Hello avid readers, I have never posted anything original on here before so I could really, really use your help. Please let me know what you think!
"Fenton Ceallaigh sir, you won't regret this. I'm loyal to the company, and I..." Fenton soothed the wrinkles out of his black guard uniform while he spoke, only to be cut off with a curt wave of his new bosses hand.
"Let me stop you right there outlander, I don't care. Just do your job, and keep your kind out of the city." He walked away without waiting for an answer. Fenton scrubbed his calloused hands over his light scruff, and up into his clearly self cut, short brown hair.
He just had to remember that this wasn't for him. He couldn't be an outlander anymore. He had a son to think about, and his well being was more important than Fenton's pride. He could do this.
He looked out through the screen that surrounded the entire city to the untamed outlands. The screen made them look beautiful, inviting even, with lush green forests, and fields. The reality, which he could see thanks to the nano lenses he wore like contacts, wasn't so pretty. The forests were there, but they hadn't been green for more than three generations. The trees were twisted and grey, with rust coloured leaves, and among those slightly sulfur sented trees were creatures just as twisted from the fallout.
He finished his shift without incident, keeping his nose clean, and his head down didn't come naturally to him but for Sean he could manage it. The streets to his little apartment were anything but nice, but they were safe enough to walk down at night, which was more than he could say about anywhere outside the corporate walls. He punched in the ten digit code for his door, and was greeted by a tackle of a hug.
"Gotcha!" Sean was a little hellion, too thin, and insistent on keeping his black hair in a mohawk. He had already spent too much time in the outlands, starving and struggling to survive. Fenton grabbed him by the waist flipping him over onto the one puffy chair he had managed to get for them.
"Is that so boyo? You can't take your old man yet." He ruffled Sean's somewhat crunchy hair that he kept spiked up with what could only be described as muck made from clay, and oil.
"Won't be long, life inside the walls makes you soft, uncle Liam says." Sean struggled to pull him down by his arm.
"Your uncle Liam is a gammy spanner, and you know it." Fenton lifted Sean off the chair with just his one arm.
"Uncle Liam is pure savage, unlike the rotten blubber babies that live in the city. Why'd we have to move here?" Fenton stilled him with one strong hand, leveling his gaze, blue eyes steely despite facing the heart melting green eyes of his son.
"You know why. I won't lose you as well." Fenton said, Sean looked down at his hands with a frown.
"She didn't like cities either." Sean whispered, Fenton sighed, sitting down in his chair, and moving Sean to his lap.
"I know, it's not forever. I promise." Fenton said, letting him get off his lap. Sean sighed, going to hide in the closet sized room that his father let him have to himself. The city was clean, safe, and he had eaten a good meal every night for the last week, but it wasn't home. He missed his uncle, and his friends. It hadn't been much of a town, but it was anti-corp.
He pulled the knife out of his boot, picking at the wall with the tip, carving out the crude A, the cross section of which was the upper arc of a C, and the left tail cutting the C through the middle. The anti-corp symbol, it was one of the only unifying things that existed outside of the corporations. He flopped back onto his bed, closing his eyes.
He woke to the aweful sound of the stupid alarm that came with the cushy bed. He'd been in a herd of screech mules, and it was still the worst noise he'd heard in his admittedly limited life. He was eleven, he could take care of himself, why did he need to go to this aweful school? Fenton opened his door, tossing an apple at him.
"Eat, be educated." He said while he buttoned up his uniform. Sean rolled his eyes, but bit into the apple none the less. They had a strange, almost fake after taste, but they were still delicious.
"School is stupid!" Sean said through a mouth full of apple, Fenton ruffled Sean's mess of hair which no longer resembled a mohawk.
"Oh, aye, just about as stupid as you'll be if you don't go." Fenton said as he flopped down in his chair to pull on his boots. Sean made a face at him.
"Well I don't wanna be as daft as my ol' man." He said with his head half in his clean shirt. Fenton scooped him up, tossing him into the chair.
"Get your arse ready." He ruffled Sean's hair, Sean smacked his hand away, ducking away to go slick his mohawk up. By the time Sean was ready to go Fenton had left for work. He flirted with the idea of not going to this stupid school, he didn't want to disappoint his dad though.
