City of the Falling Sky

by Joseph Evans

The lights of the flat had been switched off aside from a single lamp on the kitchen unit that was bathing everything in a warm, orange glow.

  There was a note stuck to the fridge by a magnet.

  Hope you two had a great time tonight. I knew it wouldn’t be long before someone fell for my little stud!

  Goodnight sweetheart.

  Mum X

  Seckry’s stomach lurched. The physical pain he could deal with, but seeing the disappointment in his mum’s face when she realised that Natania hadn’t fancied him at all would be too much to bear. He felt as though he had let her down.

  His mum was asleep on the settee in the living area, and the television was on low volume. She looked comfy so Seckry switched off the plug and pulled a thin blanket over her gently, forcing himself not to wince as his arms moved in pain.

  After he’d made his way into bed, Seckry found he was fighting back tears. He’d been tricked. On his birthday, of all days. And he’d lost his Friction gift card that his mum had paid so much for. She’d be devastated when she found out.

  He flipped open his phone and sent a short text message to Tenk.

  Not goin in 2moro. I’ll xplain later. Seckry

  He closed his eyes, knowing it would be a nightmare to open them again in the morning with all the bits of blood and slime congealing there.

  He must have been tired because he didn’t wake to the sound of Mrs Plum’s singing that night, even though she was out there for hours, crooning her eerie lullaby.

  When he woke in the morning he felt nothing but relief. He had been dreaming that Snibble had followed the car home and that he’d snuck into the flat with his lighter and had been burning his mum’s skin. Seckry had tried to pull Snibble away but he was too strong and he just kept shoving Seckry with one hand.

  Seckry tried to open his eyes as his heart beat gradually slowed back down to normal pace. His right eye felt even more swollen than last night. He could barely see through it and it hurt even to blink.

  He made an attempt to get out of bed but he almost collapsed from the agony in his legs.

  He could hear his mum in the kitchen clanking dishes and cutlery. She was humming too.

  “Seckry?” she called. “How’s my boy this morning? Did you go somewhere nice?”

  Seckry hobbled to his bedroom door, held it ajar and said, “Mum, don’t be alarmed. My face might look a bit different.” Then he stepped out into the passage where his mum could see him.

  She froze, a cup in one hand and a dirty dishcloth in the other.

  “Seckry?” Her voice was a whisper. Her eyes were locked on his face. “Oh, Seckry.” She put down her cup and came towards him slowly, cautiously, as if he’d break if she moved too suddenly. “What on earth . . .?” Her voice was wounded more than anything else. There was no anger, no outrage, just pain at seeing her son in such a state.

  “There was no date,” Seckry explained groggily. “It was a trap. Some kid with a real chip on his shoulder wanted to beat me up and they cornered me.”

  His mum almost had tears in her eyes. She put her arms around him gently, scared to touch him in case he was bruised all over.

  “I’m gonna skip school today if that’s alright.”

  “Of course, love, of course.” His mum was shaking her head. “We should never have come here. I knew the kids were like this. We had no trouble back in Marne.”

  “It’s okay mum, we had to move, I know that.”

  At eight thirty his mum had to leave for work. She was reluctant to go in, but Seckry assured her he’d be fine on his own. Leena looked scared to say anything when she saw Seckry, and she left for work looking shocked and confused.

  When the flat was quiet, Seckry collapsed back onto his bed. He lay there for a while with his eyes closed, feeling utterly miserable. He kept thinking about Snibble beating him up but after a while he realised it wasn’t Snibble that was making him so upset. It was Natania.

  Maybe he’d wanted a girlfriend just as much as his mum had wanted him to have one.

  He stayed in bed for a few hours and kept drifting in and out of sleep. Each of his dreams were different, but in all of them appeared a girl, the same girl, standing a short way away, smiling at him with beautiful eyes. Each time he would make his way over to her to ask who she was, but before she could answer, he would wake up.

