City of Darkness

by D P Wright

  The blast of sound increased in volume and the beat became more rapid and, as if in reply to Kessler’s brief moment of relief, the horde began to gyrate more aggressively as the tempo of the tunes became more manic. The detective was shoved to the ground as a wall of open-mouthed revellers crashed into him. He gasped for Ox as he was punched, kicked, elbowed and clawed. Bodies piled on top of him pressing down on his chest, sucking the breath from his lungs as the sheer blast of sound battered his senses into oblivion. He felt weak and helpless as the weight of the writhing bodies pinned him helplessly to the floor. Kessler roared as he tried to heave himself up one last time but to no avail, his voice immediately lost amongst the screeching music. Everything went dark as Chaff fell across his visor, blinding him. He frantically sucked on his vent for more Ox but it wasn’t enough. His body craved the elation, the energy, the strength that sim would provide. He bit down harder on his vent but the Ox did nothing. He couldn’t breathe.

  Something twitched beside him, an arm, a head maybe? It moved and Kessler could again just make out the stuttering white of the strobe lights. An intense smell of burnt hair and flesh suddenly threatened to overpower him just as something got hold of him and pulled him back into the light.

  Doc stood there with his smoking rifle in one hand and Opek and Bendle clutching onto the other, desperately trying not to let go as the tide threatened to take hold of them. Doc shook his head, his shout just audible over the noise, “We thought we lost you.”

  “I thought so too.” Kessler held his chest and breathed deeply. Below his feet were the smouldering remains of a pile of Chaff, whose lifeless black eyes stared blankly back at them. Kessler turned to look around him and waited for an attack that never arrived, “They ignore us.”

  Opek spoke but his voice was consumed by the din.

  Bendle lost hold of Doc and was beginning to be taken by the crowd when Kessler bent down and hauled him up onto his shoulders, “There you go little fella, you’ll be safe up there.” Straight away Bendle, from his lofty position, pointed the way forward.

  Soon, after what felt like an age, the group emerged from the crowds. Kessler could see the large double doors which led down to the Core Tunnel and began to make for them when he realised that Opek and Doc were not following him. They stood staring at a raised platform to their left. Doc raised his rifle as if to shoot. The platform was the origin of the music which spewed out of speakers that towered above their heads. This close, the noise took on almost a physical presence as if each beat thudded into Kessler’s body like a hammer blow. He returned and shouted, “What’s wrong?”

  Bendle yelled into the detective’s ear, “Over there. That is Governor Tillbrook. I can tell by his clothes.” He pointed at a figure atop the raised platform wearing very elaborate red robes who swayed slowly behind a large desk.

  “He was a friend, I must see him,” Opek shouted.

  “Like you said, Opek, no one can be saved from this place. Let’s continue to the Core Tunnel.”

  “You believe the girl can be saved.” Opek looked up at Kessler, his wide eyes pools of innocence despite his advanced years. “I must see him.”

  Doc knelt down, clutching his Lazarus rifle in both hands, “It will only take a couple of minutes, Kes.”

  Kessler arrived at the top of the platform first and immediately shouted for Bendle to come no further. “Stay back, child. Like everything in this forsaken place, he’s gone. It’s no sight for a child.”

  Doc and Opek joined him and reeled back in horror at the sight before them. “Stay back son, wait for us at the bottom of the stairs.” Opek raised his hand up, “Please son, stay where you are.” Bendle crossed his hands and sat down with his back to the others, tapping his magma stick on the hard carbonised iron steps in frustration.

  Kessler, Doc and Opek turned their attention to the Governor. The flowing red plastichem robes, their shiny surface reflecting the white glare of the strobe lights, were all that remained recognisable of the man this creature once was. His skin had been flayed from his body which was now encrusted in a red and black scab. Ears and nose were no more and only holes remained. His eyelids were gone so that his two eyes glared at them, rolling around in their cavernous sockets. His bald head, with its random tufts of wiry black hair, jerked back and forth as if jolted by an electric current. Skeletal hands quivered and shook over a console. Two huge chains emerged from his tattered robes and hung from the ceiling high above, preventing him from moving far.

