Chapter 17 - The City

Fise held the man up, feeling the life fade slowly as blood gushed out. Blood travelled down Fise's hand and dripped down onto the broken concrete. The man turned and Fise saw the pain and sorrow in his eyes, the hopelessness, knowing he will die. Fise's rage and anger went away in an instant and he couldn't bring himself to let the man die. But he remembered the pain and he slashed his back, and he put his head through the hole made by Fise's fist and, feeling that anger fade, Fise threw the man away. Blood dripped down his hand and suddenly it was dark. Before him stood a log, blood splattered from underneath it. What world was this?

He turned around to look away, feeling tears in his eyes and before him stood a wall, collapsed upon something. Blood, scarlet and viscous and flowing as if reaching out and asking, begging to be let free of its stone prison. Fise fell down, closing his eyes, turning all of this away. He didn't do all this did he? His hand hit something and Fise quickly turned. A headless corpse stood next to him, staring into his eyes with it's now visible vertebrae. A hand fell on his shoulder and Fise rolled and tumbled, dragging himself away from a man with a knife in his head. He was stopped. A log lay in his way. He rolled to his left only to be stopped by rocks and debris, and stumbled back, knocking into something that groaned. He turned and saw a man stare at him from his back, his head upside down. Fise stopped and pulled his hands over his head, his knees to his abdomen, and wept on the floor, feeling the things tear him open, but no pain came as flames burnt around him. He felt them and rolled, trying to put them out. Put them out! Put them out! But the flare and everything stopped. 1 second of nothing, silence, nothing in sight, nothing in mind, nothing to see, nothing to find. Just stillness.

And then it was gone. Drowned and buried under a sheet of moving and pulsing colours, like a stormy sea, full of all the shades. Fise was inside of it, surrounded by the now familiar shapes, and looked down at his hands, now black shapes standing out against the colourful void beyond. Something tickled his cheek, and he opened his eyes. He was in a bed, a familiar one, with the bright light and curtains and smell of antiseptic. He sat up and felt something on his cheek, wiping it away. His hand came away wet. Looking around he heard lots of movement and groaning, and some screaming. Looking down he saw he was covered in a white sheet. He pulled it off and saw he was wearing a medical gown. His wound was gone. He put his hand on top of where it was and felt that there was something there. He pulled up his shirt and saw that is was red but no signs of injury or even scarring.

He stood up off his bed, feeling the cold floor under his bare feet and looked for his shoes. It seemed he didn't have them. He shook his head to try and clear his mind of that nightmare, but every shake gave a flash of a death, a death he caused, and could have prevented. He needed to do something else. Walking up to the curtains and pulling them open, he saw the infirmary was busy, all the other beds taken and people in white coats rushing from one bed to another. He looked around to see if anyone from his team was in with him but before he got a good look a nurse ran up to him.

"Feeling good?" he asked.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Good, good," he wrote something on a notebook he held. "Please return to your team's room, take a right at the hallway and put the gown in the washing. Pick up some clothes after if you want, they are located in a basket inside the laundry room." He then turned and shouted something to the other nurses before cleaning up the bed. Fise decided to do as told.

Walking out of the infirmary, he looked around and realised that it was in a different place. They must have more than one. He took a right, trying not to bump into the many people running around, mostly medical personnel it seemed. The answer as to why was shown to Fise in the fact that after taking the corner, there were no more doors on the side leading to another infirmary, only an opening where some people huddled, machines whirring. Fise entered and saw the basket at the back, a sign saying 'Free clothes' above it. Next to it there were some changing rooms. Fise was happy no one saw him change, it would have been embarrassing. He didn't want anyone here to see that he had no idea how to put on trousers, or how to figure out which way the shirt was supposed to go, having relied on the robot to do that for him. Fise emerged wearing black, and only black. He didnt find any shoes, but did find a mismatched pair of socks. It seemed all clothes in the 'free clothes pile' were cleaned. Fise looked at someone on one of the machines, by pressing a button and dumping it in the opening on top, no matter if the machine was running or not, and he imitated it.

Now, the last problem. Where were his quarters? He remembered it was on story C, which was 2 stories lower than the hub, or was it 3?

'2 stories lower than story A, and the infirmary was all the way at the bottom on story D, right?'

Fise walked up the stairs and looked down the hallway. 'Where's the room?'

He walked around but every room looked the same, and he couldn't remember which was his.

'We went down a bit, so maybe its past 2 hallways of rooms, and to the left?'

Walking forwards he then took a left and headed for the first door.

"Fise! You're awake? What are you doing, trying to steal?"

Fise turned around.

"Ann!" He waved to the girl, who had just exited the first room to the right of the corridor. She walked towards him waving.