  Eventually he felt too sweaty and fidgety to be comfortable. He got up and winced at his shin, but he had to get out of his room for a bit, the air was going stale in there.

  Seckry decided he needed some fresh air. He checked all the lights were off in the flat, checked his key was in his pocket, and headed out into the square.

  It was warm again this morning and the buildings emanated heat, making the air look like liquid.

  Before he’d even had time to ponder anything over, something caught his eye; a pink, flashing animal logo above the small arcade centre that Tenk was so fond of. Was it open now? He wandered over and peeked through the window. There was a shabby desk inside that was in desperate need of some varnish, but there was no one behind it. It looked like the machines were running though. He could see two teddy cranes, some rumbling driving seats, and a standalone beat ‘em up coin op.

  He pushed the door gently and it creaked open.

  “Hello?” came a voice from behind one of the walls. “Is that you, Tenk? Skipping school to play Friction? Your mother will be down here again before long giving me a good old piece of her mind.”

  “It’s not Tenk!” Seckry called.

  Suddenly an old man’s head popped up from the desk. He had white hair, wispy and sparse on his speckled scalp, a pair of glasses resting on his large, hairy nose, and he was dabbing his lips with a tissue.

  “Dear me,” the man exclaimed, clearing his throat. “Someone’s been through the mill.”

  “Don’t ask,” Seckry said in the politest way possible. He didn’t want to seem rude but he was fed up of thinking about it.

  “It might not be any of my business but shouldn’t you be in bed trying to heal that black eye?”

  “I needed some fresh air,” Seckry protested weakly.

  “I haven’t seen you round here before. Are you the Sevenstars boy?”

  Seckry gulped. “Uh, yeah.”

  “Ahh. A belated happy birthday to you, my son. Your mother’s a lovely lady. Had a nice chat with her the other day. She popped in for some advice. Very curious to know what the trends are in the city these days for a boy like you. I recommended some Friction credits of course. You’d be mad to move to the city and not be taken in by the Friction phenomenon.”

  “You sell the gift cards here?”

  “Yes, of course. I don’t doubt you’ll be needing any for a while though, your mother bought fifty notes worth. You’re a very lucky lad. Have you had a chance to redeem them yet?”

  Seckry groaned internally. He wished he’d redeemed the card the moment he was given it. Then Snibble would never have been able to melt it into a pile of burning embers.

  “Not yet,” was all Seckry said.

  “My name’s Henrei, by the way,” said the old man, and he stuck out a semi-translucent, pockmarked hand.

  “Seckry. Nice to meet you,” said Seckry in return. Henrei’s hand felt cold, bony and slightly sticky.

  “Your mum in work, is she?”

  “Yes.”

  “And she thinks you’re all wrapped up in bed, I bet,” Henrei smiled and raised his white eyebrows knowingly. He took a bite out of his sandwich and something red and thick glooped onto the desk.

  “Oops,” he said, and whipped out a cloth to wipe it up. “Can’t be caught with these.”

  “Sandwiches?” Seckry asked.

  “The jam,” Henrei replied, licking a bit off his finger. “Marbery thinks I made myself some chicken and salad this morning. Supposed to be watching the cholesterol, you know?”

  There was some creaking upstairs and Henrei cringed.

  “Stay there my love, stay there a m
oment,” he whispered nervously, and scoffed the rest down.

  Seckry laughed.

  “You can’t beat a bit of jam,” Henrei said defensively.

  Seckry glanced around him at two huge, circular domes which were blinking with blue lights. One of them had the faded letters FRI ON printed on it.

  “Are those the Friction pods?” Seckry asked.

  “Indeed they are, my boy,” Henrei said, striding over to them. “Got a few screws loose, this left one here, but I’ve masking taped it up. Good as any pods you’ll find in the city, these are. Been running them for twenty five years now. Had them when Friction was first invented, I did. I tell you what, the game looked a lot different back then.”