  Despite Opek knowing the Governor for many years, the creature showed no signs of familiarity with the Tech who stood still with an expression of abject horror.

  “His eyes are not like the others.” Doc stared in macabre fascination, “They are not the black of Lux.” Kessler pulled him back just as Tillbrook’s head turned towards them.

  “Easy Doc, this is no time for your grim fancies.”

  “Release me. Please.” The creature interrupted Kessler, his rasping voice could barely be heard above the noise. He moved towards them but immediately the chains pulled tight. He tried to scream but only a jagged wheeze escaped his lungs.

  Kessler approached him with his Luther raised before him. “Why have they done this to you?”

  “I failed them. The Light Bringer has abandoned me.” He sobbed and smashed a bloody fist into the console making the music change to a deeper, grinding drone. “I can hear their voices, hear their words, they draw me towards the light.” He turned to look deep into each of their eyes, “I can see it, my eyes are never closed to its beauty,” he smirked to himself, “smell the sweetness,” the bloody hole where his nose once was twitched and drew in the stagnant air, his head slowly rocking from side to side as he savoured the aroma. “I can taste it,” a tongue emerged between raw, cracked lips and licked their bloody surface, “It’s so good.” He tapped his bald head with his fist, “Imagine the escape, the warmth, the light. But can I get to it?” He shook his head, “No.” Pulling the chains in dejected acceptance they clinked tight. “They were kind enough to keep my eyes open so that I could forever watch others go to Him.” His words were spat out of his mouth with venom. “I’m left here, alone, with only my pain!” He wailed.

  “His mind has gone,” Doc interrupted, “look what they have done to him, what pain he must have endured. Let’s put him out of his misery and be done with it.” Doc brought his rifle to bear.

  Governor Tillbrook continued a conversation with someone, something, lost within the ether of his broken corrupted mind, “Release me, I did as you asked. I gathered them here, showed them your way. I know I should not have let her leave, I know this now, free me. I will bring Gwen to you. I promise!” He pulled at his chains, his back arcing in agony and he repeated his cackled wail, “Release me from these bonds!”

  Opek spoke, his back turned towards the Governor, “I can bear it no more! His poor Gwen, his daughter.” He turned to look at the creature but quickly looked away again, his eyes pressed closed in an attempt to shut out the sickening images of Tillbrook’s tortured form. He took his bag down from his shoulder and rummaged briefly in it to find a cutting tool and powered it up. “They did this to him because he tried to save his daughter. He deserves to be free.”

  Opek moved towards him before Doc pulled him back, “He may have saved his daughter but he helped the Malebranche kidnap, helped them push Lux, allowed your beloved machines to stop working. You told us that yourself, Opek.”

  “Your friend is right to be wary of me.” He pointed a finger at Opek and continued, “The torture, agony of Dis has worked its dark way through this broken body, making me do,” he paused as if in thought, “terrible things.”

  Doc powered up his rifle, “It was not this city that made you betray your citizens who looked to you for leadership, relied on you to protect them. You did that yourself.”

  He wailed, “Please don’t.” The Governor’s gaze turned from Doc’s rifle to Kessler. “You know what escape feels like don’t you? That searc
h for a release from the torments of this life? When every waking second is time spent trying to get away from the darkness that surrounds us? You know this, you know what citizens would do to be free from the pain?” Governor Tillbrook bowed down close to the floor, his thin arms spread subserviently before him. His stare now returned to the barrel of Doc’s rifle, “Good citizens, I have suffered enough in this life, in this damned city for too long. Break my bonds, release me so that I can have my escape.”

  “First, tell us what you can about where those taken by the Malebranche have gone. Are they down through the Core Tunnel?” Kessler raised his Luther and took aim.

  Governor Tillbrook flinched at the sight of the weapon, stopped his fidgeting, and slowly began to nod to himself. “The Lost? Why, they are gone. What use have you for them?”