"Hi! Uhm..." she looked down.

"Why don't you have shoes?"

"I don't know where mine are."

"Just get some spare ones."

"I don't know where."

She sighed.

"It was in the same room you got your socks from."

"How'd you know?"

"I needed to go there as well."

"Huh? But you weren't really injured. Did something happen while I was out?"

Ann looked around before stepping back towards their room. "We'll talk inside."

As Fise entered, he made sure to remember the room number.

The room was practically unchanged, the couches and table still there. Fise saw no one around and went to sit opposite Ann.

"Something happened." he said.

"Yeah..." she took a deep breath. "Goddamn Rogues attacked."

"When we were leaving?"

"Bingo. Some guy came and fixed you up and then we left. As we were leaving we realised we were being attacked, some people starting running around in the forest with us. Andrew took some out. Then we came upon a clearing and we were surrounded."

She swallowed.

"Goddamn, I don't know what they are, but they're crazy or something, they brought in some people, beaten and naked in a vehicle and spouted some bullshit. Fighting was useless, they took Andrew down quickly when he tried and there were hundreds of them. We managed to escape with a 'helicopter', I think it was called."

"Oh I remember those, they are like buzzers!"

"The hell is a buzzer?"

"Its a flying car that buzzes due to how it flies. One of the first fully electric flying vehicles."

"Well it didn't buzz, but it was super loud, and made wind blow a lot. My ears popped."

"So I'm guessing you woke up?"

"Yeah. I didn't really show it though."

"So they didn't see you as a threat?"

"No, not really." she looked around at the doors and then back at him.

"You see, Seah was carrying me, and if I woke up I would have had to walk, and it was more comfortable. Did you know that her hair smells like roses?"

"I didn't. Does it smell good.?"

"Oh yeah! I like roses."

"I don't know what that smells like but I wanna know. Can I smell it as well?"

Ann sat back into her seat.

"Well, I dunno, you'll have to ask her."

"Is she here?"

"Yeah she's in her room."

Fise stood and walked around to the door to Seah's room and knocked.

"Wait, Fise I said that as a jo-"

Seah opened the door and looked down at Fise, much shorter than her, looked up.

"Ann says that your hair smells good, can I smell it as well?"

"Sorry, I didn't know he'll actually-"

"Sure."

Seah got lower and turned her head sideways. Fise smelt it and then backed away closing his eyes and holding his chin in a way he saw someone in a book do before.

"Hmm, Ann you were right, that does smell good. I never smelt roses before but they smell nice!"

Ann sat forwards holding her head. Fise walked back to his seat, Seah closing the door behind her and walking over to the couch as well, sitting next to Ann. "So what happened after?"

Ann sat up and took a deep breath, her hands going downwards as if pushing out the air inside her.

"After that, we were taken care off in the helicopter. It seemed pretty big inside, there were some other people. Seems these Rogues are covering the surrounding area for some reason and have attacked some people taking missions. Anyway, we get back, Andrew is taken to the Infirmary and we stay in our room waiting for someone to say something. We visited Andrew once he was healed and went with him to get clothes and that. The shoes were next to the Free Clothes by the way."

"Oh, I think I might be blind."

"We checked up on you a bit after Andrew was taken by the head honcho. and then just stayed here. I was on my way to see if you were awake when I found you."

"The head what?"

"Goddamn I feel like a secondary character explaining everything, Its just the big guy at the top."

"Oh. Well do we just wait for him?"

"Seems like it." she said before suddenly smirking.

"Actually, we could go in the city."

"Uhh, what?"

"You see, I kinda wanted to look around the city but didn't have a chance. But going alone feels boring and kinda, you know, dangerous? So, uh, yall wanna go look around?"

"But what if some Rogues, or Agents see us?"

"What are they gonna do? Attack us in our home turf in front of the city? Seah what do you say?"

Seah just nodded.

"Well, what about you, Fise?"

"Yeah sure, but I dont think we can go in our Radience uniforms."

"Oh don't worry, I have some clothes to change into, got some when we went with Andrew in case I almost get shot again!" she joked.

Seah nodded, indicating she had clothes as well.

"Well, I guess I'll just wear these, since I don't really have anything else. Imma go get some shoes though." he said as he stood up.

When Fise returned he was greeted by Ann who was wearing a stripped black and white t-shirt with zebra stripped trousers. She motioned for him to sit on the couch before sitting herself.

"Seah's almost ready."

"Ann, are we even allowed to go into the city?Wouldn't Instructor Srap stop us?"

"I don't think so. Most Radiance members go into the city. As long as we don't go underground it will be OK."

