City of Light

by J J Hane

  There was only one hope of escape, and it was just ahead.

  “The hospital?” Serenity gasped as she recognized the alley we had run through the first time we really met.

  “Window’s still broken,” I puffed, sliding to a stop by the room. I got out my knife, tried to pry the window open, failing after a couple of attempts. The third try worked. I held the window up for Serenity as she climbed in, then let her hold it for me. It fell shut again after me, hopefully buying us a little time.

  “Where to now?” she asked.

  “Underground,” I told her, breathing heavily. “There are a bunch of maintenance tunnels below the streets. Ab and I used to explore those when we found an access in the basement of my housing unit. It will at least give us a chance.”

  “Lead the way,” she said, her breath already slowing. I glared at her.

  “I should just leave you here,” I huffed.

  Serenity shrugged. “I’m guessing you’re kind of screwed already, so maybe you shouldn’t.”

  I kept glaring, but she was probably right. Anyway, there was no more time for discussion. I opened the door, peeked out into the hall. There were a few people out there, but everyone looked busy in a bored kind of way, so I walked calmly out, Serenity right behind me.

  My lungs felt like they were on fire as I tried desperately to breathe normally. If anyone noticed us, they might try to stop us or report us to the Martyrion Security Force. Serenity still had the stunner, as well as her knife. Things could get ugly if she felt cornered.

  The slow walk to the at the end of the hall took roughly three weeks or so as we passed two or three hospital staff. No one paid any further attention to us. When we reached the stairwell we walked boldly inside, then took the steps three at a time to the basement of the medical center. It was significantly cooler, reminding me that the morgue was on the floor somewhere. I wasn’t sure how many dead bodies would be on hand, but I was eager to avoid joining them.

  It took longer than I expected to find the access to the maintenance tunnels. It was a simple metal door in a storage room being used for linens, opening in to reveal a dark, dry hallway with a downward sloping floor.

  Serenity eyed the entrance before looking at me. “After you, city boy.”

  “There’s nothing to be afraid of down here,” I assured her. I wasn’t entirely confident of that statement, but it felt good to talk down to her, for once.

  I’m the model of mature behavior.

  Chapter 15

  I led the way down the dark tunnel, sloping deeper beneath the city. After a few sharp turns, it opened out into a slightly wider walkway that ran along a big grouping of pipes, each as thick as I am tall. The tunnel itself was perfectly round, with the enormous pipes and other conduits running through the center and our walkway taking up only a small portion of the side. Glowing panels provided limited illumination just like in the shaft in the tower.

  We walked quickly, staying in the main tunnel for a while before I led us down smaller branches. Ab and I knew the tunnels pretty well, despite the fact that they were supposed to be off-limits. Maybe it was because they were off-limits that Ab had been so interested in exploring them. Whatever the reason, it served us well as we headed toward the outskirts of the city, aiming to get as close to the wall as possible.

  “Unbelievable,” Serenity said without warning. The sudden breaking of silence startled me, making me stumble.

  “What?” I asked irritably.

  “Even your underground tunnels are clean here.” She shook her head. “Of all the things to spend time and energy on, you people want to clean your tunnels.”

  I started to tell her that we had air purifiers and automated sweepers that took care of most of that for us, before I realized that admitting to that would just prove her point. How much effort had it taken to set up the systems that would keep dust to a minimum? Probably more than it would have taken to set up a way to distribute medicine to the tribes nearby.

  “What are you going to do when we get out of here?” I asked her at last. “I’m guessing the whole ‘Azrael is a bad guy and I just want to hide in your city’ thing you told me yesterday was a lie.”

  Serenity shrugged. I heard her inhale sharply from pain. “Mostly. I really was thinking about leaving it all behind, but… There are people who need me back home. People who need the kinds of medicine your city has been keeping to itself. Azrael will force the Council to help us. And if not, then at least we can live under the open sky without worrying about the Archangel burning us off the face of the earth.”

  “You heard them, though,” I insisted. “They’re just going to burn your settlement to the ground anyway. The Council is afraid now. People do stupid stuff when they’re afraid.”

  Serenity shook her head. “People do stupid stuff for all kinds of reasons. Besides, they have time.”

  I wasn’t sure if she meant her people or mine. Either way, she didn’t sound as certain as she wanted to.

  We turned down a narrow passage barely wide enough for us to walk side-by-side. “So how is he going to convince the Council, then?”

  “How should I know?” she asked. “He doesn’t tell anyone anything. All I know is, a few years ago he said he was going to unite the tribes to stop the constant fighting over resources. He did it.”

  I thought about how he had treated Brandon, the leader of one of the other tribes. If that was his method of ending conflict, I wondered if maybe the Council would be right to strike first.

  The image of a melted, burning mall entered uninvited into my consciousness. Azrael, Margot, others who had lived and thrived on war; they would all be destroyed, likely before they realized what was happening. Maybe they would deserve it.

  Then I thought of the group of little children I had played with. I thought of what the Archangel could do to their tiny, helpless bodies if it was used for destruction rather than creation. Even if the children were far enough away to survive the strike, their parents, such as they were, would be dead. They would be even worse off than before, dying in the cold winter that was just around the corner, or being kidnapped by other tribes and used for labor or as soldiers, or worse.