  “The Malebranche have taken someone and we need to get her back.”

  The creature slowly nodded, “A deal then. Free me of my bonds and I will tell you where to find them.” He clinked his chains to emphasise his point.

  Doc stepped forward to protest but Kessler held out his hand, urging him to be quiet. “Sure.”

  The Governor cackled, “Go down to the Core, just follow their screams. You cannot miss them. Unless the fire has taken them already that is.” He laughed hysterically until the chains pulled tight and he squealed in pain.

  “Don’t play games with me or I’ll leave you to preside over this horror show, monster.” Kessler stepped forward and stared into the creature’s wide, darting eyes.

  Tillbrook went abruptly quiet and examined Kessler for a few moments, “If you truly mean to go down there you will find those that are left in cells above the plasma field.”

  “Who guards them? The Malebranche? More of these Seekers?”

  “All but one of the Malebranche have long since left us to spread the light to the city above and you will not find Seekers this close to the plasma.” He chuckled to himself, “There are no souls for them to seek down here. Minos on the other hand,” Tillbrook continued to cackle to himself but quickly stifled his laughter after one glance at Kessler, “the Malebranche left him here to look after the Chosen, he will not be best pleased to see you try and take one of his flock.”

  “His Chosen?”

  “Yes, those that are lost. Those needed to help open citizen’s eyes.”

  Kessler powered up his Luther and took aim at a chain and pressed down on the trigger, with a flash the bond shattered. Kessler moved onto the next and, just before he could release another blast of plasma, an explosion of heat threw him across the platform into Doc, who collapsed onto the floor beneath him. An agonizing scream was followed by the bitter smell of burning flesh. Flames washed over Tillbrook and within seconds he was engulfed in a ferocious inferno.

  Bendle stood close to his distraught father who was now, belatedly, trying to wrestle the smoking magma stick from his son’s hands.

  FIGHT ABOVE THE FIRE

  With the hiss of unseen pistons and the loud, rapid thud of cogs quickly turning, the massive metal doors slammed shut and the great noise of the furnace room immediately left their ears. Two lines glowed red either side of the tunnel and produced a dull crimson light which added to the sense of dread in the pit of each of their stomachs as a fiercely hot wind brought with it ghostly howls and foreboding shrieks.

  The four stood and stared down into the gloom, each of their minds plagued by the same horrors, each wondering what new evil lay waiting for them. Doc leant against the tunnel wall, his rifle pointing feebly into the vast red void ahead of them. Opek, with a blank expression, stared at his son who stood a small distance away from the group, looking down at his gloved hands.

  Kessler’s body ached and his mind was tormented by his all-consuming craving. He tensed his left, twitching hand, a constant reminder of what he needed and did not have. He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing in an attempt to control himself, try and delay the inevitable. “Move forward,” he muttered, “focus on getting Bethany and getting out of here.”

  Opek spoke with a forced smile, “This tunnel is an amazing piece of engineering. These pipelines come up from the plasma field, an extremely hot sea of raw plasma from which we get the heat which powers the whole of Dis. It’s a sight to behold. Do you know how difficult it is getting enough cadermite to forge the conductors necessary to handle such heat?”

  Kessler forced his gaze from the darkness and took in the hundreds of pipes which lined the walls. The vast tunnel, whose ceiling towered far above their heads, had been carved straight out of the bedrock. Everything appeared to fluctuate in the fierce hot breeze that whistled its way from somewhere down in the depths below.

  “This scorching wind brings with it the screams that Tillbrook mentioned,” Doc’s voice wavered as he spoke.

