Chapter Seven
The City Of Rats
I know that's its called Rat City, but honestly The City of Rats sounded better, so I'm calling that from now on. Just to let you know. My first impression of the city was sad-and that's putting it lightly. To even call it a city is an insult to cities. It was more like a large gathering of separate communities with their own political leaders, governments, laws and customs and even people. The only reason it would called a city at all was because of the road and canal that connected them, making one big, messed up metropolis. In other words, this place is a shit hole.
But Emile didn't see any of that. Honestly he thought it was great. I have to give him credit though, he did lead me to the city that I thought didn't exist. I almost ashamed to admit this, but Emile also gave me a good place to start searching for my mystery girl. So I guess it wasn't so bad.
Yves smiled as he viewed the stinking and rotting canal that lined the city, "That" he said, "is real water." I laughed, "That's not water. That's shit" I replied, "Please tell me you don't drink that stuff" I continued turned towards Yves, who only nodded in reply, "Of course I do" he answered, "it's good. Besides, it keeps me fit." I made a mental note to myself that Yves might be insane; anyone who even dares drink that water, or even call it water has something wrong in their head. "Isn't this great?" Emile asked, "Look at that water..." Emile looked like he wanted to jump in and do one of those elaborate dance routines, Yves caught this and threw him in without question. There was one major problem with that-Emile can't swim.
"Great" I said turning towards Yves, "go save him." Emile was splashing around like an idiot, he hadn't even gotten the basic concept of floating, "Me?" Yves said looking around innocently, "he's your brother." I could see a slight smile, an extremely smug one, grow on his face, "You just have to make this difficult don't you?" I replied, gritting my teeth and twitching almost every limb in my body. Yves nodded, picked me up and threw me in the canal.
Just as I surfaced, for I had gone under for a few seconds, a boat sped past and almost hit Emile then another one came by and almost hit me. For a moment, I thought that's exactly what they were trying to do. I grabbed Emile as soon as I could, he was screaming the entire time, "Help, I can't swim! I'm dying!" I tried to reassure him, "You're dying" I then saw the boats turn back around and head straight for us, "Emile" I said, "What!" he yelled as he calmed down, "Count your blessings, pray to the Lord on High that this works." Emile's eye grew big at this, "What are you doing?" he asked. I couldn't answer for I was too busy trying to save us.
The boats would be crush us within seconds, I dove under and into the filth of the canal, trying to avoid the large amount of feces that was in front of me, not like it would've made a difference for I couldn't see a damn thing in that brown water. I surfaced again, but noticed that Emile was nowhere to be found, I cursed myself and Yves for throwing us in to begin with and dove back down to find Emile.
The water had gotten thicker at the bottom, making it harder to see than it was before. The only reason I found Emile at was by chance, otherwise I would've passed him as a human waste and continue. I grabbed Emile and started to go up, but something had him by the tail, I looked at his face, it was unresponsive, which meant that he was already dead or unconscious. Sparing no time, I followed his body downward towards the end of the tail and realized that a large rock was crushing it, it would be impossible to lift on my own, but I had to try. I got underneath Emile to try and push the rock off, but that would mean that he would his tail. I found a nearby stick and tried to use it as leverage but by the time I would've the rock off, Emile would've been dead and I would've drowned trying to save him. I took the option I could; I bit Emile's tail off and resurfaced.
A kindly fisherman in a small dingy let us aboard and brought us to shore. Emile was still unconscious. Setting him down on the sidewalk of the central district of the city, I felt and listened for a pulse, it was there, but it was faint. I then proceeded to give CPR. After several minutes, Emile coughed up a large amount of water and the garbage he had earlier. He blinked a few times, smiled and spoke, "Hey Remy" he said weakly, "what's up with you?" I returned his smile, just thankful that he was alive. "Let's get out of here." I said, "Whatever you say Remy" Emile replied," I've had enough adventure for one day." I laughed and nodded in response, "I've had enough adventure for the rest of my life Emile. Let's go home."
We went across the bridge and down the corridor that we first came in, Yves was nowhere to be found. On the wall of the canal, a large hole in the rock was easily noticeable. It wasn't there before, but I shrugged this off as mere shock and continued walking until I reached the surface and the night air of Paris, who greeted us warmly, as if we never left at all.
