Attrition of the Gods: Book 1 of the Mystery Thriller series Gods Toys.

by P. G. Burns

  When her father taught her about the unofficial things that happened within the city he would make her promise never to repeat the information. It was dangerous. He taught her these things hoping they wouldn’t get lost to history, with people repeating the same mistakes, hoping she would be part of a generation to make them better. Now it seems she will need this knowledge for a whole different reason.

  She remembers her discomfort when he first told her about the strict apartheid rules, not explaining why, nor giving his views, just educating her and always allowing her to form her own opinion. He’d said, “Jinn City is purposely built to allow the easy segregation of Aryans from inferior races. Caucasians are then separated from non-whites, these include Blacks, Asians, Orientals, Semitics and Mongols. Jews and Muslims are thought to be extinct but anyone displaying either gene or who follow the teachings are terminated immediately so they cannot pass it on. Jinn also has an underworld better known as Subterrainia, or the Pitts, where the lowest of the low inhabit. These people are not allowed to breed, they cannot come up to the ground level and they may be killed on sight with no charge to the killer.”

  Ember remembers distinctly that her father’s tone while tutoring her on this subject betrayed his obvious disapproval of the conditions and methods. She was always confused how someone as great and good as the Host would allow this and once questioned her father.

  “This doesn’t sound right. How can this be the will of the Host?”

  Conrad rarely scolded Ember but he was sharp with his reply. “We are not fit to question the Host. If he says it is to be then there is reason.” He still looked unconvinced as he summarised. “At the time when mankind faced its worst enemy and near extinction the Host returned and saved us. He is the light and we the chosen ones must follow him without question.” He looked to the ground as these words tapered off, then, changing the subject, he returned to his matter-of-fact tutorial on the city’s inhabitants.

  Ember read between the lines when he tried to explain about the inhabitants of the Pitts: convicted criminals, the mentally ill, and the poor, the sick and any political opponents to the Aryan Council. These inhabitants scavenge their food from the waste that is excreted from the city sewers. There are also many criminals who were disfigured and mutilated as punishment before being sent down there. Some rumours also exist that the mythical Humanzees and other such hybrids escaped from labs and live down in the Pitts. Some charitable Caucasians have tried to help these unfortunates but the resulting deaths of many of these people at the hands of the very people they are trying to help has all but ended this practice. “Hell on earth” was how Conrad described this place to his daughter.

  

  Ember feels Adam’s eyes on her, knowing what he is thinking: how will the spoiled little rich girl cope? All her life she has faced this opinion. People see her for what she has, not who she is, and automatically assume she is blind to the nastier truths of the world. To some extent she has played up to this image. People would then leave her to her own devices if they thought she was only interested in dolls, clothes and make-up. It is so much easier to go unnoticed when everyone around you thinks they know everything about you. But the more time she spent with Adam, the more important it became for her to become the person she truly was and not hide behind the expectations of others. She knew she was strong and she’d damn well show it when they went down into the Pitts.

  Baal decides that they will enter the Pitts via a tunnel known as Purgatory Gate. As they arrive he is glad to see the grey dull building is deserted. They enter the wide open doorway, activating sensors and a recorded voice that warns only security one chips are accepted for the pods and informing anyone entering the Pitts that the likelihood of violent death and the possibility of being eaten is high. It also warns you that there will be no emergency services past this point. Ember is surprised to realise that up until now she’s not considered her implant. She checks it, expecting to see a million calls from her father, then notices the constant light is no longer visible under her skin. What happened? Did someone deactivate her? Freya? Raphael?

  “Adam? Is your chip working?” Adam looks down and frowns. Obviously not.

  Baal explains. “When you passed through the vortex wormhole in the car with Raphael all Nano tech would cease to work. So you are, in fact, totally free.”

