t kill my staff. Other than that, have a good time.’ He stamped on the floor twice, and the door we came in through opened back up, the hawk-eyed gate guard returning.
I walked back out into the courtyard, Jessica by my side. Felix struggled through, carrying Diego as well as he could. Jessica buzzed with excitement, a strangely electric atmosphere exuding around her. I struggled to swallow my guilt.
The gate guard pointed towards the second set of gates. ‘Show your passes there and they’ll let you on in. Don’t lose your citizen cards.’
With that, the guard meandered back towards the main gates, easing himself into a chair beside the smaller door, leaving us stood alone in the courtyard.
‘I suppose this is it,’ Felix said. ‘Where we part ways.’
‘I suppose so,’ I replied. I offered a hand out, which Felix shook, followed by Diego. ‘Take care of yourselves.’
‘You too,’ Felix replied. He looked down at Jessica. ‘Look after him, will you? He seems to like getting into trouble.’
Jessica giggled. ‘I will.’
‘And good luck finding your dad,’ Diego said.
‘Thank you.’
Jessica and I wandered towards the large doors, showing our papers to the guard who waited for us there. He took a brief look at both of them, before nodding us through as the gates opened.
I stood dazed for a moment, not quite believing what I saw ahead of me. The entrance to the old shopping mall lay in front of us. People buzzed back and forth through the grand doors, carrying rucksacks laden with goods, or even small carts for the more profitable merchants.
Jessica squeezed my hand. ‘I’ve never seen so many people.’
‘This is just the entrance,’ I said. ‘There’s bound to be more inside.’
‘How are we going to find my dad in all of this?’
‘One step at a time,’ I said. ‘Let’s find the Flophouse, and we’ll go from there.’
We stepped inside the old entrance, making our way through the crowd. I grasped Jessica’s hand, so as not to lose her in the crush of bodies. Some of the travelling carts had set themselves up in the sides of the entrance hall, transforming themselves into makeshift stalls with small wooden frames lined with cloth draped over the top of them.
If I had let Jessica set the pace, we would have hardly moved an inch. She gawked at everything that came into view, marvelling at the array of salvaged clothes, shining lights, and varied travellers who swirled around us.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed too, but after our encounter in Old Oxford, I was more wary about keeping an eye on passers-by than on the stalls themselves. Jessica tugged on my hand.
‘Do you know where we’re going?’
I realised that we had just been aimlessly walking. ‘No, I don’t.’ At the edge of the crowd, I saw a guard overlooking the throng of bodies. I clutched Jessica’s hand and pushed through the crowd. ‘Excuse me? Excuse me?’
The guard looked down and grunted. ‘What?’
‘Which way to the Flophouse?’
‘Ah, new arrivals?’ He pointed a finger towards a side corridor which split off from the main atrium. ‘Follow that corridor. It’ll lead you straight to the Flophouse.’
‘Thanks.’
I forged a path through the crowd, making a steady line for the corridor which the guard had pointed out. The wonder of the crowded hall soon dissipated when I saw what was in store.
The corridor itself wasn’t half as well lit as the main atrium. A string of lights followed the right wall, some burnt out while others flickered intermittently. A filthy puddle gathered halfway down, water dripping from a mouldy ceiling tile above.
‘Is this the way?’ Jessica asked, her voice disapproving.
‘Apparently so.’
We wandered down the corridor, taking care not to soak our shoes in the stagnant water. We rounded the corner at the end, another long corridor revealing itself. A host of questionable characters gathered around the end, a door just behind them. Their features were shrouded by deep shadows cast from the few working lights. A number of them looked up as we approached.
I cleared my throat. ‘Is this the Flophouse?’
One of them mumbled something and pointed to the door behind, the rest of them moving out of the
way. I wandered through, keeping Jessica close to me.
‘Why are they all staring at me?’ Jessica asked, looking up at the gloomy faces which followed her.
‘I don’t think they see children very much,’ I said, not wanting to mention the burns which were probably the real cause of the stares.
We passed through the doors and came into the Flophouse reception. It was as grim as the corridor which led to it; a poorly lit room with tatty furniture and a worn desk ahead of us. An old woman sat at the desk, chuckling at something written on a piece of paper.
