Song: Damian Marley - Welcome To Jamrock; The Architect - Dreader Than Dread
"You got your guns?" Mordecai asked. I nodded.
"Got your knives?"
I nodded again.
"Shield working?"
"Yes, Mordecai. Relax. I survived on Pandora with the shittiest shield possible. What's the worst that could happen?" I replied. Mordecai sighed.
"Don't make me think about that for too long." he replied.
"Are you sure you're okay with going back there? I get the feeling a lot of stuff happened back in the slums that you don't wanna face again." I said. We had been getting ready to go and see where Mordecai used to live and he was so nervous about anything happening to me, it was sweet, but also kind of concerning.
"It was... I dunno. Rough, I guess? Half the scars I have aren't from Pandora or any other planet, they're from Artemis. You know how my father had a temper. You know how people would just threaten you on the streets with knives and guns. I had an older brother who was always involved in some sort of shit. I made a good hostage or something. What I'm trying to say is, that growing up there wasn't fun and I have no idea what's gonna expect us when we get there." he replied.
"I see. Hey, if things get dodgy, we'll leave, alright? We survived Pandora, we survived Hyperion, we can do this." I tried reassuring him. He nodded at me and turned back to the Fast Travel Station to put in the code.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Ready when you are." I replied with a smile. I hoped I was really ready. I mean, yeah, I had been to the slums back on Aquator, and they were pretty bad, but I felt like it would be different going there with someone who actually grew up there. I wasn't sure what to expect.
When I opened my eyes again after the dizziness from fast travelling had faded, I found myself in a dark building. There was a flickering light that illuminated a small portion of the room. Looked like Pierce Station, just... worse. I looked over to Mordecai who looked around himself slowly.
"This the place?" I asked.
"That's the place alright. They built an actual building around the Fast Travel Station, so that's new." he replied.
"How do you know this is the right place, then?"
"The smell."
I hadn't really focussed on that right now, but as soon as he mentioned the smell, it was there. And it wasn't great. It was like a mix of bilgy water, rotting garbage and city smog on a hot day. And in between there was the smell of chemicals and greasy food, the greasy food smell making the whole experience very confusing.
"I see what you mean, I think." I told him and walked over to the light. There were a few posters and notes hanging up on the wall, most of them torn or scrawled on. A whole lot of them were bounties and police notices. There were one or two posters advertising schools among them, too.
Getting closer to the door leading out into the streets, there was another smell that I recognized. It took me a while to realize what it was, but the closer we got to the door the stronger it got. Weed. Unmistakably weed. That smell was a big part of my life back on Aquator, I could pick it up anywhere.
"Someone must be lighting a massive blunt out there." I said to Mordecai with a grin. He laughed and shook his head.
"Nah, the smell is everywhere. Give it five minutes and you won't even smell it anymore." he replied.
"Damn. So you got no family left here?" I asked. He shook his head.
"None that I know of. My parents got deported. Probably. My younger brother, too, I suppose. Unless they got a hold of him and put him into some other orphanage, no idea." he answered.
"You ever tried finding him?"
"For a little while, but I gave up pretty quickly. Might see if I can actually find out what happened to him." Mordecai said. He opened the rusty metal door and held it open for me. I stepped outside and was confronted with a bunch of makeshift houses. They looked like they'd fall apart if there was ever a storm.
There was trash lying all over the street and at every corner there was someone standing around, tending to some sort of business or just looking shady in general. I had seen stuff like this before, but it had been a long time ago and I had been slowly eased into it. This was more of a culture shock, because I had seen all the nice stuff first and now, all of a sudden, this.
I stepped out onto the narrow street, Mordecai following me closely. I could feel people looking at me curiously, probably trying to find out what I was doing here, on their turf, as an outsider.
"So, this is where you grew up?" I asked, not sure what to say. Mordecai quickly looked at the people around us, probably checking if it was someone he'd know or someone we should be wary of.
"Yeah. It's not very impressive, I know. But you wanted to know. I used this street to get to school over the Fast Travel station. I passed a bunch of people selling food on the streets on the way, so I'd usually have breakfast on the way, if I could afford it. Couldn't afford it most of the time, though." he explained, a slight smile on his lips, which was weirdly out of place with what he had just told me.
"Did you finish school?" I wanted to know. I didn't know if I ever finished school. I know I didn't drop out, but I had no idea whether I had graduated or not.