He wore his leather vest, made from an old leather jacket, and beat up cargo pants with all his belts, knives. The only thing he didn't bring was his bag. His shoulders felt light without it. He'd had it since he was old enough to carry it. He rested his hands on his knives nervously as he walked into the utilitarian building, his head on a swivel with all these kids around him.
"Ugh, outlander alert." A thin blonde girl that looked like she hadn't worked a day in her life sneered at him. Sean gave her a two finger salute, the v symbol with his palm facing in went a little over her head, which was exactly what he had hoped for.
"Don't even look at her Outlander!" An older kid pushed him, he whipped around, pulling his knife out and putting it to the guy's throat.
"I'll do as I damn well please you rawny ponce." He said with his best snarl, to the boys credit he only flinched a little.
"Mr. Ceallaigh! All weapons are to be left at home. Please give me those, and release Mr. Slone." A tall, plump woman with bright orange hair said, her hand out to him for the knife. Sean let go of the poncy kid slowly.
"Do I get them back?" He looked between the orange haired teacher, and the other students, who all seemed to think this was funny.
"Of course Mr. Ceallaigh, they are your property, you may pick them up again after classes, however another such incident and they will be confiscated permanently." She said, he handed the knife to her hesitantly. She raised a brow dramatically, waiting for the rest of them. He handed them to her reluctantly, holding back the one in his boot.
"You'll get yours Kelly." The ponce whispered, before slinking off to join his friends. Sean went to his class feeling even more naked, and uncomfortable now that he only had the one knife.
"Ah, Mr. Seal-aye? Celly? Kell... Sean, do you mind if I call you Sean?" The rumpled, dark haired teacher asked, patting down his brown, ragged blazer until he found a pencil.
"It's Ceallaigh, and no, you can call me whatever you like." The teacher flashed a quick smile, making a note in a battered leather bound book.
"Good, I'm Mr. Woodrow, or Mason if you prefer. I teach the induction classes. Let's see, first off, can you read?" He said, Sean gave him a look of disbelief.
"Everyone can read." He said, fidgeting with his empty sheath.
"You'd be surprised actually. Quiet a lot of kids that come through here can't." Mason made a note, turning and pulling a thin white tablet out of his desk.
"Are you talking a piss?" Sean crossed his arms to stop himself from fidgeting.
"No, I'm quite serious. Can you add, subtract, and multiply?" He tried to keep Sean focused on the questions so he wouldn't end up starting class late.
"Two and two is four, three from six is three, and four twice is eight, that kind a ballcocks?" Sean picked up a nubbin of a pencil from Mason's desk. He liked to write stuff down, but paper was a little scarce in the outlands.
"Exactly that kind of ball ox, you're very well educated for an outlander your age. What would you like to do when you get older?" Mason pushed a small square of paper that he used for reminders towards Sean to see what he would do with the pencil.
"I don't know, fix stuff I guess, or work with animals, or be a soldier like my family all did." He took the paper and started drawing up the floor plans for the school, small, but accurate.
"Mechanics, or engineering, zoology, or veterinary science, and of course a military career are all fine vocations, though may I say that perhaps you should focus on what you enjoy doing rather than what is expected of you." Mason handed him the tablet with a somewhat awkward, but no less warm smile.
"What's this?" He took it, flipping it over curiously.
"A tablet, it will give you access to the archive web here in the city. Like a library in the palm of your hand." Mason said, closing his book.
"So I don't get a book to write in like yours?" Sean shifted nervously, giving an envious look at his.
"What would you do with a book like this?" He said, opening to a blank page, and turning it to him. He ran his fingers over the aged paper with a smile.
"I would write down all the stuff I learn, I fancy having stuff written down. You forget little things when you don't. Those are the things you wish you remembered most." He whispered. Mason nodded, opening a different drawer in his desk, and pulled out a thick, leather bound book with heavy yellowed pages. He held it out to Sean, only to pull it away before he took it.
"If you lose it, pawn it, or ruin it in any way you won't get another one." Mason said seriously, Sean nodded taking the book to hold with reverence.
"Thank you." Sean opened it, happy to see no lines or other obstructions on the pages.
"Here, you'll need this as well." He gave him a black handled calligraphy pen, and a nearly empty bottle of ink.
"The first thing you should look up on that new tablet of yours is how to make ink." Mason dismissed him with a wave of his hand, and he went to find a seat. The tablet took him through a tutorial while Mason started his lesson.
