Solace Within

by Gavin Zanker

  ‘Sounds like maybe she was sick.’

  Leigh frowned. ‘You mean like plague?’

  ‘No, I mean… never mind.’ Aiden rested his head back down on his pack. ‘Was your mum the one that put that brand on your back?’

  Leigh was silent for a moment. ‘That was Val,’ she said. ‘She burned me when I wouldn’t do what she said. She did it to a few others in the house who got on her bad side too. I think she’s just a horrible person that likes to hurt people.’

  ‘You should get some sleep,’ Aiden said, not wanting to be in this conversation anymore.

  He closed his eyes and tried to rest. He would need his energy for the trip into Kiln Commons tomorrow, and after that the dangerous journey south to the city.

  As he was drifting into sleep, he felt Leigh crawl under the shelter, her jacket rustling as she inched up alongside him. The physical contact with another person made him uneasy, but she had been through a lot and he knew she was cold so he decided to let her be.

  Saving her had been a stupid decision on his part. He had been lucky not to get himself into trouble. He was glad he hadn’t left her behind though, not with the way she had been treated. While her company was irritating, at least he only had to put up with her until tomorrow, then he would drop her off in Kiln Commons and she would be someone else’s problem.

  CHAPTER 3

  AIDEN WOKE WITH a rock digging into his spine. He crawled out from the shelter and stretched his aching back. Leigh, her dark hair askew, was already awake and sitting crossed-legged on a rock by the stream, scratching Hitch’s ears.

  ‘Morning,’ she said with too much energy.

  Aiden grunted at her and wandered a short distance from the camp. He relieved himself against a tree, enjoying deep lungfuls of the crisp morning air. He stared off to the west where the only movements were the heather and trees stirring in the wind. It seemed the Red Hill Vipers had given up the chase.

  As he returned to camp, he found Leigh rooting through his pack. ‘Hey,’ he shouted, striding forward and wrenching the bag from her grasp. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

  ‘I was only looking,’ she said. ‘You have some cool stuff. What’s Pro-ject Sol-ace?’ she asked, sounding out the words as she read them from a sheet of paper.

  Aiden snatched the document away from her. ‘What’s the matter with you? Didn’t you ever learn not to touch what doesn’t belong to you?’

  ‘I didn’t think you’d mind since we’re friends now.’ Leigh held up a CD which sparkled in the morning light. ‘What’s this shiny thing? It makes pretty colours.’

  ‘First off,’ Aiden said, wrenching that away from her too, ‘don’t you ever touch my stuff, understand? And second, we’re not friends. The deal was we part ways as soon as I get you to town, remember?’

  Leigh’s smile faded. ‘I just thought you’d change your mind once we got to know each other. You could teach me how to be strong like you, and then I-’

  ‘I don’t need friends. Friends get you killed. And honestly, I don’t have the time or the patience to babysit a kid.’

  ‘I’m not a kid,’ Leigh said, her tone defiant as she stood and traipsed away to lean against a nearby tree.

  ‘I saved your life yesterday,’ Aiden muttered as he repacked his belongings. ‘Why are you doing this to me?’

  ‘Want me to help?’ Leigh asked as she watched him.

  ‘Just stay out of the way.’

  ‘Whatever you say,’ she said with a sigh. Hitch padded over to her and yawned widely. She knelt down to pat his head. ‘Are we going to eat? I think your dog is hungry.’

  ‘No,’ Aiden said, not wanting to wait around to eat breakfast despite his empty stomach. The quicker he got rid of her the better. ‘And I already told you, his name is Hitch.’

  Aiden left her to pout and rolled up his blanket to pack it away. As he collapsed the shelter, scattering the branches around until it looked like no one had been there, he recalled the conversation from the previous night. With her parents murdered, Leigh was truly alone now, and the brand on her back showed the unjustified abuse she had suffered as a prisoner. By the time he finished clearing the camp, he felt his irritation giving way to sympathy, along with a side of guilt for snapping at her.

  ‘Right, let’s get going,’ he said, fastening and shouldering his pack. ‘We’re not too far from town. We should get there within a couple of hours.’