"Why would going underground be bad?"

Ann gave him a weird look.

"I guess you don't know about Incip. I ain't surprised, considering you said you don't know what a rose is."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologise, but can you tell us why you don't know what a rose is? I can tell you more about my creation arts if you do!"

"Yeah, sure."

They waited a bit before Seah left her room. Fise looked over and his eyes bulged, before Ann did the same. He exclaimed.

"R-Red?!"

Ann just sat up and took a step back. Seah wore a red shirt dress and knee. She tilted her head in confusion at their reaction.

"Uhm Seah, we're not planning to stand out..." Ann said after a bit.

"Wh-What rank are you?"

"J."

Fise blinked. Time stopped.

"RANK J?! WHAT THE HELL!? " he got out of the couch and rolled on the floor while shouting. Time resumed. He stopped shouting but was still on the floor.

"Seah, can you please, uhm, change to something more discrete? Please?"

Seah nodded.

5 minutes later she exited wearing a black shirt with a red skirt. She looked at Ann, who was sitting down and holding her head. Ann looked up.

"That should be fine."

Fise sat up and went by the door.

"So how do we actually leave?"

"Follow me, but first..."

She went into her room before returning, holding a small pouch.

Fise looked down at it.

"What is that?"

"My wallet. Has my card"

"Card?"

"So we can pay, because I bet we'll want to get something!"

"But can't you just use your interfaces?"

Ann and Seah looked at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Uhm, Fise, interfaces are expensive as hell, who could have them?"

"But I had one?"

"You did? Wait, you had? As in not have it anymore?"

"Yeah-"

"Wait!" said Ann holding her hand out and closing her eyes. "You can explain later! Right now we shall leave."

"Oh, uh, alright."

"Follow me."

They went down the main corridor and up the stairs until reaching the hub, or floor A. Walking on the outskirts of the large room, they reached the opposite site and went down the north corridor. It split into many branches, leading to places in the city. The kept going forwards until they decided to leave through a branch. They walked up the slope and occasional stair way as it bent and were greeted by a door. No handle. Ann pushed on it but nothing happened. Seah stepped forwards suddenly. Horizontal swipe, vertical, followed by more.

"Freedom." she said.

The door opened.

Light streamed inside and they left. An alleyway between a brick and concrete building, some garbage here and there. Walking out they were greeted by what Fise saw the entire time: streets and buildings, some a little old. Barely any people, no one was there to witness them leave. Ann began walking after closing her eyes and thinking. The sun was past its zenith, it was the afternoon and warm. Fise was wary, remembering the 2 thugs who attacked him and Andrew. It seemed the outskirts weren't regulated by the police.

However, it seemed his worry was for nought, as all people who passed them did so quickly, almost jogging past, avoiding eye contact. Nobody came onto the same side of the street as them. Incip wasn't big, above ground, and so they got towards the center quicker. Fise was looking at the sky scrapers, wondering how it would look like from up there. The streets became more crowded and people began staring instead of avoiding them. Fise saw multiple vehicles pass by on the street, which was barren before. They seemed to be emergency services, or police.

They were in the 'Heart of the Storm', as the semi-official name given to the middle of Incip was called, and looking up at the buildings tall enough to give God a back scratch and the drones zipping through the air like dust and sand in a tornado made Fise feel the name be appropriate. Ann led them towards a river of people, flowing in and out of a staircase leading underground to the famous Underground City of the apocalypse, as Ann kept dramatically calling it, getting bizarre stares from passerby. Fise felt like a raisin, small and shriveled from the stares of absolute disgust and ridicule he kept getting, and just focused on following Ann, meanwhile Seah kept being Seah, not speaking at all the entire trip. They exited the staircase and escalator tunnel into a wide platform, ending in a sloped piece of glass which was clearly made of something much stronger. They took a left and passed through a security gate which nobody was attending to. Fise looked upon Underground Incip and never felt such beauty greet his eyes. Spires, lights, machinery, people, all of it was like a beautiful cacophony of metal and electricity, technology and power.

The roof was covered in buildings, probably multiple floors as well, showing why the climb down took so long. Ann took them towards a shop, and they followed. Fise, while it might seem bizarre, never laughed before, not a genuine, heartfelt laugh coming from his soul. Until then. They kept visiting shops, places, landmarks, ignoring some stares they kept getting and had fun. Fun. Fise needed to think hard about when last he had fun with others.

'Never.' came the reply back. Always alone, no friends at the orphanage, not one person who really wanted to become friends. This was fun, and it shall not be stopped.