  Seckry examined the pods. They were made of fibreglass and it looked as though both of them had begun to melt at the bottom from the heat of their power supplies. They were perfect spheres with a hatch each on opposite sides. He opened one and peered into it.

  The pod was empty, but its inner walls were coated with dark glass. The only blemish in the sphere’s perfection was an open slot in the base, which was just big enough to hold an avatar tablet.

  “You want a go?” Henrei asked.

  “I’d love to,” Seckry said truthfully, “but I haven’t spent my vouchers yet. I haven’t got an avatar.”

  “Well, no need to worry, lad. Most newbies don’t have one. You don’t need an avatar for the training program, and I wouldn’t advise jumping straight in without at least getting to grips with the basics. Go on, get in.”

  A smile spread across Seckry’s face. He thought he’d have to wait ages before he’d be able to have a go of one of these things. He got inside cautiously. It smelled a bit sweaty and damp but he didn’t mind.

  “The pod will detect that you’re a new player and it’ll load up the training program,” Henrei said. “I’m gonna close the door. It won’t start until I do. Here’s a reference sheet if you forget any of it. And there’s always an exit button located on your waist for when you’re ready to quit.” Henrei stuffed a small, laminated piece of paper into Seckry’s left pocket and shut the pod hatch with a thud. It seemed as though it were hanging loose a bit.

  Seckry spun his head around. It was strange being so enclosed.

  Before he had time to ponder any more, there was a burst of colour all around him and some music began playing, a nice, subtle background piece.

  “Welcome,” said a woman’s voice. “Just relax while we begin your Friction experience.”

  The voice was soft and soothing, crisp clear with a Skyfall accent.

  “You will now be lifted into the centre of the pod.”

  Lifted? Seckry thought. He looked around, but there was nothing to take a hold of him.

  Suddenly, Seckry found that his arms felt a lot lighter, and they were drifting up towards his head. Then he realised that his feet were parting with the glass sheen of the floor.

  He was floating.

  “Oh my Gedin!” Seckry said to himself.

  “Now that you are suspended in the air, Friction can fully emulate your surroundings. The first thing we will emulate is a floor.”

  There was a flicker of green light and a wire mesh appeared momentarily beneath him before transforming into a patch of grass.

  Seckry’s weight seemed to come back then, and he dropped onto it. The amazing thing was that this grass wasn’t confined to the pod, it seemed to stretch for miles in all directions. An illusion by the pod, no doubt, but an utterly convincing one.

  He ran his fingers through the grass and it felt cold and slightly wet and . . . real.

  “There we are,” the voice said reassuringly. “Now tell me your name.”

  “Seckry,” Seckry said, unsure of where to aim his voice. It didn’t seem to matter though, as the woman replied, “Hello Seckry.”

  “Hi,” Seckry said sheepishly, glancing all around him.

  “Let me tell you a little bit about Friction before we begin.”

  The Friction logo appeared in the sky.

  “Friction was invented twenty five years ago by design team WePlay, and has since become the world’s most popular video game. Players from all across the lands hold annual tournaments and championships in which teams of Friction players compete to represent their cities’ partitions.”

  A montage of video footage was being projected onto the sky. There were crowds cheering, flags being waved, and people holding giant cups and jumping in the air in slow motion.

  “The aim of the game is variable from match to match, but the most popular Friction format is the item mode. Players compete to collect items located in an area of land. A number of different items are usually available to collect, and many are hidden in hard to find places. Each item is worth a different amount of Friction points and the player with the most points at the end of the session wins. Sessions like this can be combative or non-combative.”

  The words ‘training level’ appeared accompanied by a map.

  “The best way to demonstrate this is by loading you into the training level and letting you play a test session.”

  There was a flash of white light, and Seckry found that he was now surrounded by not only the grass, but a whole environment of beautiful green scenery, the sound of running water, and the lovely smell of fresh flowers.

