"Are there guards?" asked Ivan, putting all the SF syringes he and Yao had collected into his coat pockets. They had been working even longer hours for the past week. "Near the end of the city, I mean."
"I think so," frowned Yao. "We can try sneaking past them. There's sure to be some gaps in their security. Once they were both packed up and ready, Yao let out a deep breath and reached for Ivan's hand. Ivan didn't move it away, instead just looking down at their now-laced fingers. "This is a thing of affection. It means I like you. It makes me feel good, what about you?"
"It makes me feel good too," Ivan nodded a little, lips moving into a soft smile. "I like you too."
Yao led Ivan out to the city's edge, and they crouched behind some tall rubble, both peeking out at the guards. They were strategically positioned around the city's perimeter so that if anyone passed them, they could easily cry out and alert others. How irritating. "I have an idea," said Yao, quietly. "Don't say anything." He calmly stood up, still holding Ivan's hand. He pretended to hold something within his own coat. Slowly, they approached one of the guards.
"Excuse us, sir," said Yao, lowering his head. "We are couriers to be sent to the next city over. If you don't mind, we would appreciate your letting us through the gate."
"There is no next city over," scoffed the guard. "There's no nothing. Kid, I don't give a shit who you are, but you're not a courier."
"W-well," coughed Yao, awkwardly. "Can we pass through anyway?"
"Your death wish, kid," the guard mused, stepping out of the way. Ivan and Yao passed.
"Why would anyone wish for death? What does that mean?" Ivan asked, looking down at Yao as they started to walk. Buildings seemed to become harder to find as they walked. Turns out that the guards were stationed within the city limits, and the end of the city and the start of the rest of the world was further on. They were almost there.
"Some people think it's an easy way out of something too difficult for them," Yao answered softly. "Too many people ended their lives during the Dark. They thought all hope was lost."
"I thought you said all hope was lost," frowned Ivan. "Does this mean you want your life to end?"
"No, Ivan," Yao frowned. "I want to stay here with you."
They were quiet once more until they reached the very lip of the torn and twisted city. Ivan's eyes grew wide, and he stared out at what greeted them. Past the final city lines was barren. A broken, desolate, dust-cloaked wasteland. Billions of dollars worth of bank notes were scattered across the earth, with many notes flying about in the air for some very obvious reason. That odd force was pushing at them, too. "Wind," said Yao, turning and facing the weak current. "It's wind! Come on, Ivan! Let's go!" he cried, starting to run forward, pulling Ivan along by his hand. Laughing stupidly, Yao ran out onto the cracked ground, letting go of Ivan's hand so that he could spin around. "It's the wind!"
"This is the wind," nodded Ivan, feeling his hair being whipped this way and that by the nearly violent air. "Was this common Before?"
"Yes," breathed Yao. "There was wind everywhere. Sometimes it was soft, sometimes it would lift you off your feet. It feels so good, Ivan!" He laughed deliriously and waltzed around in the wind, being blown this way and that by the biting blustery weather. When he grew tired of that, he sighed contently and stumbled back to Ivan. "I missed it so much."
"There's no wind in the city," remarked Ivan, watching Yao's hair billow this way and that, much how his own was. Yao's was longer and more beautiful, though. "I understand."
"Well, onward! We can keep enjoying the wind on our way out!" laughed Yao, pointing forward and merrily putting one arm around Ivan's waist.
"Where are we going?" Ivan asked, catching Yao's contagious good mood.
"I don't know," Yao laughed almost hysterically. "Out! We're going out, we're walking on free ground! It's a change of scenery, that's what I want," he chortled, incredibly upbeat for once. Ivan smiled and nodded his head.
"Okay. Let's go forward for a while, then! Then we can come back," he nodded.
"I don't know if I want to go back, Ivan," Yao whined, leaning on his friend as he walked. "I don't want to die in that shithole of a city. I want to be free," he laughed tiredly.
"I see," huffed Ivan, smile lost now. He didn't want Yao to die at all.
