The Adamant Tower Ch. 1 Blue-Eyed Boy

The Adamant Tower1

--2

"I thought robots don't bleed."3

"I never said I was a robot."4

She clenched her dark, bloody, wet sleeve and clenched her jaw.5

“But you said, you said you work for the government…And you know government workers these days-“ gushed the blue-eyed boy.6

“IF you had been listening,” she muttered, “I said I work with the government. Which, as a matter of fact, is what leads to dees hostile meet & greets when I walk de streets.”7

Sharp blue met amber, and she relaxed her tone.8

“I want to help you. Will you stop shooting at me den?”9

---Earlier That Day---10

“She’s rather tall. Sloping cheekbones, big light brown eyes, short black hair, very light complexion. She’s wearing a raincoat, and she’s a very smart woman, she probably has a computer with her. Please, sir, I need to know."11

“I haven’t noticed anyone,” said the doorman gruffly. “And if you haven’t noticed, nearly everyone’s wearing a raincoat. But, that’s not to say she didn’t come in this way. Who is this woman?”12

The young man, with steel blue eyes, regarded him coldly, but responded with only a halfhearted shrug.13

“Ah. Alright then,” the doorman said. “I’m sorry sir, but I cannot help you. Be on your way.”14

The young man turned and walked out into the street. Muddy, toxic rain was falling in drops like hailstones. The boy threw up his hood and began to walk quickly away. Without the hood, he may have noticed the girl he had been looking for slip in step behind him. For days, he had been searching for her, but today, the streets were full of people, basking in the murky filtered rays of sun that penetrated a few of the clearer clouds. It was impossible to find anyone today. 15

What he could see around the hood the boy ignored. It was a false world, one where the garbage was still picked up, the plumbing and electricity worked most of the time, and the streets were swept nightly. Hardly anyone went hungry. It was the world that denied that the destitute existed behind the barricades. This was the Old New York City, or just Old York City. Cafes still opened. Stores still sold. Homes were still peaceful.16

The blue-eyed boy walked on, but vanished when he darted into a subway station. A while ago, checkpoints at the barricades were instituted, and only workers could go in between the two halves of the city. The subways, already long abandoned, were ignored. It was the only way for the true “New” Yorkers to reach the entire city.17

The tunnel was unlit except for the gratings that filtered the already dismal sunlight, through the clouds and the smog, between the innumerable people above their heads, and through the metal grate. Pupils dilated to their extent fought to see the dismal state which the subway was in. All those eyes saw was three hundred years’ worth of tossed newspapers, gum and gum wrappers, cockroaches and mutant rat carcasses, sheets of discarded plastic, and even bits of clothing. The tracks that the old subway cars used to run on were buried. 18

A little ahead of the woman, the boy was in the tunnel already, immersed in the darkness. She could see the young man’s face by the light of what she had only seen in movies: an old fashioned cigarette lighter, with a real flame. He wasn’t even lighting up with it; he drew it away from his face and held it aloft like a torch. In curiosity, the woman leaned too far forward and tripped. 19

The flame vanished, and a shot banged out of the gun. Within a second, a flashlight was all the woman could see, and underneath it, the barrel of a gun. 20

“D-Don’t move!” he shouted. “It's you! Who are you and why have I been following you?!”21

She squirmed and squinted under the fluorescent. “I-I-I-I...I w-work wit de…the government…”she said, her accent thick with something Eastern.22

“Why? What have you been ordered to do?!”23

“I…I was ordered to...to do…I do not follow my orders anymore…”24

The boy backed his flashlight off her face, and turned his gun upwards to rest its butt on his shoulder. He seemed to be both raging and cold at once. 25

“And, woman, why would that be?”26

She looked down, into her hands. Then she pushed off of the ground.27

“Because-“28

A shot rang out through the tunnel. In the sharp white light, the black-green garbage was splattered red.29

“But…but…but!”30

The woman looked at him. Not a scream, nor a grunt, nor even a whisper had escaped her lips. Her eyes were daggers.31

"But…I thought robots don't bleed."32

"I never said I was a robot."33

She clenched her dark, bloody, wet sleeve and clenched her jaw down harder.34

“But you said, you said you work for the government…And you know government workers these days-“ gushed the blue-eyed boy. He kneeled at her side. The gun and flashlight landed on the floor; shaking hands dug into his hair.35

“IF you had been listening,” she muttered, “I said I work WIT de government. Which, as a matter of fact, is what leads to dees hostile meet & greets when I walk de streets.” Already, the woman looked on the verge of passing out, despite her demeanor.36

Sharp blue met amber, and she relaxed her tone.37

“I want to help you. Will you stop shooting at me den?”38

“Yes. God, yes! I’m sorry…I’ll carry you back, we can treat you. I’m so…so sorry. Is there-“ The boy scrambled to find the gun as his left hand landed on the flashlight.39

“Get me out of dees damn sewer, I am going to get infected.”40

“Yea…yes, right away.”41

He picked her up, not so easily or smoothly, and promptly began to jog through the subway tunnel. 42

Soon, they crossed out of Manhattan, and into the South Bronx. They emerged from a subway station that seemed to almost have been taken care of and ran straight into a tiny church at the nearest street corner. Gathered from glimpses of rifled men in green and starchy white skirts of running women, it seemed to the woman that the inside was something of an army post.43

The boy must be a soldier, she reasoned from his shoulder. They will be able to use it...44

She was lying down, and lights glared into her eyes; voices called out and asked her if she could her them. Breath left the woman and she fell into the darkness.