  “Welcome to Atoria,” the voice said. “Atoria is the official home of the Friction universe and our training session is set in the valley of the south. Let’s begin by looking at the items available in this land.”

  Objects began appearing in front of Seckry, floating and spinning slowly in the air.

  First a bunch of carrots, then a spoon, then a coin, an apple, a rock, and finally a shiny, golden harp.

  “These items are all located in this area and your goal will be to collect them. Once you have picked up an item, it will be added to your inventory. Are you ready to begin, Seckry?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Great. If at any point you would like to leave the game, just press the exit button on the left of your body. Now, take your time, and good luck!”

  A short, pinging sound signalled the start of the session.

  The first thing Seckry did was look down. His body was no longer his own, it was that of a wooden training dummy.

  He raised his right hand up to his face and flexed his fingers. He was amazed at how the little wooden corks opened and closed.

  So this was what it was like to be an avatar.

  The next thing Seckry did was test his movement. He moved forwards then backwards, strafed left then right, then spun around on the spot. He couldn’t get over the air. It felt as though he were actually in a valley. A butterfly flew past him, and he felt a slight breeze flap his right earlobe. Some serious programming had gone into this.

  The area was beautiful. There was a river behind him that was running out of a pool to his left, and splashing spectacularly into it was a small waterfall. To his right there was a cottage, with smoke coming from its chimney, and surrounding them were high cliffs and hills.

  He was immediately drawn to the pool with the waterfall. As he got closer to it, the gentle rumble of the water grew louder and he actually felt the spray of it tickling his face.

  Seckry wondered what would happen if he went into the pool. He leaned over the bank and saw the reflection of his avatar. He nudged a little bit closer to see if he could see anything below the surface and before he knew it, he had slipped in. He felt the coolness of the water as he went under, but fortunately he was still able to breathe. At least they’d left something up to the imagination.

  Instead, a blue bar had appeared in the top right corner of his vision indicating his oxygen levels, and it was decreasing very quickly. Seckry swam to the surface and bobbed in the water for a moment while his oxygen restored itself to its full amount.

  He was sure one of the items would be hiding at the bottom of the pool so he dived down a few times, scanning the bed before running out of oxygen agai
n and returning to the surface. After his fourth failed attempt he steered himself to the bank and clambered out. He’d try the little house instead.

  He stood up and shook his arms. He was drenched. Seckry took a moment to wonder how they were simulating the feeling of being wet so well. Was he wet in the real world? Had the pod filled with water?

  Luckily the sun was blazing and his wooden skin seemed to dry a lot quicker than his human skin.

  In the house, he was half expecting someone to be in there to greet him, but he found it empty, with a pan of water simmering gently on an old hob. To Seckry’s delight, there was a wooden spoon sitting in it just like the one that had appeared in front of him earlier. He lifted it out of the water, and as soon as he did so there was a triumphant bing and the spoon vanished from his hand. A small icon of the spoon then appeared in the top left corner of his vision, and seemed to be there continuously, even when he moved his head.

  It didn’t take Seckry long after that to find most of the other items. He found the apple hanging from a tree, the carrots growing behind the cottage, the coin in the pocket of some laundry, and the rock near the pool. All that was left for him to find was the golden harp.

  He scoured the whole area for it, and even dug up a patch of earth that seemed to be slightly raised from the ground, but there was nothing there, and Seckry plonked himself on the grass.

  He sat and thought about other places the harp could be hiding but he was completely stumped. The sound of the waterfall was soothing and it was only then did he realise that this Friction game had taken his mind far away from the trouble with Snibble and Natania, and had even made him forget about the physical pain in his limbs.

  After sitting and listening to the water and the chirruping of the birds in the trees, Seckry decided to leave the game and head home. He was enjoying it but he knew he should really be in bed resting his bruises.

  As Seckry reached down to press the exit button located on his waist, he noticed that the small laminated help sheet that Henrei had stuffed into his pocket was still with him, in a wooden pouch on his side.

