Untitled - Chapter 5 - Alliance - Seg.2

{segment 2 of chapter 5 - Garn/Avalia}1

I feel as if I’ve been with this gang forever. It happens to me every time. I become too loyal to the people I’m supposed to be spying on. Though I feel the objective on this mission has changed a little, there isn’t much information I could get from them anyway. They clearly know nothing about the City, let alone the problems with the mechs inside the walls. 2

I’ve gotten used to my name here too. If someone called out, ‘Garn!’ at the top of their lungs I don’t think I’d even respond. I’ve made a home again. So now that this home is threatened, it’s making me overly cautious. I don’t at all trust those savages we’ve decided to befriend. I wonder if Sasher’s made the right decision.3

We’re still skirting around the mountains. When we stop for a rest I scan the rocky face to our left. It’s shallow and messy due to what looks like multiple landslides, and easily climbed. This place has got to be crawling with scrats. They’re not the tastiest thing to eat but they’re still a common source of meat and not difficult to hunt. I tell Avi I’m going on a quick hunt up in the rocks in case anyone asks and will be back in an hour, successful or no. And then it’s a simple matter of borrowing a few throwing knives and beginning my climb.4

The rocks are loose and I have to test each step before I put my weight on it. 5

I was surprised to find that there are children in this new troop. I never saw them in the battle; they were probably left behind at their camp. Children are rare out here, though very common in the southern lands where troops are more settled and hunt for food instead of scrounging for other people’s. There are three children in all; a set of twin boys around the age of twelve and a little girl of just four years. It’s a disgusting thought to know that these innocent faces have eaten human flesh. I shudder inadvertently at the thought.6

I climb up to a reasonably level area of rock and look down at the gang below. They’re not that far away yet. I survey the area in search of any hint of a scrat’s presence.7

*Switch to Avalia's Narration*8

I take a sip from my flask and put it back in my bag. I can’t take my eyes off the children in the other troop. Children! I don’t think I remember seeing one before in my life. They seem quiet. All three sit with the adults in obedient silence. They’re either well-disciplined or just unhappy, and I can guess it’s the latter because I’ve seen no one who looks like a parent to them. I hope it wasn’t the encounter with our troop that killed them. I watch as something is said to the children, and they stand up. It seems they’ve been kicked out of a ‘grown-up’ meeting. 9

The little girl has gorgeous red hair cut roughly and unevenly at her shoulders. She always reaches for one of the twins’ hands, and they take hers absently. The identical boys have light blonde hair, light skin, and light eyes. It’s uncommon for anyone to be so fair out here. In spite of their blatant differences to the twins we used to have in our troop, they still remind me of my dead companions. I never even knew their names. I used to, but everyone just ended up calling them ‘the twins’.10

I look up to study the sky. There is a flock of scaled birds soaring beneath the clouds. If they didn’t have their hard scales they wouldn’t be able to go through and above the clouds to escape the rain. I wish I had scales and a nice set of wings. Sighing, I turn my eyes to look at the mountain. Nrag is up there somewhere in search of a scrat. I hope he catches one; I haven’t eaten anything fresh in so long.11

I’m bored. Already without Nrag the whole place has become dreary. He’s only been gone about an hour. I suddenly wonder what would happen if he slipped or fell up there. Or if he got stuck. No one would know where he was. I get up quickly, pull my coat closer to my shoulders and head the way he went. He shouldn’t have gone without company; what if something should happen to him? I get to the base of the mountain where rocks of varying sizes lie in a tangled mess. I test my footing and begin to climb.12

At first it’s difficult but as I get used to it I move faster. A few times I have a close call with a loose rock, but as long as I keep moving I shouldn’t slip. I reach a pretty level stretch of rock and stop to catch my breath. I look over the edge of the level area to see how far I’ve come. I’m not especially high up, but the people below are still quite small. And then I do the dumbest thing imaginable. I step a little too far. Down I go. As luck would have it I skid to a stop in a dip in the rock, slamming my back against a weirdly shaped boulder. 13

Moaning in pain, I get up and start climbing back up the way I came. I slip down so I try again. 14

Uh-oh. I’ve basically landed myself in a pit of rockslides.15

“Nrag!” I call out helplessly… and pointlessly. I can’t get over just how stupid I am. What was the point of climbing up here in the first place? Of course Nrag is fine; he’s probably climbed up places like this a million times! And what a terrible spot to get stuck in. The dip has hidden me completely from the troop below. 16

I didn’t even bring a knife. The weight of my idiocy really kicks in now. What if no one finds me? What if a scrat comes and attacks me? What am I doing here?17

I sit here for at least twenty minutes, mentally screaming at myself before I realise that I have to at least try to get out of this. I move to the edge of the ditch and try to fit the rocks together more sturdily.18

“Avi?”19

At first I don’t think I’ve heard right, but I hear my name called again and look up. I can’t describe just how relieved I am to see Nrag leaping down the rocks like a mountain goat. Damn it, why can’t I do that?20

“Avi, what the hell?” Nrag says as he lands with a small skid beside me. “What are you doing here?”21

Exactly what I want to know. “I was… looking for you,” I reply meekly.22

He frowns, smiling slightly. “Well, um… you found me. Are you ok? You look kind of pale.”23

I exhale irritably. “Yes, I’m fine…” I see he’s caught a scrat. It’s like a black, overweight rat the size of a wolf cub, with random feathers strewn through the fur that apparently protects them from the rain a bit. There are no rats left nowadays. Just scrats, scaled birds and other demented creatures… like humans, I think with a smirk. “At least you have food,” I say, nodding at the dead creature.24