  Ember doesn’t feel free. She was happy with her implant. It allowed her access to all areas and gave her a generous allowance for all the luxuries she was used to. To not have an implant was unthinkable. It was needed for medicine, food, drink, transport, school. The implant was her link to her friends with its communication and magazine applications. Ember looks around her and realises that none of those things were any use to her at the moment. She so wanted to contact her father, he would sort everything out. This was one hell of a very strange day but she had not really done anything wrong – but then Ember gets the feeling that things are not going to be sorted by her father; he is probably in serious trouble himself. Her heart hurts at the thought.

  As they pass through the gates several signs warn them of the dangers. To actually get down to the Pitts you must enter a descent pod housed in the station. The three cram into a small pod meant for two. Ember looks out of the gate entrance and feels tears flow down her cheeks as she realises this is goodbye to her father and her old life. Baal has made it clear that they will be killed if caught and after her encounter with Freya she believes him. She knows this is the point of no return. Half of her is terrified of losing that comfortable luxury life but strangely a part of her is almost excited for this chance to be who she really is. Almost.

  Adam also wants to weep; he wonders what fate could be so bad up here that would make him follow Baal down to the Pitts. He knows that his life is worthless up top and this is their best chance to avoid capture. Baal has promised that they won’t have to stay down here but they need to meet with some other contact who will take them to a safe place elsewhere in the city. Still, he wonders if this will be any better. His eyes keep returning to Ember, terrified of how she will react to the underworld that she has never experienced. An automatic grill drops down in front of them and a voice recording plays.

  “To activate please engage your security one RFI.”

  Both the youths look at Baal who stands waiting serenely.

  “Oh! Right,” he says, patting himself down.

  “You don’t have a security one chip?” says Ember.

  “How are we gonna…?”

  A sudden rumble announces the imminent arrival of a vehicle outside of the doorway.

  Just as they look to the skies a Civil Guard aerocar can be seen approaching. Panic sets in as they look back to Baal to warn him but are mesmerised by what they see.

  Baal has casually pulled a dismembered hand from his cloak. He looks up at the nearing truck but seems very calm as he swipes the hand over the contact point. Next he takes a magno grenade from his pocket and throws it at the steel sign above the entrance. It attaches and the red light comes on. The truck lands outside and men, some wearing Mackie uniforms and others Civil Guard ones, exit it. With a start Ember recognises her father, just as the pod drops through the floor. She is caught halfway through a yell which turns into a scream as she is shocked by the speed of their descent and the noise of the grenade exploding up above.

  After the stomach-churning drop the pod grinds to a halt and the grid rises again to let them out. Baal casually exits, apparently unfazed by the prospect of entering this deadly underworld. All they can see at the moment is darkness but a warm breeze flowing through it wafted a stench that overpowers the two youngsters. They all disembark and Baal turns on a handheld light. Ember and Adam gasp as the light exposes the huge underground tunnels.

  “We have to go back, that was my father! He will help us!” shouts Ember as she attempts to re-enter the pod.

  Baal grabs her arm and pulls her away, just as the debris from the explosion lands firmly on top of
the pod, crushing it and any hope Ember had of getting back to her father. Ember stares at it in disbelief and horror. Adam puts a comforting hand on her shoulder, a look of discomfort on his face too; no one wants to be trapped down here.

  Baal tilts his head sympathetically and then leads the way, heading into the dark, damp Pitts.

  All too quickly any thoughts of her father vanish from Ember’s mind as her eyes adjust to the darkness. Good God! Her father was right, but nothing could have prepared her for this. The Pitts are the results of excavations to mine materials during the building of Jinn City. It consists of a labyrinth of alleys and tunnels that lead off a main fifty-foot-wide ramble. The ceiling varies in height from thirty-odd feet to only four foot in some places. At her feet, what she thought were rocks and boulders turn out to be people, bodies strewn everywhere, some sleeping, some pushing their way round. Groans and moans are punctuated by the odd scream. Adam listens intently for some sort of conversation or language but there is none. Random fires appear with groups huddled around them as the tunnel opens up and then stretches on as far as they can see. Hunched broken people, cleanliness not a priority, dressed in mixtures of discarded clothes and homemade garments from litter.