  He took it out and examined it. All that was printed on it were reminders of the basic rules of different types of gameplay, but at the bottom there was a scrawl of black marker ink.

  Note to self: There’s a cave behind the waterfall!

  The waterfall! Of course. Another player had left a tip. Seckry stuffed the sheet back into his pouch, rushed to the pool once more, this time jumping in with a big splash, and made his way right into the heart of the gushing water.

  He emerged in a dark cave and there on the floor was the golden harp, glowing vibrant yellow and shimmering with reflections.

  He slapped his hand down on it and shouted, “Got it!”

  The Friction logo blasted into his vision and a victory fanfare started playing.

  “Congratulations, Seckry,” came the woman’s voice again. “You have successfully found all of the items and are well on your way to becoming a fantastic Friction player. You will now be taken to an options area where you will be able to try other modes of play and explore other lands.”

  Seckry thought he’d better start heading home but when the options area appeared, which was a room full of archways, there were two new lands, and he just couldn’t resist testing them out.

  One was called Mushroom Dwelling and had numerous different types of mushrooms to forage. Seckry had trouble finding one called the Boisterous Bubblecap, which was growing on the chimney of a cabin, but he was very pleased with himself when he managed to find the Shroom of Solomos which was a single, tiny white thing floating in the dew of a huge leaf.

  The other level was called Rocky Outcrop but Seckry’s experience there was cut short when he was trampled on by a Golboro, which seemed to be some kind of giant hippo. Luckily the simulation of being crushed consisted of just a little, mild pain along with his vision turning to red and the words ‘game over’ appearing in front of him.

  When he eventually hit the exit button on his waist, the simulation came to a halt, the pod’s glass interior came back into view, and the door popped open. He felt his feet land firmly on the pod’s floor and it seemed like he couldn’t possibly have done all that running around while suspended in mid air.

  “Thought you’d never come out!” said Henrei, who was reading a newspaper at his desk.

  “That was fun,” Seckry said. “It’s so . . . real in there. It’s like I was actually in that Atoria place.”

  “State of the art, I know. Hasn’t always been like that, mind you. Back when it first started there was none of this atmospheric simulation stuff.”

  Seckry handed Henrei back the help sheet.

  “Oh dear,” Henrei said. “I haven’t done it again? Tenk will have a fit. He wanted me to throw this sheet away. Wrote the notes on there himself when he first started but I’ve been handing it out to new players. He gets mad cause he says his secrets are being given away. Just don’t tell him you saw it.”

  At that moment Seckry’s phone vibrated in his pocket. It was a message from Tenk.

  Mate wot appened? U ok? They said u was in a fight!

  Seckry looked at his watch. School had just finished. He sent a reply.

  In the arcade. Meet me in here.

  While Seckry waited for Tenk, he had a go on one of the teddy cranes, and he just missed a bright blue bear with a little t-shirt on.

  “Oh, man!” Tenk said as he entered the arcade and saw Seckry’s bruises.

  “I know,” said Seckry, half smiling.

  “Was it Snibble?”

  “Yup.”

  Seckry told Tenk what had happened with Natania and how she’d led him to Snibble down the alleyway. Tenk shook his head furiously.

  “That guy’s gonna get it one day, I tell you. He thinks he can get away with it because everyone’s scared of his dad but, man . . . and that bloody girl as well . . .”

  “I just want to forget it now,” Seckry told him. He’d had enough of feeling sorry for himself.

  Tenk nodded.

  “I had my first go at Friction,” Seckry said, smiling.

  “You started without me!”

  “Well you guys were going on about it so much I couldn’t wait that long.”

  “Yeah, that’s understandable.” Tenk slapped one of the pods. “Can’t postpone Friction. When you gotta play you gotta play. Ain’t it, Henrei?”

  “Tell your mother that,” Henrei said, shaking his newspaper.

  Chapter Seven

  A Mysterious Proposition