"Good morning class, please open your text on the Red Horizon event. Today we'll be starting with history." Sean had no idea how to accomplish this, but he figured he could just listen while he tried to figure it out.
"Can anyone tell me what the Red Horizon event was?" Mason waited a minute before calling on a clearly once very malnutritious kid in the front row.
"It's when the people before wrecked everything and turned the sky red." Mason turned, flicking his tablet at the white board, which transferred the image of a blue sky over green fields.
"Correct. The people from earth that was had created what they hoped would provide them with clean nuclear energy. However during the first military test element reacted when it reached the ionosphere, and changed our atmosphere forever. If the companies hadn't stepped in when they did the human race could have gone extinct like so many plants and animals from before the R.H. event." Mason tapped the picture and it scrolled through a few examples.
"Bullshit!" One of the older kids said through a cough. Mason sighed, flicking to the next set of images.
"Millions of people died because their bodies couldn't handle the radiation, despite its benign nature. Millions more because of the mutations in the plant, and animal life. Thousands of new diseases cropped up. Despite their sometimes harsh methods, the companies are the only reason we've been able to research and solve any of these problems." Mason said, Sean rolled his eyes, opening up his book, and scrawling the words 'Stuff you Should Know in the Outlands.' He figured he could start with how to make ink, and than get into the long list of things Uncle Liam always said he would kill to know.
He didn't pay a ton of attention until they were dismissed for lunch and yard time. This place really was a prison. He passed on the mystery meat, stuffing his pockets with all the nonperishables, and filling up on fruit. He officially loved fruit, and milk, he had never even seen cows milk before he came here. The only kind of milk they had on the outlands was chimaera milk, which honestly tasted a little sour.
"You don't need to hoard food here freak!" The ponce from earlier shoved him as he went outside. He had four other kids with him, and Sean didn't want to lose his knives.
"Piss off!" Sean tried to shoulder through the two kids in front of him, but one of them grabbed his book. He didn't think for a second before he cold cocked the kid, following him down to grab the book before it hit the dirt. As soon as he was on the ground one of the kids kicked him in the head. The other two joined in without giving him a chance to get up.
"Hey! Get off him!" Another boy shoved one of the kids who were kicking him into another one. Whoever they were they seemed to be enough to scare off the bullies before Sean had to resort to stabbing one of them in the leg.
"Hey, are you okay?" The taller sandy blond boy held a hand out to help him up. Sean didn't take it, Liam had always said it was dangerous to be in a man's debt.
"I'm fine." He said, holding his side with one hand, the other keeping a death grip on his book.
"Sure, if you say so. I'm Donovan Kane." He changed the angle of his extended hand. Sean took it, with a firm shake
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Liam rolled off his dingy mattress, going to the still to pour a little hair a the dog, not bothering to dress. The weathered woman whose name he hadn't bothered to learn was still passed out, and he certainly had no reason to be shy. He ran his hand through his dark curls, slicking it back again. He turned back with his chipped glass of moonshine that closely resembled petrol.
"Why the fuck are you awake handsome?" The woman groaned, raking her eyes over his body, all rough scars and hard muscles from an even harder life.
"I got shit to do luv, now if you could be on your marry way." He gestured with the hand that held the glass, she scowled, getting up without any more care for her modesty than Liam seemed to have.
"I don't even get breakfast? Rude!" She grabbed her threadbare dress tugging it on in one motion.
"Never say I let a bird wander off unsatisfied." He smirked, tossing her a spike fruit, which looked a little like a dragon fruit, only blue, and it tasted like apples, with a smokey aftertaste.
"You wish, maybe if that were true Lena would have been on your arm the night you got her killed!" He spun, throwing the moonshine at her, letting it explode against the wall in a shower of glass, and booze.
"Don't you ever talk about her you manky slag! Get out!" He was shaking with rage, but he wasn't one to hit a woman. She scoffed, turning and leaving him alone with his traitorous thoughts. Lena was the reason he drank, he sure as hell didn't need a reminder first thing. That sodding mission had gotten half a dozen good men and women killed, if it hadn't been for her he probably would have lost his brother that day too, instead of weeks later when he took Sean and ran off to Christ knows where.
It had been her friend who had given them the info, but she begged him not to tell Fenton, so now that guilt was on his shoulders, and he would take it. He tugged on clothes somewhat violently. Outside the bones of what had once been a bank, but now served as his home for the time being the air was thick, and stank of the sour rot that came from freshly hatched mothra pods.