  ‘Right,’ Leigh chirped, jumping up. ‘You lead, I follow.’

  Aiden pulled on his sunglasses and shook his head. Her enthusiasm seemed to be endless, to the point where she couldn’t even sulk for more than a few minutes.

  They trekked east towards the rising sun, crossing fields and rocky trails. Hitch bounded through the dew-covered heather, panting happily as he chased rabbits, kicking up the sweet scent of the plants.

  ‘I’m sorry for going through your things,’ Leigh said after a while, breaking the peaceful silence. ‘I didn’t mean to annoy you.’

  ‘You should be more careful,’ Aiden said, readjusting the strap on his pack. ‘One day you’ll annoy the wrong person, and then you’ll regret it.’

  ‘But not you though, you already said you aren’t going to kill me.’

  Aiden glanced over to see her grinning up at him, her wonky front teeth showing. He admitted she was cute in her own way. Still irritating though.

  ‘Well, the day is young,’ he said.

  Leigh pushed him playfully before dashing ahead. He frowned, confused at how the girl fell into friendship so easily. Naturally good-natured and wholly too trusting, he supposed she wasn’t old enough for the world to have crushed her spirit yet.

  After a couple of hours walking they came upon the outskirts of Kiln Commons. Aiden called Hitch to heel and they followed the broken asphalt of the roads through old industrial estates, passing dilapidated warehouses and crumbling brickwork. Not many people lived on the edge of town, and the area was eerily silent. Occasionally a ragged homeless kid would see them coming and scuttle out of sight.

  It wasn’t long before they neared the populated centre of town, and the ghostly industrial buildings gave way to houses and busy streets. Aiden decided he would send Leigh off with breakfast from one of the traders in the market. It was the least he could do for the girl before moving on.

  AIDEN FELT A RUSH of adrenaline as he laid eyes on the two men swaggering along the centre of the road up ahead. His gut told him that these two were trouble even before he noticed the bright red cloth tied around their biceps that identified them as Crimson Wolves, the largest and most infamous gang in town. As they neared, there was a moment of tense silence as Aiden sensed the men staring. He wasn’t looking for trouble today, so he put his head down and just kept walking. One of the thugs barked an insult and sniggered, but otherwise they passed without incident.

  ‘Keep up will you?’ Aiden snapped at Leigh, his irritation from the encounter showing. ‘If you fall behind I’m not coming back for you.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ Leigh asked, trying to keep up with Aiden’s longer strides.

  ‘To see an old acquaintance.’

  ‘An acquaintance? You mean like a friend?’

  ‘If you like.’

  ‘I had friends,’ Leigh said, her tone upbeat. ‘I had lots of them. They used to keep me company at night. We’d sit and play games together and tell each other stories.’

  ‘Real or imaginary?’ Aiden said glancing back at the way they had come before turning and leading them onto a wide road.

  After a moment he realised Leigh had fallen uncharacteristically silent. He turned to see her looking down, her chin-length hair falling across most of her face.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

  She peered up at him with a faded look in her brown eyes. ‘You really want to know?’

  ‘I asked didn’t I?’

  ‘I made them up. I don’t have any real friends.’

  ‘So what’s the big deal?’ Aiden said,
scratching his eye. ‘People make things up all the time.’

  ‘I made them up because I wanted a real friend. I just wanted someone to talk to and play with. I mean, I don’t really have anything to share except some toys I made myself from sticks and wires, but I do have lots to talk about.’

  ‘Don’t I know it,’ Aiden said coming to a stop. ‘Look, I get it. You’re lonely. Everyone gets lonely.’

  ‘Even you?’

  Aiden sighed and looked away, seeing a hooded man in ragged clothes limping away on the other side of the road. ‘Everyone gets lonely,’ he repeated, watching the man slowly make his way along the pavement. ‘That’s what happens when you lose people who are important to you.’

  ‘I thought you might want to be my friend,’ Leigh said, her eyes starting to glisten.

  Aiden rubbed his stubbled face. He wasn’t equipped to deal with this. ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘we’ll make this stop then I’ll buy you some breakfast. Maybe it’ll take your mind off things.’