Eventually they returned above ground, the sun setting. Seah pointed to a group of people huddled around a vehicle that looked like a box. They seemed to be selling something swirly on cones that has Fise never seen before. They decided to wait in the bad excuse for a queue and buy some. The woman running the stand looked at them three.

"What would you like?"

Ann looked at Seah, and at Fise.

"We would like-" she began.

"Strawberry." said Seah

"I'll take a vanilla."

Fise heard that term before, and knew it meant unused or along those lines. The woman turned to make them.

"I'll also take a vanilla."

The woman played with a machine, putting a cone next to it and a swirly pink topped cone was being handed to Seah, who gracefully took it, before the woman turned and did the same after fiddling with the machine, and handed a white topped cone to Ann.

"That would be £2 please."

Ann looked at her and then at Fise before giving a sharp look back at the woman.

"You forgot one."

The woman started and then made another cone, handing it to Fise.

"£3." she said, looking at Seah and Ann. Ann took out a flat piece of rectangular plastic that had rounded edges, something Fise never saw before, and put it against the machine the woman was holding. It beeped and they left.

Fise has never seen this food before, and was reluctant to eat it.

"What is this?"

"Ice cream." answered Ann.

"And what is it?"

"A delicious piece of food that appeased even the gods." she exclaimed holding her hand up in a fist. Seah began to eat her ice cream, biting into it.

"Oh is that how you eat it?" Fise said, looking at his ice cream.

Ann looked down, then between Fise and Seah. "I mean you can, but since you probably never had ice cream bef-" but it was too late. Fise bit into his ice cream. His teeth screamed, and he almost did too. He pulled the dessert away and almost dropped it, putting his other hand on top of his lips.

Ann sighed.

They kept walking, Fise licking his ice cream instead of biting it. They stopped at a corner to look around as the sun was setting. The sky was painted in scarlet. The road they were on didn't have many people, and had alleyways between residential buildings. Fise drank a lot during the day.

"Is there a bathroom around here?"

"Not unless you can wait until we go back to base." replied Ann.

"What about an alleyway?"

"Yeah sure, we'll wait here."

Fise walked into one of the alleyways, going past the rubbish and bags, aiming to go around the corner so that he was out of hearing range. However the way was blocked by a large pile of bags and garbage. Fise didn't want to touch it, so he looked around and activated his aura, using it to push aside the blockage.

Auras enhance the human body, including the senses, pain, touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing, instincts, all were better when someone's aura was on. It was due to this he heard it. Barely audible, but it was there. A voice of someone, talking to themselves. Fise would have dismissed it as a passerby, or someone inside their home, however he heard them say something that stopped him in his tracks.

"Hope there ain't no lamps around here, that'll cause some problems."

'Lamps?' Fise repeated in his mind. 'Why would lamps cause problems, unless there were talking about... Radiance members.'

Fise didn't hesitate, he walked forwards, advancing towards the voice, which seemed to also be in an alley. He came upon a choice. Left or right? He chose left, being towards the voice. It sharply turned to the right and led to a brick wall. Fise slowed as he heard the person he was following also slow. They seemed to go further, and Fise looked over the wall. He saw it led to an area where other alleys connected and made a small area the size of a small playground. He shouldn't get closer, the person he was following seemed to have met another person.

"Yeah, he went this way, saw 'im." said a voice from behind him. Fise turned to hear better. People were coming down the alley. He almost swore, there seemed to be around 10 of them, and he didn't want to talk with anyone. He turned back to the wall and jumped over it, landing softly. He focused back on the person he followed who seemed to be talking to someone.

"...next week?" the followed asked.

"Yeah." the other answered.

"Where though?"

"Near King's Way, there's a factory there. Should be near a park as well."

'King's way? Where's that?'

"This a dead end, Where's the kid?"

"Must've jumped it."

Fise looked behind himself, about to curse but the negotiators distracted him.

"There people there?"

Someone began to walk over.

'Crap.'

What should he do? There are people behind him, and people in front of him, he can't go either way, or he'll bring too much attention to himself. He looked around but there were no rubbish bags or bins to hide in or climb on. They promised not to use their auras, especially while in populated areas but this was an emergency. Someone began to turn the corner.

They were dressed in black. from head to toe, and showed nothing that indicated who they were. They looked upon the empty alley, and left to go back to talking after checking the floor. Fise held his breath, not moving. After they turned he walked backwards out of sight, slowly returning to the road. He treaded carefully on the building, before reaching a taller building and having to climb down back into the alley. The people after him weren't in sight. Fise ran.

He reached the end of the alley a little out of breath. The aura inside of him didn't boost him as much as when it was outside it seemed. Fise looked around and saw Ann and Seah talking, waving at them.

"I'm back!" he said, before beginning to jog towards them.

