Chapter 4
A/N: I've had a few inquiries about what the terms "AU" and "OOC" mean, so to clear it up before the story continues any further… "AU" means Alternate Universe. It signifies a story where things are running differently to the universe you'd come to expect. "OOC" means Out of Character. Characters may act differently to how you'd expect. Hope that clears things up ^_^
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"Let's go clubbing." Jim said jokingly.
"Clubbing? I don't think so." Danny shook his head, chuckling. "But I do think we should go out and check our bearings."
They ended up outside, wandering around in what was almost pitch blackness. There was a very dim light in the distance to their right, so they wandered over to that, eventually seeing an overhead streetlight and a small dusty path, with large walls to both sides and trashcans next to the walls. As they walked onwards they eventually ended up in what seemed like a miniature town. There were houses all around them, in a circle, with a large machine right in front of them which whirred soothingly. The machine was huge, ten times the size of them. It was mostly a large metallic box, with a few tubes branching out of it and into the ground, leeching whatever was under there. Danny and Jim could both vaguely remember learning at school that these machines powered all the sub-sections of Midgcar, and every sector had three or four. Their memories of how the machines did this were scratchy, but they remembered the machines took something out of the Earth that was then converted into power and then sent out to all the homes that were connected to the machine via the underground.
"First time I've seen one of these properly." Jim mused, eyeing the machine curiously.
"Me too." Danny regarded it with less curiosity; he moved his focus to the houses and noticed a sign hanging next to the machine. It said 'Sector 5 slums'. Jim noticed it too.
"Too bad we don't know anything about Midgcar, that sign might actually be useful to us." Danny shook his head despondently. He'd seen maps of Midgcar at school, but again didn't remember anything in great detail. All he knew was that there were two levels, the ground level, which were called "the slums", and the top level, which was named "the top plate". Danny remembered being told that the slums were more polluted and dirty than the top plate, and that the top plate was regarded as a place for the high-class and rich people to live. Whereas the slums were where everyone else resided. ALIEN HQ would undoubtedly be on the top plate.
"How do you think we can get up to the top plate?" He asked Jim.
Jim shrugged. "I dunno. Didn't they say that there were trains or something that took people up to the top plate?"
"Something like that." Danny saw something move out of the corner of his eye and turned to see two children, both boys, one clearly older than the other, regarding them curiously.
"Uh, hi." He said a little uncomfortably.
"What you doing here?" The older boy asked, glaring at Danny and them at Jim with extreme distrust.
"We just want to know the best way to get to the top plate." Danny responded, hoping perhaps these children could give them the answer.
"You aren't from around here, huh?" The boy said slowly.
Danny shook his head. "No, just arrived."
The boys looked at each other, then back at Danny and Jim. "Some ALIEN guards were found killed earlier." The older boy told them, suspicion in his voice.
"Whereabouts?" Danny asked, trying to sound neutral.
"Up where you came from." The younger boy said, sounding even more suspicious than his friend.
"That's terrible." Danny remained impartial, not sure whether he should sound sympathetic or glad. Based on what Aeris had said, the boys probably disliked ALIEN anyway, but if they didn't, then a victorious tone may bring all kinds of trouble, not to mention they probably wouldn't get their information. The older boy smiled, seemingly knowing what Danny was thinking. He pointed to his left, where another small path led off into the darkness. "You go down that path, turn right… go past some big doors, that's the entrance to sector 7, but you don't wanna go there, 'cause there ain't nothing there… you just walk past it, and then you'll find sector 6, where wall market is."
"Wall market?"
"It's a huge big market with loadsa shops and people!" The younger boy interrupted, his face suddenly bright and enthusiastic.
"Shut up! I'm talking to them!" The older boy growled, and continued. "The market is a place where there are shops and stuff like that… it's quite a fun place, but our parents won't let us go on our own… they say there's lotsa bad people there too."
"Oh, I see…" Danny nodded.
"Anyway, you just go into Wall Market, and you'll see a really big building in front of you. You gotta head towards it, then you'll see this gap in a wall, and if you go through the gap you'll find a huge wall! It's really cool! There's this really long wire that goes up and up, and momma said it goes up to the top plate. You just gotta climb that 'till you get to the top."
"Isn't there an easier way?" Jim said, his first comment in the conversation.
The older boy smiled a little. "Well, if you go in sector 7 there's a train station… but ALIEN guards are everywhere… and you need ID… I don't think you guys have them."
These kids were smart. Danny smiled back at them. "Thanks. You've really helped us out. You shouldn't be out here so late, though. Strange people come out at night."
"Like you guys?" The older boy commented, and both boys giggled. Danny and Jim laughed also, remembering Jim's comment from earlier.
"No, we're just normal guys… why are you out at this time?" Danny knew it was really none of his business, but he couldn't understand why the boys were out here at this time of night, when clearly many people feared the outside once it got dark.
"Momma sent us to find papa…" The younger boy said quietly, his face was now more sullen than before.
"Is he lost?" Jim asked.
"No, we know where he is." The older boy replied, confusing both Danny and Jim.
"Then why did your mother send you to find him?" Danny said.
"'Cause she wants papa to come home now." The younger boy turned towards a small building, Danny and Jim too glanced over there and saw it was a small bar, there was music and loud banter coming from inside.
"Is he in there?" Danny said slowly.
"Yeah… momma is ill, so she can't come get papa … if papa stays out too late, he sometimes goes to sleep in the street, and momma said he might get hurt by bad people." The older boy was beginning to usher his sibling towards the bar. Danny thought of going with them, but decided it was none of his business and turned away from them to face Jim.
"Well, at least now we know where to go."
