Tourist - Part Two
Darren made some kind of clicking noise for a few seconds, and the party around the bonfire dispursed. He pulled me over and sat me down, nodding sharply to Rol to leave the room. The metal door shut with a sickening clang. "So," he began, a little too chipper for my comfort. "You were frozen? Another failed experiment. Fuckin A."
I warmed my hands by the blaze. "What is the place?" I asked, trying to see beyond the fire into the dark corners of the room. "Where are we?"
"Underground. Not very far, just a few feet down. The sewers," answered Darren. "Most of civilized humanity leaves us alone, except for when they're dropping off the likes of you. We started off just blue collar workers, people who got sick and tired of repression on the surface. For some reason we've become a dumping ground for science experiments."
I thought back to the human shaped rag pile that had left, Koss. Androgenous enough, I wondered if it was some kind of mutation. "Why not just refuse to take them in?"
Darren glared at me. I felt immediately guilty for marring such a beautiful face with that look of distain. "I'm trying to build an army here, Daniel. I can't be picky."
"An army for what?" I asked quizzicly. No one had mentioned an army.
"To take back the surface. To show those elite bastards what they've shoved below them." He made a wide sweep with his hand, indicating the room. "This is humanity. This is real life, all that's left of it. And those idiots up there are as placid as they need to be. They know about us, and they refuse to do anything." The fire popped angrily with him. "We're starving to death down here, and they don't give a flying fuck."
I shook my head. "What can I do?" I asked.
"Like I said, Daniel, I'm building an army. I can't be picky." He smiled again, but something uneasy grew in the pit of my stomach. I had a feeling it would be more than that.
~*~*~
Ben woke me up later, and I felt as though I hadn't slept at all. The cold would not relinquish my bones, and my new habitat wasn't much of a help. Ben, I learned, was to accompany me on meal duty.
"Everyone hunts on their own," he explained. "But seeing as you're new to this routine, I'll be your partner for the first few days." He winked mischeviously and threw me a can of spray paint as we ascended the ladder that would take us to the world above.
Daylight burned my eyes again, and I threw an arm over them to let them adjust. It was then that I saw how our clothing clashed with those around us. Flowing robes of black adorned the citizens of the upper world, like giant fucking togas. Men and women alike pulled back the skirts of their material as they passed us, cringing at our appearance. I looked Ben over. Aside from the stupid grin on his face, he was wearing boots and camo pants, a tattered longsleaved tee-shirt on under a short sleaved one. He wore theives' gloves, and had managed somehow to look like he'd rolled himself in soot before we climed up. I looked down at myself, realized I looked just as scrubby, and shrugged to him. He nodded to me, and we ducked down a side street.
I followed him silently for a few blocks until we came upon some kind of shopping central, loaded with something that resembled parked cars. People milled about, a vast sea of swishing sheets of silk. We stopped outside of a sidewalk cafe. Ben smiled plesently to a woman passing by, and she shrieked before gathering her robes and bolting. He laughed long and hard, and then motioned to me to step up beside him.
"This, Danny Boy, is how I get my food." He raised the canister of spray paint that he held in his left hand and quickly spritzed a design on the sidewalk. He took my can from me and added color, made his artist's mark at the bottom of the illustration, and threw the cans into the street. He straightened himself and said in an overly shocked voice: "Bloody hell, Daniel, it looks as if someone has marred the sidewalk with artistic qualities! Whatever shall we do?"
Shocked murmering and the sounds of scraping chairs as patrons stood made quite a ruckus as the people around us eating came to examine the art. Ben and I slipped away as they made an increasing ring around the graffiti, and Ben hopped the gate into the cafe's table area, gathering food off of plates. "Not bad, eh?" he chuckled through a face full of something unrecognizeable. "Not bad at all," he complimented himself.
I shook my head and grabbed what looked like a sandwitch off of a plate. After stuffing as much food into his mouth as possible, Ben began to fill his pockets. I followed suit.
~*~*~
Foul air filled my nostrils as my companion dug deeper in the filth that surrounded us. Swirling colors of brown and gray made an unrecognizable pattern, broken whenever I tried to move forward in the knee-deep garbage. I breathed through my mouth, desperately trying not to taste the bilge swirling around me in the atmosphere. "What are we looking for again?" I asked, my voice muffled from me trying to cover my face. My skin felt coated with the grime.
"Tools. Weapons. Anything, really," came Ben's reply as he threw more and more over his shoulder. With bare hands. And no mask. I cringed. "Don't worry about me," he said with a chuckle. "I'm used to it. You will be too, soon enough." He picked up a broken doll and tossed it over his shoulder. "This is pretty useless," he added, mostly to himself. I waded over towards him, and he picked up something else, and shook his head. "What are we supposed to do with this crap?" he almost threw it aside, but stopped when I grabbed his arm. "What is it?" he asked.
I slid it out of his hands, almost like handling crystal. I smoothed a palm over the soundboard softly, trying to wipe away the coating of muck that spoiled the finish. I frowned. Stringless.
"It's a guitar," I answered.
to be continued in part three...