‘Is this the Flophouse?’ I asked.
‘Yep,’ the woman replied. She held out a hand without looking up from what appeared to be a hand-drawn comic strip. ‘Papers.’
I pulled out our citizen passes and handed them over to her. She finally looked away from the comic strip and squinted at our passes through a pair of glasses, both lenses crazed with cracks. I was surprised she could read anything at all with them on.
‘Gamekeeper? That’s a funny name.’ She looked up at me, doing her best impression of a mole. ‘That you?’ She waited for my nod, then checked the other paper. ‘That means you’re Jessica, I’m assuming?’ she said, peering over the desk at the girl.
Jessica nodded. ‘That’s me.’
The old woman handed the papers back over, a key with it. ‘You’ve been assigned room three. You’ve got one week to find your own lodgings, after that, I’m turfing you out. Got it?’
‘Yeah, I got it.’
There were five rooms in total, which made me think that newcomers weren’t as regular as I assumed. I put the key in the door and unlocked it, ushering Jessica inside. I closed the door and locked it again, checking the handle to make sure the lock did actually work. After seeing the type of people who hung around outside, I didn’t want to take any chances.
The room was relatively bare but served its purpose. A couple of metal fold-out chairs were stacked in one corner, and two metal bed frames were positioned next to each other, both covered with a thin mattress stuffed with dried grass.
Jessica threw herself on one and looked up at the single lightbulb which serviced the room. ‘How does it work?’ she said, pointing up at it.
‘The light, or the electricity?’
‘Both.’
I sat down on my own bed and looked up at the light. ‘There’s a switch on the wall. When you flick it the light goes on or off.’
‘You can control it?’
‘Yes. Give it a go.’
Jessica sprung from her bed and raced towards the switch. She held it between her fingers and looked back at the light. She switched it on and off several times, emitting a squeal of glee with each illumination. ‘Where does the electricity come from?’
‘It will need to be generated by something,’ I said. ‘There must be a generator somewhere, or maybe some other way of doing it. Possibly wind.’
‘You can turn wind into electricity?’
‘You can turn a lot of things into electricity with the right equipment.’
Jessica flicked the light switch a few more times before returning to her bed. Her carefree expression seemed to disappear.
I watched her for a moment, waiting for her smile to come back. It didn’t. ‘What’s the matter?’
She blew out a breath and swung her legs beneath her, watching them with disinterest. ‘I don’t know. It’s just that, sometimes I think I’m never going to find my dad.’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘I didn’t realise that everything was so big,’ she said. ‘When I lived with my dad, it was just me and him. I never went too far away from the barn, and Dad didn’t either. I’d never seen another person until you came.’
‘You’d never seen anyone else?’ I couldn’t hide my disbelief.
‘Nope. Dad went out and got what we needed, and I stayed home to look after things. He said we were well hidden, and that no one should find me, but I still got scared sometimes.’
‘That’s understandable. Nowhere can stay hidden forever.’
‘I did,’ Jessica replied. ‘You only came when my dad told you where to find me.’
I looked at her, hoping that my lies wouldn’t show in my face. ‘That’s a good point.’
‘But now there isn’t just me and my dad. There’s you, and Diego and Felix. And now there are all these other people here too. I just feel like I’m going to get lost in it all.’
‘Well, we’ll try our best,’ I said. ‘We’ve just got to take things one step at a time.’
‘Okay,’ she said, her smile returning somewhat. ‘What’s our first step going to be?’
‘Firstly,’ I said. ‘I think we’re going to need to get some proper rest. I don’t know about you, but that was a lot of walking the past few days, and my feet are killing me.’
‘Do you think Diego is going to be okay?’
The man had been through a lot. It had been a rough trek for all of us, but especially for him. I’d broken my leg once when I was a boy; it had taken months to heal, and that was with proper hospital treatment. I didn’t doubt that there would be some kind of medical practitioner here, but I doubt it would even compare to what we used to be able to achieve.
‘I’m sure he’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘They’ll be staying at the Flophouse too, so we’ll probably see them again at some point. I’m sure you can ask him then.’