  Opek continued, “When the furnace is fully operational it would be impossible for us to be here, even with these heat suits the temperatures are too great.” He turned to Bendle who still sat away from them, his head resting in his hands as he stared down into the tunnel. “Isn’t that right, son? A fine piece of engineering.” Bendle did not respond but Opek continued regardless, “We have had to dig deeper and deeper as the plasma cooled and retreated, extending this tunnel further down into the ancient world.” Opek’s attention again returned to his son, “See the pipe work, son? It runs the length of the entire town and up to the highest reaches of Dis, a major feat in engineering.” Bendle at last looked up at his father and gave a slight smile and nod. Opek turned back to Kessler and spoke quietly, “I fear that he may be losing his way. Young Techs are never allowed into the Core Tunnel, they would usually do anything to be able to glimpse all this engineering.” The excitement on Opek’s face while talking about the tunnel soon faded to be replaced with a sense of foreboding and dread, “I can’t believe he took Governor Tillbrook’s life. Techs should only be concerned with machinery, not meddling in bigman’s stuff.” The wind howled loudly making Opek swallow down hard, “I don’t much fancy going down there, Mr Kessler.”

  Kessler looked over at Bendle then back to his father, “Opek listen, we’ll be out of here soon.” The Tech continued to stare at his son who, with an expressionless, cold set face, had carefully laid out his tools and had begun to clean them. The detective knew he had to get Opek’s full attention if they were to get out alive, “You said that there was a Tech shaft somewhere round here? A way we could escape?”

  Opek slowly turned around to face the detective, “Yes there is.” He looked back again towards his son with concern.

  Grabbing hold of him, Kessler spun the Tech around so that his visor and vent were nearly touching his own, “Opek,” his grip tightened on the startled Tech, “you need to focus on the task at hand. Any, and I mean any, lack of concentration could mean the death of all of us,” he looked deep into Opek’s eyes, “and that includes your son.” He let his barked words settle for a few moments before continuing, “Now, you said that the Tech shaft was a short distance from here?”

  Opek nodded and rubbed his visor with his cloth, “Yes, it’s just down there,” he pointed down the tunnel, “let me show you.” He walked passed Doc who was still staring into the darkness. “Come on Bendle, we must hurry.” Bendle raised himself off the floor, gathered his tools up and slowly plodded along after his father.

  The tunnel descended steadily downward and the deeper they travelled the hotter and stronger the wind became. Evidence of the explosion Opek had mentioned began to materialise; large boulders lay strewn across the tunnel floor and at various points cadermite girders and struts had been erected to support the roof. The heat and the difficult terrain did not seem to effect Opek and Bendle, their years working in the most dangerous conditions allowing them to move freely, but Kessler struggled and had to stop to take on water numerous times. “This damn heat’s unbearable,” he gasped.

  Doc, his long, gaunt features shining with sweat in the red glow of the tunnel, checked Kessler’s Ox levels and gav
e him the thumbs up, “Just take steady breaths.”

  “I know.”

  Opek’s voice came echoing up through the tunnel, “Found it!”

  Doc and Kessler soon caught up with the Techs who were a blur of movement. Their tools were laid out on the ground ready for use. Opek’s short legs stuck out from an opening in a panel just above their heads and Bendle was sorting a bundle of frayed wires that hung down ominously from a large bank of circuit boards.

  “It’s much worse than I thought.” Opek’s muffled voice emerged from the panel where he was working, “Not only is there no power but the explosion has done a fine job on the capacitor.

  “Ok, is that a problem?” Doc sighed.

  “Yes, this is designed to get Techs down here as fast as possible, time is money to Epsom. It travels so fast that we need to ensure the shaft is clear of traffic before we use it. Only one pod can travel at a time. Without a capacitor we cannot power the pod or communicate with top side to clear the way for us.”

  “Right, I don’t see any pod though.” Kessler looked through the small circular entrance to the shaft.

  “That’s our other problem. If we can fix the capacitor and get power flowing again we’ll have to get the nearest pod sent down to pick us up.”

  Kessler peered up to where an oil-covered helmet now looked down from where legs had been before, “Can it be done?”

  “Yes, maybe. If there is anyone still working the Tech station on D1 we should be able to get a pod sent down but we have very limited power here, one, maybe two hours at most before my batteries run out of juice.”