by P. J. Sky
The guard began scrambling back up the hill towards the dam.
Gingerly, Starla worked her way out of the cave, each movement hurting a different part of her body. She peered up the hill. The sunlight caught the guard’s helmet before it disappeared over the brow. Cautiously, and following the path the guard had taken, she too began to climb the hill.
∆∆∆
Ari surfaced, gasping, and scrabbled desperately at the warm water. Ahead, she saw the dam open up like a giant metal jaw. The air was torn apart by the painful sound of twisting metal, while the heavy current dragged her towards the open mouth of the dam.
Tension rose in her gut; a hot, heavy feeling surging towards her fingertips. She clawed with open hands at the water.
Come on, she told herself. Starla could do this. Starla could jump in the water and swim. I can do this too.
But the hard water dragged her forwards, while she flailed, trying to keep her head above the waves.
Ahead, a huge section of what had just recently been the walkway hung down into the water.
Ari tried to manoeuvre herself toward it but before she could manage this she was already on it. Her body thumped against its hard surface. She tired to grab at it; its metal edges scraped at her fingertips and she kept on moving.
The torn edges of the dam rose up around her.
She caught hold of a rusty handrail.
She gripped it hard, then the powerful water engulfed her and she was underwater. Submerged, her ears bunged. The warm water clawed at her body, trying to drag her on. Her heart thumped faster as she felt her fingers being prised from the handrail.
She screamed into the water and dragged herself forward, increasing her grip. She tugged at the handrail, getting both hands on it.
Come on she told herself, you have do this.
The rail twisted in her hands but she kept on pulling, one hand after another, summoning her every ounce of strength. Her head broke the surface. She turned her face from the current and it dragged heavily on her neck. Her muscles seared and the top of her right arm stung to the bone. She got her feet on the platform and dragged herself up, out of the water.
The platform shuddered and creaked, at any moment ready to give way and join the rest of the dam down river. Ari cried out and pulled herself up the platform. One hand in front of the other, slipping on the wet metal, close to the top the walkway was almost vertical. Legs dangling in the air, she dragged herself the last few feet to the top, her right arm screaming, and rolled over the edge onto the solid ground where she lay gasping. Staring up at the pale blue sky, her whole body shuddered and her hands felt like they’d been stripped of their skin.
Then a bloody hand reached over the edge of the embankment and grabbed her.
Chapter 33
The bloody arm tugged at Ari’s waste. She was dragged right to the edge of the riverbank. She reached into the sheath on her ankle and pulled out her blade. The fingers clawed at her. Over the edge, she saw Max’s twisted grimace. Half his face was seared away and his eyes bulged. She tried to twist from his grip. His fingers clung to her vest. She raised the blade.
“Don’t move.” The first guard was moving quickly down the hill, his gun raised at Ari. The second guard was moving from the other direction along the riverbank, his gun also raised.
Ari held the blade above Max’s throat. He gurgled, his eyes meeting hers.
Starla appeared at the top of the hill. “Stop,” she cried.
The second guard swung his gun and levelled it with Starla.
Starla raised her hands.
Ari gasped. “Kill me an’ he dies too.” She lowered the blade to Max’s larynx.
Starla stumbled down the hill, her arms still raised. “I’ll do what you say, just don’t shoot her.”
Briefly, they all looked at each other; Ari with the blade over Max’s throat, the first guard with his gun on Ari, the second guard with his gun on Starla. A warm breeze flowed along the riverbank. The water, surging and splashing down in the river, was beginning to calm. Somewhere, a bird squawked.
Then, as if from the sky, a spear burst through the first guard’s chest.
The guard dropped his gun and collapsed to his knees, impaled midway along the length of the spear, which now protruded through his sternum, ending at a bloody point. Ari, Max and the second guard all turned to look at him. The guard’s body shook, his arms outstretched, his helmet gazing upwards. Briefly, he looked as if he might be praying to the eternal baking sun, the merciless true ruler of the wasteland. And then he fell forwards and was still. The end of the spear had propped him upright. Slowly, his body began to slide down the shaft.