"You know," said Yao after a while of walking, after a while of passing by animal skeletons and long-dead plants. "I still remember bits of what it was like. You know, before the Dark."
"Ooh! I like hearing about Before," Ivan hummed. He had been born a year after the Dark, so he didn't know anything of the old world first-hand. Everything he knew of Before, he knew thanks to Yao. Their seven years of age difference didn't stop them from being close friends. "Tell me!"
"Do you see these things?" he asked, pointing to the various skeletons around the ground. "They look like shards of plaster, don't they?"
"They do," nodded Ivan, wondering where Yao was going with this.
"Those are bones. They are from inside of animals, like us. But not like us, too. They are not humans, but different kinds of things. Some walked on four legs."
"Humans that had four legs?" Ivan wheezed, confused.
"No, that's not it," frowned Yao. "They weren't humans at all. Anyway, there were lots of different types of animals on this planet. These bones are from the ones that died here. Their flesh and skin has been destroyed by now." Ivan nodded a little, picking up a small bone, perhaps from something that used to be a dog. He put it in an empty coat pocket and walked on. "Taking souvenirs?" he asked.
"I'm going to study it later," Ivan cooed. "It's new and interesting."
Yao nodded and continued walking. "So," he said, looking up at Ivan. "Do you want to hear more about Before?" Yao already knew the answer, but he asked anyway.
"Of course!" Ivan replied almost instantly. Yao sighed.
"You know how I was born before the Dark?" he said, looking down at his feet with every step. Every footfall felt heavier than the last when these thoughts weighed on his mind. "We weren't expecting anything like the Dark to ever come. The people behind it were, but as citizens, we were incredibly unaware." Ivan nodded, not wanting to speak until the story had run its course.
"We all breathed in the toxic air at least once," said Yao, quietly. "My mother tried to save my brother and I by covering our mouths and running to an area about to become quarantined. Do you know what quarantine is?"
"Yes, I do. They had a quarantine run at the Right Place, once," he said.
"We were put in there, and we were given our tree cases. Well, Kiku and I were. My mother was not. She was dead in front of us before we knew what had happened." he murmured. "My little brother – that is Kiku-, he breathed in too much of the air, and he killed his tree with every poisoned exhalation. He died." Ivan was quiet, keeping his hidden gaze on Yao and his cheerless expression. "I breathed in a little of that air, Ivan. And I've known for years it would end up being my cause of death. I just didn't know when."
"Do you know when, now?" Ivan asked.
"Probably soon," murmured Yao. "It was dormant in my lungs for years. I started exhaling a weak poison probably around the start of last year. It's killing me gradually."
"Oh."
"Every time I breathe out, Ivan, I poison myself a little more. Every time I breathe in, I take in that recycled poison, and it just gets worse. It's inescapable, and inevitable." Yao said dryly, coldly. Ivan already missed the joyful and hysterical Yao from earlier. "I'm killing my tree every time I breathe."
"The wind is blowing," Ivan said quietly, pointing up to nowhere in particular in the air. "We should smile and dance in it."
"Thanks for trying, Ivan," Yao sighed. "That's worth something. May we embrace?"
"Yes," nodded Ivan, turning and curling his arms around his small companion. "I'll help you get your last wishes," he said, nodding ever so slightly. "What about the sunshine?"
"It's dark," Yao said, pressing his cheek to Ivan's chest. "That means it is night time. No sun until tomorrow. I know how to make light, though. Francis the Giver taught me."
"I didn't know you could make light," said Ivan, quizzically tilting his head and pausing in stroking Yao's head. "It only comes out of the sun, doesn't it?"
"No, there is another way," nodded Yao. Slowly, he parted from Ivan, and glanced around. "Get me some of the floating material," he said, pointing to various bank notes flying around in the wind. "I will set up what I need to make light."