They turned to him, and something made them on guard, Ann running towards him while Seah began to flank. Fise was confused.

"Behind yo-" shouted Ann but Fise already stopped time. No breath escaped his lips, no blood flowed within him. He felt empty, and cold but he couldn't feel anything. He slowly expanded his aura and turned to look behind him. A man in a heavy coat, a beanie and torn trousers was throwing a punch towards him.

Time resumed just as Fise was putting his arms up to block it. The man's fist pushed hum back almost making him trip. His arms hurt. The man threw another punch, towards Fise's abdomen, which he blocked, however it set the man up to land a left hook. It hit Fise on the jaw hard enough for his eyes to go dark, his lip splitting open and making him bite his tongue. His brain went fuzzy, and befor he knew it, a knee met his stomach, and something almost forced its way up his throat. He felt a hand grab his hair and begin to pull him down, no doubt to knee in his nose. However, something ripped the man away, an elbow from Ann, followed by her twisting her arm up into the man's nose at the same time as putting a foot behind his own. He fell like a sack of potatoes, but Ann twisted and delivered a punch tracking the man's face. As he landed on the ground, his head rebounding up, it was stopped by a fist that brought it down again. The man stopped moving.

Fise looked beyond and saw another 3 emerge.

"I'll take the girl, you take the boy!" one shouted to the other two, before rushing forwards, pulling a knife. Ann stepped back, ready to intercept the attack just as an arm snaked its way from the side and hit the man in the side, making him scrunch that way, a fist twisting his head upwards, before a twist of his hand made him drop his knife. Seah twisted it around her fingers expertly, quick enough to seem a blur before stabbing the man's voicebox out just as quickly. It wouldn't kill him, it was shallow, not even penetrating the inside of his throat, but a small twist and pull shredded the man's ability to speak. Most likely forever.

The enemy woman circled Seah, while the man slithered towards Ann. Fise wiped his face, coming away with blood.

'It stings, it hurts.' he thought as he spat some blood on the ground. He looked around to see if anyone was near but they were to far from the city centre for anyone to care about them. He did however see a woman swing a knife for his thigh. He stepped back and pulled his hands up. The cut missed but like salmon in a river, she swam through the air and the knife was stabbing towards his arm. He stepped backwards again, the knife cutting upwards into thin air. He kept an eye of it, but that was the problem. His head recoiled, his eyes blanked out, and he fell backwards, then the butt of the knife hit his forehead ad if the heavens smit him, and he was on the floor, a knife to his neck. The woman shouted something to the rest but Fise couldn't hear it.

'Huh?' His head hurt, why was he on the floor? Was he really this useless without his aura? But he was taught how to fight.

'Only the basics.'

Fise stopped time. Basics or not, powerless or not, his ability allowed him to escape.

Time resumed.

The knife flew, spinning into the sky as if to cut the clouds apart, the woman looking is disbelief at the knife blasted out of her hand, before she was almost brought to the ground as a punch smashed against the side of her head. Fise stood, holding his blinded right eye. He tasted blood in his mouth. The woman straightened and coiled her arm back before striking. Depth perception was useful in a fight, allowing you to see and react properly, such as to a punch. But with one eye, you don't have this advantage. The punch flew straight, heading for Fise's chin, aiming to knock him out by twisting his head, a fair punch. But Fise didn't play fair. Blood splashed into the woman's eyes, and Fise dodged.

'An eye for an eye, one broken to 2 blind.'

Fise churned the aura inside of him, and punched. He swore he felt the woman's skull crack, right as one of his bones broke. She fell, and didn't get back up, though was still conscious. Fise looked back at the other two.

Ann exchanged hits with the man, dodging and weaving and redirecting, and almost as fast as that, she pushed a punch aside and the man was swing over her back and shoulder onto the ground, a plan slamming his head onto the concrete. Seah backed up more and more, as the man advanced, trying to hit her but she was like a petal in the wind, flowing, twisting, turning, dodging. And suddenly, the man threw a punch that seemed a little bit too strong. His triceps was cut, his quadriceps being twisted open by her blade, before his brain had an intimate meeting with the inside of his skull as Seah hit his chin.

Ann turned to him and Seah.

"We're going!"

They ran away, Seah pocketing the knife. Traversing through the identical winding roads, trying to find an entrance proved infuriating. Fise held his right eye, which began to get swollen, concentrating his aura there to fix it. His forearms hurt, he felt a bruise start to form there. Ann turned to him, breathing hard and panting.

"When we get back, we're teaching you how to fight!"

"I think I need that!" he said back, trying not to trip, running with an eye close was harder than he thought.

Seah looked at his face and nodded.