Ari turned back to Max and raised her eyebrows. She drove the blade into his neck. He rasped, as if trying to say something, and he released his hand from her vest. Sliding off her blade, he dropped into the rolling water below.
Gasping, Ari rolled over and looked up at the second guard.
The guard took a step backwards and swept his gun between Ari and Starla.
Ari looked about herself and then carefully got to her feet. Her blade was covered in blood and her hands were shaking. Her whole body ached. She looked at the guard. “Figure it’s up to you now.”
The guard stood motionless. Then he lowered his gun and dropped it on the ground. Slowly, he undid his helmet and lifted it over his head. Underneath was a boy with sandy blonde hair and tired, frightened eyes that were notably brown. He dropped the helmet and raised his arms.
“I only wanted to save Miss Corinth.”
Chapter 34
Starla dropped her arms and stumbled the rest of the way down. From the other side of the hill appeared the tanned, gangly figure of Doug, his eyeglasses glinting in the sunlight. The guard watched Doug warily as the Angu man came to the edge of the riverbank and inspected the destroyed dam.
Ari stepped forward and took the gun from the guard’s feet.
The guard was shaking. “Please,” he said. “I’m just here to rescue the mayor’s daughter.”
“Well,” said Ari, “Ya gotta strange way a’ goin’ about it.”
“Please.” He looked at Starla. “I am only loyal to your father.”
Doug pulled the long spear from the other guard’s chest.
Starla looked at the guard. There was something familiar about him. “My father sent you?”
“No, I am assigned to the Panache family. But when I saw what Max was doing I knew I had to try to help you. Please…” He looked back at Ari. “You have my gun.”
Ari looked at Starla then back at the guard. “What’s ya name?”
“I’m Guardsman Janus.”
Ari indicated to Starla. “Ya know ‘im?”
Starla studied the guard carefully. “You were at the party.”
The guard nodded.
“You tried to warn me.”
“I had to try.”
“I think he’s okay,” said Starla. “Can you get us back to the city?”
The guard looked over the riverbank. Downstream, in the middle of the river, was the wreckage of the aircraft. One wing and a hunk of black fuselage protruded from the water. “Well, I can’t get you there in that.”
“But we can walk?” said Ari.
The guard nodded. “Yes.”
“She comes too,” said Starla, indicating to Ari.
The guard gulped nervously and nodded.
Ari turned to Doug. “What about you? Where ya gonna go?”
Doug scrunched his eyebrows together and looked towards the sky. His eyes bulged beneath his eyeglasses. “I’ll go back to the village.”
Starla turned to him. “I’m sorry about Jirra and Koora.”
Doug sighed. “They’ll be right. Jirra and Koora will return to the earth. No one really dies, it’s all a cycle. An’ we destroyed the dam. The river will flow the way it should now, just as Maka wants it. Maka has a plan, ya know.” He looked at Starla. “A plan for you I think. Back in Alice.”
“I’
m sorry anyway,” said Starla. And she really was. Seeing Jirra and Koora gunned down had been entirely senseless. These people had helped her, in ways no one had done before.
Ari turned back to the guard and raised the gun.
“Alright then, Guardsman Janus. Let’s get goin’. Maybe we’ll make the city by sundown.”
Chapter 35
At dusk, within the city’s high walls, lights like landlocked stars had started to appear among the jagged skyscrapers. From their rocky outcrop, Starla, Ari and Janus watched the multi-coloured lights blinking into existence across this sealed forest of steel and glass. It was as if, for too long, the city had been unable to grow in any other direction but upwards. It was a city seemingly desperate to escape the barren world with which it was tethered.
Between them and the city, the plain had dried to powdery talc, void of all moisture, its only feature the shallow channel of the barren riverbed.