  Adam taps Ember’s hand and with a nod directs her stare to a decrepit old woman bent over nearly double as she walks, a huge twist in her spine leaving a hump across it. She drags the remnants of what looks like a dead dog behind her. On closer inspection it is indeed a dead dog: some sort of poodle whose original owner must have loved it, as it was still wearing a pink studded collar and leather lead. Adam imagined this was to be the old hag’s dinner. If only he knew. She was in fact the twenty-nine-year-old daughter of a scientist who had failed in a task issued to him by the Host himself. His punishment was to watch as his previously beautiful child was broken and rebuilt in front of him; bones fused so as to twist her into this unrecognisable mess. As an act of compassion the Host allowed her to take her beloved poodle with her when he sent her down to the Pitts. She’d gone quite mad over the ordeal and hadn’t even noticed when the pampered pooch had quickly died of the conditions down here. She still slept curled around it. The scientist would not fail again; he had three other daughters.

  Many of the other inhabitants have deformities as well, burns and missing limbs mostly, all at the request of the Host. As the inhabitants turn to look as the owners of the torchlight go past, Adam sees they are startled and scared. Baal knows they are probably concerned that this is a patrol from the Mackies. Many recoil in fear, a few, mainly newer ones, take an aggressive stance. Baal finds a path and takes Ember’s arm and he tells her to take Adam’s. Soon their eyes adapt to the very dimly lit territory and Baal turns off his torch.

  Some of the people down here have carved out meagre alcoves from the sides of the rock, some have built makeshift homes from paper, cardboard and plastic bottles, just about anything they can get their hands on.

  “I never knew… I mean, I knew there were people down here… but so many!” says Ember.

  “Estimates are that one and a half million people exist down here.” Baal explains.

  “The Pitts are a state on their own. Jinn City has no actual prisons, you are either put to death or mutilated and sent down here.” Adam feels uncomfortable as Baal does not attempt to lower his voice as he discusses those around him, even pointing at people as he elaborates. “Some are simply innocent survivors of the Host’s sick experiments.

  “What about the Humanzees,” asks Adam. “Are they real?”

  “Mmm, maybe. I’ve never seen one but the rumours are rife. They are believed to be part of Reuben’s devolution project: an attempt at creating a hybrid human and chimpanzee. There’s even rumours of other hybrids with humans. Most residents of Jinn believe the stories of the hybrids to be myth but I know Reuben from old and, trust me, it is very likely they do exist.”

  Ember shudders she feels for these poor unfortunates who are discarded and treated as less than animals.

  “But what do they do all day?” says Adam as they pass prone body after body after body. “Do they just lay down and wait to die?”

  “Oh no,” says Baal. “Would you? No, there is a whole sub-society down here: traders, builders, medics… The place even has a council of sorts and their own police force. But the situation of starvation and illness is rampant. These tunnels here are the ones most frequently visited by outsiders and so are mainly avoided except for by the truly desperate.”

  “Even the underworld has a caste system,” Ember says sadly.

  Even knowing what to expect, Ember is still shocked by what she sees and Adam begins to wonder if Baal is intent on hiding down here for the foreseeable future; he begins to wish he’d taken his chances up top.

  “Where are we going?” asks Adam.

  “We need to get to the avenues at the end of this tunnel,” Baal explains, giving Ember hope that there was at least a plan of sorts.

  “I have friends there who will be able to sneak us out of Jinn.”

  “Out of Jinn??” Adam chokes. “But nothing can live outside the city! What about the pollution and radiation caused during the rapture?” Baal just shrugs. With a shake of his head and both arms out wide he looks at Ember for her reaction. His jaw drops as she smiles and he notices she looks relieved.

  “If Baal says it’s okay then it has to be better than staying here,” she says.

  A huge gully carrying raw sewage from the city appears, carrying several makeshift boats and rafts.

  “This is the main form of transport through these tunnels,” says Baal. “The people literally wade through shit to get about.”

  Baal waves down a small half-inflated raft that seems to have some form of crude motor, an adapted old farm machine that sucks up the sewage then forces it out.