"Let's get going." Jim nodded towards the path that led to Wall Market.
"Now?" Danny cocked his head slightly, bemused. He didn't want to leave right now, it was late, and Aeris would be expecting them back.
"Yes, now." Jim looked back at Danny with equal bemusement. He was eager to move on.
"I thought we were going to stay with Aeris and Jerad for a couple of days…"
"Well, now we can save them the burden."
"Aeris already said it's no trouble and she wants to help us. She could tell us some stuff that's important. Plus, even when we climb up to the top plate, we still have to find ALIEN HQ … it could take us a while without any knowledge of the top plate. I think we should go back."
"I disagree… I'm not tired anyway, after being out of it for most of the day anyway! We should press on. At night there'll be less security and we'll have better camouflage."
"As will anybody who tries to attack us!"
"Nobody can defeat us, come on… not thugs, anyway."
"We can't take any chances. Let's go back…" With that, Danny briskly turned to the path they'd come down and began walking back to the church.
"Danny! Danny, come on! You can't be serious! Since when have you cared about danger?" Jim yelled, exasperated. This was quite unlike Danny, he was sure that Danny would have agreed to press on, but instead he wanted to go back. "Dammit… what's going on, Danny?" Jim caught up with him and shook his head.
"Nothing. We have to be smart about this, Jim. We're in a city we know very little about, we're bound to be on ALIEN's hit list now that they think we killed a load of guards, and it's night. We're better off waiting until morning, maybe staying with Aeris a day or two longer, then continuing from there."
"Sure doesn't sound like you…" Jim shrugged. "But I won't argue. Just hope you know what you're doing."
They walked the rest of the way in silence, a slightly uncomfortable air between them over the disagreement. They reached the church and slipped in as quietly as possible.
"How long have we been out, you reckon?" Jim whispered.
"Half an hour or so, maybe…" Danny replied just as quietly. "Might as well go and get some rest now." They walked over to the door at the back of the church and opened it, revealing the flight of stairs Aeris has told them about. They crept up the stairs and onto the landing. The corridor was dark, the rebels waited until their eyes had adjusted before moving any further. Danny could see the door that led to Aeris's room and began to head towards it, but as he moved forward he saw a shadow flicker, and in front of him a dark figure emerged on the landing. Thinking someone had got into the church whilst they'd been out, Danny drew his sword. Seeing Danny do this, Jim did the same, straining his eyes to make out what was in front of him, the figure's outline slowly became visible to him too.
"Who are you?" Danny barked, his voice strong. The figure didn't move.
"Get out of this church!" Jim growled, assuming too that this was an intruder.
The figure was then upon them, surprisingly quickly. It knocked Danny into the wall with such a force that Danny dropped his sword and gasped, grunting in pain. Before Jim could do anything the figure had kicked him hard in the stomach and grabbed his sword from him as Jim writhed on the floor in agony. The figure put the sword to Danny's throat. Danny's eyes were wide and fearful… he couldn't make out the face of his assailant, even though he was now at his throat. The blade pressed against his neck… Danny knew one more push would seal his fate, but to his surprise, the sword then was pulled away and dropped to the floor.
"That was pathetic." The mocking tone was undoubtedly the voice of only one person: Jerad.
Danny glared in shock for a few moments before growling. "Jerad! What the hell did you do that for?"
Jim had by now regained vertical status, though he was still clutching his stomach. "Jerad? What's the matter with you!"
"I was merely making sure you weren't intruders. You didn't have the politeness to tell either myself or my sister you were leaving the church, therefore I thought you may be intruders."
"Bullshit!" Danny put his sword back into his cloak. "You knew damn well it was us! You heard our voices, dammit!"
"Could have been trickery." Danny thought he saw a smile flicker across Jerad's face, which was mostly hidden by darkness.
"Bastard…" Danny shook his head and shoved past Jerad, going towards Aeris's room. Jim also pushed Jerad out of the way and followed.
"You guys had better not try anything with my sister… or I'll take you out for real." Jerad said, his voice deadly serious.
"Go screw yourself." Danny replied angrily.
"Unlike you, we're decent guys." Jim added with a snort. The shadowy figure that was Jerad had gone, however.
Danny considered knocking on the door, but remembered Aeris saying she'd leave it unlocked, and slowly pushed it open. This room was a lot brighter than the corridor. Danny walked in, followed by Jim, and noted the window above Aeris's bed was the source of the light. The moon and seemingly come out from behind the clouds now, typically when they no longer needed it. The glow slanted down the bed, and onto the floor. The mattress she had gotten them was quite a large size, it had a similar size bed sheet and a couple of pillows laying on it. It looked to be blue, but the moonlight made much of the room seem blue. Aeris seemed to be asleep, she was breathing slowly and peacefully, her face looked very tranquil. She could be acting, but Danny didn't see the point in that. Her bed was as large as the mattress, which could easily fit a couple of people on it.
"With that much space, it's a shame she didn't invite us to join her." Jim grinned at Danny mischievously, still with one hand on his stomach. Danny shook his head.
"Don't be perverted." He moved over to the mattress and laid on it, finding it quite comfortable.
"I was kidding." Jim rolled his eyes and laid down next to Danny. "Well, I have to say I didn't imagine I'd be sharing a bed with you when we started out."
"I'd hope not." Danny said with a quiet laugh and turned to the window, he could now see the moon quite clearly, it was full and shining brilliantly.
"Have a good sleep. No funny stuff either." Jim laughed and rested his head on his pillow, closing his eyes and yawning.
"I'll try to resist you." Danny replied in jest and also put his head down onto the pillow, still watching the moon vacantly, before he knew it, he'd fallen asleep.