When Starla had first caught glimpse of the city, a series of shimmering towers, glinting far off in the open sun, her heart had leapt. By this point, she was sure she was close to collapsing from exhaustion. A deep pain throbbed in her leg, and every bone in her body ached. She was thin and hungry, her face stung, and her throat hurt every time she swallowed. Yet now she sat, staring from the outside, at the city that, until only a short while ago, she'd never left. She’d made the journey back, and it was all down to Ari. This girl was her saviour, and now, just maybe, she could be hers.
“There she is,” said Ari. “Alice.” She carefully tightened the bandage around the top of her right arm.
“I can’t believe it,” said Starla. She tried the telephone in her arm. Beneath the skin, the lights flickered then disappeared. The gash on her arm stung, though the wound had sealed. She must have damaged the telephone in the fall. But they didn’t need it now. They were so close, they could walk right up to the wall and knock on the gates.
“Ya better believe it,” said Ari. “Come on, let’s keep movin’.”
As night fell, and the city grew brighter and the plain grew darker, the road south from the city was marked out in a series of wavering orange lights. Closer, Starla could just make out the silhouettes of camel trains and people.
Ari paused. She indicated to the gun in her hands. “This thing ready to go?”
“Yes,” replied Janus.
“Who are those people?” whispered Starla.
“What I was afraid ‘a I reckon. They guard the road. Most work for the big fella. They’ll be lookin’ for us.”
“Can they see us?” asked Starla.
“How do I know?” said Ari.
“What do we do?”
“I dunno.”
“Look,” said Janus. “Before we start shooting at each other, why don’t I go ahead to the gate? They’re not looking for me.”
Ari looked at Starla.
Starla shrugged. “Why not?”
“Why not, ‘cause then that’s the last we ‘ear of ‘im.”
“Ari, what do we have to lose?”
Ari sighed. “Fine.”
The guard nodded then sprinted off into the darkness.
“This is a trap,” said Ari.
“We have to trust him.”
“Well I don’. I don’ ‘ave to trust no one.”
They moved closer to the gates, keeping to the darkness. Yellow lights shone down on two giant, metal gates, standing slightly open. Animals were being unloaded and ragged people were hauling sacks into great piles.
For a closed city, thought Starla, there was plenty of activity at its gates.
Then, beneath the yellow lights, Janus appeared. He approached the opening between the gates, then went inside.
“Well, e’s in,” said Ari. “Ain’t no reason for ‘im comin’ back.”
“We’ll give him a chance.”
“Don’ see why. We’re gonna ‘ave to get passed these guys. Just gonna ‘ave to chance it.”
“No, wait.”
Ari sighed again.
“Look,” said Starla. “We go now, what’s to stop these guys from shooting you and taking me? We’re so close but the city’s not running things on this side of the wall.”
“Fine. But if ‘e’s not back soon…”
They stood silently in the darkness.
Come on, thought Starla. So near and yet so far.
Starla imagined the despair so many from the outside must have felt, to be so close, and the gates even open, yet entry to the city remained impossible. The opaque walls, dark on this side, stretched upwards and outwards, an impenetrable barrier. Here, a person could wait for months, staring up at the wall, hoping beyond hope that something might change, that someone might let them inside. Finally, when all hope was lost, they’d turn back to the lawless road, or the swamp and the desert. This was what Ari must have felt, after her parents died and she found her way back to the city. This is where hope was born, and where hope died its death. So near and yet so far, to a city with so much yet so little to share.
Starla thought again of the words from Velle Stella. A world without borders, without walls. And she thought of the words of her father. But Ari didn’t want to destroy the city, she only wanted a better life. A life she’d been denied. And with the simple fluke of birth, a life denied so many. And for some perceived security, what price too did the city dwellers also pay?
“You’ve been here before,” said Starla.
“Yeah,” said Ari. “Two months I was ‘ere. Waitin’ an’ waitin’, gettin’ hungry, gettin’ thirsty. Only thing ya can do ‘ere is unload the camels, or worse. No further though.”