"Yeah, funnily enough. I missed a good bit of it when I was on my own, but I just remember my mother working so hard to get me and my brother into school and to make sure we'd stay in school, I finished it. Couldn't have lived with myself, if I dropped out." he replied. He never talked much about his family, but I could see how much he cared for his mother. I felt like I didn't know Mordecai at all, because I hadn't seen this side of him much yet. We just never talked about family.
"Wow. That's-"
Mordecai interrupted me by stopping me in my tracks and holding onto my arm. I hadn't realized, but it had gotten pretty quiet when we turned around the corner. He motioned for me to stay close to the wall of a house and be quiet. There were a few people around, a young girl carrying a baby on her back and three bags in each of her hands, a few kids playing on the streets, a couple of young guys, no one that looked suspicious. But I had gotten nervous now.
Something was going on and I had no idea what it was. But apparently Mordecai had some sort of gut feeling and that's why we were staying close to the house walls instead of walking around out in the open. And I had to admit the atmosphere was weird. Something was up. The girl with her baby was walking faster, the young kids playing looked around a little more.
"What's up?" I whispered.
"Not sure. Got a bad feeling..." Mordecai mumbled, as we snuck along the house walls. A group of young men turned the corner and that was when all hell broke loose. I had no idea what exactly happened and how it happened.
"Get down!" someone shouted and then there were shots and out of reflex I lay down on the ground, hands over my head. There were some screams, more shots, some shouting and then a group ran past us quickly and everything was over. I had my eyes closed through all of this and only now opened them again. It was confusing to look around and everyone was gone from the scene. The two young kids were looking out of the window, three young men were lying on the ground and the young woman carrying the child on her back was kneeling down.
I got up from the ground, looking around. The street was fairly empty for now. I walked over to the young woman to check whether she was okay. She was holding her leg and looked like she was in pain.
"Are you okay? Did you get shot?" I asked as I walked up to her. She turned a little to look at me.
"They got my leg..." she said, her voice sounding a little panicked. The baby on her back started crying loudly in that moment and from far away I could hear sirens. From the corner of my eye, I saw Mordecai coming towards us.
"Let me have a look at it." I replied. Sure enough, there was a bullet wound in the middle of her thigh. Thank God, Mordecai had been so worried, because I had packed a few healing hypos.
"We gotta go, cops are gonna show up pretty soon." Mordecai said to me. I got a bit of a fright, because he suddenly turned up behind me.
"We gotta help her!" I protested. Mordecai looked around quickly.
"Fine, but we gotta get away from here, if we don't wanna get in trouble. They won't believe we only got caught in the crossfire. Plus, we could get a whole lot of other problems, even if the cops don't get us." he replied. I nodded. I had only a faint idea of how things worked here, so I figured it would be best to trust Mordecai on that. I got up from the ground.
"Can you get up? We'll help you get away from here, okay?" I said to the young woman. She couldn't be much older than 18. She nodded at me and slowly stood up, the baby still wrapped to her back and crying. I quickly picked up some of the bags of food she had been carrying and put one arm around her for support. Mordecai did the same, and we quickly got her away from the street.
After we turned a few corners we sat her down against a wall. I took the baby out of the sling, so she could lean against the wall. The baby was still crying and I tried my best to get it to calm down, but there was no way. The young woman reached out for it and I gave her the child.
Her leg was bleeding badly. I quickly looked through the pouch I had on my leg. I found a health vial and some bandages from one of the healing kits. It'd have to do for now. I wished I could have cleaned the wound, but I had nothing to clean the wound with. No alcohol, not even water.
"Don't worry, this'll barely hurt." I said quietly, as I jammed the health vial into her leg. She squirmed, but didn't say anything. I looked over to Mordecai, who was trying to keep her calm.
"Where do you live? We'll bring you home." he said to her.
"Just a few streets from here. Between the school and the tyre shop, if you know where that is." she replied. Mordecai nodded.
"I'm from around here. Don't worry. I know the place. We'll get you there. Are you there on your own?"
"No, I'm sharing with two other girls and an older woman." she answered, as I wrapped the bandage around her leg. I looked up at her and smiled at her.
"We're all done here. Let's go. I'll help you walk." I told her and got up.
"I'll take the food." Mordecai added.
"You don't have to help. It's okay. Don't go out of your way just because of me. Especially not if it'll get you in trouble. I'll manage." the young woman said. I shook my head. I mean, she could barely walk.
"No, no, no. We'll get you home. I'm sure it's not far out of the way?" I replied and looked over at Mordecai.
"No, it's actually absolutely on the way. I used to live in the same house. So it's right where we were headed anyway." he answered.