  “This is the luxury travel of the Pitts,” Baal tells them as he flags down the woman manning the boat. It also contains a hand operated up and down mechanism to steer it. There is one cushion for comfort. The tall, thin, dark-skinned woman slides the raft over to them. Ember stares at her, trying not to as she notices her left foot is missing. She does not notice, however, that this unfortunate woman has also had her left breast removed. This was her punishment for allowing a drunken Aryan soldier to “dirty his dick inside her foul black snatch” as the soldier’s wife politely put it when she and her mates conducted their own kangaroo court. This was another reason why the Pitts were so heavily subscribed, many just fell foul of racist Aryan citizens who would happily take the law into their own hands like modern-day lynch mobs.

  Ember says nothing as they board her carriage, even as the woman stares at her suspiciously and Ember feels very conspicuous with her Aryan features and intact limbs. “We need to go to Deep Hole,” says Baal. “Just drop us as near as you can.” Adam detects a look of trepidation on the woman’s face at the mention of this place. He tries to assure himself that surely it cannot get worse.

  

  Up above, back in Jinn City, Procurator Conrad Jones has ordered his man to clear the rubble from the blast that caused a collapse at the gate entrance. He is sure he saw Ember in the escalator just as the explosion occurred. She is alive at least, but she is entering a world she is not equipped to handle. He fears the Pitts will be too much for his delicate little girl – too much for any girl, or grown man for that matter. Still, at least she is alive he reminds himself as he watches his men remove the debris while Colin Mackie and Solfrid watch on.

  “You are wasting your time,” comments the High Priestess.

  Conrad is no fan of Solfrid but he must admit to being impressed by her skill with the dart. Still, he knows she would not think twice about killing his daughter if she felt it was the best action.

  “We need to enter via a different gate,” she sighs impatiently.

  There are four official entrances into the Pitts: Purgatory Gate, Black Gate, Thomas Gate and the Espino Tunnel set in the first favela. Conrad estimates that eve
n with a siren blaring and total free airspace it will take thirty minutes to get to any of them.

  “Are there no steps down or a service entrance?” he asks Colin.

  “Service entrance?” laughs Colin. “No. Only the descent pod, which unfortunately your daughter and her friends have blown up.”

  Red instinctively puts a hand on Conrad’s shoulder to stop him saying anything he may regret. “He is not worth it,” says Red. “We need to find your little girl and then you can deal with that bollocks over there, okay?”

  Conrad nods. He tells his men to carry on digging as he, Red, Solfrid and Colin get back in the lead vehicle and head for the Black Gate.

  

  The boat taxi pulls to a stop at their destination and lets the three passengers off. The tall, thin black woman holds her hand out for payment. Ember explains her chip is not working so she can’t give her credits. Baal laughs and the black girl screws up her face with a look of disgust.

  “You can’t spend them down here anyway,” explains Baal as he pulls out the severed hand he used earlier and gives it to her. The girl is not impressed but takes it. As the raft leaves, Adam and Ember both notice a hum from the distance. Baal walks off and they follow to see a distinct bright red light ahead. As they get closer the tunnel opens out to a Citadel of underground stone buildings. The noise of music and the smell of alcohol confirm that this is a place of recreation.

  A sign reads: Welcome to Gomorrah, Sodom all.

  There are people everywhere. Unlike the rest of Jinn City every race, creed and colour seems to be represented and most are drunk or stoned. A fight breaks out; not the clumsy fist fighting Adam may have seen in his street, nor was it anything like the tournament fighting Ember watched the day she sneaked into the temple. This was violent, bloody, bone-snapping, skin-tearing brawling.

  Baal takes them into a tavern with a hanging carpet as a door. The place has a bar, tables, lots of occupied seats and even a stage. There’s a forlorn-looking man covered in welts on the stage, tied to a post so that people can throw stuff at him. Adam is more distracted by the naked women, most badly mutilated, parading around the room, getting grabbed at by random men who molest them.