“Yeah,” he brightens. “I found a whole burrow further up. I lost one of the knives I borrowed though.”25

“So how do we get out of here?” I ask, indicating the rocks that are obviously going to be hard to climb. He looks around. Nrag attempts to run up the rocks but slides down after a few steps each time he tries. He looks around again and sees the weird-shaped boulder I smacked into.26

He points at it. “Easy.” Still holding the scrat with one hand, he climbs up and onto the rock. “If we jump from here and run, we can probably make it.” He leaps back down to my side. “Do you want a boost?”27

Hesitantly, I nod. “Just let me empty my boots first. They’re full of pebbles after that climb.” With that, I sit down abruptly and pull of my left boot, tipping out the collection of stones I seem to have gathered. I push the boot back on and pull off the next one. There are only a few rocks in my right boot.28

“What’s that?” Nrag asks.29

I look up inquisitively and look back down at my ankle. I’d forgotten about that, believe it or not. On the inner side of my right angle is a strange black mark. It’s shaped like the letter I with a circle behind it, but there used to be more tiny patterns inside the marking. “It’s just a weird birth mark,” I explain.30

“A birth mark?” Nrag repeats. “That is very strange.”31

I shrug. “Guess so.”32

He offers me a hand to pull me up and I take it. He seems thoughtful all of a sudden. “Avalia.”33

“Yes?”34

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. I just didn’t want to in case…” Nrag trails off for a moment. He looks directly into my eyes, making me want to look away. But I don’t. “I was thinking of leaving.”35

I’m shocked. “Leaving? But why would you leave? Don’t you like it here?” I frown. “Where will you go?”36

He smiles. “I do like it here… I just want to be somewhere else.”37

“That doesn’t even make sense!” I snap, surprising myself.38

Nrag shakes his head. “No, I just mean that I feel my life has another purpose.”39

“I don’t understand,” I say grumpily.40

He groans and grabs my wrists so that I’m facing him properly. “Just listen for a second! I’m going to try getting into the City again.”41

I pull away. “That’s stupid! Don’t you remember what happened last time? Your entire gang was killed!”42

“I have a plan.”43

“That plan doesn’t work. Your…whole…gang…was…killed, Nrag.”44

“No, that was the problem with the plan. I’ve figured it out! There were too many people. With just two, we could easily slip under the radar. I know we could do it.”45

I nearly choke. “We? We, all of a sudden? You want me to go with you?”46

“You don’t realise what it’s like,” he says. “This is hell compared to the City. No one’s hungry in that place. No one’s afraid. Ever.” He swings his arm around, searching. “No one eats other people because of starvation in the City.”47

I shake my head in disgust. “You sound just like my father. Don’t let this stupid hope drive you insane.”48

He grabs my shoulder. “It’s not hope, it’s certainty. We can do it. I promise.”49

I shake my head again, with less conviction. Maybe I’m just arguing for no reason. I know already that I’ll follow him. “What about the troop?” I remember. “What will they do without us?”50

He shrugs. “They’ll be fine. They have Sasher. And there are a lot of them now. Most gangs wouldn’t want to start a fight with them.”51

“And what about Sasher specifically then?” I demand. “What’s he going to think when we just disappear one day?”52

“Give him some credit; he’s not a child. He can survive without us.”53

I sigh tiredly. “He’s going to be angry… He’s going to be so angry if I leave.”54

“Don’t let him control you,” Nrag argues pointedly.55

“Maybe I shouldn’t let you control me either, Nragath,” I smirk.56

He stops for a moment and steps back, conceding. “Maybe.”57

We say nothing for a while. I know we should leave soon though before anyone sends out a search party, but I don’t think I can move yet. 58

“Alright,” I say finally. “I’ll go with you.”59

He laughs, drops the scrat and hugs me before I even know it’s happening. “Good. Be ready for the day I tell you we’re going. You still want a boost?”60

I blink stupidly at the weird boulder. “Oh. Yes.” He holds his hands out, fingers interlaced. I dimly slip my foot in and push off at the same moment that he throws me upward. I grab the edge of the rock and pull myself up the rest of the way. He pulls himself up as well, holding the scrat by the tail. He jumps first, as far as he can to the other side before he hits rock and scrambles from there to the top, his feet slipping almost too fast for him to run. He gains footing and climbs the rest of the way to the ledge. I take a deep breath and follow. 61

By the time we get back to the troop it’s been well over the hour Nrag originally anticipated. According to my father, they really were about to send out a search party. But he gets over that quickly when he sees the scrat Nrag caught. We share it among the twelve of us that night after travelling some more. Nrag cooks it over a campfire and shares it out. I see the little girl from the cannibal troop come up behind him as he’s eating and he looks around, surprised.62

“Oh, hi. Did you want some?”63

The girl doesn’t answer. Her eyes shift a little and she puts a finger in her mouth. Nrag picks off a piece of dark, stringy meat and holds it out to her. She reaches out tentatively and nibbles it.64

“I’m Nrag. What’s your name?”65

The girl considers this before saying, “Chloe.” I melt. 66

Nrag nods at the meat she’s almost finished eating. “Much better than the stuff over there, isn’t it?”67

She wrinkles her nose. “No.” And then she walks away.68

I laugh and go back to my food.69

The next morning my tent is packed in my bag and we’re all ready to move again. Father suddenly points at the sky, his arm shaking with the fatigue of old age.70

“Rain,” he whispers forebodingly. Oh no. The oceans are acid, and so is the rain. Our bodies can handle a little of it but not much before our skin breaks up. It’s not the best way to die. Father raises his voice. “Rain is coming!”71