“I’m sorry,” said Starla.
“Ain’t no one’s fault.”
Starla wasn’t sure that was true. However remotely, perhaps a lot of people were responsible for those two months, and all the years in the wasteland that came with them. The skeleton by the tracks, the old man in the desert, the wild, desperate look in the milky-eyed man’s single iris. And Ari, starving in a cave, dreaming of home.
Janus reappeared at the gates and Starla released a long sigh. Several other guards followed. When Janus reached them, he looked shaken. One of the guards was pointing a gun at him.
Another guard asked, “Miss Starla Corinth?”
Janus managed to smile at Starla and Ari. He’d come through for them.
Starla stepped forward. “Yes.”
The guard produced an electronic screen. The screen flickered and the face of Starla’s father appeared. Still the silver hair, the bright red tuxedo, but in other ways he was not quite the man she remembered. He looked tired and maybe a little older. Grey stubble covered his chin. His eyes were red and, having lost their permanent squint, were wider than she’d ever seen them. He smiled warmly, but when he spoke there was the slightest crack in his voice.
“My dear, thank goodness. I was so afraid I would not see you again. There has been a terrible betrayal. Please, let these guards bring you inside the city at once.”
Starla hesitated. It was actually good to see her father again, and he looked so tired, he must have been worried. There seemed to be new lines around his eyes, or ones she’d not noticed before. In a way, it was as if she was seeing her father for the first time; she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him look so human. But, Starla wasn’t going to break her promise.
“This is Ari.” With her hand, she gestured towards Ari. “She saved my life and guided me here. I promised her a home in the city.”
Starla’s father drew back and grimaced. His eyes narrowed. “My dear, I’m sure she did, but is her home really in our city?”
Starla looked at Ari, then back at the screen. “Why wouldn’t her home be in the city? She helped me. Has she not earned her right to return?”
“She left?”
“As a child.”
Her father paused. For a moment, his red eyes seemed to glaze, then they hardened.
“My dear... to return once you have abandoned our city. That alone would set
a dangerous precedence. Others would follow. You must understand, I must uphold the law, and our way of life…”
“Our way of life! What does that even mean? I’m your daughter. If she’s not coming in, I’m not coming in.”
Her father’s eyes widened and his voice faltered. “But Starla my dear, what are you saying?”
“Please Starla,” said Janus.
“I’m not and you know me, I won’t. That is my line Father.” Starla was back in her rooms, laying down the law. She was her father’s daughter. She was better than her father even. She would not back down from what she now knew to be right. “You know father, maybe we should open up the gates. Maybe we should let them all in. Maybe our way of life is wrong. Maybe I don’t believe anymore.” And in that moment, Starla truly meant what she was saying. She'd been on both sides of the wall and on neither did she like what she saw. Besides, how could her father place the city before her? How could he argue, after all that she had been through in order to return to him? He hardly deserved her efforts. She could have stayed in the wasteland and abandoned the city and the glass tower that had, for so long, been her prison. “Father, if she’s not allowed in then you shall lose me forever.”
Her father paused. His face deflated and the weariness returning to his eyes. “Very well,” he said. “As you wish my dear, this girl may join us.”
Starla’s heart leapt. She turned to Ari. But Ari had taken a step backwards.
“We can go home,” said Starla. “We both can.”
Ari looked to Starla, then to the screen where Starla’s father eyed her warily.
“I dunno,” she said. “Ya know I don’ think the city’s for me.”
Starla’s face fell. “But Ari. What do you mean?”
“I see it now. See, my place was always out ‘ere, even when I was in the city. So you go ahead. I got other places to be.”
“Like where?”
Ari shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe I’ll go back to the village. I wouldn’ fit in in Alice ya know. So this is as far as I go.”
Starla shook her head, tears forming beneath her eyelids. “You have to come with me.”