  I remembered my first thought when I had seen the little kids, how it could easily have been me there with the diseases and hunger. Maybe I would have grown up to be like Azrael. Maybe Azrael had started out as just a kid like me.

  “I don’t think Azrael understands the situation,” I told her. “He might have some sort of help from inside the city, but our tech is way more complicated than he gets, I think.”

  Serenity looked uncomfortable at that thought.

  “Where did he get the belief that taking out our spy satellites would take out the Archangel? They’re two totally different things.”

  “I’m sure he knows,” she said, forging indignation into her tone.

  I decided it would be better not to argue the point with her. “We have to warn your people that the Council is going to act soon.”

  Serenity glanced at me. There was suspicion in her voice when she spoke, along with something else. Maybe a little bit of hope? “We? Don’t you think maybe you should stay home, try to get out of this mess?”

  “People are about to start dying,” I replied. “I’m not going to just sit by and let it happen. That’s the whole reason I brought the medicine to your people, after all.”

  At last, we reached the hatch I had been looking for. A ladder fastened to the wall led up to a heavy metal square, hinged on one side with a handle on the other. I climbed up, pushed the hatch open, and slipped into the agricorps warehouse. Serenity followed, looking around curiously at all the various farming equipment stored in the big room. Cautiously approaching the small side entry door, I opened it, peered out, and then motioned for Serenity to follow. The alley beside the warehouse was empty, and we snuck around to the front of the building.

  “This doesn’t look good,” Serenity muttered. Out in the courtyard there were about twe
nty people just standing around, chatting and looking nervous while two security officers were patrolling the area, stunners in hand. “How are we going to get past them?”

  “We need some kind of diversion, I think.” I tried to think of something that would work. If we could cause some sort of explosion…

  I sighed. That wouldn’t work. I had no idea how to create an explosion, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to risk damaging anything or hurting anyone. I had definitely been watching too many archived movies with Ab.

  Fortunately for us, a distraction presented itself moments later in the form of my best friend.

  We were still looking at the courtyard when I heard footsteps behind us. I spun, ready to throw a punch, narrowly avoiding hitting Abishai in the face. He backpedaled, holding up both hands.

  “Whoa there, killer,” he whispered.

  “Ab? What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in class?”

  Abishai glared at Serenity. “There was some big fuss during programming, and Mr. Holt got called out of class. Since I didn’t see you this morning, I figured this… girl… had gotten you into trouble somehow. I assumed you would come here if you were trying to get out of the city.”

  Serenity glared back at him. “So why are you here?”

  “To help my friend get away from the psycho-killer girl who’s ruining his life,” Ab shot back. “Unlike you, I actually care about what happens to Raph.”

  “Guys,” I interrupted. “This is not a good time to be arguing.”

  Ab folded his arms sullenly. “So, what happened, Raph?”

  I chewed the inside of my lip, trying to decide how best to reply. “Serenity did something bad,” I finally told him. “Because of what she did, the Council is going to start destroying the tribes.” I took a deep breath. “We have to warn them, or they’ll all die.”

  Abishai rubbed his temples like he had a headache. “Okay, let me get this straight: this girl conned you into bringing her into the city, sabotaged something that made the Council angry enough to use the Archangel, and is now trying to escape to warn her people so they can do whatever it is they’re trying to do to bring down the whole city. And, and, you want to help her?”

  “I wouldn’t put it quite like that…”

  “You’ve lost your mind!” Ab nearly shouted. “That’s it: I’m turning you in. It’s for your own good.”

  Serenity stepped forward, planting her feet in front of the tall boy. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

  “What-” Ab began, but Serenity grabbed his arm, twisting it painfully behind his back before he could stiffen, putting the point of her knife against the base of his skull.

  “Time to get moving,” she told me.

  My mouth dropped open. “Serenity! Let him go!”

  “Nope.” Serenity pushed him forward, guiding him out into the bright light of the courtyard by virtue of the tip of her blade digging into the back of his neck.

  It took everyone a moment to realize what was happening as Serenity nudged Abishai roughly toward one of the hoversleds. Admittedly, the sight was a little absurd. Abishai’s height and muscular frame meant that he was a lot bigger than his captor. It probably took a little longer for anyone to comprehend the scene for the simple fact that nobody expected it. Aside from the mortal danger, it was almost funny how people stopped what they were doing, one by one, to look at us with totally bewildered expressions.

  When the security officers did finally take notice, they reacted slowly, as if they weren’t sure that they were really seeing what their eyes were telling them. Serenity had nearly reached the closest hoversled by the time the first guard, a woman whose name I could never remember, gave a shout of alarm to her partner.

  “Hold it right there!” the woman shouted, taking aim at Serenity with her stunner. The other guard started pushing people out of his way to get a better shot.

  I dashed forward, waving my arms, calling out for everyone to calm down, hold on, don’t shoot. Anything to slow everybody down, keep things from getting any worse. “Serenity, let him go!” I commanded, sliding to a stop a foot away from her. Evidently, my entrance had shocked the security officers nearly as much as it had shocked me, as neither of them spoke right away. I guess MSF training didn’t cover that scenario.

