Aedon
"There would be no-one to frighten you if you refuse to be afraid"
- Mahatma Ghandi
Chapter 1 - Waking Up
I dream about her again in the night, probably because I saw her photograph on a discarded newspaper that day, but then she's never far from my thoughts as it is.
Waking up, I realise it's raining. I've slept on a roof. Too dangerous to sleep indoors now. The rain falls in soaking silver sheets. London is grey, obscured, with the gargantuan adobe camera-lens shape of New 10 Downing Street looming in the distance. Strange how little damage we did to it, in the end. Pointless.
I light one of the awful black cigarettes I always keep with me. Vile things. I'd quit if I could.
Right, so. What now? I weigh up my options, my potential courses of action. They are depressingly limited. I could spend yet another day aimlessly wandering around the city, risking life and limb in another hopeless attempt to find a surviving Number. There doesn't seem much point now, though, now that Two's dead, along with all the rest of them, by the looks of things. Most of them, anyway. Even - (NO).
Or I could stay here all day, getting soaking wet and feeling sorry for myself (nah, not my style).
I could fling myself from this roof in a dramatic fashion, give some Manuductive Civil Service worker a really hard time scraping me off the pavement. But I want to live, I want to survive. I want the bastards to know they haven't got all of us yet.
Right. That's three options. The day ahead of me suddenly seems very long.
As I finish the horrible, horrible cigarette, something makes me look around, down at the streets. Mapmen. Nine or ten of them. They've not seen me yet, but they will. They just have to look up.
What do I do? Fight them? I find that I can't be bothered. Perhaps if I make my way over the slope of the roof, slide down, over the wall, I could...
"Look! Up there!"
Ah, dammit. Already they're heading towards the door of the building, while others take several steps backward, to get me in their line of sight.
Right, so. My mind seems to have been made up for me. This has become a more and more regular occurance lately. I sigh heavily, throw away the end of the cigarette, and begin to run across the rooftops.
Another London day.
Author's note:
OK guys, tell me what you think. It's such a departure from my usual style, I'm not sure what I think myself. Eight is already a lot easier to write for than three, surprisingly.
I know this chapter was short; it's meant to be, cos it's only like a prologue. Real soon guys, like REAL soon, I'll upload new Three (too too tired tonight - college work, and it's after midnight here)
Please comment and let me know what you think of this new story; woah I have fifty-two fans now; thanx to the 2 new people who joined us today (@CaptainObvious: I knew that pestering would work. Mwahahaha.)