While Ivan obediently ran around catching hundreds of dollars, Yao dug out a pit in the hard earth with a large fragment of bone. He then put bones around the outside, and called his After companion over. "Ivan!" he summoned. "Bring all that over here. Also, some dead plant," he said, pointing to a shrub. Ivan pulled it and a few others easily from the ground, and put one in the hole as Yao had told him to. After stuffing the money and shrubbery into the hole, Yao got to work. Francis had taught him how to make fire with friction, and Yao worked furiously to get it started. Once he had a wisp of smoke flying upward and into the now-slower wind, Yao blew on it, spreading the tiny flame he had made. It soon caught and spread, and a fire was born within the pit.
"Whoa," mumbled Ivan, fascinated by the bright orange light. "I've never seen anything like it." He began to reach out to put his hand on it, but Yao smacked it away.
"You'll hurt yourself if you touch it," Yao scolded. "It is very hot."
"Sorry," Ivan laughed quietly, moving back and shuffling over to sit next to Yao. "This is very interesting. What is it?"
"It's a fire," Yao smiled, poking the flame with a bit of bone. "It was discovered a very long time ago. It is very interesting indeed."
"What is it 'eating'?" asked Ivan, pulling a burning hundred-dollar note from the blaze. Yao smacked it out of his hand and back into the fire.
"You'll burn yourself," Yao huffed. He had the common sense to avoid touching the flame, even though he couldn't feel the heat through his gloves. "It is eating money."
"What's money?" Ivan queried, leaning in and expecting a story.
"Currency of Before." Yao answered. "Some papers were worth more than others. You could trade money for various goods and services."
"Like SFs? Could you eat money?"
"No, it didn't work like that."
After a quiet conversation and their daily injections, Ivan and Yao curled up by the dying fire. "Is it full?" asked Ivan, holding Yao in his arms and watching the faint glow of the embers within the pit. "Has the fire eated enough?"
"Eaten," Yao corrected. "Yes. We could feed it more, but it is easier to sleep in the dark."
"What about the monsters in the dark?" Ivan insisted quietly, lightly pulling at Yao's shirt. "I don't want them to have eated me in my sleep."
"They won't have eated you," said Yao, closing his eyes and leaning ever so slightly closer to Ivan. "You've got me to protect you."
ive had this chapter done for a few days yet i havent gotten around to publishing orz i need to get back on track with writing!
Glossary –
Before – Any place in time prior to the Dark.
The Dark – The time when a great amount of toxic smog, acid, and vile pollution were released into the environment. Released initially as a contained test of eliminating a single country, the situation quickly got out o f hand, and spread like wildfire, obliterating fauna and flora on a global scale. This event destroyed the world. Only a few civilizations remain across Northern America. Other continents are also affected, but it is unknown if there are any surviving humans on them. There were some precautions in place before the pollutions were released, including the SFs, and tree cases. These products are now being produced as quickly as possible, however, resources are very limited. The trees now within the tree cases are incredibly precious, as they are the last trees in existence.
After – Any place in time following the Dark.
Tree case – A miniature tree growing in a shallow layer of dirt within an unbreakable glass capsule. The bottom is made of thick metal. Airtight tubing connects the capsule to a mask strapped onto the wearer's face. The exchange of carbon dioxide from the wearer and oxygen from the tree create the wearer's personal air supply. The case is worn like a backpack, with straps crossing over the chest. The gasmask only covers the front of the head. Ears, hair, etc, are still visible and stick out from between the straps.
Elephant – Yao's term for the gasmasks, due to their trunk-like tubing.
SF/SFs – Sustenance Fluid/s. A re-energizing liquid within a syringe that has become currency. SFs replace the need for food or water, and are mostly nutritiously sound. They are becoming increasingly hard to come by.
DPP – Depopulation and Protection Program. The government's law states that for every child born, its parents must opt to either have the child live forever without a tree to themselves (ergo giving them up and letting them die) or sacrifice both the mother and father's trees to the government. The mother's tree goes to the child, and the father's tree goes to the government. This is a scheme in place to reduce the population to accommodate for having very limited resources.