An Unlikely Friend. part 1

Chapter 2: The Industrial District

Nero

Charged by the scent of fresh air and the morning light streaming over jagged mountains in the far distance, the children hurry up the street, leaving Fae’s well kept, light blue home quickly behind, an irregularity that stands out from the other neglected houses like a lone island in an expanse of water. The sound from their shoes crunching through the decrepit streets rings through the cool morning. The sound bounces off the houses lining the street but mostly becomes lost in the broken windows and crumbling walls of the abandoned. Rusted pieces of shaped metal and other random objects litter the lawns of the inhabited houses in an effort to hide the burnt brown grass and dried dirt, while sun bleached fences with peeling paint line the edges of the lawns.

Iona and Thea proudly lead the way through the heart of the small town, where a few stores provide the essentials for survival. A lone worker pauses for a moment from sweeping the front of the food mart to watch as Ryder and Korbin wobble awkwardly by with the cooler swinging between them.

Just after the stores, the children drop onto the banks of a creek with a mellow flow of water weaving about rocks of various sizes and a smattering of rusting junk. The creek slices through the land towards the mountains, separating a few, water stained, gray factories with machinery echoing from within on the right, and a graveyard of abandoned homes overwhelms the horizon on the left. Behind the factories, a tall cement wall is topped with barbwire, surrounds a large number of industrial buildings that line the creek for a long distance off. A makeshift barrier of chain link fence and sheets of roofing metal continues from the cement wall and spans the creek, where it runs off to the left through the rubble of homes to eventually circle back around the town.

The children trek through the loose detritus and rocks of the bank, only stopping momentarily to peel back an opening in the makeshift barrier for them to squeeze through. Once on the other side they come to a small concrete storm drain that punctures the base of the cement wall.

Ryder steals a quick look towards the town and sets down the cooler. “The coast’s clear, let’s move quick.” He grabs the rusted metal grating leaning against the mouth of the storm drain and moves it to the side.

Korbin uncovers a piece of plywood with a rope looped through holes in two of its corners and pulls out a flashlight from his backpack. He walks up to the pipe entrance with the piece of wood behind him, positions the rope around his waist, and disappears into the pipe. The wood follows him to the entrance and stops.

Ryder heaves the cooler onto the sled and slaps the top of it. “You’re good to go Korb!” The wood scrapes against the dirt and concrete as the cooler slides into the darkness. “Alright Iona, Thea, and Nero, go for it!”

Nero watches as Iona vanishes. Oh I hate this part. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens them he sees the bottom of Thea’s feet moving deeper into the pipe. He quickly drops down and follows her closely; a dim light that is bouncing around at the far end of the pipe traces out her silhouette.

Ryder follows last and pulls the grating back over the pipe from the inside. The dirt in the pipe ends after a couple of meters exposing cold concrete where little rocks uncomfortably jab into the children’s hands and knees as they slowly crawl down the tight pipe, with the scraping of Korbin’s sled muffling out the rest of the world.

A knot inside of Nero coils itself tightly around his lungs. What if this old pipe collapses? We’d be crushed under loads of rock. It’s so old it’s probably due at any moment!

“Hey Nero slow down,” Thea laughs as Nero’s head hits her butt.

Nero catches himself and struggles to slow himself. I’ve done this many times before. It’ll be okay.