  They continued down the street, and Aiden found himself wondering why this girl had latched on to him. He had done nothing to encourage her, and he didn’t think of himself as particularly likeable. Especially not to kids. The emotional manipulation she was pulling on him, even though it was no doubt unconscious on her part, was starting to aggravate him and he found himself looking forward to solitude again.

  They came at last to the tower flats Aiden was looking for: two buildings, each rising up six stories and housing their own ecosystem of residents, shops, dealers, and gangs. There was an old rivalry between the two buildings, and kids with something to prove would often meet in the separating road to brawl for their reputation.

  Making for the slightly smaller Gallico building, Aiden passed through the car park littered with burned out wrecks. He ignored the clusters of teenagers stood around watching him from under dark hoods. The outer security door leading into the building had long since broken and was propped open with a brick. The glass was cracked, yet somehow still clinging to the frame in one piece.

  Aiden let Hitch through then stepped inside with Leigh following. The walls, which probably started as white, now oozed a dirty yellow colour from age and cigarette smoke.

  ‘Hello, friend,’ a voice called out excitedly.

  Aiden turned to see a hunched man wearing a thick woollen cap approaching along the corridor, tapping his fingers together as he walked.

  ‘You looking for ward against illness?’ the man asked, ‘or maybe potion to make you popular with ladies?’

  ‘No thanks,’ Aiden said shaking his head.

  ‘Quality charms, here see?’ The man held up a deep red-brown stone. ‘Belonged to an old king who was never ill. Protect you from all disease.’

  ‘Not interested,’ Aiden repeated, recognising the stone as a simple tiger’s eye gem. Superstition was for the ignorant or the desperate.

  ‘Low prices. Come, come see,’ the man said taking another step forward.

  Aiden pulled his jacket up to flash his pistol. The hunched man curled up his lip and waved his hand dismissively, then wandered back along the corridor muttering to himself. Looking back, Aiden saw Hitch sniffing around the broken lift while Leigh peered in through the jammed-open doors. A light flickered inside and a musty stench of stale smoke and urine drifted out.

  ‘Leigh,’ he said. She turned to him, her nose wrinkled up at the smell. ‘We’re heading up to the fourth floor. Don’t touch anything. You steal around here and someone will dangle you off the roof by your ankles. So unless you want to end up a pancake on the concrete, you keep your hands to yourself. Got it?’

  ‘Got it,’ she said with wide eyes as she glanced out through the cracked window of the outer door.

  Aiden turned and started climbing the stairs. The stairwell smelled no better than the lift and the soles of his boots stuck to most of the steps. He tensed as he rounded each corner, expecting to come across a strung-out addict waiting to jump any passer-bys.

  They emerged onto the fourth floor where the corridor branched left and right. Flats lined the dingy corridors, thick wooden doors with peep-holes and numbers scratched in to them. Most were ajar and Aiden caught sight of boot prints on many of them.

  He turned left with Hitch at his heel and Leigh following close behind. The corridor was anything but empty as people lounged around on crates and old furniture. He passed a tattered blue sofa with ripped fabric and stains that looked filthier than the grime streaked floor. Two women sat on it, lost in their conversation as they kicked their legs.

  ‘It looks darling, I’m so jealous,’ one said as she touched the other’s partly shaved head.

  ‘Yeah, it’s all the style down in the city at the moment,’ the other said sticking her chin out. ‘Tanya cut it for me after I traded her some of those oats Johnny brought home last week.’

  ‘Aren’t you worried he’ll give you a good hiding when he finds out?’

  ‘Not when he sees how gorgeous I look.’

  The conversation halted as Aiden passed, and the two women glared at him. He ignored them, knowing all strangers here were treated with suspicion. The chances of any actual violence were slim though, as long as you kept your mouth shut and caused no trouble.

  ‘When’s mummy coming home?’ a child’s voice asked, drifting out of an ajar door.

  ‘I don’t know, buddy,’ a man said. ‘Here, why don’t you play with your fire truck some more. I’m just going out to get some air, I won’t be long.’