One such behemoth of a bug fluttered past. The papery wings loud in the morning silence. They were not unlike the old earth moths, save for the fact that they were the size of a crow. They were one of the few things that would still pollinate crops though, so folks raised the beasts happily. After all no one wanted behemoth bumbles.
"Liam." Saul greeted him with a nod of his shaven head, the man was built like a brick shit house.
"Saul, we got anything on the books?" Liam fell in step beside him.
"Couldn't read it even if we did, why you think I keep your sorry ass around?" He flashed a rare smile, showing his somewhat yellowed teeth, the left canine broken and jagged. Saul had pretty good teeth considering.
"My charming personality?" Liam cocked his brow sarcastically as they stopped amidst the rubble they called a town to look at the AC posts tacked to the remains of a wooden wall. Considering the amount of ramshackle buildings, and rubble they had one might think a bomb had gone off here, or a war had been fought. Truth was they just didn't have the resources, or the time to keep things in decent shape. Having a roof was more than enough.
"Same shit as yesterday, guess we'll have to hit up the cat house." Saul smirked, happy to take this particular detour. "For a job, not a whore." Liam shook his head.
"Buzz kill." The cat house was one of the only places in truly good repair compared to the town. No holes in the wall that weren't meant to be there, or leaks in the roof, hell it even had the entire floor intact. Inside it was dimly lit with the soft warm flicker of candles, they still had power, but they didn't waste it on the lights, it ran the stills, the refrigeration system, and the jukebox.
"Hey boys, you looking for a good time, or a good job?" Tenalla asked without looking up from the drink she was pouring. She was a young, scruffy, dark haired woman who had won the Cat house off the last owner, and killed him fair and square when he tried to reclaim it.
"Just a job Tena." Liam said before Saul could answer, she chuckled, looking up with a smile. Her face tattoo, and missing tooth did little to hide the fact that she had once been incredibly beautiful.
"Got a new girl in town, she's looking to hire someone to help her out, maybe I can point you to her, if you buy a drink." Liam dumped some of his bag out on the counter, revealing three spike fruit. It made the best shine, but only after it had been left to sit for a few days. The spikes had a poison in them that made the skin blister, and itch, which is why they were worth so much, no one wanted to be the one to pick them.
"You never disappoint, she shacked up in the north side, the old library." She swept the fruit off the counter carefully.
"The library? That place is crawling with zap lizards." Liam said while Saul sucked down the drink Tena set in front of him.
"She doesn't seem to care." Tena shrugged, Liam scowled, slipping his bag back on.
"If she's dead we'll be back for equal trade." Tena rolled her eyes, waving him off.
"Yeah, yeah." Liam tapped Saul on the shoulder, leaving the bar's small, scuzzy morning crowd.
"You think she'll be anything to look at?" Saul said while he checked his torch gun, the conflagratory gas compression system was one of a kind, and only Saul, and the man he'd killed to get it knew how it worked.
"One can only hope." Liam took out a scatter gun, the spread was best for dealing with these little bastards. They went over the hill, avoiding the underpass of the bridge, they had swoopers nesting there. They had good meat, but they also had draping leathery flaps lined with sharp barbs that hooked under the skin, and deposited necrotic bacteria. They used them as a sort of early warning system.
"What do you think she wants in the library?" Saul said while he jumped over the old steel girder.
"Some kind of information's my guess, he'll maybe she's got people. It's been a dog's age since we've seen anybody from further off than West Haven." Liam tapped the butt of his gun against the door frame as loud as he could. A scittering like a swarm of rats sounded from inside, and Saul pulled what looked like a rod of caramel that had gone bad with a fuse out of his bag, and lit it. He tossed it into the darkness of the large, and somewhat unstable building. As soon as the fire hit the flare it erupted into a nearly blinding white light.
"Oh man, this batch really packs a punch, did you change the mix?" Liam swung into the building first, eyes focused on the task despite the easy conversation.
"I ran out of potassium, and used the powdered fire gland from a nightmare. They have a high magnesium content too, makes it real bright, but a lot less safe." Saul might not be able to read, but when it came to things that burned, and blew up he was king.
That's all I have so far, I am desperate for inspiration, so any questions or comments would be immensely helpful.