‘I’m glad you didn’t leave them behind.’
‘I’m glad I didn’t too.’
I led back on the bed, letting it take the weight off of my feet. The mattress itself was like something I had not slept on for a long time. I was used to concrete floors, or even leaves and old blankets at best. In comparison, this was luxury. For a moment I let myself forget my troubles; that I had continued to lie to an eleven-year-old girl that had lost her father, and that I hadn’t seen a small community burnt alive.
‘Do you think there are more bad people here?’
I rolled my head towards Jessica and opened my eyes. ‘Bad people? Like the ones at Community? I think we’re safe from them here.’
‘No, I meant like the people from the city. You said they were from here.’
‘They were,’ I said. ‘But that doesn’t mean you need to be afraid here. You’ve seen the guards, they make sure nothing bad happens.’ It was another lie, but what could I have said to her?
‘Okay,’ she replied, satisfied with my answer. ‘So it’s safe to sleep?’
‘The door is locked, give it a try if you want. We’re safe in here.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I trust you.’
The words hit me like a punch to my stomach. She trusts me? This little girl was all alone in the world, her father rotting in the snow somewhere, and the man she is travelling with just wants to pass her on to be someone else’s problem. I looked away, finding myself not quite able to look her in the eye.
She yawned, stretching her arms out until they shook, then fell back on the mattress. ‘So we’re going to look for my dad first thing?’
‘First thing,’ I said. ‘We’ll tear this place apart to find him.’
‘What if he’s not here?’
I sighed. ‘One step at a time, Jessica. One step at a time.’
Chapter Seven
Something stirred me from my sleep, a hand shoving and prodding me. I groaned and rolled over. My body ached from head to toe, my legs stiffened as if rusted into position. The hand prodded me again, harder this time.
‘Wake up, wake up! Let’s go!’
Jessica’s bright voice seemed louder than usual, although it at least drowned out the intermittent buzzing of the lightbulb. I opened one eye. Jessica stood beside my bed with excitable eyes. ‘Is it morning already?’
Jessica shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I heard people moving out in the corridor though, so it must be.’
I sat myself up, my muscles begging me not to. I yawned and stretched my arms out, gritting my teeth as something twinged in my back.
Jessica rushed around the room, gathering my old jumper and coat. My shotgun dropped out of the makeshift holder, clattering across the floor.
My hand shot out and grabbed Jessica’s arm as she went to pick it up. ‘Be careful,’ I said. ‘Let me get it. It’s dangerous.’
I rose from the bed and walked across the room to grab the shotgun. I picked it up and held it in my hands, inspecting the scuffs and knocks along its grip and barrel. My mind turned to yesterday’s events, and to the danger Jessica had been in. What if I hadn’t come round so quickly? The girl should learn to defend herself.
In my mind, I would be passing Jessica on to a loving family, possibly with another child or two; people who could love her and look after her. Until then, she was under my protection, and that responsibility was my own. I looked at Jessica. ‘Perhaps we’ll teach you how to use this sometime.’
She frowned. ‘But you said it was dangerous?’
‘It is,’ I said. ‘But if you know how to use it, and to respect it, you can make sure it’s only dangerous to bad people.’
She cocked her head to one side, looking at me as if I was trying to trick her. ‘Really?’
‘Yes, really.’ I returned the shotgun to its holster and pulled my coat on. ‘We’ll find time to do it soon.’
Jessica nodded. ‘Okay.’
‘Anyway,’ I said. ‘Isn’t there something else we should be doing today?’
Her eyes lit up, as if only just realising why we had come here. ‘Dad!’ She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door. ‘Come on, let’s go find him.’
We emerged from the grotty corridor and back out into the wide atrium, the whole place seeming a little more wondrous once more. It was no less busy than before, the sound of many voices bouncing off of the high roof and creating a strange effect of an ethereal choir.
Jessica looked through the mass of bodies, craning her neck to see. ‘How are we going to find him? There are too many people.’
‘Do you have your photo?’
Jessica stuck a hand in her pocket and retrieved the photo I had given her. ‘Yep. What now?’