  The door swung open and a gaunt looking man with a rough beard stepped out in to the corridor. Aiden noticed the redness surrounding the man’s eyes and the defeated slump in his rounded shoulders as he leaned back against the wall and clasped his face.

  Aiden moved on, coming at last to the door he was looking for. A crude hand-painted sign was nailed onto the door at an angle which read, ‘James Assorted Produce.’

  THE INDOOR GARDEN was uncomfortably hot, the air heavy with moisture and the scent of earth. Brickwork still showed where a wall had been knocked through to combine two rooms into one. There was still little space though, with rows of pots and tables everywhere, all covered with greenery. The solitary man with the shoulder length grey hair looked up at Aiden’s arrival.

  ‘Oh, it’s you Aiden. Here for your yearly visit?’ he asked.

  ‘Hello James,’ Aiden said, glancing around the place as he unshouldered his pack and removed his field jacket. ‘Has it been that long already?’

  ‘Usually is,’ James said, peering closely at a sprouting plant and misting it with his spray bottle. ‘What brings you around here then, another batch of seeds?’

  Leigh stepped out from behind Aiden and James' face darkened. ‘No no no, get out of here you little troublemaker! I’ve had it with you lot, there’s nothing for you to pinch here.’

  Leigh froze, her curiosity changing to wide-eyed fear at the outburst. She looked ready to dart back out through the door.

  ‘It’s all right,’ Aiden said. ‘She’s with me.’

  James creased his brow as he put down the spray bottle. ‘Well aren’t you just full of surprises. I didn’t think you were the type to have a kid, let alone drag one around with you. I figured it would just be you and that dog of yours until the day you died.’

  ‘She’s not my kid. I stumbled over her and… well,’ Aiden glanced at Leigh who grinned up at him, ‘she’s hard to shake.’

  ‘Can I have a drink?’ she asked.

  ‘Side pocket,’ Aiden said, gesturing to his pack.

  ‘You don’t mind me getting it?’

  Aiden shook his head, but kept an eye on her as she pulled out the canteen. Hitch sniffed around his pack, hungry for more of the roasted meat still stashed inside.

  ‘Hi,’ Leigh said, unscrewing the cap of the canteen and taking a sip as she approached the gardener. ‘You’re James, right?’

  ‘That’s right,’ James grumbled.

  ‘I’m Leigh.’

  ‘Of cour
se you are.’

  ‘Can I look around?’

  James’ pale eyes focused on her from under his untamed eyebrows. ‘As long as you look with your eyes and not your grubby little fingers. I had a few carrots go walkabouts yesterday.’

  ‘Problems with the residents?’ Aiden asked leaning against a table and folding his arms.

  ‘Bloody kids are always looking to cause trouble around here. At least they could eat the stuff instead of throwing it off the roof.’ James shook his head and tutted. ‘Complete waste.’

  ‘Well, at least there’re no raiders to deal with. Or worse, more Ravagers.’

  James grunted. ‘If you say so.’

  ‘What, you think they’re still out there?’

  ‘Those savages might not have been seen around here for a few years, but if I were a betting man I’d say they’re still out there somewhere, biding their time.’

  Aiden watched Leigh as she wandered between the rows of plants with Hitch trailing. She sipped from the canteen as she went, studying the plants with interest.

  Aiden stepped closer to James. ‘Do the Sisters of Grace still run that orphanage in town?’ he asked, keeping his voice low.

  James glanced over his shoulder at the girl. ‘Looking to offload your little problem?’ he said, matching Aiden’s volume. ‘Last I heard they still operated out of that old glue factory behind the market.’

  ‘A glue factory to house orphans. There’s a sad joke in there somewhere.’ Aiden scratched at his stubbled cheek. ‘I have no idea what else to do with her. At least she’ll have a chance there.’

  ‘As good as any I suppose.’

  ‘You’re not looking for help around here at all?’

  ‘Hah, do I look like I need a kid clogging the place up?’ James said, picking up the spray bottle again and continuing along the table. ‘I have enough problems as it is.’

  Aiden ran a finger over the deep, vibrant leaves of a young strawberry plant. James was a gifted gardener and Aiden had always envied the man’s talent with plants.