  “I’m sorry, Raph,” Serenity replied. I couldn’t see her face, as she kept her body small and tight behind Ab, using him as a shield. Her tone sounded sincere. I might have been inclined to believe her if she wasn’t holding my best friend hostage.

  I held my hands out in front of me, palms up to show that I was unarmed, that I meant no harm as I walked closer to my friend and my… whatever she was to me.

  “Get back, kid,” the female guard ordered, slowly circling around to catch Serenity in a crossfire. “This girl’s dangerous. She’s one of the savages.”

  “Please, Serenity,” I said, quieter this time. “Nobody has to get hurt here.”

  “That’s not entirely true,” she replied, backing up a little closer to the hoversled. She peeked out from behind Abishai just enough to look me in the eyes while she ordered, “get on.”

  “What?” Man, I hated repeating that word so often.

  “Get on the hoversled. Turn it on.”

  “Okay, okay,” I assured her. I carefully walked around her to get on the vehicle.

  “Get back!” the guard ordered again. Every eye in the courtyard was on us.

  “Nobody needs to get hurt,” I said again, loud enough for everyone to hear me.

  “Turn it on!” Serenity repeated, her voice tight. “Don’t make me hurt this idiot.”

  “Hey,” Ab complained.

  The female guard was closing in on Serenity. His eyes flicked up to me. “Get down from there NOW!”

  I switched the hoversled on, felt it rise a little off the ground as its engine hummed to life. “Okay, it’s on. Now let him go.”

  The guards, it seemed, did not want to risk letting Serenity get away with the hoversled. The woman fired her stunner, hitting Abishai square in the chest. His body seized roughly, causing him to collapse. When he started to fall, though, Serenity already had her own stunner ready. She depressed the little button, sending a charge into the guard ahead of her before the woman could fire again. The woman’s eyes widened in surprise just before the burst paralyzed her. Serenity spun, hopped up onto the hoversled, and pointed her stunner at my chest. The other guard, who had still been trying to circle around, started running to get a good shot.

  “Sorry, Raph,” Serenity said, although this time I wasn’t sure she meant it. She pressed the button, sending a charge into my body.

  It felt like every muscle in my body simultaneously tore itself in half. For an instant, every nerve caught fire, my vision blanked out despite my eyes still being open, and the only sound I could hear was a roaring, rushing noise that might have been my own heartbeat. I didn’t realize I had fallen forward until my eyesight returned after a few seconds of the unexpected agony.

  It took me a moment to understand why the world had suddenly gone brown and fuzzy. Evidently, as soon as she stunned me Serenity had grabbed my arm, pulling my stiff body against her to use as a shield against any subsequent stunner blasts. I could hear the hoversled engine whining as we picked up speed, wind whipping across us as we jetted out over the fields.

  “Sorry to do that to you,” Serenity said over her shoulder as she drove. Her face was mere inches from my own. Under different circumstances, I would have found that to be intimidating. Given that all of my muscles were knotted painfully, it was mostly just irritating. “I needed someone to cover my back.”

  She laughed at her own joke, forcing the throttle forward on the hoversled. The ride was smooth, and after a moment she let me drop to the floor where I could stare helplessly up at the sky. I tried to speak, to scold her for what she had done, but my mouth wouldn’t open, my tongue wouldn’t move, and I’m fairly certain I would have drowned in my own saliva if I could have got my th
roat to open enough to make sounds.

  We were nearly at the edge of the field when a beam of light flashed into brief existence above me, accompanied by a loud hiss that sounded something like a cross between dropping water on a hot surface and the static that came over old radios. An instant later, there was a bang from some part of the hoversled, a shout of surprise from Serenity, and the whole vehicle started jerking back and forth.

  “What the-” Serenity began, but she was cut off by another flash and hiss. I wanted to tell her that we were being shot at by Security and their solar rifles, that the bright beams of light that had just hit our vehicle were like tiny versions of the Archangel’s own fire, but all I could do was sort of hum a little, and that was out of tune. The hoversled started making some very unfriendly sounds, drowning out the little noises I was creating.

  “Hang on, city boy,” Serenity called over her shoulder. “We’re almost there.”

  A third hissing flash appeared, this time followed by Serenity’s yelp of pain. The hoversled jerked roughly to one side, the front left corner striking the ground. The machine narrowly avoiding flipping, which probably saved my life, instead yanking itself back on course. The engine let out a roaring growl, something I’d never heard those machines make before, and slammed hard into the ground, back end first. It slid for a few feet before dropping the rounded front, power gone out of its lifts. The hoversled slid a few more feet, crunching over glass and broken earth, caught something, and tipped over onto its side, dropping me helplessly onto the ground.

  The engine cut off, leaving me staring at the crashed vehicle from my helpless vantage point on the ground. I could see three round, glowing holes where the beams had burned into the control console and the engine compartment. A sizzling liquid was oozing from one of the holes, probably from a burst battery pack.