Untitled - Chapter 3 - Above the CLouds - Seg.3

{segment 3 of chapter 3 - Garn}1

It seems I’ve gained Sasher’s trust from that fight with the cannibals alone. By now my cover of ‘idiot’ is completely blown and I may as well be myself. At least I’m playing a foreigner, so my behaviour will be overlooked. The gang finally stops travelling halfway through the night and everyone gratefully sits down. Some of them can’t even be bothered putting up their tents so they lie down where they are with their tents draped over the top of them for warmth.2

Sasher comes to speak to me so I stand up to meet him. My wrists are still chained because no one’s gotten around to helping me, but I really don’t care. 3

“I can’t guess where we’d be now if it weren’t for you popping up out of nowhere today,” he says awkwardly. “It’s good to have someone else capable around here too. Anyway, I was going to give you the gun as a sign of my trust but as it turns out there was no ammunition in it. That dick head was bluffing the whole time. I don’t think even his own gang knew he was in fact unarmed all that time. So then I was going to throw it away but I figure it might be useful for me to bluff with myself one day. I guess all I really need to tell you is that I trust you; so don’t fuck it up. Wanna join our gang properly?” He holds out his hand. I shake it.4

“Thanks for that,” I say, “but with all due respect I’d like to stay apart from the troop. I’m not a great lover of responsibility and commitment only makes me uncomfortable. It’ll be much easier for me to work with you if there’s nothing official involved. Do you understand? No hard feelings.”5

Sasher looks slightly perturbed for a second there, but quickly changes his mind. “You’re a weird guy, Nrag.”6

I laugh. “You have no idea.” I indicate my chains and say, “I’m going to go get Avi to finish filing these for me. It’ll be nice to stretch my arms freely again. I’ll see you tomorrow. To the mountains, right?”7

He nods as I walk away. No doubt he’s going to search my bag now. But he won’t find anything incriminating in there as long as he doesn’t drink from my flask.8

I find Avi sitting on her own with her own flask, cupping the cloudy water in her hands and scrubbing her hair with it. A dim lamp sits beside her, and now that Sasher’s gone to sleep it’s the only one on. She sees me and continues what she’s doing. I sit down. “When you killed that guy I got blood in my hair,” she explains. “It’ll be a couple of days before we come to a place we can clean ourselves properly according to Sasher, but I don’t think I could stand to have blood on me for that long. I should clean the cut on my shoulder too, come to think of it. Do you want any of my water?”9

I look blankly at her flask. Unlikely. Liquid that only gives Outsiders a slight tingle on the skin burns like hell for Insiders. While we locked ourselves in the City to be safe, these guys adapted and are now stronger against the poisoned earth than us. I’m an unusual case though; some things that would kill normal insiders are nothing to me, and other things that are fine for them would kill me. I’ll wash when we get to wherever we’re getting to in a couple of days and pretend it doesn’t sting, but for now I’ll avoid it. “No thanks. Once you’ve done that I was actually wondering if you could finish getting me out of these chains.”10

“Oh I forgot all about it!” she says and immediately puts away her water. Pulling the large file out of her bag she explains, “It took me ages to find it in the dirt, but here it is.”11

“You know you can finish what you were doing first,” I tell her.12

“No, I should have had this finished long ago.” She shuffles forward and takes my hands, filing quickly and smoothly. “I’m beginning to think I’ll have to file through every single layer instead of being able to undo the knot.”13

“You’ll be an expert at this by the time you’re done,” I say humorously. “Remind me to ask you for help next time I’m behind bars.”14

“You say that like you’re planning to be behind bars.”15

I shrug. “I’m not planning on it, but it’s a possibility in my near future.”16

Avalia frowns. “What do you mean? Are you planning on trying to get back into the City? Haven’t you learned your lesson from last time?”17

“I have learned a lesson; that’s exactly my point. I know what was wrong with my last plan and I’m quite sure I can get in again.”18

She exhales impatiently. “Don’t say that too loudly; my father will hear.”19

I decide it’s best to let it go for now. I wonder what she’d say if she knew I was going to take her with me. 20

The plains are quiet now, other than the sound of Avi’s filing. I’m getting another pile of metal dust in my lap. A thin breeze moves between us. I look up at the dark sky and think of home. Is the City my home?21

“You look at the sky a lot,” Avalia observes. “It’s always covered in those poisonous clouds so you can’t see the stars, the moon or the sun. What on earth could be so interesting up there?”22

I cock my head at her question. “I want to go there,” I decide.23

“Go to the sky?” she scoffs. “You want to hit those clouds and die? Not even the Insiders bother making high-flying machines anymore because they just burn up in the clouds.”24

“But above the clouds, I’m sure it’s beautiful.”25

“Above the clouds?” Avalia pauses to look up into the darkness. “How would you know?” she mutters and goes back to her work.26

“Have you ever seen the stars, the moon or the sun?” I ask.27

“No one has since before the war, hundreds of years ago.”28

“Well I want to.”29

She shakes her head. “You’re very strange, Nrag.”30

This makes me laugh. “You know, that’s the second time I’ve been told that tonight.”31

“I’m not surprised,” she smiles. 32

I look around for something to talk about. “You’re lucky to have such a good leader.”33

“Sasher?” Avi asks. “He’s ok.”34

She’s caught my interest. “You don’t think much of him? He seems like a good guy.”35

“You haven’t known him for as long as I have,” she replies. “There!” she cuts through the chain and tries to pull at the knot again. “By the way,” she says quietly, “thankyou for saving my life today.”36

“No problem. Sorry I got blood in your hair.”37