Turning Cogs

Chapter 1

   It was the beginning of dawn, just as the sun started to come up and shed its orange glory across the land, creating deep shadows and great shines. The city, with all its metal glory, glimmered and blinded all who would see it without protection. The city itself was mostly bronze, full of the acrid smell of steam and the hardly more likable scent, oil.

The blinding brown was full of cogs and steam, it itself was a machine. The city required much upkeep, most of the denizens who resided there had some part in maintaining the function of the machine they lived in. One could only wonder what the city itself did though, as only a couple of people seemed to truly know what the machine was made for.

A black-haired, goggled boy walked through the dirt streets, littered with scrap metal and pests of all kinds and creatures.

The oil-covered young man was named Duncan, Duncan Bridges. He was an engineer in the immaculate city, he helped improve the city and created small inventions to improve the well-being of the common citizen. Few people knew of him though, he was mostly trapped in a workroom. His workroom was sealed off from contact, sometimes requests would come to him in the form of letters dropped off, he was almost always utterly sealed away from the common man he had wanted to help.

Duncan wasn't some miscreant with no social ties though, do not be confused. He would brag that he was surprisingly persuasive, this was an obvious overstatement. That fact was that Duncan's character was actually pretty hated by most people. He bragged too much and thought too highly of himself, never sugar-coating his words to the point of outright insulting others. A select few held contact with him, people who handled his oblivious nature to conversations, some even becoming good friends.

He was traveling to the quarters of one of those contacts currently, a slight skip in his step as he traveled. His clothes were wrinkled and stank of smoke like he had been working for hours just before his travel. That was the truth though, he had never taken much care of himself. He would lose himself and ignore his body's needs if he wasn't brought to reality by the semi-occasional whir of shortages and the zoom of letters passing overhead.

He had finally stepped onto the quarter's front; it was a block like any other, bronze and gold with circular windows littered sporadically. The house was barely a quarter of the size of the wall it was in front of, a border of the city, and was much less put-together than the wall. He knocked on the door lightly, the slight tap tap tap still hurting his numb hands, hands that have been stung and burned too many times to be safe at all.

The door opened soundlessly, even if it did the noisiness of the surrounding town would cover it. There stood a freckled aged woman, her own hair was black like Duncan's but with much more upkeep. She ushered the man inside, closing the door before speaking at all. "Did you not wash yourself at all before getting here? I thought I told you to get ready before coming over!" Her high voice snapped, it had no malice or anger but still held the sternness that only a survivor of something could hold.

Duncan flinched at the woman's words, "Well I had only finished work by 5 and you told me to be here by 6. I couldn't do anything for my appearance if I wanted to. Would you get up 2 hours earlier to get ready?" The woman ignored his question, "I need you to be ready! Not looking like this!" Duncan was about to argue his point, sitting down on the comfortable couch in the living room, "I mean seriously, do you want to go outside at all?" The inventor closed his mouth immediately, retort dying on his tongue as he remembered how close he was.

The woman looked smug, knowing she had won something that could've wasted more time. "Luckily, I had already predicted that you would do this. I have clothes so go get ready and come back after you have washed up." Duncan quickly grabbed the clothes she had pointed to, rushing upstairs two at a time to the washroom of the house he was already very familiar with. "Do be quick though!" "I will!" No way was he going to spend more time than necessary when he could just feel more life only hours away.